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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2271-h.zip b/2271-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c4c3f6f --- /dev/null +++ b/2271-h.zip diff --git a/2271-h/2271-h.htm b/2271-h/2271-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..82d4572 --- /dev/null +++ b/2271-h/2271-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,16072 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of He Fell in Love with His Wife, by Edward P. Roe +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's He Fell in Love with His Wife, by Edward P. Roe + +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: He Fell in Love with His Wife + +Author: Edward P. Roe + +Posting Date: March 21, 2009 [EBook #2271] +Release Date: June, 2000 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HE FELL IN LOVE WITH HIS WIFE *** + + + + +Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer. HTML +version by Al Haines. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +HE FELL IN LOVE WITH HIS WIFE +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +by +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Edward P. Roe +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">Chapter</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">Left Alone</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">A Very Interested Friend</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">Mrs. Mumpson Negotiates and Yields</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">Domestic Bliss</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">Mrs. Mumpson Takes up Her Burdens</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">A Marriage?</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">From Home to the Street</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">Holcroft's View of Matrimony</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">Mrs. Mumpson Accepts Her Mission</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">A Night of Terror</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">Baffled</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">Jane</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">Not Wife, But Waif</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">A Pitched Battle</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">"What is to Become of Me?"</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">Mrs. Mumpson's Vicissitudes</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">A Momentous Decision</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">Holcroft Gives His Hand</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap19">A Business Marriage</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap20">Uncle Jonathan's Impression of the Bride</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap21">At Home</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap22">Getting Acquainted</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap23">Between the Past and Future</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap24">Given Her Own Way</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap25">A Charivari</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap26">"You Don't Know"</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap27">Farm and Farmer Bewitched</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap28">Another Waif</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap29">Husband and Wife in Trouble</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap30">Holcroft's Best Hope</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap31">"Never!"</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap32">Jane Plays Mouse to the Lion</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap33">"Shrink From YOU?"</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter I. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Left Alone +</H3> + +<P> +The dreary March evening is rapidly passing from murky gloom to +obscurity. Gusts of icy rain and sleet are sweeping full against a man +who, though driving, bows his head so low that he cannot see his +horses. The patient beasts, however, plod along the miry road, +unerringly taking their course to the distant stable door. The highway +sometimes passes through a grove on the edge of a forest, and the trees +creak and groan as they writhe in the heavy blasts. In occasional +groups of pines there is sighing and moaning almost human in +suggestiveness of trouble. Never had Nature been in a more dismal +mood, never had she been more prodigal of every element of discomfort, +and never had the hero of my story been more cast down in heart and +hope than on this chaotic day which, even to his dull fancy, appeared +closing in harmony with his feelings and fortune. He is going home, +yet the thought brings no assurance of welcome and comfort. As he +cowers upon the seat of his market wagon, he is to the reader what he +is in the fading light—a mere dim outline of a man. His progress is +so slow that there will be plenty of time to relate some facts about +him which will make the scenes and events to follow more intelligible. +</P> + +<P> +James Holcroft is a middle-aged man and the owner of a small, hilly +farm. He had inherited his rugged acres from his father, had always +lived upon them, and the feeling had grown strong with the lapse of +time that he could live nowhere else. Yet he knew that he was, in the +vernacular of the region, "going down-hill." The small savings of +years were slowly melting away, and the depressing feature of this +truth was that he did not see how he could help himself. He was not a +sanguine man, but rather one endowed with a hard, practical sense which +made it clear that the down-hill process had only to continue +sufficiently long to leave him landless and penniless. It was all so +distinct on this dismal evening that he groaned aloud. +</P> + +<P> +"If it comes to that, I don't know what I'll do—crawl away on a night +like this and give up, like enough." +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps he was right. When a man with a nature like his "gives up," +the end has come. The low, sturdy oaks that grew so abundantly along +the road were types of his character—they could break, but not bend. +He had little suppleness, little power to adapt himself to varied +conditions of life. An event had occurred a year since, which for +months, he could only contemplate with dull wonder and dismay. In his +youth he had married the daughter of a small farmer. Like himself, she +had always been accustomed to toil and frugal living. From childhood +she had been impressed with the thought that parting with a dollar was +a serious matter, and to save a dollar one of the good deeds rewarded +in this life and the life to come. She and her husband were in +complete harmony on this vital point. Yet not a miserly trait entered +into their humble thrift. It was a necessity entailed by their meager +resources; it was inspired by the wish for an honest independence in +their old age. +</P> + +<P> +There was to be no old age for her. She took a heavy cold, and almost +before her husband was aware of her danger, she had left his side. He +was more than grief-stricken, he was appalled. No children had blessed +their union, and they had become more and more to each other in their +simple home life. To many it would have seemed a narrow and even a +sordid life. It could not have been the latter, for all their hard +work, their petty economies and plans to increase the hoard in the +savings bank were robbed of sordidness by an honest, quiet affection +for each other, by mutual sympathy and a common purpose. It +undoubtedly was a meager life, which grew narrower with time and habit. +There had never been much romance to begin with, but something that +often wears better—mutual respect and affection. From the first, +James Holcroft had entertained the sensible hope that she was just the +girl to help him make a living from his hillside farm, and he had not +hoped for or even thought of very much else except the harmony and good +comradeship which bless people who are suited to each other. He had +been disappointed in no respect; they had toiled and gathered like +ants; they were confidential partners in the homely business and +details of the farm; nothing was wasted, not even time. The little +farmhouse abounded in comfort, and was a model of neatness and order. +If it and its surroundings were devoid of grace and ornament, they were +not missed, for neither of its occupants had ever been accustomed to +such things. The years which passed so uneventfully only cemented the +union and increased the sense of mutual dependence. They would have +been regarded as exceedingly matter-of-fact and undemonstrative, but +they were kind to each other and understood each other. Feeling that +they were slowly yet surely getting ahead, they looked forward to an +old age of rest and a sufficiency for their simple needs. Then, before +he could realize the truth, he was left alone at her wintry grave; +neighbors dispersed after the brief service, and he plodded back to his +desolate home. There was no relative to step in and partially make +good his loss. Some of the nearest residents sent a few cooked +provisions until he could get help, but these attentions soon ceased. +It was believed that he was abundantly able to take care of himself, +and he was left to do so. He was not exactly unpopular, but had been +much too reticent and had lived too secluded a life to find uninvited +sympathy now. He was the last man, however, to ask for sympathy or +help; and this was not due to misanthropy, but simply to temperament +and habits of life. He and his wife had been sufficient for each +other, and the outside world was excluded chiefly because they had not +time or taste for social interchanges. As a result, he suffered +serious disadvantages; he was misunderstood and virtually left to meet +his calamity alone. +</P> + +<P> +But, indeed he could scarcely have met it in any other way. Even to +his wife, he had never formed the habit of speaking freely of his +thoughts and feelings. There had been no need, so complete was the +understanding between them. A hint, a sentence, reveled to each other +their simple and limited processes of thought. To talk about her now +to strangers was impossible. He had no language by which to express +the heavy, paralyzing pain in his heart. +</P> + +<P> +For a time he performed necessary duties in a dazed, mechanical way. +The horses and live stock were fed regularly, the cows milked; but the +milk stood in the dairy room until it spoiled. Then he would sit down +at his desolate hearth and gaze for hours into the fire, until it sunk +down and died out. Perhaps no class in the world suffers from such a +terrible sense of loneliness as simple-natured country people, to whom +a very few have been all the company they required. +</P> + +<P> +At last Holcroft partially shook off his stupor, and began the +experiment of keeping house and maintaining his dairy with hired help. +For a long year he had struggled on through all kinds of domestic +vicissitude, conscious all the time that things were going from bad to +worse. His house was isolated, the region sparsely settled, and good +help difficult to be obtained under favoring auspices. The few +respectable women in the neighborhood who occasionally "lent a hand" in +other homes than their own would not compromise themselves, as they +expressed it, by "keepin' house for a widower." Servants obtained from +the neighboring town either could not endure the loneliness, or else +were so wasteful and ignorant that the farmer, in sheer desperation, +discharged them. The silent, grief-stricken, rugged-featured man was +no company for anyone. The year was but a record of changes, waste, +and small pilferings. Although he knew he could not afford it, he tried +the device of obtaining two women instead of one, so that they might +have society in each other; but either they would not stay or else he +found that he had two thieves to deal with instead of one—brazen, +incompetent creatures who knew more about whisky than milk, and who +made his home a terror to him. +</P> + +<P> +Some asked good-naturedly, "Why don't you marry again?" Not only was +the very thought repugnant, but he knew well that he was not the man to +thrive on any such errand to the neighboring farmhouses. Though +apparently he had little sentiment in his nature, yet the memory of his +wife was like his religion. He felt that he could not put an ordinary +woman into his wife's place, and say to her the words he had spoken +before. Such a marriage would be to him a grotesque farce, at which +his soul revolted. +</P> + +<P> +At last he was driven to the necessity of applying for help to an Irish +family that had recently moved into the neighborhood. The promise was +forbidding, indeed, as he entered the squalid abode in which were +huddled men, women, and children. A sister of the mistress of the +shanty was voluble in her assurances of unlimited capability. +</P> + +<P> +"Faix I kin do all the wourk, in doors and out, so I takes the notion," +she had asserted. +</P> + +<P> +There certainly was no lack of bone and muscle in the big, red-faced, +middle-aged woman who was so ready to preside at his hearth and glean +from his diminished dairy a modicum of profit; but as he trudged home +along the wintry road, he experienced strong feelings of disgust at the +thought of such a creature sitting by the kitchen fire in the place +once occupied by his wife. +</P> + +<P> +During all these domestic vicissitudes he had occupied the parlor, a +stiff, formal, frigid apartment, which had been rarely used in his +married life. He had no inclination for the society of his help; in +fact, there had been none with whom he could associate. The better +class of those who went out to service could find places much more to +their taste than the lonely farmhouse. The kitchen had been the one +cozy, cheerful room of the house, and, driven from it, the farmer was +an exile in his own home. In the parlor he could at least brood over +the happy past, and that was about all the solace he had left. +</P> + +<P> +Bridget came and took possession of her domain with a sangfroid which +appalled Holcroft from the first. To his directions and suggestions, +she curtly informed him that she knew her business and "didn't want no +mon around, orderin' and interferin'." +</P> + +<P> +In fact, she did appear, as she had said, capable of any amount of +work, and usually was in a mood to perform it; but soon her male +relatives began to drop in to smoke a pipe with her in the evening. A +little later on, the supper table was left standing for those who were +always ready to "take a bite."—The farmer had never heard of the camel +who first got his head into the tent, but it gradually dawned upon him +that he was half supporting the whole Irish tribe down at the shanty. +Every evening, while he shivered in his best room, he was compelled to +hear the coarse jests and laughter in the adjacent apartment. One night +his bitter thoughts found expression: "I might as well open a free +house for the keeping of man and beast." +</P> + +<P> +He had endured this state of affairs for some time simply because the +woman did the essential work in her offhand, slapdash style, and left +him unmolested to his brooding as long as he did not interfere with her +ideas of domestic economy. But his impatience and the sense of being +wronged were producing a feeling akin to desperation. Every week there +was less and less to sell from the dairy; chickens and eggs +disappeared, and the appetites of those who dropped in to "kape Bridgy +from bein' a bit lonely" grew more voracious. +</P> + +<P> +Thus matters had drifted on until this March day when he had taken two +calves to market. He had said to the kitchen potentate that he would +take supper with a friend in town and therefore would not be back +before nine in the evening. This friend was the official keeper of the +poorhouse and had been a crony of Holcroft's in early life. He had +taken to politics instead of farming, and now had attained to what he +and his acquaintances spoke of as a "snug berth." Holcroft had +maintained with this man a friendship based partly on business +relations, and the well-to-do purveyor for paupers always gave his old +playmate an honest welcome to his private supper table, which differed +somewhat from that spread for the town's pensioners. +</P> + +<P> +On this occasion the gathering storm had decided Holcroft to return +without availing himself of his friend's hospitality, and he is at last +entering the lane leading from the highway to his doorway. Even as he +approaches his dwelling he hears the sound of revelry and readily +guesses what is taking place. +</P> + +<P> +Quiet, patient men, when goaded beyond a certain point, are capable of +terrible ebullitions of anger, and Holcroft was no exception. It +seemed to him that night that the God he had worshiped all his life was +in league with man against him. The blood rushed to his face, his +chilled form became rigid with a sudden passionate protest against his +misfortunes and wrongs. Springing from the wagon, he left his team +standing at the barn door and rushed to the kitchen window. There +before him sat the whole tribe from the shanty, feasting at his +expense. The table was loaded with coarse profusion. Roast fowls +alternated with fried ham and eggs, a great pitcher of milk was flanked +by one of foaming cider, while the post of honor was occupied by the +one contribution of his self-invited guests—a villainous-looking jug. +</P> + +<P> +They had just sat down to the repast when the weazen-faced patriarch of +the tribe remarked, by way of grace, it may be supposed, "Be jabers, +but isn't ould Holcroft givin' us a foine spread the noight! Here's +bad luck to the glowerin' ould skinflint!" and he poured out a bumper +from the jug. +</P> + +<P> +The farmer waited to see and hear no more. Hastening to a parlor +window, he raised it quietly and clambered in; then taking his rusty +shotgun, which he kept loaded for the benefit of the vermin that +prowled about his hen-roost, he burst in upon the startled group. +</P> + +<P> +"Be off!" he shouted. "If you value your lives, get out of that door, +and never show your faces on my place again. I'll not be eaten out of +house and home by a lot of jackals!" +</P> + +<P> +His weapon, his dark, gleaming eyes, and desperate aspect taught the +men that he was not to be trifled with a moment, and they slunk away. +</P> + +<P> +Bridget began to whine, "Yez wouldn't turn a woman out in the noight +and storm." +</P> + +<P> +"You are not a woman!" thundered Holcroft, "you are a jackal, too! Get +your traps and begone! I warn the whole lot of you to beware! I give +you this chance to get off the premises, and then I shall watch for you +all, old and young!" +</P> + +<P> +There was something terrible and flame-like in his anger, dismaying the +cormorants, and they hastened away with such alacrity that Bridget went +down the lane screaming, "Sthop, I tell yees, and be afther waitin' for +me!" +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft hurled the jug after them with words that sounded like an +imprecation. He next turned to the viands on the table with an +expression of loathing, gathered them up, and carried them to the hog +pen. He seemed possessed by a feverish impatience to banish every +vestige of those whom he had driven forth, and to restore the apartment +as nearly as possible to the aspect it had worn in former happy years. +At last, he sat down where his wife had been accustomed to sit, +unbuttoned his waistcoat and flannel shirt, and from against his naked +breast took an old, worn daguerreotype. He looked a moment at the +plain, good face reflected there, them, bowing his head upon it, +strong, convulsive sobs shook his frame, though not a tear moistened +his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +How long the paroxysm would have lasted it were hard to say, had not +the impatient whinnying of his horses, still exposed to the storm, +caught his attention. The lifelong habit of caring for the dumb +animals in his charge asserted itself. He went out mechanically, +unharnessed and stabled them as carefully as ever before in his life, +then returned and wearily prepared himself a pot of coffee, which, with +a crust of bread, was all the supper he appeared to crave. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter II. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A Very Interested Friend +</H3> + +<P> +For the next few days, Holcroft lived alone. The weather remained +inclement and there was no occasion for him to go farther away than the +barn and outbuildings. He felt that a crisis in his life was +approaching, that he would probably be compelled to sell his property +for what it would bring, and begin life again under different auspices. +</P> + +<P> +"I must either sell or marry," he groaned, "and one's about as hard and +bad as the other. Who'll buy the place and stock at half what they're +worth, and where could I find a woman that would look at an old fellow +like me, even if I could bring myself to look at her?" +</P> + +<P> +The poor man did indeed feel that he was shut up to dreadful +alternatives. With his ignorance of the world, and dislike for contact +with strangers, selling out and going away was virtually starting out +on an unknown sea without rudder or compass. It was worse than +that—it was the tearing up of a life that had rooted itself in the +soil whereon he had been content from childhood to middle age. He +would suffer more in going, and in the memory of what he had parted +with, than in any of the vicissitudes which might overtake him. He had +not much range of imagination or feeling, but within his limitations +his emotions were strong and his convictions unwavering. Still, he +thought it might be possible to live in some vague, unknown place, +doing some kind of work for people with whom he need not have very much +to do. "I've always been my own master, and done things in my own way," +he muttered, "but I suppose I could farm it to suit some old, quiet +people, if I could only find 'em. One thing is certain, anyhow—I +couldn't stay here in Oakville, and see another man living in these +rooms, and plowing my fields, and driving his cows to my old pasture +lots. That would finish me like a galloping consumption." +</P> + +<P> +Every day he shrunk with a strange dread from the wrench of parting +with the familiar place and with all that he associated with his wife. +This was really the ordeal which shook his soul, and not the fear that +he would be unable to earn his bread elsewhere. The unstable +multitude, who are forever fancying that they would be better off +somewhere else or at something else, can have no comprehension of this +deep-rooted love of locality and the binding power of long association. +They regard such men as Holcroft as little better than plodding oxen. +The highest tribute which some people can pay to a man, however, is to +show that they do not and cannot understand him. But the farmer was +quite indifferent whether he was understood or not. He gave no thought +to what people said or might say. What were people to him? He only +had a hunted, pathetic sense of being hedged in and driven to bay. +Even to his neighbors, there was more of the humorous than the tragic +in his plight. It was supposed that he had a goodly sum in the bank, +and gossips said that he and his wife thought more of increasing this +hoard than of each other, and that old Holcroft's mourning was chiefly +for a business partner. His domestic tribulations evoked mirth rather +than sympathy; and as the news spread from farmhouse to cottage of his +summary bundling of Bridget and her satellites out of doors, there were +both hilarity and satisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +While there was little commiseration for the farmer, there was decided +disapprobation of the dishonest Irish tribe, and all were glad that the +gang had received a lesson which might restrain them from preying upon +others. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft was partly to blame for his present isolation. Remote rural +populations are given to strong prejudices, especially against those +who are thought to be well-off from an oversaving spirit; and who, +worse still, are unsocial. Almost anything will be forgiven sooner +than "thinking one's self better than the other folks;" and that is the +usual interpretation of shy, reticent people. But there had been a +decided tinge of selfishness in the Holcrofts' habit of seclusion; for +it became a habit rather than a principle. While they cherished no +active dislike to their neighbors, or sense of superiority, these were +not wholly astray in believing that they had little place in the +thoughts or interests of the occupants of the hill farm. Indifference +begat indifference, and now the lonely, helpless man had neither the +power nor the disposition to bridge the chasm which separated him from +those who might have given him kindly and intelligent aid. He was +making a pathetic effort to keep his home and to prevent his heart from +being torn bleeding away from all it loved. His neighbors thought that +he was merely exerting himself to keep the dollars which it had been +the supreme motive of his life to accumulate. +</P> + +<P> +Giving no thought to the opinions of others, Holcroft only knew that he +was in sore straits—that all which made his existence a blessing was +at stake. +</P> + +<P> +At times, during these lonely and stormy March days, he would dismiss +his anxious speculations in regard to his future course. He was so +morbid, especially at night, that he felt that his wife could revisit +the quiet house. He cherished the hope that she could see him and hear +what he said, and he spoke in her viewless presence with a freedom and +fullness that was unlike his old reticence and habit of repression. He +wondered that he had not said more endearing words and given her +stronger assurance of how much she was to him. Late at night, he would +start out of a long reverie, take a candle, and, going through the +house, would touch what she had touched, and look long and fixedly at +things associated with her. Her gowns still hung in the closet, just +as she had left them; he would take them out and recall the +well-remembered scenes and occasions when they were worn. At such +times, she almost seemed beside him, and he had a consciousness of +companionship which soothed his perturbed spirit. He felt that she +appreciated such loving remembrance, although unable to express her +approval. He did not know it, but his nature was being softened, +deepened, and enriched by these deep and unwonted experiences; the hard +materiality of his life was passing away, rendering him capable of +something better than he had ever known. +</P> + +<P> +In the morning all the old, prosaic problems of his life would return, +with their hard, practical insistence, and he knew that he must decide +upon something very soon. His lonely vigils and days of quiet had +brought him to the conclusion that he could not hunt up a wife as a +matter of business. He would rather face the "ever angry bears" than +breathe the subject of matrimony to any woman that he could ever +imagine himself marrying. He was therefore steadily drifting toward +the necessity of selling everything and going away. This event, +however, was like a coral reef to a sailor, with no land in view beyond +it. The only thing which seemed certain was the general breaking up of +all that had hitherto made his life. +</P> + +<P> +The offer of help came from an unexpected source. One morning Holcroft +received a call from a neighbor who had never before shown any interest +in his affairs. On this occasion, however, Mr. Weeks began to display +so much solicitude that the farmer was not only surprised, but also a +little distrustful. Nothing in his previous knowledge of the man had +prepared the way for such very kindly intervention. +</P> + +<P> +After some general references to the past, Mr. Weeks continued, "I've +been saying to our folks that it was too bad to let you worry on alone +without more neighborly help. You ought either to get married or have +some thoroughly respectable and well-known middle-aged woman keep house +for you. That would stop all talk, and there's been a heap of it, I +can tell you. Of course, I and my folks don't believe anything's been +wrong." +</P> + +<P> +"Believing that something was wrong is about all the attention my +neighbors have given me, as far as I can see," Holcroft remarked +bitterly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you see, Holcroft, you've kept yourself so inside your shell +that people don't know what to believe. Now, the thing to do is to +change all that. I know how hard it is for a man, placed as you be, to +get decent help. My wife was a-wondering about it the other day, and I +shut her up mighty sudden by saying, 'You're a good manager, and know +all the country side, yet how often you're a-complaining that you can't +get a girl that's worth her salt to help in haying and other busy times +when we have to board a lot of men.' Well, I won't beat around the bush +any more. I've come to act the part of a good neighbor. There's no +use of you're trying to get along with such haphazard help as you can +pick up here and in town. You want a respectable woman for +housekeeper, and then have a cheap, common sort of a girl to work under +her. Now, I know of just such a woman, and it's not unlikely she'd be +persuaded to take entire charge of your house and dairy. My wife's +cousin, Mrs. Mumpson—" At the mention of this name Holcroft gave a +slight start, feeling something like a cold chill run down his back. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Weeks was a little disconcerted but resumed, "I believe she called +on your wife once?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," the farmer replied laconically. "I was away and did not see her." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, now," pursued Mr. Weeks, "she's a good soul. She has her little +peculiarities; so have you and me, a lot of 'em; but she's thoroughly +respectable, and there isn't a man or woman in the town that would +think of saying a word against her. She has only one child, a nice, +quiet little girl who'd be company for her mother and make everything +look right, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see what there's been to look wrong," growled the farmer. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing to me and my folks, of course, or I wouldn't suggest the idea +of a relation of my wife coming to live with you. But you see people +will talk unless you stop their mouths so they'll feel like fools in +doing it. I know yours has been a mighty awkward case, and here's a +plain way out of it. You can set yourself right and have everything +looked after as it ought to be, in twenty-four hours. We've talked to +Cynthy—that's Mrs. Mumpson—and she takes a sight of interest. She'd +do well by you and straighten things out, and you might do a plaguey +sight worse than give her the right to take care of your indoor affairs +for life." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't expect to marry again," said Holcroft curtly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well! Many a man and woman has said that and believed it, too, at +the time. I'm not saying that my wife's cousin is inclined that way +herself. Like enough, she isn't at all, but then, the right kind of +persuading does change women's minds sometimes, eh? Mrs. Mumpson is +kinder alone in the world, like yourself, and if she was sure of a good +home and a kind husband there's no telling what good luck might happen +to you. But there'll be plenty of time for considering all that on +both sides. You can't live like a hermit." +</P> + +<P> +"I was thinking of selling out and leaving these parts," Holcroft +interrupted. +</P> + +<P> +"Now look here, neighbor, you know as well as I do that in these times +you couldn't give away the place. What's the use of such foolishness? +The thing to do is to keep the farm and get a good living out of it. +You've got down in the dumps and can't see what's sensible and to your +own advantage." +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft was thinking deeply, and he turned his eyes wistfully to the +upland slopes of his farm. Mr. Weeks had talked plausibly, and if all +had been as he represented, the plan would not have been a bad one. +But the widower did not yearn for the widow. He did not know much +about her, but had very unfavorable impressions. Mrs. Holcroft had not +been given to speaking ill of anyone, but she had always shaken her +head with a peculiar significance when Mrs. Mumpson's name was +mentioned. +</P> + +<P> +The widow had felt it her duty to call and counsel against the sin of +seclusion and being too much absorbed in the affairs of this world. +</P> + +<P> +"You should take an interest in everyone," this self-appointed +evangelist had declared, and in one sense she lived up to her creed. +She permitted no scrap of information about people to escape her, and +was not only versed in all the gossip of Oakville, but also of several +other localities in which she visited. +</P> + +<P> +But Holcroft had little else to deter him from employing her services +beyond an unfavorable impression. She could not be so bad as Bridget +Malony, and he was almost willing to employ her again for the privilege +of remaining on his paternal acres. As to marrying the widow—a slight +shudder passed through his frame at the thought. +</P> + +<P> +Slowly he began, as if almost thinking aloud, "I suppose you are right, +Lemuel Weeks, in what you say about selling the place. The Lord knows +I don't want to leave it. I was born and brought up here, and that +counts with some people. If your wife's cousin is willing to come and +help me make a living, for such wages as I can pay, the arrangement +might be made. But I want to look on it as a business arrangement. I +have quiet ways of my own, and things belonging to the past to think +about, and I've got a right to think about 'em. I aint one of the +marrying kind, and I don't want people to be a-considering such notions +when I don't. I'd be kind and all that to her and her little girl, but +I should want to be left to myself as far as I could be." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, certainly," said Mr. Weeks, mentally chuckling over the slight +prospect of such immunity, "but you must remember that Mrs. Mumpson +isn't like common help—" +</P> + +<P> +"That's where the trouble will come in," ejaculated the perplexed +farmer, "but there's been trouble enough with the other sort." +</P> + +<P> +"I should say so," Mr. Weeks remarked emphatically. "It would be a pity +if you couldn't get along with such a respectable, conscientious woman +as Mrs. Mumpson, who comes from one of the best families in the +country." +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft removed his hat and passed his hand over his brow wearily as +he said, "Oh, I could get along with anyone who would do the work in a +way that would give me a chance to make a little, and then leave me to +myself." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well," said Mr. Weeks, laughing, "you needn't think that because +I've hinted at a good match for you I'm making one for my wife's +cousin. You may see the day when you'll be more hot for it than she +is. All I'm trying to do is to help you keep your place, and live like +a man ought and stop people's mouths." +</P> + +<P> +"If I could only fill my own and live in peace, it's all I ask. When I +get to plowing and planting again I'll begin to take some comfort." +</P> + +<P> +These words were quoted against Holcroft, far and near. "Filling his +own mouth and making a little money are all he cares for," was the +general verdict. And thus people are misunderstood. The farmer had +never turned anyone hungry from his door, and he would have gone to the +poorhouse rather than have acted the part of the man who misrepresented +him. He had only meant to express the hope that he might be able to +fill his mouth—earn his bread, and get it from his native soil. +"Plowing and planting"—working where he had toiled since a +child—would be a solace in itself, and not a grudged means to a sordid +end. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Weeks was a thrifty man also, and in nothing was he more economical +than in charitable views of his neighbors' motives and conduct. He +drove homeward with the complacent feeling that he had done a shrewd, +good thing for himself and "his folks" at least. His wife's cousin was +not exactly embraced in the latter category, although he had been so +active in her behalf. The fact was, he would be at much greater pains +could he attach her to Holcroft or anyone else and so prevent further +periodical visits. +</P> + +<P> +He regarded her and her child as barnacles with such appalling adhesive +powers that even his ingenuity at "crowding out" had been baffled. In +justice to him, it must be admitted that Mrs. Mumpson was a type of the +poor relation that would tax the long suffering of charity itself. Her +husband had left her scarcely his blessing, and if he had fled to ills +he knew not of, he believed that he was escaping from some of which he +had a painfully distinct consciousness. His widow was one of the +people who regard the "world as their oyster," and her scheme of life +was to get as much as possible for nothing. Arrayed in mourning weeds, +she had begun a system of periodical descents upon his relatives and +her own. She might have made such visitations endurable and even +welcome, but she was not shrewd enough to be sensible. She appeared to +have developed only the capacity to talk, to pry, and to worry people. +She was unable to rest or to permit others to rest, yet her aversion to +any useful form of activity was her chief characteristic. Wherever she +went she took the ground that she was "company," and with a shawl +hanging over her sharp, angular shoulders, she would seize upon the +most comfortable rocking chair in the house, and mouse for bits of news +about everyone of whom she had ever heard. She was quite as ready to +tell all she knew also, and for the sake of her budget of gossip and +small scandal, her female relatives tolerated her after a fashion for a +time; but she had been around so often, and her scheme of obtaining +subsistence for herself and child had become so offensively apparent, +that she had about exhausted the patience of all the kith and kin on +whom she had the remotest claim. Her presence was all the more +unwelcome by reason of the faculty for irritating the men of the +various households which she invaded. Even the most phlegmatic or the +best-natured lost their self-control, and as their wives declared, +"felt like flying all to pieces" at her incessant rocking, gossiping, +questioning, and, what was worse still, lecturing. Not the least +endurable thing about Mrs. Mumpson was her peculiar phase of piety. +She saw the delinquencies and duties of others with such painful +distinctness that she felt compelled to speak of them; and her zeal was +sure to be instant out of season. +</P> + +<P> +When Mr. Weeks had started on his ominous mission to Holcroft his wife +remarked to her daughter confidentially, "I declare, sis, if we don't +get rid of Cynthy soon, I believe Lemuel will fly off the handle." +</P> + +<P> +To avoid any such dire catastrophe, it was hoped and almost prayed in +the Weeks household that the lonely occupant of the hill farm would +take the widow for good and all. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter III. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Mrs. Mumpson Negotiates and Yields +</H3> + +<P> +Mr. Weeks, on his return home, dropped all diplomacy in dealing with +the question at issue. "Cynthy," he said in his own vernacular, "the +end has come, so far as me and my folks are concerned—I never expect +to visit you, and while I'm master of the house, no more visits will be +received. But I haint taken any such stand onconsiderately," he +concluded. "I've given up the whole forenoon to secure you a better +chance of living than visiting around. If you go to Holcroft's you'll +have to do some work, and so will your girl. But he'll hire someone to +help you, and so you won't have to hurt yourself. Your trump card will +be to hook him and marry him before he finds you out. To do this, +you'll have to see to the house and dairy, and bestir yourself for a +time at least. He's pretty desperate off for lack of women folks to +look after indoor matters, but he'll sell out and clear out before +he'll keep a woman, much less marry her, if she does nothing but talk. +Now remember, you've got a chance which you won't get again, for +Holcroft not only owns his farm, but has a snug sum in the bank. So +you had better get your things together, and go right over while he's +in the mood." +</P> + +<P> +When Mrs. Mumpson reached the blank wall of the inevitable, she +yielded, and not before. She saw that the Weeks mine was worked out +completely, and she knew that this exhaustion was about equally true of +all similar mines, which had been bored until they would yield no +further returns. +</P> + +<P> +But Mr. Weeks soon found that he could not carry out his summary +measures. The widow was bent on negotiations and binding agreements. +In a stiff, cramped hand, she wrote to Holcroft in regard to the amount +of "salary" he would be willing to pay, intimating that one burdened +with such responsibilities as she was expected to assume "ort to be +compensiated proposhundly." +</P> + +<P> +Weeks groaned as he dispatched his son on horseback with this first +epistle, and Holcroft groaned as he read it, not on account of its +marvelous spelling and construction, but by reason of the vista of +perplexities and trouble it opened to his boding mind. But he named on +half a sheet of paper as large a sum as he felt it possible to pay and +leave any chance for himself, then affixed his signature and sent it +back by the messenger. +</P> + +<P> +The widow Mumpson wished to talk over this first point between the high +contracting powers indefinitely, but Mr. Weeks remarked cynically, +"It's double what I thought he'd offer, and you're lucky to have it in +black and white. Now that everything's settled, Timothy will hitch up +and take you and Jane up there at once." +</P> + +<P> +But Mrs. Mumpson now began to insist upon writing another letter in +regard to her domestic status and that of her child. They could not +think of being looked upon as servants. She also wished to be assured +that a girl would be hired to help her, that she should have all the +church privileges to which she had been accustomed and the right to +visit and entertain her friends, which meant every farmer's wife and +all the maiden sisters in Oakville. "And then," she continued, "there +are always little perquisites which a housekeeper has a right to look +for—" Mr. Weeks irritably put a period to this phase of diplomacy by +saying, "Well, well, Cynthy, the stage will be along in a couple of +hours. We'll put you and your things aboard, and you can go on with +what you call your negotiations at Cousin Abiram's. I can tell you one +thing though—if you write any such letter to Holcroft, you'll never +hear from him again." +</P> + +<P> +Compelled to give up all these preliminaries, but inwardly resolving to +gain each point by a nagging persistence of which she was a mistress, +she finally declared that she "must have writings about one thing which +couldn't be left to any man's changeful mind. He must agree to give me +the monthly salary he names for at least a year." +</P> + +<P> +Weeks thought a moment, and then, with a shrewd twinkle in his eyes, +admitted, "It would be a good thing to have Holcroft's name to such an +agreement. Yes, you might try that on, but you're taking a risk. If +you were not so penny-wise and pound-foolish, you'd go at once and +manage to get him to take you for 'better or worse.'" +</P> + +<P> +"You—misjudge me, Cousin Lemuel," replied the widow, bridling and +rocking violently. "If there's any such taking to be done, he must get +me to take him." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well, write your letter about a year's engagement. That'll +settle you for a twelvemonth, at least." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson again began the slow, laborious construction of a letter +in which she dwelt upon the uncertainties of life, her "duty to her +offspring," and the evils of "vicissitude." "A stable home is woman's +chief desire," she concluded, "and you will surely agree to pay me the +salary you have said for a year." +</P> + +<P> +When Holcroft read this second epistle he so far yielded to his first +impulse that he half tore the sheet, then paused irresolutely. After a +few moments he went to the door and looked out upon his acres. "It'll +soon be plowing and planting time," he thought. "I guess I can stand +her—at least I can try it for three months. I'd like to turn a few +more furrows on the old place," and his face softened and grew wistful +as he looked at the bare, frost-bound fields. Suddenly it darkened and +grew stern as he muttered, "But I'll put my hand to no more paper with +that Weeks tribe." +</P> + +<P> +He strode to the stable, saying to Timothy Weeks, as he passed, "I'll +answer this letter in person." +</P> + +<P> +Away cantered Timothy, and soon caused a flutter of expectancy in the +Weeks household, by announcing that "Old Holcroft looked black as a +thundercloud and was comin' himself." +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you what 'tis, Cynthy, it's the turn of a hair with you now," +growled Weeks. "Unless you agree to whatever Holcroft says, you haven't +the ghost of a chance." +</P> + +<P> +The widow felt that a crisis had indeed come. Cousin Abiram's was the +next place in the order of visitation, but her last experience there +left her in painful doubt as to a future reception. Therefore she tied +on a new cap, smoothed her apron, and rocked with unwonted rapidity. +"It'll be according to the ordering of Providence—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, pshaw!" interrupted Cousin Lemuel, "it'll be according to whether +you've got any sense or not." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Weeks had been in a pitiable state of mind all day. She saw that +her husband had reached the limit of his endurance—that he had +virtually already "flown off the handle." But to have her own kin +actually bundled out of the house—what would people say? +</P> + +<P> +Acceptance of Holcroft's terms, whatever they might be, was the only +way out of the awkward predicament, and so she began in a wheedling +tone, "Now, Cousin Cynthy, as Lemuel says, you've got a first-rate +chance. Holcroft's had an awful time with women, and he'll be glad +enough to do well by anyone who does fairly well by him. Everybody +says he's well off, and once you're fairly there and get things in your +own hands, there's no telling what may happen. He'll get a girl to help +you, and Jane's big enough now to do a good deal. Why, you'll be the +same as keeping house like the rest of us." +</P> + +<P> +Further discussion was cut short by the arrival of the victim. He +stood awkwardly in the door of the Weeks sitting room for a moment, +seemingly at a loss how to state his case. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. And Mrs. Weeks now resolved to appear neutral and allow the farmer +to make his terms. Then, like other superior powers in the background, +they proposed to exert a pressure on their relative and do a little +coercing. But the widow's course promised at first to relieve them of +all further effort. She suddenly seemed to become aware of Holcroft's +presence, sprang up, and gave him her hand very cordially. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad to see you, sir," she began. "It's very considerate of you to +come for me. I can get ready in short order, and as for Jane, she's +never a bit of trouble. Sit down, sir, and make yourself to home while +I get our things together and put on my bonnet;" and she was about to +hasten from the room. +</P> + +<P> +She, too, had been compelled to see that Holcroft's farmhouse was the +only certain refuge left, and while she had rocked and waited the +thought had come into her scheming mind, "I've stipulated to stay a +year, and if he says nothing against it, it's a bargain which I can +manage to keep him to in spite of himself, even if I don't marry him." +</P> + +<P> +But the straightforward farmer was not to be caught in such a trap. He +had come himself to say certain words and he would say them. He +quietly, therefore, stood in the door and said, "Wait a moment, Mrs. +Mumpson. It's best to have a plain understanding in all matters of +business. When I've done, you may conclude not to go with me, for I +want to say to you what I said this morning to your cousin, Lemuel +Weeks. I'm glad he and his wife are now present, as witnesses. I'm a +plain man, and all I want is to make a livin' off the farm I've been +brought up on. I'll get a girl to help you with the work. Between +you, I'll expect it to be done in a way that the dairy will yield a +fair profit. We'll try and see how we get on for three months and not +a year. I'll not bind myself longer than three months. Of course, if +you manage well, I'll be glad to have this plain business arrangement +go on as long as possible, but it's all a matter of business. If I +can't make my farm pay, I'm going to sell or rent and leave these +parts." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, certainly, certainly, Mr. Holcroft! You take a very senserble +view of affairs. I hope you will find that I will do all that I agree +to and a great deal more. I'm a little afraid of the night air and the +inclement season, and so will hasten to get myself and my child ready," +and she passed quickly out. +</P> + +<P> +Weeks put his hand to his mouth to conceal a grin as he thought, "She +hasn't agreed to do anything that I know on. Still, she's right; +she'll do a sight more than he expects, but it won't be just what he +expects." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Weeks followed her relative to expedite matters, and it must be +confessed that the gathering of Mrs. Mumpson's belongings was no heavy +task. A small hair trunk, that had come down from the remote past, +held her own and her child's wardrobe and represented all their worldly +possessions. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Weeks, much pleased at the turn of affairs, became very affable, +but confined his remarks chiefly to the weather, while Holcroft, who +had an uneasy sense of being overreached in some undetected way, was +abstracted and laconic. He was soon on the road home, however, with +Mrs. Mumpson and Jane. Cousin Lemuel's last whispered charge was, +"Now, for mercy's sake, do keep your tongue still and your hands busy." +</P> + +<P> +Whatever possibilities there may be for the Ethiopian or the leopard, +there was no hope that Mrs. Mumpson would materially change any of her +characteristics. The chief reason was that she had no desire to +change. A more self-complacent person did not exist in Oakville. Good +traits in other people did not interest her. They were insipid, they +lacked a certain pungency which a dash of evil imparts; and in the +course of her minute investigations she had discerned or surmised so +much that was reprehensible that she had come to regard herself as +singularly free from sins of omission and commission. "What have I ever +done?" she would ask in her self-communings. The question implied so +much truth of a certain kind that all her relatives were in gall and +bitterness as they remembered the weary months during which she had +rocked idly at their firesides. With her, talking was as much of a +necessity as breathing; but during the ride to the hillside farm she, +in a sense, held her breath, for a keen March wind was blowing. +</P> + +<P> +She was so quiet that Holcroft grew hopeful, not realizing that the +checked flow of words must have freer course later on. A cloudy +twilight was deepening fast when they reached the dwelling. Holcroft's +market wagon served for the general purposes of conveyance, and he +drove as near as possible to the kitchen door. Descending from the +front seat, which he had occupied alone, he turned and offered his hand +to assist the widow to alight, but she nervously poised herself on the +edge of the vehicle and seemed to be afraid to venture. The wind +fluttered her scanty draperies, causing her to appear like a bird of +prey about to swoop down upon the unprotected man. "I'm afraid to jump +so far—" she began. +</P> + +<P> +"There's the step, Mrs. Mumpson." +</P> + +<P> +"But I can't see it. Would you mind lifting me down?" +</P> + +<P> +He impatiently took her by the arms, which seemed in his grasp like the +rounds of a chair, and put her on the ground. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" she exclaimed, in gushing tones, "there's nothing to equal the +strong arms of a man." +</P> + +<P> +He hastily lifted out her daughter, and said, "You had getter hurry in +to the fire. I'll be back in a few minutes," and he led his horses +down to the barn, blanketed and tied them. When he returned, he saw +two dusky figures standing by the front door which led to the little +hall separating the kitchen from the parlor. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless me!" he exclaimed. "You haven't been standing here all this +time?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's merely due to a little oversight. The door is locked, you see, +and—" +</P> + +<P> +"But the kitchen door is not locked." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it didn't seem quite natural for us to enter the dwelling, on +the occasion of our first arrival, by the kitchen entrance, and—" +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft, with a grim look, strode through the kitchen and unlocked the +door. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" exclaimed the widow. "I feel as if I was coming home. Enter, +Jane, my dear. I'm sure the place will soon cease to be strange to +you, for the home feeling is rapidly acquired when—" +</P> + +<P> +"Just wait a minute, please," said Holcroft, "and I'll light the lamp +and a candle." This he did with the deftness of a man accustomed to +help himself, then led the way to the upper room which was to be her +sleeping apartment. Placing the candle on the bureau, he forestalled +Mrs. Mumpson by saying, "I'll freshen up the fire in the kitchen and +lay out the ham, eggs, coffee, and other materials for supper. Then I +must go out and unharness and do my night work. Make yourselves to +home. You'll soon be able to find everything," and he hastened away. +</P> + +<P> +It would not be their fault if they were not soon able to find +everything. Mrs. Mumpson's first act was to take the candle and survey +the room in every nook and corner. She sighed when she found the +closet and bureau drawers empty. Then she examined the quantity and +texture of the bedding of the "couch on which she was to repose," as +she would express herself. Jane followed her around on tiptoe, doing +just what her mother did, but was silent. +</P> + +<P> +At last they shivered in the fireless apartment, threw off their scanty +wraps, and went down to the kitchen. Mrs. Mumpson instinctively looked +around for a rocking chair, and as none was visible she hastened to the +parlor, and, holding the candle aloft, surveyed this apartment. Jane +followed in her wake as before, but at last ventured to suggest, +"Mother, Mr. Holcroft'll be in soon and want his supper." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose he'll want a great many things," replied Mrs. Mumpson with +dignity, "but he can't expect a lady of my connections to fly around +like a common servant. It is but natural, in coming to a new abode, +that I should wish to know something of that abode. There should have +been a hired girl here ready to receive and get supper for us. Since +there is not one to receive us, bring that rocking chair, my dear, and +I will direct you how to proceed." +</P> + +<P> +The child did as she was told, and her mother was soon rocking on the +snuggest side of the kitchen stove, interspersing her rather +bewildering orders with various reflections and surmises. +</P> + +<P> +Sketching the child Jane is a sad task, and pity would lead us to +soften every touch if this could be done in truthfulness. She was but +twelve years of age, yet there was scarcely a trace of childhood left +in her colorless face. Stealthy and catlike in all her movements, she +gave the impression that she could not do the commonest thing except in +a sly, cowering manner. Her small greenish-gray eyes appeared to be +growing nearer together with the lease of time, and their indirect, +furtive glances suggested that they had hardly, if ever, seen looks of +frank affection bent upon her. She had early learned, on the round of +visits with her mother, that so far from being welcome she was scarcely +tolerated, and she reminded one of a stray cat that comes to a dwelling +and seeks to maintain existence there in a lurking, deprecatory manner. +Her kindred recognized this feline trait, for they were accustomed to +remark, "She's always snoopin' around." +</P> + +<P> +She could scarcely do otherwise, poor child! There had seemed no place +for her at any of the firesides. She haunted halls and passage-ways, +sat in dusky corners, and kept her meager little form out of sight as +much as possible. She was the last one helped at table when she was +permitted to come at all, and so had early learned to watch, like a +cat, and when people's backs were turned, to snatch something, carry it +off, and devour it in secret. Detected in these little pilferings, to +which she was almost driven, she was regarded as even a greater +nuisance than her mother. +</P> + +<P> +The latter was much too preoccupied to give her child attention. +Ensconced in a rocking chair in the best room, and always in full tide +of talk if there was anyone present, she rarely seemed to think where +Jane was or what she was doing. The rounds of visitation gave the +child no chance to go to school, so her developing mind had little +other pabulum than what her mother supplied so freely. She was +acquiring the same consuming curiosity, with the redeeming feature that +she did not talk. Listening in unsuspected places, she heard much that +was said about her mother and herself, and the pathetic part of this +experience was that she had never known enough of kindness to be +wounded. She was only made to feel more fully how precarious was her +foothold in her transient abiding place, and therefore was rendered +more furtive, sly, and distant in order to secure toleration by keeping +out of everyone's way. In her prowlings, however, she managed to learn +and understand all that was going on even better than her mother, who, +becoming aware of this fact, was acquiring the habit of putting her +through a whispered cross-questioning when they retired for the night. +It would be hard to imagine a child beginning life under more +unfavorable auspices and still harder to predict the outcome. +</P> + +<P> +In the course of her close watchfulness she had observed how many of +the domestic labors had been performed, and she would have helped more +in the various households if she had been given a chance; but the +housewives had not regarded her as sufficiently honest to be trusted in +the pantries, and also found that, if there was a semblance of return +for such hospitality as they extended, Mrs. Mumpson would remain +indefinitely. Moreover, the homely, silent child made the women +nervous, just as her mother irritated the men, and they did not want +her around. Thus she had come to be but the specter of a child, +knowing little of the good in the world and as much of the evil as she +could understand. +</P> + +<P> +She now displayed, however, more sense than her mother. The habit of +close scrutiny had made it clear that Holcroft would not long endure +genteel airs and inefficiency, and that something must be done to keep +this shelter. She did her best to get supper, with the aid given from +the rocking chair, and at last broke out sharply, "You must get up and +help me. He'll turn us out of doors if we don't have supper ready when +he comes in." +</P> + +<P> +Spurred by fear of such a dire possibility, Mrs. Mumpson was bustling +around when Holcroft entered. "We'll soon be ready," she gushed, "we'll +soon place our evening repast upon the table." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," was the brief reply, as he passed up the stairs with the +small hair trunk on his shoulder. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter IV. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Domestic Bliss +</H3> + +<P> +Holcroft had been given a foretaste of the phase of torment which he +was destined to endure in his domestic relations, and was planning to +secure a refuge into which he could not be pursued. He had made +himself a little more presentable for supper, instinctively aware that +nothing would escape the lynx-eyed widow, and was taking some +measurements from the floor to a stovepipe hole leading into the +chimney flue, when he became aware that someone was in the doorway. +Turning, he saw Jane with her small catlike eyes fixed intently upon +him. Instantly he had the feeling that he was being watched and would +be watched. +</P> + +<P> +"Supper's ready," said the girl, disappearing. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson smiled upon him—if certain contortions of her thin, sharp +face could be termed a smile—from that side of the table at which his +wife had sat so many years, and he saw that the low rocking chair, +which he had preserved jealously from his former "help," had been +brought from the parlor and established in the old familiar place. +Mrs. Mumpson folded her hands and assumed a look of deep solemnity; +Jane, as instructed, also lowered her head, and they waited for him to +say "grace." He was in far too bitter a mood for any such pious farce, +and stolidly began to help them to the ham and eggs, which viands had +been as nearly spoiled as was possible in their preparation. The widow +raised her head with a profound sigh which set Holcroft's teeth on +edge, but he proceeded silently with his supper. The biscuits were +heavy enough to burden the lightest conscience; and the coffee, simply +grounds swimming around in lukewarm water. He took a sip, then put +down his cup and said, quietly, "Guess I'll take a glass of milk +tonight. Mrs. Mumpson, if you don't know how to make coffee, I can +soon show you." +</P> + +<P> +"Why! Isn't it right? How strange! Perhaps it would be well for you +to show me just exactly how you like it, for it will afford me much +pleasure to make it to your taste. Men's tastes differ so! I've heard +that no two men's tastes were alike; and, after all, everything is a +matter of taste. Now Cousin Abiram doesn't believe in coffee at all. +He thinks it is unwholesome. Have YOU ever thought that it might be +unwholesome?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm used to it, and would like it good when I have it at all." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, of course, of course! You must have it exactly to your taste. +Jane, my dear, we must put our minds on coffee and learn precisely how +Mr. Holcroft likes it, and when the hired girl comes we must carefully +superintend her when she makes it. By the way, I suppose you will +employ my assistant tomorrow, Mr. Holcroft." +</P> + +<P> +"I can't get a girl short of town," was the reply, "and there is so +much cream in the dairy that ought to be churned at once that I'll wait +till next Monday and take down the butter." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson put on a grave, injured air, and said, "Well," so +disapprovingly that it was virtually saying that it was not well at +all. Then, suddenly remembering that this was not good policy, she was +soon all smiles and chatter again. "How cozy this is!" she cried, "and +how soon one acquires the home feeling! Why, anyone looking in at the +window would think that we were an old established family, and yet this +is but our first meal together. But it won't be the last, Mr. +Holcroft. I cannot make it known to you how your loneliness, which +Cousin Lemuel has so feelingly described to me, has affected my +feelings. Cousin Nancy said but this very day that you have had +desperate times with all kinds of dreadful creatures. But all that's +past. Jane and me will give a look of stability and respecterbility to +every comer." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, really, Mrs. Mumpson, I don't know who's to come." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you'll see!" she replied, wrinkling her thin, blue lips into what +was meant for a smile, and nodding her head at him encouragingly. "You +won't be so isolated no more. Now that I'm here, with my offspring, +your neighbors will feel that they can show you their sympathy. The +most respecterble people in town will call, and your life will grow +brighter and brighter; clouds will roll away, and—" +</P> + +<P> +"I hope the neighbors will not be so ill-mannered as to come without +being invited," remarked Mr. Holcroft grimly. "It's too late in the day +for them to begin now." +</P> + +<P> +"My being here with Jane will make all the difference in the world," +resumed Mrs. Mumpson, with as saccharine an expression as she could +assume. "They will come out of pure kindness and friendly interest, +with the wish to encourage—" +</P> + +<P> +"Mrs. Mumpson," said Holcroft, half desperately, "if anyone comes it'll +be out of pure curiosity, and I don't want such company. Selling +enough butter, eggs, and produce to pay expenses will encourage me more +than all the people of Oakville, if they should come in a body. What's +the use of talking in this way? I've done without the neighbors so +far, and I'm sure they've been very careful to do without me. I shall +have nothing to do with them except in the way of business, and as I +said to you down at Lemuel Weeks's, business must be the first +consideration with us all," and he rose from the table. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, certainly, certainly!" the widow hastened to say, "but then +business is like a cloud, and the meetings and greetings of friends is +a sort of silver lining, you know. What would the world be without +friends—the society of those who take an abiding interest? Believe +me, Mr. Holcroft," she continued, bringing her long, skinny finger +impressively down on the table, "you have lived alone so long that you +are unable to see the crying needs of your own constitution. As a +Christian man, you require human sympathy and—" +</P> + +<P> +Poor Holcroft knew little of centrifugal force; but at that moment he +was a living embodiment of it, feeling that if he did not escape he +would fly into a thousand atoms. Saying nervously, "I've a few chores +to do," he seized his hat, and hastening out, wandered disconsolately +around the barn. "I'm never going to be able to stand her," he groaned. +"I know now why my poor wife shook her head whenever this woman was +mentioned. The clack of her tongue would drive any man living crazy, +and the gimlet eyes of that girl Jane would bore holes through a +saint's patience. Well, well! I'll put a stove up in my room, then +plowing and planting time will soon be here, and I guess I can stand it +at mealtimes for three months, for unless she stops her foolishness she +shan't stay any longer." +</P> + +<P> +Jane had not spoken during the meal, but kept her eyes on Holcroft, +except when he looked toward her, and then she instantly averted her +gaze. When she was alone with her mother, she said abruptly, "We aint +a-goin' to stay here long, nuther." +</P> + +<P> +"Why not?" was the sharp, responsive query. +</P> + +<P> +"'Cause the same look's comin' into his face that was in Cousin +Lemuel's and Cousin Abiram's and all the rest of 'em. 'Fi's you I'd +keep still now. 'Pears to me they all want you to keep still and you +won't." +</P> + +<P> +"Jane," said Mrs. Mumpson in severe tones, "you're an ignorant child. +Don't presume to instruct ME! Besides, this case is entirely +different. Mr. Holcroft must be made to understand from the start that +I'm not a common woman—that I'm his equal, and in most respects his +superior. If he aint made to feel this, it'll never enter his +head—but law! There's things which you can't and oughtn't to +understand." +</P> + +<P> +"But I do," said the girl shortly, "and he won't marry you, nor keep +you, if you talk him to death." +</P> + +<P> +"Jane!" gasped Mrs. Mumpson, as she sank into the chair and rocked +violently. +</P> + +<P> +The night air was keen and soon drove Holcroft into the house. As he +passed the kitchen window, he saw that Mrs. Mumpson was in his wife's +rocking chair and that Jane was clearing up the table. +</P> + +<P> +He kindled a fire on the parlor hearth, hoping, but scarcely expecting, +that he would be left alone. +</P> + +<P> +Nor was he very long, for the widow soon opened the door and entered, +carrying the chair. "Oh, you are here," she said sweetly. "I heard the +fire crackling, and I do so love open wood fires. They're company in +themselves, and they make those who bask in the flickering blaze +inclined to be sociable. To think of how many long, lonely evenings +you have sat here when you had persons in your employ with whom you +could have no affinity whatever! I don't see how you stood it. Under +such circumstances life must cloud up into a dreary burden." It never +occurred to Mrs. Mumpson that her figures of speech were often mixed. +She merely felt that the sentimental phase of conversation must be very +flowery. But during the first evening she had resolved on prudence. +"Mr. Holcroft shall have time," she thought, "for the hope to steal +into his heart that his housekeeper may become something more to him +than housekeeper—that there is a nearer and loftier relation." +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile she was consumed with curiosity to know something about the +"persons" previously employed and his experiences with them. With a +momentary, and, as she felt, a proper pause before descending to +ordinary topics, she resumed, "My dear Mr. Holcroft, no doubt it will +be a relief to your overfraught mind to pour into a symperthetic ear +the story of your troubles with those—er—those peculiar females +that—er—that—" +</P> + +<P> +"Mrs. Mumpson, it would be a much greater relief to my mind to forget +all about 'em," he replied briefly. +</P> + +<P> +"INDEED!" exclaimed the widow. "Was they as bad as that? Who'd 'a' +thought it! Well, well, well; what people there is in the world! And +you couldn't abide 'em, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I couldn't." +</P> + +<P> +"Well now; what hussies they must have been! And to think you were +here all alone, with no better company! It makes my heart bleed. They +DO say that Bridget Malony is equal to anything, and I've no doubt but +that she took things and did things." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, she's taken herself off, and that's enough." Then he groaned +inwardly, "Good Lord! I could stand her and all her tribe bettern'n +this one." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Mr. Holcroft," pursued Mrs. Mumpson, sinking her voice to a loud, +confidential whisper, "and I don't believe you've any idea how much she +took with her. I fear you've been robbed in all these vicissitudes. +Men never know what's in a house. They need caretakers; respecterble +women, that would sooner cut out their tongues than purloin. How happy +is the change which has been affected! How could you abide in the +house with such a person as that Bridget Malony?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well, Mrs. Mumpson! She abode with herself. I at least had +this room in peace and quietness." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, of course! A person so utterly unrespecterble would not +think of entering THIS apartment; but then you had to meet her, you +know. You could not act as if she was not, when she was, and there +being so much of her, too. She was a monstrous-looking person. It's +dreadful to think that such persons belong to our sex. I don't wonder +you feel as you do about it all. I can understand you perfectly. All +your senserbleness was offended. You felt that your very home had +become sacrilegious. Well, now, I suppose she said awful things to +you?" +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft could not endure this style of inquisition and comment another +second longer. He rose and said, "Mrs. Mumpson, if you want to know +just what she said and did, you must go and ask her. I'm very tired. +I'll go out and see that the stock's all right, and then go to bed." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, certainly, certainly!" ejaculated the widow. "Repose is nature's +sweet rester, says the poet. I can see how recalling those dreadful +scenes with those peculiar females—" But he was gone. +</P> + +<P> +In passing out, he caught sight of Jane whisking back into the kitchen. +"She's been listening," he thought. "Well, I'll go to town tomorrow +afternoon, get a stove for my room upstairs, and stuff the keyhole." +</P> + +<P> +He went to the barn and looked with envy at the placid cows and quiet +horses. At last, having lingered as long as he could, he returned to +the kitchen. Jane had washed and put away the supper dishes after a +fashion, and was now sitting on the edge of a chair in the farthest +corner of the room. +</P> + +<P> +"Take this candle and go to your mother," he said curtly. Then he +fastened the doors and put out the lamp. Standing for an instant at +the parlor entrance, he added, "Please rake up the fire and put out +the light before you come up. Good night." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, certainly, certainly! We'll look after everything just as if it +was our own. The sense of strangeness will soon pass—" But his steps +were halfway up the stairs. +</P> + +<P> +Mother and daughter listened until they heard him overhead, then, +taking the candle, they began a most minute examination of everything +in the room. +</P> + +<P> +Poor Holcroft listened also; too worried, anxious, and nervous to sleep +until they came up and all sounds ceased in the adjoining apartment. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter V. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Mrs. Mumpson Takes Up Her Burdens +</H3> + +<P> +The next morning Holcroft awoke early. The rising sun flooded his +plain little room with mellow light. It was impossible to give way to +dejection in that radiance, and hope, he scarcely knew why, sprung up +in his heart. He was soon dressed, and having kindled the kitchen +fire, went out on the porch. There had been a change in the wind during +the night, and now it blew softly from the south. The air was sweet +with the indefinable fragrance of spring. The ethereal notes of +bluebirds were heard on every side. Migratory robins were feeding in +the orchard, whistling and calling their noisy congratulations on +arriving at old haunts. The frost was already oozing from the ground, +but the farmer welcomed the mud, knowing that it indicated a long +advance toward plowing and planting time. +</P> + +<P> +He bared his head to the sweet, warm air and took long, deep breaths. +"If this weather holds," he muttered, "I can soon put in some early +potatoes on that warm hillside yonder. Yes, I can stand even her for +the sake of being on the old place in mornings like this. The +weather'll be getting better every day and I can be out of doors more. +I'll have a stove in my room tonight; I would last night if the old +air-tight hadn't given out completely. I'll take it to town this +afternoon and sell it for old iron. Then I'll get a bran'-new one and +put it up in my room. They can't follow me there and they can't follow +me outdoors, and so perhaps I can live in peace and work most of the +time." +</P> + +<P> +Thus he was muttering to himself, as lonely people so often do, when he +felt that someone was near. Turning suddenly, he saw Jane half-hidden +by the kitchen door. Finding herself observed, the girl came forward +and said in her brief monotonous way: +</P> + +<P> +"Mother'll be down soon. If you'll show me how you want the coffee and +things, I guess I can learn." +</P> + +<P> +"I guess you'll have to, Jane. There'll be more chance of your +teaching your mother than of her teaching you, I fear. But we'll see, +we'll see; it's strange people can't see what's sensible and best for +'em when they see so much." +</P> + +<P> +The child made no reply, but watched him intently as he measured out +and then ground half a cup of coffee. +</P> + +<P> +"The firs thing to do," he began kindly, "is to fill the kettle with +water fresh drawn from the well. Never make coffee or tea with water +that's been boiled two or three times. Now, I'll give the kettle a +good rinsing, so as to make sure you start with it clean." +</P> + +<P> +Having accomplished this, he filled the vessel at the well and placed +it on the fire, remarking as he did so, "Your mother can cook a little, +can't she?" +</P> + +<P> +"I s'pose so," Jane replied. "When father was livin' mother said she +kept a girl. Since then, we've visited round. But she'll learn, and +if she can't, I can." +</P> + +<P> +"What on earth—but there's no use of talking. When the water +boils—bubbles up and down, you know—call me. I suppose you and your +mother can get the rest of the breakfast? Oh, good morning, Mrs. +Mumpson! I was just showing Jane about the coffee. You two can go on +and do all the rest, but don't touch the coffee till the kettle boils, +and then I'll come in and show you my way, and, if you please, I don't +wish it any other way." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, certainly, certainly!" began Mrs. Mumpson, but Holcroft waited to +hear no more. +</P> + +<P> +"She's a woman," he muttered, "and I'll say nothing rude or ugly to +her, but I shan't listen to her talk half a minute when I can help +myself; and if she won't do any thing but talk—well, we'll see, we'll +see! A few hours in the dairy will show whether she can use anything +besides her tongue." +</P> + +<P> +As soon as they were alone Jane turned sharply on her mother and said, +"Now you've got to do something to help. At Cousin Lemuel's and other +places they wouldn't let us help. Anyhow, they wouldn't let me. He +'spects us both to work, and pays you for it. I tell you agin, he +won't let us stay here unless we do. I won't go visitin' round any +more, feelin' like a stray cat in every house I go to. You've got to +work, and talk less." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Jane! How YOU talk!" +</P> + +<P> +"I talk sense. Come, help me get breakfast." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think that's a proper way for a child to address a parent?" +</P> + +<P> +"No matter what I think. Come and help. You'll soon know what he +thinks if we keep breakfast waitin'." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'll do such menial work until he gets a girl, and then he shall +learn that he can't expect one with such respecterble connections—" +</P> + +<P> +"Hope I may never see any of 'em agin," interrupted Jane shortly, and +then she relapsed into silence while her mother rambled on in her +characteristic way, making singularly inapt efforts to assist in the +task before them. +</P> + +<P> +As Holcroft rose from milking a cow he found Jane beside him. A ghost +could not have come more silently, and again her stealthy ways gave him +an unpleasant sensation. "Kettle is boilin'," she said, and was gone. +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head and muttered, "Queer tribe, these Mumpsons! I've +only to get an odd fish of a girl to help, and I'll have something like +a menagerie in the house." He carried his pails of foaming milk to the +dairy, and then entered the kitchen. +</P> + +<P> +"I've only a minute," he began hastily, seeking to forestall the widow. +"Yes, the kettle's boiling all right. First scald out the +coffeepot—put three-quarters of a cup of ground coffee into the pot, +break an egg into it, so; pour on the egg and coffee half a cup of cold +water and stir it all up well, this way. Next pour in about a pint of +boiling water from the kettle, set the pot on the stove and let it—the +coffee, I mean—cook twenty minutes, remember, not less than twenty +minutes. I'll be back to breakfast by that time. Now you know just +how I want my coffee, don't you?" looking at Jane. +</P> + +<P> +Jane nodded, but Mrs. Mumpson began, "Oh certainly, certainly! Boil an +egg twenty minutes, add half a cup of cold water, and—" +</P> + +<P> +"I know," interrupted Jane, "I can always do as you did." +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft again escaped to the barn, and eventually returned with a deep +sigh. "I'll have to face a good deal of her music this morning," he +thought, "but I shall have at least a good cup of coffee to brace me." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson did not abandon the suggestion that grace should be +said,—she never abandoned anything,—but the farmer, in accordance +with his purpose to be civil, yet pay no attention to her obtrusive +ways, gave no heed to her hint. He thought Jane looked apprehensive, +and soon learned the reason. His coffee was at least hot, but seemed +exceedingly weak. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope now that it's just right," said Mrs. Mumpson complacently, "and +feeling sure that it was made just to suit you, I filled the coffeepot +full from the kettle. We can drink what we desire for breakfast and +then the rest can be set aside until dinner time and warmed over. Then +you'll have it just to suit you for the next meal, and we, at the same +time, will be practicing econermy. It shall now be my great aim to +help you econermize. Any coarse, menial hands can work, but the great +thing to be considered is a caretaker; one who, by thoughtfulness and +the employment of her mind, will make the labor of others affective." +</P> + +<P> +During this speech, Holcroft could only stare at the woman. The rapid +motion of her thin jaw seemed to fascinate him, and he was in +perplexity over not merely her rapid utterance, but also the queries. +Had she maliciously spoiled the coffee? Or didn't she know any better? +"I can't make her out," he thought, "but she shall learn that I have a +will of my own," and he quietly rose, took the coffeepot, and poured +its contents out of doors; then went through the whole process of +making his favorite beverage again, saying coldly, "Jane, you had +better watch close this time. I don't wish anyone to touch the +coffeepot but you." +</P> + +<P> +Even Mrs. Mumpson was a little abashed by his manner, but when he +resumed his breakfast she speedily recovered her complacency and +volubility. "I've always heard," she said, with her little cackling +laugh, "that men would be extravergant, especially in some things. +There are some things they're fidgety about and will have just so. +Well, well, who has a better right than a well-to-do, fore-handed man? +Woman is to complement the man, and it should be her aim to study the +great—the great—shall we say reason, for her being? Which is +adaptation," and she uttered the word with feeling, assured that +Holcroft could not fail of being impressed by it. The poor man was +bolting such food as had been prepared in his haste to get away. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," continued the widow, "adaptation is woman's mission and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Really, Mrs. Mumpson, your and Jane's mission this morning will be to +get as much butter as possible out of the cream and milk on hand. I'll +set the old dog on the wheel, and start the churn within half an hour," +and he rose with the thought, "I'd rather finish my breakfast on milk +and coffee by and by than stand this." And he said, "Please let the +coffee be until I come in to show you about taking out and working the +butter." +</P> + +<P> +The scenes in the dairy need not be dwelt upon. He saw that Jane might +be taught, and that she would probably try to do all that her strength +permitted. It was perfectly clear that Mrs. Mumpson was not only +ignorant of the duties which he had employed her to perform, but that +she was also too preoccupied with her talk and notions of gentility +ever to learn. He was already satisfied that in inducing him to engage +her, Lemuel Weeks had played him a trick, but there seemed no other +resource than to fulfill his agreement. With Mrs. Mumpson in the +house, there might be less difficulty in securing and keeping a hired +girl who, with Jane, might do the essential work. But the future +looked so unpromising that even the strong coffee could not sustain his +spirits. The hopefulness of the early morning departed, leaving +nothing but dreary uncertainty. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson was bent upon accompanying him to town and engaging the +girl herself. "There would be great propriety in my doing so," she +argued at dinner, "and propriety is something that adorns all the human +race. There would be no danger of my getting any of the peculiar +females such as you have been afflicted with. As I am to superintend +her labors, she will look up to me with respect and humility if she +learns from the first to recognize in me a superior on whom she will be +dependent for her daily bread. No shiftless hussy would impose upon +ME. I would bring home—how sweet the word sounds!—a model of +industry and patient endurance. She would be deferential, she would +know her place, too. Everything would go like clockwork in our home. +I'll put on my things at once and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Excuse me, Mrs. Mumpson. It would not be right to leave Jane here +alone. Moreover, I'd rather engage my own help." +</P> + +<P> +"But my dear Mr. Holcroft, you don't realize—men never do +realize—that you will have a long, lonely ride with a female of +unknown—unknown antercedents. It will be scarcely respecterble, and +respecterbility should be man and woman's chief aim. Jane is not a +timid child, and in an emergency like this, even if she was, she would +gladly sacrifice herself to sustain the proprieties of life. Now that +your life has begun under new and better auspices, I feel that I ought +to plead with you not to cloud your brightening prospects by a +thoughtless unregard of what society looks upon as proper. The eyes of +the community will now be upon us—" +</P> + +<P> +"You must excuse me, Mrs. Mumpson. All I ask of the community is to +keep their eyes on their own business, while I attend to mine in my own +way. The probabilities are that the girl will come out on the stage +Monday," and he rose from the dinner table and hastily made his +preparations for departure. He was soon driving rapidly away, having a +sort of nervous apprehension lest Jane, or the widow, should suddenly +appear on the seat beside him. A basket of eggs and some inferior +butter, with the burnt-out stove, were in his wagon and his bank book +was in his pocket. It was with sinking heart that he thought of making +further inroads on his small accumulations. +</P> + +<P> +Before he was out of sight Mrs. Mumpson betook herself to the rocking +chair and began to expatiate on the blindness and obduracy of men in +general and of Mr. Holcroft in particular. "They are all much alike," +she complained, "and are strangely neglectful of the proprieties of +life. My dear, deceased husband, your father, was becoming gradually +senserble of my value in guiding him in this respect, and indeed, I may +add in all respects, when, in the very prime of his expanding manhood, +he was laid low. Of course, my happiness was buried then and my heart +can never throb again, but I have a mission in the world—I feel +it—and here is a desolate home bereft of female influence and +consolation and hitherto painfully devoid of respecterbility. +</P> + +<P> +"I once called on the late Mrs. Holcroft, and—I must say it—I went +away depressed by a sense of her lack of ability to develop in her +husband those qualities which would make him an ornament to society. +She was a silent woman, she lacked mind and ideas. She had seen little +of the world and knew not what was swaying people. Therefore, her +husband, having nothing else to think of, became absorbed in the +accumulation of dollars. Not that I object to dollars—they have their +proper place,—but minds should be fixed on all things. We should take +a deep personal interest in our fellow beings, and thus we grow broad. +As I was saying, Mr. Holcroft was not developed by his late spouse. He +needs awakening, arousing, stimulating, drawing out, and such I feel to +be my mission. I must be patient; I cannot expect the habits of years +to pass away under a different kind of female influence, at once." +</P> + +<P> +Jane had been stolidly washing and putting away dishes during this +partial address to herself and partial soliloquy, but now remarked, +"You and me will pass away in a week if you go on as you've begun. I +can see it comin'. Then, where'll we go to?" +</P> + +<P> +"Your words, Jane, only show that you are an ignorant, short-sighted +child. Do you suppose that a woman of my years and experience would +make no better provision for the future than a man's changeful mind—a +warped and undeveloped mind, at that? No; I have an agreement with Mr. +Holcroft. I shall be a member of his household for three months at +least, and long before that he will begin to see everything in a new +light. It will gradually dawn upon him that he has been defrauded of +proper female influence and society. Now, he is crude, he thinks only +of work and accumulating; but when the work is done by a menial +female's hands and his mind is more at rest, there will begin to steal +in upon him the cravings of his mind. He will see that material things +are not all in all." +</P> + +<P> +"P'raps he will. I don't half know that you're talkin' about. 'Fi's +you, I'd learn to work and do things as he wants 'em. That's what I'm +going to do. Shall I go now and make up his bed and tidy his room?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think I will accompany you, Jane, and see that your task is properly +performed." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course you want to see everythin' in the room, just as I do." +</P> + +<P> +"As housekeeper, I should see everything that is under my care. That +is the right way to look at the matter." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, come and look then." +</P> + +<P> +"You are becoming strangely disrespectful, Jane." +</P> + +<P> +"Can't help it," replied the girl, "I'm gettin' mad. We've been +elbowed around long's I can remember, at least I've been, and now we're +in a place where we've a right to be, and you do nothin' but talk, +talk, talk, when he hates talk. Now you'll go up in his room and +you'll see everythin' in it, so you could tell it all off tomorrow. +Why, can't you see he hates talk and wants somethin' done?" +</P> + +<P> +"Jane," said Mrs. Mumpson, in her most severe and dignified manner, +"you are not only disrespectful to your parent, but you're a time +server. What Mr. Holcroft wants is a very secondary matter; what is +BEST for him is the chief consideration. But I have touched on things +far above your comprehension. Come, you can make up the bed, and I +shall inspect as becomes my station." +</P> +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter VI. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A Marriage! +</H3> + +<P> +In a quiet side street of the market town in which Mr. Holcroft was +accustomed to dispose of his farm produce was a three-story tenement +house. A family occupied each floor, those dwelling in the first two +stories being plain, respectable people of the mechanic class. The +rooms in the third story were, of course, the cheapest, but even from +the street might be seen evidences that more money had been spent upon +them than could have been saved in rent. Lace curtains were looped +aside from the windows, through which were caught glimpses of flowers +that must have come from a greenhouse. We have only to enter these +apartments to find that the suggestion of refined taste is amply +fulfilled. While nothing is costly, there is a touch of grace, a hint +of beauty in everything permitting simple adornment. The mistress of +these rooms is not satisfied with neatness and order merely; it is her +instinct to add something to please the eye—a need essential to her, +yet too often conspicuously absent in rented quarters of a similar +character. +</P> + +<P> +It is remarkable to what a degree people's abodes are a reflex of +themselves. Mrs. Alida Ostrom had been brought to these rooms a happy +bride but a few months since. They were then bare and not very clean. +Her husband had seemed bent on indulging her so far as his limited +means permitted. He had declared that his income was so modest that he +could afford nothing better than these cheap rooms in an obscure +street, but she had been abundantly content, for she had known even the +extremity of poverty. +</P> + +<P> +Alida Ostrom had passed beyond the period of girlhood, with its +superficial desires and ambitions. When her husband first met her, she +was a woman of thirty, and had been chastened by deep sorrows and some +bitter experiences. Years before, she and her mother had come to this +town from a New England city in the hope of bettering their +circumstances. They had no weapons other than their needles with which +to fight life's battle, but they were industrious and +frugal—characteristic traits which won the confidence of the +shopkeepers for whom they worked. All went as well, perhaps, as they +could expect, for two or three years, their secluded lives passing +uneventfully and, to a certain extent, happily. They had time to read +some good books obtained at a public library; they enjoyed an +occasional holiday in the country; and they went to church twice every +Sunday when it was not stormy. The mother usually dozed in the obscure +seat near the door which they occupied, for she was getting old, and +the toil of the long week wearied her.—Alida, on the contrary, was +closely attentive. Her mind seemed to crave all the sustenance it +could get from every source, and her reverential manner indicated that +the hopes inspired by her faith were dear and cherished. Although they +lived such quiet lives and kept themselves apart from their neighbors, +there was no mystery about them which awakened surmises. "They've seen +better days," was the common remark when they were spoken of; and this +was true. While they had no desire to be social with the people among +whom they lived, they did not awaken prejudices by the assertion of +superiority. Indeed, it was seen that the two women had all they could +do to earn their livelihood, and they were left to do this in peace. +</P> + +<P> +When Alida Armstrong—for that was her maiden name—carried her own and +her mother's work to and from the shops, she often encountered admiring +glances. She was not exactly pretty, but she had the good, refined face +which is often more attractive than the merely pretty one, and she +possessed a trim, rounded figure which she knew how to clothe with +taste from the simplest and most inexpensive materials. Nor did she +seek to dress above her station. When passing along the street, any +discerning person would recognize that she was a working girl; only the +superficial would look upon her as a common-place girl. There was +something in her modest air and graceful, elastic carriage which +suggested the thought to many observers, "She has seen better days." +</P> + +<P> +The memory of these days, which had promised immunity from wearing +toil, anxiety, and poverty, was a barrier between the two women and +their present world. Death had bereft them of husband, father, and +such property as he had left had been lost in a bad investment. +Learning that they were almost penniless, they had patiently set about +earning honest bread. This they had succeeded in doing as long as the +mother kept her usual health. But the infirmities of age were creeping +upon her. One winter she took a heavy cold and was very ill. She +rallied only temporarily in the milder days of spring. In the summer's +heat her strength failed, and she died. +</P> + +<P> +During her mother's long illness Alida was devotion itself. The strain +upon her was severe indeed, for she not only had to earn food for both, +but there were also doctor's bills, medicines, and delicacies to pay +for. The poor girl grew thin from work by day, watching by night, and +from fear and anxiety at all times. Their scanty savings were +exhausted; articles were sold from their rooms; the few precious +heirlooms of silver and china were disposed of; Alida even denied +herself the food she needed rather than ask for help or permit her +mother to want for anything which ministered to their vain hopes of +renewed health. +</P> + +<P> +What she should have done she scarcely knew, had not an unexpected +friend interested himself in her behalf. In one of the men's clothing +stores was a cutter from whom she obtained work. Soon after he +appeared in this shop he began to manifest signs of interest in her He +was about her own age, he had a good trade, and she often wondered why +he appeared so reticent and moody, as compared with others in similar +positions. But he always spoke kindly to her, and when her mother's +illness first developed, he showed all the leniency permitted to him in +regard to her work. His apparent sympathy, and the need of explaining +why she was not able to finish her tasks as promptly as usual, led her +gradually to reveal to him the sad struggle in which she was engaged. +He promised to intercede in her behalf with their mutual employers, and +asked if he might come to see her mother. +</P> + +<P> +Recognizing how dependent she was upon this man's good will, and seeing +nothing in his conduct but kindness and sympathy, she consented. His +course and his words confirmed all her good impressions and awakened on +her side corresponding sympathy united with a lively gratitude. He +told her that he also was a stranger in the town, that he had but few +acquaintances and no friends, that he had lost relatives and was in no +need to go about like other young men. His manner was marked +apparently by nothing more than interest and a wish to help her, and +was untinged by gallantry; so they gradually became good friends. When +he called Sunday afternoons the mother looked at him wistfully, in the +hope that her daughter would not be left without a protector. At last +the poor woman died, and Alida was in sore distress, for she had no +means with which to bury her. Ostrom came and said in the kindest +tones: +</P> + +<P> +"You must let me lend you what you need and you can pay me back with +interest, if you wish. You won't be under any obligation, for I have +money lying idle in the bank. When you have only yourself to support +it will not take you long to earn the sum." +</P> + +<P> +There seemed nothing else for her to do and so it was arranged. With +tear-blinded eyes she made her simple mourning, and within a week after +her mother's death was at work again, eager to repay her debt. He +urged her not to hasten—to take all the rest she could while the hot +weather lasted, and few evenings passed that he did not come to take +her out for a walk through the quieter streets. +</P> + +<P> +By this time he had won her confidence completely, and her heart +overflowed with gratitude. Of course she was not so unsophisticated as +not to know whither all this attention was tending, but it was a great +relief to her mind that his courtship was so quiet and undemonstrative. +Her heart was sore and grief-stricken, and she was not conscious of any +other feeling toward him than the deepest gratitude and wish to make +such return as was within her power. He was apparently very frank in +regard to his past life, and nothing was said which excited her +suspicions. Indeed, she felt that it would be disloyalty to think of +questioning or surmising evil of one who had proved himself so true a +friend in her sore need. She was therefore somewhat prepared for the +words he spoke one warm September day, as they sat together in a little +shaded park. +</P> + +<P> +"Alida," he said, a little nervously, "we are both strangers and alone +in this world, but surely we are no longer strangers to each other. +Let us go quietly to some minister and be married. That is the best +way for you to pay your debt and keep me always in debt to you." +</P> + +<P> +She was silent a moment, then faltered, "I'd rather pay all my debt +first." +</P> + +<P> +"What debts can there be between husband and wife? Come now, let us +look at the matter sensibly. I don't want to frighten you. Things +will go on much the same. We can take quiet rooms, I will bring work +to you instead of your having to go after it. It's nobody's business +but our own. We've not a circle of relations to consult or invite. We +can go to some parsonage, the minister's family will be the witnesses; +then I'll leave you at your room as usual, and no one will be any the +wiser till I've found a place where we can go to housekeeping. That +won't be long, I can tell you." +</P> + +<P> +He placed the matter in such a simple, natural light that she did not +know how to refuse. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps I do not love you as much as you ought to be loved, and +deserve to be in view of all your kindness," she tried to explain. "I +feel I ought to be very truthful and not deceive you in the least, as I +know you would not deceive me." So strong a shiver passed through his +frame that she exclaimed, "You are taking cold or you don't feel well." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it's nothing!" he said hastily, "only the night air, and then a +fellow always feels a little nervous, I suppose, when he's asking for +something on which his happiness depends. I'm satisfied with such +feeling and good will as you have for me, and will be only too glad to +get you just as you are. Come, before it is too late in the evening." +</P> + +<P> +"Is your heart bent on this, after what I have said, Wilson?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes, indeed!" clasping her hand and drawing her to her feet. +</P> + +<P> +"It would seem very ungrateful in me to refuse, after all you have done +for me and mother, if you think it's right and best. Will you go to +the minister whose church I attended, and who came to see mother?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly, anyone you like," and he put her hand on his arm and led +her away. +</P> + +<P> +The clergyman listened sympathetically to her brief history of Ostrom's +kindness, then performed a simple ceremony which his wife and daughters +witnessed. As they were about to depart he said, "I will send you a +certificate." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't trouble yourself to do that," said the groom. "I'll call for it +some evening soon." +</P> + +<P> +Never had she seen Ostrom in such gay spirits as on their return; and, +woman-like, she was happy chiefly because she had made him happy. She +also felt a glad sense of security. Her mother's dying wish had been +fulfilled; she had now a protector, and would soon have a home instead +of a boarding place among strangers. +</P> + +<P> +Her husband speedily found the rooms to which the reader has been +introduced. The street on which they were located was no thoroughfare. +Its farther end was closed by a fence and beyond were fields. With the +exception of those who dwelt upon it or had business with the +residents, few people came thither. To this locality, Ostrom brought +his bride, and selected rooms whose windows were above those of the +surrounding houses. So far from regretting this isolation and +remoteness from the central life of the town, Alida's feelings +sanctioned his choice. The sense of possessing security and a refuge +was increased, and it was as natural for her to set about making the +rooms homelike as it was to breathe. Her husband appeared to have +exhausted his tendencies toward close economy in the choice of +apartments, and she was given more money than she desired with which to +furnish and decorate. He said, "fix everything up to suit your mind, +and I'll be satisfied." +</P> + +<P> +This she did with such skill, taste, and good management that she +returned a large portion of the sum he had given her, whereupon he +laughingly remarked that she had already saved more than she owed him. +He seemed disinclined to accompany her in the selection of their simple +outfit, but professed himself so pleased with her choice of everything +that she was gratified and happy in the thought of relieving him from +trouble. +</P> + +<P> +Thus their married life began under what appeared to her the most +promising and congenial circumstances. She soon insisted on having +work again, and her busy fingers did much to increase his income. +</P> + +<P> +Alida was not an exacting woman, and recognized from the beginning that +her husband would naturally have peculiar ways of his own. Unlike Mrs. +Mumpson, she never expatiated on "adaptation," but Ostrom soon learned, +with much inward relief, that his wife would accept unquestioningly +what appeared to be his habits and preferences. He went early to his +place of work, taking the nice little lunch which she prepared, and +returned in the dusk of the evening when he always found a warm dinner +in readiness. After this, he was ready enough to walk with her, but, +as before, chose the least frequented streets. Places of amusement and +resort seemed distasteful. On Sundays he enjoyed a ramble in the +country as long as the season permitted, and then showed a great +disinclination to leave the fireside. For a time he went with her in +the evening to church, but gradually persuaded her to remain at home +and read or talk to him. +</P> + +<P> +His wife felt that she had little cause to complain of his quiet ways +and methodical habits. He had exhibited them before marriage and they +were conducive to her absolute sense of proprietorship in him—an +assurance so dear to a woman's heart. The pleasures of his home and +her society appeared to be all that he craved. At times she had +wondered a little at a certain air of apprehensiveness in his manner +when steps were heard upon the stairs, but as the quiet days and weeks +passed, such manifestations of nervousness ceased. Occasionally, he +would start violently and mutter strange words in his sleep, but noting +disturbed the growing sense of security and satisfaction in Alida's +heart. The charm of a regular, quiet life grows upon one who has a +nature fitted for it, and this was true to an unusual degree of Alida +Ostrom. Her content was also increased by the fact that her husband +was able each month to deposit a goodly portion of their united +earnings in a savings bank. +</P> + +<P> +Every day, every week, was so like the preceding ones that it seemed as +if their happy life might go on forever. She was gladly conscious that +there was more than gratitude and good will in her heart. She now +cherished a deep affection for her husband and felt that he had become +essential to her life. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, how happy mother would be if she knew how safe and protected I +am!" she murmured one March evening, as she was preparing her husband's +dinner. "Leaving me alone in the world was far worse to her than dying." +</P> + +<P> +At that very moment a gaunt-looking woman, with a child in her arms, +stood in the twilight on the opposite side of the street, looking up at +the windows. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter VII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +From Home to the Street +</H3> + +<P> +As the shadows of the gloomy March evening deepened, Alida lighted the +lamp, and was then a little surprised to hear a knock at the door. No +presentiment of trouble crossed her mind; she merely thought that one +of her neighbors on the lower floors had stepped up to borrow something. +</P> + +<P> +"Come in!" she cried, as she adjusted the shade of the lamp. +</P> + +<P> +A tall, thin, pale woman entered, carrying a child that was partly +hidden by a thin shawl, their only outer protection against the chill +winds which had been blustering all day. Alida looked at the stranger +inquiringly and kindly, expecting an appeal for charity. The woman +sank into a chair as if exhausted, and fixed her dark hollow eyes on +Mrs. Ostrom. She appeared consumed by a terrible curiosity. +</P> + +<P> +Alida wondered at the strange chill of apprehension with which she +encountered this gaze. It was so intent, so searching, yet so utterly +devoid of a trace of good will. She began gently, "Can I do anything +for you?" +</P> + +<P> +For a moment or two longer there was no response other than the same +cold, questioning scrutiny, as if, instead of a sweet-faced woman, +something monstrously unnatural was present. At last, in slow, icy +utterance, came the words, "So you are—HER!" +</P> + +<P> +"Is this woman insane?" thought Alida. "Why else does she look at me +so? Oh, that Wilson would come! I'm sorry for you, my good woman," +she began kindly. "You are laboring under some mistake. My husband—" +</P> + +<P> +"YOUR husband!" exclaimed the stranger, with an indescribable accent of +scorn and reproach. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," replied Alida with quiet dignity. "MY husband will be home soon +and he will protect me. You have no right to enter my rooms and act as +you do. If you are sick and in trouble, I and my husband—" +</P> + +<P> +"Please tell me, miss, how he became YOUR husband?" +</P> + +<P> +"By lawful marriage, by my pastor." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll soon see how LAWFUL it was," replied the woman, with a bitter +laugh. "I'd like you to tell me how often a man can be married +lawfully." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" cried Alida, with a sudden flash in her blue eyes. +Then, as if reproaching herself, she added kindly, "Pardon me. I see +you are not well. You do not realize what you are saying or where you +are. Take a seat nearer the fire, and when Mr. Ostrom comes from his +work he'll take you to your friends." +</P> + +<P> +All the while she was speaking the woman regarded her with a hard, +stony gaze; then replied, coldly and decisively, "You are wrong, +miss"—how that title grated on Alida's ears!—"I am neither insane nor +drunk. I do know what I am saying and where I am. You are playing a +bold game or else you have been deceived, and very easily deceived, +too. They say some women are so eager to be married that they ask no +questions, but jump at the first chance. Whether deceived or +deceiving, it doesn't matter now. But you and he shall learn that +there is a law in the land which will protect an honest woman in her +sacred rights. You needn't look so shocked and bewildered. You are +not a young, giddy girl if I may judge from your face. What else could +you expect when you took up with a stranger you knew nothing about? Do +you know that likeness?" and she drew from her bosom a daguerreotype. +</P> + +<P> +Alida waved it away as she said indignantly, "I won't believe ill of my +husband. I—" +</P> + +<P> +"No, miss," interrupted the woman sternly, "you are right for once. +You won't indeed believe ill of YOUR husband, but you'll have to +believe ill of MINE. There's no use of your putting on such airs any +longer. No matter how rash and silly you may have been, if you have a +spark of honesty you'll be open to proof. If you and he try to brazen +it out, the law will open both your eyes. Look at that likeness, look +at these letters; and I have other proof and witnesses which can't be +disputed. The name of the man you are living with is not Wilson +Ostrom. His name is Henry Ferguson. I am Mrs. Ferguson, and I have my +marriage certificate, and—What! Are you going to faint? Well, I can +wait till you recover and till HE comes," and she coolly sat down again. +</P> + +<P> +Alida had glanced at the proofs which the woman had thrust into her +hands, then staggered back to a lounge that stood near. She might have +fainted, but at that awful moment she heard a familiar step on the +stairs. She was facing the door; the terrible stranger sat at one +side, with her back toward it. +</P> + +<P> +When Ostrom entered he first saw Alida looking pale and ill. He +hastened toward her exclaiming, "Why, Lida, dear, what is the matter? +You are sick!" +</P> + +<P> +Instinctively she sprang to his arms, crying, "Oh, thank God! You've +come. Take away this awful woman!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Henry Ferguson; it's very proper you should take me away from a +place like this." +</P> + +<P> +As the man who had called himself Wilson Ostrom heard that voice he +trembled like an aspen; his clasp of Alida relaxed, his arms dropped to +his side, and, as he sank into a chair and covered his face with his +hands, he groaned, "Lost!" +</P> + +<P> +"Found out, you mean," was the woman's reply. +</P> + +<P> +Step by step, with horror-stricken eyes, Alida retreated from the man +to whose protection and embrace she had flown. "Then it's true?" she +said in a hoarse whisper. +</P> + +<P> +He was speechless. +</P> + +<P> +"You are willfully blind now, miss, if you don't see it's true," was +the stranger's biting comment. +</P> + +<P> +Paying no heed to her, Alida's eyes rested on the man whom she had +believed to be her husband. She took an irresolute step toward him. +"Speak, Wilson!" she cried. "I gave you my whole faith and no one shall +destroy it but yourself. Speak, explain! Show me that there's some +horrible mistake." +</P> + +<P> +"Lida," said the man, lifting his bloodless face, "if you knew all the +circumstances—" +</P> + +<P> +"She shall know them!" half shrieked the woman, as if at last stung to +fury. "I see that you both hope to get through this affair with a +little high tragedy, then escape and come together again in some other +hiding place. As for this creature, she can go where she pleases, +after hearing the truth; but you, Henry Ferguson, have got to do your +duty by me and your child or go to prison. Let me tell you, miss, that +this man was also married to me by a minister. I have my certificate +and can produce witnesses. There's one little point you'll do well to +consider," she continued, in bitter sarcasm, "he married me first. I +suppose you are not so young and innocent as not to know where this +fact places YOU. He courted and won me as other girls are courted and +married. He promised me all that he ever promised you. Then, when I +lost my rosy cheeks—when I became sick and feeble from +child-bearing—he deserted and left me almost penniless. You needn't +think you will have to take my word for this. I have proof enough. +And now, Henry Ferguson, I've a few words for you, and then you must +take your choice. You can't escape. I and my brother have tracked you +here. You can't leave these rooms without going to prison. You'd be +taken at the very door. But I give you one more chance. If you will +promise before God to do your duty by me and your child, I'll forgive +as far as a wronged woman can forgive. Neither I nor my brother will +take proceedings against you. What this woman will do I don't know. +If she prosecutes you, and you are true to me, I'll stand by you, but I +won't stand another false step or a false word from you." +</P> + +<P> +Ferguson had again sunk into his chair, buried his face in his hands, +and sat trembling and speechless. Never for an instant had Alida taken +her eyes from him; and now, with a long, wailing cry, she exclaimed, +"Thank God, thank God! Mother's dead." +</P> + +<P> +This was now her best consolation. She rushed into her bedchamber, and +a moment later came out, wearing her hat and cloak. Ferguson started +up and was about to speak, but she silenced him by a gesture, and her +tones were sad and stern as she said, "Mr. Ferguson, from your manner +more truly than from this woman, I learn the truth. You took advantage +of my misfortunes, my sorrow and friendlessness, to deceive me. You +know how false are your wife's words about my eagerness to be deceived +and married. But you have nothing to fear from me. I shall not +prosecute you as she suggests, and I charge you before God to do your +duty by your wife and child and never to speak to me again." Turning, +she hastened toward the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Where are you going?" Ferguson exclaimed, seeking to intercept her. +</P> + +<P> +She waved him off. "I don't know," she replied. "I've no right to be +here," and she fled down the stairway and out into the darkness. +</P> + +<P> +The child had not wakened. It was well that it had not looked upon +such a scene, even in utter ignorance of its meaning. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter VIII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Holcroft's View of Matrimony +</H3> + +<P> +Holcroft was indeed very lonely as he drove through the bare March +fields and leafless woods on his way to town. The sky had clouded +again, like his prospects, and he had the dreary sense of desolation +which overwhelms a quiet, domestic man who feels that his home and all +to which he clings are slipping from him. His lot was hard enough at +best, and he had a bitter sense of being imposed upon and wronged by +Lemuel Weeks. It was now evident enough that the widow and her +daughter had been an intolerable burden to his neighbor, who had taken +advantage of his need and induced him to assume the burden through +false representation. To a man of Holcroft's simple, straightforward +nature, any phase of trickery was intensely repugnant, and the fact +that he had been overreached in a matter relating to his dearest hopes +galled him to the quick. He possessed the strong common sense of his +class; his wife had been like him in this respect, and her influence +had intensified the trait. Queer people with abnormal manners excited +his intense aversion. The most charitable view that he could take of +Mrs. Mumpson was that her mind—such as she had—was unbalanced, that +it was an impossibility for her to see any subject or duty in a +sensible light or its right proportions. +</P> + +<P> +Her course, so prejudicial to her own interests, and her incessant and +stilted talk, were proof to his mind of a certain degree of insanity, +and he had heard that people in this condition often united to their +unnatural ways a wonderful degree of cunning. Her child was almost as +uncanny as herself and gave him a shivering sense of discomfort +whenever he caught her small, greenish eyes fixed upon him. +</P> + +<P> +"Yet, she'll be the only one who'll earn her salt. I don't see how I'm +going to stand 'em—I don't, indeed, but suppose I'll have to for three +months, or else sell out and clear out." +</P> + +<P> +By the time he reached town a cold rain had set in. He went at once to +the intelligence office, but could obtain no girl for Mrs. Mumpson to +"superintend," nor any certain promise of one. He did not much care, +for he felt that the new plan was not going to work. Having bartered +all his eggs for groceries, he sold the old stove and bought a new one, +then drew from the bank a little ready money. Since his butter was so +inferior, he took it to his friend Tom Watterly, the keeper of the +poorhouse. +</P> + +<P> +Prosperous Tom slapped his old friend on the back and said, "You look +awfully glum and chopfallen, Jim. Come now, don't look at the world as +if it was made of tar, pitch, and turpentine. I know your luck's been +hard, but you make it a sight harder by being so set in all your ways. +You think there's no place to live on God's earth but that old +up-and-down-hill farm of yours that I wouldn't take as a gift. Why, +man alive, there's a dozen things you can turn your hand to; but if you +will stay there, do as other men do. Pick out a smart, handy woman +that can make butter yaller as gold, that'll bring gold, and not such +limpsy-slimsy, ghostly-looking stuff as you've brought me. Bein' it's +you, I'll take it and give as much for it as I'd pay for better, but +you can't run your old ranch in this fashion." +</P> + +<P> +"I know it, Tom," replied Holcroft ruefully. "I'm all at sea; but, as +you say, I'm set in my ways, and I'd rather live on bread and milk and +keep my farm than make money anywhere else. I guess I'll have to give +it all up, though, and pull out, but it's like rooting up one of the +old oaks in the meadow lot. The fact is, Tom, I've been fooled into one +of the worst scrapes I've got into yet." +</P> + +<P> +"I see how it is," said Tom heartily and complacently, "you want a +practical, foresighted man to talk straight at you for an hour or two +and clear up the fog you're in. You study and brood over little things +out there alone until they seem mountains which you can't get over +nohow, when, if you'd take one good jump out, they'd be behind you. +Now, you've got to stay and take a bite with me, and then we'll light +our pipes and untangle this snarl. No backing out! I can do you more +good than all the preachin' you ever heard. Hey, there, Bill!" +shouting to one of the paupers who was detailed for such work, "take +this team to the barn and feed 'em. Come in, come in, old feller! +You'll find that Tom Watterly allus has a snack and a good word for an +old crony." +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft was easily persuaded, for he felt the need of cheer, and he +looked up to Tom as a very sagacious, practical man. So he said, +"Perhaps you can see farther into a millstone than I can, and if you +can show me a way out of my difficulties you'll be a friend sure +enough." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, of course I can. Your difficulties are all here and here," +touching his bullet head and the region of his heart. "There aint no +great difficulties in fact, but, after you've brooded out there a week +or two alone, you think you're caught as fast as if you were in a bear +trap. Here, Angy," addressing his wife, "I've coaxed Holcroft to take +supper with us. You can hurry it up a little, can't you?" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Watterly gave their guest a cold, limp hand and a rather frigid +welcome. But this did not disconcert him. "It's only her way," he had +always thought. "She looks after her husband's interests as mine did +for me, and she don't talk him to death." +</P> + +<P> +This thought, in the main, summed up Mrs. Watterly's best traits. +</P> + +<P> +She was a commonplace, narrow, selfish woman, whose character is not +worth sketching. Tom stood a little in fear of her, and was usually +careful not to impose extra tasks, but since she helped him to save and +get ahead, he regarded her as a model wife. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft shared in his opinion and sighed deeply as he sat down to +supper. "Ah, Tom!" he said, "you're a lucky man. You've got a wife +that keeps everything indoors up to the mark, and gives you a chance to +attend to your own proper business. That's the way it was with mine. +I never knew what a lopsided, helpless creature a man was until I was +left alone. You and I were lucky in getting the women we did, but when +my partner left me, she took all the luck with her. That aint the +worst. She took what's more than luck and money and everything. I +seemed to lose with her my grit and interest in most things. It'll +seem foolishness to you, but I can't take comfort in anything much +except working that old farm that I've worked and played on ever since +I can remember anything. You're not one of those fools, Tom, that have +to learn from their own experience. Take a bit from mine, and be good +to your wife while you can. I'd give all I'm worth—I know that aint +much—if I could say some things to my wife and do some things for her +that I didn't do." +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft spoke in the simplicity of a full and remorseful heart, but he +unconsciously propitiated Mrs. Watterly in no small degree. Indeed, +she felt that he had quite repaid her for his entertainment, and the +usually taciturn woman seconded his remarks with much emphasis. +</P> + +<P> +"Well now, Angy," said Tom, "if you averaged up husbands in these parts +I guess you'd find you were faring rather better than most women folks. +I let you take the bit in your teeth and go your own jog mostly. Now, +own up, don't I?" +</P> + +<P> +"That wasn't my meaning, exactly, Tom," resumed Holcroft. "You and I +could well afford to let our wives take their own jog, for they always +jogged steady and faithful and didn't need any urging and guiding. But +even a dumb critter likes a good word now and then and a little patting +on the back. It doesn't cost us anything and does them a sight of +good. But we kind of let the chances slip by and forget about it until +like enough it's too late." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," replied Tom, with a deprecatory look at his wife, "Angy don't +take to pettin' very much. She thinks it's a kind of foolishness for +such middle-aged people as we're getting to be." +</P> + +<P> +"A husband can show his consideration without blarneying," remarked +Mrs. Watterly coldly. "When a man takes on in that way, you may be sure +he wants something extra to pay for it." +</P> + +<P> +After a little thought Holcroft said, "I guess it's a good way to pay +for it between husband and wife." +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, Jim, since you're so well up on the matrimonial question, +why in thunder don't you marry again? That would settle all your +difficulties," and Tom looked at his friend with a sort of wonder that +he should hesitate to take this practical, sensible course. +</P> + +<P> +"It's very easy for you to say, 'Why don't you marry again?' If you +were in my place you'd see that there are things in the way of marrying +for the sake of having a good butter maker and all that kind of thing." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Watterly wouldn't be long in comforting himself," remarked his +wife.—"His advice to you makes the course he'd take mighty clear." +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Angy!" said Tom reproachfully. "Well," he added with a grin, +"you're forewarned. So you've only to take care of yourself and not +give me a chance." +</P> + +<P> +"The trouble is," Holcroft resumed, "I don't see how an honest man is +going to comfort himself unless it all comes about in some natural sort +of way. I suppose there are people who can marry over and over again, +just as easy as they'd roll off a log. It aint for me to judge 'em, +and I don't understand how they do it. You are a very practical man, +Tom, but just you put yourself in my shoes and see what you'd do. In +the first place, I don't know of a woman in the world that I'd think of +marrying. That's saying nothing against the women,—there's lots too +good for me,—but I don't know 'em and I can't go around and hunt 'em +up. Even if I could, with my shy, awkward ways, I wouldn't feel half +so nervous starting out on a bear hunt. Here's difficulty right at the +beginning. Supposing I found a nice, sensible woman, such as I'd be +willing to marry, there isn't one chance in a hundred she'd look at an +old fellow like me. Another difficulty: Supposing she would; suppose +she looked me square in the eyes and said, 'So you truly want a wife?' +what in thunder would I say then?—I don't want a wife, I want a +housekeeper, a butter maker, one that would look after my interests as +if they were her own; and if I could hire a woman that would do what I +wish, I'd never think of marrying. I can't tell a woman that I love +her when I don't. If I went to a minister with a woman I'd be +deceiving him, and deceiving her, and perjuring myself promiscuously. +I married once according to law and gospel and I was married through +and through, and I can't do the thing over again in any way that would +seem to me like marrying at all. The idea of me sitting by the fire +and wishing that the woman who sat on the t'other side of the stove was +my first wife! Yet I couldn't help doing this any more than breathing. +Even if there was any chance of my succeeding I can't see anything +square or honest in my going out and hunting up a wife as a mere matter +of business. I know other people do it and I've thought a good deal +about it myself, but when it comes to the point of acting I find I +can't do it." +</P> + +<P> +The two men now withdrew from the table to the fireside and lighted +their pipes. Mrs. Watterly stepped out for a moment and Tom, looking +over his shoulder to make sure she was out of ear shot, said under his +breath, "But suppose you found a woman that you could love and obey, +and all that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, of course, that would make everything different. I wouldn't begin +with a lie then, and I know enough of my wife to feel sure that she +wouldn't be a sort of dog in the manger after she was dead. She was +one of those good souls that if she could speak her mind this minute +she would say, 'James, what's best and right for you is best and +right.' But it's just because she was such a good wife that I know +there's no use of trying to put anyone in her place. Where on earth +could I find anybody, and how could we get acquainted so that we'd know +anything about each other? No, I must just scratch along for a short +time as things are and be on the lookout to sell or rent." +</P> + +<P> +Tom smoked meditatively for a few moments, and then remarked, "I guess +that's your best way out." +</P> + +<P> +"It aint an easy way, either," said Holcroft. "Finding a purchaser or +tenant for a farm like mine is almost as hard as finding a wife. Then, +as I feel, leaving my place is next to leaving the world." +</P> + +<P> +Tom shook his head ruefully and admitted, "I declare, Jim, when a +feller comes to think it all over, you ARE in a bad fix, especially as +you feel. I thought I could talk you over into practical common sense +in no time. It's easy enough when one don't know all the bearin's of a +case, to think carelessly, 'Oh, he aint as bad off as he thinks he is. +He can do this and that and the t'other thing.' But when you come to +look it all over, you find he can't, except at a big loss. Of course, +you can give away your farm on which you were doing well and getting +ahead, though how you did it, I can't see. You'd have to about give it +away if you forced a sale, and where on earth you'll find a tenant +who'll pay anything worth considering—But there's no use of croaking. +I wish I could help you, old feller. By jocks! I believe I can. +There's an old woman here who's right smart and handy when she can't +get her bottle filled. I believe she'd be glad to go with you, for she +don't like our board and lodging over much." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think she'd go tonight?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes! Guess so. A little cold water'll be a good change for her." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Wiggins was seen, and feeling that any change would be for the +better, readily agreed to go for very moderate wages. Holcroft looked +dubiously at the woman's heavy form and heavier face, but felt that it +was the best he could do. Squeezing Mrs. Watterly's cold, limp hand in +a way that would have thawed a lump of ice, he said "goodby;" and then +declaring that he would rather do his own harnessing for a night ride, +he went out into the storm. Tom put on his rubber coat and went to the +barn with his friend, toward whom he cherished honest good will. +</P> + +<P> +"By jocks!" he ejaculated sympathetically, "but you have hard lines, +Jim. What in thunder would I do with two such widdy women to look after +my house!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter IX. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Mrs. Mumpson Accepts Her Mission +</H3> + +<P> +As Holcroft drove through the town, Mrs. Wiggins, who, as matters were +explained to her, had expressed her views chiefly by affirmative nods, +now began to use her tongue with much fluency. +</P> + +<P> +"Hi 'ave a friend 'herhabouts," she said, "an' she's been a-keepin' +some of my things. Hi'll be 'olden to ye, master, hif ye'll jes stop a +bit hat the door whiles hi gets 'em. Hif ye'll hadvance me a dollar or +so on me wages hit'll be a long time hafore I trouble ye hagain." +</P> + +<P> +The farmer had received too broad a hint not to know that Mrs. Wiggins +was intent on renewing her acquaintance with her worst enemy. He +briefly replied, therefore, "It's too late to stop now. I'll be coming +down soon again and will get your things." +</P> + +<P> +In vain Mrs. Wiggins expostulated, for he drove steadily on. With a +sort of grim humor, he thought of the meeting of the two "widdy women," +as Tom had characterized them, and of Mrs. Mumpson's dismay at finding +in the "cheap girl" a dame of sixty, weighing not far from two hundred. +"If it wasn't such awfully serious business for me," he thought, "it +would be better'n going to a theater to see the two go on. If I +haven't got three 'peculiar females' on my hands now, I'd like to hear +of the man that has." +</P> + +<P> +When Mrs. Wiggins found that she could not gain her point, she subsided +into utter silence. It soon became evident in the cloudy light of the +moon that she was going to sleep, for she so nodded and swayed about +that the farmer feared she would tumble out of the wagon. She occupied +a seat just back of his and filled it, too. The idea of stepping over, +sitting beside her, and holding her in, was inexpressibly repugnant to +him. So he began talking to her, and finally shouting at her, to keep +her awake. +</P> + +<P> +His efforts were useless. He glanced with rueful dismay over his +shoulder as he thought, "If she falls out, I don't see how on earth +I'll ever get her back again." +</P> + +<P> +Fortunately the seat slipped back a little, and she soon slid down into +a sort of mountainous heap on the bottom of the wagon, as unmindful of +the rain as if it were a lullaby. Now that his mind was at rest about +her falling out, and knowing that he had a heavy load, Holcroft let the +horses take their own time along the miry highway. +</P> + +<P> +Left to her own devices by Holcroft's absence, Mrs. Mumpson had passed +what she regarded as a very eventful afternoon and evening. Not that +anything unusual had happened, unless everything she said and did may +be looked upon as unusual; but Mrs. Mumpson justly felt that the +critical periods of life are those upon which definite courses of +action are decided upon. In the secret recess of her heart—supposing +her to possess such an organ—she had partially admitted to herself, +even before she had entered Holcroft's door, that she might be +persuaded into marrying him; but the inspection of his room, much +deliberate thought, and prolonged soliloquy, had convinced her that she +ought to "enter into nuptial relations," as her thought formulated +itself. It was a trait of Mrs. Mumpson's active mind, that when it +once entered upon a line of thought, it was hurried along from +conclusion to conclusion with wonderful rapidity. +</P> + +<P> +While Jane made up Mr. Holcroft's bed, her mother began to inspect, and +soon suffered keenly from every painful discovery. The farmer's meager +wardrobe and other belongings were soon rummaged over, but one large +closet and several bureau drawers were locked. "These are the +receptercles of the deceased Mrs. Holcroft's affects," she said with +compressed lips. "They are moldering useless away. Moth and rust will +enter, while I, the caretaker, am debarred. I should not be debarred. +All the things in that closet should be shaken out, aired, and +carefully put back. Who knows how useful they may be in the future! +Waste is wicked. Indeed, there are few things more wicked than waste. +Now I think of it, I have some keys in my trunk." +</P> + +<P> +"He won't like it," interposed Jane. +</P> + +<P> +"In the responserble persition I have assumed," replied Mrs. Mumpson +with dignity, "I must consider not what he wants, but what is best for +him and what may be best for others." +</P> + +<P> +Jane had too much curiosity herself to make further objection, and the +keys were brought. It was astonishing what a number of keys Mrs. +Mumpson possessed, and she was not long in finding those which would +open the ordinary locks thought by Holcroft to be ample protection. +</P> + +<P> +"I was right," said Mrs. Mumpson complacently. "A musty odor exudes +from these closed receptercles. Men have no comprehension of the need +of such caretakers as I am." +</P> + +<P> +Everything that had ever belonged to poor Mrs. Holcroft was pulled out, +taken to the window, and examined, Jane following, as usual, in the +wake of her mother and putting everything to the same tests which her +parent applied. Mrs. Holcroft had been a careful woman, and the extent +and substantial character of her wardrobe proved that her husband had +not been close in his allowances to her. Mrs. Mumpson's watery blue +eyes grew positively animated as she felt of and held up to the light +one thing after another. "Mrs. Holcroft was evidently unnaturally +large," she reflected aloud, "but then these things could be made over, +and much material be left to repair them, from time to time. The +dresses are of somber colors, becoming to a lady somewhat advanced in +years and of subdued taste." +</P> + +<P> +By the time that the bed and all the chairs in the room were littered +with wearing apparel, Mrs. Mumpson said, "Jane, I desire you to bring +the rocking chair. So many thoughts are crowding upon me that I must +sit down and think." +</P> + +<P> +Jane did as requested, but remarked, "The sun is gettin' low, and all +these things'll have to be put back just as they was or he'll be awful +mad." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Jane," replied Mrs. Mumpson abstractedly and rocking gently, "you +can put them back. Your mind is not burdened like mine, and you +haven't offspring and the future to provide for," and, for a wonder, +she relapsed into silence. Possibly she possessed barely enough of +womanhood to feel that her present train of thought had better be kept +to herself. She gradually rocked faster and faster, thus indicating +that she was rapidly approaching a conclusion. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, Jane was endeavoring to put things back as they were before +and found it no easy task. As the light declined she was overcome by a +sort of panic, and, huddling the things into the drawers as fast as +possible, she locked them up. Then, seizing her mother's hand and +pulling the abstracted woman to her feet, she cried, "If he comes and +finds us here and no supper ready, he'll turn us right out into the +rain!" +</P> + +<P> +Even Mrs. Mumpson felt that she was perhaps reaching conclusions too +fast and that some diplomacy might be necessary to consummate her +plans. Her views, however, appeared to her so reasonable that she +scarcely thought of failure, having the happy faculty of realizing +everything in advance, whether it ever took place or not. +</P> + +<P> +As she slowly descended the stairs with the rocking chair, she thought, +"Nothing could be more suiterble. We are both about the same age; I am +most respecterbly connected—in fact, I regard myself as somewhat his +superior in this respect; he is painfully undeveloped and irreligious +and thus is in sore need of female influence; he is lonely and +down-hearted, and in woman's voice there is a spell to banish care; +worst of all, things are going to waste. I must delib'rately face the +great duty with which Providence has brought me face to face. At +first, he may be a little blind to this great oppertunity of his +life—that I must expect, remembering the influence he was under so +many years—but I will be patient and, by the proper use of language, +place everything eventually before him in a way that will cause him to +yield in glad submission to my views of the duties, the privileges, and +the responserbilities of life." +</P> + +<P> +So active was Mrs. Mumpson's mind that this train of thought was +complete by the time she had ensconced herself in the rocking chair by +the fireless kitchen stove. Once more Jane seized her hand and dragged +her up. "You must help," said the child. "I 'spect him every minnit and +I'm scart half to death to think what he'll do, 'specially if he finds +out we've been rummagin'." +</P> + +<P> +"Jane," said Mrs. Mumpson severely, "that is not a proper way of +expressing yourself. I am housekeeper here, and I've been inspecting." +</P> + +<P> +"Shall I tell him you've been inspectin'?" asked the girl keenly. +</P> + +<P> +"Children of your age should speak when they are spoken to," replied +her mother, still more severely. "You cannot comprehend my motives and +duties, and I should have to punish you if you passed any remarks upon +my actions." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Jane apprehensively, "I only hope we'll soon have a chance +to fix up them drawers, for if he should open 'em we'd have to tramp +again, and we will anyway if you don't help me get supper." +</P> + +<P> +"You are mistaken, Jane," responded Mrs. Mumpson with dignity. "We +shall not leave this roof for three months, and that will give me ample +time to open his eyes to his true interests. I will condescend to +these menial tasks until he brings a girl who will yield the deference +due to my years and station in life." +</P> + +<P> +Between them, after filling the room with smoke, they kindled the +kitchen fire. Jane insisted on making the coffee and then helped her +mother to prepare the rest of the supper, doing, in fact, the greater +part of the work. Then they sat down to wait, and they waited so long +that Mrs. Mumpson began to express her disapproval by rocking +violently. At last, she said severely, "Jane, we will partake of +supper alone." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd ruther wait till he comes." +</P> + +<P> +"It's not proper that we should wait. He is not showing me due +respect. Come, do as I command." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson indulged in lofty and aggrieved remarks throughout the +meal and then returned to her rocker. At last, her indignant sense of +wrong reached such a point that she commanded Jane to clear the table +and put away the things. +</P> + +<P> +"I won't," said the child. +</P> + +<P> +"What! Will you compel me to chastise you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, then, I'll tell him it was all your doin's." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall tell him so myself. I shall remonstrate with him. The idea +of his coming home alone at this time of night with an unknown female!" +</P> + +<P> +"One would think you was his aunt, to hear you talk," remarked the girl +sullenly. +</P> + +<P> +"I am a respecterble woman and most respecterbly connected. My +character and antercedents render me irrerproachful.—This could not be +said of a hussy, and a hussy he'll probably bring—some flighty, +immerture female that will tax even MY patience to train." +</P> + +<P> +Another hour passed, and the frown on Mrs. Mumpson's brow grew +positively awful. "To think," she muttered, "that a man whom I have +deemed it my duty to marry should stay out so and under such peculiar +circumstances. He must have a lesson which he can never forget." Then +aloud, to Jane, "Kindle a fire on the parlor hearth and let this fire +go out. He must find us in the most respecterble room in the house—a +room befitting my station." +</P> + +<P> +"I declare, mother, you aint got no sense at all!" exclaimed the child, +exasperated beyond measure. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll teach you to use such unrerspectful language!" cried Mrs. +Mumpson, darting from her chair like a hawk and pouncing upon the +unhappy child. +</P> + +<P> +With ears tingling from a cuffing she could not soon forget, Jane +lighted the parlor fire and sat down sniffling in the farthest corner. +</P> + +<P> +"There shall be only one mistress in this house," said Mrs. Mumpson, +who had now reached the loftiest plane of virtuous indignation, "and +its master shall learn that his practices reflect upon even me as well +as himself." +</P> + +<P> +At last the sound of horses' feet were heard on the wet, oozy ground +without. The irate widow did not rise, but merely indicated her +knowledge of Holcroft's arrival by rocking more rapidly. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, there, Jane!" he shouted, "bring a light to the kitchen." +</P> + +<P> +"Jane, remain!" said Mrs. Mumpson, with an awful look. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft stumbled through the dark kitchen to the parlor door and +looked with surprise at the group before him,—Mrs. Mumpson apparently +oblivious and rocking as if the chair was possessed, and the child +crying in a corner. +</P> + +<P> +"Jane, didn't you hear me call for a light?" he asked a little sharply. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson rose with great dignity and began, "Mr. Holcroft, I wish +to remonstrate—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, bother! I've brought a woman to help you, and we're both wet +through from this driving rain." +</P> + +<P> +"You've brought a strange female at this time of—" +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft's patience gave say, but he only said quietly, "You had better +have a light in the kitchen within two minutes. I warn you both. I +also wish some hot coffee." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson had no comprehension of a man who could be so quiet when +he was angry, and she believed that she might impress him with a due +sense of the enormity of his offense. "Mr. Holcroft, I scarcely feel +that I can meet a girl who has no more sense of decorum than to—" But +Jane, striking a match, revealed the fact that she was speaking to +empty air. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Wiggins was at last so far aroused that she was helped from the +wagon and came shivering and dripping toward the kitchen. She stood a +moment in the doorway and filled it, blinking confusedly at the light. +There was an absence of celerity in all Mrs. Wiggins' movements, and +she was therefore slow in the matter of waking up. Her aspect and +proportions almost took away Mrs. Mumpson's breath. Here certainly was +much to superintend, much more than had been anticipated. Mrs. Wiggins +was undoubtedly a "peculiar female," as had been expected, but she was +so elderly and monstrous that Mrs. Mumpson felt some embarrassment in +her purpose to overwhelm Holcroft with a sense of the impropriety of +his conduct. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Wiggins took uncertain steps toward the rocking chair, and almost +crushed it as she sat down. "Ye gives a body a cold velcome," she +remarked, rubbing her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson had got out of her way as a minnow would shun a leviathan. +"May I ask your name?" she gasped. +</P> + +<P> +"Viggins, Mrs. Viggins." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, indeed! You are a married woman?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, hi'm a vidder. What's more, hi'm cold, and drippin', an' 'ungry. +Hi might 'a' better stayed at the poor-us than come to a place like +this." +</P> + +<P> +"What!" almost screamed Mrs. Mumpson, "are you a pauper?" +</P> + +<P> +"Hi tell ye hi'm a vidder, an' good as you be, for hall he said," was +the sullen reply. +</P> + +<P> +"To think that a respecterbly connected woman like me—" But for once +Mrs. Mumpson found language inadequate. Since Mrs. Wiggins occupied +the rocking chair, she hardly knew what to do and plaintively declared, +"I feel as if my whole nervous system was giving way." +</P> + +<P> +"No 'arm 'll be done hif hit does," remarked Mrs. Wiggins, who was not +in an amiable mood. +</P> + +<P> +"This from the female I'm to superintend!" gasped the bewildered woman. +</P> + +<P> +Her equanimity was still further disturbed by the entrance of the +farmer, who looked at the stove with a heavy frown. +</P> + +<P> +"Why in the name of common sense isn't there a fire?" he asked, "and +supper on the table? Couldn't you hear that it was raining and know +we'd want some supper after a long, cold ride?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Holcroft," began the widow, in some trepidation, "I don't +approve—such irregular habits—" +</P> + +<P> +"Madam," interrupted Holcroft sternly, "did I agree to do what you +approved of? Your course is so peculiar that I scarcely believe you +are in your right mind. You had better go to your room and try to +recover your senses. If I can't have things in this house to suit me, +I'll have no one in it. Here, Jane, you can help." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson put her handkerchief to her eyes and departed. She felt +that this display of emotion would touch Holcroft's feelings when he +came to think the scene all over. +</P> + +<P> +Having kindled the fire, he said to Jane, "You and Mrs. Wiggins get +some coffee and supper in short order, and have it ready when I come +in," and he hastened out to care for his horses. If the old woman was +slow, she knew just how to make every motion effective, and a good +supper was soon ready. +</P> + +<P> +"Why didn't you keep up a fire, Jane?" Holcroft asked. +</P> + +<P> +"She wouldn't let me. She said how you must be taught a lesson," +replied the girl, feeling that she must choose between two potentates, +and deciding quickly in favor of the farmer. She had been losing faith +in her mother's wisdom a long time, and this night's experience had +banished the last shred of it. +</P> + +<P> +Some rather bitter words rose to Holcroft's lips, but he restrained +them. He felt that he ought not to disparage the mother to the child. +As Mrs. Wiggins grew warm, and imbibed the generous coffee, her +demeanor thawed perceptibly and she graciously vouchsafed the remark, +"Ven you're hout late hag'in hi'll look hafter ye." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson had not been so far off as not to hear Jane's explanation, +as the poor child found to her cost when she went up to bed. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter X. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A Night of Terror +</H3> + +<P> +As poor, dazed, homeless Alida passed out into the street after the +revelation that she was not a wife and never had been, she heard a +voice say, "Well, Hanner wasn't long in bouncing the woman. I guess +we'd better go up now. Ferguson will need a lesson that he won't soon +forget." +</P> + +<P> +The speaker of these words was Mrs. Ferguson's brother, William +Hackman, and his companion was a detective. The wife had laid her +still sleeping child down on the lounge and was coolly completing +Alida's preparations for dinner. Her husband had sunk back into a chair +and again buried his face in his hands. He looked up with startled, +bloodshot eyes as his brother-in-law and the stranger entered, and then +resumed his former attitude. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Ferguson briefly related what had happened, and then said, "Take +chairs and draw up." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want any dinner," muttered the husband. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. William Hackman now gave way to his irritation. Turning to his +brother, he relieved his mind as follows: "See here, Hank Ferguson, if +you hadn't the best wife in the land, this gentleman would now be +giving you a promenade to jail. I've left my work for weeks, and spent +a sight of money to see that my sister got her rights, and, by thunder! +she's going to have 'em. We've agreed to give you a chance to brace up +and be a man. If we find out there isn't any man in you, then you go +to prison and hard labor to the full extent of the law. We've fixed +things so you can't play any more tricks. This man is a private +detective. As long as you do the square thing by your wife and child, +you'll be let alone. If you try to sneak off, you'll be nabbed. Now, +if you aint a scamp down to your heel-taps, get up out of that chair +like a man, treat your wife as she deserves for letting you off so +easy, and don't make her change her mind by acting as if you, and not +her, was the wronged person." +</P> + +<P> +At heart Ferguson was a weak, cowardly, selfish creature, whose chief +aim in life was to have things to suit himself. When they ceased to be +agreeable, he was ready for a change, without much regard for the means +to his ends. He had always foreseen the possibility of the event which +had now taken place, but, like all self-indulgent natures, had hoped +that he might escape detection. +</P> + +<P> +Alida, moreover, had won a far stronger hold upon him than he had once +imagined possible. He was terribly mortified and cast down by the +result of his experiment, as he regarded it. But the thought of a +prison and hard labor speedily drew his mind away from this aspect of +the affair. He had been fairly caught, his lark was over, and he soon +resolved that the easiest and safest way out of the scrape was the best +way. He therefore raised his head and came forward with a penitent air +as he said: "It's natural I should be overwhelmed with shame at the +position in which I find myself. But I see the truth of your words, +and I'll try to make it all right as far as I can. I'll go back with +you and Hannah to my old home. I've got money in the bank, I'll sell +out everything here, and I'll pay you, William, as far as I can, what +you've spent. Hannah is mighty good to let me off so easy, and she +won't be sorry. This man is witness to what I say," and the detective +nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Ferguson," said Mr. Hackman effusively, "now you're talking like +a man. Come and kiss him, Hannah, and make it all up." +</P> + +<P> +"That's the way with you men," said the woman bitterly. "These things +count for little. Henry Ferguson must prove he's honest in what he +says by deeds, not words. I'll do as I've said if he acts square, and +that's enough to start with." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," said Ferguson, glad enough to escape the caress. "I'll do +as I say." +</P> + +<P> +He did do all he promised, and very promptly, too. He was not capable +of believing that a woman wronged as Alida had been would not prosecute +him, and he was eager to escape to another state, and, in a certain +measure, again to hide his identity under his own actual name. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, how fared the poor creature who had fled, driven forth by +her first wild impulse to escape from a false and terrible position? +With every step she took down the dimly lighted street, the abyss into +which she had fallen seemed to grow deeper and darker. She was +overwhelmed with the magnitude of her misfortune. She shunned the +illumined thoroughfares with a half-crazed sense that every finger +would be pointed at her. Her final words, spoken to Ferguson, were the +last clear promptings of her womanly nature. After that, everything +grew confused, except the impression of remediless disaster and shame. +She was incapable of forming any correct judgment concerning her +position. The thought of her pastor filled her with horror. He, she +thought, would take the same view which the woman had so brutally +expressed—that in her eagerness to be married, she had brought to the +parsonage an unknown man and had involved a clergyman in her own +scandalous record.—It would all be in the papers, and her pastor's +name mixed up in the affair. She would rather die than subject him to +such an ordeal. Long after, when he learned the facts in the case, he +looked at her very sadly as he asked: "Didn't you know me better than +that? Had I so failed in my preaching that you couldn't come straight +to me?" +</P> + +<P> +She wondered afterward that she had not done this, but she was too +morbid, too close upon absolute insanity, to do what was wise and safe. +She simply yielded to the wild impulse to escape, to cower, to hide +from every human eye, hastening through the darkest, obscurest streets, +not caring where. In the confusion of her mind she would retrace her +steps, and soon was utterly lost, wandering she knew not whither. As +it grew late, casual passers-by looked after her curiously, rough men +spoke to her, and others jeered. She only hastened on, driven by her +desperate trouble like the wild, ragged clouds that were flying across +the stormy March sky. +</P> + +<P> +At last a policeman said gruffly, "You've passed me twice. You can't +be roaming the streets at this time of night. Why don't you go home?" +</P> + +<P> +Standing before him and wringing her hands, she moaned, "I have no +home." +</P> + +<P> +"Where did you come from?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I can't tell you! Take me to any place where a woman will be safe." +</P> + +<P> +"I can't take you to any place now but the station house." +</P> + +<P> +"But can I be alone there? I won't be put with anybody?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, no; of course not! You'll be better off there. Come along. +'Taint far." +</P> + +<P> +She walked beside him without a word. +</P> + +<P> +"You'd better tell me something of your story. Perhaps I can do more +for you in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +"I can't. I'm a stranger. I haven't any friends in town." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well, the sergeant will see what can be done in the morning. +You've been up to some foolishness, I suppose, and you'd better tell +the whole story to the sergeant." +</P> + +<P> +She soon entered the station house and was locked up in a narrow cell. +She heard the grating of the key in the lock with a sense of relief, +feeling that she had at least found a temporary place of refuge and +security. A hard board was the only couch it possessed, but the +thought of sleep did not enter her mind. Sitting down, she buried her +face in her hands and rocked back and forth in agony and distraction +until day dawned. At last, someone—she felt she could not raise her +eyes to his face—brought her some breakfast and coffee. She drank the +latter, but left the food untasted. Finally, she was led to the +sergeant's private room and told that she must give an account of +herself. "If you can't or won't tell a clear story," the officer +threatened, "you'll have to go before the justice in open court, and he +may commit you to prison. If you'll tell the truth now, it may be that +I can discharge you. You had no business to be wandering about the +streets like a vagrant or worse; but if you were a stranger or lost and +hadn't sense enough to go where you'd be cared for, I can let you go." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" said Alida, again wringing her hands and looking at the officer +with eyes so full of misery and fear that he began to soften, "I don't +know where to go." +</P> + +<P> +"Haven't you a friend or acquaintance in town?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not one that I can go to!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't you tell me your story? Then I'll know what to do, and +perhaps can help you. You don't look like a depraved woman." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not. God knows I'm not!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, my poor woman, I've got to act in view of what I know, not what +God knows." +</P> + +<P> +"If I tell my story, will I have to give names?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, not necessarily. It would be best, though." +</P> + +<P> +"I can't do that, but I'll tell you the truth. I will swear it on the +Bible I married someone. A good minister married us. The man deceived +me. He was already married, and last night his wife came to my happy +home and proved before the man whom I thought my husband that I was no +wife at all. He couldn't, didn't deny it. Oh! Oh! Oh!" And she +again rocked back and forth in uncontrollable anguish. "That's all," +she added brokenly. "I had no right to be near him or her any longer, +and I rushed out. I don't remember much more. My brain seemed on +fire. I just walked and walked till I was brought here." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well!" said the sergeant sympathetically, "you have been treated +badly, outrageously; but you are not to blame unless you married the +man hastily and foolishly." +</P> + +<P> +"That's what everyone will think, but it don't seem to me that I did. +It's a long story, and I can't tell it." +</P> + +<P> +"But you ought to tell it, my poor woman. You ought to sue the man for +damages and send him to State prison." +</P> + +<P> +"No, no!" cried Alida passionately. "I don't want to see him again, and +I won't go to a court before people unless I am dragged there." +</P> + +<P> +The sergeant looked up at the policeman who had arrested her and said, +"This story is not contrary to anything you saw?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir; she was wandering about and seemed half out of her mind." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, then, I can let you go." +</P> + +<P> +"But I don't know where to go," she replied, looking at him with +hunted, hollow eyes. "I feel as if I were going to be sick. Please +don't turn me into the streets. I'd rather go back to the cell—" +</P> + +<P> +"That won't answer. There's no place that I can send you to except the +poorhouse. Haven't you any money?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir. I just rushed away and left everything when I learned the +truth." +</P> + +<P> +"Tom Watterly's hotel is the only place for her," said the policeman +with a nod. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I can't go to a hotel." +</P> + +<P> +"He means the almshouse," explained the sergeant. "What is your name?" +</P> + +<P> +"Alida—that's all now. Yes, I'm a pauper and I can't work just yet. +I'll be safe there, won't I?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly, safe as in your mother's house." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, mother, mother; thank God, you are dead!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I AM sorry for you," said the sergeant kindly. "'Taint often we +have so sad a case as yours. If you say so, I'll send for Tom +Watterly, and he and his wife will take charge of you. After a few +days, your mind will get quieter and clearer, and then you'll prosecute +the man who wronged you." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll go to the poorhouse until I can do better," she replied wearily. +"Now, if you please, I'll return to my cell where I can be alone." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, we can give you a better room than that," said the sergeant. "Show +her into the waiting room, Tim. If you prosecute, we can help you with +our testimony. Goodbye, and may you have better days!" +</P> + +<P> +Watterly was telegraphed to come down with a conveyance for the +almshouse was in a suburb. In due time he appeared, and was briefly +told Alida's story. He swore a little at the "mean cuss," the author +of all the trouble, and then took the stricken woman to what all his +acquaintances facetiously termed his "hotel." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XI. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Baffled +</H3> + +<P> +In the general consciousness Nature is regarded as feminine, and even +those who love her most will have to adopt Mrs. Mumpson's oft-expressed +opinion of the sex and admit that she is sometimes a "peculiar female." +During the month of March, in which our story opens, there was scarcely +any limit to her varying moods. It would almost appear that she was +taking a mysterious interest in Holcroft's affairs; but whether it was +a kindly interest or not, one might be at a loss to decide. When she +caught him away from home, she pelted him with the coldest of rain and +made his house, with even Mrs. Mumpson and Jane abiding there, seem a +refuge. In the morning after the day on which he had brought, or in a +sense had carted, Mrs. Wiggins to his domicile, Nature was evidently +bent on instituting contrasts between herself and the rival phases of +femininity with which the farmer was compelled to associate. It may +have been that she had another motive and was determined to keep her +humble worshiper at her feet, and to render it impossible for him to +make the changes toward which he had felt himself driven. +</P> + +<P> +Being an early riser he was up with the sun, and the sun rose so +serenely and smiled so benignly that Holcroft's clouded brow cleared in +spite of all that had happened or could take place. The rain, which +had brought such discomfort the night before, had settled the ground +and made it comparatively firm to his tread. The southern breeze which +fanned his cheek was as soft as the air of May. He remembered that it +was Sunday, and that beyond feeding his stock and milking, he would +have nothing to do. He exulted in the unusual mildness and thought, +with an immense sense of relief, "I can stay outdoors nearly all day." +He resolved to let his help kindle the fire and get breakfast as they +could, and to keep out of their way. Whatever changes the future might +bring, he would have one more long day in rambling about his fields and +in thinking over the past. Feeling that there need be no haste about +anything, he leisurely inhaled the air, fragrant from springing grass, +and listened with a vague, undefined pleasure to the ecstatic music of +the bluebirds, song-sparrows, and robins. If anyone had asked him why +he liked to hear them, he would have replied, "I'm used to 'em. When +they come, I know that plowing and planting time is near." +</P> + +<P> +It must be admitted that Holcroft's enjoyment of spring was not very +far removed from that of the stock in his barnyard. All the animal +creation rejoices in the returning sun and warmth. A subtle, powerful +influence sets the blood in more rapid motion, kindles new desires, and +awakens a glad expectancy. All that is alive becomes more thoroughly +alive and existence in itself is a pleasure. Spring had always brought +to the farmer quickened pulses, renewed activity and hopefulness, and +he was pleased to find that he was not so old and cast down that its +former influence had spent itself. Indeed, it seemed that never before +had his fields, his stock, and outdoor work—and these comprised Nature +to him—been so attractive. They remained unchanged amid the sad +changes which had clouded his life, and his heart clung more +tenaciously than ever to old scenes and occupations. They might not +bring him happiness again, but he instinctively felt that they might +insure a comfort and peace with which he could be content. +</P> + +<P> +At last he went to the barn and began his work, doing everything +slowly, and getting all the solace he could from the tasks. The horses +whinnied their welcome and he rubbed their noses caressingly as he fed +them. The cows came briskly to the rack in which he foddered them in +pleasant weather, and when he scratched them between the horns they +turned their mild, Juno-like eyes upon him with undisguised affection. +The chickens, clamoring for their breakfast, followed so closely that +he had to be careful where he stepped. Although he knew that all this +good will was based chiefly on the hope of food and the remembrance of +it in the past, nevertheless it soothed and pleased him. He was in +sympathy with this homely life; it belonged to him and was dependent on +him; it made him honest returns for his care. Moreover, it was +agreeably linked with the past. There were quiet cows which his wife +had milked, clucking biddies which she had lifted from nests with their +downy broods. He looked at them wistfully, and was wondering if they +ever missed the presence that he regretted so deeply, when he became +conscious that Jane's eyes were upon him. How long she had been +watching him he did not know, but she merely said, "Breakfast's ready," +and disappeared. +</P> + +<P> +With a sigh he went to his room to perform his ablutions, remembering +with a slight pang how his wife always had a basin and towel ready for +him in the kitchen. In the breaking up of just such homely customs, he +was continually reminded of his loss. +</P> + +<P> +On awakening to the light of this Sabbath morning, Mrs. Mumpson had +thought deeply and reasoned everything out again. She felt that it +must be an eventful day and that there was much to be accomplished. In +the first place there was Mrs. Wiggins. She disapproved of her +decidedly. "She isn't the sort of person that I would prefer to +superintend," she remarked to Jane while making a toilet which she +deemed befitting the day, "and the hour will assuredly come when Mr. +Holcroft will look upon her in the light that I do. He will eventually +realize that I cannot be brought in such close relationship with a +pauper. Not that the relationship is exactly close, but then I shall +have to speak to her—in brief, to superintend her. My eyes will be +offended by her vast proportions and uncouth appearance. The floor +creaks beneath her tread and affects my nerves seriously. Of course, +while she is here, I shall zealously, as befits one in my responserble +position, try to render useful such service as she can perform. But +then, the fact that I disapprove of her must soon become evident. When +it is discovered that I only tolerate her, there will be a change. I +cannot show my disapproval very strongly today for this is a day set +apart for sacred things, and Mrs. Viggins, as she called herself,—I +cannot imagine a Mr. Viggins for no man in his senses could have +married such a creature,—as I was saying, Mrs. Viggins is not at all +sacred, and I must endeavor to abstract my mind from her till tomorrow, +as far as posserble. My first duty today is to induce Mr. Holcroft to +take us to church. It will give the people of Oakville such a pleasing +impression to see us driving to church. Of course, I may fail, Mr. +Holcroft is evidently a hardened man. All the influences of his life +have been adverse to spiritual development, and it may require some +weeks of my influence to soften him and awaken yearnings for what he +has not yet known." +</P> + +<P> +"He may be yearnin' for breakfast," Jane remarked, completing her +toilet by tying her little pigtail braid with something that had once +been a bit of black ribbon, but was now a string. "You'd better come +down soon and help." +</P> + +<P> +"If Mrs. Viggins cannot get breakfast, I would like to know what she is +here for" continued Mrs. Mumpson loftily, and regardless of Jane's +departure. "I shall decline to do menial work any longer, especially on +this sacred day, and after I have made my toilet for church. Mr. +Holcroft has had time to think. My disapproval was manifest last night +and it has undoubtedly occurred to him that he has not conformed to the +proprieties of life. Indeed, I almost fear I shall have to teach him +what the proprieties of life are. He witnessed my emotions when he +spoke as he should not have spoken to ME. But I must make allowances +for his unregenerate state. He was cold, and wet, and hungry last +night, and men are unreasonerble at such times. I shall now heap coals +of fire upon his head. I shall show that I am a meek, forgiving +Christian woman, and he will relent, soften, and become penitent. Then +will be my opportunity," and she descended to the arena which should +witness her efforts. +</P> + +<P> +During the period in which Mrs. Mumpson had indulged in these lofty +reflections and self-communings, Mrs. Wiggins had also arisen. I am +not sure whether she had thought of anything in particular or not. She +may have had some spiritual longings which were not becoming to any day +of the week. Being a woman of deeds, rather than of thought, probably +not much else occurred to her beyond the duty of kindling the fire and +getting breakfast. Jane came down, and offered to assist, but was +cleared out with no more scruple than if Mrs. Wiggins had been one of +the much-visited relatives. +</P> + +<P> +"The hidee," she grumbled, "of 'avin' sich a little trollop round +hunder my feet!" +</P> + +<P> +Jane, therefore, solaced herself by watching the "cheap girl" till her +mother appeared. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson sailed majestically in and took the rocking chair, +mentally thankful that it had survived the crushing weight imposed upon +it the evening before. Mrs. Wiggins did not drop a courtesy. Indeed, +not a sign of recognition passed over her vast, immobile face. Mrs. +Mumpson was a little embarrassed. "I hardly know how to comport myself +toward that female," she thought. "She is utterly uncouth. Her manners +are unmistakerbly those of a pauper. I think I will ignore her today. +I do not wish my feelings ruffled or put out of harmony with the sacred +duties and motives which actuate me." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson therefore rocked gently, solemnly, and strange to say, +silently, and Mrs. Wiggins also proceeded with her duties, but not in +silence, for everything in the room trembled and clattered at her +tread. Suddenly she turned on Jane and said, "'Ere, you little +baggage, go and tell the master breakfast's ready." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson sprang from her chair, and with a voice choked with +indignation, gasped, "Do you dare address my offspring thus?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yer vat?" +</P> + +<P> +"My child, my daughter, who is not a pauper, but the offspring of a +most respecterble woman and respecterbly connected. I'm amazed, I'm +dumfoundered, I'm—" +</P> + +<P> +"Ye're a bit daft, hi'm a-thinkin'." Then to Jane, "Vy don't ye go an' +hearn yer salt?" +</P> + +<P> +"Jane, I forbid—" But it had not taken Jane half a minute to decide +between the now jarring domestic powers, and henceforth she would be at +Mrs. Wiggins' beck and call. "She can do somethin'," the child +muttered, as she stole upon Holcroft. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson sank back in her chair, but her mode of rocking betokened +a perturbed spirit. "I will restrain myself till tomorrow, and then—" +She shook her head portentously and waited till the farmer appeared, +feeling assured that Mrs. Wiggins would soon be taught to recognize her +station. When breakfast was on the table, she darted to her place +behind the coffeepot, for she felt that there was no telling what this +awful Mrs. Wiggins might not assume during this day of sacred +restraint. But the ex-pauper had no thought of presumption in her +master's presence, and the rocking chair again distracted Mrs. +Mumpson's nerves as it creaked under an unwonted weight. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft took his seat in silence. The widow again bowed her head +devoutly, and sighed deeply when observing that the farmer ignored her +suggestion. +</P> + +<P> +"I trust that you feel refreshed after your repose," she said benignly. +</P> + +<P> +"I do." +</P> + +<P> +"It is a lovely morning—a morning, I may add, befitting the sacred +day. Nature is at peace and suggests that we and all should be at +peace." +</P> + +<P> +"There's nothing I like more, Mrs. Mumpson, unless it is quiet." +</P> + +<P> +"I feel that way, myself. You don't know what restraint I have put +upon myself that the sacred quiet of this day might not be disturbed. +I have had strong provercation since I entered this apartment. I will +forbear to speak of it till tomorrow in order that there may be +quietness and that our minds may be prepared for worship. I feel that +it would be unseemly for us to enter a house of worship with thoughts +of strife in our souls. At precisely what moment do you wish me to be +ready for church?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am not going to church, Mrs. Mumpson." +</P> + +<P> +"Not going to church! I—I—scarcely understand. Worship is such a +sacred duty—" +</P> + +<P> +"You and Jane certainly have a right to go to church, and since it is +your wish, I'll take you down to Lemuel Weeks' and you can go with +them." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want to go to Cousin Lemuel's, nor to church, nuther," Jane +protested. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Mr. Holcroft," began the widow sweetly, "after you've once +harnessed up it will take but a little longer to keep on to the meeting +house. It would appear so seemly for us to drive thither, as a matter +of course. It would be what the communerty expects of us. This is not +our day, that we should spend it carnally. We should be +spiritually-minded. We should put away things of earth. Thoughts of +business and any unnecessary toil should be abhorrent. I have often +thought that there was too much milking done on Sunday among farmers. +I know they say it is essential, but they all seem so prone to forget +that but one thing is needful. I feel it borne in upon my mind, Mr. +Holcroft, that I should plead with you to attend divine worship and +seek an uplifting of your thoughts. You have no idea how differently +the day may end, or what emotions may be aroused if you place yourself +under the droppings of the sanctuary." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm like Jane, I don't wish to go," said Mr. Holcroft nervously. +</P> + +<P> +"But my dear Mr. Holcroft,"—the farmer fidgeted under this +address,—"the very essence of true religion is to do what we don't +wish to do. We are to mortify the flesh and thwart the carnal mind. +The more thorny the path of self-denial is, the more certain it's the +right path. I've already entered upon it," she continued, turning a +momentary glare upon Mrs. Wiggins. "Never before was a respecterble +woman so harrowed and outraged; but I am calm; I am endeavoring to +maintain a frame of mind suiterble to worship, and I feel it my bounden +duty to impress upon you that worship is a necessity to every human +being. My conscience would not acquit me if I did not use all my +influence—" +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, Mrs. Mumpson, you and your conscience are quits. You have +used all your influence. I will do as I said—take you to Lemuel +Weeks'—and you can go to church with his family," and he rose from the +table. +</P> + +<P> +"But Cousin Lemuel is also painfully blind to his spiritual interests—" +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft did not stay to listen and was soon engaged in the morning +milking. Jane flatly declared that she would not go to Cousin Lemuel's +or to church. "It don't do me no good, nor you, nuther," she sullenly +declared to her mother. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson now resolved upon a different line of tactics. Assuming a +lofty, spiritual air, she commanded Jane to light a fire in the parlor, +and retired thither with the rocking chair. The elder widow looked +after her and ejaculated, "Vell, hif she haint the craziest loon hi +hever 'eard talk. Hif she vas blind she might 'a' seen that the master +didn't vant hany sich lecturin' clack." +</P> + +<P> +Having kindled the fire, the child was about to leave the room when her +mother interposed and said solemnly, "Jane, sit down and keep Sunday." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to help Mrs. Wiggins if she'll let me." +</P> + +<P> +"You will not so demean yourself. I wish you to have no relations +whatever with that female in the kitchen. If you had proper +self-respect, you would never speak to her again." +</P> + +<P> +"We aint visitin' here. If I can't work indoors, I'll tell him I'll +work outdoors." +</P> + +<P> +"It's not proper for you to work today. I want you to sit there in the +corner and learn the Fifth Commandment." +</P> + +<P> +"Aint you goin' to Cousin Lemuel's?" +</P> + +<P> +"On mature reflection, I have decided to remain at home." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you would if you had any sense left. You know well enough +we aint wanted down there. I'll go tell him not to hitch up." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I will permit you to do so. Then return to your Sunday task." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm goin' to mind him," responded the child. She passed rapidly and +apprehensively through the kitchen, but paused on the doorstep to make +some overtures to Mrs. Wiggins. If that austere dame was not to be +propitiated, a line of retreat was open to the barn. "Say," she began, +to attract attention. +</P> + +<P> +"Vell, young-un," replied Mrs. Wiggins, rendered more pacific by her +breakfast. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you want me to wash up the dishes and put 'em away? I know how." +</P> + +<P> +"Hi'll try ye. Hif ye breaks hanythink—" and the old woman nodded +volumes at the child. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be back in a minute," said Jane. A moment later she met Holcroft +carrying two pails of milk from the barnyard. He was about to pass +without noticing her, but she again secured attention by her usual +preface, "Say," when she had a somewhat extended communication to make. +</P> + +<P> +"Come to the dairy room, Jane, and say your say there," said Holcroft +not unkindly. +</P> + +<P> +"She aint goin' to Cousin Lemuel's," said the girl, from the door. +</P> + +<P> +"What is she going to do." +</P> + +<P> +"Rock in the parlor. Say, can't I help Mrs. Wiggins wash up the dishes +and do the work?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly, why not?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mother says I must sit in the parlor 'n' learn Commandments 'n' keep +Sunday." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Jane, which do you think you ought to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think I oughter work, and if you and Mrs. Wiggins will let me, I +will work in spite of mother." +</P> + +<P> +"I think that you and your mother both should help do the necessary +work today. There won't be much." +</P> + +<P> +"If I try and help Mrs. Wiggins, mother'll bounce out at me. She shook +me last night after I went upstairs, and she boxed my ears 'cause I +wanted to keep the kitchen fire up last night." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll go with you to the kitchen and tell Mrs. Wiggins to let you help, +and I won't let your mother punish you again unless you do wrong." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Wiggins, relying on Jane's promise of help, had sat down to the +solace of her pipe for a few minutes, but was about to thrust it +hastily away on seeing Holcroft. He reassured her by saying +good-naturedly, "No need of that, my good woman. Sit still and enjoy +your pipe. I like to smoke myself. Jane will help clear away things +and I wish her to. You'll find she's quite handy. By the way, have you +all the tobacco you want?" +</P> + +<P> +"Vell, now, master, p'raps ye know the 'lowance down hat the poor-us +vasn't sich as ud keep a body in vat ye'd call satisfyin' smokin'. Hi +never 'ad henough ter keep down the 'ankerin'." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose that's so. You shall have half of my stock, and when I go +to town again, I'll get you a good supply. I guess I'll light my pipe, +too, before starting for a walk." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless yer 'art, master, ye makes a body comf'terble. Ven hi smokes, +hi feels more hat 'ome and kind o' contented like. An hold 'ooman like +me haint got much left to comfort 'er but 'er pipe." +</P> + +<P> +"Jane!" called Mrs. Mumpson sharply from the parlor. As there was no +answer, the widow soon appeared in the kitchen door. Smoking was one +of the unpardonable sins in Mrs. Mumpson's eyes; and when she saw Mrs. +Wiggins puffing comfortably away and Holcroft lighting his pipe, while +Jane cleared the table, language almost failed her. She managed to +articulate, "Jane, this atmosphere is not fit for you to breathe on +this sacred day. I wish you to share my seclusion." +</P> + +<P> +"Mrs. Mumpson, I have told her to help Mrs. Wiggins in the necessary +work," Holcroft interposed. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Holcroft, you don't realize—men never do—Jane is my offspring, +and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, if you put it that way, I shan't interfere between mother and +child. But I suppose you and Jane came here to work." +</P> + +<P> +"If you will enter the parlor, I will explain to you fully my views, +and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, please excuse me!" said Holcroft, hastily passing out. "I was just +starting for a walk—I'm bound to have one more day to myself on the +old place," he muttered as he bent his steps toward an upland pasture. +</P> + +<P> +Jane, seeing that her mother was about to pounce upon her, ran behind +Mrs. Wiggins, who slowly rose and began a progress toward the irate +widow, remarking as she did so, "Hi'll just shut the door 'twixt ye and +yer hoffspring, and then ye kin say yer prayers hon the t'other side." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson was so overcome at the turn affairs had taken on this day, +which was to witness such progress in her plans and hopes, as to feel +the absolute necessity of a prolonged season of thought and soliloquy, +and she relapsed, without further protest, into the rocking chair. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Jane +</H3> + +<P> +Holcroft was not long in climbing to a sunny nook whence he could see +not only his farm and dwelling, but also the Oakville valley, and the +little white spire of the distant meeting house. He looked at this +last-named object wistfully and very sadly. Mrs. Mumpson's tirade +about worship had been without effect, but the memories suggested by +the church were bitter-sweet indeed. It belonged to the Methodist +denomination, and Holcroft had been taken, or had gone thither, from +the time of his earliest recollection. He saw himself sitting between +his father and mother, a round-faced urchin to whom the sermon was +unintelligible, but to whom little Bessie Jones in the next pew was a +fact, not only intelligible, but very interesting. She would turn +around and stare at him until he smiled, then she would giggle until +her mother brought her right-about-face with considerable emphasis. +After this, he saw the little boy—could it have been +himself?—nodding, swaying, and finally slumbering peacefully, with his +head on his mother's lap, until shaken into sufficient consciousness to +be half dragged, half led, to the door. Once in the big, springless +farm wagon he was himself again, looking eagerly around to catch +another glimpse of Bessie Jones. Then he was a big, irreverent boy, +shyly and awkwardly bent on mischief in the same old meeting house. +Bessie Jones no longer turned and stared at him, but he exultingly +discovered that he could still make her giggle on the sly. Years +passed, and Bessie was his occasional choice for a sleigh-ride when the +long body of some farm wagon was placed on runners, and boys and +girls—young men and women, they almost thought themselves—were packed +in like sardines. Something like self-reproach smote Holcroft even +now, remembering how he had allowed his fancy much latitude at this +period, paying attention to more than one girl besides Bessie, and +painfully undecided which he liked best. +</P> + +<P> +Then had come the memorable year which had opened with a protracted +meeting. He and Bessie Jones had passed under conviction at the same +time, and on the same evening had gone forward to the anxious seat. +From the way in which she sobbed, one might have supposed that the +good, simple-hearted girl had terrible burdens on her conscience; but +she soon found hope, and her tears gave place to smiles. Holcroft, on +the contrary, was terribly cast down and unable to find relief. He +felt that he had much more to answer for than Bessie; he accused +himself of having been a rather coarse, vulgar boy; he had made fun of +sacred things in that very meeting house more times than he liked to +think of, and now for some reason could think of nothing else. +</P> + +<P> +He could not shed tears or get up much emotion; neither could he rid +himself of the dull weight at heart. The minister, the brethren and +sisters, prayed for him and over him, but nothing removed his terrible +inertia. He became a familiar form on the anxious seat for there was a +dogged persistence in his nature which prevented him from giving up; +but at the close of each meeting he went home in a state of deeper +dejection. Sometimes, in returning, he was Bessie Jones' escort, and +her happiness added to his gall and bitterness. One moonlight night +they stopped under the shadow of a pine near her father's door, and +talked over the matter a few moments before parting. Bessie was full +of sympathy which she hardly knew how to express. Unconsciously, in +her earnestness—how well he remembered the act!—she laid her hand on +his arm as she said, "James, I guess I know what's the matter with you. +In all your seeking you are thinking only of yourself—how bad you've +been and all that. I wouldn't think of myself and what I was any more, +if I was you. You aint so awful bad, James, that I'd turn a cold +shoulder to you; but you might think I was doing just that if ye stayed +away from me and kept saying to yourself, 'I aint fit to speak to +Bessie Jones.'" +</P> + +<P> +Her face had looked sweet and compassionate, and her touch upon his arm +had conveyed the subtle magic of sympathy. Under her homely logic, the +truth had burst upon him like sunshine. In brief, he had turned from +his own shadow and was in the light. He remembered how in his deep +feeling he had bowed his head on her shoulder and murmured, "Oh, +Bessie, Heaven bless you! I see it all." +</P> + +<P> +He no longer went to the anxious seat. With this young girl, and many +others, he was taken into the church on probation. Thereafter, his +fancy never wandered again, and there was no other girl in Oakville for +him but Bessie. In due time, he had gone with her to yonder meeting +house to be married. It had all seemed to come about as a matter of +course. He scarcely knew when he became formally engaged. They "kept +company" together steadfastly for a suitable period, and that seemed to +settle it in their own and everybody else's mind. +</P> + +<P> +There had been no change in Bessie's quiet, constant soul. After her +words under the shadow of the pine tree she seemed to find it difficult +to speak of religious subjects, even to her husband; but her simple +faith had been unwavering, and she had entered into rest without fear +or misgiving. +</P> + +<P> +Not so her husband. He had his spiritual ups and downs, but, like +herself, was reticent. While she lived, only a heavy storm kept them +from "going to meeting," but with Holcroft worship was often little +more than a form, his mind being on the farm and its interests. +Parents and relatives had died, and the habit of seclusion from +neighborhood and church life had grown upon them gradually and almost +unconsciously. +</P> + +<P> +For a long time after his wife's death Holcroft had felt that he did +not wish to see anyone who would make references to his loss. +</P> + +<P> +He shrank from formal condolences as he would from the touch of a +diseased nerve. When the minister called, he listened politely but +silently to a general exhortation; then muttered, when left alone, +"It's all as he says, I suppose; but somehow his words are like the +medicines Bessie took—they don't do any good." +</P> + +<P> +He kept up the form of his faith and a certain vague hope until the +night on which he drove forth the Irish revelers from his home. In +remembrance of his rage and profanity on that occasion, he silently and +in dreary misgiving concluded that he should not, even to himself, keep +up the pretense of religion any longer. "I've fallen from grace—that +is, if I ever had any"—was a thought which did much to rob him of +courage to meet his other trials. Whenever he dwelt on these subjects, +doubts, perplexities, and resentment at his misfortunes so thronged his +mind that he was appalled; so he strove to occupy himself with the +immediate present. +</P> + +<P> +Today, however, in recalling the past, his thoughts would question the +future and the outcome of his experiences. In accordance with his +simple, downright nature, he muttered, "I might as well face the truth +and have done with it. I don't know whether I'll ever see my wife +again or not; I don't know whether God is for me or against me. +Sometimes, I half think there isn't any God. I don't know what will +become of me when I die. I'm sure of only one thing—while I do live I +could take comfort in working the old place." +</P> + +<P> +In brief, without ever having heard of the term, he was an agnostic, +but not one of the self-complacent, superior type who fancy that they +have developed themselves beyond the trammels of faith and are ever +ready to make the world aware of their progress. +</P> + +<P> +At last he recognized that his long reverie was leading to despondency +and weakness; he rose, shook himself half angrily, and strode toward +the house. "I'm here, and here I'm going to stay," he growled. "As long +as I'm on my own land, it's nobody's business what I am or how I feel. +If I can't get decent, sensible women help, I'll close up my dairy and +live here alone. I certainly can make enough to support myself." +</P> + +<P> +Jane met him with a summons to dinner, looking apprehensively at his +stern, gloomy face. Mrs. Mumpson did not appear. "Call her," he said +curtly. +</P> + +<P> +The literal Jane returned from the parlor and said unsympathetically, +"She's got a hank'chif to her eyes and says she don't want no dinner." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," he replied, much relieved. +</P> + +<P> +Apparently he did not want much dinner, either, for he soon started out +again. Mrs. Wiggins was not utterly wanting in the intuitions of her +sex, and said nothing to break in upon her master's abstraction. +</P> + +<P> +In the afternoon Holcroft visited every nook and corner of his farm, +laying out, he hoped, so much occupation for both hands and thoughts as +to render him proof against domestic tribulations. +</P> + +<P> +He had not been gone long before Mrs. Mumpson called in a plaintive +voice, "Jane!" +</P> + +<P> +The child entered the parlor warily, keeping open a line of retreat to +the door. "You need not fear me," said her mother, rocking +pathetically. "My feelings are so hurt and crushed that I can only +bemoan the wrongs from which I suffer. You little know, Jane, you +little know a mother's heart." +</P> + +<P> +"No," assented Jane. "I dunno nothin' about it." +</P> + +<P> +"What wonder, then that I weep, when even my child is so unnatural!" +</P> + +<P> +"I dunno how to be anything else but what I be," replied the girl in +self-defense. +</P> + +<P> +"If you would only yield more to my guidance and influence, Jane, the +future might be brighter for us both. If you had but stored up the +Fifth Commandment in memory—but I forbear. You cannot so far forget +your duty as not to tell me how HE behaved at dinner." +</P> + +<P> +"He looked awful glum, and hardly said a word." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah-h!" exclaimed the widow, "the spell is working." +</P> + +<P> +"If you aint a-workin' tomorrow, there'll be a worse spell," the girl +remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"That will do, Jane, that will do. You little understand—how should +you? Please keep an eye on him, and let me know how he looks and what +he is doing, and whether his face still wears a gloomy or a penitent +aspect. Do as I bid you, Jane, and you may unconsciously secure your +own well-being by obedience." +</P> + +<P> +Watching anyone was a far more congenial task to the child than +learning the Commandments, and she hastened to comply. Moreover, she +had the strongest curiosity in regard to Holcroft herself. She felt +that he was the arbiter of her fate. So untaught was she that delicacy +and tact were unknown qualities. Her one hope of pleasing was in work. +She had no power of guessing that sly espionage would counterbalance +such service. Another round of visiting was dreaded above all things; +she was, therefore, exceedingly anxious about the future. "Mother may +be right," she thought. "P'raps she can make him marry her, so we +needn't go away any more. P'raps she's taken the right way to bring a +man around and get him hooked, as Cousin Lemuel said. If I was goin' +to hook a man though, I'd try another plan than mother's. I'd keep my +mouth shut and my eyes open. I'd see what he wanted and do it, even +'fore he spoke. 'Fi's big anuf I bet I could hook a man quicker'n she +can by usin' her tongue 'stead of her hands." +</P> + +<P> +Jane's scheme was not so bad a one but that it might be tried to +advantage by those so disposed. Her matrimonial prospects, however, +being still far in the future, it behooved her to make her present +existence as tolerable as possible. She knew how much depended on +Holcroft, and was unaware of any other method of learning his purposes +except that of watching him. Both fearing and fascinated, she dogged +his steps most of the afternoon, but saw nothing to confirm her +mother's view that any spell was working. She scarcely understood why +he looked so long at field, thicket, and woods, as if he saw something +invisible to her. +</P> + +<P> +In planning future work and improvements, the farmer had attained a +quieter and more genial frame of mind. When, therefore, he sat down and +in glancing about saw Jane crouching behind a low hemlock, he was more +amused than irritated. He had dwelt on his own interests so long that +he was ready to consider even Jane's for a while. "Poor child!" he +thought, "she doesn't know any better and perhaps has even been taught +to do such things. I think I'll surprise her and draw her out a +little. Jane, come here," he called. +</P> + +<P> +The girl sprang to her feet, and hesitated whether to fly or obey. +"Don't be afraid," added Holcroft. "I won't scold you. Come!" +</P> + +<P> +She stole toward him like some small, wild, fearful animal in doubt of +its reception. "Sit down there on that rock," he said. +</P> + +<P> +She obeyed with a sly, sidelong look, and he saw that she kept her feet +gathered under her so as to spring away if he made the slightest +hostile movement. +</P> + +<P> +"Jane, do you think it's right to watch people so?" he asked gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"She told me to." +</P> + +<P> +"Your mother?" +</P> + +<P> +The girl nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"But do you think it's right yourself?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dunno. 'Taint best if you get caught." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Jane," said Holcroft, with something like a smile lurking in his +deep-set eyes. "I don't think it's right at all. I don't want you to +watch me any more, no matter who tells you to. Will you promise not +to?" +</P> + +<P> +The child nodded. She seemed averse to speaking when a sign would +answer. +</P> + +<P> +"Can I go now?" she asked after a moment. +</P> + +<P> +"Not yet. I want to ask you some questions. Was anyone ever kind to +you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I dunno. I suppose so." +</P> + +<P> +"What would you call being kind to you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not scoldin' or cuffin' me." +</P> + +<P> +"If I didn't scold or strike you, would you think I was kind, then?" +</P> + +<P> +She nodded; but after a moment's thought, said, "and if you didn't look +as if you hated to see me round." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think I've been kind to you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Kinder'n anybody else. You sorter look at me sometimes as if I was a +rat. I don't s'pose you can help it, and I don't mind. I'd ruther +stay here and work than go a-visitin' again. Why can't I work outdoors +when there's nothin' for me to do in the house?" +</P> + +<P> +"Are you willing to work—to do anything you can?" +</P> + +<P> +Jane was not sufficiently politic to enlarge on her desire for honest +toil and honest bread; she merely nodded. Holcroft smiled as he asked, +"Why are you so anxious to work?" +</P> + +<P> +"'Cause I won't feel like a stray cat in the house then. I want to be +some'ers where I've a right to be." +</P> + +<P> +"Wouldn't they let you work down at Lemuel Weeks'?" She shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"Why not?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"They said I wasn't honest; they said they couldn't trust me with +things, 'cause when I was hungry I took things to eat." +</P> + +<P> +"Was that the way you were treated at other places?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mostly." +</P> + +<P> +"Jane," asked Holcroft very kindly, "did anyone ever kiss you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mother used to 'fore people. It allus made me kinder sick." +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft shook his head as if this child was a problem beyond him, and +for a time they sat together in silence. At last he arose and said, +"It's time to go home. Now, Jane, don't follow me; walk openly at my +side, and when you come to call me at any time, come openly, make a +noise, whistle or sing as a child ought. As long as you are with me, +never do anything on the sly, and we'll get along well enough." +</P> + +<P> +She nodded and walked beside him. At last, as if emboldened by his +words, she broke out, "Say, if mother married you, you couldn't send us +away, could you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you ask such a question?" said Holcroft, frowning. +</P> + +<P> +"I was a-thinkin'—" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," he interrupted sternly, "never think or speak of such things +again." +</P> + +<P> +The child had a miserable sense that she had angered him; she was also +satisfied that her mother's schemes would be futile, and she scarcely +spoke again that day. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft was more than angry; he was disgusted. That Mrs. Mumpson's +design upon him was so offensively open that even this ignorant child +understood it, and was expected to further it, caused such a strong +revulsion in his mind that he half resolved to put them both in his +market wagon on the morrow and take them back to their relatives. His +newly awakened sympathy for Jane quickly vanished. If the girl and her +mother had been repulsive from the first, they were now hideous, in +view of their efforts to fasten themselves upon him permanently. +Fancy, then, the climax in his feelings when, as they passed the house, +the front door suddenly opened and Mrs. Mumpson emerged with clasped +hands and the exclamation, "Oh, how touching! Just like father and +child!" +</P> + +<P> +Without noticing the remark he said coldly as he passed, "Jane, go help +Mrs. Wiggins get supper." +</P> + +<P> +His anger and disgust grew so strong as he hastily did his evening work +that he resolved not to endanger his self-control by sitting down +within earshot of Mrs. Mumpson. As soon as possible, therefore, he +carried the new stove to his room and put it up. The widow tried to +address him as he passed in and out, but he paid no heed to her. At +last, he only paused long enough at the kitchen door to say, "Jane, +bring me some supper to my room. Remember, you only are to bring it." +</P> + +<P> +Bewildered and abashed, Mrs. Mumpson rocked nervously. "I had looked +for relentings this evening, a general softening," she murmured, "and I +don't understand his bearing toward me." Then a happy thought struck +her. "I see, I see," she cried softly and ecstatically: "He is +struggling with himself; he finds that he must either deny himself my +society or yield at once. The end is near." +</P> + +<P> +A little later she, too, appeared at the kitchen door and said, with +serious sweetness, "Jane, you can also bring me MY supper to the +parlor." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Wiggins shook with mirth in all her vast proportions as she +remarked, "Jane, ye can bring me MY supper from the stove to the table +'ere, and then vait hon yeself." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XIII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Not Wife, But Waif +</H3> + +<P> +Tom Watterly's horse was the pride of his heart. It was a bobtailed, +rawboned animal, but, as Tom complacently remarked to Alida, "He can +pass about anything on the road"—a boast that he let no chance escape +of verifying. It was a terrible ordeal to the poor woman to go dashing +through the streets in an open wagon, feeling that every eye was upon +her. With head bowed down, she employed her failing strength in +holding herself from falling out, yet almost wishing that she might be +dashed against some object that would end her wretched life. It +finally occurred to Tom that the woman at his side might not, after her +recent experience, share in his enthusiasm, and he pulled up remarking, +with a rough effort at sympathy, "It's a cussed shame you've been +treated so, and as soon as you're ready, I'll help you get even with +the scamp." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not well, sir," said Alida humbly. "I only ask for a quiet place +where I can rest till strong enough to do some kind of work." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well," said Tom kindly, "don't lose heart. We'll do the best by +you we can. That aint saying very much, though, for we're full and +running over." +</P> + +<P> +He soon drew rein at the poorhouse door and sprang out. "I—I—feel +strange," Alida gasped. +</P> + +<P> +Tom caught the fainting woman in his arms and shouted, "Here, Bill, +Joe! You lazy loons, where are you?" +</P> + +<P> +Three or four half wrecks of men shuffled to his assistance, and +together they bore the unconscious woman to the room which was used as +a sort of hospital. Some old crones gathered around with such +restoratives as they had at command. Gradually the stricken woman +revived, but as the whole miserable truth came back, she turned her +face to the wall with a sinking of heart akin to despair. At last, from +sheer exhaustion, feverish sleep ensued, from which she often started +with moans and low cries. One impression haunted her—she was falling, +ever falling into a dark, bottomless abyss. +</P> + +<P> +Hours passed in the same partial stupor, filled with phantoms and +horrible dreams. Toward evening, she aroused herself mechanically to +take the broth Mrs. Watterly ordered her to swallow, then relapsed into +the same lethargy. Late in the night, she became conscious that someone +was kneeling at her bedside and fondling her. She started up with a +slight cry. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be afraid; it's only me, dear," said a quavering voice. +</P> + +<P> +In the dim rays of a night lamp, Alida saw an old woman with gray hair +falling about her face and on her night robe. At first, in her +confused, feverish impressions, the poor waif was dumb with +superstitious awe, and trembled between joy and fear. Could her mother +have come to comfort her in her sore extremity? +</P> + +<P> +"Put yer head on me ould withered breast," said the apparition, "an' +ye'll know a mither's heart niver changes. I've been a-lookin' for ye +and expectin' ye these long, weary years, They said ye wouldn't come +back—that I'd niver find ye ag'in; but I knowed I wud, and here ye are +in me arms, me darlint. Don't draw away from yer ould mither. Don't ye +be afeard or 'shamed loike. No matter what ye've done or where ye've +been or who ye've been with, a mither's heart welcomes ye back jist the +same as when yes were a babby an' slept on me breast. A mither's heart +ud quench the fires o' hell. I'd go inter the burnin' flames o' the +pit an' bear ye out in me arms. So niver fear. Now that I've found +ye, ye're safe. Ye'll not run away from me ag'in. I'll hould ye—I'll +hould ye back," and the poor creature clasped Alida with such +conclusive energy that she screamed from pain and terror. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye shall not get away from me, ye shall not go back to evil ways. +Whist, whist! Be aisy and let me plead wid ye. Think how many long, +weary years I've looked for ye and waited for ye. Niver have I slept +night or day in me watchin'. Ye may be so stained an' lost an' ruined +that the whole wourld will scorn ye, yet not yer mither, not yer ould +mither. Oh, Nora, Nora, why did ye rin away from me? Wasn't I koind? +No, no; ye cannot lave me ag'in," and she threw herself on Alida, whose +disordered mind was tortured by what she heard. Whether or not it was a +more terrible dream than had yet oppressed her, she scarcely knew, but +in the excess of her nervous horror she sent out a cry that echoed in +every part of the large building. Two old women rushed in and dragged +Alida's persecutor screaming away. +</P> + +<P> +"That's allus the way o' it," she shrieked. "As soon as I find me Nora +they snatches me and carries me off, and I have to begin me watchin' +and waitin' and lookin' ag'in." +</P> + +<P> +Alida continued sobbing and trembling violently. One of the awakened +patients sought to assure her by saying, "Don't mind it so, miss. It's +only old crazy Kate. Her daughter ran away from her years and years +ago—how many no one knows—and when a young woman's brought here she +thinks it's her lost Nora. They oughtn't 'a' let her get out, knowin' +you was here." +</P> + +<P> +For several days Alida's reason wavered. The nervous shock of her sad +experiences had been so great that it did not seem at all improbable +that she, like the insane mother, might be haunted for the rest of her +life by an overwhelming impression of something lost. In her morbid, +shaken mind she confounded the wrong she had received with guilt on her +own part. Eventually, she grew calmer and more sensible. Although her +conscience acquitted her of intentional evil, nothing could remove the +deep-rooted conviction that she was shamed beyond hope of remedy. For +a time she was unable to rally from nervous prostration; meanwhile, her +mind was preternaturally active, presenting every detail of the past +until she was often ready to cry aloud in her despair. +</P> + +<P> +Tom Watterly took an unusual interest in her case and exhorted the +visiting physician to do his best for her. She finally began to +improve, and with the first return of strength sought to do something +with her feeble hands. The bread of charity was not sweet. +</P> + +<P> +Although the place in which she lodged was clean, and the coarse, +unvarying fare abundant, she shrank shuddering, with each day's clearer +consciousness, from the majority of those about her. Phases of life of +which she had scarcely dreamed were the common topics of conversation. +In her mother she had learned to venerate gray hairs, and it was an +awful shock to learn that so many of the feeble creatures about her +were coarse, wicked, and evil-disposed. How could their withered lips +frame the words they spoke? How could they dwell on subjects that were +profanation, even to such wrecks of womanhood as themselves? +</P> + +<P> +Moreover, they persecuted her by their curiosity. The good material in +her apparel had been examined and commented on; her wedding ring had +been seen and its absence soon noted, for Alida, after gaining the +power to recall the past fully, had thrown away the metal lie, feeling +that it was the last link in a chain binding her to a loathed and hated +relationship. Learning from their questions that the inmates of the +almshouse did not know her history, she refused to reveal it, thus +awakening endless surmises. Many histories were made for her, the +beldams vying with each other in constructing the worst one. Poor Alida +soon learned that there was public opinion even in an almshouse, and +that she was under its ban. In dreary despondency she thought, +"They've found out about me. If such creatures as these think I'm +hardly fit to speak to, how can I ever find work among good, +respectable people?" +</P> + +<P> +Her extreme depression, the coarse, vulgar, and uncharitable natures by +which she was surrounded, retarded her recovery. By her efforts to do +anything in her power for others she disarmed the hostility of some of +the women, and those that were more or less demented became fond of +her; but the majority probed her wound by every look and word. She was +a saint compared with any of these, yet they made her envy their +respectability. She often thought, "Would to God that I was as old and +ready to die as the feeblest woman here, if I could only hold up my +head like her!" +</P> + +<P> +One day a woman who had a child left it sleeping in its rude wooden +cradle and went downstairs. The babe wakened and began to cry. Alida +took it up and found a strange solace in rocking it to sleep again upon +her breast. At last the mother returned, glared a moment into Alida's +appealing eyes, then snatched the child away with the cruel words, +"Don't ye touch my baby ag'in! To think it ud been in the arms o' the +loikes o'ye!" +</P> + +<P> +Alida went away and sobbed until her strength was gone. She found that +there were some others ostracized like herself, but they accepted their +position as a matter of course—as if it belonged to them and was the +least of their troubles. +</P> + +<P> +Her strength was returning, yet she was still feeble when she sent for +Mrs. Watterly and asked, "Do you think I'm strong enough to take a +place somewhere?" +</P> + +<P> +"You ought to know that better than me," was the chilly reply. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you—do you think I could get a place? I would be willing to do +any kind of honest work not beyond my strength." +</P> + +<P> +"You hardly look able to sit up straight. Better wait till you're +stronger. I'll tell my husband. If applications come, he'll see about +it," and she turned coldly away. +</P> + +<P> +A day or two later Tom came and said brusquely, but not unkindly, +"Don't like my hotel, hey? What can you do?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm used to sewing, but I'd try to do almost anything by which I could +earn my living." +</P> + +<P> +"Best thing to do is to prosecute that scamp and make him pay you a +good round sum." +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head decidedly. "I don't wish to see him again. I don't +wish to go before people and have the—the—past talked about. I'd +like a place with some kind, quiet people who keep no other help. +Perhaps they wouldn't take me if they knew; but I would be so faithful +to them, and try so heard to learn what they wanted—" +</P> + +<P> +"That's all nonsense, their not taking you. I'll find you a place some +day, but you're not strong enough yet. You'd be brought right back +here. You're as pale as a ghost—almost look like one. So don't be +impatient, but give me a chance to find you a good place. I feel sorry +for you, and don't want you to get among folks that have no feelings. +Don't you worry now; chirk up, and you'll come out all right." +</P> + +<P> +"I—I think that if—if I'm employed, the people who take me ought to +know," said Alida with bowed head. +</P> + +<P> +"They'll be blamed fools if they don't think more of you when they do +know," was his response. "Still, that shall be as you please. I've +told only my wife, and they've kept mum at the police station, so the +thing hasn't got into the papers." +</P> + +<P> +Alida's head bowed lower still as she replied, "I thank you. My only +wish now is to find some quiet place in which I can work and be left to +myself." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," said Tom good-naturedly. "Cheer up! I'll be on the +lookout for you." +</P> + +<P> +She turned to the window near which she was sitting to hide the tears +which his rough kindness evoked. "He don't seem to shrink from me as if +I wasn't fit to be spoken to," she thought; "but his wife did. I'm +afraid people won't take me when they know." +</P> + +<P> +The April sunshine poured in at the window; the grass was becoming +green; a robin alighted on a tree nearby and poured out a jubilant +song. For a few moments hope, that had been almost dead in her heart, +revived. As she looked gratefully at the bird, thanking it in her +heart for the song, it darted upon a string hanging on an adjacent +spray and bore it to a crotch between two boughs. Then Alida saw it +was building a nest. Her woman's heart gave way. "Oh," she moaned, "I +shall never have a home again! No place shared by one who cares for +me. To work, and to be tolerated for the sake of my work, is all +that's left." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XIV. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A Pitched Battle +</H3> + +<P> +It was an odd household under Holcroft's roof on the evening of the +Sunday we have described. The farmer, in a sense, had "taken +sanctuary" in his own room, that he might escape the maneuvering wiles +of his tormenting housekeeper. If she would content herself with +general topics he would try to endure her foolish, high-flown talk +until the three months expired; but that she should speedily and openly +take the initiative in matrimonial designs was proof of such an +unbalanced mind that he was filled with nervous dread. "Hanged if one +can tell what such a silly, hairbrained woman will do next!" he +thought, as he brooded by the fire. "Sunday or no Sunday, I feel as if +I'd like to take my horsewhip and give Lemuel Weeks a piece of my mind." +</P> + +<P> +Such musings did not promise well for Mrs. Mumpson, scheming in the +parlor below; but, as we have seen, she had the faculty of arranging +all future events to her mind. That matters had not turned out in the +past as she had expected, counted for nothing. She was one who could +not be taught, even by experience. The most insignificant thing in +Holcroft's dwelling had not escaped her scrutiny and pretty accurate +guess as to value, yet she could not see or understand the intolerable +disgust and irritation which her ridiculous conduct excited. In a weak +mind egotism and selfishness, beyond a certain point, pass into +practical insanity. All sense of delicacy, of the fitness of things, +is lost; even the power to consider the rights and feelings of others +is wanting. Unlike poor Holcroft, Mrs. Mumpson had few misgivings in +regard to coming years. As she rocked unceasingly before the parlor +fire, she arranged everything in regard to his future as well as her +own. +</P> + +<P> +Jane, quite forgotten, was oppressed with a miserable presentiment of +evil. Her pinched but intense little mind was concentrated on two +facts—Holcroft's anger and her mother's lack of sense. From such +premises it did not take her long to reason out but one +conclusion—"visitin' again;" and this was the summing up of all evils. +Now and then a tear would force its way out of one of her little eyes, +but otherwise she kept her troubles to herself. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Wiggins was the only complacent personage in the house, and she +unbent with a garrulous affability to Jane, which could be accounted +for in but one way—Holcroft had forgotten about his cider barrel, +thereby unconsciously giving her the chance to sample its contents +freely. She was now smoking her pipe with much content, and indulging +in pleasing reminiscences which the facts of her life scarcely +warranted. +</P> + +<P> +"Ven hi vas as leetle a gal as ye are," she began, and then she related +experiences quite devoid of the simplicity and innocence of childhood. +The girl soon forgot her fears and listened with avidity until the old +dame's face grew heavier, if possible, with sleep, and she stumbled off +to bed. +</P> + +<P> +Having no wish to see or speak to her mother again, the child blew out +the candle and stole silently up the stairway. At last Mrs. Mumpson +took her light and went noisily around, seeing to the fastenings of +doors and windows. "I know he is listening to every sound from me, and +he shall learn what a caretaker I am," she murmured softly. +</P> + +<P> +Once out of doors in the morning, with his foot on the native heath of +his farm, Holcroft's hopefulness and courage always returned. He was +half angry with himself at his nervous irritation of the evening +before. "If she becomes so cranky that I can't stand her, I'll pay the +three months' wages and clear her out," he had concluded, and he went +about his morning work with a grim purpose to submit to very little +nonsense. +</P> + +<P> +Cider is akin to vinegar, and Mrs. Wiggins' liberal potations of the +evening before had evidently imparted a marked acidity to her temper. +She laid hold of the kitchen utensils as if she had a spite against +them, and when Jane, confiding in her friendliness shown so recently, +came down to assist, she was chased out of doors with language we +forbear to repeat. Mrs. Mumpson, therefore, had no intimation of the +low state of the barometer in the region of the kitchen. "I have taken +time to think deeply and calmly," she murmured. "The proper course has +been made clear to me. He is somewhat uncouth; he is silent and unable +to express his thoughts and emotions—in brief, undeveloped; he is +awfully irreligious. Moth and rust are busy in this house; much that +would be so useful is going to waste. He must learn to look upon me as +the developer, the caretaker, a patient and healthful embodiment of +female influence. I will now begin actively my mission of making him +an ornerment to society. That mountainous Mrs. Viggins must be +replaced by a deferential girl who will naturally look up to me. How +can I be a true caretaker—how can I bring repose and refinement to +this dwelling with two hundred pounds of female impudence in my way? +Mr. Holcroft shall see that Mrs. Viggins is an unseemly and jarring +discord in our home," and she brought the rocking chair from the parlor +to the kitchen, with a serene and lofty air. Jane hovered near the +window, watching. +</P> + +<P> +At first, there was an ominous silence in respect to words. Portentous +sounds increased, however, for Mrs. Wiggins strode about with martial +tread, making the boards creak and the dishes clatter, while her red +eyes shot lurid and sanguinary gleams. She would seize a dipper as if +it were a foe, slamming it upon the table again as if striking an +enemy. Under her vigorous manipulation, kettles and pans resounded +with reports like firearms. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson was evidently perturbed; her calm superiority was +forsaking her; every moment she rocked faster—a sure indication that +she was not at peace. At last she said, with great dignity: "Mrs. +Viggins, I must request you to perform your tasks with less clamor. My +nerves are not equal to this peculiar way of taking up and laying down +things." +</P> + +<P> +"Vell, jes' ye vait a minute, han hi'll show ye 'ow hi kin take hup +things han put 'em down hag'in hout o' my vay," and before Mrs. Mumpson +could interfere, she found herself lifted, chair and all bodily, and +carried to the parlor. Between trepidation and anger, she could only +gasp during the transit, and when left in the middle of the parlor +floor she looked around in utter bewilderment. +</P> + +<P> +It so happened that Holcroft, on his way from the barn, had seen Jane +looking in at the window, and, suspecting something amiss, had arrived +just in time for the spectacle. Convulsed with laughter, he returned +hastily to the barn; while Jane expressed her feelings, whatever they +were, by executing something like a hornpipe before the window. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson, however, was not vanquished. She had only made a +compulsory retreat from the scene of hostilities; and, after rallying +her shattered faculties, advanced again with the chair. "How dared you, +you disreputerble female?" she began. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Wiggins turned slowly and ominously upon her. "Ye call me a +disrupterbul female hag'in, han ye vont find hit 'ealthy." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson prudently backed toward the door before delivering her +return fire. +</P> + +<P> +"Woman!" she cried, "are you out of your mind? Don't you know I'm +housekeeper here, and that it's my duty to superintend you and your +work?" +</P> + +<P> +"Vell, then, hi'll double ye hup hand put ye hon the shelf hof the +dresser han' lock the glass door hon ye. From hup there ye kin see all +that's goin' hon and sup'intend to yer 'eart's content," and she +started for her superior officer. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson backed so precipitately with her chair that it struck +against the door case, and she sat down hard. Seeing that Mrs. Wiggins +was almost upon her, she darted back into the parlor, leaving the chair +as a trophy in the hands of her enemy. Mrs. Wiggins was somewhat +appeased by this second triumph, and with the hope of adding gall and +bitterness to Mrs. Mumpson's defeat, she took the chair to her rival's +favorite rocking place, lighted her pipe, and sat down in grim +complacency. Mrs. Mumpson warily approached to recover a support +which, from long habit, had become moral as well as physical, and her +indignation knew no bounds when she saw it creaking under the weight of +her foe. It must be admitted, however, that her ire was not so great +that she did not retain the "better part of valor," for she stepped +back, unlocked the front door, and set it ajar. On returning, she +opened with a volubility that awed even Mrs. Wiggins for a moment. "You +miserable, mountainous pauper; you interloper; you unrefined, +irresponserble, unregenerate female, do you know what you have done in +thus outraging ME? I'm a respecterble woman, respecterbly connected. +I'm here in a responserble station. When Mr. Holcroft appears he'll +drive you from the dwelling which you vulgarize. Your presence makes +this apartment a den. You are a wild beast—" +</P> + +<P> +"Hi'm a vile beastes, ham hi?" cried Mrs. Wiggins, at last stung into +action, and she threw her lighted pipe at the open mouth that was +discharging high-sounding epithets by the score. +</P> + +<P> +It struck the lintel over the widow's head, was shattered, and sent +down upon her a shower of villainously smelling sparks. Mrs. Mumpson +shrieked and sought frantically to keep her calico wrapper from taking +fire. Meanwhile, Mrs. Wiggins rose and took a step or two that she +might assist should there be any positive danger, for she had not yet +reached a point of malignity which would lead her to witness calmly an +auto-da-fe. This was Jane's opportunity. Mrs. Wiggins had alienated +this small and hitherto friendly power, and now, with a returning +impulse of loyalty, it took sides with the weaker party. The kitchen +door was on a crack; the child pushed it noiselessly open, darted +around behind the stove, and withdrew the rocking chair. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Wiggins' brief anxiety and preoccupation passed, and she stepped +backward again to sit down. She did sit down, but with such terrific +force that the stove and nearly everything else in the room threatened +to fall with her. She sat helplessly for a bewildered moment, while +Jane, with the chair, danced before her exclaiming, tauntingly, "That's +for chasing me out as if I was a cat!" +</P> + +<P> +"Noo hi'll chase ye both hout," cried the ireful Wiggins, scrambling to +her feet. She made good her threat, for Holcroft, a moment later, saw +mother and daughter, the latter carrying the chair, rushing from the +front door, and Mrs. Wiggins, armed with a great wooden spoon, waddling +after them, her objurgations mingling with Mrs. Mumpson's shrieks and +Jane's shrill laughter. The widow caught a glimpse of him standing in +the barn door, and, as if borne by the wind, she flew toward him, +crying, "He shall be my protector!" +</P> + +<P> +He barely had time to whisk through a side door and close it after him. +The widow's impetuous desire to pant out the story of her wrongs +carried her into the midst of the barnyard, where she was speedily +confronted by an unruly young heifer that could scarcely be blamed for +hostility to such a wild-looking object. +</P> + +<P> +The animal shook its head threateningly as it advanced. Again the +widow's shrieks resounded. This time Holcroft was about to come to the +rescue, when the beleaguered woman made a dash for the top of the +nearest fence, reminding her amused looker-on of the night of her +arrival when she had perched like some strange sort of bird on the +wagon wheel. +</P> + +<P> +Seeing that she was abundantly able to escape alone, the farmer +remained in concealment. Although disgusted and angry at the scenes +taking place, he was scarcely able to restrain roars of laughter. +Perched upon the fence, the widow called piteously for him to lift her +down, but he was not to be caught by any such device. At last, giving +up hope and still threatened by the heifer, she went over on the other +side. Knowing that she must make a detour before reaching the +dwelling, Holcroft went thither rapidly with the purpose of restoring +order at once. "Jane," he said sternly, "take that chair to the parlor +and leave it there. Let there be no more such nonsense." +</P> + +<P> +At his approach, Mrs. Wiggins had retreated sullenly to the kitchen. +"Come," he ordered good-naturedly, "hasten breakfast and let there be +no more quarreling." +</P> + +<P> +"Hif hi vas left to do me work hin peace—" she began. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you shall do it in peace." +</P> + +<P> +At this moment Mrs. Mumpson came tearing in, quite oblivious of the +fact that she had left a goodly part of her calico skirt on a nail of +the fence. She was rushing toward Holcroft, when he said sternly, and +with a repellent gesture, "Stop and listen to me. If there's any more +of this quarreling like cats and dogs in my house, I'll send for the +constable and have you all arrested. If you are not all utterly +demented and hopeless fools, you will know that you came here to do my +work, and nothing else." Then catching a glimpse of Mrs. Mumpson's +dress, and fearing he should laugh outright, he turned abruptly on his +heel and went to his room, where he was in a divided state between +irrepressible mirth and vexation. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson also fled to her room. She felt that the proper course +for her at this juncture was a fit of violent hysterics; but a prompt +douche from the water pitcher, administered by the unsympathetic Jane, +effectually checked the first symptoms. "Was ever a respecterble +woman—" +</P> + +<P> +"You aint respectable," interrupted the girl, as she departed. "You +look like a scarecrow. 'Fi's you I'd begin to show some sense now." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XV. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +"What is to Become of Me?" +</H3> + +<P> +Holcroft's reference to a constable and arrest, though scarcely +intended to be more than a vague threat, had the effect of clearing the +air like a clap of thunder. Jane had never lost her senses, such as +she possessed, and Mrs. Wiggins recovered hers sufficiently to +apologize to the farmer when he came down to breakfast. "But that +Mumpson's hawfully haggravatin', master, as ye know yeself, hi'm +a-thinkin'. Vud ye jis tell a body vat she is 'here, han 'ow hi'm to +get hon vith 'er. Hif hi'm to take me horders from 'er, hi'd ruther go +back to the poor-'us." +</P> + +<P> +"You are to take your orders from me and no one else. All I ask is +that you go on quietly with your work and pay no attention to her. You +know well enough that I can't have such goings on. I want you to let +Jane help you and learn her to do everything as far as she can. Mrs. +Mumpson can do the mending and ironing, I suppose. At any rate, I +won't have any more quarreling and uproar. I'm a quiet man and intend +to have a quiet house. You and Jane can get along very well in the +kitchen, and you say you understand the dairy work." +</P> + +<P> +"Vell hi does, han noo hi've got me horders hi'll go right along." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson was like one who had been rudely shaken out of a dream, +and she appeared to have sense enough to realize that she couldn't +assume so much at first as she anticipated. She received from Jane a +cup of coffee, and said feebly, "I can partake of no more after the +recent trying events." +</P> + +<P> +For some hours she was a little dazed, but her mind was of too light +weight to be long cast down. Jane rehearsed Holcroft's words, +described his manner, and sought with much insistence to show her +mother that she must drop her nonsense at once. "I can see it in his +eye," said the girl, "that he won't stand much more. If yer don't come +down and keep yer hands busy and yer tongue still, we'll tramp. As to +his marrying you, bah! He'd jes' as soon marry Mrs. Wiggins." +</P> + +<P> +This was awful prose, but Mrs. Mumpson was too bewildered and +discouraged for a time to dispute it, and the household fell into a +somewhat regular routine. The widow appeared at her meals with the air +of a meek and suffering martyr; Holcroft was exceedingly brief in his +replies to her questions, and paid no heed to her remarks. After +supper and his evening work, he went directly to his room. Every day, +however, he secretly chafed with ever-increasing discontent, over this +tormenting presence in his house. The mending and such work as she +attempted was so wretchedly performed that it would better have been +left undone. She was also recovering her garrulousness, and mistook +his toleration and her immunity in the parlor for proof of a growing +consideration. "He knows that my hands were never made for such coarse, +menial tasks as that Viggins does," she thought, as she darned one of +his stockings in a way that would render it almost impossible for him +to put his foot into it again. "The events of last Monday morning were +unfortunate, unforeseen, unprecedented. I was unprepared for such +vulgar, barbarous, unheard-of proceedings—taken off my feet, as it +were; but now that he's had time to think it all over, he sees that I +am not a common woman like Viggins,"—Mrs. Mumpson would have suffered +rather than have accorded her enemy the prefix of Mrs.,—"who is only +fit to be among pots and kettles. He leaves me in the parlor as if a +refined apartment became me and I became it. Time and my influence +will mellow, soften, elevate, develop, and at last awaken a desire for +my society, then yearnings. My first error was in not giving myself +time to make a proper impression. He will soon begin to yield like the +earth without. First it is hard and frosty, then it is cold and muddy, +if I may permit myself so disagreeable an illustration. Now he is +becoming mellow, and soon every word I utter will be like good seed in +good ground. How aptly it all fits! I have only to be patient." +</P> + +<P> +She was finally left almost to utter idleness, for Jane and Mrs. +Wiggins gradually took from the incompetent hands even the light tasks +which she had attempted. She made no protest, regarding all as another +proof that Holcroft was beginning to recognize her superiority and +unfitness for menial tasks. She would maintain, however, her character +as the caretaker and ostentatiously inspected everything; she also +tried to make as much noise in fastening up the dwelling at night as if +she were barricading a castle. Holcroft would listen grimly, well +aware that no house had been entered in Oakville during his memory. He +had taken an early occasion to say at the table that he wished no one +to enter his room except Jane, and that he would not permit any +infringement of this rule. Mrs. Mumpson's feelings had been hurt at +first by this order, but she soon satisfied herself that it had been +meant for Mrs. Wiggins' benefit and not her own. She found, however, +that Jane interpreted it literally. "If either of you set foot in that +room, I'll tell him," she said flatly. "I've had my orders and I'm +a-goin' to obey. There's to be no more rummagin'. If you'll give me +the keys I'll put things back in order ag'in." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I won't give you the keys. I'm the proper person to put things +in order if you did not replace them properly. You are just making an +excuse to rummage yourself. My motive for inspecting is very different +from yours." +</P> + +<P> +"Shouldn't wonder if you was sorry some day," the girl had remarked, +and so the matter had dropped and been forgotten. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft solaced himself with the fact that Jane and Mrs. Wiggins +served his meals regularly and looked after the dairy with better care +than it had received since his wife died. "If I had only those two in +the house, I could get along first-rate," he thought. "After the three +months are up, I'll try to make such an arrangement. I'd pay the +mother and send her off now, but if I did, Lemuel Weeks would put her +up to a lawsuit." +</P> + +<P> +April days brought the longed-for plowing and planting, and the farmer +was so busy and absorbed in his work that Mrs. Mumpson had less and +less place in his thoughts, even as a thorn in the flesh. One bright +afternoon, however, chaos came again unexpectedly. Mrs. Wiggins did +not suggest a volatile creature, yet such, alas! she was. She +apparently exhaled and was lost, leaving no trace. The circumstances +of her disappearance permit of a very matter-of-fact and not very +creditable explanation. On the day in question she prepared an +unusually good dinner, and the farmer had enjoyed it in spite of Mrs. +Mumpson's presence and desultory remarks. The morning had been fine +and he had made progress in his early spring work. Mrs. Wiggins felt +that her hour and opportunity had come. Following him to the door, she +said in a low tone and yet with a decisive accent, as if she was +claiming a right, "Master, hi'd thank ye for me two weeks' wages." +</P> + +<P> +He unsuspectingly and unhesitatingly gave it to her, thinking, "That's +the way with such people. They want to be paid often and be sure of +their money. She'll work all the better for having it." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Wiggins knew the hour when the stage passed the house; she had +made up a bundle without a very close regard to meum or tuum, and was +ready to flit. The chance speedily came. +</P> + +<P> +The "caretaker" was rocking in the parlor and would disdain to look, +while Jane had gone out to help plant some early potatoes on a warm +hillside. The coast was clear. Seeing the stage coming, the old woman +waddled down the lane at a remarkable pace, paid her fare to town, and +the Holcroft kitchen knew her no more. +</P> + +<P> +That she found the "friend" she had wished to see on her way out to the +farm, and that this friend brought her quickly under Tom Watterly's +care again, goes without saying. +</P> + +<P> +As the shadows lengthened and the robins became tuneful, Holcroft said, +"You've done well, Jane. Thank you. Now you can go back to the house." +</P> + +<P> +The child soon returned in breathless haste to the field where the +farmer was covering the potato pieces she had dropped, and cried, "Mrs. +Wiggins's gone!" +</P> + +<P> +Like a flash the woman's motive in asking for her wages occurred to +him, but he started for the house to assure himself of the truth. +"Perhaps she's in the cellar," he said, remembering the cider barrel, +"or else she's out for a walk." +</P> + +<P> +"No, she aint," persisted Jane. "I've looked everywhere and all over +the barn, and she aint nowhere. Mother haint seen her, nuther." +</P> + +<P> +With dreary misgivings, Holcroft remembered that he no longer had a +practical ally in the old Englishwoman, and he felt that a new breaking +up was coming. He looked wistfully at Jane, and thought, "I COULD get +along with that child if the other was away. But that can't be; SHE'D +visit here indefinitely if Jane stayed." +</P> + +<P> +When Mrs. Mumpson learned from Jane of Mrs. Wiggins' disappearance, she +was thrown into a state of strong excitement. She felt that her hour +and opportunity might be near also, and she began to rock very fast. +"What else could he expect of such a female?" she soliloquized. "I've +no doubt but she's taken things, too. He'll now learn my value and +what it is to have a caretaker who will never desert him." +</P> + +<P> +Spirits and courage rose with the emergency; her thoughts hurried her +along like a dry leaf caught in a March gale. "Yes," she murmured, "the +time has come for me to act, to dare, to show him in his desperate need +and hour of desertion what might be, may be, must be. He will now see +clearly the difference between these peculiar females who come and go, +and a respecterble woman and a mother who can be depended upon—one who +will never steal away like a thief in the night." +</P> + +<P> +She saw Holcroft approaching the house with Jane; she heard him ascend +to Mrs. Wiggins' room, then return to the kitchen and ejaculate, "Yes, +she's gone, sure enough." +</P> + +<P> +"Now, ACT!" murmured the widow, and she rushed toward the farmer with +clasped hands, and cried with emotion, "Yes, she's gone; but I'm not +gone. You are not deserted. Jane will minister to you; I will be the +caretaker, and our home will be all the happier because that monstrous +creature is absent. Dear Mr. Holcroft, don't be so blind to your own +interests and happiness, don't remain undeveloped! Everything is wrong +here if you would but see it. You are lonely and desolate. Moth and +rust have entered, things in unopened drawers and closets are molding +and going to waste. Yield to true female influence and—" +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft had been rendered speechless at first by this onslaught, but +the reference to unopened drawers and closets awakened a sudden +suspicion. Had she dared to touch what had belonged to his wife? +"What!" he exclaimed sharply, interrupting her; then with an expression +of disgust and anger, he passed her swiftly and went to his room. A +moment later came the stern summons, "Jane, come here!" +</P> + +<P> +"Now you'll see what'll come of that rummagin'," whimpered Jane. "You +aint got no sense at all to go at him so. He's jes' goin' to put us +right out," and she went upstairs as if to execution. +</P> + +<P> +"Have I failed?" gasped Mrs. Mumpson, and retreating to the chair, she +rocked nervously. +</P> + +<P> +"Jane," said Holcroft in hot anger, "my wife's things have been pulled +out of her bureau and stuffed back again as if they were no better than +dishcloths. Who did it?" +</P> + +<P> +The child now began to cry aloud. +</P> + +<P> +"There, there!" he said, with intense irritation, "I can't trust you +either." +</P> + +<P> +"I haint—touched 'em—since you told me—told me—not to do things on +the sly," the girl sobbed brokenly; but he had closed the door upon her +and did not hear. +</P> + +<P> +He could have forgiven her almost anything but this. Since she only +had been permitted to take care of his room, he naturally thought that +she had committed the sacrilege, and her manner had confirmed this +impression. Of course, the mother had been present and probably had +assisted; but he had expected nothing better of her. +</P> + +<P> +He took the things out, folded and smoothed them as carefully as he +could with his heavy hands and clumsy fingers. His gentle, almost +reverent touch was in strange contrast with his flushed, angry face and +gleaming eyes. "This is the worst that's happened yet," he muttered. +"Oh, Lemuel Weeks! It's well you are not here now, or we might both +have cause to be sorry. It was you who put these prying, and for all I +know, thieving creatures into my house, and it was as mean a trick as +ever one man played another. You and this precious cousin of yours +thought you could bring about a marriage; you put her up to her +ridiculous antics. Faugh! The very thought of it all makes me sick." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, mother, what shall I do?" Jane cried, rushing into the parlor and +throwing herself on the floor, "he's goin' to put us right out." +</P> + +<P> +"He can't put me out before the three months are up," quavered the +widow. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, he can. We've been a-rummagin' where we'd no bizniss to be. +He's mad enough to do anything; he jes' looks awful; I'm afraid of him." +</P> + +<P> +"Jane," said her mother plaintively, "I feel indisposed. I think I'll +retire." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, that's the way with YOU," sobbed the child. "You get me into the +scrape and now you retire." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson's confidence in herself and her schemes was terribly +shaken. "I must act very discreetly. I must be alone that I may think +over these untoward events. Mr. Holcroft has been so warped by the +past female influences of his life that there's no counting on his +action. He taxes me sorely," she explained, and then ascended the +stairs. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! Oh!" moaned the child as she writhed on the floor, "mother aint +got no sense at all. What IS goin' to become of me? I'd ruther hang +about his barn than go back to Cousin Lemuel's or any other cousin's." +</P> + +<P> +Spurred by one hope, she at last sprung up and went to the kitchen. It +was already growing dark, and she lighted the lamp, kindled the fire, +and began getting supper with breathless energy. +</P> + +<P> +As far as he could discover, Holcroft was satisfied that nothing had +been taken. In this respect he was right. Mrs. Mumpson's curiosity +and covetousness were boundless, but she would not steal. There are +few who do not draw the line somewhere. +</P> + +<P> +Having tried to put the articles back as they were before, he locked +them up, and went hastily down and out, feeling that he must regain his +self-control and decide upon his future action at once. "I will then +carry out my purposes in a way that will give the Weeks tribe no chance +to make trouble." +</P> + +<P> +As he passed the kitchen windows he saw Jane rushing about as if +possessed, and he stopped to watch her. It soon became evident that +she was trying to get his supper. His heart relented at once in spite +of himself. "The poor, wronged child!" he muttered. "Why should I be so +hard on her for doing what she's been brought up to do? Well, well, +it's too bad to send her away, but I can't help it. I'd lose my own +reason if the mother were here much longer, and if I kept Jane, her +idiotic mother would stay in spite of me. If she didn't, there'd be +endless talk and lawsuits, too, like enough, about separating parent +and child. Jane's too young and little, anyway, to be here alone and +do the work. But I'm sorry for her, I declare I am, and I wish I could +do something to give her a chance in the world. If my wife was only +living, we'd take and bring her up, disagreeable and homely as she is; +but there's no use of my trying to do anything alone. I fear, after +all, that I shall have to give up the old place and go—I don't know +where. What is to become of her?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XVI. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Mrs. Mumpson's Vicissitudes +</H3> + +<P> +Having completed her preparations for supper, Jane stole timidly up to +Holcroft's room to summon him. Her first rap on his door was scarcely +audible, then she ventured to knock louder and finally to call him, but +there was no response. Full of vague dread she went to her mother's +room and said, "He won't answer me. He's so awful mad that I don't +know what he'll do." +</P> + +<P> +"I think he has left his apartment," her mother moaned from the bed. +</P> + +<P> +"Why couldn't yer tell me so before?" cried Jane. "What yer gone to bed +for? If you'd only show some sense and try to do what he brought you +here for, like enough he'd keep us yet." +</P> + +<P> +"My heart's too crushed, Jane—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, bother, bother!" and the child rushed away. She looked into the +dark parlor and called, "Mr. Holcroft!" Then she appeared in the +kitchen again, the picture of uncouth distress and perplexity. A +moment later she opened the door and darted toward the barn. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you wish, Jane?" said Holcroft, emerging from a shadowy corner +and recalling her. +</P> + +<P> +"Sup—supper's—ready," sobbed the child. +</P> + +<P> +He came in and sat down at the table, considerately appearing not to +notice her until she had a chance to recover composure. She vigorously +used the sleeve of both arms in drying her eyes, then stole in and +found a seat in a dusky corner. +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't you come to supper?" he asked quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't want any." +</P> + +<P> +"You had better take some up to your mother." +</P> + +<P> +"She oughtn't to have any." +</P> + +<P> +"That doesn't make any difference. I want you to take up something to +her, and then come down and eat your supper like a sensible girl." +</P> + +<P> +"I aint been sensible, nor mother nuther." +</P> + +<P> +"Do as I say, Jane." The child obeyed, but she couldn't swallow +anything but a little coffee. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft was in a quandary. He had not the gift of speaking soothing +yet meaningless words, and was too honest to raise false hopes. He was +therefore almost as silent and embarrassed as Jane herself. To the +girl's furtive scrutiny he did not seem hardened against her, and she +at last ventured, "Say, I didn't touch them drawers after you told me +not to do anything on the sly." +</P> + +<P> +"When were they opened? Tell me the truth, Jane." +</P> + +<P> +"Mother opened them the first day you left us alone. I told her you +wouldn't like it, but she said she was housekeeper; she said how it was +her duty to inspect everything. I wanted to inspect, too. We was jes' +rummagin'—that's what it was. After the things were all pulled out, +mother got the rocker and wouldn't do anything. It was gettin' late, +and I was frightened and poked 'em back in a hurry. Mother wanted to +rummage ag'in the other day and I wouldn't let her; then, she wouldn't +let me have the keys so I could fix 'em up." +</P> + +<P> +"But the keys were in my pocket, Jane." +</P> + +<P> +"Mother has a lot of keys. I've told you jes' how it all was." +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing was taken away?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. Mother aint got sense, but she never takes things. I nuther +'cept when I'm hungry. Never took anything here. Say, are you goin' to +send us away?' +</P> + +<P> +"I fear I shall have to, Jane. I'm sorry for you, for I believe you +would try to do the best you could if given a chance, and I can see you +never had a chance." +</P> + +<P> +"No," said the child, blinking hard to keep the tears out of her eyes. +"I aint had no teachin'. I've jes' kinder growed along with the farm +hands and rough boys. Them that didn't hate me teased me. Say, +couldn't I stay in your barn and sleep in the hay?" +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft was sorely perplexed and pushed away his half-eaten supper. +He knew himself what it was to be friendless and lonely, and his heart +softened toward this worse than motherless child. +</P> + +<P> +"Jane," he said kindly, "I'm just as sorry for you as I can be, but you +don't know the difficulties in the way of what you wish, and I fear I +can't make you understand them. Indeed, it would not be best to tell +you all of them. If I could keep you at all, you should stay in the +house, and I'd be kind to you, but it can't be. I may not stay here +myself. My future course is very uncertain. There's no use of my +trying to go on as I have. Perhaps some day I can do something for +you, and if I can, I will. I will pay your mother her three months' +wages in full in the morning, and then I want you both to get your +things into your trunk, and I'll take you to your Cousin Lemuel's." +</P> + +<P> +Driven almost to desperation, Jane suggested the only scheme she could +think of. "If you stayed here and I run away and came back, wouldn't +you keep me? I'd work all day and all night jes' for the sake of +stayin'." +</P> + +<P> +"No, Jane," said Holcroft firmly, "you'd make me no end of trouble if +you did that. If you'll be a good girl and learn how to do things, +I'll try to find you a place among kind people some day when you're +older and can act for yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"You're afraid 'fi's here mother'd come a-visitin," said the girl +keenly. +</P> + +<P> +"You're too young to understand half the trouble that might follow. My +plans are too uncertain for me to tangle myself up. You and your +mother must go away at once, so I can do what I must do before it's too +late in the season. Here's a couple of dollars which you can keep for +yourself," and he went up to his room, feeling that he could not +witness the child's distress any longer. +</P> + +<P> +He fought hard against despondency and tried to face the actual +condition of his affairs. "I might have known," he thought, "that +things would have turned out somewhat as they have, with such women in +the house, and I don't see much chance of getting better ones. I've +been so bent on staying and going on as I used to that I've just shut +my eyes to the facts." He got out an old account book and pored over +it a long time. The entries therein were blind enough, but at last he +concluded, "It's plain that I've lost money on the dairy ever since my +wife died, and the prospects now are worse than ever. That Weeks tribe +will set the whole town talking against me and it will be just about +impossible to get a decent woman to come here. I might as well have an +auction and sell all the cows but one at once. After that, if I find I +can't make out living alone, I'll put the place in better order and +sell or rent. I can get my own meals after a fashion, and old Jonathan +Johnson's wife will do my washing and mending. It's time it was done +better than it has been, for some of my clothes make me look like a +scarecrow. I believe Jonathan will come with his cross dog and stay +here too, when I must be away. Well, well, it's a hard lot for a man; +but I'd be about as bad off, and a hundred-fold more lonely, if I went +anywhere else. +</P> + +<P> +"I can only feel my way along and live a day at a time. I'll learn +what can be done and what can't be. One thing is clear: I can't go on +with this Mrs. Mumpson in the house a day longer. She makes me creep +and crawl all over, and the first thing I know I shall be swearing like +a bloody pirate unless I get rid of her. +</P> + +<P> +"If she wasn't such a hopeless idiot I'd let her stay for the sake of +Jane, but I won't pay her good wages to make my life a burden a day +longer," and with like self-communings he spent the evening until the +habit of early drowsiness overcame him. +</P> + +<P> +The morning found Jane dispirited and a little sullen, as older and +wiser people are apt to be when disappointed. She employed herself in +getting breakfast carelessly and languidly, and the result was not +satisfactory. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's your mother?" Holcroft asked when he came in. +</P> + +<P> +"She told me to tell you she was indisposed." +</P> + +<P> +"Indisposed to go to Lemuel Weeks'?" +</P> + +<P> +"I 'spect she means she's sick." +</P> + +<P> +He frowned and looked suspiciously at the girl. Here was a new +complication, and very possibly a trick. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter with her?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dunno." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, she had better get well enough to go by this afternoon," he +remarked, controlling his irritation with difficulty, and nothing more +was said. +</P> + +<P> +Full of his new plans he spent a busy forenoon and then came to dinner. +It was the same old story. He went up and knocked at Mrs. Mumpson's +door, saying that he wished to speak with her. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm too indisposed to transact business," she replied feebly. +</P> + +<P> +"You must be ready tomorrow morning," he called. "I have business plans +which can't be delayed," and he turned away muttering rather sulphurous +words. +</P> + +<P> +"He will relent; his hard heart will soften at last—" But we shall not +weary the reader with the long soliloquies with which she beguiled her +politic seclusion, as she regarded it. Poor, unsophisticated Jane made +matters worse. The condition of life among her much-visited relatives +now existed again. She was not wanted, and her old sly, sullen, and +furtive manner reasserted itself. Much of Holcroft's sympathy was thus +alienated, yet he partially understood and pitied her. It became, +however, all the more clear that he must get rid of both mother and +child, and that further relations with either of them could only lead +to trouble. +</P> + +<P> +The following morning only Jane appeared. "Is your mother really sick?" +he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"S'pose so," was the laconic reply. +</P> + +<P> +"You haven't taken much pains with the breakfast, Jane." +</P> + +<P> +"'Taint no use." +</P> + +<P> +With knitted brows he thought deeply, and silently ate the wretched +meal which had been prepared. Then, remarking that he might do some +writing, he went up to a small attic room which had been used +occasionally by a hired man. It contained a covered pipe-hole leading +into the chimney flue. Removing the cover, he stopped up the flue with +an old woolen coat. "I suppose I'll have to meet tricks with tricks," +he muttered. +</P> + +<P> +Returning to his own apartment, he lighted a fire in the stove and laid +upon the kindling blaze some dampened wood, then went out and quietly +hitched his horses to the wagon. +</P> + +<P> +The pungent odor of smoke soon filled the house. The cover over the +pipe-hole in Mrs. Mumpson's room was not very secure, and thick volumes +began to pour in upon the startled widow. "Jane!" she shrieked. +</P> + +<P> +If Jane was sullen toward Holcroft, she was furious at her mother, and +paid no heed at first to her cry. +</P> + +<P> +"Jane, Jane, the house is on fire!" +</P> + +<P> +Then the child did fly up the stairway. The smoke seemed to confirm +the words of her mother, who was dressing in hot haste. "Run and tell +Mr. Holcroft!" she cried. +</P> + +<P> +"I won't," said the girl. "If he won't keep us in the house, I don't +care if he don't have any house." +</P> + +<P> +"No, no, tell him!" screamed Mrs. Mumpson. "If we save his house he +will relent. Gratitude will overwhelm him. So far from turning us +away, he will sue, he will plead for forgiveness for his former +harshness; his home saved will be our home won. Just put our things in +the trunk first. Perhaps the house can't be saved, and you know we +must save OUR things. Help me, quick! There, there; now, now"—both +were sneezing and choking in a half-strangled manner. "Now let me lock +it; my hand trembles so; take hold and draw it out; drag it downstairs; +no matter how it scratches things!" +</P> + +<P> +Having reached the hall below, she opened the door and shrieked for +Holcroft; Jane also began running toward the barn. The farmer came +hastily out, and shouted, "What's the matter?" +</P> + +<P> +"The house is on fire!" they screamed in chorus. +</P> + +<P> +To carry out his ruse, he ran swiftly to the house. Mrs. Mumpson stood +before him wringing her hands and crying, "Oh, dear Mr. Holcroft, can't +I do anything to help you? I would so like to help you and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, my good woman, let me get in the door and see what's the matter. +Oh, here's your trunk. That's sensible. Better get it outside," and +he went up the stairs two steps at a time and rushed into his room. +</P> + +<P> +"Jane, Jane," ejaculated Mrs. Mumpson, sinking on a seat in the porch, +"he called me his good woman!" But Jane was busy dragging the trunk +out of doors. Having secured her own and her mother's worldly +possessions, she called, "Shall I bring water and carry things out?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," he replied, "not yet. There's something the matter with the +chimney," and he hastened up to the attic room, removed the clog from +the flue, put on the cover again, and threw open the window. +Returning, he locked the door of the room which Mrs. Mumpson had +occupied and came downstairs. "I must get a ladder and examine the +chimney," he said as he passed. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, my dear Mr. Holcroft!" the widow began. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't talk with you yet," and he hastened on. +</P> + +<P> +"As soon as he's sure the house is safe, Jane, all will be well." +</P> + +<P> +But the girl had grown hopeless and cynical. She had not penetrated +his scheme to restore her mother to health, but understood the man well +enough to be sure that her mother's hopes would end as they had in the +past. She sat down apathetically on the trunk to see what would happen +next. +</P> + +<P> +After a brief inspection Holcroft came down from the roof and said, +"The chimney will have to be repaired," which was true enough and +equally so of other parts of the dwelling. The fortunes of the owner +were reflected in the appearance of the building. +</P> + +<P> +If it were a possible thing Holcroft wished to carry out his ruse +undetected, and he hastened upstairs again, ostensibly to see that all +danger had passed, but in reality to prepare his mind for an intensely +disagreeable interview. "I'd rather face a mob of men than that one +idiotic woman," he muttered. "I could calculate the actions of a +setting hen with her head cut off better than I can this widow's. But +there's no help for it," and he came down looking very resolute. "I've +let the fire in my stove go out, and there's no more danger," he said +quietly, as he sat down on the porch opposite Mrs. Mumpson. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh-h," she exclaimed, with a long breath of relief, "we've saved the +dwelling. What would we have done if it had burned down! We would +have been homeless." +</P> + +<P> +"That may be my condition soon, as it is," he said coldly. "I am very +glad, Mrs. Mumpson, that you are so much better. As Jane told you, I +suppose, I will pay you the sum I agreed to give you for three months' +service—" +</P> + +<P> +"My dear Mr. Holcroft, my nerves have been too shaken to talk business +this morning," and the widow leaned back and looked as if she were +going to faint. "I'm only a poor lone woman," she added feebly, "and +you cannot be so lacking in the milk of human kindness as to take +advantage of me." +</P> + +<P> +"No, madam, nor shall I allow you and Lemuel Weeks to take advantage of +me. This is my house and I have a right to make my own arrangements." +</P> + +<P> +"It might all be arranged so easily in another way," sighed the widow. +</P> + +<P> +"It cannot be arranged in any other way—" he began. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Holcroft," she cried, leaning suddenly forward with clasped hands +and speaking effusively, "you but now called me your good woman. Think +how much those words mean. Make them true, now that you've spoken +them. Then you won't be homeless and will never need a caretaker." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you making me an offer of marriage?" he asked with lowering brow. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no, indeed!" she simpered. "That wouldn't be becoming in me. I'm +only responding to your own words." +</P> + +<P> +Rising, he said sternly, "No power on earth could induce me to marry +you, and that would be plain enough if you were in your right mind. I +shall not stand this foolishness another moment. You must go with me +at once to Lemuel Weeks'. If you will not, I'll have you taken to an +insane asylum." +</P> + +<P> +"To an insane asylum! What for?" she half shrieked, springing to her +feet. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll see," he replied, going down the steps. "Jump up, Jane! I +shall take the trunk to your cousin's. If you are so crazy as to stay +in a man's house when he don't want you and won't have you, you are fit +only for an asylum." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson was sane enough to perceive that she was at the end of her +adhesive resources. In his possession of her trunk, the farmer also +had a strategic advantage which made it necessary for her to yield. +She did so, however, with very bad grace. When he drove up, she +bounced into the wagon as if made of India rubber, while Jane followed +slowly, with a look of sullen apathy. He touched his horses with the +whip into a smart trot, scarcely daring to believe in his good fortune. +The lane was rather steep and rough, and he soon had to pull up lest +the object of his unhappy solicitude should be jolted out of the +vehicle. This gave the widow her chance to open fire. "The end has not +come yet, Mr. Holcroft," she said vindictively. "You may think you are +going to have an easy triumph over a poor, friendless, unfortunate, +sensitive, afflicted woman and a fatherless child, but you shall soon +learn that there's a law in the land. You have addressed improper +words to me, you have threatened me, you have broken your agreement. I +have writings, I have a memory, I have language to plead the cause of +the widow and the fatherless. I have been wronged, outraged, trampled +upon, and then turned out of doors. The indignant world shall hear my +story, the finger of scorn will be pointed at you. Your name will +become a byword and a hissing. Respecterble women, respecterbly +connected, will stand aloof and shudder." +</P> + +<P> +The torrent of words was unchecked except when the wheels struck a +stone, jolting her so severely that her jaws came together with a click +as if she were snapping at him. +</P> + +<P> +He made no reply whatever, but longed to get his hands upon Lemuel +Weeks. Pushing his horses to a high rate of speed, he soon reached that +interested neighbor's door, intercepting him just as he was starting to +town. +</P> + +<P> +He looked very sour as he saw his wife's relatives, and demanded +harshly, "What does this mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"It means," cried Mrs. Mumpson in her high, cackling tones, "that he's +said things and done things too awful to speak of; that he's broken his +agreement and turned us out of doors." +</P> + +<P> +"Jim Holcroft," said Mr. Weeks, blustering up to the wagon, "you can't +carry on with this high hand. Take these people back to your house +where they belong, or you'll be sorry." +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft sprang out, whirled Mr. Weeks out of his way, took out the +trunk, then with equal expedition and no more ceremony lifted down Mrs. +Mumpson and Jane. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know what you're about?" shouted Mr. Weeks in a rage. "I'll +have the law on you this very day." +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft maintained his ominous silence as he hitched his horses +securely. Then he strode toward Weeks, who backed away from him. "Oh, +don't be afraid, you sneaking, cowardly fox!" said the farmer bitterly. +"If I gave you your desserts, I'd take my horsewhip to you. You're +going to law me, are you? Well, begin today, and I'll be ready for you. +I won't demean myself by answering that woman, but I'm ready for you in +any way you've a mind to come. I'll put you and your wife on the +witness stand. I'll summon Cousin Abram, as you call him, and his +wife, and compel you all under oath to give Mrs. Mumpson a few +testimonials. I'll prove the trick you played on me and the lies you +told. I'll prove that this woman, in my absence, invaded my room, and +with keys of her own opened my dead wife's bureau and pulled out her +things. I'll prove that she hasn't earned her salt and can't, and may +prove something more. Now, if you want to go to law, begin. Nothing +would please me better than to show up you and your tribe. I've +offered to pay this woman her three months' wages in full, and so have +kept my agreement. She has not kept hers, for she's only sat in a +rocking chair and made trouble. Now, do as you please. I'll give you +all the law you want. I'd like to add a horsewhipping, but that would +give you a case and now you haven't any." +</P> + +<P> +As Holcroft uttered these words sternly and slowly, like a man angry +indeed but under perfect self-control, the perspiration broke out on +Weeks' face. He was aware that Mrs. Mumpson was too well known to play +the role of a wronged woman, and remembered what his testimony and that +of many others would be under oath. Therefore, he began, "Oh, well, +Mr. Holcroft! There's no need of your getting in such a rage and +threatening so; I'm willing to talk the matter over and only want to do +the square thing." +</P> + +<P> +The farmer made a gesture of disgust as he said, "I understand you, +Lemuel Weeks. There's no talking needed and I'm in no mood for it. +Here's the money I agreed to pay. I'll give it to Mrs. Mumpson when +she has signed this paper, and you've signed as witness of her +signature. Otherwise, it's law. Now decide quick, I'm in a hurry." +</P> + +<P> +Objections were interposed, and Holcroft, returning the money to his +pocket, started for his team, without a word. "Oh, well!" said Weeks in +strong irritation, "I haven't time for a lawsuit at this season of the +year. You are both cranks, and I suppose it would be best for me and +my folks to be rid of you both. It's a pity, though, you couldn't be +married and left to fight it out." +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft took the whip from his wagon and said quietly, "If you speak +another insulting word, I'll horsewhip you and take my chances." +</P> + +<P> +Something in the man's look prevented Weeks from uttering another +unnecessary remark. The business was soon transacted, accompanied +with Mrs. Mumpson's venomous words, for she had discovered that she +could stigmatize Holcroft with impunity. He went to Jane and shook her +hand as he said goodby. "I am sorry for you, and I won't forget my +promise;" then drove rapidly away. +</P> + +<P> +"Cousin Lemuel," said Mrs. Mumpson plaintively, "won't you have Timothy +take my trunk to our room?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I won't," he snapped. "You've had your chance and have fooled it +away. I was just going to town, and you and Jane will go along with +me," and he put the widow's trunk into his wagon. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Weeks came out and wiped her eyes ostentatiously with her apron as +she whispered, "I can't help it, Cynthy. When Lemuel goes off the +handle in this way, it's no use for me to say anything." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson wept hysterically as she was driven away. Jane's sullen +and apathetic aspect had passed away in part for Holcroft's words had +kindled something like hope. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XVII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A Momentous Decision +</H3> + +<P> +It must be admitted that Holcroft enjoyed his triumph over Lemuel Weeks +very much after the fashion of the aboriginal man. Indeed, he was +almost sorry he had not been given a little more provocation, knowing +well that, had this been true, his neighbor would have received a +fuller return for his interested efforts. As he saw his farmhouse in +the shimmering April sunlight, as the old churning dog came forward, +wagging his tail, the farmer said, "This is the only place which can +ever be home to me. Well, well! It's queer about people. Some, when +they go, leave you desolate; others make you happy by their absence. I +never dreamed that silly Mumpson could make me happy, but she has. +Blessed if I don't feel happy! The first time in a year or more!" And +he began to whistle old "Coronation" in the most lively fashion as he +unharnessed his horses. +</P> + +<P> +A little later, he prepared himself a good dinner and ate it in +leisurely enjoyment, sharing a morsel now and then with the old dog. +"You're a plaguey sight better company than she was," he mused. "That +poor little stray cat of a Jane! What will become of her? Well, well! +Soon as she's old enough to cut loose from her mother, I'll try to give +her a chance, if it's a possible thing." +</P> + +<P> +After dinner, he made a rough draught of an auction bill, offering his +cows for sale, muttering as he did so, "Tom Watterly'll help me put it +in better shape." Then he drove a mile away to see old Mr. And Mrs. +Johnson. The former agreed for a small sum to mount guard with his dog +during the farmer's occasional absences, and the latter readily +consented to do the washing and mending. +</P> + +<P> +"What do I want of any more 'peculiar females,' as that daft widow +called 'em?" he chuckled on his return. "Blames if she wasn't the most +peculiar of the lot. Think of me marrying her!" and the hillside +echoed to his derisive laugh. "As I feel today, there's a better chance +of my being struck by lightning than marrying, and I don't think any +woman could do it in spite of me. I'll run the ranch alone." +</P> + +<P> +That evening he smoked his pipe cheerfully beside the kitchen fire, the +dog sleeping at his feet. "I declare," he said smilingly, "I feel quite +at home." +</P> + +<P> +In the morning, after attending to his work, he went for old Jonathan +Johnson and installed him in charge of the premises; then drove to the +almshouse with all the surplus butter and eggs on hand. Tom Watterly +arrived at the door with his fast-trotting horse at the same time, and +cried, "Hello, Jim! Just in time. I'm a sort of grass widower +today—been taking my wife out to see her sister. Come in and take pot +luck with me and keep up my spirits." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, now, Tom," said Holcroft, shaking hands, "I'm glad, not that +your wife's away, although it does make me downhearted to contrast your +lot and mine, but I'm glad you can give me a little time, for I want to +use that practical head of yours—some advice, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"All right. Nothing to do for an hour or two but eat dinner and smoke +my pipe with you. Here, Bill! Take this team and feed 'em." +</P> + +<P> +"Hold on," said Holcroft, "I'm not going to sponge on you. I've got +some favors to ask, and I want you to take in return some butter half +spoiled in the making and this basket of eggs. They're all right." +</P> + +<P> +"Go to thunder, Holcroft! What do you take me for? When you've filled +your pipe after dinner will you pull an egg out of your pocket and say, +'That's for a smoke?' No, no, I don't sell any advice to old friends +like you. I'll buy your butter and eggs at what they're worth and have +done with 'em. Business is one thing, and sitting down and talking +over an old crony's troubles is another. I'm not a saint, Jim, as you +know—a man in politics can't be—but I remember when we were boys +together, and somehow thinking of those old days always fetches me. +Come in, for dinner is a-waiting, I guess." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Tom, saint or no saint, I'd like to vote for you for gov'nor." +</P> + +<P> +"This aint an electioneering trick, as you know. I can play them off +as well as the next feller when there's need, kiss the babies and all +that." +</P> + +<P> +Dinner was placed on the table immediately, and in a few moments the +friends were left alone. Then Holcroft related in a half comic, half +serious manner his tribulations with the help. Tom sat back in his +chair and roared at the account of the pitched battle between the two +widows and the final smoking out of Mrs. Mumpson, but he reproached his +friend for not having horsewhipped Lemuel Weeks. "Don't you remember, +Jim, he was a sneaking, tricky chap when we were at school together? I +licked him once, and it always does me good to think of it." +</P> + +<P> +"I own it takes considerable to rile me to the point of striking a man, +especially on his own land. His wife was looking out the window, too. +If we'd been out in the road or anywhere else—but what's the use? I'm +glad now it turned out as it has for I've too much on my mind for +lawsuits, and the less one has to do with such cattle as Weeks the +better. Well, you see I'm alone again, and I'm going to go it alone. +I'm going to sell my cows and give up the dairy, and the thing I wanted +help in most is the putting this auction bill in shape; also advice as +to whether I had better try to sell here in town or up at the farm." +</P> + +<P> +Tom shook his head dubiously and scarcely glanced at the paper. "Your +scheme don't look practical to me," he said. "I don't believe you can +run that farm alone without losing money. You'll just keep on going +behind till the first thing you know you'll clap a mortgage on it. +Then you'll soon be done for. What's more, you'll break down if you try +to do both outdoor and indoor work. Busy times will soon come, and you +won't get your meals regularly; you'll be living on coffee and anything +that comes handiest; your house will grow untidy and not fit to live +in. If you should be taken sick, there'd be no one to do for you. +Lumbermen, hunters, and such fellows can rough it alone awhile, but I +never heard of a farm being run by man-power alone. Now as to selling +out your stock, look at it. Grazing is what your farm's good for +mostly. It's a pity you're so bent on staying there. Even if you +didn't get very much for the place, from sale or rent, you'd have +something that was sure. A strong, capable man like you could find +something to turn your hand to. Then you could board in some +respectable family, and not have to live like Robinson Crusoe. I've +thought it over since we talked last, and if I was you I'd sell or +rent." +</P> + +<P> +"It's too late in the season to do either," said Holcroft dejectedly. +"What's more, I don't want to, at least not this year. I've settled +that, Tom. I'm going to have one more summer on the old place, anyway, +if I have to live on bread and milk." +</P> + +<P> +"You can't make bread." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll have it brought from town on the stage." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it's a pity some good, decent woman—There, how should I come to +forget all about HER till this minute? I don't know whether it would +work. Perhaps it would. There's a woman here out of the common run. +She has quite a story, which I'll tell you in confidence. Then you can +say whether you'd like to employ her or not. If you WILL stay on the +farm, my advice is that you have a woman to do the housework, and me +and Angy must try to find you one, if the one I have in mind won't +answer. The trouble is, Holcroft, to get the right kind of a woman to +live there alone with you, unless you married her. Nice women don't +like to be talked about, and I don't blame 'em. The one that's here, +though, is so friendless and alone in the world that she might be glad +enough to get a home almost anywheres." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well! Tell me about her," said Holcroft gloomily. "But I'm about +discouraged in the line of women help." +</P> + +<P> +Watterly told Alida's story with a certain rude pathos which touched +the farmer's naturally kind heart, and he quite forgot his own need in +indignation at the poor woman's wrongs. "It's a **** shame!" he said +excitedly, pacing the room. "I say, Tom, all the law in the land +wouldn't keep me from giving that fellow a whipping or worse." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, she won't prosecute; she won't face the public; she just wants +to go to some quiet place and work for her bread. She don't seem to +have any friends, or else she's too ashamed to let them know." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, of course I'd give such a woman a refuge till she could do +better. What man wouldn't?" +</P> + +<P> +"A good many wouldn't. What's more, if she went with you her story +might get out, and you'd both be talked about." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't care that for gossip," with a snap of his fingers. "You know +I'd treat her with respect." +</P> + +<P> +"What I know, and what other people would say, are two very different +things. Neither you nor anyone else can go too strongly against public +opinion. Still, it's nobody's business," added Tom thoughtfully. +"Perhaps it's worth the trial. If she went I think she'd stay and do +the best by you she could. Would you like to see her?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +Alida was summoned and stood with downcast eyes in the door. "Come in +and take a chair," said Tom kindly. "You know I promised to be on the +lookout for a good place for you. Well, my friend here, Mr. Holcroft, +whom I've known ever since I was a boy, wants a woman to do general +housework and take care of the dairy." +</P> + +<P> +She gave the farmer one of those swift, comprehensive glances by which +women take in a personality, and said in a tone of regret, "But I don't +understand dairy work." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you'd soon learn. It's just the kind of a place you said you +wanted, a lonely, out-of-the-way farm and no other help kept. What's +more, my friend Holcroft is a kind, honest man. He'd treat you right. +He knows all about your trouble and is sorry for you." +</P> + +<P> +If Holcroft had been an ogre in appearance, he would have received the +grateful glance which she now gave him as she said, "I'd be only too +glad to work for you, sir, if you think I can do, or learn to do, what +is required." +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft, while his friend was speaking, had studied closely Alida's +thin, pale face, and he saw nothing in it not in harmony with the story +he had heard. "I am sorry for you," he said kindly. "I believe you +never meant to do wrong and have tried to do right. I will be +perfectly honest with you. My wife is dead, the help I had has left +me, and I live alone in the house. The truth is, too, that I could not +afford to keep two in help, and there would not be work for them both." +</P> + +<P> +Alida had learned much in her terrible adversity, and had, moreover the +instincts of a class superior to the position she was asked to take. +She bowed low to hide the burning flush that crimsoned her pale cheeks +as she faltered, "It may seem strange to you, sirs, that one situated +as I am should hesitate, but I have never knowingly done anything which +gave people the right to speak against me. I do not fear work, I would +humbly try to do my best, but—" She hesitated and rose as if to retire. +</P> + +<P> +"I understand you," said Holcroft kindly, "and I don't blame you for +doing what you think is right." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm very sorry, sir," she replied, tears coming into her eyes as she +went out of the room. +</P> + +<P> +"There it is, Holcroft," said Tom. "I believe she's just the one for +you, but you can see she isn't of the common kind. She knows as well +as you and me how people would talk, especially if her story came out, +as like enough it will." +</P> + +<P> +"Hang people!" snarled the farmer. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, a good lot of 'em deserve hanging, but it wouldn't help you any +just now. Perhaps she'd go with you if you got another girl or took an +old woman from the house here to keep her company." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sick to death of such hags," said the farmer with an impatient +gesture. Then he sat down and looked at his friend as if a plan was +forming in his mind of which he scarcely dare speak. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, out with it!" said Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you ever seen a marriage ceremony performed by a justice of the +peace?" Holcroft asked slowly. +</P> + +<P> +"No, but they do it often enough. What! Are you going to offer her +marriage?" +</P> + +<P> +"You say she is homeless and friendless?' +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"And you believe she is just what she seems—just what her story shows +her to be?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I've seen too many frauds to be taken in. She isn't a fraud. +Neither does she belong to that miserable, wishy-washy, downhill class +that sooner or later fetches up in a poorhouse. They say we're all +made of dust, but some seem made of mud. You could see she was out of +the common; and she's here on account of the wrong she received and not +the wrong she did. I say all this in fairness to her; but when it +comes to marrying her, that's another question." +</P> + +<P> +"Tom, as I've told you, I don't want to marry. In fact, I couldn't go +before a minister and promise what I'd have to. But I could do +something like this. I could give this woman an honest name and a home. +It would be marriage before the law. No one could ever say a word +against either of us. I would be true and kind to her and she should +share in my fortunes. That's all. You have often advised me to marry, +and you know if I did it couldn't be anything else but a business +affair. Then it ought to be done in a businesslike way. You say I +can't get along alone, and like enough you're right. I've learned more +from this woman's manner than I have in a year why I can't get and keep +the right kind of help, and I now feel if I could find a good, honest +woman who would make my interest hers, and help me make a living in my +own home, I'd give her my name and all the security which an honest +name conveys. Now, this poor woman is in sore need and she might be +grateful for what I can do, while any other woman would naturally +expect me to promise more than I honestly can. Anyhow, I'd have to go +through the form, and I can't and won't go and say sacred words—just +about what I said when I married my wife—and know all the time I was +lying." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Holcroft, you're a queer dick and this is a queer plan of yours. +You're beyond my depth now and I can't advise." +</P> + +<P> +"Why is it a queer plan? Things only seem odd because they are not +common. As a matter of fact, you advise a business marriage. When I +try to follow your advice honestly and not dishonestly, you say I'm +queer." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose if everybody became honest, it would be the queerest world +every known," said Tom laughing. "Well, you might do worse than marry +this woman. I can tell you that marrying is risky business at best. +You know a justice will tie you just as tight as a minister, and while +I've given you my impression about this woman, I KNOW little about her +and you know next to nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"I guess that would be the case, anyhow. If you set out to find a wife +for me, where is there a woman that you actually do know more about? +As for my going here and there, to get acquainted, it's out of the +question. All my feelings rise up against such a course. Now, I feel +sorry for this woman. She has at least my sympathy. If she is as +friendless, poor, and unhappy as she seems, I might do her as great a +kindness as she would do for me if she could take care of my home. I +wouldn't expect very much. It would be a comfort just to have someone +in the house that wouldn't rob or waste, and who, knowing what her +station was, would be content. Of course I'd have to talk it over with +her and make my purpose clear. She might agree with you that it's too +queer to be thought of. If so, that would be the end of it." +</P> + +<P> +"Will, Jim, you always finish by half talking me over to your side of a +question. Now, if my wife was home, I don't believe she'd listen to +any such plan." +</P> + +<P> +"No, I suppose she wouldn't. She'd believe in people marrying and +doing everything in the ordinary way. But neither I nor this woman is +in ordinary circumstances. Do you know of a justice?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and you know him, too; Justice Harkins." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, certainly. He came from our town and I knew him when he was a +boy, although I haven't seen much of him of late years." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, shall I go and say to this woman—Alida Armstrong is her name +now, I suppose—that you wish to see her again?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I shall tell her the truth. Then she can decide." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XVIII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Holcroft Gives His Hand +</H3> + +<P> +Alida was seated by a window with some of the mending in which she +assisted, and, as usual, was apart by herself. Watterly entered the +large apartment quietly, and at first she did not observe him. He had +time to note that she was greatly dejected, and when she saw him she +hastily wiped tears from her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"You are a good deal cast down, Alida," he said, watching her closely. +</P> + +<P> +"I've reason to be. I don't see any light ahead at all." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you know the old saying, 'It's darkest before day.' I want you +to come with me again. I think I've found a chance for you." +</P> + +<P> +She rose with alacrity and followed. As soon as they were alone, he +turned and looked her squarely in the face as he said gravely, "You +have good common sense, haven't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know, sir," she faltered, perplexed and troubled by the +question. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you can understand this much, I suppose. As superintendent of +this house I have a responsible position, which I could easily lose if +I allowed myself to be mixed up with anything wrong or improper. To +come right to the point, you don't know much about me and next to +nothing of my friend Holcroft, but can't you see that even if I was a +heartless, good-for-nothing fellow, it wouldn't be wise or safe for me +to permit anything that wouldn't bear the light?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think you are an honest man, sir. It would be strange if I did not +have confidence when you have judged me and treated me so kindly. But, +Mr. Watterly, although helpless and friendless, I must try to do what I +think is best. If I accepted Mr. Holcroft's position it might do him +harm. You know how quick the world is to misjudge. It would seem to +confirm everything that has been said against me," and the same painful +flush again overspread her features. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Alida, all that you have to do is to listen patiently to my +friend. Whether you agree with his views or not, you will see that he +is a good-hearted, honest man. I want to prepare you for this talk by +assuring you that I've known him since he was a boy, that he has lived +all his life in this region and is known by many others, and that I +wouldn't dare let him ask you to do anything wrong, even if I was bad +enough." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure, sir, you don't wish me any harm," she again faltered in deep +perplexity. +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed I don't. I don't advise my friend's course; neither do I +oppose it. He's certainly old enough to act for himself. I suppose I'm +a rough counselor for a young woman, but since you appear to have so +few friends I'm inclined to act as one. Just you stand on the question +of right and wrong, and dismiss from your mind all foolish notions of +what people will say. As a rule, all the people in the world can't do +as much for us as somebody in particular. Now you go in the parlor and +listen like a sensible woman. I'll be reading the paper, and the girl +will be clearing off the table in the next room here." +</P> + +<P> +Puzzled and trembling, Alida entered the apartment where Holcroft was +seated. She was so embarrassed that she could not lift her eyes to him. +</P> + +<P> +"Please sit down," he said gravely, "and don't be troubled, much less +frightened. You are just as free to act as ever you were in your life." +</P> + +<P> +She sat down near the door and compelled herself to look at him, for +she felt instinctively that she might gather more from the expression +of his face than from his words. +</P> + +<P> +"Alida Armstrong is your name, Mr. Watterly tells me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Alida, I want to have a plain business talk with you. That's +nothing to be nervous and worried about, you know. As I told you, I've +heard your story. It has made me sorry for you instead of setting me +against you. It has made me respect you as a right-minded woman, and I +shall give you good proof that my words are true. At the same time, I +shan't make any false pretenses to what isn't true and couldn't be +true. Since I've heard your story, it's only fair you should hear +mine, and I ought to tell it first." +</P> + +<P> +He went over the past very briefly until he came to the death of his +wife. There was simple and homely pathos in the few sentences with +which he referred to this event. Then more fully he enlarged upon his +efforts and failure to keep house with hired help. Unconsciously, he +had taken the best method to enlist her sympathy. The secluded cottage +and hillside farm became realities to her fancy. She saw how the man's +heart clung to his home, and his effort to keep it touched her deeply. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" she thought, "I do wish there was some way for me to go there. +The loneliness of the place which drove others away is the chief +attraction for me. Then it would be pleasant to work for such a man +and make his home comfortable for him. It's plain from his words and +looks that he's as honest and straightforward as the day is long. He +only wants to keep his home and make his living in peace." +</P> + +<P> +As he had talked her nervous embarrassment passed away, and the deep +sense of her own need was pressing upon her again. She saw that he +also was in great need. His business talk was revealing deep trouble +and perplexity. With the quick intuitions of a woman, her mind went +far beyond his brief sentences and saw all the difficulties of his lot. +His feeling reference to the loss of his wife proved that he was not a +coarse-natured man. As he spoke so plainly of his life during the past +year, her mind was insensibly abstracted from everything but his want +and hers, and she thought his farmhouse afforded just the secluded +refuge she craved. As he drew near the end of his story and hesitated +in visible embarrassment, she mustered courage to say timidly, "Would +you permit a suggestion from me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, certainly." +</P> + +<P> +"You have said, sir, that your business and means would not allow you +to keep two in help, and as you have been speaking I have tried to +think of some way. The fact that your house is so lonely is just the +reason why I should like to work in it. As you can understand, I have +no wish to meet strangers. Now, sir, I am willing to work for very +little; I should be glad to find such a quiet refuge for simply my +board and clothes, and I would do my very best and try to learn what I +did not know. It seems to me that if I worked for so little you might +think you could afford to hire some elderly woman also?" and she looked +at him in the eager hope that he would accept her proposition. +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head as he replied, "I don't know of any such person. I +took the best one in this house, and you know how she turned out." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps Mr. Watterly may know of someone else," she faltered. She was +now deeply troubled and perplexed again, supposing that he was about to +renew his first proposition that she should be his only help. +</P> + +<P> +"If Mr. Watterly did know of anyone I would make the trial, but he does +not. Your offer is very considerate and reasonable, but—" and he +hesitated again, scarcely knowing how to go on. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry, sir," she said, rising, as if to end the interview. +</P> + +<P> +"Stay," he said, "you do not understand me yet. Of course I should not +make you the same offer that I did at first, after seeing your feeling +about it, and I respect you all the more because you so respect +yourself. What I had in mind was to give you my name, and it's an +honest name. If we were married it would be perfectly proper for you +to go with me, and no one could say a word against either of us." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" she gasped, in strong agitation and surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"Now don't be so taken aback. It's just as easy for you to refuse as +it is to speak, but listen first. What seems strange and unexpected +may be the most sensible thing for us both. You have your side of the +case to think of just as truly as I have mine; and I'm not forgetting, +and I don't ask you to forget, that I'm still talking business. You +and I have both been through too much trouble and loss to say any silly +nonsense to each other. You've heard my story, yet I'm almost a +stranger to you as you are to me. We'd both have to take considerable +on trust. Yet I know I'm honest and well-meaning, and I believe you +are. Now look at it. Here we are, both much alone in the world—both +wishing to live a retired, quiet life. I don't care a rap for what +people say as long as I'm doing right, and in this case they'd have +nothing to say. It's our own business. I don't see as people will +ever do much for you, and a good many would impose on you and expect +you to work beyond your strength. They might not be very kind or +considerate, either. I suppose you've thought of this?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she replied with bowed head. "I should meet coldness, probably +harshness and scorn." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you'd never meet anything of the kind in my house. I would +treat you with respect and kindness. At the same time, I'm not going +to mislead you by a word. You shall have a chance to decide in view of +the whole truth. My friend, Mr. Watterly, has asked me more'n once, +'Why don't you marry again?' I told him I had been married once, and +that I couldn't go before a minister and promise the same things over +again when they wasn't true. I can't make to you any promises or say +any words that are not true, and I don't ask or expect you to do what I +can't do. But it has seemed to me that our condition was out of the +common lot—that we could take each other for just what we might be to +each other and no more. You would be my wife in name, and I do not ask +you to be my wife in more than name. You would thus secure a good home +and the care and protection of one who would be kind to you, and I +would secure a housekeeper—one that would stay with me and make my +interests hers. It would be a fair, square arrangement between +ourselves, and nobody else's business. By taking this course, we don't +do any wrong to our feelings or have to say or promise anything that +isn't true." +</P> + +<P> +"Yet I can't help saying, sir," she replied, in strong, yet repressed +agitation, "that your words sound very strange; and it seems stranger +still that you can offer marriage of any kind to a woman situated as I +am. You know my story, sir," she added, crimsoning, "and all may soon +know it. You would suffer wrong and injury." +</P> + +<P> +"I offer you open and honorable marriage before the world, and no other +kind. Mr. Watterly and others—as many as you pleased—would witness +it, and I'd have you given a certificate at once. As for your story, +it has only awakened my sympathy. You have not meant to do any wrong. +Your troubles are only another reason in my mind for not taking any +advantage of you or deceiving you in the least. Look the truth +squarely in the face. I'm bent on keeping my house and getting my +living as I have done, and I need a housekeeper that will be true to +all my interests. Think how I've been robbed and wronged, and what a +dog's life I've lived in my own home. You need a home, a support, and +a protector. I couldn't come to you or go to any other woman and say +honestly more than this. Isn't it better for people to be united on +the ground of truth than to begin by telling a pack of lies?" +</P> + +<P> +"But—but can people be married with such an understanding by a +minister? Wouldn't it be deceiving him?" +</P> + +<P> +"I shall not ask you to deceive anyone. Any marriage that either you +or I could now make would be practically a business marriage. I should +therefore take you, if you were willing, to a justice and have a legal +or civil marriage performed, and this would be just as binding as any +other in the eye of the law. It is often done. This would be much +better to my mind than if people, situated as we are, went to a church +or a minister." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes, I couldn't do that." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, now, Alida," he said, with a smile that wonderfully softened his +rugged features, "you are free to decide. It may seem to you a strange +sort of courtship, but we are both too old for much foolishness. I +never was sentimental, and it would be ridiculous to begin now. I'm +full of trouble and perplexity, and so are you. Are you willing to be +my wife so far as an honest name goes, and help me make a living for us +both? That's all I ask. I, in my turn, would promise to treat you +with kindness and respect, and give you a home as long as I lived and +to leave you all I have in the world if I died. That's all I could +promise. I'm a lonely, quiet man, and like to be by myself. I +wouldn't be much society for you. I've said more today than I might in +a month, for I felt that it was due to you to know just what you were +doing." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, sir," said Alida, trembling, and with tears in her eyes, "you do +not ask much and you offer a great deal. If you, a strong man, dread +to leave your home and go out into the world you know not where, think +how terrible it is for a weak, friendless woman to be worse than +homeless. I have lost everything, even my good name." +</P> + +<P> +"No, no! Not in my eyes." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I know, I know!" she cried, wringing her hands. "Even these +miserable paupers like myself have made me feel it. They have burned +the truth into my brain and heart. Indeed, sir, you do not realize +what you are doing or asking. It is not fit or meet that I should bear +your name. You might be sorry, indeed." +</P> + +<P> +"Alida," said Holcroft gravely, "I've not forgotten your story, and you +shouldn't forget mine. Be sensible now. Don't I look old enough to +know what I'm about?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, oh, oh!" she cried impetuously, "if I were only sure it was right! +It may be business to you, but it seems like life or death to me. It's +more than death—I don't fear that—but I do fear life, I do fear the +desperate struggle just to maintain a bare, dreary existence. I do +dread going out among strangers and seeing their cold curiosity and +their scorn. You can't understand a woman's heart. It isn't right for +me to die till God takes me, but life has seemed so horrible, meeting +suspicion on one side and cruel, significant looks of knowledge on the +other. I've been tortured even here by these wretched hags, and I've +envied even them, so near to death, yet not ashamed like me. I know, +and you should know, that my heart is broken, crushed, trampled into +the mire. I had felt that for me even the thought of marriage again +would be a mockery, a wicked thing, which I would never have a right to +entertain.—I never dreamt that anyone would think of such a thing, +knowing what you know. Oh, oh! Why have you tempted me so if it is +not right? I must do right. The feeling that I've not meant to do +wrong is all that has kept me from despair. But can it be right to let +you take me from the street, the poorhouse, with nothing to give but a +blighted name, a broken heart and feeble hands! See, I am but the +shadow of what I was, and a dark shadow at that. I could be only a +dismal shadow at any man's hearth. Oh, oh! I've thought and suffered +until my reason seemed going. You don't realize, you don't know the +depths into which I've fallen. It can't be right." +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft was almost appalled at this passionate outburst in one who +thus far had been sad, indeed, yet self-controlled. He looked at her +in mingled pity and consternation. His own troubles had seemed heavy +enough, but he now caught glimpses of something far beyond trouble—of +agony, of mortal dread that bordered on despair. He could scarcely +comprehend how terrible to a woman like Alida were the recent events of +her life, and how circumstances, with illness, had all tended to create +a morbid horror of her situation. Like himself she was naturally +reticent in regard to her deeper feelings, patient and undemonstrative. +Had not his words evoked this outburst she might have suffered and died +in silence, but in this final conflict between conscience and hope, the +hot lava of her heart had broken forth. So little was he then able to +understand her, that suspicions crossed his mind. Perhaps his friend +Watterly had not heard the true story or else not the whole story. But +his straightforward simplicity stood him in good stead, and he said +gently, "Alida, you say I don't know, I don't realize. I believe you +will tell me the truth. You went to a minister and were married to a +man that you thought you had a right to marry—" +</P> + +<P> +"You shall know it all from my own lips," she said, interrupting him; +"you have a right to know; and then you will see that it cannot be," +and with bowed head, and low, rapid, passionate utterance, she poured +out her story. "That woman, his wife," she concluded, "made me feel +that I was of the scum and offscouring of the earth, and they've made +me feel so here, too—even these wretched paupers. So the world will +look on me till God takes me to my mother. O, thank God! She don't +know. Don' you see, now?" she asked, raising her despairing eyes from +which agony had dried all tears. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I see you do," she added desperately, "for even you have turned +from me." +</P> + +<P> +"Confound it!" cried Holcroft, standing up and searching his pockets +for a handkerchief. "I—I—I'd like—like to choke that fellow. If I +could get my hands on him, there'd be trouble. Turn away from you, you +poor wronged creature! Don't you see I'm so sorry for you that I'm +making a fool of myself? I, who couldn't shed a tear over my own +troubles—there, there,—come now, let us be sensible. Let's get back +to business, for I can't stand this kind of thing at all. I'm so +confused betwixt rage at him and pity for you—Let me see; this is +where we were: I want someone to take care of my home, and you want a +home. That's all there is about it now. If you say so, I'll make you +Mrs. Holcroft in an hour." +</P> + +<P> +"I did not mean to work upon your sympathies, only to tell you the +truth. God bless you! That the impulses of your heart are so kind and +merciful. But let me be true to you as well as to myself. Go away and +think it all over calmly and quietly. Even for the sake of being +rescued from a life that I dread far more than death, I cannot let you +do that which you may regret unspeakably. Do not think I misunderstand +your offer. It's the only one I could think of, and I would not have +thought of it if you had not spoke. I have no heart to give. I could +be a wife only in name, but I could work like a slave for protection +from a cruel, jeering world; I could hope for something like peace and +respite from suffering if I only had a safe refuge. But I must not +have these if it is not right and best. Good to me must not come +through wrong to you." +</P> + +<P> +"Tush, tush! You mustn't talk so. I can't stand it at all. I've +heard your story. It's just as I supposed at first, only a great deal +more so. Why, of course it's all right. It makes me believe in +Providence, it all turns out so entirely for our mutual good. I can do +as much to help you as you to help me. Now let's get back on the +sensible, solid ground from which we started. The idea of my wanting +you to work like a slave! Like enough some people would, and then +you'd soon break down and be brought back here again. No, no; I've +explained just what I wish and just what I mean. You must get over the +notion that I'm a sentimental fool, carried away by my feelings. How +Tom Watterly would laugh at the idea! My mind is made up now just as +much as it would be a week hence. This is no place for you, and I +don't like to think of your being here. My spring work is pressing, +too. Don't you see that by doing what I ask you can set me right on my +feet and start me uphill again after a year of miserable downhill work? +You have only to agree to what I've said, and you will be at home +tonight and I'll be quietly at my work tomorrow. Mr. Watterly will go +with us to the justice, who has known me all my life. Then, if anyone +ever says a word against you, he'll have me to settle with. Come, +Alida! Here's a strong hand that's able to take care of you." +</P> + +<P> +She hesitated a moment, then clasped it like one who is sinking, and +before he divined her purpose, she kissed and bedewed it with tears. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XIX. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A Business Marriage +</H3> + +<P> +While Holcroft's sympathies had been deeply touched by the intense +emotion of gratitude which had overpowered Alida, he had also been +disturbed and rendered somewhat anxious. He was actually troubled lest +the woman he was about to marry should speedily begin to love him, and +develop a tendency to manifest her affection in a manner that would +seem to him extravagant and certainly disagreeable. Accustomed all his +life to repress his feelings, he wondered at himself and could not +understand how he had given way so unexpectedly. He was not +sufficiently versed in human nature to know that the depth of Alida's +distress was the adequate cause. If there had been a false or an +affected word, he would have remained cool enough. In his inability to +gauge his own nature as well as hers, he feared lest this businesslike +marriage was verging toward sentiment on her part. He did not like her +kissing his hand. He was profoundly sorry for her, but so he would +have been for any other woman suffering under the burden of a great +wrong. He felt that it would be embarrassing if she entertained +sentiments toward him which he could not reciprocate, and open +manifestations of regard would remind him of that horror of his life, +Mrs. Mumpson. He was not incapable of quick, strong sympathy in any +instance of genuine trouble, but he was one of those men who would +shrink in natural recoil from any marked evidence of a woman's +preference unless the counterpart of her regard existed in his own +breast. +</P> + +<P> +To a woman of Alida's intuition the way in which he withdrew his hand +and the expression of his face had a world of meaning. She would not +need a second hint. Yet she did not misjudge him; she knew that he +meant what he had said and had said all that he meant. She was also +aware that he had not and never could understand the depths of fear and +suffering from which his hand was lifting her. Her gratitude was akin +to that of a lost soul saved, and that was all she had involuntarily +expressed. She sat down again and quietly dried her eyes, while in her +heart she purposed to show her gratitude by patient assiduity in +learning to do what he required. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft was now bent upon carrying out his plan as quickly as possible +and returning home. He therefore asked, "Can you go with me at once, +Alida?" +</P> + +<P> +She simply bowed her acquiescence. +</P> + +<P> +"That's sensible. Perhaps you had better get your things ready while I +and Mr. Watterly go and arrange with Justice Harkins." +</P> + +<P> +Alida averted her face with a sort of shame which a woman feels who +admits such a truth. "I haven't anything, sir, but a hat and cloak to +put on. I came away and left everything." +</P> + +<P> +"And I'm glad of it," said Holcroft heartily. "I wouldn't want you to +bring anything which that scoundrel gave you." He paced the room +thoughtfully a moment or two and then he called Watterly in. "It's +settled, Tom. Alida will be Mrs. Holcroft as soon as we can see the +justice. Do you think we could persuade him to come here?" +</P> + +<P> +"One thing at a time. Mrs. Holcroft,—I may as well call you so, for +when my friend says he'll do a thing he does it,—I congratulate you. +I think you are well out of your troubles. Since you are to marry my +old friend, we must be friends, too," and he shook her heartily by the +hand. +</P> + +<P> +His words and manner were another ray of light—a welcome rift in the +black pall that had gathered round her. +</P> + +<P> +"You were the first friend I found, sir, after—what happened," she +said gratefully. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you've found another and a better one; and he'll always be just +the same. Any woman might be glad—" +</P> + +<P> +"Come, Tom, no more of that. I'm a plain old farmer that does what he +agrees, and that's all there is about it. I've told Alida just what I +wished and could do—" +</P> + +<P> +"I should hope so," interrupted Watterly, laughing. "You've taken time +enough, certainly, and I guess you've talked more than you have before +in a year." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I know I'm almost as bad as an oyster about talking except when +I'm with you. Somehow we've always had a good deal to say to each +other. In this case, I felt that it was due to Alida that she should +know all about me and understand fully just how I felt concerning this +marriage. The very fact that she hasn't friends to advise her made it +all the more needful that I should be plain and not mislead her in any +respect.—She has just as good a right to judge and act for herself as +any woman in the land, and she takes me, and I take her, with no +sentimental lies to start with. Now let's get back to business. I +rather think, since Harkins was an old acquaintance of mine, he'll come +up here and marry us, don't you? Alida, wouldn't you rather be married +here quietly than face a lot of strangers? You can have your own way, +I don't care now if half the town was present." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, indeed, sir! I don't want to meet strangers—and—and—I'm +not very strong yet. I thank you for considering my feelings so +kindly." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, that's my duty," replied the farmer. "Come, Watterly, the sun is +getting low, and we've considerable to do yet before we start home." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm with you. Now, Alida, you go back quietly and act as if nothing +had happened till I send for you. Of course this impatient young groom +will hurry back with the justice as fast as possible. Still, we may +not find him, or he may be so busy that we shall have to come back for +you and take you to his office." +</P> + +<P> +As she turned to leave the room, Holcroft gave her his hand and said +kindly, "Now don't you be nervous or worried. I see you are not +strong, and you shall not be taxed any more than I can help. Goodby +for a little while." +</P> + +<P> +Meantime Watterly stepped out a moment and gave his domestic a few +orders; then he accompanied Holcroft to the barn, and the horses were +soon attached to the market wagon. "You're in for it now, Jim, sure +enough," he said laughing. "What will Angy say to it all?" +</P> + +<P> +"Tell her that I say you've been a mighty good friend to me, yet I hope +I may never return any favors of the same kind." +</P> + +<P> +"By jocks! I hope not. I guess it's just as well she was away. +She'll think we've acted just like two harum-scarum men, and will be +awfully scandalized over your marrying this woman. Don't you feel a +little nervous about it?" +</P> + +<P> +"No! When my mind's made up, I don't worry. Nobody else need lie +awake for it's my affair." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Jim, you know how I feel about it, but I've got to say something +and I might as well say it plain." +</P> + +<P> +"That's the only way you ought to say it." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you talked long enough to give me plenty of time to think. One +thing is clear, Angy won't take to this marriage. You know I'd like to +have you both come in and take a meal as you always have done, but then +a man must keep peace with his wife, and—" +</P> + +<P> +"I understand, Tom. We won't come till Mrs. Watterly asks us." +</P> + +<P> +"But you won't have hard feelings?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, indeed. Aint you doing your level best as a friend?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you know women are so set about these things, and Angy is rather +hard on people who don't come up to her mark of respectability. What's +more, I suppose you'll find that others will think and act as she does. +If you cared about people's opinions I should have been dead against +it, but as you feel and are situated, I'm hanged if I don't think she's +just the one." +</P> + +<P> +"If it hadn't been this one, I don't believe it would have been anyone. +Here we are," and he tied his horses before the office of the justice. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Harkins greeted Holcroft with a sort of patronizing cordiality, and +was good enough to remember that they had been at the little country +schoolhouse together. In Watterly he heartily recognized a brother +politician who controlled a goodly number of votes. +</P> + +<P> +When Holcroft briefly made known his errand, the justice gave a great +guffaw of laughter and said, "Oh, bring her here! And I'll invite in +some of the boys as witnesses." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not afraid of all the witnesses that you could crowd into a +ten-acre lot," said Holcroft somewhat sternly, "but there is no +occasion to invite the boys, whoever they are, or anyone else. She +doesn't want to be stared at. I was in hopes, Mr. Harkins, that you'd +ride up to the almshouse with us and quietly marry us there." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I guess you'd better bring her here. I'm pretty busy this +afternoon, and—" +</P> + +<P> +"See here, Ben," said Watterly, taking the justice aside, "Holcroft is +my friend, and you know I'm mighty thick with my friends. They count +more with me than my wife's relations. Now I want you to do what +Holcroft wishes, as a personal favor to me, and the time will come when +I can make it up to you." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, certainly, Watterly! I didn't understand," replied Harkins, who +looked upon Holcroft as a close and, as he would phrase it, no-account +farmer, from whom he could never expect even a vote. "I'll go with you +at once. It's but a short job." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Holcroft, "how short can you make it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Let me get my book," and he took from a shelf the "Justice's +Assistant." "You can't want anything shorter than this?" and he read, +"'By this act of joining hands you do take each other as husband and +wife and solemnly engage in the presence of these witnesses to love and +honor and comfort and cherish each other as such so long as you both +shall live. Therefore, in accordance with the law of the state of New +York I do hereby pronounce you husband and wife.' A sailor couldn't +tie a knot quicker than that." +</P> + +<P> +"I guess you can, justice," said Holcroft, taking the book. "Suppose +you only read this much: 'By this act of joining hands you do take each +other as husband and wife. Therefore, in accordance with the law, +etc.' Would that be a legal marriage?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly. You'd have to go to a divorce court to get out of that." +</P> + +<P> +"It's my purpose to keep out of courts of all kinds. I'll thank you to +read just that much and no more. I don't want to say anything that +isn't exactly true." +</P> + +<P> +"You see how it is, Ben. Holcroft hasn't known the woman long, and +she's a nice woman, too, if she is boarding at my hotel. Holcroft +needs a wife—must have one, in fact, to help run his house and dairy. +It wasn't exactly a love match, you know; and he's that kind of a man +that a yoke of oxen couldn't draw a word out of him that he didn't +mean." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes, I see now," said Harkins. "I'll read just what you say and +no more." +</P> + +<P> +"And I'll have a little spread that we can be longer at than the +ceremony," added Watterly, who was inclined to be a little hilarious +over the affair. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft, however, maintained his grave manner, and when they reached +the almshouse he took Watterly aside and said, "See here, Tom, you've +been a good friend today and seconded me in everything. Now let the +affair pass off just as quietly and seriously as possible. She's too +cast down for a gay wedding. Suppose we had a daughter who'd been +through such an experience—a nice, good, modest girl. Her heart's too +sore for fun and jokes. My marrying her is much the same as pulling +her out of deep water in which she was sinking." +</P> + +<P> +"You're right, Jim. I didn't think, and one doesn't have much cause to +be so sparing of the feelings of such creatures as come here. But +she's out of the common run, and I ought to have remembered it. By +jocks! You're mighty careful about promising to love, cherish, and +obey, and all that, but I guess you'll do a sight more than many who do +promise." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I'm going to be kind. That's my duty. Give Harkins a hint. +Tell him that she's lost her mother. He needn't know when the old lady +died, but it will kind of solemnize him." +</P> + +<P> +Watterly did as requested, and Harkins, now convinced that his +political interests could be furthered by careful compliance with all +requirements, put on a grave, official air and was ready for business. +</P> + +<P> +Alida was sent for. She was too agitated to say farewell to any of the +poor creatures with whom she had been compelled to associate—even to +the few who, though scarcely sane, had manifested tenderness and +affection. She had felt that she must reserve all her strength for the +coming ordeal, which she both welcomed and feared inexpressibly. She +knew how critical was the step she was taking and how much depended on +it, yet the more she thought, the more it seemed to her as if +Providence had, as by a miracle, given her a refuge. Holcroft's +businesslike view of the marriage comforted her greatly, and she asked +God to give her health and strength to work faithfully for him many +years. +</P> + +<P> +But she had sad misgivings as she followed the messenger, for she felt +so weak that she could scarcely walk. It was indeed a pallid, +sorrowful, trembling bride that entered Mr. Watterly's parlor. +Holcroft met her and taking her hand, said kindly, "Courage! It will +be over in a minute." +</P> + +<P> +She was so pale and agitated that the justice asked, "do you enter into +this marriage freely and without compulsion of any kind?" +</P> + +<P> +"Please let me sit down a moment," she faltered, and Watterly hastened +to give her a chair. She fixed her eyes on Holcroft, and said +anxiously, "You see, sir, how weak I am. I have been sick and—and I +fear I am far from being well now. I fear you will be +disappointed—that it is not right to you, and that I may not be able—" +</P> + +<P> +"Alida," interrupted Holcroft gravely, "I'm not one to break my word. +Home and quiet will soon restore you. Answer the justice and tell him +the exact truth." +</P> + +<P> +No elixir could have brought hope and courage like that word "home." +She rose at once and said to Harkins, "I have consented to Mr. +Holcroft's wishes with feelings of the deepest gratitude." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well. Join hands." +</P> + +<P> +She hesitated and looked for a moment at Holcroft with strange +intensity. +</P> + +<P> +"It's all right, Alida," he said with a smile. "Come!" +</P> + +<P> +His perfect honesty and steadfastness of purpose stood him in good +stead then, for she came at once to his side and took his hand. +</P> + +<P> +Justice Harkins solemnly opened his big book and read, "'By this act of +joining hands you do take each other as husband and wife. Therefore, +in accordance with the law of the State of New York, I do hereby +pronounce you husband and wife.' That's all." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think you'll ever be sorry, Alida," said Holcroft, pressing +her hand as he led her to a chair. Watterly again bustled up with +congratulations, and then said, "you must all come out now to a little +supper, and also remember that it was gotten up in a hurry." +</P> + +<P> +The domestic stared at Alida and Holcroft, and then surmising what had +taken place, was so excited that she could scarcely wait on the guests. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft, with the simple tact which genuine kindness usually suggests, +was attentive to his bride, but managed, by no slight effort for him, +to engage the two men in general conversation, so that Alida might have +time to recover her composure. His quiet, matter-of-fact bearing was +reassuring in itself. A cup of strong tea and a little old currant +wine, which Watterly insisted on her taking, brightened her up not a +little. Indeed her weakness was now largely due to the want of +nourishment suited to her feeble condition. Moreover, both nerves and +mind found relief and rest in the consciousness that the decisive step +had been taken. She was no longer shuddering and recoiling from a past +in which each day had revealed more disheartening elements. Her face +was now toward a future that promised a refuge, security, and even hope. +</P> + +<P> +The quiet meal was soon over. Holcroft put a five-dollar bill in the +hands of the justice, who filled in a certificate and departed, feeling +that the afternoon had not been spent in vain. +</P> + +<P> +"Jim," said Watterly, drawing his friend aside, "you'll want to make +some purchases. You know she's only what she wears. How are you off +for money?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Tom, you know I didn't expect anything of this kind when—" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I know it. Will fifty answer?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. You're a good friend. I'll return it in a day or two." +</P> + +<P> +"Return it when you're a mind to. I say, Alida, I want you to take +this. Jim Holcroft can't get married and his bride not receive a +present from me," and he put ten dollars in her hand. +</P> + +<P> +Tears rushed to her eyes as she turned them inquiringly to Holcroft to +know what she should do. +</P> + +<P> +"Now see here, Tom, you've done too much for us already." +</P> + +<P> +"Shut up, Jim Holcroft! Don't you end the day by hurting my feelings! +It's perfectly right and proper for me to do this. Goodby, Alida. I +don't believe you'll ever be sorry you found your way to my hotel." +</P> + +<P> +Alida took his proffered hand, but could only falter, "I—I can never +forget." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XX. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Uncle Jonathan's Impression of the Bride +</H3> + +<P> +"Now, Alida," said Holcroft, as they drove away, "remember that we are +two middle-aged, sensible people. At least I'm middle-aged, and fairly +sensible, too, I hope. You'll need to buy some things, and I want you +to get all you need. Don't stint yourself, and you needn't hurry so as +to get tired, for we shall have moonlight and there's no use trying to +get home before dark. Is there any particular store which you'd like to +go to?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir; only I'd rather go over on the east side of the town where +I'm not known." +</P> + +<P> +"That suits me, for it's the side nearest home and I AM known there." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps—perhaps you also would rather go this evening where you are +not known," she said hesitatingly. +</P> + +<P> +"It makes no difference to me. In fact I know of a place where you'll +have a good choice at reasonable rates." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll go where you wish," she said quietly. +</P> + +<P> +They soon entered a large shop together, and the proprietor said +pleasantly, "Good evening, Mr. Holcroft." +</P> + +<P> +"Good evening, Mr. Jasper. My wife wants to get some things. If +you'll be good enough to wait on her, I'll step out to do two or three +errands." +</P> + +<P> +The merchant looked curiously at Alida, but was too polite to ask +questions or make comments on her very simple purchases. Her old skill +and training were of service now. She knew just what she absolutely +needed, and bought no more. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft laid in a good stock of groceries and some juicy beef and then +returned. When Mr. Jasper gave him his bill, he went to Alida, who was +resting, and said in a low voice, "This won't do at all. You can't +have bought half enough." +</P> + +<P> +For the first time something like a smile flitted across her face as +she replied, "It's enough to begin with. I know." +</P> + +<P> +"Really, Mr. Holcroft, I didn't know you were married," said the +merchant. "I must congratulate you." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I am. Thank you. Good night." +</P> + +<P> +A few moments later he and his wife were bowling out of town toward the +hills. Reaching one of these, the horses came down to a walk and +Holcroft turned and said, "Are you very tired, Alida? I'm troubled +about you taking this long ride. You have been so sick." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry I'm not stronger, sir, but the fresh air seems to do me good +and I think I can stand it." +</P> + +<P> +"You didn't promise to obey me, did you?" with a rather nervous little +laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir, but I will." +</P> + +<P> +"That's a good beginning. Now see what an old tyrant I am. In the +first place, I don't want you to say 'sir' to me any more. My name is +James. In the second place, you must work only as I let you. Your +first business is to get strong and well, and you know we agreed to +marry on strictly business grounds." +</P> + +<P> +"I understand it well, but I think you are very kind for a business +man." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, as to that, if I do say it of myself, I don't think it's my nature +to be hard on those who treat me square. I think we shall be very good +friends in our quiet way, and that's more than can be said of a good +many who promise more than they seem to remember afterward." +</P> + +<P> +"I will try to do all you wish for I am very grateful." +</P> + +<P> +"If you do, you may find I'm as grateful as you are." +</P> + +<P> +"That can never be. Your need and mine were very different.—But I +shall try to show my gratitude by learning your ways and wishes and not +by many words of thanks." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank the Lord!" mentally ejaculated the farmer, "there's no Mrs. +Mumpson in this case;" but he only said kindly, "I think we understand +each other now, Alida. I'm not a man of words either, and I had better +show by actions also what I am. The fact is, although we are married, +we are scarcely acquainted, and people can't get acquainted in a day." +</P> + +<P> +The first long hill was surmounted and away they bowled again, past +cottage and farmhouse, through strips of woodland and between fields +from which came the fragrance of the springing grass and the peepings +of the hylas. The moon soon rose, full-orbed, above the higher eastern +hills, and the mild April evening became luminous and full of beauty. +</P> + +<P> +A healing sense of quiet and security already began to steal into +Alida's bruised heart. In turning her back upon the town in which she +had suffered so greatly, she felt like one escaping from prison and +torture. An increasing assurance of safety came with every mile; the +cool, still radiance of the night appeared typical of her new and most +unexpected experience. Light had risen on her shadowed path, but it +was not warm, vivifying sunlight, which stimulates and develops. A few +hours before she was in darkness which might be felt—yet it was a +gloom shot through and through with lurid threatening gleams. It had +seemed to her that she had fallen from home, happiness, and honor to +unfathomed depths, and yet there had appeared to be deeper and darker +abysses on every side. She had shuddered at the thought of going out +into the world, feeling that her misfortune would awaken suspicion +rather than sympathy, scorn instead of kindness; that she must toil on +until death, to sustain a life to which death would come as God's +welcome messenger. Then had come this man at her side, with his +comparatively trivial troubles and perplexities, and he had asked her +help—she who was so helpless. He had banished despair from her +earthly future, he had lifted her up and was bearing her away from all +which she had so dreaded; nothing had been asked which her crushed +spirit was unable to bestow; she was simply expected to aid him in his +natural wish to keep his home and to live where he had always dwelt. +His very inability to understand her, to see her broken, trampled life +and immeasurable need as she saw it, brought quietness of mind. The +concentration of his thoughts on a few homely and simple hopes gave her +immunity. With quick intuition, she divined that she had not a +whimsical, jealous, exacting nature to deal with. He was the plain, +matter-of-fact man he seemed; so literal and absolutely truthful that +he would appear odd to most people. To her mind, his were the traits +which she could now most welcome and value. He knew all about her, she +had merely to be herself, to do what she had promised, in order to rest +securely on his rock-like truth. He had again touched a deep, grateful +chord in speaking of her to the shopkeeper as his wife; he showed no +disposition whatever to shrink from the relation before the world; it +was evident that he meant to treat her with respect and kindness, and +to exact respect from others. For all this, while sitting quietly and +silently at his side, she thanked him almost passionately in her heart; +but far more than for all this she was glad and grateful that he would +not expect what she now felt it would be impossible for her to +give—the love and personal devotion which had been inseparable from +marriage in her girlhood thoughts. He would make good his words—she +should be his wife in name and be respected as such. He was too simple +and true to himself and his buried love, too considerate of her, to +expect more. She might hope, therefore, as he had said, that they +might be helpful, loyal friends and he would have been surprised indeed +had he known how the pale, silent woman beside him was longing and +hoping to fill his home with comfort. +</P> + +<P> +Thoughts like these had inspired and sustained her while at the same +time ministering the balm of hope. The quiet face of nature, lovely in +the moonlight, seemed to welcome and reassure her. Happy are those +who, when sorely wounded in life, can turn to the natural world and +find in every tree, shrub, and flower a comforting friend that will not +turn from them. Such are not far from God and peace. +</P> + +<P> +The range of Holcroft's thoughts was far simpler and narrower than +Alida's. He turned rather deliberately from the past, preferring to +dwell on the probable consummation of his hope. His home, his farm, +were far more to him than the woman he had married. He had wedded her +for their sake, and his thoughts followed his heart, which was in his +hillside acres. It is said that women often marry for a home; he truly +had done so to keep his home. The question which now most occupied him +was the prospect of doing this through quiet, prosperous years. He +dwelt minutely on Alida's manner, as well as her words, and found +nothing to shake his belief that she had been as truthful as himself. +Nevertheless, he queried in regard to the future with not a little +anxiety. In her present distress and poverty she might naturally be +glad of the refuge he had offered; but as time passed and the poignancy +of bitter memories was allayed, might not her life on the farm seem +monotonous and dull, might not weariness and discontent come into her +eyes in place of gratitude? "Well, well!" he concluded, "this marrying +is a risky experiment at best, but Tom Watterly's talk and her manner +seemed to shut me up to it. I was made to feel that I couldn't go on +in any other way; and I haven't done anything underhanded or wrong, as +I see, for the chance of going on. If I hadn't become such a heathen I +should say there was a Providence in it, but I don't know what to think +about such things any more. Time'll show, and the prospect is better +than it has been yet. She'll never be sorry if she carries out the +agreement made today, if kindness and good will can repay her." +</P> + +<P> +Thus it may be seen that, although two life currents had become +parallel, they were still very distinct. +</P> + +<P> +By the time Holcroft approached the lane leading to his dwelling, Alida +was growing very weary, and felt that her endurance had almost reached +its limit. Her face was so white in the moonlight that he asked +solicitously, "You can stand it a little longer, can't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll try. I'm very sorry I'm not stronger." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you worry about that! You won't know yourself in a week. Here +we are at the lane and there's the house yonder. A moment or two more +and you'll be by the fire." +</P> + +<P> +A loud barking startled old Jonathan Johnson out of his doze, and he +hastened to replenish the fire and to call off his rather savage dog. +He was a little surprised to see Holcroft drive toward the kitchen door +with a woman by his side. "He's tried his luck with another of them +town gals," he muttered, "but, Jerusalem! She won't stay a week, an' +my old woman'll have the washin' an' mendin' all the same." +</P> + +<P> +He could scarcely believe his ears and eyes when he heard the farmer +say, "Alida, you must let me lift you out," and then saw the "town gal" +set gently on the ground, her hand placed on Holcroft's arm as she was +supported slowly and carefully to the rocking chair beside the fire. +"Jonathan," was the quiet announcement, "this is Mrs. Holcroft, my +wife." +</P> + +<P> +"Jeru—beg a pardon. Wasn't 'spectin; jis' sich a turn o' things. +Respects, missus! Sorry to see yer enj'yin' poor health." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Jonathan, Mrs. Holcroft has been sick, but she's much better and +will soon be well. She's very tired now from the long drive, but quiet +life and country air will soon make her strong. I'll just step out and +care for the horses, Alida, and soon be back again. You come and help +me, Jonathan, and keep your dog off, too." +</P> + +<P> +The old man complied with rather poor grace for he would have preferred +to interview the bride, at whom he was staring with all his weak, +watery eyes. Holcroft understood his neighbor's peculiarities too well +to subject his wife to this ordeal, and was bent on dispatching +Jonathan homeward as soon as possible. +</P> + +<P> +"I say, Jim," said the old guardsman, who felt that he was speaking to +the boy he had known for thirty odd years, "where on airth did you pick +up sich a sickly lookin' critter?" +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't pick her up," replied the farmer laughingly. "I married her +fair and square just as you did your wife a hundred years ago, more or +less. Haven't I as good a right to get married as you had?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I aint a-disputin' yer right, but it seems so kind o' suddint that +it's taken what little breath I've left." +</P> + +<P> +"How do you know it's sudden? Did you go around telling everyone how +you were getting on when you were a-courting?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I swan! Yer got me. 'Taint so long ago that I disremember we +did it on the sly." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, now, Uncle Jonathan, you've got nothing to say against me for I +didn't marry on the sly, although I've gone on the principle that my +business wasn't everybody's business. When I saw your wife about my +washing and mending I didn't know I was going to be lucky so soon. You +know you can't marry a woman in this country till she's willing. But +tell your wife she shan't lose anything, and the next time I go to town +I'll leave that settin' of eggs she wanted. Now, Jonathan, honor +bright, do you feel able to walk home if I give you fifty cents extra?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, sartinly! S'pose I'd take yer away on sich a 'casion? My wife +wouldn't let me in if she knowed it." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you and your wife are good neighbors, and that's more'n I can +say for most people in these parts. Here's the money. Mrs. Holcroft +isn't strong or well enough to talk any tonight. You got yourself a +good supper, didn't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes! Helped myself bount'fully. Good night, and good luck ter +yer. I can't help thinkin' it was kind o' suddint though, and then +she's sich a sickly lookin' critter. Hope yer haven't been taken in, +but then, as you say, the marryin' business, like other kinds o' +business, is a man's own business." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope everyone will take your sensible view, Uncle Jonathan. Good +night." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXI. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +At Home +</H3> + +<P> +Alida was not so cold, weary, and almost faint but that she looked +around the old kitchen with the strongest interest. This interest was +as unlike Mrs. Mumpson's curiosity as she was unlike the widow. It is +true the thought of self was prominent, yet hers were not selfish +thoughts. There are some blessed natures in the world that in doing +the best for themselves do the best that is possible for others. +</P> + +<P> +The genial warmth of the fire was grateful to her chilled and enfeebled +frame; the homely kitchen, with its dresser of china ware, its tin +closet and pantry, the doors of which old Jonathan had left open, +manlike, after helping himself "bount'fully," all suggested more +comfort to this pallid bride, sitting there alone, than wealth of +ornament in elegant apartments has brought to many others. She saw her +chief domain, not in its coarse and common aspect, but as her vantage +ground, from which she could minister to the comforts of the one who +had rescued her. Few brides would care to enter the kitchen first, but +she was pleased; she who had scarcely hoped to smile again looked +smilingly around on the quaint, homelike room. +</P> + +<P> +"And this is to be my home!" she murmured. "How strange, unexpected, +yet natural it all is! Just what he led me to expect. The little +lonely farmhouse, where I can be safe from staring eyes and unwounded +by cruel questionings. Yet that old man had a dozen questions on his +tongue. I believe HE took him away to save my feelings. It's strange +that so plain and simple a man in most respects can be so considerate. +Oh, pray God that all goes on as it promises! I couldn't have dreamt +it this morning, but I have an odd, homelike feeling already. Well, +since I AM at home I may as well take off my hat and cloak." +</P> + +<P> +And she did so. Holcroft entered and said heartily, "That's right, +Alida! You are here to stay, you know. You mustn't think it amiss that +I left you a few moments alone for I had to get that talkative old man +off home. He's getting a little childish and would fire questions at +you point-blank." +</P> + +<P> +"But shouldn't you have taken him home in the wagon? I don't mind +being alone." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no! He's spry enough to walk twice the distance and often does. +It's light as day outside, and I made it right with him. You can leave +your things upstairs in your room, and I'll carry up your bundles also +if you are rested enough for the journey." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes!" she replied, "I'm feeling better already." +</P> + +<P> +He led the way to the apartment that Mrs. Mumpson had occupied and said +regretfully, "I'm sorry the room looks so bare and comfortless, but +that will all be mended in time. When you come down, we'll have some +coffee and supper." +</P> + +<P> +She soon reappeared in the kitchen, and he continued, "Now I'll show +you that I'm not such a very helpless sort of man, after all; so if +you're sick you needn't worry. I'm going to get you a good cup of +coffee and broil you a piece of steak." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! Please let me—" she began. +</P> + +<P> +"No, can't allow you to do anything tonight but sit in that chair. You +promised to mind, you know," and he smiled so genially that she smiled +back at him although tears came into her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"I can't realize it all," she said in a low voice. "To think how this +day began and how it is ending!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's ending in a poor man's kitchen, Alida. It was rather rough to +bring you in here first, but the parlor is cold and comfortless. +</P> + +<P> +"I would rather be brought here. It seems to me that it must be a +light and cheerful room." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, the sun shines in these east windows, and there's another window +facing the south, so it's light all day long." +</P> + +<P> +She watched him curiously and with not a little self-reproach as he +deftly prepared supper. "It's too bad for me to sit idle while you do +such things, yet you do everything so well that I fear I shall seem +awkward. Still, I think I do at least know how to cook a little." +</P> + +<P> +"If you knew what I've had to put up with for a year or more, you +wouldn't worry about satisfying me in this respect. Except when old +Mrs. Wiggins was here, I had few decent meals that I didn't get +myself," and then, to cheer her up, he laughingly told her of Mrs. +Mumpson's essay at making coffee. He had a certain dry humor, and his +unwonted effort at mimicry was so droll in itself that Alida was +startled to hear her own voice in laughter, and she looked almost +frightened, so deeply had she been impressed that it would never be +possible or even right for her to laugh again. +</P> + +<P> +The farmer was secretly much pleased at his success. If she would +laugh, be cheerful and not brood, he felt sure she would get well and +be more contented. The desperate view she had taken of her misfortunes +troubled him, and he had thought it possible that she might sink into +despondency and something like invalidism; but that involuntary bubble +of laughter reassured him. "Quiet, wholesome, cheerful life will +restore her to health," he thought, as he put his favorite beverage and +the sputtering steak on the table. "Now," he said, placing a chair at +the table, "you can pour me a cup of coffee." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad I can do something," she answered, "for I can't get over the +strangeness of being so waited on. Indeed, everything that was +unexpected or undreamt of has happened," and there was just the +faintest bit of color on her cheeks as she sat down opposite him. +</P> + +<P> +Few men are insensible to simple, natural, womanly grace, and poor +Holcroft, who so long had been compelled to see at his table "perfect +terrors," as he called them, was agreeably impressed by the contrast +she made with the Mumpson and Malony species. Alida unconsciously had +a subtle charm of carriage and action, learned in her long past and +happy girlhood when all her associations were good and refined. Still, +in its truest explanation, this grace is native and not acquired; it is +a personal trait. Incapable of nice analysis or fine definitions, he +only thought, "How much pleasanter it is to see at the table a quiet, +sensible woman instead of a 'peculiar female!'" and it was not long +before he supplemented her remark by saying, "Perhaps things are +turning out for both of us better than we expected. I had made up my +mind this morning to live here like a hermit, get my own meals, and all +that. I actually had the rough draught of an auction bill in my +pocket,—yes, here it is now,—and was going to sell my cows, give up +my dairy, and try to make my living in a way that wouldn't require any +woman help. That's what took me up to Tom Watterly's; I wanted him to +help me put the bill in shape. He wouldn't look at it, and talked me +right out of trying to live like Robinson Crusoe, as he expressed it. +I had been quite cheerful over my prospects; indeed, I was almost happy +in being alone again after having such terrors in the house. But, as I +said, Watterly talked all the courage and hope right out of me, and +made it clear that I couldn't go it alone. You see, Tom and I have +been friends since we were boys together, and that's the reason he +talks so plain to me." +</P> + +<P> +"He has a good, kind heart," said Alida. "I don't think I could have +kept up at all had it not been for his kindness." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Tom's a rough diamond. He don't make any pretenses, and looks +upon himself as a rather hard case, but I fancy he's doing kind things +in his rough way half the time. Well, as we were talking, he +remembered you, and he spoke of you so feelingly and told your story +with so much honest sympathy that he awoke my sympathy. Now you know +how it has all come about. You see it's all natural enough and simple +enough, and probably it's the best thing that could have happened for +us both. All you have to do is to get strong and well, and then it +won't be any one-sided affair, as you've been too much inclined to +think. I can go on and keep my farm and home just as my heart is bent +on doing. I want you to understand everything for then your mind will +be more satisfied and at rest, and that's half the battle in getting +over sickness and trouble like yours." +</P> + +<P> +"I can only thank God and you for the great change in my prospects. +This quiet and escape from strangers are just what I most craved, and I +am already beginning to hope that if I can learn to do all you wish, I +shall find a content that I never hoped for," and the tears that stood +in her eyes were witnesses of her sincerity. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, don't expect to learn everything at once. Let me have my way +for a while, and then you'll find, as you get strong, and the busy +season comes on, that I'll be so taken up with the farm that you'll +have your own way. Won't you have some more steak? No? Well, you've +enjoyed your supper a little, haven't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she replied, smiling. "I actually felt hungry when I sat down, +and the coffee has taken away the tired, faint feeling." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you'll soon be good and hungry three times a day," he said, +laughing pleasantly. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll at least let me clear the table?" she asked. "I feel so much +better." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, if you are sure you're strong enough. It may make you feel more +at home. But drop everything till tomorrow when tired. I must go out +and do my night work, and it's night work now, sure enough—" +</P> + +<P> +"It's too bad!" she said sympathetically. +</P> + +<P> +"What! To go out and feed my stock this clear, bright night? And +after a hearty supper too? Such farming is fun. I feel, too, as if I +wanted to go and pat the cows all around in my gladness that I'm not +going to sell them. Now remember, let everything go till morning as +soon as you feel tired." +</P> + +<P> +She nodded smilingly and set to work. Standing in the shadow of a +hemlock, he watched her for a few moments. Her movements were slow, as +would be natural to one who had been so reduced by illness, but this +every evidence of feebleness touched his feelings. "She is eager to +begin—too eager. No nonsense there about 'menial tasks.' Well, it +does give one hope to see such a woman as that in the old kitchen," and +then the hungry cattle welcomed him. +</P> + +<P> +The traveler feels safe after the fierce Arab of the desert has broken +bread with him. It would seem that a deep principle of human nature is +involved in this act. More than the restoring power of the nourishment +itself was the moral effect for Alida of that first meal in her +husband's home. It was another step in what he had said was +essential—the forming of his acquaintance. She had seen from the +first that he was plain and unpolished—that he had not the veneer of +gentility of the man she had so mistakenly married; yet, in his simple +truth, he was inspiring a respect which she had never felt for any man +before. "What element of real courtesy has been wanting?" she asked +herself. "If this is an earnest of the future, thank God for the real. +I've found to my cost what a clever imitation of a man means." +</P> + +<P> +It was as sweet as it was strange to think that she, who had trembled +at the necessity of becoming almost a slave to unfeeling strangers, had +been compelled to rest while a husband performed tasks naturally hers. +It was all very homely, yet the significance of the act was chivalrous +consideration for her weakness; the place, the nature of the ministry +could not degrade the meaning of his action. Then, too, during the +meal he had spoken natural, kindly words which gave to their breaking +of bread together the true interpretation. Although so feeble and +wary, she found a deep satisfaction in beginning her household work. +"It does make me feel more at home," she said. "Strange that he should +have thought of it!" +</P> + +<P> +She had finished her task and sat down again when he entered with a +pail of milk. Taking a dipper with a strainer on one side of it, he +poured out a tumblerful. "Now, take this," he said, "I've always heard +that milk fresh from the cow was very strengthening. Then go and sleep +till you are thoroughly rested, and don't think of coming down in the +morning till you feel like it. I'll make the fire and get breakfast. +You have seen how easily I can do it. I have several more cows to milk, +and so will say 'Goodnight.'" +</P> + +<P> +For the first time since chaos had come into her life Alida slept +soundly and refreshingly, unpursued by the fears which had haunted even +her dreams. When she awoke she expected to see the gray locks and +repulsive features of the woman who had occupied the apartment with her +at the almshouse, but she was alone in a small, strange room. Then +memory gathered up the threads of the past; but so strange, so blessed +did the truth seem that she hastened to dress and go down to the old +kitchen and assure herself that her mind had not become shattered by +her troubles and was mocking her with unreal fancies. The scene she +looked upon would have soothed and reassured her even had her mind been +as disordered as she, for the moment, had been tempted to believe. +There was the same homely room which had pictured itself so deeply in +her memory the evening before. Now it was more attractive for the +morning sun was shining into it, lighting up its homely details with a +wholesome, cheerful reality which made it difficult to believe that +there were tragic experiences in the world. The wood fire in the stove +crackled merrily, and the lid of the kettle was already bobbing up and +down from internal commotion. +</P> + +<P> +As she opened the door a burst of song entered, securing her attention. +She had heard the birds before without recognizing consciousness, as is +so often true of our own condition in regard to the familiar sounds of +nature. It was now almost as if she had received another sense, so +strong, sweet, and cheering was the symphony. Robins, song-sparrows, +blackbirds, seemed to have gathered in the trees nearby, to give her a +jubilant welcome; but she soon found that the music shaded off to +distant, dreamlike notes, and remembered that it was a morning chorus +of a hemisphere. This universality did not render the melody less +personally grateful. We can appreciate all that is lovely in Nature, +yet leave all for others. As she stood listening, and inhaling the +soft air, full of the delicious perfume of the grass and expanding +buds, and looking through the misty sunshine on the half-veiled +landscape, she heard Holcroft's voice, chiding some unruly animal in +the barnyard. +</P> + +<P> +This recalled her, and with the elasticity of returning health and hope +she set about getting breakfast. +</P> + +<P> +"It seems to me that I never heard birds sing before," she thought, +"and their songs this morning are almost like the music of heaven. +They seem as happy and unconscious of fear and trouble as if they were +angels. Mother and I used to talk about the Garden of Eden, but could +the air have been sweeter, or the sunshine more tempered to just the +right degree of warmth and brightness than here about my home? Oh, +thank God again, again and forever, for a home like this!" and for a +few moments something of the ecstasy of one delivered from the black +thraldom of evil filled her soul. She paused now and then to listen to +the birds for only their songs seemed capable of expressing her +emotion. It was but another proof that heavenly thoughts and homely +work may go on together. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Getting Acquainted +</H3> + +<P> +It was still early, and Holcroft was under the impression that Alida +would sleep late after the severe fatigues of the preceding day. He +therefore continued his work at the barn sufficiently long to give his +wife time for her little surprise. She was not long in finding and +laying her hands on the simple materials for breakfast. A ham hung in +the pantry and beneath it was a great basket of eggs, while the flour +barrel stood in the corner. Biscuits were soon in the oven, eggs +conjured into an omelet, and the ham cut into delicate slices, instead +of great coarse steaks. +</P> + +<P> +Remembering Mrs. Mumpson's failure with the coffee, she made it a +trifle strong and boiled the milk that should temper without cooling +it. The biscuits rose like her own spirits, the omelet speedily began +to take on color like her own flushed face as she busied herself about +the stove. +</P> + +<P> +Everything was nearly ready when she saw Holcroft coming toward the +house with two pails of milk. He took them to the large dairy room +under the parlor and then came briskly to the kitchen. +</P> + +<P> +She stood, screened by the door as he entered, then stopped and stared +at the table all set and at the inviting breakfast on the stove. +</P> + +<P> +Seeing Alida's half-smiling, half-questioning face, seeking his +approval, he exclaimed, "Well, you HAVE stolen a march on me! I +supposed you were asleep yet." +</P> + +<P> +"I felt so much stronger and better when I awoke that I thought you +wouldn't mind if I came down and made a beginning." +</P> + +<P> +"You call this a beginning do you? Such a breakfast as this before +seven in the morning? I hope you haven't overtaxed yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"No, only a little of just the right kind of tired feeling." +</P> + +<P> +"Haven't you left anything for me to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps. You will know when I've put all on the table. What I've +prepared is ready." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, this is famous. I'll go and wash and fix up a little and be +right down." +</P> + +<P> +When Holcroft returned, he looked at her curiously, for he felt that +he, too, was getting acquainted. Her thin face was made more youthful +by color; a pleased look was in her blue eyes, and a certain neatness +and trimness about her dress to which he had not been accustomed. He +scanned the table wonderingly, for things were not put upon it at +haphazard; the light biscuits turned their brown cheeks invitingly +toward him,—she had arranged that they should do that,—the ham was +crisp, not sodden, and the omelet as russet as a November leaf. "This +is a new dish," he said, looking at it closely. "What do you call it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Omelet. Perhaps you won't like it, but mother used to be very fond of +it." +</P> + +<P> +"No matter. We'll have it if you like it and it brings you pleasant +thoughts of your mother." Then he took a good sip of coffee and set +the cup down again as he had before under the Mumpson regime, but with +a very different expression. She looked anxiously at him, but was +quickly reassured. "I thought I knew how to make coffee, but I find I +don't. I never tasted anything so good as that. How DO you make it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just as mother taught me." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well! And you call this making a beginning? I just wish I +could give Tom Watterly a cup of this coffee. It would set his mind at +rest. 'By jocks!' he would say, 'isn't this better than going it +alone?'" +</P> + +<P> +She looked positively happy under this sweet incense to a housewifely +heart. She was being paid in the coin that women love best, and it was +all the more precious to her because she had never expected to receive +it again. +</P> + +<P> +He did like the omelet; he liked everything, and, after helping her +liberally, cleared the table, then said he felt equal to doing two +men's work. Before going out to his work, he lighted a fire on the +parlor hearth and left a good supply of fuel beside it. "Now, Alida," +he remarked humorously, "I've already found out that you have one fault +that you and I will have to watch against. You are too willing. I fear +you've gone beyond your strength this morning. I don't want you to do +a thing today except to get the meals, and remember, I can help in this +if you don't feel well. There is a fire in the parlor, and I've +wheeled the lounge up by it. Take it quietly today, and perhaps +tomorrow I can begin to show you about butter-making." +</P> + +<P> +"I will do as you wish," she replied, "but please show me a little more +where things are before you go out." +</P> + +<P> +This he did and added, "You'll find the beef and some other things on a +swing-shelf in the cellar. The potato bins are down there, too. But +don't try to get up much dinner. What comes quickest and easiest will +suit me. I'm a little backward with my work and must plow all day for +oats. It's time they were in. After such a breakfast, I feel as if I +had eaten a bushel myself." +</P> + +<P> +A few moments later she saw him going up the lane, that continued on +past the house, with his stout team and the plow, and she smiled as she +heard him whistling "Coronation" with levity, as some good people would +have thought. +</P> + +<P> +Plowing and planting time had come and under happier auspices, +apparently, than he had ever imagined possible again. With the lines +about his neck, he began with a sidehill plow at the bottom of a large, +sloping field which had been in corn the previous year, and the long, +straight furrows increased from a narrow strip to a wide, oblong area. +"Ah," said he in tones of strong satisfaction, "the ground crumbles +freely; it's just in the right condition. I'll quit plowing this +afternoon in time to harrow and sow all the ground that's ready. Then, +so much'll be all done and well done. It's curious how seed, if it +goes into the ground at the right time and in the right way, comes +right along and never gets discouraged. I aint much on scientific +farming, but I've always observed that when I sow or plant as soon as +the ground is ready, I have better luck." +</P> + +<P> +The horses seemed infected by his own brisk spirit, stepping along +without urging, and the farmer was swept speedily into the full, strong +current of his habitual interests. +</P> + +<P> +One might have supposed the recent events would have the uppermost +place in his thoughts, but this was not true. He rather dwelt upon +them as the unexpectedly fortunate means to the end now attained. This +was his life, and he was happy in the thought that his marriage +promised to make this life not merely possible, but prosperous and full +of quiet content. +</P> + +<P> +The calling of the born agriculturist, like that of the fisherman, has +in it the element of chance and is therefore full of moderate yet +lasting excitement. Holcroft knew that, although he did his best, much +would depend on the weather and other causes. He had met with +disappointments in his crops, and had also achieved what he regarded as +fine successes, although they would have seemed meager on a Western +prairie. Every spring kindled anew his hopefulness and anticipation. +He watched the weather with the interested and careful scrutiny of a +sailor, and it must be admitted that his labor and its results depended +more on natural causes than upon his skill and the careful use of the +fertilizers. He was a farmer of the old school, the traditions +received from his father controlled him in the main. Still, his good +common sense and long experience stood him fairly well in the place of +science and knowledge of improved methods, and he was better equipped +than the man who has in his brain all that the books can teach, yet is +without experience. Best of all, he had inherited and acquired an +abiding love of the soil; he never could have been content except in +its cultivation; he was therefore in the right condition to assimilate +fuller knowledge and make the most of it. +</P> + +<P> +He knew well enough when it was about noon. From long habit he would +have known had the sky been overcast, but now his glance at the sun was +like looking at a watch. Dusty and begrimed he followed his team to +the barn, slipped from them their headstalls and left them to amuse +themselves with a little hay while they cooled sufficiently for +heartier food. "Well now," he mused, "I wonder what that little woman +has for dinner? Another new dish, like enough. Hanged if I'm fit to +go in the house, and she looking so trim and neat. I think I'll first +take a souse in the brook," and he went up behind the house where an +unfailing stream gurgled swiftly down from the hills. At the nearest +point a small basin had been hollowed out, and as he approached he saw +two or three speckled trout darting away through the limpid water. +</P> + +<P> +"Aha!" he muttered, "glad you reminded me. When SHE'S stronger, she +may enjoy catching our supper some afternoon. I must think of all the +little things I can to liven her up so she won't get dull. It's +curious how interested I am to know how she's got along and what she +has for dinner. And to think that, less than a week ago, I used to +hate to go near the house!" +</P> + +<P> +As he entered the hall on his way to his room, that he might make +himself more presentable, an appetizing odor greeted him and Alida +smiled from the kitchen door as she said, "Dinner's ready." +</P> + +<P> +Apparently she had taken him at his word, as she had prepared little +else than an Irish stew, yet when he had partaken of it, he thought he +would prefer Irish stews from that time onward indefinitely. "Where did +you learn to cook, Alida?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Mother wasn't very strong and her appetite often failed her. Then, +too, we hadn't much to spend on our table so we tried to make simple +things taste nice. Do you like my way of preparing that old-fashioned +dish?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to show you how I like it," he replied, nodding approvingly. +"Well, what have you been doing besides tempting me to eat too much?" +</P> + +<P> +"What you said, resting. You told me not to get up much of a dinner, +so I very lazily prepared what you see. I've been lying on the lounge +most of the morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Famous, and you feel better?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I think I shall soon get well and strong," she replied, looking +at him gratefully. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well! My luck's turned at last. I once thought it never would, +but if this goes on—well, you can't know what a change it is for the +better. I can now put my mind on my work." +</P> + +<P> +"You've been plowing all the morning, haven't you?" she ventured, and +there was the pleased look in her eyes that he already liked to see. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he replied, "and I must keep at it several days to get in all +the oats I mean to sow. If this weather holds, I shall be through next +week." +</P> + +<P> +"I looked in the milk-room a while ago. Isn't there anything I could +do there this afternoon?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. I'll attend to everything there. It's too damp for you yet. +Keep on resting. Why, bless me! I didn't think you'd be well enough +to do anything for a week." +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed," she admitted, "I'm surprised at myself. It seems as if a +crushing weight had been lifted off my mind and that I was coming right +up. I'm so glad, for I feared I might be feeble and useless a long +time." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Alida, if you had been, or if you ever are, don't think I'll be +impatient. The people I can't stand are those who try to take +advantage of me, and I tell you I've had to contend with that +disposition so long that I feel as if I could do almost anything for +one who is simply honest and tries to keep her part of an agreement. +But this won't do. I've enjoyed my own dinner so much that I've half +forgotten that the horses haven't had theirs yet. Now will you scold +if I light my pipe before I go out?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no! I don't mind that." +</P> + +<P> +"No good-natured fibs! Isn't smoke disagreeable?" +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head. "I don't mind it at all," she said, but her sudden +paleness puzzled him. He could not know that he had involuntarily +recalled the many times that she had filled the evening pipe for a man +who now haunted her memory like a specter. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess you don't like it very much," he said, as he passed out. +"Well, no matter! It's getting so mild that I can smoke out of doors." +</P> + +<P> +With the exception of the episode of dinner the day was chiefly passed +by Alida in a health-restoring languor, the natural reaction from the +distress and strong excitements of the past. The rest that had been +enjoined upon her was a blessed privilege, and still more happy was the +truth that she could rest. Reclining on the lounge in the parlor, with +a wood fire on one side and the April sun on the other, both creating +warmth and good cheer, she felt like those who have just escaped from a +wreck and engulfing waves. Her mind was too weary to question either +the past or the future, and sometimes a consciousness of safety is +happiness in itself. In the afternoon, the crackling of the fire and +the calling and singing of the birds without formed a soothing lullaby +and she fell asleep. +</P> + +<P> +At last, in a dream, she heard exquisite music which appeared to grow +so loud, strong, and triumphant that she started up and looked around +bewildered. A moment later, she saw that a robin was singing in a +lilac bush by the window and that near the bird was a nest partially +constructed. She recalled her hopeless grief when she had last seen +the building of one of their little homes; and she fell upon her knees +with a gratitude too deep for words, and far more grateful to Heaven +than words. +</P> + +<P> +Stepping out on the porch, she saw by the shadows that the sun was low +in the west and that Holcroft was coming down the lane with his horses. +He nodded pleasantly as he passed on to the barn. Her eyes followed +him lingeringly till he disappeared, and then they ranged over the wide +valley and the wooded hills in the distance. Not a breath of air was +stirring; the lowing of cattle and other rural sounds softened by +distance came from other farmhouses; the birds were at vespers, and +their songs, to her fancy, were imbued with a softer, sweeter melody +than in the morning. From the adjacent fields came clear, mellow notes +that made her nerves tingle, so ethereal yet penetrating were they. +She was sure she had never heard such bird music before. When Holcroft +came in to supper she asked, "What birds are those that sing in the +field?" +</P> + +<P> +"Meadow larks. Do you like them?" +</P> + +<P> +"I never heard a hymn sung that did me more good." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I own up, I'd rather hear 'em than much of the singing we used +to have down at the meeting house." +</P> + +<P> +"It seems to me," she remarked, as she sat down at the table, "that +I've never heard birds sing as they have today." +</P> + +<P> +"Now I think of it, they have been tuning up wonderfully. Perhaps +they've an idea of my good luck," he added smilingly. +</P> + +<P> +"I had thought of that about myself," she ventured. "I took a nap this +afternoon, and a robin sang so near the window that he woke me up. It +was a pleasant way to be waked." +</P> + +<P> +"Took a nap, did you? That's famous! Well, well! This day's gone +just to suit me, and I haven't had many such in a good while, I can +tell you. I've got in a big strip of oats, and now, when I come in +tired, here's a good supper. I certainly shall have to be on the watch +to do Tom Watterly good turns for talking me into this business. That +taking a nap was a first-rate idea. You ought to keep it up for a +month." +</P> + +<P> +"No, indeed! There's no reason why you should work hard and I be idle. +I've rested today, as you wished, and I feel better than I ever +expected to again; but tomorrow I must begin in earnest. What use is +there of your keeping your cows if good butter is not made? Then I +must be busy with my needle." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, that's true enough. See how thoughtless I am! I forgot you +hadn't any clothes to speak of. I ought to take you to town to a +dressmaker." +</P> + +<P> +"I think you had better get your oats in," she replied, smiling shyly. +"Besides, I have a dressmaker that just suits me—one that's made my +dresses a good many years." +</P> + +<P> +"If she don't suit you, you're hard to be suited," said he, laughing. +"Well, some day, after you are fixed up, I shall have to let you know +how dilapidated I am." +</P> + +<P> + "Won't you do me a little favor?"<BR> +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes! A dozen of 'em, big or little." +</P> + +<P> +"Please bring down this evening something that needs mending. I am so +much better—" +</P> + +<P> +"No, no! I wasn't hinting for you to do anything tonight." +</P> + +<P> +"But you've promised me," she urged. "Remember I've been resting +nearly all day. I'm used to sewing, and earned my living at it. +Somehow, it don't seem natural for me to sit with idle hands." +</P> + +<P> +"If I hadn't promised—" +</P> + +<P> +"But you have." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose I'm fairly caught," and he brought down a little of the most +pressing of the mending. +</P> + +<P> +"Now I'll reward you," she said, handing him his pipe, well filled. +"You go in the parlor and have a quiet smoke. I won't be long in +clearing up the kitchen." +</P> + +<P> +"What! Smoke in the parlor?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, why not? I assure you I don't mind it." +</P> + +<P> +"Ha! Ha! Why didn't I think of it before—I might have kept the parlor +and smoked Mrs. Mumpson out." +</P> + +<P> +"It won't be smoke that will keep me out." +</P> + +<P> +"I should hope not, or anything else. I must tell you how I DID have +to smoke Mrs. Mumpson out at last," and he did so with so much drollery +that she again yielded to irrepressible laughter. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor thing! I'm sorry for her," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry for Jane—poor little stray cat of a child! I hope we can +do something for her some day," and having lighted his pipe, he took up +the county paper, left weekly in a hollow tree by the stage driver, and +went into the parlor. +</P> + +<P> +After freshening up the fire he sat down to read, but by the time she +joined him the tired man was nodding. He tried to brighten up, but his +eyes were heavy. +</P> + +<P> +"You've worked hard today," she said sympathetically. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I have," he answered. "I've not done such a good day's work in a +year." +</P> + +<P> +"Then why don't you go to sleep at once?" +</P> + +<P> +"It don't seem polite—" +</P> + +<P> +"Please don't talk that way," she interrupted. "I don't mind being +alone at all. I shall feel a great deal more at home if you forget all +about ceremony." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Alida, I guess we had both better begin on that basis. If I +give up when I'm tired, you must. You mustn't think I'm always such a +sleepyhead. The fact is I've been more tired out with worry of late +than with work. I can laugh about it now, but I've been so desperate +over it that I've felt more like swearing. You'll find out I've become +a good deal of a heathen." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well; I'll wait till I find out." +</P> + +<P> +"I think we are getting acquainted famously, don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she nodded, with a smile that meant more than a long speech. +"Good night." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXIII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Between the Past and Future +</H3> + +<P> +Human nature, in common with Mother Nature, has its immutable laws. +The people who existed before the flood were, in their primal motives, +like those of today. The conventionality of highly civilized society +does not change the heart, but it puts so much restraint upon it that +not a few appear heartless. They march through life and fight its +battles like uniformed men, trained in a certain school of tactics. +The monotony of character and action is superficial, in most cases, +rather than real, and he who fathoms the eyes of others, who catches +the subtle quality of tones and interprets the flexible mouth that +utters them, will discover that the whole gamut of human nature exists +in those that appear only like certain musical instruments, made by +machinery to play a few well-known tunes. Conventional restraint +often, no doubt, produces dwarfed and defective human nature. I +suppose that if souls could be put under a microscope, the undeveloped +rudiments of almost everything would be discovered. It is more +satisfactory to study the things themselves than their suggestions; +this we are usually better able to do among people of simple and +untrammeled modes of life, who are not practiced in disguises. Their +peculiar traits and their general and dominant laws and impulses are +exhibited with less reserve than by those who have learned to be always +on their guard. Of course there are commonplace yeomen as truly as +commonplace aristocrats, and simple life abounds in simpletons. +</P> + +<P> +When a man in Holcroft's position has decided traits, they are apt to +have a somewhat full expression; his rugged nature beside a tamer one +outlines itself more vividly, just as a mountain peak is silhouetted +against the horizon better than a rounded hill. It probably has been +observed that his character possessed much simplicity and directness. +He had neither the force nor the ambition to raise him above his +circumstances; he was merely decided within the lines of his +environment. Perhaps the current of his life was all the stronger for +being narrow. His motives were neither complex nor vacillating. He had +married to keep his home and to continue in the conditions of life dear +from association and the strongest preference, and his heart overflowed +with good will and kindness toward Alida because she promised to solve +the hard problem of the future satisfactorily. Apart from the sympathy +which her misfortune had evoked, he probably could have felt much the +same toward any other good, sensible woman, had she rendered him a +similar service. It is true, now that Alida was in his home, that she +was manifesting agreeable traits which gave him pleasant little +surprises. He had not expected that he would have had half so much to +say to her, yet felt it his duty to be sociable in order to cheer up +and mark the line between even a business marriage and the employment +of a domestic. Both his interest and his duty required that he should +establish the bonds of strong friendly regard on the basis of perfect +equality, and he would have made efforts, similar to those he put +forth, in behalf of any woman, if she had consented to marry him with +Alida's understanding. Now, however, that his suddenly adopted project +of securing a housekeeper and helper had been consummated, he would +find that he was not dealing with a business partner in the abstract, +but a definite woman, who had already begun to exert over him her +natural influence. He had expected more or less constraint and that +some time must elapse before his wife would cease to be in a sense +company whom he, with conscious and deliberate effort, must entertain. +On the contrary she entertained and interested him, although she said +so little, and by some subtle power she unloosed his tongue and made it +easy for him to talk to her. In the most quiet and unobtrusive way, +she was not only making herself at home, but him also; she was very +subservient to his wishes, but not servilely so; she did not assert, +but only revealed her superiority, and after even so brief an +acquaintance he was ready to indorse Tom Watterly's view, "She's out of +the common run." +</P> + +<P> +While all this was true, the farmer's heart was as untouched as that of +a child who simply and instinctively likes a person. He was still +quietly and unhesitatingly loyal to his former wife. Apart from his +involuntary favor, his shrewd, practical reason was definite enough in +its grounds of approval. Reason assured him that she promised to do and +to be just what he had married her for, but this might have been true +of a capable, yet disagreeable woman whom he could not like, to save +himself. +</P> + +<P> +Both in regard to himself and Alida, Holcroft accepted the actual facts +with the gladness and much of the unquestioning simplicity of a child. +This rather risky experiment was turning out well, and for a time he +daily became more and more absorbed in his farm and its interests. +Alida quietly performed her household tasks and proved that she would +not need very much instruction to become a good butter maker. The +short spring of the North required that he should be busy early and +late to keep pace with the quickly passing seedtime. His hopefulness, +his freedom from household worries, prompted him to sow and plant +increased areas of land. In brief, he entered on just the +business-like honeymoon he had hoped for. +</P> + +<P> +Alida was more than content with the conditions of her life. She saw +that Holcroft was not only satisfied, but also pleased with her, and +that was all she had expected and indeed all that thus far she had +wished or hoped. She had many sad hours; wounds like hers cannot heal +readily in a true, sensitive woman's heart. While she gained in +cheerfulness and confidence, the terrible and unexpected disaster which +had overtaken her rendered impossible the serenity of those with whom +all has gone well. Dread of something, she knew not what, haunted her +painfully, and memory at times seemed malignantly perverse in recalling +one whom she prayed to forget. +</P> + +<P> +Next to her faith and Holcroft's kindness her work was her best solace, +and she thanked God for the strength to keep busy. +</P> + +<P> +On the first Sunday morning after their marriage the farmer overslept, +and breakfast had been ready some time when he came down. He looked +with a little dismay at the clock over the kitchen mantel and asked, +"Aren't you going to scold a little?" +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head, nor did she look the chiding which often might as +well be spoken. +</P> + +<P> +"How long have I kept breakfast waiting, or you rather?" +</P> + +<P> +"What difference does it make? You needed the rest. The breakfast may +not be so nice," was her smiling answer. +</P> + +<P> +"No matter. You are nice to let a man off in that way." Observing the +book in her lap, he continued, "So you were reading the old family +Bible to learn lessons of patience and forbearance?" +</P> + +<P> +Again she shook her head. She often oddly reminded him of Jane in her +employment of signs instead of speech, but in her case there was a +grace, a suggestiveness, and even a piquancy about them which made them +like a new language. He understood and interpreted her frankly. "I +know, Alida," he said kindly; "you are a good woman. You believe in +the Bible and love to read it." +</P> + +<P> +"I was taught to read and love it," she replied simply. Then her eyes +dropped and she faltered, "I've reproached myself bitterly that I +rushed away so hastily that I forgot the Bible my mother gave me." +</P> + +<P> +"No, no," he said heartily, "don't reproach yourself for that. It was +the Bible in your heart that made you act as you did." +</P> + +<P> +She shot him a swift, grateful glance through her tears, but made no +other response. +</P> + +<P> +Having returned the Bible to the parlor, she put the breakfast on the +table and said quietly, "It looks as if we would have a rainy day." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said he, laughing, "I'm as bad as the old woman—it seems that +women can run farms alone if men can't. Well, this old dame had a big +farm and employed several men, and she was always wishing it would rain +nights and Sundays. I'm inclined to chuckle over the good this rain +will do my oats, instead of being sorry to think how many sinners it'll +keep from church. Except in protracted-meeting times, most people of +this town would a great deal rather risk their souls than be caught in +the rain on Sunday. We don't mind it much week days, but Sunday rain +is very dangerous to health." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid I'm as bad as the rest," she said, smiling. "Mother and I +usually stayed home when it rained hard." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, we don't need a hard storm in the country. People say, 'It looks +threatening,' and that settles it; but we often drive to town rainy +days to save time." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you usually go to church at the meeting house I see off in the +valley?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't go anywhere," and he watched keenly to see how she would take +this blunt statement of his practical heathenism. +</P> + +<P> +She only looked at him kindly and accepted the fact. +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't you pitch into me?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"That wouldn't do any good." +</P> + +<P> +"You'd like to go, I suppose?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, not under the circumstances, unless you wished to. I'm cowardly +enough to dread being stared at." +</P> + +<P> +He gave a deep sign of relief. "This thing has been troubling me," he +said. "I feared you would want to go, and if you did, I should feel +that you ought to go." +</P> + +<P> +"I fear I'm very weak about it, but I shrink so from meeting strangers. +I do thank God for his goodness many times a day and ask for help. I'm +not brave enough to do any more, yet." +</P> + +<P> +His rugged features became very somber as he said, "I wish I had as +much courage as you have." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't understand me—" she began gently. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I suppose not. It's all become a muddle to me. I mean this +church and religious business." +</P> + +<P> +She looked at him wistfully, as if she wished to say something, but did +not venture to do so. He promptly gave a different turn to the +conversation by quoting Mrs. Mumpson's tirade on churchgoing the first +Sunday after her arrival. Alida laughed, but not in a wholly mirthful +and satisfied way. "There!" he concluded, "I'm touching on things a +little too sacred for you. I respect your feelings and beliefs, for +they are honest and I wish I shared in 'em." Then he suddenly laughed +again as he added, "Mrs. Mumpson said there was too much milking done +on Sunday, and it's time I was breaking the Fourth Commandment, after +her notion." +</P> + +<P> +Alida now laughed outright, without reservation. +</P> + +<P> +"'By jocks!' as Watterly says, what a difference there is in women!" he +soliloquized on his way to the barn. "Well, the church question is +settled for the present, but if Alida should ask me to go, after her +manner this morning, I'd face the whole creation with her." +</P> + +<P> +When at last he came in and threw off his waterproof coat, the kitchen +was in order and his wife was sitting by the parlor fire with Thomson's +"Land and the Book" in her hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you fond of reading?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, very." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I am, too, sort of; but I've let the years slip by without doing +half as much as I ought." +</P> + +<P> +"Light your pipe and I'll read to you, if you wish me to." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, come now! I at least believe in Sunday as a day of rest, and you +need it. Reading aloud is about as hard work as I can do." +</P> + +<P> +"But I'm used to it. I read aloud to mother a great deal," and then +there passed over her face an expression of deep pain. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it, Alida? Don't you feel well?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, oh, yes!" she replied hastily, and her pale face became crimson. +</P> + +<P> +It was another stab of memory recalling the many Sundays she had read +to the man who had deceived her. "Shall I read?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Alida," he said very kindly, "it wasn't the thought of your mother +that brought that look of pain into your face." +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head sadly, with downcast eyes. After a moment or two, +she raised them appealingly to him as she said simply, "There is so +much that I wish I could forget." +</P> + +<P> +"Poor child! Yes, I think I know. Be patient with yourself, and +remember that you were never to blame." +</P> + +<P> +Again came that quick, grateful glance by which some women express more +than others can ever put in words. Her thought was, "I didn't think +that even he was capable of that. What a way of assuring me that he'll +be patient with me!" Then she quietly read for an hour descriptions of +the Holy Land that were not too religious for Holcroft's mind and which +satisfied her conscience better than much she had read in former days +to satisfy a taste more alien to hers than that of her husband. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft listened to her correct pronunciation and sweet, natural tones +with a sort of pleased wonder. At last he said, "You must stop now." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you tired?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"No, but you are, or ought to be. Why, Alida, I didn't know you were +so well educated. I'm quite a barbarous old fellow compared with you." +</P> + +<P> +"I hadn't thought of that before," she said with a laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"What a fool I was, then, to put it into your head!" +</P> + +<P> +"You must be more careful. I'd never have such thoughts if you didn't +suggest them." +</P> + +<P> +"How did you come to get such a good education?" +</P> + +<P> +"I wish I had a better one. Well, I did have good advantages up to the +time I was seventeen. After I was old enough I went to school quite +steadily, but it seems to me that I learned a little of everything and +not much of anything. When father died and we lost our property, we had +to take to our needles. I suppose I might have obtained work in a +store, or some such place, but I couldn't bear to leave mother alone +and I disliked being in public. I certainly didn't know enough to +teach, and besides, I was afraid to try." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well! You've stumbled into a quiet enough place at last." +</P> + +<P> +"That's what I like most about it, but I don't think I stumbled into +it. I think I've been led and helped. That's what I meant when I said +you didn't understand me," she added hesitatingly. "It doesn't take +courage for me to go to God. I get courage by believing that he cares +for me like a father, as the bible says. How could I ever have found +so kind a friend and good a home myself?" +</P> + +<P> +"I've been half inclined to believe there's a Providence in it +myself—more and more so as I get acquainted with you. Your troubles +have made you better, Alida; mine made me worse. I used to be a +Christian; I aint any more." +</P> + +<P> +She looked at him smilingly as she asked, "How do you know?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! I know well enough," he replied gloomily. "Don't let's talk about +it any more," and then he led her on to speak simply and naturally +about her childhood home and her father and mother. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," he said heartily, "I wish your mother was living for nothing +would please me better than to have such a good old lady in the house." +</P> + +<P> +She averted her face as she said huskily, "I think it was better she +died before—" But she did not finish the sentence. +</P> + +<P> +By the time dinner was over the sun was shining brightly, and he asked +her if she would not like to go up the lane to his woodland to see the +view. Her pleased look was sufficient answer. "But are you sure you +are strong enough?" he persisted. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it will do me good to go out, and I may find some wild flowers." +</P> + +<P> +"I guess you can, a million or two." +</P> + +<P> +By the time he was through at the barn she was ready and they started +up the lane, now green with late April grass and enlivened with +dandelions in which bumblebees were wallowing. The sun had dried the +moisture sufficiently for them to pass on dry-shod, but everything had +the fresh, vernal aspect that follows a warm rain. Spring had advanced +with a great bound since the day before. The glazed and glutinous +cherry buds had expanded with aromatic odors and the white of the +blossoms was beginning to show. +</P> + +<P> +"By tomorrow," said Holcroft, "the trees will look as if covered with +snow. Let me help you," and he put his hand under her arm, supporting +and aiding her steps up the steep places. +</P> + +<P> +Her lips were parted, the pleased look was in her eyes as they rested +on trees and shrubs which lined the half ruinous stone walls on either +side. "Everything seems so alive and glad this afternoon," she remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," replied the matter-of-fact farmer. "A rain such as we had this +morning is like turning the water on a big mill-wheel. It starts all +the machinery right up. Now the sun's out, and that's the greatest +motor power of all. Sun and moisture make the farm go." +</P> + +<P> +"Mustn't the ground be enriched, too?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes indeed; I suppose that's where we all fail. But it's no easy +matter to keep a farm in good heart. That's another reason why I'm so +glad I won't have to sell my stock. A farm run without stock is sure +to grow poor, and if the farm grows poor, the owner does as a matter of +course. But what put enriching the ground into your head? Do you know +anything about farming?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, but I want to learn. When I was a girl, father had a garden. He +used to take papers about it, and I often read them aloud to him +evenings. Now I remember there used to be much in them about enriching +the ground. Do you take any such paper?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I haven't much faith in book-farming." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," she ventured. "Seems to me you might get some good +ideas out of papers, and your experience would teach you whether they +were useful ideas or not. If you'll take one, I'll read it to you." +</P> + +<P> +"I will, then, for the pleasure of hearing you read, if nothing else. +That's something I hadn't bargained for," he added, laughing. +</P> + +<P> +She answered in the same spirit by saying, "I'll throw that in and not +call it square yet." +</P> + +<P> +"I think I've got the best of you," he chuckled; "and you know nothing +makes a Yankee farmer happier than to get the best of a bargain." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you'll continue to think so. Can I sit down a few moments?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, certainly! How forgetful I am! Your talk is too interesting for +me to think of anything else," and he placed her on a flat rock by the +side of the lane while he leaned against the wall. +</P> + +<P> +Bees and other insects were humming around them; a butterfly fluttered +over the fence and alighted on a dandelion almost at her feet; meadow +larks were whistling their limpid notes in the adjoining fields, while +from the trees about the house beneath them came the songs of many +birds, blending with the babble of the brook which ran not far away. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, how beautiful, how strangely beautiful it all is!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, when you come to think of it, it is real pretty," he replied. +"It's a pity we get so used to such things that we don't notice 'em +much. I should feel miserable enough, though, if I couldn't live in +just such a place. I shouldn't wonder if I was a good deal like that +robin yonder. I like to be free and enjoy the spring weather, but I +suppose neither he nor I think or know how fine it all is." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, both you and the robin seem a part of it," she said, laughing. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no, no!" he replied with a guffaw which sent the robin off in +alarm. "I aint beautiful and never was." +</P> + +<P> +She joined his laugh, but said with a positive little nod, "I'm right, +though. The robin isn't a pretty bird, yet everybody likes him." +</P> + +<P> +"Except in cherry time. Then he has an appetite equal to mine. But +everybody don't like me. In fact, I think I'm generally disliked in +this town." +</P> + +<P> +"If you went among them more they wouldn't dislike you." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want to go among them." +</P> + +<P> +"They know it, and that's the reason they dislike you." +</P> + +<P> +"Would you like to go out to tea-drinkings, and all that?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, indeed; and I don't suppose I'd be received," she added sadly. +</P> + +<P> +"So much the worse for them, then, blast 'em!" said Holcroft wrathfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh no! I don't feel that way and you shouldn't. When they can, +people ought to be sociable and kind." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I'd do any of my neighbors, except Lemuel Weeks, a good turn +if it came in my way, but the less I have to do with them the better +I'm satisfied." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm rested enough to go on now," said Alida quietly. +</P> + +<P> +They were not long in reaching the edge of the woodland, from which +there was an extended prospect. For some little time they looked at +the wide landscape in silence. Alida gave to it only partial attention +for her mind was very busy with thoughts suggested by her husband's +alienation from his neighbors. It would make it easier for her, but the +troubled query would arise, "Is it right or best for him? His marrying +me will separate him still more." +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft's face grew sad rather than troubled as he looked at the old +meeting house and not at the landscape. He was sitting near the spot +where he spent that long forenoon a few Sundays before, and the train +of thought came back again. In his deep abstraction, he almost forgot +the woman near him in memories of the past. +</P> + +<P> +His old love and lost faith were inseparable from that little white +spire in the distance. +</P> + +<P> +Alida stole a glance at him and thought, "He's thinking of her," and +she quietly strolled away to look for wild flowers. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," muttered Holcroft, at last. "I hope Bessie knows. She'd be the +first one to say it was right and best for me, and she'd be glad to +know that in securing my own home and comfort I had given a home to the +homeless and sorrowful—a quiet, good woman, who worships God as she +did." +</P> + +<P> +He rose and joined his wife, who held toward him a handful of trailing +arbutus, rue anemones, bloodroot, and dicentras. "I didn't know they +were so pretty before," he said with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +His smile reassured her for it seemed kinder than any she had yet +received, and his tone was very gentle. "His dead wife will never be my +enemy," she murmured. "He has made it right with her in his own +thoughts." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap24"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXIV. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Given Her Own Way +</H3> + +<P> +On Monday the absorbing work of the farm was renewed, and every day +brought to Holcroft long and exhausting hours of labor. While he was +often taciturn, he evidently progressed in cheerfulness and hope. +Alida confirmed his good impressions. His meals were prompt and +inviting; the house was taking on an aspect of neatness and order long +absent, and his wardrobe was put in as good condition as its rather +meager character permitted. He had positively refused to permit his +wife to do any washing and ironing. "We will see about it next fall," +he said. "If then you are perfectly well and strong, perhaps, but not +in the warm weather now coming on." Then he added, with a little nod, +"I'm finding out how valuable you are, and I'd rather save you than the +small sum I have to pay old Mrs. Johnson." +</P> + +<P> +In this and in other ways he showed kindly consideration, but his mind +continually reverted to his work and outdoor plans with the +preoccupation of one who finds that he can again give his thoughts to +something from which they had been most reluctantly withdrawn. Thus +Alida was left alone most of the time. When the dusk of evening came +he was too tired to say much, and he retired early that he might be +fresh for work again when the sun appeared. She had no regrets, for +although she kept busy she was resting and her wounds were healing +through the long, quiet days. +</P> + +<P> +It was the essential calm after the storm. Caring for the dairy and +working the butter into firm, sweet, tempting yellow rolls were the +only tasks that troubled her a little, but Holcroft assured her that +she was learning these important duties faster than he had expected her +to. She had several hours a day in which to ply her needle, and thus +was soon enabled to replenish her scanty wardrobe. +</P> + +<P> +One morning at breakfast she appeared in another gown, and although its +material was calico, she had the appearance to Holcroft of being +unusually well dressed. He looked pleased, but made no comment. When +the cherry blossoms were fully out, an old cracked flower vase—the +only one in the house—was filled with them, and they were placed in +the center of the dinner table. He looked at them and her, then +smilingly remarked, "I shouldn't wonder if you enjoyed those cherry +blows more than anything else we have for dinner." +</P> + +<P> +"I want something else, though. My appetite almost frightens me." +</P> + +<P> +"That's famous! I needn't be ashamed of mine, then." +</P> + +<P> +One evening, before the week was over, he saw her busy with a rake +about the door. Last year's leaves were still scattered about, with +twigs and even small boughs wrested by the winds from the trees. He +was provoked with himself that he had neglected the usual spring +clearing away of litter, and a little irritated that she should have +tried to do the work herself. He left the horses at the barn and came +forward directly. "Alida," he said gravely, "there's no need of your +doing such work; I don't like to see you do it." +</P> + +<P> +"Why," she replied, "I've heard that women in the country often milk +and take care of the chickens." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but that's very different from this work. I wouldn't like people +to think I expected such things of you." +</P> + +<P> +"It's very easy work," she said smilingly, "easier than sweeping a +room, though something like it. I used to do it at home when I was a +girl. I think it does me good to do something in the open air." +</P> + +<P> +She was persisting, but not in a way that chafed him. Indeed, as he +looked into her appealing eyes and face flushed with exercise, he felt +that it would be churlish to say another word. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," he said, laughing, "it makes you look so young and rosy I guess +it does you good. I suppose you'll have to have your own way." +</P> + +<P> +"You know I wouldn't do this or anything else if you really didn't want +me to." +</P> + +<P> +"You are keen," he replied, with his good nature entirely restored. +"You can see that you get me right under your thumb when you talk that +way. But we must both be on our guard against your fault, you know, or +pretty soon you'll be taking the whole work of the farm off my hands." +</P> + +<P> +"To be serious," she resumed, accompanying him to the barn for the +first time, "I think YOU are working too hard. I'm not. Our meals are +so simple that it doesn't take me long to get them. I'm through with +the hurry in my sewing, the old dog does the churning, and you give me +so much help in the dairy that I shall soon have time on my hands. Now +it seems to me that I might soon learn to take entire care of the +chickens, big and little, and that would be so much less for you to +look after. I'm sure I would enjoy it very much, especially the +looking after the little chickens." +</P> + +<P> +"So you really think you'd like to do that?" he asked, as he turned to +her from unharnessing the horses. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, indeed, if you think I'm competent." +</P> + +<P> +"You are more so than I am. Somehow, little chickens don't thrive +under a busy man's care. The mother hens mean well, but they are so +confoundedly silly. I declare to you that last year I lost half the +little chicks that were hatched out." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, then," she replied, laughing, "I won't be afraid to try, for I +think I can beat you in raising chickens. Now, show me how much you +feed them at night and how much I'm to give them in the morning, and +let me take the whole care of them for a month, get the eggs, and all. +If they don't do so well, then I'll resign. I can't break you in a +month." +</P> + +<P> +"It looks more as if you'd make me. You have a good big bump of order, +and I haven't any at all in little things. Tom Watterly was right. If +I had tried to live here alone, things would have got into an awful +mess. I feel ashamed of myself that I didn't clear up the yard before, +but my whole mind's been on the main crops." +</P> + +<P> +"As it should be. Don't you worry about the little things. They +belong to me. Now show me about the chickens, or they'll go to roost +while we're talking." +</P> + +<P> +"But I, as well as the chickens, shall want some supper." +</P> + +<P> +"I won't let either of you starve. You'll see." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you see this little measure? You fill it from this bin with +this mixture of corn and wheat screenings. That's the allowance, +morning and evening. Then you go out to the barnyard there, and call +'kip, kip, kip.' That's the way my wife used—" He stopped in a little +embarrassment. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd be glad if I could do everything as she did," said Alida gently. +"It has grown clearer every day how hard her loss was to you. If +you'll tell me what she did and how she did things—" and she hesitated. +</P> + +<P> +"That's good of you, Alida," he replied gratefully. Then, with his +directness of speech, he added, "I believe some women are inclined to +be jealous even of the dead." +</P> + +<P> +"You need never fear to speak of your wife to me. I respect and honor +your feelings—the way you remember her. There's no reason why it +should be otherwise. I did not agree to one thing and expect another," +and she looked him straight in the eyes. +</P> + +<P> +He dropped them, as he stood leaning against the bin in the shadowy old +barn, and said, "I didn't think you or anyone would be so sensible. Of +course, one can't forget quickly—" +</P> + +<P> +"You oughtn't to forget," was the firm reply. "Why should you? I +should be sorry to think you could forget." +</P> + +<P> +"I fear I'm not like to make you sorry," he replied, sighing. "To tell +you the truth—" he added, looking at her almost commiseratingly, and +then he hesitated. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, the truth is usually best," she said quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'll tell you my thought. We married in haste, we were almost +strangers, and your mind was so distracted at the time that I couldn't +blame you if you forgot what—what I said. I feared—well, you are +carrying out our agreement so sensibly that I want to thank you. It's +a relief to find that you're not opposed, even in your heart, that I +should remember one that I knew as a little child and married when I +was young." +</P> + +<P> +"I remember all you said and what I said," she replied, with the same +direct, honest gaze. "Don't let such thoughts trouble you any more. +You've been kinder and more considerate than I ever expected. You have +only to tell me how she did—" +</P> + +<P> +"No, Alida," he said quietly, obeying a subtle impulse. "I'd rather you +would do everything your own way—as it's natural for you. There, +we've talked so long that it's too late to feed the chickens tonight. +You can begin in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" she cried, "and you have all your other work to do. I've +hindered rather than helped you by coming out." +</P> + +<P> +"No," he replied decidedly, "you've helped me. I'll be in before very +long." +</P> + +<P> +She returned to the house and busied herself in preparations for +supper. She was very thoughtful, and at last concluded: "Yes, he is +right. I understand. Although I may do WHAT his wife did, he don't +wish me to do it AS she did. There could only be a partial and painful +resemblance to his eyes. Both he and I would suffer in comparisons, +and he be continually reminded of his loss. She was his wife in +reality, and all relating to her is something sacred and past to him. +The less I am like her, the better. He married me for the sake of his +farm, and I can best satisfy him by carrying out his purpose in my own +way. He's through with sentiment and has taken the kindest way he +could to tell me that I've nothing to do with his past. He feared, +yes, he FEARED, I should forget our businesslike agreement! I didn't +know I had given him cause to fear; I certainly won't hereafter!" and +the wife felt, with a trace of bitterness and shame, that she had been +put on her guard; that her husband had wished to remind her that she +must not forget his motive in marrying her, or expect anything not in +consonance with that motive. Perhaps she had been too wifelike in her +manner, and therefore he had feared. She was as sensitive to such a +reproach as she would have been in her girlhood. +</P> + +<P> +For once her intuition was at fault, and she misjudged Holcroft in some +respects. He did think he was through with sentiment; he could not +have talked deliberately to Alida or to any other about his old life +and love, and he truly felt that she had no part in that life. It had +become a sad and sacred memory, yet he wished to feel that he had the +right to dwell upon it as he chose. In his downright sincerity he +wished her to know that he could not help dwelling on it; that for him +some things were over, and that he was not to blame. He was profoundly +grateful to her that she had so clearly accepted the facts of his past, +and of their own present relations. He HAD feared, it is true, but she +had not realized his fears, and he felt that it was her due that he +should acknowledge her straightforward carrying out of the compact made +under circumstances which might well excuse her from realizing +everything fully. +</P> + +<P> +Moreover, direct and matter of fact as he was, he had felt vaguely the +inevitable difficulties of their relationship. The very word "wife" +might suggest to her mind an affection which he believed it was not in +his power to bestow. They had agreed to give an arbitrary and unusual +meaning to their marriage, and, while thinking it could have no other +meaning for him, his mind was haunted, and he feared that hers might +be, by the natural significance of the rite. So far from meaning to +hint that she had been too wifelike, he had meant to acknowledge her +simple and natural fulfillment of his wishes in a position far more +difficult to fill than even he imagined. That she succeeded so well +was due to the fact that she entertained for him all the kind feelings +possible except the one supreme regard which, under ordinary +circumstances, would have accounted for the marriage. The reason that +all promised to go so well in their relationship of mere mutual help +was the truth that this basis of union had satisfied their mutual need. +As the farmer had hoped, they had become excellent friends, +supplementing each other's work in a way that promised prosperity. +</P> + +<P> +Without the least intention on the part of either, chance words had +been spoken which would not be without effect. He had told her to do +everything in her own way because the moment he thought of it he knew +he liked her ways. They possessed a novelty and natural grace which +interested him. There are both a natural and a conventional grace, and +the true lady learns to blend the one with the other so as to make a +charming manner essentially her own—a manner which makes a woman a +lady the world over. Alida had little more than natural grace and +refinement, unmodified by society. This the plain farmer could +understand, and he was already awakening to an appreciation of it. It +impressed him agreeably that Alida should be trim and neat while about +her work, and that all her actions were entirely free from the coarse, +slovenly manner, the limp carriage, and slatternly aspect of the whole +tribe which had come and gone during the past year. They had all been +so much alike in possessing disagreeable traits that he felt that Alida +was the only peculiar one among them. He never thought of instituting +comparisons between her and his former wife, yet he did so +unconsciously. Mrs. Holcroft had been too much like himself, matter of +fact, materialistic, kind, and good. Devoid of imagination, uneducated +in mind, her thoughts had not ranged far from what she touched and saw. +She touched them with something of their own heaviness, she saw them as +objects—just what they were—and was incapable of obtaining from them +much suggestion or enjoyment. She knew when the cherry and plum trees +were in blossom just as she knew it was April. The beautiful sounds +and changes in nature reminded her that it was time to do certain kinds +of work, and with her, work was alpha and omega. As her mother had +before her, she was inclined to be a house drudge rather than a +housewife. Thrift, neatness, order, marked the limits of her endeavor, +and she accomplished her tasks with the awkward, brisk directness +learned in her mother's kitchen. Only mind, imagination, and +refinement can embroider the homely details of life. Alida would learn +to do all that she had done, but the woman with a finer nature would do +it in a different way. Holcroft already knew he liked this way +although he could not define it to himself. Tired as he was when he +came home in the evening, his eyes would often kindle with pleasure at +some action or remark that interested him from its novelty. In spite +of his weariness and preoccupation, in spite of a still greater +obstacle—the inertia of a mind dulled by material life—he had begun +to consider Alida's personality for its own sake. He liked to watch +her, not to see what she did to his advantage, but how she did it. She +was awakening an agreeable expectancy, and he sometimes smilingly said +to himself, "What's next?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no!" he thought as he was milking the last cow, "I'd much rather +she'd take her own natural way in doing things. It would be easier for +her and it's her right and—and somehow I like her way just as I used +to like Bessie's ways. She isn't Bessie and never can be, and for some +reason I'd like her to be as different as possible." +</P> + +<P> +Unconsciously and unintentionally, however, he had given Alida's +sensitive nature a slight wound. She felt that she had been told in +effect, "You can help me all you please, and I would rather you would +do this in a way that will not awaken associations, but you must not +think of me or expect me to think of you in any light that was not +agreed upon." That he had feared the possibility of this, that he +might have fancied he saw indications of this, hurt her pride—that +pride and delicacy of feeling which most women shield so instinctively. +She was now consciously on her guard, and so was not so secure against +the thoughts she deprecated as before. In spite of herself, a +restraint would tinge her manner which he would eventually feel in a +vague, uncomfortable way. +</P> + +<P> +But he came in at last, very tired and thoroughly good-natured. "I'm +going to town tomorrow," he said, "and I thought of taking a very early +start so as to save time. Would you like to go?" +</P> + +<P> +"There's no need of my going." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought perhaps you'd enjoy the drive." +</P> + +<P> +"I would have to meet strangers and I'm so entirely content in being +alone—I won't go this time unless you wish it." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if you don't care about it, I'll carry out my first plan and +take a very early start. I want to sell the butter and eggs on hand, +repay Tom Watterly, and get some seeds. We need some things from the +store, too, I suppose?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, you are such a coffee drinker—" she began, smiling. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I know!" he interrupted. "Make out your list. You shall say what +we want. Isn't there something you want for yourself?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, not for myself, but I do want something that perhaps you would +enjoy, too. You may think it a waste of money, though." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you've a right to waste some in your way as well as I have over +my pipe." +</P> + +<P> +"That's good. I hadn't thought of that. You are the one that puts +notions into my head. I would like three or four geraniums and a few +flower seeds." +</P> + +<P> +He looked as if he was thinking deeply and she felt a little hurt that +he should not comply at once with her request, knowing that the outlay +suggested was very slight. +</P> + +<P> +At last he looked up, smiling as he said, "So I put notions into your +head, do I?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well," she replied, flushing in the consciousness of her thoughts, +"if you think it's foolish to spend money for such things—" +</P> + +<P> +"Tush, tush, Alida! Of course I'll get what you wish. But I really am +going to put a notion into your head, and it's stupid and scarcely fair +in me that I hadn't thought of some such plan before. You want to take +care of the chickens. Well, I put them wholly in your care and you +shall have all you can make off them—eggs, young chickens, and +everything." +</P> + +<P> +"That IS a new notion," she replied, laughing. "I hadn't thought of +such a thing and it's more than fair. What would I do with so much +money?" +</P> + +<P> +"What you please. Buy yourself silk dresses if you want to." +</P> + +<P> +"But I couldn't use a quarter of the money." +</P> + +<P> +"No matter, use what you like and I'll put the rest in the bank for you +and in your name. I was a nice kind of a business partner, wasn't I? +Expecting you to do nearly half the work and then have you say, 'Will +you please get me a few plants and seeds?' and then, 'Oh! If you think +it's foolish to spend money for such things.' Why, you have as good a +right to spend some of the money you help earn as I have. You've shown +you'll be sensible in spending it. I don't believe you'll use enough +of it. Anyway, it will be yours, as it ought to be." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," she replied, nodding at him with piquant significance, +"I'll always have some to lend you." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, shouldn't wonder if you were the richest some day. Everything +you touch seems to turn out well. I shall be wholly dependent on you +hereafter for eggs and an occasional fricassee." +</P> + +<P> +"You shall have your share. Yes, I like this notion. It grows on me. +I'd like to earn some money to do what I please with. You'll be +surprised to see what strange and extravagant tastes I'll develop!" +</P> + +<P> +"I expect to be perfectly dumfoundered, as Mrs. Mumpson used to say. +Since you are so willing to lend, I'll lend you enough to get all you +want tomorrow. Make out your list. You can get a good start tomorrow +for I was too tired and it was too late for me to gather the eggs +tonight. I know, too, that a good many of the hens have stolen their +nests of late, and I've been too busy to look for 'em. You may find +perfect mines of eggs, but, for mercy's sake! don't climb around in +dangerous places. I had such bad luck with chicks last year that I've +only set a few hens. You can set few or many now, just as you please." +</P> + +<P> +Even as he talked and leisurely finished his supper, his eyes grew +heavy with sleep. "What time will you start tomorrow?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no matter; long before you are up or ought to be. I'll get myself +a cup of coffee. I expect to do my morning work and be back by nine or +ten o'clock for I wish to get in some potatoes and other vegetables +before Sunday." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, I'll make out my list and lay it on the table here. Now, +why don't you go and sleep at once? You ought, with such an early +start in prospect." +</P> + +<P> +"Ought I? Well, I never felt more inclined to do my duty. You must +own up I have put one good notion into your head?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have said nothing against any of them. Come, you ought to go at +once." +</P> + +<P> +"Can't I smoke my pipe first please?" +</P> + +<P> +"You'll find it quieter in the parlor." +</P> + +<P> +"But it's pleasanter here where I can watch you." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think I need watching?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, a little, since you don't look after your own interests very +sharply." +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't my way to look after anything very sharply." +</P> + +<P> +"No, Alida, thank the Lord! There's nothing sharp about you, not even +your tongue. You won't mind being left alone a few hours tomorrow?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, indeed, I like to be alone." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought I did. Most everyone has seemed a crowd to me. I'm glad +you've never given me that feeling. Well, goodbye till you see me +driving up with the geraniums." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap25"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXV. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A Charivari +</H3> + +<P> +The eastern horizon was aglow with rosy tints the following morning +when Holcroft awoke; the stars were but just fading from the sky and +the birds were still silent. He knew by these signs that it was very +early and that he could carry out his plan of a timely start to town. +Dressing very quietly, he stole downstairs, shoes in hand, lest his +tread should awaken Alida. The kitchen door leading into the hall was +closed. Lifting the latch carefully, he found the lamp burning, the +breakfast table set, and the kettle humming over a good fire. "This is +her work, but where is she?" he queried in much surprise. +</P> + +<P> +The outer door was ajar; he noiselessly crossed the room, and looking +out, he saw her. She had been to the well for a pail of water, but had +set it down and was watching the swiftly brightening east. She was so +still and her face so white in the faint radiance that he had an odd, +uncanny impression. No woman that he had ever known would stop that +way to look at the dawn. He could see nothing so peculiar in it as to +attract such fixed attention. "Alida," he asked, "what do you see?" +</P> + +<P> +She started slightly and turned to take up the pail; but he had already +sprung down the steps and relieved her of the burden. +</P> + +<P> +"Could anything be more lovely than those changing tints? It seems to +me I could have stood there an hour," she said quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"You are not walking or doing all this in your sleep, are you?" he +asked, laughing, yet regarding her curiously. "You looked as you stood +there like what people call a—what's that big word?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not a somnambulist and never was, to my knowledge. You'll find +I'm wide enough awake to have a good breakfast soon." +</P> + +<P> +"But I didn't expect you to get up so early. I didn't wish it." +</P> + +<P> +"It's too late now," she said pleasantly, "so I hope you won't find +fault with me for doing what I wanted to do." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you mean to be up and have breakfast when I told you last night?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Of course I didn't let you know for you would have said I +mustn't, and then I couldn't. It isn't good for people to get up so +early and do as much as you had on your mind without eating. Now you +won't be any the worse for it." +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly ought to be the better for so much kindly consideration; +but it will cure me of such unearthly hours if you feel that you must +conform to them. You look pale this morning, Alida; you're not strong +enough to do such things, and there's no need of it when I'm so used to +waiting on myself." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall have to remind you," she replied with a bright look at him +over her shoulder, "that you said I could do things my own way." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it seems odd after a year when everyone who came here appeared +to grudge doing a thing for a man's comfort." +</P> + +<P> +"I should hope I was different from them." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you are. I thought you were different from anyone I ever knew +as I saw you there looking at the east. You seem wonderfully fond of +pretty things." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll own to that. But if you don't hurry you won't do as much as you +hoped by getting up early." +</P> + +<P> +The morning was very mild, and she left the outer door open as she went +quickly to and fro with elasticity of spirit as well as step. It was +pleasant to have her efforts appreciated and almost as grateful to hear +the swelling harmony of song from the awakening birds. The slight +cloud that had fallen on her thoughts the evening before had lifted. +She felt that she understood Holcroft better, and saw that his feeling +was only that of honest friendliness and satisfaction. She had merely +to recognize and respond to so much only and all would be well. +Meantime, she desired nothing more, and he should be thoroughly +convinced of this fact. She grew positively light-hearted over the +fuller assurance of the truth that although a wife, she was not +expected to love—only to be faithful to all his interests. This, and +this only, she believed to be within her power. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft departed in the serenity characteristic of one's mood when the +present is so agreeable that neither memories of the past nor +misgivings as to the future are obtrusive. He met Watterly in town, +and remarked, "This is another piece of good luck. I hadn't time to go +out to your place, although I meant to take time." +</P> + +<P> +"A piece of good luck indeed!" Tom mentally echoed, for he would have +been greatly embarrassed if Holcroft had called. Mrs. Watterly felt +that she had been scandalized by the marriage which had taken place in +her absence, and was all the more resentful for the reason that she had +spoken to a cousin of uncertain age and still more uncertain temper in +behalf of the farmer. In Mrs. Watterly's estimate of action, it was +either right, that is, in accordance with her views, or else it was +intolerably wrong and without excuse. Poor Tom had been made to feel +that he had not only committed an almost unpardonable sin against his +wife and her cousin, but also against all the proprieties of life. "The +idea of such a wedding taking place in my rooms and with my husband's +sanction!" she had said with concentrated bitterness. Then had followed +what he was accustomed to characterize as a spell of "zero weather." +He discreetly said nothing. "It didn't seem such a bad idea to me," he +thought, "but then I suppose women folks know best about such things." +</P> + +<P> +He was too frank in his nature to conceal from Holcroft his misgivings +or his wife's scornful and indignant disapproval. "Sorry Angy feels so +bad about it, Jim," he said ruefully, "but she says I mustn't buy +anything more of you." +</P> + +<P> +"Or have anything more to do with me, I suppose?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, come now! You know a man's got to let his women-folks have their +say about household matters, but that don't make any difference in my +feelings toward you." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well, Tom! If it did, I should be slow to quarrel with a man +who had done me as good a turn as you have. Thank the Lord! I've got +a wife that'll let me have some say about household and all other +matters. You, too, are inclined to think that I'm in an awful scrape. +I feel less like getting out of it every day. My wife is as +respectable as I am and a good sight better than I am. If I'm no +longer respectable for having married her, I certainly am better +contented than I ever expected to be again. I want it understood, +though, that the man who says anything against my wife may have to get +me arrested for assault and battery." +</P> + +<P> +"When it comes to that, Jim," replied Watterly, who was meek only in +the presence of his wife, "I'd just as lief speak against her as wink +if there was anything to say. But I say now, as I said to you at +first, she aint one of the common sort. I thought well of her at +first, and I think better of her now since she's doing so well by you. +But I suppose marrying a woman situated as she was isn't according to +regulation. We men are apt to act like the boys we used to be and go +for what we want without thinking of the consequences." +</P> + +<P> +"It's the consequences that please me most. If you had been dependent +on Mumpson, Malonys, and Wigginses for your home comfort you wouldn't +worry about the talk of people who'd never raise a finger for you. +Well, goodbye, I'm in a hurry. Your heart's in the right place, Tom, +and some day you'll come out and take dinner with me. One dinner, such +as she'll give you, will bring you round. One of our steady dishes is +a bunch of flowers and I enjoy 'em, too. What do you think of that for +a hard-headed old fellow like me?" +</P> + +<P> +Some men are chilled by public disapproval and waver under it, but +Holcroft was thereby only the more strongly confirmed in his course. +Alida had won his esteem as well as his good will, and it was the +instinct of his manhood to protect and champion her. He bought twice +as many flowers and seeds as she had asked for, and also selected two +simple flower vases; then started on his return with the feeling that +he had a home. +</P> + +<P> +Alida entered upon her duties to the poultry with almost the pleasure +of a child. She first fed them, then explored every accessible nook +and hiding place in the barn and outbuildings. It was evident that +many of the biddies had stolen their nests, and some were brooding upon +them with no disposition to be disturbed. Out of the hundred or more +fowls on the place, a good many were clucking their maternal instincts, +and their new keeper resolved to put eggs under all except the flighty +ones that left their nests within two or three days' trial. As the +result of her search, the empty egg basket was in a fair way to be full +again very soon. She gloated over her spoils as she smilingly assured +herself, "I shall take him at his word. I shall spend nearly all I +make this year in fixing up the old house within and without, so he'll +scarcely know it." +</P> + +<P> +It was eleven o'clock before Holcroft drove to the door with the +flowers, and he was amply repaid by her pleasure in receiving them. +"Why, I only expected geraniums," she said, "and you've bought half a +dozen other kinds." +</P> + +<P> +"And I expected to get my own coffee this morning and a good breakfast +was given me instead, so we are quits." +</P> + +<P> +"You're probably ready for your dinner now, if it is an hour earlier +than usual. It will be ready in ten minutes." +</P> + +<P> +"Famous! That will give me a good long afternoon. I say, Alida, when +do you want the flower beds made?" +</P> + +<P> +"No hurry about them. I shall keep the plants in the window for a week +or two. It isn't safe to put them outdoors before the last of May. +I'll have some slips ready by that time." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I know. You'll soon have enough to set out an acre." +</P> + +<P> +The days of another week passed quietly and rapidly away, Alida +becoming almost as much absorbed in her interests as he in his. Every +hour added to the beauty of the season without. The unplowed fields +were taking on a vivid green, and Holcroft said that on the following +Monday the cows should go out to pasture. Wholesome, agreeable +occupation enabled Alida to put away sad thoughts and memories. Nature +and pleasant work are two potent healers, and she was rallying fast +under their ministry. Holcroft would have been blind indeed had he not +observed changes for the better. Her thin cheeks were becoming fuller, +and her exertions, with the increasing warmth of the season, often +flushed her face with a charming color. The old sad and troubled +expression was passing away from her blue eyes. Every day it seemed +easier for her to laugh, and her step grew more elastic. It was all so +gradual that he never questioned it, but his eyes followed her with +increasing pleasure and he listened, when she spoke, with deepening +interest. Sundays had been long and rather dreary days, but now he +positively welcomed their coming and looked forward to the hours when, +instead of brooding over the past, he should listen to her pleasant +voice reading his few and neglected books. There was a new atmosphere +in his home—a new influence, under which his mind was awakening in +spite of his weariness and absorption in the interests of the farm. +Alida was always ready to talk about these, and her questions would +soon enable her to talk understandingly. She displayed ignorance +enough, and this amused him, but her queries evinced no stupidity. In +reading to her father and in the cultivation of flowers, she had +obtained hints of vital horticultural principles, and Holcroft said to +her laughingly one evening at supper, "You'll soon learn all I know and +begin to teach me." +</P> + +<P> +Her manner of deprecating such remarks was to exaggerate them and she +replied, "Yes, next week you will sell my eggs and I shall subscribe +for the agricultural paper my father used to take. Then will begin all +the improvements of book-farming. I shall advise you to sow oats in +June, plant corn in March, and show you generally that all your +experience counts for nothing." +</P> + +<P> +This kind of badinage was new to the farmer, and it amused him +immensely. He did not grow sleepy so early in the evening, and as he +was driving his work prosperously he shortened his hours of labor +slightly. She also found time to read the county paper and gossip a +little about the news, thus making a beginning in putting him and +herself en rapport with other interests than those which centered in +the farm. In brief, she had an active, intelligent mind and a +companionable nature. Her boundless gratitude for her home, which +daily grew more homelike, led her to employ all her tact in adding to +his enjoyment. Yet so fine was her tact that her manner was a simple +embodiment of good will, and he was made to feel that it was nothing +more. +</P> + +<P> +While all was passing so genially and satisfactorily to Holcroft, it +may well be supposed that his conduct was not at all to the mind of his +neighbors. News, especially during the busy spring season, permeates a +country neighborhood slowly. The fact of his marriage had soon become +known, and eventually, through Justice Harkins, the circumstances +relating to it and something of Alida's previous history, in a garbled +form, came to be discussed at rural firesides. The majority of the men +laughed and shrugged their shoulders, implying it was none of their +business, but not a few, among whom was Lemuel Weeks, held up their +hands and spoke of the event in terms of the severest reprehension. +Many of the farmers' wives and their maiden sisters were quite as much +scandalized as Mrs. Watterly had been that an unknown woman, of whom +strange stories were told, should have been brought into the community +from the poorhouse, "and after such a heathenish marriage, too," they +said. It was irregular, unprecedented, and therefore utterly wrong and +subversive of the morals of the town. +</P> + +<P> +They longed to ostracize poor Alida, yet saw no chance of doing so. +They could only talk, and talk they did, in a way that would have made +her ears tingle had she heard. +</P> + +<P> +The young men and older boys, however, believed that they could do more +than talk. Timothy Weeks had said to a group of his familiars, "Let's +give old Holcroft and his poorhouse bride a skimelton that will let 'em +know what folks think of 'em." +</P> + +<P> +The scheme found favor at once, and Tim Weeks was soon recognized as +organizer and leader of the peculiar style of serenade contemplated. +After his day's work was over, he rode here and there summoning +congenial spirits. The project soon became pretty well known in +several families, but the elder members remained discreetly blind and +deaf, proposing to wink at what was going on, yet take no compromising +part themselves. Lemuel Weeks winked very knowingly and suggestively. +He kept within such bounds, however, as would enable him to swear that +he knew nothing and had said nothing, but his son had never felt more +assured of his father's sympathy. When at last the motley gathering +rendezvoused at Tim's house, Weeks, senior, was conveniently making a +call on a near neighbor. +</P> + +<P> +It was Saturday evening, and the young May moon would furnish +sufficient light without revealing identity too clearly. About a score +of young fellows and hired farm-hands of the ruder sort came riding and +trudging to Weeks' barn, where there was a barrel of cider on tap. +Here they blackened their faces with charcoal and stimulated their +courage, for it was well known that Holcroft was anything but lamblike +when angered. +</P> + +<P> +"He'll be like a bull in a china shop," remarked Tim, "but then there's +enough of us to handle him if he gets too obstrep'rous." +</P> + +<P> +Armed with tin pans and horns which were to furnish the accompaniment +to their discordant voices, they started about eight in the evening. +As they moved up the road there was a good deal of coarse jesting and +bravado, but when they approached the farmhouse silence was enjoined. +After passing up the lane they looked rather nervously at the quiet +dwelling softly outlined in the moonlight. A lamp illumined the +kitchen window, and Tim Weeks whispered excitedly, "He's there. Let's +first peek in the window and then give 'em a scorcher." +</P> + +<P> +Knowing that they should have the coming day in which to rest, Holcroft +and Alida had busied themselves with outdoor matters until late. She +had been planning her flower beds, cutting out the dead wood from some +neglected rosebushes and shrubbery, and had also helped her husband by +sowing seed in the kitchen garden back of the house. Then, weary, yet +pleased with the labor accomplished, they made a very leisurely supper, +talking over garden matters and farm prospects in general. Alida had +all her flower seeds on the table beside her, and she gloated over them +and expatiated on the kind of blossoms they would produce with so much +zest that Holcroft laughingly remarked, "I never thought that flowers +would be one of the most important crops on the place." +</P> + +<P> +"You will think so some day. I can see, from the expression of your +eyes, that the cherry blossoms and now the apple blows which I put on +the table please you almost as much as the fruit would." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it's because I notice 'em. I never seemed to notice 'em much +before." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no! It's more than that," she replied, shaking her head. "Some +people would notice them, yet never see how pretty they were." +</P> + +<P> +"Then they'd be blind as moles." +</P> + +<P> +"The worst kind of blindness is that of the mind." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I think many country people are as stupid and blind as oxen, and +I was one of 'em. I've seen more cherry and apple blossoms this year +than in all my life before, and I haven't thought only of cherries and +apples either." +</P> + +<P> +"The habit of seeing what is pretty grows on one," she resumed. "It +seems to me that flowers and such things feed mind and heart. So if one +HAS mind and heart, flowers become one of the most useful crops. Isn't +that practical common sense?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not very common in Oakville. I'm glad you think I'm in a hopeful +frame of mind, as they used to say down at the meeting house. Anyhow, +since you wish it, we will have a flower crop as well as a potato crop." +</P> + +<P> +Thus they continued chatting while Alida cleared up the table, and +Holcroft, having lighted his pipe, busied himself with peeling a long, +slim hickory sapling intended for a whipstock. +</P> + +<P> +Having finished her tasks, Alida was finally drying her hands on a +towel that hung near a window. Suddenly, she caught sight of a dark +face peering in. Her startled cry brought Holcroft hastily to his feet. +"What's the matter?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"I saw—" Then she hesitated from a fear that he would rush into some +unknown danger. +</P> + +<P> +The rough crew without perceived that their presence was known, and Tim +Weeks cried, "Now, all together!" +</P> + +<P> +A frightful overture began at once, the hooting and yelling almost +drowning the instrumental part and sending to Alida's heart that awful +chill of fear produced by human voices in any mob-like assemblage. +Holcroft understood the affair at once, for he was familiar with the +custom, but she did not. He threw open the door with the purpose of +sternly expostulating with the disturbers of the peace and of +threatening them with the law unless they retired. With an instinct to +share his danger she stepped to his side, and this brought a yell of +derision. Lurid thoughts swept through her mind. She had brought this +danger. Her story had become known. What might they not do to +Holcroft? Under the impulse of vague terror and complete +self-sacrifice, she stepped forward and cried, "I only am to blame. I +will go away forever if you will spare—" But again the scornful clamor +rose and drowned her voice. +</P> + +<P> +Her action and words had been so swift that Holcroft could not +interfere, but in an instant he was at her side, his arm around her, +his square jaw set, and his eyes blazing with his kindling anger. He +was not one of those men who fume early under provocation and in words +chiefly. His manner and gesture were so impressive that his tormentors +paused to listen. +</P> + +<P> +"I know," he said quietly, "all about this old, rude custom—that it's +often little more than a rough lark. Well, now that you've had it, +leave at once. I'm in no mood for such attention from my neighbors. +This is my wife, and I'll break any man's head who says a word to hurt +her feelings—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes! Take care of her feelings, now it's your turn. They must 'a' +been hurt before," piped up Tim Weeks. +</P> + +<P> +"Good for you, old man, for showin' us your poorhouse bride," said +another. +</P> + +<P> +"We don't fancy such grass-widders, and much married, half-married +women in Oakville," yelled a third. +</P> + +<P> +"Why didn't yer jump over a broomstick for a weddin' ceremony?" someone +else bawled. +</P> + +<P> +These insults were fired almost in a volley. Alida felt Holcroft's arm +grow rigid for a second. "Go in, quick!" he said. +</P> + +<P> +Then she saw him seize the hickory sapling he had leaned against the +house, and burst upon the group like a thunderbolt. Cries of pain, +yells, and oaths of rage rose above the rain of blows. The older +members of the crew sought to close upon him, but he sprung back, and +the tough sapling swept about him like a circle of light. It was a +terrific weapon in the hands of a strong man, now possessed of almost +giant strength in his rage. More than one fellow went down under its +stinging cut, and heads and faces were bleeding. The younger portion +of the crowd speedily took to their heels, and soon even the most +stubborn fled; the farmer vigorously assisting their ignominious +retreat with tremendous downward blows on any within reach. Tim Weeks +had managed to keep out of the way till they entered the lane; then, +taking a small stone from the fence, he hurled it at their pursuer and +attempted to jump over the wall. This was old, and gave way under him +in such a way that he fell on the other side. Holcroft leaped the +fence with a bound, but Tim, lying on his back, shrieked and held up +his hands, "You won't hit a feller when he's down!" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Holcroft, arresting his hickory. "I'll send you to jail, Tim +Weeks. That stone you fired cut my head. Was your father in that +crowd?" +</P> + +<P> +"No-o-o!" blubbered Tim. +</P> + +<P> +"If he was, I'd follow him home and whip him in his own house. Now, +clear out, and tell the rest of your rowdy crew that I'll shoot the +first one of you that disturbs me again. I'll send the constable for +you, and maybe for some of the others." +</P> + +<P> +Dire was the dismay, and dreadful the groaning in Oakville that night. +Never before had salves and poultices been in such demand. Not a few +would be disfigured for weeks, and wherever Holcroft's blows had fallen +welts arose like whipcords. In Lemuel Weeks' dwelling the +consternation reached its climax. Tim, bruised from his fall, limped +in and told his portentous story. In his spite, he added, "I don't +care, I hit him hard. His face was all bloody." +</P> + +<P> +"All bloody!" groaned his father. "Lord 'a mercy! He can send you to +jail, sure enough!" +</P> + +<P> +Then Mrs. Weeks sat down and wailed aloud. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap26"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXVI. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +"You Don't Know" +</H3> + +<P> +As Timothy Weeks limped hastily away, Holcroft, with a strong revulsion +of feeling, thought of Alida. HE had been able to answer insults in a +way eminently satisfactory to himself, and every blow had relieved his +electrical condition. But how about the poor woman who had received +worse blows than he had inflicted? As he hastened toward the house he +recalled a dim impression of seeing her sink down on the doorstep. +Then he remembered her effort to face the marauders alone. "She said +she was to blame, poor child! As if there were any blame at all! She +said, 'spare him,' as if I was facing a band of murderers instead of a +lot of neighborhood scamps, and that she'd go away. I'd fight all +Oakville—men, women, and children—before I'd permit that," and he +started on a run. +</P> + +<P> +He found Alida on the step, where she had sunk as if struck down by the +rough epithets hurled at her. She was sobbing violently, almost +hysterically, and at first could not reply to his soothing words. He +lifted her up, and half carried her within to a chair. "Oh, oh," she +cried, "why did I not realize it more fully before? Selfish woman that +I was, to marry you and bring on you all this shame and danger. I +should have thought of it all, I ought to have died rather than do you +such a wrong." +</P> + +<P> +"Alida, Alida," protested Holcroft, "if it were all to do over again, +I'd be a thousand times more—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I know, I know! You are brave and generous and honest. I saw +that much when you first spoke to me. I yielded to the temptation to +secure such a friend. I was too cowardly to face the world alone. And +now see what's happened! You're in danger and disgrace on my account. +I must go away—I must do what I should have done at first," and with +her face buried in her hands she rocked back and forth, overwhelmed by +the bitterness and reproach of her thoughts. +</P> + +<P> +"Alida," he urged, "please be calm and sensible. Let me reason with +you and tell you the truth. All that's happened is that the Oakville +cubs have received a well-deserved whipping. When you get calm, I can +explain everything so it won't seem half so bad. Neither you nor I are +in any danger, and, as for your going away, look me in the eyes and +listen." +</P> + +<P> +His words were almost stern in their earnestness. She raised her +streaming eyes to his face, then sprung up, exclaiming, "Oh! You're +wounded!" +</P> + +<P> +"What's that, compared with your talk of going away?" +</P> + +<P> +All explanations and reassurances would have been trivial in effect, +compared with the truth that he had been hurt in her defense. She +dashed her tears right and left, ran for a basin of water, and making +him take her chair, began washing away the blood stains. +</P> + +<P> +"Thunder!" he said, laughing, "How quickly we've changed places!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, oh!" she moaned, "It's a terrible wound; it might have killed you, +and they WILL kill you yet." +</P> + +<P> +He took her hands and held them firmly. "Alida," he said, gravely yet +kindly, "be still and listen to me." +</P> + +<P> +For a moment or two longer her bosom heaved with convulsive sobs, and +then she grew quiet. "Don't you know you can't go away?" he asked, +still retaining her hands and looking in her face. +</P> + +<P> +"I could for your sake," she began. +</P> + +<P> +"No, it wouldn't be for my sake. I don't wish you to go, and wouldn't +let you. If you should let the Oakville rabble drive you away, I WOULD +be in danger, and so would others, for I'd be worse on 'em than an +earthquake. After the lesson they've had tonight, they'll let us alone, +and I'll let them alone. You know I've tried to be honest with you +from the first. Believe me, then, the trouble's over unless we make +more for ourselves. Now, promise you'll do as I say and let me manage." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll try," she breathed softly. +</P> + +<P> +"No, no! That won't do. I'm beginning to find you out. You may get +some foolish, self-sacrificing notion in your head that it would be +best for me, when it would be my ruination. Will you promise?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Famous! Now you can bathe my head all you please for it feels a +little queer." +</P> + +<P> +"It's an awful wound," she said in tones of the deepest sympathy. "Oh, +I'm so sorry!" +</P> + +<P> +"Pshaw! My head is too hard for that little scamp of a Weeks to break. +His turn'll come next." +</P> + +<P> +She cut away the blood-clotted hair and bound up the rather severe +scalp wound with a tenderness and sympathy that expressed itself even +in her touch. She was too confused and excited to be conscious of +herself, but she had received some tremendously strong impressions. +Chief among them was the truth that nothing which had happened made any +difference in him—that he was still the same loyal friend, standing +between her and the world she dreaded—yes, between her and her own +impulses toward self-sacrifice. Sweetest of all was the assurance that +he did this for his own sake as well as hers. These facts seemed like +a foothold in the mad torrent of feeling and shame which had been +sweeping her away. She could think of little more than that she was +safe—safe because he was brave and loyal—and yes, safe because he +wanted her and would not give her up. The heart of a woman must be +callous indeed, and her nature not only trivial but stony if she is not +deeply touched under circumstances like these. +</P> + +<P> +In spite of his laughing contempt of danger, she trembled as she saw +him ready to go out again; she wished to accompany him on his round of +observation, but he scouted the idea, although it pleased him. +Standing in the door, she strained her eyes and listened breathlessly. +He soon returned and said, "They've all had enough. We won't be +disturbed again." +</P> + +<P> +He saw that her nerves needed quieting, and he set about the task with +such simple tact as he possessed. His first step was to light his pipe +in the most nonchalant manner, and then he burst out laughing. "I'll +hang that hickory up. It has done too good service to be put to common +use again. Probably you never heard of a skimelton, Alida. Well, they +are not so uncommon in this region. I suppose I'll have to own up to +taking part in one myself when I was a young chap. They usually are +only rough larks and are taken good-naturedly. I'm not on jesting terms +with my neighbors, and they had no business to come here, but I +wouldn't have made any row if they hadn't insulted you." +</P> + +<P> +Her head bowed very low as she faltered, "They've heard everything." +</P> + +<P> +He came right to her and took her hand. "Didn't I hear everything +before they did?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Alida, I'm not only satisfied with you, but I'm very grateful to +you. Why shouldn't I be when you are a good Christian woman? I guess +I'm the one to be suited, not Oakville. I should be as reckless as the +devil if you should go away from me. Don't I act like a man who's +ready to stand up for and protect you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, too ready. It would kill me if anything happened to you on my +account." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, the worst would happen," he said firmly, "if we don't go right +on as we've begun. If we go quietly on about our own affairs, we'll +soon be let alone and that's all we ask." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes indeed! Don't worry, James. I'll do as you wish." +</P> + +<P> +"Famous! You never said 'James' to me before. Why haven't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," she faltered, with a sudden rush of color to her pale +face. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, that's my name," he resumed, laughing. "I guess it's because we +are getting better acquainted." +</P> + +<P> +She looked up and said impetuously, "You don't know how a woman feels +when a man stands up for her as you did tonight." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I know how a man feels when there is a woman so well worth +standing up for. It was a lucky thing that I had nothing heavier in my +hand than that hickory." All the while he was looking at her +curiously; then he spoke his thought. "You're a quiet little woman, +Alida, most times, but you're capable of a thunder gust now and then." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll try to be quiet at all times," she replied, with drooping eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I'm not complaining!" he said, laughing. "I like the trait." +</P> + +<P> +He took a small pitcher and went to the dairy. Returning, he poured +out two glasses of milk and said, "Here's to your health and happiness, +Alida; and when I don't stand up for the woman who started out to save +me from a mob of murderers, may the next thing I eat or drink choke me. +You didn't know they were merely a lot of Oakville boys, did you?" +</P> + +<P> +"You can't make so light of it," said she. "They tried to close on you, +and if that stone had struck you on the temple, it might have killed +you. They swore like pirates, and looked like ruffians with their +blackened faces. They certainly were not boys in appearance." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid I swore too," he said sadly. +</P> + +<P> +"You had some excuse, but I'm sorry. They would have hurt you if you +hadn't kept them off." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, they'd probably have given me a beating. People do things in hot +blood they wish they hadn't afterward. I know this Oakville +rough-scuff. Since we've had it out, and they know what to expect, +they'll give me a wide berth. Now go and sleep. You were never safer +in your life." +</P> + +<P> +She did not trust herself to reply, but the glance she gave him from +her tearful eyes was so eloquent with grateful feeling that he was +suddenly conscious of some unwonted sensations. He again patrolled the +place and tied the dog near the barn. +</P> + +<P> +"It's barely possible that some of these mean cusses might venture to +kindle a fire, but a bark from Towser will warn 'em off. She IS a +spirited little woman," he added, with a sharp change in soliloquy. +"There's nothing milk-and-water about her. Thunder! I felt like +kissing her when she looked at me so. I guess that crack on my skull +has made me a little light-headed." +</P> + +<P> +He lay down in his clothes so that he might rush out in case of any +alarm, and he intended to keep awake. Then, the first thing he knew, +the sun was shining in the windows. +</P> + +<P> +It was long before Alida slept, and the burden of her thoughts +confirmed the words that she had spoken so involuntarily. "You don't +know how a woman feels when a man stands up for her as you did." It is +the nature of her sex to adore hardy, courageous manhood. Beyond all +power of expression, Alida felt her need of a champion and protector. +She was capable of going away for his sake, but she would go in terror +and despair. The words that had smitten her confirmed all her old +fears of facing the world alone. Then came the overpowering thought of +his loyalty and kindness, of his utter and almost fierce repugnance to +the idea of her leaving him. In contrast with the man who had deceived +and wronged her, Holcroft's course overwhelmed her very soul with a +passion of grateful affection. A new emotion, unlike anything she had +ever known, thrilled her heart and covered her face with blushes. "I +could die for him!" she murmured. +</P> + +<P> +She awoke late in the morning. When at last she entered the kitchen +she stopped in deep chagrin, for Holcroft had almost completed +preparations for breakfast. "Ha, ha!" he laughed, "turn about is fair +play." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," she sighed, "there's no use of making excuses now." +</P> + +<P> +"There's no occasion for any. Did you ever see such a looking case as +I am with this bandage around my head?" +</P> + +<P> +"Does it pain you?" she asked sympathetically. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it does. It pains like thunder." +</P> + +<P> +"The wound needs dressing again. Let me cleanse and bind it up." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, after breakfast." +</P> + +<P> +"No, indeed; now. I couldn't eat my breakfast while you were suffering +so." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm more unfeeling then than you are, for I could." +</P> + +<P> +She insisted on having her way, and then tore up her handkerchief to +supply a soft linen bandage. +</P> + +<P> +"You're extravagant, Alida," but she only shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"Famous! That feels better. What a touch you have! Now, if you had a +broken head, my fingers would be like a pair of tongs." +</P> + +<P> +She only shook her head and smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"You're as bad as Jane used to be. She never said a word when she +could shake or nod her meaning." +</P> + +<P> +"I should think you would be glad, after having been half talked to +death by her mother." +</P> + +<P> +"As I said before, take your own way of doing things. It seems the +right way after it is done." +</P> + +<P> +A faint color came into her face, and she looked positively happy as +she sat down to breakfast. "Are you sure your head feels better?" she +asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and you look a hundred per cent better. Well, I AM glad you had +such a good sleep after all the hubbub." +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't sleep till toward morning," she said, with downcast eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Pshaw! That's too bad. Well, no matter, you look like a different +person from what you did when I first saw you. You've been growing +younger every day." +</P> + +<P> +Her face flushed like a girl's under his direct, admiring gaze, making +her all the more pretty. She hastened to divert direct attention from +herself by asking, "You haven't heard from anyone this morning?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, but I guess the doctor has. Some of those fellows will have to +keep shady for a while." +</P> + +<P> +As they were finishing breakfast, Holcroft looked out of the open +kitchen door and exclaimed, "By thunder! We're going to hear from some +of them now. Here comes Mrs. Weeks, the mother of the fellow who hit +me." +</P> + +<P> +"Won't you please receive her in the parlor?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, she won't stay long, you may be sure. I'm going to give that +Weeks tribe one lesson and pay off the whole score." +</P> + +<P> +He merely bowed coldly to Mrs. Weeks' salutation and offered her a +chair. The poor woman took out her handkerchief and began to mop her +eyes, but Holcroft was steeled against her, not so much on account of +the wound inflicted by her son as for the reason that he saw in her an +accomplice with her husband in the fraud of Mrs. Mumpson. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you're not badly hurt," she began. +</P> + +<P> +"It might be worse." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Mr. Holcroft!" she broke out sobbingly, "spare my son. It would +kill me if you sent him to prison." +</P> + +<P> +"He took the chance of killing me last night," was the cold reply. +"What's far worse, he insulted my wife." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Mr. Holcroft! He was young and foolish; he didn't realize—" +</P> + +<P> +"Were you and your husband young and foolish," he interrupted bitterly, +"when you gulled me into employing that crazy cousin of yours?" +</P> + +<P> +This retort was so overwhelming that Mrs. Weeks sobbed speechlessly. +</P> + +<P> +Alida could not help overhearing the conversation, and she now glided +into the room and stood by her husband's side. +</P> + +<P> +"James," she said, "won't you do me a favor, a great kindness?" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Weeks raised her eyes and looked wonderingly at this dreadful +woman, against whom all Oakville was talking. +</P> + +<P> +"I know what you wish, Alida," he replied sternly, "but I can't do it. +This is a case for justice. This woman's son was the leader of that +vile crowd that insulted you last night. I can forgive his injuring +me, but not the words he used about you. Moreover, when I was alone +and struggling to keep my home, Mrs. Weeks took part with her husband +in imposing on me their fraud of a cousin and in tricking me out of +honest money. Any woman with a heart in her breast would have tried to +help a man situated as I was. No, it's a clear case of justice, and +her son shall go to jail." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Weeks wailed afresh at this final sentence. Holcroft was amazed +to see his wife drop on her knees beside his chair. He raised her +instantly. "Don't do such a thing as that," he said huskily. +</P> + +<P> +Without removing her pleading eyes from his face she asked gently, "Who +told us to forgive as we would be forgiven? James, I shall be very +unhappy if you don't grant this mother's prayer." +</P> + +<P> +He tried to turn away, but she caught his hand and held his eyes with +hers. "Alida," he said in strong agitation, "you heard the vile, false +words that Timothy Weeks said last night. They struck you down like a +blow. Can you forgive him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and I plead with you to forgive him. Grant me my wish, James; I +shall be so much happier, and so will you." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Mrs. Weeks, now you know what kind of a woman your son came to +insult. You may tell your neighbors that there's one Christian in +Oakville. I yield to Mrs. Holcroft, and will take no further action in +the affair if we are let alone." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Weeks was not a bad woman at heart, and she had received a +wholesome lesson. She came and took Alida's hand as she said, "Yes, +you are a Christian—a better woman than I've been, but I aint so mean +and bad but what, when I see my fault, I am sorry and can ask +forgiveness. I do ask your forgiveness, Mr. Holcroft. I've been +ashamed of myself ever since you brought my cousin back. I thought she +would try, when she had the chance you gave her, but she seems to have +no sense." +</P> + +<P> +"There, there! Let bygones be bygones," said the farmer in +embarrassment. "I've surrendered. Please don't say anything more." +</P> + +<P> +"You've got a kind heart, in spite—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, come now! Please quit, or I'll begin to swear a little to keep up +the reputation my neighbors have given me. Go home and tell Tim to +brace up and try to be a man. When I say I'm done with a grudge, I AM +done. You and Mrs. Holcroft can talk all you like, but please excuse +me," and with more than most men's horror of a scene, he escaped +precipitately. +</P> + +<P> +"Sit down, Mrs. Weeks," said Alida kindly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I will. I can't say much to excuse myself or my folks—" +</P> + +<P> +"You've already said everything, Mrs. Weeks," interrupted Alida gently; +"you've said you are sorry." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Weeks stared a moment, and then resumed sententiously, "Well, I've +heard more gospel in that remark than if I'd gone to church. And I +couldn't go to church, I could never have gone there again or held my +head up anywhere if—if—" +</P> + +<P> +"That's all past and gone," said Alida, smiling. "When Mr. Holcroft +says anything, you may depend on it." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, God bless you for intercedin'—you had so much to forgive. +Nobody shall ever speak a word against you again while I've got breath +to answer. I wish you'd let me come and see you sometimes." +</P> + +<P> +"Whenever you wish, if you care to visit one who has had so much—so +much trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"I see now that's all the more reason I should come, for if it hadn't +been for you, I'd have been in bitter trouble myself. We've been worse +than heathen, standin' off and talking against you. Oh, I've had a +lesson I won't forget! Well, I must hurry home, for I left Timothy and +Lemuel in a dreadful state." +</P> + +<P> +Seeing the farmer in the barn as she was passing, she rushed to him. +"You've got to shake hands with me, Mr. Holcroft. Your wife IS a good +woman, and she's a lady, too. Anyone with half an eye can see she's +not one of the common sort." +</P> + +<P> +The farmer shook the poor woman's hand good-naturedly and said +heartily, "That's so! All right, meeting's over. Goodbye." Then he +turned to his work and chuckled, "That's what Tom Watterly said. Thank +the Lord! She ISN'T of the common sort. I've got to brace up and be +more of a man as well as Tim Weeks." +</P> + +<P> +In spite of the pain in his head, Alida's words proved true. He was +happier than he had been in many a long day. He had the glow which +follows a generous act, and the thought that he had pleased a sweet +little woman who somehow seemed very attractive to him that May +morning; at the same time the old Adam in his nature led to a sneaking +satisfaction that he had laid on the hickory so unsparingly the evening +before. +</P> + +<P> +Alida uttered a low, happy laugh as she heard him whistling +"Coronation" in jig time, and she hustled away the breakfast things +with the eagerness of a girl, that she might be ready to read to him +when he came in. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap27"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXVII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Farm and Farmer Bewitched +</H3> + +<P> +The day grew warm, and having finished her tasks indoors and cared for +the poultry, Alida brought a chair out in the porch. Her eyes were +dreamy with a vague, undefined happiness. The landscape in itself was +cause for exquisite pleasure, for it was an ideal day of the +apple-blossoming period. The old orchard back of the barn looked as if +pink-and-white clouds had settled upon it, and scattered trees near and +far were exhaling their fragrance. The light breeze which fanned her +cheek and bent the growing rye in an adjacent field was perfumed beyond +the skill of art. Not only were her favorite meadow larks calling to +each other, but the thrushes had come and she felt that she had never +heard such hymns as they were singing. A burst of song from the lilac +bush under the parlor window drew her eyes thither, and there was the +paternal redbreast pouring out the very soul of ecstasy. From the nest +beneath him rose the black head and yellow beak of his brooding mate. +"How contented and happy she looks!" Alida murmured, "how happy they +both are! And the secret of it is HOME. And to think that I, who was +a friendless waif, am at home, also! At home with Eden-like beauty and +peace before my eyes. But if it hadn't been for him, and if he were +not brave, kind, and true to all he says—" and she shuddered at a +contrast that rose before her fancy. +</P> + +<P> +She could now scarcely satisfy herself that it was only gratitude which +filled her heart with a strange, happy tumult. She had never been +conscious of such exaltation before. It is true, she had learned to +cherish a strong affection for the man whom she had believed to be her +husband, but chiefly because he had seemed kind and she had an +affectionate disposition. Until within the last few hours, her nature +had never been touched and awakened in its profoundest depths. She had +never known before nor had she idealized the manhood capable of evoking +the feelings which now lighted her eyes and gave to her face the +supreme charm and beauty of womanhood. In truth, it was a fitting day +and time for the birth of a love like hers, simple, all-absorbing, and +grateful. It contained no element not in harmony with that May Sunday +morning. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft came and sat on the steps below her. She kept her eyes on the +landscape, for she was consciously enough on her guard now. "I rather +guess you think, Alida, that you are looking at a better picture than +any artist fellow could paint?" he remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she replied hesitatingly, "and the picture seems all the more +lovely and full of light because the background is so very dark. I've +been thinking of what happened here last night and what might have +happened, and how I felt then." +</P> + +<P> +"You feel better—different now, don't you? You certainly look so." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!—You made me very happy by yielding to Mrs. Weeks." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! I didn't yield to her at all." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, have it your own way, then." +</P> + +<P> +"I think you had it your way." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you sorry?" +</P> + +<P> +"Do I look so? How did you know I'd be happier if I gave in?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because, as you say, I'm getting better acquainted with you. YOU +couldn't help being happier for a generous act." +</P> + +<P> +"I wouldn't have done it, though, if it hadn't been for you." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not so sure about that." +</P> + +<P> +"I am. You're coming to make me feel confoundedly uncomfortable in my +heathenish life." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish I could." +</P> + +<P> +"I never had such a sermon in my life as you gave me this morning. A +Christian act like yours is worth a year of religious talk." +</P> + +<P> +She looked at him wistfully for a moment and then asked, a little +abruptly, "Mr. Holcroft, have you truly forgiven that Weeks family?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes! I suppose so. I've forgiven the old lady, anyhow. I've +shaken hands with her." +</P> + +<P> +"If her husband and son should come and apologize and say they were +sorry, would you truly and honestly forgive them?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly! I couldn't hold a grudge after that. What are you aiming +at?" and he turned and looked inquiringly into her face. +</P> + +<P> +It was flushed and tearful in its eager, earnest interest. "Don't you +see?" she faltered. +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head, but was suddenly and strangely moved by her +expression. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Mr. Holcroft, if you can honestly forgive those who have wronged +you, you ought to see how ready God is to forgive." +</P> + +<P> +He fairly started to his feet so vividly the truth came home to him, +illumined, as it was, by a recent and personal experience. After a +moment, he slowly sat down again and said, with a long breath, "That +was a close shot, Alida." +</P> + +<P> +"I only wish you to have the trust and comfort which this truth should +bring you," she said. "It seems a pity you should do yourself needless +injustice when you are willing to do what is right and kind by others." +</P> + +<P> +"It's all a terrible muddle, Alida. If God is so ready to forgive, how +do you account for all the evil and suffering in the world?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't account for it and can't. I'm only one of his little +children; often an erring one, too. You've been able to forgive grown +people, your equals, and strangers in a sense. Suppose you had a +little boy that had done wrong, but said he was sorry, would you hold a +grudge against him?" +</P> + +<P> +"The idea! I'd be a brute." +</P> + +<P> +She laughed softly as she asked again, "don't you see?" +</P> + +<P> +He sat looking thoughtfully away across the fields for a long time, and +finally asked, "Is your idea of becoming a Christian just being +forgiven like a child and then trying to do right?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Why not?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," he remarked, with a grim laugh. "I didn't expect to be cornered +in this way." +</P> + +<P> +"You who are truthful should face the truth. It would make you +happier. A good deal that was unexpected has happened. When I look +out on a scene like this and think that I am safe and at home, I feel +that God has been very good to me and that you have, too. I can't bear +to think that you have that old trouble on your mind—the feeling that +you had been a Christian once, but was not one now. Being sure that +there is no need of your continuing to feel so, what sort of return +would I be making for all your kindness if I did not try to show you +what is as clear to me as this sunshine?" +</P> + +<P> +"You are a good woman, Alida. Believing as you do, you have done right +to speak to me, and I never believed mortal lips could speak so to the +purpose. I shall think of what you have said, for you have put things +in a new light. But say, Alida, what on earth possesses you to call me +'Mr.'? You don't need to be scared half to death every time to call me +by my first name, do you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Scared? Oh, no!" She was a trifle confused, he thought, but then her +tone was completely reassuring. +</P> + +<P> +The day was one long remembered by both. As in nature about them, the +conditions of development and rapid change now existed. +</P> + +<P> +She did not read aloud very much, and long silences fell between them. +They were reaching a higher plane of companionship, in which words are +not always essential. Both had much to think about, and their thoughts +were like roots which prepare for blossom and fruit. +</P> + +<P> +With Monday, busy life was resumed. The farmer began planting his corn +and Alida her flower seeds. Almost every day now added to the brood of +little chicks under her care. The cows went out to pasture. Holcroft +brought in an increasing number of overflowing pails of milk, and if +the labors of the dairy grew more exacting, they also grew more +profitable. The tide had turned; income was larger than outgo, and it +truly seemed to the long-harassed man that an era of peace and +prosperity had set in. +</P> + +<P> +To a superficial observer things might have appeared to be going on +much as before, but there were influences at work which Holcroft did +not clearly comprehend. +</P> + +<P> +As Alida had promised herself, she spent all the money which the eggs +brought in, but Holcroft found pretty muslin curtains at the parlor +windows, and shades which excluded the glare from the kitchen. Better +china took the place of that which was cracked and unsightly. In +brief, a subtle and refining touch was apparent all over the house. +</P> + +<P> +"How fine we are getting!" he remarked one evening at supper. +</P> + +<P> +"I've only made a beginning," she replied, nodding defiantly at him. +"The chickens will paint the house before the year is over." +</P> + +<P> +"Phew! When do the silk dresses come in?" +</P> + +<P> +"When your broadcloth does." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if this goes on, I shall certainly have to wear purple and fine +linen to keep pace." +</P> + +<P> +"Fine linen, certainly. When you take the next lot of eggs to town I +shall tell you just the number of yards I need to make half a dozen +extra fine shirts. Those you have are getting past mending." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think I'll let you spend your money in that way?" +</P> + +<P> +"You'll let me spend MY money just as I please—in the way that will do +me the most good!" +</P> + +<P> +"What a saucy little woman you are becoming!" he said, looking at her +so fondly that she quickly averted her eyes. "It's a way people fall +into when humored," she answered. +</P> + +<P> +"See here, Alida, you're up to some magic. It seems but the other day +I brought you here, a pale ghost of a woman. As old Jonathan Johnson +said, you were 'enj'yin' poor health.' Do you know what he said when I +took him off so he wouldn't put you through the catechism?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," she replied, with a deprecating smile and rising color. +</P> + +<P> +"He said he was 'afeared I'd been taken in, you were such a sickly +lookin' critter.' Ha! Ha! Wish he might see you now, with that +flushed face of yours. I never believed in magic, but I'll have to +come to it. You are bewitched, and are being transformed into a pretty +young girl right under my eyes; the house is bewitched, and is growing +pretty, too, and pleasanter all the time. The cherry and apple trees +are bewitched, for they never blossomed so before; the hens are +bewitched, they lay as if possessed; the—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, stop! Or I shall think that you're bewitched yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"I truly begin to think I am." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well! Since we all and everything are affected in the same way, +it don't matter." +</P> + +<P> +"But it does. It's unaccountable. I'm beginning to rub my eyes and +pinch myself to wake up." +</P> + +<P> +"If you like it, I wouldn't wake up." +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose I did, and saw Mrs. Mumpson sitting where you do, Jane here, +and Mrs. Wiggins smoking her pipe in the corner. The very thought +makes me shiver. My first words would be, 'Please pass the cold +p'ison.'" +</P> + +<P> +"What nonsense you are talking tonight!" she tried to say severely, but +the pleased, happy look in her eyes betrayed her. He regarded her with +the open admiration of a boy, and she sought to divert his attention by +asking, "What do you think has become of Jane?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know—stealing around like a strange cat in some relation's +house, I suppose." +</P> + +<P> +"You once said you would like to do something for her." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I would. If I could afford it, I'd like to send her to school." +</P> + +<P> +"Would you like her to come here and study lessons part of the time?" +</P> + +<P> +He shivered visibly. "No, Alida, and you wouldn't either. She'd make +you more nervous than she would me, and that's saying a good deal. I +do feel very sorry for her, and if Mrs. Weeks comes to see you, we'll +find out if something can't be done, but her presence would spoil all +our cozy comfort. The fact is, I wouldn't enjoy having anyone here. +You and I are just about company enough. Still, if you feel that you'd +like to have some help—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no! I haven't enough to do." +</P> + +<P> +"But you're always a-doing. Well, if you're content, I haven't +Christian fortitude enough to make any changes." +</P> + +<P> +She smiled and thought that she was more than content. She had begun +to detect symptoms in her husband which her own heart enabled her to +interpret. In brief, it looked as if he were drifting on a smooth, +swift tide to the same haven in which she was anchored. +</P> + +<P> +One unusually warm morning for the season, rain set in after breakfast. +Holcroft did not fret in the least that he could not go to the fields, +nor did he, as had been his custom at first, find rainy-day work at the +barn. The cows, in cropping the lush grass, had so increased their +yield of milk that it was necessary to churn every other day, and Alida +was busy in the dairy. This place had become inviting by reason of its +coolness, and she had rendered it more so by making it perfectly clean +and sweet. Strange to say, it contained another chair besides the one +she usually occupied. The apartment was large and stone-flagged. +Along one side were shelves filled with rows of shining milk-pans. In +one corner stood the simple machinery which the old dog put in motion +when tied upon his movable walk, and the churn was near. An iron pipe, +buried deep in the ground, brought cool spring water from the brook +above. This pipe emptied its contents with a low gurgle into a shallow, +oblong receptacle sunk in the floor, and was wide and deep enough for +two stone crocks of ample size to stand abreast up to their rims in the +water. The cream was skimmed into these stone jars until they were +full, then Holcroft emptied them into the churn. He had charged Alida +never to attempt this part of the work, and indeed it was beyond her +strength. After breakfast on churning days, he prepared everything and +set the dog at work. Then he emptied the churn of the buttermilk when +he came in to dinner. +</P> + +<P> +All the associations of the place were pleasant to Alida. It was here +that her husband had shown patience as well as kindness in teaching her +how to supplement his work until her own experience and judgment gave +her a better skill than he possessed. Many pleasant, laughing words +had passed between them in this cool, shadowy place, and on a former +rainy morning he had brought a chair down that he might keep her +company. She had not carried it back, nor was she very greatly +surprised to see him saunter in and occupy it on the present occasion. +She stood by the churn, her figure outlined clearly in the light from +the open door, as she poured in cold water from time to time to hasten +and harden the gathering butter. Her right sleeve was rolled well +back, revealing a white arm that was becoming beautifully plump and +round. An artist would have said that her attitude and action were +unconsciously natural and graceful. Holcroft had scarcely the remotest +idea of artistic effect, but he had a sensible man's perception of a +charming woman when she is charming. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Holcroft," she asked very gravely, "will you do something for me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, half a dozen things." +</P> + +<P> +"You promise?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly! What's the trouble?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't mean there shall be any if I can help it," she answered with a +light ripple of laughter. "Please go and put on your coat." +</P> + +<P> +"How you've humbugged me! It's too hot." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you've got to do it; you promised. You can't stay here unless you +do." +</P> + +<P> +"So you are going to take care of me as if I were a small boy?" +</P> + +<P> +"You need care—sometimes." +</P> + +<P> +He soon came back and asked, "Now may I stay?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Please untie the dog. Butter's come." +</P> + +<P> +"I should think it would, or anything else at your coaxing." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh-h, what a speech! Hasn't that a pretty golden hue?" she asked, +holding up a mass of the butter she was ladling from the churn into a +wooden tray. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, you are making the gilt-edge article now. I don't have to sell +it to Tom Watterly any more." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like to give him some, though." +</P> + +<P> +He was silent, and something like sudden rage burned in his heart that +Mrs. Watterly would not permit the gift. That anyone should frown on +his having such a helper as Alida was proving herself to be, made him +vindictive. Fortunately her face was turned away, and she did not see +his heavy frown. Then, to shield her from a disagreeable fact, he said +quickly, "do you know that for over a year I steadily went behind my +expenses. And that your butter making has turned the tide already? +I'm beginning to get ahead again." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm SO glad," and her face was radiant. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I should know that from your looks. It's clearer every day that +I got the best of our bargain. I never dreamed, though, that I should +enjoy your society as I do—that we should become such very good +friends. That wasn't in the bargain, was it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Bargain!" The spirited way with which she echoed the word, as if +thereby repudiating anything like a sordid side to their mutual +relations, was not lost on her wondering and admiring partner. She +checked herself suddenly. "Now let me teach YOU how to make butter," +and with the tray in her lap, she began washing the golden product and +pressing out the milk. +</P> + +<P> +He laughed in a confused delighted way at her piquant, half saucy +manner as he watched her deft round arm and shapely hand. +</P> + +<P> +"The farmers' wives in Oakville would say your hands were too little to +do much." +</P> + +<P> +"They would?" and she raised her blue eyes indignantly to his. "No +matter, you are the one to say about that." +</P> + +<P> +"I say they do too much. I shall have to get Jane to help you." +</P> + +<P> +"By all means! Then you'll have more society." +</P> + +<P> +"That was a home shot. You know how I dote on everybody's absence, +even Jane's." +</P> + +<P> +"You dote on butter. See how firm and yellow it's getting. You +wouldn't think it was milk-white cream a little while ago, would you? +Now I'll put in the salt and you must taste it, for you're a +connoisseur." +</P> + +<P> +"A what?" +</P> + +<P> +"Judge, then." +</P> + +<P> +"You know a sight more than I do, Alida." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm learning all the time." +</P> + +<P> +"So am I—to appreciate you." +</P> + +<P> +"Listen to the sound of the rain and the water as it runs into the +milk-cooler. It's like low music, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +Poor Holcroft could make no better answer than a sneeze. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh-h," she exclaimed, "you're catching cold? Come, you must go right +upstairs. You can't stay here another minute. I'm nearly through." +</P> + +<P> +"I was never more contented in my life." +</P> + +<P> +"You've no right to worry me. What would I do if you got sick? Come, +I'll stop work till you go." +</P> + +<P> +"Well then, little boss, goodbye." +</P> + +<P> +With a half suppressed smile at his obedience Alida watched his +reluctant departure. She kept on diligently at work, but one might +have fancied that her thoughts rather than her exertions were flushing +her cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed to her that but a few moments elapsed before she followed +him, but he had gone. Then she saw that the rain had ceased and that +the clouds were breaking. His cheerful whistle sounded reassuringly +from the barn, and a little later he drove up the lane with a cart. +</P> + +<P> +She sat down in the kitchen and began sewing on the fine linen they had +jested about. Before long she heard a light step. Glancing up, she +saw the most peculiar and uncanny-looking child that had ever crossed +her vision, and with dismal presentiment knew it was Jane. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap28"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXVIII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Another Waif +</H3> + +<P> +It was indeed poor, forlorn little Jane that had appeared like a +specter in the kitchen door. She was as wet and bedraggled as a +chicken caught in a shower. A little felt hat hung limp over her ears; +her pigtail braid had lost its string and was unraveling at the end, +and her torn, sodden shoes were ready to drop from her feet. She +looked both curiously and apprehensively at Alida with her little +blinking eyes, and then asked in a sort of breathless voice, "Where's +him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Holcroft?" +</P> + +<P> +Jane nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"He's gone out to the fields. You are Jane, aren't you?" +</P> + +<P> +Another nod. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, DEAR!" groaned Alida mentally; "I wish she hadn't come." Then +with a flush of shame the thought crossed her mind, "She perhaps is a +friendless and homeless as I was, and, and 'him' is also her only +hope." "Come in, Jane," she said kindly, "and tell me everything." +</P> + +<P> +"Be you his new girl?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm his wife," said Alida, smiling. +</P> + +<P> +Jane stopped; her mouth opened and her eyes twinkled with dismay. "Then +he is married, after all?" she gasped. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, why not?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mother said he'd never get anyone to take him." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you see she was mistaken." +</P> + +<P> +"She's wrong about everything. Well, it's no use then," and the child +turned and sat down on the doorstep. +</P> + +<P> +Alida was perplexed. From the way Jane wiped her eyes with her wet +sleeve, she was evidently crying. Coming to her, Alida said, "What is +no use, Jane? Why are you crying?" +</P> + +<P> +"I thought—he—might—p'raps—let me stay and work for him." +</P> + +<P> +Alida was still more perplexed. What could be said by way of comfort, +feeling sure as she did that Holcroft would be bitterly hostile to the +idea of keeping the child? The best she could do was to draw the +little waif out and obtain some explanation of her unexpected +appearance. But first she asked, "Have you had any breakfast?" +</P> + +<P> +Jane shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, then you must have some right away." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't want any. I want to die. I oughtn' ter been born." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me your troubles, Jane. Perhaps I can help you." +</P> + +<P> +"No, you'd be like the rest. They all hate me and make me feel I'm in +the way. He's the only one that didn't make me feel like a stray cat, +and now he's gone and got married," and the child sobbed aloud. +</P> + +<P> +Her grief was pitiful to see, for it was overwhelming. Alida stooped +down, and gently lifting the child up, brought her in. Then she took +off the wet hat and wiped the tear-stained face with her handkerchief. +"Wait a minute, Jane, till I bring you something," and she ran to the +dairy for a glass of milk. "You must drink it," she said, kindly but +firmly. +</P> + +<P> +The child gulped it down, and with it much of her grief, for this was +unprecedented treatment and was winning her attention. +</P> + +<P> +"Say," she faltered, "will you ask him to let me stay?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I'll ask him, but I can't promise that he will." +</P> + +<P> +"You won't ask him 'fore my face and then tell him not to behind my +back?" and there was a sly, keen look in her eyes which tears could not +conceal. +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Alida gravely, "that's not my way. How did you get here, +Jane?" +</P> + +<P> +"Run away." +</P> + +<P> +"From where?" +</P> + +<P> +"Poorhouse." +</P> + +<P> +Alida drew a quick breath and was silent a few moments. "Is—is your +mother there?" she asked at length. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. They wouldn't let us visit round any longer." +</P> + +<P> +"Didn't your mother or anyone know you were coming?" +</P> + +<P> +Jane shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +Alida felt that it would be useless to burden the unhappy child with +misgivings as to the result, and her heart softened toward her as one +who in her limited way had known the bitterness and dread which in that +same almshouse had overwhelmed her own spirit. She could only say +gently, "Well, wait till Mr. Holcroft comes, and then we'll see what he +says." She herself was both curious and anxious as to his course. "It +will be a heavy cross," she thought, "but I should little deserve God's +goodness to me if I did not befriend this child." +</P> + +<P> +Every moment added weight to this unexpected burden of duty. Apart +from all consideration of Jane's peculiarities, the isolation with +Holcroft had been a delight in itself. Their mutual enjoyment of each +other's society had been growing from day to day, and she, more truly +than he, had shrunk from the presence of another as an unwelcome +intrusion. Conscious of her secret, Jane's prying eyes were already +beginning to irritate her nerves. Never had she seen a human face that +so completely embodied her idea of inquisitiveness as the uncanny +visage of this child. She saw that she would be watched with a +tireless vigilance. Her recoil, however, was not so much a matter of +conscious reasoning and perception as it was an instinctive feeling of +repulsion caused by the unfortunate child. It was the same old story. +Jane always put the women of a household on pins and needles just as +her mother exasperated the men. Alida had to struggle hard during a +comparatively silent hour to fight down the hope that Holcroft would +not listen to Jane's and her own request. +</P> + +<P> +As she stepped quickly and lightly about in her preparations for +dinner, the girl watched her intently. At last she gave voice to her +thoughts and said, "If mother'd only worked round smart as you, p'raps +she'd hooked him 'stid er you." +</P> + +<P> +Alida's only reply was a slight frown, for the remark suggested +disagreeable images and fancies. "Oh, how can I endure it?" she sighed. +She determined to let Jane plead her own cause at first, thinking that +perhaps this would be the safest way. If necessary, she would use her +influence against a hostile decision, let it cost in discomfort what it +might. +</P> + +<P> +At a few moments before twelve the farmer came briskly toward the +house, and was evidently in the best of spirits. When he entered and +saw Jane, his countenance indicated so much dismay that Alida could +scarcely repress a smile. The child rose and stood before him like a +culprit awaiting sentence. She winked hard to keep the tears back, for +there was no welcome in his manner. She could not know how intensely +distasteful was her presence at this time, nor had Holcroft himself +imagined how unwelcome a third person in his house could be until he +saw the intruder before him. He had only felt that he was wonderfully +contented and happy in his home, and that Jane would be a constant +source of annoyance and restraint. Moreover, it might lead to +visitation from Mrs. Mumpson, and that was the summing up of earthly +ills. But the child's appearance and manner were so forlorn and +deprecating that words of irritation died upon his lips. He gravely +shook hands with her and then drew out the story which Alida had +learned. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Jane," he exclaimed, frowning, "Mr. Watterly will be scouring the +country for you. I shall have to take you back right after dinner." +</P> + +<P> +"I kinder hoped," she sobbed, "that you'd let me stay. I'd stay in the +barn if I couldn't be in the house. I'd just as soon work outdoors, +too." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think you'd be allowed to stay," said the farmer, with a +sinking heart; "and then—perhaps your mother would be coming here." +</P> + +<P> +"I can't stand mother no more'n you can" said the girl, through her set +teeth. "I oughtn'ter been born, for there's no place for me in the +world." +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft looked at his wife, his face expressive of the utmost +annoyance, worry, and irresolution. Her glance was sympathetic, but +she said nothing, feeling that if he could make the sacrifice from his +own will he should have the chance. "You can't begin to know how much +trouble this may lead to, Jane," he resumed. "You remember how your +other threatened to take the law upon me, and it wouldn't be possible +for you to stay here without her consent." +</P> + +<P> +"She oughter consent; I'll make her consent!" cried the child, speaking +as if driven to desperation. "What's she ever done for me but teach me +mean ways? Keep me or kill me, for I must be in some place where I've a +right to be away from mother. I've found that there's no sense in her +talk, and it drives me crazy." +</P> + +<P> +Although Jane's words and utterance were strangely uncouth, they +contained a despairing echo which the farmer could not resist. Turning +his troubled face to his wife, he began, "If this is possible, Alida, +it will be a great deal harder on you than it will on me. I don't feel +that I would be doing right by you unless you gave your consent with +full knowledge of—" +</P> + +<P> +"Then please let her stay, if it is possible. She seems to need a +friend and home as much as another that you heard about." +</P> + +<P> +"There's no chance of such a blessed reward in this case," he replied, +with a grim laugh. Then, perplexed indeed, he continued to Jane, "I'm +just as sorry for you as I can be, but there's no use of getting my +wife and self in trouble which in the end will do you no good. You are +too young to understand all that your staying may lead to." +</P> + +<P> +"It won't lead to mother's comin' here, and that's the worst that could +happen. Since she can't do anything for me she's got to let me do for +myself." +</P> + +<P> +"Alida, please come with me in the parlor a moment. You stay here, +Jane." When they were alone, he resumed, "Somehow, I feel strangely +unwilling to have that child live with us. We were enjoying our quiet +life so much. Then you don't realize how uncomfortable she will make +you, Alida." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I do." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think you can yet. Your sympathies are touched now, but +she'll watch you and irritate you in a hundred ways. Don't her very +presence make you uncomfortable?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, then, she can't stay," he began decidedly. "This is your home, +and no one shall make you uncomfortable—" +</P> + +<P> +"But I should be a great deal more uncomfortable if she didn't stay," +Alida interrupted. "I should feel that I did not deserve my home. Not +long ago my heart was breaking because I was friendless and in trouble. +What could I think of myself if I did not entreat you in behalf of this +poor child?" +</P> + +<P> +"Thunder!" ejaculated Holcroft. "I guess I was rather friendless and +troubled myself, and I didn't know the world had in it such a good +friend as you've become, Alida. Well, well! You've put it in such a +light that I'd be almost tempted to take the mother, also." +</P> + +<P> +"No," she replied, laughing; "we'll draw the line at the mother." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'll take Jane to town this afternoon, and if her mother will +sign an agreement to leave us all in peace, we'll give up our old cozy +comfort of being alone. I suppose it must be a good deed, since it's +so mighty hard to do it," he concluded with a wry face, leading the way +to the kitchen again. She smiled as if his words were already rewarding +her self denial. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Jane," he resumed, "Mrs. Holcroft has spoken in your behalf, and +if we can arrange matters so that you can stay, you will have her to +thank chiefly. I'll take you back to the poorhouse after dinner, so it +may be known what's become of you. Then, if your mother'll sign an +agreement to make no trouble and not come here, we'll give you a home +until we can find a better place for you." +</P> + +<P> +There was no outburst of gratitude. The repressed, dwarfed nature of +the child was incapable of this, yet there was an unwonted little +thrill of hope in her heart. Possibly it was like the beginning of +life in a seed under the first spring rays of the sun. She merely +nodded to Holcroft as if the matter had been settled as far as it could +be, and ignored Alida. +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't you thank Mrs. Holcroft?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +Then Jane turned and nodded at Alida. Her vocabulary of thanks was +undeveloped. +</P> + +<P> +"She's glad," said Alida. "You'll see. Now that it's settled, we hope +you're hungry, Jane, aren't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I be. Can't I help you put things on the table?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft looked at the two for a moment, and then shook his head as he +went up to his room. "I thought my wife was nice and pleasant looking +before," he thought, "but she's like a picture beside that child. +Well, she has behaved handsomely. Tom Watterly didn't tell half the +truth when he said she was not of the common run. She's a Christian in +deeds, not talk. What's that in Scripture about 'I was hungry'? Well, +well! She makes religion kind of natural and plain like, whether it's +easy or not. Thunder! What a joke it is to see her so grateful +because I've given her a chance to help me out of the worst scrape a +man could be in! As if she hadn't changed everything for the better! +Here I am sure of my home and getting ahead in the world again, and +it's all her doing." +</P> + +<P> +In admiration of his wife Holcroft quite forgot that there had been any +self-sacrifice on his part, and he concluded that he could endure Jane +and almost anything else as long as Alida continued to look after his +comfort and interests. +</P> + +<P> +Now that the worst stress of Jane's anxiety was over, she proved that +she was half starved. Indeed she had few misgivings now, for her +confidence that Holcroft would accomplish what he attempted was almost +unbounded. It was a rather silent meal at first, for the farmer and +his wife had much to think about and Jane much to do in making up for +many limited meals. At last Holcroft smiled so broadly that Alida +said, "Something seems to please you." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, more than one thing. It might be a great deal worse, and was, +not long ago. I was thinking of old times." +</P> + +<P> +"How pleasant they must have been to make you look so happy!" +</P> + +<P> +"They had their uses, and make me think of a picture I saw in a store +window in town. It was a picture of a woman, and she took my fancy +amazingly. But the point uppermost in my mind was a trick of the +fellow who painted her. He had made the background as dark as night +and so she stood out as if alive; and she looked so sweet and good that +I felt like shaking hands with her. I now see why the painter made the +background so dark." +</P> + +<P> +Alida smiled mischievously as she replied, "That was his art. He knew +that almost anyone would appear well against such a background." +</P> + +<P> +But Holcroft was much too direct to be diverted from his thought or its +expression. "The man knew the mighty nice-looking woman he had painted +would look well," he said, "and I know of another woman who appears +better against a darker background. That's enough to make a man smile +who has been through what I have." +</P> + +<P> +She could not help a flush of pleasure or disguise the happy light in +her eyes, but she looked significantly at Jane, who, mystified and +curious, was glancing from one to the other. +</P> + +<P> +"Confound it!" thought the farmer. "That'll be the way of it now. +Here's a little pitcher that's nearly all ears. Well, we're in for it +and must do our duty." +</P> + +<P> +Going to town that day involved no slight inconvenience, but Holcroft +dropped everything and rapidly made his preparations. +</P> + +<P> +When Alida was left alone with Jane, the latter began clearing the +table with alacrity, and after a few furtive glances at Mrs. Holcroft, +yielded to the feeling that she should make some acknowledgment of the +intercession in her behalf. "Say," she began, "I thought you wasn't +goin; to stand up for me, after all. Women folks are liars, mostly." +</P> + +<P> +"You are mistaken, Jane. If you wish to stay with us, you must tell +the truth and drop all sly ways." +</P> + +<P> +"That's what he said when I first come." +</P> + +<P> +"I say it too. You see a good deal, Jane. Try to see what will please +people instead of what you can find out about them. It's a much better +plan. Now, as a friend, I tell you of one thing you had better not do. +You shouldn't watch and listen to Mr. Holcroft unless he speaks to you. +He doesn't like to be watched—no one does. It isn't nice; and if you +come to us, I think you will try to do what is nice. Am I not right?" +</P> + +<P> +"I dunno how," said Jane. +</P> + +<P> +"It will be part of my business to teach you. You ought to understand +all about your coming. Mr. Holcroft doesn't take you because he needs +your work, but because he's sorry for you, and wishes to give you a +chance to do better and learn something. You must make up your mind to +lessons, and learning to talk and act nicely, as well as to do such +work as is given you. Are you willing to do what I say and mind me +pleasantly and promptly?" +</P> + +<P> +Jane looked askance at the speaker and was vaguely suspicious of some +trick. In her previous sojourn at the farmhouse she had concluded that +it was her best policy to keep in Holcroft's good graces, even though +she had to defy her mother and Mrs. Wiggins, and she was now by no +means ready to commit herself to this new domestic power. She had +received the impression that the authority and continued residence of +females in this household was involved in much uncertainty, and +although Alida was in favor now and the farmer's wife, she didn't know +what "vicissitudes" (as her mother would denominate them) might occur. +Holcroft was the only fixed and certain quantity in her troubled +thoughts, and after a little hesitation she replied, "I'll do what he +says; I'm goin' to mind him." +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose he tells you to mind me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Then I will. That ud be mindin' him. I'm goin' to stick to him, for +I made out by it better before than by mindin' mother and Mrs. Wiggins." +</P> + +<P> +Alida now understood the child and laughed aloud. "You are right," she +said. "I won't ask you to do anything contrary to his wishes. Now tell +me, Jane, what other clothes have you besides those you are wearing?" +</P> + +<P> +It did not take the girl long to inventory her scanty wardrobe, and +then Alida rapidly made out a list of what was needed immediately. +"Wait here," she said, and putting on a pretty straw hat, one of her +recent purchases, she started for the barn. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft had his wagon and team almost ready when Alida joined him, and +led the way to the floor between the sweet-smelling hay-mows. +</P> + +<P> +"One thing leads to another," she began, looking at him a little +deprecatingly. "You must have noticed the condition of Jane's clothes." +</P> + +<P> +"She does look like a little scarecrow, now I come to think of it," he +admitted. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, she's not much better off than I was," Alida returned, with +downcast eyes and rising color. +</P> + +<P> +Her flushing face was so pretty under the straw hat, and the dark mow +as a background brought out her figure so finely that he thought of the +picture again and laughed aloud for pleasure. She looked up in +questioning surprise, thus adding a new grace. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish that artist fellow was here now," he exclaimed. "He could make +another picture that would suit me better than the one I saw in town." +</P> + +<P> +"What nonsense!" she cried, quickly averting her face from his admiring +scrutiny. "Come, I'm here to talk business and you've no time to waste. +I've made out a list of what the child actually must have to be +respectable." +</P> + +<P> +"You're right, Alida," said the farmer, becoming grave at once over a +question of dollars and cents. "As you say, one thing leads to another, +and if we take the girl we must clothe her decently. But then, I guess +she'll earn enough to pay her way. It isn't that I worry about so +much," he broke out discontentedly, "but the interference with our +quiet, cozy life. Things are going so smoothly and pleasantly that I +hate a change of any kind." +</P> + +<P> +"We mustn't be selfish, you know," she replied. "You are doing a kind, +generous act, and I respect you all the more for it." +</P> + +<P> +"That settles everything. You'll like me a little better for it, too, +won't you?" he asked hesitatingly. +</P> + +<P> +She laughed outright at this question and answered, "It won't do to +take too much self-sacrifice out of your act. There's something which +does us all good. She ought to have a spelling and a writing book +also." +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft was assuredly falling under the sway of the little blind god, +for he began at once to misunderstand Alida. "You are very fond of +self-sacrifice," he said, rather stiffly. "Yes, I'll get everything on +your list," and he took it from her hand. "Now I must be off," he +added, "for I wish to get back before night, and it's so warm I can't +drive fast. Sorry I have to go, for I can't say I dote on +self-sacrifice." +</P> + +<P> +Alida but partially understood his sudden change of mood, nor was the +farmer much better enlightened himself in regard to his irritation. He +had received an unexpected impression and it seemed to fit in with +other things and explain them. She returned slowly and dejectedly to +the house, leaving unsaid the words she meant to speak about Jane's +relations to her. Now she wished that she had imitated Jane, and +merely nodded to the farmer's questions. "If he knew how far I am +beyond the point of liking, I don't know what he'd do or say," she +thought, "and I suppose that's the reason I couldn't answer him +frankly, in a way that would have satisfied him. It's a pity I +couldn't begin to just LIKE a little at first, as he does and have +everything grow as gradually and quietly as one of his cornstalks. +That's the way I meant it should be; but when he stood up for me and +defended me from those men, my heart just melted, and in spite of +myself, I felt I could die for him. It can't be such an awful thing +for a woman to fall in love with her husband, and yet—yet I'd rather +put my hand in the fire than let him know how I feel. Oh, dear! I +wish Jane hadn't been born, as she says. Trouble is beginning already, +and it was all so nice before she came." +</P> + +<P> +In a few moments Holcroft drove up. Alida stood in the door and looked +timidly at him. He thought she appeared a little pale and troubled, +but his bad mood prevailed and he only asked briefly, "Can't I get +something for you?" +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, goodbye, then," and he drove away with Jane, who was confirmed +in her line of policy. "She's afraid of 'im too," thought the child. +"Mind her! Guess not, unless he says so." She watched the farmer +furtively and concluded that she had never known him to look more grim +or be more silent even under her mother's blandishments. "He's married +this one, I s'pose, to keep house for 'im, but he don't like her +follerin' 'im up or bein' for'ard any more'n he did mother. Shouldn't +wonder if he didn't keep her, either, if she don't suit better. She +needn't 'a' put on such airs with me, for I'm goin' to stick to him." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap29"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXIX. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Husband and Wife in Trouble +</H3> + +<P> +Like many others with simple, strong natures, Holcroft could not be +wrong-headed moderately, and his thoughts, once started in a direction +were apt to carry him much farther than the cause warranted. Engrossed +in painful and rather bitter musings, he paid no heed to Jane and +almost forgot his errand to town. "I was a fool to ask that question," +he thought. "I was getting silly and sentimental with my talk about the +picture and all that. She laughed at me and reminded me I was wasting +time. Of course she can't like an old, hard-featured man like me. I'm +beginning to understand her now. She made a business marriage with me +and means to live up to her agreement. She's honest; she feels I've +done her a real kindness in giving her a home, and she's willing to be +as self-sacrificing as the day is long to make it up to me. I wish she +wasn't so grateful; there's no occasion for it. I don't want her to +feel that every pleasant word and every nice act is so much toward +paying a debt. If there was any balance in my favor it was squared up +long ago, and I was willing to call it even from the start. She's made +me like her for her own sake and not on account of what she does for +me, and that's what I had in mind. But she's my superior in every way; +she's growing to be a pretty as a picture, and I suppose I appear like +a rather rough customer. Well, I can't help if, but it rather goes +against me to have her think, 'I've married him and I'm going to do my +duty by him, just as I agreed.' She'll do her duty by this Jane in the +same self-sacrificing spirit, and will try to make it pleasant for the +child just because it's right and because she herself was taken out of +trouble. That's the shape her religion takes. 'Tisn't a common form, +I know—this returning good for good with compound interest. But her +conscience won't let her rest unless she does everything she can for +me, and now she'll begin to do everything for Jane because she feels +that self-sacrifice is a duty. Anybody can be self-sacrificing. If I +made up my mind, I could ask Mrs. Mumpson to visit us all summer, but I +couldn't like her to save my life, and I don't suppose Alida can like +me, beyond a certain point, to save her life. But she'll do her duty. +She'll be pleasant and self-sacrificing and do all the work she can lay +her hands on for my sake; but when it comes to feeling toward me as I +can't help feeling toward her—that wasn't in the bargain," and he +startled Jane with a sudden bitter laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"Say," said the child, as if bent on adding another poignant +reflection, "if you hadn't married her, I could 'a' come and cooked for +you." +</P> + +<P> +"You think I'd been better off if I'd waited for you, eh?" +</P> + +<P> +"You kinder looked as if yer thought so." +</P> + +<P> +He now made the hills echo with a laugh, excited both by his bitter +fancies and the preposterous idea. She looked at him inquiringly and +was much perplexed by his unwonted behavior. Indeed, he was slightly +astonished at his own strange mood, but he yielded to it almost +recklessly. "I say, Jane," he began, "I'm not a very good-looking man, +am I?" +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head in emphatic agreement. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm old and rough and hard-featured?" +</P> + +<P> +Again she nodded approvingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Children and some others speak the truth," he growled. +</P> + +<P> +"I never had no teachin', but I'm not a fool," remarked Jane keenly. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess I'm the fool in this case," he added. +</P> + +<P> +"It don't make no difference to me," she said sympathetically. "I'm +goin' to mind you and not her. If you ever send her away I'll cook for +you." +</P> + +<P> +"Send her away!" exclaimed the farmer, with a shiver. "God forbid! +There, don't talk any more!" +</P> + +<P> +For the next half mile he drove in silence, with a heavy frown on his +face; then he broke out sternly, "If you don't promise to mind Mrs. +Holcroft and please her in everything, I'll leave you at the poorhouse +door and drive home again." +</P> + +<P> +"'Course I will, if you tells me to," said the child in trepidation. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I DO. People will find that making her trouble is the surest +way of making themselves trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"She's got some hold on 'im," concluded Jane, who, in listening to much +gossip, had often heard this expression, and now made a practical +application of the idea. +</P> + +<P> +Watterly was greatly relieved when he saw Holcroft drive up with the +fugitive. "I was just going out to your place," he said, "for the +girl's mother insisted that you had enticed the child away," and the +man laughed, as if the idea tickled him immensely. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft frowned, for he was in no mood for his friend's rough jests. +"Go to your mother till I send for you," he said to Jane. +</P> + +<P> +"The fact that you had taken two other females from the house gave some +color to Mrs. Mumpson's views," pursued Watterly, who could take only +the broadest hint as to his social conduct. +</P> + +<P> +He received one now. "Tom Watterly," said the farmer sternly, "did I +ever insult your wife?" +</P> + +<P> +"By jocks! No, you nor no other man. I should say not." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, then, don't you insult mine. Before I'd seen Mrs. Holcroft, you +told me she was out of the common run,—how much out, you little +know,—and I don't want her mixed up with the common run, even in your +thoughts." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, now, I like that," said Watterly, giving Holcroft his hand. "You +know I didn't mean any offense, Jim. It was only one of my foolish +jokes. You were mighty slow to promise to love, honor, and obey, but +hanged if you aint more on that line than any man in town. I can see +she's turning out well and keeping her agreement." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, that's just what she's doing," said the farmer gloomily. "She's a +good, capable woman that'll sacrifice herself to her duty any day. But +it wasn't to talk about her I came. She's a sight better than I am, +but she's probably not good enough for anybody in this town to speak +to." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, pshaw; now, Jim!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I've come on disagreeable business. I didn't know that Mrs. +Mumpson and her child were here, and I wish to the Lord they could both +stay here! You've found out what the mother is, I suppose?" +</P> + +<P> +"I should say so," replied Tom, laughing. "She's talked several of the +old women to death already. The first day she was here she called on +my wife and claimed social relations, because she's so 'respecterbly +connected,' as she says. I thought Angy'd have a fit. Her respectable +connections have got to take her off my hands." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not one of 'em, thank goodness!" resumed Holcroft. "But I'm +willing to take the girl and give her a chance—at least I'll do it," +he corrected himself, in his strict observance of truth. "You can see +she's not a child to dote on, but I was sorry for her when I sent her +mother away and said I'd try and do something for her. The first thing +I knew she was at the house, begging me to either take her in or kill +her. I couldn't say no, though I wanted to. Now, you see what kind of +a good Samaritan I am." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I know you! You'd hit a man between the eyes if he charged you +with doing a good deed. But what does your wife say to adopting such a +cherub?" +</P> + +<P> +"We're not going to adopt her or bind ourselves. My wife took the +child's part and plead with me in her behalf, though I could see the +young one almost made her sick. She thinks it's her duty, you know, +and that's enough for her." +</P> + +<P> +"By jocks, Holcroft! She don't feel that way about you, does she?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why shouldn't she?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why should she? I can take about anything from Angy, but it wouldn't +do for her to let me see that she disliked me so that I kinder made her +sick." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, thunder, Tom! You're getting a wrong impression. I was never +treated better by anybody in my life than by Mrs. Holcroft. She's a +lady, every inch of her. But there's no reason why she should dote on +an old fellow like me." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, there is. I have my opinion of a woman who wouldn't dote on a +man that's been such a friend as you have." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, hang it all, Tom! Let's talk about business. She's too +grateful—that's what worries me. By the way she took hold and filled +the house with comfort she made everything even from the start. She's +been as good a friend to me as I to her. She's done all she agreed and +more, and I'll never hear a word against her. The point I've been +trying to get at is this: If Mrs. Mumpson will agree never to come near +us or make trouble in any way, we'll take the child. If she won't so +agree, I'll have nothing to do with the girl. I don't want to see her +mother, and you'd do me one of the kindest turns you ever did a man by +stating the case to her." +</P> + +<P> +"If I do," said Watterly, laughing, "you'll have to forgive me +everything in the past and the future." +</P> + +<P> +"I will, Tom, for I'd rather have an eye tooth pulled than face that +woman. We're all right—just as we used to be at school, always half +quarreling, yet ready to stand up for each other to the last drop. But +I must have her promise in black and white." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, come to my office and we'll try to arrange it. The law is on +your side, for the county won't support people that anyone will take +off its hands. Besides I'm going to shame the woman's relations into +taking her away, and they'll be glad there's one less to support." +</P> + +<P> +They drew up a brief, strong agreement, and Watterly took it to the +widow to sign. He found her in great excitement and Jane looking at +her defiantly. "I told you he was the one who enticed away my +offspring," she began, almost hysterically. "He's a cold-blooded +villain! If there's a law in the land, I'll—" +</P> + +<P> +"Stop!" thundered Watterly. His voice was so high and authoritative +that she did stop, and with open mouth stared at the superintendent. +"Now, be quiet and listen to me," he continued. "Either you are a sane +woman and can stop this foolishness, or else you are insane and must be +treated as such. You have your choice. You can't tell me anything +about Holcroft; I've known him since he was a boy. He doesn't want +your girl. She ran away to him, didn't you?" to Jane, who nodded. "But +he's willing to take her, to teach her something and give her a chance. +His motive is pure kindness, and he has a good wife who'll—" +</P> + +<P> +"I see it all," cried the widow, tragically clasping her hands. "It's +his wife's doings! She wishes to triumph over me, and even to usurp my +place in ministering to my child. Was there ever such an outrage? +Such a bold, vindictive female—" +</P> + +<P> +Here Jane, in a paroxysm of indignant protest, seized her mother and +began to shake her so violently that she could not speak. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop that!" said Watterly, repressing laughter with difficulty. "I see +you are insane and the law will have to step in and take care of you +both." +</P> + +<P> +"What will it do with us?" gasped the widow. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it ought to put you in strait jackets to begin with—" +</P> + +<P> +"I've got some sense if mother aint!" cried Jane, commencing to sob. +</P> + +<P> +"It's plain the law'll decide your mother's not fit to take care of +you. Anyone who can even imagine such silly ridiculous things as she's +just said must be looked after. You MAY take a notion, Mrs. Mumpson, +that I'm a murderer or a giraffe. It would be just as sensible as your +other talk." +</P> + +<P> +"What does Mr. Holcroft offer?" said the widow, cooling off rapidly. +If there was an atom of common sense left in any of his pauper charges, +Watterly soon brought it into play, and his vague threatenings of law +were always awe-inspiring. +</P> + +<P> +"He makes a very kind offer that you would jump at if you had sense—a +good home for your child. You ought to know she can't stay here and +live on charity if anyone is willing to take her." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I would be permitted to visit my child from time to time? +He couldn't be so monstrously hard-hearted as—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, nonsense!" cried Watterly impatiently. "The idea of his letting +you come to his house after what you've said about him! I've no time +to waste in foolishness, or he either. He will let Jane visit you, but +you are to sign this paper and keep the agreement not to go near him or +make any trouble whatever." +</P> + +<P> +"It's an abominable—" +</P> + +<P> +"Tut! Tut! That kind of talk isn't allowed here. If you can't decide +like a sane woman the law'll soon decide for you." +</P> + +<P> +As was always the case when Mrs. Mumpson reached the inevitable, she +yielded; the paper was signed, and Jane, who had already made up her +small bundle, nodded triumphantly to her mother and followed Watterly. +Mrs. Mumpson, on tiptoe, followed also, bent on either propitiating +Holcroft and so preparing the way for a visit, or else on giving him +once more a "piece of her mind." +</P> + +<P> +"All right, Holcroft!" said Watterly, as he entered the office, "here's +the paper signed. Was there ever such an id——" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, how do you do, Mr. Holcroft?" cried the widow, bursting in and +rushing forward with extended hand. +</P> + +<P> +The farmer turned away and looked as if made of stone. +</P> + +<P> +Changing her tactics instantly, she put her handkerchief to her eyes +and moaned, "You never can have the heart to say I can't come and see +my child. I've signed writings, 'tis true, under threats and +compulsions; but I trust there will be relentings—" +</P> + +<P> +"There won't be one relent!" cried Jane. "I never want to see you +again, and a blind post could see that he doesn't." +</P> + +<P> +"Jane," said Holcroft sternly, "don't speak so again. If strangers can +be kind and patient with you, you can be so with your mother. She has +no claims on me and has said things which make it impossible for me to +speak to her again, but I shall insist on your visiting and treating +her kindly. Goodbye, Watterly. You've proved yourself a friend +again," and he went rapidly away, followed by Jane. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mumpson was so taken aback by Holcroft's final words and +Watterly's stern manner as he said, "This is my office," that for once +in her life she disappeared silently. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft soon purchased the articles on his list, meanwhile racking his +brains to think of something that he could buy for Alida, but the fear +of being thought sentimental and of appearing to seek a personal regard +for himself, not "nominated in the bond," restrained him. +</P> + +<P> +On his way home he was again sunk in deep abstraction, but the +bitterness of his feeling had passed away. Although as mistaken as +before in his apprehension of Alida, his thoughts were kinder and +juster. "I've no right to find fault or complain," he said to himself. +"She's done all I asked and better than she agreed, and there's no one +to blame if she can't do more. It must have been plain enough to her +at first that I didn't want anything but a housekeeper—a quiet, +friendly body that would look after the house and dairy, and she's done +better than I even hoped. That's just the trouble; she's turned out so +different from what I expected, and looks so different from what she +did, that I'm just sort of carried away. I'd give half the farm if she +was sitting by my side this June evening and I could tell her all I +feel and know she was glad. I must be just and fair to her. I asked +her to agree to one thing and now I'm beginning to want a tremendous +sight more—I want her to like not only her home and work and the quiet +life she so longed for, but I want her to like me, to enjoy my society, +not only in a friendly, businesslike way, but in another way—yes, +confound my slow wits! Somewhat as if she was my wife in reality and +not merely in name, as I insisted. It's mighty mean business in me, +who have been so proud of standing up to my agreements and so exacting +of others to do the same. I went away cold and stiff this afternoon +because she wasn't silly and sentimental when I was. I'm to her an +unpolished, homely, middle-aged man, and yet I sort of scoffed at the +self-sacrifice which has led her to be pleasant and companionable in +every way that her feelings allowed. I wish I were younger and better +looking, so it wouldn't all be a sense of duty and gratitude. +Gratitude be hanged! I don't want any more of it. Well, now, James +Holcroft, if you're the square man you supposed yourself to be, you'll +be just as kind and considerate as you know how, and then you'll leave +Alida to the quiet, peaceful life to which she looked forward when she +married you. The thing for you to do is to go back to your first ways +after you were married and attend to the farm. She doesn't want you +hanging around and looking at her as if she was one of her own posies. +That's something she wasn't led to expect and it would be mean enough +to force it upon her before she shows that she wishes it, and I +couldn't complain if she NEVER wished it." +</P> + +<P> +During the first hour after Holcroft's departure Alida had been +perplexed and worried, but her intuitions soon led to hopefulness, and +the beauty and peace of nature without aided in restoring her serenity. +The more minutely she dwelt on Holcroft's words and manner, the more +true it seemed that he was learning to take an interest in her that was +personal and apart from every other consideration. "If I am gentle, +patient, and faithful," she thought, "all will come out right. He is +so true and straightforward that I need have no fears." +</P> + +<P> +When he returned and greeted her with what seemed his old, friendly, +natural manner, and, during a temporary absence of Jane, told her +laughingly of the Mumpson episode, she was almost completely reassured. +"Suppose the widow breaks through all restraint and appears as did +Jane, what would you do?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Whatever you wished," she replied, smiling. +</P> + +<P> +"In other words, what you thought your duty?" +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose that is what one should try to do." +</P> + +<P> +"I guess you are the one that would succeed in doing it, even to Mrs. +Mumpson," he said, turning hastily away and going to his room. +</P> + +<P> +She was puzzled again. "I'm sure I don't dote on self-sacrifice and +hard duty any more than he does, but I can't tell him that duty is not +hard when it's to him." +</P> + +<P> +Jane was given the room over the kitchen which Mrs. Wiggins had +occupied, and the farmhouse soon adopted her into its quiet routine. +Holcroft's course continued to cause Alida a dissatisfaction which she +could scarcely define. He was as kind as ever he had been and even more +considerate; he not only gratified her wishes, but tried to anticipate +them, while Jane's complete subserviency proved that she had been +spoken to very plainly. +</P> + +<P> +One day she missed her spelling lesson for the third time, and Alida +told her that she must learn it thoroughly before going out. The child +took the book reluctantly, yet without a word. "That's a good girl!" +said Alida, wishing to encourage her. "I was afraid at first you +wouldn't mind me so readily." +</P> + +<P> +"He told me to. He'd fire me out the window if I didn't mind you." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no! I think he's very kind to you." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, he's kind to you, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, he has always been kind to me," said Alida gently and +lingeringly, as if the thought were pleasant to dwell upon. +</P> + +<P> +"Say," said Jane, yielding to her curiosity, "how did you make him so +afraid of you when he don't like you? He didn't like mother, but he +wasn't afraid of her." +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you think he doesn't like me?" Alida faltered, turning very +pale. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! 'Cause he looked once jest as he did after mother'd been goin' +for—" +</P> + +<P> +"There, be still! You mustn't speak of such things, or talk to me +about Mr. Holcroft in such a way," and she hastily left the kitchen. +When in the solitude of her own room, she gave way to bitter tears. "Is +it so plain," she thought, "that even this ignorant child sees it? And +the unhappy change began the day she came, too. I can't understand it. +We were so happy before; and he seemed to enjoy being near me and +talking to me when his work permitted. He used to look into my eyes in +a way that made me hope and, indeed, feel almost sure. I receive no +more such looks; he seems only trying to do his duty by me as he +promised at first, and acts as if it were all duty, a mere matter of +conscience. Could he have discovered how I felt, and so is taking this +way to remind me that nothing of the kind was in our agreement? Well, +I've no reason to complain; I accepted the relation of my own free +will, but it's hard, hard indeed for a woman who loves a man with her +whole heart and soul—and he her husband—to go on meeting him day +after day, yet act as if she were his mere business partner. But I +can't help myself; my very nature, as well as a sense of his rights, +prevents me from asking more or even showing that I wish for more. +That WOULD be asking for it. But can it be true that he is positively +learning to dislike me? To shrink from me with that strong repulsion +which women feel toward some men? Oh! If that is true, the case is +hopeless; it would kill me. Every effort to win him, even the most +delicate and unobtrusive, would only drive him farther away; the +deepest instincts of his soul would lead him to withdraw—to shun me. +If this is true, the time may come when, so far from my filling his +house with comfort, I shall make him dread to enter it. Oh, oh! My +only course is to remember just what I promised and he expected when he +married me, and live up to that." +</P> + +<P> +Thus husband and wife reached the same, conclusion and were rendered +equally unhappy. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap30"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXX. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Holcroft's Best Hope +</H3> + +<P> +When Holcroft came in to dinner that day the view he had adopted was +confirmed, yet Alida's manner and appearance began to trouble him. +Even to his rather slow perception, she did not seem so happy as she +had been. She did not meet his eye with her old frank, friendly, and +as he had almost hoped, affectionate, expression; she seemed merely +feverishly anxious to do everything and have all as he wished. Instead +of acting with natural ease and saying what was in her mind without +premeditation, a conscious effort was visible and an apparent +solicitude that he should be satisfied. The inevitable result was that +he was more dissatisfied. "She's doing her best for me," he growled, as +he went back to his work, "and it begins to look as if it might wear +her out in time. Confound it! Having everything just so isn't of much +account when a man's heart-hungry. I'd rather have had one of her old +smiles and gone without my dinner. Well, well; how little a man +understands himself or knows the future! The day I married her I was +in mortal dread lest she should care for me too much and want to be +affectionate and all that; and here I am, discontented and moping +because everything has turned out as I then wished. Don't see as I'm +to blame, either. She had no business to grow so pretty. Then she +looked like a ghost, but now when the color comes into her cheeks, and +her blue eyes sparkle, a man would be a stupid clod if he didn't look +with all his eyes and feel his heart a-thumping. That she should +change so wasn't in the bargain; neither was it that she should read +aloud in such sweet tones that a fellow'd like to listen to the +dictionary; nor that she should make the house and yard look as they +never did before, and, strangest of all, open my eyes to the fact that +apple trees bear flowers as well as pippins. I can't even go by a wild +posy in the lane without thinking she'd like it and see in it a sight +more than I once could. I've been taken in, as old Jonathan feared," +he muttered, following out his fancy with a sort of grim humor. "She +isn't the woman I thought I was marrying at all, and I aint bound by my +agreement—not in my thoughts, anyhow. I'd have been in a nice scrape +if I'd taken my little affidavit not to think of her or look upon her +in any other light than that of housekeeper and butter maker. It's a +scary thing, this getting married with a single eye to business. See +where I am now! Hanged if I don't believe I'm in love with my wife, +and, like a thundering fool, I had to warn her against falling in love +with me! Little need of that, though. She hasn't been taken in, for +I'm the same old chap she married, and I'd be a mighty mean cuss if I +went to her and said, 'Here, I want you to do twice as much, a +hundred-fold as much as you agreed to.' I'd be a fool, too, for she +couldn't do it unless something drew her toward me just as I'm drawn +toward her." +</P> + +<P> +Late in the afternoon he leaned on the handle of his corn plow, and, in +the consciousness of solitude, said aloud: "Things grow clear if you +think of them enough, and the Lord knows I don't think of much else any +more. It isn't her good qualities which I say over to myself a hundred +times a day, or her education, or anything of the kind, that draws me; +it's she herself. I like her. Why don't I say love her, and be +honest? Well, it's a fact, and I've got to face it. Here I am, +plowing out my corn, and it looks splendid for its age. I thought if I +could stay on the old place, and plant and cultivate and reap, I'd be +more than content, and now I don't seem to care a rap for the corn or +the farm either, compared with Alida; and I care for her just because +she is Alida and no one else. But the other side of this fact has an +ugly look. Suppose I'm disagreeable to her! When she married me she +felt like a woman drowning; she was ready to take hold of the first +hand reached to her without knowing much about whose hand it was. +Well, she's had time to find out. She isn't drawn. Perhaps she feels +toward me somewhat as I did toward Mrs. Mumpson, and she can't help +herself either. Well, well, the bare thought of it makes my heart +lead. What's a man to do? What can I do but live up to my agreement +and not torment her any more than I can help with my company? That's +the only honest course. Perhaps she'll get more used to me in time. +She might get sick, and then I'd be so kind and watchful that she'd +think the old fellow wasn't so bad, after all, But I shan't give her +the comfort of no end of self-sacrifice in trying to be pleasant and +sociable. If she's foolish enough to think she's in my debt she can't +pay it in that way. No, sir! I've got to make the most of it now—I'm +bound to—but this business marriage will never suit me until the white +arm I saw in the dairy room is around my neck, and she looks in my eyes +and says, 'James, I guess I'm ready for a longer marriage ceremony.'" +</P> + +<P> +It was a pity that Alida could not have been among the hazelnut bushes +near and heard him. +</P> + +<P> +He resumed his toil, working late and doggedly. At supper he was very +attentive to Alida, but taciturn and preoccupied; and when the meal was +over he lighted his pipe and strolled out into the moonlight. She +longed to follow him, yet felt it to be more impossible than if she +were chained to the floor. +</P> + +<P> +And so the days passed; Holcroft striving with the whole force of his +will to appear absorbed in the farm, and she, with equal effort, to +seem occupied and contented with her household and dairy duties. They +did everything for each other that they could, and yet each thought +that the other was acting from a sense of obligation, and so all the +more sedulously veiled their actual thoughts and feelings from each +other. Or course, such mistaken effort only led to a more complete +misunderstanding. +</P> + +<P> +With people of their simplicity and habit of reticence, little of what +was in their hearts appeared on the surface. Neither had time to mope, +and their mutual duties were in a large measure a support and refuge. +Of these they could still speak freely for they pertained to business. +Alida's devotion to her work was unfeigned for it seemed now her only +avenue of approach to her husband. She watched over the many broods of +little chickens with tireless vigilance. If it were yellow gold, she +could not have gathered the butter from the churn with greater greed. +She kept the house immaculate and sought to develop her cooking into a +fine art. She was scrupulous in giving Jane her lessons and trying to +correct her vernacular and manners, but the presence of the child grew +to be a heavier cross every day. She could not blame the girl, whose +misfortune it was to lead incidentally to the change in Holcroft's +manner, yet it was impossible not to associate her with the beginning +of that change. Jane was making decided improvement, and had Alida +been happy and at rest this fact would have given much satisfaction in +spite of the instinctive repugnance which the girl seemed to inspire +universally. Holcroft recognized this repugnance and the patient +effort to disguise it and be kind. +</P> + +<P> +"Like enough she feels in the same way toward me," he thought, "and is +trying a sight harder not to show it. But she seems willing enough to +talk business and to keep up her interest in the partnership line. +Well, blamed if I wouldn't rather talk business to her than love to any +other woman!" +</P> + +<P> +So it gradually came about that they had more and more to say to each +other on matters relating to the farm. Holcroft showed her the +receipts from the dairy, and her eyes sparkled as if he had brought +jewels home to her. Then she in turn would expatiate on the poultry +interests and assure him that there were already nearly two hundred +little chicks on the place. One afternoon, during a shower, she +ventured to beguile him into listening to the greater part of one of +the agricultural journals, and with much deference made two or three +suggestions about the farm, which he saw were excellent. She little +dreamed that if she were willing to talk of turning the farm upside +down and inside out, he would have listened with pleasure. +</P> + +<P> +They both began to acquire more serenity and hopefulness, for even this +sordid business partnership was growing strangely interesting. The +meals grew less and less silent, and the farmer would smoke his pipe +invitingly near in the evening so that she could resume their talk on +bucolic subjects without much conscious effort, while at the same time, +if she did not wish his society, she could shun it without discourtesy. +He soon perceived that she needed some encouragement to talk even of +farm matters; but, having received it, that she showed no further +reluctance. He naturally began to console himself with business as +unstintedly as he dared. "As long as I keep on this tack all seems +well," he muttered. "She don't act as if I was disagreeable to her, but +then how can a man tell? If she thinks it her duty, she'll talk and +smile, yet shiver at the very thought of my touching her. Well, well, +time will show. We seem to be getting more sociable, anyhow." +</P> + +<P> +They both recognized this fact and tried to disguise it and to relieve +themselves from the appearance of making any undue advances by greater +formality of address. In Jane's presence he had formed the habit of +speaking to his wife as Mrs. Holcroft, and now he was invariably "Mr." +</P> + +<P> +One evening in the latter part of June, he remarked at supper, "I must +give half a day to hoeing the garden tomorrow. I've been so busy +working out the corn and potatoes that it seems an age since I've been +in the garden." +</P> + +<P> +"She and me," began Jane, "I mean Mrs. Holcroft and I, have been in the +garden." +</P> + +<P> +"That's right, Jane, You're coming on. I think your improved talk and +manners do Mrs. Holcroft much credit. I'd like to take some lessons +myself." Then, as if a little alarmed at his words, he hastened to +ask, "What have you been doing in the garden?" +</P> + +<P> +"You'll see when you go there," replied Jane, her small eyes twinkling +with the rudiments of fun. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft looked at the child as if he had not seen her for some time +either. Her hair was neatly combed, braided, and tied with a blue +ribbon instead of a string, her gown was as becoming as any dress could +be to her, her little brown hands were clean, and they no longer +managed the knife and fork in an ill-bred manner. The very expression +of the child's face was changing, and now that it was lighted up with +mirth at the little surprise awaiting him, it had at least attained the +negative grace of being no longer repulsive. He sighed involuntarily +as he turned away. "Just see what she's doing for that child that I +once thought hideous! How much she might do for me if she cared as I +do!" +</P> + +<P> +He rose from the table, lighted his pipe, and went out to the doorstep. +Alida looked at him wistfully. "He stood there with me once and faced a +mob of men," she thought. "Then he put his arm around me. I would face +almost any danger for even such a caress again." The memory of that +hour lent her unwonted courage, and she approached him timidly and +said, "Perhaps you would like to go and look at the garden? Jane and I +may not have done everything right." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, certainly. I forgot about the garden; but then you'll have to go +with me if I'm to tell you." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't mind," she said, leading the way. +</P> + +<P> +The June sun was low in the west and the air had become deliciously +cool and fragrant. The old rosebushes were in bloom, and as she passed +she picked a bud and fastened it on her bosom. Wood thrushes, orioles, +and the whole chorus of birds were in full song: limpid rills of melody +from the meadow larks flowed from the fields, and the whistling of the +quails added to the harmony. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft was in a mood of which he had never been conscious before. +These familiar sounds, which had been unheeded so much of his life, now +affected him strangely, creating an immeasurable sadness and longing. +It seemed as if perceptions which were like new senses were awakening +in his mind. The world was full of wonderful beauty before +unrecognized, and the woman who walked lightly and gracefully at his +side was the crown of it all. He himself was so old, plain, and +unworthy in contrast. His heart ached with a positive, definite pain +that he was not younger, handsomer, and better equipped to win the love +of his wife. As she stood in the garden, wearing the rose, her neat +dress outlining her graceful form, the level rays of the sun lighting +up her face and turning her hair to gold, he felt that he had never +seen or imagined such a woman before. She was in harmony with the June +evening and a part of it, while he, in his working clothes, his rugged, +sun-browned features and hair tinged with gray, was a blot upon the +scene. She who was so lovely, must be conscious of his rude, clownish +appearance. He would have faced any man living and held his own on the +simple basis of his manhood. Anything like scorn, although veiled, on +Alida's part, would have touched his pride and steeled his will, but +the words and manner of this gentle woman who tried to act as if blind +to all that he was in contrast with herself, to show him deference, +kindness, and good will when perhaps she felt toward him somewhat as +she did toward Jane, overwhelmed him with humility and grief. It is +the essence of deep, unselfish love to depreciate itself and exalt its +object. There was a superiority in Alida which Holcroft was learning to +recognize more clearly every day, and he had not a trace of vanity to +sustain him. Now he was in a mood to wrong and undervalue himself +without limit. +</P> + +<P> +She showed him how much she and Jane had accomplished, how neat and +clean they had kept the rows of growing vegetables, and how good the +promise was for an indefinite number of dinners, but she only added to +the farmer's depression. He was in no mood for onions, parsnips, and +their vegetable kin, yet thought, "She thinks I'm only capable of being +interested in such things, and I've been at much pains to give that +impression. She picked that rose for HERSELF, and now she's showing ME +how soon we may hope to have summer cabbage and squash. She thus shows +that she knows the difference between us and that always must be +between us, I fear. She is so near in our daily life, yet how can I +ever get any nearer? As I feel now, it seems impossible." +</P> + +<P> +She had quickly observed his depressed, abstracted manner, but +misinterpreted the causes. Her own face clouded and grew troubled. +Perhaps she was revealing too much of her heart, although seeking to +disguise it so sedulously, and he was penetrating her motives for doing +so much in the garden and in luring him thither now. He was not +showing much practical interest in beans and beets, and was evidently +oppressed and ill at ease. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope we have done things right?" she ventured, turning away to hide +tears of disappointment. +</P> + +<P> +"Her self-sacrifice is giving out," he thought bitterly. "She finds +she can scarcely look at me as I now appear in contrast with this June +evening. Well, I don't blame her. It makes me almost sick when I +think of myself and I won't be brute enough to say a harsh word to +her." "You have done it all far better than I could," he said +emphatically. "I would not have believed it if you hadn't shown me. +The trouble is, you are trying to do too much. I—I think I'll take a +walk." +</P> + +<P> +In fact, he had reached the limit of endurance; he could not look upon +her another moment as she appeared that evening and feel that she +associated him chiefly with crops and business, and that all her +grateful good will could not prevent his personality from being +disagreeable. He must carry his bitterness whither no eye could see +him, and as he turned, his self-disgust led him to whirl away his pipe. +It struck a tree and fell shattered at its foot. Alida had never seen +him do anything of the kind before, and it indicated that he was +passing beyond the limits of patience. "Oh, oh," she sobbed, "I fear we +are going to drift apart! If he can't endure to talk with me about +such things, what chance have I at all? I hoped that the hour, the +beauty of the evening, and the evidence that I had been trying so hard +to please him would make him more like what he used to be before he +seemed to take a dislike. There's only one way to account for it +all—he sees how I feel and he doesn't like it. My very love sets him +against me. My heart was overflowing tonight. How could I help it, as +I remembered how he stood up for me? He was brave and kind; he meant +well by me, he means well now; but he can't help his feelings. He has +gone away now to think of the woman that he did love and loves still, +and it angers him that I should think of taking her place. He loved +her as a child and girl and woman—he told me so; he warned me and said +he could not help thinking of her. If I had not learned to love him so +deeply and passionately and show it in spite of myself, time would +gradually have softened the past and all might have gone well. Yet how +could I help it when he saved me from so much? I feel tonight, though, +that I only escaped one kind of trouble to meet another almost as bad +and which may become worse." +</P> + +<P> +She strolled to the farther end of the garden that she might become +calm before meeting Jane's scrutiny. Useless precaution! For the girl +had been watching them both. Her motive had not been unmixed +curiosity, since, having taken some part in the garden work, she had +wished to witness Holcroft's pleasure and hear his praises. Since the +actors in the scene so misunderstood each other, she certainly would +not rightly interpret them. "She's losin' her hold on 'im," she +thought, "He acted just as if she was mother." +</P> + +<P> +When Jane saw Alida coming toward the house she whisked from the +concealing shrubbery to the kitchen again and was stolidly washing the +dishes when her mistress entered. "You are slow tonight," said Alida, +looking at the child keenly, but the impassive face revealed nothing. +She set about helping the girl, feeling it would be a relief to keep +her hands busy. +</P> + +<P> +Jane's efforts to comfort were always maladroit, yet the apparent +situation so interested her that she yielded to her inclination to +talk. "Say," she began, and Alida was too dejected and weary to correct +the child's vernacular, "Mr. Holcroft's got somethin' on his mind." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, that's not strange." +</P> + +<P> +"No, s'pose not. Hate to see 'im look so, though. He always used to +look so when mother went for 'im and hung around 'im. At last he +cleared mother out, and just before he looked as black as he did when +he passed the house while ago. You're good to me, an' I'd like you to +stay. 'Fi's you I'd leave 'im alone." +</P> + +<P> +"Jane," said Alida coldly, "I don't wish you ever to speak to me of +such things again," and she hastily left the room. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well!" muttered Jane, "I've got eyes in my head. If you're goin' +to be foolish, like mother, and keep a-goin' for 'im, it's your +lookout. I kin get along with him and he with me, and I'M goin' to +stay." +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft strode rapidly up the lane to the deep solitude at the edge of +his woodland. Beneath him lay the farm and the home that he had +married to keep, yet now, without a second's hesitation, he would part +with all to call his wife WIFE. How little the name now satisfied him, +without the sweet realities of which the word is significant! The term +and relation had become a mocking mirage. He almost cursed himself +that he had exulted over his increasing bank account and general +prosperity, and had complacently assured himself that she was doing +just what he had asked, without any sentimental nonsense. "How could I +expect it to turn out otherwise?" he thought. "From the first I made +her think I hadn't a soul for anything but crops and money. Now that +she's getting over her trouble and away from it, she's more able to see +just what I am, or at least what she naturally thinks I am. But she +doesn't understand me—I scarcely understand myself. I long to be a +different man in every way, and not to work and live like an ox. Here +are some of my crops almost ready to gather and they never were better, +yet I've no heart for the work. Seems to me it'll wear me out if I +have to carry this load of trouble all the time. I thought my old +burdens hard to bear; I thought I was lonely before, but it was nothing +compared with living near one you love, but from whom you are cut off +by something you can't see, yet must feel to the bottom of your heart." +</P> + +<P> +His distraught eyes rested on the church spire, fading in the twilight, +and the little adjoining graveyard. "Oh, Bessie," he groaned, "why did +you die? I was good enough for YOU. Oh! That all had gone on as it +was and I had never known—" +</P> + +<P> +He stopped, shook his head, and was silent. At last he signed, "I DID +love Bessie. I love and respect her memory as much as ever. But +somehow I never felt as I do now. All was quiet and matter-of-fact in +those days, yet it was real and satisfying. I was content to live on, +one day like another, to the end of my days. If I hadn't been so +content it would be better for me now. I'd have a better chance if I +had read more, thought more, and fitted myself to be more of a +companion for a woman like Alida. If I knew a great deal and could +talk well, she might forget I'm old and homely. Bessie was so true a +friend that she would wish, if she knows, what I wish. I thought I +needed a housekeeper; I find I need more than all else such a wife as +Alida could be—one that could help me to be a man instead of a drudge, +a Christian instead of a discontented and uneasy unbeliever. At one +time, it seemed that she was leading me along so naturally and +pleasantly that I never was so happy; then all at once it came to me +that she was doing it from gratitude and a sense of duty, and the duty +grows harder for her every day. Well, there seems nothing for it now +but to go on as we began and hope that the future will bring us more in +sympathy." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap31"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXXI. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +"Never!" +</H3> + +<P> +For the next two or three days Jane had no occasion to observe that +Alida was in the least degree obtrusive in her attention to the farmer. +She was assiduous in her work and more diligent than ever in her +conscious efforts to do what she thought he wished; but she was growing +pale, constrained, and silent. She struggled heroically to appear as +at first, but without much success, for she could not rally from the +wound he had given her so unintentionally and which Jane's words had +deepened. She almost loathed herself under her association with Mrs. +Mumpson, and her morbid thoughts had hit upon a worse reason for +Holcroft's apparent repulsion. As she questioned everything in the +sleepless hours that followed the interview in the garden, she came to +the miserable conclusion that he had discovered her love, and that by +suggestion, natural to his mind, it reminded him of her pitiful story. +He could be sorry for her and be kind; he could even be her honest +friend and protector as a wronged and unhappy woman, but he could not +love one with a history like hers and did not wish her to love him. +This seemed an adequate explanation of the change in their relations, +but she felt that it was one under which her life would wither and her +heart break. +</P> + +<P> +This promised to be worse than what she had dreaded at the +almshouse—the facing the world alone and working till she died among +strangers. The fact that they were strangers would enable her to see +their averted faces with comparative indifference, but that the man to +whom she had yielded her whole heart should turn away was intolerable. +She felt that he could not do this willingly but only under the +imperious instincts of his nature—that he was virtually helpless in +the matter. There was an element in these thoughts which stung her +woman's soul, and, as we have said, she could not rally. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft never suspected her morbid thoughts, and his loyal, loving +heart was incapable of dreaming of them. He only grew more unhappy as +he saw the changes in her, for he regarded himself as the cause. Yet +he was perplexed and unable to account for her rapidly increasing +pallor while he continued so kind, considerate, and especially so +unobtrusive. He assuredly thought he was showing a disposition to give +her all the time she wished to become reconciled to her lot. "Thunder!" +he said to himself, "we can't grow old together without getting used to +each other." +</P> + +<P> +On Saturday noon, at dinner, he remarked, "I shall have to begin haying +on Monday and so I'll take everything to town this afternoon, for I +won't be able to go again for some days. Is there anything you'd like +me to get, Mrs. Holcroft?" +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head. "I don't need anything," she replied. He looked at +her downcast face with troubled eyes and shivered. "She looks as if she +were going to be sick," he thought. "Good Lord! I feel as if there was +nothing but trouble ahead. Every mouthful I take seems to choke me." +</P> + +<P> +A little later he pushed away almost untasted a piece of delicious +cherry pie, the first of the season. Alida could scarcely keep the +tears back as she thought, "There was a time when he would have praised +it without stint. I took so much pains with it in the hope he'd +notice, for he once said he was very fond of it." Such were the straws +that were indicating the deep, dark currents. +</P> + +<P> +As he rose, she said almost apathetically in her dejection, "Mr. +Holcroft, Jane and I picked a basket of the early cherries. You may as +well sell them, for there are plenty left on the tree for us." +</P> + +<P> +"That was too much for you to do in the hot sun. Well, I'll sell 'em +and add what they bring to your egg money in the bank. You'll get +rich," he continued, trying to smile, "if you don't spend more." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't wish to spend anything," she said, turning away with the +thought, "How can he think I want finery when my heart is breaking?" +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft drove away, looking and feeling as if he were going to a +funeral. At last he broke out, "I can't stand this another day. +Tomorrow's Sunday, and I'll manage to send Jane somewhere or take Alida +out to walk and tell her the whole truth. She shall be made to see +that I can't help myself and that I'm willing to do anything she +wishes. She's married to me and has got to make the best of it, and +I'm sure I'm willing to make it as easy as I can." +</P> + +<P> +Jane was a little perplexed at the condition of affairs. Mrs. Holcroft +had left her husband alone as far as possible, as she had advised, but +apparently it had not helped matters much. But she believed that the +trouble she had witnessed bode her no ill and so was inclined to regard +it philosophically. "He looks almost as glum, when he's goin' round +alone, as if he'd married mother. She talked too much, and that didn't +please him; this one talks less and less, and he don't seem pleased, +nuther, but it seems to me he's very foolish to be so fault-findin' +when she does everything for him top-notch. I never lived so well in +my life, nor he, nuther, I believe. He must be in a bad way when he +couldn't eat that cherry pie." +</P> + +<P> +Alida was so weary and felt so ill that she went to the parlor and lay +down upon the lounge. "My heart feels as if it were bleeding slowly +away," she murmured. "If I'm going to be sick the best thing I can do +is to die and end it all," and she gave way to that deep dejection in +which there seems no remedy for trouble. +</P> + +<P> +The hours dragged slowly by; Jane finished her household tasks very +leisurely, then taking a basket, went out to the garden to pick some +early peas. While thus engaged, she saw a man coming up the lane. His +manner instantly riveted her attention and awakened her curiosity, and +she crouched lower behind the pea vines for concealment. All her +furtive, watchful instincts were awake, and her conscience was clear, +too, for certainly she had a right to spy upon a stranger. +</P> + +<P> +The man seemed almost as furtive as herself; his eyes were everywhere +and his step slow and hesitating. Instead of going directly to the +house he cautiously entered the barn, and she heard him a little later +call Mr. Holcroft. Of course there was no answer, and as if reassured, +he approached the house, looking here and there on every side, +seemingly to see if anyone was about. Jane had associated with men and +boys too long to have any childlike timidity, and she also had just +confidence in her skulking and running powers. "After all, he don't +want nothin' of me and won't hurt me," she reasoned. "He acts mighty +queer though and I'm goin' to hear what he says." +</P> + +<P> +The moment he passed the angle of the house she dodged around to its +rear and stole into the dairy room, being well aware that from this +position she could overhear words spoken in ordinary conversational +tones in the apartment above. She had barely gained her ambush when she +heard Alida half shriek, "Henry Ferguson!" +</P> + +<P> +It was indeed the man who had deceived her that had stolen upon her +solitude. His somewhat stealthy approach had been due to the wish and +expectation of finding her alone, and he had about convinced himself +that she was so by exploring the barn and observing the absence of the +horses and wagon. Cunning and unscrupulous, it was his plan to appear +before the woman who had thought herself his wife, without any warning +whatever, believing that in the tumult of her surprise and shock she +would be off her guard and that her old affection would reassert +itself. He passed through the kitchen to the parlor door. Alida, in +her deep, painful abstraction, did not hear him until he stood in the +doorway, and, with outstretched arms, breathed her name. Then, as if +struck a blow, she had sprung to her feet, half shrieked his name and +stood panting, regarding him as if he were a specter. +</P> + +<P> +"Your surprise is natural, Alida, dear," he said gently, "but I've a +right to come to you, for my wife is dead," and he advanced toward her. +</P> + +<P> +"Stand back!" she cried sternly. "You've no right, and never can have." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, I have!" he replied in a wheedling tone. "Come, come! Your +nerves are shaken. Sit down, for I've much to tell you." +</P> + +<P> +"No, I won't sit down, and I tell you to leave me instantly. You've no +right here and I no right to listen to you." +</P> + +<P> +"I can soon prove that you have a better right to listen to me than to +anyone else. Were we not married by a minister?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but that made no difference. You deceived both him and me." +</P> + +<P> +"It made no difference, perhaps, in the eye of the law, while that +woman you saw was living, but she's dead, as I can easily prove. How +were you married to this man Holcroft?" +</P> + +<P> +Alida grew dizzy; everything whirled and grew black before her eyes as +she sank into a chair. He came to her and took her hand, but his touch +was a most effectual restorative. She threw his hand away and said +hoarsely, "Do you—do you mean that you have any claim on me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Who has a better claim?" he asked cunningly. "I loved you when I +married you and I love you now. Do you think I rested a moment after I +was free from the woman I detested? No, indeed; nor did I rest till I +found out who took you from the almshouse to be his household drudge, +not wife. I've seen the justice who aided in the wedding farce, and +learned how this man Holcroft made him cut down even the ceremony of a +civil marriage to one sentence. It was positively heathenish, and he +only took you because he couldn't get a decent servant to live with +him." +</P> + +<P> +"O God!" murmured the stricken woman. "Can such a horrible thing be?" +</P> + +<P> +"So it seems," he resumed, misinterpreting her. "Come now!" he said +confidently, and sitting down, "Don't look so broken up about it. Even +while that woman was living I felt that I was married to you and you +only; now that I'm free—" +</P> + +<P> +"But I'm not free and don't wish to be." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be foolish, Alida. You know this farmer don't care a rap for +you. Own up now, does he?" +</P> + +<P> +The answer was a low, half-despairing cry. +</P> + +<P> +"There, I knew it was so. What else could you expect? Don't you see +I'm your true refuge and not this hard-hearted, money-grasping farmer?" +</P> + +<P> +"Stop speaking against him!" she cried. "O God!" she wailed, "can the +law give this man any claim on me, now his wife is dead?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and one I mean to enforce," he replied doggedly. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe she's dead, I don't believe anything you say! You +deceived me once. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not deceiving you now, Alida," he said with much solemnity. "She +IS dead. If you were calmer, I have proofs to convince you in these +papers. Here's the newspaper, too, containing the notice of her +death," and he handed it to her. +</P> + +<P> +She read it with her frightened eyes, and then the paper dropped from +her half-paralyzed hands to the floor. She was so unsophisticated, and +her brain was in such a whirl of confusion and terror, that she was led +to believe at the moment that he had a legal claim upon her which he +could enforce. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that Mr. Holcroft were here!" she cried desperately. "He wouldn't +deceive me; he never deceived me." +</P> + +<P> +"It is well for him that he isn't here," said Ferguson, assuming a dark +look. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" she gasped. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, come, Alida!" he said, smiling reassuringly. "You are frightened +and nervous, and I don't wish to make you any more so. You know how I +would naturally regard the man who I feel has my wife; but let us +forget about him. Listen to my plan. All I ask of you is to go with me +to some distant place where neither of us are known, and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Never!" she interrupted. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't say that," he replied coolly. "Do you think I'm a man to be +trifled with after what I've been through?" +</P> + +<P> +"You can't compel me to go against my will," and there was an accent of +terror in her words which made them a question. +</P> + +<P> +He saw his vantage more clearly and said quietly, "I don't want to +compel you if it can be helped. You know how true I was to you—" +</P> + +<P> +"No, no! You deceived me. I won't believe you now." +</P> + +<P> +"You may have to. At any rate, you know how fond I was of you, and I +tell you plainly, I won't give you up now. This man doesn't love you, +nor do you love him—" +</P> + +<P> +"I DO love him, I'd die for him! There now, you know the truth. You +wouldn't compel a woman to follow you who shrinks from you in horror, +even if you had the right. Although the ceremony was brief it WAS a +ceremony; and he was not married then, as you were when you deceived +me. He has ever been truth itself, and I won't believe you have any +rights till he tells me so himself." +</P> + +<P> +"So you shrink from me with horror, do you?" asked Ferguson, rising, +his face growing black with passion. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I do. Now leave me and let me never see you again." +</P> + +<P> +"And you are going to ask this stupid old farmer about my rights?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I'll take proof of them from no other, and even if he confirmed +your words I'd never live with you again. I would live alone till I +died!" +</P> + +<P> +"That's all very foolish high tragedy, but if you're not careful there +may be some real tragedy. If you care for this Holcroft, as you say, +you had better go quietly away with me." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" she faltered tremblingly. +</P> + +<P> +"I mean I'm a desperate man whom the world has wronged too much +already. You know the old saying, 'Beware of the quiet man!' You know +how quiet, contented, and happy I was with you, and so I would be again +to the end of my days. You are the only one who can save me from +becoming a criminal, a vagabond, for with you only have I known +happiness. Why should I live or care to live? If this farmer clod +keeps you from me, woe betide him! My one object in living will be his +destruction. I shall hate him only as a man robbed as I am can hate." +</P> + +<P> +"What would you do?" she could only ask in a horrified whisper. +</P> + +<P> +"I can only tell you that he'd never be safe a moment. I'm not afraid +of him. You see I'm armed," and he showed her a revolver. "He can't +quietly keep from me what I feel is my own." +</P> + +<P> +"Merciful Heaven! This is terrible," she gasped. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course it's terrible—I mean it to be so. You can't order me off +as if I were a tramp. Your best course for his safety is to go quietly +with me at once. I have a carriage waiting near at hand." +</P> + +<P> +"No, no! I'd rather die than do that, and though he cannot feel as I +do, I believe he'd rather die than have me do it." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well! If you think he's so ready to die—" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I don't mean that! Kill me! I want to die." +</P> + +<P> +"Why should I kill you?" he asked with a contemptuous laugh. "That +wouldn't do me a particle of good. It will be your own fault if anyone +is hurt." +</P> + +<P> +"Was ever a woman put in such a cruel position?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes! Many and many a time. As a rule, though, they are too +sensible and kind-hearted to make so much trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"If you have legal rights, why don't you quietly enforce them instead +of threatening?" +</P> + +<P> +For a moment he was confused and then said recklessly, "It would come +to the same thing in the end. Holcroft would never give you up." +</P> + +<P> +"He'd have to. I wouldn't stay here a moment if I had no right." +</P> + +<P> +"But you said you would not live with me again?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nor would I. I'd go back to the poorhouse and die there, for do you +think I could live after another such experience? But my mind has +grown clearer. You are deceiving me again, and Mr. Holcroft is +incapable of deceiving me. He would never have called me his wife +unless I was his wife before God and man." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not deceiving you in regard to one thing!" he said tragically. +</P> + +<P> +"O God, what shall I do?" +</P> + +<P> +"If you won't go with me you must leave him," he replied, believing +that, if this step were taken, others would follow. +</P> + +<P> +"If I leave him—if I go away and live alone, will you promise to do +him no harm?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'd have no motive to harm him then, which will be better security +than a promise. At the same time I do promise." +</P> + +<P> +"And you will also promise to leave me utterly alone?" +</P> + +<P> +"If I can." +</P> + +<P> +"You must promise never even to tempt me to think of going away. I'd +rather you'd shot me than ask it. I'm not a weak, timid girl. I'm a +broken-hearted woman who fears some things far more than death." +</P> + +<P> +"If you have any fears for Holcroft, they are very rational ones." +</P> + +<P> +"It is for his sake that I would act. I would rather suffer anything +and lose everything than have harm come to him." +</P> + +<P> +"All I can say is that, if you will leave him completely and finally, I +will let him alone. But you must do it promptly. Everything depends +upon this. I'm in too reckless and bitter a mood to be trifled with. +Besides, I've plenty of money and could escape from the country in +twenty-four hours. You needn't think you can tell this story to +Holcroft and that he can protect you and himself. I'm here under an +assumed name and have seen no one who knows me. I may have to +disappear for a time and be disguised when I come again, but I pledge +you my word he'll never be safe as long as you are under his roof." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I will sacrifice myself for him," she said, pallid even to her +lips. "I will go away. But never dream that you can come near me +again—you who deceived and wronged me, and now, far worse, threaten +the man I love." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll see about that," he replied cynically. "At any rate, you will +have left him." +</P> + +<P> +"Go!" she said imperiously. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll take a kiss first, sweetheart," he said, advancing with a +sardonic smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Jane!" she shrieked. He paused, and she saw evidences of alarm. +</P> + +<P> +The girl ran lightly out of the dairy room, where she had been a greedy +listener to all that had been said, and a moment later appeared in the +yard before the house. "Yes'm," she answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Be careful now, sir," said Alida sternly. "There's a witness." +</P> + +<P> +"Only a little idiotic-looking girl." +</P> + +<P> +"She's not idiotic, and if you touch me the compact's broken." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, my time will come. Remember, you've been warned," and he +pulled his hat over his eyes and strode away. +</P> + +<P> +"Bah!" said Jane with a snicker, "as if I hadn't seen his ugly mug so +I'd know it 'mong a thousand." +</P> + +<P> +With a face full of loathing and dread, Alida watched her enemy +disappear down the lane, and then, half fainting, sank on the lounge. +</P> + +<P> +"Jane!" she called feebly, but there was no answer. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap32"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXXII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Jane Plays Mouse to the Lion +</H3> + +<P> +It can well be understood that Jane had no disposition to return to +Mrs. Holcroft and the humdrum duties of the house. There opened before +her an exciting line of action which fully accorded with her nature, +and she entered upon it at once. Her first impulse was to follow the +man of whom she had learned so much. Not only was she spurred to this +course by her curiosity, but also by her instinctive loyalty to +Holcroft, and, it must be admitted, by her own interests. Poor little +Jane had been nurtured in a hard school, and had by this time learned +the necessity of looking out for herself. This truth, united with her +shrewd, matter-of-fact mind, led her to do the most sensible thing +under the circumstances. "I know a lot now that he'll be glad to know, +and if I tell him everything he'll keep me always. The first thing +he'll want to know is what's become of that threatenin' scamp," and she +followed Ferguson with the stealth of an Indian. +</P> + +<P> +Ferguson was not only a scamp, but, like most of his class, a coward. +He had been bitterly disappointed in his interview with Alida. As far +as his selfish nature permitted, he had a genuine affection for her, +and he had thought of little else besides her evident fondness for him. +He was so devoid of moral principle that he could not comprehend a +nature like hers, and had scarcely believed it possible that she would +repulse him so inflexibly. She had always been so gentle, yielding, +and subservient to his wishes that he had thought that, having been +assured of his wife's death, a little persuasion and perhaps a few +threats would induce her to follow him, for he could not imagine her +becoming attached to such a man as Holcroft had been described to be. +Her uncompromising principle had entered but slightly into his +calculations, and so, under the spur of anger and selfishness, he had +easily entered upon a game of bluff He knew well enough that he had no +claim upon Alida, yet it was in harmony with his false heart to try to +make her think so. He had no serious intention of harming Holcroft—he +would be afraid to attempt this—but if he could so work on Alida's +fears as to induce her to leave her husband, he believed that the +future would be full of possibilities. At any rate, he would find his +revenge in making Alida and Holcroft all the trouble possible. Even in +the excitement of the interview, however, he realized that he was +playing a dangerous game, and when Jane answered so readily to Alida's +call he was not a little disturbed. Satisfied that he had accomplished +all that he could hope for at present, his purpose now was to get back +to town unobserved and await developments. He therefore walked rapidly +down the lane and pursued the road for a short distance until he came +to an old, disused lane, leading up the hillside into a grove where he +had concealed a horse and buggy. Unless there should be necessity, it +was his intention to remain in his hiding place until after nightfall. +</P> + +<P> +Jane had merely to skirt the bushy hillside higher up, in order to keep +Ferguson in view and discover the spot in which he was lurking. +Instead of returning to the house she kept right on, maintaining a +sharp eye on the road beneath to make sure that Holcroft did not pass +unobserved. By an extended detour, she reached the highway and +continued toward town in the hope of meeting the farmer. At last she +saw him driving rapidly homeward. He was consumed with anxiety to be +at least near to Alida, even if, as he believed, he was no longer +welcome in her presence. When Jane stepped out into the road he pulled +up his horses and stared at her. She, almost bursting with her great +secrets, put her finger on her lips and nodded portentously. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what is it?" he asked, his heart beating quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"I've got a lot to tell yer, but don't want no one to see us." +</P> + +<P> +"About my wife?" +</P> + +<P> +The girl nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"Good God! Speak then. Is she sick?" and he sprung out and caught her +arm with a grip that hurt her. +</P> + +<P> +"Please, sir, I'm doin' all I kin for yer and—and you hurt me." +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft saw the tears coming to her eyes and he released his hold as +he said, "Forgive me, Jane, I didn't mean to; but for mercy's sake, +tell your story." +</P> + +<P> +"It's a long 'un." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well, give me the gist of it in a word." +</P> + +<P> +"I guess she's goin' to run away." +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft groaned and almost staggered to his horses' heads, then led +them to the roadside and tied them to a tree. Sitting down, as if too +weak to stand, he buried his face in his hands. He could not bear to +have Jane see his distress. "Tell your story," he said hoarsely, +"quick, for I may have to act quickly." +</P> + +<P> +"Guess yer will. Did yer know she was married?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly—to me." +</P> + +<P> +"No, to another man—married by a minister. He's been there with her." +She little foresaw the effect of her words, for the farmer bounded to +his feet with an oath and sprang to his horses. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop!" cried Jane, tugging at his arm. "If you go rushin' home now, +you'll show you've got no more sense than mother. You'll spoil +everything. She aint goin' to run away with HIM—she said she +wouldn't, though he coaxed and threatened to kill yer if she didn't. +'Fi's a man I wouldn't act like a mad bull. I'd find out how to get +ahead of t'other man." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Holcroft, in a voice that frightened the child, "she said +she wouldn't run away with this scoundrel—of course not—but you say +she's going to leave. She'll meet him somewhere—good God! But how +should you understand? Come, let me get home!" +</P> + +<P> +"I understand a sight more'n you do, and you go on so that I can't tell +you anything. If you showed sense, you'd be glad I was lookin' out for +you so I could tell you everything. What's the good of goin' +rampaigin' home when, if you'd only listen, you could get even with +that scoundrel, as yer call 'im, and make all right," and Jane began to +cry. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, thunder!" exclaimed the chafing man, "tell me your story at once, +or you'll drive me mad. You don't half know what you're talking about +or how much your words mean—how should you? The thing to do is to get +home as soon as possible." +</P> + +<P> +"You aint no reason to be so mad and glum all the while," cried Jane, +smarting under a sense of injustice. "Here I'm a-tryin' to do for you, +and you'll be sorry ernuff if you don't stop and listen. And she's +been a-tryin' to do for you all along, and she's been standin' up for +you this afternoon, and is goin' to run away to save your life." +</P> + +<P> +"Run away to save my life? Are you crazy?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, but you be," cried the girl, excited and exasperated beyond +restraint. "If she IS your wife I'd stand up for her and take care of +her, since she stands up for you so. 'Stead of that, you go round as +glum as a thundercloud and now want to go ragin' home to her. Dunno +whether she's your wife or not, but I DO know she said she loved you +and 'ud die for you, and she wouldn't do a thing that man asked but go +away to save your life." +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft looked at the girl as if dazed. "Said she LOVED me?" he +repeated slowly. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course! You knowed that all 'long—anybody could see it—an' you +don't treat her much better'n you did mother." Then, with an impatient +gesture, she asked, "Will you sit down and listen?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I won't!" he cried, springing toward his horses. "I'll find out if +your words are true." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes!" said Jane contemptuously; "run right to her to find out +somethin' as plain as the nose on her face, and run right by the man +that was threatenin' her and you too." +</P> + +<P> +Wheeling round, he asked, "Where is he?" +</P> + +<P> +"I know, but I won't say 'nuther word till you stop goin' on. 'Fi's a +man I'd find out what to do 'fore I did anythin'." +</P> + +<P> +Jane had little comprehension of the tempest she had raised in +Holcroft's soul or its causes, and so was in no mood to make allowances +for him. By this time, the first gust of his passion was passing and +reason resuming its sway. He paced up and down in the road a moment or +two, and then sat down as he said, "I don't half understand what you've +been talking about and I fear you don't. You've evidently been +listening and watching and have got hold of something. Now, I'll be as +patient as I can if you'll tell me the whole story quickly," and he +turned his flushed, quivering face toward her. +</P> + +<P> +"Then I s'pose you'll scold me for listenin' and watchin' that scamp," +said the girl sullenly. +</P> + +<P> +"No, Jane, not in this case. Unless your impressions are all mistaken +I may have to thank you all my life. I'm not one to forget those who +are true to me. Now, begin at the beginning and go right through to the +end; then I may understand better than you can." +</P> + +<P> +Jane did as she was told, and many "says he's" and "says she's" +followed in her literal narrative. Holroft again dropped his face into +his hands, and before she was through, tears of joy trickled through +his fingers. When she finished, he arose, turned away, and hastily +wiped his eyes, then gave the girl his hand as he said, "Thank you, +Jane. You've tried to be a true friend to me today. I'll show you +that I don't forget. I was a fool to get in such a rage, but you can't +understand and must forgive me. Come, you see I'm quiet now," and he +untied the horses and lifted her into his wagon. +</P> + +<P> +"What yer doin' to do?" she asked, as they drove away. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to reward you for watching and listening to that scoundrel, +but you must not watch me or Mrs. Holcroft, or listen to what we say +unless we speak before you. If you do, I shall be very angry. Now, +you've only one thing more to do and that is, show me where this man is +hiding." +</P> + +<P> +"But you won't go near him alone?" inquired Jane in much alarm. +</P> + +<P> +"You must do as I bid you," he replied sternly. "Show me where he's +hiding, then stay by the wagon and horses." +</P> + +<P> +"But he same as said he'd kill you." +</P> + +<P> +"You have your orders," was his quiet reply. +</P> + +<P> +She looked scared enough, but remained silent until they reached a +shaded spot on the road, then said, "If you don't want him to see you +too soon, better tie here. He's around yonder, in a grove up on the +hill." +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft drove to a tree by the side of the highway and again tied his +horses, then took the whip from the wagon. "Are you afraid to go with +me a little way and show me just where he is?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"No, but you oughtn' ter go." +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, then! You must mind me if you wish to keep my good will. I +know what I'm about." As in his former encounter, his weapon was again +a long, tough whipstock with a leather thong attached. This he cut off +and put in his pocket, then followed Jane's rapid lead up the hill. +Very soon she said, "There's the place I saw 'im in. If you will go, +I'd steal up on him." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. You stay here." She made no reply, but the moment he +disappeared she was upon his trail. Her curiosity was much greater +than her timidity, and she justly reasoned that she had little to fear. +</P> + +<P> +Holcroft approached from a point whence Ferguson was expecting no +danger. The latter was lying on the ground, gnawing his nails in +vexation, when he first heard the farmer's step. Then he saw a +dark-visaged man rushing upon him. In the impulse of his terror, he +drew his revolver and fired. The ball hissed near, but did no harm, +and before Ferguson could use the weapon again, a blow from the +whipstock paralyzed his arm and the pistol dropped to the ground. So +also did its owner a moment later, under a vindictive rain of blows, +until he shrieked for mercy. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't move!" said Holcroft sternly, and he picked up the revolver. "So +you meant to kill me, eh?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, no! I didn't. I wouldn't have fired if it hadn't been in +self-defense and because I hadn't time to think." He spoke with +difficulty, for his mouth was bleeding and he was terribly bruised. +</P> + +<P> +"A liar, too!" said the farmer, glowering down upon him. "But I knew +that before. What did you mean by your threats to my wife?" +</P> + +<P> +"See here, Mr. Holcroft; I'm down and at your mercy. If you'll let me +off I'll go away and never trouble you or your wife again." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no!" said Holcroft with a bitter laugh. "You'll never, never +trouble us again." +</P> + +<P> +"What, do you mean to murder me?" Ferguson half shrieked. +</P> + +<P> +"Would killing such a thing as you be murder? Any jury in the land +would acquit me. You ought to be roasted over a slow fire." +</P> + +<P> +The fellow tried to scramble on his knees, but Holcroft hit him another +savage blow, and said, "Lie still!" +</P> + +<P> +Ferguson began to wring his hands and beg for mercy. His captor stood +over him a moment or two irresolutely in his white-heated anger; then +thoughts of his wife began to soften him. He could not go to her with +blood on his hands—she who had taught him such lessons of forbearance +and forgiveness. He put the pistol in his pocket and giving his enemy +a kick, said, "Get up!" +</P> + +<P> +The man rose with difficulty. +</P> + +<P> +"I won't waste time in asking any promises from YOU, but if you ever +trouble my wife or me again, I'll break every bone in your body. Go, +quick, before my mood changes, and don't say a word." +</P> + +<P> +As the man tremblingly untied his horse, Jane stepped out before him +and said, "I'm a little idiotic girl, am I?" +</P> + +<P> +He was too thoroughly cowed to make any reply and drove as rapidly away +as the ground permitted, guiding his horse with difficulty in his +maimed condition. +</P> + +<P> +Jane, in the exuberance of her pleasure, began something like a jig on +the scene of conflict, and her antics were so ridiculous that Holcroft +had to turn away to repress a smile. "You didn't mind me, Jane," he +said gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, sir," she replied, "after showin' you the way to 'im, you +oughter not grudge me seein' the fun." +</P> + +<P> +"But it isn't nice for little girls to see such things." +</P> + +<P> +"Never saw anything nicer in my life. You're the kind of man I believe +in, you are. Golly! Only wished SHE'D seen you. I've seen many a +rough and tumble 'mong farm hands, but never anything like this. It +was only his pistol I was 'fraid of." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you do exactly what I say now?" +</P> + +<P> +She nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, go home across the fields and don't by word or manner let Mrs. +Holcroft know what you've seen or heard, and say nothing about meeting +me. Just make her think you know nothing at all and that you only +watched the man out of sight. Do this and I'll give you a new dress." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like somethin' else 'sides that." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like to be sure I could stay right on with you." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Jane, after today, as long as you're a good girl. Now go, for I +must get back to my team before this scamp goes by." +</P> + +<P> +She darted homeward as the farmer returned to his wagon. Ferguson soon +appeared and seemed much startled as he saw his Nemesis again. "I'll +keep my word," he said, as he drove by. +</P> + +<P> +"You'd better!" called the farmer. "You know what to expect now." +</P> + +<P> +Alida was so prostrated by the shock of the interview that she rallied +slowly. At last she saw that it was getting late and that she soon +might expect the return of her husband. She dragged herself to the +door and again called Jane, but the place was evidently deserted. +Evening was coming on tranquilly, with all its sweet June sounds, but +now every bird song was like a knell. She sunk on the porch seat and +looked at the landscape, already so dear and familiar, as if she were +taking a final farewell of a friend. Then she turned to the homely +kitchen to which she had first been brought. "I can do a little more +for him," she thought, "before I make the last sacrifice which will +soon bring the end. I think I could have lived—lived, perhaps, till I +was old, if I had gone among strangers from the almshouse, but I can't +now. My heart is broken. Now that I've seen that man again I +understand why my husband cannot love me. Even the thought of touching +me must make him shudder. But I can't bear up under such a load much +longer, and that's my comfort. It's best I should go away now; I +couldn't do otherwise," and the tragedy went on in her soul as she +feebly prepared her husband's meal. +</P> + +<P> +At last Jane came in with her basket of peas. Her face was so +impassive as to suggest that she had no knowledge of anything except +that there had been a visitor, and Alida had sunk into such depths of +despairing sorrow that she scarcely noticed the child. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap33"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXXIII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +"Shrink from YOU?" +</H3> + +<P> +Holcroft soon came driving slowly up the lane as if nothing unusual was +on his mind. Having tied his horses, he brought in an armful of +bundles and said kindly, "Well, Alida, here I am again, and I guess +I've brought enough to last well through haying time." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she replied with averted face. This did not trouble him any +now, but her extreme pallor did and he added, "You don't look well. I +wouldn't mind getting much supper tonight. Let Jane do the work." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd rather do it," she replied. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well!" laughing pleasantly, "you shall have your own way. Who has +a better right than you, I'd like to know?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't speak that way," she said, almost harshly, under the tension of +her feelings. "I—I can't stand it. Speak and look as you did before +you went away." +</P> + +<P> +"Jane," said the farmer, "go and gather the eggs." +</P> + +<P> +As soon as they were alone, he began gently, "Alida—" +</P> + +<P> +"Please don't speak so to me today. I've endured all I can. I can't +keep up another minute unless you let things go on as they were. +Tomorrow I'll try to tell you all. It's your right." +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't mean to say anything myself till after supper, and perhaps +not till tomorrow, but I think I'd better. It will be better for us +both, and our minds will be more at rest. Come with me into the +parlor, Alida." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, perhaps the sooner it's over the better," she said faintly and +huskily. +</P> + +<P> +She sunk on the lounge and looked at him with such despairing eyes that +tears came into his own. +</P> + +<P> +"Alida," he began hesitatingly, "after I left you this noon I felt I +must speak with and be frank with you." +</P> + +<P> +"No, no!!" she cried, with an imploring gesture, "if it must be said, +let me say it. I couldn't endure to hear it from you. Before you went +away I understood it all, and this afternoon the truth has been burned +into my soul. That horrible man has been here—the man I thought my +husband—and he has made it clearer, if possible. I don't blame you +that you shrink from me as if I were a leper. I feel as if I were one." +</P> + +<P> +"I shrink from YOU!" he exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Can you think I haven't seen the repugnance growing in spite of +yourself? When I thought of that man—especially when he came today—I +understood WHY too well. I cannot stay here any longer. You'd try to +be kind and considerate, but I'd know how you felt all the time. It +would not be safe for you and it would not be right for me to stay, +either, and that settles it. Be—be as kind to me—as you can a few—a +few hours longer, and then let me go quietly." Her self-control gave +way, and burying her face in her hands, she sobbed convulsively. +</P> + +<P> +In a moment he was on his knees beside her, with his arm about her +waist. "Alida, dear Alida!" he cried, "we've both been in the dark +about each other. What I resolved to do, when I started for town, was +to tell you that I had learned to love you and to throw myself on your +mercy. I thought you saw I was loving you and that you couldn't bear +to think of such a thing in an old, homely fellow like me. That was +all that was in my mind, so help me God!" +</P> + +<P> +"But—but HE'S been here," she faltered; "you don't realize—" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe I do or can, yet, Alida, dear, but that blessed Jane's +spying trait has served me the best turn in the world. She heard every +brave word you said and I shed tears of joy when she told me; and tears +are slow coming to my eyes. You think I shrink from you, do you?" and +he kissed her hands passionately. "See," he cried, "I kneel to you in +gratitude for all you've been to me and are to me." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, James! Please rise. It's too much." +</P> + +<P> +"No, not till you promise to go with me to a minister and hear me +promise to love, cherish—yes, in your case I'll promise to obey." +</P> + +<P> +She bowed her head upon his shoulder in answer. Springing up, he +clasped her close and kissed away her tears as he exclaimed, "No more +business marriage for me, if you please. There never was a man so in +love with his wife." +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly she looked up and said fearfully, "James, he threatened you. +He said you'd never be safe a moment as long as I stayed here." +</P> + +<P> +His answer was a peal of laughter. "I've done more than threaten him. +I've whipped him within an inch of his life, and it was the thought of +you that led me, in my rage, to spare his life. I'll tell you all—I'm +going to tell you everything now. How much trouble I might have saved +if I had told you my thoughts! What was there, Alida, in an old fellow +like me that led you to care so?" +</P> + +<P> +Looking up shyly, she replied, "I think it was the MAN in +you—and—then you stood up for me so." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, love is blind, I suppose, but it don't seem to me that mine is. +There never was a man so taken in at his marriage. You were so +different from what I expected that I began loving you before I knew +it, but I thought you were good to me just as you were to Jane—from a +sense of duty—and that you couldn't abide me personally. So I tried +to keep out of your way. And, Alida, dear, I thought at first that I +was taken by your good traits and your education and all that, but I +found out at last that I had fallen in love with YOU. Now you know +all. You feel better now, don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she breathed softly. +</P> + +<P> +"You've had enough to wear a saint out," he continued kindly. "Lie down +on the lounge and I'll bring your supper to you." +</P> + +<P> +"No, please! It will do me more good to go on and act as if nothing +had happened." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, have your own way, little wife. You're boss now, sure enough." +</P> + +<P> +She drew him to the porch, and together they looked upon the June +landscape which she had regarded with such despairing eyes an hour +before. +</P> + +<P> +"Happiness never kills, after all," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"Shouldn't be alive if it did," he replied. "The birds seem to sing as +if they knew." +</P> + +<P> +Jane emerged from the barn door with a basket of eggs, and Alida sped +away to meet her. The first thing the child knew the arms of her +mistress were about her neck and she was kissed again and again. +</P> + +<P> +"What did you do that for?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll understand some day." +</P> + +<P> +"Say," said Jane in an impulse of good will, "if you're only half +married to Mr. Holcroft, I'd go the whole figure, 'fi's you. If you'd +'a' seen him a-thrashin' that scamp you'd know he's the man to take +care of you." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Jane, I know. He'll take care of me always." +</P> + +<P> +The next morning Holcroft and Alida drove to town and went to the +church which she and her mother used to attend. After the service they +followed the clergyman home, where Alida again told him her story, +though not without much help from the farmer. After some kindly +reproach that she had not brought her troubles to him at first, the +minister performed a ceremony which found deep echoes in both their +hearts. +</P> + +<P> +Time and right, sensible living soon remove prejudice from the hearts +of the good and stop the mouths of the cynical and scandal-loving. +Alida's influence, and the farmer's broadening and more unselfish views +gradually bought him into a better understanding of his faith, and into +a kinder sympathy and charity for his neighbors than he had ever known. +His relations to the society of which he was a part became natural and +friendly, and his house a pretty and a hospitable home. Even Mrs. +Watterly eventually entered its portals. She and others were compelled +to agree with Watterly that Alida was not of the "common sort," and +that the happiest good fortune which could befall any man had come to +Holcroft when he fell in love with his wife. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's He Fell in Love with His Wife, by Edward P. Roe + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HE FELL IN LOVE WITH HIS WIFE *** + +***** This file should be named 2271-h.htm or 2271-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/7/2271/ + +Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: He Fell in Love with His Wife + +Author: Edward P. Roe + +Posting Date: March 21, 2009 [EBook #2271] +Release Date: June, 2000 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HE FELL IN LOVE WITH HIS WIFE *** + + + + +Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer. HTML +version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + +HE FELL IN LOVE WITH HIS WIFE + + +by + +Edward P. Roe + + + + +CONTENTS + +Chapter + + I Left Alone + II A Very Interested Friend + III Mrs. Mumpson Negotiates and Yields + IV Domestic Bliss + V Mrs. Mumpson Takes up Her Burdens + VI A Marriage? + VII From Home to the Street + VIII Holcroft's View of Matrimony + IX Mrs. Mumpson Accepts Her Mission + X A Night of Terror + XI Baffled + XII Jane + XIII Not Wife, But Waif + XIV A Pitched Battle + XV "What is to Become of Me?" + XVI Mrs. Mumpson's Vicissitudes + XVII A Momentous Decision + XVIII Holcroft Gives His Hand + XIX A Business Marriage + XX Uncle Jonathan's Impression of the Bride + XXI At Home + XXII Getting Acquainted + XXIII Between the Past and Future + XXIV Given Her Own Way + XXV A Charivari + XXVI "You Don't Know" + XXVII Farm and Farmer Bewitched + XXVIII Another Waif + XXIX Husband and Wife in Trouble + XXX Holcroft's Best Hope + XXXI "Never!" + XXXII Jane Plays Mouse to the Lion + XXXIII "Shrink From YOU?" + + + + +Chapter I. + +Left Alone + +The dreary March evening is rapidly passing from murky gloom to +obscurity. Gusts of icy rain and sleet are sweeping full against a man +who, though driving, bows his head so low that he cannot see his +horses. The patient beasts, however, plod along the miry road, +unerringly taking their course to the distant stable door. The highway +sometimes passes through a grove on the edge of a forest, and the trees +creak and groan as they writhe in the heavy blasts. In occasional +groups of pines there is sighing and moaning almost human in +suggestiveness of trouble. Never had Nature been in a more dismal +mood, never had she been more prodigal of every element of discomfort, +and never had the hero of my story been more cast down in heart and +hope than on this chaotic day which, even to his dull fancy, appeared +closing in harmony with his feelings and fortune. He is going home, +yet the thought brings no assurance of welcome and comfort. As he +cowers upon the seat of his market wagon, he is to the reader what he +is in the fading light--a mere dim outline of a man. His progress is +so slow that there will be plenty of time to relate some facts about +him which will make the scenes and events to follow more intelligible. + +James Holcroft is a middle-aged man and the owner of a small, hilly +farm. He had inherited his rugged acres from his father, had always +lived upon them, and the feeling had grown strong with the lapse of +time that he could live nowhere else. Yet he knew that he was, in the +vernacular of the region, "going down-hill." The small savings of +years were slowly melting away, and the depressing feature of this +truth was that he did not see how he could help himself. He was not a +sanguine man, but rather one endowed with a hard, practical sense which +made it clear that the down-hill process had only to continue +sufficiently long to leave him landless and penniless. It was all so +distinct on this dismal evening that he groaned aloud. + +"If it comes to that, I don't know what I'll do--crawl away on a night +like this and give up, like enough." + +Perhaps he was right. When a man with a nature like his "gives up," +the end has come. The low, sturdy oaks that grew so abundantly along +the road were types of his character--they could break, but not bend. +He had little suppleness, little power to adapt himself to varied +conditions of life. An event had occurred a year since, which for +months, he could only contemplate with dull wonder and dismay. In his +youth he had married the daughter of a small farmer. Like himself, she +had always been accustomed to toil and frugal living. From childhood +she had been impressed with the thought that parting with a dollar was +a serious matter, and to save a dollar one of the good deeds rewarded +in this life and the life to come. She and her husband were in +complete harmony on this vital point. Yet not a miserly trait entered +into their humble thrift. It was a necessity entailed by their meager +resources; it was inspired by the wish for an honest independence in +their old age. + +There was to be no old age for her. She took a heavy cold, and almost +before her husband was aware of her danger, she had left his side. He +was more than grief-stricken, he was appalled. No children had blessed +their union, and they had become more and more to each other in their +simple home life. To many it would have seemed a narrow and even a +sordid life. It could not have been the latter, for all their hard +work, their petty economies and plans to increase the hoard in the +savings bank were robbed of sordidness by an honest, quiet affection +for each other, by mutual sympathy and a common purpose. It +undoubtedly was a meager life, which grew narrower with time and habit. +There had never been much romance to begin with, but something that +often wears better--mutual respect and affection. From the first, +James Holcroft had entertained the sensible hope that she was just the +girl to help him make a living from his hillside farm, and he had not +hoped for or even thought of very much else except the harmony and good +comradeship which bless people who are suited to each other. He had +been disappointed in no respect; they had toiled and gathered like +ants; they were confidential partners in the homely business and +details of the farm; nothing was wasted, not even time. The little +farmhouse abounded in comfort, and was a model of neatness and order. +If it and its surroundings were devoid of grace and ornament, they were +not missed, for neither of its occupants had ever been accustomed to +such things. The years which passed so uneventfully only cemented the +union and increased the sense of mutual dependence. They would have +been regarded as exceedingly matter-of-fact and undemonstrative, but +they were kind to each other and understood each other. Feeling that +they were slowly yet surely getting ahead, they looked forward to an +old age of rest and a sufficiency for their simple needs. Then, before +he could realize the truth, he was left alone at her wintry grave; +neighbors dispersed after the brief service, and he plodded back to his +desolate home. There was no relative to step in and partially make +good his loss. Some of the nearest residents sent a few cooked +provisions until he could get help, but these attentions soon ceased. +It was believed that he was abundantly able to take care of himself, +and he was left to do so. He was not exactly unpopular, but had been +much too reticent and had lived too secluded a life to find uninvited +sympathy now. He was the last man, however, to ask for sympathy or +help; and this was not due to misanthropy, but simply to temperament +and habits of life. He and his wife had been sufficient for each +other, and the outside world was excluded chiefly because they had not +time or taste for social interchanges. As a result, he suffered +serious disadvantages; he was misunderstood and virtually left to meet +his calamity alone. + +But, indeed he could scarcely have met it in any other way. Even to +his wife, he had never formed the habit of speaking freely of his +thoughts and feelings. There had been no need, so complete was the +understanding between them. A hint, a sentence, reveled to each other +their simple and limited processes of thought. To talk about her now +to strangers was impossible. He had no language by which to express +the heavy, paralyzing pain in his heart. + +For a time he performed necessary duties in a dazed, mechanical way. +The horses and live stock were fed regularly, the cows milked; but the +milk stood in the dairy room until it spoiled. Then he would sit down +at his desolate hearth and gaze for hours into the fire, until it sunk +down and died out. Perhaps no class in the world suffers from such a +terrible sense of loneliness as simple-natured country people, to whom +a very few have been all the company they required. + +At last Holcroft partially shook off his stupor, and began the +experiment of keeping house and maintaining his dairy with hired help. +For a long year he had struggled on through all kinds of domestic +vicissitude, conscious all the time that things were going from bad to +worse. His house was isolated, the region sparsely settled, and good +help difficult to be obtained under favoring auspices. The few +respectable women in the neighborhood who occasionally "lent a hand" in +other homes than their own would not compromise themselves, as they +expressed it, by "keepin' house for a widower." Servants obtained from +the neighboring town either could not endure the loneliness, or else +were so wasteful and ignorant that the farmer, in sheer desperation, +discharged them. The silent, grief-stricken, rugged-featured man was +no company for anyone. The year was but a record of changes, waste, +and small pilferings. Although he knew he could not afford it, he tried +the device of obtaining two women instead of one, so that they might +have society in each other; but either they would not stay or else he +found that he had two thieves to deal with instead of one--brazen, +incompetent creatures who knew more about whisky than milk, and who +made his home a terror to him. + +Some asked good-naturedly, "Why don't you marry again?" Not only was +the very thought repugnant, but he knew well that he was not the man to +thrive on any such errand to the neighboring farmhouses. Though +apparently he had little sentiment in his nature, yet the memory of his +wife was like his religion. He felt that he could not put an ordinary +woman into his wife's place, and say to her the words he had spoken +before. Such a marriage would be to him a grotesque farce, at which +his soul revolted. + +At last he was driven to the necessity of applying for help to an Irish +family that had recently moved into the neighborhood. The promise was +forbidding, indeed, as he entered the squalid abode in which were +huddled men, women, and children. A sister of the mistress of the +shanty was voluble in her assurances of unlimited capability. + +"Faix I kin do all the wourk, in doors and out, so I takes the notion," +she had asserted. + +There certainly was no lack of bone and muscle in the big, red-faced, +middle-aged woman who was so ready to preside at his hearth and glean +from his diminished dairy a modicum of profit; but as he trudged home +along the wintry road, he experienced strong feelings of disgust at the +thought of such a creature sitting by the kitchen fire in the place +once occupied by his wife. + +During all these domestic vicissitudes he had occupied the parlor, a +stiff, formal, frigid apartment, which had been rarely used in his +married life. He had no inclination for the society of his help; in +fact, there had been none with whom he could associate. The better +class of those who went out to service could find places much more to +their taste than the lonely farmhouse. The kitchen had been the one +cozy, cheerful room of the house, and, driven from it, the farmer was +an exile in his own home. In the parlor he could at least brood over +the happy past, and that was about all the solace he had left. + +Bridget came and took possession of her domain with a sangfroid which +appalled Holcroft from the first. To his directions and suggestions, +she curtly informed him that she knew her business and "didn't want no +mon around, orderin' and interferin'." + +In fact, she did appear, as she had said, capable of any amount of +work, and usually was in a mood to perform it; but soon her male +relatives began to drop in to smoke a pipe with her in the evening. A +little later on, the supper table was left standing for those who were +always ready to "take a bite."--The farmer had never heard of the camel +who first got his head into the tent, but it gradually dawned upon him +that he was half supporting the whole Irish tribe down at the shanty. +Every evening, while he shivered in his best room, he was compelled to +hear the coarse jests and laughter in the adjacent apartment. One night +his bitter thoughts found expression: "I might as well open a free +house for the keeping of man and beast." + +He had endured this state of affairs for some time simply because the +woman did the essential work in her offhand, slapdash style, and left +him unmolested to his brooding as long as he did not interfere with her +ideas of domestic economy. But his impatience and the sense of being +wronged were producing a feeling akin to desperation. Every week there +was less and less to sell from the dairy; chickens and eggs +disappeared, and the appetites of those who dropped in to "kape Bridgy +from bein' a bit lonely" grew more voracious. + +Thus matters had drifted on until this March day when he had taken two +calves to market. He had said to the kitchen potentate that he would +take supper with a friend in town and therefore would not be back +before nine in the evening. This friend was the official keeper of the +poorhouse and had been a crony of Holcroft's in early life. He had +taken to politics instead of farming, and now had attained to what he +and his acquaintances spoke of as a "snug berth." Holcroft had +maintained with this man a friendship based partly on business +relations, and the well-to-do purveyor for paupers always gave his old +playmate an honest welcome to his private supper table, which differed +somewhat from that spread for the town's pensioners. + +On this occasion the gathering storm had decided Holcroft to return +without availing himself of his friend's hospitality, and he is at last +entering the lane leading from the highway to his doorway. Even as he +approaches his dwelling he hears the sound of revelry and readily +guesses what is taking place. + +Quiet, patient men, when goaded beyond a certain point, are capable of +terrible ebullitions of anger, and Holcroft was no exception. It +seemed to him that night that the God he had worshiped all his life was +in league with man against him. The blood rushed to his face, his +chilled form became rigid with a sudden passionate protest against his +misfortunes and wrongs. Springing from the wagon, he left his team +standing at the barn door and rushed to the kitchen window. There +before him sat the whole tribe from the shanty, feasting at his +expense. The table was loaded with coarse profusion. Roast fowls +alternated with fried ham and eggs, a great pitcher of milk was flanked +by one of foaming cider, while the post of honor was occupied by the +one contribution of his self-invited guests--a villainous-looking jug. + +They had just sat down to the repast when the weazen-faced patriarch of +the tribe remarked, by way of grace, it may be supposed, "Be jabers, +but isn't ould Holcroft givin' us a foine spread the noight! Here's +bad luck to the glowerin' ould skinflint!" and he poured out a bumper +from the jug. + +The farmer waited to see and hear no more. Hastening to a parlor +window, he raised it quietly and clambered in; then taking his rusty +shotgun, which he kept loaded for the benefit of the vermin that +prowled about his hen-roost, he burst in upon the startled group. + +"Be off!" he shouted. "If you value your lives, get out of that door, +and never show your faces on my place again. I'll not be eaten out of +house and home by a lot of jackals!" + +His weapon, his dark, gleaming eyes, and desperate aspect taught the +men that he was not to be trifled with a moment, and they slunk away. + +Bridget began to whine, "Yez wouldn't turn a woman out in the noight +and storm." + +"You are not a woman!" thundered Holcroft, "you are a jackal, too! Get +your traps and begone! I warn the whole lot of you to beware! I give +you this chance to get off the premises, and then I shall watch for you +all, old and young!" + +There was something terrible and flame-like in his anger, dismaying the +cormorants, and they hastened away with such alacrity that Bridget went +down the lane screaming, "Sthop, I tell yees, and be afther waitin' for +me!" + +Holcroft hurled the jug after them with words that sounded like an +imprecation. He next turned to the viands on the table with an +expression of loathing, gathered them up, and carried them to the hog +pen. He seemed possessed by a feverish impatience to banish every +vestige of those whom he had driven forth, and to restore the apartment +as nearly as possible to the aspect it had worn in former happy years. +At last, he sat down where his wife had been accustomed to sit, +unbuttoned his waistcoat and flannel shirt, and from against his naked +breast took an old, worn daguerreotype. He looked a moment at the +plain, good face reflected there, them, bowing his head upon it, +strong, convulsive sobs shook his frame, though not a tear moistened +his eyes. + +How long the paroxysm would have lasted it were hard to say, had not +the impatient whinnying of his horses, still exposed to the storm, +caught his attention. The lifelong habit of caring for the dumb +animals in his charge asserted itself. He went out mechanically, +unharnessed and stabled them as carefully as ever before in his life, +then returned and wearily prepared himself a pot of coffee, which, with +a crust of bread, was all the supper he appeared to crave. + + + +Chapter II. + +A Very Interested Friend + +For the next few days, Holcroft lived alone. The weather remained +inclement and there was no occasion for him to go farther away than the +barn and outbuildings. He felt that a crisis in his life was +approaching, that he would probably be compelled to sell his property +for what it would bring, and begin life again under different auspices. + +"I must either sell or marry," he groaned, "and one's about as hard and +bad as the other. Who'll buy the place and stock at half what they're +worth, and where could I find a woman that would look at an old fellow +like me, even if I could bring myself to look at her?" + +The poor man did indeed feel that he was shut up to dreadful +alternatives. With his ignorance of the world, and dislike for contact +with strangers, selling out and going away was virtually starting out +on an unknown sea without rudder or compass. It was worse than +that--it was the tearing up of a life that had rooted itself in the +soil whereon he had been content from childhood to middle age. He +would suffer more in going, and in the memory of what he had parted +with, than in any of the vicissitudes which might overtake him. He had +not much range of imagination or feeling, but within his limitations +his emotions were strong and his convictions unwavering. Still, he +thought it might be possible to live in some vague, unknown place, +doing some kind of work for people with whom he need not have very much +to do. "I've always been my own master, and done things in my own way," +he muttered, "but I suppose I could farm it to suit some old, quiet +people, if I could only find 'em. One thing is certain, anyhow--I +couldn't stay here in Oakville, and see another man living in these +rooms, and plowing my fields, and driving his cows to my old pasture +lots. That would finish me like a galloping consumption." + +Every day he shrunk with a strange dread from the wrench of parting +with the familiar place and with all that he associated with his wife. +This was really the ordeal which shook his soul, and not the fear that +he would be unable to earn his bread elsewhere. The unstable +multitude, who are forever fancying that they would be better off +somewhere else or at something else, can have no comprehension of this +deep-rooted love of locality and the binding power of long association. +They regard such men as Holcroft as little better than plodding oxen. +The highest tribute which some people can pay to a man, however, is to +show that they do not and cannot understand him. But the farmer was +quite indifferent whether he was understood or not. He gave no thought +to what people said or might say. What were people to him? He only +had a hunted, pathetic sense of being hedged in and driven to bay. +Even to his neighbors, there was more of the humorous than the tragic +in his plight. It was supposed that he had a goodly sum in the bank, +and gossips said that he and his wife thought more of increasing this +hoard than of each other, and that old Holcroft's mourning was chiefly +for a business partner. His domestic tribulations evoked mirth rather +than sympathy; and as the news spread from farmhouse to cottage of his +summary bundling of Bridget and her satellites out of doors, there were +both hilarity and satisfaction. + +While there was little commiseration for the farmer, there was decided +disapprobation of the dishonest Irish tribe, and all were glad that the +gang had received a lesson which might restrain them from preying upon +others. + +Holcroft was partly to blame for his present isolation. Remote rural +populations are given to strong prejudices, especially against those +who are thought to be well-off from an oversaving spirit; and who, +worse still, are unsocial. Almost anything will be forgiven sooner +than "thinking one's self better than the other folks;" and that is the +usual interpretation of shy, reticent people. But there had been a +decided tinge of selfishness in the Holcrofts' habit of seclusion; for +it became a habit rather than a principle. While they cherished no +active dislike to their neighbors, or sense of superiority, these were +not wholly astray in believing that they had little place in the +thoughts or interests of the occupants of the hill farm. Indifference +begat indifference, and now the lonely, helpless man had neither the +power nor the disposition to bridge the chasm which separated him from +those who might have given him kindly and intelligent aid. He was +making a pathetic effort to keep his home and to prevent his heart from +being torn bleeding away from all it loved. His neighbors thought that +he was merely exerting himself to keep the dollars which it had been +the supreme motive of his life to accumulate. + +Giving no thought to the opinions of others, Holcroft only knew that he +was in sore straits--that all which made his existence a blessing was +at stake. + +At times, during these lonely and stormy March days, he would dismiss +his anxious speculations in regard to his future course. He was so +morbid, especially at night, that he felt that his wife could revisit +the quiet house. He cherished the hope that she could see him and hear +what he said, and he spoke in her viewless presence with a freedom and +fullness that was unlike his old reticence and habit of repression. He +wondered that he had not said more endearing words and given her +stronger assurance of how much she was to him. Late at night, he would +start out of a long reverie, take a candle, and, going through the +house, would touch what she had touched, and look long and fixedly at +things associated with her. Her gowns still hung in the closet, just +as she had left them; he would take them out and recall the +well-remembered scenes and occasions when they were worn. At such +times, she almost seemed beside him, and he had a consciousness of +companionship which soothed his perturbed spirit. He felt that she +appreciated such loving remembrance, although unable to express her +approval. He did not know it, but his nature was being softened, +deepened, and enriched by these deep and unwonted experiences; the hard +materiality of his life was passing away, rendering him capable of +something better than he had ever known. + +In the morning all the old, prosaic problems of his life would return, +with their hard, practical insistence, and he knew that he must decide +upon something very soon. His lonely vigils and days of quiet had +brought him to the conclusion that he could not hunt up a wife as a +matter of business. He would rather face the "ever angry bears" than +breathe the subject of matrimony to any woman that he could ever +imagine himself marrying. He was therefore steadily drifting toward +the necessity of selling everything and going away. This event, +however, was like a coral reef to a sailor, with no land in view beyond +it. The only thing which seemed certain was the general breaking up of +all that had hitherto made his life. + +The offer of help came from an unexpected source. One morning Holcroft +received a call from a neighbor who had never before shown any interest +in his affairs. On this occasion, however, Mr. Weeks began to display +so much solicitude that the farmer was not only surprised, but also a +little distrustful. Nothing in his previous knowledge of the man had +prepared the way for such very kindly intervention. + +After some general references to the past, Mr. Weeks continued, "I've +been saying to our folks that it was too bad to let you worry on alone +without more neighborly help. You ought either to get married or have +some thoroughly respectable and well-known middle-aged woman keep house +for you. That would stop all talk, and there's been a heap of it, I +can tell you. Of course, I and my folks don't believe anything's been +wrong." + +"Believing that something was wrong is about all the attention my +neighbors have given me, as far as I can see," Holcroft remarked +bitterly. + +"Well, you see, Holcroft, you've kept yourself so inside your shell +that people don't know what to believe. Now, the thing to do is to +change all that. I know how hard it is for a man, placed as you be, to +get decent help. My wife was a-wondering about it the other day, and I +shut her up mighty sudden by saying, 'You're a good manager, and know +all the country side, yet how often you're a-complaining that you can't +get a girl that's worth her salt to help in haying and other busy times +when we have to board a lot of men.' Well, I won't beat around the bush +any more. I've come to act the part of a good neighbor. There's no +use of you're trying to get along with such haphazard help as you can +pick up here and in town. You want a respectable woman for +housekeeper, and then have a cheap, common sort of a girl to work under +her. Now, I know of just such a woman, and it's not unlikely she'd be +persuaded to take entire charge of your house and dairy. My wife's +cousin, Mrs. Mumpson--" At the mention of this name Holcroft gave a +slight start, feeling something like a cold chill run down his back. + +Mr. Weeks was a little disconcerted but resumed, "I believe she called +on your wife once?" + +"Yes," the farmer replied laconically. "I was away and did not see her." + +"Well, now," pursued Mr. Weeks, "she's a good soul. She has her little +peculiarities; so have you and me, a lot of 'em; but she's thoroughly +respectable, and there isn't a man or woman in the town that would +think of saying a word against her. She has only one child, a nice, +quiet little girl who'd be company for her mother and make everything +look right, you know." + +"I don't see what there's been to look wrong," growled the farmer. + +"Nothing to me and my folks, of course, or I wouldn't suggest the idea +of a relation of my wife coming to live with you. But you see people +will talk unless you stop their mouths so they'll feel like fools in +doing it. I know yours has been a mighty awkward case, and here's a +plain way out of it. You can set yourself right and have everything +looked after as it ought to be, in twenty-four hours. We've talked to +Cynthy--that's Mrs. Mumpson--and she takes a sight of interest. She'd +do well by you and straighten things out, and you might do a plaguey +sight worse than give her the right to take care of your indoor affairs +for life." + +"I don't expect to marry again," said Holcroft curtly. + +"Oh, well! Many a man and woman has said that and believed it, too, at +the time. I'm not saying that my wife's cousin is inclined that way +herself. Like enough, she isn't at all, but then, the right kind of +persuading does change women's minds sometimes, eh? Mrs. Mumpson is +kinder alone in the world, like yourself, and if she was sure of a good +home and a kind husband there's no telling what good luck might happen +to you. But there'll be plenty of time for considering all that on +both sides. You can't live like a hermit." + +"I was thinking of selling out and leaving these parts," Holcroft +interrupted. + +"Now look here, neighbor, you know as well as I do that in these times +you couldn't give away the place. What's the use of such foolishness? +The thing to do is to keep the farm and get a good living out of it. +You've got down in the dumps and can't see what's sensible and to your +own advantage." + +Holcroft was thinking deeply, and he turned his eyes wistfully to the +upland slopes of his farm. Mr. Weeks had talked plausibly, and if all +had been as he represented, the plan would not have been a bad one. +But the widower did not yearn for the widow. He did not know much +about her, but had very unfavorable impressions. Mrs. Holcroft had not +been given to speaking ill of anyone, but she had always shaken her +head with a peculiar significance when Mrs. Mumpson's name was +mentioned. + +The widow had felt it her duty to call and counsel against the sin of +seclusion and being too much absorbed in the affairs of this world. + +"You should take an interest in everyone," this self-appointed +evangelist had declared, and in one sense she lived up to her creed. +She permitted no scrap of information about people to escape her, and +was not only versed in all the gossip of Oakville, but also of several +other localities in which she visited. + +But Holcroft had little else to deter him from employing her services +beyond an unfavorable impression. She could not be so bad as Bridget +Malony, and he was almost willing to employ her again for the privilege +of remaining on his paternal acres. As to marrying the widow--a slight +shudder passed through his frame at the thought. + +Slowly he began, as if almost thinking aloud, "I suppose you are right, +Lemuel Weeks, in what you say about selling the place. The Lord knows +I don't want to leave it. I was born and brought up here, and that +counts with some people. If your wife's cousin is willing to come and +help me make a living, for such wages as I can pay, the arrangement +might be made. But I want to look on it as a business arrangement. I +have quiet ways of my own, and things belonging to the past to think +about, and I've got a right to think about 'em. I aint one of the +marrying kind, and I don't want people to be a-considering such notions +when I don't. I'd be kind and all that to her and her little girl, but +I should want to be left to myself as far as I could be." + +"Oh, certainly," said Mr. Weeks, mentally chuckling over the slight +prospect of such immunity, "but you must remember that Mrs. Mumpson +isn't like common help--" + +"That's where the trouble will come in," ejaculated the perplexed +farmer, "but there's been trouble enough with the other sort." + +"I should say so," Mr. Weeks remarked emphatically. "It would be a pity +if you couldn't get along with such a respectable, conscientious woman +as Mrs. Mumpson, who comes from one of the best families in the +country." + +Holcroft removed his hat and passed his hand over his brow wearily as +he said, "Oh, I could get along with anyone who would do the work in a +way that would give me a chance to make a little, and then leave me to +myself." + +"Well, well," said Mr. Weeks, laughing, "you needn't think that because +I've hinted at a good match for you I'm making one for my wife's +cousin. You may see the day when you'll be more hot for it than she +is. All I'm trying to do is to help you keep your place, and live like +a man ought and stop people's mouths." + +"If I could only fill my own and live in peace, it's all I ask. When I +get to plowing and planting again I'll begin to take some comfort." + +These words were quoted against Holcroft, far and near. "Filling his +own mouth and making a little money are all he cares for," was the +general verdict. And thus people are misunderstood. The farmer had +never turned anyone hungry from his door, and he would have gone to the +poorhouse rather than have acted the part of the man who misrepresented +him. He had only meant to express the hope that he might be able to +fill his mouth--earn his bread, and get it from his native soil. +"Plowing and planting"--working where he had toiled since a +child--would be a solace in itself, and not a grudged means to a sordid +end. + +Mr. Weeks was a thrifty man also, and in nothing was he more economical +than in charitable views of his neighbors' motives and conduct. He +drove homeward with the complacent feeling that he had done a shrewd, +good thing for himself and "his folks" at least. His wife's cousin was +not exactly embraced in the latter category, although he had been so +active in her behalf. The fact was, he would be at much greater pains +could he attach her to Holcroft or anyone else and so prevent further +periodical visits. + +He regarded her and her child as barnacles with such appalling adhesive +powers that even his ingenuity at "crowding out" had been baffled. In +justice to him, it must be admitted that Mrs. Mumpson was a type of the +poor relation that would tax the long suffering of charity itself. Her +husband had left her scarcely his blessing, and if he had fled to ills +he knew not of, he believed that he was escaping from some of which he +had a painfully distinct consciousness. His widow was one of the +people who regard the "world as their oyster," and her scheme of life +was to get as much as possible for nothing. Arrayed in mourning weeds, +she had begun a system of periodical descents upon his relatives and +her own. She might have made such visitations endurable and even +welcome, but she was not shrewd enough to be sensible. She appeared to +have developed only the capacity to talk, to pry, and to worry people. +She was unable to rest or to permit others to rest, yet her aversion to +any useful form of activity was her chief characteristic. Wherever she +went she took the ground that she was "company," and with a shawl +hanging over her sharp, angular shoulders, she would seize upon the +most comfortable rocking chair in the house, and mouse for bits of news +about everyone of whom she had ever heard. She was quite as ready to +tell all she knew also, and for the sake of her budget of gossip and +small scandal, her female relatives tolerated her after a fashion for a +time; but she had been around so often, and her scheme of obtaining +subsistence for herself and child had become so offensively apparent, +that she had about exhausted the patience of all the kith and kin on +whom she had the remotest claim. Her presence was all the more +unwelcome by reason of the faculty for irritating the men of the +various households which she invaded. Even the most phlegmatic or the +best-natured lost their self-control, and as their wives declared, +"felt like flying all to pieces" at her incessant rocking, gossiping, +questioning, and, what was worse still, lecturing. Not the least +endurable thing about Mrs. Mumpson was her peculiar phase of piety. +She saw the delinquencies and duties of others with such painful +distinctness that she felt compelled to speak of them; and her zeal was +sure to be instant out of season. + +When Mr. Weeks had started on his ominous mission to Holcroft his wife +remarked to her daughter confidentially, "I declare, sis, if we don't +get rid of Cynthy soon, I believe Lemuel will fly off the handle." + +To avoid any such dire catastrophe, it was hoped and almost prayed in +the Weeks household that the lonely occupant of the hill farm would +take the widow for good and all. + + + +Chapter III. + +Mrs. Mumpson Negotiates and Yields + +Mr. Weeks, on his return home, dropped all diplomacy in dealing with +the question at issue. "Cynthy," he said in his own vernacular, "the +end has come, so far as me and my folks are concerned--I never expect +to visit you, and while I'm master of the house, no more visits will be +received. But I haint taken any such stand onconsiderately," he +concluded. "I've given up the whole forenoon to secure you a better +chance of living than visiting around. If you go to Holcroft's you'll +have to do some work, and so will your girl. But he'll hire someone to +help you, and so you won't have to hurt yourself. Your trump card will +be to hook him and marry him before he finds you out. To do this, +you'll have to see to the house and dairy, and bestir yourself for a +time at least. He's pretty desperate off for lack of women folks to +look after indoor matters, but he'll sell out and clear out before +he'll keep a woman, much less marry her, if she does nothing but talk. +Now remember, you've got a chance which you won't get again, for +Holcroft not only owns his farm, but has a snug sum in the bank. So +you had better get your things together, and go right over while he's +in the mood." + +When Mrs. Mumpson reached the blank wall of the inevitable, she +yielded, and not before. She saw that the Weeks mine was worked out +completely, and she knew that this exhaustion was about equally true of +all similar mines, which had been bored until they would yield no +further returns. + +But Mr. Weeks soon found that he could not carry out his summary +measures. The widow was bent on negotiations and binding agreements. +In a stiff, cramped hand, she wrote to Holcroft in regard to the amount +of "salary" he would be willing to pay, intimating that one burdened +with such responsibilities as she was expected to assume "ort to be +compensiated proposhundly." + +Weeks groaned as he dispatched his son on horseback with this first +epistle, and Holcroft groaned as he read it, not on account of its +marvelous spelling and construction, but by reason of the vista of +perplexities and trouble it opened to his boding mind. But he named on +half a sheet of paper as large a sum as he felt it possible to pay and +leave any chance for himself, then affixed his signature and sent it +back by the messenger. + +The widow Mumpson wished to talk over this first point between the high +contracting powers indefinitely, but Mr. Weeks remarked cynically, +"It's double what I thought he'd offer, and you're lucky to have it in +black and white. Now that everything's settled, Timothy will hitch up +and take you and Jane up there at once." + +But Mrs. Mumpson now began to insist upon writing another letter in +regard to her domestic status and that of her child. They could not +think of being looked upon as servants. She also wished to be assured +that a girl would be hired to help her, that she should have all the +church privileges to which she had been accustomed and the right to +visit and entertain her friends, which meant every farmer's wife and +all the maiden sisters in Oakville. "And then," she continued, "there +are always little perquisites which a housekeeper has a right to look +for--" Mr. Weeks irritably put a period to this phase of diplomacy by +saying, "Well, well, Cynthy, the stage will be along in a couple of +hours. We'll put you and your things aboard, and you can go on with +what you call your negotiations at Cousin Abiram's. I can tell you one +thing though--if you write any such letter to Holcroft, you'll never +hear from him again." + +Compelled to give up all these preliminaries, but inwardly resolving to +gain each point by a nagging persistence of which she was a mistress, +she finally declared that she "must have writings about one thing which +couldn't be left to any man's changeful mind. He must agree to give me +the monthly salary he names for at least a year." + +Weeks thought a moment, and then, with a shrewd twinkle in his eyes, +admitted, "It would be a good thing to have Holcroft's name to such an +agreement. Yes, you might try that on, but you're taking a risk. If +you were not so penny-wise and pound-foolish, you'd go at once and +manage to get him to take you for 'better or worse.'" + +"You--misjudge me, Cousin Lemuel," replied the widow, bridling and +rocking violently. "If there's any such taking to be done, he must get +me to take him." + +"Well, well, write your letter about a year's engagement. That'll +settle you for a twelvemonth, at least." + +Mrs. Mumpson again began the slow, laborious construction of a letter +in which she dwelt upon the uncertainties of life, her "duty to her +offspring," and the evils of "vicissitude." "A stable home is woman's +chief desire," she concluded, "and you will surely agree to pay me the +salary you have said for a year." + +When Holcroft read this second epistle he so far yielded to his first +impulse that he half tore the sheet, then paused irresolutely. After a +few moments he went to the door and looked out upon his acres. "It'll +soon be plowing and planting time," he thought. "I guess I can stand +her--at least I can try it for three months. I'd like to turn a few +more furrows on the old place," and his face softened and grew wistful +as he looked at the bare, frost-bound fields. Suddenly it darkened and +grew stern as he muttered, "But I'll put my hand to no more paper with +that Weeks tribe." + +He strode to the stable, saying to Timothy Weeks, as he passed, "I'll +answer this letter in person." + +Away cantered Timothy, and soon caused a flutter of expectancy in the +Weeks household, by announcing that "Old Holcroft looked black as a +thundercloud and was comin' himself." + +"I tell you what 'tis, Cynthy, it's the turn of a hair with you now," +growled Weeks. "Unless you agree to whatever Holcroft says, you haven't +the ghost of a chance." + +The widow felt that a crisis had indeed come. Cousin Abiram's was the +next place in the order of visitation, but her last experience there +left her in painful doubt as to a future reception. Therefore she tied +on a new cap, smoothed her apron, and rocked with unwonted rapidity. +"It'll be according to the ordering of Providence--" + +"Oh, pshaw!" interrupted Cousin Lemuel, "it'll be according to whether +you've got any sense or not." + +Mrs. Weeks had been in a pitiable state of mind all day. She saw that +her husband had reached the limit of his endurance--that he had +virtually already "flown off the handle." But to have her own kin +actually bundled out of the house--what would people say? + +Acceptance of Holcroft's terms, whatever they might be, was the only +way out of the awkward predicament, and so she began in a wheedling +tone, "Now, Cousin Cynthy, as Lemuel says, you've got a first-rate +chance. Holcroft's had an awful time with women, and he'll be glad +enough to do well by anyone who does fairly well by him. Everybody +says he's well off, and once you're fairly there and get things in your +own hands, there's no telling what may happen. He'll get a girl to help +you, and Jane's big enough now to do a good deal. Why, you'll be the +same as keeping house like the rest of us." + +Further discussion was cut short by the arrival of the victim. He +stood awkwardly in the door of the Weeks sitting room for a moment, +seemingly at a loss how to state his case. + +Mr. And Mrs. Weeks now resolved to appear neutral and allow the farmer +to make his terms. Then, like other superior powers in the background, +they proposed to exert a pressure on their relative and do a little +coercing. But the widow's course promised at first to relieve them of +all further effort. She suddenly seemed to become aware of Holcroft's +presence, sprang up, and gave him her hand very cordially. + +"I'm glad to see you, sir," she began. "It's very considerate of you to +come for me. I can get ready in short order, and as for Jane, she's +never a bit of trouble. Sit down, sir, and make yourself to home while +I get our things together and put on my bonnet;" and she was about to +hasten from the room. + +She, too, had been compelled to see that Holcroft's farmhouse was the +only certain refuge left, and while she had rocked and waited the +thought had come into her scheming mind, "I've stipulated to stay a +year, and if he says nothing against it, it's a bargain which I can +manage to keep him to in spite of himself, even if I don't marry him." + +But the straightforward farmer was not to be caught in such a trap. He +had come himself to say certain words and he would say them. He +quietly, therefore, stood in the door and said, "Wait a moment, Mrs. +Mumpson. It's best to have a plain understanding in all matters of +business. When I've done, you may conclude not to go with me, for I +want to say to you what I said this morning to your cousin, Lemuel +Weeks. I'm glad he and his wife are now present, as witnesses. I'm a +plain man, and all I want is to make a livin' off the farm I've been +brought up on. I'll get a girl to help you with the work. Between +you, I'll expect it to be done in a way that the dairy will yield a +fair profit. We'll try and see how we get on for three months and not +a year. I'll not bind myself longer than three months. Of course, if +you manage well, I'll be glad to have this plain business arrangement +go on as long as possible, but it's all a matter of business. If I +can't make my farm pay, I'm going to sell or rent and leave these +parts." + +"Oh, certainly, certainly, Mr. Holcroft! You take a very senserble +view of affairs. I hope you will find that I will do all that I agree +to and a great deal more. I'm a little afraid of the night air and the +inclement season, and so will hasten to get myself and my child ready," +and she passed quickly out. + +Weeks put his hand to his mouth to conceal a grin as he thought, "She +hasn't agreed to do anything that I know on. Still, she's right; +she'll do a sight more than he expects, but it won't be just what he +expects." + +Mrs. Weeks followed her relative to expedite matters, and it must be +confessed that the gathering of Mrs. Mumpson's belongings was no heavy +task. A small hair trunk, that had come down from the remote past, +held her own and her child's wardrobe and represented all their worldly +possessions. + +Mr. Weeks, much pleased at the turn of affairs, became very affable, +but confined his remarks chiefly to the weather, while Holcroft, who +had an uneasy sense of being overreached in some undetected way, was +abstracted and laconic. He was soon on the road home, however, with +Mrs. Mumpson and Jane. Cousin Lemuel's last whispered charge was, +"Now, for mercy's sake, do keep your tongue still and your hands busy." + +Whatever possibilities there may be for the Ethiopian or the leopard, +there was no hope that Mrs. Mumpson would materially change any of her +characteristics. The chief reason was that she had no desire to +change. A more self-complacent person did not exist in Oakville. Good +traits in other people did not interest her. They were insipid, they +lacked a certain pungency which a dash of evil imparts; and in the +course of her minute investigations she had discerned or surmised so +much that was reprehensible that she had come to regard herself as +singularly free from sins of omission and commission. "What have I ever +done?" she would ask in her self-communings. The question implied so +much truth of a certain kind that all her relatives were in gall and +bitterness as they remembered the weary months during which she had +rocked idly at their firesides. With her, talking was as much of a +necessity as breathing; but during the ride to the hillside farm she, +in a sense, held her breath, for a keen March wind was blowing. + +She was so quiet that Holcroft grew hopeful, not realizing that the +checked flow of words must have freer course later on. A cloudy +twilight was deepening fast when they reached the dwelling. Holcroft's +market wagon served for the general purposes of conveyance, and he +drove as near as possible to the kitchen door. Descending from the +front seat, which he had occupied alone, he turned and offered his hand +to assist the widow to alight, but she nervously poised herself on the +edge of the vehicle and seemed to be afraid to venture. The wind +fluttered her scanty draperies, causing her to appear like a bird of +prey about to swoop down upon the unprotected man. "I'm afraid to jump +so far--" she began. + +"There's the step, Mrs. Mumpson." + +"But I can't see it. Would you mind lifting me down?" + +He impatiently took her by the arms, which seemed in his grasp like the +rounds of a chair, and put her on the ground. + +"Oh!" she exclaimed, in gushing tones, "there's nothing to equal the +strong arms of a man." + +He hastily lifted out her daughter, and said, "You had getter hurry in +to the fire. I'll be back in a few minutes," and he led his horses +down to the barn, blanketed and tied them. When he returned, he saw +two dusky figures standing by the front door which led to the little +hall separating the kitchen from the parlor. + +"Bless me!" he exclaimed. "You haven't been standing here all this +time?" + +"It's merely due to a little oversight. The door is locked, you see, +and--" + +"But the kitchen door is not locked." + +"Well, it didn't seem quite natural for us to enter the dwelling, on +the occasion of our first arrival, by the kitchen entrance, and--" + +Holcroft, with a grim look, strode through the kitchen and unlocked the +door. + +"Ah!" exclaimed the widow. "I feel as if I was coming home. Enter, +Jane, my dear. I'm sure the place will soon cease to be strange to +you, for the home feeling is rapidly acquired when--" + +"Just wait a minute, please," said Holcroft, "and I'll light the lamp +and a candle." This he did with the deftness of a man accustomed to +help himself, then led the way to the upper room which was to be her +sleeping apartment. Placing the candle on the bureau, he forestalled +Mrs. Mumpson by saying, "I'll freshen up the fire in the kitchen and +lay out the ham, eggs, coffee, and other materials for supper. Then I +must go out and unharness and do my night work. Make yourselves to +home. You'll soon be able to find everything," and he hastened away. + +It would not be their fault if they were not soon able to find +everything. Mrs. Mumpson's first act was to take the candle and survey +the room in every nook and corner. She sighed when she found the +closet and bureau drawers empty. Then she examined the quantity and +texture of the bedding of the "couch on which she was to repose," as +she would express herself. Jane followed her around on tiptoe, doing +just what her mother did, but was silent. + +At last they shivered in the fireless apartment, threw off their scanty +wraps, and went down to the kitchen. Mrs. Mumpson instinctively looked +around for a rocking chair, and as none was visible she hastened to the +parlor, and, holding the candle aloft, surveyed this apartment. Jane +followed in her wake as before, but at last ventured to suggest, +"Mother, Mr. Holcroft'll be in soon and want his supper." + +"I suppose he'll want a great many things," replied Mrs. Mumpson with +dignity, "but he can't expect a lady of my connections to fly around +like a common servant. It is but natural, in coming to a new abode, +that I should wish to know something of that abode. There should have +been a hired girl here ready to receive and get supper for us. Since +there is not one to receive us, bring that rocking chair, my dear, and +I will direct you how to proceed." + +The child did as she was told, and her mother was soon rocking on the +snuggest side of the kitchen stove, interspersing her rather +bewildering orders with various reflections and surmises. + +Sketching the child Jane is a sad task, and pity would lead us to +soften every touch if this could be done in truthfulness. She was but +twelve years of age, yet there was scarcely a trace of childhood left +in her colorless face. Stealthy and catlike in all her movements, she +gave the impression that she could not do the commonest thing except in +a sly, cowering manner. Her small greenish-gray eyes appeared to be +growing nearer together with the lease of time, and their indirect, +furtive glances suggested that they had hardly, if ever, seen looks of +frank affection bent upon her. She had early learned, on the round of +visits with her mother, that so far from being welcome she was scarcely +tolerated, and she reminded one of a stray cat that comes to a dwelling +and seeks to maintain existence there in a lurking, deprecatory manner. +Her kindred recognized this feline trait, for they were accustomed to +remark, "She's always snoopin' around." + +She could scarcely do otherwise, poor child! There had seemed no place +for her at any of the firesides. She haunted halls and passage-ways, +sat in dusky corners, and kept her meager little form out of sight as +much as possible. She was the last one helped at table when she was +permitted to come at all, and so had early learned to watch, like a +cat, and when people's backs were turned, to snatch something, carry it +off, and devour it in secret. Detected in these little pilferings, to +which she was almost driven, she was regarded as even a greater +nuisance than her mother. + +The latter was much too preoccupied to give her child attention. +Ensconced in a rocking chair in the best room, and always in full tide +of talk if there was anyone present, she rarely seemed to think where +Jane was or what she was doing. The rounds of visitation gave the +child no chance to go to school, so her developing mind had little +other pabulum than what her mother supplied so freely. She was +acquiring the same consuming curiosity, with the redeeming feature that +she did not talk. Listening in unsuspected places, she heard much that +was said about her mother and herself, and the pathetic part of this +experience was that she had never known enough of kindness to be +wounded. She was only made to feel more fully how precarious was her +foothold in her transient abiding place, and therefore was rendered +more furtive, sly, and distant in order to secure toleration by keeping +out of everyone's way. In her prowlings, however, she managed to learn +and understand all that was going on even better than her mother, who, +becoming aware of this fact, was acquiring the habit of putting her +through a whispered cross-questioning when they retired for the night. +It would be hard to imagine a child beginning life under more +unfavorable auspices and still harder to predict the outcome. + +In the course of her close watchfulness she had observed how many of +the domestic labors had been performed, and she would have helped more +in the various households if she had been given a chance; but the +housewives had not regarded her as sufficiently honest to be trusted in +the pantries, and also found that, if there was a semblance of return +for such hospitality as they extended, Mrs. Mumpson would remain +indefinitely. Moreover, the homely, silent child made the women +nervous, just as her mother irritated the men, and they did not want +her around. Thus she had come to be but the specter of a child, +knowing little of the good in the world and as much of the evil as she +could understand. + +She now displayed, however, more sense than her mother. The habit of +close scrutiny had made it clear that Holcroft would not long endure +genteel airs and inefficiency, and that something must be done to keep +this shelter. She did her best to get supper, with the aid given from +the rocking chair, and at last broke out sharply, "You must get up and +help me. He'll turn us out of doors if we don't have supper ready when +he comes in." + +Spurred by fear of such a dire possibility, Mrs. Mumpson was bustling +around when Holcroft entered. "We'll soon be ready," she gushed, "we'll +soon place our evening repast upon the table." + +"Very well," was the brief reply, as he passed up the stairs with the +small hair trunk on his shoulder. + + + +Chapter IV. + +Domestic Bliss + +Holcroft had been given a foretaste of the phase of torment which he +was destined to endure in his domestic relations, and was planning to +secure a refuge into which he could not be pursued. He had made +himself a little more presentable for supper, instinctively aware that +nothing would escape the lynx-eyed widow, and was taking some +measurements from the floor to a stovepipe hole leading into the +chimney flue, when he became aware that someone was in the doorway. +Turning, he saw Jane with her small catlike eyes fixed intently upon +him. Instantly he had the feeling that he was being watched and would +be watched. + +"Supper's ready," said the girl, disappearing. + +Mrs. Mumpson smiled upon him--if certain contortions of her thin, sharp +face could be termed a smile--from that side of the table at which his +wife had sat so many years, and he saw that the low rocking chair, +which he had preserved jealously from his former "help," had been +brought from the parlor and established in the old familiar place. +Mrs. Mumpson folded her hands and assumed a look of deep solemnity; +Jane, as instructed, also lowered her head, and they waited for him to +say "grace." He was in far too bitter a mood for any such pious farce, +and stolidly began to help them to the ham and eggs, which viands had +been as nearly spoiled as was possible in their preparation. The widow +raised her head with a profound sigh which set Holcroft's teeth on +edge, but he proceeded silently with his supper. The biscuits were +heavy enough to burden the lightest conscience; and the coffee, simply +grounds swimming around in lukewarm water. He took a sip, then put +down his cup and said, quietly, "Guess I'll take a glass of milk +tonight. Mrs. Mumpson, if you don't know how to make coffee, I can +soon show you." + +"Why! Isn't it right? How strange! Perhaps it would be well for you +to show me just exactly how you like it, for it will afford me much +pleasure to make it to your taste. Men's tastes differ so! I've heard +that no two men's tastes were alike; and, after all, everything is a +matter of taste. Now Cousin Abiram doesn't believe in coffee at all. +He thinks it is unwholesome. Have YOU ever thought that it might be +unwholesome?" + +"I'm used to it, and would like it good when I have it at all." + +"Why, of course, of course! You must have it exactly to your taste. +Jane, my dear, we must put our minds on coffee and learn precisely how +Mr. Holcroft likes it, and when the hired girl comes we must carefully +superintend her when she makes it. By the way, I suppose you will +employ my assistant tomorrow, Mr. Holcroft." + +"I can't get a girl short of town," was the reply, "and there is so +much cream in the dairy that ought to be churned at once that I'll wait +till next Monday and take down the butter." + +Mrs. Mumpson put on a grave, injured air, and said, "Well," so +disapprovingly that it was virtually saying that it was not well at +all. Then, suddenly remembering that this was not good policy, she was +soon all smiles and chatter again. "How cozy this is!" she cried, "and +how soon one acquires the home feeling! Why, anyone looking in at the +window would think that we were an old established family, and yet this +is but our first meal together. But it won't be the last, Mr. +Holcroft. I cannot make it known to you how your loneliness, which +Cousin Lemuel has so feelingly described to me, has affected my +feelings. Cousin Nancy said but this very day that you have had +desperate times with all kinds of dreadful creatures. But all that's +past. Jane and me will give a look of stability and respecterbility to +every comer." + +"Well, really, Mrs. Mumpson, I don't know who's to come." + +"Oh, you'll see!" she replied, wrinkling her thin, blue lips into what +was meant for a smile, and nodding her head at him encouragingly. "You +won't be so isolated no more. Now that I'm here, with my offspring, +your neighbors will feel that they can show you their sympathy. The +most respecterble people in town will call, and your life will grow +brighter and brighter; clouds will roll away, and--" + +"I hope the neighbors will not be so ill-mannered as to come without +being invited," remarked Mr. Holcroft grimly. "It's too late in the day +for them to begin now." + +"My being here with Jane will make all the difference in the world," +resumed Mrs. Mumpson, with as saccharine an expression as she could +assume. "They will come out of pure kindness and friendly interest, +with the wish to encourage--" + +"Mrs. Mumpson," said Holcroft, half desperately, "if anyone comes it'll +be out of pure curiosity, and I don't want such company. Selling +enough butter, eggs, and produce to pay expenses will encourage me more +than all the people of Oakville, if they should come in a body. What's +the use of talking in this way? I've done without the neighbors so +far, and I'm sure they've been very careful to do without me. I shall +have nothing to do with them except in the way of business, and as I +said to you down at Lemuel Weeks's, business must be the first +consideration with us all," and he rose from the table. + +"Oh, certainly, certainly!" the widow hastened to say, "but then +business is like a cloud, and the meetings and greetings of friends is +a sort of silver lining, you know. What would the world be without +friends--the society of those who take an abiding interest? Believe +me, Mr. Holcroft," she continued, bringing her long, skinny finger +impressively down on the table, "you have lived alone so long that you +are unable to see the crying needs of your own constitution. As a +Christian man, you require human sympathy and--" + +Poor Holcroft knew little of centrifugal force; but at that moment he +was a living embodiment of it, feeling that if he did not escape he +would fly into a thousand atoms. Saying nervously, "I've a few chores +to do," he seized his hat, and hastening out, wandered disconsolately +around the barn. "I'm never going to be able to stand her," he groaned. +"I know now why my poor wife shook her head whenever this woman was +mentioned. The clack of her tongue would drive any man living crazy, +and the gimlet eyes of that girl Jane would bore holes through a +saint's patience. Well, well! I'll put a stove up in my room, then +plowing and planting time will soon be here, and I guess I can stand it +at mealtimes for three months, for unless she stops her foolishness she +shan't stay any longer." + +Jane had not spoken during the meal, but kept her eyes on Holcroft, +except when he looked toward her, and then she instantly averted her +gaze. When she was alone with her mother, she said abruptly, "We aint +a-goin' to stay here long, nuther." + +"Why not?" was the sharp, responsive query. + +"'Cause the same look's comin' into his face that was in Cousin +Lemuel's and Cousin Abiram's and all the rest of 'em. 'Fi's you I'd +keep still now. 'Pears to me they all want you to keep still and you +won't." + +"Jane," said Mrs. Mumpson in severe tones, "you're an ignorant child. +Don't presume to instruct ME! Besides, this case is entirely +different. Mr. Holcroft must be made to understand from the start that +I'm not a common woman--that I'm his equal, and in most respects his +superior. If he aint made to feel this, it'll never enter his +head--but law! There's things which you can't and oughtn't to +understand." + +"But I do," said the girl shortly, "and he won't marry you, nor keep +you, if you talk him to death." + +"Jane!" gasped Mrs. Mumpson, as she sank into the chair and rocked +violently. + +The night air was keen and soon drove Holcroft into the house. As he +passed the kitchen window, he saw that Mrs. Mumpson was in his wife's +rocking chair and that Jane was clearing up the table. + +He kindled a fire on the parlor hearth, hoping, but scarcely expecting, +that he would be left alone. + +Nor was he very long, for the widow soon opened the door and entered, +carrying the chair. "Oh, you are here," she said sweetly. "I heard the +fire crackling, and I do so love open wood fires. They're company in +themselves, and they make those who bask in the flickering blaze +inclined to be sociable. To think of how many long, lonely evenings +you have sat here when you had persons in your employ with whom you +could have no affinity whatever! I don't see how you stood it. Under +such circumstances life must cloud up into a dreary burden." It never +occurred to Mrs. Mumpson that her figures of speech were often mixed. +She merely felt that the sentimental phase of conversation must be very +flowery. But during the first evening she had resolved on prudence. +"Mr. Holcroft shall have time," she thought, "for the hope to steal +into his heart that his housekeeper may become something more to him +than housekeeper--that there is a nearer and loftier relation." + +Meanwhile she was consumed with curiosity to know something about the +"persons" previously employed and his experiences with them. With a +momentary, and, as she felt, a proper pause before descending to +ordinary topics, she resumed, "My dear Mr. Holcroft, no doubt it will +be a relief to your overfraught mind to pour into a symperthetic ear +the story of your troubles with those--er--those peculiar females +that--er--that--" + +"Mrs. Mumpson, it would be a much greater relief to my mind to forget +all about 'em," he replied briefly. + +"INDEED!" exclaimed the widow. "Was they as bad as that? Who'd 'a' +thought it! Well, well, well; what people there is in the world! And +you couldn't abide 'em, then?" + +"No, I couldn't." + +"Well now; what hussies they must have been! And to think you were +here all alone, with no better company! It makes my heart bleed. They +DO say that Bridget Malony is equal to anything, and I've no doubt but +that she took things and did things." + +"Well, she's taken herself off, and that's enough." Then he groaned +inwardly, "Good Lord! I could stand her and all her tribe bettern'n +this one." + +"Yes, Mr. Holcroft," pursued Mrs. Mumpson, sinking her voice to a loud, +confidential whisper, "and I don't believe you've any idea how much she +took with her. I fear you've been robbed in all these vicissitudes. +Men never know what's in a house. They need caretakers; respecterble +women, that would sooner cut out their tongues than purloin. How happy +is the change which has been affected! How could you abide in the +house with such a person as that Bridget Malony?" + +"Well, well, Mrs. Mumpson! She abode with herself. I at least had +this room in peace and quietness." + +"Of course, of course! A person so utterly unrespecterble would not +think of entering THIS apartment; but then you had to meet her, you +know. You could not act as if she was not, when she was, and there +being so much of her, too. She was a monstrous-looking person. It's +dreadful to think that such persons belong to our sex. I don't wonder +you feel as you do about it all. I can understand you perfectly. All +your senserbleness was offended. You felt that your very home had +become sacrilegious. Well, now, I suppose she said awful things to +you?" + +Holcroft could not endure this style of inquisition and comment another +second longer. He rose and said, "Mrs. Mumpson, if you want to know +just what she said and did, you must go and ask her. I'm very tired. +I'll go out and see that the stock's all right, and then go to bed." + +"Oh, certainly, certainly!" ejaculated the widow. "Repose is nature's +sweet rester, says the poet. I can see how recalling those dreadful +scenes with those peculiar females--" But he was gone. + +In passing out, he caught sight of Jane whisking back into the kitchen. +"She's been listening," he thought. "Well, I'll go to town tomorrow +afternoon, get a stove for my room upstairs, and stuff the keyhole." + +He went to the barn and looked with envy at the placid cows and quiet +horses. At last, having lingered as long as he could, he returned to +the kitchen. Jane had washed and put away the supper dishes after a +fashion, and was now sitting on the edge of a chair in the farthest +corner of the room. + +"Take this candle and go to your mother," he said curtly. Then he +fastened the doors and put out the lamp. Standing for an instant at +the parlor entrance, he added, "Please rake up the fire and put out +the light before you come up. Good night." + +"Oh, certainly, certainly! We'll look after everything just as if it +was our own. The sense of strangeness will soon pass--" But his steps +were halfway up the stairs. + +Mother and daughter listened until they heard him overhead, then, +taking the candle, they began a most minute examination of everything +in the room. + +Poor Holcroft listened also; too worried, anxious, and nervous to sleep +until they came up and all sounds ceased in the adjoining apartment. + + + +Chapter V. + +Mrs. Mumpson Takes Up Her Burdens + +The next morning Holcroft awoke early. The rising sun flooded his +plain little room with mellow light. It was impossible to give way to +dejection in that radiance, and hope, he scarcely knew why, sprung up +in his heart. He was soon dressed, and having kindled the kitchen +fire, went out on the porch. There had been a change in the wind during +the night, and now it blew softly from the south. The air was sweet +with the indefinable fragrance of spring. The ethereal notes of +bluebirds were heard on every side. Migratory robins were feeding in +the orchard, whistling and calling their noisy congratulations on +arriving at old haunts. The frost was already oozing from the ground, +but the farmer welcomed the mud, knowing that it indicated a long +advance toward plowing and planting time. + +He bared his head to the sweet, warm air and took long, deep breaths. +"If this weather holds," he muttered, "I can soon put in some early +potatoes on that warm hillside yonder. Yes, I can stand even her for +the sake of being on the old place in mornings like this. The +weather'll be getting better every day and I can be out of doors more. +I'll have a stove in my room tonight; I would last night if the old +air-tight hadn't given out completely. I'll take it to town this +afternoon and sell it for old iron. Then I'll get a bran'-new one and +put it up in my room. They can't follow me there and they can't follow +me outdoors, and so perhaps I can live in peace and work most of the +time." + +Thus he was muttering to himself, as lonely people so often do, when he +felt that someone was near. Turning suddenly, he saw Jane half-hidden +by the kitchen door. Finding herself observed, the girl came forward +and said in her brief monotonous way: + +"Mother'll be down soon. If you'll show me how you want the coffee and +things, I guess I can learn." + +"I guess you'll have to, Jane. There'll be more chance of your +teaching your mother than of her teaching you, I fear. But we'll see, +we'll see; it's strange people can't see what's sensible and best for +'em when they see so much." + +The child made no reply, but watched him intently as he measured out +and then ground half a cup of coffee. + +"The firs thing to do," he began kindly, "is to fill the kettle with +water fresh drawn from the well. Never make coffee or tea with water +that's been boiled two or three times. Now, I'll give the kettle a +good rinsing, so as to make sure you start with it clean." + +Having accomplished this, he filled the vessel at the well and placed +it on the fire, remarking as he did so, "Your mother can cook a little, +can't she?" + +"I s'pose so," Jane replied. "When father was livin' mother said she +kept a girl. Since then, we've visited round. But she'll learn, and +if she can't, I can." + +"What on earth--but there's no use of talking. When the water +boils--bubbles up and down, you know--call me. I suppose you and your +mother can get the rest of the breakfast? Oh, good morning, Mrs. +Mumpson! I was just showing Jane about the coffee. You two can go on +and do all the rest, but don't touch the coffee till the kettle boils, +and then I'll come in and show you my way, and, if you please, I don't +wish it any other way." + +"Oh, certainly, certainly!" began Mrs. Mumpson, but Holcroft waited to +hear no more. + +"She's a woman," he muttered, "and I'll say nothing rude or ugly to +her, but I shan't listen to her talk half a minute when I can help +myself; and if she won't do any thing but talk--well, we'll see, we'll +see! A few hours in the dairy will show whether she can use anything +besides her tongue." + +As soon as they were alone Jane turned sharply on her mother and said, +"Now you've got to do something to help. At Cousin Lemuel's and other +places they wouldn't let us help. Anyhow, they wouldn't let me. He +'spects us both to work, and pays you for it. I tell you agin, he +won't let us stay here unless we do. I won't go visitin' round any +more, feelin' like a stray cat in every house I go to. You've got to +work, and talk less." + +"Why, Jane! How YOU talk!" + +"I talk sense. Come, help me get breakfast." + +"Do you think that's a proper way for a child to address a parent?" + +"No matter what I think. Come and help. You'll soon know what he +thinks if we keep breakfast waitin'." + +"Well, I'll do such menial work until he gets a girl, and then he shall +learn that he can't expect one with such respecterble connections--" + +"Hope I may never see any of 'em agin," interrupted Jane shortly, and +then she relapsed into silence while her mother rambled on in her +characteristic way, making singularly inapt efforts to assist in the +task before them. + +As Holcroft rose from milking a cow he found Jane beside him. A ghost +could not have come more silently, and again her stealthy ways gave him +an unpleasant sensation. "Kettle is boilin'," she said, and was gone. + +He shook his head and muttered, "Queer tribe, these Mumpsons! I've +only to get an odd fish of a girl to help, and I'll have something like +a menagerie in the house." He carried his pails of foaming milk to the +dairy, and then entered the kitchen. + +"I've only a minute," he began hastily, seeking to forestall the widow. +"Yes, the kettle's boiling all right. First scald out the +coffeepot--put three-quarters of a cup of ground coffee into the pot, +break an egg into it, so; pour on the egg and coffee half a cup of cold +water and stir it all up well, this way. Next pour in about a pint of +boiling water from the kettle, set the pot on the stove and let it--the +coffee, I mean--cook twenty minutes, remember, not less than twenty +minutes. I'll be back to breakfast by that time. Now you know just +how I want my coffee, don't you?" looking at Jane. + +Jane nodded, but Mrs. Mumpson began, "Oh certainly, certainly! Boil an +egg twenty minutes, add half a cup of cold water, and--" + +"I know," interrupted Jane, "I can always do as you did." + +Holcroft again escaped to the barn, and eventually returned with a deep +sigh. "I'll have to face a good deal of her music this morning," he +thought, "but I shall have at least a good cup of coffee to brace me." + +Mrs. Mumpson did not abandon the suggestion that grace should be +said,--she never abandoned anything,--but the farmer, in accordance +with his purpose to be civil, yet pay no attention to her obtrusive +ways, gave no heed to her hint. He thought Jane looked apprehensive, +and soon learned the reason. His coffee was at least hot, but seemed +exceedingly weak. + +"I hope now that it's just right," said Mrs. Mumpson complacently, "and +feeling sure that it was made just to suit you, I filled the coffeepot +full from the kettle. We can drink what we desire for breakfast and +then the rest can be set aside until dinner time and warmed over. Then +you'll have it just to suit you for the next meal, and we, at the same +time, will be practicing econermy. It shall now be my great aim to +help you econermize. Any coarse, menial hands can work, but the great +thing to be considered is a caretaker; one who, by thoughtfulness and +the employment of her mind, will make the labor of others affective." + +During this speech, Holcroft could only stare at the woman. The rapid +motion of her thin jaw seemed to fascinate him, and he was in +perplexity over not merely her rapid utterance, but also the queries. +Had she maliciously spoiled the coffee? Or didn't she know any better? +"I can't make her out," he thought, "but she shall learn that I have a +will of my own," and he quietly rose, took the coffeepot, and poured +its contents out of doors; then went through the whole process of +making his favorite beverage again, saying coldly, "Jane, you had +better watch close this time. I don't wish anyone to touch the +coffeepot but you." + +Even Mrs. Mumpson was a little abashed by his manner, but when he +resumed his breakfast she speedily recovered her complacency and +volubility. "I've always heard," she said, with her little cackling +laugh, "that men would be extravergant, especially in some things. +There are some things they're fidgety about and will have just so. +Well, well, who has a better right than a well-to-do, fore-handed man? +Woman is to complement the man, and it should be her aim to study the +great--the great--shall we say reason, for her being? Which is +adaptation," and she uttered the word with feeling, assured that +Holcroft could not fail of being impressed by it. The poor man was +bolting such food as had been prepared in his haste to get away. + +"Yes," continued the widow, "adaptation is woman's mission and--" + +"Really, Mrs. Mumpson, your and Jane's mission this morning will be to +get as much butter as possible out of the cream and milk on hand. I'll +set the old dog on the wheel, and start the churn within half an hour," +and he rose with the thought, "I'd rather finish my breakfast on milk +and coffee by and by than stand this." And he said, "Please let the +coffee be until I come in to show you about taking out and working the +butter." + +The scenes in the dairy need not be dwelt upon. He saw that Jane might +be taught, and that she would probably try to do all that her strength +permitted. It was perfectly clear that Mrs. Mumpson was not only +ignorant of the duties which he had employed her to perform, but that +she was also too preoccupied with her talk and notions of gentility +ever to learn. He was already satisfied that in inducing him to engage +her, Lemuel Weeks had played him a trick, but there seemed no other +resource than to fulfill his agreement. With Mrs. Mumpson in the +house, there might be less difficulty in securing and keeping a hired +girl who, with Jane, might do the essential work. But the future +looked so unpromising that even the strong coffee could not sustain his +spirits. The hopefulness of the early morning departed, leaving +nothing but dreary uncertainty. + +Mrs. Mumpson was bent upon accompanying him to town and engaging the +girl herself. "There would be great propriety in my doing so," she +argued at dinner, "and propriety is something that adorns all the human +race. There would be no danger of my getting any of the peculiar +females such as you have been afflicted with. As I am to superintend +her labors, she will look up to me with respect and humility if she +learns from the first to recognize in me a superior on whom she will be +dependent for her daily bread. No shiftless hussy would impose upon +ME. I would bring home--how sweet the word sounds!--a model of +industry and patient endurance. She would be deferential, she would +know her place, too. Everything would go like clockwork in our home. +I'll put on my things at once and--" + +"Excuse me, Mrs. Mumpson. It would not be right to leave Jane here +alone. Moreover, I'd rather engage my own help." + +"But my dear Mr. Holcroft, you don't realize--men never do +realize--that you will have a long, lonely ride with a female of +unknown--unknown antercedents. It will be scarcely respecterble, and +respecterbility should be man and woman's chief aim. Jane is not a +timid child, and in an emergency like this, even if she was, she would +gladly sacrifice herself to sustain the proprieties of life. Now that +your life has begun under new and better auspices, I feel that I ought +to plead with you not to cloud your brightening prospects by a +thoughtless unregard of what society looks upon as proper. The eyes of +the community will now be upon us--" + +"You must excuse me, Mrs. Mumpson. All I ask of the community is to +keep their eyes on their own business, while I attend to mine in my own +way. The probabilities are that the girl will come out on the stage +Monday," and he rose from the dinner table and hastily made his +preparations for departure. He was soon driving rapidly away, having a +sort of nervous apprehension lest Jane, or the widow, should suddenly +appear on the seat beside him. A basket of eggs and some inferior +butter, with the burnt-out stove, were in his wagon and his bank book +was in his pocket. It was with sinking heart that he thought of making +further inroads on his small accumulations. + +Before he was out of sight Mrs. Mumpson betook herself to the rocking +chair and began to expatiate on the blindness and obduracy of men in +general and of Mr. Holcroft in particular. "They are all much alike," +she complained, "and are strangely neglectful of the proprieties of +life. My dear, deceased husband, your father, was becoming gradually +senserble of my value in guiding him in this respect, and indeed, I may +add in all respects, when, in the very prime of his expanding manhood, +he was laid low. Of course, my happiness was buried then and my heart +can never throb again, but I have a mission in the world--I feel +it--and here is a desolate home bereft of female influence and +consolation and hitherto painfully devoid of respecterbility. + +"I once called on the late Mrs. Holcroft, and--I must say it--I went +away depressed by a sense of her lack of ability to develop in her +husband those qualities which would make him an ornament to society. +She was a silent woman, she lacked mind and ideas. She had seen little +of the world and knew not what was swaying people. Therefore, her +husband, having nothing else to think of, became absorbed in the +accumulation of dollars. Not that I object to dollars--they have their +proper place,--but minds should be fixed on all things. We should take +a deep personal interest in our fellow beings, and thus we grow broad. +As I was saying, Mr. Holcroft was not developed by his late spouse. He +needs awakening, arousing, stimulating, drawing out, and such I feel to +be my mission. I must be patient; I cannot expect the habits of years +to pass away under a different kind of female influence, at once." + +Jane had been stolidly washing and putting away dishes during this +partial address to herself and partial soliloquy, but now remarked, +"You and me will pass away in a week if you go on as you've begun. I +can see it comin'. Then, where'll we go to?" + +"Your words, Jane, only show that you are an ignorant, short-sighted +child. Do you suppose that a woman of my years and experience would +make no better provision for the future than a man's changeful mind--a +warped and undeveloped mind, at that? No; I have an agreement with Mr. +Holcroft. I shall be a member of his household for three months at +least, and long before that he will begin to see everything in a new +light. It will gradually dawn upon him that he has been defrauded of +proper female influence and society. Now, he is crude, he thinks only +of work and accumulating; but when the work is done by a menial +female's hands and his mind is more at rest, there will begin to steal +in upon him the cravings of his mind. He will see that material things +are not all in all." + +"P'raps he will. I don't half know that you're talkin' about. 'Fi's +you, I'd learn to work and do things as he wants 'em. That's what I'm +going to do. Shall I go now and make up his bed and tidy his room?" + +"I think I will accompany you, Jane, and see that your task is properly +performed." + +"Of course you want to see everythin' in the room, just as I do." + +"As housekeeper, I should see everything that is under my care. That +is the right way to look at the matter." + +"Well, come and look then." + +"You are becoming strangely disrespectful, Jane." + +"Can't help it," replied the girl, "I'm gettin' mad. We've been +elbowed around long's I can remember, at least I've been, and now we're +in a place where we've a right to be, and you do nothin' but talk, +talk, talk, when he hates talk. Now you'll go up in his room and +you'll see everythin' in it, so you could tell it all off tomorrow. +Why, can't you see he hates talk and wants somethin' done?" + +"Jane," said Mrs. Mumpson, in her most severe and dignified manner, +"you are not only disrespectful to your parent, but you're a time +server. What Mr. Holcroft wants is a very secondary matter; what is +BEST for him is the chief consideration. But I have touched on things +far above your comprehension. Come, you can make up the bed, and I +shall inspect as becomes my station." + + + +Chapter VI. + +A Marriage! + +In a quiet side street of the market town in which Mr. Holcroft was +accustomed to dispose of his farm produce was a three-story tenement +house. A family occupied each floor, those dwelling in the first two +stories being plain, respectable people of the mechanic class. The +rooms in the third story were, of course, the cheapest, but even from +the street might be seen evidences that more money had been spent upon +them than could have been saved in rent. Lace curtains were looped +aside from the windows, through which were caught glimpses of flowers +that must have come from a greenhouse. We have only to enter these +apartments to find that the suggestion of refined taste is amply +fulfilled. While nothing is costly, there is a touch of grace, a hint +of beauty in everything permitting simple adornment. The mistress of +these rooms is not satisfied with neatness and order merely; it is her +instinct to add something to please the eye--a need essential to her, +yet too often conspicuously absent in rented quarters of a similar +character. + +It is remarkable to what a degree people's abodes are a reflex of +themselves. Mrs. Alida Ostrom had been brought to these rooms a happy +bride but a few months since. They were then bare and not very clean. +Her husband had seemed bent on indulging her so far as his limited +means permitted. He had declared that his income was so modest that he +could afford nothing better than these cheap rooms in an obscure +street, but she had been abundantly content, for she had known even the +extremity of poverty. + +Alida Ostrom had passed beyond the period of girlhood, with its +superficial desires and ambitions. When her husband first met her, she +was a woman of thirty, and had been chastened by deep sorrows and some +bitter experiences. Years before, she and her mother had come to this +town from a New England city in the hope of bettering their +circumstances. They had no weapons other than their needles with which +to fight life's battle, but they were industrious and +frugal--characteristic traits which won the confidence of the +shopkeepers for whom they worked. All went as well, perhaps, as they +could expect, for two or three years, their secluded lives passing +uneventfully and, to a certain extent, happily. They had time to read +some good books obtained at a public library; they enjoyed an +occasional holiday in the country; and they went to church twice every +Sunday when it was not stormy. The mother usually dozed in the obscure +seat near the door which they occupied, for she was getting old, and +the toil of the long week wearied her.--Alida, on the contrary, was +closely attentive. Her mind seemed to crave all the sustenance it +could get from every source, and her reverential manner indicated that +the hopes inspired by her faith were dear and cherished. Although they +lived such quiet lives and kept themselves apart from their neighbors, +there was no mystery about them which awakened surmises. "They've seen +better days," was the common remark when they were spoken of; and this +was true. While they had no desire to be social with the people among +whom they lived, they did not awaken prejudices by the assertion of +superiority. Indeed, it was seen that the two women had all they could +do to earn their livelihood, and they were left to do this in peace. + +When Alida Armstrong--for that was her maiden name--carried her own and +her mother's work to and from the shops, she often encountered admiring +glances. She was not exactly pretty, but she had the good, refined face +which is often more attractive than the merely pretty one, and she +possessed a trim, rounded figure which she knew how to clothe with +taste from the simplest and most inexpensive materials. Nor did she +seek to dress above her station. When passing along the street, any +discerning person would recognize that she was a working girl; only the +superficial would look upon her as a common-place girl. There was +something in her modest air and graceful, elastic carriage which +suggested the thought to many observers, "She has seen better days." + +The memory of these days, which had promised immunity from wearing +toil, anxiety, and poverty, was a barrier between the two women and +their present world. Death had bereft them of husband, father, and +such property as he had left had been lost in a bad investment. +Learning that they were almost penniless, they had patiently set about +earning honest bread. This they had succeeded in doing as long as the +mother kept her usual health. But the infirmities of age were creeping +upon her. One winter she took a heavy cold and was very ill. She +rallied only temporarily in the milder days of spring. In the summer's +heat her strength failed, and she died. + +During her mother's long illness Alida was devotion itself. The strain +upon her was severe indeed, for she not only had to earn food for both, +but there were also doctor's bills, medicines, and delicacies to pay +for. The poor girl grew thin from work by day, watching by night, and +from fear and anxiety at all times. Their scanty savings were +exhausted; articles were sold from their rooms; the few precious +heirlooms of silver and china were disposed of; Alida even denied +herself the food she needed rather than ask for help or permit her +mother to want for anything which ministered to their vain hopes of +renewed health. + +What she should have done she scarcely knew, had not an unexpected +friend interested himself in her behalf. In one of the men's clothing +stores was a cutter from whom she obtained work. Soon after he +appeared in this shop he began to manifest signs of interest in her He +was about her own age, he had a good trade, and she often wondered why +he appeared so reticent and moody, as compared with others in similar +positions. But he always spoke kindly to her, and when her mother's +illness first developed, he showed all the leniency permitted to him in +regard to her work. His apparent sympathy, and the need of explaining +why she was not able to finish her tasks as promptly as usual, led her +gradually to reveal to him the sad struggle in which she was engaged. +He promised to intercede in her behalf with their mutual employers, and +asked if he might come to see her mother. + +Recognizing how dependent she was upon this man's good will, and seeing +nothing in his conduct but kindness and sympathy, she consented. His +course and his words confirmed all her good impressions and awakened on +her side corresponding sympathy united with a lively gratitude. He +told her that he also was a stranger in the town, that he had but few +acquaintances and no friends, that he had lost relatives and was in no +need to go about like other young men. His manner was marked +apparently by nothing more than interest and a wish to help her, and +was untinged by gallantry; so they gradually became good friends. When +he called Sunday afternoons the mother looked at him wistfully, in the +hope that her daughter would not be left without a protector. At last +the poor woman died, and Alida was in sore distress, for she had no +means with which to bury her. Ostrom came and said in the kindest +tones: + +"You must let me lend you what you need and you can pay me back with +interest, if you wish. You won't be under any obligation, for I have +money lying idle in the bank. When you have only yourself to support +it will not take you long to earn the sum." + +There seemed nothing else for her to do and so it was arranged. With +tear-blinded eyes she made her simple mourning, and within a week after +her mother's death was at work again, eager to repay her debt. He +urged her not to hasten--to take all the rest she could while the hot +weather lasted, and few evenings passed that he did not come to take +her out for a walk through the quieter streets. + +By this time he had won her confidence completely, and her heart +overflowed with gratitude. Of course she was not so unsophisticated as +not to know whither all this attention was tending, but it was a great +relief to her mind that his courtship was so quiet and undemonstrative. +Her heart was sore and grief-stricken, and she was not conscious of any +other feeling toward him than the deepest gratitude and wish to make +such return as was within her power. He was apparently very frank in +regard to his past life, and nothing was said which excited her +suspicions. Indeed, she felt that it would be disloyalty to think of +questioning or surmising evil of one who had proved himself so true a +friend in her sore need. She was therefore somewhat prepared for the +words he spoke one warm September day, as they sat together in a little +shaded park. + +"Alida," he said, a little nervously, "we are both strangers and alone +in this world, but surely we are no longer strangers to each other. +Let us go quietly to some minister and be married. That is the best +way for you to pay your debt and keep me always in debt to you." + +She was silent a moment, then faltered, "I'd rather pay all my debt +first." + +"What debts can there be between husband and wife? Come now, let us +look at the matter sensibly. I don't want to frighten you. Things +will go on much the same. We can take quiet rooms, I will bring work +to you instead of your having to go after it. It's nobody's business +but our own. We've not a circle of relations to consult or invite. We +can go to some parsonage, the minister's family will be the witnesses; +then I'll leave you at your room as usual, and no one will be any the +wiser till I've found a place where we can go to housekeeping. That +won't be long, I can tell you." + +He placed the matter in such a simple, natural light that she did not +know how to refuse. + +"Perhaps I do not love you as much as you ought to be loved, and +deserve to be in view of all your kindness," she tried to explain. "I +feel I ought to be very truthful and not deceive you in the least, as I +know you would not deceive me." So strong a shiver passed through his +frame that she exclaimed, "You are taking cold or you don't feel well." + +"Oh, it's nothing!" he said hastily, "only the night air, and then a +fellow always feels a little nervous, I suppose, when he's asking for +something on which his happiness depends. I'm satisfied with such +feeling and good will as you have for me, and will be only too glad to +get you just as you are. Come, before it is too late in the evening." + +"Is your heart bent on this, after what I have said, Wilson?" + +"Yes, yes, indeed!" clasping her hand and drawing her to her feet. + +"It would seem very ungrateful in me to refuse, after all you have done +for me and mother, if you think it's right and best. Will you go to +the minister whose church I attended, and who came to see mother?" + +"Certainly, anyone you like," and he put her hand on his arm and led +her away. + +The clergyman listened sympathetically to her brief history of Ostrom's +kindness, then performed a simple ceremony which his wife and daughters +witnessed. As they were about to depart he said, "I will send you a +certificate." + +"Don't trouble yourself to do that," said the groom. "I'll call for it +some evening soon." + +Never had she seen Ostrom in such gay spirits as on their return; and, +woman-like, she was happy chiefly because she had made him happy. She +also felt a glad sense of security. Her mother's dying wish had been +fulfilled; she had now a protector, and would soon have a home instead +of a boarding place among strangers. + +Her husband speedily found the rooms to which the reader has been +introduced. The street on which they were located was no thoroughfare. +Its farther end was closed by a fence and beyond were fields. With the +exception of those who dwelt upon it or had business with the +residents, few people came thither. To this locality, Ostrom brought +his bride, and selected rooms whose windows were above those of the +surrounding houses. So far from regretting this isolation and +remoteness from the central life of the town, Alida's feelings +sanctioned his choice. The sense of possessing security and a refuge +was increased, and it was as natural for her to set about making the +rooms homelike as it was to breathe. Her husband appeared to have +exhausted his tendencies toward close economy in the choice of +apartments, and she was given more money than she desired with which to +furnish and decorate. He said, "fix everything up to suit your mind, +and I'll be satisfied." + +This she did with such skill, taste, and good management that she +returned a large portion of the sum he had given her, whereupon he +laughingly remarked that she had already saved more than she owed him. +He seemed disinclined to accompany her in the selection of their simple +outfit, but professed himself so pleased with her choice of everything +that she was gratified and happy in the thought of relieving him from +trouble. + +Thus their married life began under what appeared to her the most +promising and congenial circumstances. She soon insisted on having +work again, and her busy fingers did much to increase his income. + +Alida was not an exacting woman, and recognized from the beginning that +her husband would naturally have peculiar ways of his own. Unlike Mrs. +Mumpson, she never expatiated on "adaptation," but Ostrom soon learned, +with much inward relief, that his wife would accept unquestioningly +what appeared to be his habits and preferences. He went early to his +place of work, taking the nice little lunch which she prepared, and +returned in the dusk of the evening when he always found a warm dinner +in readiness. After this, he was ready enough to walk with her, but, +as before, chose the least frequented streets. Places of amusement and +resort seemed distasteful. On Sundays he enjoyed a ramble in the +country as long as the season permitted, and then showed a great +disinclination to leave the fireside. For a time he went with her in +the evening to church, but gradually persuaded her to remain at home +and read or talk to him. + +His wife felt that she had little cause to complain of his quiet ways +and methodical habits. He had exhibited them before marriage and they +were conducive to her absolute sense of proprietorship in him--an +assurance so dear to a woman's heart. The pleasures of his home and +her society appeared to be all that he craved. At times she had +wondered a little at a certain air of apprehensiveness in his manner +when steps were heard upon the stairs, but as the quiet days and weeks +passed, such manifestations of nervousness ceased. Occasionally, he +would start violently and mutter strange words in his sleep, but noting +disturbed the growing sense of security and satisfaction in Alida's +heart. The charm of a regular, quiet life grows upon one who has a +nature fitted for it, and this was true to an unusual degree of Alida +Ostrom. Her content was also increased by the fact that her husband +was able each month to deposit a goodly portion of their united +earnings in a savings bank. + +Every day, every week, was so like the preceding ones that it seemed as +if their happy life might go on forever. She was gladly conscious that +there was more than gratitude and good will in her heart. She now +cherished a deep affection for her husband and felt that he had become +essential to her life. + +"Oh, how happy mother would be if she knew how safe and protected I +am!" she murmured one March evening, as she was preparing her husband's +dinner. "Leaving me alone in the world was far worse to her than dying." + +At that very moment a gaunt-looking woman, with a child in her arms, +stood in the twilight on the opposite side of the street, looking up at +the windows. + + + +Chapter VII. + +From Home to the Street + +As the shadows of the gloomy March evening deepened, Alida lighted the +lamp, and was then a little surprised to hear a knock at the door. No +presentiment of trouble crossed her mind; she merely thought that one +of her neighbors on the lower floors had stepped up to borrow something. + +"Come in!" she cried, as she adjusted the shade of the lamp. + +A tall, thin, pale woman entered, carrying a child that was partly +hidden by a thin shawl, their only outer protection against the chill +winds which had been blustering all day. Alida looked at the stranger +inquiringly and kindly, expecting an appeal for charity. The woman +sank into a chair as if exhausted, and fixed her dark hollow eyes on +Mrs. Ostrom. She appeared consumed by a terrible curiosity. + +Alida wondered at the strange chill of apprehension with which she +encountered this gaze. It was so intent, so searching, yet so utterly +devoid of a trace of good will. She began gently, "Can I do anything +for you?" + +For a moment or two longer there was no response other than the same +cold, questioning scrutiny, as if, instead of a sweet-faced woman, +something monstrously unnatural was present. At last, in slow, icy +utterance, came the words, "So you are--HER!" + +"Is this woman insane?" thought Alida. "Why else does she look at me +so? Oh, that Wilson would come! I'm sorry for you, my good woman," +she began kindly. "You are laboring under some mistake. My husband--" + +"YOUR husband!" exclaimed the stranger, with an indescribable accent of +scorn and reproach. + +"Yes," replied Alida with quiet dignity. "MY husband will be home soon +and he will protect me. You have no right to enter my rooms and act as +you do. If you are sick and in trouble, I and my husband--" + +"Please tell me, miss, how he became YOUR husband?" + +"By lawful marriage, by my pastor." + +"We'll soon see how LAWFUL it was," replied the woman, with a bitter +laugh. "I'd like you to tell me how often a man can be married +lawfully." + +"What do you mean?" cried Alida, with a sudden flash in her blue eyes. +Then, as if reproaching herself, she added kindly, "Pardon me. I see +you are not well. You do not realize what you are saying or where you +are. Take a seat nearer the fire, and when Mr. Ostrom comes from his +work he'll take you to your friends." + +All the while she was speaking the woman regarded her with a hard, +stony gaze; then replied, coldly and decisively, "You are wrong, +miss"--how that title grated on Alida's ears!--"I am neither insane nor +drunk. I do know what I am saying and where I am. You are playing a +bold game or else you have been deceived, and very easily deceived, +too. They say some women are so eager to be married that they ask no +questions, but jump at the first chance. Whether deceived or +deceiving, it doesn't matter now. But you and he shall learn that +there is a law in the land which will protect an honest woman in her +sacred rights. You needn't look so shocked and bewildered. You are +not a young, giddy girl if I may judge from your face. What else could +you expect when you took up with a stranger you knew nothing about? Do +you know that likeness?" and she drew from her bosom a daguerreotype. + +Alida waved it away as she said indignantly, "I won't believe ill of my +husband. I--" + +"No, miss," interrupted the woman sternly, "you are right for once. +You won't indeed believe ill of YOUR husband, but you'll have to +believe ill of MINE. There's no use of your putting on such airs any +longer. No matter how rash and silly you may have been, if you have a +spark of honesty you'll be open to proof. If you and he try to brazen +it out, the law will open both your eyes. Look at that likeness, look +at these letters; and I have other proof and witnesses which can't be +disputed. The name of the man you are living with is not Wilson +Ostrom. His name is Henry Ferguson. I am Mrs. Ferguson, and I have my +marriage certificate, and--What! Are you going to faint? Well, I can +wait till you recover and till HE comes," and she coolly sat down again. + +Alida had glanced at the proofs which the woman had thrust into her +hands, then staggered back to a lounge that stood near. She might have +fainted, but at that awful moment she heard a familiar step on the +stairs. She was facing the door; the terrible stranger sat at one +side, with her back toward it. + +When Ostrom entered he first saw Alida looking pale and ill. He +hastened toward her exclaiming, "Why, Lida, dear, what is the matter? +You are sick!" + +Instinctively she sprang to his arms, crying, "Oh, thank God! You've +come. Take away this awful woman!" + +"Yes, Henry Ferguson; it's very proper you should take me away from a +place like this." + +As the man who had called himself Wilson Ostrom heard that voice he +trembled like an aspen; his clasp of Alida relaxed, his arms dropped to +his side, and, as he sank into a chair and covered his face with his +hands, he groaned, "Lost!" + +"Found out, you mean," was the woman's reply. + +Step by step, with horror-stricken eyes, Alida retreated from the man +to whose protection and embrace she had flown. "Then it's true?" she +said in a hoarse whisper. + +He was speechless. + +"You are willfully blind now, miss, if you don't see it's true," was +the stranger's biting comment. + +Paying no heed to her, Alida's eyes rested on the man whom she had +believed to be her husband. She took an irresolute step toward him. +"Speak, Wilson!" she cried. "I gave you my whole faith and no one shall +destroy it but yourself. Speak, explain! Show me that there's some +horrible mistake." + +"Lida," said the man, lifting his bloodless face, "if you knew all the +circumstances--" + +"She shall know them!" half shrieked the woman, as if at last stung to +fury. "I see that you both hope to get through this affair with a +little high tragedy, then escape and come together again in some other +hiding place. As for this creature, she can go where she pleases, +after hearing the truth; but you, Henry Ferguson, have got to do your +duty by me and your child or go to prison. Let me tell you, miss, that +this man was also married to me by a minister. I have my certificate +and can produce witnesses. There's one little point you'll do well to +consider," she continued, in bitter sarcasm, "he married me first. I +suppose you are not so young and innocent as not to know where this +fact places YOU. He courted and won me as other girls are courted and +married. He promised me all that he ever promised you. Then, when I +lost my rosy cheeks--when I became sick and feeble from +child-bearing--he deserted and left me almost penniless. You needn't +think you will have to take my word for this. I have proof enough. +And now, Henry Ferguson, I've a few words for you, and then you must +take your choice. You can't escape. I and my brother have tracked you +here. You can't leave these rooms without going to prison. You'd be +taken at the very door. But I give you one more chance. If you will +promise before God to do your duty by me and your child, I'll forgive +as far as a wronged woman can forgive. Neither I nor my brother will +take proceedings against you. What this woman will do I don't know. +If she prosecutes you, and you are true to me, I'll stand by you, but I +won't stand another false step or a false word from you." + +Ferguson had again sunk into his chair, buried his face in his hands, +and sat trembling and speechless. Never for an instant had Alida taken +her eyes from him; and now, with a long, wailing cry, she exclaimed, +"Thank God, thank God! Mother's dead." + +This was now her best consolation. She rushed into her bedchamber, and +a moment later came out, wearing her hat and cloak. Ferguson started +up and was about to speak, but she silenced him by a gesture, and her +tones were sad and stern as she said, "Mr. Ferguson, from your manner +more truly than from this woman, I learn the truth. You took advantage +of my misfortunes, my sorrow and friendlessness, to deceive me. You +know how false are your wife's words about my eagerness to be deceived +and married. But you have nothing to fear from me. I shall not +prosecute you as she suggests, and I charge you before God to do your +duty by your wife and child and never to speak to me again." Turning, +she hastened toward the door. + +"Where are you going?" Ferguson exclaimed, seeking to intercept her. + +She waved him off. "I don't know," she replied. "I've no right to be +here," and she fled down the stairway and out into the darkness. + +The child had not wakened. It was well that it had not looked upon +such a scene, even in utter ignorance of its meaning. + + + +Chapter VIII. + +Holcroft's View of Matrimony + +Holcroft was indeed very lonely as he drove through the bare March +fields and leafless woods on his way to town. The sky had clouded +again, like his prospects, and he had the dreary sense of desolation +which overwhelms a quiet, domestic man who feels that his home and all +to which he clings are slipping from him. His lot was hard enough at +best, and he had a bitter sense of being imposed upon and wronged by +Lemuel Weeks. It was now evident enough that the widow and her +daughter had been an intolerable burden to his neighbor, who had taken +advantage of his need and induced him to assume the burden through +false representation. To a man of Holcroft's simple, straightforward +nature, any phase of trickery was intensely repugnant, and the fact +that he had been overreached in a matter relating to his dearest hopes +galled him to the quick. He possessed the strong common sense of his +class; his wife had been like him in this respect, and her influence +had intensified the trait. Queer people with abnormal manners excited +his intense aversion. The most charitable view that he could take of +Mrs. Mumpson was that her mind--such as she had--was unbalanced, that +it was an impossibility for her to see any subject or duty in a +sensible light or its right proportions. + +Her course, so prejudicial to her own interests, and her incessant and +stilted talk, were proof to his mind of a certain degree of insanity, +and he had heard that people in this condition often united to their +unnatural ways a wonderful degree of cunning. Her child was almost as +uncanny as herself and gave him a shivering sense of discomfort +whenever he caught her small, greenish eyes fixed upon him. + +"Yet, she'll be the only one who'll earn her salt. I don't see how I'm +going to stand 'em--I don't, indeed, but suppose I'll have to for three +months, or else sell out and clear out." + +By the time he reached town a cold rain had set in. He went at once to +the intelligence office, but could obtain no girl for Mrs. Mumpson to +"superintend," nor any certain promise of one. He did not much care, +for he felt that the new plan was not going to work. Having bartered +all his eggs for groceries, he sold the old stove and bought a new one, +then drew from the bank a little ready money. Since his butter was so +inferior, he took it to his friend Tom Watterly, the keeper of the +poorhouse. + +Prosperous Tom slapped his old friend on the back and said, "You look +awfully glum and chopfallen, Jim. Come now, don't look at the world as +if it was made of tar, pitch, and turpentine. I know your luck's been +hard, but you make it a sight harder by being so set in all your ways. +You think there's no place to live on God's earth but that old +up-and-down-hill farm of yours that I wouldn't take as a gift. Why, +man alive, there's a dozen things you can turn your hand to; but if you +will stay there, do as other men do. Pick out a smart, handy woman +that can make butter yaller as gold, that'll bring gold, and not such +limpsy-slimsy, ghostly-looking stuff as you've brought me. Bein' it's +you, I'll take it and give as much for it as I'd pay for better, but +you can't run your old ranch in this fashion." + +"I know it, Tom," replied Holcroft ruefully. "I'm all at sea; but, as +you say, I'm set in my ways, and I'd rather live on bread and milk and +keep my farm than make money anywhere else. I guess I'll have to give +it all up, though, and pull out, but it's like rooting up one of the +old oaks in the meadow lot. The fact is, Tom, I've been fooled into one +of the worst scrapes I've got into yet." + +"I see how it is," said Tom heartily and complacently, "you want a +practical, foresighted man to talk straight at you for an hour or two +and clear up the fog you're in. You study and brood over little things +out there alone until they seem mountains which you can't get over +nohow, when, if you'd take one good jump out, they'd be behind you. +Now, you've got to stay and take a bite with me, and then we'll light +our pipes and untangle this snarl. No backing out! I can do you more +good than all the preachin' you ever heard. Hey, there, Bill!" +shouting to one of the paupers who was detailed for such work, "take +this team to the barn and feed 'em. Come in, come in, old feller! +You'll find that Tom Watterly allus has a snack and a good word for an +old crony." + +Holcroft was easily persuaded, for he felt the need of cheer, and he +looked up to Tom as a very sagacious, practical man. So he said, +"Perhaps you can see farther into a millstone than I can, and if you +can show me a way out of my difficulties you'll be a friend sure +enough." + +"Why, of course I can. Your difficulties are all here and here," +touching his bullet head and the region of his heart. "There aint no +great difficulties in fact, but, after you've brooded out there a week +or two alone, you think you're caught as fast as if you were in a bear +trap. Here, Angy," addressing his wife, "I've coaxed Holcroft to take +supper with us. You can hurry it up a little, can't you?" + +Mrs. Watterly gave their guest a cold, limp hand and a rather frigid +welcome. But this did not disconcert him. "It's only her way," he had +always thought. "She looks after her husband's interests as mine did +for me, and she don't talk him to death." + +This thought, in the main, summed up Mrs. Watterly's best traits. + +She was a commonplace, narrow, selfish woman, whose character is not +worth sketching. Tom stood a little in fear of her, and was usually +careful not to impose extra tasks, but since she helped him to save and +get ahead, he regarded her as a model wife. + +Holcroft shared in his opinion and sighed deeply as he sat down to +supper. "Ah, Tom!" he said, "you're a lucky man. You've got a wife +that keeps everything indoors up to the mark, and gives you a chance to +attend to your own proper business. That's the way it was with mine. +I never knew what a lopsided, helpless creature a man was until I was +left alone. You and I were lucky in getting the women we did, but when +my partner left me, she took all the luck with her. That aint the +worst. She took what's more than luck and money and everything. I +seemed to lose with her my grit and interest in most things. It'll +seem foolishness to you, but I can't take comfort in anything much +except working that old farm that I've worked and played on ever since +I can remember anything. You're not one of those fools, Tom, that have +to learn from their own experience. Take a bit from mine, and be good +to your wife while you can. I'd give all I'm worth--I know that aint +much--if I could say some things to my wife and do some things for her +that I didn't do." + +Holcroft spoke in the simplicity of a full and remorseful heart, but he +unconsciously propitiated Mrs. Watterly in no small degree. Indeed, +she felt that he had quite repaid her for his entertainment, and the +usually taciturn woman seconded his remarks with much emphasis. + +"Well now, Angy," said Tom, "if you averaged up husbands in these parts +I guess you'd find you were faring rather better than most women folks. +I let you take the bit in your teeth and go your own jog mostly. Now, +own up, don't I?" + +"That wasn't my meaning, exactly, Tom," resumed Holcroft. "You and I +could well afford to let our wives take their own jog, for they always +jogged steady and faithful and didn't need any urging and guiding. But +even a dumb critter likes a good word now and then and a little patting +on the back. It doesn't cost us anything and does them a sight of +good. But we kind of let the chances slip by and forget about it until +like enough it's too late." + +"Well," replied Tom, with a deprecatory look at his wife, "Angy don't +take to pettin' very much. She thinks it's a kind of foolishness for +such middle-aged people as we're getting to be." + +"A husband can show his consideration without blarneying," remarked +Mrs. Watterly coldly. "When a man takes on in that way, you may be sure +he wants something extra to pay for it." + +After a little thought Holcroft said, "I guess it's a good way to pay +for it between husband and wife." + +"Look here, Jim, since you're so well up on the matrimonial question, +why in thunder don't you marry again? That would settle all your +difficulties," and Tom looked at his friend with a sort of wonder that +he should hesitate to take this practical, sensible course. + +"It's very easy for you to say, 'Why don't you marry again?' If you +were in my place you'd see that there are things in the way of marrying +for the sake of having a good butter maker and all that kind of thing." + +"Mr. Watterly wouldn't be long in comforting himself," remarked his +wife.--"His advice to you makes the course he'd take mighty clear." + +"Now, Angy!" said Tom reproachfully. "Well," he added with a grin, +"you're forewarned. So you've only to take care of yourself and not +give me a chance." + +"The trouble is," Holcroft resumed, "I don't see how an honest man is +going to comfort himself unless it all comes about in some natural sort +of way. I suppose there are people who can marry over and over again, +just as easy as they'd roll off a log. It aint for me to judge 'em, +and I don't understand how they do it. You are a very practical man, +Tom, but just you put yourself in my shoes and see what you'd do. In +the first place, I don't know of a woman in the world that I'd think of +marrying. That's saying nothing against the women,--there's lots too +good for me,--but I don't know 'em and I can't go around and hunt 'em +up. Even if I could, with my shy, awkward ways, I wouldn't feel half +so nervous starting out on a bear hunt. Here's difficulty right at the +beginning. Supposing I found a nice, sensible woman, such as I'd be +willing to marry, there isn't one chance in a hundred she'd look at an +old fellow like me. Another difficulty: Supposing she would; suppose +she looked me square in the eyes and said, 'So you truly want a wife?' +what in thunder would I say then?--I don't want a wife, I want a +housekeeper, a butter maker, one that would look after my interests as +if they were her own; and if I could hire a woman that would do what I +wish, I'd never think of marrying. I can't tell a woman that I love +her when I don't. If I went to a minister with a woman I'd be +deceiving him, and deceiving her, and perjuring myself promiscuously. +I married once according to law and gospel and I was married through +and through, and I can't do the thing over again in any way that would +seem to me like marrying at all. The idea of me sitting by the fire +and wishing that the woman who sat on the t'other side of the stove was +my first wife! Yet I couldn't help doing this any more than breathing. +Even if there was any chance of my succeeding I can't see anything +square or honest in my going out and hunting up a wife as a mere matter +of business. I know other people do it and I've thought a good deal +about it myself, but when it comes to the point of acting I find I +can't do it." + +The two men now withdrew from the table to the fireside and lighted +their pipes. Mrs. Watterly stepped out for a moment and Tom, looking +over his shoulder to make sure she was out of ear shot, said under his +breath, "But suppose you found a woman that you could love and obey, +and all that?" + +"Oh, of course, that would make everything different. I wouldn't begin +with a lie then, and I know enough of my wife to feel sure that she +wouldn't be a sort of dog in the manger after she was dead. She was +one of those good souls that if she could speak her mind this minute +she would say, 'James, what's best and right for you is best and +right.' But it's just because she was such a good wife that I know +there's no use of trying to put anyone in her place. Where on earth +could I find anybody, and how could we get acquainted so that we'd know +anything about each other? No, I must just scratch along for a short +time as things are and be on the lookout to sell or rent." + +Tom smoked meditatively for a few moments, and then remarked, "I guess +that's your best way out." + +"It aint an easy way, either," said Holcroft. "Finding a purchaser or +tenant for a farm like mine is almost as hard as finding a wife. Then, +as I feel, leaving my place is next to leaving the world." + +Tom shook his head ruefully and admitted, "I declare, Jim, when a +feller comes to think it all over, you ARE in a bad fix, especially as +you feel. I thought I could talk you over into practical common sense +in no time. It's easy enough when one don't know all the bearin's of a +case, to think carelessly, 'Oh, he aint as bad off as he thinks he is. +He can do this and that and the t'other thing.' But when you come to +look it all over, you find he can't, except at a big loss. Of course, +you can give away your farm on which you were doing well and getting +ahead, though how you did it, I can't see. You'd have to about give it +away if you forced a sale, and where on earth you'll find a tenant +who'll pay anything worth considering--But there's no use of croaking. +I wish I could help you, old feller. By jocks! I believe I can. +There's an old woman here who's right smart and handy when she can't +get her bottle filled. I believe she'd be glad to go with you, for she +don't like our board and lodging over much." + +"Do you think she'd go tonight?" + +"Oh, yes! Guess so. A little cold water'll be a good change for her." + +Mrs. Wiggins was seen, and feeling that any change would be for the +better, readily agreed to go for very moderate wages. Holcroft looked +dubiously at the woman's heavy form and heavier face, but felt that it +was the best he could do. Squeezing Mrs. Watterly's cold, limp hand in +a way that would have thawed a lump of ice, he said "goodby;" and then +declaring that he would rather do his own harnessing for a night ride, +he went out into the storm. Tom put on his rubber coat and went to the +barn with his friend, toward whom he cherished honest good will. + +"By jocks!" he ejaculated sympathetically, "but you have hard lines, +Jim. What in thunder would I do with two such widdy women to look after +my house!" + + + +Chapter IX. + +Mrs. Mumpson Accepts Her Mission + +As Holcroft drove through the town, Mrs. Wiggins, who, as matters were +explained to her, had expressed her views chiefly by affirmative nods, +now began to use her tongue with much fluency. + +"Hi 'ave a friend 'herhabouts," she said, "an' she's been a-keepin' +some of my things. Hi'll be 'olden to ye, master, hif ye'll jes stop a +bit hat the door whiles hi gets 'em. Hif ye'll hadvance me a dollar or +so on me wages hit'll be a long time hafore I trouble ye hagain." + +The farmer had received too broad a hint not to know that Mrs. Wiggins +was intent on renewing her acquaintance with her worst enemy. He +briefly replied, therefore, "It's too late to stop now. I'll be coming +down soon again and will get your things." + +In vain Mrs. Wiggins expostulated, for he drove steadily on. With a +sort of grim humor, he thought of the meeting of the two "widdy women," +as Tom had characterized them, and of Mrs. Mumpson's dismay at finding +in the "cheap girl" a dame of sixty, weighing not far from two hundred. +"If it wasn't such awfully serious business for me," he thought, "it +would be better'n going to a theater to see the two go on. If I +haven't got three 'peculiar females' on my hands now, I'd like to hear +of the man that has." + +When Mrs. Wiggins found that she could not gain her point, she subsided +into utter silence. It soon became evident in the cloudy light of the +moon that she was going to sleep, for she so nodded and swayed about +that the farmer feared she would tumble out of the wagon. She occupied +a seat just back of his and filled it, too. The idea of stepping over, +sitting beside her, and holding her in, was inexpressibly repugnant to +him. So he began talking to her, and finally shouting at her, to keep +her awake. + +His efforts were useless. He glanced with rueful dismay over his +shoulder as he thought, "If she falls out, I don't see how on earth +I'll ever get her back again." + +Fortunately the seat slipped back a little, and she soon slid down into +a sort of mountainous heap on the bottom of the wagon, as unmindful of +the rain as if it were a lullaby. Now that his mind was at rest about +her falling out, and knowing that he had a heavy load, Holcroft let the +horses take their own time along the miry highway. + +Left to her own devices by Holcroft's absence, Mrs. Mumpson had passed +what she regarded as a very eventful afternoon and evening. Not that +anything unusual had happened, unless everything she said and did may +be looked upon as unusual; but Mrs. Mumpson justly felt that the +critical periods of life are those upon which definite courses of +action are decided upon. In the secret recess of her heart--supposing +her to possess such an organ--she had partially admitted to herself, +even before she had entered Holcroft's door, that she might be +persuaded into marrying him; but the inspection of his room, much +deliberate thought, and prolonged soliloquy, had convinced her that she +ought to "enter into nuptial relations," as her thought formulated +itself. It was a trait of Mrs. Mumpson's active mind, that when it +once entered upon a line of thought, it was hurried along from +conclusion to conclusion with wonderful rapidity. + +While Jane made up Mr. Holcroft's bed, her mother began to inspect, and +soon suffered keenly from every painful discovery. The farmer's meager +wardrobe and other belongings were soon rummaged over, but one large +closet and several bureau drawers were locked. "These are the +receptercles of the deceased Mrs. Holcroft's affects," she said with +compressed lips. "They are moldering useless away. Moth and rust will +enter, while I, the caretaker, am debarred. I should not be debarred. +All the things in that closet should be shaken out, aired, and +carefully put back. Who knows how useful they may be in the future! +Waste is wicked. Indeed, there are few things more wicked than waste. +Now I think of it, I have some keys in my trunk." + +"He won't like it," interposed Jane. + +"In the responserble persition I have assumed," replied Mrs. Mumpson +with dignity, "I must consider not what he wants, but what is best for +him and what may be best for others." + +Jane had too much curiosity herself to make further objection, and the +keys were brought. It was astonishing what a number of keys Mrs. +Mumpson possessed, and she was not long in finding those which would +open the ordinary locks thought by Holcroft to be ample protection. + +"I was right," said Mrs. Mumpson complacently. "A musty odor exudes +from these closed receptercles. Men have no comprehension of the need +of such caretakers as I am." + +Everything that had ever belonged to poor Mrs. Holcroft was pulled out, +taken to the window, and examined, Jane following, as usual, in the +wake of her mother and putting everything to the same tests which her +parent applied. Mrs. Holcroft had been a careful woman, and the extent +and substantial character of her wardrobe proved that her husband had +not been close in his allowances to her. Mrs. Mumpson's watery blue +eyes grew positively animated as she felt of and held up to the light +one thing after another. "Mrs. Holcroft was evidently unnaturally +large," she reflected aloud, "but then these things could be made over, +and much material be left to repair them, from time to time. The +dresses are of somber colors, becoming to a lady somewhat advanced in +years and of subdued taste." + +By the time that the bed and all the chairs in the room were littered +with wearing apparel, Mrs. Mumpson said, "Jane, I desire you to bring +the rocking chair. So many thoughts are crowding upon me that I must +sit down and think." + +Jane did as requested, but remarked, "The sun is gettin' low, and all +these things'll have to be put back just as they was or he'll be awful +mad." + +"Yes, Jane," replied Mrs. Mumpson abstractedly and rocking gently, "you +can put them back. Your mind is not burdened like mine, and you +haven't offspring and the future to provide for," and, for a wonder, +she relapsed into silence. Possibly she possessed barely enough of +womanhood to feel that her present train of thought had better be kept +to herself. She gradually rocked faster and faster, thus indicating +that she was rapidly approaching a conclusion. + +Meanwhile, Jane was endeavoring to put things back as they were before +and found it no easy task. As the light declined she was overcome by a +sort of panic, and, huddling the things into the drawers as fast as +possible, she locked them up. Then, seizing her mother's hand and +pulling the abstracted woman to her feet, she cried, "If he comes and +finds us here and no supper ready, he'll turn us right out into the +rain!" + +Even Mrs. Mumpson felt that she was perhaps reaching conclusions too +fast and that some diplomacy might be necessary to consummate her +plans. Her views, however, appeared to her so reasonable that she +scarcely thought of failure, having the happy faculty of realizing +everything in advance, whether it ever took place or not. + +As she slowly descended the stairs with the rocking chair, she thought, +"Nothing could be more suiterble. We are both about the same age; I am +most respecterbly connected--in fact, I regard myself as somewhat his +superior in this respect; he is painfully undeveloped and irreligious +and thus is in sore need of female influence; he is lonely and +down-hearted, and in woman's voice there is a spell to banish care; +worst of all, things are going to waste. I must delib'rately face the +great duty with which Providence has brought me face to face. At +first, he may be a little blind to this great oppertunity of his +life--that I must expect, remembering the influence he was under so +many years--but I will be patient and, by the proper use of language, +place everything eventually before him in a way that will cause him to +yield in glad submission to my views of the duties, the privileges, and +the responserbilities of life." + +So active was Mrs. Mumpson's mind that this train of thought was +complete by the time she had ensconced herself in the rocking chair by +the fireless kitchen stove. Once more Jane seized her hand and dragged +her up. "You must help," said the child. "I 'spect him every minnit and +I'm scart half to death to think what he'll do, 'specially if he finds +out we've been rummagin'." + +"Jane," said Mrs. Mumpson severely, "that is not a proper way of +expressing yourself. I am housekeeper here, and I've been inspecting." + +"Shall I tell him you've been inspectin'?" asked the girl keenly. + +"Children of your age should speak when they are spoken to," replied +her mother, still more severely. "You cannot comprehend my motives and +duties, and I should have to punish you if you passed any remarks upon +my actions." + +"Well," said Jane apprehensively, "I only hope we'll soon have a chance +to fix up them drawers, for if he should open 'em we'd have to tramp +again, and we will anyway if you don't help me get supper." + +"You are mistaken, Jane," responded Mrs. Mumpson with dignity. "We +shall not leave this roof for three months, and that will give me ample +time to open his eyes to his true interests. I will condescend to +these menial tasks until he brings a girl who will yield the deference +due to my years and station in life." + +Between them, after filling the room with smoke, they kindled the +kitchen fire. Jane insisted on making the coffee and then helped her +mother to prepare the rest of the supper, doing, in fact, the greater +part of the work. Then they sat down to wait, and they waited so long +that Mrs. Mumpson began to express her disapproval by rocking +violently. At last, she said severely, "Jane, we will partake of +supper alone." + +"I'd ruther wait till he comes." + +"It's not proper that we should wait. He is not showing me due +respect. Come, do as I command." + +Mrs. Mumpson indulged in lofty and aggrieved remarks throughout the +meal and then returned to her rocker. At last, her indignant sense of +wrong reached such a point that she commanded Jane to clear the table +and put away the things. + +"I won't," said the child. + +"What! Will you compel me to chastise you?" + +"Well, then, I'll tell him it was all your doin's." + +"I shall tell him so myself. I shall remonstrate with him. The idea +of his coming home alone at this time of night with an unknown female!" + +"One would think you was his aunt, to hear you talk," remarked the girl +sullenly. + +"I am a respecterble woman and most respecterbly connected. My +character and antercedents render me irrerproachful.--This could not be +said of a hussy, and a hussy he'll probably bring--some flighty, +immerture female that will tax even MY patience to train." + +Another hour passed, and the frown on Mrs. Mumpson's brow grew +positively awful. "To think," she muttered, "that a man whom I have +deemed it my duty to marry should stay out so and under such peculiar +circumstances. He must have a lesson which he can never forget." Then +aloud, to Jane, "Kindle a fire on the parlor hearth and let this fire +go out. He must find us in the most respecterble room in the house--a +room befitting my station." + +"I declare, mother, you aint got no sense at all!" exclaimed the child, +exasperated beyond measure. + +"I'll teach you to use such unrerspectful language!" cried Mrs. +Mumpson, darting from her chair like a hawk and pouncing upon the +unhappy child. + +With ears tingling from a cuffing she could not soon forget, Jane +lighted the parlor fire and sat down sniffling in the farthest corner. + +"There shall be only one mistress in this house," said Mrs. Mumpson, +who had now reached the loftiest plane of virtuous indignation, "and +its master shall learn that his practices reflect upon even me as well +as himself." + +At last the sound of horses' feet were heard on the wet, oozy ground +without. The irate widow did not rise, but merely indicated her +knowledge of Holcroft's arrival by rocking more rapidly. + +"Hello, there, Jane!" he shouted, "bring a light to the kitchen." + +"Jane, remain!" said Mrs. Mumpson, with an awful look. + +Holcroft stumbled through the dark kitchen to the parlor door and +looked with surprise at the group before him,--Mrs. Mumpson apparently +oblivious and rocking as if the chair was possessed, and the child +crying in a corner. + +"Jane, didn't you hear me call for a light?" he asked a little sharply. + +Mrs. Mumpson rose with great dignity and began, "Mr. Holcroft, I wish +to remonstrate--" + +"Oh, bother! I've brought a woman to help you, and we're both wet +through from this driving rain." + +"You've brought a strange female at this time of--" + +Holcroft's patience gave say, but he only said quietly, "You had better +have a light in the kitchen within two minutes. I warn you both. I +also wish some hot coffee." + +Mrs. Mumpson had no comprehension of a man who could be so quiet when +he was angry, and she believed that she might impress him with a due +sense of the enormity of his offense. "Mr. Holcroft, I scarcely feel +that I can meet a girl who has no more sense of decorum than to--" But +Jane, striking a match, revealed the fact that she was speaking to +empty air. + +Mrs. Wiggins was at last so far aroused that she was helped from the +wagon and came shivering and dripping toward the kitchen. She stood a +moment in the doorway and filled it, blinking confusedly at the light. +There was an absence of celerity in all Mrs. Wiggins' movements, and +she was therefore slow in the matter of waking up. Her aspect and +proportions almost took away Mrs. Mumpson's breath. Here certainly was +much to superintend, much more than had been anticipated. Mrs. Wiggins +was undoubtedly a "peculiar female," as had been expected, but she was +so elderly and monstrous that Mrs. Mumpson felt some embarrassment in +her purpose to overwhelm Holcroft with a sense of the impropriety of +his conduct. + +Mrs. Wiggins took uncertain steps toward the rocking chair, and almost +crushed it as she sat down. "Ye gives a body a cold velcome," she +remarked, rubbing her eyes. + +Mrs. Mumpson had got out of her way as a minnow would shun a leviathan. +"May I ask your name?" she gasped. + +"Viggins, Mrs. Viggins." + +"Oh, indeed! You are a married woman?" + +"No, hi'm a vidder. What's more, hi'm cold, and drippin', an' 'ungry. +Hi might 'a' better stayed at the poor-us than come to a place like +this." + +"What!" almost screamed Mrs. Mumpson, "are you a pauper?" + +"Hi tell ye hi'm a vidder, an' good as you be, for hall he said," was +the sullen reply. + +"To think that a respecterbly connected woman like me--" But for once +Mrs. Mumpson found language inadequate. Since Mrs. Wiggins occupied +the rocking chair, she hardly knew what to do and plaintively declared, +"I feel as if my whole nervous system was giving way." + +"No 'arm 'll be done hif hit does," remarked Mrs. Wiggins, who was not +in an amiable mood. + +"This from the female I'm to superintend!" gasped the bewildered woman. + +Her equanimity was still further disturbed by the entrance of the +farmer, who looked at the stove with a heavy frown. + +"Why in the name of common sense isn't there a fire?" he asked, "and +supper on the table? Couldn't you hear that it was raining and know +we'd want some supper after a long, cold ride?" + +"Mr. Holcroft," began the widow, in some trepidation, "I don't +approve--such irregular habits--" + +"Madam," interrupted Holcroft sternly, "did I agree to do what you +approved of? Your course is so peculiar that I scarcely believe you +are in your right mind. You had better go to your room and try to +recover your senses. If I can't have things in this house to suit me, +I'll have no one in it. Here, Jane, you can help." + +Mrs. Mumpson put her handkerchief to her eyes and departed. She felt +that this display of emotion would touch Holcroft's feelings when he +came to think the scene all over. + +Having kindled the fire, he said to Jane, "You and Mrs. Wiggins get +some coffee and supper in short order, and have it ready when I come +in," and he hastened out to care for his horses. If the old woman was +slow, she knew just how to make every motion effective, and a good +supper was soon ready. + +"Why didn't you keep up a fire, Jane?" Holcroft asked. + +"She wouldn't let me. She said how you must be taught a lesson," +replied the girl, feeling that she must choose between two potentates, +and deciding quickly in favor of the farmer. She had been losing faith +in her mother's wisdom a long time, and this night's experience had +banished the last shred of it. + +Some rather bitter words rose to Holcroft's lips, but he restrained +them. He felt that he ought not to disparage the mother to the child. +As Mrs. Wiggins grew warm, and imbibed the generous coffee, her +demeanor thawed perceptibly and she graciously vouchsafed the remark, +"Ven you're hout late hag'in hi'll look hafter ye." + +Mrs. Mumpson had not been so far off as not to hear Jane's explanation, +as the poor child found to her cost when she went up to bed. + + + +Chapter X. + +A Night of Terror + +As poor, dazed, homeless Alida passed out into the street after the +revelation that she was not a wife and never had been, she heard a +voice say, "Well, Hanner wasn't long in bouncing the woman. I guess +we'd better go up now. Ferguson will need a lesson that he won't soon +forget." + +The speaker of these words was Mrs. Ferguson's brother, William +Hackman, and his companion was a detective. The wife had laid her +still sleeping child down on the lounge and was coolly completing +Alida's preparations for dinner. Her husband had sunk back into a chair +and again buried his face in his hands. He looked up with startled, +bloodshot eyes as his brother-in-law and the stranger entered, and then +resumed his former attitude. + +Mrs. Ferguson briefly related what had happened, and then said, "Take +chairs and draw up." + +"I don't want any dinner," muttered the husband. + +Mr. William Hackman now gave way to his irritation. Turning to his +brother, he relieved his mind as follows: "See here, Hank Ferguson, if +you hadn't the best wife in the land, this gentleman would now be +giving you a promenade to jail. I've left my work for weeks, and spent +a sight of money to see that my sister got her rights, and, by thunder! +she's going to have 'em. We've agreed to give you a chance to brace up +and be a man. If we find out there isn't any man in you, then you go +to prison and hard labor to the full extent of the law. We've fixed +things so you can't play any more tricks. This man is a private +detective. As long as you do the square thing by your wife and child, +you'll be let alone. If you try to sneak off, you'll be nabbed. Now, +if you aint a scamp down to your heel-taps, get up out of that chair +like a man, treat your wife as she deserves for letting you off so +easy, and don't make her change her mind by acting as if you, and not +her, was the wronged person." + +At heart Ferguson was a weak, cowardly, selfish creature, whose chief +aim in life was to have things to suit himself. When they ceased to be +agreeable, he was ready for a change, without much regard for the means +to his ends. He had always foreseen the possibility of the event which +had now taken place, but, like all self-indulgent natures, had hoped +that he might escape detection. + +Alida, moreover, had won a far stronger hold upon him than he had once +imagined possible. He was terribly mortified and cast down by the +result of his experiment, as he regarded it. But the thought of a +prison and hard labor speedily drew his mind away from this aspect of +the affair. He had been fairly caught, his lark was over, and he soon +resolved that the easiest and safest way out of the scrape was the best +way. He therefore raised his head and came forward with a penitent air +as he said: "It's natural I should be overwhelmed with shame at the +position in which I find myself. But I see the truth of your words, +and I'll try to make it all right as far as I can. I'll go back with +you and Hannah to my old home. I've got money in the bank, I'll sell +out everything here, and I'll pay you, William, as far as I can, what +you've spent. Hannah is mighty good to let me off so easy, and she +won't be sorry. This man is witness to what I say," and the detective +nodded. + +"Why, Ferguson," said Mr. Hackman effusively, "now you're talking like +a man. Come and kiss him, Hannah, and make it all up." + +"That's the way with you men," said the woman bitterly. "These things +count for little. Henry Ferguson must prove he's honest in what he +says by deeds, not words. I'll do as I've said if he acts square, and +that's enough to start with." + +"All right," said Ferguson, glad enough to escape the caress. "I'll do +as I say." + +He did do all he promised, and very promptly, too. He was not capable +of believing that a woman wronged as Alida had been would not prosecute +him, and he was eager to escape to another state, and, in a certain +measure, again to hide his identity under his own actual name. + +Meanwhile, how fared the poor creature who had fled, driven forth by +her first wild impulse to escape from a false and terrible position? +With every step she took down the dimly lighted street, the abyss into +which she had fallen seemed to grow deeper and darker. She was +overwhelmed with the magnitude of her misfortune. She shunned the +illumined thoroughfares with a half-crazed sense that every finger +would be pointed at her. Her final words, spoken to Ferguson, were the +last clear promptings of her womanly nature. After that, everything +grew confused, except the impression of remediless disaster and shame. +She was incapable of forming any correct judgment concerning her +position. The thought of her pastor filled her with horror. He, she +thought, would take the same view which the woman had so brutally +expressed--that in her eagerness to be married, she had brought to the +parsonage an unknown man and had involved a clergyman in her own +scandalous record.--It would all be in the papers, and her pastor's +name mixed up in the affair. She would rather die than subject him to +such an ordeal. Long after, when he learned the facts in the case, he +looked at her very sadly as he asked: "Didn't you know me better than +that? Had I so failed in my preaching that you couldn't come straight +to me?" + +She wondered afterward that she had not done this, but she was too +morbid, too close upon absolute insanity, to do what was wise and safe. +She simply yielded to the wild impulse to escape, to cower, to hide +from every human eye, hastening through the darkest, obscurest streets, +not caring where. In the confusion of her mind she would retrace her +steps, and soon was utterly lost, wandering she knew not whither. As +it grew late, casual passers-by looked after her curiously, rough men +spoke to her, and others jeered. She only hastened on, driven by her +desperate trouble like the wild, ragged clouds that were flying across +the stormy March sky. + +At last a policeman said gruffly, "You've passed me twice. You can't +be roaming the streets at this time of night. Why don't you go home?" + +Standing before him and wringing her hands, she moaned, "I have no +home." + +"Where did you come from?" + +"Oh, I can't tell you! Take me to any place where a woman will be safe." + +"I can't take you to any place now but the station house." + +"But can I be alone there? I won't be put with anybody?" + +"No, no; of course not! You'll be better off there. Come along. +'Taint far." + +She walked beside him without a word. + +"You'd better tell me something of your story. Perhaps I can do more +for you in the morning." + +"I can't. I'm a stranger. I haven't any friends in town." + +"Well, well, the sergeant will see what can be done in the morning. +You've been up to some foolishness, I suppose, and you'd better tell +the whole story to the sergeant." + +She soon entered the station house and was locked up in a narrow cell. +She heard the grating of the key in the lock with a sense of relief, +feeling that she had at least found a temporary place of refuge and +security. A hard board was the only couch it possessed, but the +thought of sleep did not enter her mind. Sitting down, she buried her +face in her hands and rocked back and forth in agony and distraction +until day dawned. At last, someone--she felt she could not raise her +eyes to his face--brought her some breakfast and coffee. She drank the +latter, but left the food untasted. Finally, she was led to the +sergeant's private room and told that she must give an account of +herself. "If you can't or won't tell a clear story," the officer +threatened, "you'll have to go before the justice in open court, and he +may commit you to prison. If you'll tell the truth now, it may be that +I can discharge you. You had no business to be wandering about the +streets like a vagrant or worse; but if you were a stranger or lost and +hadn't sense enough to go where you'd be cared for, I can let you go." + +"Oh!" said Alida, again wringing her hands and looking at the officer +with eyes so full of misery and fear that he began to soften, "I don't +know where to go." + +"Haven't you a friend or acquaintance in town?" + +"Not one that I can go to!" + +"Why don't you tell me your story? Then I'll know what to do, and +perhaps can help you. You don't look like a depraved woman." + +"I'm not. God knows I'm not!" + +"Well, my poor woman, I've got to act in view of what I know, not what +God knows." + +"If I tell my story, will I have to give names?" + +"No, not necessarily. It would be best, though." + +"I can't do that, but I'll tell you the truth. I will swear it on the +Bible I married someone. A good minister married us. The man deceived +me. He was already married, and last night his wife came to my happy +home and proved before the man whom I thought my husband that I was no +wife at all. He couldn't, didn't deny it. Oh! Oh! Oh!" And she +again rocked back and forth in uncontrollable anguish. "That's all," +she added brokenly. "I had no right to be near him or her any longer, +and I rushed out. I don't remember much more. My brain seemed on +fire. I just walked and walked till I was brought here." + +"Well, well!" said the sergeant sympathetically, "you have been treated +badly, outrageously; but you are not to blame unless you married the +man hastily and foolishly." + +"That's what everyone will think, but it don't seem to me that I did. +It's a long story, and I can't tell it." + +"But you ought to tell it, my poor woman. You ought to sue the man for +damages and send him to State prison." + +"No, no!" cried Alida passionately. "I don't want to see him again, and +I won't go to a court before people unless I am dragged there." + +The sergeant looked up at the policeman who had arrested her and said, +"This story is not contrary to anything you saw?" + +"No, sir; she was wandering about and seemed half out of her mind." + +"Well, then, I can let you go." + +"But I don't know where to go," she replied, looking at him with +hunted, hollow eyes. "I feel as if I were going to be sick. Please +don't turn me into the streets. I'd rather go back to the cell--" + +"That won't answer. There's no place that I can send you to except the +poorhouse. Haven't you any money?" + +"No, sir. I just rushed away and left everything when I learned the +truth." + +"Tom Watterly's hotel is the only place for her," said the policeman +with a nod. + +"Oh, I can't go to a hotel." + +"He means the almshouse," explained the sergeant. "What is your name?" + +"Alida--that's all now. Yes, I'm a pauper and I can't work just yet. +I'll be safe there, won't I?" + +"Certainly, safe as in your mother's house." + +"Oh, mother, mother; thank God, you are dead!" + +"Well, I AM sorry for you," said the sergeant kindly. "'Taint often we +have so sad a case as yours. If you say so, I'll send for Tom +Watterly, and he and his wife will take charge of you. After a few +days, your mind will get quieter and clearer, and then you'll prosecute +the man who wronged you." + +"I'll go to the poorhouse until I can do better," she replied wearily. +"Now, if you please, I'll return to my cell where I can be alone." + +"Oh, we can give you a better room than that," said the sergeant. "Show +her into the waiting room, Tim. If you prosecute, we can help you with +our testimony. Goodbye, and may you have better days!" + +Watterly was telegraphed to come down with a conveyance for the +almshouse was in a suburb. In due time he appeared, and was briefly +told Alida's story. He swore a little at the "mean cuss," the author +of all the trouble, and then took the stricken woman to what all his +acquaintances facetiously termed his "hotel." + + + +Chapter XI. + +Baffled + +In the general consciousness Nature is regarded as feminine, and even +those who love her most will have to adopt Mrs. Mumpson's oft-expressed +opinion of the sex and admit that she is sometimes a "peculiar female." +During the month of March, in which our story opens, there was scarcely +any limit to her varying moods. It would almost appear that she was +taking a mysterious interest in Holcroft's affairs; but whether it was +a kindly interest or not, one might be at a loss to decide. When she +caught him away from home, she pelted him with the coldest of rain and +made his house, with even Mrs. Mumpson and Jane abiding there, seem a +refuge. In the morning after the day on which he had brought, or in a +sense had carted, Mrs. Wiggins to his domicile, Nature was evidently +bent on instituting contrasts between herself and the rival phases of +femininity with which the farmer was compelled to associate. It may +have been that she had another motive and was determined to keep her +humble worshiper at her feet, and to render it impossible for him to +make the changes toward which he had felt himself driven. + +Being an early riser he was up with the sun, and the sun rose so +serenely and smiled so benignly that Holcroft's clouded brow cleared in +spite of all that had happened or could take place. The rain, which +had brought such discomfort the night before, had settled the ground +and made it comparatively firm to his tread. The southern breeze which +fanned his cheek was as soft as the air of May. He remembered that it +was Sunday, and that beyond feeding his stock and milking, he would +have nothing to do. He exulted in the unusual mildness and thought, +with an immense sense of relief, "I can stay outdoors nearly all day." +He resolved to let his help kindle the fire and get breakfast as they +could, and to keep out of their way. Whatever changes the future might +bring, he would have one more long day in rambling about his fields and +in thinking over the past. Feeling that there need be no haste about +anything, he leisurely inhaled the air, fragrant from springing grass, +and listened with a vague, undefined pleasure to the ecstatic music of +the bluebirds, song-sparrows, and robins. If anyone had asked him why +he liked to hear them, he would have replied, "I'm used to 'em. When +they come, I know that plowing and planting time is near." + +It must be admitted that Holcroft's enjoyment of spring was not very +far removed from that of the stock in his barnyard. All the animal +creation rejoices in the returning sun and warmth. A subtle, powerful +influence sets the blood in more rapid motion, kindles new desires, and +awakens a glad expectancy. All that is alive becomes more thoroughly +alive and existence in itself is a pleasure. Spring had always brought +to the farmer quickened pulses, renewed activity and hopefulness, and +he was pleased to find that he was not so old and cast down that its +former influence had spent itself. Indeed, it seemed that never before +had his fields, his stock, and outdoor work--and these comprised Nature +to him--been so attractive. They remained unchanged amid the sad +changes which had clouded his life, and his heart clung more +tenaciously than ever to old scenes and occupations. They might not +bring him happiness again, but he instinctively felt that they might +insure a comfort and peace with which he could be content. + +At last he went to the barn and began his work, doing everything +slowly, and getting all the solace he could from the tasks. The horses +whinnied their welcome and he rubbed their noses caressingly as he fed +them. The cows came briskly to the rack in which he foddered them in +pleasant weather, and when he scratched them between the horns they +turned their mild, Juno-like eyes upon him with undisguised affection. +The chickens, clamoring for their breakfast, followed so closely that +he had to be careful where he stepped. Although he knew that all this +good will was based chiefly on the hope of food and the remembrance of +it in the past, nevertheless it soothed and pleased him. He was in +sympathy with this homely life; it belonged to him and was dependent on +him; it made him honest returns for his care. Moreover, it was +agreeably linked with the past. There were quiet cows which his wife +had milked, clucking biddies which she had lifted from nests with their +downy broods. He looked at them wistfully, and was wondering if they +ever missed the presence that he regretted so deeply, when he became +conscious that Jane's eyes were upon him. How long she had been +watching him he did not know, but she merely said, "Breakfast's ready," +and disappeared. + +With a sigh he went to his room to perform his ablutions, remembering +with a slight pang how his wife always had a basin and towel ready for +him in the kitchen. In the breaking up of just such homely customs, he +was continually reminded of his loss. + +On awakening to the light of this Sabbath morning, Mrs. Mumpson had +thought deeply and reasoned everything out again. She felt that it +must be an eventful day and that there was much to be accomplished. In +the first place there was Mrs. Wiggins. She disapproved of her +decidedly. "She isn't the sort of person that I would prefer to +superintend," she remarked to Jane while making a toilet which she +deemed befitting the day, "and the hour will assuredly come when Mr. +Holcroft will look upon her in the light that I do. He will eventually +realize that I cannot be brought in such close relationship with a +pauper. Not that the relationship is exactly close, but then I shall +have to speak to her--in brief, to superintend her. My eyes will be +offended by her vast proportions and uncouth appearance. The floor +creaks beneath her tread and affects my nerves seriously. Of course, +while she is here, I shall zealously, as befits one in my responserble +position, try to render useful such service as she can perform. But +then, the fact that I disapprove of her must soon become evident. When +it is discovered that I only tolerate her, there will be a change. I +cannot show my disapproval very strongly today for this is a day set +apart for sacred things, and Mrs. Viggins, as she called herself,--I +cannot imagine a Mr. Viggins for no man in his senses could have +married such a creature,--as I was saying, Mrs. Viggins is not at all +sacred, and I must endeavor to abstract my mind from her till tomorrow, +as far as posserble. My first duty today is to induce Mr. Holcroft to +take us to church. It will give the people of Oakville such a pleasing +impression to see us driving to church. Of course, I may fail, Mr. +Holcroft is evidently a hardened man. All the influences of his life +have been adverse to spiritual development, and it may require some +weeks of my influence to soften him and awaken yearnings for what he +has not yet known." + +"He may be yearnin' for breakfast," Jane remarked, completing her +toilet by tying her little pigtail braid with something that had once +been a bit of black ribbon, but was now a string. "You'd better come +down soon and help." + +"If Mrs. Viggins cannot get breakfast, I would like to know what she is +here for" continued Mrs. Mumpson loftily, and regardless of Jane's +departure. "I shall decline to do menial work any longer, especially on +this sacred day, and after I have made my toilet for church. Mr. +Holcroft has had time to think. My disapproval was manifest last night +and it has undoubtedly occurred to him that he has not conformed to the +proprieties of life. Indeed, I almost fear I shall have to teach him +what the proprieties of life are. He witnessed my emotions when he +spoke as he should not have spoken to ME. But I must make allowances +for his unregenerate state. He was cold, and wet, and hungry last +night, and men are unreasonerble at such times. I shall now heap coals +of fire upon his head. I shall show that I am a meek, forgiving +Christian woman, and he will relent, soften, and become penitent. Then +will be my opportunity," and she descended to the arena which should +witness her efforts. + +During the period in which Mrs. Mumpson had indulged in these lofty +reflections and self-communings, Mrs. Wiggins had also arisen. I am +not sure whether she had thought of anything in particular or not. She +may have had some spiritual longings which were not becoming to any day +of the week. Being a woman of deeds, rather than of thought, probably +not much else occurred to her beyond the duty of kindling the fire and +getting breakfast. Jane came down, and offered to assist, but was +cleared out with no more scruple than if Mrs. Wiggins had been one of +the much-visited relatives. + +"The hidee," she grumbled, "of 'avin' sich a little trollop round +hunder my feet!" + +Jane, therefore, solaced herself by watching the "cheap girl" till her +mother appeared. + +Mrs. Mumpson sailed majestically in and took the rocking chair, +mentally thankful that it had survived the crushing weight imposed upon +it the evening before. Mrs. Wiggins did not drop a courtesy. Indeed, +not a sign of recognition passed over her vast, immobile face. Mrs. +Mumpson was a little embarrassed. "I hardly know how to comport myself +toward that female," she thought. "She is utterly uncouth. Her manners +are unmistakerbly those of a pauper. I think I will ignore her today. +I do not wish my feelings ruffled or put out of harmony with the sacred +duties and motives which actuate me." + +Mrs. Mumpson therefore rocked gently, solemnly, and strange to say, +silently, and Mrs. Wiggins also proceeded with her duties, but not in +silence, for everything in the room trembled and clattered at her +tread. Suddenly she turned on Jane and said, "'Ere, you little +baggage, go and tell the master breakfast's ready." + +Mrs. Mumpson sprang from her chair, and with a voice choked with +indignation, gasped, "Do you dare address my offspring thus?" + +"Yer vat?" + +"My child, my daughter, who is not a pauper, but the offspring of a +most respecterble woman and respecterbly connected. I'm amazed, I'm +dumfoundered, I'm--" + +"Ye're a bit daft, hi'm a-thinkin'." Then to Jane, "Vy don't ye go an' +hearn yer salt?" + +"Jane, I forbid--" But it had not taken Jane half a minute to decide +between the now jarring domestic powers, and henceforth she would be at +Mrs. Wiggins' beck and call. "She can do somethin'," the child +muttered, as she stole upon Holcroft. + +Mrs. Mumpson sank back in her chair, but her mode of rocking betokened +a perturbed spirit. "I will restrain myself till tomorrow, and then--" +She shook her head portentously and waited till the farmer appeared, +feeling assured that Mrs. Wiggins would soon be taught to recognize her +station. When breakfast was on the table, she darted to her place +behind the coffeepot, for she felt that there was no telling what this +awful Mrs. Wiggins might not assume during this day of sacred +restraint. But the ex-pauper had no thought of presumption in her +master's presence, and the rocking chair again distracted Mrs. +Mumpson's nerves as it creaked under an unwonted weight. + +Holcroft took his seat in silence. The widow again bowed her head +devoutly, and sighed deeply when observing that the farmer ignored her +suggestion. + +"I trust that you feel refreshed after your repose," she said benignly. + +"I do." + +"It is a lovely morning--a morning, I may add, befitting the sacred +day. Nature is at peace and suggests that we and all should be at +peace." + +"There's nothing I like more, Mrs. Mumpson, unless it is quiet." + +"I feel that way, myself. You don't know what restraint I have put +upon myself that the sacred quiet of this day might not be disturbed. +I have had strong provercation since I entered this apartment. I will +forbear to speak of it till tomorrow in order that there may be +quietness and that our minds may be prepared for worship. I feel that +it would be unseemly for us to enter a house of worship with thoughts +of strife in our souls. At precisely what moment do you wish me to be +ready for church?" + +"I am not going to church, Mrs. Mumpson." + +"Not going to church! I--I--scarcely understand. Worship is such a +sacred duty--" + +"You and Jane certainly have a right to go to church, and since it is +your wish, I'll take you down to Lemuel Weeks' and you can go with +them." + +"I don't want to go to Cousin Lemuel's, nor to church, nuther," Jane +protested. + +"Why, Mr. Holcroft," began the widow sweetly, "after you've once +harnessed up it will take but a little longer to keep on to the meeting +house. It would appear so seemly for us to drive thither, as a matter +of course. It would be what the communerty expects of us. This is not +our day, that we should spend it carnally. We should be +spiritually-minded. We should put away things of earth. Thoughts of +business and any unnecessary toil should be abhorrent. I have often +thought that there was too much milking done on Sunday among farmers. +I know they say it is essential, but they all seem so prone to forget +that but one thing is needful. I feel it borne in upon my mind, Mr. +Holcroft, that I should plead with you to attend divine worship and +seek an uplifting of your thoughts. You have no idea how differently +the day may end, or what emotions may be aroused if you place yourself +under the droppings of the sanctuary." + +"I'm like Jane, I don't wish to go," said Mr. Holcroft nervously. + +"But my dear Mr. Holcroft,"--the farmer fidgeted under this +address,--"the very essence of true religion is to do what we don't +wish to do. We are to mortify the flesh and thwart the carnal mind. +The more thorny the path of self-denial is, the more certain it's the +right path. I've already entered upon it," she continued, turning a +momentary glare upon Mrs. Wiggins. "Never before was a respecterble +woman so harrowed and outraged; but I am calm; I am endeavoring to +maintain a frame of mind suiterble to worship, and I feel it my bounden +duty to impress upon you that worship is a necessity to every human +being. My conscience would not acquit me if I did not use all my +influence--" + +"Very well, Mrs. Mumpson, you and your conscience are quits. You have +used all your influence. I will do as I said--take you to Lemuel +Weeks'--and you can go to church with his family," and he rose from the +table. + +"But Cousin Lemuel is also painfully blind to his spiritual interests--" + +Holcroft did not stay to listen and was soon engaged in the morning +milking. Jane flatly declared that she would not go to Cousin Lemuel's +or to church. "It don't do me no good, nor you, nuther," she sullenly +declared to her mother. + +Mrs. Mumpson now resolved upon a different line of tactics. Assuming a +lofty, spiritual air, she commanded Jane to light a fire in the parlor, +and retired thither with the rocking chair. The elder widow looked +after her and ejaculated, "Vell, hif she haint the craziest loon hi +hever 'eard talk. Hif she vas blind she might 'a' seen that the master +didn't vant hany sich lecturin' clack." + +Having kindled the fire, the child was about to leave the room when her +mother interposed and said solemnly, "Jane, sit down and keep Sunday." + +"I'm going to help Mrs. Wiggins if she'll let me." + +"You will not so demean yourself. I wish you to have no relations +whatever with that female in the kitchen. If you had proper +self-respect, you would never speak to her again." + +"We aint visitin' here. If I can't work indoors, I'll tell him I'll +work outdoors." + +"It's not proper for you to work today. I want you to sit there in the +corner and learn the Fifth Commandment." + +"Aint you goin' to Cousin Lemuel's?" + +"On mature reflection, I have decided to remain at home." + +"I thought you would if you had any sense left. You know well enough +we aint wanted down there. I'll go tell him not to hitch up." + +"Well, I will permit you to do so. Then return to your Sunday task." + +"I'm goin' to mind him," responded the child. She passed rapidly and +apprehensively through the kitchen, but paused on the doorstep to make +some overtures to Mrs. Wiggins. If that austere dame was not to be +propitiated, a line of retreat was open to the barn. "Say," she began, +to attract attention. + +"Vell, young-un," replied Mrs. Wiggins, rendered more pacific by her +breakfast. + +"Don't you want me to wash up the dishes and put 'em away? I know how." + +"Hi'll try ye. Hif ye breaks hanythink--" and the old woman nodded +volumes at the child. + +"I'll be back in a minute," said Jane. A moment later she met Holcroft +carrying two pails of milk from the barnyard. He was about to pass +without noticing her, but she again secured attention by her usual +preface, "Say," when she had a somewhat extended communication to make. + +"Come to the dairy room, Jane, and say your say there," said Holcroft +not unkindly. + +"She aint goin' to Cousin Lemuel's," said the girl, from the door. + +"What is she going to do." + +"Rock in the parlor. Say, can't I help Mrs. Wiggins wash up the dishes +and do the work?" + +"Certainly, why not?" + +"Mother says I must sit in the parlor 'n' learn Commandments 'n' keep +Sunday." + +"Well, Jane, which do you think you ought to do?" + +"I think I oughter work, and if you and Mrs. Wiggins will let me, I +will work in spite of mother." + +"I think that you and your mother both should help do the necessary +work today. There won't be much." + +"If I try and help Mrs. Wiggins, mother'll bounce out at me. She shook +me last night after I went upstairs, and she boxed my ears 'cause I +wanted to keep the kitchen fire up last night." + +"I'll go with you to the kitchen and tell Mrs. Wiggins to let you help, +and I won't let your mother punish you again unless you do wrong." + +Mrs. Wiggins, relying on Jane's promise of help, had sat down to the +solace of her pipe for a few minutes, but was about to thrust it +hastily away on seeing Holcroft. He reassured her by saying +good-naturedly, "No need of that, my good woman. Sit still and enjoy +your pipe. I like to smoke myself. Jane will help clear away things +and I wish her to. You'll find she's quite handy. By the way, have you +all the tobacco you want?" + +"Vell, now, master, p'raps ye know the 'lowance down hat the poor-us +vasn't sich as ud keep a body in vat ye'd call satisfyin' smokin'. Hi +never 'ad henough ter keep down the 'ankerin'." + +"I suppose that's so. You shall have half of my stock, and when I go +to town again, I'll get you a good supply. I guess I'll light my pipe, +too, before starting for a walk." + +"Bless yer 'art, master, ye makes a body comf'terble. Ven hi smokes, +hi feels more hat 'ome and kind o' contented like. An hold 'ooman like +me haint got much left to comfort 'er but 'er pipe." + +"Jane!" called Mrs. Mumpson sharply from the parlor. As there was no +answer, the widow soon appeared in the kitchen door. Smoking was one +of the unpardonable sins in Mrs. Mumpson's eyes; and when she saw Mrs. +Wiggins puffing comfortably away and Holcroft lighting his pipe, while +Jane cleared the table, language almost failed her. She managed to +articulate, "Jane, this atmosphere is not fit for you to breathe on +this sacred day. I wish you to share my seclusion." + +"Mrs. Mumpson, I have told her to help Mrs. Wiggins in the necessary +work," Holcroft interposed. + +"Mr. Holcroft, you don't realize--men never do--Jane is my offspring, +and--" + +"Oh, if you put it that way, I shan't interfere between mother and +child. But I suppose you and Jane came here to work." + +"If you will enter the parlor, I will explain to you fully my views, +and--" + +"Oh, please excuse me!" said Holcroft, hastily passing out. "I was just +starting for a walk--I'm bound to have one more day to myself on the +old place," he muttered as he bent his steps toward an upland pasture. + +Jane, seeing that her mother was about to pounce upon her, ran behind +Mrs. Wiggins, who slowly rose and began a progress toward the irate +widow, remarking as she did so, "Hi'll just shut the door 'twixt ye and +yer hoffspring, and then ye kin say yer prayers hon the t'other side." + +Mrs. Mumpson was so overcome at the turn affairs had taken on this day, +which was to witness such progress in her plans and hopes, as to feel +the absolute necessity of a prolonged season of thought and soliloquy, +and she relapsed, without further protest, into the rocking chair. + + + +Chapter XII. + +Jane + +Holcroft was not long in climbing to a sunny nook whence he could see +not only his farm and dwelling, but also the Oakville valley, and the +little white spire of the distant meeting house. He looked at this +last-named object wistfully and very sadly. Mrs. Mumpson's tirade +about worship had been without effect, but the memories suggested by +the church were bitter-sweet indeed. It belonged to the Methodist +denomination, and Holcroft had been taken, or had gone thither, from +the time of his earliest recollection. He saw himself sitting between +his father and mother, a round-faced urchin to whom the sermon was +unintelligible, but to whom little Bessie Jones in the next pew was a +fact, not only intelligible, but very interesting. She would turn +around and stare at him until he smiled, then she would giggle until +her mother brought her right-about-face with considerable emphasis. +After this, he saw the little boy--could it have been +himself?--nodding, swaying, and finally slumbering peacefully, with his +head on his mother's lap, until shaken into sufficient consciousness to +be half dragged, half led, to the door. Once in the big, springless +farm wagon he was himself again, looking eagerly around to catch +another glimpse of Bessie Jones. Then he was a big, irreverent boy, +shyly and awkwardly bent on mischief in the same old meeting house. +Bessie Jones no longer turned and stared at him, but he exultingly +discovered that he could still make her giggle on the sly. Years +passed, and Bessie was his occasional choice for a sleigh-ride when the +long body of some farm wagon was placed on runners, and boys and +girls--young men and women, they almost thought themselves--were packed +in like sardines. Something like self-reproach smote Holcroft even +now, remembering how he had allowed his fancy much latitude at this +period, paying attention to more than one girl besides Bessie, and +painfully undecided which he liked best. + +Then had come the memorable year which had opened with a protracted +meeting. He and Bessie Jones had passed under conviction at the same +time, and on the same evening had gone forward to the anxious seat. +From the way in which she sobbed, one might have supposed that the +good, simple-hearted girl had terrible burdens on her conscience; but +she soon found hope, and her tears gave place to smiles. Holcroft, on +the contrary, was terribly cast down and unable to find relief. He +felt that he had much more to answer for than Bessie; he accused +himself of having been a rather coarse, vulgar boy; he had made fun of +sacred things in that very meeting house more times than he liked to +think of, and now for some reason could think of nothing else. + +He could not shed tears or get up much emotion; neither could he rid +himself of the dull weight at heart. The minister, the brethren and +sisters, prayed for him and over him, but nothing removed his terrible +inertia. He became a familiar form on the anxious seat for there was a +dogged persistence in his nature which prevented him from giving up; +but at the close of each meeting he went home in a state of deeper +dejection. Sometimes, in returning, he was Bessie Jones' escort, and +her happiness added to his gall and bitterness. One moonlight night +they stopped under the shadow of a pine near her father's door, and +talked over the matter a few moments before parting. Bessie was full +of sympathy which she hardly knew how to express. Unconsciously, in +her earnestness--how well he remembered the act!--she laid her hand on +his arm as she said, "James, I guess I know what's the matter with you. +In all your seeking you are thinking only of yourself--how bad you've +been and all that. I wouldn't think of myself and what I was any more, +if I was you. You aint so awful bad, James, that I'd turn a cold +shoulder to you; but you might think I was doing just that if ye stayed +away from me and kept saying to yourself, 'I aint fit to speak to +Bessie Jones.'" + +Her face had looked sweet and compassionate, and her touch upon his arm +had conveyed the subtle magic of sympathy. Under her homely logic, the +truth had burst upon him like sunshine. In brief, he had turned from +his own shadow and was in the light. He remembered how in his deep +feeling he had bowed his head on her shoulder and murmured, "Oh, +Bessie, Heaven bless you! I see it all." + +He no longer went to the anxious seat. With this young girl, and many +others, he was taken into the church on probation. Thereafter, his +fancy never wandered again, and there was no other girl in Oakville for +him but Bessie. In due time, he had gone with her to yonder meeting +house to be married. It had all seemed to come about as a matter of +course. He scarcely knew when he became formally engaged. They "kept +company" together steadfastly for a suitable period, and that seemed to +settle it in their own and everybody else's mind. + +There had been no change in Bessie's quiet, constant soul. After her +words under the shadow of the pine tree she seemed to find it difficult +to speak of religious subjects, even to her husband; but her simple +faith had been unwavering, and she had entered into rest without fear +or misgiving. + +Not so her husband. He had his spiritual ups and downs, but, like +herself, was reticent. While she lived, only a heavy storm kept them +from "going to meeting," but with Holcroft worship was often little +more than a form, his mind being on the farm and its interests. +Parents and relatives had died, and the habit of seclusion from +neighborhood and church life had grown upon them gradually and almost +unconsciously. + +For a long time after his wife's death Holcroft had felt that he did +not wish to see anyone who would make references to his loss. + +He shrank from formal condolences as he would from the touch of a +diseased nerve. When the minister called, he listened politely but +silently to a general exhortation; then muttered, when left alone, +"It's all as he says, I suppose; but somehow his words are like the +medicines Bessie took--they don't do any good." + +He kept up the form of his faith and a certain vague hope until the +night on which he drove forth the Irish revelers from his home. In +remembrance of his rage and profanity on that occasion, he silently and +in dreary misgiving concluded that he should not, even to himself, keep +up the pretense of religion any longer. "I've fallen from grace--that +is, if I ever had any"--was a thought which did much to rob him of +courage to meet his other trials. Whenever he dwelt on these subjects, +doubts, perplexities, and resentment at his misfortunes so thronged his +mind that he was appalled; so he strove to occupy himself with the +immediate present. + +Today, however, in recalling the past, his thoughts would question the +future and the outcome of his experiences. In accordance with his +simple, downright nature, he muttered, "I might as well face the truth +and have done with it. I don't know whether I'll ever see my wife +again or not; I don't know whether God is for me or against me. +Sometimes, I half think there isn't any God. I don't know what will +become of me when I die. I'm sure of only one thing--while I do live I +could take comfort in working the old place." + +In brief, without ever having heard of the term, he was an agnostic, +but not one of the self-complacent, superior type who fancy that they +have developed themselves beyond the trammels of faith and are ever +ready to make the world aware of their progress. + +At last he recognized that his long reverie was leading to despondency +and weakness; he rose, shook himself half angrily, and strode toward +the house. "I'm here, and here I'm going to stay," he growled. "As long +as I'm on my own land, it's nobody's business what I am or how I feel. +If I can't get decent, sensible women help, I'll close up my dairy and +live here alone. I certainly can make enough to support myself." + +Jane met him with a summons to dinner, looking apprehensively at his +stern, gloomy face. Mrs. Mumpson did not appear. "Call her," he said +curtly. + +The literal Jane returned from the parlor and said unsympathetically, +"She's got a hank'chif to her eyes and says she don't want no dinner." + +"Very well," he replied, much relieved. + +Apparently he did not want much dinner, either, for he soon started out +again. Mrs. Wiggins was not utterly wanting in the intuitions of her +sex, and said nothing to break in upon her master's abstraction. + +In the afternoon Holcroft visited every nook and corner of his farm, +laying out, he hoped, so much occupation for both hands and thoughts as +to render him proof against domestic tribulations. + +He had not been gone long before Mrs. Mumpson called in a plaintive +voice, "Jane!" + +The child entered the parlor warily, keeping open a line of retreat to +the door. "You need not fear me," said her mother, rocking +pathetically. "My feelings are so hurt and crushed that I can only +bemoan the wrongs from which I suffer. You little know, Jane, you +little know a mother's heart." + +"No," assented Jane. "I dunno nothin' about it." + +"What wonder, then that I weep, when even my child is so unnatural!" + +"I dunno how to be anything else but what I be," replied the girl in +self-defense. + +"If you would only yield more to my guidance and influence, Jane, the +future might be brighter for us both. If you had but stored up the +Fifth Commandment in memory--but I forbear. You cannot so far forget +your duty as not to tell me how HE behaved at dinner." + +"He looked awful glum, and hardly said a word." + +"Ah-h!" exclaimed the widow, "the spell is working." + +"If you aint a-workin' tomorrow, there'll be a worse spell," the girl +remarked. + +"That will do, Jane, that will do. You little understand--how should +you? Please keep an eye on him, and let me know how he looks and what +he is doing, and whether his face still wears a gloomy or a penitent +aspect. Do as I bid you, Jane, and you may unconsciously secure your +own well-being by obedience." + +Watching anyone was a far more congenial task to the child than +learning the Commandments, and she hastened to comply. Moreover, she +had the strongest curiosity in regard to Holcroft herself. She felt +that he was the arbiter of her fate. So untaught was she that delicacy +and tact were unknown qualities. Her one hope of pleasing was in work. +She had no power of guessing that sly espionage would counterbalance +such service. Another round of visiting was dreaded above all things; +she was, therefore, exceedingly anxious about the future. "Mother may +be right," she thought. "P'raps she can make him marry her, so we +needn't go away any more. P'raps she's taken the right way to bring a +man around and get him hooked, as Cousin Lemuel said. If I was goin' +to hook a man though, I'd try another plan than mother's. I'd keep my +mouth shut and my eyes open. I'd see what he wanted and do it, even +'fore he spoke. 'Fi's big anuf I bet I could hook a man quicker'n she +can by usin' her tongue 'stead of her hands." + +Jane's scheme was not so bad a one but that it might be tried to +advantage by those so disposed. Her matrimonial prospects, however, +being still far in the future, it behooved her to make her present +existence as tolerable as possible. She knew how much depended on +Holcroft, and was unaware of any other method of learning his purposes +except that of watching him. Both fearing and fascinated, she dogged +his steps most of the afternoon, but saw nothing to confirm her +mother's view that any spell was working. She scarcely understood why +he looked so long at field, thicket, and woods, as if he saw something +invisible to her. + +In planning future work and improvements, the farmer had attained a +quieter and more genial frame of mind. When, therefore, he sat down and +in glancing about saw Jane crouching behind a low hemlock, he was more +amused than irritated. He had dwelt on his own interests so long that +he was ready to consider even Jane's for a while. "Poor child!" he +thought, "she doesn't know any better and perhaps has even been taught +to do such things. I think I'll surprise her and draw her out a +little. Jane, come here," he called. + +The girl sprang to her feet, and hesitated whether to fly or obey. +"Don't be afraid," added Holcroft. "I won't scold you. Come!" + +She stole toward him like some small, wild, fearful animal in doubt of +its reception. "Sit down there on that rock," he said. + +She obeyed with a sly, sidelong look, and he saw that she kept her feet +gathered under her so as to spring away if he made the slightest +hostile movement. + +"Jane, do you think it's right to watch people so?" he asked gravely. + +"She told me to." + +"Your mother?" + +The girl nodded. + +"But do you think it's right yourself?" + +"Dunno. 'Taint best if you get caught." + +"Well, Jane," said Holcroft, with something like a smile lurking in his +deep-set eyes. "I don't think it's right at all. I don't want you to +watch me any more, no matter who tells you to. Will you promise not +to?" + +The child nodded. She seemed averse to speaking when a sign would +answer. + +"Can I go now?" she asked after a moment. + +"Not yet. I want to ask you some questions. Was anyone ever kind to +you?" + +"I dunno. I suppose so." + +"What would you call being kind to you?" + +"Not scoldin' or cuffin' me." + +"If I didn't scold or strike you, would you think I was kind, then?" + +She nodded; but after a moment's thought, said, "and if you didn't look +as if you hated to see me round." + +"Do you think I've been kind to you?" + +"Kinder'n anybody else. You sorter look at me sometimes as if I was a +rat. I don't s'pose you can help it, and I don't mind. I'd ruther +stay here and work than go a-visitin' again. Why can't I work outdoors +when there's nothin' for me to do in the house?" + +"Are you willing to work--to do anything you can?" + +Jane was not sufficiently politic to enlarge on her desire for honest +toil and honest bread; she merely nodded. Holcroft smiled as he asked, +"Why are you so anxious to work?" + +"'Cause I won't feel like a stray cat in the house then. I want to be +some'ers where I've a right to be." + +"Wouldn't they let you work down at Lemuel Weeks'?" She shook her head. + +"Why not?" he asked. + +"They said I wasn't honest; they said they couldn't trust me with +things, 'cause when I was hungry I took things to eat." + +"Was that the way you were treated at other places?" + +"Mostly." + +"Jane," asked Holcroft very kindly, "did anyone ever kiss you?" + +"Mother used to 'fore people. It allus made me kinder sick." + +Holcroft shook his head as if this child was a problem beyond him, and +for a time they sat together in silence. At last he arose and said, +"It's time to go home. Now, Jane, don't follow me; walk openly at my +side, and when you come to call me at any time, come openly, make a +noise, whistle or sing as a child ought. As long as you are with me, +never do anything on the sly, and we'll get along well enough." + +She nodded and walked beside him. At last, as if emboldened by his +words, she broke out, "Say, if mother married you, you couldn't send us +away, could you?" + +"Why do you ask such a question?" said Holcroft, frowning. + +"I was a-thinkin'--" + +"Well," he interrupted sternly, "never think or speak of such things +again." + +The child had a miserable sense that she had angered him; she was also +satisfied that her mother's schemes would be futile, and she scarcely +spoke again that day. + +Holcroft was more than angry; he was disgusted. That Mrs. Mumpson's +design upon him was so offensively open that even this ignorant child +understood it, and was expected to further it, caused such a strong +revulsion in his mind that he half resolved to put them both in his +market wagon on the morrow and take them back to their relatives. His +newly awakened sympathy for Jane quickly vanished. If the girl and her +mother had been repulsive from the first, they were now hideous, in +view of their efforts to fasten themselves upon him permanently. +Fancy, then, the climax in his feelings when, as they passed the house, +the front door suddenly opened and Mrs. Mumpson emerged with clasped +hands and the exclamation, "Oh, how touching! Just like father and +child!" + +Without noticing the remark he said coldly as he passed, "Jane, go help +Mrs. Wiggins get supper." + +His anger and disgust grew so strong as he hastily did his evening work +that he resolved not to endanger his self-control by sitting down +within earshot of Mrs. Mumpson. As soon as possible, therefore, he +carried the new stove to his room and put it up. The widow tried to +address him as he passed in and out, but he paid no heed to her. At +last, he only paused long enough at the kitchen door to say, "Jane, +bring me some supper to my room. Remember, you only are to bring it." + +Bewildered and abashed, Mrs. Mumpson rocked nervously. "I had looked +for relentings this evening, a general softening," she murmured, "and I +don't understand his bearing toward me." Then a happy thought struck +her. "I see, I see," she cried softly and ecstatically: "He is +struggling with himself; he finds that he must either deny himself my +society or yield at once. The end is near." + +A little later she, too, appeared at the kitchen door and said, with +serious sweetness, "Jane, you can also bring me MY supper to the +parlor." + +Mrs. Wiggins shook with mirth in all her vast proportions as she +remarked, "Jane, ye can bring me MY supper from the stove to the table +'ere, and then vait hon yeself." + + + +Chapter XIII. + +Not Wife, But Waif + +Tom Watterly's horse was the pride of his heart. It was a bobtailed, +rawboned animal, but, as Tom complacently remarked to Alida, "He can +pass about anything on the road"--a boast that he let no chance escape +of verifying. It was a terrible ordeal to the poor woman to go dashing +through the streets in an open wagon, feeling that every eye was upon +her. With head bowed down, she employed her failing strength in +holding herself from falling out, yet almost wishing that she might be +dashed against some object that would end her wretched life. It +finally occurred to Tom that the woman at his side might not, after her +recent experience, share in his enthusiasm, and he pulled up remarking, +with a rough effort at sympathy, "It's a cussed shame you've been +treated so, and as soon as you're ready, I'll help you get even with +the scamp." + +"I'm not well, sir," said Alida humbly. "I only ask for a quiet place +where I can rest till strong enough to do some kind of work." + +"Well, well," said Tom kindly, "don't lose heart. We'll do the best by +you we can. That aint saying very much, though, for we're full and +running over." + +He soon drew rein at the poorhouse door and sprang out. "I--I--feel +strange," Alida gasped. + +Tom caught the fainting woman in his arms and shouted, "Here, Bill, +Joe! You lazy loons, where are you?" + +Three or four half wrecks of men shuffled to his assistance, and +together they bore the unconscious woman to the room which was used as +a sort of hospital. Some old crones gathered around with such +restoratives as they had at command. Gradually the stricken woman +revived, but as the whole miserable truth came back, she turned her +face to the wall with a sinking of heart akin to despair. At last, from +sheer exhaustion, feverish sleep ensued, from which she often started +with moans and low cries. One impression haunted her--she was falling, +ever falling into a dark, bottomless abyss. + +Hours passed in the same partial stupor, filled with phantoms and +horrible dreams. Toward evening, she aroused herself mechanically to +take the broth Mrs. Watterly ordered her to swallow, then relapsed into +the same lethargy. Late in the night, she became conscious that someone +was kneeling at her bedside and fondling her. She started up with a +slight cry. + +"Don't be afraid; it's only me, dear," said a quavering voice. + +In the dim rays of a night lamp, Alida saw an old woman with gray hair +falling about her face and on her night robe. At first, in her +confused, feverish impressions, the poor waif was dumb with +superstitious awe, and trembled between joy and fear. Could her mother +have come to comfort her in her sore extremity? + +"Put yer head on me ould withered breast," said the apparition, "an' +ye'll know a mither's heart niver changes. I've been a-lookin' for ye +and expectin' ye these long, weary years, They said ye wouldn't come +back--that I'd niver find ye ag'in; but I knowed I wud, and here ye are +in me arms, me darlint. Don't draw away from yer ould mither. Don't ye +be afeard or 'shamed loike. No matter what ye've done or where ye've +been or who ye've been with, a mither's heart welcomes ye back jist the +same as when yes were a babby an' slept on me breast. A mither's heart +ud quench the fires o' hell. I'd go inter the burnin' flames o' the +pit an' bear ye out in me arms. So niver fear. Now that I've found +ye, ye're safe. Ye'll not run away from me ag'in. I'll hould ye--I'll +hould ye back," and the poor creature clasped Alida with such +conclusive energy that she screamed from pain and terror. + +"Ye shall not get away from me, ye shall not go back to evil ways. +Whist, whist! Be aisy and let me plead wid ye. Think how many long, +weary years I've looked for ye and waited for ye. Niver have I slept +night or day in me watchin'. Ye may be so stained an' lost an' ruined +that the whole wourld will scorn ye, yet not yer mither, not yer ould +mither. Oh, Nora, Nora, why did ye rin away from me? Wasn't I koind? +No, no; ye cannot lave me ag'in," and she threw herself on Alida, whose +disordered mind was tortured by what she heard. Whether or not it was a +more terrible dream than had yet oppressed her, she scarcely knew, but +in the excess of her nervous horror she sent out a cry that echoed in +every part of the large building. Two old women rushed in and dragged +Alida's persecutor screaming away. + +"That's allus the way o' it," she shrieked. "As soon as I find me Nora +they snatches me and carries me off, and I have to begin me watchin' +and waitin' and lookin' ag'in." + +Alida continued sobbing and trembling violently. One of the awakened +patients sought to assure her by saying, "Don't mind it so, miss. It's +only old crazy Kate. Her daughter ran away from her years and years +ago--how many no one knows--and when a young woman's brought here she +thinks it's her lost Nora. They oughtn't 'a' let her get out, knowin' +you was here." + +For several days Alida's reason wavered. The nervous shock of her sad +experiences had been so great that it did not seem at all improbable +that she, like the insane mother, might be haunted for the rest of her +life by an overwhelming impression of something lost. In her morbid, +shaken mind she confounded the wrong she had received with guilt on her +own part. Eventually, she grew calmer and more sensible. Although her +conscience acquitted her of intentional evil, nothing could remove the +deep-rooted conviction that she was shamed beyond hope of remedy. For +a time she was unable to rally from nervous prostration; meanwhile, her +mind was preternaturally active, presenting every detail of the past +until she was often ready to cry aloud in her despair. + +Tom Watterly took an unusual interest in her case and exhorted the +visiting physician to do his best for her. She finally began to +improve, and with the first return of strength sought to do something +with her feeble hands. The bread of charity was not sweet. + +Although the place in which she lodged was clean, and the coarse, +unvarying fare abundant, she shrank shuddering, with each day's clearer +consciousness, from the majority of those about her. Phases of life of +which she had scarcely dreamed were the common topics of conversation. +In her mother she had learned to venerate gray hairs, and it was an +awful shock to learn that so many of the feeble creatures about her +were coarse, wicked, and evil-disposed. How could their withered lips +frame the words they spoke? How could they dwell on subjects that were +profanation, even to such wrecks of womanhood as themselves? + +Moreover, they persecuted her by their curiosity. The good material in +her apparel had been examined and commented on; her wedding ring had +been seen and its absence soon noted, for Alida, after gaining the +power to recall the past fully, had thrown away the metal lie, feeling +that it was the last link in a chain binding her to a loathed and hated +relationship. Learning from their questions that the inmates of the +almshouse did not know her history, she refused to reveal it, thus +awakening endless surmises. Many histories were made for her, the +beldams vying with each other in constructing the worst one. Poor Alida +soon learned that there was public opinion even in an almshouse, and +that she was under its ban. In dreary despondency she thought, +"They've found out about me. If such creatures as these think I'm +hardly fit to speak to, how can I ever find work among good, +respectable people?" + +Her extreme depression, the coarse, vulgar, and uncharitable natures by +which she was surrounded, retarded her recovery. By her efforts to do +anything in her power for others she disarmed the hostility of some of +the women, and those that were more or less demented became fond of +her; but the majority probed her wound by every look and word. She was +a saint compared with any of these, yet they made her envy their +respectability. She often thought, "Would to God that I was as old and +ready to die as the feeblest woman here, if I could only hold up my +head like her!" + +One day a woman who had a child left it sleeping in its rude wooden +cradle and went downstairs. The babe wakened and began to cry. Alida +took it up and found a strange solace in rocking it to sleep again upon +her breast. At last the mother returned, glared a moment into Alida's +appealing eyes, then snatched the child away with the cruel words, +"Don't ye touch my baby ag'in! To think it ud been in the arms o' the +loikes o'ye!" + +Alida went away and sobbed until her strength was gone. She found that +there were some others ostracized like herself, but they accepted their +position as a matter of course--as if it belonged to them and was the +least of their troubles. + +Her strength was returning, yet she was still feeble when she sent for +Mrs. Watterly and asked, "Do you think I'm strong enough to take a +place somewhere?" + +"You ought to know that better than me," was the chilly reply. + +"Do you--do you think I could get a place? I would be willing to do +any kind of honest work not beyond my strength." + +"You hardly look able to sit up straight. Better wait till you're +stronger. I'll tell my husband. If applications come, he'll see about +it," and she turned coldly away. + +A day or two later Tom came and said brusquely, but not unkindly, +"Don't like my hotel, hey? What can you do?" + +"I'm used to sewing, but I'd try to do almost anything by which I could +earn my living." + +"Best thing to do is to prosecute that scamp and make him pay you a +good round sum." + +She shook her head decidedly. "I don't wish to see him again. I don't +wish to go before people and have the--the--past talked about. I'd +like a place with some kind, quiet people who keep no other help. +Perhaps they wouldn't take me if they knew; but I would be so faithful +to them, and try so heard to learn what they wanted--" + +"That's all nonsense, their not taking you. I'll find you a place some +day, but you're not strong enough yet. You'd be brought right back +here. You're as pale as a ghost--almost look like one. So don't be +impatient, but give me a chance to find you a good place. I feel sorry +for you, and don't want you to get among folks that have no feelings. +Don't you worry now; chirk up, and you'll come out all right." + +"I--I think that if--if I'm employed, the people who take me ought to +know," said Alida with bowed head. + +"They'll be blamed fools if they don't think more of you when they do +know," was his response. "Still, that shall be as you please. I've +told only my wife, and they've kept mum at the police station, so the +thing hasn't got into the papers." + +Alida's head bowed lower still as she replied, "I thank you. My only +wish now is to find some quiet place in which I can work and be left to +myself." + +"Very well," said Tom good-naturedly. "Cheer up! I'll be on the +lookout for you." + +She turned to the window near which she was sitting to hide the tears +which his rough kindness evoked. "He don't seem to shrink from me as if +I wasn't fit to be spoken to," she thought; "but his wife did. I'm +afraid people won't take me when they know." + +The April sunshine poured in at the window; the grass was becoming +green; a robin alighted on a tree nearby and poured out a jubilant +song. For a few moments hope, that had been almost dead in her heart, +revived. As she looked gratefully at the bird, thanking it in her +heart for the song, it darted upon a string hanging on an adjacent +spray and bore it to a crotch between two boughs. Then Alida saw it +was building a nest. Her woman's heart gave way. "Oh," she moaned, "I +shall never have a home again! No place shared by one who cares for +me. To work, and to be tolerated for the sake of my work, is all +that's left." + + + +Chapter XIV. + +A Pitched Battle + +It was an odd household under Holcroft's roof on the evening of the +Sunday we have described. The farmer, in a sense, had "taken +sanctuary" in his own room, that he might escape the maneuvering wiles +of his tormenting housekeeper. If she would content herself with +general topics he would try to endure her foolish, high-flown talk +until the three months expired; but that she should speedily and openly +take the initiative in matrimonial designs was proof of such an +unbalanced mind that he was filled with nervous dread. "Hanged if one +can tell what such a silly, hairbrained woman will do next!" he +thought, as he brooded by the fire. "Sunday or no Sunday, I feel as if +I'd like to take my horsewhip and give Lemuel Weeks a piece of my mind." + +Such musings did not promise well for Mrs. Mumpson, scheming in the +parlor below; but, as we have seen, she had the faculty of arranging +all future events to her mind. That matters had not turned out in the +past as she had expected, counted for nothing. She was one who could +not be taught, even by experience. The most insignificant thing in +Holcroft's dwelling had not escaped her scrutiny and pretty accurate +guess as to value, yet she could not see or understand the intolerable +disgust and irritation which her ridiculous conduct excited. In a weak +mind egotism and selfishness, beyond a certain point, pass into +practical insanity. All sense of delicacy, of the fitness of things, +is lost; even the power to consider the rights and feelings of others +is wanting. Unlike poor Holcroft, Mrs. Mumpson had few misgivings in +regard to coming years. As she rocked unceasingly before the parlor +fire, she arranged everything in regard to his future as well as her +own. + +Jane, quite forgotten, was oppressed with a miserable presentiment of +evil. Her pinched but intense little mind was concentrated on two +facts--Holcroft's anger and her mother's lack of sense. From such +premises it did not take her long to reason out but one +conclusion--"visitin' again;" and this was the summing up of all evils. +Now and then a tear would force its way out of one of her little eyes, +but otherwise she kept her troubles to herself. + +Mrs. Wiggins was the only complacent personage in the house, and she +unbent with a garrulous affability to Jane, which could be accounted +for in but one way--Holcroft had forgotten about his cider barrel, +thereby unconsciously giving her the chance to sample its contents +freely. She was now smoking her pipe with much content, and indulging +in pleasing reminiscences which the facts of her life scarcely +warranted. + +"Ven hi vas as leetle a gal as ye are," she began, and then she related +experiences quite devoid of the simplicity and innocence of childhood. +The girl soon forgot her fears and listened with avidity until the old +dame's face grew heavier, if possible, with sleep, and she stumbled off +to bed. + +Having no wish to see or speak to her mother again, the child blew out +the candle and stole silently up the stairway. At last Mrs. Mumpson +took her light and went noisily around, seeing to the fastenings of +doors and windows. "I know he is listening to every sound from me, and +he shall learn what a caretaker I am," she murmured softly. + +Once out of doors in the morning, with his foot on the native heath of +his farm, Holcroft's hopefulness and courage always returned. He was +half angry with himself at his nervous irritation of the evening +before. "If she becomes so cranky that I can't stand her, I'll pay the +three months' wages and clear her out," he had concluded, and he went +about his morning work with a grim purpose to submit to very little +nonsense. + +Cider is akin to vinegar, and Mrs. Wiggins' liberal potations of the +evening before had evidently imparted a marked acidity to her temper. +She laid hold of the kitchen utensils as if she had a spite against +them, and when Jane, confiding in her friendliness shown so recently, +came down to assist, she was chased out of doors with language we +forbear to repeat. Mrs. Mumpson, therefore, had no intimation of the +low state of the barometer in the region of the kitchen. "I have taken +time to think deeply and calmly," she murmured. "The proper course has +been made clear to me. He is somewhat uncouth; he is silent and unable +to express his thoughts and emotions--in brief, undeveloped; he is +awfully irreligious. Moth and rust are busy in this house; much that +would be so useful is going to waste. He must learn to look upon me as +the developer, the caretaker, a patient and healthful embodiment of +female influence. I will now begin actively my mission of making him +an ornerment to society. That mountainous Mrs. Viggins must be +replaced by a deferential girl who will naturally look up to me. How +can I be a true caretaker--how can I bring repose and refinement to +this dwelling with two hundred pounds of female impudence in my way? +Mr. Holcroft shall see that Mrs. Viggins is an unseemly and jarring +discord in our home," and she brought the rocking chair from the parlor +to the kitchen, with a serene and lofty air. Jane hovered near the +window, watching. + +At first, there was an ominous silence in respect to words. Portentous +sounds increased, however, for Mrs. Wiggins strode about with martial +tread, making the boards creak and the dishes clatter, while her red +eyes shot lurid and sanguinary gleams. She would seize a dipper as if +it were a foe, slamming it upon the table again as if striking an +enemy. Under her vigorous manipulation, kettles and pans resounded +with reports like firearms. + +Mrs. Mumpson was evidently perturbed; her calm superiority was +forsaking her; every moment she rocked faster--a sure indication that +she was not at peace. At last she said, with great dignity: "Mrs. +Viggins, I must request you to perform your tasks with less clamor. My +nerves are not equal to this peculiar way of taking up and laying down +things." + +"Vell, jes' ye vait a minute, han hi'll show ye 'ow hi kin take hup +things han put 'em down hag'in hout o' my vay," and before Mrs. Mumpson +could interfere, she found herself lifted, chair and all bodily, and +carried to the parlor. Between trepidation and anger, she could only +gasp during the transit, and when left in the middle of the parlor +floor she looked around in utter bewilderment. + +It so happened that Holcroft, on his way from the barn, had seen Jane +looking in at the window, and, suspecting something amiss, had arrived +just in time for the spectacle. Convulsed with laughter, he returned +hastily to the barn; while Jane expressed her feelings, whatever they +were, by executing something like a hornpipe before the window. + +Mrs. Mumpson, however, was not vanquished. She had only made a +compulsory retreat from the scene of hostilities; and, after rallying +her shattered faculties, advanced again with the chair. "How dared you, +you disreputerble female?" she began. + +Mrs. Wiggins turned slowly and ominously upon her. "Ye call me a +disrupterbul female hag'in, han ye vont find hit 'ealthy." + +Mrs. Mumpson prudently backed toward the door before delivering her +return fire. + +"Woman!" she cried, "are you out of your mind? Don't you know I'm +housekeeper here, and that it's my duty to superintend you and your +work?" + +"Vell, then, hi'll double ye hup hand put ye hon the shelf hof the +dresser han' lock the glass door hon ye. From hup there ye kin see all +that's goin' hon and sup'intend to yer 'eart's content," and she +started for her superior officer. + +Mrs. Mumpson backed so precipitately with her chair that it struck +against the door case, and she sat down hard. Seeing that Mrs. Wiggins +was almost upon her, she darted back into the parlor, leaving the chair +as a trophy in the hands of her enemy. Mrs. Wiggins was somewhat +appeased by this second triumph, and with the hope of adding gall and +bitterness to Mrs. Mumpson's defeat, she took the chair to her rival's +favorite rocking place, lighted her pipe, and sat down in grim +complacency. Mrs. Mumpson warily approached to recover a support +which, from long habit, had become moral as well as physical, and her +indignation knew no bounds when she saw it creaking under the weight of +her foe. It must be admitted, however, that her ire was not so great +that she did not retain the "better part of valor," for she stepped +back, unlocked the front door, and set it ajar. On returning, she +opened with a volubility that awed even Mrs. Wiggins for a moment. "You +miserable, mountainous pauper; you interloper; you unrefined, +irresponserble, unregenerate female, do you know what you have done in +thus outraging ME? I'm a respecterble woman, respecterbly connected. +I'm here in a responserble station. When Mr. Holcroft appears he'll +drive you from the dwelling which you vulgarize. Your presence makes +this apartment a den. You are a wild beast--" + +"Hi'm a vile beastes, ham hi?" cried Mrs. Wiggins, at last stung into +action, and she threw her lighted pipe at the open mouth that was +discharging high-sounding epithets by the score. + +It struck the lintel over the widow's head, was shattered, and sent +down upon her a shower of villainously smelling sparks. Mrs. Mumpson +shrieked and sought frantically to keep her calico wrapper from taking +fire. Meanwhile, Mrs. Wiggins rose and took a step or two that she +might assist should there be any positive danger, for she had not yet +reached a point of malignity which would lead her to witness calmly an +auto-da-fe. This was Jane's opportunity. Mrs. Wiggins had alienated +this small and hitherto friendly power, and now, with a returning +impulse of loyalty, it took sides with the weaker party. The kitchen +door was on a crack; the child pushed it noiselessly open, darted +around behind the stove, and withdrew the rocking chair. + +Mrs. Wiggins' brief anxiety and preoccupation passed, and she stepped +backward again to sit down. She did sit down, but with such terrific +force that the stove and nearly everything else in the room threatened +to fall with her. She sat helplessly for a bewildered moment, while +Jane, with the chair, danced before her exclaiming, tauntingly, "That's +for chasing me out as if I was a cat!" + +"Noo hi'll chase ye both hout," cried the ireful Wiggins, scrambling to +her feet. She made good her threat, for Holcroft, a moment later, saw +mother and daughter, the latter carrying the chair, rushing from the +front door, and Mrs. Wiggins, armed with a great wooden spoon, waddling +after them, her objurgations mingling with Mrs. Mumpson's shrieks and +Jane's shrill laughter. The widow caught a glimpse of him standing in +the barn door, and, as if borne by the wind, she flew toward him, +crying, "He shall be my protector!" + +He barely had time to whisk through a side door and close it after him. +The widow's impetuous desire to pant out the story of her wrongs +carried her into the midst of the barnyard, where she was speedily +confronted by an unruly young heifer that could scarcely be blamed for +hostility to such a wild-looking object. + +The animal shook its head threateningly as it advanced. Again the +widow's shrieks resounded. This time Holcroft was about to come to the +rescue, when the beleaguered woman made a dash for the top of the +nearest fence, reminding her amused looker-on of the night of her +arrival when she had perched like some strange sort of bird on the +wagon wheel. + +Seeing that she was abundantly able to escape alone, the farmer +remained in concealment. Although disgusted and angry at the scenes +taking place, he was scarcely able to restrain roars of laughter. +Perched upon the fence, the widow called piteously for him to lift her +down, but he was not to be caught by any such device. At last, giving +up hope and still threatened by the heifer, she went over on the other +side. Knowing that she must make a detour before reaching the +dwelling, Holcroft went thither rapidly with the purpose of restoring +order at once. "Jane," he said sternly, "take that chair to the parlor +and leave it there. Let there be no more such nonsense." + +At his approach, Mrs. Wiggins had retreated sullenly to the kitchen. +"Come," he ordered good-naturedly, "hasten breakfast and let there be +no more quarreling." + +"Hif hi vas left to do me work hin peace--" she began. + +"Well, you shall do it in peace." + +At this moment Mrs. Mumpson came tearing in, quite oblivious of the +fact that she had left a goodly part of her calico skirt on a nail of +the fence. She was rushing toward Holcroft, when he said sternly, and +with a repellent gesture, "Stop and listen to me. If there's any more +of this quarreling like cats and dogs in my house, I'll send for the +constable and have you all arrested. If you are not all utterly +demented and hopeless fools, you will know that you came here to do my +work, and nothing else." Then catching a glimpse of Mrs. Mumpson's +dress, and fearing he should laugh outright, he turned abruptly on his +heel and went to his room, where he was in a divided state between +irrepressible mirth and vexation. + +Mrs. Mumpson also fled to her room. She felt that the proper course +for her at this juncture was a fit of violent hysterics; but a prompt +douche from the water pitcher, administered by the unsympathetic Jane, +effectually checked the first symptoms. "Was ever a respecterble +woman--" + +"You aint respectable," interrupted the girl, as she departed. "You +look like a scarecrow. 'Fi's you I'd begin to show some sense now." + + + +Chapter XV. + +"What is to Become of Me?" + +Holcroft's reference to a constable and arrest, though scarcely +intended to be more than a vague threat, had the effect of clearing the +air like a clap of thunder. Jane had never lost her senses, such as +she possessed, and Mrs. Wiggins recovered hers sufficiently to +apologize to the farmer when he came down to breakfast. "But that +Mumpson's hawfully haggravatin', master, as ye know yeself, hi'm +a-thinkin'. Vud ye jis tell a body vat she is 'here, han 'ow hi'm to +get hon vith 'er. Hif hi'm to take me horders from 'er, hi'd ruther go +back to the poor-'us." + +"You are to take your orders from me and no one else. All I ask is +that you go on quietly with your work and pay no attention to her. You +know well enough that I can't have such goings on. I want you to let +Jane help you and learn her to do everything as far as she can. Mrs. +Mumpson can do the mending and ironing, I suppose. At any rate, I +won't have any more quarreling and uproar. I'm a quiet man and intend +to have a quiet house. You and Jane can get along very well in the +kitchen, and you say you understand the dairy work." + +"Vell hi does, han noo hi've got me horders hi'll go right along." + +Mrs. Mumpson was like one who had been rudely shaken out of a dream, +and she appeared to have sense enough to realize that she couldn't +assume so much at first as she anticipated. She received from Jane a +cup of coffee, and said feebly, "I can partake of no more after the +recent trying events." + +For some hours she was a little dazed, but her mind was of too light +weight to be long cast down. Jane rehearsed Holcroft's words, +described his manner, and sought with much insistence to show her +mother that she must drop her nonsense at once. "I can see it in his +eye," said the girl, "that he won't stand much more. If yer don't come +down and keep yer hands busy and yer tongue still, we'll tramp. As to +his marrying you, bah! He'd jes' as soon marry Mrs. Wiggins." + +This was awful prose, but Mrs. Mumpson was too bewildered and +discouraged for a time to dispute it, and the household fell into a +somewhat regular routine. The widow appeared at her meals with the air +of a meek and suffering martyr; Holcroft was exceedingly brief in his +replies to her questions, and paid no heed to her remarks. After +supper and his evening work, he went directly to his room. Every day, +however, he secretly chafed with ever-increasing discontent, over this +tormenting presence in his house. The mending and such work as she +attempted was so wretchedly performed that it would better have been +left undone. She was also recovering her garrulousness, and mistook +his toleration and her immunity in the parlor for proof of a growing +consideration. "He knows that my hands were never made for such coarse, +menial tasks as that Viggins does," she thought, as she darned one of +his stockings in a way that would render it almost impossible for him +to put his foot into it again. "The events of last Monday morning were +unfortunate, unforeseen, unprecedented. I was unprepared for such +vulgar, barbarous, unheard-of proceedings--taken off my feet, as it +were; but now that he's had time to think it all over, he sees that I +am not a common woman like Viggins,"--Mrs. Mumpson would have suffered +rather than have accorded her enemy the prefix of Mrs.,--"who is only +fit to be among pots and kettles. He leaves me in the parlor as if a +refined apartment became me and I became it. Time and my influence +will mellow, soften, elevate, develop, and at last awaken a desire for +my society, then yearnings. My first error was in not giving myself +time to make a proper impression. He will soon begin to yield like the +earth without. First it is hard and frosty, then it is cold and muddy, +if I may permit myself so disagreeable an illustration. Now he is +becoming mellow, and soon every word I utter will be like good seed in +good ground. How aptly it all fits! I have only to be patient." + +She was finally left almost to utter idleness, for Jane and Mrs. +Wiggins gradually took from the incompetent hands even the light tasks +which she had attempted. She made no protest, regarding all as another +proof that Holcroft was beginning to recognize her superiority and +unfitness for menial tasks. She would maintain, however, her character +as the caretaker and ostentatiously inspected everything; she also +tried to make as much noise in fastening up the dwelling at night as if +she were barricading a castle. Holcroft would listen grimly, well +aware that no house had been entered in Oakville during his memory. He +had taken an early occasion to say at the table that he wished no one +to enter his room except Jane, and that he would not permit any +infringement of this rule. Mrs. Mumpson's feelings had been hurt at +first by this order, but she soon satisfied herself that it had been +meant for Mrs. Wiggins' benefit and not her own. She found, however, +that Jane interpreted it literally. "If either of you set foot in that +room, I'll tell him," she said flatly. "I've had my orders and I'm +a-goin' to obey. There's to be no more rummagin'. If you'll give me +the keys I'll put things back in order ag'in." + +"Well, I won't give you the keys. I'm the proper person to put things +in order if you did not replace them properly. You are just making an +excuse to rummage yourself. My motive for inspecting is very different +from yours." + +"Shouldn't wonder if you was sorry some day," the girl had remarked, +and so the matter had dropped and been forgotten. + +Holcroft solaced himself with the fact that Jane and Mrs. Wiggins +served his meals regularly and looked after the dairy with better care +than it had received since his wife died. "If I had only those two in +the house, I could get along first-rate," he thought. "After the three +months are up, I'll try to make such an arrangement. I'd pay the +mother and send her off now, but if I did, Lemuel Weeks would put her +up to a lawsuit." + +April days brought the longed-for plowing and planting, and the farmer +was so busy and absorbed in his work that Mrs. Mumpson had less and +less place in his thoughts, even as a thorn in the flesh. One bright +afternoon, however, chaos came again unexpectedly. Mrs. Wiggins did +not suggest a volatile creature, yet such, alas! she was. She +apparently exhaled and was lost, leaving no trace. The circumstances +of her disappearance permit of a very matter-of-fact and not very +creditable explanation. On the day in question she prepared an +unusually good dinner, and the farmer had enjoyed it in spite of Mrs. +Mumpson's presence and desultory remarks. The morning had been fine +and he had made progress in his early spring work. Mrs. Wiggins felt +that her hour and opportunity had come. Following him to the door, she +said in a low tone and yet with a decisive accent, as if she was +claiming a right, "Master, hi'd thank ye for me two weeks' wages." + +He unsuspectingly and unhesitatingly gave it to her, thinking, "That's +the way with such people. They want to be paid often and be sure of +their money. She'll work all the better for having it." + +Mrs. Wiggins knew the hour when the stage passed the house; she had +made up a bundle without a very close regard to meum or tuum, and was +ready to flit. The chance speedily came. + +The "caretaker" was rocking in the parlor and would disdain to look, +while Jane had gone out to help plant some early potatoes on a warm +hillside. The coast was clear. Seeing the stage coming, the old woman +waddled down the lane at a remarkable pace, paid her fare to town, and +the Holcroft kitchen knew her no more. + +That she found the "friend" she had wished to see on her way out to the +farm, and that this friend brought her quickly under Tom Watterly's +care again, goes without saying. + +As the shadows lengthened and the robins became tuneful, Holcroft said, +"You've done well, Jane. Thank you. Now you can go back to the house." + +The child soon returned in breathless haste to the field where the +farmer was covering the potato pieces she had dropped, and cried, "Mrs. +Wiggins's gone!" + +Like a flash the woman's motive in asking for her wages occurred to +him, but he started for the house to assure himself of the truth. +"Perhaps she's in the cellar," he said, remembering the cider barrel, +"or else she's out for a walk." + +"No, she aint," persisted Jane. "I've looked everywhere and all over +the barn, and she aint nowhere. Mother haint seen her, nuther." + +With dreary misgivings, Holcroft remembered that he no longer had a +practical ally in the old Englishwoman, and he felt that a new breaking +up was coming. He looked wistfully at Jane, and thought, "I COULD get +along with that child if the other was away. But that can't be; SHE'D +visit here indefinitely if Jane stayed." + +When Mrs. Mumpson learned from Jane of Mrs. Wiggins' disappearance, she +was thrown into a state of strong excitement. She felt that her hour +and opportunity might be near also, and she began to rock very fast. +"What else could he expect of such a female?" she soliloquized. "I've +no doubt but she's taken things, too. He'll now learn my value and +what it is to have a caretaker who will never desert him." + +Spirits and courage rose with the emergency; her thoughts hurried her +along like a dry leaf caught in a March gale. "Yes," she murmured, "the +time has come for me to act, to dare, to show him in his desperate need +and hour of desertion what might be, may be, must be. He will now see +clearly the difference between these peculiar females who come and go, +and a respecterble woman and a mother who can be depended upon--one who +will never steal away like a thief in the night." + +She saw Holcroft approaching the house with Jane; she heard him ascend +to Mrs. Wiggins' room, then return to the kitchen and ejaculate, "Yes, +she's gone, sure enough." + +"Now, ACT!" murmured the widow, and she rushed toward the farmer with +clasped hands, and cried with emotion, "Yes, she's gone; but I'm not +gone. You are not deserted. Jane will minister to you; I will be the +caretaker, and our home will be all the happier because that monstrous +creature is absent. Dear Mr. Holcroft, don't be so blind to your own +interests and happiness, don't remain undeveloped! Everything is wrong +here if you would but see it. You are lonely and desolate. Moth and +rust have entered, things in unopened drawers and closets are molding +and going to waste. Yield to true female influence and--" + +Holcroft had been rendered speechless at first by this onslaught, but +the reference to unopened drawers and closets awakened a sudden +suspicion. Had she dared to touch what had belonged to his wife? +"What!" he exclaimed sharply, interrupting her; then with an expression +of disgust and anger, he passed her swiftly and went to his room. A +moment later came the stern summons, "Jane, come here!" + +"Now you'll see what'll come of that rummagin'," whimpered Jane. "You +aint got no sense at all to go at him so. He's jes' goin' to put us +right out," and she went upstairs as if to execution. + +"Have I failed?" gasped Mrs. Mumpson, and retreating to the chair, she +rocked nervously. + +"Jane," said Holcroft in hot anger, "my wife's things have been pulled +out of her bureau and stuffed back again as if they were no better than +dishcloths. Who did it?" + +The child now began to cry aloud. + +"There, there!" he said, with intense irritation, "I can't trust you +either." + +"I haint--touched 'em--since you told me--told me--not to do things on +the sly," the girl sobbed brokenly; but he had closed the door upon her +and did not hear. + +He could have forgiven her almost anything but this. Since she only +had been permitted to take care of his room, he naturally thought that +she had committed the sacrilege, and her manner had confirmed this +impression. Of course, the mother had been present and probably had +assisted; but he had expected nothing better of her. + +He took the things out, folded and smoothed them as carefully as he +could with his heavy hands and clumsy fingers. His gentle, almost +reverent touch was in strange contrast with his flushed, angry face and +gleaming eyes. "This is the worst that's happened yet," he muttered. +"Oh, Lemuel Weeks! It's well you are not here now, or we might both +have cause to be sorry. It was you who put these prying, and for all I +know, thieving creatures into my house, and it was as mean a trick as +ever one man played another. You and this precious cousin of yours +thought you could bring about a marriage; you put her up to her +ridiculous antics. Faugh! The very thought of it all makes me sick." + +"Oh, mother, what shall I do?" Jane cried, rushing into the parlor and +throwing herself on the floor, "he's goin' to put us right out." + +"He can't put me out before the three months are up," quavered the +widow. + +"Yes, he can. We've been a-rummagin' where we'd no bizniss to be. +He's mad enough to do anything; he jes' looks awful; I'm afraid of him." + +"Jane," said her mother plaintively, "I feel indisposed. I think I'll +retire." + +"Yes, that's the way with YOU," sobbed the child. "You get me into the +scrape and now you retire." + +Mrs. Mumpson's confidence in herself and her schemes was terribly +shaken. "I must act very discreetly. I must be alone that I may think +over these untoward events. Mr. Holcroft has been so warped by the +past female influences of his life that there's no counting on his +action. He taxes me sorely," she explained, and then ascended the +stairs. + +"Oh! Oh!" moaned the child as she writhed on the floor, "mother aint +got no sense at all. What IS goin' to become of me? I'd ruther hang +about his barn than go back to Cousin Lemuel's or any other cousin's." + +Spurred by one hope, she at last sprung up and went to the kitchen. It +was already growing dark, and she lighted the lamp, kindled the fire, +and began getting supper with breathless energy. + +As far as he could discover, Holcroft was satisfied that nothing had +been taken. In this respect he was right. Mrs. Mumpson's curiosity +and covetousness were boundless, but she would not steal. There are +few who do not draw the line somewhere. + +Having tried to put the articles back as they were before, he locked +them up, and went hastily down and out, feeling that he must regain his +self-control and decide upon his future action at once. "I will then +carry out my purposes in a way that will give the Weeks tribe no chance +to make trouble." + +As he passed the kitchen windows he saw Jane rushing about as if +possessed, and he stopped to watch her. It soon became evident that +she was trying to get his supper. His heart relented at once in spite +of himself. "The poor, wronged child!" he muttered. "Why should I be so +hard on her for doing what she's been brought up to do? Well, well, +it's too bad to send her away, but I can't help it. I'd lose my own +reason if the mother were here much longer, and if I kept Jane, her +idiotic mother would stay in spite of me. If she didn't, there'd be +endless talk and lawsuits, too, like enough, about separating parent +and child. Jane's too young and little, anyway, to be here alone and +do the work. But I'm sorry for her, I declare I am, and I wish I could +do something to give her a chance in the world. If my wife was only +living, we'd take and bring her up, disagreeable and homely as she is; +but there's no use of my trying to do anything alone. I fear, after +all, that I shall have to give up the old place and go--I don't know +where. What is to become of her?" + + + +Chapter XVI. + +Mrs. Mumpson's Vicissitudes + +Having completed her preparations for supper, Jane stole timidly up to +Holcroft's room to summon him. Her first rap on his door was scarcely +audible, then she ventured to knock louder and finally to call him, but +there was no response. Full of vague dread she went to her mother's +room and said, "He won't answer me. He's so awful mad that I don't +know what he'll do." + +"I think he has left his apartment," her mother moaned from the bed. + +"Why couldn't yer tell me so before?" cried Jane. "What yer gone to bed +for? If you'd only show some sense and try to do what he brought you +here for, like enough he'd keep us yet." + +"My heart's too crushed, Jane--" + +"Oh, bother, bother!" and the child rushed away. She looked into the +dark parlor and called, "Mr. Holcroft!" Then she appeared in the +kitchen again, the picture of uncouth distress and perplexity. A +moment later she opened the door and darted toward the barn. + +"What do you wish, Jane?" said Holcroft, emerging from a shadowy corner +and recalling her. + +"Sup--supper's--ready," sobbed the child. + +He came in and sat down at the table, considerately appearing not to +notice her until she had a chance to recover composure. She vigorously +used the sleeve of both arms in drying her eyes, then stole in and +found a seat in a dusky corner. + +"Why don't you come to supper?" he asked quietly. + +"Don't want any." + +"You had better take some up to your mother." + +"She oughtn't to have any." + +"That doesn't make any difference. I want you to take up something to +her, and then come down and eat your supper like a sensible girl." + +"I aint been sensible, nor mother nuther." + +"Do as I say, Jane." The child obeyed, but she couldn't swallow +anything but a little coffee. + +Holcroft was in a quandary. He had not the gift of speaking soothing +yet meaningless words, and was too honest to raise false hopes. He was +therefore almost as silent and embarrassed as Jane herself. To the +girl's furtive scrutiny he did not seem hardened against her, and she +at last ventured, "Say, I didn't touch them drawers after you told me +not to do anything on the sly." + +"When were they opened? Tell me the truth, Jane." + +"Mother opened them the first day you left us alone. I told her you +wouldn't like it, but she said she was housekeeper; she said how it was +her duty to inspect everything. I wanted to inspect, too. We was jes' +rummagin'--that's what it was. After the things were all pulled out, +mother got the rocker and wouldn't do anything. It was gettin' late, +and I was frightened and poked 'em back in a hurry. Mother wanted to +rummage ag'in the other day and I wouldn't let her; then, she wouldn't +let me have the keys so I could fix 'em up." + +"But the keys were in my pocket, Jane." + +"Mother has a lot of keys. I've told you jes' how it all was." + +"Nothing was taken away?" + +"No. Mother aint got sense, but she never takes things. I nuther +'cept when I'm hungry. Never took anything here. Say, are you goin' to +send us away?' + +"I fear I shall have to, Jane. I'm sorry for you, for I believe you +would try to do the best you could if given a chance, and I can see you +never had a chance." + +"No," said the child, blinking hard to keep the tears out of her eyes. +"I aint had no teachin'. I've jes' kinder growed along with the farm +hands and rough boys. Them that didn't hate me teased me. Say, +couldn't I stay in your barn and sleep in the hay?" + +Holcroft was sorely perplexed and pushed away his half-eaten supper. +He knew himself what it was to be friendless and lonely, and his heart +softened toward this worse than motherless child. + +"Jane," he said kindly, "I'm just as sorry for you as I can be, but you +don't know the difficulties in the way of what you wish, and I fear I +can't make you understand them. Indeed, it would not be best to tell +you all of them. If I could keep you at all, you should stay in the +house, and I'd be kind to you, but it can't be. I may not stay here +myself. My future course is very uncertain. There's no use of my +trying to go on as I have. Perhaps some day I can do something for +you, and if I can, I will. I will pay your mother her three months' +wages in full in the morning, and then I want you both to get your +things into your trunk, and I'll take you to your Cousin Lemuel's." + +Driven almost to desperation, Jane suggested the only scheme she could +think of. "If you stayed here and I run away and came back, wouldn't +you keep me? I'd work all day and all night jes' for the sake of +stayin'." + +"No, Jane," said Holcroft firmly, "you'd make me no end of trouble if +you did that. If you'll be a good girl and learn how to do things, +I'll try to find you a place among kind people some day when you're +older and can act for yourself." + +"You're afraid 'fi's here mother'd come a-visitin," said the girl +keenly. + +"You're too young to understand half the trouble that might follow. My +plans are too uncertain for me to tangle myself up. You and your +mother must go away at once, so I can do what I must do before it's too +late in the season. Here's a couple of dollars which you can keep for +yourself," and he went up to his room, feeling that he could not +witness the child's distress any longer. + +He fought hard against despondency and tried to face the actual +condition of his affairs. "I might have known," he thought, "that +things would have turned out somewhat as they have, with such women in +the house, and I don't see much chance of getting better ones. I've +been so bent on staying and going on as I used to that I've just shut +my eyes to the facts." He got out an old account book and pored over +it a long time. The entries therein were blind enough, but at last he +concluded, "It's plain that I've lost money on the dairy ever since my +wife died, and the prospects now are worse than ever. That Weeks tribe +will set the whole town talking against me and it will be just about +impossible to get a decent woman to come here. I might as well have an +auction and sell all the cows but one at once. After that, if I find I +can't make out living alone, I'll put the place in better order and +sell or rent. I can get my own meals after a fashion, and old Jonathan +Johnson's wife will do my washing and mending. It's time it was done +better than it has been, for some of my clothes make me look like a +scarecrow. I believe Jonathan will come with his cross dog and stay +here too, when I must be away. Well, well, it's a hard lot for a man; +but I'd be about as bad off, and a hundred-fold more lonely, if I went +anywhere else. + +"I can only feel my way along and live a day at a time. I'll learn +what can be done and what can't be. One thing is clear: I can't go on +with this Mrs. Mumpson in the house a day longer. She makes me creep +and crawl all over, and the first thing I know I shall be swearing like +a bloody pirate unless I get rid of her. + +"If she wasn't such a hopeless idiot I'd let her stay for the sake of +Jane, but I won't pay her good wages to make my life a burden a day +longer," and with like self-communings he spent the evening until the +habit of early drowsiness overcame him. + +The morning found Jane dispirited and a little sullen, as older and +wiser people are apt to be when disappointed. She employed herself in +getting breakfast carelessly and languidly, and the result was not +satisfactory. + +"Where's your mother?" Holcroft asked when he came in. + +"She told me to tell you she was indisposed." + +"Indisposed to go to Lemuel Weeks'?" + +"I 'spect she means she's sick." + +He frowned and looked suspiciously at the girl. Here was a new +complication, and very possibly a trick. + +"What's the matter with her?" + +"Dunno." + +"Well, she had better get well enough to go by this afternoon," he +remarked, controlling his irritation with difficulty, and nothing more +was said. + +Full of his new plans he spent a busy forenoon and then came to dinner. +It was the same old story. He went up and knocked at Mrs. Mumpson's +door, saying that he wished to speak with her. + +"I'm too indisposed to transact business," she replied feebly. + +"You must be ready tomorrow morning," he called. "I have business plans +which can't be delayed," and he turned away muttering rather sulphurous +words. + +"He will relent; his hard heart will soften at last--" But we shall not +weary the reader with the long soliloquies with which she beguiled her +politic seclusion, as she regarded it. Poor, unsophisticated Jane made +matters worse. The condition of life among her much-visited relatives +now existed again. She was not wanted, and her old sly, sullen, and +furtive manner reasserted itself. Much of Holcroft's sympathy was thus +alienated, yet he partially understood and pitied her. It became, +however, all the more clear that he must get rid of both mother and +child, and that further relations with either of them could only lead +to trouble. + +The following morning only Jane appeared. "Is your mother really sick?" +he asked. + +"S'pose so," was the laconic reply. + +"You haven't taken much pains with the breakfast, Jane." + +"'Taint no use." + +With knitted brows he thought deeply, and silently ate the wretched +meal which had been prepared. Then, remarking that he might do some +writing, he went up to a small attic room which had been used +occasionally by a hired man. It contained a covered pipe-hole leading +into the chimney flue. Removing the cover, he stopped up the flue with +an old woolen coat. "I suppose I'll have to meet tricks with tricks," +he muttered. + +Returning to his own apartment, he lighted a fire in the stove and laid +upon the kindling blaze some dampened wood, then went out and quietly +hitched his horses to the wagon. + +The pungent odor of smoke soon filled the house. The cover over the +pipe-hole in Mrs. Mumpson's room was not very secure, and thick volumes +began to pour in upon the startled widow. "Jane!" she shrieked. + +If Jane was sullen toward Holcroft, she was furious at her mother, and +paid no heed at first to her cry. + +"Jane, Jane, the house is on fire!" + +Then the child did fly up the stairway. The smoke seemed to confirm +the words of her mother, who was dressing in hot haste. "Run and tell +Mr. Holcroft!" she cried. + +"I won't," said the girl. "If he won't keep us in the house, I don't +care if he don't have any house." + +"No, no, tell him!" screamed Mrs. Mumpson. "If we save his house he +will relent. Gratitude will overwhelm him. So far from turning us +away, he will sue, he will plead for forgiveness for his former +harshness; his home saved will be our home won. Just put our things in +the trunk first. Perhaps the house can't be saved, and you know we +must save OUR things. Help me, quick! There, there; now, now"--both +were sneezing and choking in a half-strangled manner. "Now let me lock +it; my hand trembles so; take hold and draw it out; drag it downstairs; +no matter how it scratches things!" + +Having reached the hall below, she opened the door and shrieked for +Holcroft; Jane also began running toward the barn. The farmer came +hastily out, and shouted, "What's the matter?" + +"The house is on fire!" they screamed in chorus. + +To carry out his ruse, he ran swiftly to the house. Mrs. Mumpson stood +before him wringing her hands and crying, "Oh, dear Mr. Holcroft, can't +I do anything to help you? I would so like to help you and--" + +"Yes, my good woman, let me get in the door and see what's the matter. +Oh, here's your trunk. That's sensible. Better get it outside," and +he went up the stairs two steps at a time and rushed into his room. + +"Jane, Jane," ejaculated Mrs. Mumpson, sinking on a seat in the porch, +"he called me his good woman!" But Jane was busy dragging the trunk +out of doors. Having secured her own and her mother's worldly +possessions, she called, "Shall I bring water and carry things out?" + +"No," he replied, "not yet. There's something the matter with the +chimney," and he hastened up to the attic room, removed the clog from +the flue, put on the cover again, and threw open the window. +Returning, he locked the door of the room which Mrs. Mumpson had +occupied and came downstairs. "I must get a ladder and examine the +chimney," he said as he passed. + +"Oh, my dear Mr. Holcroft!" the widow began. + +"Can't talk with you yet," and he hastened on. + +"As soon as he's sure the house is safe, Jane, all will be well." + +But the girl had grown hopeless and cynical. She had not penetrated +his scheme to restore her mother to health, but understood the man well +enough to be sure that her mother's hopes would end as they had in the +past. She sat down apathetically on the trunk to see what would happen +next. + +After a brief inspection Holcroft came down from the roof and said, +"The chimney will have to be repaired," which was true enough and +equally so of other parts of the dwelling. The fortunes of the owner +were reflected in the appearance of the building. + +If it were a possible thing Holcroft wished to carry out his ruse +undetected, and he hastened upstairs again, ostensibly to see that all +danger had passed, but in reality to prepare his mind for an intensely +disagreeable interview. "I'd rather face a mob of men than that one +idiotic woman," he muttered. "I could calculate the actions of a +setting hen with her head cut off better than I can this widow's. But +there's no help for it," and he came down looking very resolute. "I've +let the fire in my stove go out, and there's no more danger," he said +quietly, as he sat down on the porch opposite Mrs. Mumpson. + +"Oh-h," she exclaimed, with a long breath of relief, "we've saved the +dwelling. What would we have done if it had burned down! We would +have been homeless." + +"That may be my condition soon, as it is," he said coldly. "I am very +glad, Mrs. Mumpson, that you are so much better. As Jane told you, I +suppose, I will pay you the sum I agreed to give you for three months' +service--" + +"My dear Mr. Holcroft, my nerves have been too shaken to talk business +this morning," and the widow leaned back and looked as if she were +going to faint. "I'm only a poor lone woman," she added feebly, "and +you cannot be so lacking in the milk of human kindness as to take +advantage of me." + +"No, madam, nor shall I allow you and Lemuel Weeks to take advantage of +me. This is my house and I have a right to make my own arrangements." + +"It might all be arranged so easily in another way," sighed the widow. + +"It cannot be arranged in any other way--" he began. + +"Mr. Holcroft," she cried, leaning suddenly forward with clasped hands +and speaking effusively, "you but now called me your good woman. Think +how much those words mean. Make them true, now that you've spoken +them. Then you won't be homeless and will never need a caretaker." + +"Are you making me an offer of marriage?" he asked with lowering brow. + +"Oh, no, indeed!" she simpered. "That wouldn't be becoming in me. I'm +only responding to your own words." + +Rising, he said sternly, "No power on earth could induce me to marry +you, and that would be plain enough if you were in your right mind. I +shall not stand this foolishness another moment. You must go with me +at once to Lemuel Weeks'. If you will not, I'll have you taken to an +insane asylum." + +"To an insane asylum! What for?" she half shrieked, springing to her +feet. + +"You'll see," he replied, going down the steps. "Jump up, Jane! I +shall take the trunk to your cousin's. If you are so crazy as to stay +in a man's house when he don't want you and won't have you, you are fit +only for an asylum." + +Mrs. Mumpson was sane enough to perceive that she was at the end of her +adhesive resources. In his possession of her trunk, the farmer also +had a strategic advantage which made it necessary for her to yield. +She did so, however, with very bad grace. When he drove up, she +bounced into the wagon as if made of India rubber, while Jane followed +slowly, with a look of sullen apathy. He touched his horses with the +whip into a smart trot, scarcely daring to believe in his good fortune. +The lane was rather steep and rough, and he soon had to pull up lest +the object of his unhappy solicitude should be jolted out of the +vehicle. This gave the widow her chance to open fire. "The end has not +come yet, Mr. Holcroft," she said vindictively. "You may think you are +going to have an easy triumph over a poor, friendless, unfortunate, +sensitive, afflicted woman and a fatherless child, but you shall soon +learn that there's a law in the land. You have addressed improper +words to me, you have threatened me, you have broken your agreement. I +have writings, I have a memory, I have language to plead the cause of +the widow and the fatherless. I have been wronged, outraged, trampled +upon, and then turned out of doors. The indignant world shall hear my +story, the finger of scorn will be pointed at you. Your name will +become a byword and a hissing. Respecterble women, respecterbly +connected, will stand aloof and shudder." + +The torrent of words was unchecked except when the wheels struck a +stone, jolting her so severely that her jaws came together with a click +as if she were snapping at him. + +He made no reply whatever, but longed to get his hands upon Lemuel +Weeks. Pushing his horses to a high rate of speed, he soon reached that +interested neighbor's door, intercepting him just as he was starting to +town. + +He looked very sour as he saw his wife's relatives, and demanded +harshly, "What does this mean?" + +"It means," cried Mrs. Mumpson in her high, cackling tones, "that he's +said things and done things too awful to speak of; that he's broken his +agreement and turned us out of doors." + +"Jim Holcroft," said Mr. Weeks, blustering up to the wagon, "you can't +carry on with this high hand. Take these people back to your house +where they belong, or you'll be sorry." + +Holcroft sprang out, whirled Mr. Weeks out of his way, took out the +trunk, then with equal expedition and no more ceremony lifted down Mrs. +Mumpson and Jane. + +"Do you know what you're about?" shouted Mr. Weeks in a rage. "I'll +have the law on you this very day." + +Holcroft maintained his ominous silence as he hitched his horses +securely. Then he strode toward Weeks, who backed away from him. "Oh, +don't be afraid, you sneaking, cowardly fox!" said the farmer bitterly. +"If I gave you your desserts, I'd take my horsewhip to you. You're +going to law me, are you? Well, begin today, and I'll be ready for you. +I won't demean myself by answering that woman, but I'm ready for you in +any way you've a mind to come. I'll put you and your wife on the +witness stand. I'll summon Cousin Abram, as you call him, and his +wife, and compel you all under oath to give Mrs. Mumpson a few +testimonials. I'll prove the trick you played on me and the lies you +told. I'll prove that this woman, in my absence, invaded my room, and +with keys of her own opened my dead wife's bureau and pulled out her +things. I'll prove that she hasn't earned her salt and can't, and may +prove something more. Now, if you want to go to law, begin. Nothing +would please me better than to show up you and your tribe. I've +offered to pay this woman her three months' wages in full, and so have +kept my agreement. She has not kept hers, for she's only sat in a +rocking chair and made trouble. Now, do as you please. I'll give you +all the law you want. I'd like to add a horsewhipping, but that would +give you a case and now you haven't any." + +As Holcroft uttered these words sternly and slowly, like a man angry +indeed but under perfect self-control, the perspiration broke out on +Weeks' face. He was aware that Mrs. Mumpson was too well known to play +the role of a wronged woman, and remembered what his testimony and that +of many others would be under oath. Therefore, he began, "Oh, well, +Mr. Holcroft! There's no need of your getting in such a rage and +threatening so; I'm willing to talk the matter over and only want to do +the square thing." + +The farmer made a gesture of disgust as he said, "I understand you, +Lemuel Weeks. There's no talking needed and I'm in no mood for it. +Here's the money I agreed to pay. I'll give it to Mrs. Mumpson when +she has signed this paper, and you've signed as witness of her +signature. Otherwise, it's law. Now decide quick, I'm in a hurry." + +Objections were interposed, and Holcroft, returning the money to his +pocket, started for his team, without a word. "Oh, well!" said Weeks in +strong irritation, "I haven't time for a lawsuit at this season of the +year. You are both cranks, and I suppose it would be best for me and +my folks to be rid of you both. It's a pity, though, you couldn't be +married and left to fight it out." + +Holcroft took the whip from his wagon and said quietly, "If you speak +another insulting word, I'll horsewhip you and take my chances." + +Something in the man's look prevented Weeks from uttering another +unnecessary remark. The business was soon transacted, accompanied +with Mrs. Mumpson's venomous words, for she had discovered that she +could stigmatize Holcroft with impunity. He went to Jane and shook her +hand as he said goodby. "I am sorry for you, and I won't forget my +promise;" then drove rapidly away. + +"Cousin Lemuel," said Mrs. Mumpson plaintively, "won't you have Timothy +take my trunk to our room?" + +"No, I won't," he snapped. "You've had your chance and have fooled it +away. I was just going to town, and you and Jane will go along with +me," and he put the widow's trunk into his wagon. + +Mrs. Weeks came out and wiped her eyes ostentatiously with her apron as +she whispered, "I can't help it, Cynthy. When Lemuel goes off the +handle in this way, it's no use for me to say anything." + +Mrs. Mumpson wept hysterically as she was driven away. Jane's sullen +and apathetic aspect had passed away in part for Holcroft's words had +kindled something like hope. + + + +Chapter XVII. + +A Momentous Decision + +It must be admitted that Holcroft enjoyed his triumph over Lemuel Weeks +very much after the fashion of the aboriginal man. Indeed, he was +almost sorry he had not been given a little more provocation, knowing +well that, had this been true, his neighbor would have received a +fuller return for his interested efforts. As he saw his farmhouse in +the shimmering April sunlight, as the old churning dog came forward, +wagging his tail, the farmer said, "This is the only place which can +ever be home to me. Well, well! It's queer about people. Some, when +they go, leave you desolate; others make you happy by their absence. I +never dreamed that silly Mumpson could make me happy, but she has. +Blessed if I don't feel happy! The first time in a year or more!" And +he began to whistle old "Coronation" in the most lively fashion as he +unharnessed his horses. + +A little later, he prepared himself a good dinner and ate it in +leisurely enjoyment, sharing a morsel now and then with the old dog. +"You're a plaguey sight better company than she was," he mused. "That +poor little stray cat of a Jane! What will become of her? Well, well! +Soon as she's old enough to cut loose from her mother, I'll try to give +her a chance, if it's a possible thing." + +After dinner, he made a rough draught of an auction bill, offering his +cows for sale, muttering as he did so, "Tom Watterly'll help me put it +in better shape." Then he drove a mile away to see old Mr. And Mrs. +Johnson. The former agreed for a small sum to mount guard with his dog +during the farmer's occasional absences, and the latter readily +consented to do the washing and mending. + +"What do I want of any more 'peculiar females,' as that daft widow +called 'em?" he chuckled on his return. "Blames if she wasn't the most +peculiar of the lot. Think of me marrying her!" and the hillside +echoed to his derisive laugh. "As I feel today, there's a better chance +of my being struck by lightning than marrying, and I don't think any +woman could do it in spite of me. I'll run the ranch alone." + +That evening he smoked his pipe cheerfully beside the kitchen fire, the +dog sleeping at his feet. "I declare," he said smilingly, "I feel quite +at home." + +In the morning, after attending to his work, he went for old Jonathan +Johnson and installed him in charge of the premises; then drove to the +almshouse with all the surplus butter and eggs on hand. Tom Watterly +arrived at the door with his fast-trotting horse at the same time, and +cried, "Hello, Jim! Just in time. I'm a sort of grass widower +today--been taking my wife out to see her sister. Come in and take pot +luck with me and keep up my spirits." + +"Well, now, Tom," said Holcroft, shaking hands, "I'm glad, not that +your wife's away, although it does make me downhearted to contrast your +lot and mine, but I'm glad you can give me a little time, for I want to +use that practical head of yours--some advice, you know." + +"All right. Nothing to do for an hour or two but eat dinner and smoke +my pipe with you. Here, Bill! Take this team and feed 'em." + +"Hold on," said Holcroft, "I'm not going to sponge on you. I've got +some favors to ask, and I want you to take in return some butter half +spoiled in the making and this basket of eggs. They're all right." + +"Go to thunder, Holcroft! What do you take me for? When you've filled +your pipe after dinner will you pull an egg out of your pocket and say, +'That's for a smoke?' No, no, I don't sell any advice to old friends +like you. I'll buy your butter and eggs at what they're worth and have +done with 'em. Business is one thing, and sitting down and talking +over an old crony's troubles is another. I'm not a saint, Jim, as you +know--a man in politics can't be--but I remember when we were boys +together, and somehow thinking of those old days always fetches me. +Come in, for dinner is a-waiting, I guess." + +"Well, Tom, saint or no saint, I'd like to vote for you for gov'nor." + +"This aint an electioneering trick, as you know. I can play them off +as well as the next feller when there's need, kiss the babies and all +that." + +Dinner was placed on the table immediately, and in a few moments the +friends were left alone. Then Holcroft related in a half comic, half +serious manner his tribulations with the help. Tom sat back in his +chair and roared at the account of the pitched battle between the two +widows and the final smoking out of Mrs. Mumpson, but he reproached his +friend for not having horsewhipped Lemuel Weeks. "Don't you remember, +Jim, he was a sneaking, tricky chap when we were at school together? I +licked him once, and it always does me good to think of it." + +"I own it takes considerable to rile me to the point of striking a man, +especially on his own land. His wife was looking out the window, too. +If we'd been out in the road or anywhere else--but what's the use? I'm +glad now it turned out as it has for I've too much on my mind for +lawsuits, and the less one has to do with such cattle as Weeks the +better. Well, you see I'm alone again, and I'm going to go it alone. +I'm going to sell my cows and give up the dairy, and the thing I wanted +help in most is the putting this auction bill in shape; also advice as +to whether I had better try to sell here in town or up at the farm." + +Tom shook his head dubiously and scarcely glanced at the paper. "Your +scheme don't look practical to me," he said. "I don't believe you can +run that farm alone without losing money. You'll just keep on going +behind till the first thing you know you'll clap a mortgage on it. +Then you'll soon be done for. What's more, you'll break down if you try +to do both outdoor and indoor work. Busy times will soon come, and you +won't get your meals regularly; you'll be living on coffee and anything +that comes handiest; your house will grow untidy and not fit to live +in. If you should be taken sick, there'd be no one to do for you. +Lumbermen, hunters, and such fellows can rough it alone awhile, but I +never heard of a farm being run by man-power alone. Now as to selling +out your stock, look at it. Grazing is what your farm's good for +mostly. It's a pity you're so bent on staying there. Even if you +didn't get very much for the place, from sale or rent, you'd have +something that was sure. A strong, capable man like you could find +something to turn your hand to. Then you could board in some +respectable family, and not have to live like Robinson Crusoe. I've +thought it over since we talked last, and if I was you I'd sell or +rent." + +"It's too late in the season to do either," said Holcroft dejectedly. +"What's more, I don't want to, at least not this year. I've settled +that, Tom. I'm going to have one more summer on the old place, anyway, +if I have to live on bread and milk." + +"You can't make bread." + +"I'll have it brought from town on the stage." + +"Well, it's a pity some good, decent woman--There, how should I come to +forget all about HER till this minute? I don't know whether it would +work. Perhaps it would. There's a woman here out of the common run. +She has quite a story, which I'll tell you in confidence. Then you can +say whether you'd like to employ her or not. If you WILL stay on the +farm, my advice is that you have a woman to do the housework, and me +and Angy must try to find you one, if the one I have in mind won't +answer. The trouble is, Holcroft, to get the right kind of a woman to +live there alone with you, unless you married her. Nice women don't +like to be talked about, and I don't blame 'em. The one that's here, +though, is so friendless and alone in the world that she might be glad +enough to get a home almost anywheres." + +"Well, well! Tell me about her," said Holcroft gloomily. "But I'm about +discouraged in the line of women help." + +Watterly told Alida's story with a certain rude pathos which touched +the farmer's naturally kind heart, and he quite forgot his own need in +indignation at the poor woman's wrongs. "It's a **** shame!" he said +excitedly, pacing the room. "I say, Tom, all the law in the land +wouldn't keep me from giving that fellow a whipping or worse." + +"Well, she won't prosecute; she won't face the public; she just wants +to go to some quiet place and work for her bread. She don't seem to +have any friends, or else she's too ashamed to let them know." + +"Why, of course I'd give such a woman a refuge till she could do +better. What man wouldn't?" + +"A good many wouldn't. What's more, if she went with you her story +might get out, and you'd both be talked about." + +"I don't care that for gossip," with a snap of his fingers. "You know +I'd treat her with respect." + +"What I know, and what other people would say, are two very different +things. Neither you nor anyone else can go too strongly against public +opinion. Still, it's nobody's business," added Tom thoughtfully. +"Perhaps it's worth the trial. If she went I think she'd stay and do +the best by you she could. Would you like to see her?" + +"Yes." + +Alida was summoned and stood with downcast eyes in the door. "Come in +and take a chair," said Tom kindly. "You know I promised to be on the +lookout for a good place for you. Well, my friend here, Mr. Holcroft, +whom I've known ever since I was a boy, wants a woman to do general +housework and take care of the dairy." + +She gave the farmer one of those swift, comprehensive glances by which +women take in a personality, and said in a tone of regret, "But I don't +understand dairy work." + +"Oh, you'd soon learn. It's just the kind of a place you said you +wanted, a lonely, out-of-the-way farm and no other help kept. What's +more, my friend Holcroft is a kind, honest man. He'd treat you right. +He knows all about your trouble and is sorry for you." + +If Holcroft had been an ogre in appearance, he would have received the +grateful glance which she now gave him as she said, "I'd be only too +glad to work for you, sir, if you think I can do, or learn to do, what +is required." + +Holcroft, while his friend was speaking, had studied closely Alida's +thin, pale face, and he saw nothing in it not in harmony with the story +he had heard. "I am sorry for you," he said kindly. "I believe you +never meant to do wrong and have tried to do right. I will be +perfectly honest with you. My wife is dead, the help I had has left +me, and I live alone in the house. The truth is, too, that I could not +afford to keep two in help, and there would not be work for them both." + +Alida had learned much in her terrible adversity, and had, moreover the +instincts of a class superior to the position she was asked to take. +She bowed low to hide the burning flush that crimsoned her pale cheeks +as she faltered, "It may seem strange to you, sirs, that one situated +as I am should hesitate, but I have never knowingly done anything which +gave people the right to speak against me. I do not fear work, I would +humbly try to do my best, but--" She hesitated and rose as if to retire. + +"I understand you," said Holcroft kindly, "and I don't blame you for +doing what you think is right." + +"I'm very sorry, sir," she replied, tears coming into her eyes as she +went out of the room. + +"There it is, Holcroft," said Tom. "I believe she's just the one for +you, but you can see she isn't of the common kind. She knows as well +as you and me how people would talk, especially if her story came out, +as like enough it will." + +"Hang people!" snarled the farmer. + +"Yes, a good lot of 'em deserve hanging, but it wouldn't help you any +just now. Perhaps she'd go with you if you got another girl or took an +old woman from the house here to keep her company." + +"I'm sick to death of such hags," said the farmer with an impatient +gesture. Then he sat down and looked at his friend as if a plan was +forming in his mind of which he scarcely dare speak. + +"Well, out with it!" said Tom. + +"Have you ever seen a marriage ceremony performed by a justice of the +peace?" Holcroft asked slowly. + +"No, but they do it often enough. What! Are you going to offer her +marriage?" + +"You say she is homeless and friendless?' + +"Yes." + +"And you believe she is just what she seems--just what her story shows +her to be?" + +"Yes. I've seen too many frauds to be taken in. She isn't a fraud. +Neither does she belong to that miserable, wishy-washy, downhill class +that sooner or later fetches up in a poorhouse. They say we're all +made of dust, but some seem made of mud. You could see she was out of +the common; and she's here on account of the wrong she received and not +the wrong she did. I say all this in fairness to her; but when it +comes to marrying her, that's another question." + +"Tom, as I've told you, I don't want to marry. In fact, I couldn't go +before a minister and promise what I'd have to. But I could do +something like this. I could give this woman an honest name and a home. +It would be marriage before the law. No one could ever say a word +against either of us. I would be true and kind to her and she should +share in my fortunes. That's all. You have often advised me to marry, +and you know if I did it couldn't be anything else but a business +affair. Then it ought to be done in a businesslike way. You say I +can't get along alone, and like enough you're right. I've learned more +from this woman's manner than I have in a year why I can't get and keep +the right kind of help, and I now feel if I could find a good, honest +woman who would make my interest hers, and help me make a living in my +own home, I'd give her my name and all the security which an honest +name conveys. Now, this poor woman is in sore need and she might be +grateful for what I can do, while any other woman would naturally +expect me to promise more than I honestly can. Anyhow, I'd have to go +through the form, and I can't and won't go and say sacred words--just +about what I said when I married my wife--and know all the time I was +lying." + +"Well, Holcroft, you're a queer dick and this is a queer plan of yours. +You're beyond my depth now and I can't advise." + +"Why is it a queer plan? Things only seem odd because they are not +common. As a matter of fact, you advise a business marriage. When I +try to follow your advice honestly and not dishonestly, you say I'm +queer." + +"I suppose if everybody became honest, it would be the queerest world +every known," said Tom laughing. "Well, you might do worse than marry +this woman. I can tell you that marrying is risky business at best. +You know a justice will tie you just as tight as a minister, and while +I've given you my impression about this woman, I KNOW little about her +and you know next to nothing." + +"I guess that would be the case, anyhow. If you set out to find a wife +for me, where is there a woman that you actually do know more about? +As for my going here and there, to get acquainted, it's out of the +question. All my feelings rise up against such a course. Now, I feel +sorry for this woman. She has at least my sympathy. If she is as +friendless, poor, and unhappy as she seems, I might do her as great a +kindness as she would do for me if she could take care of my home. I +wouldn't expect very much. It would be a comfort just to have someone +in the house that wouldn't rob or waste, and who, knowing what her +station was, would be content. Of course I'd have to talk it over with +her and make my purpose clear. She might agree with you that it's too +queer to be thought of. If so, that would be the end of it." + +"Will, Jim, you always finish by half talking me over to your side of a +question. Now, if my wife was home, I don't believe she'd listen to +any such plan." + +"No, I suppose she wouldn't. She'd believe in people marrying and +doing everything in the ordinary way. But neither I nor this woman is +in ordinary circumstances. Do you know of a justice?" + +"Yes, and you know him, too; Justice Harkins." + +"Why, certainly. He came from our town and I knew him when he was a +boy, although I haven't seen much of him of late years." + +"Well, shall I go and say to this woman--Alida Armstrong is her name +now, I suppose--that you wish to see her again?" + +"Yes, I shall tell her the truth. Then she can decide." + + + +Chapter XVIII. + +Holcroft Gives His Hand + +Alida was seated by a window with some of the mending in which she +assisted, and, as usual, was apart by herself. Watterly entered the +large apartment quietly, and at first she did not observe him. He had +time to note that she was greatly dejected, and when she saw him she +hastily wiped tears from her eyes. + +"You are a good deal cast down, Alida," he said, watching her closely. + +"I've reason to be. I don't see any light ahead at all." + +"Well, you know the old saying, 'It's darkest before day.' I want you +to come with me again. I think I've found a chance for you." + +She rose with alacrity and followed. As soon as they were alone, he +turned and looked her squarely in the face as he said gravely, "You +have good common sense, haven't you?" + +"I don't know, sir," she faltered, perplexed and troubled by the +question. + +"Well, you can understand this much, I suppose. As superintendent of +this house I have a responsible position, which I could easily lose if +I allowed myself to be mixed up with anything wrong or improper. To +come right to the point, you don't know much about me and next to +nothing of my friend Holcroft, but can't you see that even if I was a +heartless, good-for-nothing fellow, it wouldn't be wise or safe for me +to permit anything that wouldn't bear the light?" + +"I think you are an honest man, sir. It would be strange if I did not +have confidence when you have judged me and treated me so kindly. But, +Mr. Watterly, although helpless and friendless, I must try to do what I +think is best. If I accepted Mr. Holcroft's position it might do him +harm. You know how quick the world is to misjudge. It would seem to +confirm everything that has been said against me," and the same painful +flush again overspread her features. + +"Well, Alida, all that you have to do is to listen patiently to my +friend. Whether you agree with his views or not, you will see that he +is a good-hearted, honest man. I want to prepare you for this talk by +assuring you that I've known him since he was a boy, that he has lived +all his life in this region and is known by many others, and that I +wouldn't dare let him ask you to do anything wrong, even if I was bad +enough." + +"I'm sure, sir, you don't wish me any harm," she again faltered in deep +perplexity. + +"Indeed I don't. I don't advise my friend's course; neither do I +oppose it. He's certainly old enough to act for himself. I suppose I'm +a rough counselor for a young woman, but since you appear to have so +few friends I'm inclined to act as one. Just you stand on the question +of right and wrong, and dismiss from your mind all foolish notions of +what people will say. As a rule, all the people in the world can't do +as much for us as somebody in particular. Now you go in the parlor and +listen like a sensible woman. I'll be reading the paper, and the girl +will be clearing off the table in the next room here." + +Puzzled and trembling, Alida entered the apartment where Holcroft was +seated. She was so embarrassed that she could not lift her eyes to him. + +"Please sit down," he said gravely, "and don't be troubled, much less +frightened. You are just as free to act as ever you were in your life." + +She sat down near the door and compelled herself to look at him, for +she felt instinctively that she might gather more from the expression +of his face than from his words. + +"Alida Armstrong is your name, Mr. Watterly tells me?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Well, Alida, I want to have a plain business talk with you. That's +nothing to be nervous and worried about, you know. As I told you, I've +heard your story. It has made me sorry for you instead of setting me +against you. It has made me respect you as a right-minded woman, and I +shall give you good proof that my words are true. At the same time, I +shan't make any false pretenses to what isn't true and couldn't be +true. Since I've heard your story, it's only fair you should hear +mine, and I ought to tell it first." + +He went over the past very briefly until he came to the death of his +wife. There was simple and homely pathos in the few sentences with +which he referred to this event. Then more fully he enlarged upon his +efforts and failure to keep house with hired help. Unconsciously, he +had taken the best method to enlist her sympathy. The secluded cottage +and hillside farm became realities to her fancy. She saw how the man's +heart clung to his home, and his effort to keep it touched her deeply. + +"Oh!" she thought, "I do wish there was some way for me to go there. +The loneliness of the place which drove others away is the chief +attraction for me. Then it would be pleasant to work for such a man +and make his home comfortable for him. It's plain from his words and +looks that he's as honest and straightforward as the day is long. He +only wants to keep his home and make his living in peace." + +As he had talked her nervous embarrassment passed away, and the deep +sense of her own need was pressing upon her again. She saw that he +also was in great need. His business talk was revealing deep trouble +and perplexity. With the quick intuitions of a woman, her mind went +far beyond his brief sentences and saw all the difficulties of his lot. +His feeling reference to the loss of his wife proved that he was not a +coarse-natured man. As he spoke so plainly of his life during the past +year, her mind was insensibly abstracted from everything but his want +and hers, and she thought his farmhouse afforded just the secluded +refuge she craved. As he drew near the end of his story and hesitated +in visible embarrassment, she mustered courage to say timidly, "Would +you permit a suggestion from me?" + +"Why, certainly." + +"You have said, sir, that your business and means would not allow you +to keep two in help, and as you have been speaking I have tried to +think of some way. The fact that your house is so lonely is just the +reason why I should like to work in it. As you can understand, I have +no wish to meet strangers. Now, sir, I am willing to work for very +little; I should be glad to find such a quiet refuge for simply my +board and clothes, and I would do my very best and try to learn what I +did not know. It seems to me that if I worked for so little you might +think you could afford to hire some elderly woman also?" and she looked +at him in the eager hope that he would accept her proposition. + +He shook his head as he replied, "I don't know of any such person. I +took the best one in this house, and you know how she turned out." + +"Perhaps Mr. Watterly may know of someone else," she faltered. She was +now deeply troubled and perplexed again, supposing that he was about to +renew his first proposition that she should be his only help. + +"If Mr. Watterly did know of anyone I would make the trial, but he does +not. Your offer is very considerate and reasonable, but--" and he +hesitated again, scarcely knowing how to go on. + +"I am sorry, sir," she said, rising, as if to end the interview. + +"Stay," he said, "you do not understand me yet. Of course I should not +make you the same offer that I did at first, after seeing your feeling +about it, and I respect you all the more because you so respect +yourself. What I had in mind was to give you my name, and it's an +honest name. If we were married it would be perfectly proper for you +to go with me, and no one could say a word against either of us." + +"Oh!" she gasped, in strong agitation and surprise. + +"Now don't be so taken aback. It's just as easy for you to refuse as +it is to speak, but listen first. What seems strange and unexpected +may be the most sensible thing for us both. You have your side of the +case to think of just as truly as I have mine; and I'm not forgetting, +and I don't ask you to forget, that I'm still talking business. You +and I have both been through too much trouble and loss to say any silly +nonsense to each other. You've heard my story, yet I'm almost a +stranger to you as you are to me. We'd both have to take considerable +on trust. Yet I know I'm honest and well-meaning, and I believe you +are. Now look at it. Here we are, both much alone in the world--both +wishing to live a retired, quiet life. I don't care a rap for what +people say as long as I'm doing right, and in this case they'd have +nothing to say. It's our own business. I don't see as people will +ever do much for you, and a good many would impose on you and expect +you to work beyond your strength. They might not be very kind or +considerate, either. I suppose you've thought of this?" + +"Yes," she replied with bowed head. "I should meet coldness, probably +harshness and scorn." + +"Well, you'd never meet anything of the kind in my house. I would +treat you with respect and kindness. At the same time, I'm not going +to mislead you by a word. You shall have a chance to decide in view of +the whole truth. My friend, Mr. Watterly, has asked me more'n once, +'Why don't you marry again?' I told him I had been married once, and +that I couldn't go before a minister and promise the same things over +again when they wasn't true. I can't make to you any promises or say +any words that are not true, and I don't ask or expect you to do what I +can't do. But it has seemed to me that our condition was out of the +common lot--that we could take each other for just what we might be to +each other and no more. You would be my wife in name, and I do not ask +you to be my wife in more than name. You would thus secure a good home +and the care and protection of one who would be kind to you, and I +would secure a housekeeper--one that would stay with me and make my +interests hers. It would be a fair, square arrangement between +ourselves, and nobody else's business. By taking this course, we don't +do any wrong to our feelings or have to say or promise anything that +isn't true." + +"Yet I can't help saying, sir," she replied, in strong, yet repressed +agitation, "that your words sound very strange; and it seems stranger +still that you can offer marriage of any kind to a woman situated as I +am. You know my story, sir," she added, crimsoning, "and all may soon +know it. You would suffer wrong and injury." + +"I offer you open and honorable marriage before the world, and no other +kind. Mr. Watterly and others--as many as you pleased--would witness +it, and I'd have you given a certificate at once. As for your story, +it has only awakened my sympathy. You have not meant to do any wrong. +Your troubles are only another reason in my mind for not taking any +advantage of you or deceiving you in the least. Look the truth +squarely in the face. I'm bent on keeping my house and getting my +living as I have done, and I need a housekeeper that will be true to +all my interests. Think how I've been robbed and wronged, and what a +dog's life I've lived in my own home. You need a home, a support, and +a protector. I couldn't come to you or go to any other woman and say +honestly more than this. Isn't it better for people to be united on +the ground of truth than to begin by telling a pack of lies?" + +"But--but can people be married with such an understanding by a +minister? Wouldn't it be deceiving him?" + +"I shall not ask you to deceive anyone. Any marriage that either you +or I could now make would be practically a business marriage. I should +therefore take you, if you were willing, to a justice and have a legal +or civil marriage performed, and this would be just as binding as any +other in the eye of the law. It is often done. This would be much +better to my mind than if people, situated as we are, went to a church +or a minister." + +"Yes, yes, I couldn't do that." + +"Well, now, Alida," he said, with a smile that wonderfully softened his +rugged features, "you are free to decide. It may seem to you a strange +sort of courtship, but we are both too old for much foolishness. I +never was sentimental, and it would be ridiculous to begin now. I'm +full of trouble and perplexity, and so are you. Are you willing to be +my wife so far as an honest name goes, and help me make a living for us +both? That's all I ask. I, in my turn, would promise to treat you +with kindness and respect, and give you a home as long as I lived and +to leave you all I have in the world if I died. That's all I could +promise. I'm a lonely, quiet man, and like to be by myself. I +wouldn't be much society for you. I've said more today than I might in +a month, for I felt that it was due to you to know just what you were +doing." + +"Oh, sir," said Alida, trembling, and with tears in her eyes, "you do +not ask much and you offer a great deal. If you, a strong man, dread +to leave your home and go out into the world you know not where, think +how terrible it is for a weak, friendless woman to be worse than +homeless. I have lost everything, even my good name." + +"No, no! Not in my eyes." + +"Oh, I know, I know!" she cried, wringing her hands. "Even these +miserable paupers like myself have made me feel it. They have burned +the truth into my brain and heart. Indeed, sir, you do not realize +what you are doing or asking. It is not fit or meet that I should bear +your name. You might be sorry, indeed." + +"Alida," said Holcroft gravely, "I've not forgotten your story, and you +shouldn't forget mine. Be sensible now. Don't I look old enough to +know what I'm about?" + +"Oh, oh, oh!" she cried impetuously, "if I were only sure it was right! +It may be business to you, but it seems like life or death to me. It's +more than death--I don't fear that--but I do fear life, I do fear the +desperate struggle just to maintain a bare, dreary existence. I do +dread going out among strangers and seeing their cold curiosity and +their scorn. You can't understand a woman's heart. It isn't right for +me to die till God takes me, but life has seemed so horrible, meeting +suspicion on one side and cruel, significant looks of knowledge on the +other. I've been tortured even here by these wretched hags, and I've +envied even them, so near to death, yet not ashamed like me. I know, +and you should know, that my heart is broken, crushed, trampled into +the mire. I had felt that for me even the thought of marriage again +would be a mockery, a wicked thing, which I would never have a right to +entertain.--I never dreamt that anyone would think of such a thing, +knowing what you know. Oh, oh! Why have you tempted me so if it is +not right? I must do right. The feeling that I've not meant to do +wrong is all that has kept me from despair. But can it be right to let +you take me from the street, the poorhouse, with nothing to give but a +blighted name, a broken heart and feeble hands! See, I am but the +shadow of what I was, and a dark shadow at that. I could be only a +dismal shadow at any man's hearth. Oh, oh! I've thought and suffered +until my reason seemed going. You don't realize, you don't know the +depths into which I've fallen. It can't be right." + +Holcroft was almost appalled at this passionate outburst in one who +thus far had been sad, indeed, yet self-controlled. He looked at her +in mingled pity and consternation. His own troubles had seemed heavy +enough, but he now caught glimpses of something far beyond trouble--of +agony, of mortal dread that bordered on despair. He could scarcely +comprehend how terrible to a woman like Alida were the recent events of +her life, and how circumstances, with illness, had all tended to create +a morbid horror of her situation. Like himself she was naturally +reticent in regard to her deeper feelings, patient and undemonstrative. +Had not his words evoked this outburst she might have suffered and died +in silence, but in this final conflict between conscience and hope, the +hot lava of her heart had broken forth. So little was he then able to +understand her, that suspicions crossed his mind. Perhaps his friend +Watterly had not heard the true story or else not the whole story. But +his straightforward simplicity stood him in good stead, and he said +gently, "Alida, you say I don't know, I don't realize. I believe you +will tell me the truth. You went to a minister and were married to a +man that you thought you had a right to marry--" + +"You shall know it all from my own lips," she said, interrupting him; +"you have a right to know; and then you will see that it cannot be," +and with bowed head, and low, rapid, passionate utterance, she poured +out her story. "That woman, his wife," she concluded, "made me feel +that I was of the scum and offscouring of the earth, and they've made +me feel so here, too--even these wretched paupers. So the world will +look on me till God takes me to my mother. O, thank God! She don't +know. Don' you see, now?" she asked, raising her despairing eyes from +which agony had dried all tears. + +"Yes, I see you do," she added desperately, "for even you have turned +from me." + +"Confound it!" cried Holcroft, standing up and searching his pockets +for a handkerchief. "I--I--I'd like--like to choke that fellow. If I +could get my hands on him, there'd be trouble. Turn away from you, you +poor wronged creature! Don't you see I'm so sorry for you that I'm +making a fool of myself? I, who couldn't shed a tear over my own +troubles--there, there,--come now, let us be sensible. Let's get back +to business, for I can't stand this kind of thing at all. I'm so +confused betwixt rage at him and pity for you--Let me see; this is +where we were: I want someone to take care of my home, and you want a +home. That's all there is about it now. If you say so, I'll make you +Mrs. Holcroft in an hour." + +"I did not mean to work upon your sympathies, only to tell you the +truth. God bless you! That the impulses of your heart are so kind and +merciful. But let me be true to you as well as to myself. Go away and +think it all over calmly and quietly. Even for the sake of being +rescued from a life that I dread far more than death, I cannot let you +do that which you may regret unspeakably. Do not think I misunderstand +your offer. It's the only one I could think of, and I would not have +thought of it if you had not spoke. I have no heart to give. I could +be a wife only in name, but I could work like a slave for protection +from a cruel, jeering world; I could hope for something like peace and +respite from suffering if I only had a safe refuge. But I must not +have these if it is not right and best. Good to me must not come +through wrong to you." + +"Tush, tush! You mustn't talk so. I can't stand it at all. I've +heard your story. It's just as I supposed at first, only a great deal +more so. Why, of course it's all right. It makes me believe in +Providence, it all turns out so entirely for our mutual good. I can do +as much to help you as you to help me. Now let's get back on the +sensible, solid ground from which we started. The idea of my wanting +you to work like a slave! Like enough some people would, and then +you'd soon break down and be brought back here again. No, no; I've +explained just what I wish and just what I mean. You must get over the +notion that I'm a sentimental fool, carried away by my feelings. How +Tom Watterly would laugh at the idea! My mind is made up now just as +much as it would be a week hence. This is no place for you, and I +don't like to think of your being here. My spring work is pressing, +too. Don't you see that by doing what I ask you can set me right on my +feet and start me uphill again after a year of miserable downhill work? +You have only to agree to what I've said, and you will be at home +tonight and I'll be quietly at my work tomorrow. Mr. Watterly will go +with us to the justice, who has known me all my life. Then, if anyone +ever says a word against you, he'll have me to settle with. Come, +Alida! Here's a strong hand that's able to take care of you." + +She hesitated a moment, then clasped it like one who is sinking, and +before he divined her purpose, she kissed and bedewed it with tears. + + + +Chapter XIX. + +A Business Marriage + +While Holcroft's sympathies had been deeply touched by the intense +emotion of gratitude which had overpowered Alida, he had also been +disturbed and rendered somewhat anxious. He was actually troubled lest +the woman he was about to marry should speedily begin to love him, and +develop a tendency to manifest her affection in a manner that would +seem to him extravagant and certainly disagreeable. Accustomed all his +life to repress his feelings, he wondered at himself and could not +understand how he had given way so unexpectedly. He was not +sufficiently versed in human nature to know that the depth of Alida's +distress was the adequate cause. If there had been a false or an +affected word, he would have remained cool enough. In his inability to +gauge his own nature as well as hers, he feared lest this businesslike +marriage was verging toward sentiment on her part. He did not like her +kissing his hand. He was profoundly sorry for her, but so he would +have been for any other woman suffering under the burden of a great +wrong. He felt that it would be embarrassing if she entertained +sentiments toward him which he could not reciprocate, and open +manifestations of regard would remind him of that horror of his life, +Mrs. Mumpson. He was not incapable of quick, strong sympathy in any +instance of genuine trouble, but he was one of those men who would +shrink in natural recoil from any marked evidence of a woman's +preference unless the counterpart of her regard existed in his own +breast. + +To a woman of Alida's intuition the way in which he withdrew his hand +and the expression of his face had a world of meaning. She would not +need a second hint. Yet she did not misjudge him; she knew that he +meant what he had said and had said all that he meant. She was also +aware that he had not and never could understand the depths of fear and +suffering from which his hand was lifting her. Her gratitude was akin +to that of a lost soul saved, and that was all she had involuntarily +expressed. She sat down again and quietly dried her eyes, while in her +heart she purposed to show her gratitude by patient assiduity in +learning to do what he required. + +Holcroft was now bent upon carrying out his plan as quickly as possible +and returning home. He therefore asked, "Can you go with me at once, +Alida?" + +She simply bowed her acquiescence. + +"That's sensible. Perhaps you had better get your things ready while I +and Mr. Watterly go and arrange with Justice Harkins." + +Alida averted her face with a sort of shame which a woman feels who +admits such a truth. "I haven't anything, sir, but a hat and cloak to +put on. I came away and left everything." + +"And I'm glad of it," said Holcroft heartily. "I wouldn't want you to +bring anything which that scoundrel gave you." He paced the room +thoughtfully a moment or two and then he called Watterly in. "It's +settled, Tom. Alida will be Mrs. Holcroft as soon as we can see the +justice. Do you think we could persuade him to come here?" + +"One thing at a time. Mrs. Holcroft,--I may as well call you so, for +when my friend says he'll do a thing he does it,--I congratulate you. +I think you are well out of your troubles. Since you are to marry my +old friend, we must be friends, too," and he shook her heartily by the +hand. + +His words and manner were another ray of light--a welcome rift in the +black pall that had gathered round her. + +"You were the first friend I found, sir, after--what happened," she +said gratefully. + +"Well, you've found another and a better one; and he'll always be just +the same. Any woman might be glad--" + +"Come, Tom, no more of that. I'm a plain old farmer that does what he +agrees, and that's all there is about it. I've told Alida just what I +wished and could do--" + +"I should hope so," interrupted Watterly, laughing. "You've taken time +enough, certainly, and I guess you've talked more than you have before +in a year." + +"Yes, I know I'm almost as bad as an oyster about talking except when +I'm with you. Somehow we've always had a good deal to say to each +other. In this case, I felt that it was due to Alida that she should +know all about me and understand fully just how I felt concerning this +marriage. The very fact that she hasn't friends to advise her made it +all the more needful that I should be plain and not mislead her in any +respect.--She has just as good a right to judge and act for herself as +any woman in the land, and she takes me, and I take her, with no +sentimental lies to start with. Now let's get back to business. I +rather think, since Harkins was an old acquaintance of mine, he'll come +up here and marry us, don't you? Alida, wouldn't you rather be married +here quietly than face a lot of strangers? You can have your own way, +I don't care now if half the town was present." + +"Oh, yes, indeed, sir! I don't want to meet strangers--and--and--I'm +not very strong yet. I thank you for considering my feelings so +kindly." + +"Why, that's my duty," replied the farmer. "Come, Watterly, the sun is +getting low, and we've considerable to do yet before we start home." + +"I'm with you. Now, Alida, you go back quietly and act as if nothing +had happened till I send for you. Of course this impatient young groom +will hurry back with the justice as fast as possible. Still, we may +not find him, or he may be so busy that we shall have to come back for +you and take you to his office." + +As she turned to leave the room, Holcroft gave her his hand and said +kindly, "Now don't you be nervous or worried. I see you are not +strong, and you shall not be taxed any more than I can help. Goodby +for a little while." + +Meantime Watterly stepped out a moment and gave his domestic a few +orders; then he accompanied Holcroft to the barn, and the horses were +soon attached to the market wagon. "You're in for it now, Jim, sure +enough," he said laughing. "What will Angy say to it all?" + +"Tell her that I say you've been a mighty good friend to me, yet I hope +I may never return any favors of the same kind." + +"By jocks! I hope not. I guess it's just as well she was away. +She'll think we've acted just like two harum-scarum men, and will be +awfully scandalized over your marrying this woman. Don't you feel a +little nervous about it?" + +"No! When my mind's made up, I don't worry. Nobody else need lie +awake for it's my affair." + +"Well, Jim, you know how I feel about it, but I've got to say something +and I might as well say it plain." + +"That's the only way you ought to say it." + +"Well, you talked long enough to give me plenty of time to think. One +thing is clear, Angy won't take to this marriage. You know I'd like to +have you both come in and take a meal as you always have done, but then +a man must keep peace with his wife, and--" + +"I understand, Tom. We won't come till Mrs. Watterly asks us." + +"But you won't have hard feelings?" + +"No, indeed. Aint you doing your level best as a friend?" + +"Well, you know women are so set about these things, and Angy is rather +hard on people who don't come up to her mark of respectability. What's +more, I suppose you'll find that others will think and act as she does. +If you cared about people's opinions I should have been dead against +it, but as you feel and are situated, I'm hanged if I don't think she's +just the one." + +"If it hadn't been this one, I don't believe it would have been anyone. +Here we are," and he tied his horses before the office of the justice. + +Mr. Harkins greeted Holcroft with a sort of patronizing cordiality, and +was good enough to remember that they had been at the little country +schoolhouse together. In Watterly he heartily recognized a brother +politician who controlled a goodly number of votes. + +When Holcroft briefly made known his errand, the justice gave a great +guffaw of laughter and said, "Oh, bring her here! And I'll invite in +some of the boys as witnesses." + +"I'm not afraid of all the witnesses that you could crowd into a +ten-acre lot," said Holcroft somewhat sternly, "but there is no +occasion to invite the boys, whoever they are, or anyone else. She +doesn't want to be stared at. I was in hopes, Mr. Harkins, that you'd +ride up to the almshouse with us and quietly marry us there." + +"Well, I guess you'd better bring her here. I'm pretty busy this +afternoon, and--" + +"See here, Ben," said Watterly, taking the justice aside, "Holcroft is +my friend, and you know I'm mighty thick with my friends. They count +more with me than my wife's relations. Now I want you to do what +Holcroft wishes, as a personal favor to me, and the time will come when +I can make it up to you." + +"Oh, certainly, Watterly! I didn't understand," replied Harkins, who +looked upon Holcroft as a close and, as he would phrase it, no-account +farmer, from whom he could never expect even a vote. "I'll go with you +at once. It's but a short job." + +"Well," said Holcroft, "how short can you make it?" + +"Let me get my book," and he took from a shelf the "Justice's +Assistant." "You can't want anything shorter than this?" and he read, +"'By this act of joining hands you do take each other as husband and +wife and solemnly engage in the presence of these witnesses to love and +honor and comfort and cherish each other as such so long as you both +shall live. Therefore, in accordance with the law of the state of New +York I do hereby pronounce you husband and wife.' A sailor couldn't +tie a knot quicker than that." + +"I guess you can, justice," said Holcroft, taking the book. "Suppose +you only read this much: 'By this act of joining hands you do take each +other as husband and wife. Therefore, in accordance with the law, +etc.' Would that be a legal marriage?" + +"Certainly. You'd have to go to a divorce court to get out of that." + +"It's my purpose to keep out of courts of all kinds. I'll thank you to +read just that much and no more. I don't want to say anything that +isn't exactly true." + +"You see how it is, Ben. Holcroft hasn't known the woman long, and +she's a nice woman, too, if she is boarding at my hotel. Holcroft +needs a wife--must have one, in fact, to help run his house and dairy. +It wasn't exactly a love match, you know; and he's that kind of a man +that a yoke of oxen couldn't draw a word out of him that he didn't +mean." + +"Yes, yes, I see now," said Harkins. "I'll read just what you say and +no more." + +"And I'll have a little spread that we can be longer at than the +ceremony," added Watterly, who was inclined to be a little hilarious +over the affair. + +Holcroft, however, maintained his grave manner, and when they reached +the almshouse he took Watterly aside and said, "See here, Tom, you've +been a good friend today and seconded me in everything. Now let the +affair pass off just as quietly and seriously as possible. She's too +cast down for a gay wedding. Suppose we had a daughter who'd been +through such an experience--a nice, good, modest girl. Her heart's too +sore for fun and jokes. My marrying her is much the same as pulling +her out of deep water in which she was sinking." + +"You're right, Jim. I didn't think, and one doesn't have much cause to +be so sparing of the feelings of such creatures as come here. But +she's out of the common run, and I ought to have remembered it. By +jocks! You're mighty careful about promising to love, cherish, and +obey, and all that, but I guess you'll do a sight more than many who do +promise." + +"Of course I'm going to be kind. That's my duty. Give Harkins a hint. +Tell him that she's lost her mother. He needn't know when the old lady +died, but it will kind of solemnize him." + +Watterly did as requested, and Harkins, now convinced that his +political interests could be furthered by careful compliance with all +requirements, put on a grave, official air and was ready for business. + +Alida was sent for. She was too agitated to say farewell to any of the +poor creatures with whom she had been compelled to associate--even to +the few who, though scarcely sane, had manifested tenderness and +affection. She had felt that she must reserve all her strength for the +coming ordeal, which she both welcomed and feared inexpressibly. She +knew how critical was the step she was taking and how much depended on +it, yet the more she thought, the more it seemed to her as if +Providence had, as by a miracle, given her a refuge. Holcroft's +businesslike view of the marriage comforted her greatly, and she asked +God to give her health and strength to work faithfully for him many +years. + +But she had sad misgivings as she followed the messenger, for she felt +so weak that she could scarcely walk. It was indeed a pallid, +sorrowful, trembling bride that entered Mr. Watterly's parlor. +Holcroft met her and taking her hand, said kindly, "Courage! It will +be over in a minute." + +She was so pale and agitated that the justice asked, "do you enter into +this marriage freely and without compulsion of any kind?" + +"Please let me sit down a moment," she faltered, and Watterly hastened +to give her a chair. She fixed her eyes on Holcroft, and said +anxiously, "You see, sir, how weak I am. I have been sick and--and I +fear I am far from being well now. I fear you will be +disappointed--that it is not right to you, and that I may not be able--" + +"Alida," interrupted Holcroft gravely, "I'm not one to break my word. +Home and quiet will soon restore you. Answer the justice and tell him +the exact truth." + +No elixir could have brought hope and courage like that word "home." +She rose at once and said to Harkins, "I have consented to Mr. +Holcroft's wishes with feelings of the deepest gratitude." + +"Very well. Join hands." + +She hesitated and looked for a moment at Holcroft with strange +intensity. + +"It's all right, Alida," he said with a smile. "Come!" + +His perfect honesty and steadfastness of purpose stood him in good +stead then, for she came at once to his side and took his hand. + +Justice Harkins solemnly opened his big book and read, "'By this act of +joining hands you do take each other as husband and wife. Therefore, +in accordance with the law of the State of New York, I do hereby +pronounce you husband and wife.' That's all." + +"I don't think you'll ever be sorry, Alida," said Holcroft, pressing +her hand as he led her to a chair. Watterly again bustled up with +congratulations, and then said, "you must all come out now to a little +supper, and also remember that it was gotten up in a hurry." + +The domestic stared at Alida and Holcroft, and then surmising what had +taken place, was so excited that she could scarcely wait on the guests. + +Holcroft, with the simple tact which genuine kindness usually suggests, +was attentive to his bride, but managed, by no slight effort for him, +to engage the two men in general conversation, so that Alida might have +time to recover her composure. His quiet, matter-of-fact bearing was +reassuring in itself. A cup of strong tea and a little old currant +wine, which Watterly insisted on her taking, brightened her up not a +little. Indeed her weakness was now largely due to the want of +nourishment suited to her feeble condition. Moreover, both nerves and +mind found relief and rest in the consciousness that the decisive step +had been taken. She was no longer shuddering and recoiling from a past +in which each day had revealed more disheartening elements. Her face +was now toward a future that promised a refuge, security, and even hope. + +The quiet meal was soon over. Holcroft put a five-dollar bill in the +hands of the justice, who filled in a certificate and departed, feeling +that the afternoon had not been spent in vain. + +"Jim," said Watterly, drawing his friend aside, "you'll want to make +some purchases. You know she's only what she wears. How are you off +for money?" + +"Well, Tom, you know I didn't expect anything of this kind when--" + +"Of course I know it. Will fifty answer?" + +"Yes. You're a good friend. I'll return it in a day or two." + +"Return it when you're a mind to. I say, Alida, I want you to take +this. Jim Holcroft can't get married and his bride not receive a +present from me," and he put ten dollars in her hand. + +Tears rushed to her eyes as she turned them inquiringly to Holcroft to +know what she should do. + +"Now see here, Tom, you've done too much for us already." + +"Shut up, Jim Holcroft! Don't you end the day by hurting my feelings! +It's perfectly right and proper for me to do this. Goodby, Alida. I +don't believe you'll ever be sorry you found your way to my hotel." + +Alida took his proffered hand, but could only falter, "I--I can never +forget." + + + +Chapter XX. + +Uncle Jonathan's Impression of the Bride + +"Now, Alida," said Holcroft, as they drove away, "remember that we are +two middle-aged, sensible people. At least I'm middle-aged, and fairly +sensible, too, I hope. You'll need to buy some things, and I want you +to get all you need. Don't stint yourself, and you needn't hurry so as +to get tired, for we shall have moonlight and there's no use trying to +get home before dark. Is there any particular store which you'd like to +go to?" + +"No, sir; only I'd rather go over on the east side of the town where +I'm not known." + +"That suits me, for it's the side nearest home and I AM known there." + +"Perhaps--perhaps you also would rather go this evening where you are +not known," she said hesitatingly. + +"It makes no difference to me. In fact I know of a place where you'll +have a good choice at reasonable rates." + +"I'll go where you wish," she said quietly. + +They soon entered a large shop together, and the proprietor said +pleasantly, "Good evening, Mr. Holcroft." + +"Good evening, Mr. Jasper. My wife wants to get some things. If +you'll be good enough to wait on her, I'll step out to do two or three +errands." + +The merchant looked curiously at Alida, but was too polite to ask +questions or make comments on her very simple purchases. Her old skill +and training were of service now. She knew just what she absolutely +needed, and bought no more. + +Holcroft laid in a good stock of groceries and some juicy beef and then +returned. When Mr. Jasper gave him his bill, he went to Alida, who was +resting, and said in a low voice, "This won't do at all. You can't +have bought half enough." + +For the first time something like a smile flitted across her face as +she replied, "It's enough to begin with. I know." + +"Really, Mr. Holcroft, I didn't know you were married," said the +merchant. "I must congratulate you." + +"Well, I am. Thank you. Good night." + +A few moments later he and his wife were bowling out of town toward the +hills. Reaching one of these, the horses came down to a walk and +Holcroft turned and said, "Are you very tired, Alida? I'm troubled +about you taking this long ride. You have been so sick." + +"I'm sorry I'm not stronger, sir, but the fresh air seems to do me good +and I think I can stand it." + +"You didn't promise to obey me, did you?" with a rather nervous little +laugh. + +"No, sir, but I will." + +"That's a good beginning. Now see what an old tyrant I am. In the +first place, I don't want you to say 'sir' to me any more. My name is +James. In the second place, you must work only as I let you. Your +first business is to get strong and well, and you know we agreed to +marry on strictly business grounds." + +"I understand it well, but I think you are very kind for a business +man." + +"Oh, as to that, if I do say it of myself, I don't think it's my nature +to be hard on those who treat me square. I think we shall be very good +friends in our quiet way, and that's more than can be said of a good +many who promise more than they seem to remember afterward." + +"I will try to do all you wish for I am very grateful." + +"If you do, you may find I'm as grateful as you are." + +"That can never be. Your need and mine were very different.--But I +shall try to show my gratitude by learning your ways and wishes and not +by many words of thanks." + +"Thank the Lord!" mentally ejaculated the farmer, "there's no Mrs. +Mumpson in this case;" but he only said kindly, "I think we understand +each other now, Alida. I'm not a man of words either, and I had better +show by actions also what I am. The fact is, although we are married, +we are scarcely acquainted, and people can't get acquainted in a day." + +The first long hill was surmounted and away they bowled again, past +cottage and farmhouse, through strips of woodland and between fields +from which came the fragrance of the springing grass and the peepings +of the hylas. The moon soon rose, full-orbed, above the higher eastern +hills, and the mild April evening became luminous and full of beauty. + +A healing sense of quiet and security already began to steal into +Alida's bruised heart. In turning her back upon the town in which she +had suffered so greatly, she felt like one escaping from prison and +torture. An increasing assurance of safety came with every mile; the +cool, still radiance of the night appeared typical of her new and most +unexpected experience. Light had risen on her shadowed path, but it +was not warm, vivifying sunlight, which stimulates and develops. A few +hours before she was in darkness which might be felt--yet it was a +gloom shot through and through with lurid threatening gleams. It had +seemed to her that she had fallen from home, happiness, and honor to +unfathomed depths, and yet there had appeared to be deeper and darker +abysses on every side. She had shuddered at the thought of going out +into the world, feeling that her misfortune would awaken suspicion +rather than sympathy, scorn instead of kindness; that she must toil on +until death, to sustain a life to which death would come as God's +welcome messenger. Then had come this man at her side, with his +comparatively trivial troubles and perplexities, and he had asked her +help--she who was so helpless. He had banished despair from her +earthly future, he had lifted her up and was bearing her away from all +which she had so dreaded; nothing had been asked which her crushed +spirit was unable to bestow; she was simply expected to aid him in his +natural wish to keep his home and to live where he had always dwelt. +His very inability to understand her, to see her broken, trampled life +and immeasurable need as she saw it, brought quietness of mind. The +concentration of his thoughts on a few homely and simple hopes gave her +immunity. With quick intuition, she divined that she had not a +whimsical, jealous, exacting nature to deal with. He was the plain, +matter-of-fact man he seemed; so literal and absolutely truthful that +he would appear odd to most people. To her mind, his were the traits +which she could now most welcome and value. He knew all about her, she +had merely to be herself, to do what she had promised, in order to rest +securely on his rock-like truth. He had again touched a deep, grateful +chord in speaking of her to the shopkeeper as his wife; he showed no +disposition whatever to shrink from the relation before the world; it +was evident that he meant to treat her with respect and kindness, and +to exact respect from others. For all this, while sitting quietly and +silently at his side, she thanked him almost passionately in her heart; +but far more than for all this she was glad and grateful that he would +not expect what she now felt it would be impossible for her to +give--the love and personal devotion which had been inseparable from +marriage in her girlhood thoughts. He would make good his words--she +should be his wife in name and be respected as such. He was too simple +and true to himself and his buried love, too considerate of her, to +expect more. She might hope, therefore, as he had said, that they +might be helpful, loyal friends and he would have been surprised indeed +had he known how the pale, silent woman beside him was longing and +hoping to fill his home with comfort. + +Thoughts like these had inspired and sustained her while at the same +time ministering the balm of hope. The quiet face of nature, lovely in +the moonlight, seemed to welcome and reassure her. Happy are those +who, when sorely wounded in life, can turn to the natural world and +find in every tree, shrub, and flower a comforting friend that will not +turn from them. Such are not far from God and peace. + +The range of Holcroft's thoughts was far simpler and narrower than +Alida's. He turned rather deliberately from the past, preferring to +dwell on the probable consummation of his hope. His home, his farm, +were far more to him than the woman he had married. He had wedded her +for their sake, and his thoughts followed his heart, which was in his +hillside acres. It is said that women often marry for a home; he truly +had done so to keep his home. The question which now most occupied him +was the prospect of doing this through quiet, prosperous years. He +dwelt minutely on Alida's manner, as well as her words, and found +nothing to shake his belief that she had been as truthful as himself. +Nevertheless, he queried in regard to the future with not a little +anxiety. In her present distress and poverty she might naturally be +glad of the refuge he had offered; but as time passed and the poignancy +of bitter memories was allayed, might not her life on the farm seem +monotonous and dull, might not weariness and discontent come into her +eyes in place of gratitude? "Well, well!" he concluded, "this marrying +is a risky experiment at best, but Tom Watterly's talk and her manner +seemed to shut me up to it. I was made to feel that I couldn't go on +in any other way; and I haven't done anything underhanded or wrong, as +I see, for the chance of going on. If I hadn't become such a heathen I +should say there was a Providence in it, but I don't know what to think +about such things any more. Time'll show, and the prospect is better +than it has been yet. She'll never be sorry if she carries out the +agreement made today, if kindness and good will can repay her." + +Thus it may be seen that, although two life currents had become +parallel, they were still very distinct. + +By the time Holcroft approached the lane leading to his dwelling, Alida +was growing very weary, and felt that her endurance had almost reached +its limit. Her face was so white in the moonlight that he asked +solicitously, "You can stand it a little longer, can't you?" + +"I'll try. I'm very sorry I'm not stronger." + +"Don't you worry about that! You won't know yourself in a week. Here +we are at the lane and there's the house yonder. A moment or two more +and you'll be by the fire." + +A loud barking startled old Jonathan Johnson out of his doze, and he +hastened to replenish the fire and to call off his rather savage dog. +He was a little surprised to see Holcroft drive toward the kitchen door +with a woman by his side. "He's tried his luck with another of them +town gals," he muttered, "but, Jerusalem! She won't stay a week, an' +my old woman'll have the washin' an' mendin' all the same." + +He could scarcely believe his ears and eyes when he heard the farmer +say, "Alida, you must let me lift you out," and then saw the "town gal" +set gently on the ground, her hand placed on Holcroft's arm as she was +supported slowly and carefully to the rocking chair beside the fire. +"Jonathan," was the quiet announcement, "this is Mrs. Holcroft, my +wife." + +"Jeru--beg a pardon. Wasn't 'spectin; jis' sich a turn o' things. +Respects, missus! Sorry to see yer enj'yin' poor health." + +"Yes, Jonathan, Mrs. Holcroft has been sick, but she's much better and +will soon be well. She's very tired now from the long drive, but quiet +life and country air will soon make her strong. I'll just step out and +care for the horses, Alida, and soon be back again. You come and help +me, Jonathan, and keep your dog off, too." + +The old man complied with rather poor grace for he would have preferred +to interview the bride, at whom he was staring with all his weak, +watery eyes. Holcroft understood his neighbor's peculiarities too well +to subject his wife to this ordeal, and was bent on dispatching +Jonathan homeward as soon as possible. + +"I say, Jim," said the old guardsman, who felt that he was speaking to +the boy he had known for thirty odd years, "where on airth did you pick +up sich a sickly lookin' critter?" + +"I didn't pick her up," replied the farmer laughingly. "I married her +fair and square just as you did your wife a hundred years ago, more or +less. Haven't I as good a right to get married as you had?" + +"Oh, I aint a-disputin' yer right, but it seems so kind o' suddint that +it's taken what little breath I've left." + +"How do you know it's sudden? Did you go around telling everyone how +you were getting on when you were a-courting?" + +"Well, I swan! Yer got me. 'Taint so long ago that I disremember we +did it on the sly." + +"Well, now, Uncle Jonathan, you've got nothing to say against me for I +didn't marry on the sly, although I've gone on the principle that my +business wasn't everybody's business. When I saw your wife about my +washing and mending I didn't know I was going to be lucky so soon. You +know you can't marry a woman in this country till she's willing. But +tell your wife she shan't lose anything, and the next time I go to town +I'll leave that settin' of eggs she wanted. Now, Jonathan, honor +bright, do you feel able to walk home if I give you fifty cents extra?" + +"Why, sartinly! S'pose I'd take yer away on sich a 'casion? My wife +wouldn't let me in if she knowed it." + +"Well, you and your wife are good neighbors, and that's more'n I can +say for most people in these parts. Here's the money. Mrs. Holcroft +isn't strong or well enough to talk any tonight. You got yourself a +good supper, didn't you?" + +"Yes, yes! Helped myself bount'fully. Good night, and good luck ter +yer. I can't help thinkin' it was kind o' suddint though, and then +she's sich a sickly lookin' critter. Hope yer haven't been taken in, +but then, as you say, the marryin' business, like other kinds o' +business, is a man's own business." + +"I hope everyone will take your sensible view, Uncle Jonathan. Good +night." + + + +Chapter XXI. + +At Home + +Alida was not so cold, weary, and almost faint but that she looked +around the old kitchen with the strongest interest. This interest was +as unlike Mrs. Mumpson's curiosity as she was unlike the widow. It is +true the thought of self was prominent, yet hers were not selfish +thoughts. There are some blessed natures in the world that in doing +the best for themselves do the best that is possible for others. + +The genial warmth of the fire was grateful to her chilled and enfeebled +frame; the homely kitchen, with its dresser of china ware, its tin +closet and pantry, the doors of which old Jonathan had left open, +manlike, after helping himself "bount'fully," all suggested more +comfort to this pallid bride, sitting there alone, than wealth of +ornament in elegant apartments has brought to many others. She saw her +chief domain, not in its coarse and common aspect, but as her vantage +ground, from which she could minister to the comforts of the one who +had rescued her. Few brides would care to enter the kitchen first, but +she was pleased; she who had scarcely hoped to smile again looked +smilingly around on the quaint, homelike room. + +"And this is to be my home!" she murmured. "How strange, unexpected, +yet natural it all is! Just what he led me to expect. The little +lonely farmhouse, where I can be safe from staring eyes and unwounded +by cruel questionings. Yet that old man had a dozen questions on his +tongue. I believe HE took him away to save my feelings. It's strange +that so plain and simple a man in most respects can be so considerate. +Oh, pray God that all goes on as it promises! I couldn't have dreamt +it this morning, but I have an odd, homelike feeling already. Well, +since I AM at home I may as well take off my hat and cloak." + +And she did so. Holcroft entered and said heartily, "That's right, +Alida! You are here to stay, you know. You mustn't think it amiss that +I left you a few moments alone for I had to get that talkative old man +off home. He's getting a little childish and would fire questions at +you point-blank." + +"But shouldn't you have taken him home in the wagon? I don't mind +being alone." + +"Oh, no! He's spry enough to walk twice the distance and often does. +It's light as day outside, and I made it right with him. You can leave +your things upstairs in your room, and I'll carry up your bundles also +if you are rested enough for the journey." + +"Oh, yes!" she replied, "I'm feeling better already." + +He led the way to the apartment that Mrs. Mumpson had occupied and said +regretfully, "I'm sorry the room looks so bare and comfortless, but +that will all be mended in time. When you come down, we'll have some +coffee and supper." + +She soon reappeared in the kitchen, and he continued, "Now I'll show +you that I'm not such a very helpless sort of man, after all; so if +you're sick you needn't worry. I'm going to get you a good cup of +coffee and broil you a piece of steak." + +"Oh! Please let me--" she began. + +"No, can't allow you to do anything tonight but sit in that chair. You +promised to mind, you know," and he smiled so genially that she smiled +back at him although tears came into her eyes. + +"I can't realize it all," she said in a low voice. "To think how this +day began and how it is ending!" + +"It's ending in a poor man's kitchen, Alida. It was rather rough to +bring you in here first, but the parlor is cold and comfortless. + +"I would rather be brought here. It seems to me that it must be a +light and cheerful room." + +"Yes, the sun shines in these east windows, and there's another window +facing the south, so it's light all day long." + +She watched him curiously and with not a little self-reproach as he +deftly prepared supper. "It's too bad for me to sit idle while you do +such things, yet you do everything so well that I fear I shall seem +awkward. Still, I think I do at least know how to cook a little." + +"If you knew what I've had to put up with for a year or more, you +wouldn't worry about satisfying me in this respect. Except when old +Mrs. Wiggins was here, I had few decent meals that I didn't get +myself," and then, to cheer her up, he laughingly told her of Mrs. +Mumpson's essay at making coffee. He had a certain dry humor, and his +unwonted effort at mimicry was so droll in itself that Alida was +startled to hear her own voice in laughter, and she looked almost +frightened, so deeply had she been impressed that it would never be +possible or even right for her to laugh again. + +The farmer was secretly much pleased at his success. If she would +laugh, be cheerful and not brood, he felt sure she would get well and +be more contented. The desperate view she had taken of her misfortunes +troubled him, and he had thought it possible that she might sink into +despondency and something like invalidism; but that involuntary bubble +of laughter reassured him. "Quiet, wholesome, cheerful life will +restore her to health," he thought, as he put his favorite beverage and +the sputtering steak on the table. "Now," he said, placing a chair at +the table, "you can pour me a cup of coffee." + +"I'm glad I can do something," she answered, "for I can't get over the +strangeness of being so waited on. Indeed, everything that was +unexpected or undreamt of has happened," and there was just the +faintest bit of color on her cheeks as she sat down opposite him. + +Few men are insensible to simple, natural, womanly grace, and poor +Holcroft, who so long had been compelled to see at his table "perfect +terrors," as he called them, was agreeably impressed by the contrast +she made with the Mumpson and Malony species. Alida unconsciously had +a subtle charm of carriage and action, learned in her long past and +happy girlhood when all her associations were good and refined. Still, +in its truest explanation, this grace is native and not acquired; it is +a personal trait. Incapable of nice analysis or fine definitions, he +only thought, "How much pleasanter it is to see at the table a quiet, +sensible woman instead of a 'peculiar female!'" and it was not long +before he supplemented her remark by saying, "Perhaps things are +turning out for both of us better than we expected. I had made up my +mind this morning to live here like a hermit, get my own meals, and all +that. I actually had the rough draught of an auction bill in my +pocket,--yes, here it is now,--and was going to sell my cows, give up +my dairy, and try to make my living in a way that wouldn't require any +woman help. That's what took me up to Tom Watterly's; I wanted him to +help me put the bill in shape. He wouldn't look at it, and talked me +right out of trying to live like Robinson Crusoe, as he expressed it. +I had been quite cheerful over my prospects; indeed, I was almost happy +in being alone again after having such terrors in the house. But, as I +said, Watterly talked all the courage and hope right out of me, and +made it clear that I couldn't go it alone. You see, Tom and I have +been friends since we were boys together, and that's the reason he +talks so plain to me." + +"He has a good, kind heart," said Alida. "I don't think I could have +kept up at all had it not been for his kindness." + +"Yes, Tom's a rough diamond. He don't make any pretenses, and looks +upon himself as a rather hard case, but I fancy he's doing kind things +in his rough way half the time. Well, as we were talking, he +remembered you, and he spoke of you so feelingly and told your story +with so much honest sympathy that he awoke my sympathy. Now you know +how it has all come about. You see it's all natural enough and simple +enough, and probably it's the best thing that could have happened for +us both. All you have to do is to get strong and well, and then it +won't be any one-sided affair, as you've been too much inclined to +think. I can go on and keep my farm and home just as my heart is bent +on doing. I want you to understand everything for then your mind will +be more satisfied and at rest, and that's half the battle in getting +over sickness and trouble like yours." + +"I can only thank God and you for the great change in my prospects. +This quiet and escape from strangers are just what I most craved, and I +am already beginning to hope that if I can learn to do all you wish, I +shall find a content that I never hoped for," and the tears that stood +in her eyes were witnesses of her sincerity. + +"Well, don't expect to learn everything at once. Let me have my way +for a while, and then you'll find, as you get strong, and the busy +season comes on, that I'll be so taken up with the farm that you'll +have your own way. Won't you have some more steak? No? Well, you've +enjoyed your supper a little, haven't you?" + +"Yes," she replied, smiling. "I actually felt hungry when I sat down, +and the coffee has taken away the tired, faint feeling." + +"I hope you'll soon be good and hungry three times a day," he said, +laughing pleasantly. + +"You'll at least let me clear the table?" she asked. "I feel so much +better." + +"Yes, if you are sure you're strong enough. It may make you feel more +at home. But drop everything till tomorrow when tired. I must go out +and do my night work, and it's night work now, sure enough--" + +"It's too bad!" she said sympathetically. + +"What! To go out and feed my stock this clear, bright night? And +after a hearty supper too? Such farming is fun. I feel, too, as if I +wanted to go and pat the cows all around in my gladness that I'm not +going to sell them. Now remember, let everything go till morning as +soon as you feel tired." + +She nodded smilingly and set to work. Standing in the shadow of a +hemlock, he watched her for a few moments. Her movements were slow, as +would be natural to one who had been so reduced by illness, but this +every evidence of feebleness touched his feelings. "She is eager to +begin--too eager. No nonsense there about 'menial tasks.' Well, it +does give one hope to see such a woman as that in the old kitchen," and +then the hungry cattle welcomed him. + +The traveler feels safe after the fierce Arab of the desert has broken +bread with him. It would seem that a deep principle of human nature is +involved in this act. More than the restoring power of the nourishment +itself was the moral effect for Alida of that first meal in her +husband's home. It was another step in what he had said was +essential--the forming of his acquaintance. She had seen from the +first that he was plain and unpolished--that he had not the veneer of +gentility of the man she had so mistakenly married; yet, in his simple +truth, he was inspiring a respect which she had never felt for any man +before. "What element of real courtesy has been wanting?" she asked +herself. "If this is an earnest of the future, thank God for the real. +I've found to my cost what a clever imitation of a man means." + +It was as sweet as it was strange to think that she, who had trembled +at the necessity of becoming almost a slave to unfeeling strangers, had +been compelled to rest while a husband performed tasks naturally hers. +It was all very homely, yet the significance of the act was chivalrous +consideration for her weakness; the place, the nature of the ministry +could not degrade the meaning of his action. Then, too, during the +meal he had spoken natural, kindly words which gave to their breaking +of bread together the true interpretation. Although so feeble and +wary, she found a deep satisfaction in beginning her household work. +"It does make me feel more at home," she said. "Strange that he should +have thought of it!" + +She had finished her task and sat down again when he entered with a +pail of milk. Taking a dipper with a strainer on one side of it, he +poured out a tumblerful. "Now, take this," he said, "I've always heard +that milk fresh from the cow was very strengthening. Then go and sleep +till you are thoroughly rested, and don't think of coming down in the +morning till you feel like it. I'll make the fire and get breakfast. +You have seen how easily I can do it. I have several more cows to milk, +and so will say 'Goodnight.'" + +For the first time since chaos had come into her life Alida slept +soundly and refreshingly, unpursued by the fears which had haunted even +her dreams. When she awoke she expected to see the gray locks and +repulsive features of the woman who had occupied the apartment with her +at the almshouse, but she was alone in a small, strange room. Then +memory gathered up the threads of the past; but so strange, so blessed +did the truth seem that she hastened to dress and go down to the old +kitchen and assure herself that her mind had not become shattered by +her troubles and was mocking her with unreal fancies. The scene she +looked upon would have soothed and reassured her even had her mind been +as disordered as she, for the moment, had been tempted to believe. +There was the same homely room which had pictured itself so deeply in +her memory the evening before. Now it was more attractive for the +morning sun was shining into it, lighting up its homely details with a +wholesome, cheerful reality which made it difficult to believe that +there were tragic experiences in the world. The wood fire in the stove +crackled merrily, and the lid of the kettle was already bobbing up and +down from internal commotion. + +As she opened the door a burst of song entered, securing her attention. +She had heard the birds before without recognizing consciousness, as is +so often true of our own condition in regard to the familiar sounds of +nature. It was now almost as if she had received another sense, so +strong, sweet, and cheering was the symphony. Robins, song-sparrows, +blackbirds, seemed to have gathered in the trees nearby, to give her a +jubilant welcome; but she soon found that the music shaded off to +distant, dreamlike notes, and remembered that it was a morning chorus +of a hemisphere. This universality did not render the melody less +personally grateful. We can appreciate all that is lovely in Nature, +yet leave all for others. As she stood listening, and inhaling the +soft air, full of the delicious perfume of the grass and expanding +buds, and looking through the misty sunshine on the half-veiled +landscape, she heard Holcroft's voice, chiding some unruly animal in +the barnyard. + +This recalled her, and with the elasticity of returning health and hope +she set about getting breakfast. + +"It seems to me that I never heard birds sing before," she thought, +"and their songs this morning are almost like the music of heaven. +They seem as happy and unconscious of fear and trouble as if they were +angels. Mother and I used to talk about the Garden of Eden, but could +the air have been sweeter, or the sunshine more tempered to just the +right degree of warmth and brightness than here about my home? Oh, +thank God again, again and forever, for a home like this!" and for a +few moments something of the ecstasy of one delivered from the black +thraldom of evil filled her soul. She paused now and then to listen to +the birds for only their songs seemed capable of expressing her +emotion. It was but another proof that heavenly thoughts and homely +work may go on together. + + + +Chapter XXII. + +Getting Acquainted + +It was still early, and Holcroft was under the impression that Alida +would sleep late after the severe fatigues of the preceding day. He +therefore continued his work at the barn sufficiently long to give his +wife time for her little surprise. She was not long in finding and +laying her hands on the simple materials for breakfast. A ham hung in +the pantry and beneath it was a great basket of eggs, while the flour +barrel stood in the corner. Biscuits were soon in the oven, eggs +conjured into an omelet, and the ham cut into delicate slices, instead +of great coarse steaks. + +Remembering Mrs. Mumpson's failure with the coffee, she made it a +trifle strong and boiled the milk that should temper without cooling +it. The biscuits rose like her own spirits, the omelet speedily began +to take on color like her own flushed face as she busied herself about +the stove. + +Everything was nearly ready when she saw Holcroft coming toward the +house with two pails of milk. He took them to the large dairy room +under the parlor and then came briskly to the kitchen. + +She stood, screened by the door as he entered, then stopped and stared +at the table all set and at the inviting breakfast on the stove. + +Seeing Alida's half-smiling, half-questioning face, seeking his +approval, he exclaimed, "Well, you HAVE stolen a march on me! I +supposed you were asleep yet." + +"I felt so much stronger and better when I awoke that I thought you +wouldn't mind if I came down and made a beginning." + +"You call this a beginning do you? Such a breakfast as this before +seven in the morning? I hope you haven't overtaxed yourself." + +"No, only a little of just the right kind of tired feeling." + +"Haven't you left anything for me to do?" + +"Perhaps. You will know when I've put all on the table. What I've +prepared is ready." + +"Well, this is famous. I'll go and wash and fix up a little and be +right down." + +When Holcroft returned, he looked at her curiously, for he felt that +he, too, was getting acquainted. Her thin face was made more youthful +by color; a pleased look was in her blue eyes, and a certain neatness +and trimness about her dress to which he had not been accustomed. He +scanned the table wonderingly, for things were not put upon it at +haphazard; the light biscuits turned their brown cheeks invitingly +toward him,--she had arranged that they should do that,--the ham was +crisp, not sodden, and the omelet as russet as a November leaf. "This +is a new dish," he said, looking at it closely. "What do you call it?" + +"Omelet. Perhaps you won't like it, but mother used to be very fond of +it." + +"No matter. We'll have it if you like it and it brings you pleasant +thoughts of your mother." Then he took a good sip of coffee and set +the cup down again as he had before under the Mumpson regime, but with +a very different expression. She looked anxiously at him, but was +quickly reassured. "I thought I knew how to make coffee, but I find I +don't. I never tasted anything so good as that. How DO you make it?" + +"Just as mother taught me." + +"Well, well! And you call this making a beginning? I just wish I +could give Tom Watterly a cup of this coffee. It would set his mind at +rest. 'By jocks!' he would say, 'isn't this better than going it +alone?'" + +She looked positively happy under this sweet incense to a housewifely +heart. She was being paid in the coin that women love best, and it was +all the more precious to her because she had never expected to receive +it again. + +He did like the omelet; he liked everything, and, after helping her +liberally, cleared the table, then said he felt equal to doing two +men's work. Before going out to his work, he lighted a fire on the +parlor hearth and left a good supply of fuel beside it. "Now, Alida," +he remarked humorously, "I've already found out that you have one fault +that you and I will have to watch against. You are too willing. I fear +you've gone beyond your strength this morning. I don't want you to do +a thing today except to get the meals, and remember, I can help in this +if you don't feel well. There is a fire in the parlor, and I've +wheeled the lounge up by it. Take it quietly today, and perhaps +tomorrow I can begin to show you about butter-making." + +"I will do as you wish," she replied, "but please show me a little more +where things are before you go out." + +This he did and added, "You'll find the beef and some other things on a +swing-shelf in the cellar. The potato bins are down there, too. But +don't try to get up much dinner. What comes quickest and easiest will +suit me. I'm a little backward with my work and must plow all day for +oats. It's time they were in. After such a breakfast, I feel as if I +had eaten a bushel myself." + +A few moments later she saw him going up the lane, that continued on +past the house, with his stout team and the plow, and she smiled as she +heard him whistling "Coronation" with levity, as some good people would +have thought. + +Plowing and planting time had come and under happier auspices, +apparently, than he had ever imagined possible again. With the lines +about his neck, he began with a sidehill plow at the bottom of a large, +sloping field which had been in corn the previous year, and the long, +straight furrows increased from a narrow strip to a wide, oblong area. +"Ah," said he in tones of strong satisfaction, "the ground crumbles +freely; it's just in the right condition. I'll quit plowing this +afternoon in time to harrow and sow all the ground that's ready. Then, +so much'll be all done and well done. It's curious how seed, if it +goes into the ground at the right time and in the right way, comes +right along and never gets discouraged. I aint much on scientific +farming, but I've always observed that when I sow or plant as soon as +the ground is ready, I have better luck." + +The horses seemed infected by his own brisk spirit, stepping along +without urging, and the farmer was swept speedily into the full, strong +current of his habitual interests. + +One might have supposed the recent events would have the uppermost +place in his thoughts, but this was not true. He rather dwelt upon +them as the unexpectedly fortunate means to the end now attained. This +was his life, and he was happy in the thought that his marriage +promised to make this life not merely possible, but prosperous and full +of quiet content. + +The calling of the born agriculturist, like that of the fisherman, has +in it the element of chance and is therefore full of moderate yet +lasting excitement. Holcroft knew that, although he did his best, much +would depend on the weather and other causes. He had met with +disappointments in his crops, and had also achieved what he regarded as +fine successes, although they would have seemed meager on a Western +prairie. Every spring kindled anew his hopefulness and anticipation. +He watched the weather with the interested and careful scrutiny of a +sailor, and it must be admitted that his labor and its results depended +more on natural causes than upon his skill and the careful use of the +fertilizers. He was a farmer of the old school, the traditions +received from his father controlled him in the main. Still, his good +common sense and long experience stood him fairly well in the place of +science and knowledge of improved methods, and he was better equipped +than the man who has in his brain all that the books can teach, yet is +without experience. Best of all, he had inherited and acquired an +abiding love of the soil; he never could have been content except in +its cultivation; he was therefore in the right condition to assimilate +fuller knowledge and make the most of it. + +He knew well enough when it was about noon. From long habit he would +have known had the sky been overcast, but now his glance at the sun was +like looking at a watch. Dusty and begrimed he followed his team to +the barn, slipped from them their headstalls and left them to amuse +themselves with a little hay while they cooled sufficiently for +heartier food. "Well now," he mused, "I wonder what that little woman +has for dinner? Another new dish, like enough. Hanged if I'm fit to +go in the house, and she looking so trim and neat. I think I'll first +take a souse in the brook," and he went up behind the house where an +unfailing stream gurgled swiftly down from the hills. At the nearest +point a small basin had been hollowed out, and as he approached he saw +two or three speckled trout darting away through the limpid water. + +"Aha!" he muttered, "glad you reminded me. When SHE'S stronger, she +may enjoy catching our supper some afternoon. I must think of all the +little things I can to liven her up so she won't get dull. It's +curious how interested I am to know how she's got along and what she +has for dinner. And to think that, less than a week ago, I used to +hate to go near the house!" + +As he entered the hall on his way to his room, that he might make +himself more presentable, an appetizing odor greeted him and Alida +smiled from the kitchen door as she said, "Dinner's ready." + +Apparently she had taken him at his word, as she had prepared little +else than an Irish stew, yet when he had partaken of it, he thought he +would prefer Irish stews from that time onward indefinitely. "Where did +you learn to cook, Alida?" he asked. + +"Mother wasn't very strong and her appetite often failed her. Then, +too, we hadn't much to spend on our table so we tried to make simple +things taste nice. Do you like my way of preparing that old-fashioned +dish?" + +"I'm going to show you how I like it," he replied, nodding approvingly. +"Well, what have you been doing besides tempting me to eat too much?" + +"What you said, resting. You told me not to get up much of a dinner, +so I very lazily prepared what you see. I've been lying on the lounge +most of the morning." + +"Famous, and you feel better?" + +"Yes, I think I shall soon get well and strong," she replied, looking +at him gratefully. + +"Well, well! My luck's turned at last. I once thought it never would, +but if this goes on--well, you can't know what a change it is for the +better. I can now put my mind on my work." + +"You've been plowing all the morning, haven't you?" she ventured, and +there was the pleased look in her eyes that he already liked to see. + +"Yes," he replied, "and I must keep at it several days to get in all +the oats I mean to sow. If this weather holds, I shall be through next +week." + +"I looked in the milk-room a while ago. Isn't there anything I could +do there this afternoon?" + +"No. I'll attend to everything there. It's too damp for you yet. +Keep on resting. Why, bless me! I didn't think you'd be well enough +to do anything for a week." + +"Indeed," she admitted, "I'm surprised at myself. It seems as if a +crushing weight had been lifted off my mind and that I was coming right +up. I'm so glad, for I feared I might be feeble and useless a long +time." + +"Well, Alida, if you had been, or if you ever are, don't think I'll be +impatient. The people I can't stand are those who try to take +advantage of me, and I tell you I've had to contend with that +disposition so long that I feel as if I could do almost anything for +one who is simply honest and tries to keep her part of an agreement. +But this won't do. I've enjoyed my own dinner so much that I've half +forgotten that the horses haven't had theirs yet. Now will you scold +if I light my pipe before I go out?" + +"Oh, no! I don't mind that." + +"No good-natured fibs! Isn't smoke disagreeable?" + +She shook her head. "I don't mind it at all," she said, but her sudden +paleness puzzled him. He could not know that he had involuntarily +recalled the many times that she had filled the evening pipe for a man +who now haunted her memory like a specter. + +"I guess you don't like it very much," he said, as he passed out. +"Well, no matter! It's getting so mild that I can smoke out of doors." + +With the exception of the episode of dinner the day was chiefly passed +by Alida in a health-restoring languor, the natural reaction from the +distress and strong excitements of the past. The rest that had been +enjoined upon her was a blessed privilege, and still more happy was the +truth that she could rest. Reclining on the lounge in the parlor, with +a wood fire on one side and the April sun on the other, both creating +warmth and good cheer, she felt like those who have just escaped from a +wreck and engulfing waves. Her mind was too weary to question either +the past or the future, and sometimes a consciousness of safety is +happiness in itself. In the afternoon, the crackling of the fire and +the calling and singing of the birds without formed a soothing lullaby +and she fell asleep. + +At last, in a dream, she heard exquisite music which appeared to grow +so loud, strong, and triumphant that she started up and looked around +bewildered. A moment later, she saw that a robin was singing in a +lilac bush by the window and that near the bird was a nest partially +constructed. She recalled her hopeless grief when she had last seen +the building of one of their little homes; and she fell upon her knees +with a gratitude too deep for words, and far more grateful to Heaven +than words. + +Stepping out on the porch, she saw by the shadows that the sun was low +in the west and that Holcroft was coming down the lane with his horses. +He nodded pleasantly as he passed on to the barn. Her eyes followed +him lingeringly till he disappeared, and then they ranged over the wide +valley and the wooded hills in the distance. Not a breath of air was +stirring; the lowing of cattle and other rural sounds softened by +distance came from other farmhouses; the birds were at vespers, and +their songs, to her fancy, were imbued with a softer, sweeter melody +than in the morning. From the adjacent fields came clear, mellow notes +that made her nerves tingle, so ethereal yet penetrating were they. +She was sure she had never heard such bird music before. When Holcroft +came in to supper she asked, "What birds are those that sing in the +field?" + +"Meadow larks. Do you like them?" + +"I never heard a hymn sung that did me more good." + +"Well, I own up, I'd rather hear 'em than much of the singing we used +to have down at the meeting house." + +"It seems to me," she remarked, as she sat down at the table, "that +I've never heard birds sing as they have today." + +"Now I think of it, they have been tuning up wonderfully. Perhaps +they've an idea of my good luck," he added smilingly. + +"I had thought of that about myself," she ventured. "I took a nap this +afternoon, and a robin sang so near the window that he woke me up. It +was a pleasant way to be waked." + +"Took a nap, did you? That's famous! Well, well! This day's gone +just to suit me, and I haven't had many such in a good while, I can +tell you. I've got in a big strip of oats, and now, when I come in +tired, here's a good supper. I certainly shall have to be on the watch +to do Tom Watterly good turns for talking me into this business. That +taking a nap was a first-rate idea. You ought to keep it up for a +month." + +"No, indeed! There's no reason why you should work hard and I be idle. +I've rested today, as you wished, and I feel better than I ever +expected to again; but tomorrow I must begin in earnest. What use is +there of your keeping your cows if good butter is not made? Then I +must be busy with my needle." + +"Yes, that's true enough. See how thoughtless I am! I forgot you +hadn't any clothes to speak of. I ought to take you to town to a +dressmaker." + +"I think you had better get your oats in," she replied, smiling shyly. +"Besides, I have a dressmaker that just suits me--one that's made my +dresses a good many years." + +"If she don't suit you, you're hard to be suited," said he, laughing. +"Well, some day, after you are fixed up, I shall have to let you know +how dilapidated I am." + + "Won't you do me a little favor?" + +"Oh, yes! A dozen of 'em, big or little." + +"Please bring down this evening something that needs mending. I am so +much better--" + +"No, no! I wasn't hinting for you to do anything tonight." + +"But you've promised me," she urged. "Remember I've been resting +nearly all day. I'm used to sewing, and earned my living at it. +Somehow, it don't seem natural for me to sit with idle hands." + +"If I hadn't promised--" + +"But you have." + +"I suppose I'm fairly caught," and he brought down a little of the most +pressing of the mending. + +"Now I'll reward you," she said, handing him his pipe, well filled. +"You go in the parlor and have a quiet smoke. I won't be long in +clearing up the kitchen." + +"What! Smoke in the parlor?" + +"Yes, why not? I assure you I don't mind it." + +"Ha! Ha! Why didn't I think of it before--I might have kept the parlor +and smoked Mrs. Mumpson out." + +"It won't be smoke that will keep me out." + +"I should hope not, or anything else. I must tell you how I DID have +to smoke Mrs. Mumpson out at last," and he did so with so much drollery +that she again yielded to irrepressible laughter. + +"Poor thing! I'm sorry for her," she said. + +"I'm sorry for Jane--poor little stray cat of a child! I hope we can +do something for her some day," and having lighted his pipe, he took up +the county paper, left weekly in a hollow tree by the stage driver, and +went into the parlor. + +After freshening up the fire he sat down to read, but by the time she +joined him the tired man was nodding. He tried to brighten up, but his +eyes were heavy. + +"You've worked hard today," she said sympathetically. + +"Well, I have," he answered. "I've not done such a good day's work in a +year." + +"Then why don't you go to sleep at once?" + +"It don't seem polite--" + +"Please don't talk that way," she interrupted. "I don't mind being +alone at all. I shall feel a great deal more at home if you forget all +about ceremony." + +"Well, Alida, I guess we had both better begin on that basis. If I +give up when I'm tired, you must. You mustn't think I'm always such a +sleepyhead. The fact is I've been more tired out with worry of late +than with work. I can laugh about it now, but I've been so desperate +over it that I've felt more like swearing. You'll find out I've become +a good deal of a heathen." + +"Very well; I'll wait till I find out." + +"I think we are getting acquainted famously, don't you?" + +"Yes," she nodded, with a smile that meant more than a long speech. +"Good night." + + + +Chapter XXIII. + +Between the Past and Future + +Human nature, in common with Mother Nature, has its immutable laws. +The people who existed before the flood were, in their primal motives, +like those of today. The conventionality of highly civilized society +does not change the heart, but it puts so much restraint upon it that +not a few appear heartless. They march through life and fight its +battles like uniformed men, trained in a certain school of tactics. +The monotony of character and action is superficial, in most cases, +rather than real, and he who fathoms the eyes of others, who catches +the subtle quality of tones and interprets the flexible mouth that +utters them, will discover that the whole gamut of human nature exists +in those that appear only like certain musical instruments, made by +machinery to play a few well-known tunes. Conventional restraint +often, no doubt, produces dwarfed and defective human nature. I +suppose that if souls could be put under a microscope, the undeveloped +rudiments of almost everything would be discovered. It is more +satisfactory to study the things themselves than their suggestions; +this we are usually better able to do among people of simple and +untrammeled modes of life, who are not practiced in disguises. Their +peculiar traits and their general and dominant laws and impulses are +exhibited with less reserve than by those who have learned to be always +on their guard. Of course there are commonplace yeomen as truly as +commonplace aristocrats, and simple life abounds in simpletons. + +When a man in Holcroft's position has decided traits, they are apt to +have a somewhat full expression; his rugged nature beside a tamer one +outlines itself more vividly, just as a mountain peak is silhouetted +against the horizon better than a rounded hill. It probably has been +observed that his character possessed much simplicity and directness. +He had neither the force nor the ambition to raise him above his +circumstances; he was merely decided within the lines of his +environment. Perhaps the current of his life was all the stronger for +being narrow. His motives were neither complex nor vacillating. He had +married to keep his home and to continue in the conditions of life dear +from association and the strongest preference, and his heart overflowed +with good will and kindness toward Alida because she promised to solve +the hard problem of the future satisfactorily. Apart from the sympathy +which her misfortune had evoked, he probably could have felt much the +same toward any other good, sensible woman, had she rendered him a +similar service. It is true, now that Alida was in his home, that she +was manifesting agreeable traits which gave him pleasant little +surprises. He had not expected that he would have had half so much to +say to her, yet felt it his duty to be sociable in order to cheer up +and mark the line between even a business marriage and the employment +of a domestic. Both his interest and his duty required that he should +establish the bonds of strong friendly regard on the basis of perfect +equality, and he would have made efforts, similar to those he put +forth, in behalf of any woman, if she had consented to marry him with +Alida's understanding. Now, however, that his suddenly adopted project +of securing a housekeeper and helper had been consummated, he would +find that he was not dealing with a business partner in the abstract, +but a definite woman, who had already begun to exert over him her +natural influence. He had expected more or less constraint and that +some time must elapse before his wife would cease to be in a sense +company whom he, with conscious and deliberate effort, must entertain. +On the contrary she entertained and interested him, although she said +so little, and by some subtle power she unloosed his tongue and made it +easy for him to talk to her. In the most quiet and unobtrusive way, +she was not only making herself at home, but him also; she was very +subservient to his wishes, but not servilely so; she did not assert, +but only revealed her superiority, and after even so brief an +acquaintance he was ready to indorse Tom Watterly's view, "She's out of +the common run." + +While all this was true, the farmer's heart was as untouched as that of +a child who simply and instinctively likes a person. He was still +quietly and unhesitatingly loyal to his former wife. Apart from his +involuntary favor, his shrewd, practical reason was definite enough in +its grounds of approval. Reason assured him that she promised to do and +to be just what he had married her for, but this might have been true +of a capable, yet disagreeable woman whom he could not like, to save +himself. + +Both in regard to himself and Alida, Holcroft accepted the actual facts +with the gladness and much of the unquestioning simplicity of a child. +This rather risky experiment was turning out well, and for a time he +daily became more and more absorbed in his farm and its interests. +Alida quietly performed her household tasks and proved that she would +not need very much instruction to become a good butter maker. The +short spring of the North required that he should be busy early and +late to keep pace with the quickly passing seedtime. His hopefulness, +his freedom from household worries, prompted him to sow and plant +increased areas of land. In brief, he entered on just the +business-like honeymoon he had hoped for. + +Alida was more than content with the conditions of her life. She saw +that Holcroft was not only satisfied, but also pleased with her, and +that was all she had expected and indeed all that thus far she had +wished or hoped. She had many sad hours; wounds like hers cannot heal +readily in a true, sensitive woman's heart. While she gained in +cheerfulness and confidence, the terrible and unexpected disaster which +had overtaken her rendered impossible the serenity of those with whom +all has gone well. Dread of something, she knew not what, haunted her +painfully, and memory at times seemed malignantly perverse in recalling +one whom she prayed to forget. + +Next to her faith and Holcroft's kindness her work was her best solace, +and she thanked God for the strength to keep busy. + +On the first Sunday morning after their marriage the farmer overslept, +and breakfast had been ready some time when he came down. He looked +with a little dismay at the clock over the kitchen mantel and asked, +"Aren't you going to scold a little?" + +She shook her head, nor did she look the chiding which often might as +well be spoken. + +"How long have I kept breakfast waiting, or you rather?" + +"What difference does it make? You needed the rest. The breakfast may +not be so nice," was her smiling answer. + +"No matter. You are nice to let a man off in that way." Observing the +book in her lap, he continued, "So you were reading the old family +Bible to learn lessons of patience and forbearance?" + +Again she shook her head. She often oddly reminded him of Jane in her +employment of signs instead of speech, but in her case there was a +grace, a suggestiveness, and even a piquancy about them which made them +like a new language. He understood and interpreted her frankly. "I +know, Alida," he said kindly; "you are a good woman. You believe in +the Bible and love to read it." + +"I was taught to read and love it," she replied simply. Then her eyes +dropped and she faltered, "I've reproached myself bitterly that I +rushed away so hastily that I forgot the Bible my mother gave me." + +"No, no," he said heartily, "don't reproach yourself for that. It was +the Bible in your heart that made you act as you did." + +She shot him a swift, grateful glance through her tears, but made no +other response. + +Having returned the Bible to the parlor, she put the breakfast on the +table and said quietly, "It looks as if we would have a rainy day." + +"Well," said he, laughing, "I'm as bad as the old woman--it seems that +women can run farms alone if men can't. Well, this old dame had a big +farm and employed several men, and she was always wishing it would rain +nights and Sundays. I'm inclined to chuckle over the good this rain +will do my oats, instead of being sorry to think how many sinners it'll +keep from church. Except in protracted-meeting times, most people of +this town would a great deal rather risk their souls than be caught in +the rain on Sunday. We don't mind it much week days, but Sunday rain +is very dangerous to health." + +"I'm afraid I'm as bad as the rest," she said, smiling. "Mother and I +usually stayed home when it rained hard." + +"Oh, we don't need a hard storm in the country. People say, 'It looks +threatening,' and that settles it; but we often drive to town rainy +days to save time." + +"Do you usually go to church at the meeting house I see off in the +valley?" she asked. + +"I don't go anywhere," and he watched keenly to see how she would take +this blunt statement of his practical heathenism. + +She only looked at him kindly and accepted the fact. + +"Why don't you pitch into me?" he asked. + +"That wouldn't do any good." + +"You'd like to go, I suppose?" + +"No, not under the circumstances, unless you wished to. I'm cowardly +enough to dread being stared at." + +He gave a deep sign of relief. "This thing has been troubling me," he +said. "I feared you would want to go, and if you did, I should feel +that you ought to go." + +"I fear I'm very weak about it, but I shrink so from meeting strangers. +I do thank God for his goodness many times a day and ask for help. I'm +not brave enough to do any more, yet." + +His rugged features became very somber as he said, "I wish I had as +much courage as you have." + +"You don't understand me--" she began gently. + +"No, I suppose not. It's all become a muddle to me. I mean this +church and religious business." + +She looked at him wistfully, as if she wished to say something, but did +not venture to do so. He promptly gave a different turn to the +conversation by quoting Mrs. Mumpson's tirade on churchgoing the first +Sunday after her arrival. Alida laughed, but not in a wholly mirthful +and satisfied way. "There!" he concluded, "I'm touching on things a +little too sacred for you. I respect your feelings and beliefs, for +they are honest and I wish I shared in 'em." Then he suddenly laughed +again as he added, "Mrs. Mumpson said there was too much milking done +on Sunday, and it's time I was breaking the Fourth Commandment, after +her notion." + +Alida now laughed outright, without reservation. + +"'By jocks!' as Watterly says, what a difference there is in women!" he +soliloquized on his way to the barn. "Well, the church question is +settled for the present, but if Alida should ask me to go, after her +manner this morning, I'd face the whole creation with her." + +When at last he came in and threw off his waterproof coat, the kitchen +was in order and his wife was sitting by the parlor fire with Thomson's +"Land and the Book" in her hand. + +"Are you fond of reading?" he asked. + +"Yes, very." + +"Well, I am, too, sort of; but I've let the years slip by without doing +half as much as I ought." + +"Light your pipe and I'll read to you, if you wish me to." + +"Oh, come now! I at least believe in Sunday as a day of rest, and you +need it. Reading aloud is about as hard work as I can do." + +"But I'm used to it. I read aloud to mother a great deal," and then +there passed over her face an expression of deep pain. + +"What is it, Alida? Don't you feel well?" + +"Yes, oh, yes!" she replied hastily, and her pale face became crimson. + +It was another stab of memory recalling the many Sundays she had read +to the man who had deceived her. "Shall I read?" she asked. + +"Alida," he said very kindly, "it wasn't the thought of your mother +that brought that look of pain into your face." + +She shook her head sadly, with downcast eyes. After a moment or two, +she raised them appealingly to him as she said simply, "There is so +much that I wish I could forget." + +"Poor child! Yes, I think I know. Be patient with yourself, and +remember that you were never to blame." + +Again came that quick, grateful glance by which some women express more +than others can ever put in words. Her thought was, "I didn't think +that even he was capable of that. What a way of assuring me that he'll +be patient with me!" Then she quietly read for an hour descriptions of +the Holy Land that were not too religious for Holcroft's mind and which +satisfied her conscience better than much she had read in former days +to satisfy a taste more alien to hers than that of her husband. + +Holcroft listened to her correct pronunciation and sweet, natural tones +with a sort of pleased wonder. At last he said, "You must stop now." + +"Are you tired?" she asked. + +"No, but you are, or ought to be. Why, Alida, I didn't know you were +so well educated. I'm quite a barbarous old fellow compared with you." + +"I hadn't thought of that before," she said with a laugh. + +"What a fool I was, then, to put it into your head!" + +"You must be more careful. I'd never have such thoughts if you didn't +suggest them." + +"How did you come to get such a good education?" + +"I wish I had a better one. Well, I did have good advantages up to the +time I was seventeen. After I was old enough I went to school quite +steadily, but it seems to me that I learned a little of everything and +not much of anything. When father died and we lost our property, we had +to take to our needles. I suppose I might have obtained work in a +store, or some such place, but I couldn't bear to leave mother alone +and I disliked being in public. I certainly didn't know enough to +teach, and besides, I was afraid to try." + +"Well, well! You've stumbled into a quiet enough place at last." + +"That's what I like most about it, but I don't think I stumbled into +it. I think I've been led and helped. That's what I meant when I said +you didn't understand me," she added hesitatingly. "It doesn't take +courage for me to go to God. I get courage by believing that he cares +for me like a father, as the bible says. How could I ever have found +so kind a friend and good a home myself?" + +"I've been half inclined to believe there's a Providence in it +myself--more and more so as I get acquainted with you. Your troubles +have made you better, Alida; mine made me worse. I used to be a +Christian; I aint any more." + +She looked at him smilingly as she asked, "How do you know?" + +"Oh! I know well enough," he replied gloomily. "Don't let's talk about +it any more," and then he led her on to speak simply and naturally +about her childhood home and her father and mother. + +"Well," he said heartily, "I wish your mother was living for nothing +would please me better than to have such a good old lady in the house." + +She averted her face as she said huskily, "I think it was better she +died before--" But she did not finish the sentence. + +By the time dinner was over the sun was shining brightly, and he asked +her if she would not like to go up the lane to his woodland to see the +view. Her pleased look was sufficient answer. "But are you sure you +are strong enough?" he persisted. + +"Yes, it will do me good to go out, and I may find some wild flowers." + +"I guess you can, a million or two." + +By the time he was through at the barn she was ready and they started +up the lane, now green with late April grass and enlivened with +dandelions in which bumblebees were wallowing. The sun had dried the +moisture sufficiently for them to pass on dry-shod, but everything had +the fresh, vernal aspect that follows a warm rain. Spring had advanced +with a great bound since the day before. The glazed and glutinous +cherry buds had expanded with aromatic odors and the white of the +blossoms was beginning to show. + +"By tomorrow," said Holcroft, "the trees will look as if covered with +snow. Let me help you," and he put his hand under her arm, supporting +and aiding her steps up the steep places. + +Her lips were parted, the pleased look was in her eyes as they rested +on trees and shrubs which lined the half ruinous stone walls on either +side. "Everything seems so alive and glad this afternoon," she remarked. + +"Yes," replied the matter-of-fact farmer. "A rain such as we had this +morning is like turning the water on a big mill-wheel. It starts all +the machinery right up. Now the sun's out, and that's the greatest +motor power of all. Sun and moisture make the farm go." + +"Mustn't the ground be enriched, too?" + +"Yes, yes indeed; I suppose that's where we all fail. But it's no easy +matter to keep a farm in good heart. That's another reason why I'm so +glad I won't have to sell my stock. A farm run without stock is sure +to grow poor, and if the farm grows poor, the owner does as a matter of +course. But what put enriching the ground into your head? Do you know +anything about farming?" + +"No, but I want to learn. When I was a girl, father had a garden. He +used to take papers about it, and I often read them aloud to him +evenings. Now I remember there used to be much in them about enriching +the ground. Do you take any such paper?" + +"No, I haven't much faith in book-farming." + +"I don't know," she ventured. "Seems to me you might get some good +ideas out of papers, and your experience would teach you whether they +were useful ideas or not. If you'll take one, I'll read it to you." + +"I will, then, for the pleasure of hearing you read, if nothing else. +That's something I hadn't bargained for," he added, laughing. + +She answered in the same spirit by saying, "I'll throw that in and not +call it square yet." + +"I think I've got the best of you," he chuckled; "and you know nothing +makes a Yankee farmer happier than to get the best of a bargain." + +"I hope you'll continue to think so. Can I sit down a few moments?" + +"Why, certainly! How forgetful I am! Your talk is too interesting for +me to think of anything else," and he placed her on a flat rock by the +side of the lane while he leaned against the wall. + +Bees and other insects were humming around them; a butterfly fluttered +over the fence and alighted on a dandelion almost at her feet; meadow +larks were whistling their limpid notes in the adjoining fields, while +from the trees about the house beneath them came the songs of many +birds, blending with the babble of the brook which ran not far away. + +"Oh, how beautiful, how strangely beautiful it all is!" + +"Yes, when you come to think of it, it is real pretty," he replied. +"It's a pity we get so used to such things that we don't notice 'em +much. I should feel miserable enough, though, if I couldn't live in +just such a place. I shouldn't wonder if I was a good deal like that +robin yonder. I like to be free and enjoy the spring weather, but I +suppose neither he nor I think or know how fine it all is." + +"Well, both you and the robin seem a part of it," she said, laughing. + +"Oh, no, no!" he replied with a guffaw which sent the robin off in +alarm. "I aint beautiful and never was." + +She joined his laugh, but said with a positive little nod, "I'm right, +though. The robin isn't a pretty bird, yet everybody likes him." + +"Except in cherry time. Then he has an appetite equal to mine. But +everybody don't like me. In fact, I think I'm generally disliked in +this town." + +"If you went among them more they wouldn't dislike you." + +"I don't want to go among them." + +"They know it, and that's the reason they dislike you." + +"Would you like to go out to tea-drinkings, and all that?" + +"No, indeed; and I don't suppose I'd be received," she added sadly. + +"So much the worse for them, then, blast 'em!" said Holcroft wrathfully. + +"Oh no! I don't feel that way and you shouldn't. When they can, +people ought to be sociable and kind." + +"Of course I'd do any of my neighbors, except Lemuel Weeks, a good turn +if it came in my way, but the less I have to do with them the better +I'm satisfied." + +"I'm rested enough to go on now," said Alida quietly. + +They were not long in reaching the edge of the woodland, from which +there was an extended prospect. For some little time they looked at +the wide landscape in silence. Alida gave to it only partial attention +for her mind was very busy with thoughts suggested by her husband's +alienation from his neighbors. It would make it easier for her, but the +troubled query would arise, "Is it right or best for him? His marrying +me will separate him still more." + +Holcroft's face grew sad rather than troubled as he looked at the old +meeting house and not at the landscape. He was sitting near the spot +where he spent that long forenoon a few Sundays before, and the train +of thought came back again. In his deep abstraction, he almost forgot +the woman near him in memories of the past. + +His old love and lost faith were inseparable from that little white +spire in the distance. + +Alida stole a glance at him and thought, "He's thinking of her," and +she quietly strolled away to look for wild flowers. + +"Yes," muttered Holcroft, at last. "I hope Bessie knows. She'd be the +first one to say it was right and best for me, and she'd be glad to +know that in securing my own home and comfort I had given a home to the +homeless and sorrowful--a quiet, good woman, who worships God as she +did." + +He rose and joined his wife, who held toward him a handful of trailing +arbutus, rue anemones, bloodroot, and dicentras. "I didn't know they +were so pretty before," he said with a smile. + +His smile reassured her for it seemed kinder than any she had yet +received, and his tone was very gentle. "His dead wife will never be my +enemy," she murmured. "He has made it right with her in his own +thoughts." + + + +Chapter XXIV. + +Given Her Own Way + +On Monday the absorbing work of the farm was renewed, and every day +brought to Holcroft long and exhausting hours of labor. While he was +often taciturn, he evidently progressed in cheerfulness and hope. +Alida confirmed his good impressions. His meals were prompt and +inviting; the house was taking on an aspect of neatness and order long +absent, and his wardrobe was put in as good condition as its rather +meager character permitted. He had positively refused to permit his +wife to do any washing and ironing. "We will see about it next fall," +he said. "If then you are perfectly well and strong, perhaps, but not +in the warm weather now coming on." Then he added, with a little nod, +"I'm finding out how valuable you are, and I'd rather save you than the +small sum I have to pay old Mrs. Johnson." + +In this and in other ways he showed kindly consideration, but his mind +continually reverted to his work and outdoor plans with the +preoccupation of one who finds that he can again give his thoughts to +something from which they had been most reluctantly withdrawn. Thus +Alida was left alone most of the time. When the dusk of evening came +he was too tired to say much, and he retired early that he might be +fresh for work again when the sun appeared. She had no regrets, for +although she kept busy she was resting and her wounds were healing +through the long, quiet days. + +It was the essential calm after the storm. Caring for the dairy and +working the butter into firm, sweet, tempting yellow rolls were the +only tasks that troubled her a little, but Holcroft assured her that +she was learning these important duties faster than he had expected her +to. She had several hours a day in which to ply her needle, and thus +was soon enabled to replenish her scanty wardrobe. + +One morning at breakfast she appeared in another gown, and although its +material was calico, she had the appearance to Holcroft of being +unusually well dressed. He looked pleased, but made no comment. When +the cherry blossoms were fully out, an old cracked flower vase--the +only one in the house--was filled with them, and they were placed in +the center of the dinner table. He looked at them and her, then +smilingly remarked, "I shouldn't wonder if you enjoyed those cherry +blows more than anything else we have for dinner." + +"I want something else, though. My appetite almost frightens me." + +"That's famous! I needn't be ashamed of mine, then." + +One evening, before the week was over, he saw her busy with a rake +about the door. Last year's leaves were still scattered about, with +twigs and even small boughs wrested by the winds from the trees. He +was provoked with himself that he had neglected the usual spring +clearing away of litter, and a little irritated that she should have +tried to do the work herself. He left the horses at the barn and came +forward directly. "Alida," he said gravely, "there's no need of your +doing such work; I don't like to see you do it." + +"Why," she replied, "I've heard that women in the country often milk +and take care of the chickens." + +"Yes, but that's very different from this work. I wouldn't like people +to think I expected such things of you." + +"It's very easy work," she said smilingly, "easier than sweeping a +room, though something like it. I used to do it at home when I was a +girl. I think it does me good to do something in the open air." + +She was persisting, but not in a way that chafed him. Indeed, as he +looked into her appealing eyes and face flushed with exercise, he felt +that it would be churlish to say another word. + +"Well," he said, laughing, "it makes you look so young and rosy I guess +it does you good. I suppose you'll have to have your own way." + +"You know I wouldn't do this or anything else if you really didn't want +me to." + +"You are keen," he replied, with his good nature entirely restored. +"You can see that you get me right under your thumb when you talk that +way. But we must both be on our guard against your fault, you know, or +pretty soon you'll be taking the whole work of the farm off my hands." + +"To be serious," she resumed, accompanying him to the barn for the +first time, "I think YOU are working too hard. I'm not. Our meals are +so simple that it doesn't take me long to get them. I'm through with +the hurry in my sewing, the old dog does the churning, and you give me +so much help in the dairy that I shall soon have time on my hands. Now +it seems to me that I might soon learn to take entire care of the +chickens, big and little, and that would be so much less for you to +look after. I'm sure I would enjoy it very much, especially the +looking after the little chickens." + +"So you really think you'd like to do that?" he asked, as he turned to +her from unharnessing the horses. + +"Yes, indeed, if you think I'm competent." + +"You are more so than I am. Somehow, little chickens don't thrive +under a busy man's care. The mother hens mean well, but they are so +confoundedly silly. I declare to you that last year I lost half the +little chicks that were hatched out." + +"Well, then," she replied, laughing, "I won't be afraid to try, for I +think I can beat you in raising chickens. Now, show me how much you +feed them at night and how much I'm to give them in the morning, and +let me take the whole care of them for a month, get the eggs, and all. +If they don't do so well, then I'll resign. I can't break you in a +month." + +"It looks more as if you'd make me. You have a good big bump of order, +and I haven't any at all in little things. Tom Watterly was right. If +I had tried to live here alone, things would have got into an awful +mess. I feel ashamed of myself that I didn't clear up the yard before, +but my whole mind's been on the main crops." + +"As it should be. Don't you worry about the little things. They +belong to me. Now show me about the chickens, or they'll go to roost +while we're talking." + +"But I, as well as the chickens, shall want some supper." + +"I won't let either of you starve. You'll see." + +"Well, you see this little measure? You fill it from this bin with +this mixture of corn and wheat screenings. That's the allowance, +morning and evening. Then you go out to the barnyard there, and call +'kip, kip, kip.' That's the way my wife used--" He stopped in a little +embarrassment. + +"I'd be glad if I could do everything as she did," said Alida gently. +"It has grown clearer every day how hard her loss was to you. If +you'll tell me what she did and how she did things--" and she hesitated. + +"That's good of you, Alida," he replied gratefully. Then, with his +directness of speech, he added, "I believe some women are inclined to +be jealous even of the dead." + +"You need never fear to speak of your wife to me. I respect and honor +your feelings--the way you remember her. There's no reason why it +should be otherwise. I did not agree to one thing and expect another," +and she looked him straight in the eyes. + +He dropped them, as he stood leaning against the bin in the shadowy old +barn, and said, "I didn't think you or anyone would be so sensible. Of +course, one can't forget quickly--" + +"You oughtn't to forget," was the firm reply. "Why should you? I +should be sorry to think you could forget." + +"I fear I'm not like to make you sorry," he replied, sighing. "To tell +you the truth--" he added, looking at her almost commiseratingly, and +then he hesitated. + +"Well, the truth is usually best," she said quietly. + +"Well, I'll tell you my thought. We married in haste, we were almost +strangers, and your mind was so distracted at the time that I couldn't +blame you if you forgot what--what I said. I feared--well, you are +carrying out our agreement so sensibly that I want to thank you. It's +a relief to find that you're not opposed, even in your heart, that I +should remember one that I knew as a little child and married when I +was young." + +"I remember all you said and what I said," she replied, with the same +direct, honest gaze. "Don't let such thoughts trouble you any more. +You've been kinder and more considerate than I ever expected. You have +only to tell me how she did--" + +"No, Alida," he said quietly, obeying a subtle impulse. "I'd rather you +would do everything your own way--as it's natural for you. There, +we've talked so long that it's too late to feed the chickens tonight. +You can begin in the morning." + +"Oh!" she cried, "and you have all your other work to do. I've +hindered rather than helped you by coming out." + +"No," he replied decidedly, "you've helped me. I'll be in before very +long." + +She returned to the house and busied herself in preparations for +supper. She was very thoughtful, and at last concluded: "Yes, he is +right. I understand. Although I may do WHAT his wife did, he don't +wish me to do it AS she did. There could only be a partial and painful +resemblance to his eyes. Both he and I would suffer in comparisons, +and he be continually reminded of his loss. She was his wife in +reality, and all relating to her is something sacred and past to him. +The less I am like her, the better. He married me for the sake of his +farm, and I can best satisfy him by carrying out his purpose in my own +way. He's through with sentiment and has taken the kindest way he +could to tell me that I've nothing to do with his past. He feared, +yes, he FEARED, I should forget our businesslike agreement! I didn't +know I had given him cause to fear; I certainly won't hereafter!" and +the wife felt, with a trace of bitterness and shame, that she had been +put on her guard; that her husband had wished to remind her that she +must not forget his motive in marrying her, or expect anything not in +consonance with that motive. Perhaps she had been too wifelike in her +manner, and therefore he had feared. She was as sensitive to such a +reproach as she would have been in her girlhood. + +For once her intuition was at fault, and she misjudged Holcroft in some +respects. He did think he was through with sentiment; he could not +have talked deliberately to Alida or to any other about his old life +and love, and he truly felt that she had no part in that life. It had +become a sad and sacred memory, yet he wished to feel that he had the +right to dwell upon it as he chose. In his downright sincerity he +wished her to know that he could not help dwelling on it; that for him +some things were over, and that he was not to blame. He was profoundly +grateful to her that she had so clearly accepted the facts of his past, +and of their own present relations. He HAD feared, it is true, but she +had not realized his fears, and he felt that it was her due that he +should acknowledge her straightforward carrying out of the compact made +under circumstances which might well excuse her from realizing +everything fully. + +Moreover, direct and matter of fact as he was, he had felt vaguely the +inevitable difficulties of their relationship. The very word "wife" +might suggest to her mind an affection which he believed it was not in +his power to bestow. They had agreed to give an arbitrary and unusual +meaning to their marriage, and, while thinking it could have no other +meaning for him, his mind was haunted, and he feared that hers might +be, by the natural significance of the rite. So far from meaning to +hint that she had been too wifelike, he had meant to acknowledge her +simple and natural fulfillment of his wishes in a position far more +difficult to fill than even he imagined. That she succeeded so well +was due to the fact that she entertained for him all the kind feelings +possible except the one supreme regard which, under ordinary +circumstances, would have accounted for the marriage. The reason that +all promised to go so well in their relationship of mere mutual help +was the truth that this basis of union had satisfied their mutual need. +As the farmer had hoped, they had become excellent friends, +supplementing each other's work in a way that promised prosperity. + +Without the least intention on the part of either, chance words had +been spoken which would not be without effect. He had told her to do +everything in her own way because the moment he thought of it he knew +he liked her ways. They possessed a novelty and natural grace which +interested him. There are both a natural and a conventional grace, and +the true lady learns to blend the one with the other so as to make a +charming manner essentially her own--a manner which makes a woman a +lady the world over. Alida had little more than natural grace and +refinement, unmodified by society. This the plain farmer could +understand, and he was already awakening to an appreciation of it. It +impressed him agreeably that Alida should be trim and neat while about +her work, and that all her actions were entirely free from the coarse, +slovenly manner, the limp carriage, and slatternly aspect of the whole +tribe which had come and gone during the past year. They had all been +so much alike in possessing disagreeable traits that he felt that Alida +was the only peculiar one among them. He never thought of instituting +comparisons between her and his former wife, yet he did so +unconsciously. Mrs. Holcroft had been too much like himself, matter of +fact, materialistic, kind, and good. Devoid of imagination, uneducated +in mind, her thoughts had not ranged far from what she touched and saw. +She touched them with something of their own heaviness, she saw them as +objects--just what they were--and was incapable of obtaining from them +much suggestion or enjoyment. She knew when the cherry and plum trees +were in blossom just as she knew it was April. The beautiful sounds +and changes in nature reminded her that it was time to do certain kinds +of work, and with her, work was alpha and omega. As her mother had +before her, she was inclined to be a house drudge rather than a +housewife. Thrift, neatness, order, marked the limits of her endeavor, +and she accomplished her tasks with the awkward, brisk directness +learned in her mother's kitchen. Only mind, imagination, and +refinement can embroider the homely details of life. Alida would learn +to do all that she had done, but the woman with a finer nature would do +it in a different way. Holcroft already knew he liked this way +although he could not define it to himself. Tired as he was when he +came home in the evening, his eyes would often kindle with pleasure at +some action or remark that interested him from its novelty. In spite +of his weariness and preoccupation, in spite of a still greater +obstacle--the inertia of a mind dulled by material life--he had begun +to consider Alida's personality for its own sake. He liked to watch +her, not to see what she did to his advantage, but how she did it. She +was awakening an agreeable expectancy, and he sometimes smilingly said +to himself, "What's next?" + +"Oh, no!" he thought as he was milking the last cow, "I'd much rather +she'd take her own natural way in doing things. It would be easier for +her and it's her right and--and somehow I like her way just as I used +to like Bessie's ways. She isn't Bessie and never can be, and for some +reason I'd like her to be as different as possible." + +Unconsciously and unintentionally, however, he had given Alida's +sensitive nature a slight wound. She felt that she had been told in +effect, "You can help me all you please, and I would rather you would +do this in a way that will not awaken associations, but you must not +think of me or expect me to think of you in any light that was not +agreed upon." That he had feared the possibility of this, that he +might have fancied he saw indications of this, hurt her pride--that +pride and delicacy of feeling which most women shield so instinctively. +She was now consciously on her guard, and so was not so secure against +the thoughts she deprecated as before. In spite of herself, a +restraint would tinge her manner which he would eventually feel in a +vague, uncomfortable way. + +But he came in at last, very tired and thoroughly good-natured. "I'm +going to town tomorrow," he said, "and I thought of taking a very early +start so as to save time. Would you like to go?" + +"There's no need of my going." + +"I thought perhaps you'd enjoy the drive." + +"I would have to meet strangers and I'm so entirely content in being +alone--I won't go this time unless you wish it." + +"Well, if you don't care about it, I'll carry out my first plan and +take a very early start. I want to sell the butter and eggs on hand, +repay Tom Watterly, and get some seeds. We need some things from the +store, too, I suppose?" + +"Yes, you are such a coffee drinker--" she began, smiling. + +"Oh, I know!" he interrupted. "Make out your list. You shall say what +we want. Isn't there something you want for yourself?" + +"No, not for myself, but I do want something that perhaps you would +enjoy, too. You may think it a waste of money, though." + +"Well, you've a right to waste some in your way as well as I have over +my pipe." + +"That's good. I hadn't thought of that. You are the one that puts +notions into my head. I would like three or four geraniums and a few +flower seeds." + +He looked as if he was thinking deeply and she felt a little hurt that +he should not comply at once with her request, knowing that the outlay +suggested was very slight. + +At last he looked up, smiling as he said, "So I put notions into your +head, do I?" + +"Oh, well," she replied, flushing in the consciousness of her thoughts, +"if you think it's foolish to spend money for such things--" + +"Tush, tush, Alida! Of course I'll get what you wish. But I really am +going to put a notion into your head, and it's stupid and scarcely fair +in me that I hadn't thought of some such plan before. You want to take +care of the chickens. Well, I put them wholly in your care and you +shall have all you can make off them--eggs, young chickens, and +everything." + +"That IS a new notion," she replied, laughing. "I hadn't thought of +such a thing and it's more than fair. What would I do with so much +money?" + +"What you please. Buy yourself silk dresses if you want to." + +"But I couldn't use a quarter of the money." + +"No matter, use what you like and I'll put the rest in the bank for you +and in your name. I was a nice kind of a business partner, wasn't I? +Expecting you to do nearly half the work and then have you say, 'Will +you please get me a few plants and seeds?' and then, 'Oh! If you think +it's foolish to spend money for such things.' Why, you have as good a +right to spend some of the money you help earn as I have. You've shown +you'll be sensible in spending it. I don't believe you'll use enough +of it. Anyway, it will be yours, as it ought to be." + +"Very well," she replied, nodding at him with piquant significance, +"I'll always have some to lend you." + +"Yes, shouldn't wonder if you were the richest some day. Everything +you touch seems to turn out well. I shall be wholly dependent on you +hereafter for eggs and an occasional fricassee." + +"You shall have your share. Yes, I like this notion. It grows on me. +I'd like to earn some money to do what I please with. You'll be +surprised to see what strange and extravagant tastes I'll develop!" + +"I expect to be perfectly dumfoundered, as Mrs. Mumpson used to say. +Since you are so willing to lend, I'll lend you enough to get all you +want tomorrow. Make out your list. You can get a good start tomorrow +for I was too tired and it was too late for me to gather the eggs +tonight. I know, too, that a good many of the hens have stolen their +nests of late, and I've been too busy to look for 'em. You may find +perfect mines of eggs, but, for mercy's sake! don't climb around in +dangerous places. I had such bad luck with chicks last year that I've +only set a few hens. You can set few or many now, just as you please." + +Even as he talked and leisurely finished his supper, his eyes grew +heavy with sleep. "What time will you start tomorrow?" she asked. + +"Oh, no matter; long before you are up or ought to be. I'll get myself +a cup of coffee. I expect to do my morning work and be back by nine or +ten o'clock for I wish to get in some potatoes and other vegetables +before Sunday." + +"Very well, I'll make out my list and lay it on the table here. Now, +why don't you go and sleep at once? You ought, with such an early +start in prospect." + +"Ought I? Well, I never felt more inclined to do my duty. You must +own up I have put one good notion into your head?" + +"I have said nothing against any of them. Come, you ought to go at +once." + +"Can't I smoke my pipe first please?" + +"You'll find it quieter in the parlor." + +"But it's pleasanter here where I can watch you." + +"Do you think I need watching?" + +"Yes, a little, since you don't look after your own interests very +sharply." + +"It isn't my way to look after anything very sharply." + +"No, Alida, thank the Lord! There's nothing sharp about you, not even +your tongue. You won't mind being left alone a few hours tomorrow?" + +"No, indeed, I like to be alone." + +"I thought I did. Most everyone has seemed a crowd to me. I'm glad +you've never given me that feeling. Well, goodbye till you see me +driving up with the geraniums." + + + +Chapter XXV. + +A Charivari + +The eastern horizon was aglow with rosy tints the following morning +when Holcroft awoke; the stars were but just fading from the sky and +the birds were still silent. He knew by these signs that it was very +early and that he could carry out his plan of a timely start to town. +Dressing very quietly, he stole downstairs, shoes in hand, lest his +tread should awaken Alida. The kitchen door leading into the hall was +closed. Lifting the latch carefully, he found the lamp burning, the +breakfast table set, and the kettle humming over a good fire. "This is +her work, but where is she?" he queried in much surprise. + +The outer door was ajar; he noiselessly crossed the room, and looking +out, he saw her. She had been to the well for a pail of water, but had +set it down and was watching the swiftly brightening east. She was so +still and her face so white in the faint radiance that he had an odd, +uncanny impression. No woman that he had ever known would stop that +way to look at the dawn. He could see nothing so peculiar in it as to +attract such fixed attention. "Alida," he asked, "what do you see?" + +She started slightly and turned to take up the pail; but he had already +sprung down the steps and relieved her of the burden. + +"Could anything be more lovely than those changing tints? It seems to +me I could have stood there an hour," she said quietly. + +"You are not walking or doing all this in your sleep, are you?" he +asked, laughing, yet regarding her curiously. "You looked as you stood +there like what people call a--what's that big word?" + +"I'm not a somnambulist and never was, to my knowledge. You'll find +I'm wide enough awake to have a good breakfast soon." + +"But I didn't expect you to get up so early. I didn't wish it." + +"It's too late now," she said pleasantly, "so I hope you won't find +fault with me for doing what I wanted to do." + +"Did you mean to be up and have breakfast when I told you last night?" + +"Yes. Of course I didn't let you know for you would have said I +mustn't, and then I couldn't. It isn't good for people to get up so +early and do as much as you had on your mind without eating. Now you +won't be any the worse for it." + +"I certainly ought to be the better for so much kindly consideration; +but it will cure me of such unearthly hours if you feel that you must +conform to them. You look pale this morning, Alida; you're not strong +enough to do such things, and there's no need of it when I'm so used to +waiting on myself." + +"I shall have to remind you," she replied with a bright look at him +over her shoulder, "that you said I could do things my own way." + +"Well, it seems odd after a year when everyone who came here appeared +to grudge doing a thing for a man's comfort." + +"I should hope I was different from them." + +"Well, you are. I thought you were different from anyone I ever knew +as I saw you there looking at the east. You seem wonderfully fond of +pretty things." + +"I'll own to that. But if you don't hurry you won't do as much as you +hoped by getting up early." + +The morning was very mild, and she left the outer door open as she went +quickly to and fro with elasticity of spirit as well as step. It was +pleasant to have her efforts appreciated and almost as grateful to hear +the swelling harmony of song from the awakening birds. The slight +cloud that had fallen on her thoughts the evening before had lifted. +She felt that she understood Holcroft better, and saw that his feeling +was only that of honest friendliness and satisfaction. She had merely +to recognize and respond to so much only and all would be well. +Meantime, she desired nothing more, and he should be thoroughly +convinced of this fact. She grew positively light-hearted over the +fuller assurance of the truth that although a wife, she was not +expected to love--only to be faithful to all his interests. This, and +this only, she believed to be within her power. + +Holcroft departed in the serenity characteristic of one's mood when the +present is so agreeable that neither memories of the past nor +misgivings as to the future are obtrusive. He met Watterly in town, +and remarked, "This is another piece of good luck. I hadn't time to go +out to your place, although I meant to take time." + +"A piece of good luck indeed!" Tom mentally echoed, for he would have +been greatly embarrassed if Holcroft had called. Mrs. Watterly felt +that she had been scandalized by the marriage which had taken place in +her absence, and was all the more resentful for the reason that she had +spoken to a cousin of uncertain age and still more uncertain temper in +behalf of the farmer. In Mrs. Watterly's estimate of action, it was +either right, that is, in accordance with her views, or else it was +intolerably wrong and without excuse. Poor Tom had been made to feel +that he had not only committed an almost unpardonable sin against his +wife and her cousin, but also against all the proprieties of life. "The +idea of such a wedding taking place in my rooms and with my husband's +sanction!" she had said with concentrated bitterness. Then had followed +what he was accustomed to characterize as a spell of "zero weather." +He discreetly said nothing. "It didn't seem such a bad idea to me," he +thought, "but then I suppose women folks know best about such things." + +He was too frank in his nature to conceal from Holcroft his misgivings +or his wife's scornful and indignant disapproval. "Sorry Angy feels so +bad about it, Jim," he said ruefully, "but she says I mustn't buy +anything more of you." + +"Or have anything more to do with me, I suppose?" + +"Oh, come now! You know a man's got to let his women-folks have their +say about household matters, but that don't make any difference in my +feelings toward you." + +"Well, well, Tom! If it did, I should be slow to quarrel with a man +who had done me as good a turn as you have. Thank the Lord! I've got +a wife that'll let me have some say about household and all other +matters. You, too, are inclined to think that I'm in an awful scrape. +I feel less like getting out of it every day. My wife is as +respectable as I am and a good sight better than I am. If I'm no +longer respectable for having married her, I certainly am better +contented than I ever expected to be again. I want it understood, +though, that the man who says anything against my wife may have to get +me arrested for assault and battery." + +"When it comes to that, Jim," replied Watterly, who was meek only in +the presence of his wife, "I'd just as lief speak against her as wink +if there was anything to say. But I say now, as I said to you at +first, she aint one of the common sort. I thought well of her at +first, and I think better of her now since she's doing so well by you. +But I suppose marrying a woman situated as she was isn't according to +regulation. We men are apt to act like the boys we used to be and go +for what we want without thinking of the consequences." + +"It's the consequences that please me most. If you had been dependent +on Mumpson, Malonys, and Wigginses for your home comfort you wouldn't +worry about the talk of people who'd never raise a finger for you. +Well, goodbye, I'm in a hurry. Your heart's in the right place, Tom, +and some day you'll come out and take dinner with me. One dinner, such +as she'll give you, will bring you round. One of our steady dishes is +a bunch of flowers and I enjoy 'em, too. What do you think of that for +a hard-headed old fellow like me?" + +Some men are chilled by public disapproval and waver under it, but +Holcroft was thereby only the more strongly confirmed in his course. +Alida had won his esteem as well as his good will, and it was the +instinct of his manhood to protect and champion her. He bought twice +as many flowers and seeds as she had asked for, and also selected two +simple flower vases; then started on his return with the feeling that +he had a home. + +Alida entered upon her duties to the poultry with almost the pleasure +of a child. She first fed them, then explored every accessible nook +and hiding place in the barn and outbuildings. It was evident that +many of the biddies had stolen their nests, and some were brooding upon +them with no disposition to be disturbed. Out of the hundred or more +fowls on the place, a good many were clucking their maternal instincts, +and their new keeper resolved to put eggs under all except the flighty +ones that left their nests within two or three days' trial. As the +result of her search, the empty egg basket was in a fair way to be full +again very soon. She gloated over her spoils as she smilingly assured +herself, "I shall take him at his word. I shall spend nearly all I +make this year in fixing up the old house within and without, so he'll +scarcely know it." + +It was eleven o'clock before Holcroft drove to the door with the +flowers, and he was amply repaid by her pleasure in receiving them. +"Why, I only expected geraniums," she said, "and you've bought half a +dozen other kinds." + +"And I expected to get my own coffee this morning and a good breakfast +was given me instead, so we are quits." + +"You're probably ready for your dinner now, if it is an hour earlier +than usual. It will be ready in ten minutes." + +"Famous! That will give me a good long afternoon. I say, Alida, when +do you want the flower beds made?" + +"No hurry about them. I shall keep the plants in the window for a week +or two. It isn't safe to put them outdoors before the last of May. +I'll have some slips ready by that time." + +"Yes, I know. You'll soon have enough to set out an acre." + +The days of another week passed quietly and rapidly away, Alida +becoming almost as much absorbed in her interests as he in his. Every +hour added to the beauty of the season without. The unplowed fields +were taking on a vivid green, and Holcroft said that on the following +Monday the cows should go out to pasture. Wholesome, agreeable +occupation enabled Alida to put away sad thoughts and memories. Nature +and pleasant work are two potent healers, and she was rallying fast +under their ministry. Holcroft would have been blind indeed had he not +observed changes for the better. Her thin cheeks were becoming fuller, +and her exertions, with the increasing warmth of the season, often +flushed her face with a charming color. The old sad and troubled +expression was passing away from her blue eyes. Every day it seemed +easier for her to laugh, and her step grew more elastic. It was all so +gradual that he never questioned it, but his eyes followed her with +increasing pleasure and he listened, when she spoke, with deepening +interest. Sundays had been long and rather dreary days, but now he +positively welcomed their coming and looked forward to the hours when, +instead of brooding over the past, he should listen to her pleasant +voice reading his few and neglected books. There was a new atmosphere +in his home--a new influence, under which his mind was awakening in +spite of his weariness and absorption in the interests of the farm. +Alida was always ready to talk about these, and her questions would +soon enable her to talk understandingly. She displayed ignorance +enough, and this amused him, but her queries evinced no stupidity. In +reading to her father and in the cultivation of flowers, she had +obtained hints of vital horticultural principles, and Holcroft said to +her laughingly one evening at supper, "You'll soon learn all I know and +begin to teach me." + +Her manner of deprecating such remarks was to exaggerate them and she +replied, "Yes, next week you will sell my eggs and I shall subscribe +for the agricultural paper my father used to take. Then will begin all +the improvements of book-farming. I shall advise you to sow oats in +June, plant corn in March, and show you generally that all your +experience counts for nothing." + +This kind of badinage was new to the farmer, and it amused him +immensely. He did not grow sleepy so early in the evening, and as he +was driving his work prosperously he shortened his hours of labor +slightly. She also found time to read the county paper and gossip a +little about the news, thus making a beginning in putting him and +herself en rapport with other interests than those which centered in +the farm. In brief, she had an active, intelligent mind and a +companionable nature. Her boundless gratitude for her home, which +daily grew more homelike, led her to employ all her tact in adding to +his enjoyment. Yet so fine was her tact that her manner was a simple +embodiment of good will, and he was made to feel that it was nothing +more. + +While all was passing so genially and satisfactorily to Holcroft, it +may well be supposed that his conduct was not at all to the mind of his +neighbors. News, especially during the busy spring season, permeates a +country neighborhood slowly. The fact of his marriage had soon become +known, and eventually, through Justice Harkins, the circumstances +relating to it and something of Alida's previous history, in a garbled +form, came to be discussed at rural firesides. The majority of the men +laughed and shrugged their shoulders, implying it was none of their +business, but not a few, among whom was Lemuel Weeks, held up their +hands and spoke of the event in terms of the severest reprehension. +Many of the farmers' wives and their maiden sisters were quite as much +scandalized as Mrs. Watterly had been that an unknown woman, of whom +strange stories were told, should have been brought into the community +from the poorhouse, "and after such a heathenish marriage, too," they +said. It was irregular, unprecedented, and therefore utterly wrong and +subversive of the morals of the town. + +They longed to ostracize poor Alida, yet saw no chance of doing so. +They could only talk, and talk they did, in a way that would have made +her ears tingle had she heard. + +The young men and older boys, however, believed that they could do more +than talk. Timothy Weeks had said to a group of his familiars, "Let's +give old Holcroft and his poorhouse bride a skimelton that will let 'em +know what folks think of 'em." + +The scheme found favor at once, and Tim Weeks was soon recognized as +organizer and leader of the peculiar style of serenade contemplated. +After his day's work was over, he rode here and there summoning +congenial spirits. The project soon became pretty well known in +several families, but the elder members remained discreetly blind and +deaf, proposing to wink at what was going on, yet take no compromising +part themselves. Lemuel Weeks winked very knowingly and suggestively. +He kept within such bounds, however, as would enable him to swear that +he knew nothing and had said nothing, but his son had never felt more +assured of his father's sympathy. When at last the motley gathering +rendezvoused at Tim's house, Weeks, senior, was conveniently making a +call on a near neighbor. + +It was Saturday evening, and the young May moon would furnish +sufficient light without revealing identity too clearly. About a score +of young fellows and hired farm-hands of the ruder sort came riding and +trudging to Weeks' barn, where there was a barrel of cider on tap. +Here they blackened their faces with charcoal and stimulated their +courage, for it was well known that Holcroft was anything but lamblike +when angered. + +"He'll be like a bull in a china shop," remarked Tim, "but then there's +enough of us to handle him if he gets too obstrep'rous." + +Armed with tin pans and horns which were to furnish the accompaniment +to their discordant voices, they started about eight in the evening. +As they moved up the road there was a good deal of coarse jesting and +bravado, but when they approached the farmhouse silence was enjoined. +After passing up the lane they looked rather nervously at the quiet +dwelling softly outlined in the moonlight. A lamp illumined the +kitchen window, and Tim Weeks whispered excitedly, "He's there. Let's +first peek in the window and then give 'em a scorcher." + +Knowing that they should have the coming day in which to rest, Holcroft +and Alida had busied themselves with outdoor matters until late. She +had been planning her flower beds, cutting out the dead wood from some +neglected rosebushes and shrubbery, and had also helped her husband by +sowing seed in the kitchen garden back of the house. Then, weary, yet +pleased with the labor accomplished, they made a very leisurely supper, +talking over garden matters and farm prospects in general. Alida had +all her flower seeds on the table beside her, and she gloated over them +and expatiated on the kind of blossoms they would produce with so much +zest that Holcroft laughingly remarked, "I never thought that flowers +would be one of the most important crops on the place." + +"You will think so some day. I can see, from the expression of your +eyes, that the cherry blossoms and now the apple blows which I put on +the table please you almost as much as the fruit would." + +"Well, it's because I notice 'em. I never seemed to notice 'em much +before." + +"Oh, no! It's more than that," she replied, shaking her head. "Some +people would notice them, yet never see how pretty they were." + +"Then they'd be blind as moles." + +"The worst kind of blindness is that of the mind." + +"Well, I think many country people are as stupid and blind as oxen, and +I was one of 'em. I've seen more cherry and apple blossoms this year +than in all my life before, and I haven't thought only of cherries and +apples either." + +"The habit of seeing what is pretty grows on one," she resumed. "It +seems to me that flowers and such things feed mind and heart. So if one +HAS mind and heart, flowers become one of the most useful crops. Isn't +that practical common sense?" + +"Not very common in Oakville. I'm glad you think I'm in a hopeful +frame of mind, as they used to say down at the meeting house. Anyhow, +since you wish it, we will have a flower crop as well as a potato crop." + +Thus they continued chatting while Alida cleared up the table, and +Holcroft, having lighted his pipe, busied himself with peeling a long, +slim hickory sapling intended for a whipstock. + +Having finished her tasks, Alida was finally drying her hands on a +towel that hung near a window. Suddenly, she caught sight of a dark +face peering in. Her startled cry brought Holcroft hastily to his feet. +"What's the matter?" he asked. + +"I saw--" Then she hesitated from a fear that he would rush into some +unknown danger. + +The rough crew without perceived that their presence was known, and Tim +Weeks cried, "Now, all together!" + +A frightful overture began at once, the hooting and yelling almost +drowning the instrumental part and sending to Alida's heart that awful +chill of fear produced by human voices in any mob-like assemblage. +Holcroft understood the affair at once, for he was familiar with the +custom, but she did not. He threw open the door with the purpose of +sternly expostulating with the disturbers of the peace and of +threatening them with the law unless they retired. With an instinct to +share his danger she stepped to his side, and this brought a yell of +derision. Lurid thoughts swept through her mind. She had brought this +danger. Her story had become known. What might they not do to +Holcroft? Under the impulse of vague terror and complete +self-sacrifice, she stepped forward and cried, "I only am to blame. I +will go away forever if you will spare--" But again the scornful clamor +rose and drowned her voice. + +Her action and words had been so swift that Holcroft could not +interfere, but in an instant he was at her side, his arm around her, +his square jaw set, and his eyes blazing with his kindling anger. He +was not one of those men who fume early under provocation and in words +chiefly. His manner and gesture were so impressive that his tormentors +paused to listen. + +"I know," he said quietly, "all about this old, rude custom--that it's +often little more than a rough lark. Well, now that you've had it, +leave at once. I'm in no mood for such attention from my neighbors. +This is my wife, and I'll break any man's head who says a word to hurt +her feelings--" + +"Oh yes! Take care of her feelings, now it's your turn. They must 'a' +been hurt before," piped up Tim Weeks. + +"Good for you, old man, for showin' us your poorhouse bride," said +another. + +"We don't fancy such grass-widders, and much married, half-married +women in Oakville," yelled a third. + +"Why didn't yer jump over a broomstick for a weddin' ceremony?" someone +else bawled. + +These insults were fired almost in a volley. Alida felt Holcroft's arm +grow rigid for a second. "Go in, quick!" he said. + +Then she saw him seize the hickory sapling he had leaned against the +house, and burst upon the group like a thunderbolt. Cries of pain, +yells, and oaths of rage rose above the rain of blows. The older +members of the crew sought to close upon him, but he sprung back, and +the tough sapling swept about him like a circle of light. It was a +terrific weapon in the hands of a strong man, now possessed of almost +giant strength in his rage. More than one fellow went down under its +stinging cut, and heads and faces were bleeding. The younger portion +of the crowd speedily took to their heels, and soon even the most +stubborn fled; the farmer vigorously assisting their ignominious +retreat with tremendous downward blows on any within reach. Tim Weeks +had managed to keep out of the way till they entered the lane; then, +taking a small stone from the fence, he hurled it at their pursuer and +attempted to jump over the wall. This was old, and gave way under him +in such a way that he fell on the other side. Holcroft leaped the +fence with a bound, but Tim, lying on his back, shrieked and held up +his hands, "You won't hit a feller when he's down!" + +"No," said Holcroft, arresting his hickory. "I'll send you to jail, Tim +Weeks. That stone you fired cut my head. Was your father in that +crowd?" + +"No-o-o!" blubbered Tim. + +"If he was, I'd follow him home and whip him in his own house. Now, +clear out, and tell the rest of your rowdy crew that I'll shoot the +first one of you that disturbs me again. I'll send the constable for +you, and maybe for some of the others." + +Dire was the dismay, and dreadful the groaning in Oakville that night. +Never before had salves and poultices been in such demand. Not a few +would be disfigured for weeks, and wherever Holcroft's blows had fallen +welts arose like whipcords. In Lemuel Weeks' dwelling the +consternation reached its climax. Tim, bruised from his fall, limped +in and told his portentous story. In his spite, he added, "I don't +care, I hit him hard. His face was all bloody." + +"All bloody!" groaned his father. "Lord 'a mercy! He can send you to +jail, sure enough!" + +Then Mrs. Weeks sat down and wailed aloud. + + + +Chapter XXVI. + +"You Don't Know." + +As Timothy Weeks limped hastily away, Holcroft, with a strong revulsion +of feeling, thought of Alida. HE had been able to answer insults in a +way eminently satisfactory to himself, and every blow had relieved his +electrical condition. But how about the poor woman who had received +worse blows than he had inflicted? As he hastened toward the house he +recalled a dim impression of seeing her sink down on the doorstep. +Then he remembered her effort to face the marauders alone. "She said +she was to blame, poor child! As if there were any blame at all! She +said, 'spare him,' as if I was facing a band of murderers instead of a +lot of neighborhood scamps, and that she'd go away. I'd fight all +Oakville--men, women, and children--before I'd permit that," and he +started on a run. + +He found Alida on the step, where she had sunk as if struck down by the +rough epithets hurled at her. She was sobbing violently, almost +hysterically, and at first could not reply to his soothing words. He +lifted her up, and half carried her within to a chair. "Oh, oh," she +cried, "why did I not realize it more fully before? Selfish woman that +I was, to marry you and bring on you all this shame and danger. I +should have thought of it all, I ought to have died rather than do you +such a wrong." + +"Alida, Alida," protested Holcroft, "if it were all to do over again, +I'd be a thousand times more--" + +"Oh, I know, I know! You are brave and generous and honest. I saw +that much when you first spoke to me. I yielded to the temptation to +secure such a friend. I was too cowardly to face the world alone. And +now see what's happened! You're in danger and disgrace on my account. +I must go away--I must do what I should have done at first," and with +her face buried in her hands she rocked back and forth, overwhelmed by +the bitterness and reproach of her thoughts. + +"Alida," he urged, "please be calm and sensible. Let me reason with +you and tell you the truth. All that's happened is that the Oakville +cubs have received a well-deserved whipping. When you get calm, I can +explain everything so it won't seem half so bad. Neither you nor I are +in any danger, and, as for your going away, look me in the eyes and +listen." + +His words were almost stern in their earnestness. She raised her +streaming eyes to his face, then sprung up, exclaiming, "Oh! You're +wounded!" + +"What's that, compared with your talk of going away?" + +All explanations and reassurances would have been trivial in effect, +compared with the truth that he had been hurt in her defense. She +dashed her tears right and left, ran for a basin of water, and making +him take her chair, began washing away the blood stains. + +"Thunder!" he said, laughing, "How quickly we've changed places!" + +"Oh, oh!" she moaned, "It's a terrible wound; it might have killed you, +and they WILL kill you yet." + +He took her hands and held them firmly. "Alida," he said, gravely yet +kindly, "be still and listen to me." + +For a moment or two longer her bosom heaved with convulsive sobs, and +then she grew quiet. "Don't you know you can't go away?" he asked, +still retaining her hands and looking in her face. + +"I could for your sake," she began. + +"No, it wouldn't be for my sake. I don't wish you to go, and wouldn't +let you. If you should let the Oakville rabble drive you away, I WOULD +be in danger, and so would others, for I'd be worse on 'em than an +earthquake. After the lesson they've had tonight, they'll let us alone, +and I'll let them alone. You know I've tried to be honest with you +from the first. Believe me, then, the trouble's over unless we make +more for ourselves. Now, promise you'll do as I say and let me manage." + +"I'll try," she breathed softly. + +"No, no! That won't do. I'm beginning to find you out. You may get +some foolish, self-sacrificing notion in your head that it would be +best for me, when it would be my ruination. Will you promise?" + +"Yes." + +"Famous! Now you can bathe my head all you please for it feels a +little queer." + +"It's an awful wound," she said in tones of the deepest sympathy. "Oh, +I'm so sorry!" + +"Pshaw! My head is too hard for that little scamp of a Weeks to break. +His turn'll come next." + +She cut away the blood-clotted hair and bound up the rather severe +scalp wound with a tenderness and sympathy that expressed itself even +in her touch. She was too confused and excited to be conscious of +herself, but she had received some tremendously strong impressions. +Chief among them was the truth that nothing which had happened made any +difference in him--that he was still the same loyal friend, standing +between her and the world she dreaded--yes, between her and her own +impulses toward self-sacrifice. Sweetest of all was the assurance that +he did this for his own sake as well as hers. These facts seemed like +a foothold in the mad torrent of feeling and shame which had been +sweeping her away. She could think of little more than that she was +safe--safe because he was brave and loyal--and yes, safe because he +wanted her and would not give her up. The heart of a woman must be +callous indeed, and her nature not only trivial but stony if she is not +deeply touched under circumstances like these. + +In spite of his laughing contempt of danger, she trembled as she saw +him ready to go out again; she wished to accompany him on his round of +observation, but he scouted the idea, although it pleased him. +Standing in the door, she strained her eyes and listened breathlessly. +He soon returned and said, "They've all had enough. We won't be +disturbed again." + +He saw that her nerves needed quieting, and he set about the task with +such simple tact as he possessed. His first step was to light his pipe +in the most nonchalant manner, and then he burst out laughing. "I'll +hang that hickory up. It has done too good service to be put to common +use again. Probably you never heard of a skimelton, Alida. Well, they +are not so uncommon in this region. I suppose I'll have to own up to +taking part in one myself when I was a young chap. They usually are +only rough larks and are taken good-naturedly. I'm not on jesting terms +with my neighbors, and they had no business to come here, but I +wouldn't have made any row if they hadn't insulted you." + +Her head bowed very low as she faltered, "They've heard everything." + +He came right to her and took her hand. "Didn't I hear everything +before they did?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, Alida, I'm not only satisfied with you, but I'm very grateful to +you. Why shouldn't I be when you are a good Christian woman? I guess +I'm the one to be suited, not Oakville. I should be as reckless as the +devil if you should go away from me. Don't I act like a man who's +ready to stand up for and protect you?" + +"Yes, too ready. It would kill me if anything happened to you on my +account." + +"Well, the worst would happen," he said firmly, "if we don't go right +on as we've begun. If we go quietly on about our own affairs, we'll +soon be let alone and that's all we ask." + +"Yes, yes indeed! Don't worry, James. I'll do as you wish." + +"Famous! You never said 'James' to me before. Why haven't you?" + +"I don't know," she faltered, with a sudden rush of color to her pale +face. + +"Well, that's my name," he resumed, laughing. "I guess it's because we +are getting better acquainted." + +She looked up and said impetuously, "You don't know how a woman feels +when a man stands up for her as you did tonight." + +"Well, I know how a man feels when there is a woman so well worth +standing up for. It was a lucky thing that I had nothing heavier in my +hand than that hickory." All the while he was looking at her +curiously; then he spoke his thought. "You're a quiet little woman, +Alida, most times, but you're capable of a thunder gust now and then." + +"I'll try to be quiet at all times," she replied, with drooping eyes. + +"Oh, I'm not complaining!" he said, laughing. "I like the trait." + +He took a small pitcher and went to the dairy. Returning, he poured +out two glasses of milk and said, "Here's to your health and happiness, +Alida; and when I don't stand up for the woman who started out to save +me from a mob of murderers, may the next thing I eat or drink choke me. +You didn't know they were merely a lot of Oakville boys, did you?" + +"You can't make so light of it," said she. "They tried to close on you, +and if that stone had struck you on the temple, it might have killed +you. They swore like pirates, and looked like ruffians with their +blackened faces. They certainly were not boys in appearance." + +"I'm afraid I swore too," he said sadly. + +"You had some excuse, but I'm sorry. They would have hurt you if you +hadn't kept them off." + +"Yes, they'd probably have given me a beating. People do things in hot +blood they wish they hadn't afterward. I know this Oakville +rough-scuff. Since we've had it out, and they know what to expect, +they'll give me a wide berth. Now go and sleep. You were never safer +in your life." + +She did not trust herself to reply, but the glance she gave him from +her tearful eyes was so eloquent with grateful feeling that he was +suddenly conscious of some unwonted sensations. He again patrolled the +place and tied the dog near the barn. + +"It's barely possible that some of these mean cusses might venture to +kindle a fire, but a bark from Towser will warn 'em off. She IS a +spirited little woman," he added, with a sharp change in soliloquy. +"There's nothing milk-and-water about her. Thunder! I felt like +kissing her when she looked at me so. I guess that crack on my skull +has made me a little light-headed." + +He lay down in his clothes so that he might rush out in case of any +alarm, and he intended to keep awake. Then, the first thing he knew, +the sun was shining in the windows. + +It was long before Alida slept, and the burden of her thoughts +confirmed the words that she had spoken so involuntarily. "You don't +know how a woman feels when a man stands up for her as you did." It is +the nature of her sex to adore hardy, courageous manhood. Beyond all +power of expression, Alida felt her need of a champion and protector. +She was capable of going away for his sake, but she would go in terror +and despair. The words that had smitten her confirmed all her old +fears of facing the world alone. Then came the overpowering thought of +his loyalty and kindness, of his utter and almost fierce repugnance to +the idea of her leaving him. In contrast with the man who had deceived +and wronged her, Holcroft's course overwhelmed her very soul with a +passion of grateful affection. A new emotion, unlike anything she had +ever known, thrilled her heart and covered her face with blushes. "I +could die for him!" she murmured. + +She awoke late in the morning. When at last she entered the kitchen +she stopped in deep chagrin, for Holcroft had almost completed +preparations for breakfast. "Ha, ha!" he laughed, "turn about is fair +play." + +"Well," she sighed, "there's no use of making excuses now." + +"There's no occasion for any. Did you ever see such a looking case as +I am with this bandage around my head?" + +"Does it pain you?" she asked sympathetically. + +"Well, it does. It pains like thunder." + +"The wound needs dressing again. Let me cleanse and bind it up." + +"Yes, after breakfast." + +"No, indeed; now. I couldn't eat my breakfast while you were suffering +so." + +"I'm more unfeeling then than you are, for I could." + +She insisted on having her way, and then tore up her handkerchief to +supply a soft linen bandage. + +"You're extravagant, Alida," but she only shook her head. + +"Famous! That feels better. What a touch you have! Now, if you had a +broken head, my fingers would be like a pair of tongs." + +She only shook her head and smiled. + +"You're as bad as Jane used to be. She never said a word when she +could shake or nod her meaning." + +"I should think you would be glad, after having been half talked to +death by her mother." + +"As I said before, take your own way of doing things. It seems the +right way after it is done." + +A faint color came into her face, and she looked positively happy as +she sat down to breakfast. "Are you sure your head feels better?" she +asked. + +"Yes, and you look a hundred per cent better. Well, I AM glad you had +such a good sleep after all the hubbub." + +"I didn't sleep till toward morning," she said, with downcast eyes. + +"Pshaw! That's too bad. Well, no matter, you look like a different +person from what you did when I first saw you. You've been growing +younger every day." + +Her face flushed like a girl's under his direct, admiring gaze, making +her all the more pretty. She hastened to divert direct attention from +herself by asking, "You haven't heard from anyone this morning?" + +"No, but I guess the doctor has. Some of those fellows will have to +keep shady for a while." + +As they were finishing breakfast, Holcroft looked out of the open +kitchen door and exclaimed, "By thunder! We're going to hear from some +of them now. Here comes Mrs. Weeks, the mother of the fellow who hit +me." + +"Won't you please receive her in the parlor?" + +"Yes, she won't stay long, you may be sure. I'm going to give that +Weeks tribe one lesson and pay off the whole score." + +He merely bowed coldly to Mrs. Weeks' salutation and offered her a +chair. The poor woman took out her handkerchief and began to mop her +eyes, but Holcroft was steeled against her, not so much on account of +the wound inflicted by her son as for the reason that he saw in her an +accomplice with her husband in the fraud of Mrs. Mumpson. + +"I hope you're not badly hurt," she began. + +"It might be worse." + +"Oh, Mr. Holcroft!" she broke out sobbingly, "spare my son. It would +kill me if you sent him to prison." + +"He took the chance of killing me last night," was the cold reply. +"What's far worse, he insulted my wife." + +"Oh, Mr. Holcroft! He was young and foolish; he didn't realize--" + +"Were you and your husband young and foolish," he interrupted bitterly, +"when you gulled me into employing that crazy cousin of yours?" + +This retort was so overwhelming that Mrs. Weeks sobbed speechlessly. + +Alida could not help overhearing the conversation, and she now glided +into the room and stood by her husband's side. + +"James," she said, "won't you do me a favor, a great kindness?" + +Mrs. Weeks raised her eyes and looked wonderingly at this dreadful +woman, against whom all Oakville was talking. + +"I know what you wish, Alida," he replied sternly, "but I can't do it. +This is a case for justice. This woman's son was the leader of that +vile crowd that insulted you last night. I can forgive his injuring +me, but not the words he used about you. Moreover, when I was alone +and struggling to keep my home, Mrs. Weeks took part with her husband +in imposing on me their fraud of a cousin and in tricking me out of +honest money. Any woman with a heart in her breast would have tried to +help a man situated as I was. No, it's a clear case of justice, and +her son shall go to jail." + +Mrs. Weeks wailed afresh at this final sentence. Holcroft was amazed +to see his wife drop on her knees beside his chair. He raised her +instantly. "Don't do such a thing as that," he said huskily. + +Without removing her pleading eyes from his face she asked gently, "Who +told us to forgive as we would be forgiven? James, I shall be very +unhappy if you don't grant this mother's prayer." + +He tried to turn away, but she caught his hand and held his eyes with +hers. "Alida," he said in strong agitation, "you heard the vile, false +words that Timothy Weeks said last night. They struck you down like a +blow. Can you forgive him?" + +"Yes, and I plead with you to forgive him. Grant me my wish, James; I +shall be so much happier, and so will you." + +"Well, Mrs. Weeks, now you know what kind of a woman your son came to +insult. You may tell your neighbors that there's one Christian in +Oakville. I yield to Mrs. Holcroft, and will take no further action in +the affair if we are let alone." + +Mrs. Weeks was not a bad woman at heart, and she had received a +wholesome lesson. She came and took Alida's hand as she said, "Yes, +you are a Christian--a better woman than I've been, but I aint so mean +and bad but what, when I see my fault, I am sorry and can ask +forgiveness. I do ask your forgiveness, Mr. Holcroft. I've been +ashamed of myself ever since you brought my cousin back. I thought she +would try, when she had the chance you gave her, but she seems to have +no sense." + +"There, there! Let bygones be bygones," said the farmer in +embarrassment. "I've surrendered. Please don't say anything more." + +"You've got a kind heart, in spite--" + +"Oh, come now! Please quit, or I'll begin to swear a little to keep up +the reputation my neighbors have given me. Go home and tell Tim to +brace up and try to be a man. When I say I'm done with a grudge, I AM +done. You and Mrs. Holcroft can talk all you like, but please excuse +me," and with more than most men's horror of a scene, he escaped +precipitately. + +"Sit down, Mrs. Weeks," said Alida kindly. + +"Well, I will. I can't say much to excuse myself or my folks--" + +"You've already said everything, Mrs. Weeks," interrupted Alida gently; +"you've said you are sorry." + +Mrs. Weeks stared a moment, and then resumed sententiously, "Well, I've +heard more gospel in that remark than if I'd gone to church. And I +couldn't go to church, I could never have gone there again or held my +head up anywhere if--if--" + +"That's all past and gone," said Alida, smiling. "When Mr. Holcroft +says anything, you may depend on it." + +"Well, God bless you for intercedin'--you had so much to forgive. +Nobody shall ever speak a word against you again while I've got breath +to answer. I wish you'd let me come and see you sometimes." + +"Whenever you wish, if you care to visit one who has had so much--so +much trouble." + +"I see now that's all the more reason I should come, for if it hadn't +been for you, I'd have been in bitter trouble myself. We've been worse +than heathen, standin' off and talking against you. Oh, I've had a +lesson I won't forget! Well, I must hurry home, for I left Timothy and +Lemuel in a dreadful state." + +Seeing the farmer in the barn as she was passing, she rushed to him. +"You've got to shake hands with me, Mr. Holcroft. Your wife IS a good +woman, and she's a lady, too. Anyone with half an eye can see she's +not one of the common sort." + +The farmer shook the poor woman's hand good-naturedly and said +heartily, "That's so! All right, meeting's over. Goodbye." Then he +turned to his work and chuckled, "That's what Tom Watterly said. Thank +the Lord! She ISN'T of the common sort. I've got to brace up and be +more of a man as well as Tim Weeks." + +In spite of the pain in his head, Alida's words proved true. He was +happier than he had been in many a long day. He had the glow which +follows a generous act, and the thought that he had pleased a sweet +little woman who somehow seemed very attractive to him that May +morning; at the same time the old Adam in his nature led to a sneaking +satisfaction that he had laid on the hickory so unsparingly the evening +before. + +Alida uttered a low, happy laugh as she heard him whistling +"Coronation" in jig time, and she hustled away the breakfast things +with the eagerness of a girl, that she might be ready to read to him +when he came in. + + + +Chapter XXVII. + +Farm and Farmer Bewitched + +The day grew warm, and having finished her tasks indoors and cared for +the poultry, Alida brought a chair out in the porch. Her eyes were +dreamy with a vague, undefined happiness. The landscape in itself was +cause for exquisite pleasure, for it was an ideal day of the +apple-blossoming period. The old orchard back of the barn looked as if +pink-and-white clouds had settled upon it, and scattered trees near and +far were exhaling their fragrance. The light breeze which fanned her +cheek and bent the growing rye in an adjacent field was perfumed beyond +the skill of art. Not only were her favorite meadow larks calling to +each other, but the thrushes had come and she felt that she had never +heard such hymns as they were singing. A burst of song from the lilac +bush under the parlor window drew her eyes thither, and there was the +paternal redbreast pouring out the very soul of ecstasy. From the nest +beneath him rose the black head and yellow beak of his brooding mate. +"How contented and happy she looks!" Alida murmured, "how happy they +both are! And the secret of it is HOME. And to think that I, who was +a friendless waif, am at home, also! At home with Eden-like beauty and +peace before my eyes. But if it hadn't been for him, and if he were +not brave, kind, and true to all he says--" and she shuddered at a +contrast that rose before her fancy. + +She could now scarcely satisfy herself that it was only gratitude which +filled her heart with a strange, happy tumult. She had never been +conscious of such exaltation before. It is true, she had learned to +cherish a strong affection for the man whom she had believed to be her +husband, but chiefly because he had seemed kind and she had an +affectionate disposition. Until within the last few hours, her nature +had never been touched and awakened in its profoundest depths. She had +never known before nor had she idealized the manhood capable of evoking +the feelings which now lighted her eyes and gave to her face the +supreme charm and beauty of womanhood. In truth, it was a fitting day +and time for the birth of a love like hers, simple, all-absorbing, and +grateful. It contained no element not in harmony with that May Sunday +morning. + +Holcroft came and sat on the steps below her. She kept her eyes on the +landscape, for she was consciously enough on her guard now. "I rather +guess you think, Alida, that you are looking at a better picture than +any artist fellow could paint?" he remarked. + +"Yes," she replied hesitatingly, "and the picture seems all the more +lovely and full of light because the background is so very dark. I've +been thinking of what happened here last night and what might have +happened, and how I felt then." + +"You feel better--different now, don't you? You certainly look so." + +"Yes!--You made me very happy by yielding to Mrs. Weeks." + +"Oh! I didn't yield to her at all." + +"Very well, have it your own way, then." + +"I think you had it your way." + +"Are you sorry?" + +"Do I look so? How did you know I'd be happier if I gave in?" + +"Because, as you say, I'm getting better acquainted with you. YOU +couldn't help being happier for a generous act." + +"I wouldn't have done it, though, if it hadn't been for you." + +"I'm not so sure about that." + +"I am. You're coming to make me feel confoundedly uncomfortable in my +heathenish life." + +"I wish I could." + +"I never had such a sermon in my life as you gave me this morning. A +Christian act like yours is worth a year of religious talk." + +She looked at him wistfully for a moment and then asked, a little +abruptly, "Mr. Holcroft, have you truly forgiven that Weeks family?" + +"Oh, yes! I suppose so. I've forgiven the old lady, anyhow. I've +shaken hands with her." + +"If her husband and son should come and apologize and say they were +sorry, would you truly and honestly forgive them?" + +"Certainly! I couldn't hold a grudge after that. What are you aiming +at?" and he turned and looked inquiringly into her face. + +It was flushed and tearful in its eager, earnest interest. "Don't you +see?" she faltered. + +He shook his head, but was suddenly and strangely moved by her +expression. + +"Why, Mr. Holcroft, if you can honestly forgive those who have wronged +you, you ought to see how ready God is to forgive." + +He fairly started to his feet so vividly the truth came home to him, +illumined, as it was, by a recent and personal experience. After a +moment, he slowly sat down again and said, with a long breath, "That +was a close shot, Alida." + +"I only wish you to have the trust and comfort which this truth should +bring you," she said. "It seems a pity you should do yourself needless +injustice when you are willing to do what is right and kind by others." + +"It's all a terrible muddle, Alida. If God is so ready to forgive, how +do you account for all the evil and suffering in the world?" + +"I don't account for it and can't. I'm only one of his little +children; often an erring one, too. You've been able to forgive grown +people, your equals, and strangers in a sense. Suppose you had a +little boy that had done wrong, but said he was sorry, would you hold a +grudge against him?" + +"The idea! I'd be a brute." + +She laughed softly as she asked again, "don't you see?" + +He sat looking thoughtfully away across the fields for a long time, and +finally asked, "Is your idea of becoming a Christian just being +forgiven like a child and then trying to do right?" + +"Yes. Why not?" + +"Well," he remarked, with a grim laugh. "I didn't expect to be cornered +in this way." + +"You who are truthful should face the truth. It would make you +happier. A good deal that was unexpected has happened. When I look +out on a scene like this and think that I am safe and at home, I feel +that God has been very good to me and that you have, too. I can't bear +to think that you have that old trouble on your mind--the feeling that +you had been a Christian once, but was not one now. Being sure that +there is no need of your continuing to feel so, what sort of return +would I be making for all your kindness if I did not try to show you +what is as clear to me as this sunshine?" + +"You are a good woman, Alida. Believing as you do, you have done right +to speak to me, and I never believed mortal lips could speak so to the +purpose. I shall think of what you have said, for you have put things +in a new light. But say, Alida, what on earth possesses you to call me +'Mr.'? You don't need to be scared half to death every time to call me +by my first name, do you?" + +"Scared? Oh, no!" She was a trifle confused, he thought, but then her +tone was completely reassuring. + +The day was one long remembered by both. As in nature about them, the +conditions of development and rapid change now existed. + +She did not read aloud very much, and long silences fell between them. +They were reaching a higher plane of companionship, in which words are +not always essential. Both had much to think about, and their thoughts +were like roots which prepare for blossom and fruit. + +With Monday, busy life was resumed. The farmer began planting his corn +and Alida her flower seeds. Almost every day now added to the brood of +little chicks under her care. The cows went out to pasture. Holcroft +brought in an increasing number of overflowing pails of milk, and if +the labors of the dairy grew more exacting, they also grew more +profitable. The tide had turned; income was larger than outgo, and it +truly seemed to the long-harassed man that an era of peace and +prosperity had set in. + +To a superficial observer things might have appeared to be going on +much as before, but there were influences at work which Holcroft did +not clearly comprehend. + +As Alida had promised herself, she spent all the money which the eggs +brought in, but Holcroft found pretty muslin curtains at the parlor +windows, and shades which excluded the glare from the kitchen. Better +china took the place of that which was cracked and unsightly. In +brief, a subtle and refining touch was apparent all over the house. + +"How fine we are getting!" he remarked one evening at supper. + +"I've only made a beginning," she replied, nodding defiantly at him. +"The chickens will paint the house before the year is over." + +"Phew! When do the silk dresses come in?" + +"When your broadcloth does." + +"Well, if this goes on, I shall certainly have to wear purple and fine +linen to keep pace." + +"Fine linen, certainly. When you take the next lot of eggs to town I +shall tell you just the number of yards I need to make half a dozen +extra fine shirts. Those you have are getting past mending." + +"Do you think I'll let you spend your money in that way?" + +"You'll let me spend MY money just as I please--in the way that will do +me the most good!" + +"What a saucy little woman you are becoming!" he said, looking at her +so fondly that she quickly averted her eyes. "It's a way people fall +into when humored," she answered. + +"See here, Alida, you're up to some magic. It seems but the other day +I brought you here, a pale ghost of a woman. As old Jonathan Johnson +said, you were 'enj'yin' poor health.' Do you know what he said when I +took him off so he wouldn't put you through the catechism?" + +"No," she replied, with a deprecating smile and rising color. + +"He said he was 'afeared I'd been taken in, you were such a sickly +lookin' critter.' Ha! Ha! Wish he might see you now, with that +flushed face of yours. I never believed in magic, but I'll have to +come to it. You are bewitched, and are being transformed into a pretty +young girl right under my eyes; the house is bewitched, and is growing +pretty, too, and pleasanter all the time. The cherry and apple trees +are bewitched, for they never blossomed so before; the hens are +bewitched, they lay as if possessed; the--" + +"Oh, stop! Or I shall think that you're bewitched yourself." + +"I truly begin to think I am." + +"Oh, well! Since we all and everything are affected in the same way, +it don't matter." + +"But it does. It's unaccountable. I'm beginning to rub my eyes and +pinch myself to wake up." + +"If you like it, I wouldn't wake up." + +"Suppose I did, and saw Mrs. Mumpson sitting where you do, Jane here, +and Mrs. Wiggins smoking her pipe in the corner. The very thought +makes me shiver. My first words would be, 'Please pass the cold +p'ison.'" + +"What nonsense you are talking tonight!" she tried to say severely, but +the pleased, happy look in her eyes betrayed her. He regarded her with +the open admiration of a boy, and she sought to divert his attention by +asking, "What do you think has become of Jane?" + +"I don't know--stealing around like a strange cat in some relation's +house, I suppose." + +"You once said you would like to do something for her." + +"Well, I would. If I could afford it, I'd like to send her to school." + +"Would you like her to come here and study lessons part of the time?" + +He shivered visibly. "No, Alida, and you wouldn't either. She'd make +you more nervous than she would me, and that's saying a good deal. I +do feel very sorry for her, and if Mrs. Weeks comes to see you, we'll +find out if something can't be done, but her presence would spoil all +our cozy comfort. The fact is, I wouldn't enjoy having anyone here. +You and I are just about company enough. Still, if you feel that you'd +like to have some help--" + +"Oh, no! I haven't enough to do." + +"But you're always a-doing. Well, if you're content, I haven't +Christian fortitude enough to make any changes." + +She smiled and thought that she was more than content. She had begun +to detect symptoms in her husband which her own heart enabled her to +interpret. In brief, it looked as if he were drifting on a smooth, +swift tide to the same haven in which she was anchored. + +One unusually warm morning for the season, rain set in after breakfast. +Holcroft did not fret in the least that he could not go to the fields, +nor did he, as had been his custom at first, find rainy-day work at the +barn. The cows, in cropping the lush grass, had so increased their +yield of milk that it was necessary to churn every other day, and Alida +was busy in the dairy. This place had become inviting by reason of its +coolness, and she had rendered it more so by making it perfectly clean +and sweet. Strange to say, it contained another chair besides the one +she usually occupied. The apartment was large and stone-flagged. +Along one side were shelves filled with rows of shining milk-pans. In +one corner stood the simple machinery which the old dog put in motion +when tied upon his movable walk, and the churn was near. An iron pipe, +buried deep in the ground, brought cool spring water from the brook +above. This pipe emptied its contents with a low gurgle into a shallow, +oblong receptacle sunk in the floor, and was wide and deep enough for +two stone crocks of ample size to stand abreast up to their rims in the +water. The cream was skimmed into these stone jars until they were +full, then Holcroft emptied them into the churn. He had charged Alida +never to attempt this part of the work, and indeed it was beyond her +strength. After breakfast on churning days, he prepared everything and +set the dog at work. Then he emptied the churn of the buttermilk when +he came in to dinner. + +All the associations of the place were pleasant to Alida. It was here +that her husband had shown patience as well as kindness in teaching her +how to supplement his work until her own experience and judgment gave +her a better skill than he possessed. Many pleasant, laughing words +had passed between them in this cool, shadowy place, and on a former +rainy morning he had brought a chair down that he might keep her +company. She had not carried it back, nor was she very greatly +surprised to see him saunter in and occupy it on the present occasion. +She stood by the churn, her figure outlined clearly in the light from +the open door, as she poured in cold water from time to time to hasten +and harden the gathering butter. Her right sleeve was rolled well +back, revealing a white arm that was becoming beautifully plump and +round. An artist would have said that her attitude and action were +unconsciously natural and graceful. Holcroft had scarcely the remotest +idea of artistic effect, but he had a sensible man's perception of a +charming woman when she is charming. + +"Mr. Holcroft," she asked very gravely, "will you do something for me?" + +"Yes, half a dozen things." + +"You promise?" + +"Certainly! What's the trouble?" + +"I don't mean there shall be any if I can help it," she answered with a +light ripple of laughter. "Please go and put on your coat." + +"How you've humbugged me! It's too hot." + +"Oh, you've got to do it; you promised. You can't stay here unless you +do." + +"So you are going to take care of me as if I were a small boy?" + +"You need care--sometimes." + +He soon came back and asked, "Now may I stay?" + +"Yes. Please untie the dog. Butter's come." + +"I should think it would, or anything else at your coaxing." + +"Oh-h, what a speech! Hasn't that a pretty golden hue?" she asked, +holding up a mass of the butter she was ladling from the churn into a +wooden tray. + +"Yes, you are making the gilt-edge article now. I don't have to sell +it to Tom Watterly any more." + +"I'd like to give him some, though." + +He was silent, and something like sudden rage burned in his heart that +Mrs. Watterly would not permit the gift. That anyone should frown on +his having such a helper as Alida was proving herself to be, made him +vindictive. Fortunately her face was turned away, and she did not see +his heavy frown. Then, to shield her from a disagreeable fact, he said +quickly, "do you know that for over a year I steadily went behind my +expenses. And that your butter making has turned the tide already? +I'm beginning to get ahead again." + +"I'm SO glad," and her face was radiant. + +"Yes, I should know that from your looks. It's clearer every day that +I got the best of our bargain. I never dreamed, though, that I should +enjoy your society as I do--that we should become such very good +friends. That wasn't in the bargain, was it?" + +"Bargain!" The spirited way with which she echoed the word, as if +thereby repudiating anything like a sordid side to their mutual +relations, was not lost on her wondering and admiring partner. She +checked herself suddenly. "Now let me teach YOU how to make butter," +and with the tray in her lap, she began washing the golden product and +pressing out the milk. + +He laughed in a confused delighted way at her piquant, half saucy +manner as he watched her deft round arm and shapely hand. + +"The farmers' wives in Oakville would say your hands were too little to +do much." + +"They would?" and she raised her blue eyes indignantly to his. "No +matter, you are the one to say about that." + +"I say they do too much. I shall have to get Jane to help you." + +"By all means! Then you'll have more society." + +"That was a home shot. You know how I dote on everybody's absence, +even Jane's." + +"You dote on butter. See how firm and yellow it's getting. You +wouldn't think it was milk-white cream a little while ago, would you? +Now I'll put in the salt and you must taste it, for you're a +connoisseur." + +"A what?" + +"Judge, then." + +"You know a sight more than I do, Alida." + +"I'm learning all the time." + +"So am I--to appreciate you." + +"Listen to the sound of the rain and the water as it runs into the +milk-cooler. It's like low music, isn't it?" + +Poor Holcroft could make no better answer than a sneeze. + +"Oh-h," she exclaimed, "you're catching cold? Come, you must go right +upstairs. You can't stay here another minute. I'm nearly through." + +"I was never more contented in my life." + +"You've no right to worry me. What would I do if you got sick? Come, +I'll stop work till you go." + +"Well then, little boss, goodbye." + +With a half suppressed smile at his obedience Alida watched his +reluctant departure. She kept on diligently at work, but one might +have fancied that her thoughts rather than her exertions were flushing +her cheeks. + +It seemed to her that but a few moments elapsed before she followed +him, but he had gone. Then she saw that the rain had ceased and that +the clouds were breaking. His cheerful whistle sounded reassuringly +from the barn, and a little later he drove up the lane with a cart. + +She sat down in the kitchen and began sewing on the fine linen they had +jested about. Before long she heard a light step. Glancing up, she +saw the most peculiar and uncanny-looking child that had ever crossed +her vision, and with dismal presentiment knew it was Jane. + + + +Chapter XXVIII. + +Another Waif + +It was indeed poor, forlorn little Jane that had appeared like a +specter in the kitchen door. She was as wet and bedraggled as a +chicken caught in a shower. A little felt hat hung limp over her ears; +her pigtail braid had lost its string and was unraveling at the end, +and her torn, sodden shoes were ready to drop from her feet. She +looked both curiously and apprehensively at Alida with her little +blinking eyes, and then asked in a sort of breathless voice, "Where's +him?" + +"Mr. Holcroft?" + +Jane nodded. + +"He's gone out to the fields. You are Jane, aren't you?" + +Another nod. + +"Oh, DEAR!" groaned Alida mentally; "I wish she hadn't come." Then +with a flush of shame the thought crossed her mind, "She perhaps is a +friendless and homeless as I was, and, and 'him' is also her only +hope." "Come in, Jane," she said kindly, "and tell me everything." + +"Be you his new girl?" + +"I'm his wife," said Alida, smiling. + +Jane stopped; her mouth opened and her eyes twinkled with dismay. "Then +he is married, after all?" she gasped. + +"Yes, why not?" + +"Mother said he'd never get anyone to take him." + +"Well, you see she was mistaken." + +"She's wrong about everything. Well, it's no use then," and the child +turned and sat down on the doorstep. + +Alida was perplexed. From the way Jane wiped her eyes with her wet +sleeve, she was evidently crying. Coming to her, Alida said, "What is +no use, Jane? Why are you crying?" + +"I thought--he--might--p'raps--let me stay and work for him." + +Alida was still more perplexed. What could be said by way of comfort, +feeling sure as she did that Holcroft would be bitterly hostile to the +idea of keeping the child? The best she could do was to draw the +little waif out and obtain some explanation of her unexpected +appearance. But first she asked, "Have you had any breakfast?" + +Jane shook her head. + +"Oh, then you must have some right away." + +"Don't want any. I want to die. I oughtn' ter been born." + +"Tell me your troubles, Jane. Perhaps I can help you." + +"No, you'd be like the rest. They all hate me and make me feel I'm in +the way. He's the only one that didn't make me feel like a stray cat, +and now he's gone and got married," and the child sobbed aloud. + +Her grief was pitiful to see, for it was overwhelming. Alida stooped +down, and gently lifting the child up, brought her in. Then she took +off the wet hat and wiped the tear-stained face with her handkerchief. +"Wait a minute, Jane, till I bring you something," and she ran to the +dairy for a glass of milk. "You must drink it," she said, kindly but +firmly. + +The child gulped it down, and with it much of her grief, for this was +unprecedented treatment and was winning her attention. + +"Say," she faltered, "will you ask him to let me stay?" + +"Yes, I'll ask him, but I can't promise that he will." + +"You won't ask him 'fore my face and then tell him not to behind my +back?" and there was a sly, keen look in her eyes which tears could not +conceal. + +"No," said Alida gravely, "that's not my way. How did you get here, +Jane?" + +"Run away." + +"From where?" + +"Poorhouse." + +Alida drew a quick breath and was silent a few moments. "Is--is your +mother there?" she asked at length. + +"Yes. They wouldn't let us visit round any longer." + +"Didn't your mother or anyone know you were coming?" + +Jane shook her head. + +Alida felt that it would be useless to burden the unhappy child with +misgivings as to the result, and her heart softened toward her as one +who in her limited way had known the bitterness and dread which in that +same almshouse had overwhelmed her own spirit. She could only say +gently, "Well, wait till Mr. Holcroft comes, and then we'll see what he +says." She herself was both curious and anxious as to his course. "It +will be a heavy cross," she thought, "but I should little deserve God's +goodness to me if I did not befriend this child." + +Every moment added weight to this unexpected burden of duty. Apart +from all consideration of Jane's peculiarities, the isolation with +Holcroft had been a delight in itself. Their mutual enjoyment of each +other's society had been growing from day to day, and she, more truly +than he, had shrunk from the presence of another as an unwelcome +intrusion. Conscious of her secret, Jane's prying eyes were already +beginning to irritate her nerves. Never had she seen a human face that +so completely embodied her idea of inquisitiveness as the uncanny +visage of this child. She saw that she would be watched with a +tireless vigilance. Her recoil, however, was not so much a matter of +conscious reasoning and perception as it was an instinctive feeling of +repulsion caused by the unfortunate child. It was the same old story. +Jane always put the women of a household on pins and needles just as +her mother exasperated the men. Alida had to struggle hard during a +comparatively silent hour to fight down the hope that Holcroft would +not listen to Jane's and her own request. + +As she stepped quickly and lightly about in her preparations for +dinner, the girl watched her intently. At last she gave voice to her +thoughts and said, "If mother'd only worked round smart as you, p'raps +she'd hooked him 'stid er you." + +Alida's only reply was a slight frown, for the remark suggested +disagreeable images and fancies. "Oh, how can I endure it?" she sighed. +She determined to let Jane plead her own cause at first, thinking that +perhaps this would be the safest way. If necessary, she would use her +influence against a hostile decision, let it cost in discomfort what it +might. + +At a few moments before twelve the farmer came briskly toward the +house, and was evidently in the best of spirits. When he entered and +saw Jane, his countenance indicated so much dismay that Alida could +scarcely repress a smile. The child rose and stood before him like a +culprit awaiting sentence. She winked hard to keep the tears back, for +there was no welcome in his manner. She could not know how intensely +distasteful was her presence at this time, nor had Holcroft himself +imagined how unwelcome a third person in his house could be until he +saw the intruder before him. He had only felt that he was wonderfully +contented and happy in his home, and that Jane would be a constant +source of annoyance and restraint. Moreover, it might lead to +visitation from Mrs. Mumpson, and that was the summing up of earthly +ills. But the child's appearance and manner were so forlorn and +deprecating that words of irritation died upon his lips. He gravely +shook hands with her and then drew out the story which Alida had +learned. + +"Why, Jane," he exclaimed, frowning, "Mr. Watterly will be scouring the +country for you. I shall have to take you back right after dinner." + +"I kinder hoped," she sobbed, "that you'd let me stay. I'd stay in the +barn if I couldn't be in the house. I'd just as soon work outdoors, +too." + +"I don't think you'd be allowed to stay," said the farmer, with a +sinking heart; "and then--perhaps your mother would be coming here." + +"I can't stand mother no more'n you can" said the girl, through her set +teeth. "I oughtn'ter been born, for there's no place for me in the +world." + +Holcroft looked at his wife, his face expressive of the utmost +annoyance, worry, and irresolution. Her glance was sympathetic, but +she said nothing, feeling that if he could make the sacrifice from his +own will he should have the chance. "You can't begin to know how much +trouble this may lead to, Jane," he resumed. "You remember how your +other threatened to take the law upon me, and it wouldn't be possible +for you to stay here without her consent." + +"She oughter consent; I'll make her consent!" cried the child, speaking +as if driven to desperation. "What's she ever done for me but teach me +mean ways? Keep me or kill me, for I must be in some place where I've a +right to be away from mother. I've found that there's no sense in her +talk, and it drives me crazy." + +Although Jane's words and utterance were strangely uncouth, they +contained a despairing echo which the farmer could not resist. Turning +his troubled face to his wife, he began, "If this is possible, Alida, +it will be a great deal harder on you than it will on me. I don't feel +that I would be doing right by you unless you gave your consent with +full knowledge of--" + +"Then please let her stay, if it is possible. She seems to need a +friend and home as much as another that you heard about." + +"There's no chance of such a blessed reward in this case," he replied, +with a grim laugh. Then, perplexed indeed, he continued to Jane, "I'm +just as sorry for you as I can be, but there's no use of getting my +wife and self in trouble which in the end will do you no good. You are +too young to understand all that your staying may lead to." + +"It won't lead to mother's comin' here, and that's the worst that could +happen. Since she can't do anything for me she's got to let me do for +myself." + +"Alida, please come with me in the parlor a moment. You stay here, +Jane." When they were alone, he resumed, "Somehow, I feel strangely +unwilling to have that child live with us. We were enjoying our quiet +life so much. Then you don't realize how uncomfortable she will make +you, Alida." + +"Yes, I do." + +"I don't think you can yet. Your sympathies are touched now, but +she'll watch you and irritate you in a hundred ways. Don't her very +presence make you uncomfortable?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, then, she can't stay," he began decidedly. "This is your home, +and no one shall make you uncomfortable--" + +"But I should be a great deal more uncomfortable if she didn't stay," +Alida interrupted. "I should feel that I did not deserve my home. Not +long ago my heart was breaking because I was friendless and in trouble. +What could I think of myself if I did not entreat you in behalf of this +poor child?" + +"Thunder!" ejaculated Holcroft. "I guess I was rather friendless and +troubled myself, and I didn't know the world had in it such a good +friend as you've become, Alida. Well, well! You've put it in such a +light that I'd be almost tempted to take the mother, also." + +"No," she replied, laughing; "we'll draw the line at the mother." + +"Well, I'll take Jane to town this afternoon, and if her mother will +sign an agreement to leave us all in peace, we'll give up our old cozy +comfort of being alone. I suppose it must be a good deed, since it's +so mighty hard to do it," he concluded with a wry face, leading the way +to the kitchen again. She smiled as if his words were already rewarding +her self denial. + +"Well, Jane," he resumed, "Mrs. Holcroft has spoken in your behalf, and +if we can arrange matters so that you can stay, you will have her to +thank chiefly. I'll take you back to the poorhouse after dinner, so it +may be known what's become of you. Then, if your mother'll sign an +agreement to make no trouble and not come here, we'll give you a home +until we can find a better place for you." + +There was no outburst of gratitude. The repressed, dwarfed nature of +the child was incapable of this, yet there was an unwonted little +thrill of hope in her heart. Possibly it was like the beginning of +life in a seed under the first spring rays of the sun. She merely +nodded to Holcroft as if the matter had been settled as far as it could +be, and ignored Alida. + +"Why don't you thank Mrs. Holcroft?" he asked. + +Then Jane turned and nodded at Alida. Her vocabulary of thanks was +undeveloped. + +"She's glad," said Alida. "You'll see. Now that it's settled, we hope +you're hungry, Jane, aren't you?" + +"Yes, I be. Can't I help you put things on the table?" + +"Yes." + +Holcroft looked at the two for a moment, and then shook his head as he +went up to his room. "I thought my wife was nice and pleasant looking +before," he thought, "but she's like a picture beside that child. +Well, she has behaved handsomely. Tom Watterly didn't tell half the +truth when he said she was not of the common run. She's a Christian in +deeds, not talk. What's that in Scripture about 'I was hungry'? Well, +well! She makes religion kind of natural and plain like, whether it's +easy or not. Thunder! What a joke it is to see her so grateful +because I've given her a chance to help me out of the worst scrape a +man could be in! As if she hadn't changed everything for the better! +Here I am sure of my home and getting ahead in the world again, and +it's all her doing." + +In admiration of his wife Holcroft quite forgot that there had been any +self-sacrifice on his part, and he concluded that he could endure Jane +and almost anything else as long as Alida continued to look after his +comfort and interests. + +Now that the worst stress of Jane's anxiety was over, she proved that +she was half starved. Indeed she had few misgivings now, for her +confidence that Holcroft would accomplish what he attempted was almost +unbounded. It was a rather silent meal at first, for the farmer and +his wife had much to think about and Jane much to do in making up for +many limited meals. At last Holcroft smiled so broadly that Alida +said, "Something seems to please you." + +"Yes, more than one thing. It might be a great deal worse, and was, +not long ago. I was thinking of old times." + +"How pleasant they must have been to make you look so happy!" + +"They had their uses, and make me think of a picture I saw in a store +window in town. It was a picture of a woman, and she took my fancy +amazingly. But the point uppermost in my mind was a trick of the +fellow who painted her. He had made the background as dark as night +and so she stood out as if alive; and she looked so sweet and good that +I felt like shaking hands with her. I now see why the painter made the +background so dark." + +Alida smiled mischievously as she replied, "That was his art. He knew +that almost anyone would appear well against such a background." + +But Holcroft was much too direct to be diverted from his thought or its +expression. "The man knew the mighty nice-looking woman he had painted +would look well," he said, "and I know of another woman who appears +better against a darker background. That's enough to make a man smile +who has been through what I have." + +She could not help a flush of pleasure or disguise the happy light in +her eyes, but she looked significantly at Jane, who, mystified and +curious, was glancing from one to the other. + +"Confound it!" thought the farmer. "That'll be the way of it now. +Here's a little pitcher that's nearly all ears. Well, we're in for it +and must do our duty." + +Going to town that day involved no slight inconvenience, but Holcroft +dropped everything and rapidly made his preparations. + +When Alida was left alone with Jane, the latter began clearing the +table with alacrity, and after a few furtive glances at Mrs. Holcroft, +yielded to the feeling that she should make some acknowledgment of the +intercession in her behalf. "Say," she began, "I thought you wasn't +goin; to stand up for me, after all. Women folks are liars, mostly." + +"You are mistaken, Jane. If you wish to stay with us, you must tell +the truth and drop all sly ways." + +"That's what he said when I first come." + +"I say it too. You see a good deal, Jane. Try to see what will please +people instead of what you can find out about them. It's a much better +plan. Now, as a friend, I tell you of one thing you had better not do. +You shouldn't watch and listen to Mr. Holcroft unless he speaks to you. +He doesn't like to be watched--no one does. It isn't nice; and if you +come to us, I think you will try to do what is nice. Am I not right?" + +"I dunno how," said Jane. + +"It will be part of my business to teach you. You ought to understand +all about your coming. Mr. Holcroft doesn't take you because he needs +your work, but because he's sorry for you, and wishes to give you a +chance to do better and learn something. You must make up your mind to +lessons, and learning to talk and act nicely, as well as to do such +work as is given you. Are you willing to do what I say and mind me +pleasantly and promptly?" + +Jane looked askance at the speaker and was vaguely suspicious of some +trick. In her previous sojourn at the farmhouse she had concluded that +it was her best policy to keep in Holcroft's good graces, even though +she had to defy her mother and Mrs. Wiggins, and she was now by no +means ready to commit herself to this new domestic power. She had +received the impression that the authority and continued residence of +females in this household was involved in much uncertainty, and +although Alida was in favor now and the farmer's wife, she didn't know +what "vicissitudes" (as her mother would denominate them) might occur. +Holcroft was the only fixed and certain quantity in her troubled +thoughts, and after a little hesitation she replied, "I'll do what he +says; I'm goin' to mind him." + +"Suppose he tells you to mind me?" + +"Then I will. That ud be mindin' him. I'm goin' to stick to him, for +I made out by it better before than by mindin' mother and Mrs. Wiggins." + +Alida now understood the child and laughed aloud. "You are right," she +said. "I won't ask you to do anything contrary to his wishes. Now tell +me, Jane, what other clothes have you besides those you are wearing?" + +It did not take the girl long to inventory her scanty wardrobe, and +then Alida rapidly made out a list of what was needed immediately. +"Wait here," she said, and putting on a pretty straw hat, one of her +recent purchases, she started for the barn. + +Holcroft had his wagon and team almost ready when Alida joined him, and +led the way to the floor between the sweet-smelling hay-mows. + +"One thing leads to another," she began, looking at him a little +deprecatingly. "You must have noticed the condition of Jane's clothes." + +"She does look like a little scarecrow, now I come to think of it," he +admitted. + +"Yes, she's not much better off than I was," Alida returned, with +downcast eyes and rising color. + +Her flushing face was so pretty under the straw hat, and the dark mow +as a background brought out her figure so finely that he thought of the +picture again and laughed aloud for pleasure. She looked up in +questioning surprise, thus adding a new grace. + +"I wish that artist fellow was here now," he exclaimed. "He could make +another picture that would suit me better than the one I saw in town." + +"What nonsense!" she cried, quickly averting her face from his admiring +scrutiny. "Come, I'm here to talk business and you've no time to waste. +I've made out a list of what the child actually must have to be +respectable." + +"You're right, Alida," said the farmer, becoming grave at once over a +question of dollars and cents. "As you say, one thing leads to another, +and if we take the girl we must clothe her decently. But then, I guess +she'll earn enough to pay her way. It isn't that I worry about so +much," he broke out discontentedly, "but the interference with our +quiet, cozy life. Things are going so smoothly and pleasantly that I +hate a change of any kind." + +"We mustn't be selfish, you know," she replied. "You are doing a kind, +generous act, and I respect you all the more for it." + +"That settles everything. You'll like me a little better for it, too, +won't you?" he asked hesitatingly. + +She laughed outright at this question and answered, "It won't do to +take too much self-sacrifice out of your act. There's something which +does us all good. She ought to have a spelling and a writing book +also." + +Holcroft was assuredly falling under the sway of the little blind god, +for he began at once to misunderstand Alida. "You are very fond of +self-sacrifice," he said, rather stiffly. "Yes, I'll get everything on +your list," and he took it from her hand. "Now I must be off," he +added, "for I wish to get back before night, and it's so warm I can't +drive fast. Sorry I have to go, for I can't say I dote on +self-sacrifice." + +Alida but partially understood his sudden change of mood, nor was the +farmer much better enlightened himself in regard to his irritation. He +had received an unexpected impression and it seemed to fit in with +other things and explain them. She returned slowly and dejectedly to +the house, leaving unsaid the words she meant to speak about Jane's +relations to her. Now she wished that she had imitated Jane, and +merely nodded to the farmer's questions. "If he knew how far I am +beyond the point of liking, I don't know what he'd do or say," she +thought, "and I suppose that's the reason I couldn't answer him +frankly, in a way that would have satisfied him. It's a pity I +couldn't begin to just LIKE a little at first, as he does and have +everything grow as gradually and quietly as one of his cornstalks. +That's the way I meant it should be; but when he stood up for me and +defended me from those men, my heart just melted, and in spite of +myself, I felt I could die for him. It can't be such an awful thing +for a woman to fall in love with her husband, and yet--yet I'd rather +put my hand in the fire than let him know how I feel. Oh, dear! I +wish Jane hadn't been born, as she says. Trouble is beginning already, +and it was all so nice before she came." + +In a few moments Holcroft drove up. Alida stood in the door and looked +timidly at him. He thought she appeared a little pale and troubled, +but his bad mood prevailed and he only asked briefly, "Can't I get +something for you?" + +She shook her head. + +"Well, goodbye, then," and he drove away with Jane, who was confirmed +in her line of policy. "She's afraid of 'im too," thought the child. +"Mind her! Guess not, unless he says so." She watched the farmer +furtively and concluded that she had never known him to look more grim +or be more silent even under her mother's blandishments. "He's married +this one, I s'pose, to keep house for 'im, but he don't like her +follerin' 'im up or bein' for'ard any more'n he did mother. Shouldn't +wonder if he didn't keep her, either, if she don't suit better. She +needn't 'a' put on such airs with me, for I'm goin' to stick to him." + + + +Chapter XXIX. + +Husband and Wife in Trouble + +Like many others with simple, strong natures, Holcroft could not be +wrong-headed moderately, and his thoughts, once started in a direction +were apt to carry him much farther than the cause warranted. Engrossed +in painful and rather bitter musings, he paid no heed to Jane and +almost forgot his errand to town. "I was a fool to ask that question," +he thought. "I was getting silly and sentimental with my talk about the +picture and all that. She laughed at me and reminded me I was wasting +time. Of course she can't like an old, hard-featured man like me. I'm +beginning to understand her now. She made a business marriage with me +and means to live up to her agreement. She's honest; she feels I've +done her a real kindness in giving her a home, and she's willing to be +as self-sacrificing as the day is long to make it up to me. I wish she +wasn't so grateful; there's no occasion for it. I don't want her to +feel that every pleasant word and every nice act is so much toward +paying a debt. If there was any balance in my favor it was squared up +long ago, and I was willing to call it even from the start. She's made +me like her for her own sake and not on account of what she does for +me, and that's what I had in mind. But she's my superior in every way; +she's growing to be a pretty as a picture, and I suppose I appear like +a rather rough customer. Well, I can't help if, but it rather goes +against me to have her think, 'I've married him and I'm going to do my +duty by him, just as I agreed.' She'll do her duty by this Jane in the +same self-sacrificing spirit, and will try to make it pleasant for the +child just because it's right and because she herself was taken out of +trouble. That's the shape her religion takes. 'Tisn't a common form, +I know--this returning good for good with compound interest. But her +conscience won't let her rest unless she does everything she can for +me, and now she'll begin to do everything for Jane because she feels +that self-sacrifice is a duty. Anybody can be self-sacrificing. If I +made up my mind, I could ask Mrs. Mumpson to visit us all summer, but I +couldn't like her to save my life, and I don't suppose Alida can like +me, beyond a certain point, to save her life. But she'll do her duty. +She'll be pleasant and self-sacrificing and do all the work she can lay +her hands on for my sake; but when it comes to feeling toward me as I +can't help feeling toward her--that wasn't in the bargain," and he +startled Jane with a sudden bitter laugh. + +"Say," said the child, as if bent on adding another poignant +reflection, "if you hadn't married her, I could 'a' come and cooked for +you." + +"You think I'd been better off if I'd waited for you, eh?" + +"You kinder looked as if yer thought so." + +He now made the hills echo with a laugh, excited both by his bitter +fancies and the preposterous idea. She looked at him inquiringly and +was much perplexed by his unwonted behavior. Indeed, he was slightly +astonished at his own strange mood, but he yielded to it almost +recklessly. "I say, Jane," he began, "I'm not a very good-looking man, +am I?" + +She shook her head in emphatic agreement. + +"I'm old and rough and hard-featured?" + +Again she nodded approvingly. + +"Children and some others speak the truth," he growled. + +"I never had no teachin', but I'm not a fool," remarked Jane keenly. + +"I guess I'm the fool in this case," he added. + +"It don't make no difference to me," she said sympathetically. "I'm +goin' to mind you and not her. If you ever send her away I'll cook for +you." + +"Send her away!" exclaimed the farmer, with a shiver. "God forbid! +There, don't talk any more!" + +For the next half mile he drove in silence, with a heavy frown on his +face; then he broke out sternly, "If you don't promise to mind Mrs. +Holcroft and please her in everything, I'll leave you at the poorhouse +door and drive home again." + +"'Course I will, if you tells me to," said the child in trepidation. + +"Well, I DO. People will find that making her trouble is the surest +way of making themselves trouble." + +"She's got some hold on 'im," concluded Jane, who, in listening to much +gossip, had often heard this expression, and now made a practical +application of the idea. + +Watterly was greatly relieved when he saw Holcroft drive up with the +fugitive. "I was just going out to your place," he said, "for the +girl's mother insisted that you had enticed the child away," and the +man laughed, as if the idea tickled him immensely. + +Holcroft frowned, for he was in no mood for his friend's rough jests. +"Go to your mother till I send for you," he said to Jane. + +"The fact that you had taken two other females from the house gave some +color to Mrs. Mumpson's views," pursued Watterly, who could take only +the broadest hint as to his social conduct. + +He received one now. "Tom Watterly," said the farmer sternly, "did I +ever insult your wife?" + +"By jocks! No, you nor no other man. I should say not." + +"Well, then, don't you insult mine. Before I'd seen Mrs. Holcroft, you +told me she was out of the common run,--how much out, you little +know,--and I don't want her mixed up with the common run, even in your +thoughts." + +"Well, now, I like that," said Watterly, giving Holcroft his hand. "You +know I didn't mean any offense, Jim. It was only one of my foolish +jokes. You were mighty slow to promise to love, honor, and obey, but +hanged if you aint more on that line than any man in town. I can see +she's turning out well and keeping her agreement." + +"Yes, that's just what she's doing," said the farmer gloomily. "She's a +good, capable woman that'll sacrifice herself to her duty any day. But +it wasn't to talk about her I came. She's a sight better than I am, +but she's probably not good enough for anybody in this town to speak +to." + +"Oh, pshaw; now, Jim!" + +"Well, I've come on disagreeable business. I didn't know that Mrs. +Mumpson and her child were here, and I wish to the Lord they could both +stay here! You've found out what the mother is, I suppose?" + +"I should say so," replied Tom, laughing. "She's talked several of the +old women to death already. The first day she was here she called on +my wife and claimed social relations, because she's so 'respecterbly +connected,' as she says. I thought Angy'd have a fit. Her respectable +connections have got to take her off my hands." + +"I'm not one of 'em, thank goodness!" resumed Holcroft. "But I'm +willing to take the girl and give her a chance--at least I'll do it," +he corrected himself, in his strict observance of truth. "You can see +she's not a child to dote on, but I was sorry for her when I sent her +mother away and said I'd try and do something for her. The first thing +I knew she was at the house, begging me to either take her in or kill +her. I couldn't say no, though I wanted to. Now, you see what kind of +a good Samaritan I am." + +"Oh, I know you! You'd hit a man between the eyes if he charged you +with doing a good deed. But what does your wife say to adopting such a +cherub?" + +"We're not going to adopt her or bind ourselves. My wife took the +child's part and plead with me in her behalf, though I could see the +young one almost made her sick. She thinks it's her duty, you know, +and that's enough for her." + +"By jocks, Holcroft! She don't feel that way about you, does she?" + +"Why shouldn't she?" + +"Why should she? I can take about anything from Angy, but it wouldn't +do for her to let me see that she disliked me so that I kinder made her +sick." + +"Oh, thunder, Tom! You're getting a wrong impression. I was never +treated better by anybody in my life than by Mrs. Holcroft. She's a +lady, every inch of her. But there's no reason why she should dote on +an old fellow like me." + +"Yes, there is. I have my opinion of a woman who wouldn't dote on a +man that's been such a friend as you have." + +"Oh, hang it all, Tom! Let's talk about business. She's too +grateful--that's what worries me. By the way she took hold and filled +the house with comfort she made everything even from the start. She's +been as good a friend to me as I to her. She's done all she agreed and +more, and I'll never hear a word against her. The point I've been +trying to get at is this: If Mrs. Mumpson will agree never to come near +us or make trouble in any way, we'll take the child. If she won't so +agree, I'll have nothing to do with the girl. I don't want to see her +mother, and you'd do me one of the kindest turns you ever did a man by +stating the case to her." + +"If I do," said Watterly, laughing, "you'll have to forgive me +everything in the past and the future." + +"I will, Tom, for I'd rather have an eye tooth pulled than face that +woman. We're all right--just as we used to be at school, always half +quarreling, yet ready to stand up for each other to the last drop. But +I must have her promise in black and white." + +"Well, come to my office and we'll try to arrange it. The law is on +your side, for the county won't support people that anyone will take +off its hands. Besides I'm going to shame the woman's relations into +taking her away, and they'll be glad there's one less to support." + +They drew up a brief, strong agreement, and Watterly took it to the +widow to sign. He found her in great excitement and Jane looking at +her defiantly. "I told you he was the one who enticed away my +offspring," she began, almost hysterically. "He's a cold-blooded +villain! If there's a law in the land, I'll--" + +"Stop!" thundered Watterly. His voice was so high and authoritative +that she did stop, and with open mouth stared at the superintendent. +"Now, be quiet and listen to me," he continued. "Either you are a sane +woman and can stop this foolishness, or else you are insane and must be +treated as such. You have your choice. You can't tell me anything +about Holcroft; I've known him since he was a boy. He doesn't want +your girl. She ran away to him, didn't you?" to Jane, who nodded. "But +he's willing to take her, to teach her something and give her a chance. +His motive is pure kindness, and he has a good wife who'll--" + +"I see it all," cried the widow, tragically clasping her hands. "It's +his wife's doings! She wishes to triumph over me, and even to usurp my +place in ministering to my child. Was there ever such an outrage? +Such a bold, vindictive female--" + +Here Jane, in a paroxysm of indignant protest, seized her mother and +began to shake her so violently that she could not speak. + +"Stop that!" said Watterly, repressing laughter with difficulty. "I see +you are insane and the law will have to step in and take care of you +both." + +"What will it do with us?" gasped the widow. + +"Well, it ought to put you in strait jackets to begin with--" + +"I've got some sense if mother aint!" cried Jane, commencing to sob. + +"It's plain the law'll decide your mother's not fit to take care of +you. Anyone who can even imagine such silly ridiculous things as she's +just said must be looked after. You MAY take a notion, Mrs. Mumpson, +that I'm a murderer or a giraffe. It would be just as sensible as your +other talk." + +"What does Mr. Holcroft offer?" said the widow, cooling off rapidly. +If there was an atom of common sense left in any of his pauper charges, +Watterly soon brought it into play, and his vague threatenings of law +were always awe-inspiring. + +"He makes a very kind offer that you would jump at if you had sense--a +good home for your child. You ought to know she can't stay here and +live on charity if anyone is willing to take her." + +"Of course I would be permitted to visit my child from time to time? +He couldn't be so monstrously hard-hearted as--" + +"Oh, nonsense!" cried Watterly impatiently. "The idea of his letting +you come to his house after what you've said about him! I've no time +to waste in foolishness, or he either. He will let Jane visit you, but +you are to sign this paper and keep the agreement not to go near him or +make any trouble whatever." + +"It's an abominable--" + +"Tut! Tut! That kind of talk isn't allowed here. If you can't decide +like a sane woman the law'll soon decide for you." + +As was always the case when Mrs. Mumpson reached the inevitable, she +yielded; the paper was signed, and Jane, who had already made up her +small bundle, nodded triumphantly to her mother and followed Watterly. +Mrs. Mumpson, on tiptoe, followed also, bent on either propitiating +Holcroft and so preparing the way for a visit, or else on giving him +once more a "piece of her mind." + +"All right, Holcroft!" said Watterly, as he entered the office, "here's +the paper signed. Was there ever such an id----" + +"Oh, how do you do, Mr. Holcroft?" cried the widow, bursting in and +rushing forward with extended hand. + +The farmer turned away and looked as if made of stone. + +Changing her tactics instantly, she put her handkerchief to her eyes +and moaned, "You never can have the heart to say I can't come and see +my child. I've signed writings, 'tis true, under threats and +compulsions; but I trust there will be relentings--" + +"There won't be one relent!" cried Jane. "I never want to see you +again, and a blind post could see that he doesn't." + +"Jane," said Holcroft sternly, "don't speak so again. If strangers can +be kind and patient with you, you can be so with your mother. She has +no claims on me and has said things which make it impossible for me to +speak to her again, but I shall insist on your visiting and treating +her kindly. Goodbye, Watterly. You've proved yourself a friend +again," and he went rapidly away, followed by Jane. + +Mrs. Mumpson was so taken aback by Holcroft's final words and +Watterly's stern manner as he said, "This is my office," that for once +in her life she disappeared silently. + +Holcroft soon purchased the articles on his list, meanwhile racking his +brains to think of something that he could buy for Alida, but the fear +of being thought sentimental and of appearing to seek a personal regard +for himself, not "nominated in the bond," restrained him. + +On his way home he was again sunk in deep abstraction, but the +bitterness of his feeling had passed away. Although as mistaken as +before in his apprehension of Alida, his thoughts were kinder and +juster. "I've no right to find fault or complain," he said to himself. +"She's done all I asked and better than she agreed, and there's no one +to blame if she can't do more. It must have been plain enough to her +at first that I didn't want anything but a housekeeper--a quiet, +friendly body that would look after the house and dairy, and she's done +better than I even hoped. That's just the trouble; she's turned out so +different from what I expected, and looks so different from what she +did, that I'm just sort of carried away. I'd give half the farm if she +was sitting by my side this June evening and I could tell her all I +feel and know she was glad. I must be just and fair to her. I asked +her to agree to one thing and now I'm beginning to want a tremendous +sight more--I want her to like not only her home and work and the quiet +life she so longed for, but I want her to like me, to enjoy my society, +not only in a friendly, businesslike way, but in another way--yes, +confound my slow wits! Somewhat as if she was my wife in reality and +not merely in name, as I insisted. It's mighty mean business in me, +who have been so proud of standing up to my agreements and so exacting +of others to do the same. I went away cold and stiff this afternoon +because she wasn't silly and sentimental when I was. I'm to her an +unpolished, homely, middle-aged man, and yet I sort of scoffed at the +self-sacrifice which has led her to be pleasant and companionable in +every way that her feelings allowed. I wish I were younger and better +looking, so it wouldn't all be a sense of duty and gratitude. +Gratitude be hanged! I don't want any more of it. Well, now, James +Holcroft, if you're the square man you supposed yourself to be, you'll +be just as kind and considerate as you know how, and then you'll leave +Alida to the quiet, peaceful life to which she looked forward when she +married you. The thing for you to do is to go back to your first ways +after you were married and attend to the farm. She doesn't want you +hanging around and looking at her as if she was one of her own posies. +That's something she wasn't led to expect and it would be mean enough +to force it upon her before she shows that she wishes it, and I +couldn't complain if she NEVER wished it." + +During the first hour after Holcroft's departure Alida had been +perplexed and worried, but her intuitions soon led to hopefulness, and +the beauty and peace of nature without aided in restoring her serenity. +The more minutely she dwelt on Holcroft's words and manner, the more +true it seemed that he was learning to take an interest in her that was +personal and apart from every other consideration. "If I am gentle, +patient, and faithful," she thought, "all will come out right. He is +so true and straightforward that I need have no fears." + +When he returned and greeted her with what seemed his old, friendly, +natural manner, and, during a temporary absence of Jane, told her +laughingly of the Mumpson episode, she was almost completely reassured. +"Suppose the widow breaks through all restraint and appears as did +Jane, what would you do?" he asked. + +"Whatever you wished," she replied, smiling. + +"In other words, what you thought your duty?" + +"I suppose that is what one should try to do." + +"I guess you are the one that would succeed in doing it, even to Mrs. +Mumpson," he said, turning hastily away and going to his room. + +She was puzzled again. "I'm sure I don't dote on self-sacrifice and +hard duty any more than he does, but I can't tell him that duty is not +hard when it's to him." + +Jane was given the room over the kitchen which Mrs. Wiggins had +occupied, and the farmhouse soon adopted her into its quiet routine. +Holcroft's course continued to cause Alida a dissatisfaction which she +could scarcely define. He was as kind as ever he had been and even more +considerate; he not only gratified her wishes, but tried to anticipate +them, while Jane's complete subserviency proved that she had been +spoken to very plainly. + +One day she missed her spelling lesson for the third time, and Alida +told her that she must learn it thoroughly before going out. The child +took the book reluctantly, yet without a word. "That's a good girl!" +said Alida, wishing to encourage her. "I was afraid at first you +wouldn't mind me so readily." + +"He told me to. He'd fire me out the window if I didn't mind you." + +"Oh, no! I think he's very kind to you." + +"Well, he's kind to you, too." + +"Yes, he has always been kind to me," said Alida gently and +lingeringly, as if the thought were pleasant to dwell upon. + +"Say," said Jane, yielding to her curiosity, "how did you make him so +afraid of you when he don't like you? He didn't like mother, but he +wasn't afraid of her." + +"Why do you think he doesn't like me?" Alida faltered, turning very +pale. + +"Oh! 'Cause he looked once jest as he did after mother'd been goin' +for--" + +"There, be still! You mustn't speak of such things, or talk to me +about Mr. Holcroft in such a way," and she hastily left the kitchen. +When in the solitude of her own room, she gave way to bitter tears. "Is +it so plain," she thought, "that even this ignorant child sees it? And +the unhappy change began the day she came, too. I can't understand it. +We were so happy before; and he seemed to enjoy being near me and +talking to me when his work permitted. He used to look into my eyes in +a way that made me hope and, indeed, feel almost sure. I receive no +more such looks; he seems only trying to do his duty by me as he +promised at first, and acts as if it were all duty, a mere matter of +conscience. Could he have discovered how I felt, and so is taking this +way to remind me that nothing of the kind was in our agreement? Well, +I've no reason to complain; I accepted the relation of my own free +will, but it's hard, hard indeed for a woman who loves a man with her +whole heart and soul--and he her husband--to go on meeting him day +after day, yet act as if she were his mere business partner. But I +can't help myself; my very nature, as well as a sense of his rights, +prevents me from asking more or even showing that I wish for more. +That WOULD be asking for it. But can it be true that he is positively +learning to dislike me? To shrink from me with that strong repulsion +which women feel toward some men? Oh! If that is true, the case is +hopeless; it would kill me. Every effort to win him, even the most +delicate and unobtrusive, would only drive him farther away; the +deepest instincts of his soul would lead him to withdraw--to shun me. +If this is true, the time may come when, so far from my filling his +house with comfort, I shall make him dread to enter it. Oh, oh! My +only course is to remember just what I promised and he expected when he +married me, and live up to that." + +Thus husband and wife reached the same, conclusion and were rendered +equally unhappy. + + + +Chapter XXX. + +Holcroft's Best Hope + +When Holcroft came in to dinner that day the view he had adopted was +confirmed, yet Alida's manner and appearance began to trouble him. +Even to his rather slow perception, she did not seem so happy as she +had been. She did not meet his eye with her old frank, friendly, and +as he had almost hoped, affectionate, expression; she seemed merely +feverishly anxious to do everything and have all as he wished. Instead +of acting with natural ease and saying what was in her mind without +premeditation, a conscious effort was visible and an apparent +solicitude that he should be satisfied. The inevitable result was that +he was more dissatisfied. "She's doing her best for me," he growled, as +he went back to his work, "and it begins to look as if it might wear +her out in time. Confound it! Having everything just so isn't of much +account when a man's heart-hungry. I'd rather have had one of her old +smiles and gone without my dinner. Well, well; how little a man +understands himself or knows the future! The day I married her I was +in mortal dread lest she should care for me too much and want to be +affectionate and all that; and here I am, discontented and moping +because everything has turned out as I then wished. Don't see as I'm +to blame, either. She had no business to grow so pretty. Then she +looked like a ghost, but now when the color comes into her cheeks, and +her blue eyes sparkle, a man would be a stupid clod if he didn't look +with all his eyes and feel his heart a-thumping. That she should +change so wasn't in the bargain; neither was it that she should read +aloud in such sweet tones that a fellow'd like to listen to the +dictionary; nor that she should make the house and yard look as they +never did before, and, strangest of all, open my eyes to the fact that +apple trees bear flowers as well as pippins. I can't even go by a wild +posy in the lane without thinking she'd like it and see in it a sight +more than I once could. I've been taken in, as old Jonathan feared," +he muttered, following out his fancy with a sort of grim humor. "She +isn't the woman I thought I was marrying at all, and I aint bound by my +agreement--not in my thoughts, anyhow. I'd have been in a nice scrape +if I'd taken my little affidavit not to think of her or look upon her +in any other light than that of housekeeper and butter maker. It's a +scary thing, this getting married with a single eye to business. See +where I am now! Hanged if I don't believe I'm in love with my wife, +and, like a thundering fool, I had to warn her against falling in love +with me! Little need of that, though. She hasn't been taken in, for +I'm the same old chap she married, and I'd be a mighty mean cuss if I +went to her and said, 'Here, I want you to do twice as much, a +hundred-fold as much as you agreed to.' I'd be a fool, too, for she +couldn't do it unless something drew her toward me just as I'm drawn +toward her." + +Late in the afternoon he leaned on the handle of his corn plow, and, in +the consciousness of solitude, said aloud: "Things grow clear if you +think of them enough, and the Lord knows I don't think of much else any +more. It isn't her good qualities which I say over to myself a hundred +times a day, or her education, or anything of the kind, that draws me; +it's she herself. I like her. Why don't I say love her, and be +honest? Well, it's a fact, and I've got to face it. Here I am, +plowing out my corn, and it looks splendid for its age. I thought if I +could stay on the old place, and plant and cultivate and reap, I'd be +more than content, and now I don't seem to care a rap for the corn or +the farm either, compared with Alida; and I care for her just because +she is Alida and no one else. But the other side of this fact has an +ugly look. Suppose I'm disagreeable to her! When she married me she +felt like a woman drowning; she was ready to take hold of the first +hand reached to her without knowing much about whose hand it was. +Well, she's had time to find out. She isn't drawn. Perhaps she feels +toward me somewhat as I did toward Mrs. Mumpson, and she can't help +herself either. Well, well, the bare thought of it makes my heart +lead. What's a man to do? What can I do but live up to my agreement +and not torment her any more than I can help with my company? That's +the only honest course. Perhaps she'll get more used to me in time. +She might get sick, and then I'd be so kind and watchful that she'd +think the old fellow wasn't so bad, after all, But I shan't give her +the comfort of no end of self-sacrifice in trying to be pleasant and +sociable. If she's foolish enough to think she's in my debt she can't +pay it in that way. No, sir! I've got to make the most of it now--I'm +bound to--but this business marriage will never suit me until the white +arm I saw in the dairy room is around my neck, and she looks in my eyes +and says, 'James, I guess I'm ready for a longer marriage ceremony.'" + +It was a pity that Alida could not have been among the hazelnut bushes +near and heard him. + +He resumed his toil, working late and doggedly. At supper he was very +attentive to Alida, but taciturn and preoccupied; and when the meal was +over he lighted his pipe and strolled out into the moonlight. She +longed to follow him, yet felt it to be more impossible than if she +were chained to the floor. + +And so the days passed; Holcroft striving with the whole force of his +will to appear absorbed in the farm, and she, with equal effort, to +seem occupied and contented with her household and dairy duties. They +did everything for each other that they could, and yet each thought +that the other was acting from a sense of obligation, and so all the +more sedulously veiled their actual thoughts and feelings from each +other. Or course, such mistaken effort only led to a more complete +misunderstanding. + +With people of their simplicity and habit of reticence, little of what +was in their hearts appeared on the surface. Neither had time to mope, +and their mutual duties were in a large measure a support and refuge. +Of these they could still speak freely for they pertained to business. +Alida's devotion to her work was unfeigned for it seemed now her only +avenue of approach to her husband. She watched over the many broods of +little chickens with tireless vigilance. If it were yellow gold, she +could not have gathered the butter from the churn with greater greed. +She kept the house immaculate and sought to develop her cooking into a +fine art. She was scrupulous in giving Jane her lessons and trying to +correct her vernacular and manners, but the presence of the child grew +to be a heavier cross every day. She could not blame the girl, whose +misfortune it was to lead incidentally to the change in Holcroft's +manner, yet it was impossible not to associate her with the beginning +of that change. Jane was making decided improvement, and had Alida +been happy and at rest this fact would have given much satisfaction in +spite of the instinctive repugnance which the girl seemed to inspire +universally. Holcroft recognized this repugnance and the patient +effort to disguise it and be kind. + +"Like enough she feels in the same way toward me," he thought, "and is +trying a sight harder not to show it. But she seems willing enough to +talk business and to keep up her interest in the partnership line. +Well, blamed if I wouldn't rather talk business to her than love to any +other woman!" + +So it gradually came about that they had more and more to say to each +other on matters relating to the farm. Holcroft showed her the +receipts from the dairy, and her eyes sparkled as if he had brought +jewels home to her. Then she in turn would expatiate on the poultry +interests and assure him that there were already nearly two hundred +little chicks on the place. One afternoon, during a shower, she +ventured to beguile him into listening to the greater part of one of +the agricultural journals, and with much deference made two or three +suggestions about the farm, which he saw were excellent. She little +dreamed that if she were willing to talk of turning the farm upside +down and inside out, he would have listened with pleasure. + +They both began to acquire more serenity and hopefulness, for even this +sordid business partnership was growing strangely interesting. The +meals grew less and less silent, and the farmer would smoke his pipe +invitingly near in the evening so that she could resume their talk on +bucolic subjects without much conscious effort, while at the same time, +if she did not wish his society, she could shun it without discourtesy. +He soon perceived that she needed some encouragement to talk even of +farm matters; but, having received it, that she showed no further +reluctance. He naturally began to console himself with business as +unstintedly as he dared. "As long as I keep on this tack all seems +well," he muttered. "She don't act as if I was disagreeable to her, but +then how can a man tell? If she thinks it her duty, she'll talk and +smile, yet shiver at the very thought of my touching her. Well, well, +time will show. We seem to be getting more sociable, anyhow." + +They both recognized this fact and tried to disguise it and to relieve +themselves from the appearance of making any undue advances by greater +formality of address. In Jane's presence he had formed the habit of +speaking to his wife as Mrs. Holcroft, and now he was invariably "Mr." + +One evening in the latter part of June, he remarked at supper, "I must +give half a day to hoeing the garden tomorrow. I've been so busy +working out the corn and potatoes that it seems an age since I've been +in the garden." + +"She and me," began Jane, "I mean Mrs. Holcroft and I, have been in the +garden." + +"That's right, Jane, You're coming on. I think your improved talk and +manners do Mrs. Holcroft much credit. I'd like to take some lessons +myself." Then, as if a little alarmed at his words, he hastened to +ask, "What have you been doing in the garden?" + +"You'll see when you go there," replied Jane, her small eyes twinkling +with the rudiments of fun. + +Holcroft looked at the child as if he had not seen her for some time +either. Her hair was neatly combed, braided, and tied with a blue +ribbon instead of a string, her gown was as becoming as any dress could +be to her, her little brown hands were clean, and they no longer +managed the knife and fork in an ill-bred manner. The very expression +of the child's face was changing, and now that it was lighted up with +mirth at the little surprise awaiting him, it had at least attained the +negative grace of being no longer repulsive. He sighed involuntarily +as he turned away. "Just see what she's doing for that child that I +once thought hideous! How much she might do for me if she cared as I +do!" + +He rose from the table, lighted his pipe, and went out to the doorstep. +Alida looked at him wistfully. "He stood there with me once and faced a +mob of men," she thought. "Then he put his arm around me. I would face +almost any danger for even such a caress again." The memory of that +hour lent her unwonted courage, and she approached him timidly and +said, "Perhaps you would like to go and look at the garden? Jane and I +may not have done everything right." + +"Why, certainly. I forgot about the garden; but then you'll have to go +with me if I'm to tell you." + +"I don't mind," she said, leading the way. + +The June sun was low in the west and the air had become deliciously +cool and fragrant. The old rosebushes were in bloom, and as she passed +she picked a bud and fastened it on her bosom. Wood thrushes, orioles, +and the whole chorus of birds were in full song: limpid rills of melody +from the meadow larks flowed from the fields, and the whistling of the +quails added to the harmony. + +Holcroft was in a mood of which he had never been conscious before. +These familiar sounds, which had been unheeded so much of his life, now +affected him strangely, creating an immeasurable sadness and longing. +It seemed as if perceptions which were like new senses were awakening +in his mind. The world was full of wonderful beauty before +unrecognized, and the woman who walked lightly and gracefully at his +side was the crown of it all. He himself was so old, plain, and +unworthy in contrast. His heart ached with a positive, definite pain +that he was not younger, handsomer, and better equipped to win the love +of his wife. As she stood in the garden, wearing the rose, her neat +dress outlining her graceful form, the level rays of the sun lighting +up her face and turning her hair to gold, he felt that he had never +seen or imagined such a woman before. She was in harmony with the June +evening and a part of it, while he, in his working clothes, his rugged, +sun-browned features and hair tinged with gray, was a blot upon the +scene. She who was so lovely, must be conscious of his rude, clownish +appearance. He would have faced any man living and held his own on the +simple basis of his manhood. Anything like scorn, although veiled, on +Alida's part, would have touched his pride and steeled his will, but +the words and manner of this gentle woman who tried to act as if blind +to all that he was in contrast with herself, to show him deference, +kindness, and good will when perhaps she felt toward him somewhat as +she did toward Jane, overwhelmed him with humility and grief. It is +the essence of deep, unselfish love to depreciate itself and exalt its +object. There was a superiority in Alida which Holcroft was learning to +recognize more clearly every day, and he had not a trace of vanity to +sustain him. Now he was in a mood to wrong and undervalue himself +without limit. + +She showed him how much she and Jane had accomplished, how neat and +clean they had kept the rows of growing vegetables, and how good the +promise was for an indefinite number of dinners, but she only added to +the farmer's depression. He was in no mood for onions, parsnips, and +their vegetable kin, yet thought, "She thinks I'm only capable of being +interested in such things, and I've been at much pains to give that +impression. She picked that rose for HERSELF, and now she's showing ME +how soon we may hope to have summer cabbage and squash. She thus shows +that she knows the difference between us and that always must be +between us, I fear. She is so near in our daily life, yet how can I +ever get any nearer? As I feel now, it seems impossible." + +She had quickly observed his depressed, abstracted manner, but +misinterpreted the causes. Her own face clouded and grew troubled. +Perhaps she was revealing too much of her heart, although seeking to +disguise it so sedulously, and he was penetrating her motives for doing +so much in the garden and in luring him thither now. He was not +showing much practical interest in beans and beets, and was evidently +oppressed and ill at ease. + +"I hope we have done things right?" she ventured, turning away to hide +tears of disappointment. + +"Her self-sacrifice is giving out," he thought bitterly. "She finds +she can scarcely look at me as I now appear in contrast with this June +evening. Well, I don't blame her. It makes me almost sick when I +think of myself and I won't be brute enough to say a harsh word to +her." "You have done it all far better than I could," he said +emphatically. "I would not have believed it if you hadn't shown me. +The trouble is, you are trying to do too much. I--I think I'll take a +walk." + +In fact, he had reached the limit of endurance; he could not look upon +her another moment as she appeared that evening and feel that she +associated him chiefly with crops and business, and that all her +grateful good will could not prevent his personality from being +disagreeable. He must carry his bitterness whither no eye could see +him, and as he turned, his self-disgust led him to whirl away his pipe. +It struck a tree and fell shattered at its foot. Alida had never seen +him do anything of the kind before, and it indicated that he was +passing beyond the limits of patience. "Oh, oh," she sobbed, "I fear we +are going to drift apart! If he can't endure to talk with me about +such things, what chance have I at all? I hoped that the hour, the +beauty of the evening, and the evidence that I had been trying so hard +to please him would make him more like what he used to be before he +seemed to take a dislike. There's only one way to account for it +all--he sees how I feel and he doesn't like it. My very love sets him +against me. My heart was overflowing tonight. How could I help it, as +I remembered how he stood up for me? He was brave and kind; he meant +well by me, he means well now; but he can't help his feelings. He has +gone away now to think of the woman that he did love and loves still, +and it angers him that I should think of taking her place. He loved +her as a child and girl and woman--he told me so; he warned me and said +he could not help thinking of her. If I had not learned to love him so +deeply and passionately and show it in spite of myself, time would +gradually have softened the past and all might have gone well. Yet how +could I help it when he saved me from so much? I feel tonight, though, +that I only escaped one kind of trouble to meet another almost as bad +and which may become worse." + +She strolled to the farther end of the garden that she might become +calm before meeting Jane's scrutiny. Useless precaution! For the girl +had been watching them both. Her motive had not been unmixed +curiosity, since, having taken some part in the garden work, she had +wished to witness Holcroft's pleasure and hear his praises. Since the +actors in the scene so misunderstood each other, she certainly would +not rightly interpret them. "She's losin' her hold on 'im," she +thought, "He acted just as if she was mother." + +When Jane saw Alida coming toward the house she whisked from the +concealing shrubbery to the kitchen again and was stolidly washing the +dishes when her mistress entered. "You are slow tonight," said Alida, +looking at the child keenly, but the impassive face revealed nothing. +She set about helping the girl, feeling it would be a relief to keep +her hands busy. + +Jane's efforts to comfort were always maladroit, yet the apparent +situation so interested her that she yielded to her inclination to +talk. "Say," she began, and Alida was too dejected and weary to correct +the child's vernacular, "Mr. Holcroft's got somethin' on his mind." + +"Well, that's not strange." + +"No, s'pose not. Hate to see 'im look so, though. He always used to +look so when mother went for 'im and hung around 'im. At last he +cleared mother out, and just before he looked as black as he did when +he passed the house while ago. You're good to me, an' I'd like you to +stay. 'Fi's you I'd leave 'im alone." + +"Jane," said Alida coldly, "I don't wish you ever to speak to me of +such things again," and she hastily left the room. + +"Oh, well!" muttered Jane, "I've got eyes in my head. If you're goin' +to be foolish, like mother, and keep a-goin' for 'im, it's your +lookout. I kin get along with him and he with me, and I'M goin' to +stay." + +Holcroft strode rapidly up the lane to the deep solitude at the edge of +his woodland. Beneath him lay the farm and the home that he had +married to keep, yet now, without a second's hesitation, he would part +with all to call his wife WIFE. How little the name now satisfied him, +without the sweet realities of which the word is significant! The term +and relation had become a mocking mirage. He almost cursed himself +that he had exulted over his increasing bank account and general +prosperity, and had complacently assured himself that she was doing +just what he had asked, without any sentimental nonsense. "How could I +expect it to turn out otherwise?" he thought. "From the first I made +her think I hadn't a soul for anything but crops and money. Now that +she's getting over her trouble and away from it, she's more able to see +just what I am, or at least what she naturally thinks I am. But she +doesn't understand me--I scarcely understand myself. I long to be a +different man in every way, and not to work and live like an ox. Here +are some of my crops almost ready to gather and they never were better, +yet I've no heart for the work. Seems to me it'll wear me out if I +have to carry this load of trouble all the time. I thought my old +burdens hard to bear; I thought I was lonely before, but it was nothing +compared with living near one you love, but from whom you are cut off +by something you can't see, yet must feel to the bottom of your heart." + +His distraught eyes rested on the church spire, fading in the twilight, +and the little adjoining graveyard. "Oh, Bessie," he groaned, "why did +you die? I was good enough for YOU. Oh! That all had gone on as it +was and I had never known--" + +He stopped, shook his head, and was silent. At last he signed, "I DID +love Bessie. I love and respect her memory as much as ever. But +somehow I never felt as I do now. All was quiet and matter-of-fact in +those days, yet it was real and satisfying. I was content to live on, +one day like another, to the end of my days. If I hadn't been so +content it would be better for me now. I'd have a better chance if I +had read more, thought more, and fitted myself to be more of a +companion for a woman like Alida. If I knew a great deal and could +talk well, she might forget I'm old and homely. Bessie was so true a +friend that she would wish, if she knows, what I wish. I thought I +needed a housekeeper; I find I need more than all else such a wife as +Alida could be--one that could help me to be a man instead of a drudge, +a Christian instead of a discontented and uneasy unbeliever. At one +time, it seemed that she was leading me along so naturally and +pleasantly that I never was so happy; then all at once it came to me +that she was doing it from gratitude and a sense of duty, and the duty +grows harder for her every day. Well, there seems nothing for it now +but to go on as we began and hope that the future will bring us more in +sympathy." + + + +Chapter XXXI. + +"Never!" + +For the next two or three days Jane had no occasion to observe that +Alida was in the least degree obtrusive in her attention to the farmer. +She was assiduous in her work and more diligent than ever in her +conscious efforts to do what she thought he wished; but she was growing +pale, constrained, and silent. She struggled heroically to appear as +at first, but without much success, for she could not rally from the +wound he had given her so unintentionally and which Jane's words had +deepened. She almost loathed herself under her association with Mrs. +Mumpson, and her morbid thoughts had hit upon a worse reason for +Holcroft's apparent repulsion. As she questioned everything in the +sleepless hours that followed the interview in the garden, she came to +the miserable conclusion that he had discovered her love, and that by +suggestion, natural to his mind, it reminded him of her pitiful story. +He could be sorry for her and be kind; he could even be her honest +friend and protector as a wronged and unhappy woman, but he could not +love one with a history like hers and did not wish her to love him. +This seemed an adequate explanation of the change in their relations, +but she felt that it was one under which her life would wither and her +heart break. + +This promised to be worse than what she had dreaded at the +almshouse--the facing the world alone and working till she died among +strangers. The fact that they were strangers would enable her to see +their averted faces with comparative indifference, but that the man to +whom she had yielded her whole heart should turn away was intolerable. +She felt that he could not do this willingly but only under the +imperious instincts of his nature--that he was virtually helpless in +the matter. There was an element in these thoughts which stung her +woman's soul, and, as we have said, she could not rally. + +Holcroft never suspected her morbid thoughts, and his loyal, loving +heart was incapable of dreaming of them. He only grew more unhappy as +he saw the changes in her, for he regarded himself as the cause. Yet +he was perplexed and unable to account for her rapidly increasing +pallor while he continued so kind, considerate, and especially so +unobtrusive. He assuredly thought he was showing a disposition to give +her all the time she wished to become reconciled to her lot. "Thunder!" +he said to himself, "we can't grow old together without getting used to +each other." + +On Saturday noon, at dinner, he remarked, "I shall have to begin haying +on Monday and so I'll take everything to town this afternoon, for I +won't be able to go again for some days. Is there anything you'd like +me to get, Mrs. Holcroft?" + +She shook her head. "I don't need anything," she replied. He looked at +her downcast face with troubled eyes and shivered. "She looks as if she +were going to be sick," he thought. "Good Lord! I feel as if there was +nothing but trouble ahead. Every mouthful I take seems to choke me." + +A little later he pushed away almost untasted a piece of delicious +cherry pie, the first of the season. Alida could scarcely keep the +tears back as she thought, "There was a time when he would have praised +it without stint. I took so much pains with it in the hope he'd +notice, for he once said he was very fond of it." Such were the straws +that were indicating the deep, dark currents. + +As he rose, she said almost apathetically in her dejection, "Mr. +Holcroft, Jane and I picked a basket of the early cherries. You may as +well sell them, for there are plenty left on the tree for us." + +"That was too much for you to do in the hot sun. Well, I'll sell 'em +and add what they bring to your egg money in the bank. You'll get +rich," he continued, trying to smile, "if you don't spend more." + +"I don't wish to spend anything," she said, turning away with the +thought, "How can he think I want finery when my heart is breaking?" + +Holcroft drove away, looking and feeling as if he were going to a +funeral. At last he broke out, "I can't stand this another day. +Tomorrow's Sunday, and I'll manage to send Jane somewhere or take Alida +out to walk and tell her the whole truth. She shall be made to see +that I can't help myself and that I'm willing to do anything she +wishes. She's married to me and has got to make the best of it, and +I'm sure I'm willing to make it as easy as I can." + +Jane was a little perplexed at the condition of affairs. Mrs. Holcroft +had left her husband alone as far as possible, as she had advised, but +apparently it had not helped matters much. But she believed that the +trouble she had witnessed bode her no ill and so was inclined to regard +it philosophically. "He looks almost as glum, when he's goin' round +alone, as if he'd married mother. She talked too much, and that didn't +please him; this one talks less and less, and he don't seem pleased, +nuther, but it seems to me he's very foolish to be so fault-findin' +when she does everything for him top-notch. I never lived so well in +my life, nor he, nuther, I believe. He must be in a bad way when he +couldn't eat that cherry pie." + +Alida was so weary and felt so ill that she went to the parlor and lay +down upon the lounge. "My heart feels as if it were bleeding slowly +away," she murmured. "If I'm going to be sick the best thing I can do +is to die and end it all," and she gave way to that deep dejection in +which there seems no remedy for trouble. + +The hours dragged slowly by; Jane finished her household tasks very +leisurely, then taking a basket, went out to the garden to pick some +early peas. While thus engaged, she saw a man coming up the lane. His +manner instantly riveted her attention and awakened her curiosity, and +she crouched lower behind the pea vines for concealment. All her +furtive, watchful instincts were awake, and her conscience was clear, +too, for certainly she had a right to spy upon a stranger. + +The man seemed almost as furtive as herself; his eyes were everywhere +and his step slow and hesitating. Instead of going directly to the +house he cautiously entered the barn, and she heard him a little later +call Mr. Holcroft. Of course there was no answer, and as if reassured, +he approached the house, looking here and there on every side, +seemingly to see if anyone was about. Jane had associated with men and +boys too long to have any childlike timidity, and she also had just +confidence in her skulking and running powers. "After all, he don't +want nothin' of me and won't hurt me," she reasoned. "He acts mighty +queer though and I'm goin' to hear what he says." + +The moment he passed the angle of the house she dodged around to its +rear and stole into the dairy room, being well aware that from this +position she could overhear words spoken in ordinary conversational +tones in the apartment above. She had barely gained her ambush when she +heard Alida half shriek, "Henry Ferguson!" + +It was indeed the man who had deceived her that had stolen upon her +solitude. His somewhat stealthy approach had been due to the wish and +expectation of finding her alone, and he had about convinced himself +that she was so by exploring the barn and observing the absence of the +horses and wagon. Cunning and unscrupulous, it was his plan to appear +before the woman who had thought herself his wife, without any warning +whatever, believing that in the tumult of her surprise and shock she +would be off her guard and that her old affection would reassert +itself. He passed through the kitchen to the parlor door. Alida, in +her deep, painful abstraction, did not hear him until he stood in the +doorway, and, with outstretched arms, breathed her name. Then, as if +struck a blow, she had sprung to her feet, half shrieked his name and +stood panting, regarding him as if he were a specter. + +"Your surprise is natural, Alida, dear," he said gently, "but I've a +right to come to you, for my wife is dead," and he advanced toward her. + +"Stand back!" she cried sternly. "You've no right, and never can have." + +"Oh, yes, I have!" he replied in a wheedling tone. "Come, come! Your +nerves are shaken. Sit down, for I've much to tell you." + +"No, I won't sit down, and I tell you to leave me instantly. You've no +right here and I no right to listen to you." + +"I can soon prove that you have a better right to listen to me than to +anyone else. Were we not married by a minister?" + +"Yes, but that made no difference. You deceived both him and me." + +"It made no difference, perhaps, in the eye of the law, while that +woman you saw was living, but she's dead, as I can easily prove. How +were you married to this man Holcroft?" + +Alida grew dizzy; everything whirled and grew black before her eyes as +she sank into a chair. He came to her and took her hand, but his touch +was a most effectual restorative. She threw his hand away and said +hoarsely, "Do you--do you mean that you have any claim on me?" + +"Who has a better claim?" he asked cunningly. "I loved you when I +married you and I love you now. Do you think I rested a moment after I +was free from the woman I detested? No, indeed; nor did I rest till I +found out who took you from the almshouse to be his household drudge, +not wife. I've seen the justice who aided in the wedding farce, and +learned how this man Holcroft made him cut down even the ceremony of a +civil marriage to one sentence. It was positively heathenish, and he +only took you because he couldn't get a decent servant to live with +him." + +"O God!" murmured the stricken woman. "Can such a horrible thing be?" + +"So it seems," he resumed, misinterpreting her. "Come now!" he said +confidently, and sitting down, "Don't look so broken up about it. Even +while that woman was living I felt that I was married to you and you +only; now that I'm free--" + +"But I'm not free and don't wish to be." + +"Don't be foolish, Alida. You know this farmer don't care a rap for +you. Own up now, does he?" + +The answer was a low, half-despairing cry. + +"There, I knew it was so. What else could you expect? Don't you see +I'm your true refuge and not this hard-hearted, money-grasping farmer?" + +"Stop speaking against him!" she cried. "O God!" she wailed, "can the +law give this man any claim on me, now his wife is dead?" + +"Yes, and one I mean to enforce," he replied doggedly. + +"I don't believe she's dead, I don't believe anything you say! You +deceived me once. + +"I'm not deceiving you now, Alida," he said with much solemnity. "She +IS dead. If you were calmer, I have proofs to convince you in these +papers. Here's the newspaper, too, containing the notice of her +death," and he handed it to her. + +She read it with her frightened eyes, and then the paper dropped from +her half-paralyzed hands to the floor. She was so unsophisticated, and +her brain was in such a whirl of confusion and terror, that she was led +to believe at the moment that he had a legal claim upon her which he +could enforce. + +"Oh, that Mr. Holcroft were here!" she cried desperately. "He wouldn't +deceive me; he never deceived me." + +"It is well for him that he isn't here," said Ferguson, assuming a dark +look. + +"What do you mean?" she gasped. + +"Come, come, Alida!" he said, smiling reassuringly. "You are frightened +and nervous, and I don't wish to make you any more so. You know how I +would naturally regard the man who I feel has my wife; but let us +forget about him. Listen to my plan. All I ask of you is to go with me +to some distant place where neither of us are known, and--" + +"Never!" she interrupted. + +"Don't say that," he replied coolly. "Do you think I'm a man to be +trifled with after what I've been through?" + +"You can't compel me to go against my will," and there was an accent of +terror in her words which made them a question. + +He saw his vantage more clearly and said quietly, "I don't want to +compel you if it can be helped. You know how true I was to you--" + +"No, no! You deceived me. I won't believe you now." + +"You may have to. At any rate, you know how fond I was of you, and I +tell you plainly, I won't give you up now. This man doesn't love you, +nor do you love him--" + +"I DO love him, I'd die for him! There now, you know the truth. You +wouldn't compel a woman to follow you who shrinks from you in horror, +even if you had the right. Although the ceremony was brief it WAS a +ceremony; and he was not married then, as you were when you deceived +me. He has ever been truth itself, and I won't believe you have any +rights till he tells me so himself." + +"So you shrink from me with horror, do you?" asked Ferguson, rising, +his face growing black with passion. + +"Yes, I do. Now leave me and let me never see you again." + +"And you are going to ask this stupid old farmer about my rights?" + +"Yes. I'll take proof of them from no other, and even if he confirmed +your words I'd never live with you again. I would live alone till I +died!" + +"That's all very foolish high tragedy, but if you're not careful there +may be some real tragedy. If you care for this Holcroft, as you say, +you had better go quietly away with me." + +"What do you mean?" she faltered tremblingly. + +"I mean I'm a desperate man whom the world has wronged too much +already. You know the old saying, 'Beware of the quiet man!' You know +how quiet, contented, and happy I was with you, and so I would be again +to the end of my days. You are the only one who can save me from +becoming a criminal, a vagabond, for with you only have I known +happiness. Why should I live or care to live? If this farmer clod +keeps you from me, woe betide him! My one object in living will be his +destruction. I shall hate him only as a man robbed as I am can hate." + +"What would you do?" she could only ask in a horrified whisper. + +"I can only tell you that he'd never be safe a moment. I'm not afraid +of him. You see I'm armed," and he showed her a revolver. "He can't +quietly keep from me what I feel is my own." + +"Merciful Heaven! This is terrible," she gasped. + +"Of course it's terrible--I mean it to be so. You can't order me off +as if I were a tramp. Your best course for his safety is to go quietly +with me at once. I have a carriage waiting near at hand." + +"No, no! I'd rather die than do that, and though he cannot feel as I +do, I believe he'd rather die than have me do it." + +"Oh, well! If you think he's so ready to die--" + +"No, I don't mean that! Kill me! I want to die." + +"Why should I kill you?" he asked with a contemptuous laugh. "That +wouldn't do me a particle of good. It will be your own fault if anyone +is hurt." + +"Was ever a woman put in such a cruel position?" + +"Oh, yes! Many and many a time. As a rule, though, they are too +sensible and kind-hearted to make so much trouble." + +"If you have legal rights, why don't you quietly enforce them instead +of threatening?" + +For a moment he was confused and then said recklessly, "It would come +to the same thing in the end. Holcroft would never give you up." + +"He'd have to. I wouldn't stay here a moment if I had no right." + +"But you said you would not live with me again?" + +"Nor would I. I'd go back to the poorhouse and die there, for do you +think I could live after another such experience? But my mind has +grown clearer. You are deceiving me again, and Mr. Holcroft is +incapable of deceiving me. He would never have called me his wife +unless I was his wife before God and man." + +"I'm not deceiving you in regard to one thing!" he said tragically. + +"O God, what shall I do?" + +"If you won't go with me you must leave him," he replied, believing +that, if this step were taken, others would follow. + +"If I leave him--if I go away and live alone, will you promise to do +him no harm?" + +"I'd have no motive to harm him then, which will be better security +than a promise. At the same time I do promise." + +"And you will also promise to leave me utterly alone?" + +"If I can." + +"You must promise never even to tempt me to think of going away. I'd +rather you'd shot me than ask it. I'm not a weak, timid girl. I'm a +broken-hearted woman who fears some things far more than death." + +"If you have any fears for Holcroft, they are very rational ones." + +"It is for his sake that I would act. I would rather suffer anything +and lose everything than have harm come to him." + +"All I can say is that, if you will leave him completely and finally, I +will let him alone. But you must do it promptly. Everything depends +upon this. I'm in too reckless and bitter a mood to be trifled with. +Besides, I've plenty of money and could escape from the country in +twenty-four hours. You needn't think you can tell this story to +Holcroft and that he can protect you and himself. I'm here under an +assumed name and have seen no one who knows me. I may have to +disappear for a time and be disguised when I come again, but I pledge +you my word he'll never be safe as long as you are under his roof." + +"Then I will sacrifice myself for him," she said, pallid even to her +lips. "I will go away. But never dream that you can come near me +again--you who deceived and wronged me, and now, far worse, threaten +the man I love." + +"We'll see about that," he replied cynically. "At any rate, you will +have left him." + +"Go!" she said imperiously. + +"I'll take a kiss first, sweetheart," he said, advancing with a +sardonic smile. + +"Jane!" she shrieked. He paused, and she saw evidences of alarm. + +The girl ran lightly out of the dairy room, where she had been a greedy +listener to all that had been said, and a moment later appeared in the +yard before the house. "Yes'm," she answered. + +"Be careful now, sir," said Alida sternly. "There's a witness." + +"Only a little idiotic-looking girl." + +"She's not idiotic, and if you touch me the compact's broken." + +"Very well, my time will come. Remember, you've been warned," and he +pulled his hat over his eyes and strode away. + +"Bah!" said Jane with a snicker, "as if I hadn't seen his ugly mug so +I'd know it 'mong a thousand." + +With a face full of loathing and dread, Alida watched her enemy +disappear down the lane, and then, half fainting, sank on the lounge. + +"Jane!" she called feebly, but there was no answer. + + + +Chapter XXXII. + +Jane Plays Mouse to the Lion + +It can well be understood that Jane had no disposition to return to +Mrs. Holcroft and the humdrum duties of the house. There opened before +her an exciting line of action which fully accorded with her nature, +and she entered upon it at once. Her first impulse was to follow the +man of whom she had learned so much. Not only was she spurred to this +course by her curiosity, but also by her instinctive loyalty to +Holcroft, and, it must be admitted, by her own interests. Poor little +Jane had been nurtured in a hard school, and had by this time learned +the necessity of looking out for herself. This truth, united with her +shrewd, matter-of-fact mind, led her to do the most sensible thing +under the circumstances. "I know a lot now that he'll be glad to know, +and if I tell him everything he'll keep me always. The first thing +he'll want to know is what's become of that threatenin' scamp," and she +followed Ferguson with the stealth of an Indian. + +Ferguson was not only a scamp, but, like most of his class, a coward. +He had been bitterly disappointed in his interview with Alida. As far +as his selfish nature permitted, he had a genuine affection for her, +and he had thought of little else besides her evident fondness for him. +He was so devoid of moral principle that he could not comprehend a +nature like hers, and had scarcely believed it possible that she would +repulse him so inflexibly. She had always been so gentle, yielding, +and subservient to his wishes that he had thought that, having been +assured of his wife's death, a little persuasion and perhaps a few +threats would induce her to follow him, for he could not imagine her +becoming attached to such a man as Holcroft had been described to be. +Her uncompromising principle had entered but slightly into his +calculations, and so, under the spur of anger and selfishness, he had +easily entered upon a game of bluff He knew well enough that he had no +claim upon Alida, yet it was in harmony with his false heart to try to +make her think so. He had no serious intention of harming Holcroft--he +would be afraid to attempt this--but if he could so work on Alida's +fears as to induce her to leave her husband, he believed that the +future would be full of possibilities. At any rate, he would find his +revenge in making Alida and Holcroft all the trouble possible. Even in +the excitement of the interview, however, he realized that he was +playing a dangerous game, and when Jane answered so readily to Alida's +call he was not a little disturbed. Satisfied that he had accomplished +all that he could hope for at present, his purpose now was to get back +to town unobserved and await developments. He therefore walked rapidly +down the lane and pursued the road for a short distance until he came +to an old, disused lane, leading up the hillside into a grove where he +had concealed a horse and buggy. Unless there should be necessity, it +was his intention to remain in his hiding place until after nightfall. + +Jane had merely to skirt the bushy hillside higher up, in order to keep +Ferguson in view and discover the spot in which he was lurking. +Instead of returning to the house she kept right on, maintaining a +sharp eye on the road beneath to make sure that Holcroft did not pass +unobserved. By an extended detour, she reached the highway and +continued toward town in the hope of meeting the farmer. At last she +saw him driving rapidly homeward. He was consumed with anxiety to be +at least near to Alida, even if, as he believed, he was no longer +welcome in her presence. When Jane stepped out into the road he pulled +up his horses and stared at her. She, almost bursting with her great +secrets, put her finger on her lips and nodded portentously. + +"Well, what is it?" he asked, his heart beating quickly. + +"I've got a lot to tell yer, but don't want no one to see us." + +"About my wife?" + +The girl nodded. + +"Good God! Speak then. Is she sick?" and he sprung out and caught her +arm with a grip that hurt her. + +"Please, sir, I'm doin' all I kin for yer and--and you hurt me." + +Holcroft saw the tears coming to her eyes and he released his hold as +he said, "Forgive me, Jane, I didn't mean to; but for mercy's sake, +tell your story." + +"It's a long 'un." + +"Well, well, give me the gist of it in a word." + +"I guess she's goin' to run away." + +Holcroft groaned and almost staggered to his horses' heads, then led +them to the roadside and tied them to a tree. Sitting down, as if too +weak to stand, he buried his face in his hands. He could not bear to +have Jane see his distress. "Tell your story," he said hoarsely, +"quick, for I may have to act quickly." + +"Guess yer will. Did yer know she was married?" + +"Certainly--to me." + +"No, to another man--married by a minister. He's been there with her." +She little foresaw the effect of her words, for the farmer bounded to +his feet with an oath and sprang to his horses. + +"Stop!" cried Jane, tugging at his arm. "If you go rushin' home now, +you'll show you've got no more sense than mother. You'll spoil +everything. She aint goin' to run away with HIM--she said she +wouldn't, though he coaxed and threatened to kill yer if she didn't. +'Fi's a man I wouldn't act like a mad bull. I'd find out how to get +ahead of t'other man." + +"Well," said Holcroft, in a voice that frightened the child, "she said +she wouldn't run away with this scoundrel--of course not--but you say +she's going to leave. She'll meet him somewhere--good God! But how +should you understand? Come, let me get home!" + +"I understand a sight more'n you do, and you go on so that I can't tell +you anything. If you showed sense, you'd be glad I was lookin' out for +you so I could tell you everything. What's the good of goin' +rampaigin' home when, if you'd only listen, you could get even with +that scoundrel, as yer call 'im, and make all right," and Jane began to +cry. + +"Oh, thunder!" exclaimed the chafing man, "tell me your story at once, +or you'll drive me mad. You don't half know what you're talking about +or how much your words mean--how should you? The thing to do is to get +home as soon as possible." + +"You aint no reason to be so mad and glum all the while," cried Jane, +smarting under a sense of injustice. "Here I'm a-tryin' to do for you, +and you'll be sorry ernuff if you don't stop and listen. And she's +been a-tryin' to do for you all along, and she's been standin' up for +you this afternoon, and is goin' to run away to save your life." + +"Run away to save my life? Are you crazy?" + +"No, but you be," cried the girl, excited and exasperated beyond +restraint. "If she IS your wife I'd stand up for her and take care of +her, since she stands up for you so. 'Stead of that, you go round as +glum as a thundercloud and now want to go ragin' home to her. Dunno +whether she's your wife or not, but I DO know she said she loved you +and 'ud die for you, and she wouldn't do a thing that man asked but go +away to save your life." + +Holcroft looked at the girl as if dazed. "Said she LOVED me?" he +repeated slowly. + +"Of course! You knowed that all 'long--anybody could see it--an' you +don't treat her much better'n you did mother." Then, with an impatient +gesture, she asked, "Will you sit down and listen?" + +"No, I won't!" he cried, springing toward his horses. "I'll find out if +your words are true." + +"Oh, yes!" said Jane contemptuously; "run right to her to find out +somethin' as plain as the nose on her face, and run right by the man +that was threatenin' her and you too." + +Wheeling round, he asked, "Where is he?" + +"I know, but I won't say 'nuther word till you stop goin' on. 'Fi's a +man I'd find out what to do 'fore I did anythin'." + +Jane had little comprehension of the tempest she had raised in +Holcroft's soul or its causes, and so was in no mood to make allowances +for him. By this time, the first gust of his passion was passing and +reason resuming its sway. He paced up and down in the road a moment or +two, and then sat down as he said, "I don't half understand what you've +been talking about and I fear you don't. You've evidently been +listening and watching and have got hold of something. Now, I'll be as +patient as I can if you'll tell me the whole story quickly," and he +turned his flushed, quivering face toward her. + +"Then I s'pose you'll scold me for listenin' and watchin' that scamp," +said the girl sullenly. + +"No, Jane, not in this case. Unless your impressions are all mistaken +I may have to thank you all my life. I'm not one to forget those who +are true to me. Now, begin at the beginning and go right through to the +end; then I may understand better than you can." + +Jane did as she was told, and many "says he's" and "says she's" +followed in her literal narrative. Holroft again dropped his face into +his hands, and before she was through, tears of joy trickled through +his fingers. When she finished, he arose, turned away, and hastily +wiped his eyes, then gave the girl his hand as he said, "Thank you, +Jane. You've tried to be a true friend to me today. I'll show you +that I don't forget. I was a fool to get in such a rage, but you can't +understand and must forgive me. Come, you see I'm quiet now," and he +untied the horses and lifted her into his wagon. + +"What yer doin' to do?" she asked, as they drove away. + +"I'm going to reward you for watching and listening to that scoundrel, +but you must not watch me or Mrs. Holcroft, or listen to what we say +unless we speak before you. If you do, I shall be very angry. Now, +you've only one thing more to do and that is, show me where this man is +hiding." + +"But you won't go near him alone?" inquired Jane in much alarm. + +"You must do as I bid you," he replied sternly. "Show me where he's +hiding, then stay by the wagon and horses." + +"But he same as said he'd kill you." + +"You have your orders," was his quiet reply. + +She looked scared enough, but remained silent until they reached a +shaded spot on the road, then said, "If you don't want him to see you +too soon, better tie here. He's around yonder, in a grove up on the +hill." + +Holcroft drove to a tree by the side of the highway and again tied his +horses, then took the whip from the wagon. "Are you afraid to go with +me a little way and show me just where he is?" he asked. + +"No, but you oughtn' ter go." + +"Come on, then! You must mind me if you wish to keep my good will. I +know what I'm about." As in his former encounter, his weapon was again +a long, tough whipstock with a leather thong attached. This he cut off +and put in his pocket, then followed Jane's rapid lead up the hill. +Very soon she said, "There's the place I saw 'im in. If you will go, +I'd steal up on him." + +"Yes. You stay here." She made no reply, but the moment he +disappeared she was upon his trail. Her curiosity was much greater +than her timidity, and she justly reasoned that she had little to fear. + +Holcroft approached from a point whence Ferguson was expecting no +danger. The latter was lying on the ground, gnawing his nails in +vexation, when he first heard the farmer's step. Then he saw a +dark-visaged man rushing upon him. In the impulse of his terror, he +drew his revolver and fired. The ball hissed near, but did no harm, +and before Ferguson could use the weapon again, a blow from the +whipstock paralyzed his arm and the pistol dropped to the ground. So +also did its owner a moment later, under a vindictive rain of blows, +until he shrieked for mercy. + +"Don't move!" said Holcroft sternly, and he picked up the revolver. "So +you meant to kill me, eh?" + +"No, no! I didn't. I wouldn't have fired if it hadn't been in +self-defense and because I hadn't time to think." He spoke with +difficulty, for his mouth was bleeding and he was terribly bruised. + +"A liar, too!" said the farmer, glowering down upon him. "But I knew +that before. What did you mean by your threats to my wife?" + +"See here, Mr. Holcroft; I'm down and at your mercy. If you'll let me +off I'll go away and never trouble you or your wife again." + +"Oh, no!" said Holcroft with a bitter laugh. "You'll never, never +trouble us again." + +"What, do you mean to murder me?" Ferguson half shrieked. + +"Would killing such a thing as you be murder? Any jury in the land +would acquit me. You ought to be roasted over a slow fire." + +The fellow tried to scramble on his knees, but Holcroft hit him another +savage blow, and said, "Lie still!" + +Ferguson began to wring his hands and beg for mercy. His captor stood +over him a moment or two irresolutely in his white-heated anger; then +thoughts of his wife began to soften him. He could not go to her with +blood on his hands--she who had taught him such lessons of forbearance +and forgiveness. He put the pistol in his pocket and giving his enemy +a kick, said, "Get up!" + +The man rose with difficulty. + +"I won't waste time in asking any promises from YOU, but if you ever +trouble my wife or me again, I'll break every bone in your body. Go, +quick, before my mood changes, and don't say a word." + +As the man tremblingly untied his horse, Jane stepped out before him +and said, "I'm a little idiotic girl, am I?" + +He was too thoroughly cowed to make any reply and drove as rapidly away +as the ground permitted, guiding his horse with difficulty in his +maimed condition. + +Jane, in the exuberance of her pleasure, began something like a jig on +the scene of conflict, and her antics were so ridiculous that Holcroft +had to turn away to repress a smile. "You didn't mind me, Jane," he +said gravely. + +"Well, sir," she replied, "after showin' you the way to 'im, you +oughter not grudge me seein' the fun." + +"But it isn't nice for little girls to see such things." + +"Never saw anything nicer in my life. You're the kind of man I believe +in, you are. Golly! Only wished SHE'D seen you. I've seen many a +rough and tumble 'mong farm hands, but never anything like this. It +was only his pistol I was 'fraid of." + +"Will you do exactly what I say now?" + +She nodded. + +"Well, go home across the fields and don't by word or manner let Mrs. +Holcroft know what you've seen or heard, and say nothing about meeting +me. Just make her think you know nothing at all and that you only +watched the man out of sight. Do this and I'll give you a new dress." + +"I'd like somethin' else 'sides that." + +"Well, what?" + +"I'd like to be sure I could stay right on with you." + +"Yes, Jane, after today, as long as you're a good girl. Now go, for I +must get back to my team before this scamp goes by." + +She darted homeward as the farmer returned to his wagon. Ferguson soon +appeared and seemed much startled as he saw his Nemesis again. "I'll +keep my word," he said, as he drove by. + +"You'd better!" called the farmer. "You know what to expect now." + +Alida was so prostrated by the shock of the interview that she rallied +slowly. At last she saw that it was getting late and that she soon +might expect the return of her husband. She dragged herself to the +door and again called Jane, but the place was evidently deserted. +Evening was coming on tranquilly, with all its sweet June sounds, but +now every bird song was like a knell. She sunk on the porch seat and +looked at the landscape, already so dear and familiar, as if she were +taking a final farewell of a friend. Then she turned to the homely +kitchen to which she had first been brought. "I can do a little more +for him," she thought, "before I make the last sacrifice which will +soon bring the end. I think I could have lived--lived, perhaps, till I +was old, if I had gone among strangers from the almshouse, but I can't +now. My heart is broken. Now that I've seen that man again I +understand why my husband cannot love me. Even the thought of touching +me must make him shudder. But I can't bear up under such a load much +longer, and that's my comfort. It's best I should go away now; I +couldn't do otherwise," and the tragedy went on in her soul as she +feebly prepared her husband's meal. + +At last Jane came in with her basket of peas. Her face was so +impassive as to suggest that she had no knowledge of anything except +that there had been a visitor, and Alida had sunk into such depths of +despairing sorrow that she scarcely noticed the child. + + + +Chapter XXXIII. + +"Shrink from YOU?" + +Holcroft soon came driving slowly up the lane as if nothing unusual was +on his mind. Having tied his horses, he brought in an armful of +bundles and said kindly, "Well, Alida, here I am again, and I guess +I've brought enough to last well through haying time." + +"Yes," she replied with averted face. This did not trouble him any +now, but her extreme pallor did and he added, "You don't look well. I +wouldn't mind getting much supper tonight. Let Jane do the work." + +"I'd rather do it," she replied. + +"Oh, well!" laughing pleasantly, "you shall have your own way. Who has +a better right than you, I'd like to know?" + +"Don't speak that way," she said, almost harshly, under the tension of +her feelings. "I--I can't stand it. Speak and look as you did before +you went away." + +"Jane," said the farmer, "go and gather the eggs." + +As soon as they were alone, he began gently, "Alida--" + +"Please don't speak so to me today. I've endured all I can. I can't +keep up another minute unless you let things go on as they were. +Tomorrow I'll try to tell you all. It's your right." + +"I didn't mean to say anything myself till after supper, and perhaps +not till tomorrow, but I think I'd better. It will be better for us +both, and our minds will be more at rest. Come with me into the +parlor, Alida." + +"Well, perhaps the sooner it's over the better," she said faintly and +huskily. + +She sunk on the lounge and looked at him with such despairing eyes that +tears came into his own. + +"Alida," he began hesitatingly, "after I left you this noon I felt I +must speak with and be frank with you." + +"No, no!!" she cried, with an imploring gesture, "if it must be said, +let me say it. I couldn't endure to hear it from you. Before you went +away I understood it all, and this afternoon the truth has been burned +into my soul. That horrible man has been here--the man I thought my +husband--and he has made it clearer, if possible. I don't blame you +that you shrink from me as if I were a leper. I feel as if I were one." + +"I shrink from YOU!" he exclaimed. + +"Yes. Can you think I haven't seen the repugnance growing in spite of +yourself? When I thought of that man--especially when he came today--I +understood WHY too well. I cannot stay here any longer. You'd try to +be kind and considerate, but I'd know how you felt all the time. It +would not be safe for you and it would not be right for me to stay, +either, and that settles it. Be--be as kind to me--as you can a few--a +few hours longer, and then let me go quietly." Her self-control gave +way, and burying her face in her hands, she sobbed convulsively. + +In a moment he was on his knees beside her, with his arm about her +waist. "Alida, dear Alida!" he cried, "we've both been in the dark +about each other. What I resolved to do, when I started for town, was +to tell you that I had learned to love you and to throw myself on your +mercy. I thought you saw I was loving you and that you couldn't bear +to think of such a thing in an old, homely fellow like me. That was +all that was in my mind, so help me God!" + +"But--but HE'S been here," she faltered; "you don't realize--" + +"I don't believe I do or can, yet, Alida, dear, but that blessed Jane's +spying trait has served me the best turn in the world. She heard every +brave word you said and I shed tears of joy when she told me; and tears +are slow coming to my eyes. You think I shrink from you, do you?" and +he kissed her hands passionately. "See," he cried, "I kneel to you in +gratitude for all you've been to me and are to me." + +"Oh, James! Please rise. It's too much." + +"No, not till you promise to go with me to a minister and hear me +promise to love, cherish--yes, in your case I'll promise to obey." + +She bowed her head upon his shoulder in answer. Springing up, he +clasped her close and kissed away her tears as he exclaimed, "No more +business marriage for me, if you please. There never was a man so in +love with his wife." + +Suddenly she looked up and said fearfully, "James, he threatened you. +He said you'd never be safe a moment as long as I stayed here." + +His answer was a peal of laughter. "I've done more than threaten him. +I've whipped him within an inch of his life, and it was the thought of +you that led me, in my rage, to spare his life. I'll tell you all--I'm +going to tell you everything now. How much trouble I might have saved +if I had told you my thoughts! What was there, Alida, in an old fellow +like me that led you to care so?" + +Looking up shyly, she replied, "I think it was the MAN in +you--and--then you stood up for me so." + +"Well, love is blind, I suppose, but it don't seem to me that mine is. +There never was a man so taken in at his marriage. You were so +different from what I expected that I began loving you before I knew +it, but I thought you were good to me just as you were to Jane--from a +sense of duty--and that you couldn't abide me personally. So I tried +to keep out of your way. And, Alida, dear, I thought at first that I +was taken by your good traits and your education and all that, but I +found out at last that I had fallen in love with YOU. Now you know +all. You feel better now, don't you?" + +"Yes," she breathed softly. + +"You've had enough to wear a saint out," he continued kindly. "Lie down +on the lounge and I'll bring your supper to you." + +"No, please! It will do me more good to go on and act as if nothing +had happened." + +"Well, have your own way, little wife. You're boss now, sure enough." + +She drew him to the porch, and together they looked upon the June +landscape which she had regarded with such despairing eyes an hour +before. + +"Happiness never kills, after all," she said. + +"Shouldn't be alive if it did," he replied. "The birds seem to sing as +if they knew." + +Jane emerged from the barn door with a basket of eggs, and Alida sped +away to meet her. The first thing the child knew the arms of her +mistress were about her neck and she was kissed again and again. + +"What did you do that for?" she asked. + +"You'll understand some day." + +"Say," said Jane in an impulse of good will, "if you're only half +married to Mr. Holcroft, I'd go the whole figure, 'fi's you. If you'd +'a' seen him a-thrashin' that scamp you'd know he's the man to take +care of you." + +"Yes, Jane, I know. He'll take care of me always." + +The next morning Holcroft and Alida drove to town and went to the +church which she and her mother used to attend. After the service they +followed the clergyman home, where Alida again told him her story, +though not without much help from the farmer. After some kindly +reproach that she had not brought her troubles to him at first, the +minister performed a ceremony which found deep echoes in both their +hearts. + +Time and right, sensible living soon remove prejudice from the hearts +of the good and stop the mouths of the cynical and scandal-loving. +Alida's influence, and the farmer's broadening and more unselfish views +gradually bought him into a better understanding of his faith, and into +a kinder sympathy and charity for his neighbors than he had ever known. +His relations to the society of which he was a part became natural and +friendly, and his house a pretty and a hospitable home. Even Mrs. +Watterly eventually entered its portals. She and others were compelled +to agree with Watterly that Alida was not of the "common sort," and +that the happiest good fortune which could befall any man had come to +Holcroft when he fell in love with his wife. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's He Fell in Love with His Wife, by Edward P. Roe + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HE FELL IN LOVE WITH HIS WIFE *** + +***** This file should be named 2271.txt or 2271.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/7/2271/ + +Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer. HTML +version by Al Haines. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +HE FELL IN LOVE WITH HIS WIFE + +by Edward P. Roe + + + + +CONTENTS + +Chapter +I Left Alone +II A Very Interested Friend +III Mrs. Mumpson Negotiates and Yields +IV Domestic Bliss +V Mrs. Mumpson Takes up Her Burdens +VI A Marriage? +VII From Home to the Street +VIII Holcroft's View of Matrimony +IX Mrs. Mumpson Accepts Her Mission +X A Night of Terror +XI Baffled +XII Jane +XIII Not Wife, But Waif +XIV A Pitched Battle +XV "What is to Become of Me?" +XVI Mrs. Mumpson's Vicissitudes +XVII A Momentous Decision +XVIII Holcroft Gives His Hand +XIX A Business Marriage +XX Uncle Jonathan's Impression of the Bride +XXI At Home +XXII Getting Acquainted +XXIII Between the Past and Future +XXIV Given Her Own Way +XXV A Charivari +XXVI "You don't Know" +XXVII Farm and Farmer Bewitched +XXVIII Another Waif +XXIX Husband and Wife in Trouble +XXX Holcroft's Best Hope +XXXI "Never!" +XXXII Jane Plays Mouse to the Lion +XXXIII "Shrink From YOU?" + + + + +Chapter I. Left Alone + +The dreary March evening is rapidly passing from murky gloom to obscurity. +Gusts of icy rain and sleet are sweeping full against a man who, though +driving, bows his head so low that he cannot see his horses. The patient +beasts, however, plod along the miry road, unerringly taking their course to +the distant stable door. The highway sometimes passes through a grove on the +edge of a forest, and the trees creak and groan as they writhe in the heavy +blasts. In occasional groups of pines there is sighing and moaning almost +human in suggestiveness of trouble. Never had Nature been in a more dismal +mood, never had she been more prodigal of every element of discomfort, and +never had the hero of my story been more cast down in heart and hope than on +this chaotic day which, even to his dull fancy, appeared closing in harmony +with his feelings and fortune. He is going home, yet the thought brings no +assurance of welcome and comfort. As he cowers upon the seat of his market +wagon, he is to the reader what he is in the fading light--a mere dim outline +of a man. His progress is so slow that there will be plenty of time to relate +some facts about him which will make the scenes and events to follow more +intelligible. + +James Holcroft is a middle-aged man and the owner of a small, hilly farm. He +had inherited his rugged acres from his father, had always lived upon them, +and the feeling had grown strong with the lapse of time that he could live +nowhere else. Yet he knew that he was, in the vernacular of the region, +"going down-hill." The small savings of years were slowly melting away, and +the depressing feature of this truth was that he did not see how he could help +himself. He was not a sanguine man, but rather one endowed with a hard, +practical sense which made it clear that the down-hill process had only to +continue sufficiently long to leave him landless and penniless. It was all so +distinct on this dismal evening that he groaned aloud. + +"If it comes to that, I don't know what I'll do--crawl away on a night like +this and give up, like enough." + +Perhaps he was right. When a man with a nature like his "gives up," the end +has come. The low, sturdy oaks that grew so abundantly along the road were +types of his character--they could break, but not bend. He had little +suppleness, little power to adapt himself to varied conditions of life. An +event had occurred a year since, which for months, he could only contemplate +with dull wonder and dismay. In his youth he had married the daughter of a +small farmer. Like himself, she had always been accustomed to toil and frugal +living. From childhood she had been impressed with the thought that parting +with a dollar was a serious matter, and to save a dollar one of the good deeds +rewarded in this life and the life to come. She and her husband were in +complete harmony on this vital point. Yet not a miserly trait entered into +their humble thrift. It was a necessity entailed by their meager resources; +it was inspired by the wish for an honest independence in their old age. + +There was to be no old age for her. She took a heavy cold, and almost before +her husband was aware of her danger, she had left his side. He was more than +grief-stricken, he was appalled. No children had blessed their union, and +they had become more and more to each other in their simple home life. To +many it would have seemed a narrow and even a sordid life. It could not have +been the latter, for all their hard work, their petty economies and plans to +increase the hoard in the savings bank were robbed of sordidness by an honest, +quiet affection for each other, by mutual sympathy and a common purpose. It +undoubtedly was a meager life, which grew narrower with time and habit. There +had never been much romance to begin with, but something that often wears +better--mutual respect and affection. From the first, James Holcroft had +entertained the sensible hope that she was just the girl to help him make a +living from his hillside farm, and he had not hoped for or even thought of +very much else except the harmony and good comradeship which bless people who +are suited to each other. He had been disappointed in no respect; they had +toiled and gathered like ants; they were confidential partners in the homely +business and details of the farm; nothing was wasted, not even time. The +little farmhouse abounded in comfort, and was a model of neatness and order. +If it and its surroundings were devoid of grace and ornament, they were not +missed, for neither of its occupants had ever been accustomed to such things. +The years which passed so uneventfully only cemented the union and increased +the sense of mutual dependence. They would have been regarded as exceedingly +matter-of-fact and undemonstrative, but they were kind to each other and +understood each other. Feeling that they were slowly yet surely getting +ahead, they looked forward to an old age of rest and a sufficiency for their +simple needs. Then, before he could realize the truth, he was left alone at +her wintry grave; neighbors dispersed after the brief service, and he plodded +back to his desolate home. There was no relative to step in and partially +make good his loss. Some of the nearest residents sent a few cooked +provisions until he could get help, but these attentions soon ceased. It was +believed that he was abundantly able to take care of himself, and he was left +to do so. He was not exactly unpopular, but had been much too reticent and +had lived too secluded a life to find uninvited sympathy now. He was the last +man, however, to ask for sympathy or help; and this was not due to +misanthropy, but simply to temperament and habits of life. He and his wife +had been sufficient for each other, and the outside world was excluded chiefly +because they had not time or taste for social interchanges. As a result, he +suffered serious disadvantages; he was misunderstood and virtually left to +meet his calamity alone. + +But, indeed he could scarcely have met it in any other way. Even to his wife, +he had never formed the habit of speaking freely of his thoughts and feelings. +There had been no need, so complete was the understanding between them. A +hint, a sentence, reveled to each other their simple and limited processes of +thought. To talk about her now to strangers was impossible. He had no +language by which to express the heavy, paralyzing pain in his heart. + +For a time he performed necessary duties in a dazed, mechanical way. The +horses and live stock were fed regularly, the cows milked; but the milk stood +in the dairy room until it spoiled. Then he would sit down at his desolate +hearth and gaze for hours into the fire, until it sunk down and died out. +Perhaps no class in the world suffers from such a terrible sense of loneliness +as simple-natured country people, to whom a very few have been all the company +they required. + +At last Holcroft partially shook off his stupor, and began the experiment of +keeping house and maintaining his dairy with hired help. For a long year he +had struggled on through all kinds of domestic vicissitude, conscious all the +time that things were going from bad to worse. His house was isolated, the +region sparsely settled, and good help difficult to be obtained under favoring +auspices. The few respectable women in the neighborhood who occasionally +"lent a hand" in other homes than their own would not compromise themselves, +as they expressed it, by "keepin' house for a widower." Servants obtained +from the neighboring town either could not endure the loneliness, or else were +so wasteful and ignorant that the farmer, in sheer desperation, discharged +them. The silent, grief-stricken, rugged-featured man was no company for +anyone. The year was but a record of changes, waste, and small pilferings. +Although he knew he could not afford it, he tried the device of obtaining two +women instead of one, so that they might have society in each other; but +either they would not stay or else he found that he had two thieves to deal +with instead of one--brazen, incompetent creatures who knew more about whisky +than milk, and who made his home a terror to him. + +Some asked good-naturedly, "Why don't you marry again?" Not only was the very +thought repugnant, but he knew well that he was not the man to thrive on any +such errand to the neighboring farmhouses. Though apparently he had little +sentiment in his nature, yet the memory of his wife was like his religion. He +felt that he could not put an ordinary woman into his wife's place, and say to +her the words he had spoken before. Such a marriage would be to him a +grotesque farce, at which his soul revolted. + +At last he was driven to the necessity of applying for help to an Irish family +that had recently moved into the neighborhood. The promise was forbidding, +indeed, as he entered the squalid abode in which were huddled men, women, and +children. A sister of the mistress of the shanty was voluble in her +assurances of unlimited capability. + +"Faix I kin do all the wourk, in doors and out, so I takes the notion," she +had asserted. + +There certainly was no lack of bone and muscle in the big, red-faced, +middle-aged woman who was so ready to preside at his hearth and glean from his +diminished dairy a modicum of profit; but as he trudged home along the wintry +road, he experienced strong feelings of disgust at the thought of such a +creature sitting by the kitchen fire in the place once occupied by his wife. + +During all these domestic vicissitudes he had occupied the parlor, a stiff, +formal, frigid apartment, which had been rarely used in his married life. He +had no inclination for the society of his help; in fact, there had been none +with whom he could associate. The better class of those who went out to +service could find places much more to their taste than the lonely farmhouse. +The kitchen had been the one cozy, cheerful room of the house, and, driven +from it, the farmer was an exile in his own home. In the parlor he could at +least brood over the happy past, and that was about all the solace he had +left. + +Bridget came and took possession of her domain with a sangfroid which appalled +Holcroft from the first. To his directions and suggestions, she curtly +informed him that she knew her business and "didn't want no mon around, +orderin' and interferin'." + +In fact, she did appear, as she had said, capable of any amount of work, and +usually was in a mood to perform it; but soon her male relatives began to drop +in to smoke a pipe with her in the evening. A little later on, the supper +table was left standing for those who were always ready to "take a bite."--The +farmer had never heard of the camel who first got his head into the tent, but +it gradually dawned upon him that he was half supporting the whole Irish tribe +down at the shanty. Every evening, while he shivered in his best room, he was +compelled to hear the coarse jests and laughter in the adjacent apartment. +One night his bitter thoughts found expression: "I might as well open a free +house for the keeping of man and beast." + +He had endured this state of affairs for some time simply because the woman +did the essential work in her offhand, slapdash style, and left him unmolested +to his brooding as long as he did not interfere with her ideas of domestic +economy. But his impatience and the sense of being wronged were producing a +feeling akin to desperation. Every week there was less and less to sell from +the dairy; chickens and eggs disappeared, and the appetites of those who +dropped in to "kape Bridgy from bein' a bit lonely" grew more voracious. + +Thus matters had drifted on until this March day when he had taken two calves +to market. He had said to the kitchen potentate that he would take supper +with a friend in town and therefore would not be back before nine in the +evening. This friend was the official keeper of the poorhouse and had been a +crony of Holcroft's in early life. He had taken to politics instead of +farming, and now had attained to what he and his acquaintances spoke of as a +"snug berth." Holcroft had maintained with this man a friendship based partly +on business relations, and the well-to-do purveyor for paupers always gave his +old playmate an honest welcome to his private supper table, which differed +somewhat from that spread for the town's pensioners. + +On this occasion the gathering storm had decided Holcroft to return without +availing himself of his friend's hospitality, and he is at last entering the +lane leading from the highway to his doorway. Even as he approaches his +dwelling he hears the sound of revelry and readily guesses what is taking +place. + +Quiet, patient men, when goaded beyond a certain point, are capable of +terrible ebullitions of anger, and Holcroft was no exception. It seemed to +him that night that the God he had worshiped all his life was in league with +man against him. The blood rushed to his face, his chilled form became rigid +with a sudden passionate protest against his misfortunes and wrongs. +Springing from the wagon, he left his team standing at the barn door and +rushed to the kitchen window. There before him sat the whole tribe from the +shanty, feasting at his expense. The table was loaded with coarse profusion. +Roast fowls alternated with fried ham and eggs, a great pitcher of milk was +flanked by one of foaming cider, while the post of honor was occupied by the +one contribution of his self-invited guests--a villainous-looking jug. + +They had just sat down to the repast when the weazen-faced patriarch of the +tribe remarked, by way of grace, it may be supposed, "Be jabers, but isn't +ould Holcroft givin' us a foine spread the noight! Here's bad luck to the +glowerin' ould skinflint!" and he poured out a bumper from the jug. + +The farmer waited to see and hear no more. Hastening to a parlor window, he +raised it quietly and clambered in; then taking his rusty shotgun, which he +kept loaded for the benefit of the vermin that prowled about his hen-roost, he +burst in upon the startled group. + +"Be off!" he shouted. "If you value your lives, get out of that door, and +never show your faces on my place again. I'll not be eaten out of house and +home by a lot of jackals!" + +His weapon, his dark, gleaming eyes, and desperate aspect taught the men that +he was not to be trifled with a moment, and they slunk away. + +Bridget began to whine, "Yez wouldn't turn a woman out in the noight and +storm." + +"You are not a woman!" thundered Holcroft, "you are a jackal, too! Get your +traps and begone! I warn the whole lot of you to beware! I give you this +chance to get off the premises, and then I shall watch for you all, old and +young!" + +There was something terrible and flame-like in his anger, dismaying the +cormorants, and they hastened away with such alacrity that Bridget went down +the lane screaming, "Sthop, I tell yees, and be afther waitin' for me!" + +Holcroft hurled the jug after them with words that sounded like an +imprecation. He next turned to the viands on the table with an expression of +loathing, gathered them up, and carried them to the hog pen. He seemed +possessed by a feverish impatience to banish every vestige of those whom he +had driven forth, and to restore the apartment as nearly as possible to the +aspect it had worn in former happy years. At last, he sat down where his wife +had been accustomed to sit, unbuttoned his waistcoat and flannel shirt, and +from against his naked breast took an old, worn daguerreotype. He looked a +moment at the plain, good face reflected there, them, bowing his head upon it, +strong, convulsive sobs shook his frame, though not a tear moistened his eyes. + +How long the paroxysm would have lasted it were hard to say, had not the +impatient whinnying of his horses, still exposed to the storm, caught his +attention. The lifelong habit of caring for the dumb animals in his charge +asserted itself. He went out mechanically, unharnessed and stabled them as +carefully as ever before in his life, then returned and wearily prepared +himself a pot of coffee, which, with a crust of bread, was all the supper he +appeared to crave. + + +Chapter II. A Very Interested Friend + +For the next few days, Holcroft lived alone. The weather remained inclement +and there was no occasion for him to go farther away than the barn and +outbuildings. He felt that a crisis in his life was approaching, that he +would probably be compelled to sell his property for what it would bring, and +begin life again under different auspices. + +"I must either sell or marry," he groaned, "and one's about as hard and bad as +the other. Who'll buy the place and stock at half what they're worth, and +where could I find a woman that would look at an old fellow like me, even if I +could bring myself to look at her?" + +The poor man did indeed feel that he was shut up to dreadful alternatives. +With his ignorance of the world, and dislike for contact with strangers, +selling out and going away was virtually starting out on an unknown sea +without rudder or compass. It was worse than that--it was the tearing up of a +life that had rooted itself in the soil whereon he had been content from +childhood to middle age. He would suffer more in going, and in the memory of +what he had parted with, than in any of the vicissitudes which might overtake +him. He had not much range of imagination or feeling, but within his +limitations his emotions were strong and his convictions unwavering. Still, +he thought it might be possible to live in some vague, unknown place, doing +some kind of work for people with whom he need not have very much to do. +"I've always been my own master, and done things in my own way," he muttered, +"but I suppose I could farm it to suit some old, quiet people, if I could only +find 'em. One thing is certain, anyhow--I couldn't stay here in Oakville, and +see another man living in these rooms, and plowing my fields, and driving his +cows to my old pasture lots. That would finish me like a galloping +consumption." + +Every day he shrunk with a strange dread from the wrench of parting with the +familiar place and with all that he associated with his wife. This was really +the ordeal which shook his soul, and not the fear that he would be unable to +earn his bread elsewhere. The unstable multitude, who are forever fancying +that they would be better off somewhere else or at something else, can have no +comprehension of this deep-rooted love of locality and the binding power of +long association. They regard such men as Holcroft as little better than +plodding oxen. The highest tribute which some people can pay to a man, +however, is to show that they do not and cannot understand him. But the +farmer was quite indifferent whether he was understood or not. He gave no +thought to what people said or might say. What were people to him? He only +had a hunted, pathetic sense of being hedged in and driven to bay. Even to +his neighbors, there was more of the humorous than the tragic in his plight. +It was supposed that he had a goodly sum in the bank, and gossips said that he +and his wife thought more of increasing this hoard than of each other, and +that old Holcroft's mourning was chiefly for a business partner. His domestic +tribulations evoked mirth rather than sympathy; and as the news spread from +farmhouse to cottage of his summary bundling of Bridget and her satellites out +of doors, there were both hilarity and satisfaction. + +While there was little commiseration for the farmer, there was decided +disapprobation of the dishonest Irish tribe, and all were glad that the gang +had received a lesson which might restrain them from preying upon others. + +Holcroft was partly to blame for his present isolation. Remote rural +populations are given to strong prejudices, especially against those who are +thought to be well-off from an oversaving spirit; and who, worse still, are +unsocial. Almost anything will be forgiven sooner than "thinking one's self +better than the other folks;" and that is the usual interpretation of shy, +reticent people. But there had been a decided tinge of selfishness in the +Holcrofts' habit of seclusion; for it became a habit rather than a principle. +While they cherished no active dislike to their neighbors, or sense of +superiority, these were not wholly astray in believing that they had little +place in the thoughts or interests of the occupants of the hill farm. +Indifference begat indifference, and now the lonely, helpless man had neither +the power nor the disposition to bridge the chasm which separated him from +those who might have given him kindly and intelligent aid. He was making a +pathetic effort to keep his home and to prevent his heart from being torn +bleeding away from all it loved. His neighbors thought that he was merely +exerting himself to keep the dollars which it had been the supreme motive of +his life to accumulate. + +Giving no thought to the opinions of others, Holcroft only knew that he was in +sore straits--that all which made his existence a blessing was at stake. + +At times, during these lonely and stormy March days, he would dismiss his +anxious speculations in regard to his future course. He was so morbid, +especially at night, that he felt that his wife could revisit the quiet house. +He cherished the hope that she could see him and hear what he said, and he +spoke in her viewless presence with a freedom and fullness that was unlike his +old reticence and habit of repression. He wondered that he had not said more +endearing words and given her stronger assurance of how much she was to him. +Late at night, he would start out of a long reverie, take a candle, and, going +through the house, would touch what she had touched, and look long and fixedly +at things associated with her. Her gowns still hung in the closet, just as +she had left them; he would take them out and recall the well-remembered +scenes and occasions when they were worn. At such times, she almost seemed +beside him, and he had a consciousness of companionship which soothed his +perturbed spirit. He felt that she appreciated such loving remembrance, +although unable to express her approval. He did not know it, but his nature +was being softened, deepened, and enriched by these deep and unwonted +experiences; the hard materiality of his life was passing away, rendering him +capable of something better than he had ever known. + +In the morning all the old, prosaic problems of his life would return, with +their hard, practical insistence, and he knew that he must decide upon +something very soon. His lonely vigils and days of quiet had brought him to +the conclusion that he could not hunt up a wife as a matter of business. He +would rather face the "ever angry bears" than breathe the subject of matrimony +to any woman that he could ever imagine himself marrying. He was therefore +steadily drifting toward the necessity of selling everything and going away. +This event, however, was like a coral reef to a sailor, with no land in view +beyond it. The only thing which seemed certain was the general breaking up of +all that had hitherto made his life. + +The offer of help came from an unexpected source. One morning Holcroft +received a call from a neighbor who had never before shown any interest in his +affairs. On this occasion, however, Mr. Weeks began to display so much +solicitude that the farmer was not only surprised, but also a little +distrustful. Nothing in his previous knowledge of the man had prepared the +way for such very kindly intervention. + +After some general references to the past, Mr. Weeks continued, "I've been +saying to our folks that it was too bad to let you worry on alone without more +neighborly help. You ought either to get married or have some thoroughly +respectable and well-known middle-aged woman keep house for you. That would +stop all talk, and there's been a heap of it, I can tell you. Of course, I +and my folks don't believe anything's been wrong." + +"Believing that something was wrong is about all the attention my neighbors +have given me, as far as I can see," Holcroft remarked bitterly. + +"Well, you see, Holcroft, you've kept yourself so inside your shell that +people don't know what to believe. Now, the thing to do is to change all +that. I know how hard it is for a man, placed as you be, to get decent help. +My wife was a-wondering about it the other day, and I shut her up mighty +sudden by saying, 'You're a good manager, and know all the country side, yet +how often you're a-complaining that you can't get a girl that's worth her salt +to help in haying and other busy times when we have to board a lot of men.' +Well, I won't beat around the bush any more. I've come to act the part of a +good neighbor. There's no use of you're trying to get along with such +haphazard help as you can pick up here and in town. You want a respectable +woman for housekeeper, and then have a cheap, common sort of a girl to work +under her. Now, I know of just such a woman, and it's not unlikely she'd be +persuaded to take entire charge of your house and dairy. My wife's cousin, +Mrs. Mumpson--" At the mention of this name Holcroft gave a slight start, +feeling something like a cold chill run down his back. + +Mr. Weeks was a little disconcerted but resumed, "I believe she called on your +wife once?" + +"Yes," the farmer replied laconically. "I was away and did not see her." + +"Well, now," pursued Mr. Weeks, "she's a good soul. She has her little +peculiarities; so have you and me, a lot of 'em; but she's thoroughly +respectable, and there isn't a man or woman in the town that would think of +saying a word against her. She has only one child, a nice, quiet little girl +who'd be company for her mother and make everything look right, you know." + +"I don't see what there's been to look wrong," growled the farmer. + +"Nothing to me and my folks, of course, or I wouldn't suggest the idea of a +relation of my wife coming to live with you. But you see people will talk +unless you stop their mouths so they'll feel like fools in doing it. I know +yours has been a mighty awkward case, and here's a plain way out of it. You +can set yourself right and have everything looked after as it ought to be, in +twenty-four hours. We've talked to Cynthy--that's Mrs. Mumpson--and she takes +a sight of interest. She'd do well by you and straighten things out, and you +might do a plaguey sight worse than give her the right to take care of your +indoor affairs for life." + +"I don't expect to marry again," said Holcroft curtly. + +"Oh, well! Many a man and woman has said that and believed it, too, at the +time. I'm not saying that my wife's cousin is inclined that way herself. +Like enough, she isn't at all, but then, the right kind of persuading does +change women's minds sometimes, eh? Mrs. Mumpson is kinder alone in the +world, like yourself, and if she was sure of a good home and a kind husband +there's no telling what good luck might happen to you. But there'll be plenty +of time for considering all that on both sides. You can't live like a +hermit." + +"I was thinking of selling out and leaving these parts," Holcroft interrupted. + +"Now look here, neighbor, you know as well as I do that in these times you +couldn't give away the place. What's the use of such foolishness? The thing +to do is to keep the farm and get a good living out of it. You've got down in +the dumps and can't see what's sensible and to your own advantage." + +Holcroft was thinking deeply, and he turned his eyes wistfully to the upland +slopes of his farm. Mr. Weeks had talked plausibly, and if all had been as he +represented, the plan would not have been a bad one. But the widower did not +yearn for the widow. He did not know much about her, but had very unfavorable +impressions. Mrs. Holcroft had not been given to speaking ill of anyone, but +she had always shaken her head with a peculiar significance when Mrs. +Mumpson's name was mentioned. + +The widow had felt it her duty to call and counsel against the sin of +seclusion and being too much absorbed in the affairs of this world. + +"You should take an interest in everyone," this self-appointed evangelist had +declared, and in one sense she lived up to her creed. She permitted no scrap +of information about people to escape her, and was not only versed in all the +gossip of Oakville, but also of several other localities in which she visited. + +But Holcroft had little else to deter him from employing her services beyond +an unfavorable impression. She could not be so bad as Bridget Malony, and he +was almost willing to employ her again for the privilege of remaining on his +paternal acres. As to marrying the widow--a slight shudder passed through his +frame at the thought. + +Slowly he began, as if almost thinking aloud, "I suppose you are right, Lemuel +Weeks, in what you say about selling the place. The Lord knows I don't want +to leave it. I was born and brought up here, and that counts with some +people. If your wife's cousin is willing to come and help me make a living, +for such wages as I can pay, the arrangement might be made. But I want to +look on it as a business arrangement. I have quiet ways of my own, and things +belonging to the past to think about, and I've got a right to think about 'em. +I aint one of the marrying kind, and I don't want people to be a-considering +such notions when I don't. I'd be kind and all that to her and her little +girl, but I should want to be left to myself as far as I could be." + +"Oh, certainly," said Mr. Weeks, mentally chuckling over the slight prospect +of such immunity, "but you must remember that Mrs. Mumpson isn't like common +help--" + +"That's where the trouble will come in," ejaculated the perplexed farmer, "but +there's been trouble enough with the other sort." + +"I should say so," Mr. Weeks remarked emphatically. "It would be a pity if you +couldn't get along with such a respectable, conscientious woman as Mrs. +Mumpson, who comes from one of the best families in the country." + +Holcroft removed his hat and passed his hand over his brow wearily as he said, +"Oh, I could get along with anyone who would do the work in a way that would +give me a chance to make a little, and then leave me to myself." + +"Well, well," said Mr. Weeks, laughing, "you needn't think that because I've +hinted at a good match for you I'm making one for my wife's cousin. You may +see the day when you'll be more hot for it than she is. All I'm, trying to do +is to help you keep your place, and live like a man ought and stop people's +mouths." + +"If I could only fill my own and live in peace, it's all I ask. When I get to +plowing and planting again I'll begin to take some comfort." + +These words were quoted against Holcroft, far and near. "Filling his own mouth +and making a little money are all he cares for," was the general verdict. And +thus people are misunderstood. The farmer had never turned anyone hungry from +his door, and he would have gone to the poorhouse rather than have acted the +part of the man who misrepresented him. He had only meant to express the hope +that he might be able to fill his mouth--earn his bread, and get it from his +native soil. "Plowing and planting"--working where he had toiled since a +child---would be a solace in itself, and not a grudged means to a sordid end. + +Mr. Weeks was a thrifty man also, and in nothing was he more economical than +in charitable views of his neighbors' motives and conduct. He drove homeward +with the complacent feeling that he had done a shrewd, good thing for himself +and "his folks" at least. His wife's cousin was not exactly embraced in the +latter category, although he had been so active in her behalf. The fact was, +he would be at much greater pains could he attach her to Holcroft or anyone +else and so prevent further periodical visits. + +He regarded her and her child as barnacles with such appalling adhesive powers +that even his ingenuity at "crowding out" had been baffled. In justice to +him, it must be admitted that Mrs. Mumpson was a type of the poor relation +that would tax the long suffering of charity itself. Her husband had left her +scarcely his blessing, and if he had fled to ills he knew not of, he believed +that he was escaping from some of which he had a painfully distinct +consciousness. His widow was one of the people who regard the "world as their +oyster," and her scheme of life was to get as much as possible for nothing. +Arrayed in mourning weeds, she had begun a system of periodical descents upon +his relatives and her own. She might have made such visitations endurable and +even welcome, but she was not shrewd enough to be sensible. She appeared to +have developed only the capacity to talk, to pry, and to worry people. She +was unable to rest or to permit others to rest, yet her aversion to any useful +form of activity was her chief characteristic. Wherever she went she took the +ground that she was "company," and with a shawl hanging over her sharp, +angular shoulders, she would seize upon the most comfortable rocking chair in +the house, and mouse for bits of news about everyone of whom she had ever +heard. She was quite as ready to tell all she knew also, and for the sake of +her budget of gossip and small scandal, her female relatives tolerated her +after a fashion for a time; but she had been around so often, and her scheme +of obtaining subsistence for herself and child had become so offensively +apparent, that she had about exhausted the patience of all the kith and kin on +whom she had the remotest claim. Her presence was all the more unwelcome by +reason of the faculty for irritating the men of the various households which +she invaded. Even the most phlegmatic or the best-natured lost their +self-control, and as their wives declared, "felt like flying all to pieces" at +her incessant rocking, gossiping, questioning, and, what was worse still, +lecturing. Not the least endurable thing about Mrs. Mumpson was her peculiar +phase of piety. She saw the delinquencies and duties of others with such +painful distinctness that she felt compelled to speak of them; and her zeal +was sure to be instant out of season. + +When Mr. Weeks had started on his ominous mission to Holcroft his wife +remarked to her daughter confidentially, "I declare, sis, if we don't get rid +of Cynthy soon, I believe Lemuel will fly off the handle." + +To avoid any such dire catastrophe, it was hoped and almost prayed in the +Weeks household that the lonely occupant of the hill farm would take the widow +for good and all. + + +Chapter III. Mrs. Mumpson Negotiates and Yields + +Mr. Weeks, on his return home, dropped all diplomacy in dealing with the +question at issue. "Cynthy," he said in his own vernacular, "the end has come, +so far as me and my folks are concerned--I never expect to visit you, and +while I'm master of the house, no more visits will be received. But I haint +taken any such stand onconsiderately," he concluded. "I've given up the whole +forenoon to secure you a better chance of living than visiting around. If you +go to Holcroft's you'll have to do some work, and so will your girl. But +he'll hire someone to help you, and so you won't have to hurt yourself. Your +trump card will be to hook him and marry him before he finds you out. To do +this, you'll have to see to the house and dairy, and bestir yourself for a +time at least. He's pretty desperate off for lack of women folks to look +after indoor matters, but he'll sell out and clear out before he'll keep a +woman, much less marry her, if she does nothing but talk. Now remember, +you've got a chance which you won't get again, for Holcroft not only owns his +farm, but has a snug sum in the bank. So you had better get your things +together, and go right over while he's in the mood." + +When Mrs. Mumpson reached the blank wall of the inevitable, she yielded, and +not before. She saw that the Weeks mine was worked out completely, and she +knew that this exhaustion was about equally true of all similar mines, which +had been bored until they would yield no further returns. + +But Mr. Weeks soon found that he could not carry out his summary measures. +The widow was bent on negotiations and binding agreements. In a stiff, +cramped hand, she wrote to Holcroft in regard to the amount of "salary" he +would be willing to pay, intimating that one burdened with such +responsibilities as she was expected to assume "ort to be compensiated +proposhundly." + +Weeks groaned as he dispatched his son on horseback with this first epistle, +and Holcroft groaned as he read it, not on account of its marvelous spelling +and construction, but by reason of the vista of perplexities and trouble it +opened to his boding mind. But he named on half a sheet of paper as large a +sum as he felt it possible to pay and leave any chance for himself, then +affixed his signature and sent it back by the messenger. + +The widow Mumpson wished to talk over this first point between the high +contracting powers indefinitely, but Mr. Weeks remarked cynically, "It's +double what I thought he'd offer, and you're lucky to have it in black and +white. Now that everything's settled, Timothy will hitch up and take you and +Jane up there at once. + +But Mrs. Mumpson now began to insist upon writing another letter in regard to +her domestic status and that of her child. They could not think of being +looked upon as servants. She also wished to be assured that a girl would be +hired to help her, that she should have all the church privileges to which she +had been accustomed and the right to visit and entertain her friends, which +meant every farmer's wife and all the maiden sisters in Oakville. "And then," +she continued, "there are always little perquisites which a housekeeper has a +right to look for--" Mr. Weeks irritably put a period to this phase of +diplomacy by saying, "Well, well, Cynthy, the stage will be along in a couple +of hours. We'll put you and your things aboard, and you can go on with what +you call your negotiations at Cousin Abiram's. I can tell you one thing +though--if you write any such letter to Holcroft, you'll never hear from him +again." + +Compelled to give up all these preliminaries, but inwardly resolving to gain +each point by a nagging persistence of which she was a mistress, she finally +declared that she "must have writings about one thing which couldn't be left +to any man's changeful mind. He must agree to give me the monthly salary he +names for at least a year." + +Weeks thought a moment, and then, with a shrewd twinkle in his eyes, admitted, +"It would be a good thing to have Holcroft's name to such an agreement. Yes, +you might try that on, but you're taking a risk. If you were not so +penny-wise and pound-foolish, you'd go at once and manage to get him to take +you for 'better or worse.'" + +"You--misjudge me, Cousin Lemuel," replied the widow, bridling and rocking +violently. If there's any such taking to be done, he must get me to take +him." + +"Well, well, write your letter about a year's engagement. That'll settle you +for a twelvemonth, at least." + +Mrs. Mumpson again began the slow, laborious construction of a letter in which +she dwelt upon the uncertainties of life, her "duty to her offspring," and the +evils of "vicissitude." "A stable home is woman's chief desire," she +concluded, "and you will surely agree to pay me the salary you have said for a +year." + +When Holcroft read this second epistle he so far yielded to his first impulse +that he half tore the sheet, then paused irresolutely. After a few moments he +went to the door and looked out upon his acres. "It'll soon be plowing and +planting time," he thought. "I guess I can stand her---at least I can try it +for three months. I'd like to turn a few more furrows on the old place," and +his face softened and grew wistful as he looked at the bare, frost-bound +fields. Suddenly it darkened and grew stern as he muttered, "But I'll put my +hand to no more paper with that Weeks tribe." + +He strode to the stable, saying to Timothy Weeks, as he passed, "I'll answer +this letter in person." + +Away cantered Timothy, and soon caused a flutter of expectancy in the Weeks +household, by announcing that "Old Holcroft looked black as a thundercloud and +was comin' himself." + +"I tell you what 'tis, Cynthy, it's the turn of a hair with you now," growled +Weeks. "Unless you agree to whatever Holcroft says, you haven't the ghost of a +chance." + +The widow felt that a crisis had indeed come. Cousin Abiram's was the next +place in the order of visitation, but her last experience there left her in +painful doubt as to a future reception. Therefore she tied on a new cap, +smoothed her apron, and rocked with unwonted rapidity. "It'll be according to +the ordering of Providence--" + +"Oh, pshaw!" interrupted Cousin Lemuel, "it'll be according to whether you've +got any sense or not." + +Mrs. Weeks had been in a pitiable state of mind all day. She saw that her +husband had reached the limit of his endurance--that he had virtually already +"flown off the handle." But to have her own kin actually bundled out of the +house--what would people say? + +Acceptance of Holcroft's terms, whatever they might be, was the only way out +of the awkward predicament, and so she began in a wheedling tone, "Now, Cousin +Cynthy, as Lemuel says, you've got a first-rate chance. Holcroft's had an +awful time with women, and he'll be glad enough to do well by anyone who does +fairly well by him. Everybody says he's well off, and once you're fairly +there and get things in your own hands, there's no telling what may happen. +He'll get a girl to help you, and Jane's big enough now to do a good deal. +Why, you'll be the same as keeping house like the rest of us." + +Further discussion was cut short by the arrival of the victim. He stood +awkwardly in the door of the Weeks sitting room for a moment, seemingly at a +loss how to state his case. + +Mr. And Mrs. Weeks now resolved to appear neutral and allow the farmer to make +his terms. Then, like other superior powers in the background, they proposed +to exert a pressure on their relative and do a little coercing. But the +widow's course promised at first to relieve them of all further effort. She +suddenly seemed to become aware of Holcroft's presence, sprang up, and gave +him her hand very cordially. + +"I'm glad to see you, sir," she began. "It's very considerate of you to come +for me. I can get ready in short order, and as for Jane, she's never a bit of +trouble. Sit down, sir, and make yourself to home while I get our things +together and put on my bonnet;" and she was about to hasten from the room. + +She, too, had been compelled to see that Holcroft's farmhouse was the only +certain refuge left, and while she had rocked and waited the thought had come +into her scheming mind, "I've stipulated to stay a year, and if he says +nothing against it, it's a bargain which I can manage to keep him to in spite +of himself, even if I don't marry him." + +But the straightforward farmer was not to be caught in such a trap. He had +come himself to say certain words and he would say them. He quietly, +therefore, stood in the door and said, "Wait a moment, Mrs. Mumpson. It's +best to have a plain understanding in all matters of business. When I've +done, you may conclude not to go with me, for I want to say to you what I said +this morning to your cousin, Lemuel Weeks. I'm glad he and his wife are now +present, as witnesses. I'm a plain man, and all I want is to make a livin' +off the farm I've been brought up on. I'll get a girl to help you with the +work. Between you, I'll expect it to be done in a way that the dairy will +yield a fair profit. We'll try and see how we get on for three months and not +a year. I'll not bind myself longer than three months. Of course, if you +manage well, I'll be glad to have this plain business arrangement go on as +long as possible, but it's all a matter of business. If I can't make my farm +pay, I'm going to sell or rent and leave these parts." + +"Oh, certainly, certainly, Mr. Holcroft! You take a very senserble view of +affairs. I hope you will find that I will do all that I agree to and a great +deal more. I'm a little afraid of the night air and the inclement season, and +so will hasten to get myself and my child ready," and she passed quickly out. + +Weeks put his hand to his mouth to conceal a grin as he thought, "She hasn't +agreed to do anything that I know on. Still, she's right; she'll do a sight +more than he expects, but it won't be just what he expects." + +Mrs. Weeks followed her relative to expedite matters, and it must be confessed +that the gathering of Mrs. Mumpson's belongings was no heavy task. A small +hair trunk, that had come down from the remote past, held her own and her +child's wardrobe and represented all their worldly possessions. + +Mr. Weeks, much pleased at the turn of affairs, became very affable, but +confined his remarks chiefly to the weather, while Holcroft, who had an uneasy +sense of being overreached in some undetected way, was abstracted and laconic. +He was soon on the road home, however, with Mrs. Mumpson and Jane. Cousin +Lemuel's last whispered charge was, "Now, for mercy's sake, do keep your +tongue still and your hands busy." + +Whatever possibilities there may be for the Ethiopian or the leopard, there +was no hope that Mrs. Mumpson would materially change any of her +characteristics. The chief reason was that she had no desire to change. A +more self-complacent person did not exist in Oakville. Good traits in other +people did not interest her. They were insipid, they lacked a certain +pungency which a dash of evil imparts; and in the course of her minute +investigations she had discerned or surmised so much that was reprehensible +that she had come to regard herself as singularly free from sins of omission +and commission. "What have I ever done?" she would ask in her self-communings. +The question implied so much truth of a certain kind that all her relatives +were in gall and bitterness as they remembered the weary months during which +she had rocked idly at their firesides. With her, talking was as much of a +necessity as breathing; but during the ride to the hillside farm she, in a +sense, held her breath, for a keen March wind was blowing. + +She was so quiet that Holcroft grew hopeful, not realizing that the checked +flow of words must have freer course later on. A cloudy twilight was +deepening fast when they reached the dwelling. Holcroft's market wagon served +for the general purposes of conveyance, and he drove as near as possible to +the kitchen door. Descending from the front seat, which he had occupied +alone, he turned and offered his hand to assist the widow to alight, but she +nervously poised herself on the edge of the vehicle and seemed to be afraid to +venture. The wind fluttered her scanty draperies, causing her to appear like +a bird of prey about to swoop down upon the unprotected man. "I'm afraid to +jump so far--" she began. + +"There's the step, Mrs. Mumpson." + +"But I can't see it. Would you mind lifting me down?" + +He impatiently took her by the arms, which seemed in his grasp like the rounds +of a chair, and put her on the ground. + +"Oh!" she exclaimed, in gushing tones, "there's nothing to equal the strong +arms of a man." + +He hastily lifted out her daughter, and said, "You had getter hurry in to the +fire. I'll be back in a few minutes," and he led his horses down to the barn, +blanketed and tied them. When he returned, he saw two dusky figures standing +by the front door which led to the little hall separating the kitchen from the +parlor. + +"Bless me!" he exclaimed. "You haven't been standing here all this time?" + +"It's merely due to a little oversight. The door is locked, you see, and--" + +"But the kitchen door is not locked." + +"Well, it didn't seem quite natural for us to enter the dwelling, on the +occasion of our first arrival, by the kitchen entrance, and--" + +Holcroft, with a grim look, strode through the kitchen and unlocked the door. + +"Ah!" exclaimed the widow. "I feel as if I was coming home. Enter, Jane, my +dear. I'm sure the place will soon cease to be strange to you, for the home +feeling is rapidly acquired when--" + +"Just wait a minute, please," said Holcroft, "and I'll light the lamp and a +candle." This he did with the deftness of a man accustomed to help himself, +then led the way to the upper room which was to be her sleeping apartment. +Placing the candle on the bureau, he forestalled Mrs. Mumpson by saying, "I'll +freshen up the fire in the kitchen and lay out the ham, eggs, coffee, and +other materials for supper. Then I must go out and unharness and do my night +work. Make yourselves to home. You'll soon be able to find everything," and +he hastened away. + +It would not be their fault if they were not soon able to find everything. +Mrs. Mumpson's first act was to take the candle and survey the room in every +nook and corner. She sighed when she found the closet and bureau drawers +empty. Then she examined the quantity and texture of the bedding of the +"couch on which she was to repose," as she would express herself. Jane +followed her around on tiptoe, doing just what her mother did, but was silent. + +At last they shivered in the fireless apartment, threw off their scanty wraps, +and went down to the kitchen. Mrs. Mumpson instinctively looked around for a +rocking chair, and as none was visible she hastened to the parlor, and, +holding the candle aloft, surveyed this apartment. Jane followed in her wake +as before, but at last ventured to suggest, "Mother, Mr. Holcroft'll be in +soon and want his supper." + +"I suppose he'll want a great many things," replied Mrs. Mumpson with dignity, +"but he can't expect a lady of my connections to fly around like a common +servant. It is but natural, in coming to a new abode, that I should wish to +know something of that abode. There should have been a hired girl here ready +to receive and get supper for us. Since there is not one to receive us, bring +that rocking chair, my dear, and I will direct you how to proceed." + +The child did as she was told, and her mother was soon rocking on the snuggest +side of the kitchen stove, interspersing her rather bewildering orders with +various reflections and surmises. + +Sketching the child Jane is a sad task, and pity would lead us to soften every +touch if this could be done in truthfulness. She was but twelve years of age, +yet there was scarcely a trace of childhood left in her colorless face. +Stealthy and catlike in all her movements, she gave the impression that she +could not do the commonest thing except in a sly, cowering manner. Her small +greenish-gray eyes appeared to be growing nearer together with the lease of +time, and their indirect, furtive glances suggested that they had hardly, if +ever, seen looks of frank affection bent upon her. She had early learned, on +the round of visits with her mother, that so far from being welcome she was +scarcely tolerated, and she reminded one of a stray cat that comes to a +dwelling and seeks to maintain existence there in a lurking, deprecatory +manner. Her kindred recognized this feline trait, for they were accustomed to +remark, "She's always snoopin' around." + +She could scarcely do otherwise, poor child! There had seemed no place for +her at any of the firesides. She haunted halls and passage-ways, sat in dusky +corners, and kept her meager little form out of sight as much as possible. +She was the last one helped at table when she was permitted to come at all, +and so had early learned to watch, like a cat, and when people's backs were +turned, to snatch something, carry it off, and devour it in secret. Detected +in these little pilferings, to which she was almost driven, she was regarded +as even a greater nuisance than her mother. + +The latter was much too preoccupied to give her child attention. Ensconced in +a rocking chair in the best room, and always in full tide of talk if there was +anyone present, she rarely seemed to think where Jane was or what she was +doing. The rounds of visitation gave the child no chance to go to school, so +her developing mind had little other pabulum than what her mother supplied so +freely. She was acquiring the same consuming curiosity, with the redeeming +feature that she did not talk. Listening in unsuspected places, she heard +much that was said about her mother and herself, and the pathetic part of this +experience was that she had never known enough of kindness to be wounded. She +was only made to feel more fully how precarious was her foothold in her +transient abiding place, and therefore was rendered more furtive, sly, and +distant in order to secure toleration by keeping out of everyone's way. In +her prowlings, however, she managed to learn and understand all that was going +on even better than her mother, who, becoming aware of this fact, was +acquiring the habit of putting her through a whispered cross-questioning when +they retired for the night. It would be hard to imagine a child beginning +life under more unfavorable auspices and still harder to predict the outcome. + +In the course of her close watchfulness she had observed how many of the +domestic labors had been performed, and she would have helped more in the +various households if she had been given a chance; but the housewives had not +regarded her as sufficiently honest to be trusted in the pantries, and also +found that, if there was a semblance of return for such hospitality as they +extended, Mrs. Mumpson would remain indefinitely. Moreover, the homely, +silent child made the women nervous, just as her mother irritated the men, and +they did not want her around. Thus she had come to be but the specter of a +child, knowing little of the good in the world and as much of the evil as she +could understand. + +She now displayed, however, more sense than her mother. The habit of close +scrutiny had made it clear that Holcroft would not long endure genteel airs +and inefficiency, and that something must be done to keep this shelter. She +did her best to get supper, with the aid given from the rocking chair, and at +last broke out sharply, "You must get up and help me. He'll turn us out of +doors if we don't have supper ready when he comes in." + +Spurred by fear of such a dire possibility, Mrs. Mumpson was bustling around +when Holcroft entered. "We'll soon be ready," she gushed, "we'll soon place +our evening repast upon the table." + +"Very well," was the brief reply, as he passed up the stairs with the small +hair trunk on his shoulder. + + +Chapter IV. Domestic Bliss + +Holcroft had been given a foretaste of the phase of torment which he was +destined to endure in his domestic relations, and was planning to secure a +refuge into which he could not be pursued. He had made himself a little more +presentable for supper, instinctively aware that nothing would escape the +lynx-eyed widow, and was taking some measurements from the floor to a +stovepipe hole leading into the chimney flue, when he became aware that +someone was in the doorway. Turning, he saw Jane with her small catlike eyes +fixed intently upon him. Instantly he had the feeling that he was being +watched and would be watched. + +"Supper's ready," said the girl, disappearing. + +Mrs. Mumpson smiled upon him--if certain contortions of her thin, sharp face +could be termed a smile--from that side of the table at which his wife had sat +so many years, and he saw that the low rocking chair, which he had preserved +jealously from his former "help," had been brought from the parlor and +established in the old familiar place. Mrs. Mumpson folded her hands and +assumed a look of deep solemnity; Jane, as instructed, also lowered her head, +and they waited for him to say "grace." He was in far too bitter a mood for +any such pious farce, and stolidly began to help them to the ham and eggs, +which viands had been as nearly spoiled as was possible in their preparation. +The widow raised her head with a profound sigh which set Holcroft's teeth on +edge, but he proceeded silently with his supper. The biscuits were heavy +enough to burden the lightest conscience; and the coffee, simply grounds +swimming around in lukewarm water. He took a sip, then put down his cup and +said, quietly, "Guess I'll take a glass of milk tonight. Mrs. Mumpson, if you +don't know how to make coffee, I can soon show you." + +"Why! Isn't it right? How strange! Perhaps it would be well for you to show +me just exactly how you like it, for it will afford me much pleasure to make +it to your taste. Men's tastes differ so! I've heard that no two men's +tastes were alike; and, after all, everything is a matter of taste. Now +Cousin Abiram doesn't believe in coffee at all. He thinks it is unwholesome. +Have YOU ever thought that it might be unwholesome?" + +"I'm used to it, and would like it good when I have it at all." + +"Why, of course, of course! You must have it exactly to your taste. Jane, my +dear, we must put our minds on coffee and learn precisely how Mr. Holcroft +likes it, and when the hired girl comes we must carefully superintend her when +she makes it. By the way, I suppose you will employ my assistant tomorrow, +Mr. Holcroft." + +"I can't get a girl short of town," was the reply, "and there is so much cream +in the dairy that ought to be churned at once that I'll wait till next Monday +and take down the butter." + +Mrs. Mumpson put on a grave, injured air, and said, "Well," so disapprovingly +that it was virtually saying that it was not well at all. Then, suddenly +remembering that this was not good policy, she was soon all smiles and chatter +again. "How cozy this is!" she cried, "and how soon one acquires the home +feeling! Why, anyone looking in at the window would think that we were an old +established family, and yet this is but our first meal together. But it won't +be the last, Mr. Holcroft. I cannot make it known to you how your loneliness, +which Cousin Lemuel has so feelingly described to me, has affected my +feelings. Cousin Nancy said but this very day that you have had desperate +times with all kinds of dreadful creatures. But all that's past. Jane and me +will give a look of stability and respecterbility to every comer." + +"Well, really, Mrs. Mumpson, I don't know who's to come." + +"Oh, you'll see!" she replied, wrinkling her thin, blue lips into what was +meant for a smile, and nodding her head at him encouragingly. "You won't be so +isolated no more. Now that I'm here, with my offspring, your neighbors will +feel that they can show you their sympathy. The most respecterble people in +town will call, and your life will grow brighter and brighter; clouds will +roll away, and--" + +"I hope the neighbors will not be so ill-mannered as to come without being +invited," remarked Mr. Holcroft grimly. "It's too late in the day for them to +begin now." + +"My being here with Jane will make all the difference in the world," resumed +Mrs. Mumpson, with as saccharine an expression as she could assume. "They will +come out of pure kindness and friendly interest, with the wish to encourage--" + +"Mrs. Mumpson," said Holcroft, half desperately, "if anyone comes it'll be out +of pure curiosity, and I don't want such company. Selling enough butter, +eggs, and produce to pay expenses will encourage me more than all the people +of Oakville, if they should come in a body. What's the use of talking in this +way? I've done without the neighbors so far, and I'm sure they've been very +careful to do without me. I shall have nothing to do with them except in the +way of business, and as I said to you down at Lemuel Weeks's, business must be +the first consideration with us all," and he rose from the table. + +"Oh, certainly, certainly!" the widow hastened to say, "but then business is +like a cloud, and the meetings and greetings of friends is a sort of silver +lining, you know. What would the world be without friends--the society of +those who take an abiding interest? Believe me, Mr. Holcroft," she continued, +bringing her long, skinny finger impressively down on the table, "you have +lived alone so long that you are unable to see the crying needs of your own +constitution. As a Christian man, you require human sympathy and--" + +Poor Holcroft knew little of centrifugal force; but at that moment he was a +living embodiment of it, feeling that if he did not escape he would fly into a +thousand atoms. Saying nervously, "I've a few chores to do," he seized his +hat, and hastening out, wandered disconsolately around the barn. "I'm never +going to be able to stand her," he groaned. "I know now why my poor wife shook +her head whenever this woman was mentioned. The clack of her tongue would +drive any man living crazy, and the gimlet eyes of that girl Jane would bore +holes through a saint's patience. Well, well! I'll put a stove up in my +room, then plowing and planting time will soon be here, and I guess I can +stand it at mealtimes for three months, for unless she stops her foolishness +she shan't stay any longer." + +Jane had not spoken during the meal, but kept her eyes on Holcroft, except +when he looked toward her, and then she instantly averted her gaze. When she +was alone with her mother, she said abruptly, "We aint a-goin' to stay here +long, nuther." + +"Why not?" was the sharp, responsive query. + +"'Cause the same look's comin' into his face that was in Cousin Lemuel's and +Cousin Abiram's and all the rest of 'em. 'Fi's you I'd keep still now. +'Pears to me they all want you to keep still and you won't." + +"Jane," said Mrs. Mumpson in severe tones, "you're an ignorant child. Don't +presume to instruct ME! Besides, this case is entirely different. Mr. +Holcroft must be made to understand from the start that I'm not a common +woman--that I'm his equal, and in most respects his superior. If he aint made +to feel this, it'll never enter his head--but law! There's things which you +can't and oughtn't to understand." + +"But I do," said the girl shortly, "and he won't marry you, nor keep you, if +you talk him to death." + +"Jane!" gasped Mrs. Mumpson, as she sank into the chair and rocked violently. + +The night air was keen and soon drove Holcroft into the house. As he passed +the kitchen window, he saw that Mrs. Mumpson was in his wife's rocking chair +and that Jane was clearing up the table. + +He kindled a fire on the parlor hearth, hoping, but scarcely expecting, that +he would be left alone. + +Nor was he very long, for the widow soon opened the door and entered, carrying +the chair. "Oh, you are here," she said sweetly. "I heard the fire crackling, +and I do so love open wood fires. They're company in themselves, and they +make those who bask in the flickering blaze inclined to be sociable. To think +of how many long, lonely evenings you have sat here when you had persons in +your employ with whom you could have no affinity whatever! I don't see how +you stood it. Under such circumstances life must cloud up into a dreary +burden." It never occurred to Mrs. Mumpson that her figures of speech were +often mixed. She merely felt that the sentimental phase of conversation must +be very flowery. But during the first evening she had resolved on prudence. +"Mr. Holcroft shall have time," she thought, "for the hope to steal into his +heart that his housekeeper may become something more to him than +housekeeper--that there is a nearer and loftier relation." + +Meanwhile she was consumed with curiosity to know something about the +"persons" previously employed and his experiences with them. With a +momentary, and, as she felt, a proper pause before descending to ordinary +topics, she resumed, "My dear Mr. Holcroft, no doubt it will be a relief to +your overfraught mind to pour into a symperthetic ear the story of your +troubles with those--er--those peculiar females that--er--that--" + +"Mrs. Mumpson, it would be a much greater relief to my mind to forget all +about 'em," he replied briefly. + +"INDEED!" exclaimed the widow. "Was they as bad as that? Who'd 'a' thought +it! Well, well, well; what people there is in the world! And you couldn't +abide 'em, then?" + +"No, I couldn't." + +"Well now; what hussies they must have been! And to think you were here all +alone, with no better company! It makes my heart bleed. They DO say that +Bridget Malony is equal to anything, and I've no doubt but that she took +things and did things." + +"Well, she's taken herself off, and that's enough." Then he groaned inwardly, +"Good Lord! I could stand her and all her tribe bettern'n this one." + +"Yes, Mr. Holcroft," pursued Mrs. Mumpson, sinking her voice to a loud, +confidential whisper, "and I don't believe you've any idea how much she took +with her. I fear you've been robbed in all these vicissitudes. Men never +know what's in a house. They need caretakers; respecterble women, that would +sooner cut out their tongues than purloin. How happy is the change which has +been affected! How could you abide in the house with such a person as that +Bridget Malony?" + +"Well, well, Mrs. Mumpson! She abode with herself. I at least had this room +in peace and quietness." + +"Of course, of course! A person so utterly unrespecterble would not think of +entering THIS apartment; but then you had to meet her, you know. You could +not act as if she was not, when she was, and there being so much of her, too. +She was a monstrous-looking person. It's dreadful to think that such persons +belong to our sex. I don't wonder you feel as you do about it all. I can +understand you perfectly. All your senserbleness was offended. You felt that +your very home had become sacrilegious. Well, now, I suppose she said awful +things to you?" + +Holcroft could not endure this style of inquisition and comment another second +longer. He rose and said, "Mrs. Mumpson, if you want to know just what she +said and did, you must go and ask her. I'm very tired. I'll go out and see +that the stock's all right, and then go to bed." + +"Oh, certainly, certainly!" ejaculated the widow. "Repose is nature's sweet +rester, says the poet. I can see how recalling those dreadful scenes with +those peculiar females--" But he was gone. + +In passing out, he caught sight of Jane whisking back into the kitchen. "She's +been listening," he thought. "Well, I'll go to town tomorrow afternoon, get a +stove for my room upstairs, and stuff the keyhole." + +He went to the barn and looked with envy at the placid cows and quiet horses. +At last, having lingered as long as he could, he returned to the kitchen. +Jane had washed and put away the supper dishes after a fashion, and was now +sitting on the edge of a chair in the farthest corner of the room. + +"Take this candle and go to your mother," he said curtly. Then he fastened +the doors and put out the lamp. Standing for an instant at the parlor +entrance, he added, "Please rake up the fire and put out the light before you +come up. Good night." + +"Oh, certainly, certainly! We'll look after everything just as if it was our +own. The sense of strangeness will soon pass--" But his steps were halfway up +the stairs. + +Mother and daughter listened until they heard him overhead, then, taking the +candle, they began a most minute examination of everything in the room. + +Poor Holcroft listened also; too worried, anxious, and nervous to sleep until +they came up and all sounds ceased in the adjoining apartment. + + +Chapter V. Mrs. Mumpson Takes Up Her Burdens + +The next morning Holcroft awoke early. The rising sun flooded his plain +little room with mellow light. It was impossible to give way to dejection in +that radiance, and hope, he scarcely knew why, sprung up in his heart. He was +soon dressed, and having kindled the kitchen fire, went out on the porch. +There had been a change in the wind during the night, and now it blew softly +from the south. The air was sweet with the indefinable fragrance of spring. +The ethereal notes of bluebirds were heard on every side. Migratory robins +were feeding in the orchard, whistling and calling their noisy congratulations +on arriving at old haunts. The frost was already oozing from the ground, but +the farmer welcomed the mud, knowing that it indicated a long advance toward +plowing and planting time. + +He bared his head to the sweet, warm air and took long, deep breaths. "If this +weather holds," he muttered, "I can soon put in some early potatoes on that +warm hillside yonder. Yes, I can stand even her for the sake of being on the +old place in mornings like this. The weather'll be getting better every day +and I can be out of doors more. I'll have a stove in my room tonight; I would +last night if the old air-tight hadn't given out completely. I'll take it to +town this afternoon and sell it for old iron. Then I'll get a bran'-new one +and put it up in my room. They can't follow me there and they can't follow me +outdoors, and so perhaps I can live in peace and work most of the time." + +Thus he was muttering to himself, as lonely people so often do, when he felt +that someone was near. Turning suddenly, he saw Jane half-hidden by the +kitchen door. Finding herself observed, the girl came forward and said in her +brief monotonous way: + +"Mother'll be down soon. If you'll show me how you want the coffee and +things, I guess I can learn." + +"I guess you'll have to, Jane. There'll be more chance of your teaching your +mother than of her teaching you, I fear. But we'll see, we'll see; it's +strange people can't see what's sensible and best for 'em when they see so +much." + +The child made no reply, but watched him intently as he measured out and then +ground half a cup of coffee. + +"The firs thing to do," he began kindly, "is to fill the kettle with water +fresh drawn from the well. Never make coffee or tea with water that's been +boiled two or three times. Now, I'll give the kettle a good rinsing, so as to +make sure you start with it clean." + +Having accomplished this, he filled the vessel at the well and placed it on +the fire, remarking as he did so, "Your mother can cook a little, can't she?" + +"I s'pose so," Jane replied. "When father was livin' mother said she kept a +girl. Since then, we've visited round. But she'll learn, and if she can't, I +can." + +"What on earth--but there's no use of talking. When the water boils--bubbles +up and down, you know--call me. I suppose you and your mother can get the +rest of the breakfast? Oh, good morning, Mrs. Mumpson! I was just showing +Jane about the coffee. You two can go on and do all the rest, but don't touch +the coffee till the kettle boils, and then I'll come in and show you my way, +and, if you please, I don't wish it any other way." + +"Oh, certainly, certainly!" began Mrs. Mumpson, but Holcroft waited to hear no +more. + +"She's a woman," he muttered, "and I'll say nothing rude or ugly to her, but I +shan't listen to her talk half a minute when I can help myself; and if she +won't do any thing but talk--well, we'll see, we'll see! A few hours in the +dairy will show whether she can use anything besides her tongue." + +As soon as they were alone Jane turned sharply on her mother and said, "Now +you've got to do something to help. At Cousin Lemuel's and other places they +wouldn't let us help. Anyhow, they wouldn't let me. He 'spects us both to +work, and pays you for it. I tell you agin, he won't let us stay here unless +we do. I won't go visitin' round any more, feelin' like a stray cat in every +house I go to. You've got to work, and talk less." + +"Why, Jane! How YOU talk!" + +"I talk sense. Come, help me get breakfast." + +"Do you think that's a proper way for a child to address a parent?" + +"No matter what I think. Come and help. You'll soon know what he thinks if +we keep breakfast waitin'." + +"Well, I'll do such menial work until he gets a girl, and then he shall learn +that he can't expect one with such respecterble connections--" + +"Hope I may never see any of 'em agin," interrupted Jane shortly, and then she +relapsed into silence while her mother rambled on in her characteristic way, +making singularly inapt efforts to assist in the task before them. + +As Holcroft rose from milking a cow he found Jane beside him. A ghost could +not have come more silently, and again her stealthy ways gave him an +unpleasant sensation. "Kettle is boilin'," she said, and was gone. + +He shook his head and muttered, "Queer tribe, these Mumpsons! I've only to +get an odd fish of a girl to help, and I'll have something like a menagerie in +the house." He carried his pails of foaming milk to the dairy, and then +entered the kitchen. + +"I've only a minute," he began hastily, seeking to forestall the widow. "Yes, +the kettle's boiling all right. First scald out the coffeepot--put +three-quarters of a cup of ground coffee into the pot, break an egg into it, +so; pour on the egg and coffee half a cup of cold water and stir it all up +well, this way. Next pour in about a pint of boiling water from the kettle, +set the pot on the stove and let it--the coffee, I mean--cook twenty minutes, +remember, not less than twenty minutes. I'll be back to breakfast by that +time. Now you know just how I want my coffee, don't you?" looking at Jane. + +Jane nodded, but Mrs. Mumpson began, "Oh certainly, certainly! Boil an egg +twenty minutes, add half a cup of cold water, and--" + +"I know," interrupted Jane, "I can always do as you did." + +Holcroft again escaped to the barn, and eventually returned with a deep sigh. +"I'll have to face a good deal of her music this morning," he thought, "but I +shall have at least a good cup of coffee to brace me." + +Mrs. Mumpson did not abandon the suggestion that grace should be said,--she +never abandoned anything,--but the farmer, in accordance with his purpose to +be civil, yet pay no attention to her obtrusive ways, gave no heed to her +hint. He thought Jane looked apprehensive, and soon learned the reason. His +coffee was at least hot, but seemed exceedingly weak. + +"I hope now that it's just right," said Mrs. Mumpson complacently, "and +feeling sure that it was made just to suit you, I filled the coffeepot full +from the kettle. We can drink what we desire for breakfast and then the rest +can be set aside until dinner time and warmed over. Then you'll have it just +to suit you for the next meal, and we, at the same time, will be practicing +econermy. It shall now be my great aim to help you econermize. Any coarse, +menial hands can work, but the great thing to be considered is a caretaker; +one who, by thoughtfulness and the employment of her mind, will make the labor +of others affective." + +During this speech, Holcroft could only stare at the woman. The rapid motion +of her thin jaw seemed to fascinate him, and he was in perplexity over not +merely her rapid utterance, but also the queries. Had she maliciously spoiled +the coffee? Or didn't she know any better? "I can't make her out," he +thought, "but she shall learn that I have a will of my own," and he quietly +rose, took the coffeepot, and poured its contents out of doors; then went +through the whole process of making his favorite beverage again, saying +coldly, "Jane, you had better watch close this time. I don't wish anyone to +touch the coffeepot but you." + +Even Mrs. Mumpson was a little abashed by his manner, but when he resumed his +breakfast she speedily recovered her complacency and volubility. "I've always +heard," she said, with her little cackling laugh, "that men would be +extravergant, especially in some things. There are some things they're +fidgety about and will have just so. Well, well, who has a better right than +a well-to-do, fore-handed man? Woman is to complement the man, and it should +be her aim to study the great--the great--shall we say reason, for her being? +Which is adaptation," and she uttered the word with feeling, assured that +Holcroft could not fail of being impressed by it. The poor man was bolting +such food as had been prepared in his haste to get away. + +"Yes," continued the widow, "adaptation is woman's mission and--" + +"Really, Mrs. Mumpson, your and Jane's mission this morning will be to get as +much butter as possible out of the cream and milk on hand. I'll set the old +dog on the wheel, and start the churn within half an hour," and he rose with +the thought, "I'd rather finish my breakfast on milk and coffee by and by than +stand this." And he said, "Please let the coffee be until I come in to show +you about taking out and working the butter." + +The scenes in the dairy need not be dwelt upon. He saw that Jane might be +taught, and that she would probably try to do all that her strength permitted. +It was perfectly clear that Mrs. Mumpson was not only ignorant of the duties +which he had employed her to perform, but that she was also too preoccupied +with her talk and notions of gentility ever to learn. He was already +satisfied that in inducing him to engage her, Lemuel Weeks had played him a +trick, but there seemed no other resource than to fulfill his agreement. With +Mrs. Mumpson in the house, there might be less difficulty in securing and +keeping a hired girl who, with Jane, might do the essential work. But the +future looked so unpromising that even the strong coffee could not sustain his +spirits. The hopefulness of the early morning departed, leaving nothing but +dreary uncertainty. + +Mrs. Mumpson was bent upon accompanying him to town and engaging the girl +herself. "There would be great propriety in my doing so," she argued at +dinner, "and propriety is something that adorns all the human race. There +would be no danger of my getting any of the peculiar females such as you have +been afflicted with. As I am to superintend her labors, she will look up to +me with respect and humility if she learns from the first to recognize in me a +superior on whom she will be dependent for her daily bread. No shiftless +hussy would impose upon ME. I would bring home--how sweet the word sounds!--a +model of industry and patient endurance. She would be deferential, she would +know her place, too. Everything would go like clockwork in our home. I'll +put on my things at once and--" + +"Excuse me, Mrs. Mumpson. It would not be right to leave Jane here alone. +Moreover, I'd rather engage my own help." + +"But my dear Mr. Holcroft, you don't realize--men never do realize--that you +will have a long, lonely ride with a female of unknown--unknown antercedents. +It will be scarcely respecterble, and respecterbility should be man and +woman's chief aim. Jane is not a timid child, and in an emergency like this, +even if she was, she would gladly sacrifice herself to sustain the proprieties +of life. Now that your life has begun under new and better auspices, I feel +that I ought to plead with you not to cloud your brightening prospects by a +thoughtless unregard of what society looks upon as proper. The eyes of the +community will now be upon us--" + +"You must excuse me, Mrs. Mumpson. All I ask of the community is to keep +their eyes on their own business, while I attend to mine in my own way. The +probabilities are that the girl will come out on the stage Monday," and he +rose from the dinner table and hastily made his preparations for departure. +He was soon driving rapidly away, having a sort of nervous apprehension lest +Jane, or the widow, should suddenly appear on the seat beside him. A basket +of eggs and some inferior butter, with the burnt-out stove, were in his wagon +and his bank book was in his pocket. It was with sinking heart that he +thought of making further inroads on his small accumulations. + +Before he was out of sight Mrs. Mumpson betook herself to the rocking chair +and began to expatiate on the blindness and obduracy of men in general and of +Mr. Holcroft in particular. "They are all much alike," she complained, "and +are strangely neglectful of the proprieties of life. My dear, deceased +husband, your father, was becoming gradually senserble of my value in guiding +him in this respect, and indeed, I may add in all respects, when, in the very +prime of his expanding manhood, he was laid low. Of course, my happiness was +buried then and my heart can never throb again, but I have a mission in the +world--I feel it--and here is a desolate home bereft of female influence and +consolation and hitherto painfully devoid of respecterbility. + +"I once called on the late Mrs. Holcroft, and--I must say it--I went away +depressed by a sense of her lack of ability to develop in her husband those +qualities which would make him an ornament to society. She was a silent +woman, she lacked mind and ideas. She had seen little of the world and knew +not what was swaying people. Therefore, her husband, having nothing else to +think of, became absorbed in the accumulation of dollars. Not that I object +to dollars--they have their proper place,--but minds should be fixed on all +things. We should take a deep personal interest in our fellow beings, and +thus we grow broad. As I was saying, Mr. Holcroft was not developed by his +late spouse. He needs awakening, arousing, stimulating, drawing out, and such +I feel to be my mission. I must be patient; I cannot expect the habits of +years to pass away under a different kind of female influence, at once." + +Jane had been stolidly washing and putting away dishes during this partial +address to herself and partial soliloquy, but now remarked, "You and me will +pass away in a week if you go on as you've begun. I can see it comin'. Then, +where'll we go to?" + +"Your words, Jane, only show that you are an ignorant, short-sighted child. +Do you suppose that a woman of my years and experience would make no better +provision for the future than a man's changeful mind--a warped and undeveloped +mind, at that? No; I have an agreement with Mr. Holcroft. I shall be a +member of his household for three months at least, and long before that he +will begin to see everything in a new light. It will gradually dawn upon him +that he has been defrauded of proper female influence and society. Now, he is +crude, he thinks only of work and accumulating; but when the work is done by a +menial female's hands and his mind is more at rest, there will begin to steal +in upon him the cravings of his mind. He will see that material things are +not all in all." + +"P'raps he will. I don't half know that you're talkin' about. 'Fi's you, I'd +learn to work and do things as he wants 'em. That's what I'm going to do. +Shall I go now and make up his bed and tidy his room?" + +"I think I will accompany you, Jane, and see that your task is properly +performed." + +"Of course you want to see everythin' in the room, just as I do." + +"As housekeeper, I should see everything that is under my care. That is the +right way to look at the matter." + +"Well, come and look then." + +"You are becoming strangely disrespectful, Jane." + +"Can't help it," replied the girl, "I'm gettin' mad. We've been elbowed +around long's I can remember, at least I've been, and now we're in a place +where we've a right to be, and you do nothin' but talk, talk, talk, when he +hates talk. Now you'll go up in his room and you'll see everythin' in it, so +you could tell it all off tomorrow. Why, can't you see he hates talk and +wants somethin' done?" + +"Jane," said Mrs. Mumpson, in her most severe and dignified manner, "you are +not only disrespectful to your parent, but you're a time server. What Mr. +Holcroft wants is a very secondary matter; what is BEST for him is the chief +consideration. But I have touched on things far above your comprehension. +Come, you can make up the bed, and I shall inspect as becomes my station." + + +Chapter VI. A Marriage! + +In a quiet side street of the market town in which Mr. Holcroft was accustomed +to dispose of his farm produce was a three-story tenement house. A family +occupied each floor, those dwelling in the first two stories being plain, +respectable people of the mechanic class. The rooms in the third story were, +of course, the cheapest, but even from the street might be seen evidences that +more money had been spent upon them than could have been saved in rent. Lace +curtains were looped aside from the windows, through which were caught +glimpses of flowers that must have come from a greenhouse. We have only to +enter these apartments to find that the suggestion of refined taste is amply +fulfilled. While nothing is costly, there is a touch of grace, a hint of +beauty in everything permitting simple adornment. The mistress of these rooms +is not satisfied with neatness and order merely; it is her instinct to add +something to please the eye--a need essential to her, yet too often +conspicuously absent in rented quarters of a similar character. + +It is remarkable to what a degree people's abodes are a reflex of themselves. +Mrs. Alida Ostrom had been brought to these rooms a happy bride but a few +months since. They were then bare and not very clean. Her husband had seemed +bent on indulging her so far as his limited means permitted. He had declared +that his income was so modest that he could afford nothing better than these +cheap rooms in an obscure street, but she had been abundantly content, for she +had known even the extremity of poverty. + +Alida Ostrom had passed beyond the period of girlhood, with its superficial +desires and ambitions. When her husband first met her, she was a woman of +thirty, and had been chastened by deep sorrows and some bitter experiences. +Years before, she and her mother had come to this town from a New England city +in the hope of bettering their circumstances. They had no weapons other than +their needles with which to fight life's battle, but they were industrious and +frugal--characteristic traits which won the confidence of the shopkeepers for +whom they worked. All went as well, perhaps, as they could expect, for two or +three years, their secluded lives passing uneventfully and, to a certain +extent, happily. They had time to read some good books obtained at a public +library; they enjoyed an occasional holiday in the country; and they went to +church twice every Sunday when it was not stormy. The mother usually dozed in +the obscure seat near the door which they occupied, for she was getting old, +and the toil of the long week wearied her.--Alida, on the contrary, was +closely attentive. Her mind seemed to crave all the sustenance it could get +from every source, and her reverential manner indicated that the hopes +inspired by her faith were dear and cherished. Although they lived such quiet +lives and kept themselves apart from their neighbors, there was no mystery +about them which awakened surmises. "They've seen better days," was the common +remark when they were spoken of; and this was true. While they had no desire +to be social with the people among whom they lived, they did not awaken +prejudices by the assertion of superiority. Indeed, it was seen that the two +women had all they could do to earn their livelihood, and they were left to do +this in peace. + +When Alida Armstrong--for that was her maiden name--carried her own and her +mother's work to and from the shops, she often encountered admiring glances. +She was not exactly pretty, but she had the good, refined face which is often +more attractive than the merely pretty one, and she possessed a trim, rounded +figure which she knew how to clothe with taste from the simplest and most +inexpensive materials. Nor did she seek to dress above her station. When +passing along the street, any discerning person would recognize that she was a +working girl; only the superficial would look upon her as a common-place girl. +There was something in her modest air and graceful, elastic carriage which +suggested the thought to many observers, "She has seen better days." + +The memory of these days, which had promised immunity from wearing toil, +anxiety, and poverty, was a barrier between the two women and their present +world. Death had bereft them of husband, father, and such property as he had +left had been lost in a bad investment. Learning that they were almost +penniless, they had patiently set about earning honest bread. This they had +succeeded in doing as long as the mother kept her usual health. But the +infirmities of age were creeping upon her. One winter she took a heavy cold +and was very ill. She rallied only temporarily in the milder days of spring. +In the summer's heat her strength failed, and she died. + +During her mother's long illness Alida was devotion itself. The strain upon +her was severe indeed, for she not only had to earn food for both, but there +were also doctor's bills, medicines, and delicacies to pay for. The poor girl +grew thin from work by day, watching by night, and from fear and anxiety at +all times. Their scanty savings were exhausted; articles were sold from their +rooms; the few precious heirlooms of silver and china were disposed of; Alida +even denied herself the food she needed rather than ask for help or permit her +mother to want for anything which ministered to their vain hopes of renewed +health. + +What she should have done she scarcely knew, had not an unexpected friend +interested himself in her behalf. In one of the men's clothing stores was a +cutter from whom she obtained work. Soon after he appeared in this shop he +began to manifest signs of interest in her He was about her own age, he had a +good trade, and she often wondered why he appeared so reticent and moody, as +compared with others in similar positions. But he always spoke kindly to her, +and when her mother's illness first developed, he showed all the leniency +permitted to him in regard to her work. His apparent sympathy, and the need +of explaining why she was not able to finish her tasks as promptly as usual, +led her gradually to reveal to him the sad struggle in which she was engaged. +He promised to intercede in her behalf with their mutual employers, and asked +if he might come to see her mother. + +Recognizing how dependent she was upon this man's good will, and seeing +nothing in his conduct but kindness and sympathy, she consented. His course +and his words confirmed all her good impressions and awakened on her side +corresponding sympathy united with a lively gratitude. He told her that he +also was a stranger in the town, that he had but few acquaintances and no +friends, that he had lost relatives and was in no need to go about like other +young men. His manner was marked apparently by nothing more than interest and +a wish to help her, and was untinged by gallantry; so they gradually became +good friends. When he called Sunday afternoons the mother looked at him +wistfully, in the hope that her daughter would not be left without a +protector. At last the poor woman died, and Alida was in sore distress, for +she had no means with which to bury her. Ostrom came and said in the kindest +tones: + +"You must let me lend you what you need and you can pay me back with interest, +if you wish. You won't be under any obligation, for I have money lying idle +in the bank. When you have only yourself to support it will not take you long +to earn the sum." + +There seemed nothing else for her to do and so it was arranged. With +tear-blinded eyes she made her simple mourning, and within a week after her +mother's death was at work again, eager to repay her debt. He urged her not +to hasten--to take all the rest she could while the hot weather lasted, and +few evenings passed that he did not come to take her out for a walk through +the quieter streets. + +By this time he had won her confidence completely, and her heart overflowed +with gratitude. Of course she was not so unsophisticated as not to know +whither all this attention was tending, but it was a great relief to her mind +that his courtship was so quiet and undemonstrative. Her heart was sore and +grief-stricken, and she was not conscious of any other feeling toward him than +the deepest gratitude and wish to make such return as was within her power. +He was apparently very frank in regard to his past life, and nothing was said +which excited her suspicions. Indeed, she felt that it would be disloyalty to +think of questioning or surmising evil of one who had proved himself so true a +friend in her sore need. She was therefore somewhat prepared for the words he +spoke one warm September day, as they sat together in a little shaded park. + +"Alida," he said, a little nervously, "we are both strangers and alone in this +world, but surely we are no longer strangers to each other. Let us go quietly +to some minister and be married. That is the best way for you to pay your +debt and keep me always in debt to you." + +She was silent a moment, then faltered, "I'd rather pay all my debt first." + +"What debts can there be between husband and wife? Come now, let us look at +the matter sensibly. I don't want to frighten you. Things will go on much +the same. We can take quiet rooms, I will bring work to you instead of your +having to go after it. It's nobody's business but our own. We've not a +circle of relations to consult or invite. We can go to some parsonage, the +minister's family will be the witnesses; then I'll leave you at your room as +usual, and no one will be any the wiser till I've found a place where we can +go to housekeeping. That won't be long, I can tell you." + +He placed the matter in such a simple, natural light that she did not know how +to refuse. + +"Perhaps I do not love you as much as you ought to be loved, and deserve to be +in view of all your kindness," she tried to explain. "I feel I ought to be +very truthful and not deceive you in the least, as I know you would not +deceive me." So strong a shiver passed through his frame that she exclaimed, +"You are taking cold or you don't feel well." + +"Oh, it's nothing!" he said hastily, "only the night air, and then a fellow +always feels a little nervous, I suppose, when he's asking for something on +which his happiness depends. I'm satisfied with such feeling and good will as +you have for me, and will be only too glad to get you just as you are. Come, +before it is too late in the evening." + +"Is your heart bent on this, after what I have said, Wilson?" + +"Yes, yes, indeed!" clasping her hand and drawing her to her feet. + +"It would seem very ungrateful in me to refuse, after all you have done for me +and mother, if you think it's right and best. Will you go to the minister +whose church I attended, and who came to see mother?" + +"Certainly, anyone you like," and he put her hand on his arm and led her away. + +The clergyman listened sympathetically to her brief history of Ostrom's +kindness, then performed a simple ceremony which his wife and daughters +witnessed. As they were about to depart he said, "I will send you a +certificate." + +"Don't trouble yourself to do that," said the groom. "I'll call for it some +evening soon." + +Never had she seen Ostrom in such gay spirits as on their return; and, +woman-like, she was happy chiefly because she had made him happy. She also +felt a glad sense of security. Her mother's dying wish had been fulfilled; +she had now a protector, and would soon have a home instead of a boarding +place among strangers. + +Her husband speedily found the rooms to which the reader has been introduced. +The street on which they were located was no thoroughfare. Its farther end +was closed by a fence and beyond were fields. With the exception of those who +dwelt upon it or had business with the residents, few people came thither. To +this locality, Ostrom brought his bride, and selected rooms whose windows were +above those of the surrounding houses. So far from regretting this isolation +and remoteness from the central life of the town, Alida's feelings sanctioned +his choice. The sense of possessing security and a refuge was increased, and +it was as natural for her to set about making the rooms homelike as it was to +breathe. Her husband appeared to have exhausted his tendencies toward close +economy in the choice of apartments, and she was given more money than she +desired with which to furnish and decorate. He said, "fix everything up to +suit your mind, and I'll be satisfied." + +This she did with such skill, taste, and good management that she returned a +large portion of the sum he had given her, whereupon he laughingly remarked +that she had already saved more than she owed him. He seemed disinclined to +accompany her in the selection of their simple outfit, but professed himself +so pleased with her choice of everything that she was gratified and happy in +the thought of relieving him from trouble. + +Thus their married life began under what appeared to her the most promising +and congenial circumstances. She soon insisted on having work again, and her +busy fingers did much to increase his income. + +Alida was not an exacting woman, and recognized from the beginning that her +husband would naturally have peculiar ways of his own. Unlike Mrs. Mumpson, +she never expatiated on "adaptation," but Ostrom soon learned, with much +inward relief, that his wife would accept unquestioningly what appeared to be +his habits and preferences. He went early to his place of work, taking the +nice little lunch which she prepared, and returned in the dusk of the evening +when he always found a warm dinner in readiness. After this, he was ready +enough to walk with her, but, as before, chose the least frequented streets. +Places of amusement and resort seemed distasteful. On Sundays he enjoyed a +ramble in the country as long as the season permitted, and then showed a great +disinclination to leave the fireside. For a time he went with her in the +evening to church, but gradually persuaded her to remain at home and read or +talk to him. + +His wife felt that she had little cause to complain of his quiet ways and +methodical habits. He had exhibited them before marriage and they were +conducive to her absolute sense of proprietorship in him--an assurance so dear +to a woman's heart. The pleasures of his home and her society appeared to be +all that he craved. At times she had wondered a little at a certain air of +apprehensiveness in his manner when steps were heard upon the stairs, but as +the quiet days and weeks passed, such manifestations of nervousness ceased. +Occasionally, he would start violently and mutter strange words in his sleep, +but noting disturbed the growing sense of security and satisfaction in Alida's +heart. The charm of a regular, quiet life grows upon one who has a nature +fitted for it, and this was true to an unusual degree of Alida Ostrom. Her +content was also increased by the fact that her husband was able each month to +deposit a goodly portion of their united earnings in a savings bank. + +Every day, every week, was so like the preceding ones that it seemed as if +their happy life might go on forever. She was gladly conscious that there was +more than gratitude and good will in her heart. She now cherished a deep +affection for her husband and felt that he had become essential to her life. + +"Oh, how happy mother would be if she knew how safe and protected I am!" she +murmured one March evening, as she was preparing her husband's dinner. +"Leaving me alone in the world was far worse to her than dying." + +At that very moment a gaunt-looking woman, with a child in her arms, stood in +the twilight on the opposite side of the street, looking up at the windows. + + +Chapter VII. From Home to the Street + +As the shadows of the gloomy March evening deepened, Alida lighted the lamp, +and was then a little surprised to hear a knock at the door. No presentiment +of trouble crossed her mind; she merely thought that one of her neighbors on +the lower floors had stepped up to borrow something. + +"Come in!" she cried, as she adjusted the shade of the lamp. + +A tall, thin, pale woman entered, carrying a child that was partly hidden by a +thin shawl, their only outer protection against the chill winds which had been +blustering all day. Alida looked at the stranger inquiringly and kindly, +expecting an appeal for charity. The woman sank into a chair as if exhausted, +and fixed her dark hollow eyes on Mrs. Ostrom. She appeared consumed by a +terrible curiosity. + +Alida wondered at the strange chill of apprehension with which she encountered +this gaze. It was so intent, so searching, yet so utterly devoid of a trace +of good will. She began gently, "Can I do anything for you?" + +For a moment or two longer there was no response other than the same cold, +questioning scrutiny, as if, instead of a sweet-faced woman, something +monstrously unnatural was present. At last, in slow, icy utterance, came the +words, "So you are--HER!" + +"Is this woman insane?" thought Alida. "Why else does she look at me so? Oh, +that Wilson would come! I'm sorry for you, my good woman," she began kindly. +"You are laboring under some mistake. My husband--" + +"YOUR husband!" exclaimed the stranger, with an indescribable accent of scorn +and reproach. + +"Yes," replied Alida with quiet dignity. "MY husband will be home soon and he +will protect me. You have no right to enter my rooms and act as you do. If +you are sick and in trouble, I and my husband--" + +"Please tell me, miss, how he became YOUR husband?" + +"By lawful marriage, by my pastor." + +"We'll soon see how LAWFUL it was," replied the woman, with a bitter laugh. +"I'd like you to tell me how often a man can be married lawfully." + +"What do you mean?" cried Alida, with a sudden flash in her blue eyes. Then, +as if reproaching herself, she added kindly, "Pardon me. I see you are not +well. You do not realize what you are saying or where you are. Take a seat +nearer the fire, and when Mr. Ostrom comes from his work he'll take you to +your friends." + +All the while she was speaking the woman regarded her with a hard, stony gaze; +then replied, coldly and decisively, "You are wrong, miss"--how that title +grated on Alida's ears!--"I am neither insane nor drunk. I do know what I am +saying and where I am. You are playing a bold game or else you have been +deceived, and very easily deceived, too. They say some women are so eager to +be married that they ask no questions, but jump at the first chance. Whether +deceived or deceiving, it doesn't matter now. But you and he shall learn that +there is a law in the land which will protect an honest woman in her sacred +rights. You needn't look so shocked and bewildered. You are not a young, +giddy girl if I may judge from your face. What else could you expect when you +took up with a stranger you knew nothing about? Do you know that likeness?" +and she drew from her bosom a daguerreotype. + +Alida waved it away as she said indignantly, "I won't believe ill of my +husband. I--" + +"No, miss," interrupted the woman sternly, "you are right for once. You won't +indeed believe ill of YOUR husband, but you'll have to believe ill of MINE. +There's no use of your putting on such airs any longer. No matter how rash +and silly you may have been, if you have a spark of honesty you'll be open to +proof. If you and he try to brazen it out, the law will open both your eyes. +Look at that likeness, look at these letters; and I have other proof and +witnesses which can't be disputed. The name of the man you are living with is +not Wilson Ostrom. His name is Henry Ferguson. I am Mrs. Ferguson, and I +have my marriage certificate, and--What! Are you going to faint? Well, I can +wait till you recover and till HE comes," and she coolly sat down again. + +Alida had glanced at the proofs which the woman had thrust into her hands, +then staggered back to a lounge that stood near. She might have fainted, but +at that awful moment she heard a familiar step on the stairs. She was facing +the door; the terrible stranger sat at one side, with her back toward it. + +When Ostrom entered he first saw Alida looking pale and ill. He hastened +toward her exclaiming, "Why, Lida, dear, what is the matter? You are sick!" + +Instinctively she sprang to his arms, crying, "Oh, thank God! You've come. +Take away this awful woman!" + +"Yes, Henry Ferguson; it's very proper you should take me away from a place +like this." + +As the man who had called himself Wilson Ostrom heard that voice he trembled +like an aspen; his clasp of Alida relaxed, his arms dropped to his side, and, +as he sank into a chair and covered his face with his hands, he groaned, +"Lost!" + +"Found out, you mean," was the woman's reply. + +Step by step, with horror-stricken eyes, Alida retreated from the man to whose +protection and embrace she had flown. "Then it's true?" she said in a hoarse +whisper. + +He was speechless. + +"You are willfully blind now, miss, if you don't see it's true," was the +stranger's biting comment. + +Paying no heed to her, Alida's eyes rested on the man whom she had believed to +be her husband. She took an irresolute step toward him. "Speak, Wilson!" she +cried. "I gave you my whole faith and no one shall destroy it but yourself. +Speak, explain! Show me that there's some horrible mistake." + +"Lida," said the man, lifting his bloodless face, "if you knew all the +circumstances--" + +"She shall know them!" half shrieked the woman, as if at last stung to fury. +"I see that you both hope to get through this affair with a little high +tragedy, then escape and come together again in some other hiding place. As +for this creature, she can go where she pleases, after hearing the truth; but +you, Henry Ferguson, have got to do your duty by me and your child or go to +prison. Let me tell you, miss, that this man was also married to me by a +minister. I have my certificate and can produce witnesses. There's one +little point you'll do well to consider," she continued, in bitter sarcasm, +"he married me first. I suppose you are not so young and innocent as not to +know where this fact places YOU. He courted and won me as other girls are +courted and married. He promised me all that he ever promised you. Then, +when I lost my rosy cheeks--when I became sick and feeble from +child-bearing--he deserted and left me almost penniless. You needn't think +you will have to take my word for this. I have proof enough. And now, Henry +Ferguson, I've a few words for you, and then you must take your choice. You +can't escape. I and my brother have tracked you here. You can't leave these +rooms without going to prison. You'd be taken at the very door. But I give +you one more chance. If you will promise before God to do your duty by me and +your child, I'll forgive as far as a wronged woman can forgive. Neither I nor +my brother will take proceedings against you. What this woman will do I don't +know. If she prosecutes you, and you are true to me, I'll stand by you, but I +won't stand another false step or a false word from you." + +Ferguson had again sunk into his chair, buried his face in his hands, and sat +trembling and speechless. Never for an instant had Alida taken her eyes from +him; and now, with a long, wailing cry, she exclaimed, "Thank God, thank God! +Mother's dead." + +This was now her best consolation. She rushed into her bedchamber, and a +moment later came out, wearing her hat and cloak. Ferguson started up and was +about to speak, but she silenced him by a gesture, and her tones were sad and +stern as she said, "Mr. Ferguson, from your manner more truly than from this +woman, I learn the truth. You took advantage of my misfortunes, my sorrow and +friendlessness, to deceive me. You know how false are your wife's words about +my eagerness to be deceived and married. But you have nothing to fear from +me. I shall not prosecute you as she suggests, and I charge you before God to +do your duty by your wife and child and never to speak to me again." Turning, +she hastened toward the door. + +"Where are you going?" Ferguson exclaimed, seeking to intercept her. + +She waved him off. "I don't know," she replied. "I've no right to be here," +and she fled down the stairway and out into the darkness. + +The child had not wakened. It was well that it had not looked upon such a +scene, even in utter ignorance of its meaning. + + +Chapter VIII. Holcroft's View of Matrimony + +Holcroft was indeed very lonely as he drove through the bare March fields and +leafless woods on his way to town. The sky had clouded again, like his +prospects, and he had the dreary sense of desolation which overwhelms a quiet, +domestic man who feels that his home and all to which he clings are slipping +from him. His lot was hard enough at best, and he had a bitter sense of being +imposed upon and wronged by Lemuel Weeks. It was now evident enough that the +widow and her daughter had been an intolerable burden to his neighbor, who had +taken advantage of his need and induced him to assume the burden through false +representation. To a man of Holcroft's simple, straightforward nature, any +phase of trickery was intensely repugnant, and the fact that he had been +overreached in a matter relating to his dearest hopes galled him to the quick. +He possessed the strong common sense of his class; his wife had been like him +in this respect, and her influence had intensified the trait. Queer people +with abnormal manners excited his intense aversion. The most charitable view +that he could take of Mrs. Mumpson was that her mind--such as she had--was +unbalanced, that it was an impossibility for her to see any subject or duty in +a sensible light or its right proportions. + +Her course, so prejudicial to her own interests, and her incessant and stilted +talk, were proof to his mind of a certain degree of insanity, and he had heard +that people in this condition often united to their unnatural ways a wonderful +degree of cunning. Her child was almost as uncanny as herself and gave him a +shivering sense of discomfort whenever he caught her small, greenish eyes +fixed upon him. + +"Yet, she'll be the only one who'll earn her salt. I don't see how I'm going +to stand 'em--I don't, indeed, but suppose I'll have to for three months, or +else sell out and clear out." + +By the time he reached town a cold rain had set in. He went at once to the +intelligence office, but could obtain no girl for Mrs. Mumpson to +"superintend," nor any certain promise of one. He did not much care, for he +felt that the new plan was not going to work. Having bartered all his eggs +for groceries, he sold the old stove and bought a new one, then drew from the +bank a little ready money. Since his butter was so inferior, he took it to +his friend Tom Watterly, the keeper of the poorhouse. + +Prosperous Tom slapped his old friend on the back and said, "You look awfully +glum and chopfallen, Jim. Come now, don't look at the world as if it was made +of tar, pitch, and turpentine. I know your luck's been hard, but you make it +a sight harder by being so set in all your ways. You think there's no place +to live on God's earth but that old up-and-down-hill farm of yours that I +wouldn't take as a gift. Why, man alive, there's a dozen things you can turn +your hand to; but if you will stay there, do as other men do. Pick out a +smart, handy woman that can make butter yaller as gold, that'll bring gold, +and not such limpsy-slimsy, ghostly-looking stuff as you've brought me. Bein' +it's you, I'll take it and give as much for it as I'd pay for better, but you +can't run your old ranch in this fashion." + +"I know it, Tom," replied Holcroft ruefully. "I'm all at sea; but, as you say, +I'm set in my ways, and I'd rather live on bread and milk and keep my farm +than make money anywhere else. I guess I'll have to give it all up, though, +and pull out, but it's like rooting up one of the old oaks in the meadow lot. +The fact is, Tom, I've been fooled into one of the worst scrapes I've got into +yet." + +"I see how it is," said Tom heartily and complacently, "you want a practical, +foresighted man to talk straight at you for an hour or two and clear up the +fog you're in. You study and brood over little things out there alone until +they seem mountains which you can't get over nohow, when, if you'd take one +good jump out, they'd be behind you. Now, you've got to stay and take a bite +with me, and then we'll light our pipes and untangle this snarl. No backing +out! I can do you more good than all the preachin' you ever heard. Hey, +there, Bill!" shouting to one of the paupers who was detailed for such work, +"take this team to the barn and feed 'em. Come in, come in, old feller! +You'll find that Tom Watterly allus has a snack and a good word for an old +crony." + +Holcroft was easily persuaded, for he felt the need of cheer, and he looked up +to Tom as a very sagacious, practical man. So he said, "Perhaps you can see +farther into a millstone than I can, and if you can show me a way out of my +difficulties you'll be a friend sure enough." + +"Why, of course I can. Your difficulties are all here and here," touching his +bullet head and the region of his heart. "There aint no great difficulties in +fact, but, after you've brooded out there a week or two alone, you think +you're caught as fast as if you were in a bear trap. Here, Angy," addressing +his wife, "I've coaxed Holcroft to take supper with us. You can hurry it up a +little, can't you?" + +Mrs. Watterly gave their guest a cold, limp hand and a rather frigid welcome. +But this did not disconcert him. "It's only her way," he had always thought. +"She looks after her husband's interests as mine did for me, and she don't +talk him to death." + +This thought, in the main, summed up Mrs. Watterly's best traits. + +She was a commonplace, narrow, selfish woman, whose character is not worth +sketching. Tom stood a little in fear of her, and was usually careful not to +impose extra tasks, but since she helped him to save and get ahead, he +regarded her as a model wife. + +Holcroft shared in his opinion and sighed deeply as he sat down to supper. +"Ah, Tom!" he said, "you're a lucky man. You've got a wife that keeps +everything indoors up to the mark, and gives you a chance to attend to your +own proper business. That's the way it was with mine. I never knew what a +lopsided, helpless creature a man was until I was left alone. You and I were +lucky in getting the women we did, but when my partner left me, she took all +the luck with her. That aint the worst. She took what's more than luck and +money and everything. I seemed to lose with her my grit and interest in most +things. It'll seem foolishness to you, but I can't take comfort in anything +much except working that old farm that I've worked and played on ever since I +can remember anything. You're not one of those fools, Tom, that have to learn +from their own experience. Take a bit from mine, and be good to your wife +while you can. I'd give all I'm worth--I know that aint much--if I could say +some things to my wife and do some things for her that I didn't do." + +Holcroft spoke in the simplicity of a full and remorseful heart, but he +unconsciously propitiated Mrs. Watterly in no small degree. Indeed, she felt +that he had quite repaid her for his entertainment, and the usually taciturn +woman seconded his remarks with much emphasis. + +"Well now, Angy," said Tom, "if you averaged up husbands in these parts I +guess you'd find you were faring rather better than most women folks. I let +you take the bit in your teeth and go your own jog mostly. Now, own up, don't +I?" + +"That wasn't my meaning, exactly, Tom," resumed Holcroft. "You and I could +well afford to let our wives take their own jog, for they always jogged steady +and faithful and didn't need any urging and guiding. But even a dumb critter +likes a good word now and then and a little patting on the back. It doesn't +cost us anything and does them a sight of good. But we kind of let the +chances slip by and forget about it until like enough it's too late." + +"Well," replied Tom, with a deprecatory look at his wife, "Angy don't take to +pettin' very much. She thinks it's a kind of foolishness for such middle-aged +people as we're getting to be." + +"A husband can show his consideration without blarneying," remarked Mrs. +Watterly coldly. "When a man takes on in that way, you may be sure he wants +something extra to pay for it." + +After a little thought Holcroft said, "I guess it's a good way to pay for it +between husband and wife." + +"Look here, Jim, since you're so well up on the matrimonial question, why in +thunder don't you marry again? That would settle all your difficulties," and +Tom looked at his friend with a sort of wonder that he should hesitate to take +this practical, sensible course. + +"It's very easy for you to say, 'Why don't you marry again?' If you were in +my place you'd see that there are things in the way of marrying for the sake +of having a good butter maker and all that kind of thing." + +"Mr. Watterly wouldn't be long in comforting himself," remarked his +wife.--"His advice to you makes the course he'd take mighty clear." + +"Now, Angy!" said Tom reproachfully. "Well," he added with a grin, "you're +forewarned. So you've only to take care of yourself and not give me a +chance." + +"The trouble is," Holcroft resumed, "I don't see how an honest man is going to +comfort himself unless it all comes about in some natural sort of way. I +suppose there are people who can marry over and over again, just as easy as +they'd roll off a log. It aint for me to judge 'em, and I don't understand +how they do it. You are a very practical man, Tom, but just you put yourself +in my shoes and see what you'd do. In the first place, I don't know of a +woman in the world that I'd think of marrying. That's saying nothing against +the women,--there's lots too good for me,--but I don't know 'em and I can't go +around and hunt 'em up. Even if I could, with my shy, awkward ways, I +wouldn't feel half so nervous starting out on a bear hunt. Here's difficulty +right at the beginning. Supposing I found a nice, sensible woman, such as I'd +be willing to marry, there isn't one chance in a hundred she'd look at an old +fellow like me. Another difficulty: Supposing she would; suppose she looked +me square in the eyes and said, 'So you truly want a wife?' what in thunder +would I say then?--I don't want a wife, I want a housekeeper, a butter maker, +one that would look after my interests as if they were her own; and if I could +hire a woman that would do what I wish, I'd never think of marrying. I can't +tell a woman that I love her when I don't. If I went to a minister with a +woman I'd be deceiving him, and deceiving her, and perjuring myself +promiscuously. I married once according to law and gospel and I was married +through and through, and I can't do the thing over again in any way that would +seem to me like marrying at all. The idea of me sitting by the fire and +wishing that the woman who sat on the t'other side of the stove was my first +wife! Yet I couldn't help doing this any more than breathing. Even if there +was any chance of my succeeding I can't see anything square or honest in my +going out and hunting up a wife as a mere matter of business. I know other +people do it and I've thought a good deal about it myself, but when it comes +to the point of acting I find I can't do it." + +The two men now withdrew from the table to the fireside and lighted their +pipes. Mrs. Watterly stepped out for a moment and Tom, looking over his +shoulder to make sure she was out of ear shot, said under his breath, "But +suppose you found a woman that you could love and obey, and all that?" + +"Oh, of course, that would make everything different. I wouldn't begin with a +lie then, and I know enough of my wife to feel sure that she wouldn't be a +sort of dog in the manger after she was dead. She was one of those good souls +that if she could speak her mind this minute she would say, 'James, what's +best and right for you is best and right.' But it's just because she was such +a good wife that I know there's no use of trying to put anyone in her place. +Where on earth could I find anybody, and how could we get acquainted so that +we'd know anything about each other? No, I must just scratch along for a +short time as things are and be on the lookout to sell or rent." + +Tom smoked meditatively for a few moments, and then remarked, "I guess that's +your best way out." + +"It aint an easy way, either," said Holcroft. "Finding a purchaser or tenant +for a farm like mine is almost as hard as finding a wife. Then, as I feel, +leaving my place is next to leaving the world." + +Tom shook his head ruefully and admitted,, "I declare, Jim, when a feller +comes to think it all over, you ARE in a bad fix, especially as you feel. I +thought I could talk you over into practical common sense in no time. It's +easy enough when one don't know all the bearin's of a case, to think +carelessly, 'Oh, he aint as bad off as he thinks he is. He can do this and +that and the t'other thing.' But when you come to look it all over, you find +he can't, except at a big loss. Of course, you can give away your farm on +which you were doing well and getting ahead, though how you did it, I can't +see. You'd have to about give it away if you forced a sale, and where on +earth you'll find a tenant who'll pay anything worth considering--But there's +no use of croaking. I wish I could help you, old feller. By jocks! I believe +I can. There's an old woman here who's right smart and handy when she can't +get her bottle filled. I believe she'd be glad to go with you, for she don't +like our board and lodging over much." + +"Do you think she'd go tonight?" + +"Oh, yes! Guess so. A little cold water'll be a good change for her." + +Mrs. Wiggins was seen, and feeling that any change would be for the better, +readily agreed to go for very moderate wages. Holcroft looked dubiously at +the woman's heavy form and heavier face, but felt that it was the best he +could do. Squeezing Mrs. Watterly's cold, limp hand in a way that would have +thawed a lump of ice, he said "goodby;" and then declaring that he would +rather do his own harnessing for a night ride, he went out into the storm. +Tom put on his rubber coat and went to the barn with his friend, toward whom +he cherished honest good will. + +"By jocks!" he ejaculated sympathetically, "but you have hard lines, Jim. +What in thunder would I do with two such widdy women to look after my house!" + + +Chapter IX. Mrs. Mumpson Accepts Her Mission + +As Holcroft drove through the town, Mrs. Wiggins, who, as matters were +explained to her, had expressed her views chiefly by affirmative nods, now +began to use her tongue with much fluency. + +"Hi 'ave a friend 'herhabouts," she said, "an' she's been a-keepin' some of my +things. Hi'll be 'olden to ye, master, hif ye'll jes stop a bit hat the door +whiles hi gets 'em. Hif ye'll hadvance me a dollar or so on me wages hit'll +be a long time hafore I trouble ye hagain." + +The farmer had received too broad a hint not to know that Mrs. Wiggins was +intent on renewing her acquaintance with her worst enemy. He briefly replied, +therefore, "It's too late to stop now. I'll be coming down soon again and +will get your things." + +In vain Mrs. Wiggins expostulated, for he drove steadily on. With a sort of +grim humor, he thought of the meeting of the two "widdy women," as Tom had +characterized them, and of Mrs. Mumpson's dismay at finding in the "cheap +girl" a dame of sixty, weighing not far from two hundred. "If it wasn't such +awfully serious business for me," he thought, "it would be better'n going to a +theater to see the two go on. If I haven't got three 'peculiar females' on my +hands now, I'd like to hear of the man that has." + +When Mrs. Wiggins found that she could not gain her point, she subsided into +utter silence. It soon became evident in the cloudy light of the moon that +she was going to sleep, for she so nodded and swayed about that the farmer +feared she would tumble out of the wagon. She occupied a seat just back of +his and filled it, too. The idea of stepping over, sitting beside her, and +holding her in, was inexpressibly repugnant to him. So he began talking to +her, and finally shouting at her, to keep her awake. + +His efforts were useless. He glanced with rueful dismay over his shoulder as +he thought, "If she falls out, I don't see how on earth I'll ever get her back +again." + +Fortunately the seat slipped back a little, and she soon slid down into a sort +of mountainous heap on the bottom of the wagon, as unmindful of the rain as if +it were a lullaby. Now that his mind was at rest about her falling out, and +knowing that he had a heavy load, Holcroft let the horses take their own time +along the miry highway. + +Left to her own devices by Holcroft's absence, Mrs. Mumpson had passed what +she regarded as a very eventful afternoon and evening. Not that anything +unusual had happened, unless everything she said and did may be looked upon as +unusual; but Mrs. Mumpson justly felt that the critical periods of life are +those upon which definite courses of action are decided upon. In the secret +recess of her heart--supposing her to possess such an organ--she had partially +admitted to herself, even before she had entered Holcroft's door, that she +might be persuaded into marrying him; but the inspection of his room, much +deliberate thought, and prolonged soliloquy, had convinced her that she ought +to "enter into nuptial relations," as her thought formulated itself. It was a +trait of Mrs. Mumpson's active mind, that when it once entered upon a line of +thought, it was hurried along from conclusion to conclusion with wonderful +rapidity. + +While Jane made up Mr. Holcroft's bed, her mother began to inspect, and soon +suffered keenly from every painful discovery. The farmer's meager wardrobe +and other belongings were soon rummaged over, but one large closet and several +bureau drawers were locked. "These are the receptercles of the deceased Mrs. +Holcroft's affects," she said with compressed lips. "They are moldering +useless away. Moth and rust will enter, while I, the caretaker, am debarred. +I should not be debarred. All the things in that closet should be shaken out, +aired, and carefully put back. Who knows how useful they may be in the +future! Waste is wicked. Indeed, there are few things more wicked than +waste. Now I think of it, I have some keys in my trunk." + +"He won't like it," interposed Jane. + +"In the responserble persition I have assumed," replied Mrs. Mumpson with +dignity, "I must consider not what he wants, but what is best for him and what +may be best for others." + +Jane had too much curiosity herself to make further objection, and the keys +were brought. It was astonishing what a number of keys Mrs. Mumpson +possessed, and she was not long in finding those which would open the ordinary +locks thought by Holcroft to be ample protection. + +"I was right," said Mrs. Mumpson complacently. "A musty odor exudes from these +closed receptercles,. Men have no comprehension of the need of such +caretakers as I am." + +Everything that had ever belonged to poor Mrs. Holcroft was pulled out, taken +to the window, and examined, Jane following, as usual, in the wake of her +mother and putting everything to the same tests which her parent applied. +Mrs. Holcroft had been a careful woman, and the extent and substantial +character of her wardrobe proved that her husband had not been close in his +allowances to her. Mrs. Mumpson's watery blue eyes grew positively animated +as she felt of and held up to the light one thing after another. "Mrs. +Holcroft was evidently unnaturally large," she reflected aloud, "but then +these things could be made over, and much material be left to repair them, +from time to time. The dresses are of somber colors, becoming to a lady +somewhat advanced in years and of subdued taste." + +By the time that the bed and all the chairs in the room were littered with +wearing apparel, Mrs. Mumpson said, "Jane, I desire you to bring the rocking +chair. So many thoughts are crowding upon me that I must sit down and think." + +Jane did as requested, but remarked, "The sun is gettin' low, and all these +things'll have to be put back just as they was or he'll be awful mad." + +"Yes, Jane," replied Mrs. Mumpson abstractedly and rocking gently, "you can +put them back. Your mind is not burdened like mine, and you haven't offspring +and the future to provide for," and, for a wonder, she relapsed into silence. +Possibly she possessed barely enough of womanhood to feel that her present +train of thought had better be kept to herself. She gradually rocked faster +and faster, thus indicating that she was rapidly approaching a conclusion. + +Meanwhile, Jane was endeavoring to put things back as they were before and +found it no easy task. As the light declined she was overcome by a sort of +panic, and, huddling the things into the drawers as fast as possible, she +locked them up. Then, seizing her mother's hand and pulling the abstracted +woman to her feet, she cried, "If he comes and finds us here and no supper +ready, he'll turn us right out into the rain!" + +Even Mrs. Mumpson felt that she was perhaps reaching conclusions too fast and +that some diplomacy might be necessary to consummate her plans. Her views, +however, appeared to her so reasonable that she scarcely thought of failure, +having the happy faculty of realizing everything in advance, whether it ever +took place or not. + +As she slowly descended the stairs with the rocking chair, she thought, +"Nothing could be more suiterble. We are both about the same age; I am most +respecterbly connected--in fact, I regard myself as somewhat his superior in +this respect; he is painfully undeveloped and irreligious and thus is in sore +need of female influence; he is lonely and down-hearted, and in woman's voice +there is a spell to banish care; worst of all, things are going to waste. I +must delib'rately face the great duty with which Providence has brought me +face to face. At first, he may be a little blind to this great oppertunity of +his life--that I must expect, remembering the influence he was under so many +years--but I will be patient and, by the proper use of language, place +everything eventually before him in a way that will cause him to yield in glad +submission to my views of the duties, the privileges, and the +responserbilities of life." + +So active was Mrs. Mumpson's mind that this train of thought was complete by +the time she had ensconced herself in the rocking chair by the fireless +kitchen stove. Once more Jane seized her hand and dragged her up. "You must +help," said the child. "I 'spect him every minnit and I'm scart half to death +to think what he'll do, 'specially if he finds out we've been rummagin'." + +"Jane," said Mrs. Mumpson severely, "that is not a proper way of expressing +yourself. I am housekeeper here, and I've been inspecting." + +"Shall I tell him you've been inspectin'?" asked the girl keenly. + +"Children of your age should speak when they are spoken to," replied her +mother, still more severely. "You cannot comprehend my motives and duties, and +I should have to punish you if you passed any remarks upon my actions." + +"Well," said Jane apprehensively, "I only hope we'll soon have a chance to fix +up them drawers, for if he should open 'em we'd have to tramp again, and we +will anyway if you don't help me get supper." + +"You are mistaken, Jane," responded Mrs. Mumpson with dignity. "We shall not +leave this roof for three months, and that will give me ample time to open his +eyes to his true interests. I will condescend to these menial tasks until he +brings a girl who will yield the deference due to my years and station in +life." + +Between them, after filling the room with smoke, they kindled the kitchen +fire. Jane insisted on making the coffee and then helped her mother to +prepare the rest of the supper, doing, in fact, the greater part of the work. +Then they sat down to wait, and they waited so long that Mrs. Mumpson began to +express her disapproval by rocking violently. At last, she said severely, +"Jane, we will partake of supper alone." + +"I'd ruther wait till he comes." + +"It's not proper that we should wait. He is not showing me due respect. +Come, do as I command." + +Mrs. Mumpson indulged in lofty and aggrieved remarks throughout the meal and +then returned to her rocker. At last, her indignant sense of wrong reached +such a point that she commanded Jane to clear the table and put away the +things. + +"I won't," said the child. + +"What! Will you compel me to chastise you?" + +"Well, then, I'll tell him it was all your doin's." + +"I shall tell him so myself. I shall remonstrate with him. The idea of his +coming home alone at this time of night with an unknown female!" + +"One would think you was his aunt, to hear you talk," remarked the girl +sullenly. + +"I am a respecterble woman and most respecterbly connected. My character and +antercedents render me irrerproachful.--This could not be said of a hussy, and +a hussy he'll probably bring--some flighty, immerture female that will tax +even MY patience to train." + +Another hour passed, and the frown on Mrs. Mumpson's brow grew positively +awful. "To think," she muttered, "that a man whom I have deemed it my duty to +marry should stay out so and under such peculiar circumstances. He must have +a lesson which he can never forget." Then aloud, to Jane, "Kindle a fire on +the parlor hearth and let this fire go out. He must find us in the most +respecterble room in the house--a room befitting my station." + +"I declare, mother, you aint got no sense at all!" exclaimed the child, +exasperated beyond measure. + +"I'll teach you to use such unrerspectful language!" cried Mrs. Mumpson, +darting from her chair like a hawk and pouncing upon the unhappy child. + +With ears tingling from a cuffing she could not soon forget, Jane lighted the +parlor fire and sat down sniffling in the farthest corner. + +"There shall be only one mistress in this house," said Mrs. Mumpson, who had +now reached the loftiest plane of virtuous indignation, "and its master shall +learn that his practices reflect upon even me as well as himself." + +At last the sound of horses' feet were heard on the wet, oozy ground without. +The irate widow did not rise, but merely indicated her knowledge of Holcroft's +arrival by rocking more rapidly. + +"Hello, there, Jane!" he shouted, "bring a light to the kitchen." + +"Jane, remain!" said Mrs. Mumpson, with an awful look. + +Holcroft stumbled through the dark kitchen to the parlor door and looked with +surprise at the group before him,--Mrs. Mumpson apparently oblivious and +rocking as if the chair was possessed, and the child crying in a corner. + +"Jane, didn't you hear me call for a light?" he asked a little sharply. + +Mrs. Mumpson rose with great dignity and began, "Mr. Holcroft, I wish to +remonstrate--" + +"Oh, bother! I've brought a woman to help you, and we're both wet through +from this driving rain." + +"You've brought a strange female at this time of--" + +Holcroft's patience gave say, but he only said quietly, "You had better have a +light in the kitchen within two minutes. I warn you both. I also wish some +hot coffee." + +Mrs. Mumpson had no comprehension of a man who could be so quiet when he was +angry, and she believed that she might impress him with a due sense of the +enormity of his offense. "Mr. Holcroft, I scarcely feel that I can meet a girl +who has no more sense of decorum than to--" But Jane, striking a match, +revealed the fact that she was speaking to empty air. + +Mrs. Wiggins was at last so far aroused that she was helped from the wagon and +came shivering and dripping toward the kitchen. She stood a moment in the +doorway and filled it, blinking confusedly at the light. There was an absence +of celerity in all Mrs. Wiggins' movements, and she was therefore slow in the +matter of waking up. Her aspect and proportions almost took away Mrs. +Mumpson's breath. Here certainly was much to superintend, much more than had +been anticipated. Mrs. Wiggins was undoubtedly a "peculiar female," as had +been expected, but she was so elderly and monstrous that Mrs. Mumpson felt +some embarrassment in her purpose to overwhelm Holcroft with a sense of the +impropriety of his conduct. + +Mrs. Wiggins took uncertain steps toward the rocking chair, and almost crushed +it as she sat down. "Ye gives a body a cold velcome," she remarked, rubbing +her eyes. + +Mrs. Mumpson had got out of her way as a minnow would shun a leviathan. "May I +ask your name?" she gasped. + +"Viggins, Mrs. Viggins." + +"Oh, indeed! You are a married woman?" + +"No, hi'm a vidder. What's more, hi'm cold, and drippin', an' 'ungry. Hi +might 'a' better stayed at the poor-us than come to a place like this." + +"What!" almost screamed Mrs. Mumpson, "are you a pauper?" + +"Hi tell ye hi'm a vidder, an' good as you be, for hall he said," was the +sullen reply. + +"To think that a respecterbly connected woman like me--" But for once Mrs. +Mumpson found language inadequate. Since Mrs. Wiggins occupied the rocking +chair, she hardly knew what to do and plaintively declared, "I feel as if my +whole nervous system was giving way." + +"No 'arm 'll be done hif hit does," remarked Mrs. Wiggins, who was not in an +amiable mood. + +"This from the female I'm to superintend!" gasped the bewildered woman. + +Her equanimity was still further disturbed by the entrance of the farmer, who +looked at the stove with a heavy frown. + +"Why in the name of common sense isn't there a fire?" he asked, "and supper on +the table? Couldn't you hear that it was raining and know we'd want some +supper after a long, cold ride?" + +"Mr. Holcroft," began the widow, in some trepidation, "I don't approve--such +irregular habits--" + +"Madam," interrupted Holcroft sternly, "did I agree to do what you approved +of? Your course is so peculiar that I scarcely believe you are in your right +mind. You had better go to your room and try to recover your senses. If I +can't have things in this house to suit me, I'll have no one in it. Here, +Jane, you can help." + +Mrs. Mumpson put her handkerchief to her eyes and departed. She felt that +this display of emotion would touch Holcroft's feelings when he came to think +the scene all over. + +Having kindled the fire, he said to Jane, "You and Mrs. Wiggins get some +coffee and supper in short order, and have it ready when I come in," and he +hastened out to care for his horses. If the old woman was slow, she knew just +how to make every motion effective, and a good supper was soon ready. + +"Why didn't you keep up a fire, Jane?" Holcroft asked. + +"She wouldn't let me. She said how you must be taught a lesson," replied the +girl, feeling that she must choose between two potentates, and deciding +quickly in favor of the farmer. She had been losing faith in her mother's +wisdom a long time, and this night's experience had banished the last shred of +it. + +Some rather bitter words rose to Holcroft's lips, but he restrained them. He +felt that he ought not to disparage the mother to the child. As Mrs. Wiggins +grew warm, and imbibed the generous coffee, her demeanor thawed perceptibly +and she graciously vouchsafed the remark, "Ven you're hout late hag'in hi'll +look hafter ye." + +Mrs. Mumpson had not been so far off as not to hear Jane's explanation, as the +poor child found to her cost when she went up to bed. + + +Chapter X. A Night of Terror + +As poor, dazed, homeless Alida passed out into the street after the revelation +that she was not a wife and never had been, she heard a voice say, "Well, +Hanner wasn't long in bouncing the woman. I guess we'd better go up now. +Ferguson will need a lesson that he won't soon forget." + +The speaker of these words was Mrs. Ferguson's brother, William Hackman, and +his companion was a detective. The wife had laid her still sleeping child +down on the lounge and was coolly completing Alida's preparations for dinner. +Her husband had sunk back into a chair and again buried his face in his hands. +He looked up with startled, bloodshot eyes as his brother-in-law and the +stranger entered, and then resumed his former attitude. + +Mrs. Ferguson briefly related what had happened, and then said, "Take chairs +and draw up." + +"I don't want any dinner," muttered the husband. + +Mr. William Hackman now gave way to his irritation. Turning to his brother, +he relieved his mind as follows: "See here, Hank Ferguson, if you hadn't the +best wife in the land, this gentleman would now be giving you a promenade to +jail. I've left my work for weeks, and spent a sight of money to see that my +sister got her rights, and, by thunder! she's going to have 'em. We've +agreed to give you a chance to brace up and be a man. If we find out there +isn't any man in you, then you go to prison and hard labor to the full extent +of the law. We've fixed things so you can't play any more tricks. This man +is a private detective. As long as you do the square thing by your wife and +child, you'll be let alone. If you try to sneak off, you'll be nabbed. Now, +if you aint a scamp down to your heel-taps, get up out of that chair like a +man, treat your wife as she deserves for letting you off so easy, and don't +make her change her mind by acting as if you, and not her, was the wronged +person." + +At heart Ferguson was a weak, cowardly, selfish creature, whose chief aim in +life was to have things to suit himself. When they ceased to be agreeable, he +was ready for a change, without much regard for the means to his ends. He had +always foreseen the possibility of the event which had now taken place, but, +like all self-indulgent natures, had hoped that he might escape detection. + +Alida, moreover, had won a far stronger hold upon him than he had once +imagined possible. He was terribly mortified and cast down by the result of +his experiment, as he regarded it. But the thought of a prison and hard labor +speedily drew his mind away from this aspect of the affair. He had been +fairly caught, his lark was over, and he soon resolved that the easiest and +safest way out of the scrape was the best way. He therefore raised his head +and came forward with a penitent air as he said: "It's natural I should be +overwhelmed with shame at the position in which I find myself. But I see the +truth of your words, and I'll try to make it all right as far as I can. I'll +go back with you and Hannah to my old home. I've got money in the bank, I'll +sell out everything here, and I'll pay you, William, as far as I can, what +you've spent. Hannah is mighty good to let me off so easy, and she won't be +sorry. This man is witness to what I say," and the detective nodded. + +"Why, Ferguson," said Mr. Hackman effusively, "now you're talking like a man. +Come and kiss him, Hannah, and make it all up." + +"That's the way with you men," said the woman bitterly. "These things count +for little. Henry Ferguson must prove he's honest in what he says by deeds, +not words. I'll do as I've said if he acts square, and that's enough to start +with." + +"All right," said Ferguson, glad enough to escape the caress. "I'll do as I +say." + +He did do all he promised, and very promptly, too. He was not capable of +believing that a woman wronged as Alida had been would not prosecute him, and +he was eager to escape to another state, and, in a certain measure, again to +hide his identity under his own actual name. + +Meanwhile, how fared the poor creature who had fled, driven forth by her first +wild impulse to escape from a false and terrible position? With every step +she took down the dimly lighted street, the abyss into which she had fallen +seemed to grow deeper and darker. She was overwhelmed with the magnitude of +her misfortune. She shunned the illumined thoroughfares with a half-crazed +sense that every finger would be pointed at her. Her final words, spoken to +Ferguson, were the last clear promptings of her womanly nature. After that, +everything grew confused, except the impression of remediless disaster and +shame. She was incapable of forming any correct judgment concerning her +position. The thought of her pastor filled her with horror. He, she thought, +would take the same view which the woman had so brutally expressed--that in +her eagerness to be married, she had brought to the parsonage an unknown man +and had involved a clergyman in her own scandalous record.--It would all be in +the papers, and her pastor's name mixed up in the affair. She would rather +die than subject him to such an ordeal. Long after, when he learned the facts +in the case, he looked at her very sadly as he asked: "Didn't you know me +better than that? Had I so failed in my preaching that you couldn't come +straight to me?" + +She wondered afterward that she had not done this, but she was too morbid, too +close upon absolute insanity, to do what was wise and safe. She simply +yielded to the wild impulse to escape, to cower, to hide from every human eye, +hastening through the darkest, obscurest streets, not caring where. In the +confusion of her mind she would retrace her steps, and soon was utterly lost, +wandering she knew not whither. As it grew late, casual passers-by looked +after her curiously, rough men spoke to her, and others jeered. She only +hastened on, driven by her desperate trouble like the wild, ragged clouds that +were flying across the stormy March sky. + +At last a policeman said gruffly, "You've passed me twice. You can't be +roaming the streets at this time of night. Why don't you go home?" + +Standing before him and wringing her hands, she moaned, "I have no home." + +"Where did you come from?" + +"Oh, I can't tell you! Take me to any place where a woman will be safe." + +"I can't take you to any place now but the station house." + +"But can I be alone there? I won't be put with anybody?" + +"No, no; of course not! You'll be better off there. Come along. 'Taint far." + +She walked beside him without a word. + +"You'd better tell me something of your story. Perhaps I can do more for you +in the morning." + +"I can't. I'm a stranger. I haven't any friends in town." + +"Well, well, the sergeant will see what can be done in the morning. You've +been up to some foolishness, I suppose, and you'd better tell the whole story +to the sergeant." + +She soon entered the station house and was locked up in a narrow cell. She +heard the grating of the key in the lock with a sense of relief, feeling that +she had at least found a temporary place of refuge and security. A hard board +was the only couch it possessed, but the thought of sleep did not enter her +mind. Sitting down, she buried her face in her hands and rocked back and +forth in agony and distraction until day dawned. At last, someone--she felt +she could not raise her eyes to his face--brought her some breakfast and +coffee. She drank the latter, but left the food untasted. Finally, she was +led to the sergeant's private room and told that she must give an account of +herself. "If you can't or won't tell a clear story," the officer threatened, +"you'll have to go before the justice in open court, and he may commit you to +prison. If you'll tell the truth now, it may be that I can discharge you. +You had no business to be wandering about the streets like a vagrant or worse; +but if you were a stranger or lost and hadn't sense enough to go where you'd +be cared for, I can let you go." + +"Oh!" said Alida, again wringing her hands and looking at the officer with +eyes so full of misery and fear that he began to soften, "I don't know where +to go." + +"Haven't you a friend or acquaintance in town?" + +"Not one that I can go to!" + +"Why don't you tell me your story? Then I'll know what to do, and perhaps can +help you. You don't look like a depraved woman." + +"I'm not. God knows I'm not!" + +"Well, my poor woman, I've got to act in view of what I know, not what God +knows." + +"If I tell my story, will I have to give names?" + +"No, not necessarily. It would be best, though." + +"I can't do that, but I'll tell you the truth. I will swear it on the Bible +I married someone. A good minister married us. The man deceived me. He was +already married, and last night his wife came to my happy home and proved +before the man whom I thought my husband that I was no wife at all. He +couldn't, didn't deny it. Oh! Oh! Oh!" And she again rocked back and forth +in uncontrollable anguish. "That's all," she added brokenly. "I had no right +to be near him or her any longer, and I rushed out. I don't remember much +more. My brain seemed on fire. I just walked and walked till I was brought +here." + +"Well, well!" said the sergeant sympathetically, "you have been treated badly, +outrageously; but you are not to blame unless you married the man hastily and +foolishly." + +"That's what everyone will think, but it don't seem to me that I did. It's a +long story, and I can't tell it." + +"But you ought to tell it, my poor woman. You ought to sue the man for +damages and send him to State prison." + +"No, no!" cried Alida passionately. "I don't want to see him again, and I +won't go to a court before people unless I am dragged there." + +The sergeant looked up at the policeman who had arrested her and said, "This +story is not contrary to anything you saw?" + +"No, sir; she was wandering about and seemed half out of her mind." + +"Well, then, I can let you go." + +"But I don't know where to go," she replied, looking at him with hunted, +hollow eyes. "I feel as if I were going to be sick. Please don't turn me into +the streets. I'd rather go back to the cell--" + +"That won't answer. There's no place that I can send you to except the +poorhouse. Haven't you any money?" + +"No, sir. I just rushed away and left everything when I learned the truth." + +"Tom Watterly's hotel is the only place for her," said the policeman with a +nod. + +"Oh, I can't go to a hotel." + +"He means the almshouse," explained the sergeant. "What is your name?" + +"Alida--that's all now. Yes, I'm a pauper and I can't work just yet. I'll be +safe there, won't I?" + +"Certainly, safe as in your mother's house." + +"Oh, mother, mother; thank God, you are dead!" + +"Well, I AM sorry for you," said the sergeant kindly. "'Taint often we have so +sad a case as yours. If you say so, I'll send for Tom Watterly, and he and +his wife will take charge of you. After a few days, your mind will get +quieter and clearer, and then you'll prosecute the man who wronged you." + +"I'll go to the poorhouse until I can do better," she replied wearily. "Now, +if you please, I'll return to my cell where I can be alone." + +"Oh, we can give you a better room than that," said the sergeant. "Show her +into the waiting room, Tim. If you prosecute, we can help you with our +testimony. Goodbye, and may you have better days!" + +Watterly was telegraphed to come down with a conveyance for the almshouse was +in a suburb. In due time he appeared, and was briefly told Alida's story. He +swore a little at the "mean cuss," the author of all the trouble, and then +took the stricken woman to what all his acquaintances facetiously termed his +"hotel." + + +Chapter XI. Baffled + +In the general consciousness Nature is regarded as feminine, and even those +who love her most will have to adopt Mrs. Mumpson's oft-expressed opinion of +the sex and admit that she is sometimes a "peculiar female." During the month +of March, in which our story opens, there was scarcely any limit to her +varying moods. It would almost appear that she was taking a mysterious +interest in Holcroft's affairs; but whether it was a kindly interest or not, +one might be at a loss to decide. When she caught him away from home, she +pelted him with the coldest of rain and made his house, with even Mrs. Mumpson +and Jane abiding there, seem a refuge. In the morning after the day on which +he had brought, or in a sense had carted, Mrs. Wiggins to his domicile, Nature +was evidently bent on instituting contrasts between herself and the rival +phases of femininity with which the farmer was compelled to associate. It may +have been that she had another motive and was determined to keep her humble +worshiper at her feet, and to render it impossible for him to make the changes +toward which he had felt himself driven. + +Being an early riser he was up with the sun, and the sun rose so serenely and +smiled so benignly that Holcroft's clouded brow cleared in spite of all that +had happened or could take place. The rain, which had brought such discomfort +the night before, had settled the ground and made it comparatively firm to his +tread. The southern breeze which fanned his cheek was as soft as the air of +May. He remembered that it was Sunday, and that beyond feeding his stock and +milking, he would have nothing to do. He exulted in the unusual mildness and +thought, with an immense sense of relief, "I can stay outdoors nearly all +day." He resolved to let his help kindle the fire and get breakfast as they +could, and to keep out of their way. Whatever changes the future might bring, +he would have one more long day in rambling about his fields and in thinking +over the past. Feeling that there need be no haste about anything, he +leisurely inhaled the air, fragrant from springing grass, and listened with a +vague, undefined pleasure to the ecstatic music of the bluebirds, +song-sparrows, and robins. If anyone had asked him why he liked to hear them, +he would have replied, "I'm used to 'em. When they come, I know that plowing +and planting time is near." + +It must be admitted that Holcroft's enjoyment of spring was not very far +removed from that of the stock in his barnyard. All the animal creation +rejoices in the returning sun and warmth. A subtle, powerful influence sets +the blood in more rapid motion, kindles new desires, and awakens a glad +expectancy. All that is alive becomes more thoroughly alive and existence in +itself is a pleasure. Spring had always brought to the farmer quickened +pulses, renewed activity and hopefulness, and he was pleased to find that he +was not so old and cast down that its former influence had spent itself. +Indeed, it seemed that never before had his fields, his stock, and outdoor +work--and these comprised Nature to him--been so attractive. They remained +unchanged amid the sad changes which had clouded his life, and his heart clung +more tenaciously than ever to old scenes and occupations. They might not +bring him happiness again, but he instinctively felt that they might insure a +comfort and peace with which he could be content. + +At last he went to the barn and began his work, doing everything slowly, and +getting all the solace he could from the tasks. The horses whinnied their +welcome and he rubbed their noses caressingly as he fed them. The cows came +briskly to the rack in which he foddered them in pleasant weather, and when he +scratched them between the horns they turned their mild, Juno-like eyes upon +him with undisguised affection. The chickens, clamoring for their breakfast, +followed so closely that he had to be careful where he stepped. Although he +knew that all this good will was based chiefly on the hope of food and the +remembrance of it in the past, nevertheless it soothed and pleased him. He +was in sympathy with this homely life; it belonged to him and was dependent on +him; it made him honest returns for his care. Moreover, it was agreeably +linked with the past. There were quiet cows which his wife had milked, +clucking biddies which she had lifted from nests with their downy broods. He +looked at them wistfully, and was wondering if they ever missed the presence +that he regretted so deeply, when he became conscious that Jane's eyes were +upon him. How long she had been watching him he did not know, but she merely +said, "Breakfast's ready," and disappeared. + +With a sigh he went to his room to perform his ablutions, remembering with a +slight pang how his wife always had a basin and towel ready for him in the +kitchen. In the breaking up of just such homely customs, he was continually +reminded of his loss. + +On awakening to the light of this Sabbath morning, Mrs. Mumpson had thought +deeply and reasoned everything out again. She felt that it must be an +eventful day and that there was much to be accomplished. In the first place +there was Mrs. Wiggins. She disapproved of her decidedly. "She isn't the sort +of person that I would prefer to superintend," she remarked to Jane while +making a toilet which she deemed befitting the day, "and the hour will +assuredly come when Mr. Holcroft will look upon her in the light that I do. +He will eventually realize that I cannot be brought in such close relationship +with a pauper. Not that the relationship is exactly close, but then I shall +have to speak to her--in brief, to superintend her. My eyes will be offended +by her vast proportions and uncouth appearance. The floor creaks beneath her +tread and affects my nerves seriously. Of course, while she is here, I shall +zealously, as befits one in my responserble position, try to render useful +such service as she can perform. But then, the fact that I disapprove of her +must soon become evident. When it is discovered that I only tolerate her, +there will be a change. I cannot show my disapproval very strongly today for +this is a day set apart for sacred things, and Mrs. Viggins, as she called +herself,--I cannot imagine a Mr. Viggins for no man in his senses could have +married such a creature,--as I was saying, Mrs. Viggins is not at all sacred, +and I must endeavor to abstract my mind from her till tomorrow, as far as +posserble. My first duty today is to induce Mr. Holcroft to take us to +church. It will give the people of Oakville such a pleasing impression to see +us driving to church. Of course, I may fail, Mr. Holcroft is evidently a +hardened man. All the influences of his life have been adverse to spiritual +development, and it may require some weeks of my influence to soften him and +awaken yearnings for what he has not yet known." + +"He may be yearnin' for breakfast," Jane remarked, completing her toilet by +tying her little pigtail braid with something that had once been a bit of +black ribbon, but was now a string. "You'd better come down soon and help." + +"If Mrs. Viggins cannot get breakfast, I would like to know what she is here +for" continued Mrs. Mumpson loftily, and regardless of Jane's departure. "I +shall decline to do menial work any longer, especially on this sacred day, and +after I have made my toilet for church. Mr. Holcroft has had time to think. +My disapproval was manifest last night and it has undoubtedly occurred to him +that he has not conformed to the proprieties of life. Indeed, I almost fear I +shall have to teach him what the proprieties of life are. He witnessed my +emotions when he spoke as he should not have spoken to ME. But I must make +allowances for his unregenerate state. He was cold, and wet, and hungry last +night, and men are unreasonerble at such times. I shall now heap coals of +fire upon his head. I shall show that I am a meek, forgiving Christian woman, +and he will relent, soften, and become penitent. Then will be my +opportunity," and she descended to the arena which should witness her efforts. + +During the period in which Mrs. Mumpson had indulged in these lofty +reflections and self-communings, Mrs. Wiggins had also arisen. I am not sure +whether she had thought of anything in particular or not. She may have had +some spiritual longings which were not becoming to any day of the week. Being +a woman of deeds, rather than of thought, probably not much else occurred to +her beyond the duty of kindling the fire and getting breakfast. Jane came +down, and offered to assist, but was cleared out with no more scruple than if +Mrs. Wiggins had been one of the much-visited relatives. + +"The hidee," she grumbled, "of 'avin' sich a little trollop round hunder my +feet!" + +Jane, therefore, solaced herself by watching the "cheap girl" till her mother +appeared. + +Mrs. Mumpson sailed majestically in and took the rocking chair, mentally +thankful that it had survived the crushing weight imposed upon it the evening +before. Mrs. Wiggins did not drop a courtesy. Indeed, not a sign of +recognition passed over her vast, immobile face. Mrs. Mumpson was a little +embarrassed. "I hardly know how to comport myself toward that female," she +thought. "She is utterly uncouth. Her manners are unmistakerbly those of a +pauper. I think I will ignore her today. I do not wish my feelings ruffled +or put out of harmony with the sacred duties and motives which actuate me." + +Mrs. Mumpson therefore rocked gently, solemnly, and strange to say, silently, +and Mrs. Wiggins also proceeded with her duties, but not in silence, for +everything in the room trembled and clattered at her tread. Suddenly she +turned on Jane and said, "'Ere, you little baggage, go and tell the master +breakfast's ready." + +Mrs. Mumpson sprang from her chair, and with a voice choked with indignation, +gasped, "Do you dare address my offspring thus?" + +"Yer vat?" + +"My child, my daughter, who is not a pauper, but the offspring of a most +respecterble woman and respecterbly connected. I'm amazed, I'm dumfoundered, +I'm--" + +"Ye're a bit daft, hi'm a-thinkin'." Then to Jane, "Vy don't ye go an' hearn +yer salt?" + +"Jane, I forbid--" But it had not taken Jane half a minute to decide between +the now jarring domestic powers, and henceforth she would be at Mrs. Wiggins' +beck and call. "She can do somethin'," the child muttered, as she stole upon +Holcroft. + +Mrs. Mumpson sank back in her chair, but her mode of rocking betokened a +perturbed spirit. "I will restrain myself till tomorrow, and then--" She +shook her head portentously and waited till the farmer appeared, feeling +assured that Mrs. Wiggins would soon be taught to recognize her station. When +breakfast was on the table, she darted to her place behind the coffeepot, for +she felt that there was no telling what this awful Mrs. Wiggins might not +assume during this day of sacred restraint. But the ex-pauper had no thought +of presumption in her master's presence, and the rocking chair again +distracted Mrs. Mumpson's nerves as it creaked under an unwonted weight. + +Holcroft took his seat in silence. The widow again bowed her head devoutly, +and sighed deeply when observing that the farmer ignored her suggestion. + +"I trust that you feel refreshed after your repose," she said benignly. + +"I do." + +"It is a lovely morning--a morning, I may add, befitting the sacred day. +Nature is at peace and suggests that we and all should be at peace." + +"There's nothing I like more, Mrs. Mumpson, unless it is quiet." + +"I feel that way, myself. You don't know what restraint I have put upon +myself that the sacred quiet of this day might not be disturbed. I have had +strong provercation since I entered this apartment. I will forbear to speak +of it till tomorrow in order that there may be quietness and that our minds +may be prepared for worship. I feel that it would be unseemly for us to enter +a house of worship with thoughts of strife in our souls. At precisely what +moment do you wish me to be ready for church?" + +"I am not going to church, Mrs. Mumpson." + +"Not going to church! I--I--scarcely understand. Worship is such a sacred +duty--" + +"You and Jane certainly have a right to go to church, and since it is your +wish, I'll take you down to Lemuel Weeks' and you can go with them." + +"I don't want to go to Cousin Lemuel's, nor to church, nuther," Jane +protested. + +"Why, Mr. Holcroft," began the widow sweetly, "after you've once harnessed up +it will take but a little longer to keep on to the meeting house. It would +appear so seemly for us to drive thither, as a matter of course. It would be +what the communerty expects of us. This is not our day, that we should spend +it carnally. We should be spiritually-minded. We should put away things of +earth. Thoughts of business and any unnecessary toil should be abhorrent. I +have often thought that there was too much milking done on Sunday among +farmers. I know they say it is essential, but they all seem so prone to +forget that but one thing is needful. I feel it borne in upon my mind, Mr. +Holcroft, that I should plead with you to attend divine worship and seek an +uplifting of your thoughts. You have no idea how differently the day may end, +or what emotions may be aroused if you place yourself under the droppings of +the sanctuary." + +"I'm like Jane, I don't wish to go," said Mr. Holcroft nervously. + +"But my dear Mr. Holcroft,"--the farmer fidgeted under this address,--"the +very essence of true religion is to do what we don't wish to do. We are to +mortify the flesh and thwart the carnal mind. The more thorny the path of +self-denial is, the more certain it's the right path. "I've already entered +upon it," she continued, turning a momentary glare upon Mrs. Wiggins. "Never +before was a respecterble woman so harrowed and outraged; but I am calm; I am +endeavoring to maintain a frame of mind suiterble to worship, and I feel it my +bounden duty to impress upon you that worship is a necessity to every human +being. My conscience would not acquit me if I did not use all my influence--" + +"Very well, Mrs. Mumpson, you and your conscience are quits. You have used +all your influence. I will do as I said--take you to Lemuel Weeks'--and you +can go to church with his family," and he rose from the table. + +"But Cousin Lemuel is also painfully blind to his spiritual interests--" + +Holcroft did not stay to listen and was soon engaged in the morning milking. +Jane flatly declared that she would not go to Cousin Lemuel's or to church. +"It don't do me no good, nor you, nuther," she sullenly declared to her +mother. + +Mrs. Mumpson now resolved upon a different line of tactics. Assuming a lofty, +spiritual air, she commanded Jane to light a fire in the parlor, and retired +thither with the rocking chair. The elder widow looked after her and +ejaculated, "Vell, hif she haint the craziest loon hi hever 'eard talk. Hif +she vas blind she might 'a' seen that the master didn't vant hany sich +lecturin' clack." + +Having kindled the fire, the child was about to leave the room when her mother +interposed and said solemnly, "Jane, sit down and keep Sunday." + +"I'm going to help Mrs. Wiggins if she'll let me." + +"You will not so demean yourself. I wish you to have no relations whatever +with that female in the kitchen. If you had proper self-respect, you would +never speak to her again." + +"We aint visitin' here. If I can't work indoors, I'll tell him I'll work +outdoors." + +"It's not proper for you to work today. I want you to sit there in the corner +and learn the Fifth Commandment." + +"Aint you goin' to Cousin Lemuel's?" + +"On mature reflection, I have decided to remain at home." + +"I thought you would if you had any sense left. You know well enough we aint +wanted down there. I'll go tell him not to hitch up." + +"Well, I will permit you to do so. Then return to your Sunday task." + +"I'm goin' to mind him," responded the child. She passed rapidly and +apprehensively through the kitchen, but paused on the doorstep to make some +overtures to Mrs. Wiggins. If that austere dame was not to be propitiated, a +line of retreat was open to the barn. "Say," she began, to attract attention. + +"Vell, young-un," replied Mrs. Wiggins, rendered more pacific by her +breakfast. + +"Don't you want me to wash up the dishes and put 'em away? I know how." + +"Hi'll try ye. Hif ye breaks hanythink--" and the old woman nodded volumes at +the child. + +"I'll be back in a minute," said Jane. A moment later she met Holcroft +carrying two pails of milk from the barnyard. He was about to pass without +noticing her, but she again secured attention by her usual preface, "Say," +when she had a somewhat extended communication to make. + +"Come to the dairy room, Jane, and say your say there," said Holcroft not +unkindly. + +"She aint goin' to Cousin Lemuel's," said the girl, from the door. + +"What is she going to do." + +"Rock in the parlor. Say, can't I help Mrs. Wiggins wash up the dishes and do +the work?" + +"Certainly, why not?" + +"Mother says I must sit in the parlor 'n' learn Commandments 'n' keep Sunday." + +"Well, Jane, which do you think you ought to do?" + +"I think I oughter work, and if you and Mrs. Wiggins will let me, I will work +in spite of mother." + +"I think that you and your mother both should help do the necessary work +today. There won't be much." + +"If I try and help Mrs. Wiggins, mother'll bounce out at me. She shook me +last night after I went upstairs, and she boxed my ears 'cause I wanted to +keep the kitchen fire up last night." + +"I'll go with you to the kitchen and tell Mrs. Wiggins to let you help, and I +won't let your mother punish you again unless you do wrong." + +Mrs. Wiggins, relying on Jane's promise of help, had sat down to the solace of +her pipe for a few minutes, but was about to thrust it hastily away on seeing +Holcroft. He reassured her by saying good-naturedly, "No need of that, my +good woman. Sit still and enjoy your pipe. I like to smoke myself. Jane +will help clear away things and I wish her to. You'll find she's quite handy. +By the way, have you all the tobacco you want?" + +"Vell, now, master, p'raps ye know the 'lowance down hat the poor-us vasn't +sich as ud keep a body in vat ye'd call satisfyin' smokin'. Hi never 'ad +henough ter keep down the 'ankerin'." + +"I suppose that's so. You shall have half of my stock, and when I go to town +again, I'll get you a good supply. I guess I'll light my pipe, too, before +starting for a walk." + +"Bless yer 'art, master, ye makes a body comf'terble. Ven hi smokes, hi feels +more hat 'ome and kind o'contented like. An hold 'ooman like me haint got +much left to comfort 'er but 'er pipe." + +"Jane!" called Mrs. Mumpson sharply from the parlor. As there was no answer, +the widow soon appeared in the kitchen door. Smoking was one of the +unpardonable sins in Mrs. Mumpson's eyes; and when she saw Mrs. Wiggins +puffing comfortably away and Holcroft lighting his pipe, while Jane cleared +the table, language almost failed her. She managed to articulate, "Jane, this +atmosphere is not fit for you to breathe on this sacred day. I wish you to +share my seclusion." + +"Mrs. Mumpson, I have told her to help Mrs. Wiggins in the necessary work," +Holcroft interposed. + +"Mr. Holcroft, you don't realize--men never do--Jane is my offspring, and--" + +"Oh, if you put it that way, I shan't interfere between mother and child. But +I suppose you and Jane came here to work." + +"If you will enter the parlor, I will explain to you fully my views, and--" + +"Oh, please excuse me!" said Holcroft, hastily passing out. "I was just +starting for a walk--I'm bound to have one more day to myself on the old +place," he muttered as he bent his steps toward an upland pasture. + +Jane, seeing that her mother was about to pounce upon her, ran behind Mrs. +Wiggins, who slowly rose and began a progress toward the irate widow, +remarking as she did so, "Hi'll just shut the door 'twixt ye and yer +hoffspring, and then ye kin say yer prayers hon the t'other side." + +Mrs. Mumpson was so overcome at the turn affairs had taken on this day, which +was to witness such progress in her plans and hopes, as to feel the absolute +necessity of a prolonged season of thought and soliloquy, and she relapsed, +without further protest, into the rocking chair. + + +Chapter XII. Jane + +Holcroft was not long in climbing to a sunny nook whence he could see not only +his farm and dwelling, but also the Oakville valley, and the little white +spire of the distant meeting house. He looked at this last-named object +wistfully and very sadly. Mrs. Mumpson's tirade about worship had been +without effect, but the memories suggested by the church were bitter-sweet +indeed. It belonged to the Methodist denomination, and Holcroft had been +taken, or had gone thither, from the time of his earliest recollection. He +saw himself sitting between his father and mother, a round-faced urchin to +whom the sermon was unintelligible, but to whom little Bessie Jones in the +next pew was a fact, not only intelligible, but very interesting. She would +turn around and stare at him until he smiled, then she would giggle until her +mother brought her right-about-face with considerable emphasis. After this, +he saw the little boy--could it have been himself?--nodding, swaying, and +finally slumbering peacefully, with his head on his mother's lap, until shaken +into sufficient consciousness to be half dragged, half led, to the door. Once +in the big, springless farm wagon he was himself again, looking eagerly around +to catch another glimpse of Bessie Jones. Then he was a big, irreverent boy, +shyly and awkwardly bent on mischief in the same old meeting house. Bessie +Jones no longer turned and stared at him, but he exultingly discovered that he +could still make her giggle on the sly. Years passed, and Bessie was his +occasional choice for a sleigh-ride when the long body of some farm wagon was +placed on runners, and boys and girls--young men and women, they almost +thought themselves--were packed in like sardines. Something like +self-reproach smote Holcroft even now, remembering how he had allowed his +fancy much latitude at this period, paying attention to more than one girl +besides Bessie, and painfully undecided which he liked best. + +Then had come the memorable year which had opened with a protracted meeting. +He and Bessie Jones had passed under conviction at the same time, and on the +same evening had gone forward to the anxious seat. From the way in which she +sobbed, one might have supposed that the good, simple-hearted girl had +terrible burdens on her conscience; but she soon found hope, and her tears +gave place to smiles. Holcroft, on the contrary, was terribly cast down and +unable to find relief. He felt that he had much more to answer for than +Bessie; he accused himself of having been a rather coarse, vulgar boy; he had +made fun of sacred things in that very meeting house more times than he liked +to think of, and now for some reason could think of nothing else. + +He could not shed tears or get up much emotion; neither could he rid himself +of the dull weight at heart. The minister, the brethren and sisters, prayed +for him and over him, but nothing removed his terrible inertia. He became a +familiar form on the anxious seat for there was a dogged persistence in his +nature which prevented him from giving up; but at the close of each meeting he +went home in a state of deeper dejection. Sometimes, in returning, he was +Bessie Jones' escort, and her happiness added to his gall and bitterness. One +moonlight night they stopped under the shadow of a pine near her father's +door, and talked over the matter a few moments before parting. Bessie was +full of sympathy which she hardly knew how to express. Unconsciously, in her +earnestness--how well he remembered the act!--she laid her hand on his arm as +she said, "James, I guess I know what's the matter with you. In all your +seeking you are thinking only of yourself--how bad you've been and all that. +I wouldn't think of myself and what I was any more, if I was you. You aint so +awful bad, James, that I'd turn a cold shoulder to you; but you might think I +was doing just that if ye stayed away from me and kept saying to yourself, 'I +aint fit to speak to Bessie Jones.'" + +Her face had looked sweet and compassionate, and her touch upon his arm had +conveyed the subtle magic of sympathy. Under her homely logic, the truth had +burst upon him like sunshine. In brief, he had turned from his own shadow and +was in the light. He remembered how in his deep feeling he had bowed his head +on her shoulder and murmured, "Oh, Bessie, Heaven bless you! I see it all." + +He no longer went to the anxious seat. With this young girl, and many others, +he was taken into the church on probation. Thereafter, his fancy never +wandered again, and there was no other girl in Oakville for him but Bessie. +In due time, he had gone with her to yonder meeting house to be married. It +had all seemed to come about as a matter of course. He scarcely knew when he +became formally engaged. They "kept company" together steadfastly for a +suitable period, and that seemed to settle it in their own and everybody +else's mind. + +There had been no change in Bessie's quiet, constant soul. After her words +under the shadow of the pine tree she seemed to find it difficult to speak of +religious subjects, even to her husband; but her simple faith had been +unwavering, and she had entered into rest without fear or misgiving. + +Not so her husband. He had his spiritual ups and downs, but, like herself, +was reticent. While she lived, only a heavy storm kept them from "going to +meeting," but with Holcroft worship was often little more than a form, his +mind being on the farm and its interests. Parents and relatives had died, and +the habit of seclusion from neighborhood and church life had grown upon them +gradually and almost unconsciously. + +For a long time after his wife's death Holcroft had felt that he did not wish +to see anyone who would make references to his loss. + +He shrank from formal condolences as he would from the touch of a diseased +nerve. When the minister called, he listened politely but silently to a +general exhortation; then muttered, when left alone, "It's all as he says, I +suppose; but somehow his words are like the medicines Bessie took--they don't +do any good." + +He kept up the form of his faith and a certain vague hope until the night on +which he drove forth the Irish revelers from his home. In remembrance of his +rage and profanity on that occasion, he silently and in dreary misgiving +concluded that he should not, even to himself, keep up the pretense of +religion any longer. "I've fallen from grace--that is, if I ever had any"--was +a thought which did much to rob him of courage to meet his other trials. +Whenever he dwelt on these subjects, doubts, perplexities, and resentment at +his misfortunes so thronged his mind that he was appalled; so he strove to +occupy himself with the immediate present. + +Today, however, in recalling the past, his thoughts would question the future +and the outcome of his experiences. In accordance with his simple, downright +nature, he muttered, "I might as well face the truth and have done with it. I +don't know whether I'll ever see my wife again or not; I don't know whether +God is for me or against me. Sometimes, I half think there isn't any God. I +don't know what will become of me when I die. I'm sure of only one +thing--while I do live I could take comfort in working the old place." + +In brief, without ever having heard of the term, he was an agnostic, but not +one of the self-complacent, superior type who fancy that they have developed +themselves beyond the trammels of faith and are ever ready to make the world +aware of their progress. + +At last he recognized that his long reverie was leading to despondency and +weakness; he rose, shook himself half angrily, and strode toward the house. +"I'm here, and here I'm going to stay," he growled. "As long as I'm on my own +land, it's nobody's business what I am or how I feel. If I can't get decent, +sensible women help, I'll close up my dairy and live here alone. I certainly +can make enough to support myself." + +Jane met him with a summons to dinner, looking apprehensively at his stern, +gloomy face. Mrs. Mumpson did not appear. "Call her," he said curtly. + +The literal Jane returned from the parlor and said unsympathetically, "She's +got a hank'chif to her eyes and says she don't want no dinner." + +"Very well," he replied, much relieved. + +Apparently he did not want much dinner, either, for he soon started out again. +Mrs. Wiggins was not utterly wanting in the intuitions of her sex, and said +nothing to break in upon her master's abstraction. + +In the afternoon Holcroft visited every nook and corner of his farm, laying +out, he hoped, so much occupation for both hands and thoughts as to render him +proof against domestic tribulations. + +He had not been gone long before Mrs. Mumpson called in a plaintive voice, +"Jane!" + +The child entered the parlor warily, keeping open a line of retreat to the +door. "You need not fear me," said her mother, rocking pathetically. "My +feelings are so hurt and crushed that I can only bemoan the wrongs from which +I suffer. You little know, Jane, you little know a mother's heart." + +"No," assented Jane. "I dunno nothin' about it." + +"What wonder, then that I weep, when even my child is so unnatural!" + +"I dunno how to be anything else but what I be," replied the girl in +self-defense. + +"If you would only yield more to my guidance and influence, Jane, the future +might be brighter for us both. If you had but stored up the Fifth Commandment +in memory--but I forbear. You cannot so far forget your duty as not to tell +me how HE behaved at dinner." + +"He looked awful glum, and hardly said a word." + +"Ah-h!" exclaimed the widow, "the spell is working." + +"If you aint a-workin' tomorrow, there'll be a worse spell," the girl +remarked. + +"That will do, Jane, that will do. You little understand--how should you? +Please keep an eye on him, and let me know how he looks and what he is doing, +and whether his face still wears a gloomy or a penitent aspect. Do as I bid +you, Jane, and you may unconsciously secure your own well-being by obedience." + +Watching anyone was a far more congenial task to the child than learning the +Commandments, and she hastened to comply. Moreover, she had the strongest +curiosity in regard to Holcroft herself. She felt that he was the arbiter of +her fate. So untaught was she that delicacy and tact were unknown qualities. +Her one hope of pleasing was in work. She had no power of guessing that sly +espionage would counterbalance such service. Another round of visiting was +dreaded above all things; she was, therefore, exceedingly anxious about the +future. "Mother may be right," she thought. "P'raps she can make him marry +her, so we needn't go away any more. P'raps she's taken the right way to +bring a man around and get him hooked, as Cousin Lemuel said. If I was goin' +to hook a man though, I'd try another plan than mother's. I'd keep my mouth +shut and my eyes open. I'd see what he wanted and do it, even 'fore he spoke. +'Fi's big anuf I bet I could hook a man quicker'n she can by usin' her tongue +'stead of her hands." + +Jane's scheme was not so bad a one but that it might be tried to advantage by +those so disposed. Her matrimonial prospects, however, being still far in the +future, it behooved her to make her present existence as tolerable as +possible. She knew how much depended on Holcroft, and was unaware of any +other method of learning his purposes except that of watching him. Both +fearing and fascinated, she dogged his steps most of the afternoon, but saw +nothing to confirm her mother's view that any spell was working. She scarcely +understood why he looked so long at field, thicket, and woods, as if he saw +something invisible to her. + +In planning future work and improvements, the farmer had attained a quieter +and more genial frame of mind. "When, therefore, he sat down and in glancing +about saw Jane crouching behind a low hemlock, he was more amused than +irritated. He had dwelt on his own interests so long that he was ready to +consider even Jane's for a while. "Poor child!" he thought, "she doesn't know +any better and perhaps has even been taught to do such things. I think I'll +surprise her and draw her out a little. Jane, come here," he called. + +The girl sprang to her feet, and hesitated whether to fly or obey. "Don't be +afraid," added Holcroft. "I won't scold you. Come!" + +She stole toward him like some small, wild, fearful animal in doubt of its +reception. "Sit down there on that rock," he said. + +She obeyed with a sly, sidelong look, and he saw that she kept her feet +gathered under her so as to spring away if he made the slightest hostile +movement. + +"Jane, do you think it's right to watch people so?" he asked gravely. + +"She told me to." + +"Your mother?" + +The girl nodded. + +"But do you think it's right yourself?" + +"Dunno. 'Taint best if you get caught." + +"Well, Jane," said Holcroft, with something like a smile lurking in his +deep-set eyes. "I don't think it's right at all. I don't want you to watch me +any more, no matter who tells you to. Will you promise not to?" + +The child nodded. She seemed averse to speaking when a sign would answer. + +"Can I go now?" she asked after a moment. + +"Not yet. I want to ask you some questions. Was anyone ever kind to you?" + +"I dunno. I suppose so." + +"What would you call being kind to you?" + +"Not scoldin' or cuffin' me." + +"If I didn't scold or strike you, would you think I was kind, then?" + +She nodded; but after a moment's thought, said, "and if you didn't look as if +you hated to see me round." + +"Do you think I've been kind to you?" + +"Kinder'n anybody else. You sorter look at me sometimes as if I was a rat. I +don't s'pose you can help it, and I don't mind. I'd ruther stay here and work +than go a-visitin' again. Why can't I work outdoors when there's nothin' for +me to do in the house?" + +"Are you willing to work--to do anything you can?" + +Jane was not sufficiently politic to enlarge on her desire for honest toil and +honest bread; she merely nodded. Holcroft smiled as he asked, "Why are you so +anxious to work?" + +"'Cause I won't feel like a stray cat in the house then. I want to be +some'ers where I've a right to be." + +"Wouldn't they let you work down at Lemuel Weeks'?" She shook her head. + +"Why not?" he asked. + +"They said I wasn't honest; they said they couldn't trust me with things, +'cause when I was hungry I took things to eat." + +"Was that the way you were treated at other places?" + +"Mostly." + +"Jane," asked Holcroft very kindly, "did anyone ever kiss you?" + +"Mother used to 'fore people. It allus made me kinder sick." + +Holcroft shook his head as if this child was a problem beyond him, and for a +time they sat together in silence. At last he arose and said, "It's time to +go home. Now, Jane, don't follow me; walk openly at my side, and when you +come to call me at any time, come openly, make a noise, whistle or sing as a +child ought. As long as you are with me, never do anything on the sly, and +we'll get along well enough." + +She nodded and walked beside him. At last, as if emboldened by his words, she +broke out, "Say, if mother married you, you couldn't send us away, could you?" + +"Why do you ask such a question?" said Holcroft, frowning. + +"I was a-thinkin'--" + +"Well," he interrupted sternly, "never think or speak of such things again." + +The child had a miserable sense that she had angered him; she was also +satisfied that her mother's schemes would be futile, and she scarcely spoke +again that day. + +Holcroft was more than angry; he was disgusted. That Mrs. Mumpson's design +upon him was so offensively open that even this ignorant child understood it, +and was expected to further it, caused such a strong revulsion in his mind +that he half resolved to put them both in his market wagon on the morrow and +take them back to their relatives. His newly awakened sympathy for Jane +quickly vanished. If the girl and her mother had been repulsive from the +first, they were now hideous, in view of their efforts to fasten themselves +upon him permanently. Fancy, then, the climax in his feelings when, as they +passed the house, the front door suddenly opened and Mrs. Mumpson emerged with +clasped hands and the exclamation, "Oh, how touching! Just like father and +child!" + +Without noticing the remark he said coldly as he passed, "Jane, go help Mrs. +Wiggins get supper." + +His anger and disgust grew so strong as he hastily did his evening work that +he resolved not to endanger his self-control by sitting down within earshot of +Mrs. Mumpson. As soon as possible, therefore, he carried the new stove to his +room and put it up. The widow tried to address him as he passed in and out, +but he paid no heed to her. At last, he only paused long enough at the +kitchen door to say, "Jane, bring me some supper to my room. Remember, you +only are to bring it." + +Bewildered and abashed, Mrs. Mumpson rocked nervously. "I had looked for +relentings this evening, a general softening," she murmured, "and I don't +understand his bearing toward me." Then a happy thought struck her. "I see, I +see," she cried softly and ecstatically: "He is struggling with himself; he +finds that he must either deny himself my society or yield at once. The end +is near." + +A little later she, too, appeared at the kitchen door and said, with serious +sweetness, "Jane, you can also bring me MY supper to the parlor." + +Mrs. Wiggins shook with mirth in all her vast proportions as she remarked, +"Jane, ye can bring me MY supper from the stove to the table 'ere, and then +vait hon yeself." + + +Chapter XIII. Not Wife, But Waif + +Tom Watterly's horse was the pride of his heart. It was a bobtailed, rawboned +animal, but, as Tom complacently remarked to Alida, "He can pass about +anything on the road"--a boast that he let no chance escape of verifying. It +was a terrible ordeal to the poor woman to go dashing through the streets in +an open wagon, feeling that every eye was upon her. With head bowed down, she +employed her failing strength in holding herself from falling out, yet almost +wishing that she might be dashed against some object that would end her +wretched life. It finally occurred to Tom that the woman at his side might +not, after her recent experience, share in his enthusiasm, and he pulled up +remarking, with a rough effort at sympathy, "It's a cussed shame you've been +treated so, and as soon as you're ready, I'll help you get even with the +scamp." + +"I'm not well, sir," said Alida humbly. "I only ask for a quiet place where I +can rest till strong enough to do some kind of work." + +"Well, well," said Tom kindly, "don't lose heart. We'll do the best by you we +can. That aint saying very much, though, for we're full and running over." + +He soon drew rein at the poorhouse door and sprang out. "I--I--feel strange," +Alida gasped. + +Tom caught the fainting woman in his arms and shouted, "Here, Bill, Joe! You +lazy loons, where are you?" + +Three or four half wrecks of men shuffled to his assistance, and together they +bore the unconscious woman to the room which was used as a sort of hospital. +Some old crones gathered around with such restoratives as they had at command. +Gradually the stricken woman revived, but as the whole miserable truth came +back, she turned her face to the wall with a sinking of heart akin to despair. +At last, from sheer exhaustion, feverish sleep ensued, from which she often +started with moans and low cries. One impression haunted her--she was +falling, ever falling into a dark, bottomless abyss. + +Hours passed in the same partial stupor, filled with phantoms and horrible +dreams. Toward evening, she aroused herself mechanically to take the broth +Mrs. Watterly ordered her to swallow, then relapsed into the same lethargy. +Late in the night, she became conscious that someone was kneeling at her +bedside and fondling her. She started up with a slight cry. + +"Don't be afraid; it's only me, dear," said a quavering voice. + +In the dim rays of a night lamp, Alida saw an old woman with gray hair falling +about her face and on her night robe. At first, in her confused, feverish +impressions, the poor waif was dumb with superstitious awe, and trembled +between joy and fear. Could her mother have come to comfort her in her sore +extremity? + +"Put yer head on me ould withered breast," said the apparition, "an' ye'll +know a mither's heart niver changes. I"ve been a-lookin' for ye and expectin' +ye these long, weary years, They said ye wouldn't come back--that I'd niver +find ye ag'in; but I knowed I wud, and here ye are in me arms, me darlint. +Don't draw away from yer ould mither. Don't ye be afeard or 'shamed loike. +No matter what ye've done or where ye've been or who ye've been with, a +mither's heart welcomes ye back jist the same as when yes were a babby an' +slept on me breast. A mither's heart ud quench the fires o' hell. I'd go +inter the burnin' flames o' the pit an' bear ye out in me arms. So niver +fear. Now that I've found ye, ye're safe. Ye'll not run away from me ag'in. +I'll hould ye--I'll hould ye back," and the poor creature clasped Alida with +such conclusive energy that she screamed from pain and terror. + +"Ye shall not get away from me, ye shall not go back to evil ways. Whist, +whist! Be aisy and let me plead wid ye. Think how many long, weary years +I've looked for ye and waited for ye. Niver have I slept night or day in me +watchin'. Ye may be so stained an' lost an' ruined that the whole wourld will +scorn ye, yet not yer mither, not yer ould mither. Oh, Nora, Nora, why did ye +rin away from me? Wasn't I koind? No, no; ye cannot lave me ag'in," and she +threw herself on Alida, whose disordered mind was tortured by what she heard. +Whether or not it was a more terrible dream than had yet oppressed her, she +scarcely knew, but in the excess of her nervous horror she sent out a cry that +echoed in every part of the large building. Two old women rushed in and +dragged Alida's persecutor screaming away. + +"That's allus the way o' it," she shrieked. "As soon as I find me Nora they +snatches me and carries me off, and I have to begin me watchin' and waitin' +and lookin' ag'in." + +Alida continued sobbing and trembling violently. One of the awakened patients +sought to assure her by saying, "Don't mind it so, miss. It's only old crazy +Kate. Her daughter ran away from her years and years ago--how many no one +knows--and when a young woman's brought here she thinks it's her lost Nora. +They oughtn't 'a' let her get out, knowin' you was here." + +For several days Alida's reason wavered. The nervous shock of her sad +experiences had been so great that it did not seem at all improbable that she, +like the insane mother, might be haunted for the rest of her life by an +overwhelming impression of something lost. In her morbid, shaken mind she +confounded the wrong she had received with guilt on her own part. Eventually, +she grew calmer and more sensible. Although her conscience acquitted her of +intentional evil, nothing could remove the deep-rooted conviction that she was +shamed beyond hope of remedy. For a time she was unable to rally from nervous +prostration; meanwhile, her mind was preternaturally active, presenting every +detail of the past until she was often ready to cry aloud in her despair. + +Tom Watterly took an unusual interest in her case and exhorted the visiting +physician to do his best for her. She finally began to improve, and with the +first return of strength sought to do something with her feeble hands. The +bread of charity was not sweet. + +Although the place in which she lodged was clean, and the coarse, unvarying +fare abundant, she shrank shuddering, with each day's clearer consciousness, +from the majority of those about her. Phases of life of which she had +scarcely dreamed were the common topics of conversation. In her mother she +had learned to venerate gray hairs, and it was an awful shock to learn that so +many of the feeble creatures about her were coarse, wicked, and evil-disposed. +How could their withered lips frame the words they spoke? How could they +dwell on subjects that were profanation, even to such wrecks of womanhood as +themselves? + +Moreover, they persecuted her by their curiosity. The good material in her +apparel had been examined and commented on; her wedding ring had been seen and +its absence soon noted, for Alida, after gaining the power to recall the past +fully, had thrown away the metal lie, feeling that it was the last link in a +chain binding her to a loathed and hated relationship. Learning from their +questions that the inmates of the almshouse did not know her history, she +refused to reveal it, thus awakening endless surmises. Many histories were +made for her, the beldams vying with each other in constructing the worst one. +Poor Alida soon learned that there was public opinion even in an almshouse, +and that she was under its ban. In dreary despondency she thought, "They've +found out about me. If such creatures as these think I'm hardly fit to speak +to, how can I ever find work among good, respectable people?" + +Her extreme depression, the coarse, vulgar, and uncharitable natures by which +she was surrounded, retarded her recovery. By her efforts to do anything in +her power for others she disarmed the hostility of some of the women, and +those that were more or less demented became fond of her; but the majority +probed her wound by every look and word. She was a saint compared with any of +these, yet they made her envy their respectability. She often thought, "Would +to God that I was as old and ready to die as the feeblest woman here, if I +could only hold up my head like her!" + +One day a woman who had a child left it sleeping in its rude wooden cradle and +went downstairs. The babe wakened and began to cry. Alida took it up and +found a strange solace in rocking it to sleep again upon her breast. At last +the mother returned, glared a moment into Alida's appealing eyes, then +snatched the child away with the cruel words, "Don't ye touch my baby ag'in! +To think it ud been in the arms o' the loikes o'ye!" + +Alida went away and sobbed until her strength was gone. She found that there +were some others ostracized like herself, but they accepted their position as +a matter of course--as if it belonged to them and was the least of their +troubles. + +Her strength was returning, yet she was still feeble when she sent for Mrs. +Watterly and asked, "Do you think I'm strong enough to take a place +somewhere?" + +"You ought to know that better than me," was the chilly reply. + +"Do you--do you think I could get a place? I would be willing to do any kind +of honest work not beyond my strength." + +"You hardly look able to sit up straight. Better wait till you're stronger. +I'll tell my husband. If applications come, he'll see about it," and she +turned coldly away. + +A day or two later Tom came and said brusquely, but not unkindly, "Don't like +my hotel, hey? What can you do?" + +"I'm used to sewing, but I'd try to do almost anything by which I could earn +my living." + +"Best thing to do is to prosecute that scamp and make him pay you a good round +sum." + +She shook her head decidedly. "I don't wish to see him again. I don't wish to +go before people and have the--the--past talked about. I'd like a place with +some kind, quiet people who keep no other help. Perhaps they wouldn't take me +if they knew; but I would be so faithful to them, and try so heard to learn +what they wanted--" + +"That's all nonsense, their not taking you. I'll find you a place some day, +but you're not strong enough yet. You'd be brought right back here. You're +as pale as a ghost--almost look like one. So don't be impatient, but give me +a chance to find you a good place. I feel sorry for you, and don't want you +to get among folks that have no feelings. Don't you worry now; chirk up, and +you'll come out all right." + +"I--I think that if--if I'm employed, the people who take me ought to know," +said Alida with bowed head. + +"They'll be blamed fools if they don't think more of you when they do know," +was his response. "Still, that shall be as you please. I've told only my +wife, and they've kept mum at the police station, so the thing hasn't got into +the papers." + +Alida's head bowed lower still as she replied, "I thank you. My only wish now +is to find some quiet place in which I can work and be left to myself." + +"Very well," said Tom good-naturedly. "Cheer up! I'll be on the lookout for +you." + +She turned to the window near which she was sitting to hide the tears which +his rough kindness evoked. "He don't seem to shrink from me as if I wasn't fit +to be spoken to," she thought; "but his wife did. I'm afraid people won't +take me when they know." + +The April sunshine poured in at the window; the grass was becoming green; a +robin alighted on a tree nearby and poured out a jubilant song. For a few +moments hope, that had been almost dead in her heart, revived. As she looked +gratefully at the bird, thanking it in her heart for the song, it darted upon +a string hanging on an adjacent spray and bore it to a crotch between two +boughs. Then Alida saw it was building a nest. Her woman's heart gave way. +"Oh," she moaned, "I shall never have a home again! No place shared by one +who cares for me. To work, and to be tolerated for the sake of my work, is +all that's left." + + +Chapter XIV. A Pitched Battle + +It was an odd household under Holcroft's roof on the evening of the Sunday we +have described. The farmer, in a sense, had "taken sanctuary" in his own +room, that he might escape the maneuvering wiles of his tormenting +housekeeper. If she would content herself with general topics he would try to +endure her foolish, high-flown talk until the three months expired; but that +she should speedily and openly take the initiative in matrimonial designs was +proof of such an unbalanced mind that he was filled with nervous dread. +"Hanged if one can tell what such a silly, hairbrained woman will do next!" he +thought, as he brooded by the fire. "Sunday or no Sunday, I feel as if I'd +like to take my horsewhip and give Lemuel Weeks a piece of my mind." + +Such musings did not promise well for Mrs. Mumpson, scheming in the parlor +below; but, as we have seen, she had the faculty of arranging all future +events to her mind. That matters had not turned out in the past as she had +expected, counted for nothing. She was one who could not be taught, even by +experience. The most insignificant thing in Holcroft's dwelling had not +escaped her scrutiny and pretty accurate guess as to value, yet she could not +see or understand the intolerable disgust and irritation which her ridiculous +conduct excited. In a weak mind egotism and selfishness, beyond a certain +point, pass into practical insanity. All sense of delicacy, of the fitness of +things, is lost; even the power to consider the rights and feelings of others +is wanting. Unlike poor Holcroft, Mrs. Mumpson had few misgivings in regard +to coming years. As she rocked unceasingly before the parlor fire, she +arranged everything in regard to his future as well as her own. + +Jane, quite forgotten, was oppressed with a miserable presentiment of evil. +Her pinched but intense little mind was concentrated on two facts--Holcroft's +anger and her mother's lack of sense. From such premises it did not take her +long to reason out but one conclusion--"visitin' again;" and this was the +summing up of all evils. Now and then a tear would force its way out of one +of her little eyes, but otherwise she kept her troubles to herself. + +Mrs. Wiggins was the only complacent personage in the house, and she unbent +with a garrulous affability to Jane, which could be accounted for in but one +way--Holcroft had forgotten about his cider barrel, thereby unconsciously +giving her the chance to sample its contents freely. She was now smoking her +pipe with much content, and indulging in pleasing reminiscences which the +facts of her life scarcely warranted. + +"Ven hi vas as leetle a gal as ye are," she began, and then she related +experiences quite devoid of the simplicity and innocence of childhood. The +girl soon forgot her fears and listened with avidity until the old dame's face +grew heavier, if possible, with sleep, and she stumbled off to bed. + +Having no wish to see or speak to her mother again, the child blew out the +candle and stole silently up the stairway. At last Mrs. Mumpson took her +light and went noisily around, seeing to the fastenings of doors and windows. +"I know he is listening to every sound from me, and he shall learn what a +caretaker I am," she murmured softly. + +Once out of doors in the morning, with his foot on the native heath of his +farm, Holcroft's hopefulness and courage always returned. He was half angry +with himself at his nervous irritation of the evening before. "If she becomes +so cranky that I can't stand her, I'll pay the three months' wages and clear +her out," he had concluded, and he went about his morning work with a grim +purpose to submit to very little nonsense. + +Cider is akin to vinegar, and Mrs. Wiggins' liberal potations of the evening +before had evidently imparted a marked acidity to her temper. She laid hold +of the kitchen utensils as if she had a spite against them, and when Jane, +confiding in her friendliness shown so recently, came down to assist, she was +chased out of doors with language we forbear to repeat. Mrs. Mumpson, +therefore, had no intimation of the low state of the barometer in the region +of the kitchen. "I have taken time to think deeply and calmly," she murmured. +"The proper course has been made clear to me. He is somewhat uncouth; he is +silent and unable to express his thoughts and emotions--in brief, undeveloped; +he is awfully irreligious. Moth and rust are busy in this house; much that +would be so useful is going to waste. He must learn to look upon me as the +developer, the caretaker, a patient and healthful embodiment of female +influence. I will now begin actively my mission of making him an ornerment to +society. That mountainous Mrs. Viggins must be replaced by a deferential girl +who will naturally look up to me. How can I be a true caretaker--how can I +bring repose and refinement to this dwelling with two hundred pounds of female +impudence in my way? Mr. Holcroft shall see that Mrs. Viggins is an unseemly +and jarring discord in our home," and she brought the rocking chair from the +parlor to the kitchen, with a serene and lofty air. Jane hovered near the +window, watching. + +At first, there was an ominous silence in respect to words. Portentous sounds +increased, however, for Mrs. Wiggins strode about with martial tread, making +the boards creak and the dishes clatter, while her red eyes shot lurid and +sanguinary gleams. She would seize a dipper as if it were a foe, slamming it +upon the table again as if striking an enemy. Under her vigorous +manipulation, kettles and pans resounded with reports like firearms. + +Mrs. Mumpson was evidently perturbed; her calm superiority was forsaking her; +every moment she rocked faster--a sure indication that she was not at peace. +At last she said, with great dignity: "Mrs. Viggins, I must request you to +perform your tasks with less clamor. My nerves are not equal to this peculiar +way of taking up and laying down things." + +"Vell, jes' ye vait a minute, han hi'll show ye 'ow hi kin take hup things han +put 'em down hag'in hout o' my vay," and before Mrs. Mumpson could interfere, +she found herself lifted, chair and all bodily, and carried to the parlor. +Between trepidation and anger, she could only gasp during the transit, and +when left in the middle of the parlor floor she looked around in utter +bewilderment. + +It so happened that Holcroft, on his way from the barn, had seen Jane looking +in at the window, and, suspecting something amiss, had arrived just in time +for the spectacle. Convulsed with laughter, he returned hastily to the barn; +while Jane expressed her feelings, whatever they were, by executing something +like a hornpipe before the window. + +Mrs. Mumpson, however, was not vanquished. She had only made a compulsory +retreat from the scene of hostilities; and, after rallying her shattered +faculties, advanced again with the chair. "How dared you, you disreputerble +female?" she began. + +Mrs. Wiggins turned slowly and ominously upon her. "Ye call me a disrupterbul +female hag'in, han ye vont find hit 'ealthy." + +Mrs. Mumpson prudently backed toward the door before delivering her return +fire. + +"Woman!" she cried, "are you out of your mind? Don't you know I'm housekeeper +here, and that it's my duty to superintend you and your work?" + +"Vell, then, hi'll double ye hup hand put ye hon the shelf hof the dresser +han' lock the glass door hon ye. From hup there ye kin see all that's goin' +hon and sup'intend to yer 'eart's content," and she started for her superior +officer. + +Mrs. Mumpson backed so precipitately with her chair that it struck against the +door case, and she sat down hard. Seeing that Mrs. Wiggins was almost upon +her, she darted back into the parlor, leaving the chair as a trophy in the +hands of her enemy. Mrs. Wiggins was somewhat appeased by this second +triumph, and with the hope of adding gall and bitterness to Mrs. Mumpson's +defeat, she took the chair to her rival's favorite rocking place, lighted her +pipe, and sat down in grim complacency. Mrs. Mumpson warily approached to +recover a support which, from long habit, had become moral as well as +physical, and her indignation knew no bounds when she saw it creaking under +the weight of her foe. It must be admitted, however, that her ire was not so +great that she did not retain the "better part of valor," for she stepped +back, unlocked the front door, and set it ajar. On returning, she opened with +a volubility that awed even Mrs. Wiggins for a moment. "You miserable, +mountainous pauper; you interloper; you unrefined, irresponserble, +unregenerate female, do you know what you have done in thus outraging ME? I'm +a respecterble woman, respecterbly connected. I'm here in a responserble +station. When Mr. Holcroft appears he'll drive you from the dwelling which +you vulgarize. Your presence makes this apartment a den. You are a wild +beast--" + +"Hi'm a vile beastes, ham hi?" cried Mrs. Wiggins, at last stung into action, +and she threw her lighted pipe at the open mouth that was discharging +high-sounding epithets by the score. + +It struck the lintel over the widow's head, was shattered, and sent down upon +her a shower of villainously smelling sparks. Mrs. Mumpson shrieked and +sought frantically to keep her calico wrapper from taking fire. Meanwhile, +Mrs. Wiggins rose and took a step or two that she might assist should there be +any positive danger, for she had not yet reached a point of malignity which +would lead her to witness calmly an auto-da-fe. This was Jane's opportunity. +Mrs. Wiggins had alienated this small and hitherto friendly power, and now, +with a returning impulse of loyalty, it took sides with the weaker party. The +kitchen door was on a crack; the child pushed it noiselessly open, darted +around behind the stove, and withdrew the rocking chair. + +Mrs. Wiggins' brief anxiety and preoccupation passed, and she stepped backward +again to sit down. She did sit down, but with such terrific force that the +stove and nearly everything else in the room threatened to fall with her. She +sat helplessly for a bewildered moment, while Jane, with the chair, danced +before her exclaiming, tauntingly, "That's for chasing me out as if I was a +cat!" + +"Noo hi'll chase ye both hout," cried the ireful Wiggins, scrambling to her +feet. She made good her threat, for Holcroft, a moment later, saw mother and +daughter, the latter carrying the chair, rushing from the front door, and Mrs. +Wiggins, armed with a great wooden spoon, waddling after them, her +objurgations mingling with Mrs. Mumpson's shrieks and Jane's shrill laughter. +The widow caught a glimpse of him standing in the barn door, and, as if borne +by the wind, she flew toward him, crying, "He shall be my protector!" + +He barely had time to whisk through a side door and close it after him. The +widow's impetuous desire to pant out the story of her wrongs carried her into +the midst of the barnyard, where she was speedily confronted by an unruly +young heifer that could scarcely be blamed for hostility to such a +wild-looking object. + +The animal shook its head threateningly as it advanced. Again the widow's +shrieks resounded. This time Holcroft was about to come to the rescue, when +the beleaguered woman made a dash for the top of the nearest fence, reminding +her amused looker-on of the night of her arrival when she had perched like +some strange sort of bird on the wagon wheel. + +Seeing that she was abundantly able to escape alone, the farmer remained in +concealment. Although disgusted and angry at the scenes taking place, he was +scarcely able to restrain roars of laughter. Perched upon the fence, the +widow called piteously for him to lift her down, but he was not to be caught +by any such device. At last, giving up hope and still threatened by the +heifer, she went over on the other side. Knowing that she must make a detour +before reaching the dwelling, Holcroft went thither rapidly with the purpose +of restoring order at once. "Jane," he said sternly, "take that chair to the +parlor and leave it there. Let there be no more such nonsense." + +At his approach, Mrs. Wiggins had retreated sullenly to the kitchen. "Come," +he ordered good-naturedly, "hasten breakfast and let there be no more +quarreling." + +"Hif hi vas left to do me work hin peace--" she began. + +"Well, you shall do it in peace." + +At this moment Mrs. Mumpson came tearing in, quite oblivious of the fact that +she had left a goodly part of her calico skirt on a nail of the fence. She +was rushing toward Holcroft, when he said sternly, and with a repellent +gesture, "Stop and listen to me. If there's any more of this quarreling like +cats and dogs in my house, I'll send for the constable and have you all +arrested. If you are not all utterly demented and hopeless fools, you will +know that you came here to do my work, and nothing else." Then catching a +glimpse of Mrs. Mumpson's dress, and fearing he should laugh outright, he +turned abruptly on his heel and went to his room, where he was in a divided +state between irrepressible mirth and vexation. + +Mrs. Mumpson also fled to her room. She felt that the proper course for her +at this juncture was a fit of violent hysterics; but a prompt douche from the +water pitcher, administered by the unsympathetic Jane, effectually checked the +first symptoms. "Was ever a respecterble woman--" + +"You aint respectable," interrupted the girl, as she departed. "You look like +a scarecrow. 'Fi's you I'd begin to show some sense now." + + +Chapter XV. "What is to Become of Me?" + +Holcroft's reference to a constable and arrest, though scarcely intended to be +more than a vague threat, had the effect of clearing the air like a clap of +thunder. Jane had never lost her senses, such as she possessed, and Mrs. +Wiggins recovered hers sufficiently to apologize to the farmer when he came +down to breakfast. "But that Mumpson's hawfully haggravatin', master, as ye +know yeself, hi'm a-thinkin'. Vud ye jis tell a body vat she is 'here, han +'ow hi'm to get hon vith 'er. Hif hi'm to take me horders from 'er, hi'd +ruther go back to the poor-'us." + +"You are to take your orders from me and no one else. All I ask is that you +go on quietly with your work and pay no attention to her. You know well +enough that I can't have such goings on. I want you to let Jane help you and +learn her to do everything as far as she can. Mrs. Mumpson can do the mending +and ironing, I suppose. At any rate, I won't have any more quarreling and +uproar. I'm a quiet man and intend to have a quiet house. You and Jane can +get along very well in the kitchen, and you say you understand the dairy +work." + +"Vell hi does, han noo hi've got me horders hi'll go right along." + +Mrs. Mumpson was like one who had been rudely shaken out of a dream, and she +appeared to have sense enough to realize that she couldn't assume so much at +first as she anticipated. She received from Jane a cup of coffee, and said +feebly, "I can partake of no more after the recent trying events." + +For some hours she was a little dazed, but her mind was of too light weight to +be long cast down. Jane rehearsed Holcroft's words, described his manner, and +sought with much insistence to show her mother that she must drop her nonsense +at once. "I can see it in his eye," said the girl, "that he won't stand much +more. If yer don't come down and keep yer hands busy and yer tongue still, +we'll tramp. As to his marrying you, bah! He'd jes' as soon marry Mrs. +Wiggins." + +This was awful prose, but Mrs. Mumpson was too bewildered and discouraged for +a time to dispute it, and the household fell into a somewhat regular routine. +The widow appeared at her meals with the air of a meek and suffering martyr; +Holcroft was exceedingly brief in his replies to her questions, and paid no +heed to her remarks. After supper and his evening work, he went directly to +his room. Every day, however, he secretly chafed with ever-increasing +discontent, over this tormenting presence in his house. The mending and such +work as she attempted was so wretchedly performed that it would better have +been left undone. She was also recovering her garrulousness, and mistook his +toleration and her immunity in the parlor for proof of a growing +consideration. "He knows that my hands were never made for such coarse, menial +tasks as that Viggins does," she thought, as she darned one of his stockings +in a way that would render it almost impossible for him to put his foot into +it again. "The events of last Monday morning were unfortunate, unforeseen, +unprecedented. I was unprepared for such vulgar, barbarous, unheard-of +proceedings--taken off my feet, as it were; but now that he's had time to +think it all over, he sees that I am not a common woman like Viggins,"--Mrs. +Mumpson would have suffered rather than have accorded her enemy the prefix of +Mrs.,--"who is only fit to be among pots and kettles. He leaves me in the +parlor as if a refined apartment became me and I became it. Time and my +influence will mellow, soften, elevate, develop, and at last awaken a desire +for my society, then yearnings. My first error was in not giving myself time +to make a proper impression. He will soon begin to yield like the earth +without. First it is hard and frosty, then it is cold and muddy, if I may +permit myself so disagreeable an illustration. Now he is becoming mellow, and +soon every word I utter will be like good seed in good ground. How aptly it +all fits! I have only to be patient." + +She was finally left almost to utter idleness, for Jane and Mrs. Wiggins +gradually took from the incompetent hands even the light tasks which she had +attempted. She made no protest, regarding all as another proof that Holcroft +was beginning to recognize her superiority and unfitness for menial tasks. +She would maintain, however, her character as the caretaker and ostentatiously +inspected everything; she also tried to make as much noise in fastening up the +dwelling at night as if she were barricading a castle. Holcroft would listen +grimly, well aware that no house had been entered in Oakville during his +memory. He had taken an early occasion to say at the table that he wished no +one to enter his room except Jane, and that he would not permit any +infringement of this rule. Mrs. Mumpson's feelings had been hurt at first by +this order, but she soon satisfied herself that it had been meant for Mrs. +Wiggins' benefit and not her own. She found, however, that Jane interpreted +it literally. "If either of you set foot in that room, I'll tell him," she +said flatly. "I've had my orders and I'm a-goin' to obey. There's to be no +more rummagin'. If you'll give me the keys I'll put things back in order +ag'in." + +"Well, I won't give you the keys. I'm the proper person to put things in +order if you did not replace them properly. You are just making an excuse to +rummage yourself. My motive for inspecting is very different from yours." + +"Shouldn't wonder if you was sorry some day," the girl had remarked, and so +the matter had dropped and been forgotten. + +Holcroft solaced himself with the fact that Jane and Mrs. Wiggins served his +meals regularly and looked after the dairy with better care than it had +received since his wife died. "If I had only those two in the house, I could +get along first-rate," he thought. "After the three months are up, I'll try to +make such an arrangement. I'd pay the mother and send her off now, but if I +did, Lemuel Weeks would put her up to a lawsuit." + +April days brought the longed-for plowing and planting, and the farmer was so +busy and absorbed in his work that Mrs. Mumpson had less and less place in his +thoughts, even as a thorn in the flesh. One bright afternoon, however, chaos +came again unexpectedly. Mrs. Wiggins did not suggest a volatile creature, +yet such, alas! she was. She apparently exhaled and was lost, leaving no +trace. The circumstances of her disappearance permit of a very matter-of-fact +and not very creditable explanation. On the day in question she prepared an +unusually good dinner, and the farmer had enjoyed it in spite of Mrs. +Mumpson's presence and desultory remarks. The morning had been fine and he +had made progress in his early spring work. Mrs. Wiggins felt that her hour +and opportunity had come. Following him to the door, she said in a low tone +and yet with a decisive accent, as if she was claiming a right, "Master, hi'd +thank ye for me two weeks' wages." + +He unsuspectingly and unhesitatingly gave it to her, thinking, "That's the way +with such people. They want to be paid often and be sure of their money. +She'll work all the better for having it." + +Mrs. Wiggins knew the hour when the stage passed the house; she had made up a +bundle without a very close regard to meum or tuum, and was ready to flit. +The chance speedily came. + +The "caretaker" was rocking in the parlor and would disdain to look, while +Jane had gone out to help plant some early potatoes on a warm hillside. The +coast was clear. Seeing the stage coming, the old woman waddled down the lane +at a remarkable pace, paid her fare to town, and the Holcroft kitchen knew her +no more. + +That she found the "friend" she had wished to see on her way out to the farm, +and that this friend brought her quickly under Tom Watterly's care again, goes +without saying. + +As the shadows lengthened and the robins became tuneful, Holcroft said, +"You've done well, Jane. Thank you. Now you can go back to the house." + +The child soon returned in breathless haste to the field where the farmer was +covering the potato pieces she had dropped, and cried, "Mrs. Wiggins's gone!" + +Like a flash the woman's motive in asking for her wages occurred to him, but +he started for the house to assure himself of the truth. "Perhaps she's in the +cellar," he said, remembering the cider barrel, "or else she's out for a +walk." + +"No, she aint," persisted Jane. "I've looked everywhere and all over the barn, +and she aint nowhere. Mother haint seen her, nuther." + +With dreary misgivings, Holcroft remembered that he no longer had a practical +ally in the old Englishwoman, and he felt that a new breaking up was coming. +He looked wistfully at Jane, and thought, "I COULD get along with that child +if the other was away. But that can't be; SHE'D visit here indefinitely if +Jane stayed." + +When Mrs. Mumpson learned from Jane of Mrs. Wiggins' disappearance, she was +thrown into a state of strong excitement. She felt that her hour and +opportunity might be near also, and she began to rock very fast. "What else +could he expect of such a female?" she soliloquized. "I've no doubt but she's +taken things, too. He'll now learn my value and what it is to have a +caretaker who will never desert him." + +Spirits and courage rose with the emergency; her thoughts hurried her along +like a dry leaf caught in a March gale. "Yes," she murmured, "the time has +come for me to act, to dare, to show him in his desperate need and hour of +desertion what might be, may be, must be. He will now see clearly the +difference between these peculiar females who come and go, and a respecterble +woman and a mother who can be depended upon--one who will never steal away +like a thief in the night." + +She saw Holcroft approaching the house with Jane; she heard him ascend to Mrs. +Wiggins' room, then return to the kitchen and ejaculate, "Yes, she's gone, +sure enough." + +"Now, ACT!" murmured the widow, and she rushed toward the farmer with clasped +hands, and cried with emotion, "Yes, she's gone; but I'm not gone. You are +not deserted. Jane will minister to you; I will be the caretaker, and our +home will be all the happier because that monstrous creature is absent. Dear +Mr. Holcroft, don't be so blind to your own interests and happiness, don't +remain undeveloped! Everything is wrong here if you would but see it. You +are lonely and desolate. Moth and rust have entered, things in unopened +drawers and closets are molding and going to waste. Yield to true female +influence and--" + +Holcroft had been rendered speechless at first by this onslaught, but the +reference to unopened drawers and closets awakened a sudden suspicion. Had +she dared to touch what had belonged to his wife? "What!" he exclaimed +sharply, interrupting her; then with an expression of disgust and anger, he +passed her swiftly and went to his room. A moment later came the stern +summons, "Jane, come here!" + +"Now you'll see what'll come of that rummagin'," whimpered Jane. "You aint got +no sense at all to go at him so. He's jes' goin' to put us right out," and +she went upstairs as if to execution. + +"Have I failed?" gasped Mrs. Mumpson, and retreating to the chair, she rocked +nervously. + +"Jane," said Holcroft in hot anger, "my wife's things have been pulled out of +her bureau and stuffed back again as if they were no better than dishcloths. +Who did it?" + +The child now began to cry aloud. + +"There, there!" he said, with intense irritation, "I can't trust you either." + +"I haint--touched 'em--since you told me--told me--not to do things on the +sly," the girl sobbed brokenly; but he had closed the door upon her and did +not hear. + +He could have forgiven her almost anything but this. Since she only had been +permitted to take care of his room, he naturally thought that she had +committed the sacrilege, and her manner had confirmed this impression. Of +course, the mother had been present and probably had assisted; but he had +expected nothing better of her. + +He took the things out, folded and smoothed them as carefully as he could with +his heavy hands and clumsy fingers. His gentle, almost reverent touch was in +strange contrast with his flushed, angry face and gleaming eyes. "This is the +worst that's happened yet," he muttered. "Oh, Lemuel Weeks! It's well you are +not here now, or we might both have cause to be sorry. It was you who put +these prying, and for all I know, thieving creatures into my house, and it was +as mean a trick as ever one man played another. You and this precious cousin +of yours thought you could bring about a marriage; you put her up to her +ridiculous antics. Faugh! The very thought of it all makes me sick." + +"Oh, mother, what shall I do?" Jane cried, rushing into the parlor and +throwing herself on the floor, "he's goin' to put us right out." + +"He can't put me out before the three months are up," quavered the widow. + +"Yes, he can. We've been a-rummagin' where we'd no bizniss to be. He's mad +enough to do anything; he jes' looks awful; I'm afraid of him." + +"Jane," said her mother plaintively, "I feel indisposed. I think I'll +retire." + +"Yes, that's the way with YOU," sobbed the child. "You get me into the scrape +and now you retire." + +Mrs. Mumpson's confidence in herself and her schemes was terribly shaken. "I +must act very discreetly. I must be alone that I may think over these +untoward events. Mr. Holcroft has been so warped by the past female +influences of his life that there's no counting on his action. He taxes me +sorely," she explained, and then ascended the stairs. + +"Oh! Oh!" moaned the child as she writhed on the floor, "mother aint got no +sense at all. What IS goin' to become of me? I'd ruther hang about his barn +than go back to Cousin Lemuel's or any other cousin's." + +Spurred by one hope, she at last sprung up and went to the kitchen. It was +already growing dark, and she lighted the lamp, kindled the fire, and began +getting supper with breathless energy. + +As far as he could discover, Holcroft was satisfied that nothing had been +taken. In this respect he was right. Mrs. Mumpson's curiosity and +covetousness were boundless, but she would not steal. There are few who do +not draw the line somewhere. + +Having tried to put the articles back as they were before, he locked them up, +and went hastily down and out, feeling that he must regain his self-control +and decide upon his future action at once. "I will then carry out my purposes +in a way that will give the Weeks tribe no chance to make trouble." + +As he passed the kitchen windows he saw Jane rushing about as if possessed, +and he stopped to watch her. It soon became evident that she was trying to +get his supper. His heart relented at once in spite of himself. "The poor, +wronged child!" he muttered. "Why should I be so hard on her for doing what +she's been brought up to do? Well, well, it's too bad to send her away, but I +can't help it. I'd lose my own reason if the mother were here much longer, +and if I kept Jane, her idiotic mother would stay in spite of me. If she +didn't, there'd be endless talk and lawsuits, too, like enough, about +separating parent and child. Jane's too young and little, anyway, to be here +alone and do the work. But I'm sorry for her, I declare I am, and I wish I +could do something to give her a chance in the world. If my wife was only +living, we'd take and bring her up, disagreeable and homely as she is; but +there's no use of my trying to do anything alone. I fear, after all, that I +shall have to give up the old place and go--I don't know where. What is to +become of her?" + + +Chapter XVI. Mrs. Mumpson's Vicissitudes + +Having completed her preparations for supper, Jane stole timidly up to +Holcroft's room to summon him. Her first rap on his door was scarcely +audible, then she ventured to knock louder and finally to call him, but there +was no response. Full of vague dread she went to her mother's room and said, +"He won't answer me. He's so awful mad that I don't know what he'll do." + +"I think he has left his apartment," her mother moaned from the bed. + +"Why couldn't yer tell me so before?" cried Jane. "What yer gone to bed for? +If you'd only show some sense and try to do what he brought you here for, like +enough he'd keep us yet." + +"My heart's too crushed, Jane--" + +"Oh, bother, bother!" and the child rushed away. She looked into the dark +parlor and called, "Mr. Holcroft!" Then she appeared in the kitchen again, +the picture of uncouth distress and perplexity. A moment later she opened the +door and darted toward the barn. + +"What do you wish, Jane?" said Holcroft, emerging from a shadowy corner and +recalling her. + +"Sup--supper's--ready," sobbed the child. + +He came in and sat down at the table, considerately appearing not to notice +her until she had a chance to recover composure. She vigorously used the +sleeve of both arms in drying her eyes, then stole in and found a seat in a +dusky corner. + +"Why don't you come to supper?" he asked quietly. + +"Don't want any." + +"You had better take some up to your mother." + +"She oughtn't to have any." + +"That doesn't make any difference. I want you to take up something to her, +and then come down and eat your supper like a sensible girl." + +"I aint been sensible, nor mother nuther." + +"Do as I say, Jane." The child obeyed, but she couldn't swallow anything but +a little coffee. + +Holcroft was in a quandary. He had not the gift of speaking soothing yet +meaningless words, and was too honest to raise false hopes. He was therefore +almost as silent and embarrassed as Jane herself. To the girl's furtive +scrutiny he did not seem hardened against her, and she at last ventured, "Say, +I didn't touch them drawers after you told me not to do anything on the sly." + +"When were they opened? Tell me the truth, Jane." + +"Mother opened them the first day you left us alone. I told her you wouldn't +like it, but she said she was housekeeper; she said how it was her duty to +inspect everything. I wanted to inspect, too. We was jes' rummagin'--that's +what it was. After the things were all pulled out, mother got the rocker and +wouldn't do anything. It was gettin' late, and I was frightened and poked 'em +back in a hurry. Mother wanted to rummage ag'in the other day and I wouldn't +let her; then, she wouldn't let me have the keys so I could fix 'em up." + +"But the keys were in my pocket, Jane." + +"Mother has a lot of keys. I've told you jes' how it all was." + +"Nothing was taken away?" + +"No. Mother aint got sense, but she never takes things. I nuther 'cept when +I'm hungry. Never took anything here. Say, are you goin' to send us away?' + +"I fear I shall have to, Jane. I'm sorry for you, for I believe you would try +to do the best you could if given a chance, and I can see you never had a +chance." + +"No," said the child, blinking hard to keep the tears out of her eyes. "I aint +had no teachin'. I've jes' kinder growed along with the farm hands and rough +boys. Them that didn't hate me teased me. Say, couldn't I stay in your barn +and sleep in the hay?" + +Holcroft was sorely perplexed and pushed away his half-eaten supper. He knew +himself what it was to be friendless and lonely, and his heart softened toward +this worse than motherless child. + +"Jane," he said kindly, "I'm just as sorry for you as I can be, but you don't +know the difficulties in the way of what you wish, and I fear I can't make you +understand them. Indeed, it would not be best to tell you all of them. If I +could keep you at all, you should stay in the house, and I'd be kind to you, +but it can't be. I may not stay here myself. My future course is very +uncertain. There's no use of my trying to go on as I have. Perhaps some day +I can do something for you, and if I can, I will. I will pay your mother her +three months' wages in full in the morning, and then I want you both to get +your things into your trunk, and I'll take you to your Cousin Lemuel's." + +Driven almost to desperation, Jane suggested the only scheme she could think +of. "If you stayed here and I run away and came back, wouldn't you keep me? +I'd work all day and all night jes' for the sake of stayin'." + +"No, Jane," said Holcroft firmly, "you'd make me no end of trouble if you did +that. If you'll be a good girl and learn how to do things, I'll try to find +you a place among kind people some day when you're older and can act for +yourself." + +"You're afraid 'fi's here mother'd come a-visitin," said the girl keenly. + +"You're too young to understand half the trouble that might follow. My plans +are too uncertain for me to tangle myself up. You and your mother must go +away at once, so I can do what I must do before it's too late in the season. +Here's a couple of dollars which you can keep for yourself," and he went up to +his room, feeling that he could not witness the child's distress any longer. + +He fought hard against despondency and tried to face the actual condition of +his affairs. "I might have known," he thought, "that things would have turned +out somewhat as they have, with such women in the house, and I don't see much +chance of getting better ones. I've been so bent on staying and going on as I +used to that I've just shut my eyes to the facts." He got out an old account +book and pored over it a long time. The entries therein were blind enough, +but at last he concluded, "It's plain that I've lost money on the dairy ever +since my wife died, and the prospects now are worse than ever. That Weeks +tribe will set the whole town talking against me and it will be just about +impossible to get a decent woman to come here. I might as well have an +auction and sell all the cows but one at once. After that, if I find I can't +make out living alone, I'll put the place in better order and sell or rent. I +can get my own meals after a fashion, and old Jonathan Johnson's wife will do +my washing and mending. It's time it was done better than it has been, for +some of my clothes make me look like a scarecrow. I believe Jonathan will +come with his cross dog and stay here too, when I must be away. Well, well, +it's a hard lot for a man; but I'd be about as bad off, and a hundred-fold +more lonely, if I went anywhere else. + +"I can only feel my way along and live a day at a time. I'll learn what can +be done and what can't be. One thing is clear: I can't go on with this Mrs. +Mumpson in the house a day longer. She makes me creep and crawl all over, and +the first thing I know I shall be swearing like a bloody pirate unless I get +rid of her. + +"If she wasn't such a hopeless idiot I'd let her stay for the sake of Jane, +but I won't pay her good wages to make my life a burden a day longer," and +with like self-communings he spent the evening until the habit of early +drowsiness overcame him. + +The morning found Jane dispirited and a little sullen, as older and wiser +people are apt to be when disappointed. She employed herself in getting +breakfast carelessly and languidly, and the result was not satisfactory. + +"Where's your mother?" Holcroft asked when he came in. + +"She told me to tell you she was indisposed." + +"Indisposed to go to Lemuel Weeks'?" + +"I 'spect she means she's sick." + +He frowned and looked suspiciously at the girl. Here was a new complication, +and very possibly a trick. + +"What's the matter with her?" + +"Dunno." + +"Well, she had better get well enough to go by this afternoon," he remarked, +controlling his irritation with difficulty, and nothing more was said. + +Full of his new plans he spent a busy forenoon and then came to dinner. It +was the same old story. He went up and knocked at Mrs. Mumpson's door, saying +that he wished to speak with her. + +"I'm too indisposed to transact business," she replied feebly. + +"You must be ready tomorrow morning," he called. "I have business plans which +can't be delayed," and he turned away muttering rather sulphurous words. + +"He will relent; his hard heart will soften at last--" But we shall not weary +the reader with the long soliloquies with which she beguiled her politic +seclusion, as she regarded it. Poor, unsophisticated Jane made matters worse. +The condition of life among her much-visited relatives now existed again. She +was not wanted, and her old sly, sullen, and furtive manner reasserted itself. +Much of Holcroft's sympathy was thus alienated, yet he partially understood +and pitied her. It became, however, all the more clear that he must get rid +of both mother and child, and that further relations with either of them could +only lead to trouble. + +The following morning only Jane appeared. "Is your mother really sick?" he +asked. + +"S'pose so," was the laconic reply. + +"You haven't taken much pains with the breakfast, Jane." + +"'Taint no use." + +With knitted brows he thought deeply, and silently ate the wretched meal which +had been prepared. Then, remarking that he might do some writing, he went up +to a small attic room which had been used occasionally by a hired man. It +contained a covered pipe-hole leading into the chimney flue. Removing the +cover, he stopped up the flue with an old woolen coat. "I suppose I'll have to +meet tricks with tricks," he muttered. + +Returning to his own apartment, he lighted a fire in the stove and laid upon +the kindling blaze some dampened wood, then went out and quietly hitched his +horses to the wagon. + +The pungent odor of smoke soon filled the house. The cover over the pipe-hole +in Mrs. Mumpson's room was not very secure, and thick volumes began to pour in +upon the startled widow. "Jane!" she shrieked. + +If Jane was sullen toward Holcroft, she was furious at her mother, and paid no +heed at first to her cry. + +"Jane, Jane, the house is on fire!" + +Then the child did fly up the stairway. The smoke seemed to confirm the words +of her mother, who was dressing in hot haste. "Run and tell Mr. Holcroft!" she +cried. + +"I won't," said the girl. "If he won't keep us in the house, I don't care if +he don't have any house." + +"No, no, tell him!" screamed Mrs. Mumpson. "If we save his house he will +relent. Gratitude will overwhelm him. So far from turning us away, he will +sue, he will plead for forgiveness for his former harshness; his home saved +will be our home won. Just put our things in the trunk first. Perhaps the +house can't be saved, and you know we must save OUR things. Help me, quick! +There, there; now, now"--both were sneezing and choking in a half-strangled +manner. "Now let me lock it; my hand trembles so; take hold and draw it out; +drag it downstairs; no matter how it scratches things!" + +Having reached the hall below, she opened the door and shrieked for Holcroft; +Jane also began running toward the barn. The farmer came hastily out, and +shouted, "What's the matter?" + +"The house is on fire!" they screamed in chorus. + +To carry out his ruse, he ran swiftly to the house. Mrs. Mumpson stood before +him wringing her hands and crying, "Oh, dear Mr. Holcroft, can't I do anything +to help you? I would so like to help you and--" + +"Yes, my good woman, let me get in the door and see what's the matter. Oh, +here's your trunk. That's sensible. Better get it outside," and he went up +the stairs two steps at a time and rushed into his room. + +"Jane, Jane," ejaculated Mrs. Mumpson, sinking on a seat in the porch, "he +called me his good woman!" But Jane was busy dragging the trunk out of doors. +Having secured her own and her mother's worldly possessions, she called, +"Shall I bring water and carry things out?" + +"No," he replied, "not yet. There's something the matter with the chimney," +and he hastened up to the attic room, removed the clog from the flue, put on +the cover again, and threw open the window. Returning, he locked the door of +the room which Mrs. Mumpson had occupied and came downstairs. "I must get a +ladder and examine the chimney," he said as he passed. + +"Oh, my dear Mr. Holcroft!" the widow began. + +"Can't talk with you yet," and he hastened on. + +"As soon as he's sure the house is safe, Jane, all will be well." + +But the girl had grown hopeless and cynical. She had not penetrated his +scheme to restore her mother to health, but understood the man well enough to +be sure that her mother's hopes would end as they had in the past. She sat +down apathetically on the trunk to see what would happen next. + +After a brief inspection Holcroft came down from the roof and said, "The +chimney will have to be repaired," which was true enough and equally so of +other parts of the dwelling. The fortunes of the owner were reflected in the +appearance of the building. + +If it were a possible thing Holcroft wished to carry out his ruse undetected, +and he hastened upstairs again, ostensibly to see that all danger had passed, +but in reality to prepare his mind for an intensely disagreeable interview. +"I'd rather face a mob of men than that one idiotic woman," he muttered. "I +could calculate the actions of a setting hen with her head cut off better than +I can this widow's. But there's no help for it," and he came down looking +very resolute. "I've let the fire in my stove go out, and there's no more +danger," he said quietly, as he sat down on the porch opposite Mrs. Mumpson. + +"Oh-h," she exclaimed, with a long breath of relief, "we've saved the +dwelling. What would we have done if it had burned down! We would have been +homeless." + +"That may be my condition soon, as it is," he said coldly. "I am very glad, +Mrs. Mumpson, that you are so much better. As Jane told you, I suppose, I +will pay you the sum I agreed to give you for three months' service--" + +"My dear Mr. Holcroft, my nerves have been too shaken to talk business this +morning," and the widow leaned back and looked as if she were going to faint. +"I'm only a poor lone woman," she added feebly, "and you cannot be so lacking +in the milk of human kindness as to take advantage of me." + +"No, madam, nor shall I allow you and Lemuel Weeks to take advantage of me. +This is my house and I have a right to make my own arrangements." + +"It might all be arranged so easily in another way," sighed the widow. + +"It cannot be arranged in any other way--" he began. + +"Mr. Holcroft," she cried, leaning suddenly forward with clasped hands and +speaking effusively, "you but now called me your good woman. Think how much +those words mean. Make them true, now that you've spoken them. Then you +won't be homeless and will never need a caretaker." + +"Are you making me an offer of marriage?" he asked with lowering brow. + +"Oh, no, indeed!" she simpered. "That wouldn't be becoming in me. I'm only +responding to your own words." + +Rising, he said sternly, "No power on earth could induce me to marry you, and +that would be plain enough if you were in your right mind. I shall not stand +this foolishness another moment. You must go with me at once to Lemuel +Weeks'. If you will not, I'll have you taken to an insane asylum." + +"To an insane asylum! What for?" she half shrieked, springing to her feet. + +"You'll see," he replied, going down the steps. "Jump up, Jane! I shall take +the trunk to your cousin's. If you are so crazy as to stay in a man's house +when he don't want you and won't have you, you are fit only for an asylum." + +Mrs. Mumpson was sane enough to perceive that she was at the end of her +adhesive resources. In his possession of her trunk, the farmer also had a +strategic advantage which made it necessary for her to yield. She did so, +however, with very bad grace. When he drove up, she bounced into the wagon as +if made of India rubber, while Jane followed slowly, with a look of sullen +apathy. He touched his horses with the whip into a smart trot, scarcely +daring to believe in his good fortune. The lane was rather steep and rough, +and he soon had to pull up lest the object of his unhappy solicitude should be +jolted out of the vehicle. This gave the widow her chance to open fire. "The +end has not come yet, Mr. Holcroft," she said vindictively. "You may think you +are going to have an easy triumph over a poor, friendless, unfortunate, +sensitive, afflicted woman and a fatherless child, but you shall soon learn +that there's a law in the land. You have addressed improper words to me, you +have threatened me, you have broken your agreement. I have writings, I have a +memory, I have language to plead the cause of the widow and the fatherless. I +have been wronged, outraged, trampled upon, and then turned out of doors. The +indignant world shall hear my story, the finger of scorn will be pointed at +you. Your name will become a byword and a hissing. Respecterble women, +respecterbly connected, will stand aloof and shudder." + +The torrent of words was unchecked except when the wheels struck a stone, +jolting her so severely that her jaws came together with a click as if she +were snapping at him. + +He made no reply whatever, but longed to get his hands upon Lemuel Weeks. +Pushing his horses to a high rate of speed, he soon reached that interested +neighbor's door, intercepting him just as he was starting to town. + +He looked very sour as he saw his wife's relatives, and demanded harshly, +"What does this mean?" + +"It means," cried Mrs. Mumpson in her high, cackling tones, "that he's said +things and done things too awful to speak of; that he's broken his agreement +and turned us out of doors." + +"Jim Holcroft," said Mr. Weeks, blustering up to the wagon, "you can't carry +on with this high hand. Take these people back to your house where they +belong, or you'll be sorry." + +Holcroft sprang out, whirled Mr. Weeks out of his way, took out the trunk, +then with equal expedition and no more ceremony lifted down Mrs. Mumpson and +Jane. + +"Do you know what you're about?" shouted Mr. Weeks in a rage. "I'll have the +law on you this very day." + +Holcroft maintained his ominous silence as he hitched his horses securely. +Then he strode toward Weeks, who backed away from him. "Oh, don't be afraid, +you sneaking, cowardly fox!" said the farmer bitterly. "If I gave you your +desserts, I'd take my horsewhip to you. You're going to law me, are you? +Well, begin today, and I'll be ready for you. I won't demean myself by +answering that woman, but I'm ready for you in any way you've a mind to come. +I'll put you and your wife on the witness stand. I'll summon Cousin Abram, as +you call him, and his wife, and compel you all under oath to give Mrs. Mumpson +a few testimonials. I'll prove the trick you played on me and the lies you +told. I'll prove that this woman, in my absence, invaded my room, and with +keys of her own opened my dead wife's bureau and pulled out her things. I'll +prove that she hasn't earned her salt and can't, and may prove something more. +Now, if you want to go to law, begin. Nothing would please me better than to +show up you and your tribe. I've offered to pay this woman her three months' +wages in full, and so have kept my agreement. She has not kept hers, for +she's only sat in a rocking chair and made trouble. Now, do as you please. +I'll give you all the law you want. I'd like to add a horsewhipping, but that +would give you a case and now you haven't any." + +As Holcroft uttered these words sternly and slowly, like a man angry indeed +but under perfect self-control, the perspiration broke out on Weeks' face. He +was aware that Mrs. Mumpson was too well known to play the role of a wronged +woman, and remembered what his testimony and that of many others would be +under oath. Therefore, he began, "Oh, well, Mr. Holcroft! There's no need of +your getting in such a rage and threatening so; I'm willing to talk the matter +over and only want to do the square thing." + +The farmer made a gesture of disgust as he said, "I understand you, Lemuel +Weeks. There's no talking needed and I'm in no mood for it. Here's the money +I agreed to pay. I'll give it to Mrs. Mumpson when she has signed this paper, +and you've signed as witness of her signature. Otherwise, it's law. Now +decide quick, I'm in a hurry." + +Objections were interposed, and Holcroft, returning the money to his pocket, +started for his team, without a word. "Oh, well!" said Weeks in strong +irritation, "I haven't time for a lawsuit at this season of the year. You +are both cranks, and I suppose it would be best for me and my folks to be rid +of you both. It's a pity, though, you couldn't be married and left to fight +it out." + +Holcroft took the whip from his wagon and said quietly, "If you speak another +insulting word, I'll horsewhip you and take my chances." + +Something in the man's look prevented Weeks from uttering another unnecessary +remark. The business was soon transacted, accompanied with Mrs. Mumpson's +venomous words, for she had discovered that she could stigmatize Holcroft with +impunity. He went to Jane and shook her hand as he said goodby. "I am sorry +for you, and I won't forget my promise;" then drove rapidly away. + +"Cousin Lemuel," said Mrs. Mumpson plaintively, "won't you have Timothy take +my trunk to our room?" + +"No, I won't," he snapped. "You've had your chance and have fooled it away. I +was just going to town, and you and Jane will go along with me," and he put +the widow's trunk into his wagon. + +Mrs. Weeks came out and wiped her eyes ostentatiously with her apron as she +whispered, "I can't help it, Cynthy. When Lemuel goes off the handle in this +way, it's no use for me to say anything." + +Mrs. Mumpson wept hysterically as she was driven away. Jane's sullen and +apathetic aspect had passed away in part for Holcroft's words had kindled +something like hope. + + +Chapter XVII. A Momentous Decision + +It must be admitted that Holcroft enjoyed his triumph over Lemuel Weeks very +much after the fashion of the aboriginal man. Indeed, he was almost sorry he +had not been given a little more provocation, knowing well that, had this been +true, his neighbor would have received a fuller return for his interested +efforts. As he saw his farmhouse in the shimmering April sunlight, as the old +churning dog came forward, wagging his tail, the farmer said, "This is the +only place which can ever be home to me. Well, well! It's queer about +people. Some, when they go, leave you desolate; others make you happy by +their absence. I never dreamed that silly Mumpson could make me happy, but +she has. Blessed if I don't feel happy! The first time in a year or more!" +And he began to whistle old "Coronation" in the most lively fashion as he +unharnessed his horses. + +A little later, he prepared himself a good dinner and ate it in leisurely +enjoyment, sharing a morsel now and then with the old dog. "You're a plaguey +sight better company than she was," he mused. "That poor little stray cat of a +Jane! What will become of her? Well, well! Soon as she's old enough to cut +loose from her mother, I'll try to give her a chance, if it's a possible +thing." + +After dinner, he made a rough draught of an auction bill, offering his cows +for sale, muttering as he did so, "Tom Watterly'll help me put it in better +shape." Then he drove a mile away to see old Mr. And Mrs. Johnson. The +former agreed for a small sum to mount guard with his dog during the farmer's +occasional absences, and the latter readily consented to do the washing and +mending. + +"What do I want of any more 'peculiar females,' as that daft widow called +'em?" he chuckled on his return. "Blames if she wasn't the most peculiar of +the lot. Think of me marrying her!" and the hillside echoed to his derisive +laugh. "As I feel today, there's a better chance of my being struck by +lightning than marrying, and I don't think any woman could do it in spite of +me. I'll run the ranch alone." + +That evening he smoked his pipe cheerfully beside the kitchen fire, the dog +sleeping at his feet. "I declare," he said smilingly, "I feel quite at home." + +In the morning, after attending to his work, he went for old Jonathan Johnson +and installed him in charge of the premises; then drove to the almshouse with +all the surplus butter and eggs on hand. Tom Watterly arrived at the door +with his fast-trotting horse at the same time, and cried, "Hello, Jim! Just +in time. I'm a sort of grass widower today--been taking my wife out to see +her sister. Come in and take pot luck with me and keep up my spirits." + +"Well, now, Tom," said Holcroft, shaking hands, "I'm glad, not that your +wife's away, although it does make me downhearted to contrast your lot and +mine, but I'm glad you can give me a little time, for I want to use that +practical head of yours--some advice, you know." + +"All right. Nothing to do for an hour or two but eat dinner and smoke my pipe +with you. Here, Bill! Take this team and feed 'em." + +"Hold on," said Holcroft, "I'm not going to sponge on you. I've got some +favors to ask, and I want you to take in return some butter half spoiled in +the making and this basket of eggs. They're all right." + +"Go to thunder, Holcroft! What do you take me for? When you've filled your +pipe after dinner will you pull an egg out of your pocket and say, 'That's for +a smoke?' No, no, I don't sell any advice to old friends like you. I'll buy +your butter and eggs at what they're worth and have done with 'em. Business +is one thing, and sitting down and talking over an old crony's troubles is +another. I'm not a saint, Jim, as you know--a man in politics can't be--but I +remember when we were boys together, and somehow thinking of those old days +always fetches me. Come in, for dinner is a-waiting, I guess." + +"Well, Tom, saint or no saint, I'd like to vote for you for gov'nor." + +"This aint an electioneering trick, as you know. I can play them off as well +as the next feller when there's need, kiss the babies and all that." + +Dinner was placed on the table immediately, and in a few moments the friends +were left alone. Then Holcroft related in a half comic, half serious manner +his tribulations with the help. Tom sat back in his chair and roared at the +account of the pitched battle between the two widows and the final smoking out +of Mrs. Mumpson, but he reproached his friend for not having horsewhipped +Lemuel Weeks. "Don't you remember, Jim, he was a sneaking, tricky chap when we +were at school together? I licked him once, and it always does me good to +think of it." + +"I own it takes considerable to rile me to the point of striking a man, +especially on his own land. His wife was looking out the window, too. If +we'd been out in the road or anywhere else--but what's the use? I'm glad now +it turned out as it has for I've too much on my mind for lawsuits, and the +less one has to do with such cattle as Weeks the better. Well, you see I'm +alone again, and I'm going to go it alone. I'm going to sell my cows and give +up the dairy, and the thing I wanted help in most is the putting this auction +bill in shape; also advice as to whether I had better try to sell here in town +or up at the farm." + +Tom shook his head dubiously and scarcely glanced at the paper. "Your scheme +don't look practical to me," he said. "I don't believe you can run that farm +alone without losing money. You'll just keep on going behind till the first +thing you know you'll clap a mortgage on it. Then you'll soon be done for. +What's more, you'll break down if you try to do both outdoor and indoor work. +Busy times will soon come, and you won't get your meals regularly; you'll be +living on coffee and anything that comes handiest; your house will grow untidy +and not fit to live in. If you should be taken sick, there'd be no one to do +for you. Lumbermen, hunters, and such fellows can rough it alone awhile, but +I never heard of a farm being run by man-power alone. Now as to selling out +your stock, look at it. Grazing is what your farm's good for mostly. It's a +pity you're so bent on staying there. Even if you didn't get very much for +the place, from sale or rent, you'd have something that was sure. A strong, +capable man like you could find something to turn your hand to. Then you +could board in some respectable family, and not have to live like Robinson +Crusoe. I've thought it over since we talked last, and if I was you I'd sell +or rent." + +"It's too late in the season to do either," said Holcroft dejectedly. "What's +more, I don't want to, at least not this year. I've settled that, Tom. I'm +going to have one more summer on the old place, anyway, if I have to live on +bread and milk." + +"You can't make bread." + +"I'll have it brought from town on the stage." + +"Well, it's a pity some good, decent woman--There, how should I come to forget +all about HER till this minute? I don't know whether it would work. Perhaps +it would. There's a woman here out of the common run. She has quite a story, +which I'll tell you in confidence. Then you can say whether you'd like to +employ her or not. If you WILL stay on the farm, my advice is that you have a +woman to do the housework, and me and Angy must try to find you one, if the +one I have in mind won't answer. The trouble is, Holcroft, to get the right +kind of a woman to live there alone with you, unless you married her. Nice +women don't like to be talked about, and I don't blame 'em. The one that's +here, though, is so friendless and alone in the world that she might be glad +enough to get a home almost anywheres." + +"Well, well! Tell me about her," said Holcroft gloomily. "But I'm about +discouraged in the line of women help." + +Watterly told Alida's story with a certain rude pathos which touched the +farmer's naturally kind heart, and he quite forgot his own need in indignation +at the poor woman's wrongs. "It's a **** shame!" he said excitedly, pacing the +room. "I say, Tom, all the law in the land wouldn't keep me from giving that +fellow a whipping or worse." + +"Well, she won't prosecute; she won't face the public; she just wants to go to +some quiet place and work for her bread. She don't seem to have any friends, +or else she's too ashamed to let them know." + +"Why, of course I'd give such a woman a refuge till she could do better. What +man wouldn't?" + +"A good many wouldn't. What's more, if she went with you her story might get +out, and you'd both be talked about." + +"I don't care that for gossip," with a snap of his fingers. "You know I'd +treat her with respect." + +"What I know, and what other people would say, are two very different things. +Neither you nor anyone else can go too strongly against public opinion. +Still, it's nobody's business," added Tom thoughtfully. "Perhaps it's worth +the trial. If she went I think she'd stay and do the best by you she could. +Would you like to see her?" + +"Yes." + +Alida was summoned and stood with downcast eyes in the door. "Come in and take +a chair," said Tom kindly. "You know I promised to be on the lookout for a +good place for you. Well, my friend here, Mr. Holcroft, whom I've known ever +since I was a boy, wants a woman to do general housework and take care of the +dairy." + +She gave the farmer one of those swift, comprehensive glances by which women +take in a personality, and said in a tone of regret, "But I don't understand +dairy work." + +"Oh, you'd soon learn. It's just the kind of a place you said you wanted, a +lonely, out-of-the-way farm and no other help kept. What's more, my friend +Holcroft is a kind, honest man. He'd treat you right. He knows all about +your trouble and is sorry for you." + +If Holcroft had been an ogre in appearance, he would have received the +grateful glance which she now gave him as she said, "I'd be only too glad to +work for you, sir, if you think I can do, or learn to do, what is required." + +Holcroft, while his friend was speaking, had studied closely Alida's thin, +pale face, and he saw nothing in it not in harmony with the story he had +heard. "I am sorry for you," he said kindly. "I believe you never meant to do +wrong and have tried to do right. I will be perfectly honest with you. My +wife is dead, the help I had has left me, and I live alone in the house. The +truth is, too, that I could not afford to keep two in help, and there would +not be work for them both." + +Alida had learned much in her terrible adversity, and had, moreover the +instincts of a class superior to the position she was asked to take. She +bowed low to hide the burning flush that crimsoned her pale cheeks as she +faltered, "It may seem strange to you, sirs, that one situated as I am should +hesitate, but I have never knowingly done anything which gave people the right +to speak against me. I do not fear work, I would humbly try to do my best, +but--" She hesitated and rose as if to retire. + +"I understand you," said Holcroft kindly, "and I don't blame you for doing +what you think is right." + +"I'm very sorry, sir," she replied, tears coming into her eyes as she went out +of the room. + +"There it is, Holcroft," said Tom. "I believe she's just the one for you, but +you can see she isn't of the common kind. She knows as well as you and me how +people would talk, especially if her story came out, as like enough it will." + +"Hang people!" snarled the farmer. + +"Yes, a good lot of 'em deserve hanging, but it wouldn't help you any just +now. Perhaps she'd go with you if you got another girl or took an old woman +from the house here to keep her company." + +"I'm sick to death of such hags," said the farmer with an impatient gesture. +Then he sat down and looked at his friend as if a plan was forming in his mind +of which he scarcely dare speak. + +"Well, out with it!" said Tom. + +"Have you ever seen a marriage ceremony performed by a justice of the peace?" +Holcroft asked slowly. + +"No, but they do it often enough. What! Are you going to offer her +marriage?" + +"You say she is homeless and friendless?' + +"Yes." + +"And you believe she is just what she seems--just what her story shows her to +be?" + +"Yes. I've seen too many frauds to be taken in. She isn't a fraud. Neither +does she belong to that miserable, wishy-washy, downhill class that sooner or +later fetches up in a poorhouse. They say we're all made of dust, but some +seem made of mud. You could see she was out of the common; and she's here on +account of the wrong she received and not the wrong she did. I say all this +in fairness to her; but when it comes to marrying her, that's another +question." + +"Tom, as I've told you, I don't want to marry. In fact, I couldn't go before +a minister and promise what I'd have to. But I could do something like this. +I could give this woman an honest name and a home. It would be marriage +before the law. No one could ever say a word against either of us. I would +be true and kind to her and she should share in my fortunes. That's all. You +have often advised me to marry, and you know if I did it couldn't be anything +else but a business affair. Then it ought to be done in a businesslike way. +You say I can't get along alone, and like enough you're right. I've learned +more from this woman's manner than I have in a year why I can't get and keep +the right kind of help, and I now feel if I could find a good, honest woman +who would make my interest hers, and help me make a living in my own home, I'd +give her my name and all the security which an honest name conveys. Now, this +poor woman is in sore need and she might be grateful for what I can do, while +any other woman would naturally expect me to promise more than I honestly can. +Anyhow, I'd have to go through the form, and I can't and won't go and say +sacred words--just about what I said when I married my wife--and know all the +time I was lying." + +"Well, Holcroft, you're a queer dick and this is a queer plan of yours. +You're beyond my depth now and I can't advise." + +"Why is it a queer plan? Things only seem odd because they are not common. As +a matter of fact, you advise a business marriage. When I try to follow your +advice honestly and not dishonestly, you say I'm queer." + +"I suppose if everybody became honest, it would be the queerest world every +known," said Tom laughing. "Well, you might do worse than marry this woman. I +can tell you that marrying is risky business at best. You know a justice will +tie you just as tight as a minister, and while I've given you my impression +about this woman, I KNOW little about her and you know next to nothing." + +"I guess that would be the case, anyhow. If you set out to find a wife for +me, where is there a woman that you actually do know more about? As for my +going here and there, to get acquainted, it's out of the question. All my +feelings rise up against such a course. Now, I feel sorry for this woman. +She has at least my sympathy. If she is as friendless, poor, and unhappy as +she seems, I might do her as great a kindness as she would do for me if she +could take care of my home. I wouldn't expect very much. It would be a +comfort just to have someone in the house that wouldn't rob or waste, and who, +knowing what her station was, would be content. Of course I'd have to talk it +over with her and make my purpose clear. She might agree with you that it's +too queer to be thought of. If so, that would be the end of it." + +"Will, Jim, you always finish by half talking me over to your side of a +question. Now, if my wife was home, I don't believe she'd listen to any such +plan." + +"No, I suppose she wouldn't. She'd believe in people marrying and doing +everything in the ordinary way. But neither I nor this woman is in ordinary +circumstances. Do you know of a justice?" + +"Yes, and you know him, too; Justice Harkins." + +"Why, certainly. He came from our town and I knew him when he was a boy, +although I haven't seen much of him of late years." + +"Well, shall I go and say to this woman--Alida Armstrong is her name now, I +suppose--that you wish to see her again?" + +"Yes, I shall tell her the truth. Then she can decide." + + +Chapter XVIII. Holcroft Gives His Hand + +Alida was seated by a window with some of the mending in which she assisted, +and, as usual, was apart by herself. Watterly entered the large apartment +quietly, and at first she did not observe him. He had time to note that she +was greatly dejected, and when she saw him she hastily wiped tears from her +eyes. + +"You are a good deal cast down, Alida," he said, watching her closely. + +"I've reason to be. I don't see any light ahead at all." + +"Well, you know the old saying, 'It's darkest before day.' I want you to come +with me again. I think I've found a chance for you." + +She rose with alacrity and followed. As soon as they were alone, he turned +and looked her squarely in the face as he said gravely, "You have good common +sense, haven't you?" + +"I don't know, sir," she faltered, perplexed and troubled by the question. + +"Well, you can understand this much, I suppose. As superintendent of this +house I have a responsible position, which I could easily lose if I allowed +myself to be mixed up with anything wrong or improper. To come right to the +point, you don't know much about me and next to nothing of my friend Holcroft, +but can't you see that even if I was a heartless, good-for-nothing fellow, it +wouldn't be wise or safe for me to permit anything that wouldn't bear the +light?" + +"I think you are an honest man, sir. It would be strange if I did not have +confidence when you have judged me and treated me so kindly. But, Mr. +Watterly, although helpless and friendless, I must try to do what I think is +best. If I accepted Mr. Holcroft's position it might do him harm. You know +how quick the world is to misjudge. It would seem to confirm everything that +has been said against me," and the same painful flush again overspread her +features. + +"Well, Alida, all that you have to do is to listen patiently to my friend. +Whether you agree with his views or not, you will see that he is a +good-hearted, honest man. I want to prepare you for this talk by assuring you +that I've known him since he was a boy, that he has lived all his life in this +region and is known by many others, and that I wouldn't dare let him ask you +to do anything wrong, even if I was bad enough." + +"I'm sure, sir, you don't wish me any harm," she again faltered in deep +perplexity. + +"Indeed I don't. I don't advise my friend's course; neither do I oppose it. +He's certainly old enough to act for himself. I suppose I'm a rough counselor +for a young woman, but since you appear to have so few friends I'm inclined to +act as one. Just you stand on the question of right and wrong, and dismiss +from your mind all foolish notions of what people will say. As a rule, all +the people in the world can't do as much for us as somebody in particular. +Now you go in the parlor and listen like a sensible woman. I'll be reading +the paper, and the girl will be clearing off the table in the next room here." + +Puzzled and trembling, Alida entered the apartment where Holcroft was seated. +She was so embarrassed that she could not lift her eyes to him. + +"Please sit down," he said gravely, "and don't be troubled, much less +frightened. You are just as free to act as ever you were in your life." + +She sat down near the door and compelled herself to look at him, for she felt +instinctively that she might gather more from the expression of his face than +from his words. + +"Alida Armstrong is your name, Mr. Watterly tells me?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Well, Alida, I want to have a plain business talk with you. That's nothing +to be nervous and worried about, you know. As I told you, I've heard your +story. It has made me sorry for you instead of setting me against you. It +has made me respect you as a right-minded woman, and I shall give you good +proof that my words are true. At the same time, I shan't make any false +pretenses to what isn't true and couldn't be true. Since I've heard your +story, it's only fair you should hear mine, and I ought to tell it first." + +He went over the past very briefly until he came to the death of his wife. +There was simple and homely pathos in the few sentences with which he referred +to this event. Then more fully he enlarged upon his efforts and failure to +keep house with hired help. Unconsciously, he had taken the best method to +enlist her sympathy. The secluded cottage and hillside farm became realities +to her fancy. She saw how the man's heart clung to his home, and his effort +to keep it touched her deeply. + +"Oh!" she thought, "I do wish there was some way for me to go there. The +loneliness of the place which drove others away is the chief attraction for +me. Then it would be pleasant to work for such a man and make his home +comfortable for him. It's plain from his words and looks that he's as honest +and straightforward as the day is long. He only wants to keep his home and +make his living in peace." + +As he had talked her nervous embarrassment passed away, and the deep sense of +her own need was pressing upon her again. She saw that he also was in great +need. His business talk was revealing deep trouble and perplexity. With the +quick intuitions of a woman, her mind went far beyond his brief sentences and +saw all the difficulties of his lot. His feeling reference to the loss of his +wife proved that he was not a coarse-natured man. As he spoke so plainly of +his life during the past year, her mind was insensibly abstracted from +everything but his want and hers, and she thought his farmhouse afforded just +the secluded refuge she craved. As he drew near the end of his story and +hesitated in visible embarrassment, she mustered courage to say timidly, +"Would you permit a suggestion from me?" + +"Why, certainly." + +"You have said, sir, that your business and means would not allow you to keep +two in help, and as you have been speaking I have tried to think of some way. +The fact that your house is so lonely is just the reason why I should like to +work in it. As you can understand, I have no wish to meet strangers. Now, +sir, I am willing to work for very little; I should be glad to find such a +quiet refuge for simply my board and clothes, and I would do my very best and +try to learn what I did not know. It seems to me that if I worked for so +little you might think you could afford to hire some elderly woman also?" and +she looked at him in the eager hope that he would accept her proposition. + +He shook his head as he replied, "I don't know of any such person. I took the +best one in this house, and you know how she turned out." + +"Perhaps Mr. Watterly may know of someone else," she faltered. She was now +deeply troubled and perplexed again, supposing that he was about to renew his +first proposition that she should be his only help. + +"If Mr. Watterly did know of anyone I would make the trial, but he does not. +Your offer is very considerate and reasonable, but--" and he hesitated again, +scarcely knowing how to go on. + +"I am sorry, sir," she said, rising, as if to end the interview. + +"Stay," he said, "you do not understand me yet. Of course I should not make +you the same offer that I did at first, after seeing your feeling about it, +and I respect you all the more because you so respect yourself. What I had in +mind was to give you my name, and it's an honest name. If we were married it +would be perfectly proper for you to go with me, and no one could say a word +against either of us." + +"Oh!" she gasped, in strong agitation and surprise. + +"Now don't be so taken aback. It's just as easy for you to refuse as it is to +speak, but listen first. What seems strange and unexpected may be the most +sensible thing for us both. You have your side of the case to think of just +as truly as I have mine; and I'm not forgetting, and I don't ask you to +forget, that I'm still talking business. You and I have both been through too +much trouble and loss to say any silly nonsense to each other. You've heard +my story, yet I'm almost a stranger to you as you are to me. We'd both have +to take considerable on trust. Yet I know I'm honest and well-meaning, and I +believe you are. Now look at it. Here we are, both much alone in the +world--both wishing to live a retired, quiet life. I don't care a rap for +what people say as long as I'm doing right, and in this case they'd have +nothing to say. It's our own business. I don't see as people will ever do +much for you, and a good many would impose on you and expect you to work +beyond your strength. They might not be very kind or considerate, either. I +suppose you've thought of this?" + +"Yes," she replied with bowed head. "I should meet coldness, probably +harshness and scorn." + +"Well, you'd never meet anything of the kind in my house. I would treat you +with respect and kindness. At the same time, I'm not going to mislead you by +a word. You shall have a chance to decide in view of the whole truth. My +friend, Mr. Watterly, has asked me more'n once, 'Why don't you marry again?' +I told him I had been married once, and that I couldn't go before a minister +and promise the same things over again when they wasn't true. I can't make to +you any promises or say any words that are not true, and I don't ask or expect +you to do what I can't do. But it has seemed to me that our condition was out +of the common lot--that we could take each other for just what we might be to +each other and no more. You would be my wife in name, and I do not ask you to +be my wife in more than name. You would thus secure a good home and the care +and protection of one who would be kind to you, and I would secure a +housekeeper--one that would stay with me and make my interests hers. It would +be a fair, square arrangement between ourselves, and nobody else's business. +By taking this course, we don't do any wrong to our feelings or have to say or +promise anything that isn't true." + +"Yet I can't help saying, sir," she replied, in strong, yet repressed +agitation, "that your words sound very strange; and it seems stranger still +that you can offer marriage of any kind to a woman situated as I am. You know +my story, sir," she added, crimsoning, "and all may soon know it. You would +suffer wrong and injury." + +"I offer you open and honorable marriage before the world, and no other kind. +Mr. Watterly and others--as many as you pleased--would witness it, and I'd +have you given a certificate at once. As for your story, it has only awakened +my sympathy. You have not meant to do any wrong. Your troubles are only +another reason in my mind for not taking any advantage of you or deceiving you +in the least. Look the truth squarely in the face. I'm bent on keeping my +house and getting my living as I have done, and I need a housekeeper that will +be true to all my interests. Think how I've been robbed and wronged, and what +a dog's life I've lived in my own home. You need a home, a support, and a +protector. I couldn't come to you or go to any other woman and say honestly +more than this. Isn't it better for people to be united on the ground of +truth than to begin by telling a pack of lies?" + +"But--but can people be married with such an understanding by a minister? +Wouldn't it be deceiving him?" + +"I shall not ask you to deceive anyone. Any marriage that either you or I +could now make would be practically a business marriage. I should therefore +take you, if you were willing, to a justice and have a legal or civil marriage +performed, and this would be just as binding as any other in the eye of the +law. It is often done. This would be much better to my mind than if people, +situated as we are, went to a church or a minister." + +"Yes, yes, I couldn't do that." + +"Well, now, Alida," he said, with a smile that wonderfully softened his rugged +features, "you are free to decide. It may seem to you a strange sort of +courtship, but we are both too old for much foolishness. I never was +sentimental, and it would be ridiculous to begin now. I'm full of trouble and +perplexity, and so are you. Are you willing to be my wife so far as an honest +name goes, and help me make a living for us both? That's all I ask. I, in my +turn, would promise to treat you with kindness and respect, and give you a +home as long as I lived and to leave you all I have in the world if I died. +That's all I could promise. I'm a lonely, quiet man, and like to be by +myself. I wouldn't be much society for you. I've said more today than I +might in a month, for I felt that it was due to you to know just what you were +doing." + +"Oh, sir," said Alida, trembling, and with tears in her eyes, "you do not ask +much and you offer a great deal. If you, a strong man, dread to leave your +home and go out into the world you know not where, think how terrible it is +for a weak, friendless woman to be worse than homeless. I have lost +everything, even my good name." + +"No, no! Not in my eyes." + +"Oh, I know, I know!" she cried, wringing her hands. "Even these miserable +paupers like myself have made me feel it. They have burned the truth into my +brain and heart. Indeed, sir, you do not realize what you are doing or +asking. It is not fit or meet that I should bear your name. You might be +sorry, indeed." + +"Alida," said Holcroft gravely, "I've not forgotten your story, and you +shouldn't forget mine. Be sensible now. Don't I look old enough to know what +I'm about?" + +"Oh, oh, oh!" she cried impetuously, "if I were only sure it was right! It +may be business to you, but it seems like life or death to me. It's more than +death--I don't fear that--but I do fear life, I do fear the desperate struggle +just to maintain a bare, dreary existence. I do dread going out among +strangers and seeing their cold curiosity and their scorn. You can't +understand a woman's heart. It isn't right for me to die till God takes me, +but life has seemed so horrible, meeting suspicion on one side and cruel, +significant looks of knowledge on the other. I've been tortured even here by +these wretched hags, and I've envied even them, so near to death, yet not +ashamed like me. I know, and you should know, that my heart is broken, +crushed, trampled into the mire. I had felt that for me even the thought of +marriage again would be a mockery, a wicked thing, which I would never have a +right to entertain.--I never dreamt that anyone would think of such a thing, +knowing what you know. Oh, oh! Why have you tempted me so if it is not +right? I must do right. The feeling that I've not meant to do wrong is all +that has kept me from despair. But can it be right to let you take me from +the street, the poorhouse, with nothing to give but a blighted name, a broken +heart and feeble hands! See, I am but the shadow of what I was, and a dark +shadow at that. I could be only a dismal shadow at any man's hearth. Oh, oh! +I've thought and suffered until my reason seemed going. You don't realize, +you don't know the depths into which I've fallen. It can't be right." + +Holcroft was almost appalled at this passionate outburst in one who thus far +had been sad, indeed, yet self-controlled. He looked at her in mingled pity +and consternation. His own troubles had seemed heavy enough, but he now +caught glimpses of something far beyond trouble--of agony, of mortal dread +that bordered on despair. He could scarcely comprehend how terrible to a +woman like Alida were the recent events of her life, and how circumstances, +with illness, had all tended to create a morbid horror of her situation. Like +himself she was naturally reticent in regard to her deeper feelings, patient +and undemonstrative. Had not his words evoked this outburst she might have +suffered and died in silence, but in this final conflict between conscience +and hope, the hot lava of her heart had broken forth. So little was he then +able to understand her, that suspicions crossed his mind. Perhaps his friend +Watterly had not heard the true story or else not the whole story. But his +straightforward simplicity stood him in good stead, and he said gently, +"Alida, you say I don't know, I don't realize. I believe you will tell me the +truth. You went to a minister and were married to a man that you thought you +had a right to marry--" + +"You shall know it all from my own lips," she said, interrupting him; "you +have a right to know; and then you will see that it cannot be," and with bowed +head, and low, rapid, passionate utterance, she poured out her story. "That +woman, his wife," she concluded, "made me feel that I was of the scum and +offscouring of the earth, and they've made me feel so here, too--even these +wretched paupers. So the world will look on me till God takes me to my +mother. O, thank God! She don't know. Don' you see, now?" she asked, raising +her despairing eyes from which agony had dried all tears. + +"Yes, I see you do," she added desperately, "for even you have turned from +me." + +"Confound it!" cried Holcroft, standing up and searching his pockets for a +handkerchief. "I--I--I'd like--like to choke that fellow. If I could get my +hands on him, there'd be trouble. Turn away from you, you poor wronged +creature! Don't you see I'm so sorry for you that I'm making a fool of +myself? I, who couldn't shed a tear over my own troubles--there, there,--come +now, let us be sensible. Let's get back to business, for I can't stand this +kind of thing at all. I'm so confused betwixt rage at him and pity for +you--Let me see; this is where we were: I want someone to take care of my +home, and you want a home. That's all there is about it now. If you say so, +I'll make you Mrs. Holcroft in an hour." + +"I did not mean to work upon your sympathies, only to tell you the truth. God +bless you! That the impulses of your heart are so kind and merciful. But let +me be true to you as well as to myself. Go away and think it all over calmly +and quietly. Even for the sake of being rescued from a life that I dread far +more than death, I cannot let you do that which you may regret unspeakably. +Do not think I misunderstand your offer. It's the only one I could think of, +and I would not have thought of it if you had not spoke. I have no heart to +give. I could be a wife only in name, but I could work like a slave for +protection from a cruel, jeering world; I could hope for something like peace +and respite from suffering if I only had a safe refuge. But I must not have +these if it is not right and best. Good to me must not come through wrong to +you." + +"Tush, tush! You mustn't talk so. I can't stand it at all. I've heard your +story. It's just as I supposed at first, only a great deal more so. Why, of +course it's all right. It makes me believe in Providence, it all turns out so +entirely for our mutual good. I can do as much to help you as you to help me. +Now let's get back on the sensible, solid ground from which we started. The +idea of my wanting you to work like a slave! Like enough some people would, +and then you'd soon break down and be brought back here again. No, no; I've +explained just what I wish and just what I mean. You must get over the notion +that I'm a sentimental fool, carried away by my feelings. How Tom Watterly +would laugh at the idea! My mind is made up now just as much as it would be a +week hence. This is no place for you, and I don't like to think of your being +here. My spring work is pressing, too. Don't you see that by doing what I +ask you can set me right on my feet and start me uphill again after a year of +miserable downhill work? You have only to agree to what I've said, and you +will be at home tonight and I'll be quietly at my work tomorrow. Mr. Watterly +will go with us to the justice, who has known me all my life. Then, if anyone +ever says a word against you, he'll have me to settle with. Come, Alida! +Here's a strong hand that's able to take care of you." + +She hesitated a moment, then clasped it like one who is sinking, and before he +divined her purpose, she kissed and bedewed it with tears. + + +Chapter XIX. A Business Marriage + +While Holcroft's sympathies had been deeply touched by the intense emotion of +gratitude which had overpowered Alida, he had also been disturbed and rendered +somewhat anxious. He was actually troubled lest the woman he was about to +marry should speedily begin to love him, and develop a tendency to manifest +her affection in a manner that would seem to him extravagant and certainly +disagreeable. Accustomed all his life to repress his feelings, he wondered at +himself and could not understand how he had given way so unexpectedly. He was +not sufficiently versed in human nature to know that the depth of Alida's +distress was the adequate cause. If there had been a false or an affected +word, he would have remained cool enough. In his inability to gauge his own +nature as well as hers, he feared lest this businesslike marriage was verging +toward sentiment on her part. He did not like her kissing his hand. He was +profoundly sorry for her, but so he would have been for any other woman +suffering under the burden of a great wrong. He felt that it would be +embarrassing if she entertained sentiments toward him which he could not +reciprocate, and open manifestations of regard would remind him of that horror +of his life, Mrs. Mumpson. He was not incapable of quick, strong sympathy in +any instance of genuine trouble, but he was one of those men who would shrink +in natural recoil from any marked evidence of a woman's preference unless the +counterpart of her regard existed in his own breast. + +To a woman of Alida's intuition the way in which he withdrew his hand and the +expression of his face had a world of meaning. She would not need a second +hint. Yet she did not misjudge him; she knew that he meant what he had said +and had said all that he meant. She was also aware that he had not and never +could understand the depths of fear and suffering from which his hand was +lifting her. Her gratitude was akin to that of a lost soul saved, and that +was all she had involuntarily expressed. She sat down again and quietly dried +her eyes, while in her heart she purposed to show her gratitude by patient +assiduity in learning to do what he required. + +Holcroft was now bent upon carrying out his plan as quickly as possible and +returning home. He therefore asked, "Can you go with me at once, Alida?" + +She simply bowed her acquiescence. + +"That's sensible. Perhaps you had better get your things ready while I and +Mr. Watterly go and arrange with Justice Harkins." + +Alida averted her face with a sort of shame which a woman feels who admits +such a truth. "I haven't anything, sir, but a hat and cloak to put on. I came +away and left everything." + +"And I'm glad of it," said Holcroft heartily. "I wouldn't want you to bring +anything which that scoundrel gave you." He paced the room thoughtfully a +moment or two and then he called Watterly in. "It's settled, Tom. Alida will +be Mrs. Holcroft as soon as we can see the justice. Do you think we could +persuade him to come here?" + +"One thing at a time. Mrs. Holcroft,--I may as well call you so, for when my +friend says he'll do a thing he does it,--I congratulate you. I think you are +well out of your troubles. Since you are to marry my old friend, we must be +friends, too," and he shook her heartily by the hand. + +His words and manner were another ray of light--a welcome rift in the black +pall that had gathered round her. + +"You were the first friend I found, sir, after--what happened," she said +gratefully. + +"Well, you've found another and a better one; and he'll always be just the +same. Any woman might be glad--" + +"Come, Tom, no more of that. I'm a plain old farmer that does what he agrees, +and that's all there is about it. I've told Alida just what I wished and +could do--" + +"I should hope so," interrupted Watterly, laughing. "You've taken time enough, +certainly, and I guess you've talked more than you have before in a year." + +"Yes, I know I'm almost as bad as an oyster about talking except when I'm with +you. Somehow we've always had a good deal to say to each other. In this +case, I felt that it was due to Alida that she should know all about me and +understand fully just how I felt concerning this marriage. The very fact that +she hasn't friends to advise her made it all the more needful that I should be +plain and not mislead her in any respect.--She has just as good a right to +judge and act for herself as any woman in the land, and she takes me, and I +take her, with no sentimental lies to start with. Now let's get back to +business. I rather think, since Harkins was an old acquaintance of mine, +he'll come up here and marry us, don't you? Alida, wouldn't you rather be +married here quietly than face a lot of strangers? You can have your own way, +I don't care now if half the town was present." + +"Oh, yes, indeed, sir! I don't want to meet strangers--and--and--I'm not very +strong yet. I thank you for considering my feelings so kindly." + +"Why, that's my duty," replied the farmer. "Come, Watterly, the sun is getting +low, and we've considerable to do yet before we start home." + +"I'm with you. Now, Alida, you go back quietly and act as if nothing had +happened till I send for you. Of course this impatient young groom will hurry +back with the justice as fast as possible. Still, we may not find him, or he +may be so busy that we shall have to come back for you and take you to his +office." + +As she turned to leave the room, Holcroft gave her his hand and said kindly, +"Now don't you be nervous or worried. I see you are not strong, and you shall +not be taxed any more than I can help. Goodby for a little while." + +Meantime Watterly stepped out a moment and gave his domestic a few orders; +then he accompanied Holcroft to the barn, and the horses were soon attached to +the market wagon. "You're in for it now, Jim, sure enough," he said laughing. +"What will Angy say to it all?" + +"Tell her that I say you've been a mighty good friend to me, yet I hope I may +never return any favors of the same kind." + +"By jocks! I hope not. I guess it's just as well she was away. She'll think +we've acted just like two harum-scarum men, and will be awfully scandalized +over your marrying this woman. Don't you feel a little nervous about it?" + +"No! When my mind's made up, I don't worry. Nobody else need lie awake for +it's my affair." + +"Well, Jim, you know how I feel about it, but I've got to say something and I +might as well say it plain." + +"That's the only way you ought to say it." + +"Well, you talked long enough to give me plenty of time to think. One thing is +clear, Angy won't take to this marriage. You know I'd like to have you both +come in and take a meal as you always have done, but then a man must keep +peace with his wife, and--" + +"I understand, Tom. We won't come till Mrs. Watterly asks us." + +"But you won't have hard feelings?" + +"No, indeed. Aint you doing your level best as a friend?" + +"Well, you know women are so set about these things, and Angy is rather hard +on people who don't come up to her mark of respectability. What's more, I +suppose you'll find that others will think and act as she does. If you cared +about people's opinions I should have been dead against it, but as you feel +and are situated, I'm hanged if I don't think she's just the one." + +"If it hadn't been this one, I don't believe it would have been anyone. Here +we are," and he tied his horses before the office of the justice. + +Mr. Harkins greeted Holcroft with a sort of patronizing cordiality, and was +good enough to remember that they had been at the little country schoolhouse +together. In Watterly he heartily recognized a brother politician who +controlled a goodly number of votes. + +When Holcroft briefly made known his errand, the justice gave a great guffaw +of laughter and said, "Oh, bring her here! And I'll invite in some of the +boys as witnesses." + +"I'm not afraid of all the witnesses that you could crowd into a ten-acre +lot," said Holcroft somewhat sternly, "but there is no occasion to invite the +boys, whoever they are, or anyone else. She doesn't want to be stared at. I +was in hopes, Mr. Harkins, that you'd ride up to the almshouse with us and +quietly marry us there." + +"Well, I guess you'd better bring her here. I'm pretty busy this afternoon, +and--" + +"See here, Ben," said Watterly, taking the justice aside, "Holcroft is my +friend, and you know I'm mighty thick with my friends. They count more with +me than my wife's relations. Now I want you to do what Holcroft wishes, as a +personal favor to me, and the time will come when I can make it up to you." + +"Oh, certainly, Watterly! I didn't understand," replied Harkins, who looked +upon Holcroft as a close and, as he would phrase it, no-account farmer, from +whom he could never expect even a vote. "I'll go with you at once. It's but a +short job." + +"Well," said Holcroft, "how short can you make it?" + +"Let me get my book," and he took from a shelf the "Justice's Assistant." +"You can't want anything shorter than this?" and he read, "'By this act of +joining hands you do take each other as husband and wife and solemnly engage +in the presence of these witnesses to love and honor and comfort and cherish +each other as such so long as you both shall live. Therefore, in accordance +with the law of the state of New York I do hereby pronounce you husband and +wife.' A sailor couldn't tie a knot quicker than that." + +"I guess you can, justice," said Holcroft, taking the book. "Suppose you only +read this much: 'By this act of joining hands you do take each other as +husband and wife. Therefore, in accordance with the law, etc.' Would that be +a legal marriage?" + +"Certainly. You'd have to go to a divorce court to get out of that." + +"It's my purpose to keep out of courts of all kinds. I'll thank you to read +just that much and no more. I don't want to say anything that isn't exactly +true." + +"You see how it is, Ben. Holcroft hasn't known the woman long, and she's a +nice woman, too, if she is boarding at my hotel. Holcroft needs a wife--must +have one, in fact, to help run his house and dairy. It wasn't exactly a love +match, you know; and he's that kind of a man that a yoke of oxen couldn't draw +a word out of him that he didn't mean." + +"Yes, yes, I see now," said Harkins. "I'll read just what you say and no +more." + +"And I'll have a little spread that we can be longer at than the ceremony," +added Watterly, who was inclined to be a little hilarious over the affair. + +Holcroft, however, maintained his grave manner, and when they reached the +almshouse he took Watterly aside and said, "See here, Tom, you've been a good +friend today and seconded me in everything. Now let the affair pass off just +as quietly and seriously as possible. She's too cast down for a gay wedding. +Suppose we had a daughter who'd been through such an experience--a nice, good, +modest girl. Her heart's too sore for fun and jokes. My marrying her is much +the same as pulling her out of deep water in which she was sinking." + +"You're right, Jim. I didn't think, and one doesn't have much cause to be so +sparing of the feelings of such creatures as come here. But she's out of the +common run, and I ought to have remembered it. By jocks! You're mighty +careful about promising to love, cherish, and obey, and all that, but I guess +you'll do a sight more than many who do promise." + +"Of course I'm going to be kind. That's my duty. Give Harkins a hint. Tell +him that she's lost her mother. He needn't know when the old lady died, but +it will kind of solemnize him." + +Watterly did as requested, and Harkins, now convinced that his political +interests could be furthered by careful compliance with all requirements, put +on a grave, official air and was ready for business. + +Alida was sent for. She was too agitated to say farewell to any of the poor +creatures with whom she had been compelled to associate--even to the few who, +though scarcely sane, had manifested tenderness and affection. She had felt +that she must reserve all her strength for the coming ordeal, which she both +welcomed and feared inexpressibly. She knew how critical was the step she was +taking and how much depended on it, yet the more she thought, the more it +seemed to her as if Providence had, as by a miracle, given her a refuge. +Holcroft's businesslike view of the marriage comforted her greatly, and she +asked God to give her health and strength to work faithfully for him many +years. + +But she had sad misgivings as she followed the messenger, for she felt so weak +that she could scarcely walk. It was indeed a pallid, sorrowful, trembling +bride that entered Mr.Watterly's parlor. Holcroft met her and taking her +hand, said kindly, "Courage! It will be over in a minute." + +She was so pale and agitated that the justice asked, "do you enter into this +marriage freely and without compulsion of any kind?" + +"Please let me sit down a moment," she faltered, and Watterly hastened to give +her a chair. She fixed her eyes on Holcroft, and said anxiously, "You see, +sir, how weak I am. I have been sick and--and I fear I am far from being well +now. I fear you will be disappointed--that it is not right to you, and that I +may not be able--" + +"Alida," interrupted Holcroft gravely, "I'm not one to break my word. Home +and quiet will soon restore you. Answer the justice and tell him the exact +truth." + +No elixir could have brought hope and courage like that word "home." She rose +at once and said to Harkins, "I have consented to Mr. Holcroft's wishes with +feelings of the deepest gratitude." + +"Very well. Join hands." + +She hesitated and looked for a moment at Holcroft with strange intensity. + +"It's all right, Alida," he said with a smile. "Come!" + +His perfect honesty and steadfastness of purpose stood him in good stead then, +for she came at once to his side and took his hand. + +Justice Harkins solemnly opened his big book and read, "'By this act of +joining hands you do take each other as husband and wife. Therefore, in +accordance with the law of the State of New York, I do hereby pronounce you +husband and wife.' That's all." + +"I don't think you'll ever be sorry, Alida," said Holcroft, pressing her hand +as he led her to a chair. Watterly again bustled up with congratulations, and +then said, "you must all come out now to a little supper, and also remember +that it was gotten up in a hurry." + +The domestic stared at Alida and Holcroft, and then surmising what had taken +place, was so excited that she could scarcely wait on the guests. + +Holcroft, with the simple tact which genuine kindness usually suggests, was +attentive to his bride, but managed, by no slight effort for him, to engage +the two men in general conversation, so that Alida might have time to recover +her composure. His quiet, matter-of-fact bearing was reassuring in itself. A +cup of strong tea and a little old currant wine, which Watterly insisted on +her taking, brightened her up not a little. Indeed her weakness was now +largely due to the want of nourishment suited to her feeble condition. +Moreover, both nerves and mind found relief and rest in the consciousness that +the decisive step had been taken. She was no longer shuddering and recoiling +from a past in which each day had revealed more disheartening elements. Her +face was now toward a future that promised a refuge, security, and even hope. + +The quiet meal was soon over. Holcroft put a five-dollar bill in the hands of +the justice, who filled in a certificate and departed, feeling that the +afternoon had not been spent in vain. + +"Jim," said Watterly, drawing his friend aside, "you'll want to make some +purchases. You know she's only what she wears. How are you off for money?" + +"Well, Tom, you know I didn't expect anything of this kind when--" + +"Of course I know it. Will fifty answer?" + +"Yes. You're a good friend. I'll return it in a day or two." + +"Return it when you're a mind to. I say, Alida, I want you to take this. Jim +Holcroft can't get married and his bride not receive a present from me," and +he put ten dollars in her hand. + +Tears rushed to her eyes as she turned them inquiringly to Holcroft to know +what she should do. + +"Now see here, Tom, you've done too much for us already." + +"Shut up, Jim Holcroft! Don't you end the day by hurting my feelings! It's +perfectly right and proper for me to do this. Goodby, Alida. I don't believe +you'll ever be sorry you found your way to my hotel." + +Alida took his proffered hand, but could only falter, "I--I can never forget." + + +Chapter XX. Uncle Jonathan's Impression of the Bride + +"Now, Alida," said Holcroft, as they drove away, "remember that we are two +middle-aged, sensible people. At least I'm middle-aged, and fairly sensible, +too, I hope. You'll need to buy some things, and I want you to get all you +need. Don't stint yourself, and you needn't hurry so as to get tired, for we +shall have moonlight and there's no use trying to get home before dark. Is +there any particular store which you'd like to go to?" + +"No, sir; only I'd rather go over on the east side of the town where I'm not +known." + +"That suits me, for it's the side nearest home and I AM known there." + +"Perhaps--perhaps you also would rather go this evening where you are not +known," she said hesitatingly. + +"It makes no difference to me. In fact I know of a place where you'll have a +good choice at reasonable rates." + +"I'll go where you wish," she said quietly. + +They soon entered a large shop together, and the proprietor said pleasantly, +"Good evening, Mr. Holcroft." + +"Good evening, Mr. Jasper. My wife wants to get some things. If you'll be +good enough to wait on her, I'll step out to do two or three errands." + +The merchant looked curiously at Alida, but was too polite to ask questions or +make comments on her very simple purchases. Her old skill and training were +of service now. She knew just what she absolutely needed, and bought no more. + +Holcroft laid in a good stock of groceries and some juicy beef and then +returned. When Mr. Jasper gave him his bill, he went to Alida, who was +resting, and said in a low voice, "This won't do at all. You can't have +bought half enough." + +For the first time something like a smile flitted across her face as she +replied, "It's enough to begin with. I know." + +"Really, Mr. Holcroft, I didn't know you were married," said the merchant. "I +must congratulate you." + +"Well, I am. Thank you. Good night." + +A few moments later he and his wife were bowling out of town toward the hills. +Reaching one of these, the horses came down to a walk and Holcroft turned and +said, "Are you very tired, Alida? I'm troubled about you taking this long +ride. You have been so sick." + +"I'm sorry I'm not stronger, sir, but the fresh air seems to do me good and I +think I can stand it." + +"You didn't promise to obey me, did you?" with a rather nervous little laugh. + +"No, sir, but I will." + +"That's a good beginning. Now see what an old tyrant I am. In the first +place, I don't want you to say 'sir' to me any more. My name is James. In +the second place, you must work only as I let you. Your first business is to +get strong and well, and you know we agreed to marry on strictly business +grounds." + +"I understand it well, but I think you are very kind for a business man." + +"Oh, as to that, if I do say it of myself, I don't think it's my nature to be +hard on those who treat me square. I think we shall be very good friends in +our quiet way, and that's more than can be said of a good many who promise +more than they seem to remember afterward." + +"I will try to do all you wish for I am very grateful." + +"If you do, you may find I'm as grateful as you are." + +"That can never be. Your need and mine were very different.--But I shall try +to show my gratitude by learning your ways and wishes and not by many words of +thanks." + +"Thank the Lord!" mentally ejaculated the farmer, "there's no Mrs. Mumpson in +this case;" but he only said kindly, "I think we understand each other now, +Alida. I'm not a man of words either, and I had better show by actions also +what I am. The fact is, although we are married, we are scarcely acquainted, +and people can't get acquainted in a day." + +The first long hill was surmounted and away they bowled again, past cottage +and farmhouse, through strips of woodland and between fields from which came +the fragrance of the springing grass and the peepings of the hylas. The moon +soon rose, full-orbed, above the higher eastern hills, and the mild April +evening became luminous and full of beauty. + +A healing sense of quiet and security already began to steal into Alida's +bruised heart. In turning her back upon the town in which she had suffered so +greatly, she felt like one escaping from prison and torture. An increasing +assurance of safety came with every mile; the cool, still radiance of the +night appeared typical of her new and most unexpected experience. Light had +risen on her shadowed path, but it was not warm, vivifying sunlight, which +stimulates and develops. A few hours before she was in darkness which might +be felt--yet it was a gloom shot through and through with lurid threatening +gleams. It had seemed to her that she had fallen from home, happiness, and +honor to unfathomed depths, and yet there had appeared to be deeper and darker +abysses on every side. She had shuddered at the thought of going out into the +world, feeling that her misfortune would awaken suspicion rather than +sympathy, scorn instead of kindness; that she must toil on until death, to +sustain a life to which death would come as God's welcome messenger. Then had +come this man at her side, with his comparatively trivial troubles and +perplexities, and he had asked her help--she who was so helpless. He had +banished despair from her earthly future, he had lifted her up and was bearing +her away from all which she had so dreaded; nothing had been asked which her +crushed spirit was unable to bestow; she was simply expected to aid him in his +natural wish to keep his home and to live where he had always dwelt. His very +inability to understand her, to see her broken, trampled life and immeasurable +need as she saw it, brought quietness of mind. The concentration of his +thoughts on a few homely and simple hopes gave her immunity. With quick +intuition, she divined that she had not a whimsical, jealous, exacting nature +to deal with. He was the plain, matter-of-fact man he seemed; so literal and +absolutely truthful that he would appear odd to most people. To her mind, his +were the traits which she could now most welcome and value. He knew all about +her, she had merely to be herself, to do what she had promised, in order to +rest securely on his rock-like truth. He had again touched a deep, grateful +chord in speaking of her to the shopkeeper as his wife; he showed no +disposition whatever to shrink from the relation before the world; it was +evident that he meant to treat her with respect and kindness, and to exact +respect from others. For all this, while sitting quietly and silently at his +side, she thanked him almost passionately in her heart; but far more than for +all this she was glad and grateful that he would not expect what she now felt +it would be impossible for her to give--the love and personal devotion which +had been inseparable from marriage in her girlhood thoughts. He would make +good his words--she should be his wife in name and be respected as such. He +was too simple and true to himself and his buried love, too considerate of +her, to expect more. She might hope, therefore, as he had said, that they +might be helpful, loyal friends and he would have been surprised indeed had he +known how the pale, silent woman beside him was longing and hoping to fill +his home with comfort. + +Thoughts like these had inspired and sustained her while at the same time +ministering the balm of hope. The quiet face of nature, lovely in the +moonlight, seemed to welcome and reassure her. Happy are those who, when +sorely wounded in life, can turn to the natural world and find in every tree, +shrub, and flower a comforting friend that will not turn from them. Such are +not far from God and peace. + +The range of Holcroft's thoughts was far simpler and narrower than Alida's. +He turned rather deliberately from the past, preferring to dwell on the +probable consummation of his hope. His home, his farm, were far more to him +than the woman he had married. He had wedded her for their sake, and his +thoughts followed his heart, which was in his hillside acres. It is said that +women often marry for a home; he truly had done so to keep his home. The +question which now most occupied him was the prospect of doing this through +quiet, prosperous years. He dwelt minutely on Alida's manner, as well as her +words, and found nothing to shake his belief that she had been as truthful as +himself. Nevertheless, he queried in regard to the future with not a little +anxiety. In her present distress and poverty she might naturally be glad of +the refuge he had offered; but as time passed and the poignancy of bitter +memories was allayed, might not her life on the farm seem monotonous and dull, +might not weariness and discontent come into her eyes in place of gratitude? +"Well, well!" he concluded, "this marrying is a risky experiment at best, but +Tom Watterly's talk and her manner seemed to shut me up to it. I was made to +feel that I couldn't go on in any other way; and I haven't done anything +underhanded or wrong, as I see, for the chance of going on. If I hadn't +become such a heathen I should say there was a Providence in it, but I don't +know what to think about such things any more. Time'll show, and the prospect +is better than it has been yet. She'll never be sorry if she carries out the +agreement made today, if kindness and good will can repay her." + +Thus it may be seen that, although two life currents had become parallel, they +were still very distinct. + +By the time Holcroft approached the lane leading to his dwelling, Alida was +growing very weary, and felt that her endurance had almost reached its limit. +Her face was so white in the moonlight that he asked solicitously, "You can +stand it a little longer, can't you?" + +"I'll try. I'm very sorry I'm not stronger." + +"Don't you worry about that! You won't know yourself in a week. Here we are +at the lane and there's the house yonder. A moment or two more and you'll be +by the fire." + +A loud barking startled old Jonathan Johnson out of his doze, and he hastened +to replenish the fire and to call off his rather savage dog. He was a little +surprised to see Holcroft drive toward the kitchen door with a woman by his +side. "He's tried his luck with another of them town gals," he muttered, "but, +Jerusalem! She won't stay a week, an' my old woman'll have the washin' an' +mendin' all the same." + +He could scarcely believe his ears and eyes when he heard the farmer say, +"Alida, you must let me lift you out," and then saw the "town gal" set gently +on the ground, her hand placed on Holcroft's arm as she was supported slowly +and carefully to the rocking chair beside the fire. "Jonathan," was the quiet +announcement, "this is Mrs. Holcroft, my wife." + +"Jeru--beg a pardon. Wasn't 'spectin; jis' sich a turn o' things. Respects, +missus! Sorry to see yer enj'yin' poor health." + +"Yes, Jonathan, Mrs. Holcroft has been sick, but she's much better and will +soon be well. She's very tired now from the long drive, but quiet life and +country air will soon make her strong. I'll just step out and care for the +horses, Alida, and soon be back again. You come and help me, Jonathan, and +keep your dog off, too." + +The old man complied with rather poor grace for he would have preferred to +interview the bride, at whom he was staring with all his weak, watery eyes. +Holcroft understood his neighbor's peculiarities too well to subject his wife +to this ordeal, and was bent on dispatching Jonathan homeward as soon as +possible. + +"I say, Jim," said the old guardsman, who felt that he was speaking to the boy +he had known for thirty odd years, "where on airth did you pick up sich a +sickly lookin' critter?" + +"I didn't pick her up," replied the farmer laughingly. "I married her fair and +square just as you did your wife a hundred years ago, more or less. Haven't I +as good a right to get married as you had?" + +"Oh, I aint a-disputin' yer right, but it seems so kind o' suddint that it's +taken what little breath I've left." + +"How do you know it's sudden? Did you go around telling everyone how you were +getting on when you were a-courting?" + +"Well, I swan! Yer got me. 'Taint so long ago that I disremember we did it +on the sly." + +"Well, now, Uncle Jonathan, you've got nothing to say against me for I didn't +marry on the sly, although I've gone on the principle that my business wasn't +everybody's business. When I saw your wife about my washing and mending I +didn't know I was going to be lucky so soon. You know you can't marry a woman +in this country till she's willing. But tell your wife she shan't lose +anything, and the next time I go to town I'll leave that settin' of eggs she +wanted. Now, Jonathan, honor bright, do you feel able to walk home if I give +you fifty cents extra?" + +"Why, sartinly! S'pose I'd take yer away on sich a 'casion? My wife wouldn't +let me in if she knowed it." + +"Well, you and your wife are good neighbors, and that's more'n I can say for +most people in these parts. Here's the money. Mrs. Holcroft isn't strong or +well enough to talk any tonight. You got yourself a good supper, didn't you?" + +"Yes, yes! Helped myself bount'fully. Good night, and good luck ter yer. I +can't help thinkin' it was kind o' suddint though, and then she's sich a +sickly lookin' critter. Hope yer haven't been taken in, but then, as you say, +the marryin' business, like other kinds o' business, is a man's own business." + +"I hope everyone will take your sensible view, Uncle Jonathan. Good night." + + +Chapter XXI. At Home + +Alida was not so cold, weary, and almost faint but that she looked around the +old kitchen with the strongest interest. This interest was as unlike Mrs. +Mumpson's curiosity as she was unlike the widow. It is true the thought of +self was prominent, yet hers were not selfish thoughts. There are some +blessed natures in the world that in doing the best for themselves do the best +that is possible for others. + +The genial warmth of the fire was grateful to her chilled and enfeebled frame; +the homely kitchen, with its dresser of china ware, its tin closet and pantry, +the doors of which old Jonathan had left open, manlike, after helping himself +"bount'fully," all suggested more comfort to this pallid bride, sitting there +alone, than wealth of ornament in elegant apartments has brought to many +others. She saw her chief domain, not in its coarse and common aspect, but as +her vantage ground, from which she could minister to the comforts of the one +who had rescued her. Few brides would care to enter the kitchen first, but +she was pleased; she who had scarcely hoped to smile again looked smilingly +around on the quaint, homelike room. + +"And this is to be my home!" she murmured. "How strange, unexpected, yet +natural it all is! Just what he led me to expect. The little lonely +farmhouse, where I can be safe from staring eyes and unwounded by cruel +questionings. Yet that old man had a dozen questions on his tongue. I +believe HE took him away to save my feelings. It's strange that so plain and +simple a man in most respects can be so considerate. Oh, pray God that all +goes on as it promises! I couldn't have dreamt it this morning, but I have an +odd, homelike feeling already. Well, since I AM at home I may as well take +off my hat and cloak." + +And she did so. Holcroft entered and said heartily, "That's right, Alida! +You are here to stay, you know. You mustn't think it amiss that I left you a +few moments alone for I had to get that talkative old man off home. He's +getting a little childish and would fire questions at you point-blank." + +"But shouldn't you have taken him home in the wagon? I don't mind being +alone." + +"Oh, no! He's spry enough to walk twice the distance and often does. It's +light as day outside, and I made it right with him. You can leave your things +upstairs in your room, and I'll carry up your bundles also if you are rested +enough for the journey." + +"Oh, yes!" she replied, "I'm feeling better already." + +He led the way to the apartment that Mrs. Mumpson had occupied and said +regretfully, "I'm sorry the room looks so bare and comfortless, but that will +all be mended in time. When you come down, we'll have some coffee and +supper." + +She soon reappeared in the kitchen, and he continued, "Now I'll show you that +I'm not such a very helpless sort of man, after all; so if you're sick you +needn't worry. I'm going to get you a good cup of coffee and broil you a +piece of steak." + +"Oh! Please let me--" she began. + +"No, can't allow you to do anything tonight but sit in that chair. You +promised to mind, you know," and he smiled so genially that she smiled back at +him although tears came into her eyes. + +"I can't realize it all," she said in a low voice. "To think how this day +began and how it is ending!" + +"It's ending in a poor man's kitchen, Alida. It was rather rough to bring you +in here first, but the parlor is cold and comfortless. + +"I would rather be brought here. It seems to me that it must be a light and +cheerful room." + +"Yes, the sun shines in these east windows, and there's another window facing +the south, so it's light all day long." + +She watched him curiously and with not a little self-reproach as he deftly +prepared supper. "It's too bad for me to sit idle while you do such things, +yet you do everything so well that I fear I shall seem awkward. Still, I +think I do at least know how to cook a little." + +"If you knew what I've had to put up with for a year or more, you wouldn't +worry about satisfying me in this respect. Except when old Mrs. Wiggins was +here, I had few decent meals that I didn't get myself," and then, to cheer her +up, he laughingly told her of Mrs. Mumpson's essay at making coffee. He had a +certain dry humor, and his unwonted effort at mimicry was so droll in itself +that Alida was startled to hear her own voice in laughter, and she looked +almost frightened, so deeply had she been impressed that it would never be +possible or even right for her to laugh again. + +The farmer was secretly much pleased at his success. If she would laugh, be +cheerful and not brood, he felt sure she would get well and be more contented. +The desperate view she had taken of her misfortunes troubled him, and he had +thought it possible that she might sink into despondency and something like +invalidism; but that involuntary bubble of laughter reassured him. "Quiet, +wholesome, cheerful life will restore her to health," he thought, as he put +his favorite beverage and the sputtering steak on the table. "Now," he said, +placing a chair at the table, "you can pour me a cup of coffee." + +"I'm glad I can do something," she answered, "for I can't get over the +strangeness of being so waited on. Indeed, everything that was unexpected or +undreamt of has happened," and there was just the faintest bit of color on her +cheeks as she sat down opposite him. + +Few men are insensible to simple, natural, womanly grace, and poor Holcroft, +who so long had been compelled to see at his table "perfect terrors," as he +called them, was agreeably impressed by the contrast she made with the Mumpson +and Malony species. Alida unconsciously had a subtle charm of carriage and +action, learned in her long past and happy girlhood when all her associations +were good and refined. Still, in its truest explanation, this grace is native +and not acquired; it is a personal trait. Incapable of nice analysis or fine +definitions, he only thought, "How much pleasanter it is to see at the table a +quiet, sensible woman instead of a 'peculiar female!'" and it was not long +before he supplemented her remark by saying, "Perhaps things are turning out +for both of us better than we expected. I had made up my mind this morning to +live here like a hermit, get my own meals, and all that. I actually had the +rough draught of an auction bill in my pocket,--yes, here it is now,--and was +going to sell my cows, give up my dairy, and try to make my living in a way +that wouldn't require any woman help. That's what took me up to Tom +Watterly's; I wanted him to help me put the bill in shape. He wouldn't look +at it, and talked me right out of trying to live like Robinson Crusoe, as he +expressed it. I had been quite cheerful over my prospects; indeed, I was +almost happy in being alone again after having such terrors in the house. +But, as I said, Watterly talked all the courage and hope right out of me, and +made it clear that I couldn't go it alone. You see, Tom and I have been +friends since we were boys together, and that's the reason he talks so plain +to me." + +"He has a good, kind heart," said Alida. "I don't think I could have kept up +at all had it not been for his kindness." + +"Yes, Tom's a rough diamond. He don't make any pretenses, and looks upon +himself as a rather hard case, but I fancy he's doing kind things in his rough +way half the time. Well, as we were talking, he remembered you, and he spoke +of you so feelingly and told your story with so much honest sympathy that he +awoke my sympathy. Now you know how it has all come about. You see it's all +natural enough and simple enough, and probably it's the best thing that could +have happened for us both. All you have to do is to get strong and well, and +then it won't be any one-sided affair, as you've been too much inclined to +think. I can go on and keep my farm and home just as my heart is bent on +doing. I want you to understand everything for then your mind will be more +satisfied and at rest, and that's half the battle in getting over sickness and +trouble like yours." + +"I can only thank God and you for the great change in my prospects. This +quiet and escape from strangers are just what I most craved, and I am already +beginning to hope that if I can learn to do all you wish, I shall find a +content that I never hoped for," and the tears that stood in her eyes were +witnesses of her sincerity. + +"Well, don't expect to learn everything at once. Let me have my way for a +while, and then you'll find, as you get strong, and the busy season comes on, +that I'll be so taken up with the farm that you'll have your own way. Won't +you have some more steak? No? Well, you've enjoyed your supper a little, +haven't you?" + +"Yes," she replied, smiling. "I actually felt hungry when I sat down, and the +coffee has taken away the tired, faint feeling." + +"I hope you'll soon be good and hungry three times a day," he said, laughing +pleasantly. + +"You'll at least let me clear the table?" she asked. "I feel so much better." + +"Yes, if you are sure you're strong enough. It may make you feel more at +home. But drop everything till tomorrow when tired. I must go out and do my +night work, and it's night work now, sure enough--" + +"It's too bad!" she said sympathetically. + +"What! To go out and feed my stock this clear, bright night? And after a +hearty supper too? Such farming is fun. I feel, too, as if I wanted to go +and pat the cows all around in my gladness that I'm not going to sell them. +Now remember, let everything go till morning as soon as you feel tired." + +She nodded smilingly and set to work. Standing in the shadow of a hemlock, he +watched her for a few moments. Her movements were slow, as would be natural +to one who had been so reduced by illness, but this every evidence of +feebleness touched his feelings. "She is eager to begin--too eager. No +nonsense there about 'menial tasks.' Well, it does give one hope to see such +a woman as that in the old kitchen," and then the hungry cattle welcomed him. + +The traveler feels safe after the fierce Arab of the desert has broken bread +with him. It would seem that a deep principle of human nature is involved in +this act. More than the restoring power of the nourishment itself was the +moral effect for Alida of that first meal in her husband's home. It was +another step in what he had said was essential--the forming of his +acquaintance. She had seen from the first that he was plain and +unpolished--that he had not the veneer of gentility of the man she had so +mistakenly married; yet, in his simple truth, he was inspiring a respect which +she had never felt for any man before. "What element of real courtesy has been +wanting?" she asked herself. "If this is an earnest of the future, thank God +for the real. I've found to my cost what a clever imitation of a man means." + +It was as sweet as it was strange to think that she, who had trembled at the +necessity of becoming almost a slave to unfeeling strangers, had been +compelled to rest while a husband performed tasks naturally hers. It was all +very homely, yet the significance of the act was chivalrous consideration for +her weakness; the place, the nature of the ministry could not degrade the +meaning of his action. Then, too, during the meal he had spoken natural, +kindly words which gave to their breaking of bread together the true +interpretation. Although so feeble and wary, she found a deep satisfaction in +beginning her household work. "It does make me feel more at home," she said. +"Strange that he should have thought of it!" + +She had finished her task and sat down again when he entered with a pail of +milk. Taking a dipper with a strainer on one side of it, he poured out a +tumblerful. "Now, take this," he said, "I've always heard that milk fresh from +the cow was very strengthening. Then go and sleep till you are thoroughly +rested, and don't think of coming down in the morning till you feel like it. +I'll make the fire and get breakfast. You have seen how easily I can do it. +I have several more cows to milk, and so will say 'Goodnight.'" + +For the first time since chaos had come into her life Alida slept soundly and +refreshingly, unpursued by the fears which had haunted even her dreams. When +she awoke she expected to see the gray locks and repulsive features of the +woman who had occupied the apartment with her at the almshouse, but she was +alone in a small, strange room. Then memory gathered up the threads of the +past; but so strange, so blessed did the truth seem that she hastened to dress +and go down to the old kitchen and assure herself that her mind had not become +shattered by her troubles and was mocking her with unreal fancies. The scene +she looked upon would have soothed and reassured her even had her mind been as +disordered as she, for the moment, had been tempted to believe. There was the +same homely room which had pictured itself so deeply in her memory the evening +before. Now it was more attractive for the morning sun was shining into it, +lighting up its homely details with a wholesome, cheerful reality which made +it difficult to believe that there were tragic experiences in the world. The +wood fire in the stove crackled merrily, and the lid of the kettle was already +bobbing up and down from internal commotion. + +As she opened the door a burst of song entered, securing her attention. She +had heard the birds before without recognizing consciousness, as is so often +true of our own condition in regard to the familiar sounds of nature. It was +now almost as if she had received another sense, so strong, sweet, and +cheering was the symphony. Robins, song-sparrows, blackbirds, seemed to have +gathered in the trees nearby, to give her a jubilant welcome; but she soon +found that the music shaded off to distant, dreamlike notes, and remembered +that it was a morning chorus of a hemisphere. This universality did not +render the melody less personally grateful. We can appreciate all that is +lovely in Nature, yet leave all for others. As she stood listening, and +inhaling the soft air, full of the delicious perfume of the grass and +expanding buds, and looking through the misty sunshine on the half-veiled +landscape, she heard Holcroft's voice, chiding some unruly animal in the +barnyard. + +This recalled her, and with the elasticity of returning health and hope she +set about getting breakfast. + +"It seems to me that I never heard birds sing before," she thought, "and their +songs this morning are almost like the music of heaven. They seem as happy +and unconscious of fear and trouble as if they were angels. Mother and I used +to talk about the Garden of Eden, but could the air have been sweeter, or the +sunshine more tempered to just the right degree of warmth and brightness than +here about my home? Oh, thank God again, again and forever, for a home like +this!" and for a few moments something of the ecstasy of one delivered from +the black thraldom of evil filled her soul. She paused now and then to listen +to the birds for only their songs seemed capable of expressing her emotion. +It was but another proof that heavenly thoughts and homely work may go on +together. + + +Chapter XXII. Getting Acquainted + +It was still early, and Holcroft was under the impression that Alida would +sleep late after the severe fatigues of the preceding day. He therefore +continued his work at the barn sufficiently long to give his wife time for her +little surprise. She was not long in finding and laying her hands on the +simple materials for breakfast. A ham hung in the pantry and beneath it was a +great basket of eggs, while the flour barrel stood in the corner. Biscuits +were soon in the oven, eggs conjured into an omelet, and the ham cut into +delicate slices, instead of great coarse steaks. + +Remembering Mrs. Mumpson's failure with the coffee, she made it a trifle +strong and boiled the milk that should temper without cooling it. The +biscuits rose like her own spirits, the omelet speedily began to take on color +like her own flushed face as she busied herself about the stove. + +Everything was nearly ready when she saw Holcroft coming toward the house with +two pails of milk. He took them to the large dairy room under the parlor and +then came briskly to the kitchen. + +She stood, screened by the door as he entered, then stopped and stared at the +table all set and at the inviting breakfast on the stove. + +Seeing Alida's half-smiling, half-questioning face, seeking his approval, he +exclaimed, "Well, you HAVE stolen a march on me! I supposed you were asleep +yet." + +"I felt so much stronger and better when I awoke that I thought you wouldn't +mind if I came down and made a beginning." + +"You call this a beginning do you? Such a breakfast as this before seven in +the morning? I hope you haven't overtaxed yourself." + +"No, only a little of just the right kind of tired feeling." + +"Haven't you left anything for me to do?" + +"Perhaps. You will know when I've put all on the table. What I've prepared +is ready." + +"Well, this is famous. I'll go and wash and fix up a little and be right +down." + +When Holcroft returned, he looked at her curiously, for he felt that he, too, +was getting acquainted. Her thin face was made more youthful by color; a +pleased look was in her blue eyes, and a certain neatness and trimness about +her dress to which he had not been accustomed. He scanned the table +wonderingly, for things were not put upon it at haphazard; the light biscuits +turned their brown cheeks invitingly toward him,--she had arranged that they +should do that,--the ham was crisp, not sodden, and the omelet as russet as a +November leaf. "This is a new dish," he said, looking at it closely. "What do +you call it?" + +"Omelet. Perhaps you won't like it, but mother used to be very fond of it." + +"No matter. We'll have it if you like it and it brings you pleasant thoughts +of your mother." Then he took a good sip of coffee and set the cup down again +as he had before under the Mumpson regime, but with a very different +expression. She looked anxiously at him, but was quickly reassured. "I +thought I knew how to make coffee, but I find I don't. I never tasted +anything so good as that. How DO you make it?" + +"Just as mother taught me." + +"Well, well! And you call this making a beginning? I just wish I could give +Tom Watterly a cup of this coffee. It would set his mind at rest. 'By +jocks!' he would say, 'isn't this better than going it alone?'" + +She looked positively happy under this sweet incense to a housewifely heart. +She was being paid in the coin that women love best, and it was all the more +precious to her because she had never expected to receive it again. + +He did like the omelet; he liked everything, and, after helping her liberally, +cleared the table, then said he felt equal to doing two men's work. Before +going out to his work, he lighted a fire on the parlor hearth and left a good +supply of fuel beside it. "Now, Alida," he remarked humorously, "I've already +found out that you have one fault that you and I will have to watch against. +You are too willing. I fear you've gone beyond your strength this morning. I +don't want you to do a thing today except to get the meals, and remember, I +can help in this if you don't feel well. There is a fire in the parlor, and +I've wheeled the lounge up by it. Take it quietly today, and perhaps tomorrow +I can begin to show you about butter-making." + +"I will do as you wish," she replied, "but please show me a little more where +things are before you go out." + +This he did and added, "You'll find the beef and some other things on a +swing-shelf in the cellar. The potato bins are down there, too. But don't +try to get up much dinner. What comes quickest and easiest will suit me. I'm +a little backward with my work and must plow all day for oats. It's time they +were in. After such a breakfast, I feel as if I had eaten a bushel myself." + +A few moments later she saw him going up the lane, that continued on past the +house, with his stout team and the plow, and she smiled as she heard him +whistling "Coronation" with levity, as some good people would have thought. + +Plowing and planting time had come and under happier auspices, apparently, +than he had ever imagined possible again. With the lines about his neck, he +began with a sidehill plow at the bottom of a large, sloping field which had +been in corn the previous year, and the long, straight furrows increased from +a narrow strip to a wide, oblong area. "Ah," said he in tones of strong +satisfaction, "the ground crumbles freely; it's just in the right condition. +I'll quit plowing this afternoon in time to harrow and sow all the ground +that's ready. Then, so much'll be all done and well done. It's curious how +seed, if it goes into the ground at the right time and in the right way, comes +right along and never gets discouraged. I aint much on scientific farming, +but I've always observed that when I sow or plant as soon as the ground is +ready, I have better luck." + +The horses seemed infected by his own brisk spirit, stepping along without +urging, and the farmer was swept speedily into the full, strong current of his +habitual interests. + +One might have supposed the recent events would have the uppermost place in +his thoughts, but this was not true. He rather dwelt upon them as the +unexpectedly fortunate means to the end now attained. This was his life, and +he was happy in the thought that his marriage promised to make this life not +merely possible, but prosperous and full of quiet content. + +The calling of the born agriculturist, like that of the fisherman, has in it +the element of chance and is therefore full of moderate yet lasting +excitement. Holcroft knew that, although he did his best, much would depend +on the weather and other causes. He had met with disappointments in his +crops, and had also achieved what he regarded as fine successes, although they +would have seemed meager on a Western prairie. Every spring kindled anew his +hopefulness and anticipation. He watched the weather with the interested and +careful scrutiny of a sailor, and it must be admitted that his labor and its +results depended more on natural causes than upon his skill and the careful +use of the fertilizers. He was a farmer of the old school, the traditions +received from his father controlled him in the main. Still, his good common +sense and long experience stood him fairly well in the place of science and +knowledge of improved methods, and he was better equipped than the man who has +in his brain all that the books can teach, yet is without experience. Best of +all, he had inherited and acquired an abiding love of the soil; he never could +have been content except in its cultivation; he was therefore in the right +condition to assimilate fuller knowledge and make the most of it. + +He knew well enough when it was about noon. From long habit he would have +known had the sky been overcast, but now his glance at the sun was like +looking at a watch. Dusty and begrimed he followed his team to the barn, +slipped from them their headstalls and left them to amuse themselves with a +little hay while they cooled sufficiently for heartier food. "Well now," he +mused, "I wonder what that little woman has for dinner? Another new dish, +like enough. Hanged if I'm fit to go in the house, and she looking so trim +and neat. I think I'll first take a souse in the brook," and he went up +behind the house where an unfailing stream gurgled swiftly down from the +hills. At the nearest point a small basin had been hollowed out, and as he +approached he saw two or three speckled trout darting away through the limpid +water. + +"Aha!" he muttered, "glad you reminded me. When SHE'S stronger, she may enjoy +catching our supper some afternoon. I must think of all the little things I +can to liven her up so she won't get dull. It's curious how interested I am +to know how she's got along and what she has for dinner. And to think that, +less than a week ago, I used to hate to go near the house!" + +As he entered the hall on his way to his room, that he might make himself more +presentable, an appetizing odor greeted him and Alida smiled from the kitchen +door as she said, "Dinner's ready." + +Apparently she had taken him at his word, as she had prepared little else than +an Irish stew, yet when he had partaken of it, he thought he would prefer +Irish stews from that time onward indefinitely. "Where did you learn to cook, +Alida?" he asked. + +"Mother wasn't very strong and her appetite often failed her. Then, too, we +hadn't much to spend on our table so we tried to make simple things taste +nice. Do you like my way of preparing that old-fashioned dish?" + +"I'm going to show you how I like it," he replied, nodding approvingly. "Well, +what have you been doing besides tempting me to eat too much?" + +"What you said, resting. You told me not to get up much of a dinner, so I +very lazily prepared what you see. I've been lying on the lounge most of the +morning." + +"Famous, and you feel better?" + +"Yes, I think I shall soon get well and strong," she replied, looking at him +gratefully. + +"Well, well! My luck's turned at last. I once thought it never would, but if +this goes on--well, you can't know what a change it is for the better. I can +now put my mind on my work." + +"You've been plowing all the morning, haven't you?" she ventured, and there +was the pleased look in her eyes that he already liked to see. + +"Yes," he replied, "and I must keep at it several days to get in all the oats +I mean to sow. If this weather holds, I shall be through next week." + +"I looked in the milk-room a while ago. Isn't there anything I could do there +this afternoon?" + +"No. I'll attend to everything there. It's too damp for you yet. Keep on +resting. Why, bless me! I didn't think you'd be well enough to do anything +for a week." + +"Indeed," she admitted, "I'm surprised at myself. It seems as if a crushing +weight had been lifted off my mind and that I was coming right up. I'm so +glad, for I feared I might be feeble and useless a long time." + +"Well, Alida, if you had been, or if you ever are, don't think I'll be +impatient. The people I can't stand are those who try to take advantage of +me, and I tell you I've had to contend with that disposition so long that I +feel as if I could do almost anything for one who is simply honest and tries +to keep her part of an agreement. But this won't do. I've enjoyed my own +dinner so much that I've half forgotten that the horses haven't had theirs +yet. Now will you scold if I light my pipe before I go out?" + +"Oh, no! I don't mind that." + +"No good-natured fibs! Isn't smoke disagreeable?" + +She shook her head. "I don't mind it at all," she said, but her sudden +paleness puzzled him. He could not know that he had involuntarily recalled +the many times that she had filled the evening pipe for a man who now haunted +her memory like a specter. + +"I guess you don't like it very much," he said, as he passed out. "Well, no +matter! It's getting so mild that I can smoke out of doors." + +With the exception of the episode of dinner the day was chiefly passed by +Alida in a health-restoring languor, the natural reaction from the distress +and strong excitements of the past. The rest that had been enjoined upon her +was a blessed privilege, and still more happy was the truth that she could +rest. Reclining on the lounge in the parlor, with a wood fire on one side and +the April sun on the other, both creating warmth and good cheer, she felt like +those who have just escaped from a wreck and engulfing waves. Her mind was +too weary to question either the past or the future, and sometimes a +consciousness of safety is happiness in itself. In the afternoon, the +crackling of the fire and the calling and singing of the birds without formed +a soothing lullaby and she fell asleep. + +At last, in a dream, she heard exquisite music which appeared to grow so loud, +strong, and triumphant that she started up and looked around bewildered. A +moment later, she saw that a robin was singing in a lilac bush by the window +and that near the bird was a nest partially constructed. She recalled her +hopeless grief when she had last seen the building of one of their little +homes; and she fell upon her knees with a gratitude too deep for words, and +far more grateful to Heaven than words. + +Stepping out on the porch, she saw by the shadows that the sun was low in the +west and that Holcroft was coming down the lane with his horses. He nodded +pleasantly as he passed on to the barn. Her eyes followed him lingeringly +till he disappeared, and then they ranged over the wide valley and the wooded +hills in the distance. Not a breath of air was stirring; the lowing of cattle +and other rural sounds softened by distance came from other farmhouses; the +birds were at vespers, and their songs, to her fancy, were imbued with a +softer, sweeter melody than in the morning. From the adjacent fields came +clear, mellow notes that made her nerves tingle, so ethereal yet penetrating +were they. She was sure she had never heard such bird music before. When +Holcroft came in to supper she asked, "What birds are those that sing in the +field?" + +"Meadow larks. Do you like them?" + +"I never heard a hymn sung that did me more good." + +"Well, I own up, I'd rather hear 'em than much of the singing we used to have +down at the meeting house." + +"It seems to me," she remarked, as she sat down at the table, "that I've never +heard birds sing as they have today." + +"Now I think of it, they have been tuning up wonderfully. Perhaps they've an +idea of my good luck," he added smilingly. + +"I had thought of that about myself," she ventured. "I took a nap this +afternoon, and a robin sang so near the window that he woke me up. It was a +pleasant way to be waked." + +"Took a nap, did you? That's famous! Well, well! This day's gone just to +suit me, and I haven't had many such in a good while, I can tell you. I've +got in a big strip of oats, and now, when I come in tired, here's a good +supper. I certainly shall have to be on the watch to do Tom Watterly good +turns for talking me into this business. That taking a nap was a first-rate +idea. You ought to keep it up for a month." + +"No, indeed! There's no reason why you should work hard and I be idle. I've +rested today, as you wished, and I feel better than I ever expected to again; +but tomorrow I must begin in earnest. What use is there of your keeping your +cows if good butter is not made? Then I must be busy with my needle." + +"Yes, that's true enough. See how thoughtless I am! I forgot you hadn't any +clothes to speak of. I ought to take you to town to a dressmaker." + +"I think you had better get your oats in," she replied, smiling shyly. +"Besides, I have a dressmaker that just suits me--one that's made my dresses a +good many years." + +"If she don't suit you, you're hard to be suited," said he, laughing. "Well, +some day, after you are fixed up, I shall have to let you know how dilapidated +I am." + + "Won't you do me a little favor?" + +"Oh, yes! A dozen of 'em, big or little." + +"Please bring down this evening something that needs mending. I am so much +better--" + +"No, no! I wasn't hinting for you to do anything tonight." + +"But you've promised me," she urged. "Remember I've been resting nearly all +day. I'm used to sewing, and earned my living at it. Somehow, it don't seem +natural for me to sit with idle hands." + +"If I hadn't promised--" + +"But you have." + +"I suppose I'm fairly caught," and he brought down a little of the most +pressing of the mending. + +"Now I'll reward you," she said, handing him his pipe, well filled. "You go in +the parlor and have a quiet smoke. I won't be long in clearing up the +kitchen." + +"What! Smoke in the parlor?" + +"Yes, why not? I assure you I don't mind it." + +"Ha! Ha! Why didn't I think of it before--I might have kept the parlor and +smoked Mrs. Mumpson out." + +"It won't be smoke that will keep me out." + +"I should hope not, or anything else. I must tell you how I DID have to smoke +Mrs. Mumpson out at last," and he did so with so much drollery that she again +yielded to irrepressible laughter. + +"Poor thing! I'm sorry for her," she said. + +"I'm sorry for Jane--poor little stray cat of a child! I hope we can do +something for her some day," and having lighted his pipe, he took up the +county paper, left weekly in a hollow tree by the stage driver, and went into +the parlor. + +After freshening up the fire he sat down to read, but by the time she joined +him the tired man was nodding. He tried to brighten up, but his eyes were +heavy. + +"You've worked hard today," she said sympathetically. + +"Well, I have," he answered. "I've not done such a good day's work in a year." + +"Then why don't you go to sleep at once?" + +"It don't seem polite--" + +"Please don't talk that way," she interrupted. "I don't mind being alone at +all. I shall feel a great deal more at home if you forget all about +ceremony." + +"Well, Alida, I guess we had both better begin on that basis. If I give up +when I'm tired, you must. You mustn't think I'm always such a sleepyhead. +The fact is I've been more tired out with worry of late than with work. I can +laugh about it now, but I've been so desperate over it that I've felt more +like swearing. You'll find out I've become a good deal of a heathen." + +"Very well; I'll wait till I find out." + +"I think we are getting acquainted famously, don't you?" + +"Yes," she nodded, with a smile that meant more than a long speech. "Good +night." + + +Chapter XXIII. Between the Past and Future + +Human nature, in common with Mother Nature, has its immutable laws. The +people who existed before the flood were, in their primal motives, like those +of today. The conventionality of highly civilized society does not change the +heart, but it puts so much restraint upon it that not a few appear heartless. +They march through life and fight its battles like uniformed men, trained in a +certain school of tactics. The monotony of character and action is +superficial, in most cases, rather than real, and he who fathoms the eyes of +others, who catches the subtle quality of tones and interprets the flexible +mouth that utters them, will discover that the whole gamut of human nature +exists in those that appear only like certain musical instruments, made by +machinery to play a few well-known tunes. Conventional restraint often, no +doubt, produces dwarfed and defective human nature. I suppose that if souls +could be put under a microscope, the undeveloped rudiments of almost +everything would be discovered. It is more satisfactory to study the things +themselves than their suggestions; this we are usually better able to do among +people of simple and untrammeled modes of life, who are not practiced in +disguises. Their peculiar traits and their general and dominant laws and +impulses are exhibited with less reserve than by those who have learned to be +always on their guard. Of course there are commonplace yeomen as truly as +commonplace aristocrats, and simple life abounds in simpletons. + +When a man in Holcroft's position has decided traits, they are apt to have a +somewhat full expression; his rugged nature beside a tamer one outlines itself +more vividly, just as a mountain peak is silhouetted against the horizon +better than a rounded hill. It probably has been observed that his character +possessed much simplicity and directness. He had neither the force nor the +ambition to raise him above his circumstances; he was merely decided within +the lines of his environment. Perhaps the current of his life was all the +stronger for being narrow. His motives were neither complex nor vacillating. +He had married to keep his home and to continue in the conditions of life dear +from association and the strongest preference, and his heart overflowed with +good will and kindness toward Alida because she promised to solve the hard +problem of the future satisfactorily. Apart from the sympathy which her +misfortune had evoked, he probably could have felt much the same toward any +other good, sensible woman, had she rendered him a similar service. It is +true, now that Alida was in his home, that she was manifesting agreeable +traits which gave him pleasant little surprises. He had not expected that he +would have had half so much to say to her, yet felt it his duty to be sociable +in order to cheer up and mark the line between even a business marriage and +the employment of a domestic. Both his interest and his duty required that he +should establish the bonds of strong friendly regard on the basis of perfect +equality, and he would have made efforts, similar to those he put forth, in +behalf of any woman, if she had consented to marry him with Alida's +understanding. Now, however, that his suddenly adopted project of securing a +housekeeper and helper had been consummated, he would find that he was not +dealing with a business partner in the abstract, but a definite woman, who had +already begun to exert over him her natural influence. He had expected more +or less constraint and that some time must elapse before his wife would cease +to be in a sense company whom he, with conscious and deliberate effort, must +entertain. On the contrary she entertained and interested him, although she +said so little, and by some subtle power she unloosed his tongue and made it +easy for him to talk to her. In the most quiet and unobtrusive way, she was +not only making herself at home, but him also; she was very subservient to his +wishes, but not servilely so; she did not assert, but only revealed her +superiority, and after even so brief an acquaintance he was ready to indorse +Tom Watterly's view, "She's out of the common run." + +While all this was true, the farmer's heart was as untouched as that of a +child who simply and instinctively likes a person. He was still quietly and +unhesitatingly loyal to his former wife. Apart from his involuntary favor, +his shrewd, practical reason was definite enough in its grounds of approval. +Reason assured him that she promised to do and to be just what he had married +her for, but this might have been true of a capable, yet disagreeable woman +whom he could not like, to save himself. + +Both in regard to himself and Alida, Holcroft accepted the actual facts with +the gladness and much of the unquestioning simplicity of a child. This rather +risky experiment was turning out well, and for a time he daily became more and +more absorbed in his farm and its interests. Alida quietly performed her +household tasks and proved that she would not need very much instruction to +become a good butter maker. The short spring of the North required that he +should be busy early and late to keep pace with the quickly passing seedtime. +His hopefulness, his freedom from household worries, prompted him to sow and +plant increased areas of land. In brief, he entered on just the business-like +honeymoon he had hoped for. + +Alida was more than content with the conditions of her life. She saw that +Holcroft was not only satisfied, but also pleased with her, and that was all +she had expected and indeed all that thus far she had wished or hoped. She +had many sad hours; wounds like hers cannot heal readily in a true, sensitive +woman's heart. While she gained in cheerfulness and confidence, the terrible +and unexpected disaster which had overtaken her rendered impossible the +serenity of those with whom all has gone well. Dread of something, she knew +not what, haunted her painfully, and memory at times seemed malignantly +perverse in recalling one whom she prayed to forget. + +Next to her faith and Holcroft's kindness her work was her best solace, and +she thanked God for the strength to keep busy. + +On the first Sunday morning after their marriage the farmer overslept, and +breakfast had been ready some time when he came down. He looked with a little +dismay at the clock over the kitchen mantel and asked, "Aren't you going to +scold a little?" + +She shook her head, nor did she look the chiding which often might as well be +spoken. + +"How long have I kept breakfast waiting, or you rather?" + +"What difference does it make? You needed the rest. The breakfast may not be +so nice," was her smiling answer. + +"No matter. You are nice to let a man off in that way." Observing the book +in her lap, he continued, "So you were reading the old family Bible to learn +lessons of patience and forbearance?" + +Again she shook her head. She often oddly reminded him of Jane in her +employment of signs instead of speech, but in her case there was a grace, a +suggestiveness, and even a piquancy about them which made them like a new +language. He understood and interpreted her frankly. "I know, Alida," he said +kindly; "you are a good woman. You believe in the Bible and love to read it." + +"I was taught to read and love it," she replied simply. Then her eyes dropped +and she faltered, "I've reproached myself bitterly that I rushed away so +hastily that I forgot the Bible my mother gave me." + +"No, no," he said heartily, "don't reproach yourself for that. It was the +Bible in your heart that made you act as you did." + +She shot him a swift, grateful glance through her tears, but made no other +response. + +Having returned the Bible to the parlor, she put the breakfast on the table +and said quietly, "It looks as if we would have a rainy day." + +"Well," said he, laughing, "I'm as bad as the old woman--it seems that women +can run farms alone if men can't. Well, this old dame had a big farm and +employed several men, and she was always wishing it would rain nights and +Sundays. I'm inclined to chuckle over the good this rain will do my oats, +instead of being sorry to think how many sinners it'll keep from church. +Except in protracted-meeting times, most people of this town would a great +deal rather risk their souls than be caught in the rain on Sunday. We don't +mind it much week days, but Sunday rain is very dangerous to health." + +"I'm afraid I'm as bad as the rest," she said, smiling. "Mother and I usually +stayed home when it rained hard." + +"Oh, we don't need a hard storm in the country. People say, 'It looks +threatening,' and that settles it; but we often drive to town rainy days to +save time." + +"Do you usually go to church at the meeting house I see off in the valley?" +she asked. + +"I don't go anywhere," and he watched keenly to see how she would take this +blunt statement of his practical heathenism. + +She only looked at him kindly and accepted the fact. + +"Why don't you pitch into me?" he asked. + +"That wouldn't do any good." + +"You'd like to go, I suppose?" + +"No, not under the circumstances, unless you wished to. I'm cowardly enough +to dread being stared at." + +He gave a deep sign of relief. "This thing has been troubling me," he said. "I +feared you would want to go, and if you did, I should feel that you ought to +go." + +"I fear I'm very weak about it, but I shrink so from meeting strangers. I do +thank God for his goodness many times a day and ask for help. I'm not brave +enough to do any more, yet." + +His rugged features became very somber as he said, "I wish I had as much +courage as you have." + +"You don't understand me--" she began gently. + +"No, I suppose not. It's all become a muddle to me. I mean this church and +religious business." + +She looked at him wistfully, as if she wished to say something, but did not +venture to do so. He promptly gave a different turn to the conversation by +quoting Mrs. Mumpson's tirade on churchgoing the first Sunday after her +arrival. Alida laughed, but not in a wholly mirthful and satisfied way. +"There!" he concluded, "I'm touching on things a little too sacred for you. I +respect your feelings and beliefs, for they are honest and I wish I shared in +'em." Then he suddenly laughed again as he added, "Mrs. Mumpson said there +was too much milking done on Sunday, and it's time I was breaking the Fourth +Commandment, after her notion." + +Alida now laughed outright, without reservation. + +"'By jocks!' as Watterly says, what a difference there is in women!" he +soliloquized on his way to the barn. "Well, the church question is settled for +the present, but if Alida should ask me to go, after her manner this morning, +I'd face the whole creation with her." + +When at last he came in and threw off his waterproof coat, the kitchen was in +order and his wife was sitting by the parlor fire with Thomson's "Land and the +Book" in her hand. + +"Are you fond of reading?" he asked. + +"Yes, very." + +"Well, I am, too, sort of; but I've let the years slip by without doing half +as much as I ought." + +"Light your pipe and I'll read to you, if you wish me to." + +"Oh, come now! I at least believe in Sunday as a day of rest, and you need +it. Reading aloud is about as hard work as I can do." + +"But I'm used to it. I read aloud to mother a great deal," and then there +passed over her face an expression of deep pain. + +"What is it, Alida? Don't you feel well?" + +"Yes, oh, yes!" she replied hastily, and her pale face became crimson. + +It was another stab of memory recalling the many Sundays she had read to the +man who had deceived her. "Shall I read?" she asked. + +"Alida," he said very kindly, "it wasn't the thought of your mother that +brought that look of pain into your face." + +She shook her head sadly, with downcast eyes. After a moment or two, she +raised them appealingly to him as she said simply, "There is so much that I +wish I could forget." + +"Poor child! Yes, I think I know. Be patient with yourself, and remember +that you were never to blame." + +Again came that quick, grateful glance by which some women express more than +others can ever put in words. Her thought was, "I didn't think that even he +was capable of that. What a way of assuring me that he'll be patient with +me!" Then she quietly read for an hour descriptions of the Holy Land that +were not too religious for Holcroft's mind and which satisfied her conscience +better than much she had read in former days to satisfy a taste more alien to +hers than that of her husband. + +Holcroft listened to her correct pronunciation and sweet, natural tones with a +sort of pleased wonder. At last he said, "You must stop now." + +"Are you tired?" she asked. + +"No, but you are, or ought to be. Why, Alida, I didn't know you were so well +educated. I'm quite a barbarous old fellow compared with you." + +"I hadn't thought of that before," she said with a laugh. + +"What a fool I was, then, to put it into your head!" + +"You must be more careful. I'd never have such thoughts if you didn't suggest +them." + +"How did you come to get such a good education?" + +"I wish I had a better one. Well, I did have good advantages up to the time I +was seventeen. After I was old enough I went to school quite steadily, but it +seems to me that I learned a little of everything and not much of anything. +When father died and we lost our property, we had to take to our needles. I +suppose I might have obtained work in a store, or some such place, but I +couldn't bear to leave mother alone and I disliked being in public. I +certainly didn't know enough to teach, and besides, I was afraid to try." + +"Well, well! You've stumbled into a quiet enough place at last." + +"That's what I like most about it, but I don't think I stumbled into it. I +think I've been led and helped. That's what I meant when I said you didn't +understand me," she added hesitatingly. "It doesn't take courage for me to go +to God. I get courage by believing that he cares for me like a father, as the +bible says. How could I ever have found so kind a friend and good a home +myself?" + +"I've been half inclined to believe there's a Providence in it myself--more +and more so as I get acquainted with you. Your troubles have made you better, +Alida; mine made me worse. I used to be a Christian; I aint any more." + +She looked at him smilingly as she asked, "How do you know?" + +"Oh! I know well enough," he replied gloomily. "Don't let's talk about it any +more," and then he led her on to speak simply and naturally about her +childhood home and her father and mother. + +"Well," he said heartily, "I wish your mother was living for nothing would +please me better than to have such a good old lady in the house." + +She averted her face as she said huskily, "I think it was better she died +before--" But she did not finish the sentence. + +By the time dinner was over the sun was shining brightly, and he asked her if +she would not like to go up the lane to his woodland to see the view. Her +pleased look was sufficient answer. "But are you sure you are strong enough?" +he persisted. + +"Yes, it will do me good to go out, and I may find some wild flowers." + +"I guess you can, a million or two." + +By the time he was through at the barn she was ready and they started up the +lane, now green with late April grass and enlivened with dandelions in which +bumblebees were wallowing. The sun had dried the moisture sufficiently for +them to pass on dry-shod, but everything had the fresh, vernal aspect that +follows a warm rain. Spring had advanced with a great bound since the day +before. The glazed and glutinous cherry buds had expanded with aromatic odors +and the white of the blossoms was beginning to show. + +"By tomorrow," said Holcroft, "the trees will look as if covered with snow. +Let me help you," and he put his hand under her arm, supporting and aiding her +steps up the steep places. + +Her lips were parted, the pleased look was in her eyes as they rested on trees +and shrubs which lined the half ruinous stone walls on either side. +"Everything seems so alive and glad this afternoon," she remarked. + +"Yes," replied the matter-of-fact farmer. "A rain such as we had this morning +is like turning the water on a big mill-wheel. It starts all the machinery +right up. Now the sun's out, and that's the greatest motor power of all. Sun +and moisture make the farm go." + +"Mustn't the ground be enriched, too?" + +"Yes, yes indeed; I suppose that's where we all fail. But it's no easy matter +to keep a farm in good heart. That's another reason why I'm so glad I won't +have to sell my stock. A farm run without stock is sure to grow poor, and if +the farm grows poor, the owner does as a matter of course. But what put +enriching the ground into your head? Do you know anything about farming?" + +"No, but I want to learn. When I was a girl, father had a garden. He used to +take papers about it, and I often read them aloud to him evenings. Now I +remember there used to be much in them about enriching the ground. Do you +take any such paper?" + +"No, I haven't much faith in book-farming." + +"I don't know," she ventured. "Seems to me you might get some good ideas out +of papers, and your experience would teach you whether they were useful ideas +or not. If you'll take one, I'll read it to you." + +"I will, then, for the pleasure of hearing you read, if nothing else. That's +something I hadn't bargained for," he added, laughing. + +She answered in the same spirit by saying, "I'll throw that in and not call it +square yet." + +"I think I've got the best of you," he chuckled; "and you know nothing makes a +Yankee farmer happier than to get the best of a bargain." + +"I hope you'll continue to think so. Can I sit down a few moments?" + +"Why, certainly! How forgetful I am! Your talk is too interesting for me to +think of anything else," and he placed her on a flat rock by the side of the +lane while he leaned against the wall. + +Bees and other insects were humming around them; a butterfly fluttered over +the fence and alighted on a dandelion almost at her feet; meadow larks were +whistling their limpid notes in the adjoining fields, while from the trees +about the house beneath them came the songs of many birds, blending with the +babble of the brook which ran not far away. + +"Oh, how beautiful, how strangely beautiful it all is!" + +"Yes, when you come to think of it, it is real pretty," he replied. "It's a +pity we get so used to such things that we don't notice 'em much. I should +feel miserable enough, though, if I couldn't live in just such a place. I +shouldn't wonder if I was a good deal like that robin yonder. I like to be +free and enjoy the spring weather, but I suppose neither he nor I think or +know how fine it all is." + +"Well, both you and the robin seem a part of it," she said, laughing. + +"Oh, no, no!" he replied with a guffaw which sent the robin off in alarm. "I +aint beautiful and never was." + +She joined his laugh, but said with a positive little nod, "I'm right, though. +The robin isn't a pretty bird, yet everybody likes him." + +"Except in cherry time. Then he has an appetite equal to mine. But everybody +don't like me. In fact, I think I'm generally disliked in this town." + +"If you went among them more they wouldn't dislike you." + +"I don't want to go among them." + +"They know it, and that's the reason they dislike you." + +"Would you like to go out to tea-drinkings, and all that?" + +"No, indeed; and I don't suppose I'd be received," she added sadly. + +"So much the worse for them, then, blast 'em!" said Holcroft wrathfully. + +"Oh no! I don't feel that way and you shouldn't. When they can, people ought +to be sociable and kind." + +"Of course I'd do any of my neighbors, except Lemuel Weeks, a good turn if it +came in my way, but the less I have to do with them the better I'm satisfied." + +"I'm rested enough to go on now," said Alida quietly. + +They were not long in reaching the edge of the woodland, from which there was +an extended prospect. For some little time they looked at the wide landscape +in silence. Alida gave to it only partial attention for her mind was very +busy with thoughts suggested by her husband's alienation from his neighbors. +It would make it easier for her, but the troubled query would arise, "Is it +right or best for him? His marrying me will separate him still more." + +Holcroft's face grew sad rather than troubled as he looked at the old meeting +house and not at the landscape. He was sitting near the spot where he spent +that long forenoon a few Sundays before, and the train of thought came back +again. In his deep abstraction, he almost forgot the woman near him in +memories of the past. + +His old love and lost faith were inseparable from that little white spire in +the distance. + +Alida stole a glance at him and thought, "He's thinking of her," and she +quietly strolled away to look for wild flowers. + +"Yes," muttered Holcroft, at last. "I hope Bessie knows. She'd be the first +one to say it was right and best for me, and she'd be glad to know that in +securing my own home and comfort I had given a home to the homeless and +sorrowful--a quiet, good woman, who worships God as she did." + +He rose and joined his wife, who held toward him a handful of trailing +arbutus, rue anemones, bloodroot, and dicentras. "I didn't know they were so +pretty before," he said with a smile. + +His smile reassured her for it seemed kinder than any she had yet received, +and his tone was very gentle. "His dead wife will never be my enemy," she +murmured. "He has made it right with her in his own thoughts." + + +Chapter XXIV. Given Her Own Way + +On Monday the absorbing work of the farm was renewed, and every day brought to +Holcroft long and exhausting hours of labor. While he was often taciturn, he +evidently progressed in cheerfulness and hope. Alida confirmed his good +impressions. His meals were prompt and inviting; the house was taking on an +aspect of neatness and order long absent, and his wardrobe was put in as good +condition as its rather meager character permitted. He had positively refused +to permit his wife to do any washing and ironing. "We will see about it next +fall," he said. "If then you are perfectly well and strong, perhaps, but not +in the warm weather now coming on." Then he added, with a little nod, "I'm +finding out how valuable you are, and I'd rather save you than the small sum I +have to pay old Mrs. Johnson." + +In this and in other ways he showed kindly consideration, but his mind +continually reverted to his work and outdoor plans with the preoccupation of +one who finds that he can again give his thoughts to something from which they +had been most reluctantly withdrawn. Thus Alida was left alone most of the +time. When the dusk of evening came he was too tired to say much, and he +retired early that he might be fresh for work again when the sun appeared. +She had no regrets, for although she kept busy she was resting and her wounds +were healing through the long, quiet days. + +It was the essential calm after the storm. Caring for the dairy and working +the butter into firm, sweet, tempting yellow rolls were the only tasks that +troubled her a little, but Holcroft assured her that she was learning these +important duties faster than he had expected her to. She had several hours a +day in which to ply her needle, and thus was soon enabled to replenish her +scanty wardrobe. + +One morning at breakfast she appeared in another gown, and although its +material was calico, she had the appearance to Holcroft of being unusually +well dressed. He looked pleased, but made no comment. When the cherry +blossoms were fully out, an old cracked flower vase--the only one in the +house--was filled with them, and they were placed in the center of the dinner +table. He looked at them and her, then smilingly remarked, "I shouldn't +wonder if you enjoyed those cherry blows more than anything else we have for +dinner." + +"I want something else, though. My appetite almost frightens me." + +"That's famous! I needn't be ashamed of mine, then." + +One evening, before the week was over, he saw her busy with a rake about the +door. Last year's leaves were still scattered about, with twigs and even +small boughs wrested by the winds from the trees. He was provoked with +himself that he had neglected the usual spring clearing away of litter, and a +little irritated that she should have tried to do the work herself. He left +the horses at the barn and came forward directly. "Alida," he said gravely, +"there's no need of your doing such work; I don't like to see you do it." + +"Why," she replied, "I've heard that women in the country often milk and take +care of the chickens." + +"Yes, but that's very different from this work. I wouldn't like people to +think I expected such things of you." + +"It's very easy work," she said smilingly, "easier than sweeping a room, +though something like it. I used to do it at home when I was a girl. I think +it does me good to do something in the open air." + +She was persisting, but not in a way that chafed him. Indeed, as he looked +into her appealing eyes and face flushed with exercise, he felt that it would +be churlish to say another word. + +"Well," he said, laughing, "it makes you look so young and rosy I guess it +does you good. I suppose you'll have to have your own way." + +"You know I wouldn't do this or anything else if you really didn't want me +to." + +"You are keen," he replied, with his good nature entirely restored. "You can +see that you get me right under your thumb when you talk that way. But we +must both be on our guard against your fault, you know, or pretty soon you'll +be taking the whole work of the farm off my hands." + +"To be serious," she resumed, accompanying him to the barn for the first time, +"I think YOU are working too hard. I'm not. Our meals are so simple that it +doesn't take me long to get them. I'm through with the hurry in my sewing, +the old dog does the churning, and you give me so much help in the dairy that +I shall soon have time on my hands. Now it seems to me that I might soon +learn to take entire care of the chickens, big and little, and that would be +so much less for you to look after. I'm sure I would enjoy it very much, +especially the looking after the little chickens." + +"So you really think you'd like to do that?" he asked, as he turned to her +from unharnessing the horses. + +"Yes, indeed, if you think I'm competent." + +"You are more so than I am. Somehow, little chickens don't thrive under a +busy man's care. The mother hens mean well, but they are so confoundedly +silly. I declare to you that last year I lost half the little chicks that +were hatched out." + +"Well, then," she replied, laughing, "I won't be afraid to try, for I think I +can beat you in raising chickens. Now, show me how much you feed them at +night and how much I'm to give them in the morning, and let me take the whole +care of them for a month, get the eggs, and all. If they don't do so well, +then I'll resign. I can't break you in a month." + +"It looks more as if you'd make me. You have a good big bump of order, and I +haven't any at all in little things. Tom Watterly was right. If I had tried +to live here alone, things would have got into an awful mess. I feel ashamed +of myself that I didn't clear up the yard before, but my whole mind's been on +the main crops." + +"As it should be. Don't you worry about the little things. They belong to +me. Now show me about the chickens, or they'll go to roost while we're +talking." + +"But I, as well as the chickens, shall want some supper." + +"I won't let either of you starve. You'll see." + +"Well, you see this little measure? You fill it from this bin with this +mixture of corn and wheat screenings. That's the allowance, morning and +evening. Then you go out to the barnyard there, and call 'kip, kip, kip.' +That's the way my wife used--" He stopped in a little embarrassment. + +"I'd be glad if I could do everything as she did," said Alida gently. "It has +grown clearer every day how hard her loss was to you. If you'll tell me what +she did and how she did things--" and she hesitated. + +"That's good of you, Alida," he replied gratefully. Then, with his directness +of speech, he added, "I believe some women are inclined to be jealous even of +the dead." + +"You need never fear to speak of your wife to me. I respect and honor your +feelings--the way you remember her. There's no reason why it should be +otherwise. I did not agree to one thing and expect another," and she looked +him straight in the eyes. + +He dropped them, as he stood leaning against the bin in the shadowy old barn, +and said, "I didn't think you or anyone would be so sensible. Of course, one +can't forget quickly--" + +"You oughtn't to forget," was the firm reply. "Why should you? I should be +sorry to think you could forget." + +"I fear I'm not like to make you sorry," he replied, sighing. "To tell you the +truth--" he added, looking at her almost commiseratingly, and then he +hesitated. + +"Well, the truth is usually best," she said quietly. + +"Well, I'll tell you my thought. We married in haste, we were almost +strangers, and your mind was so distracted at the time that I couldn't blame +you if you forgot what--what I said. I feared--well, you are carrying out our +agreement so sensibly that I want to thank you. It's a relief to find that +you're not opposed, even in your heart, that I should remember one that I knew +as a little child and married when I was young." + +"I remember all you said and what I said," she replied, with the same direct, +honest gaze. "Don't let such thoughts trouble you any more. You've been +kinder and more considerate than I ever expected. You have only to tell me +how she did--" + +"No, Alida," he said quietly, obeying a subtle impulse. "I'd rather you would +do everything your own way--as it's natural for you. There, we've talked so +long that it's too late to feed the chickens tonight. You can begin in the +morning." + +"Oh!" she cried, "and you have all your other work to do. I've hindered +rather than helped you by coming out." + +"No," he replied decidedly, "you've helped me. I'll be in before very long." + +She returned to the house and busied herself in preparations for supper. She +was very thoughtful, and at last concluded: "Yes, he is right. I understand. +Although I may do WHAT his wife did, he don't wish me to do it AS she did. +There could only be a partial and painful resemblance to his eyes. Both he +and I would suffer in comparisons, and he be continually reminded of his loss. +She was his wife in reality, and all relating to her is something sacred and +past to him. The less I am like her, the better. He married me for the sake +of his farm, and I can best satisfy him by carrying out his purpose in my own +way. He's through with sentiment and has taken the kindest way he could to +tell me that I've nothing to do with his past. He feared, yes, he FEARED, I +should forget our businesslike agreement! I didn't know I had given him cause +to fear; I certainly won't hereafter!" and the wife felt, with a trace of +bitterness and shame, that she had been put on her guard; that her husband had +wished to remind her that she must not forget his motive in marrying her, or +expect anything not in consonance with that motive. Perhaps she had been too +wifelike in her manner, and therefore he had feared. She was as sensitive to +such a reproach as she would have been in her girlhood. + +For once her intuition was at fault, and she misjudged Holcroft in some +respects. He did think he was through with sentiment; he could not have +talked deliberately to Alida or to any other about his old life and love, and +he truly felt that she had no part in that life. It had become a sad and +sacred memory, yet he wished to feel that he had the right to dwell upon it as +he chose. In his downright sincerity he wished her to know that he could not +help dwelling on it; that for him some things were over, and that he was not +to blame. He was profoundly grateful to her that she had so clearly accepted +the facts of his past, and of their own present relations. He HAD feared, it +is true, but she had not realized his fears, and he felt that it was her due +that he should acknowledge her straightforward carrying out of the compact +made under circumstances which might well excuse her from realizing everything +fully. + +Moreover, direct and matter of fact as he was, he had felt vaguely the +inevitable difficulties of their relationship. The very word "wife" might +suggest to her mind an affection which he believed it was not in his power to +bestow. They had agreed to give an arbitrary and unusual meaning to their +marriage, and, while thinking it could have no other meaning for him, his mind +was haunted, and he feared that hers might be, by the natural significance of +the rite. So far from meaning to hint that she had been too wifelike, he had +meant to acknowledge her simple and natural fulfillment of his wishes in a +position far more difficult to fill than even he imagined. That she succeeded +so well was due to the fact that she entertained for him all the kind feelings +possible except the one supreme regard which, under ordinary circumstances, +would have accounted for the marriage. The reason that all promised to go so +well in their relationship of mere mutual help was the truth that this basis +of union had satisfied their mutual need. As the farmer had hoped, they had +become excellent friends, supplementing each other's work in a way that +promised prosperity. + +Without the least intention on the part of either, chance words had been +spoken which would not be without effect. He had told her to do everything in +her own way because the moment he thought of it he knew he liked her ways. +They possessed a novelty and natural grace which interested him. There are +both a natural and a conventional grace, and the true lady learns to blend the +one with the other so as to make a charming manner essentially her own--a +manner which makes a woman a lady the world over. Alida had little more than +natural grace and refinement, unmodified by society. This the plain farmer +could understand, and he was already awakening to an appreciation of it. It +impressed him agreeably that Alida should be trim and neat while about her +work, and that all her actions were entirely free from the coarse, slovenly +manner, the limp carriage, and slatternly aspect of the whole tribe which had +come and gone during the past year. They had all been so much alike in +possessing disagreeable traits that he felt that Alida was the only peculiar +one among them. He never thought of instituting comparisons between her and +his former wife, yet he did so unconsciously. Mrs. Holcroft had been too much +like himself, matter of fact, materialistic, kind, and good. Devoid of +imagination, uneducated in mind, her thoughts had not ranged far from what she +touched and saw. She touched them with something of their own heaviness, she +saw them as objects--just what they were--and was incapable of obtaining from +them much suggestion or enjoyment. She knew when the cherry and plum trees +were in blossom just as she knew it was April. The beautiful sounds and +changes in nature reminded her that it was time to do certain kinds of work, +and with her, work was alpha and omega. As her mother had before her, she was +inclined to be a house drudge rather than a housewife. Thrift, neatness, +order, marked the limits of her endeavor, and she accomplished her tasks with +the awkward, brisk directness learned in her mother's kitchen. Only mind, +imagination, and refinement can embroider the homely details of life. Alida +would learn to do all that she had done, but the woman with a finer nature +would do it in a different way. Holcroft already knew he liked this way +although he could not define it to himself. Tired as he was when he came home +in the evening, his eyes would often kindle with pleasure at some action or +remark that interested him from its novelty. In spite of his weariness and +preoccupation, , in spite of a still greater obstacle--the inertia of a mind +dulled by material life--he had begun to consider Alida's personality for its +own sake. He liked to watch her, not to see what she did to his advantage, +but how she did it. She was awakening an agreeable expectancy, and he +sometimes smilingly said to himself, "What's next?" + +"Oh, no!" he thought as he was milking the last cow, "I'd much rather she'd +take her own natural way in doing things. It would be easier for her and it's +her right and--and somehow I like her way just as I used to like Bessie's +ways. She isn't Bessie and never can be, and for some reason I'd like her to +be as different as possible." + +Unconsciously and unintentionally, however, he had given Alida's sensitive +nature a slight wound. She felt that she had been told in effect, "You can +help me all you please, and I would rather you would do this in a way that +will not awaken associations, but you must not think of me or expect me to +think of you in any light that was not agreed upon." That he had feared the +possibility of this, that he might have fancied he saw indications of this, +hurt her pride--that pride and delicacy of feeling which most women shield so +instinctively. She was now consciously on her guard, and so was not so secure +against the thoughts she deprecated as before. In spite of herself, a +restraint would tinge her manner which he would eventually feel in a vague, +uncomfortable way. + +But he came in at last, very tired and thoroughly good-natured. "I'm going to +town tomorrow," he said, "and I thought of taking a very early start so as to +save time. Would you like to go?" + +"There's no need of my going." + +"I thought perhaps you'd enjoy the drive." + +"I would have to meet strangers and I'm so entirely content in being alone--I +won't go this time unless you wish it." + +"Well, if you don't care about it, I'll carry out my first plan and take a +very early start. I want to sell the butter and eggs on hand, repay Tom +Watterly, and get some seeds. We need some things from the store, too, I +suppose?" + +"Yes, you are such a coffee drinker--" she began, smiling. + +"Oh, I know!" he interrupted. "Make out your list. You shall say what we +want. Isn't there something you want for yourself?" + +"No, not for myself, but I do want something that perhaps you would enjoy, +too. You may think it a waste of money, though." + +"Well, you've a right to waste some in your way as well as I have over my +pipe." + +"That's good. I hadn't thought of that. You are the one that puts notions +into my head. I would like three or four geraniums and a few flower seeds." + +He looked as if he was thinking deeply and she felt a little hurt that he +should not comply at once with her request, knowing that the outlay suggested +was very slight. + +At last he looked up, smiling as he said, "So I put notions into your head, do +I?" + +"Oh, well," she replied, flushing in the consciousness of her thoughts, "if +you think it's foolish to spend money for such things--" + +"Tush, tush, Alida! Of course I'll get what you wish. But I really am going +to put a notion into your head, and it's stupid and scarcely fair in me that I +hadn't thought of some such plan before. You want to take care of the +chickens. Well, I put them wholly in your care and you shall have all you can +make off them--eggs, young chickens, and everything." + +"That IS a new notion," she replied, laughing. "I hadn't thought of such a +thing and it's more than fair. What would I do with so much money?" + +"What you please. Buy yourself silk dresses if you want to." + +"But I couldn't use a quarter of the money." + +"No matter, use what you like and I'll put the rest in the bank for you and in +your name. I was a nice kind of a business partner, wasn't I? Expecting you +to do nearly half the work and then have you say, 'Will you please get me a +few plants and seeds?' and then, 'Oh! If you think it's foolish to spend money +for such things.' Why, you have as good a right to spend some of the money +you help earn as I have. You've shown you'll be sensible in spending it. I +don't believe you'll use enough of it. Anyway, it will be yours, as it ought +to be." + +"Very well," she replied, nodding at him with piquant significance, "I'll +always have some to lend you." + +"Yes, shouldn't wonder if you were the richest some day. Everything you touch +seems to turn out well. I shall be wholly dependent on you hereafter for eggs +and an occasional fricassee." + +"You shall have your share. Yes, I like this notion. It grows on me. I'd +like to earn some money to do what I please with. You'll be surprised to see +what strange and extravagant tastes I'll develop!" + +"I expect to be perfectly dumfoundered, as Mrs. Mumpson used to say. Since +you are so willing to lend, I'll lend you enough to get all you want tomorrow. +Make out your list. You can get a good start tomorrow for I was too tired and +it was too late for me to gather the eggs tonight. I know, too, that a good +many of the hens have stolen their nests of late, and I've been too busy to +look for 'em. You may find perfect mines of eggs, but, for mercy's sake! +don't climb around in dangerous places. I had such bad luck with chicks last +year that I've only set a few hens. You can set few or many now, just as you +please." + +Even as he talked and leisurely finished his supper, his eyes grew heavy with +sleep. "What time will you start tomorrow?" she asked. + +"Oh, no matter; long before you are up or ought to be. I'll get myself a cup +of coffee. I expect to do my morning work and be back by nine or ten o'clock +for I wish to get in some potatoes and other vegetables before Sunday." + +"Very well, I'll make out my list and lay it on the table here. Now, why +don't you go and sleep at once? You ought, with such an early start in +prospect." + +"Ought I? Well, I never felt more inclined to do my duty. You must own up I +have put one good notion into your head?" + +"I have said nothing against any of them. Come, you ought to go at once." + +"Can't I smoke my pipe first please?" + +"You'll find it quieter in the parlor." + +"But it's pleasanter here where I can watch you." + +"Do you think I need watching?" + +"Yes, a little, since you don't look after your own interests very sharply." + +"It isn't my way to look after anything very sharply." + +"No, Alida, thank the Lord! There's nothing sharp about you, not even your +tongue. You won't mind being left alone a few hours tomorrow?" + +"No, indeed, I like to be alone." + +"I thought I did. Most everyone has seemed a crowd to me. I'm glad you've +never given me that feeling. Well, goodbye till you see me driving up with +the geraniums." + + +Chapter XXV. A Charivari + +The eastern horizon was aglow with rosy tints the following morning when +Holcroft awoke; the stars were but just fading from the sky and the birds were +still silent. He knew by these signs that it was very early and that he could +carry out his plan of a timely start to town. Dressing very quietly, he stole +downstairs, shoes in hand, lest his tread should awaken Alida. The kitchen +door leading into the hall was closed. Lifting the latch carefully, he found +the lamp burning, the breakfast table set, and the kettle humming over a good +fire. "This is her work, but where is she?" he queried in much surprise. + +The outer door was ajar; he noiselessly crossed the room, and looking out, he +saw her. She had been to the well for a pail of water, but had set it down +and was watching the swiftly brightening east. She was so still and her face +so white in the faint radiance that he had an odd, uncanny impression. No +woman that he had ever known would stop that way to look at the dawn. He +could see nothing so peculiar in it as to attract such fixed attention. +"Alida," he asked, "what do you see?" + +She started slightly and turned to take up the pail; but he had already sprung +down the steps and relieved her of the burden. + +"Could anything be more lovely than those changing tints? It seems to me I +could have stood there an hour," she said quietly. + +"You are not walking or doing all this in your sleep, are you?" he asked, +laughing, yet regarding her curiously. "You looked as you stood there like +what people call a--what's that big word?" + +"I'm not a somnambulist and never was, to my knowledge. You'll find I'm wide +enough awake to have a good breakfast soon." + +"But I didn't expect you to get up so early. I didn't wish it." + +"It's too late now," she said pleasantly, "so I hope you won't find fault with +me for doing what I wanted to do." + +"Did you mean to be up and have breakfast when I told you last night?" + +"Yes. Of course I didn't let you know for you would have said I mustn't, and +then I couldn't. It isn't good for people to get up so early and do as much +as you had on your mind without eating. Now you won't be any the worse for +it." + +"I certainly ought to be the better for so much kindly consideration; but it +will cure me of such unearthly hours if you feel that you must conform to +them. You look pale this morning, Alida; you're not strong enough to do such +things, and there's no need of it when I'm so used to waiting on myself." + +"I shall have to remind you," she replied with a bright look at him over her +shoulder, "that you said I could do things my own way." + +"Well, it seems odd after a year when everyone who came here appeared to +grudge doing a thing for a man's comfort." + +"I should hope I was different from them." + +"Well, you are. I thought you were different from anyone I ever knew as I saw +you there looking at the east. You seem wonderfully fond of pretty things." + +"I'll own to that. But if you don't hurry you won't do as much as you hoped +by getting up early." + +The morning was very mild, and she left the outer door open as she went +quickly to and fro with elasticity of spirit as well as step. It was pleasant +to have her efforts appreciated and almost as grateful to hear the swelling +harmony of song from the awakening birds. The slight cloud that had fallen on +her thoughts the evening before had lifted. She felt that she understood +Holcroft better, and saw that his feeling was only that of honest friendliness +and satisfaction. She had merely to recognize and respond to so much only and +all would be well. Meantime, she desired nothing more, and he should be +thoroughly convinced of this fact. She grew positively light-hearted over the +fuller assurance of the truth that although a wife, she was not expected to +love--only to be faithful to all his interests. This, and this only, she +believed to be within her power. + +Holcroft departed in the serenity characteristic of one's mood when the +present is so agreeable that neither memories of the past nor misgivings as to +the future are obtrusive. He met Watterly in town, and remarked, "This is +another piece of good luck. I hadn't time to go out to your place, although I +meant to take time." + +"A piece of good luck indeed!" Tom mentally echoed, for he would have been +greatly embarrassed if Holcroft had called. Mrs. Watterly felt that she had +been scandalized by the marriage which had taken place in her absence, and was +all the more resentful for the reason that she had spoken to a cousin of +uncertain age and still more uncertain temper in behalf of the farmer. In +Mrs. Watterly's estimate of action, it was either right, that is, in +accordance with her views, or else it was intolerably wrong and without +excuse. Poor Tom had been made to feel that he had not only committed an +almost unpardonable sin against his wife and her cousin, but also against all +the proprieties of life. "The idea of such a wedding taking place in my rooms +and with my husband's sanction!" she had said with concentrated bitterness. +Then had followed what he was accustomed to characterize as a spell of "zero +weather." He discreetly said nothing. "It didn't seem such a bad idea to me," +he thought, "but then I suppose women folks know best about such things." + +He was too frank in his nature to conceal from Holcroft his misgivings or his +wife's scornful and indignant disapproval. "Sorry Angy feels so bad about it, +Jim," he said ruefully, "but she says I mustn't buy anything more of you." + +"Or have anything more to do with me, I suppose?" + +"Oh, come now! You know a man's got to let his women-folks have their say +about household matters, but that don't make any difference in my feelings +toward you." + +"Well, well, Tom! If it did, I should be slow to quarrel with a man who had +done me as good a turn as you have. Thank the Lord! I've got a wife that'll +let me have some say about household and all other matters. You, too, are +inclined to think that I'm in an awful scrape. I feel less like getting out +of it every day. My wife is as respectable as I am and a good sight better +than I am. If I'm no longer respectable for having married her, I certainly +am better contented than I ever expected to be again. I want it understood, +though, that the man who says anything against my wife may have to get me +arrested for assault and battery." + +"When it comes to that, Jim," replied Watterly, who was meek only in the +presence of his wife, "I'd just as lief speak against her as wink if there was +anything to say. But I say now, as I said to you at first, she aint one of +the common sort. I thought well of her at first, and I think better of her +now since she's doing so well by you. But I suppose marrying a woman situated +as she was isn't according to regulation. We men are apt to act like the boys +we used to be and go for what we want without thinking of the consequences." + +"It's the consequences that please me most. If you had been dependent on +Mumpson, Malonys, and Wigginses for your home comfort you wouldn't worry about +the talk of people who'd never raise a finger for you. Well, goodbye, I'm in +a hurry. Your heart's in the right place, Tom, and some day you'll come out +and take dinner with me. One dinner, such as she'll give you, will bring you +round. One of our steady dishes is a bunch of flowers and I enjoy 'em, too. +What do you think of that for a hard-headed old fellow like me?" + +Some men are chilled by public disapproval and waver under it, but Holcroft +was thereby only the more strongly confirmed in his course. Alida had won his +esteem as well as his good will, and it was the instinct of his manhood to +protect and champion her. He bought twice as many flowers and seeds as she +had asked for, and also selected two simple flower vases; then started on his +return with the feeling that he had a home. + +Alida entered upon her duties to the poultry with almost the pleasure of a +child. She first fed them, then explored every accessible nook and hiding +place in the barn and outbuildings. It was evident that many of the biddies +had stolen their nests, and some were brooding upon them with no disposition +to be disturbed. Out of the hundred or more fowls on the place, a good many +were clucking their maternal instincts, and their new keeper resolved to put +eggs under all except the flighty ones that left their nests within two or +three days' trial. As the result of her search, the empty egg basket was in a +fair way to be full again very soon. She gloated over her spoils as she +smilingly assured herself, "I shall take him at his word. I shall spend +nearly all I make this year in fixing up the old house within and without, so +he'll scarcely know it." + +It was eleven o'clock before Holcroft drove to the door with the flowers, and +he was amply repaid by her pleasure in receiving them. "Why, I only expected +geraniums," she said, "and you've bought half a dozen other kinds." + +"And I expected to get my own coffee this morning and a good breakfast was +given me instead, so we are quits." + +"You're probably ready for your dinner now, if it is an hour earlier than +usual. It will be ready in ten minutes." + +"Famous! That will give me a good long afternoon. I say, Alida, when do you +want the flower beds made?" + +"No hurry about them. I shall keep the plants in the window for a week or +two. It isn't safe to put them outdoors before the last of May. I'll have +some slips ready by that time." + +"Yes, I know. You'll soon have enough to set out an acre." + +The days of another week passed quietly and rapidly away, Alida becoming +almost as much absorbed in her interests as he in his. Every hour added to +the beauty of the season without. The unplowed fields were taking on a vivid +green, and Holcroft said that on the following Monday the cows should go out +to pasture. Wholesome, agreeable occupation enabled Alida to put away sad +thoughts and memories. Nature and pleasant work are two potent healers, and +she was rallying fast under their ministry. Holcroft would have been blind +indeed had he not observed changes for the better. Her thin cheeks were +becoming fuller, and her exertions, with the increasing warmth of the season, +often flushed her face with a charming color. The old sad and troubled +expression was passing away from her blue eyes. Every day it seemed easier +for her to laugh, and her step grew more elastic. It was all so gradual that +he never questioned it, but his eyes followed her with increasing pleasure and +he listened, when she spoke, with deepening interest. Sundays had been long +and rather dreary days, but now he positively welcomed their coming and looked +forward to the hours when, instead of brooding over the past, he should listen +to her pleasant voice reading his few and neglected books. There was a new +atmosphere in his home--a new influence, under which his mind was awakening in +spite of his weariness and absorption in the interests of the farm. Alida was +always ready to talk about these, and her questions would soon enable her to +talk understandingly. She displayed ignorance enough, and this amused him, +but her queries evinced no stupidity. In reading to her father and in the +cultivation of flowers, she had obtained hints of vital horticultural +principles, and Holcroft said to her laughingly one evening at supper, "You'll +soon learn all I know and begin to teach me." + +Her manner of deprecating such remarks was to exaggerate them and she replied, +"Yes, next week you will sell my eggs and I shall subscribe for the +agricultural paper my father used to take. Then will begin all the +improvements of book-farming. I shall advise you to sow oats in June, plant +corn in March, and show you generally that all your experience counts for +nothing." + +This kind of badinage was new to the farmer, and it amused him immensely. He +did not grow sleepy so early in the evening, and as he was driving his work +prosperously he shortened his hours of labor slightly. She also found time to +read the county paper and gossip a little about the news, thus making a +beginning in putting him and herself en rapport with other interests than +those which centered in the farm. In brief, she had an active, intelligent +mind and a companionable nature. Her boundless gratitude for her home, which +daily grew more homelike, led her to employ all her tact in adding to his +enjoyment. Yet so fine was her tact that her manner was a simple embodiment +of good will, and he was made to feel that it was nothing more. + +While all was passing so genially and satisfactorily to Holcroft, it may well +be supposed that his conduct was not at all to the mind of his neighbors. +News, especially during the busy spring season, permeates a country +neighborhood slowly. The fact of his marriage had soon become known, and +eventually, through Justice Harkins, the circumstances relating to it and +something of Alida's previous history, in a garbled form, came to be discussed +at rural firesides. The majority of the men laughed and shrugged their +shoulders, implying it was none of their business, but not a few, among whom +was Lemuel Weeks, held up their hands and spoke of the event in terms of the +severest reprehension. Many of the farmers' wives and their maiden sisters +were quite as much scandalized as Mrs. Watterly had been that an unknown +woman, of whom strange stories were told, should have been brought into the +community from the poorhouse, "and after such a heathenish marriage, too," +they said. It was irregular, unprecedented, and therefore utterly wrong and +subversive of the morals of the town. + +They longed to ostracize poor Alida, yet saw no chance of doing so. They +could only talk, and talk they did, in a way that would have made her ears +tingle had she heard. + +The young men and older boys, however, believed that they could do more than +talk. Timothy Weeks had said to a group of his familiars, "Let's give old +Holcroft and his poorhouse bride a skimelton that will let 'em know what folks +think of 'em." + +The scheme found favor at once, and Tim Weeks was soon recognized as organizer +and leader of the peculiar style of serenade contemplated. After his day's +work was over, he rode here and there summoning congenial spirits. The +project soon became pretty well known in several families, but the elder +members remained discreetly blind and deaf, proposing to wink at what was +going on, yet take no compromising part themselves. Lemuel Weeks winked very +knowingly and suggestively. He kept within such bounds, however, as would +enable him to swear that he knew nothing and had said nothing, but his son had +never felt more assured of his father's sympathy. When at last the motley +gathering rendezvoused at Tim's house, Weeks, senior, was conveniently making +a call on a near neighbor. + +It was Saturday evening, and the young May moon would furnish sufficient light +without revealing identity too clearly. About a score of young fellows and +hired farm-hands of the ruder sort came riding and trudging to Weeks' barn, +where there was a barrel of cider on tap. Here they blackened their faces +with charcoal and stimulated their courage, for it was well known that +Holcroft was anything but lamblike when angered. + +"He'll be like a bull in a china shop," remarked Tim, "but then there's enough +of us to handle him if he gets too obstrep'rous." + +Armed with tin pans and horns which were to furnish the accompaniment to their +discordant voices, they started about eight in the evening. As they moved up +the road there was a good deal of coarse jesting and bravado, but when they +approached the farmhouse silence was enjoined. After passing up the lane they +looked rather nervously at the quiet dwelling softly outlined in the +moonlight. A lamp illumined the kitchen window, and Tim Weeks whispered +excitedly, "He's there. Let's first peek in the window and then give 'em a +scorcher." + +Knowing that they should have the coming day in which to rest, Holcroft and +Alida had busied themselves with outdoor matters until late. She had been +planning her flower beds, cutting out the dead wood from some neglected +rosebushes and shrubbery, and had also helped her husband by sowing seed in +the kitchen garden back of the house. Then, weary, yet pleased with the labor +accomplished, they made a very leisurely supper, talking over garden matters +and farm prospects in general. Alida had all her flower seeds on the table +beside her, and she gloated over them and expatiated on the kind of blossoms +they would produce with so much zest that Holcroft laughingly remarked, "I +never thought that flowers would be one of the most important crops on the +place." + +"You will think so some day. I can see, from the expression of your eyes, +that the cherry blossoms and now the apple blows which I put on the table +please you almost as much as the fruit would." + +"Well, it's because I notice 'em. I never seemed to notice 'em much before." + +"Oh, no! It's more than that," she replied, shaking her head. "Some people +would notice them, yet never see how pretty they were." + +"Then they'd be blind as moles." + +"The worst kind of blindness is that of the mind." + +"Well, I think many country people are as stupid and blind as oxen, and I was +one of 'em. I've seen more cherry and apple blossoms this year than in all my +life before, and I haven't thought only of cherries and apples either." + +"The habit of seeing what is pretty grows on one," she resumed. "It seems to +me that flowers and such things feed mind and heart. So if one HAS mind and +heart, flowers become one of the most useful crops. Isn't that practical +common sense?" + +"Not very common in Oakville. I'm glad you think I'm in a hopeful frame of +mind, as they used to say down at the meeting house. Anyhow, since you wish +it, we will have a flower crop as well as a potato crop." + +Thus they continued chatting while Alida cleared up the table, and Holcroft, +having lighted his pipe, busied himself with peeling a long, slim hickory +sapling intended for a whipstock. + +Having finished her tasks, Alida was finally drying her hands on a towel that +hung near a window. Suddenly, she caught sight of a dark face peering in. +Her startled cry brought Holcroft hastily to his feet. "What's the matter?" he +asked. + +"I saw--" Then she hesitated from a fear that he would rush into some unknown +danger. + +The rough crew without perceived that their presence was known, and Tim Weeks +cried, "Now, all together!" + +A frightful overture began at once, the hooting and yelling almost drowning +the instrumental part and sending to Alida's heart that awful chill of fear +produced by human voices in any mob-like assemblage. Holcroft understood the +affair at once, for he was familiar with the custom, but she did not. He +threw open the door with the purpose of sternly expostulating with the +disturbers of the peace and of threatening them with the law unless they +retired. With an instinct to share his danger she stepped to his side, and +this brought a yell of derision. Lurid thoughts swept through her mind. She +had brought this danger. Her story had become known. What might they not do +to Holcroft? Under the impulse of vague terror and complete self-sacrifice, +she stepped forward and cried, "I only am to blame. I will go away forever if +you will spare--" But again the scornful clamor rose and drowned her voice. + +Her action and words had been so swift that Holcroft could not interfere, but +in an instant he was at her side, his arm around her, his square jaw set, and +his eyes blazing with his kindling anger. He was not one of those men who +fume early under provocation and in words chiefly. His manner and gesture +were so impressive that his tormentors paused to listen. + +"I know," he said quietly, "all about this old, rude custom--that it's often +little more than a rough lark. Well, now that you've had it, leave at once. +I'm in no mood for such attention from my neighbors. This is my wife, and +I'll break any man's head who says a word to hurt her feelings--" + +"Oh yes! Take care of her feelings, now it's your turn. They must 'a' been +hurt before," piped up Tim Weeks. + +"Good for you, old man, for showin' us your poorhouse bride," said another. + +"We don't fancy such grass-widders, and much married, half-married women in +Oakville," yelled a third. + +"Why didn't yer jump over a broomstick for a weddin' ceremony?" someone else +bawled. + +These insults were fired almost in a volley. Alida felt Holcroft's arm grow +rigid for a second. "Go in, quick!" he said. + +Then she saw him seize the hickory sapling he had leaned against the house, +and burst upon the group like a thunderbolt. Cries of pain, yells, and oaths +of rage rose above the rain of blows. The older members of the crew sought to +close upon him, but he sprung back, and the tough sapling swept about him like +a circle of light. It was a terrific weapon in the hands of a strong man, now +possessed of almost giant strength in his rage. More than one fellow went +down under its stinging cut, and heads and faces were bleeding. The younger +portion of the crowd speedily took to their heels, and soon even the most +stubborn fled; the farmer vigorously assisting their ignominious retreat with +tremendous downward blows on any within reach. Tim Weeks had managed to keep +out of the way till they entered the lane; then, taking a small stone from the +fence, he hurled it at their pursuer and attempted to jump over the wall. +This was old, and gave way under him in such a way that he fell on the other +side. Holcroft leaped the fence with a bound, but Tim, lying on his back, +shrieked and held up his hands, "You won't hit a feller when he's down!" + +"No," said Holcroft, arresting his hickory. "I'll send you to jail, Tim Weeks. +That stone you fired cut my head. Was your father in that crowd?" + +"No-o-o!" blubbered Tim. + +"If he was, I'd follow him home and whip him in his own house. Now, clear +out, and tell the rest of your rowdy crew that I'll shoot the first one of you +that disturbs me again. I'll send the constable for you, and maybe for some +of the others." + +Dire was the dismay, and dreadful the groaning in Oakville that night. Never +before had salves and poultices been in such demand. Not a few would be +disfigured for weeks, and wherever Holcroft's blows had fallen welts arose +like whipcords. In Lemuel Weeks' dwelling the consternation reached its +climax. Tim, bruised from his fall, limped in and told his portentous story. +In his spite, he added, "I don't care, I hit him hard. His face was all +bloody." + +"All bloody!" groaned his father. "Lord 'a mercy! He can send you to jail, +sure enough!" + +Then Mrs. Weeks sat down and wailed aloud. + + +Chapter XXVI. "You Don't Know." + +As Timothy Weeks limped hastily away, Holcroft, with a strong revulsion of +feeling, thought of Alida. HE had been able to answer insults in a way +eminently satisfactory to himself, and every blow had relieved his electrical +condition. But how about the poor woman who had received worse blows than he +had inflicted? As he hastened toward the house he recalled a dim impression +of seeing her sink down on the doorstep. Then he remembered her effort to +face the marauders alone. "She said she was to blame, poor child! As if there +were any blame at all! She said, 'spare him,' as if I was facing a band of +murderers instead of a lot of neighborhood scamps, and that she'd go away. +I'd fight all Oakville--men, women, and children--before I'd permit that," and +he started on a run. + +He found Alida on the step, where she had sunk as if struck down by the rough +epithets hurled at her. She was sobbing violently, almost hysterically, and +at first could not reply to his soothing words. He lifted her up, and half +carried her within to a chair. "Oh, oh," she cried, "why did I not realize it +more fully before? Selfish woman that I was, to marry you and bring on you all +this shame and danger. I should have thought of it all, I ought to have died +rather than do you such a wrong." + +"Alida, Alida," protested Holcroft, "if it were all to do over again, I'd be a +thousand times more--" + +"Oh, I know, I know! You are brave and generous and honest. I saw that much +when you first spoke to me. I yielded to the temptation to secure such a +friend. I was too cowardly to face the world alone. And now see what's +happened! You're in danger and disgrace on my account. I must go away--I +must do what I should have done at first," and with her face buried in her +hands she rocked back and forth, overwhelmed by the bitterness and reproach of +her thoughts. + +"Alida," he urged, "please be calm and sensible. Let me reason with you and +tell you the truth. All that's happened is that the Oakville cubs have +received a well-deserved whipping. When you get calm, I can explain +everything so it won't seem half so bad. Neither you nor I are in any danger, +and, as for your going away, look me in the eyes and listen." + +His words were almost stern in their earnestness. She raised her streaming +eyes to his face, then sprung up, exclaiming, "Oh! You're wounded!" + +"What's that, compared with your talk of going away?" + +All explanations and reassurances would have been trivial in effect, compared +with the truth that he had been hurt in her defense. She dashed her tears +right and left, ran for a basin of water, and making him take her chair, began +washing away the blood stains. + +"Thunder!" he said, laughing, "How quickly we've changed places!" + +"Oh, oh!" she moaned, "It's a terrible wound; it might have killed you, and +they WILL kill you yet." + +He took her hands and held them firmly. "Alida," he said, gravely yet kindly, +"be still and listen to me." + +For a moment or two longer her bosom heaved with convulsive sobs, and then she +grew quiet. "Don't you know you can't go away?" he asked, still retaining her +hands and looking in her face. + +"I could for your sake," she began. + +"No, it wouldn't be for my sake. I don't wish you to go, and wouldn't let +you. If you should let the Oakville rabble drive you away, I WOULD be in +danger, and so would others, for I'd be worse on 'em than an earthquake. +After the lesson they've had tonight, they'll let us alone, and I'll let them +alone. You know I've tried to be honest with you from the first. Believe me, +then, the trouble's over unless we make more for ourselves. Now, promise +you'll do as I say and let me manage." + +"I'll try," she breathed softly. + +"No, no! That won't do. I'm beginning to find you out. You may get some +foolish, self-sacrificing notion in your head that it would be best for me, +when it would be my ruination. Will you promise?" + +"Yes." + +"Famous! Now you can bathe my head all you please for it feels a little +queer." + +"It's an awful wound," she said in tones of the deepest sympathy. "Oh, I'm so +sorry!" + +"Pshaw! My head is too hard for that little scamp of a Weeks to break. His +turn'll come next." + +She cut away the blood-clotted hair and bound up the rather severe scalp wound +with a tenderness and sympathy that expressed itself even in her touch. She +was too confused and excited to be conscious of herself, but she had received +some tremendously strong impressions. Chief among them was the truth that +nothing which had happened made any difference in him--that he was still the +same loyal friend, standing between her and the world she dreaded--yes, +between her and her own impulses toward self-sacrifice. Sweetest of all was +the assurance that he did this for his own sake as well as hers. These facts +seemed like a foothold in the mad torrent of feeling and shame which had been +sweeping her away. She could think of little more than that she was +safe--safe because he was brave and loyal--and yes, safe because he wanted her +and would not give her up. The heart of a woman must be callous indeed, and +her nature not only trivial but stony if she is not deeply touched under +circumstances like these. + +In spite of his laughing contempt of danger, she trembled as she saw him ready +to go out again; she wished to accompany him on his round of observation, but +he scouted the idea, although it pleased him. Standing in the door, she +strained her eyes and listened breathlessly. He soon returned and said, +"They've all had enough. We won't be disturbed again." + +He saw that her nerves needed quieting, and he set about the task with such +simple tact as he possessed. His first step was to light his pipe in the most +nonchalant manner, and then he burst out laughing. "I'll hang that hickory up. +It has done too good service to be put to common use again. Probably you +never heard of a skimelton, Alida. Well, they are not so uncommon in this +region. I suppose I'll have to own up to taking part in one myself when I was +a young chap. They usually are only rough larks and are taken good-naturedly. +I'm not on jesting terms with my neighbors, and they had no business to come +here, but I wouldn't have made any row if they hadn't insulted you." + +Her head bowed very low as she faltered, "They've heard everything." + +He came right to her and took her hand. "Didn't I hear everything before they +did?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, Alida, I'm not only satisfied with you, but I'm very grateful to you. +Why shouldn't I be when you are a good Christian woman? I guess I'm the one +to be suited, not Oakville. I should be as reckless as the devil if you should +go away from me. Don't I act like a man who's ready to stand up for and +protect you?" + +"Yes, too ready. It would kill me if anything happened to you on my account." + +"Well, the worst would happen," he said firmly, "if we don't go right on as +we've begun. If we go quietly on about our own affairs, we'll soon be let +alone and that's all we ask." + +"Yes, yes indeed! Don't worry, James. I'll do as you wish." + +"Famous! You never said 'James' to me before. Why haven't you?" + +"I don't know," she faltered, with a sudden rush of color to her pale face. + +"Well, that's my name," he resumed, laughing. "I guess it's because we are +getting better acquainted. + +She looked up and said impetuously, "You don't know how a woman feels when a +man stands up for her as you did tonight." + +"Well, I know how a man feels when there is a woman so well worth standing up +for. It was a lucky thing that I had nothing heavier in my hand than that +hickory." All the while he was looking at her curiously; then he spoke his +thought. "You're a quiet little woman, Alida, most times, but you're capable +of a thunder gust now and then." + +"I'll try to be quiet at all times," she replied, with drooping eyes. + +"Oh, I'm not complaining!" he said, laughing. "I like the trait." + +He took a small pitcher and went to the dairy. Returning, he poured out two +glasses of milk and said, "Here's to your health and happiness, Alida; and +when I don't stand up for the woman who started out to save me from a mob of +murderers, may the next thing I eat or drink choke me. You didn't know they +were merely a lot of Oakville boys, did you?" + +"You can't make so light of it," said she. "They tried to close on you, and if +that stone had struck you on the temple, it might have killed you. They swore +like pirates, and looked like ruffians with their blackened faces. They +certainly were not boys in appearance." + +"I'm afraid I swore too," he said sadly. + +"You had some excuse, but I'm sorry. They would have hurt you if you hadn't +kept them off." + +"Yes, they'd probably have given me a beating. People do things in hot blood +they wish they hadn't afterward. I know this Oakville rough-scuff. Since +we've had it out, and they know what to expect, they'll give me a wide berth. +Now go and sleep. You were never safer in your life." + +She did not trust herself to reply, but the glance she gave him from her +tearful eyes was so eloquent with grateful feeling that he was suddenly +conscious of some unwonted sensations. He again patrolled the place and tied +the dog near the barn. + +"It's barely possible that some of these mean cusses might venture to kindle a +fire, but a bark from Towser will warn 'em off. She IS a spirited little +woman," he added, with a sharp change in soliloquy. "There's nothing +milk-and-water about her. Thunder! I felt like kissing her when she looked +at me so. I guess that crack on my skull has made me a little light-headed." + +He lay down in his clothes so that he might rush out in case of any alarm, and +he intended to keep awake. Then, the first thing he knew, the sun was shining +in the windows. + +It was long before Alida slept, and the burden of her thoughts confirmed the +words that she had spoken so involuntarily. "You don't know how a woman feels +when a man stands up for her as you did." It is the nature of her sex to +adore hardy, courageous manhood. Beyond all power of expression, Alida felt +her need of a champion and protector. She was capable of going away for his +sake, but she would go in terror and despair. The words that had smitten her +confirmed all her old fears of facing the world alone. Then came the +overpowering thought of his loyalty and kindness, of his utter and almost +fierce repugnance to the idea of her leaving him. In contrast with the man +who had deceived and wronged her, Holcroft's course overwhelmed her very soul +with a passion of grateful affection. A new emotion, unlike anything she had +ever known, thrilled her heart and covered her face with blushes. "I could die +for him!" she murmured. + +She awoke late in the morning. When at last she entered the kitchen she +stopped in deep chagrin, for Holcroft had almost completed preparations for +breakfast. "Ha, ha!" he laughed, "turn about is fair play." + +"Well," she sighed, "there's no use of making excuses now." + +"There's no occasion for any. Did you ever see such a looking case as I am +with this bandage around my head?" + +"Does it pain you?" she asked sympathetically. + +"Well, it does. It pains like thunder." + +"The wound needs dressing again. Let me cleanse and bind it up." + +"Yes, after breakfast." + +"No, indeed; now. I couldn't eat my breakfast while you were suffering so." + +"I'm more unfeeling then than you are, for I could." + +She insisted on having her way, and then tore up her handkerchief to supply a +soft linen bandage. + +"You're extravagant, Alida," but she only shook her head. + +"Famous! That feels better. What a touch you have! Now, if you had a broken +head, my fingers would be like a pair of tongs." + +She only shook her head and smiled. + +"You're as bad as Jane used to be. She never said a word when she could shake +or nod her meaning." + +"I should think you would be glad, after having been half talked to death by +her mother." + +"As I said before, take your own way of doing things. It seems the right way +after it is done." + +A faint color came into her face, and she looked positively happy as she sat +down to breakfast. "Are you sure your head feels better?" she asked. + +"Yes, and you look a hundred per cent better. Well, I AM glad you had such a +good sleep after all the hubbub." + +"I didn't sleep till toward morning," she said, with downcast eyes. + +"Pshaw! That's too bad. Well, no matter, you look like a different person +from what you did when I first saw you. You've been growing younger every +day." + +Her face flushed like a girl's under his direct, admiring gaze, making her all +the more pretty. She hastened to divert direct attention from herself by +asking, "You haven't heard from anyone this morning?" + +"No, but I guess the doctor has. Some of those fellows will have to keep +shady for a while." + +As they were finishing breakfast, Holcroft looked out of the open kitchen door +and exclaimed, "By thunder! We're going to hear from some of them now. Here +comes Mrs. Weeks, the mother of the fellow who hit me." + +"Won't you please receive her in the parlor?" + +"Yes, she won't stay long, you may be sure. I'm going to give that Weeks +tribe one lesson and pay off the whole score." + +He merely bowed coldly to Mrs. Weeks' salutation and offered her a chair. The +poor woman took out her handkerchief and began to mop her eyes, but Holcroft +was steeled against her, not so much on account of the wound inflicted by her +son as for the reason that he saw in her an accomplice with her husband in the +fraud of Mrs. Mumpson. + +"I hope you're not badly hurt," she began. + +"It might be worse." + +"Oh, Mr. Holcroft!" she broke out sobbingly, "spare my son. It would kill me +if you sent him to prison." + +"He took the chance of killing me last night," was the cold reply. "What's far +worse, he insulted my wife." + +"Oh, Mr. Holcroft! He was young and foolish; he didn't realize--" + +"Were you and your husband young and foolish," he interrupted bitterly, "when +you gulled me into employing that crazy cousin of yours?" + +This retort was so overwhelming that Mrs. Weeks sobbed speechlessly. + +Alida could not help overhearing the conversation, and she now glided into the +room and stood by her husband's side. + +"James," she said, "won't you do me a favor, a great kindness?" + +Mrs. Weeks raised her eyes and looked wonderingly at this dreadful woman, +against whom all Oakville was talking. + +"I know what you wish, Alida," he replied sternly, "but I can't do it. This +is a case for justice. This woman's son was the leader of that vile crowd +that insulted you last night. I can forgive his injuring me, but not the +words he used about you. Moreover, when I was alone and struggling to keep my +home, Mrs. Weeks took part with her husband in imposing on me their fraud of a +cousin and in tricking me out of honest money. Any woman with a heart in her +breast would have tried to help a man situated as I was. No, it's a clear +case of justice, and her son shall go to jail." + +Mrs. Weeks wailed afresh at this final sentence. Holcroft was amazed to see +his wife drop on her knees beside his chair. He raised her instantly. "Don't +do such a thing as that," he said huskily. + +Without removing her pleading eyes from his face she asked gently, "Who told +us to forgive as we would be forgiven? James, I shall be very unhappy if you +don't grant this mother's prayer." + +He tried to turn away, but she caught his hand and held his eyes with hers. +"Alida," he said in strong agitation, "you heard the vile, false words that +Timothy Weeks said last night. They struck you down like a blow. Can you +forgive him?" + +"Yes, and I plead with you to forgive him. Grant me my wish, James; I shall +be so much happier, and so will you." + +"Well, Mrs. Weeks, now you know what kind of a woman your son came to insult. +You may tell your neighbors that there's one Christian in Oakville. I yield +to Mrs. Holcroft, and will take no further action in the affair if we are let +alone." + +Mrs. Weeks was not a bad woman at heart, and she had received a wholesome +lesson. She came and took Alida's hand as she said, "Yes, you are a +Christian--a better woman than I've been, but I aint so mean and bad but what, +when I see my fault, I am sorry and can ask forgiveness. I do ask your +forgiveness, Mr. Holcroft. I've been ashamed of myself ever since you brought +my cousin back. I thought she would try, when she had the chance you gave +her, but she seems to have no sense." + +"There, there! Let bygones be bygones," said the farmer in embarrassment. +"I've surrendered. Please don't say anything more." + +"You've got a kind heart, in spite--" + +"Oh, come now! Please quit, or I'll begin to swear a little to keep up the +reputation my neighbors have given me. Go home and tell Tim to brace up and +try to be a man. When I say I'm done with a grudge, I AM done. You and Mrs. +Holcroft can talk all you like, but please excuse me," and with more than most +men's horror of a scene, he escaped precipitately. + +"Sit down, Mrs. Weeks," said Alida kindly. + +"Well, I will. I can't say much to excuse myself or my folks--" + +"You've already said everything, Mrs. Weeks," interrupted Alida gently; +"you've said you are sorry." + +Mrs. Weeks stared a moment, and then resumed sententiously, "Well, I've heard +more gospel in that remark than if I'd gone to church. And I couldn't go to +church, I could never have gone there again or held my head up anywhere +if--if--" + +"That's all past and gone," said Alida, smiling. "When Mr. Holcroft says +anything, you may depend on it." + +"Well, God bless you for intercedin'--you had so much to forgive. Nobody shall +ever speak a word against you again while I've got breath to answer. I wish +you'd let me come and see you sometimes." + +"Whenever you wish, if you care to visit one who has had so much--so much +trouble." + +"I see now that's all the more reason I should come, for if it hadn't been for +you, I'd have been in bitter trouble myself. We've been worse than heathen, +standin' off and talking against you. Oh, I've had a lesson I won't forget! +Well, I must hurry home, for I left Timothy and Lemuel in a dreadful state." + +Seeing the farmer in the barn as she was passing, she rushed to him. "You've +got to shake hands with me, Mr. Holcroft. Your wife IS a good woman, and +she's a lady, too. Anyone with half an eye can see she's not one of the +common sort." + +The farmer shook the poor woman's hand good-naturedly and said heartily, +"That's so! All right, meeting's over. Goodbye." Then he turned to his work +and chuckled, "That's what Tom Watterly said. Thank the Lord! She ISN'T of +the common sort. I've got to brace up and be more of a man as well as Tim +Weeks." + +In spite of the pain in his head, Alida's words proved true. He was happier +than he had been in many a long day. He had the glow which follows a generous +act, and the thought that he had pleased a sweet little woman who somehow +seemed very attractive to him that May morning; at the same time the old Adam +in his nature led to a sneaking satisfaction that he had laid on the hickory +so unsparingly the evening before. + +Alida uttered a low, happy laugh as she heard him whistling "Coronation" in +jig time, and she hustled away the breakfast things with the eagerness of a +girl, that she might be ready to read to him when he came in. + + +Chapter XXVII. Farm and Farmer Bewitched + +The day grew warm, and having finished her tasks indoors and cared for the +poultry, Alida brought a chair out in the porch. Her eyes were dreamy with a +vague, undefined happiness. The landscape in itself was cause for exquisite +pleasure, for it was an ideal day of the apple-blossoming period. The old +orchard back of the barn looked as if pink-and-white clouds had settled upon +it, and scattered trees near and far were exhaling their fragrance. The light +breeze which fanned her cheek and bent the growing rye in an adjacent field +was perfumed beyond the skill of art. Not only were her favorite meadow larks +calling to each other, but the thrushes had come and she felt that she had +never heard such hymns as they were singing. A burst of song from the lilac +bush under the parlor window drew her eyes thither, and there was the paternal +redbreast pouring out the very soul of ecstasy. From the nest beneath him +rose the black head and yellow beak of his brooding mate. "How contented and +happy she looks!" Alida murmured, "how happy they both are! And the secret of +it is HOME. And to think that I, who was a friendless waif, am at home, also! +At home with Eden-like beauty and peace before my eyes. But if it hadn't been +for him, and if he were not brave, kind, and true to all he says--" and she +shuddered at a contrast that rose before her fancy. + +She could now scarcely satisfy herself that it was only gratitude which filled +her heart with a strange, happy tumult. She had never been conscious of such +exaltation before. It is true, she had learned to cherish a strong affection +for the man whom she had believed to be her husband, but chiefly because he +had seemed kind and she had an affectionate disposition. Until within the +last few hours, her nature had never been touched and awakened in its +profoundest depths. She had never known before nor had she idealized the +manhood capable of evoking the feelings which now lighted her eyes and gave to +her face the supreme charm and beauty of womanhood. In truth, it was a +fitting day and time for the birth of a love like hers, simple, all-absorbing, +and grateful. It contained no element not in harmony with that May Sunday +morning. + +Holcroft came and sat on the steps below her. She kept her eyes on the +landscape, for she was consciously enough on her guard now. "I rather guess +you think, Alida, that you are looking at a better picture than any artist +fellow could paint?" he remarked. + +"Yes," she replied hesitatingly, "and the picture seems all the more lovely +and full of light because the background is so very dark. I've been thinking +of what happened here last night and what might have happened, and how I felt +then." + +"You feel better--different now, don't you? You certainly look so." + +"Yes!--You made me very happy by yielding to Mrs. Weeks." + +"Oh! I didn't yield to her at all." + +"Very well, have it your own way, then." + +"I think you had it your way." + +"Are you sorry?" + +"Do I look so? How did you know I'd be happier if I gave in?" + +"Because, as you say, I'm getting better acquainted with you. YOU couldn't +help being happier for a generous act." + +"I wouldn't have done it, though, if it hadn't been for you." + +"I'm not so sure about that." + +"I am. You're coming to make me feel confoundedly uncomfortable in my +heathenish life." + +"I wish I could." + +"I never had such a sermon in my life as you gave me this morning. A +Christian act like yours is worth a year of religious talk." + +She looked at him wistfully for a moment and then asked, a little abruptly, +"Mr. Holcroft, have you truly forgiven that Weeks family?" + +"Oh, yes! I suppose so. I've forgiven the old lady, anyhow. I've shaken +hands with her." + +"If her husband and son should come and apologize and say they were sorry, +would you truly and honestly forgive them?" + +"Certainly! I couldn't hold a grudge after that. What are you aiming at?" +and he turned and looked inquiringly into her face. + +It was flushed and tearful in its eager, earnest interest. "Don't you see?" +she faltered. + +He shook his head, but was suddenly and strangely moved by her expression. + +"Why, Mr. Holcroft, if you can honestly forgive those who have wronged you, +you ought to see how ready God is to forgive." + +He fairly started to his feet so vividly the truth came home to him, +illumined, as it was, by a recent and personal experience. After a moment, he +slowly sat down again and said, with a long breath, "That was a close shot, +Alida." + +"I only wish you to have the trust and comfort which this truth should bring +you," she said. "It seems a pity you should do yourself needless injustice +when you are willing to do what is right and kind by others." + +"It's all a terrible muddle, Alida. If God is so ready to forgive, how do you +account for all the evil and suffering in the world?" + +"I don't account for it and can't. I'm only one of his little children; often +an erring one, too. You've been able to forgive grown people, your equals, +and strangers in a sense. Suppose you had a little boy that had done wrong, +but said he was sorry, would you hold a grudge against him?" + +"The idea! I'd be a brute." + +She laughed softly as she asked again, "don't you see?" + +He sat looking thoughtfully away across the fields for a long time, and +finally asked, "Is your idea of becoming a Christian just being forgiven like +a child and then trying to do right?" + +"Yes. Why not?" + +"Well," he remarked, with a grim laugh. "I didn't expect to be cornered in +this way." + +"You who are truthful should face the truth. It would make you happier. A +good deal that was unexpected has happened. When I look out on a scene like +this and think that I am safe and at home, I feel that God has been very good +to me and that you have, too. I can't bear to think that you have that old +trouble on your mind--the feeling that you had been a Christian once, but was +not one now. Being sure that there is no need of your continuing to feel so, +what sort of return would I be making for all your kindness if I did not try +to show you what is as clear to me as this sunshine?" + +"You are a good woman, Alida. Believing as you do, you have done right to +speak to me, and I never believed mortal lips could speak so to the purpose. +I shall think of what you have said, for you have put things in a new light. +But say, Alida, what on earth possesses you to call me 'Mr.'? You don't need +to be scared half to death every time to call me by my first name, do you?" + +"Scared? Oh, no!" She was a trifle confused, he thought, but then her tone +was completely reassuring. + +The day was one long remembered by both. As in nature about them, the +conditions of development and rapid change now existed. + +She did not read aloud very much, and long silences fell between them. They +were reaching a higher plane of companionship, in which words are not always +essential. Both had much to think about, and their thoughts were like roots +which prepare for blossom and fruit. + +With Monday, busy life was resumed. The farmer began planting his corn and +Alida her flower seeds. Almost every day now added to the brood of little +chicks under her care. The cows went out to pasture. Holcroft brought in an +increasing number of overflowing pails of milk, and if the labors of the dairy +grew more exacting, they also grew more profitable. The tide had turned; +income was larger than outgo, and it truly seemed to the long-harassed man +that an era of peace and prosperity had set in. + +To a superficial observer things might have appeared to be going on much as +before, but there were influences at work which Holcroft did not clearly +comprehend. + +As Alida had promised herself, she spent all the money which the eggs brought +in, but Holcroft found pretty muslin curtains at the parlor windows, and +shades which excluded the glare from the kitchen. Better china took the place +of that which was cracked and unsightly. In brief, a subtle and refining +touch was apparent all over the house. + +"How fine we are getting!" he remarked one evening at supper. + +"I've only made a beginning," she replied, nodding defiantly at him. "The +chickens will paint the house before the year is over." + +"Phew! When do the silk dresses come in?" + +"When your broadcloth does." + +"Well, if this goes on, I shall certainly have to wear purple and fine linen +to keep pace." + +"Fine linen, certainly. When you take the next lot of eggs to town I shall +tell you just the number of yards I need to make half a dozen extra fine +shirts. Those you have are getting past mending." + +"Do you think I'll let you spend your money in that way?" + +"You'll let me spend MY money just as I please--in the way that will do me the +most good!" + +"What a saucy little woman you are becoming!" he said, looking at her so +fondly that she quickly averted her eyes. "It's a way people fall into when +humored," she answered. + +"See here, Alida, you're up to some magic. It seems but the other day I +brought you here, a pale ghost of a woman. As old Jonathan Johnson said, you +were 'enj'yin' poor health.' Do you know what he said when I took him off so +he wouldn't put you through the catechism?" + +"No," she replied, with a deprecating smile and rising color. + +"He said he was 'afeared I'd been taken in, you were such a sickly lookin' +critter.' Ha! Ha! Wish he might see you now, with that flushed face of +yours. I never believed in magic, but I'll have to come to it. You are +bewitched, and are being transformed into a pretty young girl right under my +eyes; the house is bewitched, and is growing pretty, too, and pleasanter all +the time. The cherry and apple trees are bewitched, for they never blossomed +so before; the hens are bewitched, they lay as if possessed; the--" + +"Oh, stop! Or I shall think that you're bewitched yourself." + +"I truly begin to think I am." + +"Oh, well! Since we all and everything are affected in the same way, it don't +matter." + +"But it does. It's unaccountable. I'm beginning to rub my eyes and pinch +myself to wake up." + +"If you like it, I wouldn't wake up." + +"Suppose I did, and saw Mrs. Mumpson sitting where you do, Jane here, and Mrs. +Wiggins smoking her pipe in the corner. The very thought makes me shiver. My +first words would be, 'Please pass the cold p'ison.'" + +"What nonsense you are talking tonight!" she tried to say severely, but the +pleased, happy look in her eyes betrayed her. He regarded her with the open +admiration of a boy, and she sought to divert his attention by asking, "What +do you think has become of Jane?" + +"I don't know--stealing around like a strange cat in some relation's house, I +suppose." + +"You once said you would like to do something for her." + +"Well, I would. If I could afford it, I'd like to send her to school." + +"Would you like her to come here and study lessons part of the time?" + +He shivered visibly. "No, Alida, and you wouldn't either. She'd make you more +nervous than she would me, and that's saying a good deal. I do feel very +sorry for her, and if Mrs. Weeks comes to see you, we'll find out if something +can't be done, but her presence would spoil all our cozy comfort. The fact +is, I wouldn't enjoy having anyone here. You and I are just about company +enough. Still, if you feel that you'd like to have some help--" + +"Oh, no! I haven't enough to do." + +"But you're always a-doing. Well, if you're content, I haven't Christian +fortitude enough to make any changes." + +She smiled and thought that she was more than content. She had begun to +detect symptoms in her husband which her own heart enabled her to interpret. +In brief, it looked as if he were drifting on a smooth, swift tide to the same +haven in which she was anchored. + +One unusually warm morning for the season, rain set in after breakfast. +Holcroft did not fret in the least that he could not go to the fields, nor did +he, as had been his custom at first, find rainy-day work at the barn. The +cows, in cropping the lush grass, had so increased their yield of milk that it +was necessary to churn every other day, and Alida was busy in the dairy. This +place had become inviting by reason of its coolness, and she had rendered it +more so by making it perfectly clean and sweet. Strange to say, it contained +another chair besides the one she usually occupied. The apartment was large +and stone-flagged. Along one side were shelves filled with rows of shining +milk-pans. In one corner stood the simple machinery which the old dog put in +motion when tied upon his movable walk, and the churn was near. An iron pipe, +buried deep in the ground, brought cool spring water from the brook above. +This pipe emptied its contents with a low gurgle into a shallow, oblong +receptacle sunk in the floor, and was wide and deep enough for two stone +crocks of ample size to stand abreast up to their rims in the water. The +cream was skimmed into these stone jars until they were full, then Holcroft +emptied them into the churn. He had charged Alida never to attempt this part +of the work, and indeed it was beyond her strength. After breakfast on +churning days, he prepared everything and set the dog at work. Then he +emptied the churn of the buttermilk when he came in to dinner. + +All the associations of the place were pleasant to Alida. It was here that +her husband had shown patience as well as kindness in teaching her how to +supplement his work until her own experience and judgment gave her a better +skill than he possessed. Many pleasant, laughing words had passed between +them in this cool, shadowy place, and on a former rainy morning he had brought +a chair down that he might keep her company. She had not carried it back, nor +was she very greatly surprised to see him saunter in and occupy it on the +present occasion. She stood by the churn, her figure outlined clearly in the +light from the open door, as she poured in cold water from time to time to +hasten and harden the gathering butter. Her right sleeve was rolled well +back, revealing a white arm that was becoming beautifully plump and round. An +artist would have said that her attitude and action were unconsciously natural +and graceful. Holcroft had scarcely the remotest idea of artistic effect, but +he had a sensible man's perception of a charming woman when she is charming. + +"Mr. Holcroft," she asked very gravely, "will you do something for me?" + +"Yes, half a dozen things." + +"You promise?" + +"Certainly! What's the trouble?" + +"I don't mean there shall be any if I can help it," she answered with a light +ripple of laughter. "Please go and put on your coat." + +"How you've humbugged me! It's too hot." + +"Oh, you've got to do it; you promised. You can't stay here unless you do." + +"So you are going to take care of me as if I were a small boy?" + +"You need care--sometimes." + +He soon came back and asked, "Now may I stay?" + +"Yes. Please untie the dog. Butter's come." + +"I should think it would, or anything else at your coaxing." + +"Oh-h, what a speech! Hasn't that a pretty golden hue?" she asked, holding up +a mass of the butter she was ladling from the churn into a wooden tray. + +"Yes, you are making the gilt-edge article now. I don't have to sell it to +Tom Watterly any more." + +"I'd like to give him some, though." + +He was silent, and something like sudden rage burned in his heart that Mrs. +Watterly would not permit the gift. That anyone should frown on his having +such a helper as Alida was proving herself to be, made him vindictive. +Fortunately her face was turned away, and she did not see his heavy frown. +Then, to shield her from a disagreeable fact, he said quickly, "do you know +that for over a year I steadily went behind my expenses . And that your butter +making has turned the tide already? I'm beginning to get ahead again." + +"I'm SO glad," and her face was radiant. + +"Yes, I should know that from your looks. It's clearer every day that I got +the best of our bargain. I never dreamed, though, that I should enjoy your +society as I do--that we should become such very good friends. That wasn't in +the bargain, was it?" + +"Bargain!" The spirited way with which she echoed the word, as if thereby +repudiating anything like a sordid side to their mutual relations, was not +lost on her wondering and admiring partner. She checked herself suddenly. +"Now let me teach YOU how to make butter," and with the tray in her lap, she +began washing the golden product and pressing out the milk. + +He laughed in a confused delighted way at her piquant, half saucy manner as he +watched her deft round arm and shapely hand. + +"The farmers' wives in Oakville would say your hands were too little to do +much." + +"They would?" and she raised her blue eyes indignantly to his. "No matter, you +are the one to say about that." + +"I say they do too much. I shall have to get Jane to help you." + +"By all means! Then you'll have more society." + +"That was a home shot. You know how I dote on everybody's absence, even +Jane's." + +"You dote on butter. See how firm and yellow it's getting. You wouldn't +think it was milk-white cream a little while ago, would you? Now I'll put in +the salt and you must taste it, for you're a connoisseur." + +"A what?" + +"Judge, then." + +"You know a sight more than I do, Alida." + +"I'm learning all the time." + +"So am I--to appreciate you." + +"Listen to the sound of the rain and the water as it runs into the +milk-cooler. It's like low music, isn't it?" + +Poor Holcroft could make no better answer than a sneeze. + +"Oh-h," she exclaimed, "you're catching cold? Come, you must go right +upstairs. You can't stay here another minute. I'm nearly through." + +"I was never more contented in my life." + +"You've no right to worry me. What would I do if you got sick? Come, I'll +stop work till you go." + +"Well then, little boss, goodbye." + +With a half suppressed smile at his obedience Alida watched his reluctant +departure. She kept on diligently at work, but one might have fancied that +her thoughts rather than her exertions were flushing her cheeks. + +It seemed to her that but a few moments elapsed before she followed him, but +he had gone. Then she saw that the rain had ceased and that the clouds were +breaking. His cheerful whistle sounded reassuringly from the barn, and a +little later he drove up the lane with a cart. + +She sat down in the kitchen and began sewing on the fine linen they had jested +about. Before long she heard a light step. Glancing up, she saw the most +peculiar and uncanny-looking child that had ever crossed her vision, and with +dismal presentiment knew it was Jane. + + +Chapter XXVIII. Another Waif + +It was indeed poor, forlorn little Jane that had appeared like a specter in +the kitchen door. She was as wet and bedraggled as a chicken caught in a +shower. A little felt hat hung limp over her ears; her pigtail braid had lost +its string and was unraveling at the end, and her torn, sodden shoes were +ready to drop from her feet. She looked both curiously and apprehensively at +Alida with her little blinking eyes, and then asked in a sort of breathless +voice, "Where's him?" + +"Mr. Holcroft?" + +Jane nodded. + +"He's gone out to the fields. You are Jane, aren't you?" + +Another nod. + +"Oh, DEAR!" groaned Alida mentally; "I wish she hadn't come." Then with a +flush of shame the thought crossed her mind, "She perhaps is a friendless and +homeless as I was, and , and 'him' is also her only hope. "Come in, Jane," +she said kindly, "and tell me everything." + +"Be you his new girl?" + +"I'm his wife," said Alida, smiling. + +Jane stopped; her mouth opened and her eyes twinkled with dismay. "Then he is +married, after all?" she gasped. + +"Yes, why not?" + +"Mother said he'd never get anyone to take him." + +"Well, you see she was mistaken." + +"She's wrong about everything. Well, it's no use then," and the child turned +and sat down on the doorstep. + +Alida was perplexed. From the way Jane wiped her eyes with her wet sleeve, +she was evidently crying. Coming to her, Alida said, "What is no use, Jane? +Why are you crying?" + +"I thought--he--might--p'raps--let me stay and work for him." + +Alida was still more perplexed. What could be said by way of comfort, feeling +sure as she did that Holcroft would be bitterly hostile to the idea of keeping +the child? The best she could do was to draw the little waif out and obtain +some explanation of her unexpected appearance. But first she asked, "Have you +had any breakfast?" + +Jane shook her head. + +"Oh, then you must have some right away." + +"Don't want any. I want to die. I oughtn' ter been born." + +"Tell me your troubles, Jane. Perhaps I can help you." + +"No, you'd be like the rest. They all hate me and make me feel I'm in the +way. He's the only one that didn't make me feel like a stray cat, and now +he's gone and got married," and the child sobbed aloud. + +Her grief was pitiful to see, for it was overwhelming. Alida stooped down, +and gently lifting the child up, brought her in. Then she took off the wet +hat and wiped the tear-stained face with her handkerchief. "Wait a minute, +Jane, till I bring you something," and she ran to the dairy for a glass of +milk. "You must drink it, she said, kindly but firmly. + +The child gulped it down, and with it much of her grief, for this was +unprecedented treatment and was winning her attention. + +"Say," she faltered, "will you ask him to let me stay?" + +"Yes, I'll ask him, but I can't promise that he will." + +"You won't ask him 'fore my face and then tell him not to behind my back?" and +there was a sly, keen look in her eyes which tears could not conceal. + +"No," said Alida gravely, "that's not my way. How did you get here, Jane?" + +"Run away." + +"From where?" + +"Poorhouse." + +Alida drew a quick breath and was silent a few moments. "Is--is your mother +there?" she asked at length. + +"Yes. They wouldn't let us visit round any longer." + +"Didn't your mother or anyone know you were coming?" + +Jane shook her head. + +Alida felt that it would be useless to burden the unhappy child with +misgivings as to the result, and her heart softened toward her as one who in +her limited way had known the bitterness and dread which in that same +almshouse had overwhelmed her own spirit. She could only say gently, "Well, +wait till Mr. Holcroft comes, and then we'll see what he says." She herself +was both curious and anxious as to his course. "It will be a heavy cross," she +thought, "but I should little deserve God's goodness to me if I did not +befriend this child." + +Every moment added weight to this unexpected burden of duty. Apart from all +consideration of Jane's peculiarities, the isolation with Holcroft had been a +delight in itself. Their mutual enjoyment of each other's society had been +growing from day to day, and she, more truly than he, had shrunk from the +presence of another as an unwelcome intrusion. Conscious of her secret, +Jane's prying eyes were already beginning to irritate her nerves. Never had +she seen a human face that so completely embodied her idea of inquisitiveness +as the uncanny visage of this child. She saw that she would be watched with a +tireless vigilance. Her recoil, however, was not so much a matter of +conscious reasoning and perception as it was an instinctive feeling of +repulsion caused by the unfortunate child. It was the same old story. Jane +always put the women of a household on pins and needles just as her mother +exasperated the men. Alida had to struggle hard during a comparatively silent +hour to fight down the hope that Holcroft would not listen to Jane's and her +own request. + +As she stepped quickly and lightly about in her preparations for dinner, the +girl watched her intently. At last she gave voice to her thoughts and said, +"If mother'd only worked round smart as you, p'raps she'd hooked him 'stid er +you." + +Alida's only reply was a slight frown, for the remark suggested disagreeable +images and fancies. "Oh, how can I endure it?" she sighed. She determined to +let Jane plead her own cause at first, thinking that perhaps this would be the +safest way. If necessary, she would use her influence against a hostile +decision, let it cost in discomfort what it might. + +At a few moments before twelve the farmer came briskly toward the house, and +was evidently in the best of spirits. When he entered and saw Jane, his +countenance indicated so much dismay that Alida could scarcely repress a +smile. The child rose and stood before him like a culprit awaiting sentence. +She winked hard to keep the tears back, for there was no welcome in his +manner. She could not know how intensely distasteful was her presence at this +time, nor had Holcroft himself imagined how unwelcome a third person in his +house could be until he saw the intruder before him. He had only felt that he +was wonderfully contented and happy in his home, and that Jane would be a +constant source of annoyance and restraint. Moreover, it might lead to +visitation from Mrs. Mumpson, and that was the summing up of earthly ills. +But the child's appearance and manner were so forlorn and deprecating that +words of irritation died upon his lips. He gravely shook hands with her and +then drew out the story which Alida had learned. + +"Why, Jane," he exclaimed, frowning, "Mr. Watterly will be scouring the +country for you. I shall have to take you back right after dinner." + +"I kinder hoped," she sobbed, "that you'd let me stay. I'd stay in the barn +if I couldn't be in the house. I'd just as soon work outdoors, too." + +"I don't think you'd be allowed to stay," said the farmer, with a sinking +heart; "and then--perhaps your mother would be coming here." + +"I can't stand mother no more'n you can" said the girl, through her set teeth. +"I oughtn'ter been born, for there's no place for me in the world." + +Holcroft looked at his wife, his face expressive of the utmost annoyance, +worry, and irresolution. Her glance was sympathetic, but she said nothing, +feeling that if he could make the sacrifice from his own will he should have +the chance. "You can't begin to know how much trouble this may lead to, Jane," +he resumed. "You remember how your other threatened to take the law upon me, +and it wouldn't be possible for you to stay here without her consent." + +"She oughter consent; I'll make her consent!" cried the child, speaking as if +driven to desperation. "What's she ever done for me but teach me mean ways? +Keep me or kill me, for I must be in some place where I've a right to be away +from mother. I've found that there's no sense in her talk, and it drives me +crazy." + +Although Jane's words and utterance were strangely uncouth, they contained a +despairing echo which the farmer could not resist. Turning his troubled face +to his wife, he began, ""If this is possible, Alida, it will be a great deal +harder on you than it will on me. I don't feel that I would be doing right by +you unless you gave your consent with full knowledge of--" + +"Then please let her stay, if it is possible. She seems to need a friend and +home as much as another that you heard about." + +"There's no chance of such a blessed reward in this case," he replied, with a +grim laugh. Then, perplexed indeed, he continued to Jane, "I'm just as sorry +for you as I can be, but there's no use of getting my wife and self in trouble +which in the end will do you no good. You are too young to understand all +that your staying may lead to." + +"It won't lead to mother's comin' here, and that's the worst that could +happen. Since she can't do anything for me she's got to let me do for +myself." + +"Alida, please come with me in the parlor a moment. You stay here, Jane." +When they were alone, he resumed, "Somehow, I feel strangely unwilling to have +that child live with us. We were enjoying our quiet life so much. Then you +don't realize how uncomfortable she will make you, Alida." + +"Yes, I do." + +"I don't think you can yet. Your sympathies are touched now, but she'll watch +you and irritate you in a hundred ways. Don't her very presence make you +uncomfortable?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, then, she can't stay," he began decidedly. "This is your home, and no +one shall make you uncomfortable--" + +"But I should be a great deal more uncomfortable if she didn't stay," Alida +interrupted. "I should feel that I did not deserve my home. Not long ago my +heart was breaking because I was friendless and in trouble. What could I +think of myself if I did not entreat you in behalf of this poor child?" + +"Thunder!" ejaculated Holcroft. "I guess I was rather friendless and troubled +myself, and I didn't know the world had in it such a good friend as you've +become, Alida. Well, well! You've put it in such a light that I'd be almost +tempted to take the mother, also." + +"No," she replied, laughing; "we'll draw the line at the mother." + +"Well, I'll take Jane to town this afternoon, and if her mother will sign an +agreement to leave us all in peace, we'll give up our old cozy comfort of +being alone. I suppose it must be a good deed, since it's so mighty hard to +do it," he concluded with a wry face, leading the way to the kitchen again. +She smiled as if his words were already rewarding her self denial. + +"Well, Jane," he resumed, "Mrs. Holcroft has spoken in your behalf, and if we +can arrange matters so that you can stay, you will have her to thank chiefly. +I'll take you back to the poorhouse after dinner, so it may be known what's +become of you. Then, if your mother'll sign an agreement to make no trouble +and not come here, we'll give you a home until we can find a better place for +you." + +There was no outburst of gratitude. The repressed, dwarfed nature of the +child was incapable of this, yet there was an unwonted little thrill of hope +in her heart. Possibly it was like the beginning of life in a seed under the +first spring rays of the sun. She merely nodded to Holcroft as if the matter +had been settled as far as it could be, and ignored Alida. + +"Why don't you thank Mrs. Holcroft?" he asked. + +Then Jane turned and nodded at Alida. Her vocabulary of thanks was +undeveloped. + +"She's glad," said Alida. "You'll see. Now that it's settled, we hope you're +hungry, Jane, aren't you?" + +"Yes, I be. Can't I help you put things on the table?" + +"Yes." + +Holcroft looked at the two for a moment, and then shook his head as he went up +to his room. "I thought my wife was nice and pleasant looking before," he +thought, "but she's like a picture beside that child. Well, she has behaved +handsomely. Tom Watterly didn't tell half the truth when he said she was not +of the common run. She's a Christian in deeds, not talk. What's that in +Scripture about 'I was hungry'? Well, well! She makes religion kind of +natural and plain like, whether it's easy or not. Thunder! What a joke it is +to see her so grateful because I've given her a chance to help me out of the +worst scrape a man could be in! As if she hadn't changed everything for the +better! Here I am sure of my home and getting ahead in the world again, and +it's all her doing." + +In admiration of his wife Holcroft quite forgot that there had been any +self-sacrifice on his part, and he concluded that he could endure Jane and +almost anything else as long as Alida continued to look after his comfort and +interests. + +Now that the worst stress of Jane's anxiety was over, she proved that she was +half starved. Indeed she had few misgivings now, for her confidence that +Holcroft would accomplish what he attempted was almost unbounded. It was a +rather silent meal at first, for the farmer and his wife had much to think +about and Jane much to do in making up for many limited meals. At last +Holcroft smiled so broadly that Alida said, "Something seems to please you." + +"Yes, more than one thing. It might be a great deal worse, and was, not long +ago. I was thinking of old times." + +"How pleasant they must have been to make you look so happy!" + +"They had their uses, and make me think of a picture I saw in a store window +in town. It was a picture of a woman, and she took my fancy amazingly. But +the point uppermost in my mind was a trick of the fellow who painted her. He +had made the background as dark as night and so she stood out as if alive; and +she looked so sweet and good that I felt like shaking hands with her. I now +see why the painter made the background so dark" + +Alida smiled mischievously as she replied, "That was his art. He knew that +almost anyone would appear well against such a background." + +But Holcroft was much too direct to be diverted from his thought or its +expression. "The man knew the mighty nice-looking woman he had painted would +look well," he said, "and I know of another woman who appears better against a +darker background. That's enough to make a man smile who has been through +what I have." + +She could not help a flush of pleasure or disguise the happy light in her +eyes, but she looked significantly at Jane, who, mystified and curious, was +glancing from one to the other. + +"Confound it!" thought the farmer. "That'll be the way of it now. Here's a +little pitcher that's nearly all ears. Well, we're in for it and must do our +duty." + +Going to town that day involved no slight inconvenience, but Holcroft dropped +everything and rapidly made his preparations. + +When Alida was left alone with Jane, the latter began clearing the table with +alacrity, and after a few furtive glances at Mrs. Holcroft, yielded to the +feeling that she should make some acknowledgment of the intercession in her +behalf. "Say," she began, "I thought you wasn't goin; to stand up for me, +after all. Women folks are liars, mostly." + +"You are mistaken, Jane. If you wish to stay with us, you must tell the truth +and drop all sly ways." + +"That's what he said when I first come." + +"I say it too. You see a good deal, Jane. Try to see what will please people +instead of what you can find out about them. It's a much better plan. Now, +as a friend, I tell you of one thing you had better not do. You shouldn't +watch and listen to Mr. Holcroft unless he speaks to you. He doesn't like to +be watched--no one does. It isn't nice; and if you come to us, I think you +will try to do what is nice. Am I not right?" + +"I dunno how," said Jane. + +"It will be part of my business to teach you. You ought to understand all +about your coming. Mr. Holcroft doesn't take you because he needs your work, +but because he's sorry for you, and wishes to give you a chance to do better +and learn something. You must make up your mind to lessons, and learning to +talk and act nicely, as well as to do such work as is given you. Are you +willing to do what I say and mind me pleasantly and promptly?" + +Jane looked askance at the speaker and was vaguely suspicious of some trick. +In her previous sojourn at the farmhouse she had concluded that it was her +best policy to keep in Holcroft's good graces, even though she had to defy her +mother and Mrs. Wiggins, and she was now by no means ready to commit herself +to this new domestic power. She had received the impression that the +authority and continued residence of females in this household was involved in +much uncertainty, and although Alida was in favor now and the farmer's wife, +she didn't know what "vicissitudes" (as her mother would denominate them) +might occur. Holcroft was the only fixed and certain quantity in her troubled +thoughts, and after a little hesitation she replied, "I'll do what he says; +I'm goin' to mind him." + +"Suppose he tells you to mind me?" + +"Then I will. That ud be mindin' him. I'm goin' to stick to him, for I made +out by it better before than by mindin' mother and Mrs. Wiggins." + +Alida now understood the child and laughed aloud. "You are right," she said. +"I won't ask you to do anything contrary to his wishes. Now tell me, Jane, +what other clothes have you besides those you are wearing?" + +It did not take the girl long to inventory her scanty wardrobe, and then Alida +rapidly made out a list of what was needed immediately. "Wait here," she said, +and putting on a pretty straw hat, one of her recent purchases, she started +for the barn. + +Holcroft had his wagon and team almost ready when Alida joined him, and led +the way to the floor between the sweet-smelling hay-mows. + +"One thing leads to another," she began, looking at him a little +deprecatingly. "You must have noticed the condition of Jane's clothes." + +"She does look like a little scarecrow, now I come to think of it," he +admitted. + +"Yes, she's not much better off than I was," Alida returned, with downcast +eyes and rising color. + +Her flushing face was so pretty under the straw hat, and the dark mow as a +background brought out her figure so finely that he thought of the picture +again and laughed aloud for pleasure. She looked up in questioning surprise, +thus adding a new grace. + +"I wish that artist fellow was here now," he exclaimed. "He could make another +picture that would suit me better than the one I saw in town." + +"What nonsense!" she cried, quickly averting her face from his admiring +scrutiny. "Come, I'm here to talk business and you've no time to waste. I've +made out a list of what the child actually must have to be respectable." + +"You're right, Alida," said the farmer, becoming grave at once over a question +of dollars and cents. "As you say, one thing leads to another, and if we take +the girl we must clothe her decently. But then, I guess she'll earn enough to +pay her way. It isn't that I worry about so much," he broke out +discontentedly, "but the interference with our quiet, cozy life. Things are +going so smoothly and pleasantly that I hate a change of any kind." + +"We mustn't be selfish, you know," she replied. "You are doing a kind, +generous act, and I respect you all the more for it." + +"That settles everything. You'll like me a little better for it, too, won't +you?" he asked hesitatingly. + +She laughed outright at this question and answered, "It won't do to take too +much self-sacrifice out of your act. There's something which does us all +good. She ought to have a spelling and a writing book also." + +Holcroft was assuredly falling under the sway of the little blind god, for he +began at once to misunderstand Alida. "You are very fond of self-sacrifice," +he said, rather stiffly. "Yes, I'll get everything on your list," and he took +it from her hand. "Now I must be off," he added, "for I wish to get back +before night, and it's so warm I can't drive fast. Sorry I have to go, for I +can't say I dote on self-sacrifice." + +Alida but partially understood his sudden change of mood, nor was the farmer +much better enlightened himself in regard to his irritation. He had received +an unexpected impression and it seemed to fit in with other things and explain +them. She returned slowly and dejectedly to the house, leaving unsaid the +words she meant to speak about Jane's relations to her. Now she wished that +she had imitated Jane, and merely nodded to the farmer's questions. "If he +knew how far I am beyond the point of liking, I don't know what he'd do or +say," she thought, "and I suppose that's the reason I couldn't answer him +frankly, in a way that would have satisfied him. It's a pity I couldn't begin +to just LIKE a little at first, as he does and have everything grow as +gradually and quietly as one of his cornstalks. That's the way I meant it +should be; but when he stood up for me and defended me from those men, my +heart just melted, and in spite of myself, I felt I could die for him. It +can't be such an awful thing for a woman to fall in love with her husband, and +yet--yet I'd rather put my hand in the fire than let him know how I feel. Oh, +dear! I wish Jane hadn't been born, as she says. Trouble is beginning +already, and it was all so nice before she came." + +In a few moments Holcroft drove up. Alida stood in the door and looked +timidly at him. He thought she appeared a little pale and troubled, but his +bad mood prevailed and he only asked briefly, "Can't I get something for you?" + +She shook her head. + +"Well, goodbye, then," and he drove away with Jane, who was confirmed in her +line of policy. "She's afraid of 'im too," thought the child. "Mind her! +Guess not, unless he says so." She watched the farmer furtively and concluded +that she had never known him to look more grim or be more silent even under +her mother's blandishments. "He's married this one, I s'pose, to keep house +for 'im, but he don't like her follerin' 'im up or bein' for'ard any more'n he +did mother. Shouldn't wonder if he didn't keep her, either, if she don't suit +better. She needn't 'a' put on such airs with me, for I'm goin' to stick to +him." + + +Chapter XXIX. Husband and Wife in Trouble + +Like many others with simple, strong natures, Holcroft could not be +wrong-headed moderately, and his thoughts, once started in a direction were +apt to carry him much farther than the cause warranted. Engrossed in painful +and rather bitter musings, he paid no heed to Jane and almost forgot his +errand to town. "I was a fool to ask that question," he thought. "I was +getting silly and sentimental with my talk about the picture and all that. +She laughed at me and reminded me I was wasting time. Of course she can't +like an old, hard-featured man like me. I'm beginning to understand her now. +She made a business marriage with me and means to live up to her agreement. +She's honest; she feels I've done her a real kindness in giving her a home, +and she's willing to be as self-sacrificing as the day is long to make it up +to me. I wish she wasn't so grateful; there's no occasion for it. I don't +want her to feel that every pleasant word and every nice act is so much toward +paying a debt. If there was any balance in my favor it was squared up long +ago, and I was willing to call it even from the start. She's made me like her +for her own sake and not on account of what she does for me, and that's what I +had in mind. But she's my superior in every way; she's growing to be a pretty +as a picture, and I suppose I appear like a rather rough customer. Well, I +can't help if, but it rather goes against me to have her think, 'I've married +him and I'm going to do my duty by him, just as I agreed.' She'll do her duty +by this Jane in the same self-sacrificing spirit, and will try to make it +pleasant for the child just because it's right and because she herself was +taken out of trouble. That's the shape her religion takes. 'Tisn't a common +form, I know--this returning good for good with compound interest. But her +conscience won't let her rest unless she does everything she can for me, and +now she'll begin to do everything for Jane because she feels that +self-sacrifice is a duty. Anybody can be self-sacrificing. If I made up my +mind, I could ask Mrs. Mumpson to visit us all summer, but I couldn't like her +to save my life, and I don't suppose Alida can like me, beyond a certain +point, to save her life. But she'll do her duty. She'll be pleasant and +self-sacrificing and do all the work she can lay her hands on for my sake; but +when it comes to feeling toward me as I can't help feeling toward her--that +wasn't in the bargain," and he startled Jane with a sudden bitter laugh. + +"Say," said the child, as if bent on adding another poignant reflection, "if +you hadn't married her, I could 'a' come and cooked for you." + +"You think I'd been better off if I'd waited for you, eh?" + +"You kinder looked as if yer thought so." + +He now made the hills echo with a laugh, excited both by his bitter fancies +and the preposterous idea. She looked at him inquiringly and was much +perplexed by his unwonted behavior. Indeed, he was slightly astonished at his +own strange mood, but he yielded to it almost recklessly. "I say, Jane," he +began, "I'm not a very good-looking man, am I?" + +She shook her head in emphatic agreement. + +"I'm old and rough and hard-featured?" + +Again she nodded approvingly. + +"Children and some others speak the truth," he growled. + +"I never had no teachin', but I'm not a fool," remarked Jane keenly. + +"I guess I'm the fool in this case," he added. + +"It don't make no difference to me," she said sympathetically. "I'm goin' to +mind you and not her. If you ever send her away I'll cook for you." + +"Send her away!" exclaimed the farmer, with a shiver. "God forbid! There, +don't talk any more!" + +For the next half mile he drove in silence, with a heavy frown on his face; +then he broke out sternly, "If you don't promise to mind Mrs. Holcroft and +please her in everything, I'll leave you at the poorhouse door and drive home +again." + +"'Course I will, if you tells me to," said the child in trepidation. + +"Well, I DO. People will find that making her trouble is the surest way of +making themselves trouble." + +"She's got some hold on 'im," concluded Jane, who, in listening to much +gossip, had often heard this expression, and now made a practical application +of the idea. + +Watterly was greatly relieved when he saw Holcroft drive up with the fugitive. +"I was just going out to your place," he said, "for the girl's mother insisted +that you had enticed the child away," and the man laughed, as if the idea +tickled him immensely. + +Holcroft frowned, for he was in no mood for his friend's rough jests. "Go to +your mother till I send for you," he said to Jane. + +"The fact that you had taken two other females from the house gave some color +to Mrs. Mumpson's views," pursued Watterly, who could take only the broadest +hint as to his social conduct. + +He received one now. "Tom Watterly," said the farmer sternly, "did I ever +insult your wife?" + +"By jocks! No, you nor no other man. I should say not." + +"Well, then, don't you insult mine. Before I'd seen Mrs. Holcroft, you told +me she was out of the common run,--how much out, you little know,--and I don't +want her mixed up with the common run, even in your thoughts." + +"Well, now, I like that," said Watterly, giving Holcroft his hand. "You know I +didn't mean any offense, Jim. It was only one of my foolish jokes. You were +mighty slow to promise to love, honor, and obey, but hanged if you aint more +on that line than any man in town. I can see she's turning out well and +keeping her agreement." + +"Yes, that's just what she's doing," said the farmer gloomily. "She's a good, +capable woman that'll sacrifice herself to her duty any day. But it wasn't to +talk about her I came. She's a sight better than I am, but she's probably not +good enough for anybody in this town to speak to." + +"Oh, pshaw; now, Jim!" + +"Well, I've come on disagreeable business. I didn't know that Mrs. Mumpson +and her child were here, and I wish to the Lord they could both stay here! +You've found out what the mother is, I suppose?" + +"I should say so," replied Tom, laughing. "She's talked several of the old +women to death already. The first day she was here she called on my wife and +claimed social relations, because she's so 'respecterbly connected,' as she +says. I thought Angy'd have a fit. Her respectable connections have got to +take her off my hands." + +"I'm not one of 'em, thank goodness!" resumed Holcroft. "But I'm willing to +take the girl and give her a chance--at least I'll do it," he corrected +himself, in his strict observance of truth. "You can see she's not a child to +dote on, but I was sorry for her when I sent her mother away and said I'd try +and do something for her. The first thing I knew she was at the house, +begging me to either take her in or kill her. I couldn't say no, though I +wanted to. Now, you see what kind of a good Samaritan I am." + +"Oh, I know you! You'd hit a man between the eyes if he charged you with +doing a good deed. But what does your wife say to adopting such a cherub?" + +"We're not going to adopt her or bind ourselves. My wife took the child's +part and plead with me in her behalf, though I could see the young one almost +made her sick. She thinks it's her duty, you know, and that's enough for +her." + +"By jocks, Holcroft! She don't feel that way about you, does she?" + +"Why shouldn't she?" + +"Why should she? I can take about anything from Angy, but it wouldn't do for +her to let me see that she disliked me so that I kinder made her sick." + +"Oh, thunder, Tom! You're getting a wrong impression. I was never treated +better by anybody in my life than by Mrs. Holcroft. She's a lady, every inch +of her. But there's no reason why she should dote on an old fellow like me." + +"Yes, there is. I have my opinion of a woman who wouldn't dote on a man +that's been such a friend as you have." + +"Oh, hang it all, Tom! Let's talk about business. She's too grateful--that's +what worries me. By the way she took hold and filled the house with comfort +she made everything even from the start. She's been as good a friend to me as +I to her. She's done all she agreed and more, and I'll never hear a word +against her. The point I've been trying to get at is this: If Mrs. Mumpson +will agree never to come near us or make trouble in any way, we'll take the +child. If she won't so agree, I'll have nothing to do with the girl. I don't +want to see her mother, and you'd do me one of the kindest turns you ever did +a man by stating the case to her." + +"If I do," said Watterly, laughing, "you'll have to forgive me everything in +the past and the future." + +"I will, Tom, for I'd rather have an eye tooth pulled than face that woman. +We're all right--just as we used to be at school, always half quarreling, yet +ready to stand up for each other to the last drop. But I must have her +promise in black and white." + +"Well, come to my office and we'll try to arrange it. The law is on your +side, for the county won't support people that anyone will take off its hands. +Besides I'm going to shame the woman's relations into taking her away, and +they'll be glad there's one less to support." + +They drew up a brief, strong agreement, and Watterly took it to the widow to +sign. He found her in great excitement and Jane looking at her defiantly. "I +told you he was the one who enticed away my offspring," she began, almost +hysterically. "He's a cold-blooded villain! If there's a law in the land, +I'll--" + +"Stop!" thundered Watterly. His voice was so high and authoritative that she +did stop, and with open mouth stared at the superintendent. "Now, be quiet and +listen to me," he continued. "Either you are a sane woman and can stop this +foolishness, or else you are insane and must be treated as such. You have +your choice. You can't tell me anything about Holcroft; I've known him since +he was a boy. He doesn't want your girl. She ran away to him, didn't you?" +to Jane, who nodded. "But he's willing to take her, to teach her something and +give her a chance. His motive is pure kindness, and he has a good wife +who'll--" + +"I see it all," cried the widow, tragically clasping her hands. "It's his +wife's doings! She wishes to triumph over me, and even to usurp my place in +ministering to my child. Was there ever such an outrage? Such a bold, +vindictive female--" + +Here Jane, in a paroxysm of indignant protest, seized her mother and began to +shake her so violently that she could not speak. + +"Stop that!" said Watterly, repressing laughter with difficulty. "I see you +are insane and the law will have to step in and take care of you both." + +"What will it do with us?" gasped the widow. + +"Well, it ought to put you in strait jackets to begin with--" + +"I've got some sense if mother aint!" cried Jane, commencing to sob. + +"It's plain the law'll decide your mother's not fit to take care of you. +Anyone who can even imagine such silly ridiculous things as she's just said +must be looked after. You MAY take a notion, Mrs. Mumpson, that I'm a +murderer or a giraffe. It would be just as sensible as your other talk." + +"What does Mr. Holcroft offer?" said the widow, cooling off rapidly. If there +was an atom of common sense left in any of his pauper charges, Watterly soon +brought it into play, and his vague threatenings of law were always +awe-inspiring. + +"He makes a very kind offer that you would jump at if you had sense--a good +home for your child. You ought to know she can't stay here and live on +charity if anyone is willing to take her." + +"Of course I would be permitted to visit my child from time to time? He +couldn't be so monstrously hard-hearted as--" + +"Oh, nonsense!" cried Watterly impatiently. "The idea of his letting you come +to his house after what you've said about him! I've no time to waste in +foolishness, or he either. He will let Jane visit you, but you are to sign +this paper and keep the agreement not to go near him or make any trouble +whatever." + +"It's an abominable--" + +"Tut! Tut! That kind of talk isn't allowed here. If you can't decide like a +sane woman the law'll soon decide for you." + +As was always the case when Mrs. Mumpson reached the inevitable, she yielded; +the paper was signed, and Jane, who had already made up her small bundle, +nodded triumphantly to her mother and followed Watterly. Mrs. Mumpson, on +tiptoe, followed also, bent on either propitiating Holcroft and so preparing +the way for a visit, or else on giving him once more a "piece of her mind." + +"All right, Holcroft!" said Watterly, as he entered the office, "here's the +paper signed. Was there ever such an id-----" + +"Oh, how do you do, Mr. Holcroft?" cried the widow, bursting in and rushing +forward with extended hand. + +The farmer turned away and looked as if made of stone. + +Changing her tactics instantly, she put her handkerchief to her eyes and +moaned, "You never can have the heart to say I can't come and see my child. +I've signed writings, 'tis true, under threats and compulsions; but I trust +there will be relentings--" + +"There won't be one relent!" cried Jane. "I never want to see you again, and a +blind post could see that he doesn't." + +"Jane," said Holcroft sternly, "don't speak so again. If strangers can be +kind and patient with you, you can be so with your mother. She has no claims +on me and has said things which make it impossible for me to speak to her +again, but I shall insist on your visiting and treating her kindly. Goodbye, +Watterly. You've proved yourself a friend again," and he went rapidly away, +followed by Jane. + +Mrs. Mumpson was so taken aback by Holcroft's final words and Watterly's stern +manner as he said, "This is my office," that for once in her life she +disappeared silently. + +Holcroft soon purchased the articles on his list, meanwhile racking his brains +to think of something that he could buy for Alida, but the fear of being +thought sentimental and of appearing to seek a personal regard for himself, +not "nominated in the bond," restrained him. + +On his way home he was again sunk in deep abstraction, but the bitterness of +his feeling had passed away. Although as mistaken as before in his +apprehension of Alida, his thoughts were kinder and juster. "I've no right to +find fault or complain," he said to himself. "She's done all I asked and +better than she agreed, and there's no one to blame if she can't do more. It +must have been plain enough to her at first that I didn't want anything but a +housekeeper--a quiet, friendly body that would look after the house and dairy, +and she's done better than I even hoped. That's just the trouble; she's +turned out so different from what I expected, and looks so different from what +she did, that I'm just sort of carried away. I'd give half the farm if she +was sitting by my side this June evening and I could tell her all I feel and +know she was glad. I must be just and fair to her. I asked her to agree to +one thing and now I'm beginning to want a tremendous sight more--I want her to +like not only her home and work and the quiet life she so longed for, but I +want her to like me, to enjoy my society, not only in a friendly, businesslike +way, but in another way--yes, confound my slow wits! Somewhat as if she was +my wife in reality and not merely in name, as I insisted. It's mighty mean +business in me, who have been so proud of standing up to my agreements and so +exacting of others to do the same. I went away cold and stiff this afternoon +because she wasn't silly and sentimental when I was. I'm to her an +unpolished, homely, middle-aged man, and yet I sort of scoffed at the +self-sacrifice which has led her to be pleasant and companionable in every way +that her feelings allowed. I wish I were younger and better looking, so it +wouldn't all be a sense of duty and gratitude. Gratitude be hanged! I don't +want any more of it. Well, now, James Holcroft, if you're the square man you +supposed yourself to be, you'll be just as kind and considerate as you know +how, and then you'll leave Alida to the quiet, peaceful life to which she +looked forward when she married you. The thing for you to do is to go back to +your first ways after you were married and attend to the farm. She doesn't +want you hanging around and looking at her as if she was one of her own +posies. That's something she wasn't led to expect and it would be mean enough +to force it upon her before she shows that she wishes it, and I couldn't +complain if she NEVER wished it." + +During the first hour after Holcroft's departure Alida had been perplexed and +worried, but her intuitions soon led to hopefulness, and the beauty and peace +of nature without aided in restoring her serenity. The more minutely she +dwelt on Holcroft's words and manner, the more true it seemed that he was +learning to take an interest in her that was personal and apart from every +other consideration. "If I am gentle, patient, and faithful," she thought, +"all will come out right. He is so true and straightforward that I need have +no fears." + +When he returned and greeted her with what seemed his old, friendly, natural +manner, and, during a temporary absence of Jane, told her laughingly of the +Mumpson episode, she was almost completely reassured. "Suppose the widow +breaks through all restraint and appears as did Jane, what would you do?" he +asked. + +"Whatever you wished," she replied, smiling. + +"In other words, what you thought your duty?" + +"I suppose that is what one should try to do." + +"I guess you are the one that would succeed in doing it, even to Mrs. +Mumpson," he said, turning hastily away and going to his room. + +She was puzzled again. "I'm sure I don't dote on self-sacrifice and hard duty +any more than he does, but I can't tell him that duty is not hard when it's to +him." + +Jane was given the room over the kitchen which Mrs. Wiggins had occupied, and +the farmhouse soon adopted her into its quiet routine. Holcroft's course +continued to cause Alida a dissatisfaction which she could scarcely define. +He was as kind as ever he had been and even more considerate; he not only +gratified her wishes, but tried to anticipate them, while Jane's complete +subserviency proved that she had been spoken to very plainly. + +One day she missed her spelling lesson for the third time, and Alida told her +that she must learn it thoroughly before going out. The child took the book +reluctantly, yet without a word. "That's a good girl!" said Alida, wishing to +encourage her. "I was afraid at first you wouldn't mind me so readily." + +"He told me to. He'd fire me out the window if I didn't mind you." + +"Oh, no! I think he's very kind to you." + +"Well, he's kind to you, too." + +"Yes, he has always been kind to me," said Alida gently and lingeringly, as if +the thought were pleasant to dwell upon. + +"Say," said Jane, yielding to her curiosity, "how did you make him so afraid +of you when he don't like you? He didn't like mother, but he wasn't afraid of +her." + +"Why do you think he doesn't like me?" Alida faltered, turning very pale. + +"Oh! 'Cause he looked once jest as he did after mother'd been goin' for--" + +"There, be still! You mustn't speak of such things, or talk to me about Mr. +Holcroft in such a way," and she hastily left the kitchen. When in the +solitude of her own room, she gave way to bitter tears. "Is it so plain," she +thought, "that even this ignorant child sees it? And the unhappy change began +the day she came, too. I can't understand it. We were so happy before; and +he seemed to enjoy being near me and talking to me when his work permitted. +He used to look into my eyes in a way that made me hope and, indeed, feel +almost sure. I receive no more such looks; he seems only trying to do his +duty by me as he promised at first, and acts as if it were all duty, a mere +matter of conscience. Could he have discovered how I felt, and so is taking +this way to remind me that nothing of the kind was in our agreement? Well, +I've no reason to complain; I accepted the relation of my own free will, but +it's hard, hard indeed for a woman who loves a man with her whole heart and +soul--and he her husband--to go on meeting him day after day, yet act as if +she were his mere business partner. But I can't help myself; my very nature, +as well as a sense of his rights, prevents me from asking more or even showing +that I wish for more. That WOULD be asking for it. But can it be true that +he is positively learning to dislike me? To shrink from me with that strong +repulsion which women feel toward some men? Oh! If that is true, the case is +hopeless; it would kill me. Every effort to win him, even the most delicate +and unobtrusive, would only drive him farther away; the deepest instincts of +his soul would lead him to withdraw--to shun me. If this is true, the time +may come when, so far from my filling his house with comfort, I shall make him +dread to enter it. Oh, oh! My only course is to remember just what I +promised and he expected when he married me, and live up to that." + +Thus husband and wife reached the same, conclusion and were rendered equally +unhappy. + + +Chapter XXX. Holcroft's Best Hope + +When Holcroft came in to dinner that day the view he had adopted was +confirmed, yet Alida's manner and appearance began to trouble him. Even to +his rather slow perception, she did not seem so happy as she had been. She +did not meet his eye with her old frank, friendly, and as he had almost hoped, +affectionate, expression; she seemed merely feverishly anxious to do +everything and have all as he wished. Instead of acting with natural ease and +saying what was in her mind without premeditation, a conscious effort was +visible and an apparent solicitude that he should be satisfied. The +inevitable result was that he was more dissatisfied. "She's doing her best for +me," he growled, as he went back to his work, "and it begins to look as if it +might wear her out in time. Confound it! Having everything just so isn't of +much account when a man's heart-hungry. I'd rather have had one of her old +smiles and gone without my dinner. Well, well; how little a man understands +himself or knows the future! The day I married her I was in mortal dread lest +she should care for me too much and want to be affectionate and all that; and +here I am, discontented and moping because everything has turned out as I then +wished. Don't see as I'm to blame, either. She had no business to grow so +pretty. Then she looked like a ghost, but now when the color comes into her +cheeks, and her blue eyes sparkle, a man would be a stupid clod if he didn't +look with all his eyes and feel his heart a-thumping. That she should change +so wasn't in the bargain; neither was it that she should read aloud in such +sweet tones that a fellow'd like to listen to the dictionary; nor that she +should make the house and yard look as they never did before, and, strangest +of all, open my eyes to the fact that apple trees bear flowers as well as +pippins. I can't even go by a wild posy in the lane without thinking she'd +like it and see in it a sight more than I once could. I've been taken in, as +old Jonathan feared," he muttered, following out his fancy with a sort of grim +humor. "She isn't the woman I thought I was marrying at all, and I aint bound +by my agreement--not in my thoughts, anyhow. I'd have been in a nice scrape +if I'd taken my little affidavit not to think of her or look upon her in any +other light than that of housekeeper and butter maker. It's a scary thing, +this getting married with a single eye to business. See where I am now! +Hanged if I don't believe I'm in love with my wife, and, like a thundering +fool, I had to warn her against falling in love with me! Little need of that, +though. She hasn't been taken in, for I'm the same old chap she married, and +I'd be a mighty mean cuss if I went to her and said, 'Here, I want you to do +twice as much, a hundred-fold as much as you agreed to.' I'd be a fool, too, +for she couldn't do it unless something drew her toward me just as I'm drawn +toward her." + +Late in the afternoon he leaned on the handle of his corn plow, and, in the +consciousness of solitude, said aloud: "Things grow clear if you think of them +enough, and the Lord knows I don't think of much else any more. It isn't her +good qualities which I say over to myself a hundred times a day, or her +education, or anything of the kind, that draws me; it's she herself. I like +her. Why don't I say love her, and be honest? Well, it's a fact, and I've +got to face it. Here I am, plowing out my corn, and it looks splendid for its +age. I thought if I could stay on the old place, and plant and cultivate and +reap, I'd be more than content, and now I don't seem to care a rap for the +corn or the farm either, compared with Alida; and I care for her just because +she is Alida and no one else. But the other side of this fact has an ugly +look. Suppose I'm disagreeable to her! When she married me she felt like a +woman drowning; she was ready to take hold of the first hand reached to her +without knowing much about whose hand it was. Well, she's had time to find +out. She isn't drawn. Perhaps she feels toward me somewhat as I did toward +Mrs. Mumpson, and she can't help herself either. Well, well, the bare thought +of it makes my heart lead. What's a man to do? What can I do but live up to +my agreement and not torment her any more than I can help with my company? +That's the only honest course. Perhaps she'll get more used to me in time. +She might get sick, and then I'd be so kind and watchful that she'd think the +old fellow wasn't so bad, after all, But I shan't give her the comfort of no +end of self-sacrifice in trying to be pleasant and sociable. If she's foolish +enough to think she's in my debt she can't pay it in that way. No, sir! I've +got to make the most of it now--I'm bound to--but this business marriage will +never suit me until the white arm I saw in the dairy room is around my neck, +and she looks in my eyes and says, 'James, I guess I'm ready for a longer +marriage ceremony.'" + +It was a pity that Alida could not have been among the hazelnut bushes near +and heard him. + +He resumed his toil, working late and doggedly. At supper he was very +attentive to Alida, but taciturn and preoccupied; and when the meal was over +he lighted his pipe and strolled out into the moonlight. She longed to follow +him, yet felt it to be more impossible than if she were chained to the floor. + +And so the days passed; Holcroft striving with the whole force of his will to +appear absorbed in the farm, and she, with equal effort, to seem occupied and +contented with her household and dairy duties. They did everything for each +other that they could, and yet each thought that the other was acting from a +sense of obligation, and so all the more sedulously veiled their actual +thoughts and feelings from each other. Or course, such mistaken effort only +led to a more complete misunderstanding. + +With people of their simplicity and habit of reticence, little of what was in +their hearts appeared on the surface. Neither had time to mope, and their +mutual duties were in a large measure a support and refuge. Of these they +could still speak freely for they pertained to business. Alida's devotion to +her work was unfeigned for it seemed now her only avenue of approach to her +husband. She watched over the many broods of little chickens with tireless +vigilance. If it were yellow gold, she could not have gathered the butter +from the churn with greater greed. She kept the house immaculate and sought +to develop her cooking into a fine art. She was scrupulous in giving Jane her +lessons and trying to correct her vernacular and manners, but the presence of +the child grew to be a heavier cross every day. She could not blame the girl, +whose misfortune it was to lead incidentally to the change in Holcroft's +manner, yet it was impossible not to associate her with the beginning of that +change. Jane was making decided improvement, and had Alida been happy and at +rest this fact would have given much satisfaction in spite of the instinctive +repugnance which the girl seemed to inspire universally. Holcroft recognized +this repugnance and the patient effort to disguise it and be kind. + +"Like enough she feels in the same way toward me," he thought, "and is trying +a sight harder not to show it. But she seems willing enough to talk business +and to keep up her interest in the partnership line. Well, blamed if I +wouldn't rather talk business to her than love to any other woman!" + +So it gradually came about that they had more and more to say to each other on +matters relating to the farm. Holcroft showed her the receipts from the +dairy, and her eyes sparkled as if he had brought jewels home to her. Then +she in turn would expatiate on the poultry interests and assure him that there +were already nearly two hundred little chicks on the place. One afternoon, +during a shower, she ventured to beguile him into listening to the greater +part of one of the agricultural journals, and with much deference made two or +three suggestions about the farm, which he saw were excellent. She little +dreamed that if she were willing to talk of turning the farm upside down and +inside out, he would have listened with pleasure. + +They both began to acquire more serenity and hopefulness, for even this sordid +business partnership was growing strangely interesting. The meals grew less +and less silent, and the farmer would smoke his pipe invitingly near in the +evening so that she could resume their talk on bucolic subjects without much +conscious effort, while at the same time, if she did not wish his society, she +could shun it without discourtesy. He soon perceived that she needed some +encouragement to talk even of farm matters; but, having received it, that she +showed no further reluctance. He naturally began to console himself with +business as unstintedly as he dared. "As long as I keep on this tack all seems +well," he muttered. "She don't act as if I was disagreeable to her, but then +how can a man tell? If she thinks it her duty, she'll talk and smile, yet +shiver at the very thought of my touching her. Well, well, time will show. +We seem to be getting more sociable, anyhow." + +They both recognized this fact and tried to disguise it and to relieve +themselves from the appearance of making any undue advances by greater +formality of address. In Jane's presence he had formed the habit of speaking +to his wife as Mrs. Holcroft, and now he was invariably "Mr." + +One evening in the latter part of June, he remarked at supper, "I must give +half a day to hoeing the garden tomorrow. I've been so busy working out the +corn and potatoes that it seems an age since I've been in the garden." + +"She and me," began Jane, "I mean Mrs. Holcroft and I, have been in the +garden." + +"That's right, Jane, You're coming on. I think your improved talk and manners +do Mrs. Holcroft much credit. I'd like to take some lessons myself." Then, +as if a little alarmed at his words, he hastened to ask, "What have you been +doing in the garden?" + +"You'll see when you go there," replied Jane, her small eyes twinkling with +the rudiments of fun. + +Holcroft looked at the child as if he had not seen her for some time either. +Her hair was neatly combed, braided, and tied with a blue ribbon instead of a +string, her gown was as becoming as any dress could be to her, her little +brown hands were clean, and they no longer managed the knife and fork in an +ill-bred manner. The very expression of the child's face was changing, and +now that it was lighted up with mirth at the little surprise awaiting him, it +had at least attained the negative grace of being no longer repulsive. He +sighed involuntarily as he turned away. "Just see what she's doing for that +child that I once thought hideous! How much she might do for me if she cared +as I do!" + +He rose from the table, lighted his pipe, and went out to the doorstep. Alida +looked at him wistfully. "He stood there with me once and faced a mob of men," +she thought. "Then he put his arm around me. I would face almost any danger +for even such a caress again." The memory of that hour lent her unwonted +courage, and she approached him timidly and said, "Perhaps you would like to +go and look at the garden? Jane and I may not have done everything right." + +"Why, certainly. I forgot about the garden; but then you'll have to go with +me if I'm to tell you." + +"I don't mind," she said, leading the way. + +The June sun was low in the west and the air had become deliciously cool and +fragrant. The old rosebushes were in bloom, and as she passed she picked a +bud and fastened it on her bosom. Wood thrushes, orioles, and the whole +chorus of birds were in full song: limpid rills of melody from the meadow +larks flowed from the fields, and the whistling of the quails added to the +harmony. + +Holcroft was in a mood of which he had never been conscious before. These +familiar sounds, which had been unheeded so much of his life, now affected him +strangely, creating an immeasurable sadness and longing. It seemed as if +perceptions which were like new senses were awakening in his mind. The world +was full of wonderful beauty before unrecognized, and the woman who walked +lightly and gracefully at his side was the crown of it all. He himself was so +old, plain, and unworthy in contrast. His heart ached with a positive, +definite pain that he was not younger, handsomer, and better equipped to win +the love of his wife. As she stood in the garden, wearing the rose, her neat +dress outlining her graceful form, the level rays of the sun lighting up her +face and turning her hair to gold, he felt that he had never seen or imagined +such a woman before. She was in harmony with the June evening and a part of +it, while he, in his working clothes, his rugged, sun-browned features and +hair tinged with gray, was a blot upon the scene. She who was so lovely, must +be conscious of his rude, clownish appearance. He would have faced any man +living and held his own on the simple basis of his manhood. Anything like +scorn, although veiled, on Alida's part, would have touched his pride and +steeled his will, but the words and manner of this gentle woman who tried to +act as if blind to all that he was in contrast with herself, to show him +deference, kindness, and good will when perhaps she felt toward him somewhat +as she did toward Jane, overwhelmed him with humility and grief. It is the +essence of deep, unselfish love to depreciate itself and exalt its object. +There was a superiority in Alida which Holcroft was learning to recognize more +clearly every day, and he had not a trace of vanity to sustain him. Now he +was in a mood to wrong and undervalue himself without limit. + +She showed him how much she and Jane had accomplished, how neat and clean they +had kept the rows of growing vegetables, and how good the promise was for an +indefinite number of dinners, but she only added to the farmer's depression. +He was in no mood for onions, parsnips, and their vegetable kin, yet thought, +"She thinks I'm only capable of being interested in such things, and I've been +at much pains to give that impression. She picked that rose for HERSELF, and +now she's showing ME how soon we may hope to have summer cabbage and squash. +She thus shows that she knows the difference between us and that always must +be between us, I fear. She is so near in our daily life, yet how can I ever +get any nearer? As I feel now, it seems impossible." + +She had quickly observed his depressed, abstracted manner, but misinterpreted +the causes. Her own face clouded and grew troubled. Perhaps she was +revealing too much of her heart, although seeking to disguise it so +sedulously, and he was penetrating her motives for doing so much in the garden +and in luring him thither now. He was not showing much practical interest in +beans and beets, and was evidently oppressed and ill at ease. + +"I hope we have done things right?" she ventured, turning away to hide tears +of disappointment. + +"Her self-sacrifice is giving out," he thought bitterly. "She finds she can +scarcely look at me as I now appear in contrast with this June evening. Well, +I don't blame her. It makes me almost sick when I think of myself and I won't +be brute enough to say a harsh word to her. "You have done it all far better +than I could," he said emphatically. "I would not have believed it if you +hadn't shown me. The trouble is, you are trying to do too much. I--I think +I'll take a walk." + +In fact, he had reached the limit of endurance; he could not look upon her +another moment as she appeared that evening and feel that she associated him +chiefly with crops and business, and that all her grateful good will could not +prevent his personality from being disagreeable. He must carry his bitterness +whither no eye could see him, and as he turned, his self-disgust led him to +whirl away his pipe. It struck a tree and fell shattered at its foot. Alida +had never seen him do anything of the kind before, and it indicated that he +was passing beyond the limits of patience. "Oh, oh," she sobbed, "I fear we +are going to drift apart! If he can't endure to talk with me about such +things, what chance have I at all? I hoped that the hour, the beauty of the +evening, and the evidence that I had been trying so hard to please him would +make him more like what he used to be before he seemed to take a dislike. +There's only one way to account for it all--he sees how I feel and he doesn't +like it. My very love sets him against me. My heart was overflowing tonight. +How could I help it, as I remembered how he stood up for me? He was brave and +kind; he meant well by me, he means well now; but he can't help his feelings. +He has gone away now to think of the woman that he did love and loves still, +and it angers him that I should think of taking her place. He loved her as a +child and girl and woman--he told me so; he warned me and said he could not +help thinking of her. If I had not learned to love him so deeply and +passionately and show it in spite of myself, time would gradually have +softened the past and all might have gone well. Yet how could I help it when +he saved me from so much? I feel tonight, though, that I only escaped one +kind of trouble to meet another almost as bad and which may become worse." + +She strolled to the farther end of the garden that she might become calm +before meeting Jane's scrutiny. Useless precaution! For the girl had been +watching them both. Her motive had not been unmixed curiosity, since, having +taken some part in the garden work, she had wished to witness Holcroft's +pleasure and hear his praises. Since the actors in the scene so misunderstood +each other, she certainly would not rightly interpret them. "She's losin' her +hold on 'im," she thought, "He acted just as if she was mother." + +When Jane saw Alida coming toward the house she whisked from the concealing +shrubbery to the kitchen again and was stolidly washing the dishes when her +mistress entered. "You are slow tonight," said Alida, looking at the child +keenly, but the impassive face revealed nothing. She set about helping the +girl, feeling it would be a relief to keep her hands busy. + +Jane's efforts to comfort were always maladroit, yet the apparent situation so +interested her that she yielded to her inclination to talk. "Say," she began, +and Alida was too dejected and weary to correct the child's vernacular, "Mr. +Holcroft's got somethin' on his mind." + +"Well, that's not strange." + +"No, s'pose not. Hate to see 'im look so, though. He always used to look so +when mother went for 'im and hung around 'im. At last he cleared mother out, +and just before he looked as black as he did when he passed the house while +ago. You're good to me, an' I'd like you to stay. 'Fi's you I'd leave 'im +alone." + +"Jane," said Alida coldly, "I don't wish you ever to speak to me of such +things again," and she hastily left the room. + +"Oh, well!" muttered Jane, "I've got eyes in my head. If you're goin' to be +foolish, like mother, and keep a-goin' for 'im, it's your lookout. I kin get +along with him and he with me, and I'M goin' to stay." + +Holcroft strode rapidly up the lane to the deep solitude at the edge of his +woodland. Beneath him lay the farm and the home that he had married to keep, +yet now, without a second's hesitation, he would part with all to call his +wife WIFE. How little the name now satisfied him, without the sweet realities +of which the word is significant! The term and relation had become a mocking +mirage. He almost cursed himself that he had exulted over his increasing bank +account and general prosperity, and had complacently assured himself that she +was doing just what he had asked, without any sentimental nonsense. "How could +I expect it to turn out otherwise?" he thought. "From the first I made her +think I hadn't a soul for anything but crops and money. Now that she's +getting over her trouble and away from it, she's more able to see just what I +am, or at least what she naturally thinks I am. But she doesn't understand +me--I scarcely understand myself. I long to be a different man in every way, +and not to work and live like an ox. Here are some of my crops almost ready +to gather and they never were better, yet I've no heart for the work. Seems +to me it'll wear me out if I have to carry this load of trouble all the time. +I thought my old burdens hard to bear; I thought I was lonely before, but it +was nothing compared with living near one you love, but from whom you are cut +off by something you can't see, yet must feel to the bottom of your heart." + +His distraught eyes rested on the church spire, fading in the twilight, and +the little adjoining graveyard. "Oh, Bessie," he groaned, "why did you die? I +was good enough for YOU. Oh! That all had gone on as it was and I had never +known--" + +He stopped, shook his head, and was silent. At last he signed, "I DID love +Bessie. I love and respect her memory as much as ever. But somehow I never +felt as I do now. All was quiet and matter-of-fact in those days, yet it was +real and satisfying. I was content to live on, one day like another, to the +end of my days. If I hadn't been so content it would be better for me now. + +I'd have a better chance if I had read more, thought more, and fitted myself +to be more of a companion for a woman like Alida. If I knew a great deal and +could talk well, she might forget I'm old and homely. Bessie was so true a +friend that she would wish, if she knows, what I wish. I thought I needed a +housekeeper; I find I need more than all else such a wife as Alida could +be--one that could help me to be a man instead of a drudge, a Christian +instead of a discontented and uneasy unbeliever. At one time, it seemed that +she was leading me along so naturally and pleasantly that I never was so +happy; then all at once it came to me that she was doing it from gratitude and +a sense of duty, and the duty grows harder for her every day. Well, there +seems nothing for it now but to go on as we began and hope that the future +will bring us more in sympathy." + + +Chapter XXXI. "Never!" + +For the next two or three days Jane had no occasion to observe that Alida was +in the least degree obtrusive in her attention to the farmer. She was +assiduous in her work and more diligent than ever in her conscious efforts to +do what she thought he wished; but she was growing pale, constrained, and +silent. She struggled heroically to appear as at first, but without much +success, for she could not rally from the wound he had given her so +unintentionally and which Jane's words had deepened. She almost loathed +herself under her association with Mrs. Mumpson, and her morbid thoughts had +hit upon a worse reason for Holcroft's apparent repulsion. As she questioned +everything in the sleepless hours that followed the interview in the garden, +she came to the miserable conclusion that he had discovered her love, and that +by suggestion, natural to his mind, it reminded him of her pitiful story. He +could be sorry for her and be kind; he could even be her honest friend and +protector as a wronged and unhappy woman, but he could not love one with a +history like hers and did not wish her to love him. This seemed an adequate +explanation of the change in their relations, but she felt that it was one +under which her life would wither and her heart break. + +This promised to be worse than what she had dreaded at the almshouse--the +facing the world alone and working till she died among strangers. The fact +that they were strangers would enable her to see their averted faces with +comparative indifference, but that the man to whom she had yielded her whole +heart should turn away was intolerable. She felt that he could not do this +willingly but only under the imperious instincts of his nature--that he was +virtually helpless in the matter. There was an element in these thoughts +which stung her woman's soul, and, as we have said, she could not rally. + +Holcroft never suspected her morbid thoughts, and his loyal, loving heart was +incapable of dreaming of them. He only grew more unhappy as he saw the +changes in her, for he regarded himself as the cause. Yet he was perplexed +and unable to account for her rapidly increasing pallor while he continued so +kind, considerate, and especially so unobtrusive. He assuredly thought he was +showing a disposition to give her all the time she wished to become reconciled +to her lot. "Thunder!" he said to himself, "we can't grow old together without +getting used to each other." + +On Saturday noon, at dinner, he remarked, "I shall have to begin haying on +Monday and so I'll take everything to town this afternoon, for I won't be able +to go again for some days. Is there anything you'd like me to get, Mrs. +Holcroft?" + +She shook her head. "I don't need anything," she replied. He looked at her +downcast face with troubled eyes and shivered. "She looks as if she were going +to be sick," he thought. "Good Lord! I feel as if there was nothing but +trouble ahead. Every mouthful I take seems to choke me." + +A little later he pushed away almost untasted a piece of delicious cherry pie, +the first of the season. Alida could scarcely keep the tears back as she +thought, "There was a time when he would have praised it without stint. I +took so much pains with it in the hope he'd notice, for he once said he was +very fond of it." Such were the straws that were indicating the deep, dark +currents. + +As he rose, she said almost apathetically in her dejection, "Mr. Holcroft, +Jane and I picked a basket of the early cherries. You may as well sell them, +for there are plenty left on the tree for us." + +"That was too much for you to do in the hot sun. Well, I'll sell 'em and add +what they bring to your egg money in the bank. You'll get rich," he +continued, trying to smile, "if you don't spend more." + +"I don't wish to spend anything," she said, turning away with the thought, +"How can he think I want finery when my heart is breaking?" + +Holcroft drove away, looking and feeling as if he were going to a funeral. At +last he broke out, "I can't stand this another day. Tomorrow's Sunday, and +I'll manage to send Jane somewhere or take Alida out to walk and tell her the +whole truth. She shall be made to see that I can't help myself and that I'm +willing to do anything she wishes. She's married to me and has got to make +the best of it, and I'm sure I'm willing to make it as easy as I can." + +Jane was a little perplexed at the condition of affairs. Mrs. Holcroft had +left her husband alone as far as possible, as she had advised, but apparently +it had not helped matters much. But she believed that the trouble she had +witnessed bode her no ill and so was inclined to regard it philosophically. +"He looks almost as glum, when he's goin' round alone, as if he'd married +mother. She talked too much, and that didn't please him; this one talks less +and less, and he don't seem pleased, nuther, but it seems to me he's very +foolish to be so fault-findin' when she does everything for him top-notch. I +never lived so well in my life, nor he, nuther, I believe. He must be in a +bad way when he couldn't eat that cherry pie." + +Alida was so weary and felt so ill that she went to the parlor and lay down +upon the lounge. "My heart feels as if it were bleeding slowly away," she +murmured. "If I'm going to be sick the best thing I can do is to die and end +it all," and she gave way to that deep dejection in which there seems no +remedy for trouble. + +The hours dragged slowly by; Jane finished her household tasks very leisurely, +then taking a basket, went out to the garden to pick some early peas. While +thus engaged, she saw a man coming up the lane. His manner instantly riveted +her attention and awakened her curiosity, and she crouched lower behind the +pea vines for concealment. All her furtive, watchful instincts were awake, +and her conscience was clear, too, for certainly she had a right to spy upon a +stranger. + +The man seemed almost as furtive as herself; his eyes were everywhere and his +step slow and hesitating. Instead of going directly to the house he +cautiously entered the barn, and she heard him a little later call Mr. +Holcroft. Of course there was no answer, and as if reassured, he approached +the house, looking here and there on every side, seemingly to see if anyone +was about. Jane had associated with men and boys too long to have any +childlike timidity, and she also had just confidence in her skulking and +running powers. "After all, he don't want nothin' of me and won't hurt me," +she reasoned. "He acts mighty queer though and I'm goin' to hear what he +says." + +The moment he passed the angle of the house she dodged around to its rear and +stole into the dairy room, being well aware that from this position she could +overhear words spoken in ordinary conversational tones in the apartment above. +She had barely gained her ambush when she heard Alida half shriek, "Henry +Ferguson!" + +It was indeed the man who had deceived her that had stolen upon her solitude. +His somewhat stealthy approach had been due to the wish and expectation of +finding her alone, and he had about convinced himself that she was so by +exploring the barn and observing the absence of the horses and wagon. Cunning +and unscrupulous, it was his plan to appear before the woman who had thought +herself his wife, without any warning whatever, believing that in the tumult +of her surprise and shock she would be off her guard and that her old +affection would reassert itself. He passed through the kitchen to the parlor +door. Alida, in her deep, painful abstraction, did not hear him until he +stood in the doorway, and, with outstretched arms, breathed her name. Then, +as if struck a blow, she had sprung to her feet, half shrieked his name and +stood panting, regarding him as if he were a specter. + +"Your surprise is natural, Alida, dear," he said gently, "but I've a right to +come to you, for my wife is dead," and he advanced toward her. + +"Stand back!" she cried sternly. "You've no right, and never can have." + +"Oh, yes, I have!" he replied in a wheedling tone. "Come, come! Your nerves +are shaken. Sit down, for I've much to tell you." + +"No, I won't sit down, and I tell you to leave me instantly. You've no right +here and I no right to listen to you." + +"I can soon prove that you have a better right to listen to me than to anyone +else. Were we not married by a minister?" + +"Yes, but that made no difference. You deceived both him and me." + +"It made no difference, perhaps, in the eye of the law, while that woman you +saw was living, but she's dead, as I can easily prove. How were you married +to this man Holcroft?" + +Alida grew dizzy; everything whirled and grew black before her eyes as she +sank into a chair. He came to her and took her hand, but his touch was a most +effectual restorative. She threw his hand away and said hoarsely, "Do you--do +you mean that you have any claim on me?" + +"Who has a better claim?" he asked cunningly. "I loved you when I married you +and I love you now. Do you think I rested a moment after I was free from the +woman I detested? No, indeed; nor did I rest till I found out who took you +from the almshouse to be his household drudge, not wife. I've seen the +justice who aided in the wedding farce, and learned how this man Holcroft made +him cut down even the ceremony of a civil marriage to one sentence. It was +positively heathenish, and he only took you because he couldn't get a decent +servant to live with him." + +"O God!" murmured the stricken woman. "Can such a horrible thing be?" + +"So it seems," he resumed, misinterpreting her. "Come now!" he said +confidently, and sitting down, "Don't look so broken up about it. Even while +that woman was living I felt that I was married to you and you only; now that +I'm free--" + +"But I'm not free and don't wish to be." + +"Don't be foolish, Alida. You know this farmer don't care a rap for you. Own +up now, does he?" + +The answer was a low, half-despairing cry. + +"There, I knew it was so. What else could you expect? Don't you see I'm your +true refuge and not this hard-hearted, money-grasping farmer?" + +"Stop speaking against him!" she cried. "O God!" she wailed, "can the law give +this man any claim on me, now his wife is dead?" + +"Yes, and one I mean to enforce," he replied doggedly. + +"I don't believe she's dead, I don't believe anything you say! You deceived +me once. + +"I'm not deceiving you now, Alida," he said with much solemnity. "She IS dead. +If you were calmer, I have proofs to convince you in these papers. Here's the +newspaper, too, containing the notice of her death," and he handed it to her. + +She read it with her frightened eyes, and then the paper dropped from her +half-paralyzed hands to the floor. She was so unsophisticated, and her brain +was in such a whirl of confusion and terror, that she was led to believe at +the moment that he had a legal claim upon her which he could enforce. + +"Oh, that Mr. Holcroft were here!" she cried desperately. "He wouldn't deceive +me; he never deceived me." + +"It is well for him that he isn't here," said Ferguson, assuming a dark look. + +"What do you mean?" she gasped. + +"Come, come, Alida!" he said, smiling reassuringly. "You are frightened and +nervous, and I don't wish to make you any more so. You know how I would +naturally regard the man who I feel has my wife; but let us forget about him. +Listen to my plan. All I ask of you is to go with me to some distant place +where neither of us are known, and--" + +"Never!" she interrupted. + +"Don't say that," he replied coolly. "Do you think I'm a man to be trifled +with after what I've been through?" + +"You can't compel me to go against my will," and there was an accent of terror +in her words which made them a question. + +He saw his vantage more clearly and said quietly, "I don't want to compel you +if it can be helped. You know how true I was to you--" + +"No, no! You deceived me. I won't believe you now." + +"You may have to. At any rate, you know how fond I was of you, and I tell you +plainly, I won't give you up now. This man doesn't love you, nor do you love +him--" + +"I DO love him, I'd die for him! There now, you know the truth. You wouldn't +compel a woman to follow you who shrinks from you in horror, even if you had +the right. Although the ceremony was brief it WAS a ceremony; and he was not +married then, as you were when you deceived me. He has ever been truth +itself, and I won't believe you have any rights till he tells me so himself." + +"So you shrink from me with horror, do you?" asked Ferguson, rising, his face +growing black with passion. + +"Yes, I do. Now leave me and let me never see you again." + +"And you are going to ask this stupid old farmer about my rights?" + +"Yes. I'll take proof of them from no other, and even if he confirmed your +words I'd never live with you again. I would live alone till I died!" + +"That's all very foolish high tragedy, but if you're not careful there may be +some real tragedy. If you care for this Holcroft, as you say, you had better +go quietly away with me." + +"What do you mean?" she faltered tremblingly. + +"I mean I'm a desperate man whom the world has wronged too much already. You +know the old saying, 'Beware of the quiet man!' You know how quiet, +contented, and happy I was with you, and so I would be again to the end of my +days. You are the only one who can save me from becoming a criminal, a +vagabond, for with you only have I known happiness. Why should I live or care +to live? If this farmer clod keeps you from me, woe betide him! My one +object in living will be his destruction. I shall hate him only as a man +robbed as I am can hate." + +"What would you do?" she could only ask in a horrified whisper. + +"I can only tell you that he'd never be safe a moment. I'm not afraid of him. +You see I'm armed," and he showed her a revolver. "He can't quietly keep from +me what I feel is my own." + +"Merciful Heaven! This is terrible," she gasped. + +"Of course it's terrible--I mean it to be so. You can't order me off as if I +were a tramp. Your best course for his safety is to go quietly with me at +once. I have a carriage waiting near at hand." + +"No, no! I'd rather die than do that, and though he cannot feel as I do, I +believe he'd rather die than have me do it." + +"Oh, well! If you think he's so ready to die--" + +"No, I don't mean that! Kill me! I want to die." + +"Why should I kill you?" he asked with a contemptuous laugh. "That wouldn't do +me a particle of good. It will be your own fault if anyone is hurt." + +"Was ever a woman put in such a cruel position?" + +"Oh, yes! Many and many a time. As a rule, though, they are too sensible and +kind-hearted to make so much trouble." + +"If you have legal rights, why don't you quietly enforce them instead of +threatening?" + +For a moment he was confused and then said recklessly, "It would come to the +same thing in the end. Holcroft would never give you up." + +"He'd have to. I wouldn't stay here a moment if I had no right." + +"But you said you would not live with me again?" + +"Nor would I. I'd go back to the poorhouse and die there, for do you think I +could live after another such experience? But my mind has grown clearer. You +are deceiving me again, and Mr. Holcroft is incapable of deceiving me. He +would never have called me his wife unless I was his wife before God and man." + +"I'm not deceiving you in regard to one thing!" he said tragically. + +"O God, what shall I do?" + +"If you won't go with me you must leave him," he replied, believing that, if +this step were taken, others would follow. + +"If I leave him--if I go away and live alone, will you promise to do him no +harm?" + +"I'd have no motive to harm him then, which will be better security than a +promise. At the same time I do promise." + +"And you will also promise to leave me utterly alone?" + +"If I can." + +"You must promise never even to tempt me to think of going away. I'd rather +you'd shot me than ask it. I'm not a weak, timid girl. I'm a broken-hearted +woman who fears some things far more than death." + +"If you have any fears for Holcroft, they are very rational ones." + +"It is for his sake that I would act. I would rather suffer anything and lose +everything than have harm come to him." + +"All I can say is that, if you will leave him completely and finally, I will +let him alone. But you must do it promptly. Everything depends upon this. +I'm in too reckless and bitter a mood to be trifled with. Besides, I've +plenty of money and could escape from the country in twenty-four hours. You +needn't think you can tell this story to Holcroft and that he can protect you +and himself. I'm here under an assumed name and have seen no one who knows +me. I may have to disappear for a time and be disguised when I come again, +but I pledge you my word he'll never be safe as long as you are under his +roof." + +"Then I will sacrifice myself for him," she said, pallid even to her lips. "I +will go away. But never dream that you can come near me again--you who +deceived and wronged me, and now, far worse, threaten the man I love." + +"We'll see about that," he replied cynically. "At any rate, you will have left +him." + +"Go!" she said imperiously. + +"I'll take a kiss first, sweetheart," he said, advancing with a sardonic +smile. + +"Jane!" she shrieked. He paused, and she saw evidences of alarm. + +The girl ran lightly out of the dairy room, where she had been a greedy +listener to all that had been said, and a moment later appeared in the yard +before the house. "Yes'm," she answered. + +"Be careful now, sir," said Alida sternly. "There's a witness." + +"Only a little idiotic-looking girl." + +"She's not idiotic, and if you touch me the compact's broken." + +"Very well, my time will come. Remember, you've been warned," and he pulled +his hat over his eyes and strode away. + +"Bah!" said Jane with a snicker, "as if I hadn't seen his ugly mug so I'd know +it 'mong a thousand." + +With a face full of loathing and dread, Alida watched her enemy disappear down +the lane, and then, half fainting, sank on the lounge. + +"Jane!" she called feebly, but there was no answer. + + +Chapter XXXII. Jane Plays Mouse to the Lion + +It can well be understood that Jane had no disposition to return to Mrs. +Holcroft and the humdrum duties of the house. There opened before her an +exciting line of action which fully accorded with her nature, and she entered +upon it at once. Her first impulse was to follow the man of whom she had +learned so much. Not only was she spurred to this course by her curiosity, +but also by her instinctive loyalty to Holcroft, and, it must be admitted, by +her own interests. Poor little Jane had been nurtured in a hard school, and +had by this time learned the necessity of looking out for herself. This +truth, united with her shrewd, matter-of-fact mind, led her to do the most +sensible thing under the circumstances. "I know a lot now that he'll be glad +to know, and if I tell him everything he'll keep me always. The first thing +he'll want to know is what's become of that threatenin' scamp," and she +followed Ferguson with the stealth of an Indian. + +Ferguson was not only a scamp, but, like most of his class, a coward. He had +been bitterly disappointed in his interview with Alida. As far as his selfish +nature permitted, he had a genuine affection for her, and he had thought of +little else besides her evident fondness for him. He was so devoid of moral +principle that he could not comprehend a nature like hers, and had scarcely +believed it possible that she would repulse him so inflexibly. She had always +been so gentle, yielding, and subservient to his wishes that he had thought +that, having been assured of his wife's death, a little persuasion and perhaps +a few threats would induce her to follow him, for he could not imagine her +becoming attached to such a man as Holcroft had been described to be. Her +uncompromising principle had entered but slightly into his calculations, and +so, under the spur of anger and selfishness, he had easily entered upon a game +of bluff He knew well enough that he had no claim upon Alida, yet it was in +harmony with his false heart to try to make her think so. He had no serious +intention of harming Holcroft--he would be afraid to attempt this--but if he +could so work on Alida's fears as to induce her to leave her husband, he +believed that the future would be full of possibilities. At any rate, he +would find his revenge in making Alida and Holcroft all the trouble possible. +Even in the excitement of the interview, however, he realized that he was +playing a dangerous game, and when Jane answered so readily to Alida's call he +was not a little disturbed. Satisfied that he had accomplished all that he +could hope for at present, his purpose now was to get back to town unobserved +and await developments. He therefore walked rapidly down the lane and pursued +the road for a short distance until he came to an old, disused lane, leading +up the hillside into a grove where he had concealed a horse and buggy. Unless +there should be necessity, it was his intention to remain in his hiding place +until after nightfall. + +Jane had merely to skirt the bushy hillside higher up, in order to keep +Ferguson in view and discover the spot in which he was lurking. Instead of +returning to the house she kept right on, maintaining a sharp eye on the road +beneath to make sure that Holcroft did not pass unobserved. By an extended +detour, she reached the highway and continued toward town in the hope of +meeting the farmer. At last she saw him driving rapidly homeward. He was +consumed with anxiety to be at least near to Alida, even if, as he believed, +he was no longer welcome in her presence. When Jane stepped out into the road +he pulled up his horses and stared at her. She, almost bursting with her +great secrets, put her finger on her lips and nodded portentously. + +"Well, what is it?" he asked, his heart beating quickly. + +"I've got a lot to tell yer, but don't want no one to see us." + +"About my wife?" + +The girl nodded. + +"Good God! Speak then. Is she sick?" and he sprung out and caught her arm +with a grip that hurt her. + +"Please, sir, I'm doin' all I kin for yer and--and you hurt me." + +Holcroft saw the tears coming to her eyes and he released his hold as he said, +"Forgive me, Jane, I didn't mean to; but for mercy's sake, tell your story." + +"It's a long 'un." + +"Well, well, give me the gist of it in a word." + +"I guess she's goin' to run away." + +Holcroft groaned and almost staggered to his horses' heads, then led them to +the roadside and tied them to a tree. Sitting down, as if too weak to stand, +he buried his face in his hands. He could not bear to have Jane see his +distress. "Tell your story," he said hoarsely, "quick, for I may have to act +quickly." + +"Guess yer will. Did yer know she was married?" + +"Certainly--to me." + +"No, to another man--married by a minister. He's been there with her." She +little foresaw the effect of her words, for the farmer bounded to his feet +with an oath and sprang to his horses. + +"Stop!" cried Jane, tugging at his arm. "If you go rushin' home now, you'll +show you've got no more sense than mother. You'll spoil everything. She aint +goin' to run away with HIM--she said she wouldn't, though he coaxed and +threatened to kill yer if she didn't. 'Fi's a man I wouldn't act like a mad +bull. I'd find out how to get ahead of t'other man." + +"Well," said Holcroft, in a voice that frightened the child, "she said she +wouldn't run away with this scoundrel--of course not--but you say she's going +to leave. She'll meet him somewhere--good God! But how should you +understand? Come, let me get home!" + +"I understand a sight more'n you do, and you go on so that I can't tell you +anything. If you showed sense, you'd be glad I was lookin' out for you so I +could tell you everything. What's the good of goin' rampaigin' home when, if +you'd only listen, you could get even with that scoundrel, as yer call 'im, +and make all right," and Jane began to cry. + +"Oh, thunder!" exclaimed the chafing man, "tell me your story at once, or +you'll drive me mad. You don't half know what you're talking about or how +much your words mean--how should you? The thing to do is to get home as soon +as possible." + +"You aint no reason to be so mad and glum all the while," cried Jane, smarting +under a sense of injustice. "Here I'm a-tryin' to do for you, and you'll be +sorry ernuff if you don't stop and listen. And she's been a-tryin' to do for +you all along, and she's been standin' up for you this afternoon, and is goin' +to run away to save your life." + +"Run away to save my life? Are you crazy?" + +"No, but you be," cried the girl, excited and exasperated beyond restraint. +"If she IS your wife I'd stand up for her and take care of her, since she +stands up for you so. 'Stead of that, you go round as glum as a thundercloud +and now want to go ragin' home to her. Dunno whether she's your wife or not, +but I DO know she said she loved you and 'ud die for you, and she wouldn't do +a thing that man asked but go away to save your life." + +Holcroft looked at the girl as if dazed. "Said she LOVED me?" he repeated +slowly. + +"Of course! You knowed that all 'long--anybody could see it--an' you don't +treat her much better'n you did mother." Then, with an impatient gesture, she +asked, "Will you sit down and listen?" + +"No, I won't!" he cried, springing toward his horses. "I'll find out if your +words are true." + +"Oh, yes!" said Jane contemptuously; "run right to her to find out somethin' +as plain as the nose on her face, and run right by the man that was +threatenin' her and you too." + +Wheeling round, he asked, "Where is he?" + +"I know, but I won't say 'nuther word till you stop goin' on. 'Fi's a man I'd +find out what to do 'fore I did anythin'." + +Jane had little comprehension of the tempest she had raised in Holcroft's soul +or its causes, and so was in no mood to make allowances for him. By this +time, the first gust of his passion was passing and reason resuming its sway. +He paced up and down in the road a moment or two, and then sat down as he +said, "I don't half understand what you've been talking about and I fear you +don't. You've evidently been listening and watching and have got hold of +something. Now, I'll be as patient as I can if you'll tell me the whole story +quickly," and he turned his flushed, quivering face toward her. + +"Then I s'pose you'll scold me for listenin' and watchin' that scamp," said +the girl sullenly. + +"No, Jane, not in this case. Unless your impressions are all mistaken I may +have to thank you all my life. I'm not one to forget those who are true to +me. Now, begin at the beginning and go right through to the end; then I may +understand better than you can." + +Jane did as she was told, and many "says he's" and "says she's" followed in +her literal narrative. Holroft again dropped his face into his hands, and +before she was through, tears of joy trickled through his fingers. When she +finished, he arose, turned away, and hastily wiped his eyes, then gave the +girl his hand as he said, "Thank you, Jane. You've tried to be a true friend +to me today. I'll show you that I don't forget. I was a fool to get in such +a rage, but you can't understand and must forgive me. Come, you see I'm quiet +now," and he untied the horses and lifted her into his wagon. + +"What yer doin' to do?" she asked, as they drove away. + +"I'm going to reward you for watching and listening to that scoundrel, but you +must not watch me or Mrs. Holcroft, or listen to what we say unless we speak +before you. If you do, I shall be very angry. Now, you've only one thing +more to do and that is, show me where this man is hiding." + +"But you won't go near him alone?" inquired Jane in much alarm. + +"You must do as I bid you," he replied sternly. "Show me where he's hiding, +then stay by the wagon and horses." + +"But he same as said he'd kill you." + +"You have your orders," was his quiet reply. + +She looked scared enough, but remained silent until they reached a shaded spot +on the road, then said, "If you don't want him to see you too soon, better tie +here. He's around yonder, in a grove up on the hill." + +Holcroft drove to a tree by the side of the highway and again tied his horses, +then took the whip from the wagon. "Are you afraid to go with me a little way +and show me just where he is?" he asked. + +"No, but you oughtn' ter go." + +"Come on, then! You must mind me if you wish to keep my good will. I know +what I'm about." As in his former encounter, his weapon was again a long, +tough whipstock with a leather thong attached. This he cut off and put in his +pocket, then followed Jane's rapid lead up the hill. Very soon she said, +"There's the place I saw 'im in. If you will go, I'd steal up on him." + +"Yes. You stay here." She made no reply, but the moment he disappeared she +was upon his trail. Her curiosity was much greater than her timidity, and she +justly reasoned that she had little to fear. + +Holcroft approached from a point whence Ferguson was expecting no danger. The +latter was lying on the ground, gnawing his nails in vexation, when he first +heard the farmer's step. Then he saw a dark-visaged man rushing upon him. In +the impulse of his terror, he drew his revolver and fired. The ball hissed +near, but did no harm, and before Ferguson could use the weapon again, a blow +from the whipstock paralyzed his arm and the pistol dropped to the ground. So +also did its owner a moment later, under a vindictive rain of blows, until he +shrieked for mercy. + +"Don't move!" said Holcroft sternly, and he picked up the revolver. "So you +meant to kill me, eh?" + +"No, no! I didn't. I wouldn't have fired if it hadn't been in self-defense +and because I hadn't time to think." He spoke with difficulty, for his mouth +was bleeding and he was terribly bruised. + +"A liar, too!" said the farmer, glowering down upon him. "But I knew that +before. What did you mean by your threats to my wife?" + +"See here, Mr. Holcroft; I'm down and at your mercy. If you'll let me off +I'll go away and never trouble you or your wife again." + +"Oh, no!" said Holcroft with a bitter laugh. "You'll never, never trouble us +again." + +"What, do you mean to murder me?" Ferguson half shrieked. + +"Would killing such a thing as you be murder? Any jury in the land would +acquit me. You ought to be roasted over a slow fire." + +The fellow tried to scramble on his knees, but Holcroft hit him another savage +blow, and said, "Lie still!" + +Ferguson began to wring his hands and beg for mercy. His captor stood over +him a moment or two irresolutely in his white-heated anger; then thoughts of +his wife began to soften him. He could not go to her with blood on his +hands--she who had taught him such lessons of forbearance and forgiveness. He +put the pistol in his pocket and giving his enemy a kick, said, "Get up!" + +The man rose with difficulty. + +"I won't waste time in asking any promises from YOU, but if you ever trouble +my wife or me again, I'll break every bone in your body. Go, quick, before my +mood changes, and don't say a word." + +As the man tremblingly untied his horse, Jane stepped out before him and said, +"I'm a little idiotic girl, am I?" + +He was too thoroughly cowed to make any reply and drove as rapidly away as the +ground permitted, guiding his horse with difficulty in his maimed condition. + +Jane, in the exuberance of her pleasure, began something like a jig on the +scene of conflict, and her antics were so ridiculous that Holcroft had to turn +away to repress a smile. "You didn't mind me, Jane," he said gravely. + +"Well, sir," she replied, "after showin' you the way to 'im, you oughter not +grudge me seein' the fun." + +"But it isn't nice for little girls to see such things." + +"Never saw anything nicer in my life. You're the kind of man I believe in, +you are. Golly! Only wished SHE'D seen you. I've seen many a rough and +tumble 'mong farm hands, but never anything like this. It was only his pistol +I was 'fraid of." + +"Will you do exactly what I say now?" + +She nodded. + +"Well, go home across the fields and don't by word or manner let Mrs. Holcroft +know what you've seen or heard, and say nothing about meeting me. Just make +her think you know nothing at all and that you only watched the man out of +sight. Do this and I'll give you a new dress." + +"I'd like somethin' else 'sides that." + +"Well, what?" + +"I'd like to be sure I could stay right on with you." + +"Yes, Jane, after today, as long as you're a good girl. Now go, for I must +get back to my team before this scamp goes by." + +She darted homeward as the farmer returned to his wagon. Ferguson soon +appeared and seemed much startled as he saw his Nemesis again. "I'll keep my +word," he said, as he drove by. + +"You'd better!" called the farmer. "You know what to expect now." + +Alida was so prostrated by the shock of the interview that she rallied slowly. +At last she saw that it was getting late and that she soon might expect the +return of her husband. She dragged herself to the door and again called Jane, +but the place was evidently deserted. Evening was coming on tranquilly, with +all its sweet June sounds, but now every bird song was like a knell. She sunk +on the porch seat and looked at the landscape, already so dear and familiar, +as if she were taking a final farewell of a friend. Then she turned to the +homely kitchen to which she had first been brought. "I can do a little more +for him," she thought, "before I make the last sacrifice which will soon bring +the end. I think I could have lived--lived, perhaps, till I was old, if I had +gone among strangers from the almshouse, but I can't now. My heart is broken. +Now that I've seen that man again I understand why my husband cannot love me. +Even the thought of touching me must make him shudder. But I can't bear up +under such a load much longer, and that's my comfort. It's best I should go +away now; I couldn't do otherwise," and the tragedy went on in her soul as she +feebly prepared her husband's meal. + +At last Jane came in with her basket of peas. Her face was so impassive as to +suggest that she had no knowledge of anything except that there had been a +visitor, and Alida had sunk into such depths of despairing sorrow that she +scarcely noticed the child. + + +Chapter XXXIII. "Shrink from YOU?" + +Holcroft soon came driving slowly up the lane as if nothing unusual was on his +mind. Having tied his horses, he brought in an armful of bundles and said +kindly, "Well, Alida, here I am again, and I guess I've brought enough to last +well through haying time." + +"Yes," she replied with averted face. This did not trouble him any now, but +her extreme pallor did and he added, "You don't look well. I wouldn't mind +getting much supper tonight. Let Jane do the work." + +"I'd rather do it," she replied. + +"Oh, well!" laughing pleasantly, "you shall have your own way. Who has a +better right than you, I'd like to know?" + +"Don't speak that way," she said, almost harshly, under the tension of her +feelings. "I--I can't stand it. Speak and look as you did before you went +away." + +"Jane," said the farmer, "go and gather the eggs." + +As soon as they were alone, he began gently, "Alida--" + +"Please don't speak so to me today. I've endured all I can. I can't keep up +another minute unless you let things go on as they were. Tomorrow I'll try to +tell you all. It's your right." + +"I didn't mean to say anything myself till after supper, and perhaps not till +tomorrow, but I think I'd better. It will be better for us both, and our +minds will be more at rest. Come with me into the parlor, Alida." + +"Well, perhaps the sooner it's over the better," she said faintly and huskily. + +She sunk on the lounge and looked at him with such despairing eyes that tears +came into his own. + +"Alida," he began hesitatingly, "after I left you this noon I felt I must +speak with and be frank with you." + +"No, no!!" she cried, with an imploring gesture, "if it must be said, let me +say it. I couldn't endure to hear it from you. Before you went away I +understood it all, and this afternoon the truth has been burned into my soul. +That horrible man has been here--the man I thought my husband--and he has made +it clearer, if possible. I don't blame you that you shrink from me as if I +were a leper. I feel as if I were one." + +"I shrink from YOU!" he exclaimed. + +"Yes. Can you think I haven't seen the repugnance growing in spite of +yourself? When I thought of that man--especially when he came today--I +understood WHY too well. I cannot stay here any longer. You'd try to be kind +and considerate, but I'd know how you felt all the time. It would not be safe +for you and it would not be right for me to stay, either, and that settles it. +Be--be as kind to me--as you can a few--a few hours longer, and then let me go +quietly." Her self-control gave way, and burying her face in her hands, she +sobbed convulsively. + +In a moment he was on his knees beside her, with his arm about her waist. +"Alida, dear Alida!" he cried, "we've both been in the dark about each other. +What I resolved to do, when I started for town, was to tell you that I had +learned to love you and to throw myself on your mercy. I thought you saw I +was loving you and that you couldn't bear to think of such a thing in an old, +homely fellow like me. That was all that was in my mind, so help me God!" + +"But--but HE'S been here," she faltered; "you don't realize--" + +"I don't believe I do or can, yet, Alida, dear, but that blessed Jane's spying +trait has served me the best turn in the world. She heard every brave word +you said and I shed tears of joy when she told me; and tears are slow coming +to my eyes. You think I shrink from you, do you?" and he kissed her hands +passionately. "See," he cried, "I kneel to you in gratitude for all you've +been to me and are to me." + +"Oh, James! Please rise. It's too much." + +"No, not till you promise to go with me to a minister and hear me promise to +love, cherish--yes, in your case I'll promise to obey." + +She bowed her head upon his shoulder in answer. Springing up, he clasped her +close and kissed away her tears as he exclaimed, "No more business marriage +for me, if you please. There never was a man so in love with his wife." + +Suddenly she looked up and said fearfully, "James, he threatened you. He said +you'd never be safe a moment as long as I stayed here." + +His answer was a peal of laughter. "I've done more than threaten him. I've +whipped him within an inch of his life, and it was the thought of you that led +me, in my rage, to spare his life. I'll tell you all--I'm going to tell you +everything now. How much trouble I might have saved if I had told you my +thoughts! What was there, Alida, in an old fellow like me that led you to +care so?" + +Looking up shyly, she replied, "I think it was the MAN in you--and--then you +stood up for me so." + +"Well, love is blind, I suppose, but it don't seem to me that mine is. There +never was a man so taken in at his marriage. You were so different from what +I expected that I began loving you before I knew it, but I thought you were +good to me just as you were to Jane--from a sense of duty--and that you +couldn't abide me personally. So I tried to keep out of your way. And, +Alida, dear, I thought at first that I was taken by your good traits and your +education and all that, but I found out at last that I had fallen in love with +YOU. Now you know all. You feel better now, don't you?" + +"Yes," she breathed softly. + +"You've had enough to wear a saint out," he continued kindly. "Lie down on the +lounge and I'll bring your supper to you." + +"No, please! It will do me more good to go on and act as if nothing had +happened." + +"Well, have your own way, little wife. You're boss now, sure enough." + +She drew him to the porch, and together they looked upon the June landscape +which she had regarded with such despairing eyes an hour before. + +"Happiness never kills, after all," she said. + +"Shouldn't be alive if it did," he replied. "The birds seem to sing as if they +knew." + +Jane emerged from the barn door with a basket of eggs, and Alida sped away to +meet her. The first thing the child knew the arms of her mistress were about +her neck and she was kissed again and again. + +"What did you do that for?" she asked. + +"You'll understand some day." + +"Say," said Jane in an impulse of good will, "if you're only half married to +Mr. Holcroft, I'd go the whole figure, 'fi's you. If you'd 'a' seen him +a-thrashin' that scamp you'd know he's the man to take care of you." + +"Yes, Jane, I know. He'll take care of me always." + +The next morning Holcroft and Alida drove to town and went to the church which +she and her mother used to attend. After the service they followed the +clergyman home, where Alida again told him her story, though not without much +help from the farmer. After some kindly reproach that she had not brought her +troubles to him at first, the minister performed a ceremony which found deep +echoes in both their hearts. + +Time and right, sensible living soon remove prejudice from the hearts of the +good and stop the mouths of the cynical and scandal-loving. Alida's +influence, and the farmer's broadening and more unselfish views gradually +bought him into a better understanding of his faith, and into a kinder +sympathy and charity for his neighbors than he had ever known. His relations +to the society of which he was a part became natural and friendly, and his +house a pretty and a hospitable home. Even Mrs. Watterly eventually entered +its portals. She and others were compelled to agree with Watterly that Alida +was not of the "common sort," and that the happiest good fortune which could +befall any man had come to Holcroft when he fell in love with his wife. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of He Fell In Love With His Wife + diff --git a/old/inlhw10.zip b/old/inlhw10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4322ea9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/inlhw10.zip |