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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Marcia Schuyler by Grace Livingston Hill
+Lutz
+
+
+
+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 http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: Marcia Schuyler
+
+Author: Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+
+Release Date: August 2007 [Ebook #23132]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARCIA SCHUYLER***
+
+
+
+
+
+Marcia Schuyler
+
+
+by Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+
+
+
+
+Edition 1, (August 2007)
+
+
+
+
+
+                             MARCIA SCHUYLER
+
+
+                              SIXTH EDITION
+
+
+
+
+
+                 [Illustration: Copyright by C. Klackner
+     “OH, YOU NAUGHTY MAN!� SHE EXCLAIMED PRETTILY, “HOW DARE YOU!�]
+
+                        Copyright by C. Klackner
+      “OH, YOU NAUGHTY MAN!� SHE EXCLAIMED PRETTILY, “HOW DARE YOU!�
+
+
+
+
+
+                             Marcia Schuyler
+
+
+                                   by
+
+                       Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+           Author of “The Story of a Whim,� “According to the
+                  Pattern,� “An Unwilling Guest,� etc.
+
+
+                           _Illustrations by_
+                            E. L. HENRY, N.A.
+
+
+                            GROSSET & DUNLAP
+                          PUBLISHERS · NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+                             Copyright, 1908
+                       By J. B. Lippincott Company
+
+
+                        Published February, 1908
+
+
+         _Electrotyped and printed by J. B. Lippincott Company_
+          _The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A._
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   TO
+                           THE DEAR MEMORY OF
+                                MY FATHER
+                 The Rev. CHARLES MONTGOMERY LIVINGSTON
+                  WHOSE COMPANIONSHIP AND ENCOURAGEMENT
+                        HAVE BEEN MY HELP THROUGH
+                                THE YEARS
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+CHAPTER II
+CHAPTER III
+CHAPTER IV
+CHAPTER V
+CHAPTER VI
+CHAPTER VII
+CHAPTER VIII
+CHAPTER IX
+CHAPTER X
+CHAPTER XI
+CHAPTER XII
+CHAPTER XIII
+CHAPTER XIV
+CHAPTER XV
+CHAPTER XVI
+CHAPTER XVII
+CHAPTER XVIII
+CHAPTER XIX
+CHAPTER XX
+CHAPTER XXI
+CHAPTER XXII
+CHAPTER XXIII
+CHAPTER XXIV
+CHAPTER XXV
+CHAPTER XXVI
+CHAPTER XXVII
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+CHAPTER XXIX
+AD PAGES
+ERRATA
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                             Marcia Schuyler
+
+
+                                CHAPTER I
+
+
+The sun was already up and the grass blades were twinkling with sparkles
+of dew, as Marcia stepped from the kitchen door.
+
+She wore a chocolate calico with little sprigs of red and white scattered
+over it, her hair was in smooth brown braids down her back, and there was
+a flush on her round cheeks that might have been but the reflection of the
+rosy light in the East. Her face was as untroubled as the summer morning,
+in its freshness, and her eyes as dreamy as the soft clouds that hovered
+upon the horizon uncertain where they were to be sent for the day.
+
+Marcia walked lightly through the grass, and the way behind her sparkled
+again like that of the girl in the fairy-tale who left jewels wherever she
+passed.
+
+A rail fence stopped her, which she mounted as though it had been a steed
+to carry her onward, and sat a moment looking at the beauty of the
+morning, her eyes taking on that far-away look that annoyed her stepmother
+when she wanted her to hurry with the dishes, or finish a long seam before
+it was time to get supper.
+
+She loitered but a moment, for her mind was full of business, and she
+wished to accomplish much before the day was done. Swinging easily down to
+the other side of the fence she moved on through the meadow, over another
+fence, and another meadow, skirting the edge of a cool little strip of
+woods which lured her with its green mysterious shadows, its whispering
+leaves, and twittering birds. One wistful glance she gave into the sweet
+silence, seeing a clump of maiden-hair ferns rippling their feathery locks
+in the breeze. Then resolutely turning away she sped on to the slope of
+Blackberry Hill.
+
+It was not a long climb to where the blackberries grew, and she was soon
+at work, the great luscious berries dropping into her pail almost with a
+touch. But while she worked the vision of the hills, the sheep meadow
+below, the river winding between the neighboring farms, melted away, and
+she did not even see the ripe fruit before her, because she was planning
+the new frock she was to buy with these berries she had come to pick.
+
+Pink and white it was to be; she had seen it in the store the last time
+she went for sugar and spice. There were dainty sprigs of pink over the
+white ground, and every berry that dropped into her bright pail was no
+longer a berry but a sprig of pink chintz. While she worked she went over
+her plans for the day.
+
+There had been busy times at the old house during the past weeks. Kate,
+her elder sister, was to be married. It was only a few days now to the
+wedding.
+
+There had been a whole year of preparation: spinning and weaving and fine
+sewing. The smooth white linen lay ready, packed between rose leaves and
+lavender. There had been yards and yards of tatting and embroidery made by
+the two girls for the trousseau, and the village dressmaker had spent days
+at the house, cutting, fitting, shirring, till now there was a goodly
+array of gorgeous apparel piled high upon bed, and chairs, and hanging in
+the closets of the great spare bedroom. The outfit was as fine as that
+made for Patience Hartrandt six months before, and Mr. Hartrandt had given
+his one daughter all she had asked for in the way of a “setting out.� Kate
+had seen to it that her things were as fine as Patience’s,—but, they were
+all for Kate!
+
+Of course, that was right! Kate was to be married, not Marcia, and
+everything must make way for that. Marcia was scarcely more than a child
+as yet, barely seventeen. No one thought of anything new for her just
+then, and she did not expect it. But into her heart there had stolen a
+longing for a new frock herself amid all this finery for Kate. She had her
+best one of course. That was good, and pretty, and quite nice enough to
+wear to the wedding, and her stepmother had taken much relief in the
+thought that Marcia would need nothing during the rush of getting Kate
+ready.
+
+But there were people coming to the house every day, especially in the
+afternoons, friends of Kate, and of her stepmother, to be shown Kate’s
+wardrobe, and to talk things over curiously. Marcia could not wear her
+best dress all the time. And _he_ was coming! That was the way Marcia
+always denominated the prospective bridegroom in her mind.
+
+His name was David Spafford, and Kate often called him Dave, but Marcia,
+even to herself, could never bring herself to breathe the name so
+familiarly. She held him in great awe. He was so fine and strong and good,
+with a face like a young saint in some old picture, she thought. She often
+wondered how her wild, sparkling sister Kate dared to be so familiar with
+him. She had ventured the thought once when she watched Kate dressing to
+go out with some young people and preening herself like a bird of Paradise
+before the glass. It all came over her, the vanity and frivolousness of
+the life that Kate loved, and she spoke out with conviction:
+
+“Kate, you’ll have to be very different when you’re married.� Kate had
+faced about amusedly and asked why.
+
+“Because _he_ is so good,� Marcia had replied, unable to explain further.
+
+“Oh, is that all?� said the daring sister, wheeling back to the glass.
+“Don’t you worry; I’ll soon take that out of him.�
+
+But Kate’s indifference had never lessened her young sister’s awe of her
+prospective brother-in-law. She had listened to his conversations with her
+father during the brief visits he had made, and she had watched his face
+at church while he and Kate sang together as the minister lined it out:
+“Rock of Ages cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee,� a new song which
+had just been written. And she had mused upon the charmed life Kate would
+lead. It was wonderful to be a woman and be loved as Kate was loved,
+thought Marcia.
+
+So in all the hurry no one seemed to think much about Marcia, and she was
+not satisfied with her brown delaine afternoon dress. Truth to tell, it
+needed letting down, and there was no more left to let down. It made her
+feel like last year to go about in it with her slender ankles so plainly
+revealed. So she set her heart upon the new chintz.
+
+Now, with Marcia, to decide was to do. She did not speak to her stepmother
+about it, for she knew it would be useless; neither did she think it worth
+while to go to her father, for she knew that both his wife and Kate would
+find it out and charge her with useless expense just now when there were
+so many other uses for money, and they were anxious to have it all flow
+their way. She had an independent spirit, so she took the time that
+belonged to herself, and went to the blackberry patch which belonged to
+everybody.
+
+Marcia’s fingers were nimble and accustomed, and the sun was not very high
+in the heavens when she had finished her task and turned happily toward
+the village. The pails would not hold another berry.
+
+Her cheeks were glowing with the sun and exercise, and little wisps of
+wavy curls had escaped about her brow, damp with perspiration. Her eyes
+were shining with her purpose, half fulfilled, as she hastened down the
+hill.
+
+Crossing a field she met Hanford Weston with a rake over his shoulder and
+a wide-brimmed straw hat like a small shed over him. He was on his way to
+the South meadow. He blushed and greeted her as she passed shyly by. When
+she had passed he paused and looked admiringly after her. They had been in
+the same classes at school all winter, the girl at the head, the boy at
+the foot. But Hanford Weston’s father owned the largest farm in all the
+country round about, and he felt that did not so much matter. He would
+rather see Marcia at the head anyway, though there never had been the
+slightest danger that he would take her place. He felt a sudden desire now
+to follow her. It would be a pleasure to carry those pails that she bore
+as if they were mere featherweights.
+
+He watched her long, elastic step for a moment, considered the sun in the
+sky, and his father’s command about the South meadow, and then strode
+after her.
+
+It did not take long to reach her side, swiftly as she had gone.
+
+As well as he could, with the sudden hotness in his face and the tremor in
+his throat, he made out to ask if he might carry her burden for her.
+Marcia stopped annoyed. She had forgotten all about him, though he was an
+attractive fellow, sometimes called by the girls “handsome Hanford.�
+
+She had been planning exactly how that pink sprigged chintz was to be
+made, and which parts she would cut first in order to save time and
+material. She did not wish to be interrupted. The importance of the matter
+was too great to be marred by the appearance of just a schoolmate whom she
+might meet every day, and whom she could so easily “spell down.� She
+summoned her thoughts from the details of mutton-leg sleeves and looked
+the boy over, to his great confusion. She did not want him along, and she
+was considering how best to get rid of him.
+
+“Weren’t you going somewhere else?� she asked sweetly. “Wasn’t there a
+rake over your shoulder? What have you done with it?�
+
+The culprit blushed deeper.
+
+“Where were you going?� she demanded.
+
+“To the South meadow,� he stammered out.
+
+“Oh, well, then you must go back. I shall do quite well, thank you. Your
+father will not be pleased to have you neglect your work for me, though
+I’m much obliged I’m sure.�
+
+Was there some foreshadowing of her womanhood in the decided way she
+spoke, and the quaint, prim set of her head as she bowed him good morning
+and went on her way once more? The boy did not understand. He only felt
+abashed, and half angry that she had ordered him back to work; and, too,
+in a tone that forbade him to take her memory with him as he went.
+Nevertheless her image lingered by the way, and haunted the South meadow
+all day long as he worked.
+
+Marcia, unconscious of the admiration she had stirred in the boyish heart,
+went her way on fleet feet, her spirit one with the sunny morning, her
+body light with anticipation, for a new frock of her own choice was yet an
+event in her life.
+
+She had thought many times, as she spent long hours putting delicate
+stitches into her sister’s wedding garments, how it would seem if they
+were being made for her. She had whiled away many a dreary seam by
+thinking out, in a sort of dream-story, how she would put on this or that
+at will if it were her own, and go here or there, and have people love and
+admire her as they did Kate. It would never come true, of course. She
+never expected to be admired and loved like Kate. Kate was beautiful,
+bright and gay. Everybody loved her, no matter how she treated them. It
+was a matter of course for Kate to have everything she wanted. Marcia felt
+that she never could attain to such heights. In the first place she
+considered her own sweet serious face with its pure brown eyes as
+exceedingly plain. She could not catch the lights that played at hide and
+seek in her eyes when she talked with animation. Indeed few saw her at her
+best, because she seldom talked freely. It was only with certain people
+that she could forget herself.
+
+She did not envy Kate. She was proud of her sister, and loved her, though
+there was an element of anxiety in the love. But she never thought of her
+many faults. She felt that they were excusable because Kate was Kate. It
+was as if you should find fault with a wild rose because it carried a
+thorn. Kate was set about with many a thorn, but amid them all she
+bloomed, her fragrant pink self, as apparently unconscious of the many
+pricks she gave, and as unconcerned, as the flower itself.
+
+So Marcia never thought to be jealous that Kate had so many lovely things,
+and was going out into the world to do just as she pleased, and lead a
+charmed life with a man who was greater in the eyes of this girl than any
+prince that ever walked in fairy-tale. But she saw no harm in playing a
+delightful little dream-game of “pretend� now and then, and letting her
+imagination make herself the beautiful, admired, elder sister instead of
+the plain younger one.
+
+But this morning on her way to the village store with her berries she
+thought no more of her sister’s things, for her mind was upon her own
+little frock which she would purchase with the price of the berries, and
+then go home and make.
+
+A whole long day she had to herself, for Kate and her stepmother were gone
+up to the neighboring town on the packet to make a few last purchases.
+
+She had told no one of her plans, and was awake betimes in the morning to
+see the travellers off, eager to have them gone that she might begin to
+carry out her plan.
+
+Just at the edge of the village Marcia put down the pails of berries by a
+large flat stone and sat down for a moment to tidy herself. The lacing of
+one shoe had come untied, and her hair was rumpled by exercise. But she
+could not sit long to rest, and taking up her burdens was soon upon the
+way again.
+
+Mary Ann Fothergill stepped from her own gate lingering till Marcia should
+come up, and the two girls walked along side by side. Mary Ann had stiff,
+straight, light hair, and high cheek bones. Her eyes were light and her
+eyelashes almost white. They did not show up well beneath her checked
+sunbonnet. Her complexion was dull and tanned. She was a contrast to
+Marcia with her clear red and white skin. She was tall and awkward and
+wore a linsey-woolsey frock as though it were a meal sack temporarily
+appropriated. She had the air of always trying to hide her feet and hands.
+Mary Ann had some fine qualities, but beauty was not one of them. Beside
+her Marcia’s delicate features showed clear-cut like a cameo, and her
+every movement spoke of patrician blood.
+
+Mary Ann regarded Marcia’s smooth brown braids enviously. Her own sparse
+hair barely reached to her shoulders, and straggled about her neck
+helplessly and hopelessly, in spite of her constant efforts.
+
+“It must be lots of fun at your house these days,� said Mary Ann
+wistfully. “Are you most ready for the wedding?�
+
+Marcia nodded. Her eyes were bright. She could see the sign of the village
+store just ahead and knew the bolts of new chintz were displaying their
+charms in the window.
+
+“My, but your cheeks do look pretty,� admired Mary Ann impulsively. “Say,
+how many of each has your sister got?�
+
+“Two dozens,� said Marcia conscious of a little swelling of pride in her
+breast. It was not every girl that had such a setting out as her sister.
+
+“My!� sighed Mary Ann. “And outside things, too. I ’spose she’s got one of
+every color. What are her frocks? Tell me about them. I’ve been up to
+Dutchess county and just got back last night, but Ma wrote Aunt Tilly that
+Mis’ Hotchkiss said her frocks was the prettiest Miss Hancock’s ever sewed
+on.�
+
+“We think they are pretty,� admitted Marcia modestly. “There’s a sprigged
+chin—� here she caught herself, remembering, and laughed. “I mean
+muslin-de-laine, and a blue delaine, and a blue silk——�
+
+“My! silk!� breathed Mary Ann in an ecstasy of wonder. “And what’s she
+going to be married in?�
+
+“White,� answered Marcia, “white satin. And the veil was mother’s—our own
+mother’s, you know.�
+
+Marcia spoke it reverently, her eyes shining with something far away that
+made Mary Ann think she looked like an angel.
+
+“Oh, my! Don’t you just envy her?�
+
+“No,� said Marcia slowly; “I think not. At least—I hope not. It wouldn’t
+be right, you know. And then she’s my sister and I love her dearly, and
+it’s nearly as nice to have one’s sister have nice things and a good time
+as to have them one’s self.�
+
+“You’re good,� said Mary Ann decidedly as if that were a foregone
+conclusion. “But I should envy her, I just should. Mis’ Hotchkiss told Ma
+there wa’nt many lots in life so all honey-and-dew-prepared like your
+sister’s. All the money she wanted to spend on clo’es, and a nice set out,
+and a man as handsome as you’ll find anywhere, and he’s well off too,
+ain’t he? Ma said she heard he kept a horse and lived right in the village
+too, not as how he needed to keep one to get anywhere, either. That’s what
+I call luxury—a horse to ride around with. And then Mr. What’s-his-name? I
+can’t remember. Oh, yes, Spafford. He’s good, and everybody says he won’t
+make a bit of fuss if Kate does go around and have a good time. He’ll just
+let her do as she pleases. Only old Grandma Doolittle says she doesn’t
+believe it. She thinks every man, no matter how good he is, wants to
+manage his wife, just for the name of it. She says your sister’ll have to
+change her ways or else there’ll be trouble. But that’s Grandma! Everybody
+knows her. She croaks! Ma says Kate’s got her nest feathered well if ever
+a girl had. My! I only wish I had the same chance!�
+
+Marcia held her head a trifle high when Mary Ann touched upon her sister’s
+personal character, but they were nearing the store, and everybody knew
+Mary Ann was blunt. Poor Mary Ann! She meant no harm. She was but
+repeating the village gossip. Besides, Marcia must give her mind to
+sprigged chintz. There was no time for discussions if she would accomplish
+her purpose before the folks came home that night.
+
+“Mary Ann,� she said in her sweet, prim way that always made the other
+girl stand a little in awe of her, “you mustn’t listen to gossip. It isn’t
+worth while. I’m sure my sister Kate will be very happy. I’m going in the
+store now, are you?� And the conversation was suddenly concluded.
+
+Mary Ann followed meekly watching with wonder and envy as Marcia made her
+bargain with the kindly merchant, and selected her chintz. What a
+delicious swish the scissors made as they went through the width of cloth,
+and how delightfully the paper crackled as the bundle was being wrapped!
+Mary Ann did not know whether Kate or Marcia was more to be envied.
+
+“Did you say you were going to make it up yourself?� asked Mary Ann.
+
+Marcia nodded.
+
+“Oh, my! Ain’t you afraid? I would be. It’s the prettiest I ever saw.
+Don’t you go and cut both sleeves for one arm. That’s what I did the only
+time Ma ever let me try.� And Mary Ann touched the package under Marcia’s
+arm with wistful fingers.
+
+They had reached the turn of the road and Mary Ann hoped that Marcia would
+ask her out to “help,� but Marcia had no such purpose.
+
+“Well, good-bye! Will you wear it next Sunday?� she asked.
+
+“Perhaps,� answered Marcia breathlessly, and sped on her homeward way, her
+cheeks bright with excitement.
+
+                 [Illustration: Copyright by C. Klackner
+   KATE AND HER STEPMOTHER WERE GONE UP TO THE NEIGHBORING TOWN ON THE
+                                 PACKET.]
+
+                        Copyright by C. Klackner
+   KATE AND HER STEPMOTHER WERE GONE UP TO THE NEIGHBORING TOWN ON THE
+                                 PACKET.
+
+
+In her own room she spread the chintz out upon the bed and with trembling
+fingers set about her task. The bright shears clipped the edge and tore
+off the lengths exultantly as if in league with the girl. The bees hummed
+outside in the clover, and now and again buzzed between the muslin
+curtains of the open window, looked in and grumbled out again. The birds
+sang across the meadows and the sun mounted to the zenith and began its
+downward march, but still the busy fingers worked on. Well for Marcia’s
+scheme that the fashion of the day was simple, wherein were few puckers
+and plaits and tucks, and little trimming required, else her task would
+have been impossible.
+
+Her heart beat high as she tried it on at last, the new chintz that she
+had made. She went into the spare room and stood before the long mirror in
+its wide gilt frame that rested on two gilt knobs standing out from the
+wall like giant rosettes. She had dared to make the skirt a little longer
+than that of her best frock. It was almost as long as Kate’s, and for a
+moment she lingered, sweeping backward and forward before the glass and
+admiring herself in the long graceful folds. She caught up her braids in
+the fashion that Kate wore her hair and smiled at the reflection of
+herself in the mirror. How funny it seemed to think she would soon be a
+woman like Kate. When Kate was gone they would begin to call her “Miss�
+sometimes. Somehow she did not care to look ahead. The present seemed
+enough. She had so wrapped her thoughts in her sister’s new life that her
+own seemed flat and stale in comparison.
+
+The sound of a distant hay wagon on the road reminded her that the sun was
+near to setting. The family carryall would soon be coming up the lane from
+the evening packet. She must hurry and take off her frock and be dressed
+before they arrived.
+
+Marcia was so tired that night after supper that she was glad to slip away
+to bed, without waiting to hear Kate’s voluble account of her day in town,
+the beauties she had seen and the friends she had met.
+
+She lay down and dreamed of the morrow, and of the next day, and the next.
+In strange bewilderment she awoke in the night and found the moonlight
+streaming full into her face. Then she laughed and rubbed her eyes and
+tried to go to sleep again; but she could not, for she had dreamed that
+she was the bride herself, and the words of Mary Ann kept going over and
+over in her mind. “Oh, don’t you envy her?� _Did_ she envy her sister? But
+that was wicked. It troubled her to think of it, and she tried to banish
+the dream, but it would come again and again with a strange sweet
+pleasure.
+
+She lay wondering if such a time of joy would ever come to her as had come
+to Kate, and whether the spare bed would ever be piled high with clothes
+and fittings for her new life. What a wonderful thing it was anyway to be
+a woman and be loved!
+
+Then her dreams blended again with the soft perfume of the honeysuckle at
+the window, and the hooting of a young owl.
+
+The moon dropped lower, the bright stars paled, dawn stole up through the
+edges of the woods far away and awakened a day that was to bring a strange
+transformation over Marcia’s life.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER II
+
+
+As a natural consequence of her hard work and her midnight awakening,
+Marcia overslept the next morning. Her stepmother called her sharply and
+she dressed in haste, not even taking time to glance toward the new folds
+of chintz that drew her thoughts closetward. She dared not say anything
+about it yet. There was much to be done, and not even Kate had time for an
+idle word with her. Marcia was called upon to run errands, to do odds and
+ends of things, to fill in vacant places, to sew on lost buttons, to do
+everything for which nobody else had time. The household had suddenly
+become aware that there was now but one more intervening day between them
+and the wedding.
+
+It was not until late in the afternoon that Marcia ventured to put on her
+frock. Even then she felt shy about appearing in it.
+
+Madam Schuyler was busy in the parlor with callers, and Kate was locked in
+her own room whither she had gone to rest. There was no one to notice if
+Marcia should “dress up,� and it was not unlikely that she might escape
+much notice even at the supper table, as everybody was so absorbed in
+other things.
+
+She lingered before her own little glass looking wistfully at herself. She
+was pleased with the frock she had made and liked her appearance in it,
+but yet there was something disappointing about it. It had none of the
+style of her sister’s garments, newly come from the hand of the village
+mantua-maker. It was girlish, and showed her slip of a form prettily in
+the fashion of the day, but she felt too young. She wanted to look older.
+She searched her drawer and found a bit of black velvet which she pinned
+about her throat with a pin containing the miniature of her mother, then
+with a second thought she drew the long braids up in loops and fastened
+them about her head in older fashion. It suited her well, and the change
+it made astonished her. She decided to wear them so and see if others
+would notice. Surely, some day she would be a young woman, and perhaps
+then she would be allowed to have a will of her own occasionally.
+
+She drew a quick breath as she descended the stairs and found her
+stepmother and the visitor just coming into the hall from the parlor.
+
+They both involuntarily ceased their talk and looked at her in surprise.
+Over Madam Schuyler’s face there came a look as if she had received a
+revelation. Marcia was no longer a child, but had suddenly blossomed into
+young womanhood. It was not the time she would have chosen for such an
+event. There was enough going on, and Marcia was still in school. She had
+no desire to steer another young soul through the various dangers and
+follies that beset a pretty girl from the time she puts up her hair until
+she is safely married to the right man—or the wrong one. She had just
+begun to look forward with relief to having Kate well settled in life.
+Kate had been a hard one to manage. She had too much will of her own and a
+pretty way of always having it. She had no deep sense of reverence for
+old, staid manners and customs. Many a long lecture had Madam Schuyler
+delivered to Kate upon her unseemly ways. It did not please her to think
+of having to go through it all so soon again, therefore upon her usually
+complacent brow there came a look of dismay.
+
+“Why!� exclaimed the visitor, “is this the bride? How tall she looks! No!
+Bless me! it isn’t, is it? Yes,—Well! I’ll declare. It’s just Marsh! What
+have you got on, child? How old you look!�
+
+Marcia flushed. It was not pleasant to have her young womanhood
+questioned, and in a tone so familiar and patronizing. She disliked the
+name of “Marsh� exceedingly, especially upon the lips of this woman, a
+sort of second cousin of her stepmother’s. She would rather have chosen
+the new frock to pass under inspection of her stepmother without
+witnesses, but it was too late to turn back now. She must face it.
+
+Though Madam Schuyler’s equilibrium was a trifle disturbed, she was not
+one to show it before a visitor. Instantly she recovered her balance, and
+perhaps Marcia’s ordeal was less trying than if there had been no third
+person present.
+
+“That looks very well, child!� she said critically with a shade of
+complacence in her voice. It is true that Marcia had gone beyond orders in
+purchasing and making garments unknown to her, yet the neatness and fit
+could but reflect well upon her training. It did no harm for cousin Maria
+to see what a child of her training could do. It was, on the whole, a very
+creditable piece of work, and Madam Schuyler grew more reconciled to it as
+Marcia came down toward them.
+
+“Make it herself?� asked cousin Maria. “Why, Marsh, you did real well. My
+Matilda does all her own clothes now. It’s time you were learning. It’s a
+trifle longish to what you’ve been wearing them, isn’t it? But you’ll grow
+into it, I dare say. Got your hair a new way too. I thought you were Kate
+when you first started down stairs. You’ll make a good-looking young lady
+when you grow up; only don’t be in too much hurry. Take your girlhood
+while you’ve got it, is what I always tell Matilda.�
+
+Matilda was well on to thirty and showed no signs of taking anything else.
+
+Madam Schuyler smoothed an imaginary pucker across the shoulders and again
+pronounced the work good.
+
+“I picked berries and got the cloth,� confessed Marcia.
+
+Madam Schuyler smiled benevolently and patted Marcia’s cheek.
+
+“You needn’t have done that, child. Why didn’t you come to me for money?
+You needed something new, and that is a very good purchase, a little
+light, perhaps, but very pretty. We’ve been so busy with Kate’s things you
+have been neglected.�
+
+Marcia smiled with pleasure and passed into the dining room wondering what
+power the visitor had over her stepmother to make her pass over this
+digression from her rules so sweetly,—nay, even with praise.
+
+At supper they all rallied Marcia upon her changed appearance. Her father
+jokingly said that when the bridegroom arrived he would hardly know which
+sister to choose, and he looked from one comely daughter to the other with
+fatherly pride. He praised Marcia for doing the work so neatly, and
+inwardly admired the courage and independence that prompted her to get the
+money by her own unaided efforts rather than to ask for it, and later, as
+he passed through the room where she was helping to remove the dishes from
+the table, he paused and handed her a crisp five-dollar note. It had
+occurred to him that one daughter was getting all the good things and the
+other was having nothing. There was a pleasant tenderness in his eyes, a
+recognition of her rights as a young woman, that made Marcia’s heart
+exceedingly light. There was something strange about the influence this
+little new frock seemed to have upon people.
+
+Even Kate had taken a new tone with her. Much of the time at supper she
+had sat staring at her sister. Marcia wondered about it as she walked down
+toward the gate after her work was done. Kate had never seemed so quiet.
+Was she just beginning to realize that she was leaving home forever, and
+was she thinking how the home would be after she had left it? How she,
+Marcia, would take the place of elder sister, with only little Harriet and
+the boys, their stepsister and brothers, left? Was Kate sad over the
+thought of going so far away from them, or was she feeling suddenly the
+responsibility of the new position she was to occupy and the duties that
+would be hers? No, that could not be it, for surely that would bring a
+softening of expression, a sweetness of anticipation, and Kate’s
+expression had been wondering, perplexed, almost troubled. If she had not
+been her own sister Marcia would have added, “hard,� but she stopped short
+at that.
+
+It was a lovely evening. The twilight was not yet over as she stepped from
+the low piazza that ran the length of the house bearing another above it
+on great white pillars. A drapery of wistaria in full bloom festooned
+across one end and half over the front. Marcia stepped back across the
+stone flagging and driveway to look up the purple clusters of graceful
+fairy-like shape that embowered the house, and thought how beautiful it
+would look when the wedding guests should arrive the day after the morrow.
+Then she turned into the little gravel path, box-bordered, that led to the
+gate. Here and there on either side luxuriant blooms of dahlias, peonies
+and roses leaned over into the night and peered at her. The yard had never
+looked so pretty. The flowers truly had done their best for the occasion,
+and they seemed to be asking some word of commendation from her.
+
+They nodded their dewy heads sleepily as she went on.
+
+To-morrow the children would be coming back from Aunt Eliza’s, where they
+had been sent safely out of the way for a few days, and the last things
+would arrive,—and _he_ would come. Not later than three in the afternoon
+he ought to arrive, Kate had said, though there was a possibility that he
+might come in the morning, but Kate was not counting upon it. He was to
+drive from his home to Schenectady and, leaving his own horse there to
+rest, come on by coach. Then he and Kate would go back in fine style to
+Schenectady in a coach and pair, with a colored coachman, and at
+Schenectady take their own horse and drive on to their home, a long
+beautiful ride, so thought Marcia half enviously. How beautiful it would
+be! What endless delightful talks they might have about the trees and
+birds and things they saw in passing only Kate did not love to talk about
+such things. But then she would be with David, and he talked beautifully
+about nature or anything else. Kate would learn to love it if she loved
+him. Did Kate love David? Of course she must or why should she marry him?
+Marcia resented the thought that Kate might have other objects in view,
+such as Mary Ann Fothergill had suggested for instance. Of course Kate
+would never marry any man unless she loved him. That would be a dreadful
+thing to do. Love was the greatest thing in the world. Marcia looked up to
+the stars, her young soul thrilling with awe and reverence for the great
+mysteries of life. She wondered again if life would open sometime for her
+in some such great way, and if she would ever know better than now what it
+meant. Would some one come and love her? Some one whom she could love in
+return with all the fervor of her nature?
+
+She had dreamed such dreams before many times, as girls will, while lovers
+and future are all in one dreamy, sweet blending of rosy tints and joyous
+mystery, but never had they come to her with such vividness as that night.
+Perhaps it was because the household had recognized the woman in her for
+the first time that evening. Perhaps because the vision she had seen
+reflected in her mirror before she left her room that afternoon had opened
+the door of the future a little wider than it had ever opened before.
+
+She stood by the gate where the syringa and lilac bushes leaned over and
+arched the way, and the honeysuckle climbed about the fence in a wild
+pretty way of its own and flung sweetness on the air in vivid, erratic
+whiffs.
+
+The sidewalk outside was brick, and whenever she heard footsteps coming
+she stepped back into the shadow of the syringa and was hidden from view.
+She was in no mood to talk with any one.
+
+She could look out into the dusty road and see dimly the horses and
+carryalls as they passed, and recognize an occasional laughing voice of
+some village maiden out with her best young man for a ride. Others
+strolled along the sidewalk, and fragments of talk floated back. Almost
+every one had a word to say about the wedding as they neared the gate, and
+if Marcia had been in another mood it would have been interesting and
+gratifying to her pride. Every one had a good word for Kate, though many
+disapproved of her in a general way for principle’s sake.
+
+Hanford Weston passed, with long, slouching gait, hands in his trousers
+pockets, and a frightened, hasty, sideways glance toward the lights of the
+house beyond. He would have gone in boldly to call if he had dared, and
+told Marcia that he had done her bidding and now wanted a reward, but John
+Middleton had joined him at the corner and he dared not make the attempt.
+John would have done it in a minute if he had wished. He was brazen by
+nature, but Hanford knew that he would as readily laugh at another for
+doing it. Hanford shrank from a laugh more than from the cannon’s mouth,
+so he slouched on, not knowing that his goddess held her breath behind a
+lilac bush not three feet away, her heart beating in annoyed taps to be
+again interrupted by him in her pleasant thoughts.
+
+Merry, laughing voices mingling with many footsteps came sounding down the
+street and paused beside the gate. Marcia knew the voices and again slid
+behind the shrubbery that bordered all the way to the house, and not even
+a gleam of her light frock was visible. They trooped in, three or four
+girl friends of Kate’s and a couple of young men.
+
+Marcia watched them pass up the box-bordered path from her shadowy
+retreat, and thought how they would miss Kate, and wondered if the young
+men who had been coming there so constantly to see her had no pangs of
+heart that their friend and leader was about to leave them. Then she
+smiled at herself in the dark. She seemed to be doing the retrospect for
+Kate, taking leave of all the old friends, home, and life, in Kate’s
+place. It was not her life anyway, and why should she bother herself and
+sigh and feel this sadness creeping over her for some one else? Was it
+that she was going to lose her sister? No, for Kate had never been much of
+a companion to her. She had always put her down as a little girl and made
+distinct and clear the difference in their ages. Marcia had been the
+little maid to fetch and carry, the errand girl, and unselfish, devoted
+slave in Kate’s life. There had been nothing protective and elder-sisterly
+in her manner toward Marcia. At times Marcia had felt this keenly, but no
+expression of this lack had ever crossed her lips, and afterwards her
+devotion to her sister had been the greater, to in a measure compensate
+for this reproachful thought.
+
+But Marcia could not shake the sadness off. She stole in further among the
+trees to think about it till the callers should go away. She felt no
+desire to meet any of them.
+
+She began again to wonder how she would feel if day after to-morrow were
+her wedding day, and she were going away from home and friends and all the
+scenes with which she had been familiar since babyhood. Would she mind
+very much leaving them all? Father? Yes, father had been good to her, and
+loved her and was proud of her in a way. But one does not lose one’s
+father no matter how far one goes. A father is a father always; and Mr.
+Schuyler was not a demonstrative man. Marcia felt that her father would
+not miss her deeply, and she was not sure she would miss him so very much.
+She had read to him a great deal and talked politics with him whenever he
+had no one better by, but aside from that her life had been lived much
+apart from him. Her stepmother? Yes, she would miss her as one misses a
+perfect mentor and guide. She had been used to looking to her for
+direction. She was thoroughly conscious that she had a will of her own and
+would like a chance to exercise it, still, she knew that in many cases
+without her stepmother she would be like a rudderless ship, a guideless
+traveller. And she loved her stepmother too, as a young girl can love a
+good woman who has been her guide and helper, even though there never has
+been great tenderness between them. Yes, she would miss her stepmother,
+but she would not feel so very sad over it. Harriet and the little
+brothers? Oh, yes, she would miss them, they were dear little things and
+devoted to her.
+
+Then there were the neighbors, and the schoolmates, and the people of the
+village. She would miss the minister,—the dear old minister and his wife.
+Many a time she had gone with her arms full of flowers to the parsonage
+down the street, and spent the afternoon with the minister’s wife. Her
+smooth white hair under its muslin cap, and her soft wrinkled cheek were
+very dear to the young girl. She had talked to this friend more freely
+about her innermost thoughts than she had ever spoken to any living being.
+Oh, she would miss the minister’s wife very much if she were to go away.
+
+The names of her schoolmates came to her. Harriet Woodgate, Eliza
+Buchanan, Margaret Fletcher, three girls who were her intimates. She would
+miss them, of course, but how much? She could scarcely tell. Margaret
+Fletcher more than the other two. Mary Ann Fothergill? She almost laughed
+at the thought of anybody missing Mary Ann. John Middleton? Hanford
+Weston? There was not a boy in the school she would miss for an instant,
+she told herself with conviction. Not one of them realized her ideal.
+There was much pairing off of boy and girl in school, but Marcia, like the
+heroine of “Comin’ thro’ the Rye,� was good friends with all the boys and
+intimate with none. They all counted it an honor to wait upon her, and she
+cared not a farthing for any. She felt herself too young, of course, to
+think of such things, but when she dreamed her day dreams the lover and
+prince who figured in them bore no familiar form or feature. He was a
+prince and these were only schoolboys.
+
+The merry chatter of the young people in the house floated through the
+open windows, and Marcia could hear her sister’s voice above them all.
+Chameleon-like she was all gaiety and laughter now, since her gravity at
+supper.
+
+They were coming out the front door and down the walk. Kate was with them.
+Marcia could catch glimpses of the girls’ white frocks as they came
+nearer. She saw that her sister was walking with Captain Leavenworth. He
+was a handsome young man who made a fine appearance in his uniform. He and
+Kate had been intimate for two years, and it might have been more than
+friendship had not Kate’s father interfered between them. He did not think
+so well of the handsome young captain as did either his daughter Kate or
+the United States Navy who had given him his position. Squire Schuyler
+required deep integrity and strength of moral character in the man who
+aspired to be his son-in-law. The captain did not number much of either
+among his virtues.
+
+There had been a short, sharp contest which had ended in the departure of
+young Leavenworth from the town some three years before, and the temporary
+plunging of Kate Schuyler into a season of tears and pouting. But it had
+not been long before her gay laughter was ringing again, and her father
+thought she had forgotten. About that time David Spafford had appeared and
+promptly fallen in love with the beautiful girl, and the Schuyler mind was
+relieved. So it came about that, upon the reappearance of the handsome
+young captain wearing the insignia of his first honors, the Squire
+received him graciously. He even felt that he might be more lenient about
+his moral character, and told himself that perhaps he was not so bad after
+all, he must have something in him or the United States government would
+not have seen fit to honor him. It was easier to think so, now Kate was
+safe.
+
+Marcia watched her sister and the captain go laughing down to the gate,
+and out into the street. She wondered that Kate could care to go out
+to-night when it was to be almost her last evening at home; wondered, too,
+that Kate would walk with Captain Leavenworth when she belonged to David
+now. She might have managed it to go with one of the girls. But that was
+Kate’s way. Kate’s ways were not Marcia’s ways.
+
+Marcia wondered if she would miss Kate, and was obliged to acknowledge to
+herself that in many ways her sister’s absence would be a relief to her.
+While she recognized the power of her sister’s beauty and will over her,
+she felt oppressed sometimes by the strain she was under to please, and
+wearied of the constant, half-fretful, half playful fault-finding.
+
+The gay footsteps and voices died away down the village street, and Marcia
+ventured forth from her retreat. The moon was just rising and came up a
+glorious burnished disk, silhouetting her face as she stood a moment
+listening to the stirring of a bird among the branches. It was her will
+to-night to be alone and let her fancies wander where they would. The
+beauty and the mystery of a wedding was upon her, touching all her deeper
+feelings, and she wished to dream it out and wonder over it. Again it came
+to her what if the day after the morrow were her wedding day and she stood
+alone thinking about it. She would not have gone off down the street with
+a lot of giggling girls nor walked with another young man. She would have
+stood here, or down by the gate—and she moved on toward her favorite arch
+of lilac and syringa—yes, down by the gate in the darkness looking out and
+thinking how it would be when he should come. She felt sure if it had been
+herself who expected David she would have begun to watch for him a week
+before the time he had set for coming, heralding it again and again to her
+heart in joyous thrills of happiness, for who knew but he might come
+sooner and surprise her? She would have rejoiced that to-night she was
+alone, and would have excused herself from everything else to come down
+there in the stillness and watch for him, and think how it would be when
+he would really get there. She would hear his step echoing down the street
+and would recognize it as his. She would lean far over the gate to listen
+and watch, and it would come nearer and nearer, and her heart would beat
+faster and faster, and her breath come quicker, until he was at last by
+her side, his beautiful surprise for her in his eyes. But now, if David
+should really try to surprise Kate by coming that way to-night he would
+not find her waiting nor thinking of him at all, but off with Captain
+Leavenworth.
+
+With a passing pity for David she went back to her own dream. With one
+elbow on the gate and her cheek in her hand she thought it all over. The
+delayed evening coach rumbled up to the tavern not far away and halted.
+Real footsteps came up the street, but Marcia did not notice them only as
+they made more vivid her thoughts.
+
+Her dream went on and the steps drew nearer until suddenly they halted and
+some one appeared out of the shadow. Her heart stood still, for form and
+face in the darkness seemed unreal, and the dreams had been most vivid.
+Then with tender masterfulness two strong arms were flung about her and
+her face was drawn close to his across the vine-twined gate until her lips
+touched his. One long clinging kiss of tenderness he gave her and held her
+head close against his breast for just a moment while he murmured: “My
+darling! My precious, precious Kate, I have you at last!�
+
+The spell was broken! Marcia’s dream was shattered. Her mind awoke. With a
+scream she sprang from him, horror and a wild but holy joy mingling with
+her perplexity. She put her hand upon her heart, marvelling over the
+sweetness that lingered upon her lips, trying to recover her senses as she
+faced the eager lover who opened the little gate and came quickly toward
+her, as yet unaware that it was not Kate to whom he had been talking.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER III
+
+
+Marcia stood quivering, trembling. She comprehended all in an instant.
+David Spafford had come a day earlier than he had been expected, to
+surprise Kate, and Kate was off having a good time with some one else. He
+had mistaken her for Kate. Her long dress and her put-up hair had deceived
+him in the moonlight. She tried to summon some womanly courage, and in her
+earnestness to make things right she forgot her natural timidity.
+
+“It is not Kate,� she said gently; “it is only Marcia. Kate did not know
+you were coming to-night. She did not expect you till to-morrow. She had
+to go out,—that is—she has gone with—� the truthful, youthful, troubled
+sister paused. To her mind it was a calamity that Kate was not present to
+meet her lover. She should at least have been in the house ready for a
+surprise like this. Would David not feel the omission keenly? She must
+keep it from him if she could about Captain Leavenworth. There was no
+reason why he should feel badly about it, of course, and yet it might
+annoy him. But he stepped back laughing at his mistake.
+
+“Why! Marcia, is it you, child? How you have grown! I never should have
+known you!� said the young man pleasantly. He had always a grave
+tenderness for this little sister of his love. “Of course your sister did
+not know I was coming,� he went on, “and doubtless she has many things to
+attend to. I did not expect her to be out here watching for me, though for
+a moment I did think she was at the gate. You say she is gone out? Then we
+will go up to the house and I will be there to surprise her when she
+comes.�
+
+Marcia turned with relief. He had not asked where Kate was gone, nor with
+whom.
+
+The Squire and Madam Schuyler greeted the arrival with elaborate welcome.
+The Squire like Marcia seemed much annoyed that Kate had gone out. He kept
+fuming back and forth from the window to the door and asking: “What did
+she go out for to-night? She ought to have stayed at home!�
+
+But Madam Schuyler wore ample satisfaction upon her smooth brow. The
+bridegroom had arrived. There could be no further hitch in the ceremonies.
+He had arrived a day before the time, it is true; but he had not found
+_her_ unprepared. So far as she was concerned, with a few extra touches
+the wedding might proceed at once. She was always ready for everything in
+time. No one could find a screw loose in the machinery of her household.
+
+She bustled about, giving orders and laying a bountiful supper before the
+young man, while the Squire sat and talked with him, and Marcia hovered
+watchfully, waiting upon the table, noticing with admiring eyes the
+beautiful wave of his abundant hair, tossed back from his forehead. She
+took a kind of pride of possession in his handsome face,—the far-removed
+possession of a sister-in-law. There was his sunny smile, that seemed as
+though it could bring joy out of the gloom of a bleak December day, and
+there were the two dimples—not real dimples, of course, men never had
+dimples—but hints, suggestions of dimples, that caught themselves when he
+smiled, here and there like hidden mischief well kept under control, but
+still merrily ready to come to the surface. His hands were white and firm,
+the fingers long and shapely, the hands of a brain worker. The vision of
+Hanford Weston’s hands, red and bony, came up to her in contrast. She had
+not known that she looked at them that day when he had stood awkwardly
+asking if he might walk with her. Poor Hanford! He would ill compare with
+this cultured scholarly man who was his senior by ten years, though it is
+possible that with the ten years added he would have been quite worthy of
+the admiration of any of the village girls.
+
+The fruit cake and raspberry preserves and doughnuts and all the various
+viands that Madam Schuyler had ordered set out for the delectation of her
+guest had been partaken of, and David and the Squire sat talking of the
+news of the day, touching on politics, with a bit of laughter from the
+Squire at the man who thought he had invented a machine to draw carriages
+by steam in place of horses.
+
+“There’s a good deal in it, I believe,� said the younger man. “His theory
+is all right if he can get some one to help him carry it out.�
+
+“Well, maybe, maybe,� said the Squire shaking his head dubiously, “but it
+seems to me a very fanciful scheme. Horses are good enough for me. I
+shouldn’t like to trust myself to an unknown quantity like steam, but time
+will tell.�
+
+“Yes, and the world is progressing. Something of the sort is sure to come.
+It has come in England. It would make a vast change in our country,
+binding city to city and practically eradicating space.�
+
+“Visionary schemes, David, visionary schemes, that’s what I call them. You
+and I’ll never see them in our day, I’m sure of that. Remember this is a
+new country and must go slow.� The Squire was half laughing, half in
+earnest.
+
+Amid the talk Marcia had quietly slipped out. It had occurred to her that
+perhaps the captain might return with her sister.
+
+She must watch for Kate and warn her. Like a shadow in the moonlight she
+stepped softly down the gravel path once more and waited at the gate. Did
+not that sacred kiss placed upon her lips all by mistake bind her to this
+solemn duty? Had it not been given to her to see as in a revelation, by
+that kiss, the love of one man for one woman, deep and tender and true?
+
+In the fragrant darkness her soul stood still and wondered over Love, the
+marvellous. With an insight such as few have who have not tasted years of
+wedded joy, Marcia comprehended the possibility and joy of sacrifice that
+made even sad things bright because of Love. She saw like a flash how Kate
+could give up her gay life, her home, her friends, everything that life
+had heretofore held dear for her, that she might be by the side of the man
+who loved her so. But with this knowledge of David’s love for Kate came a
+troubled doubt. Did Kate love David that way? If Kate had been the one who
+received that kiss would she have returned it with the same tenderness and
+warmth with which it was given? Marcia dared not try to answer this. It
+was Kate’s question, not hers, and she must never let it enter her mind
+again. Of course she must love him that way or she would never marry him.
+
+The night crept slowly for the anxious little watcher at the gate. Had she
+been sure where to look for her sister, and not afraid of the tongues of a
+few interested neighbors who had watched everything at the house for days
+that no item about the wedding should escape them, she would have started
+on a search at once. She knew if she just ran into old Miss Pemberton’s,
+whose house stood out upon the street with two straight-backed little,
+high, white seats each side of the stoop, a most delightful post of
+observation, she could discover at once in which direction Kate had gone,
+and perhaps a good deal more of hints and suggestions besides. But Marcia
+had no mind to make gossip. She must wait as patiently as she could for
+Kate. Moreover Kate might be walking even now in some secluded, rose-lined
+lane arm in arm with the captain, saying a pleasant farewell. It was
+Kate’s way and no one might gainsay her.
+
+Marcia’s dreams came back once more, the thoughts that had been hers as
+she stood there an hour before. She thought how the kiss had fitted into
+the dream. Then all at once conscience told her it was Kate’s lover, not
+her own, whose arms had encircled her. And now there was a strange
+unwillingness to go back to the dreams at all, a lingering longing for the
+joys into whose glory she had been for a moment permitted to look. She
+drew back from all thoughts and tried to close the door upon them. They
+seemed too sacred to enter. Her maidenhood was but just begun and she had
+much yet to learn of life. She was glad, glad for Kate that such
+wonderfulness was coming to her. Kate would be sweeter, softer in her ways
+now. She could not help it with a love like that enfolding her life.
+
+At last there were footsteps! Hark! Two people—only two! Just what Marcia
+had expected. The other girls and boys had dropped into other streets or
+gone home. Kate and her former lover were coming home alone. And,
+furthermore, Kate would not be glad to see her sister at the gate. This
+last thought came with sudden conviction, but Marcia did not falter.
+
+“Kate, David has come!� Marcia said it in low, almost accusing tones, at
+least so it sounded to Kate, before the two had hardly reached the gate.
+They had been loitering along talking in low tones, and the young
+captain’s head was bent over his companion in an earnest, pleading
+attitude. Marcia could not bear to look, and did not wish to see more, so
+she had spoken.
+
+Kate, startled, sprang away from her companion, a white angry look in her
+face.
+
+“How you scared me, Marsh!� she exclaimed pettishly. “What if he has come?
+That’s nothing. I guess he can wait a few minutes. He had no business to
+come to-night anyway. He knew we wouldn’t be ready for him till
+to-morrow.�
+
+Kate was recovering her self-possession in proportion as she realized the
+situation. That she was vexed over her bridegroom’s arrival neither of the
+two witnesses could doubt. It stung her sister with a deep pity for David.
+He was not getting as much in Kate as he was giving. But there was no time
+for such thoughts, besides Marcia was trembling from head to foot, partly
+with her own daring, partly with wrath at her sister’s words.
+
+“For shame, Kate!� she cried. “How can you talk so, even in fun! David
+came to surprise you, and I think he had a right to expect to find you
+here so near to the time of your marriage.�
+
+There was a flash in the young eyes as she said it, and a delicate lifting
+of her chin with the conviction of the truth she was speaking, that gave
+her a new dignity even in the moonlight. Captain Leavenworth looked at her
+in lazy admiration and said:
+
+“Why, Marsh, you’re developing into quite a spitfire. What have you got on
+to-night that makes you look so tall and handsome? Why didn’t you stay in
+and talk to your fine gentleman? I’m sure he would have been just as well
+satisfied with you as your sister.�
+
+Marcia gave one withering glance at the young man and then turned her back
+full upon him. He was not worth noticing. Besides he was to be pitied, for
+he evidently cared still for Kate.
+
+But Kate was fairly white with anger. Perhaps her own accusing conscience
+helped it on. Her voice was imperious and cold. She drew herself up
+haughtily and pointed toward the house.
+
+“Marcia Schuyler,� she said coldly, facing her sister, “go into the house
+and attend to your own affairs. You’ll find that you’ll get into serious
+trouble if you attempt to meddle with mine. You’re nothing but a child yet
+and ought to be punished for your impudence. Go! I tell you!� she stamped
+her foot, “I will come in when I get ready.�
+
+Marcia went. Not proudly as she might have gone the moment before, but
+covered with confusion and shame, her head drooping like some crushed lily
+on a bleeding stalk. Through her soul rushed indignation, mighty and
+forceful; indignation and shame, for her sister, for David, for herself.
+She did not stop to analyze her various feelings, nor did she stop to
+speak further with those in the house. She fled to her own room, and
+burying her face in the pillow she wept until she fell asleep.
+
+The moon-shadows grew longer about the arbored gateway where the two she
+had left stood talking in low tones, looking furtively now and then toward
+the house, and withdrawing into the covert of the bushes by the walk. But
+Kate dared not linger long. She could see her father’s profile by the
+candle light in the dining room. She did not wish to receive further
+rebuke, and so in a very few minutes the two parted and Kate ran up the
+box-edged path, beginning to hum a sweet old love song in a gay light
+voice, as she tripped by the dining-room windows, and thus announced her
+arrival. She guessed that Marcia would have gone straight to her room and
+told nothing. Kate intended to be fully surprised. She paused in the hall
+to hang up the light shawl she had worn, calling good-night to her
+stepmother and saying she was very tired and was going straight to bed to
+be ready for to-morrow. Then she ran lightly across the hall to the
+stairs.
+
+She knew they would call her back, and that they would all come into the
+hall with David to see the effect of his surprise upon her. She had
+planned to a nicety just which stair she could reach before they got
+there, and where she would pause and turn and poise, and what pose she
+would take with her round white arm stretched to the handrail, the sleeve
+turned carelessly back. She had ready her countenances, a sleepy
+indifference, then a pleased surprise, and a climax of delight. She
+carried it all out, this little bit of impromptu acting, as well as though
+she had rehearsed it for a month.
+
+They called her, and she turned deliberately, one dainty, slippered foot,
+with its crossed black ribbons about the slender ankle, just leaving the
+stair below, and showing the arch of the aristocratic instep. Her gown was
+blue and she held it back just enough for the stiff white frill of her
+petticoat to peep below. Well she read the admiration in the eyes below
+her. Admiration was Kate’s life: she thrived upon it. She could not do
+without it.
+
+David stood still, his love in his eyes, looking upon the vision of his
+bride, and his heart swelled within him that so great a treasure should be
+his. Then straightway they all forgot to question where she had been or to
+rebuke her that she had been at all. She had known they would. She ever
+possessed the power to make others forget her wrong doings when it was
+worth her while to try.
+
+The next morning things were astir even earlier than usual. There was the
+sound of the beating of eggs, the stirring of cakes, the clatter of pots
+and pans from the wide, stone-flagged kitchen.
+
+Marcia, fresh as a flower from its morning dew in spite of her cry the
+night before, had arisen to new opportunities for service. She was glad
+with the joyous forgetfulness of youth when she looked at David’s happy
+face, and she thought no more of Kate’s treatment of herself.
+
+David followed Kate with a true lover’s eyes and was never for more than a
+few moments out of her sight, though it seemed to Marcia that Kate did not
+try very hard to stay with him. When afternoon came she dismissed him for
+what she called her “beauty nap.� Marcia was passing through the hall at
+the time and she caught the tender look upon his face as he touched her
+brow with reverent fingers and told her she had no need for that. Her eyes
+met Kate’s as they were going up the stairs, and in spite of what Kate had
+said the night before Marcia could not refrain from saying: “Oh, Kate! how
+could you when he loves you so? You know you never take a nap in the
+daytime!�
+
+“You silly girl!� said Kate pleasantly enough, “don’t you know the less a
+man sees of one the more he thinks of her?� With this remark she closed
+and fastened her door after her.
+
+Marcia pondered these words of wisdom for some time, wondering whether
+Kate had really done it for that reason, or whether she did not care for
+the company of her lover. And why should it be so that a man loved you
+less because he saw you more? In her straightforward code the more you
+loved persons the more you desired to be in their company.
+
+Kate had issued from her “beauty nap� with a feverish restlessness in her
+eyes, an averted face, and ink upon one finger. At supper she scarcely
+spoke, and when she did she laughed excitedly over little things. Her
+lover watched her with eyes of pride and ever increasing wonder over her
+beauty, and Marcia, seeing the light in his face, watched for its answer
+in her sister’s, and finding it not was troubled.
+
+She watched them from her bedroom window as they walked down the path
+where she had gone the evening before, decorously side by side, Kate
+holding her light muslin frock back from the dew on the hedges. She
+wondered if it was because Kate had more respect for David than for
+Captain Leavenworth that she never seemed to treat him with as much
+familiarity. She did not take possession of him in the same sweet
+imperious way.
+
+Marcia had not lighted her candle. The moon gave light enough and she was
+very weary, so she undressed in the dim chamber and pondered upon the ways
+of the great world. Out there in the moonlight were those two who
+to-morrow would be one, and here was she, alone. The world seemed all
+circling about that white chamber of hers, and echoing with her own
+consciousness of self, and a loneliness she had never felt before. She
+wondered what it might be. Was it all sadness at parting with Kate, or was
+it the sadness over inevitable partings of all human relationships, and
+the all-aloneness of every living spirit?
+
+She stood for a moment, white-robed, beside her window, looking up into
+the full round moon, and wondering if God knew the ache of loneliness in
+His little human creatures’ souls that He had made, and whether He had
+ready something wherewith to satisfy. Then her meek soul bowed before the
+faith that was in her and she knelt for her shy but reverent evening
+prayer.
+
+She heard the two lovers come in early and go upstairs, and she heard her
+father fastening up the doors and windows for the night. Then stillness
+gradually settled down and she fell asleep. Later, in her dreams, there
+echoed the sound of hastening hoofs far down the deserted street and over
+the old covered bridge, but she took no note of any sound, and the weary
+household slept on.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER IV
+
+
+The wedding was set for ten o’clock in the morning, after which there was
+to be a wedding breakfast and the married couple were to start immediately
+for their new home.
+
+David had driven the day before with his own horse and chaise to a town
+some twenty miles away, and there left his horse at a tavern to rest for
+the return trip, for Kate would have it that they must leave the house in
+high style. So the finest equipage the town afforded had been secured to
+bear them on the first stage of their journey, with a portly negro driver
+and everything according to the custom of the greatest of the land.
+Nothing that Kate desired about the arrangements had been left undone.
+
+The household was fully astir by half past four, for the family breakfast
+was to be at six promptly, that all might be cleared away and in readiness
+for the early arrival of the various aunts and uncles and cousins and
+friends who would “drive over� from the country round about. It would have
+been something Madam Schuyler would never have been able to get over if
+aught had been awry when a single uncle or aunt appeared upon the scene,
+or if there seemed to be the least evidence of fluster and nervousness.
+
+The rosy sunlight in the east was mixing the morning with fresher air, and
+new odors for the new day that was dawning, when Marcia awoke. The sharp
+click of spoons and dishes, the voices of the maids, the sizzle, sputter,
+odor of frying ham and eggs, mingled with the early chorus of the birds,
+and calling to life of all living creatures, like an intrusion upon
+nature. It seemed not right to steal the morning’s “quiet hour� thus
+rudely. The thought flitted through the girl’s mind, and in an instant
+more the whole panorama of the day’s excitement was before her, and she
+sprang from her bed. As if it had been her own wedding day instead of her
+sister’s, she performed her dainty toilet, for though there was need for
+haste, she knew she would have no further time beyond a moment to slip on
+her best gown and smooth her hair.
+
+Marcia hurried downstairs just as the bell rang for breakfast, and David,
+coming down smiling behind her, patted her cheek and greeted her with,
+“Well, little sister, you look as rested as if you had not done a thing
+all day yesterday.�
+
+She smiled shyly back at him, and her heart filled with pleasure over his
+new name for her. It sounded pleasantly from his happy lips. She was
+conscious of a gladness that he was to be so nearly related to her. She
+fancied how it would seem to say to Mary Ann: “My brother-in-law says so
+and so.� It would be grand to call such a man “brother.�
+
+They were all seated at the table but Kate, and Squire Schuyler waited
+with pleasantly frowning brows to ask the blessing on the morning food.
+Kate was often late. She was the only member of the family who dared to be
+late to breakfast, and being the bride and the centre of the occasion more
+leniency was granted her this morning than ever before. Madam Schuyler
+waited until every one at the table was served to ham and eggs, coffee and
+bread-and-butter, and steaming griddle cakes, before she said, looking
+anxiously at the tall clock: “Marcia, perhaps you better go up and see if
+your sister needs any help. She ought to be down by now. Uncle Joab and
+Aunt Polly will be sure to be here by eight. She must have overslept, but
+we made so much noise she is surely awake by this time.�
+
+Marcia left her half-eaten breakfast and went slowly upstairs. She knew
+her sister would not welcome her, for she had often been sent on like
+errands before, and the brunt of Kate’s anger had fallen upon the hapless
+messenger, wearing itself out there so that she might descend all smiles
+to greet father and mother and smooth off the situation in a most
+harmonious manner.
+
+Marcia paused before the door to listen. Perhaps Kate was nearly ready and
+her distasteful errand need not be performed. But though she held her
+breath to listen, no sound came from the closed door. Very softly she
+tried to lift the latch and peep in. Kate must still be asleep. It was not
+the first time Marcia had found that to be the case when sent to bring her
+sister.
+
+But the latch would not lift. The catch was firmly down from the inside.
+Marcia applied her eye to the keyhole, but could get no vision save a dim
+outline of the window on the other side of the room. She tapped gently
+once or twice and waited again, then called softly: “Kate, Kate! Wake up.
+Breakfast is ready and everybody is eating. Aunt Polly and Uncle Joab will
+soon be here.�
+
+She repeated her tapping and calling, growing louder as she received no
+answer. Kate would often keep still to tease her thus. Surely though she
+would not do so upon her wedding morning!
+
+She called and called and shook the door, not daring, however, to make
+much of an uproar lest David should hear. She could not bear he should
+know the shortcomings of his bride.
+
+But at last she grew alarmed. Perhaps Kate was ill. At any rate, whatever
+it was, it was time she was up. She worked for some minutes trying to
+loosen the catch that held the latch, but all to no purpose. She was
+forced to go down stairs and whisper to her stepmother the state of the
+case.
+
+Madam Schuyler, excusing herself from the table, went upstairs, purposeful
+decision in every line of her substantial body, determination in every
+sound of her footfall. Bride though she be, Kate would have meted out to
+her just dues this time. Company and a lover and the nearness of the
+wedding hour were things not to be trifled with even by a charming Kate.
+
+But Madam Schuyler returned in a short space of time, puffing and panting,
+somewhat short of breath, and color in her face. She looked troubled, and
+she interrupted the Squire without waiting for him to finish his sentence
+to David.
+
+“I cannot understand what is the matter with Kate,� she said, looking at
+her husband. “She does not seem to be awake, and I cannot get her door
+open. She sleeps soundly, and I suppose the unusual excitement has made
+her very tired. But I should think she ought to hear my voice. Perhaps you
+better see if you can open the door.�
+
+There was studied calm in her voice, but her face belied her words. She
+was anxious lest Kate was playing one of her pranks. She knew Kate’s
+careless, fun-loving ways. It was more to her that all things should move
+decently and in order than that Kate should even be perfectly well. But
+Marcia’s white face behind her stepmother’s ample shoulder showed a dread
+of something worse than a mere indisposition. David Spafford took alarm at
+once. He put down the silver syrup jug from which he had been pouring
+golden maple syrup on his cakes, and pushed his chair back with a click.
+
+“Perhaps she has fainted!� he said, and Marcia saw how deeply he was
+concerned. Father and lover both started up stairs, the father angry, the
+lover alarmed. The Squire grumbled all the way up that Kate should sleep
+so late, but David said nothing. He waited anxiously behind while the
+Squire worked with the door. Madam Schuyler and Marcia had followed them,
+and halting curiously just behind came the two maids. They all loved Miss
+Kate and were deeply interested in the day’s doings. They did not want
+anything to interfere with the well-planned pageant.
+
+The Squire fumbled nervously with the latch, all the time calling upon his
+daughter to open the door; then wrathfully placed his solid shoulder and
+knee in just the right place, and with a groan and wrench the latch gave
+way, and the solid oak door swung open, precipitating the anxious group
+somewhat suddenly into the room.
+
+Almost immediately they all became aware that there was no one there.
+David had stood with averted eyes at first, but that second sense which
+makes us aware without sight when others are near or absent, brought with
+it an unnamed anxiety. He looked wildly about.
+
+The bed had not been slept in; that they all saw at once. The room was in
+confusion, but perhaps not more than might have been expected when the
+occupant was about to leave on the morrow. There were pieces of paper and
+string upon the floor and one or two garments lying about as if carelessly
+cast off in a hurry. David recognized the purple muslin frock Kate had
+worn the night before, and put out his hand to touch it as it lay across
+the foot of the bed, vainly reaching after her who was not there.
+
+They stood in silence, father, mother, sister, and lover, and took in
+every detail of the deserted room, then looked blankly into one another’s
+white faces, and in the eyes of each a terrible question began to dawn.
+Where was she?
+
+Madam Schuyler recovered her senses first. With her sharp practical system
+she endeavored to find out the exact situation.
+
+“Who saw her last?� she asked sharply looking from one to the other. “Who
+saw her last? Has she been down stairs this morning?� she looked straight
+at Marcia this time, but the girl shook her head.
+
+“I went to bed last night before they came in,� she said, looking
+questioningly at David, but a sudden remembrance and fear seized her
+heart. She turned away to the window to face it where they could not look
+at her.
+
+“We came in early,� said David, trying to keep the anxiety out of his
+voice, as he remembered his well-beloved’s good-night. Surely, surely,
+nothing very dreadful could have happened just over night, and in her
+father’s own house. He looked about again to see the natural, every-day,
+little things that would help him drive away the thoughts of possible
+tragedy.
+
+“Kate was tired. She said she was going to get up very early this morning
+and wash her face in the dew on the grass.� He braved a smile and looked
+about on the troubled group. “She must be out somewhere upon the place,�
+he continued, gathering courage with the thought; “she told me it was an
+old superstition. She has maybe wandered further than she intended, and
+perhaps got into some trouble. I’d better go and search for her. Is there
+any place near here where she would be likely to be?� He turned to Marcia
+for help.
+
+“But Kate would never delay so long I’m sure,� said the stepmother
+severely. “She’s not such a fool as to go traipsing through the wet grass
+before daylight for any nonsense. If it were Marcia now, you might expect
+anything, but Kate would be satisfied with the dew on the grass by the
+kitchen pump. I know Kate.�
+
+Marcia’s face crimsoned at her stepmother’s words, but she turned her
+troubled eyes to David and tried to answer him.
+
+“There are plenty of places, but Kate has never cared to go to them. I
+could go out and look everywhere.� She started to go down, but as she
+passed the wide mahogany bureau she saw a bit of folded paper lying under
+the corner of the pincushion. With a smothered exclamation she went over
+and picked it up. It was addressed to David in Kate’s handwriting, fine
+and even like copperplate. Without a word Marcia handed it to him, and
+then stood back where the wide draperies of the window would shadow her.
+
+Madam Schuyler, with sudden keen prescience, took alarm. Noticing the two
+maids standing wide-mouthed in the hallway, she summoned her most
+commandatory tone, stepped into the hall, half closing the door behind
+her, and cowed the two handmaidens under her glance.
+
+“It is all right!� she said calmly. “Miss Kate has left a note, and will
+soon return. Go down and keep her breakfast warm, and not a word to a
+soul! Dolly, Debby, do you understand? Not a word of this! Now hurry and
+do all that I told you before breakfast.�
+
+They went with downcast eyes and disappointed droops to their mouths, but
+she knew that not a word would pass their lips. They knew that if they
+disobeyed that command they need never hope for favor more from madam.
+Madam’s word was law. She would be obeyed. Therefore with remarkable
+discretion they masked their wondering looks and did as they were bidden.
+So while the family stood in solemn conclave in Kate’s room the
+preparations for the wedding moved steadily forward below stairs, and only
+two solemn maids, of all the helpers that morning, knew that a tragedy was
+hovering in the air and might burst about them.
+
+David had grasped for the letter eagerly, and fumbled it open with
+trembling hand, but as he read, the smile of expectation froze upon his
+lips and his face grew ashen. He tottered and grasped for the mantel shelf
+to steady himself as he read further, but he did not seem to take in the
+meaning of what he read. The others waited breathless, a reasonable length
+of time, Madam Schuyler impatiently patient. She felt that long delay
+would be perilous to her arrangements. She ought to know the whole truth
+at once and be put in command of the situation. Marcia with sorrowful face
+and drooping eyelashes stood quiet behind the curtain, while over and over
+the echo of a horse’s hoofs in a silent street and over a bridge sounded
+in her brain. She did not need to be told, she knew intuitively what had
+happened, and she dared not look at David.
+
+“Well, what has she done with herself?� said the Squire impatiently. He
+had not finished his plate of cakes, and now that there was word he wanted
+to know it at once and go back to his breakfast. The sight of his
+daughter’s handwriting relieved and reassured him. Some crazy thing she
+had done of course, but then Kate had always done queer things, and
+probably would to the end of time. She was a hussy to frighten them so,
+and he meant to tell her so when she returned, if it was her wedding day.
+But then, Kate would be Kate, and his breakfast was getting cold. He had
+the horses to look after and orders to give to the hands before the early
+guests arrived.
+
+But David did not answer, and the sight of him was alarming. He stood as
+one stricken dumb all in a moment. He raised his eyes to the
+Squire’s—pleading, pitiful. His face had grown strained and haggard.
+
+“Speak out, man, doesn’t the letter tell?� said the Squire imperiously.
+“Where is the girl?�
+
+And this time David managed to say brokenly: “She’s gone!� and then his
+head dropped forward on his cold hand that rested on the mantel. Great
+beads of perspiration stood out upon his white forehead, and the letter
+fluttered gayly, coquettishly to the floor, a reminder of the uncertain
+ways of its writer.
+
+The Squire reached for it impatiently, and wiping his spectacles
+laboriously put them on and drew near to the window to read, his heavy
+brows lowering in a frown. But his wife did not need to read the letter,
+for she, like Marcia, had divined its purport, and already her able
+faculties were marshalled to face the predicament.
+
+The Squire with deepening frown was studying his elder daughter’s letter,
+scarce able to believe the evidence of his senses that a girl of his could
+be so heartless.
+
+
+    “DEAR DAVID,� the letter ran,—written as though in a hurry, done
+    at the last moment,—which indeed it was:—
+
+    “I want you to forgive me for what I am doing. I know you will
+    feel bad about it, but really I never was the right one for you.
+    I’m sure you thought me all too good, and I never could have
+    stayed in a strait-jacket, it would have killed me. I shall always
+    consider you the best man in the world, and I like you better than
+    anyone else except Captain Leavenworth. I can’t help it, you know,
+    that I care more for him than anyone else, though I’ve tried. So I
+    am going away to-night and when you read this we shall have been
+    married. You are so very good that I know you will forgive me, and
+    be glad I am happy. Don’t think hardly of me for I always did care
+    a great deal for you.
+
+                                                     “Your loving
+
+                                                               “KATE.�
+
+
+It was characteristic of Kate that she demanded the love and loyalty of
+her betrayed lover to the bitter end, false and heartless though she had
+been. The coquette in her played with him even now in the midst of the
+bitter pain she must have known she was inflicting. No word of contrition
+spoke she, but took her deed as one of her prerogatives, just as she had
+always taken everything she chose. She did not even spare him the loving
+salutation that had been her custom in her letters to him, but wrote
+herself down as she would have done the day before when all was fair and
+dear between them. She did not hint at any better day for David, or give
+him permission to forget her, but held him for all time as her own, as she
+had known she would by those words of hers, “I like you better than anyone
+else except!—� Ah! That fatal “except!� Could any knife cut deeper and
+more ways? They sank into the young man’s heart as he stood there those
+first few minutes and faced his trouble, his head bowed upon the
+mantel-piece.
+
+Meantime Madam Schuyler’s keen vision had spied another folded paper
+beside the pincushion. Smaller it was than the other, and evidently
+intended to be placed further out of sight. It was addressed to Kate’s
+father, and her stepmother opened it and read with hard pressure of her
+thin lips, slanted down at the corners, and a steely look in her eyes. Was
+it possible that the girl, even in the midst of her treachery, had enjoyed
+with a sort of malicious glee the thought of her stepmother reading that
+note and facing the horror of a wedding party with no bride? Knowing her
+stepmother’s vast resources did she not think that at last she had brought
+her to a situation to which she was unequal? There had always been this
+unseen, unspoken struggle for supremacy between them; though it had been a
+friendly one, a sort of testing on the girl’s part of the powers and
+expedients of the woman, with a kind of vast admiration, mingled with
+amusement, but no fear for the stepmother who had been uniformly kind and
+loving toward her, and for whom she cared, perhaps as much as she could
+have cared for her own mother. The other note read:
+
+
+    “DEAR FATHER:—I am going away to-night to marry Captain
+    Leavenworth. You wouldn’t let me have him in the right way, so I
+    had to take this. I tried very hard to forget him and get
+    interested in David, but it was no use. You couldn’t stop it. So
+    now I hope you will see it the way we do and forgive us. We are
+    going to Washington and you can write us there and say you forgive
+    us, and then we will come home. I know you will forgive us, Daddy
+    dear. You know you always loved your little Kate and you couldn’t
+    really want me to be unhappy. Please send my trunks to Washington.
+    I’ve tacked the card with the address on the ends.
+
+                                        “Your loving little girl,
+
+                                                               “KATE.�
+
+
+There was a terrible stillness in the room, broken only by the crackling
+of paper as the notes were turned in the hands of their readers. Marcia
+felt as if centuries were passing. David’s soul was pierced by one awful
+thought. He had no room for others. She was gone! Life was a blank for
+him! stretching out into interminable years. Of her treachery and
+false-heartedness in doing what she had done in the way she had done it,
+he had no time to take account. That would come later. Now he was trying
+to understand this one awful fact.
+
+Madam Schuyler handed the second note to her husband, and with set lips
+quickly skimmed through the other one. As she read, indignation rose
+within her, and a great desire to outwit everybody. If it had been
+possible to bring the erring girl back and make her face her disgraced
+wedding alone, Madam Schuyler would have been glad to do it. She knew that
+upon her would likely rest all the re-arrangements, and her ready brain
+was already taking account of her servants and the number of messages that
+would have to be sent out to stop the guests from arriving. She waited
+impatiently for her husband to finish reading that she might consult with
+him as to the best message to send, but she was scarcely prepared for the
+burst of anger that came with the finish of the letters. The old man
+crushed his daughter’s note in his hand and flung it from him. He had
+great respect and love for David, and the sight of him broken in grief,
+the deed of his daughter, roused in him a mighty indignation. His voice
+shook, but there was a deep note of command in it that made Madam Schuyler
+step aside and wait. The Squire had arisen to the situation, and she
+recognized her lord and master.
+
+“She must be brought back at once at all costs!� he exclaimed. “That
+rascal shall not outwit us. Fool that I was to trust him in the house!
+Tell the men to saddle the horses. They cannot have gone far yet, and
+there are not so many roads to Washington. We may yet overtake them, and
+married or unmarried the hussy shall be here for her wedding!�
+
+But David raised his head from the mantel-shelf and steadied his voice:
+
+“No, no, you must not do that—father—� the appellative came from his lips
+almost tenderly, as if he had long considered the use of it with pleasure,
+and now he spoke it as a tender bond meant to comfort.
+
+The older man started and his face softened. A flash of understanding and
+love passed between the two men.
+
+“Remember, she has said she loves some one else. She could never be mine
+now.�
+
+There was terrible sadness in the words as David spoke them, and his voice
+broke. Madam Schuyler turned away and took out her handkerchief, an
+article of apparel for which she seldom had use except as it belonged to
+every well ordered toilet.
+
+The father stood looking hopelessly at David and taking in the thought.
+Then he too bowed his head and groaned.
+
+“And my daughter, _my little Kate_ has done it!� Marcia covered her face
+with the curtains and her tears fell fast.
+
+David went and stood beside the Squire and touched his arm.
+
+“Don’t!� he said pleadingly. “You could not help it. It was not your
+fault. Do not take it so to heart!�
+
+“But it is my disgrace. I have brought up a child who could do it. I
+cannot escape from that. It is the most dishonorable thing a woman can do.
+And look how she has done it, brought shame upon us all! Here we have a
+wedding on our hands, and little or no time to do anything! I have lived
+in honor all my life, and now to be disgraced by my own daughter!�
+
+Marcia shuddered at her father’s agony. She could not bear it longer. With
+a soft cry she went to him, and nestled her head against his breast
+unnoticed.
+
+“Father, father, don’t!� she cried.
+
+But her father went on without seeming to see her.
+
+“To be disgraced and deserted and dishonored by my own child! Something
+must be done. Send the servants! Let the wedding be stopped!�
+
+He looked at Madam and she started toward the door to carry out his
+bidding, but he recalled her immediately.
+
+“No, stay!� he cried. “It is too late to stop them all. Let them come. Let
+them be told! Let the disgrace rest upon the one to whom it belongs!�
+
+Madam stopped in consternation! A wedding without a bride! Yet she knew it
+was a serious thing to try to dispute with her husband in that mood. She
+paused to consider.
+
+“Oh, father!� exclaimed Marcia, “we couldn’t! Think of David.�
+
+Her words seemed to touch the right chord, for he turned toward the young
+man, intense, tender pity in his face.
+
+“Yes, David! We are forgetting David! We must do all we can to make it
+easier for you. You will be wanting to get away from us as quickly as
+possible. How can we manage it for you? And where will you go? You will
+not want to go home just yet?�
+
+He paused, a new agony of the knowledge of David’s part coming to him.
+
+“No, I cannot go home,� said David hopelessly, a look of keen pain darting
+across his face, “for the house will be all ready for her, and the table
+set. The friends will be coming in, and we are invited to dinner and tea
+everywhere. They will all be coming to the house, my friends, to welcome
+us. No, I cannot go home.� Then he passed his hand over his forehead
+blindly, and added, in a stupefied tone, “and yet I must—sometime—I
+must—go—home!�
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER V
+
+
+The room was very still as he spoke. Madam Schuyler forgot the coming
+guests and the preparations, in consternation over the thought of David
+and his sorrow. Marcia sobbed softly upon her father’s breast, and her
+father involuntarily placed his arm about her as he stood in painful
+thought.
+
+“It is terrible!� he murmured, “terrible! How could she bear to inflict
+such sorrow! She might have saved us the scorn of all of our friends.
+David, you must not go back alone. It must not be. You must not bear that.
+There are lovely girls in plenty elsewhere. Find another one and marry
+her. Take your bride home with you, and no one in your home need be the
+wiser. Don’t sorrow for that cruel girl of mine. Give her not the
+satisfaction of feeling that your life is broken. Take another. Any girl
+might be proud to go with you for the asking. Had I a dozen other
+daughters you should have your pick of them, and one should go with you,
+if you would condescend to choose another from the home where you have
+been so treacherously dealt with. But I have only this one little girl.
+She is but a child as yet and cannot compare with what you thought you
+had. I blame you not if you do not wish to wed another Schuyler, but if
+you will she is yours. And she is a good girl. David, though she is but a
+child. Speak up, child, and say if you will make amends for the wrong your
+sister has done!�
+
+The room was so still one could almost hear the heartbeats. David had
+raised his head once more and was looking at Marcia. Sad and searching was
+his gaze, as if he fain would find the features of Kate in her face, yet
+it seemed to Marcia, as she raised wide tear-filled eyes from her father’s
+breast where her head still lay, that he saw her not. He was looking
+beyond her and facing the home-going alone, and the empty life that would
+follow.
+
+Her thoughts the last few days had matured her wonderfully. She understood
+and pitied, and her woman-nature longed to give comfort, yet she shrunk
+from going unasked. It was all terrible, this sudden situation thrust upon
+her, yet she felt a willing sacrifice if she but felt sure it was his
+wish.
+
+But David did not seem to know that he must speak. He waited, looking
+earnestly at her, through her, beyond her, to see if Heaven would grant
+this small relief to his sufferings. At last Marcia summoned her voice:
+
+“If David wishes I will go.�
+
+She spoke the words solemnly, her eyes lifted slightly above him as if she
+were speaking to Another One higher than he. It was like an answer to a
+call from God. It had come to Marcia this way. It seemed to leave her no
+room for drawing back, if indeed she had wished to do so. Other
+considerations were not present. There was just the one great desire in
+her heart to make amends in some measure for the wrong that had been done.
+She felt almost responsible for it, a family responsibility. She seemed to
+feel the shame and pain as her father was feeling it. She would step into
+the empty place that Kate had left and fill it as far as she could. Her
+only fear was that she was not acceptable, not worthy to fill so high a
+place. She trembled over it, yet she could not hold back from the high
+calling. It was so she stood in a kind of sorrowful exaltation waiting for
+David. Her eyes lowered again, looking at him through the lashes and
+pleading for recognition. She did not feel that she was pleading for
+anything for herself, only for the chance to help him.
+
+Her voice had broken the spell. David looked down upon her kindly, a
+pleasant light of gratitude flashing through the sternness and sorrow in
+his face. Here was comradeship in trouble, and his voice recognized it as
+he said:
+
+“Child, you are good to me, and I thank you. I will try to make you happy
+if you will go with me, and I am sure your going will be a comfort in many
+ways, but I would not have you go unwillingly.�
+
+There was a dull ache in Marcia’s heart, its cause she could not
+understand, but she was conscious of a gladness that she was not counted
+unworthy to be accepted, young though she was, and child though he called
+her. His tone had been kindness itself, the gentle kindliness that had won
+her childish sisterly love when first he began to visit her sister. She
+had that answer of his to remember for many a long day, and to live upon,
+when questionings and loneliness came upon her. But she raised her face to
+her father now, and said: “I will go, father!�
+
+The Squire stooped and kissed his little girl for the last time. Perhaps
+he realized that from this time forth she would be a little girl no
+longer, and that he would never look into those child-eyes of hers again,
+unclouded with the sorrows of life, and filled only with the
+wonder-pictures of a rosy future. She seemed to him and to herself to be
+renouncing her own life forever, and to be taking up one of sacrificial
+penitence for her sister’s wrong doing.
+
+The father then took Marcia’s hand and placed it in David’s, and the
+betrothal was complete.
+
+Madam Schuyler, whose reign for the time was set aside, stood silent, half
+disapproving, yet not interfering. Her conscience told her that this
+wholesale disposal of Marcia was against nature. The new arrangement was a
+relief to her in many ways, and would make the solution of the day less
+trying for every one. But she was a woman and knew a woman’s heart. Marcia
+was not having her chance in life as her sister had had, as every woman
+had a right to have. Then her face hardened. How had Kate used her
+chances? Perhaps it was better for Marcia to be well placed in life before
+she grew headstrong enough to make a fool of herself as Kate had done.
+David would be good to her, that was certain. One could not look at the
+strong, pleasant lines of his well cut mouth and chin and not be sure of
+that. Perhaps it was all for the best. At least it was not her doing. And
+it was only the night before that she had been looking at Marcia and
+worrying because she was growing into a woman so fast. Now she would be
+relieved of that care, and could take her ease and enjoy life until her
+own children were grown up. But the voice of her husband aroused her to
+the present.
+
+“Let the wedding go on as planned, Sarah, and no one need know until the
+ceremony is over except the minister. I myself will go and tell the
+minister. There will need to be but a change of names.�
+
+“But,� said the Madam, with housewifely alarm, as the suddenness of the
+whole thing flashed over her, “Marcia is not ready. She has no suitable
+clothes for her wedding.�
+
+“Not ready! No clothes!� said the Squire, now thoroughly irritated over
+this trivial objection, as a fly will sometimes ruffle the temper of a man
+who has kept calm under fire of an enemy. “And where are all the clothes
+that have been making these weeks and months past? What more preparation
+does she need? Did the hussy take her wedding things with her? What’s in
+this trunk?�
+
+“But those are Kate’s things, father,� said Marcia in gentle explanation.
+“Kate would be very angry if I took her things. They were made for her,
+you know.�
+
+“And what if they were made for her?� answered the father, very angry now
+at Kate. “You are near of a size. What will do for one is good enough for
+the other, and Kate may be angry and get over it, for not one rag of it
+all will she get, nor a penny of my money will ever go to her again. She
+is no daughter of mine from henceforth. That rascal has beaten me and
+stolen my daughter, but he gets a dowerless lass. Not a penny will ever go
+from the Schuyler estate into his pocket, and no trunk will ever travel
+from here to Washington for that heartless girl. I forbid it. Let her feel
+some of the sorrow she has inflicted upon others more innocent. I forbid
+it, do you hear?� He brought his fist down upon the solid mahogany bureau
+until the prisms on a candle-stand in front of the mirror jangled
+discordantly.
+
+“Oh, father!� gasped Marcia, and turned with terror to her stepmother. But
+David stood with his back toward the rest looking out of the window. He
+had forgotten them all.
+
+Madam Schuyler was now in command again. For once the Squire had
+anticipated his wife, and the next move had been planned without her help,
+but it was as she would have it. Her face had lost its consternation and
+beamed with satisfaction beneath its mask of grave perplexity. She could
+not help it that she was glad to have the terrible ordeal of a wedding
+without a bride changed into something less formidable.
+
+At least the country round about could not pity, for who was to say but
+that David was as well suited with one sister as with the other? And
+Marcia was a good girl; doubtless she would grow into a good wife. Far
+more suitable for so good and steady a man as David than pretty, imperious
+Kate.
+
+Madam Schuyler took her place of command once more and began to issue her
+orders.
+
+“Come, then, Marcia, we have no time to waste. It is all right, as your
+father has said. Kate’s things will fit you nicely and you must go at once
+and put everything in readiness. You will want all your time to dress, and
+pack a few things, and get calm. Go to your room right away and pick up
+anything you will want to take with you, and I’ll go down and see that
+Phoebe takes your place and then come back.�
+
+David and the Squire went out like two men who had suddenly grown old, and
+had not the strength to walk rapidly. No one thought any more of
+breakfast. It was half-past seven by the old tall clock that stood upon
+the stair-landing. It would not be long before Aunt Polly and Uncle Joab
+would be driving up to the door.
+
+Straight ahead went the preparations, just as if nothing had happened, and
+if Mistress Kate Leavenworth could have looked into her old room an hour
+after the discovery of her flight she would have been astonished beyond
+measure.
+
+Up in her own room stood poor bewildered Marcia. She looked about upon her
+little white bed, and thought she would never likely sleep in it again.
+She looked out of the small-paned window with its view of distant hill and
+river, and thought she was bidding it good-bye forever. She went toward
+her closet and put out her hand to choose what she would take with her,
+and her heart sank. There hung the faded old ginghams short and scant, and
+scorned but yesterday, yet her heart wildly clung to them. Almost would
+she have put one on and gone back to her happy care-free school life. The
+thought of the new life frightened her. She must give up her girlhood all
+at once. She might not keep a vestige of it, for that would betray David.
+She must be Kate from morning to evening. Like a sword thrust came the
+remembrance that she had envied Kate, and God had given her the punishment
+of being Kate in very truth. Only there was this great difference. She was
+not the chosen one, and Kate had been. She must bear about forever in her
+heart the thought of Kate’s sin.
+
+The voice of her stepmother drew nearer and warned her that her time alone
+was almost over, and out on the lawn she could hear the voices of Uncle
+Joab and Aunt Polly who had just arrived.
+
+She dropped upon her knees for one brief moment and let her young soul
+pour itself out in one great cry of distress to God, a cry without words
+borne only on the breath of a sob. Then she arose, hastily dashed cold
+water in her face, and dried away the traces of tears. There was no more
+time to think. With hurried hand she began to gather a few trifles
+together from closet and drawer.
+
+One last lingering look she took about her room as she left it, her arms
+filled with the things she had hastily culled from among her own. Then she
+shut the door quickly and went down the hall to her sister’s room to enter
+upon her new life. She was literally putting off herself and putting on a
+new being as far as it was possible to do so outwardly.
+
+There on the bed lay the bridal outfit. Madam Schuyler had just brought it
+from the spare room that there might be no more going back and forth
+through the halls to excite suspicion. She was determined that there
+should be no excitement or demonstration or opportunity for gossip among
+the guests at least until the ceremony was over. She had satisfied herself
+that not a soul outside the family save the two maids suspected that aught
+was the matter, and she felt sure of their silence.
+
+Kate had taken very little with her, evidently fearing to excite
+suspicion, and having no doubt that her father would relent and send all
+her trousseau as she had requested in her letter. For once Mistress Kate
+had forgotten her fineries and made good her escape with but two frocks
+and a few other necessaries in a small hand-bag.
+
+Madam Schuyler was relieved to the point of genuine cheerfulness, over
+this, despite the cloud of tragedy that hung over the day. She began to
+talk to Marcia as if she had been Kate, as she smoothed down this and that
+article and laid them back in the trunk, telling how the blue gown would
+be the best for church and the green silk for going out to very fine
+places, to tea-drinkings and the like, and how she must always be sure to
+wear the cream undersleeves with the Irish point lace with her silk gown
+as they set it off to perfection. She recalled, too, how little experience
+Marcia had had in the ways of the world, and all the while the girl was
+being dressed in the dainty bridal garments she gave her careful
+instructions in the art of being a success in society, until Marcia felt
+that the green fields and the fences and trees to climb and the excursions
+after blackberries, and all the joyful merry-makings of the boys and girls
+were receding far from her. She could even welcome Hanford Weston as a
+playfellow in her new future, if thereby a little fresh air and freedom of
+her girlhood might be left. Nevertheless there gradually came over her an
+elation of excitement. The feel of the dainty garments, the delicate
+embroidery, the excitement lest the white slippers would not fit her, the
+difficulty of making her hair stay up in just Kate’s style—for her
+stepmother insisted that she must dress it exactly like Kate’s and make
+herself look as nearly as possible as Kate would have looked,—all drove
+sadness from her mind and she began to taste a little delight in the
+pretty clothes, the great occasion, and her own importance. The vision in
+the looking-glass, too, told her that her own face was winsome, and the
+new array not unbecoming. Something of this she had seen the night before
+when she put on her new chintz; now the change was complete, as she stood
+in the white satin and lace with the string of seed pearls that had been
+her mother’s tied about her soft white throat. She thought about the
+tradition of the pearls that Kate’s girl friends had laughingly reminded
+her of a few days before when they were looking at the bridal garments.
+They had said that each pearl a bride wore meant a tear she would shed.
+She wondered if Kate had escaped the tears with the pearls, and left them
+for her.
+
+She was ready at last, even to the veil that had been her mother’s, and
+her mother’s mother’s before her. It fell in its rich folds, yellowed by
+age, from her head to her feet, with its creamy frost-work of rarest
+handiwork, transforming the girl into a woman and a bride.
+
+Madam Schuyler arranged and rearranged the folds, and finally stood back
+to look with half-closed eyes at the effect, deciding that very few would
+notice that the bride was other than they had expected until the ceremony
+was over and the veil thrown back. The sisters had never looked alike, yet
+there was a general family resemblance that was now accentuated by the
+dress; perhaps only those nearest would notice that it was Marcia instead
+of Kate. At least the guests would have the good grace to keep their
+wonderment to themselves until the ceremony was over.
+
+Then Marcia was left to herself with trembling hands and wildly throbbing
+heart. What would Mary Ann think! What would all the girls and boys think?
+Some of them would be there, and others would be standing along the shady
+streets to watch the progress of the carriage as it drove away. And they
+would see her going away instead of Kate. Perhaps they would think it all
+a great joke and that she had been going to be married all the time and
+not Kate. But no; the truth would soon come out. People would not be
+astonished at anything Kate did. They would only say it was just what they
+had all along expected of her, and pity her father, and pity her perhaps.
+But they would look at her and admire her and for once she would be the
+centre of attraction. The pink of pride swelled up into her cheeks, and
+then realizing what she was thinking she crushed the feeling down. How
+could she think of such things when Kate had done such a dreadful thing,
+and David was suffering so terribly? Here was she actually enjoying, and
+delighting in the thought of being in Kate’s place. Oh, she was wicked,
+wicked! She must not be happy for a moment in what was Kate’s shame and
+David’s sorrow. Of her future with David she did not now think. It was of
+the pageant of the day that her thoughts were full. If the days and weeks
+and months that were to follow came into her mind at all between the other
+things it was always that she was to care for David and to help him, and
+that she would have to grow up quickly; and remember all the hard
+housewifely things her stepmother had taught her; and try to order his
+house well. But that troubled her not at all at present. She was more
+concerned with the ceremony, and the many eyes that would be turned upon
+her. It was a relief when a tap came on the door and the dear old minister
+entered.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER VI
+
+
+He stood a moment by the door looking at her, half startled. Then he came
+over beside her, put his hands upon her shoulders, looking down into her
+upturned, veiled face.
+
+“My child!� he said tenderly, “my little Marcia, is this you? I did not
+know you in all this beautiful dress. You look as your own mother looked
+when she was married. I remember perfectly as if it were but yesterday,
+her face as she stood by your father’s side. I was but a young man then,
+you know, and it was my first wedding in my new church, so you see I could
+not forget it. Your mother was a beautiful woman, Marcia, and you are like
+her both in face and life.�
+
+The tears came into Marcia’s eyes and her lips trembled.
+
+“Are you sure, child,� went on the gentle voice of the old man, “that you
+understand what a solemn thing you are doing? It is not a light thing to
+give yourself in marriage to any man. You are so young yet! Are you doing
+this thing quite willingly, little girl? Are you sure? Your father is a
+good man, and a dear old friend of mine, but I know what has happened has
+been a terrible blow to him, and a great humiliation. It has perhaps
+unnerved his judgment for the time. No one should have brought pressure to
+bear upon a child like you to make you marry against your will. Are you
+sure it is all right, dear?�
+
+“Oh, yes, sir!� Marcia raised her tear-filled eyes. “I am doing it quite
+of myself. No one has made me. I was glad I might. It was so dreadful for
+David!�
+
+“But child, do you love him?� the old minister said, searching her face
+closely.
+
+Marcia’s eyes shone out radiant and child-like through her tears.
+
+“Oh, yes, sir! I love him of course. No one could help loving David.�
+
+There was a tap at the door and the Squire entered. With a sigh the
+minister turned away, but there was trouble in his heart. The love of the
+girl had been all too frankly confessed. It was not as he would have had
+things for a daughter of his, but it could not be helped of course, and he
+had no right to interfere. He would like to speak to David, but David had
+not come out of his room yet. When he did there was but a moment for them
+alone and all he had opportunity to say was:
+
+“Mr. Spafford, you will be good to the little girl, and remember she is
+but a child. She has been dear to us all.�
+
+David looked at him wonderingly, earnestly, in reply:
+
+“I will do all in my power to make her happy,� he said.
+
+The hour had come, and all things, just as Madam Schuyler had planned,
+were ready. The minister took his place, and the impatient bridesmaids
+were in a flutter, wondering why Kate did not call them in to see her.
+Slowly, with measured step, as if she had practised many times, Marcia,
+the maiden, walked down the hall on her father’s arm. He was bowed with
+his trouble and his face bore marks of the sudden calamity that had
+befallen his house, but the watching guests thought it was for sorrow at
+giving up his lovely Kate, and they said one to another, “How much he
+loved her!�
+
+The girl’s face drooped with gentle gravity. She scarcely felt the
+presence of the guests she had so much dreaded, for to her the ceremony
+was holy. She was giving herself as a sacrifice for the sin of her sister.
+She was too young and inexperienced to know all that would be thought and
+said as soon as the company understood. She also felt secure behind that
+film of lace. It seemed impossible that they could know her, so softly and
+so mistily it shut her in from the world. It was like a kind of moving
+house about her, a protection from all eyes. So sheltered she might go
+through the ceremony with composure. As yet she had not begun to dread the
+afterward. The hall was wide through which she passed, and the day was
+bright, but the windows were so shadowed by the waiting bridesmaids that
+the light did not fall in full glare upon her, and it was not strange they
+did not know her at once. She heard their smothered exclamations of wonder
+and admiration, and one, Kate’s dearest friend, whispered softly behind
+her: “Oh, Kate, why did you keep us waiting, you sly girl! How lovely you
+are! You look like an angel straight from heaven.�
+
+There were other whispered words which Marcia heard sadly. They gave her
+no pleasure. The words were for Kate, not her. What would they say when
+they knew all?
+
+There was David in the distance waiting for her. How fine he looked in his
+wedding clothes! How proud Kate might have been of him! How pitiful was
+his white face! He had summoned his courage and put on a mask of happiness
+for the eyes of those who saw him, but it could not deceive the heart of
+Marcia. Surely not since the days when Jacob served seven years for Rachel
+and then lifted the bridal veil to look upon the face of her sister Leah,
+walked there sadder bridegroom on this earth than David Spafford walked
+that day.
+
+Down the stairs and through the wide hall they came, Marcia not daring to
+look up, yet seeing familiar glimpses as she passed. That green plaid silk
+lap at one side of the parlor door, in which lay two nervous little hands
+and a neatly folded pocket handkerchief, belonged to Sabrina Bates, she
+knew; and the round lace collar a little farther on, fastened by the
+brooch with a colored daguerreotype encircled by a braid of faded brown
+hair under glass, must be about the neck of Aunt Polly. There was not
+another brooch like that in New York state, Marcia felt sure. Beyond were
+Uncle Joab’s small meek Sunday boots, toeing in, and next were little feet
+covered by white stockings and slippers fastened with crossed black
+ribbons, some child’s, not Harriet—Marcia dared not raise her eyes to
+identify them now. She must fix her mind upon the great things before her.
+She wondered at herself for noticing such trivial things when she was
+walking up to the presence of the great God, and there before her stood
+the minister with his open book!
+
+Now, at last, with the most of the audience behind her, shut in by the
+film of lace, she could raise her eyes to the minister’s familiar face,
+take David’s arm without letting her hand tremble much, and listen to the
+solemn words read out to her. For her alone they seemed to be read.
+David’s heart she knew was crushed, and it was only a form for him. She
+must take double vows upon her for the sake of the wrong done to him. So
+she listened:
+
+“Dearly beloved, we are gathered together�—how the words thrilled her!—“in
+the sight of God and in the presence of this company to join together this
+man and woman in the bonds of holy matrimony;�—a deathly stillness rested
+upon the room and the painful throbbing of her heart was all the little
+bride could hear. She was glad she might look straight into the dear face
+of the old minister. Had her mother felt this way when she was being
+married? Did her stepmother understand it? Yes, she must, in part at
+least, for she had bent and kissed her most tenderly upon the brow just
+before leaving her, a most unusually sentimental thing for her to do. It
+touched Marcia deeply, though she was fond of her stepmother at all times.
+
+She waited breathless with drooped eyes while the minister demanded, “If
+any man can show just cause why they may not be lawfully joined together,
+let him now declare it, or else hereafter forever hold his peace.� What if
+some one should recognize her and, thinking she had usurped Kate’s place,
+speak out and stop the marriage! How would David feel? And she? She would
+sink to the floor. Oh, did they any of them know? How she wished she dared
+raise her eyes to look about and see. But she must not. She must listen.
+She must shake off these worldly thoughts. She was not hearing for idle
+thinking. It was a solemn, holy vow she was taking upon herself for life.
+She brought herself sharply back to the ceremony. It was to David the
+minister was talking now:
+
+“Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in
+health, and forsaking all other, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye
+both shall live?�
+
+It was hard to make David promise that when his heart belonged to Kate.
+She wondered that his voice could be so steady when it said, “I will,� and
+the white glove of Kate’s which was just a trifle large for her, trembled
+on David’s arm as the minister next turned to her:
+
+“Wilt thou, Marcia�—Ah! It was out now! and the sharp rustle of silk and
+stiff linen showed that all the company were aware at last who was the
+bride; but the minister went steadily on. He cared not what the listening
+assembly thought. He was talking earnestly to his little friend,
+Marcia,—“have this man to be thy wedded husband, to live together after
+God’s ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony? Wilt thou obey him, and
+serve him, love, honor, and keep him, in sickness and in health�—the words
+of the pledge went on. It was not hard. The girl felt she could do all
+that. She was relieved to find it no more terrible, and to know that she
+was no longer acting a lie. They all knew who she was now. She held up her
+flower-like head and answered in her clear voice, that made her few
+schoolmates present gasp with admiration:
+
+“I will!�
+
+And the dear old minister’s wife, sitting sweet and dove-like in her soft
+grey poplin, fine white kerchief, and cap of book muslin, smiled to
+herself at the music in Marcia’s voice and nodded approval. She felt that
+all was well with her little friend.
+
+They waited, those astonished people, till the ceremony was concluded and
+the prayer over, and then they broke forth. There had been lifted brows
+and looks passing from one to another, of question, of disclaiming any
+knowledge in the matter, and just as soon as the minister turned and took
+the bride’s hand to congratulate her the heads bent together behind fans
+and the soft buzz of whispers began.
+
+What does it mean? Where is Kate? She isn’t in the room! Did he change his
+mind at the last minute? How old is Marcia? Mercy me! Nothing but a child!
+Are you sure? Why, my Mary Ann is older than that by three months, and
+she’s no more able to become mistress of a home than a nine-days-old
+kitten. Are you sure it’s Marcia? Didn’t the minister make a mistake in
+the name? It looked to me like Kate. Look again. She’s put her veil back.
+No, it can’t be! Yes, it is! No, it looks like Kate! Her hair’s done the
+same, but, no, Kate never had such a sweet innocent look as that. Why,
+when she was a child her face always had a sharpness to it. Look at
+Marcia’s eyes, poor lamb! I don’t see how her father could bear it, and
+she so young. But Kate! Where can she be? What has happened? You don’t
+say! Yes, I did see that captain about again last week or so. Do you
+believe it? Surely she never would. Who told you? Was he sure? But Maria
+and Janet are bridesmaids and they didn’t see any signs of anything. They
+were over here yesterday. Yes, Kate showed them everything and planned how
+they would all walk in. No, she didn’t do anything queer, for Janet would
+have mentioned it. Janet always sees everything. Well, they say he’s a
+good man and Marcia’ll be well provided for. Madam Schuyler’ll be relieved
+about that. Marcia can’t ever lead her the dance Kate has among the young
+men. How white he looks! Do you suppose he loves her? What on earth can it
+all mean? Do you s’pose Kate feels bad? Where is she anyway? Wouldn’t she
+come down? Well, if ’twas his choosing it serves her right. She’s too much
+of a flirt for a good man and maybe he found her out. She’s probably got
+just what she deserves, and _I_ think Marcia’ll make a good little wife.
+She always was a quiet, grown-up child and Madam Schuyler has trained her
+well! But what will Kate do now? Hush! They are coming this way. How do
+you suppose we can find out? Go ask Cousin Janet, perhaps they’ve told
+her, or Aunt Polly. Surely she knows.
+
+But Aunt Polly sat with pursed lips of disapproval. She had not been told,
+and it was her prerogative to know everything. She always made a point of
+being on hand early at all funerals and weddings, especially in the family
+circle, and learning the utmost details, which she dispensed at her
+discretion to late comers in fine sepulchral whispers.
+
+Now she sat silent, disgraced, unable to explain a thing. It was
+unhandsome of Sarah Schuyler, she felt, though no more than she might have
+expected of her, she told herself. She had never liked her. Well, wait
+until her opportunity came. If they did not wish her to say the truth she
+must say something. She could at least tell what she thought. And what
+more natural than to let it be known that Sarah Schuyler had always held a
+dislike for Marcia, and to suggest that it was likely she was glad to get
+her off her hands. Aunt Polly meant to find a trail somewhere, no matter
+how many times they threw her off the scent.
+
+Meantime for Marcia the sun seemed to have shined out once more with
+something of its old brightness. The terrible deed of self-renunciation
+was over, and familiar faces actually were smiling upon her and wishing
+her joy. She felt the flutter of her heart in her throat beneath the
+string of pearls, and wondered if after all she might hope for a little
+happiness of her own. She could climb no more fences nor wade in gurgling
+brooks, but might there not be other happy things as good? A little touch
+of the pride of life had settled upon her. The relatives were coming with
+pleasant words and kisses. The blushes upon her cheeks were growing
+deeper. She almost forgot David in the pretty excitement. A few of her
+girl friends ventured shyly near, as one might look at a mate suddenly and
+unexpectedly translated into eternal bliss. They put out cold fingers in
+salute with distant, stiff phrases belonging to a grown-up world. Not one
+of them save Mary Ann dared recognize their former bond of playmates. Mary
+Ann leaned down and whispered with a giggle: “Say, you didn’t need to envy
+Kate, did you? My! Ain’t you in clover! Say, Marsh,� wistfully, “do invite
+me fer a visit sometime, won’t you?�
+
+Now Mary Ann was not quite on a par with the Schuylers socially, and had
+it not been for a distant mutual relative she would not have been asked to
+the wedding. Marcia never liked her very much, but now, with the
+uncertain, dim future it seemed pleasant and home-like to think of a visit
+from Mary Ann and she nodded and said childishly: “Sometime, Mary Ann, if
+I can.�
+
+Mary Ann squeezed her hand, kissed her, blushed and giggled herself out of
+the way of the next comer.
+
+They went out to the dining room and sat around the long table. It was
+Marcia’s timid hand that cut the bridecake, and all the room full watched
+her. Seeing the pretty color come and go in her excited cheeks, they
+wondered that they had never noticed before how beautiful Marcia was
+growing. A handsome couple they would make! And they looked from Marcia to
+David and back again, wondering and trying to fathom the mystery.
+
+It was gradually stealing about the company, the truth about Kate and
+Captain Leavenworth. The minister had told it in his sad and gentle way.
+Just the facts. No gossip. Naturally every one was bristling with
+questions, but not much could be got from the minister.
+
+“I really do not know,� he would say in his courteous, old-worldly way,
+and few dared ask further. Perhaps the minister, wise by reason of much
+experience, had taken care to ask as few questions as possible himself,
+and not to know too much before undertaking this task for his old friend
+the Squire.
+
+And so Kate’s marriage went into the annals of the village, at least so
+far as that morning was concerned, quietly, and with little exclamation
+before the family. The Squire and his wife controlled their faces
+wonderfully. There was an austerity about the Squire as he talked with his
+friends that was new to his pleasant face, but Madam conversed with her
+usual placid self-poise, and never gave cause for conjecture as to her
+true feelings.
+
+There were some who dared to offer their surprised condolences. To such
+the stepmother replied that of course the outcome of events had been a
+sore trial to the Squire, and all of them, but they were delighted at the
+happy arrangement that had been made. She glanced contentedly toward the
+child-bride.
+
+It was a revelation to the whole village that Marcia had grown up and was
+so handsome.
+
+Dismay filled the breasts of the village gossips. They had been defrauded.
+Here was a fine scandal which they had failed to discover in time and
+spread abroad in its due course.
+
+Everybody was shy of speaking to the bride. She sat in her lovely finery
+like some wild rose caught as a sacrifice. Yet every one admitted that she
+might have done far worse. David was a good man, with prospects far beyond
+most young men of his time. Moreover he was known to have a brilliant
+mind, and the career he had chosen, that of journalism, in which he was
+already making his mark, was one that promised to be lucrative as well as
+influential.
+
+It was all very hurried at the last. Madam Schuyler and Dolly the maid
+helped her off with the satin and lace finery, and she was soon out of her
+bridal attire and struggling with the intricacies of Kate’s travelling
+costume.
+
+Marcia was not Marcia any longer, but Mrs. David Spafford. She had been
+made to feel the new name almost at once, and it gave her a sense of
+masquerading pleasant enough for the time being, but with a dim foreboding
+of nameless dread and emptiness for the future, like all masquerading
+which must end sometime. And when the mask is taken off how sad if one is
+not to find one’s real self again: or worse still if one may never remove
+the mask, but must grow to it and be it from the soul.
+
+All this Marcia felt but dimly of course, for she was young and light
+hearted naturally, and the excitement and pretty things about her could
+not but be pleasant.
+
+To have Kate’s friends stand about her, half shyly trying to joke with her
+as they might have done with Kate, to feel their admiring glances, and
+half envious references to her handsome husband, almost intoxicated her
+for the moment. Her cheeks grew rosier as she tied on Kate’s pretty poke
+bonnet whose nodding blue flowers had been brought over from Paris by a
+friend of Kate’s. It seemed a shame that Kate should not have her things
+after all. The pleasure died out of Marcia’s eyes as she carefully looped
+the soft blue ribbons under her round chin and drew on Kate’s long gloves.
+There was no denying the fact that Kate’s outfit was becoming to Marcia,
+for she had that complexion that looks well with any color under the sun,
+though in blue she was not at her best.
+
+When Marcia was ready she stood back from the little looking-glass, with a
+frightened, half-childish gaze about the room.
+
+Now that the last minute was come, there was no one to understand Marcia’s
+feelings nor help her. Even the girls were merely standing there waiting
+to say the last formal farewell that they might be free to burst into an
+astonished chatter of exclamations over Kate’s romantic disappearance.
+They were Kate’s friends, not Marcia’s, and they were bidding Kate’s
+clothes good-bye for want of the original bride. Marcia’s friends were too
+young and too shy to do more than stand back in awe and gaze at their mate
+so suddenly promoted to a life which but yesterday had seemed years away
+for any of them.
+
+                 [Illustration: Copyright by C. Klackner
+                 THE STEPMOTHER’S ARMS WERE AROUND HER.]
+
+                        Copyright by C. Klackner
+                  THE STEPMOTHER’S ARMS WERE AROUND HER.
+
+
+So Marcia walked alone down the hall—yet, no, not all the way alone. A
+little wrinkled hand was laid upon her gloved one, and a little old lady,
+her true friend, the minister’s wife, walked down the stairs with the
+bride arm in arm. Marcia’s heart fluttered back to warmth again and was
+glad for her friend, yet all she had said was: “My dear!� but there was
+that in her touch and the tone of her gentle voice that comforted Marcia.
+
+She stood at the edge of the steps, with her white hair shining in the
+morning, her kind-faced husband just behind her during all the farewell,
+and Marcia felt happier because of her motherly presence.
+
+The guests were all out on the piazza in the gorgeousness of the summer
+morning. David stood on the flagging below the step beside the open coach
+door, a carriage lap-robe over his arm and his hat on, ready. He was
+talking with the Squire. Every one was looking at them, and they were
+entirely conscious of the fact. They laughed and talked with studied
+pleasantness, though there seemed to be an undertone of sadness that the
+most obtuse guest could not fail to detect.
+
+Harriet, as a small flower-girl, stood upon the broad low step ready to
+fling posies before the bride as she stepped into the coach.
+
+The little boys, to whom a wedding merely meant a delightful increase of
+opportunities, stood behind a pillar munching cake, more of which
+protruded from their bulging pockets.
+
+Marcia, with a lump in her throat that threatened tears, slipped behind
+the people, caught the two little step-brothers in her arms and smothered
+them with kisses, amid their loud protestations and the laughter of those
+who stood about. But the little skirmish had served to hide the tears, and
+the bride came back most decorously to where her stepmother stood awaiting
+her with a smile of complacent—almost completed—duty upon her face. She
+wore the sense of having carried off a trying situation in a most
+creditable manner, and she knew she had won the respect and awe of every
+matron present thereby. That was a great deal to Madam Schuyler.
+
+The stepmother’s arms were around her and Marcia remembered how kindly
+they had felt when they first clasped her little body years ago, and she
+had been kissed, and told to be a good little girl. She had always liked
+her stepmother. And now, as she came to say good-bye to the only mother
+she had ever known, who had been a true mother to her in many ways, her
+young heart almost gave way, and she longed to hide in that ample bosom
+and stay under the wing of one who had so ably led her thus far along the
+path of life.
+
+Perhaps Madam Schuyler felt the clinging of the girl’s arms about her, and
+perchance her heart rebuked her that she had let so young and
+inexperienced a girl go out to the cares of life all of a sudden in this
+way. At least she stooped and kissed Marcia again and whispered: “You have
+been a good girl, Marcia.�
+
+Afterwards, Marcia cherished that sentence among memory’s dearest
+treasures. It seemed as though it meant that she had fulfilled her
+stepmother’s first command, given on the night when her father brought
+home their new mother.
+
+Then the flowers were thrown upon the pavement, to make it bright for the
+bride. She was handed into the coach behind the white-haired negro
+coachman, and by his side Kate’s fine new hair trunk. Ah! That was a
+bitter touch! Kate’s trunk! Kate’s things! Kate’s husband! If it had only
+been her own little moth-eaten trunk that had belonged to her mother, and
+filled with her own things—and if he had only been her own husband! Yet
+she wanted no other than David—only if he could have been _her_ David!
+
+Then Madam Schuyler, her heart still troubled about Marcia, stepped down
+and whispered:
+
+“David, you will remember she is young. You will deal gently with her?�
+
+Gravely David bent his head and answered:
+
+“I will remember. She shall not be troubled. I will care for her as I
+would care for my own sister.� And Madam Schuyler turned away half
+satisfied. After all, was that what woman wanted? Would she have been
+satisfied to have been cared for as a sister?
+
+Then gravely, with his eyes half unseeing her, the father kissed his
+daughter good-bye, David got into the coach, the door was slammed shut,
+and the white horses arched their necks and stepped away, amid a shower of
+rice and slippers.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VII
+
+
+For some distance the way was lined with people they knew, servants and
+negroes, standing about the driveway and outside the fence, people of the
+village grouped along the sidewalk, everybody out upon their doorsteps to
+watch the coach go by, and to all the face of the bride was a puzzle and a
+surprise. They half expected to see another coach coming with the other
+bride behind.
+
+Marcia nodded brightly to those she knew, and threw flowers from the great
+nosegay that had been put upon her lap by Harriet. She felt for a few
+minutes like a girl in a fairy-tale riding in this fine coach in grand
+attire. She stole a look at David. He certainly looked like a prince, but
+gravity was already settling about his mouth. Would he always look so now,
+she wondered, would he never laugh and joke again as he used to do? Could
+she manage to make him happy sometimes for a little while and help him to
+forget?
+
+Down through the village they passed, in front of the store and
+post-office where Marcia had bought her frock but three days before, and
+they turned up the road she had come with Mary Ann. How long ago that
+seemed! How light her heart was then, and how young! All life was before
+her with its delightful possibilities. Now it seemed to have closed for
+her and she was some one else. A great ache came upon her heart. For a
+moment she longed to jump down and run away from the coach and David and
+the new clothes that were not hers. Away from the new life that had been
+planned for some one else which she must live now. She must always be a
+woman, never a girl any more.
+
+Out past Granny McVane’s they drove, the old lady sitting upon her front
+porch knitting endless stockings. She stared mildly, unrecognizingly at
+Marcia and paused in her rocking to crane her neck after the coach.
+
+The tall corn rustled and waved green arms to them as they passed, and the
+cows looked up munching from the pasture in mild surprise at the turnout.
+The little coach dog stepped aside from the road to give them a bark as he
+passed, and then pattered and pattered his tiny feet to catch up. The old
+school house came in sight with its worn playground and dejected summer
+air, and Marcia’s eyes searched out the window where she used to sit to
+eat her lunch in winters, and the tree under which she used to sit in
+summers, and the path by which she and Mary Ann used to wander down to the
+brook, or go in search of butternuts, even the old door knob that her hand
+would probably never grasp again. She searched them all out and bade them
+good-bye with her eyes. Then once she turned a little to see if she could
+catch a glimpse of the old blackboard through the window where she and
+Susanna Brown and Miller Thompson used to do arithmetic examples. The dust
+of the coach, or the bees in the sunshine, or something in her eyes
+blurred her vision. She could only see a long slant ray of a sunbeam
+crossing the wall where she knew it must be. Then the road wound around
+through a maple grove and the school was lost to view.
+
+They passed the South meadow belonging to the Westons, and Hanford was
+plowing. Marcia could see him stop to wipe the perspiration from his brow,
+and her heart warmed even to this boy admirer now that she was going from
+him forever.
+
+Hanford had caught sight of the coach and he turned to watch it thinking
+to see Kate sitting in the bride’s place. He wondered if the bride would
+notice him, and turned a deeper red under his heavy coat of tan.
+
+And the bride did notice him. She smiled the sweetest smile the boy had
+ever seen upon her face, the smile he had dreamed of as he thought of her,
+at night standing under the stars all alone by his father’s gate post
+whittling the cross bar of the gate. For a moment he forgot that it was
+the bridal party passing, forgot the stern-faced bridegroom, and saw only
+Marcia—his girl love. His heart stood still, and a bright light of
+response filled his eyes. He took off his wide straw hat and bowed her
+reverence. He would have called to her, and tried three times, but his dry
+throat gave forth no utterance, and when he looked again the coach was
+passed and only the flutter of a white handkerchief came back to him and
+told him the beginning of the truth.
+
+Then the poor boy’s face grew white, yes, white and stricken under the
+tan, and he tottered to the roadside and sat down with his face in his
+hands to try and comprehend what it might mean, while the old horse
+dragged the plow whither he would in search of a bite of tender grass.
+
+What could it mean? And why did Marcia occupy that place beside the
+stranger, obviously the bridegroom? Was she going on a visit? He had heard
+of no such plan. Where was her sister? Would there be another coach
+presently, and was this man then not the bridegroom but merely a friend of
+the family? Of course, that must be it. He got up and staggered to the
+fence to look down the road, but no one came by save the jogging old gray
+and carryall, with Aunt Polly grim and offended and Uncle Joab meek and
+depressed beside her. Could he have missed the bridal carriage when he was
+at the other end of the lot? Could they have gone another way? He had a
+half a mind to call to Uncle Joab to enquire only he was a timid boy and
+shrank back until it was too late.
+
+But why had Marcia as she rode away wafted that strange farewell that had
+in it the familiarity of the final? And why did he feel so strange and
+weak in his knees?
+
+Marcia was to help his mother next week at the quilting bee. She had not
+gone away to stay, of course. He got up and tried to whistle and turn the
+furrows evenly as before, but his heart was heavy, and, try as he would,
+he could not understand the feeling that kept telling him Marcia was gone
+out of his life forever.
+
+At last his day’s work was done and he could hasten to the house. Without
+waiting for his supper, he “slicked up,� as he called it, and went at once
+to the village, where he learned the bitter truth.
+
+It was Mary Ann who told him.
+
+Mary Ann, the plain, the awkward, who secretly admired Hanford Weston as
+she might have admired an angel, and who as little expected him to speak
+to her as if he had been one. Mary Ann stood by her front gate in the dusk
+of the summer evening, the halo of her unusual wedding finery upon her,
+for she had taken advantage of being dressed up to make two or three
+visits since the wedding, and so prolong the holiday. The light of the
+sunset softened her plain features, and gave her a gentler look than was
+her wont. Was it that, and an air of lonesomeness akin to his own, that
+made Hanford stop and speak to her?
+
+And then she told him. She could not keep it in long. It was the wonder of
+her life, and it filled her so that her thought had no room for anything
+else. To think of Marcia taken in a day, gone from their midst forever,
+gone to be a grown-up woman in a new world! It was as strange as sudden
+death, and almost as terrible and beautiful.
+
+There were tears in her eyes, and in the eyes of the boy as they spoke
+about the one who was gone, and the kind dusk hid the sight so that
+neither knew, but each felt a subtle sympathy with the other, and before
+Hanford started upon his desolate way home under the burden of his first
+sorrow he took Mary Ann’s slim bony hand in his and said quite stiffly:
+“Well, good night, Miss Mary Ann. I’m glad you told me,� and Mary Ann
+responded, with a deep blush under her freckles in the dark, “Good night,
+Mr. Weston, and—call again!�
+
+Something of the sympathy lingered with the boy as he went on his way and
+he was not without a certain sort of comfort, while Mary Ann climbed to
+her little chamber in the loft with a new wonder to dream over.
+
+Meanwhile the coach drove on, and Marcia passed from her childhood’s home
+into the great world of men and women, changes, heartbreakings, sorrows
+and joys.
+
+David spoke to her kindly now and then; asked if she was comfortable; if
+she would prefer to change seats with him; if the cushions were right; and
+if she had forgotten anything. He seemed nervous, and anxious to have this
+part of the journey over and asked the coachman frequent questions about
+the horses and the speed they could make. Marcia thought she understood
+that he was longing to get away from the painful reminder of what he had
+expected to be a joyful trip, and her young heart pitied him, while yet it
+felt an undertone of hurt for herself. She found so much unadulterated joy
+in this charming ride with the beautiful horses, in this luxurious coach,
+that she could not bear to have it spoiled by the thought that only
+David’s sadness and pain had made it possible for her.
+
+Constantly as the scene changed, and new sights came upon her view, she
+had to restrain herself from crying out with happiness over the beauty and
+calling David’s attention. Once she did point out a bird just leaving a
+stalk of goldenrod, its light touch making the spray to bow and bend.
+David had looked with unseeing eyes, and smiled with uncomprehending
+assent. Marcia felt she might as well have been talking to herself. He was
+not even the old friend and brother he used to be. She drew a gentle
+little sigh and wished this might have been only a happy ride with the
+ending at home, and a longer girlhood uncrossed by this wall of trouble
+that Kate had put up in a night for them all.
+
+The coach came at last to the town where they were to stop for dinner and
+a change of horses.
+
+Marcia looked about with interest at the houses, streets, and people.
+There were two girls of about her own age with long hair braided down
+their backs. They were walking with arms about each other as she and Mary
+Ann had often done. She wondered if any such sudden changes might be
+coming to them as had come into her life. They turned and looked at her
+curiously, enviously it seemed, as the coach drew up to the tavern and she
+was helped out with ceremony. Doubtless they thought of her as she had
+thought of Kate but last week.
+
+She was shown into the dim parlor of the tavern and seated in a stiff
+hair-cloth chair. It was all new and strange and delightful.
+
+Before a high gilt mirror set on great glass knobs like rosettes, she
+smoothed her wind-blown hair, and looked back at the reflection of her
+strange self with startled eyes. Even her face seemed changed. She knew
+the bonnet and arrangement of hair were becoming, but she felt
+unacquainted with them, and wished for her own modest braids and plain
+bonnet. Even a sunbonnet would have been welcome and have made her feel
+more like herself.
+
+David did not see how pretty she looked when he came to take her to the
+dining room ten minutes later. His eyes were looking into the hard future,
+and he was steeling himself against the glances of others. He must be the
+model bridegroom in the sight of all who knew him. His pride bore him out
+in this. He had acquaintances all along the way home.
+
+They were expecting the bridal party, for David had arranged that a fine
+dinner should be ready for his bride. Fine it was, with the best cooking
+and table service the mistress of the tavern could command, and with many
+a little touch new and strange to Marcia, and therefore interesting. It
+was all a lovely play till she looked at David.
+
+David ate but little, and Marcia felt she must hurry through the meal for
+his sake. Then when the carryall was ready he put her in and they drove
+away.
+
+Marcia’s keen intuition told her how many little things had been thought
+of and planned for, for the comfort of the one who was to have taken this
+journey with David. Gradually the thought of how terrible it was for him,
+and how dreadful of Kate to have brought this sorrow upon him, overcame
+all other thoughts.
+
+Sitting thus quietly, with her hands folded tight in the faded bunch of
+roses little Harriet had given her at parting, the last remaining of the
+flowers she had carried with her, Marcia let the tears come. Silently they
+flowed in gentle rain, and had not David been borne down with the thought
+of his own sorrow he must have noticed long before he did the sadness of
+the sweet young face beside him. But she turned away from him as much as
+possible that he might not see, and so they must have driven for half an
+hour through a dim sweet wood before he happened to catch a sight of the
+tear-wet face, and knew suddenly that there were other troubles in the
+world beside his own.
+
+“Why, child, what is the matter?� he said, turning to her with grave
+concern. “Are you so tired? I’m afraid I have been very dull company,�
+with a sigh. “You must forgive me—child, to-day.�
+
+“Oh, David, don’t,� said Marcia putting her face down into her hands and
+crying now regardless of the roses. “I do not want you to think of me. It
+is dreadful, dreadful for you. I am so sorry for you. I wish I could do
+something.�
+
+“Dear child!� he said, putting his hand upon hers. “Bless you for that.
+But do not let your heart be troubled about me. Try to forget me and be
+happy. It is not for you to bear, this trouble.�
+
+“But I must bear it,� said Marcia, sitting up and trying to stop crying.
+“She was my sister and she did an awful thing. I cannot forget it. How
+could she, how _could_ she do it? How could she leave a man like you
+that—� Marcia stopped, her brown eyes flashing fiercely as she thought of
+Captain Leavenworth’s hateful look at her that night in the moonlight. She
+shuddered and hid her face in her hands once more and cried with all the
+fervor of her young and undisciplined soul.
+
+David did not know what to do with a young woman in tears. Had it been
+Kate his alarm would have vied with a delicious sense of his own power to
+comfort, but even the thought of comforting any one but Kate was now a
+bitter thing. Was it always going to be so? Would he always have to start
+and shrink with sudden remembrance of his pain at every turn of his way?
+He drew a deep sigh and looked helplessly at his companion. Then he did a
+hard thing. He tried to justify Kate, just as he had been trying all the
+morning to justify her to himself. The odd thing about it all was that the
+very deepest sting of his sorrow was that Kate could have done this thing!
+His peerless Kate!
+
+“She cared for him,� he breathed the words as if they hurt him.
+
+“She should have told you so before then. She should not have let you
+think she cared for you—_ever!_� said Marcia fiercely. Strangely enough
+the plain truth was bitter to the man to hear, although he had been
+feeling it in his soul ever since they had discovered the flight of the
+bride.
+
+“Perhaps there was too much pressure brought to bear upon her,� he said
+lamely. “Looking back I can see times when she did not second me with
+regard to hurrying the marriage, so warmly as I could have wished. I laid
+it to her shyness. Yet she seemed happy when we met. Did you—did she—have
+you any idea she had been planning this for long, or was it sudden?�
+
+The words were out now, the thing he longed to know. It had been writing
+its fiery way through his soul. Had she meant to torture him this way all
+along, or was it the yielding to a sudden impulse that perhaps she had
+already repented? He looked at Marcia with piteous, almost pleading eyes,
+and her tortured young soul would have given anything to have been able to
+tell him what he wanted to know. Yet she could not help him. She knew no
+more than he. She steadied her own nerves and tried to tell all she knew
+or surmised, tried her best to reveal Kate in her true character before
+him. Not that she wished to speak ill of her sister, only that she would
+be true and give this lover a chance to escape some of the pain if
+possible, by seeing the real Kate as she was at home without varnish or
+furbelows. Yet she reflected that those who knew Kate’s shallowness well,
+still loved her in spite of it, and always bowed to her wishes.
+
+Gradually their talk subsided into deep silence once more, broken only by
+the jog-trot of the horse or the stray note of some bird.
+
+The road wound into the woods with its fragrant scents of hemlock, spruce
+and wintergreen, and out into a broad, hot, sunny way.
+
+The bees hummed in the flowers, and the grasshoppers sang hotly along the
+side of the dusty road. Over the whole earth there seemed to be the sound
+of a soft simmering, as if nature were boiling down her sweets, the better
+to keep them during the winter.
+
+The strain of the day’s excitement and hurry and the weariness of sorrow
+were beginning to tell upon the two travellers. The road was heavy with
+dust and the horse plodded monotonously through it. With the drone of the
+insects and the glare of the afternoon sun, it was not strange that little
+by little a great drowsiness came over Marcia and her head began to droop
+like a poor wilted flower until she was fast asleep.
+
+David noticed that she slept, and drew her head against his shoulder that
+she might rest more comfortably. Then he settled back to his own pain, a
+deeper pang coming as he thought how different it would have been if the
+head resting against his shoulder had been golden instead of brown. Then
+soon he too fell asleep, and the old horse, going slow, and yet more
+slowly, finding no urging voice behind her and seeing no need to hurry
+herself, came at last on the way to the shade of an apple tree, and
+halted, finding it a pleasant place to remain and think until the heat of
+the afternoon was passed. Awhile she ate the tender grass that grew
+beneath the generous shade, and nipped daintily at an apple or two that
+hung within tempting reach. Then she too drooped her white lashes, and
+nodded and drooped, and took an afternoon nap.
+
+A farmer, trundling by in his empty hay wagon, found them so, looked
+curiously at them, then drew up his team and came and prodded David in the
+chest with his long hickory stick.
+
+“Wake up, there, stranger, and move on,� he called, as he jumped back into
+his wagon and took up the reins. “We don’t want no tipsy folks around
+these parts,� and with a loud clatter he rode on.
+
+David, whose strong temperance principles had made him somewhat marked in
+his own neighborhood, roused and flushed over the insinuation, and started
+up the lazy horse, which flung out guiltily upon the way as if to make up
+for lost time. The driver, however, was soon lost in his own troubles,
+which returned upon him with redoubled sharpness as new sorrow always does
+after brief sleep.
+
+But Marcia slept on.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+Owing to the horse’s nap by the roadside, it was quite late in the evening
+when they reached the town and David saw the lights of his own
+neighborhood gleaming in the distance. He was glad it was late, for now
+there would be no one to meet them that night. His friends would think,
+perhaps, that they had changed their plans and stopped over night on the
+way, or met with some detention.
+
+Marcia still slept.
+
+David as he drew near the house began to feel that perhaps he had made a
+mistake in carrying out his marriage just as if nothing had happened and
+everything was all right. It would be too great a strain upon him to live
+there in that house without Kate, and come home every night just as he had
+planned it, and not to find her there to greet him as he had hoped. Oh, if
+he might turn even now and flee from it, out into the wilderness somewhere
+and hide himself from human kind, where no one would know, and no one ever
+ask him about his wife!
+
+He groaned in spirit as the horse drew up to the door, and the heavy head
+of the sweet girl who was his wife reminded him that he could not go away,
+but must stay and face the responsibilities of life which he had taken
+upon himself, and bear the pain that was his. It was not the fault of the
+girl he had married. She sorrowed for him truly, and he felt deeply
+grateful for the great thing she had done to save his pride.
+
+He leaned over and touched her shoulder gently to rouse her, but her sleep
+was deep and healthy, the sleep of exhausted youth. She did not rouse nor
+even open her eyes, but murmured half audibly; “David has come, Kate,
+hurry!�
+
+Half guessing what had passed the night he arrived, David stooped and
+tenderly gathered her up in his arms. He felt a bond of kindliness far
+deeper than brotherly love. It was a bond of common suffering, and by her
+own choice she had made herself his comrade in his trouble. He would at
+least save her what suffering he could.
+
+She did not waken as he carried her into the house, nor when he took her
+upstairs and laid her gently upon the white bed that had been prepared for
+the bridal chamber.
+
+The moonlight stole in at the small-paned windows and fell across the
+floor, showing every object in the room plainly. David lighted a candle
+and set it upon the high mahogany chest of drawers. The light flickered
+and played over the sweet face and Marcia slept on.
+
+David went downstairs and put up the horse, and then returned, but Marcia
+had not stirred. He stood a moment looking at her helplessly. It did not
+seem right to leave her this way, and yet it was a pity to disturb her
+sleep, she seemed so weary. It had been a long ride and the day had been
+filled with unwonted excitement. He felt it himself, and what must it be
+for her? She was a woman.
+
+David had the old-fashioned gallant idea of woman.
+
+Clumsily he untied the gay blue ribbons and pulled the jaunty poke bonnet
+out of her way. The luxuriant hair, unused to the confinement of combs,
+fell rich about her sleep-flushed face. Contentedly she nestled down, the
+bonnet out of her way, her red lips parted the least bit with a half
+smile, the black lashes lying long upon her rosy cheek, one childish hand
+upon which gleamed the new wedding ring—that was not hers,—lying relaxed
+and appealing upon her breast, rising and falling with her breath. A
+lovely bride!
+
+David, stern, true, pained and appreciative, suddenly awakened to what a
+dreadful thing he had done.
+
+Here was this lovely woman, her womanhood not yet unfolded from the bud,
+but lovely in promise even as her sister had been in truth, her charms,
+her dreams, her woman’s ways, her love, her very life, taken by him as
+ruthlessly and as thoughtlessly as though she had been but a wax doll, and
+put into a home where she could not possibly be what she ought to be,
+because the place belonged to another. Thrown away upon a man without a
+heart! That was what she was! A sacrifice to his pride! There was no other
+way to put it.
+
+It fairly frightened him to think of the promises he had made. “Love,
+honor, cherish,� yes, all those he had promised, and in a way he could
+perform, but not in the sense that the wedding ceremony had meant, not in
+the way in which he would have performed them had the bride been Kate, the
+choice of his love. Oh, why, why had this awful thing come upon him!
+
+And now his conscience told him he had done wrong to take this girl away
+from the possibilities of joy in the life that might have been hers, and
+sacrifice her for the sake of saving his own sufferings, and to keep his
+friends from knowing that the girl he was to marry had jilted him.
+
+As he stood before the lovely, defenceless girl her very beauty and
+innocence arraigned him. He felt that God would hold him accountable for
+the act he had so thoughtlessly committed that day, and a burden of
+responsibility settled upon his weight of sorrow that made him groan
+aloud. For a moment his soul cried out against it in rebellion. Why could
+he not have loved this sweet self-sacrificing girl instead of her fickle
+sister? Why? Why? She might perhaps have loved him in return, but now
+nothing could ever be! Earth was filled with a black sorrow, and life
+henceforth meant renunciation and one long struggle to hide his trouble
+from the world.
+
+But the girl whom he had selfishly drawn into the darkness of his sorrow
+with him, she must not be made to suffer more than he could help. He must
+try to make her happy, and keep her as much as possible from knowing what
+she had missed by coming with him! His lips set in stern resolve, and a
+purpose, half prayer, went up on record before God, that he would save her
+as much as he knew how.
+
+Lying helpless so, she appealed to him. Asking nothing she yet demanded
+all from him in the name of true chivalry. How readily had she given up
+all for him! How sweetly she had said she would fill the place left vacant
+by her sister, just to save him pain and humiliation!
+
+A desire to stoop and kiss the fair face came to him, not for affection’s
+sake, but reverently, as if to render to her before God some fitting sign
+that he knew and understood her act of self sacrifice, and would not
+presume upon it.
+
+Slowly, as though he were performing a religious ceremony, a sacred duty
+laid upon him on high, David stooped over her, bringing his face to the
+gentle sleeping one. Her sweet breath fanned his cheek like the almost
+imperceptible fragrance of a bud not fully opened yet to give forth its
+sweetness to the world. His soul, awake and keen through the thoughts that
+had just come to him, gave homage to her sweetness, sadly, wistfully, half
+wishing his spirit free to gather this sweetness for his own.
+
+And so he brought his lips to hers, and kissed her, his bride, yet not his
+bride. Kissed her for the second time. That thought came to him with the
+touch of the warm lips and startled him. Had there been something
+significant in the fact that he had met Marcia first and kissed her
+instead of Kate by mistake?
+
+It seemed as though the sleeping lips clung to his lingeringly, and half
+responded to the kiss, as Marcia in her dreams lived over again the kiss
+she had received by her father’s gate in the moonlight. Only the dream
+lover was her own and not another’s. David, as he lifted up his head and
+looked at her gravely, saw a half smile illuminating her lips as if the
+sleeping soul within had felt the touch and answered to the call.
+
+With a deep sigh he turned away, blew out the candle, and left her with
+the moonbeams in her chamber. He walked sadly to a rear room of the house
+and lay down upon the bed, his whole soul crying out in agony at his
+miserable state.
+
+
+
+Kate, the careless one, who had made all this heart-break and misery, had
+quarreled with her husband already because he did not further some
+expensive whim of hers. She had told him she was sorry she had not stayed
+where she was and carried on her marriage with David as she had planned to
+do. Now she sat sulkily in her room alone, too angry to sleep; while her
+husband smoked sullenly in the barroom below, and drank frequent glasses
+of brandy to fortify himself against Kate’s moods.
+
+Kate was considering whether or not she had been a fool in marrying the
+captain instead of David, though she called herself by a much milder word
+than that. The romance was already worn away. She wished for her trunk and
+her pretty furbelows. Her father’s word of reconciliation would doubtless
+come in a few days, also the trunks.
+
+After all there was intense satisfaction to Kate in having broken all
+bounds and done as she pleased. Of course it would have been a bit more
+comfortable if David had not been so absurdly in earnest, and believed in
+her so thoroughly. But it was nice to have some one believe in you no
+matter what you did, and David would always do that. It began to look
+doubtful if the captain would. But David would never marry, she was sure,
+and perhaps, by and by, when everything had been forgotten and forgiven,
+she might establish a pleasant relationship with him again. It would be
+charming to coquet with him. He made love so earnestly, and his great eyes
+were so handsome when he looked at one with his whole soul in them. Yes,
+she certainly must keep in with him, for it would be good to have a friend
+like that when her husband was off at sea with his ship. Now that she was
+a married woman she would be free from all such childish trammels as being
+guarded at home and never going anywhere alone. She could go to New York,
+and she would let David know where she was and he would come up on
+business and perhaps take her to the theatre. To be sure, she had heard
+David express views against theatre-going, and she knew he was as much of
+a church man, almost, as her father, but she was sure she could coax him
+to do anything for her, and she had always wanted to go to the theatre.
+His scruples might be strong, but she knew his love for her, and thought
+it was stronger. She had read in his eyes that it would never fail her.
+Yes, she thought, she would begin at once to make a friend of David. She
+would write him a letter asking forgiveness, and then she would keep him
+under her influence. There was no telling what might happen with her
+husband off at sea so much. It was well to be foresighted, besides, it
+would be wholesome for the captain to know she had another friend. He
+might be less stubborn. What a nuisance that the marriage vows had to be
+taken for life! It would be much nicer if they could be put off as easily
+as they were put on. Rather hard on some women perhaps, but she could keep
+any man as long as she chose, and then—she snapped her pretty thumb and
+finger in the air to express her utter disdain for the man whom she chose
+to cast off.
+
+It seemed that Kate, in running away from her father’s house and her
+betrothed bridegroom, and breaking the laws of respectable society, had
+with that act given over all attempt at any principle.
+
+So she set herself down to write her letter, with a pout here and a dimple
+there, and as much pretty gentleness as if she had been talking with her
+own bewitching face and eyes quite near to his. She knew she could bewitch
+him if she chose, and she was in the mood just now to choose very much,
+for she was deeply angry with her husband.
+
+She had ever been utterly heartless when she pleased, knowing that it
+needed but her returning smile, sweet as a May morning, to bring her much
+abused subjects fondly to her feet once more. It did not strike her that
+this time she had sinned not only against her friends, but against heaven,
+and God-given love, and that a time of reckoning must come to her,—had
+come, indeed.
+
+She had never believed they would be angry with her, her father least of
+all. She had no thought they would do anything desperate. She had expected
+the wedding would be put off indefinitely, that the servants would be sent
+out hither and yon in hot haste to unbid the guests, upon some pretext of
+accident or illness, and that it would be left to rest until the village
+had ceased to wonder and her real marriage with Captain Leavenworth could
+be announced.
+
+She had counted upon David to stand up for her. She had not understood how
+her father’s righteous soul would be stirred to the depths of shame and
+utter disgrace over her wanton action. Not that she would have been in the
+least deterred from doing as she pleased had she understood, only that she
+counted upon too great power with all of them.
+
+When the letter was written it sounded quite pathetic and penitent,
+putting all the blame of her action upon her husband, and making herself
+out a poor, helpless, sweet thing, bewildered by so much love put upon
+her, and suggesting, just in a hint, that perhaps after all she had made a
+mistake not to have kept David’s love instead of the wilder, fiercer one.
+She ended by begging David to be her friend forever, and leaving an
+impression with him, though it was but slight, that already shadows had
+crossed her path that made her feel his friendship might be needed some
+day.
+
+It was a letter calculated to drive such a lover as David had been, half
+mad with anguish, even without the fact of his hasty marriage added to the
+situation.
+
+And in due time, by coach, the letter came to David.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER IX
+
+
+The morning sunbeams fell across the floor when Marcia awoke suddenly to a
+sense of her new surroundings. For a moment she could not think where she
+was nor how she came there. She looked about the unfamiliar walls, covered
+with paper decorated in landscapes—a hill in the distance with a tall
+castle among the trees, a blue lake in the foreground and two maidens
+sitting pensively upon a green bank with their arms about one another.
+Marcia liked it. She felt there was a story in it. She would like to
+imagine about the lives of those two girls when she had more time.
+
+There were no pictures in the room to mar those upon the paper, but the
+walls did not look bare. Everything was new and stiff and needed a woman’s
+hand to bring the little homey touches, but the newness was a delight to
+the girl. It was as good as the time when she was a little girl and played
+house with Mary Ann down on the old flat stone in the pasture, with acorns
+for cups and saucers, and bits of broken china carefully treasured upon
+the mossy shelves in among the roots of the old elm tree that arched over
+the stone.
+
+She was stiff from the long ride, but her sleep had wonderfully refreshed
+her, and now she was ready to go to work. She wondered as she rose how she
+got upon that bed, how the blue bonnet got untied and laid upon the chair
+beside her. Surely she could not have done it herself and have no memory
+of it. Had she walked upstairs herself, or did some one carry her? Did
+David perhaps? Good kind David! A bird hopped upon the window seat and
+trilled a song, perked his head knowingly at her and flitted away. Marcia
+went to the window to look after him, and was held by the new sights that
+met her gaze. She could catch glimpses of houses through bowers of vines,
+and smoke rising from chimneys. She wondered who lived near, and if there
+were girls who would prove pleasant companions. Then she suddenly
+remembered that she was a girl no longer and must associate with married
+women hereafter.
+
+But suddenly the clock on the church steeple across the way warned her
+that it was late, and with a sense of deserving reprimand she hurried
+downstairs.
+
+The fire was already lighted and David had brought in fresh water. So much
+his intuition had told him was necessary. He had been brought up by three
+maiden aunts who thought that a man in the kitchen was out of his sphere,
+so the kitchen was an unknown quantity to him.
+
+Marcia entered the room as if she were not quite certain of her welcome.
+She was coming into a kingdom she only half understood.
+
+“Good morning,� she said shyly, and a lovely color stole into her cheeks.
+Once more David’s conscience smote him as her waking beauty intensified
+the impression made the night before.
+
+“Good morning,� he said gravely, studying her face as he might have
+studied some poor waif whom he had unknowingly run over in the night and
+picked up to resuscitate. “Are you rested? You were very tired last
+night.�
+
+“What a baby I was!� said Marcia deprecatingly, with a soft little gurgle
+of a laugh like a merry brook. David was amazed to find she had two
+dimples located about as Kate’s were, only deeper, and more gentle in
+their expression.
+
+“Did I sleep all the afternoon after we left the canal? And did you have
+hard work to get me into the house and upstairs?�
+
+“You slept most soundly,� said David, smiling in spite of his heavy heart.
+“It seemed a pity to waken you, so I did the next best thing and put you
+to bed as well as I knew how.�
+
+“It was very good of you,� said Marcia, coming over to him with her hands
+clasped earnestly, “and I don’t know how to thank you.�
+
+There was something quaint and old-fashioned in her way of speaking, and
+it struck David pitifully that she should be thanking her husband, the man
+who had pledged himself to care for her all his life. It seemed that
+everywhere he turned his conscience would be continually reproaching him.
+
+It was a dainty breakfast to which they presently sat down. There was
+plenty of bread and fresh butter just from the hands of the best
+butter-maker in the county; the eggs had been laid the day before, and the
+bacon was browned just right. Marcia well knew how to make coffee, there
+was cream rich and yellow as ever came from the cows at home and there
+were blackberries as large and fine every bit as those Marcia picked but a
+few days before for the purchase of her pink sprigged chintz.
+
+David watched her deft movements and all at once keen smiting conscience
+came to remind him that Marcia was defrauded of all the loving interchange
+of mirth that would have been if Kate had been here. Also, keener still
+the thought that Kate had not wanted it: that she had preferred the love
+of another man to his, and that these joys had not been held in dear
+anticipation with her as they had with him. He had been a fool. All these
+months of waiting for his marriage he had thought that he and Kate held
+feelings in common, joys and hopes and tender thoughts of one another;
+and, behold, he was having these feelings all to himself, fool and blind
+that he was! A bitter sigh came to his lips, and Marcia, eager in the
+excitement of getting her first breakfast upon her own responsibility,
+heard and forgot to smile over the completed work. She could hardly eat
+what she had prepared, her heart felt David’s sadness so keenly.
+
+Shyly she poured the amber coffee and passed it to David. She was pleased
+that he drank it eagerly and passed his cup back for more. He ate but
+little, but seemed to approve of all she had done.
+
+After breakfast David went down to the office. He had told Marcia that he
+would step over and tell his aunts of their arrival, and they would
+probably come over in the course of the day to greet her. He would be back
+to dinner at twelve. He suggested that she spend her time in resting, as
+she must be weary yet. Then hesitating, he went out and closed the door
+behind him. He waited again on the door stone outside and opened the door
+to ask:
+
+“You won’t be lonesome, will you, child?� He had the feeling of troubled
+responsibility upon him.
+
+“Oh, no!� said Marcia brightly, smiling back. She thought it so kind of
+him to take the trouble to think of her. She was quite anticipating a trip
+of investigation over her new domain, and the pleasure of feeling that she
+was mistress and might do as she pleased. Yet she stood by the window
+after he was gone and watched his easy strides down the street with a
+feeling of mingled pride and disappointment. It was a very nice play she
+was going through, and David was handsome, and her young heart swelled
+with pride to belong to him, but after all there was something left out. A
+great lack, a great unknown longing unsatisfied. What was it? What made
+it? Was it David’s sorrow?
+
+She turned with a sigh as he disappeared around a curve in the sidewalk
+and was lost to view. Then casting aside the troubles which were trying to
+settle upon her, she gave herself up to a morning of pure delight.
+
+She flew about the kitchen putting things to rights, washing the delicate
+sprigged china with its lavendar sprays and buff bands, and putting it
+tenderly upon the shelves behind the glass doors; shoving the table back
+against the wall demurely with dropped leaves. It did not take long.
+
+There was no need to worry about the dinner. There was a leg of lamb
+beautifully cooked, half a dozen pies, their flaky crusts bearing witness
+to the culinary skill of the aunts, a fruit cake, a pound cake, a jar of
+delectable cookies and another of fat sugary doughnuts, three loaves of
+bread, and a sheet of puffy rusks with their shining tops dusted with
+sugar. Besides the preserve closet was rich in all kinds of preserves,
+jellies and pickles. No, it would not take long to get dinner.
+
+It was into the great parlor that Marcia peeped first. It had been toward
+that room that her hopes and fears had turned while she washed the dishes.
+
+The Schuylers were one of the few families in those days that possessed a
+musical instrument, and it had been the delight of Marcia’s heart. She
+seemed to have a natural talent for music, and many an hour she spent at
+the old spinet drawing tender tones from the yellowed keys. The spinet had
+been in the family for a number of years and very proud had the Schuyler
+girls been of it. Kate could rattle off gay waltzes and merry, rollicking
+tunes that fairly made the feet of the sedate village maidens flutter in
+time to their melody, but Marcia’s music had always been more tender and
+spiritual. Dear old hymns, she loved, and some of the old classics.
+“Stupid old things without any tune,� Kate called them. But Marcia
+persevered in playing them until she could bring out the beautiful
+passages in a way that at least satisfied herself. Her one great desire
+had been to take lessons of a real musician and be able to play the
+wonderful things that the old masters had composed. It is true that very
+few of these had come in her way. One somewhat mutilated copy of Handel’s
+“Creation,� a copy of Haydn’s “Messiah,� and a few fragments of an old
+book of Bach’s Fugues and Preludes. Many of these she could not play at
+all, but others she had managed to pick out. A visit from a cousin who
+lived in Boston and told of the concerts given there by the Handel and
+Haydn Society had served to strengthen her deeper interest in music. The
+one question that had been going over in her mind ever since she awoke had
+been whether there was a musical instrument in the house. She felt that if
+there was not she would miss the old spinet in her father’s house more
+than any other thing about her childhood’s home.
+
+So with fear and trepidation she entered the darkened room, where the
+careful aunts had drawn the thick green shades. The furniture stood about
+in shadowed corners, and every footfall seemed a fearsome thing.
+
+Marcia’s bright eyes hurried furtively about, noting the great glass knobs
+that held the lace curtains with heavy silk cords, the round mahogany
+table, with its china vase of “everlastings,� the high, stiff-backed
+chairs all decked in elaborate antimacassars of intricate pattern. Then,
+in the furthest corner, shrouded in dark coverings she found what she was
+searching for. With a cry she sprang to it, touched its polished wood with
+gentle fingers, and lovingly felt for the keyboard. It was closed. Marcia
+pushed up the shade to see better, and opened the instrument cautiously.
+
+It was a pianoforte of the latest pattern, and with exclamations of
+delight she sat down and began to strike chords, softly at first, as if
+half afraid, then more boldly. The tone was sweeter than the old spinet,
+or the harpsichord owned by Squire Hartrandt. Marcia marvelled at the
+volume of sound. It filled the room and seemed to echo through the empty
+halls.
+
+She played soft little airs from memory, and her soul was filled with joy.
+Now she knew she would never be lonely in the new life, for she would
+always have this wonderful instrument to flee to when she felt homesick.
+
+Across the hall were two square rooms, the front one furnished as a
+library. Here were rows of books behind glass doors. Marcia looked at them
+with awe. Might she read them all? She resolved to cultivate her mind that
+she might be a fit companion for David. She knew he was wise beyond his
+years for she had heard her father say so. She went nearer and scanned the
+titles, and at once there looked out to her from the rows of bindings a
+few familiar faces of books she had read and re-read. “Thaddeus of
+Warsaw,� “The Scottish Chiefs,� “Mysteries of Udolpho,� “Romance of the
+Forest,� “Baker’s Livy,� “Rollin’s History,� “Pilgrim’s Progress,� and a
+whole row of Sir Walter Scott’s novels. She caught her breath with
+delight. What pleasure was opening before her! All of Scott! And she had
+read but one!
+
+It was with difficulty she tore herself away from the tempting shelves and
+went on to the rest of the house.
+
+Back of David’s library was a sunny sitting room, or breakfast room,—or
+“dining room� as it would be called at the present time. In Marcia’s time
+the family ate most of their meals in one end of the large bright kitchen,
+that end furnished with a comfortable lounge, a few bookshelves, a thick
+ingrain carpet, and a blooming geranium in the wide window seat. But there
+was always the other room for company, for “high days and holidays.�
+
+Out of this morning room the pantry opened with its spicy odors of
+preserves and fruit cake.
+
+Marcia looked about her well pleased. The house itself was a part of
+David’s inheritance, his mother’s family homestead. Things were all on a
+grand scale for a bride. Most brides began in a very simple way and
+climbed up year by year. How Kate would have liked it all! David must have
+had in mind her fastidious tastes, and spent a great deal of money in
+trying to please her. That piano must have been very expensive. Once more
+Marcia felt how David had loved Kate and a pang went through her as she
+wondered however he was to live without her. Her young soul had not yet
+awakened to the question of how _she_ was to live _with_ him, while his
+heart went continually mourning for one who was lost to him forever.
+
+The rooms upstairs were all pleasant, spacious, and comfortably furnished.
+There was no suggestion of bareness or anything left unfinished. Much of
+the furniture was old, having belonged to David’s mother, and was in a
+state of fine preservation, a possession of which to be justly proud.
+
+There were four rooms besides the one in which Marcia had slept: a front
+and back on the opposite side of the hall, a room just back of her own,
+and one at the end of the hall over the large kitchen.
+
+She entered them all and looked about. The three beside her own in the
+front part of the house were all large and airy, furnished with high
+four-posted bedsteads, and pretty chintz hangings. Each was immaculate in
+its appointments. Cautiously she lifted the latch of the back room. David
+had not slept in any of the others, for the bedcoverings and pillows were
+plump and undisturbed. Ah! It was here in the back room that he had
+carried his heavy heart, as far away from the rest of the house as
+possible!
+
+The bed was rumpled as if some one had thrown himself heavily down without
+stopping to undress. There was water in the washbowl and a towel lay
+carelessly across a chair as if it had been hastily used. There was a
+newspaper on the bureau and a handkerchief on the floor. Marcia looked
+sadly about at these signs of occupancy, her eyes dwelling upon each
+detail. It was here that David had suffered, and her loving heart longed
+to help him in his suffering.
+
+But there was nothing in the room to keep her, and remembering the fire
+she had left upon the hearth, which must be almost spent and need
+replenishing by this time, she turned to go downstairs.
+
+Just at the door something caught her eye under the edge of the chintz
+valence round the bed. It was but the very tip of the corner of an old
+daguerreotype, but for some reason Marcia was moved to stoop and draw it
+from its concealment. Then she saw it was her sister’s saucy, pretty face
+that laughed back at her in defiance from the picture.
+
+As if she had touched something red hot Marcia dropped it, and pushed it
+with her foot far back under the bed. Then shutting the door quickly she
+went downstairs. Was it always to be thus? Would Kate ever blight all her
+joy from this time forth?
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER X
+
+
+Marcia’s cheeks were flushed when David came home to dinner, for at the
+last she had to hurry.
+
+As he stood in the doorway of the wide kitchen and caught the odor of the
+steaming platter of green corn she was putting upon the table, David
+suddenly realized that he had eaten scarcely anything for breakfast.
+
+Also, he felt a certain comfort from the sweet steady look of wistful
+sympathy in Marcia’s eyes. Did he fancy it, or was there a new look upon
+her face, a more reserved bearing, less childish, more touched by sad
+knowledge of life and its bitterness? It was mere fancy of course,
+something he had just not noticed. He had seen so little of her before.
+
+In the heart of the maiden there stirred a something which she did not
+quite understand, something brought to life by the sight of her sister’s
+daguerreotype lying at the edge of the valence, where it must have fallen
+from David’s pocket without his knowledge as he lay asleep. It had seemed
+to put into tangible form the solid wall of fact that hung between her and
+any hope of future happiness as a wife, and for the first time she too
+began to realize what she had sacrificed in thus impetuously throwing her
+young life into the breach that it might be healed. But she was not
+sorry,—not yet, anyway,—only frightened, and filled with dreary
+forebodings.
+
+The meal was a pleasant one, though constrained. David roused himself to
+be cheerful for Marcia’s sake, as he would have done with any other
+stranger, and the girl, suddenly grown sensitive, felt it, and appreciated
+it, yet did not understand why it made her unhappy.
+
+She was anxious to please him, and kept asking if the potatoes were
+seasoned right and if his corn were tender, and if he wouldn’t have
+another cup of coffee. Her cheeks were quite red with the effort at
+matronly dignity when David was finally through his dinner and gone back
+to the office, and two big tears came and sat in her eyes for a moment,
+but were persuaded with a determined effort to sink back again into those
+unfathomable wells that lie in the depths of a woman’s eyes. She longed to
+get out of doors and run wild and free in the old south pasture for
+relief. She did not know how different it all was from the first dinner of
+the ordinary young married couple; so stiff and formal, with no gentle
+touches, no words of love, no glances that told more than words. And yet,
+child as she was, she felt it, a lack somewhere, she knew not what.
+
+But training is a great thing. Marcia had been trained to be on the alert
+for the next duty and to do it before she gave herself time for any of her
+own thoughts. The dinner table was awaiting her attention, and there was
+company coming.
+
+She glanced at the tall clock in the hall and found she had scarcely an
+hour before she might expect David’s aunts, for David had brought her word
+that they would come and spend the afternoon and stay to tea.
+
+She shrank from the ordeal and wished David had seen fit to stay and
+introduce her. It would have been a relief to have had him for a shelter.
+Somehow she knew that he would have stayed if it had been Kate, and that
+thought pained her, with a quick sharpness like the sting of an insect.
+She wondered if she were growing selfish, that it should hurt to find
+herself of so little account. And, yet, it was to be expected, and she
+must stop thinking about it. Of course, Kate was the one he had chosen and
+Kate would always be the only one to him.
+
+It did not take her long to reduce the dinner table to order and put all
+things in readiness for tea time; and in doing her work Marcia’s thoughts
+flew to pleasanter themes. She wondered what Dolly and Debby, the servants
+at home, would say if they could see her pretty china and the nice
+kitchen. They had always been fond of her, and naturally her new honors
+made her wish to have her old friends see her. What would Mary Ann say?
+What fun it would be to have Mary Ann there sometime. It would be almost
+like the days when they had played house under the old elm on the big flat
+stone, only this would be a real house with real sprigged china instead of
+bits of broken things. Then she fell into a song, one they sang in school,
+
+            “Sister, thou wast mild and lovely,
+               Gentle as the summer breeze,
+             Pleasant as the air of evening
+               When it floats among the trees.�
+
+But the first words set her to thinking of her own sister, and how little
+the song applied to her, and she thought with a sigh how much better it
+would have been, how much less bitter, if Kate had been that way and had
+lain down to die and they could have laid her away in the little hilly
+graveyard under the weeping willows, and felt about her as they did about
+the girl for whom that song was written.
+
+The work was done, and Marcia arrayed in one of the simplest of Kate’s
+afternoon frocks, when the brass knocker sounded through the house,
+startling her with its unfamiliar sound.
+
+Breathlessly she hurried downstairs. The crucial moment had come when she
+must stand to meet her new relatives alone. With her hand trembling she
+opened the door, but there was only one person standing on the stoop, a
+girl of about her own age, perhaps a few months younger. Her hair was red,
+her face was freckled, and her blue eyes under the red lashes danced with
+repressed mischief. Her dress was plain and she wore a calico sunbonnet of
+chocolate color.
+
+“Let me in quick before Grandma sees me,� she demanded unceremoniously,
+entering at once before there was opportunity for invitation. “Grandma
+thinks I’ve gone to the store, so she won’t expect me for a little while.
+I was jest crazy to see how you looked. I’ve ben watchin’ out o’ the
+window all the morning, but I couldn’t ketch a glimpse of you. When David
+came out this morning I thought you’d sure be at the kitchen door to kiss
+him good-bye, but you wasn’t, and I watched every chance I could get, but
+I couldn’t see you till you run out in the garden fer corn. Then I saw you
+good, fer I was out hangin’ up dish towels. You didn’t have a sunbonnet
+on, so I could see real well. And when I saw how young you was I made up
+my mind I’d get acquainted in spite of Grandma. You don’t mind my comin’
+over this way without bein’ dressed up, do you? There wouldn’t be any way
+to get here without Grandma seeing me, you know, if I put on my Sunday
+clo’es.�
+
+“I’m glad you came!� said Marcia impulsively, feeling a rush of something
+like tears in her throat at the relief of delay from the aunts. “Come in
+and sit down. Who are you, and why wouldn’t your Grandmother like you to
+come?�
+
+The strange girl laughed a mirthless laugh.
+
+“Me? Oh, I’m Mirandy. Nobody ever calls me anything but Mirandy. My pa
+left ma when I was a baby an’ never come back, an’ ma died, and I live
+with Grandma Heath. An’ Grandma’s mad ’cause David didn’t marry Hannah
+Heath. She wanted him to an’ she did everything she could to make him pay
+’tention to Hannah, give her fine silk frocks, two of ’em, and a real pink
+parasol, but David he never seemed to know the parasol was pink at all,
+fer he’d never offer to hold it over Hannah even when Grandma made him
+walk with her home from church ahead of us. So when it come out that David
+was really going to marry, and wouldn’t take Hannah, Grandma got as mad as
+could be and said we never any of us should step over his door sill. But
+I’ve stepped, I have, and Grandma can’t help herself.�
+
+“And who is Hannah Heath?� questioned the dazed young bride. It appeared
+there was more than a sister to be taken into account.
+
+“Hannah? Oh, Hannah is my cousin, Uncle Jim’s oldest daughter, and she’s
+getting on toward thirty somewhere. She has whitey-yellow hair and light
+blue eyes and is tall and real pretty. She held her head high fer a good
+many years waitin’ fer David, and I guess she feels she made a mistake
+now. I noticed she bowed real sweet to Hermon Worcester last Sunday and
+let him hold her parasol all the way to Grandma’s gate. Hannah was mad as
+hops when she heard that you had gold hair and blue eyes, for it did seem
+hard to be beaten by a girl of the same kind? but you haven’t, have you?
+Your hair is almost black and your eyes are brownie-brown. You’re years
+younger than Hannah, too. My! Won’t she be astonished when she sees you!
+But I don’t understand how it got around about your having gold hair. It
+was a man that stopped at your father’s house once told it——�
+
+“It was my sister!� said Marcia, and then blushed crimson to think how
+near she had come to revealing the truth which must not be known.
+
+“Your sister? Have you got a sister with gold hair?�
+
+“Yes, he must have seen her,� said Marcia confusedly. She was not used to
+evasion.
+
+“How funny!� said Miranda. “Well, I’m glad he did, for it made Hannah so
+jealous it was funny. But I guess she’ll get a set-back when she sees how
+young you are. You’re not as pretty as I thought you would be, but I
+believe I like you better.�
+
+Miranda’s frank speech reminded Marcia of Mary Ann and made her feel quite
+at home with her curious visitor. She did not mind being told she was not
+up to the mark of beauty. From her point of view she was not nearly so
+pretty as Kate, and her only fear was that her lack of beauty might reveal
+the secret and bring confusion to David. But she need not have feared: no
+one watching the two girls, as they sat in the large sunny room and faced
+each other, but would have smiled to think the homely crude girl could
+suggest that the other calm, cool bud of womanhood was not as near
+perfection of beauty as a bud could be expected to come. There was always
+something child-like about Marcia’s face, especially her profile,
+something deep and other-world-like in her eyes, that gave her an
+appearance so distinguished from other girls that the word “pretty� did
+not apply, and surface observers might have passed her by when searching
+for prettiness, but not so those who saw soul beauties.
+
+But Miranda’s time was limited, and she wanted to make as much of it as
+possible.
+
+“Say, I heard you making music this morning. Won’t you do it for me? I’d
+just love to hear you.�
+
+Marcia’s face lit up with responsive enthusiasm, and she led the way to
+the darkened parlor and folded back the covers of the precious piano. She
+played some tender little airs she loved as she would have played them for
+Mary Ann, and the two young things stood there together, children in
+thought and feeling, half a generation apart in position, and neither
+recognized the difference.
+
+“My land!� said the visitor, “’f I could play like that I wouldn’t care ef
+I had freckles and no father and red hair,� and looking up Marcia saw
+tears in the light blue eyes, and knew she had a kindred feeling in her
+heart for Miranda.
+
+They had been talking a minute or two when the knocker suddenly sounded
+through the long hall again making both girls start. Miranda boldly
+tiptoed over to the front window and peeped between the green slats of the
+Venetian blind to see who was at the door, while Marcia started guiltily
+and quickly closed the instrument.
+
+“It’s David’s aunts,� announced Miranda in a stage whisper hurriedly. “I
+might ’a’ known they would come this afternoon. Well, I had first try at
+you anyway, and I like you real well. May I come again and hear you play?
+You go quick to the door, and I’ll slip into the kitchen till they get in,
+and then I’ll go out the kitchen door and round the house out the little
+gate so Grandma won’t see me. I must hurry for I ought to have been back
+ten minutes ago.�
+
+“But you haven’t been to the store,� said Marcia in a dismayed whisper.
+
+“Oh, well, that don’t matter! I’ll tell her they didn’t have what she sent
+me for. Good-bye. You better hurry.� So saying, she disappeared into the
+kitchen; and Marcia, startled by such easy morality, stood dazed until the
+knocker sounded forth again, this time a little more peremptorily, as the
+elder aunt took her turn at it.
+
+And so at last Marcia was face to face with the Misses Spafford.
+
+They came in, each with her knitting in a black silk bag on her slim arm,
+and greeted the flushed, perturbed Marcia with gentle, righteous, rigid
+inspection. She felt with the first glance that she was being tried in the
+fire, and that it was to be no easy ordeal through which she was to pass.
+They had come determined to sift her to the depths and know at once the
+worst of what their beloved nephew had brought upon himself. If they found
+aught wrong with her they meant to be kindly and loving with her, but they
+meant to take it out of her. This had been the unspoken understanding
+between them as they wended their dignified, determined way to David’s
+house that afternoon, and this was what Marcia faced as she opened the
+door for them.
+
+She gasped a little, as any girl overwhelmed thus might have done. She did
+not tilt her chin in defiance as Kate would have done. The thought of
+David came to support her, and she grasped for her own little part and
+tried to play it creditably. She did not know whether the aunts knew of
+her true identity or not, but she was not left long in doubt.
+
+“My dear, we have long desired to know you, of whom we have heard so
+much,� recited Miss Amelia, with slightly agitated mien, as she bestowed a
+cool kiss of duty upon Marcia’s warm cheek. It chilled the girl, like the
+breath from a funeral flower.
+
+“Yes, it is indeed a pleasure to us to at last look upon our dear nephew’s
+wife,� said Miss Hortense quite precisely, and laid the sister kiss upon
+the other cheek. In spite of her there flitted through Marcia’s brain the
+verse, “Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the
+other also.� Then she was shocked at her own irreverence and tried to put
+away a hysterical desire to laugh.
+
+The aunts, too, were somewhat taken aback. They had not looked for so
+girlish a wife. She was not at all what they had pictured. David had tried
+to describe Kate to them once, and this young, sweet, disarming thing did
+not in the least fit their preconceived ideas of her. What should they do?
+How could they carry on a campaign planned against a certain kind of
+enemy, when lo, as they came upon the field of action the supposed enemy
+had taken another and more bewildering form than the one for whom they had
+prepared. They were for the moment silent, gathering their thoughts, and
+trying to fit their intended tactics to the present situation.
+
+During this operation Marcia helped them to remove their bonnets and silk
+capes and to lay them neatly on the parlor sofa. She gave them chairs,
+suggested palm-leaf fans, and looked about, for the moment forgetting that
+this was not her old home plentifully supplied with those gracious breeze
+wafters.
+
+They watched her graceful movements, those two angular old ladies, and
+marvelled over her roundness and suppleness. They saw with appalled hearts
+what a power youth and beauty might have over a man. Perhaps she might be
+even worse than they had feared, though if you could have heard them talk
+about their nephew’s coming bride to their neighbors for months
+beforehand, you would have supposed they knew her to be a model in every
+required direction. But their stately pride required that of them, an
+outward loyalty at least. Now that loyalty was to be tried, and Marcia had
+two old, narrow and well-fortified hearts to conquer ere her way would be
+entirely smooth.
+
+Well might Madam Schuyler have been proud of her pupil as alone and
+unaided she faced the trying situation and mastered it in a sweet and
+unassuming way.
+
+They began their inquisition at once, so soon as they were seated, and the
+preliminary sentences uttered. The gleaming knitting needles seemed to
+Marcia like so many swarming, vindictive bees, menacing her peace of mind.
+
+“You look young, child, to have the care of so large a house as this,�
+said Aunt Amelia, looking at Marcia over her spectacles as if she were
+expected to take the first bite out of her. “It’s a great responsibility!�
+she shut her thin lips tightly and shook her head, as if she had said:
+“It’s a great _impossibility_.�
+
+“Have you ever had the care of a house?� asked Miss Hortense, going in a
+little deeper. “David likes everything nice, you know, he has always been
+used to it.�
+
+There was something in the tone, and in the set of the bow on Aunt
+Hortense’s purple-trimmed cap that roused the spirit in Marcia.
+
+“I think I rather enjoy housework,� she responded coolly. This unexpected
+statement somewhat mollified the aunts. They had heard to the contrary
+from some one who had lived in the same town with the Schuylers. Kate’s
+reputation was widely known, as that of a spoiled beauty, who did not care
+to work, and would do whatever she pleased. The aunts had entertained many
+forebodings from the few stray hints an old neighbor of Kate’s had dared
+to utter in their hearing.
+
+The talk drifted at once into household matters, as though that were the
+first division of the examination the young bride was expected to undergo.
+Marcia took early opportunity to still further mollify her visitors by her
+warmest praise of the good things with which the pantry and store-closet
+had been filled. The expression that came upon the two old faces was that
+of receiving but what is due. If the praise had not been forthcoming they
+would have marked it down against her, but it counted for very little with
+them, warm as it was.
+
+“Can you make good bread?�
+
+The question was flung out by Aunt Hortense like a challenge, and the very
+set of her nostrils gave Marcia warning. But it was in a relieved voice
+that ended almost in a ripple of laugh that she answered quite assuredly:
+“Oh, yes, indeed. I can make beautiful bread. I just love to make it,
+too!�
+
+“But how do you make it?� quickly questioned Aunt Amelia, like a repeating
+rifle. If the first shot had not struck home, the second was likely to.
+“Do you use hop yeast? Potatoes? I thought so. Don’t know how to make
+salt-rising, do you? It’s just what might have been expected.�
+
+“David has always been used to salt-rising bread,� said Aunt Hortense with
+a grim set of her lips as though she were delivering a judgment. “He was
+raised on it.�
+
+“If David does not like my bread,� said Marcia with a rising color and a
+nervous little laugh, “then I shall try to make some that he does like.�
+
+There was an assurance about the “if� that did not please the oracle.
+
+“David was raised on salt-rising bread,� said Aunt Hortense again as if
+that settled it. “We can send you down a loaf or two every time we bake
+until you learn how.�
+
+“I’m sure it’s very kind of you,� said Marcia, not at all pleased, “but I
+do not think that will be necessary. David has always seemed to like our
+bread when he visited at home. Indeed he often praised it.�
+
+“David would not be impolite,� said Aunt Amelia, after a suitable pause in
+which Marcia felt disapprobation in the air. “It would be best for us to
+send it. David’s health might suffer if he was not suitably nourished.�
+
+Marcia’s cheeks grew redder. Bread had been one of her stepmother’s strong
+points, well infused into her young pupil. Madam Schuyler had never been
+able to say enough to sufficiently express her scorn of people who made
+salt-rising bread.
+
+“My stepmother made beautiful bread,� she said quite childishly; “she did
+not think salt-rising was so healthy as that made from hop yeast. She
+disliked the odor in the house from salt-rising bread.�
+
+Now indeed the aunts exchanged glances of “On to the combat.� Four red
+spots flamed giddily out in their four sallow cheeks, and eight shining
+knitting needles suddenly became idle. The moment was too momentous to
+work. It was as they feared, even the worst. For, be it known, salt-rising
+bread was one of their most tender points, and for it they would fight to
+the bitter end. They looked at her with four cold, forbidding, steely,
+spectacled eyes, and Marcia felt that their looks said volumes: “And she
+so young too! To be so out of the way!� was what they might have expressed
+to one another. Marcia felt she had been unwise in uttering her honest,
+indignant sentiments concerning salt-rising bread.
+
+The pause was long and impressive, and the bride felt like a naughty
+little four-year-old.
+
+At last Aunt Hortense took up her knitting again with the air that all was
+over and an unrevokable verdict was passed upon the culprit.
+
+“People have never seemed to stay away from our house on that account,�
+she said dryly. “I’m sure I hope it will not be so disagreeable that it
+will affect your coming to see us sometimes with David.�
+
+There was an iciness in her manner that seemed to suggest a long line of
+offended family portraits of ancestors frowning down upon her.
+
+Marcia’s cheeks flamed crimson and her heart fairly stopped beating.
+
+“I beg your pardon,� she said quickly, “I did not mean to say anything
+disagreeable. I am sure I shall be glad to come as often as you will let
+me.� As she said it Marcia wondered if that were quite true. Would she
+ever be glad to go to the home of those two severe-looking aunts? There
+were three of them. Perhaps the other one would be even more withered and
+severe than these two. A slight shudder passed over Marcia, and a sudden
+realization of a side of married life that had never come into her
+thoughts before. For a moment she longed with all the intensity of a child
+for her father’s house and the shelter of his loving protection, amply
+supported by her stepmother’s capable, self-sufficient, comforting
+countenance. Her heart sank with the fear that she would never be able to
+do justice to the position of David’s wife, and David would be
+disappointed in her and sorry he had accepted her sacrifice. She roused
+herself to do better, and bit her tongue to remind it that it must make no
+more blunders. She praised the garden, the house and the furnishings, in
+voluble, eager, girlish language until the thin lines of lips relaxed and
+the drawn muscles of the aunts’ cheeks took on a less severe aspect. They
+liked to be appreciated, and they certainly had taken a great deal of
+pains with the house—for David’s sake—not for hers. They did not care to
+have her deluded by the idea that they had done it for her sake. David was
+to them a young god, and with this one supreme idea of his supremacy they
+wished to impress his young wife. It was a foregone conclusion in their
+minds that no mere pretty young girl was capable of appreciating David, as
+could they, who had watched him from babyhood, and pampered and petted and
+been severe with him by turns, until if he had not had the temper of an
+angel he would surely have been spoiled.
+
+“We did our best to make the house just as David would have wished to have
+it,� said Aunt Amelia at last, a self-satisfied shadow of what answered
+for a smile with her, passing over her face for a moment.
+
+“We did not at all approve of this big house, nor indeed of David’s
+setting up in a separate establishment for himself,� said Aunt Hortense,
+taking up her knitting again. “We thought it utterly unnecessary and
+uneconomical, when he might have brought his wife home to us, but he
+seemed to think you would want a house to yourself, so we did the best we
+could.�
+
+There was a martyr-like air in Aunt Hortense’s words that made Marcia feel
+herself again a criminal, albeit she knew she was suffering vicariously.
+But in her heart she felt a sudden thankfulness that she was spared the
+trial of living daily under the scrutiny of these two, and she blest David
+for his thoughtfulness, even though it had not been meant for her. She
+went into pleased ecstasies once more over the house, and its furnishings,
+and ended by her pleasure over the piano.
+
+There was grim stillness when she touched upon that subject. The aunts did
+not approve of that musical instrument, that was plain. Marcia wondered if
+they always paused so long before speaking when they disapproved, in order
+to show their displeasure. In fact, did they always disapprove of
+everything?
+
+“You will want to be very careful of it,� said Aunt Amelia, looking at the
+disputed article over her glasses, “it cost a good deal of money. It was
+the most foolish thing I ever knew David to do, buying that.�
+
+“Yes,� said Aunt Hortense, “you will not want to use it much, it might get
+scratched. It has a fine polish. I’d keep it closed up only when I had
+company. You ought to be very proud to have a husband who could buy a
+thing like that. There’s not many has them. When I was a girl my
+grandfather had a spinet, the only one for miles around, and it was taken
+great care of. The case hadn’t a scratch on it.�
+
+Marcia had started toward the piano intending to open it and play for her
+new relatives, but she halted midway in the room and came back to her seat
+after that speech, feeling that she must just sit and hold her hands until
+it was time to get supper, while these dreadful aunts picked her to
+pieces, body, soul and spirit.
+
+It was with great relief at last that she heard David’s step and knew she
+might leave the room and put the tea things upon the table.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER XI
+
+
+They got through the supper without any trouble, and the aunts went home
+in the early twilight, each with her bonnet strings tied precisely, her
+lace mitts drawn smoothly over her bony hands, and her little knitting bag
+over her right arm. They walked decorously up the shaded, elm-domed
+street, each mindful of her aristocratic instep, and trying to walk erect
+as in the days when they were gazed upon with admiration, knowing that
+still an air of former greatness hovered about them wherever they went.
+
+They had brightened considerably at the supper table, under the genial
+influence of David’s presence. They came as near to worshiping David as
+one can possibly come to worshiping a human being. David, desirous above
+all things of blinding their keen, sure-to-say-“I-told-you-so� old eyes,
+roused to be his former gay self with them, and pleased them so that they
+did not notice how little lover-like reference he made to his bride, who
+was decidedly in the background for the time, the aunts, perhaps
+purposely, desiring to show her a wife’s true place,—at least the true
+place of a wife of a David.
+
+They had allowed her to bring their things and help them on with capes and
+bonnets, and, when they were ready to leave, Aunt Amelia put out a
+lifeless hand, that felt in its silk mitt like a dead fish in a net, and
+said to Marcia:
+
+“Our sister Clarinda is desirous of seeing David’s wife. She wished us
+most particularly to give you her love and say to you that she wishes you
+to come to her at the earliest possible moment. You know she is lame and
+cannot easily get about.�
+
+“Young folks should always be ready to wait upon their elders,� said Aunt
+Hortense, grimly. “Come as soon as you can,—that is, if you think you can
+stand the smell of salt-rising.�
+
+Marcia’s face flushed painfully, and she glanced quickly at David to see
+if he had noticed what his aunt had said, but David was already
+anticipating the moment when he would be free to lay aside his mask and
+bury his face in his hands and his thoughts in sadness.
+
+Marcia’s heart sank as she went about clearing off the supper things. Was
+life always to be thus? Would she be forever under the espionage of those
+two grim spectres of women, who seemed, to her girlish imagination, to
+have nothing about them warm or loving or woman-like?
+
+She seemed to herself to be standing outside of a married life and looking
+on at it as one might gaze on a panorama. It was all new and painful, and
+she was one of the central figures expected to act on through all the
+pictures, taking another’s place, yet doing it as if it were her own. She
+glanced over at David’s pale, grave face, set in its sadness, and a sharp
+pain went through her heart. Would he ever get over it? Would life never
+be more cheerful than it now was?
+
+He spoke to her occasionally, in a pleasant abstracted way, as to one who
+understood him and was kind not to trouble his sadness, and he lighted a
+candle for her when the work was done and said he hoped she would rest
+well, that she must still be weary from the long journey. And so she went
+up to her room again.
+
+She did not go to bed at once, but sat down by the window looking out on
+the moonlit street. There had been some sort of a meeting at the church
+across the way, and the people were filing out and taking their various
+ways home, calling pleasant good nights, and speaking cheerily of the
+morrow. The moon, though beginning to wane, was bright and cast sharp
+shadows. Marcia longed to get out into the night. If she could have got
+downstairs without being heard she would have slipped out into the garden.
+But downstairs she could hear David pacing back and forth like some hurt,
+caged thing. Steadily, dully, he walked from the front hall back into the
+kitchen and back again. There was no possibility of escaping his notice.
+Marcia felt as if she might breathe freer in the open air, so she leaned
+far out of her window and looked up and down the street, and thought.
+Finally,—her heart swelled to bursting, as young hearts with their first
+little troubles will do,—she leaned down her dark head upon the window
+seat and wept and wept, alone.
+
+It was the next morning at breakfast that David told her of the
+festivities that were planned in honor of their home coming. He spoke as
+if they were a great trial through which they both must pass in order to
+have any peace, and expressed his gratitude once more that she had been
+willing to come here with him and pass through it. Marcia had the
+impression, after he was done speaking and had gone away to the office,
+that he felt that she had come here merely for these few days of ceremony
+and after they were passed she was dismissed, her duty done, and she might
+go home. A great lump arose in her throat and she suddenly wished very
+much indeed that it were so. For if it were, how much, how very much she
+would enjoy queening it for a few days—except for David’s sadness. But
+already, there had begun to be an element to her in that sadness which in
+spite of herself she resented. It was a heavy burden which she began dimly
+to see would be harder and harder to bear as the days went by. She had not
+yet begun to think of the time before her in years.
+
+They were to go to the aunts’ to tea that evening, and after tea a company
+of David’s old friends—or rather the old friends of David’s aunts—were
+coming in to meet them. This the aunts had planned: but it seemed they had
+not counted her worthy to be told of the plans, and had only divulged them
+to David. Marcia had not thought that a little thing could annoy her so
+much, but she found it vexed her more and more as she thought upon it
+going about her work.
+
+There was not so much to be done in the house that morning after the
+breakfast things were cleared away. Dinners and suppers would not be much
+of a problem for some days to come, for the house was well stocked with
+good things.
+
+The beds done and the rooms left in dainty order with the sweet summer
+breeze blowing the green tassels on the window shades, Marcia went softly
+down like some half guilty creature to the piano. She opened it and was
+forthwith lost in delight of the sounds her own fingers brought forth.
+
+She had been playing perhaps half an hour when she became conscious of
+another presence in the room. She looked up with a start, feeling that
+some one had been there for some time, she could not tell just how long.
+Peering into the shadowy room lighted only from the window behind her, she
+made out a head looking in at the door, the face almost hidden by a
+capacious sunbonnet. She was not long in recognizing her visitor of the
+day before. It was like a sudden dropping from a lofty mountain height
+down into a valley of annoyance to hear Miranda’s sharp metallic voice:
+
+“Morning!� she courtesied, coming in as soon as she perceived that she was
+seen. “At it again? I ben listening sometime. It’s as pretty as Silas
+Drew’s harmonicker when he comes home evenings behind the cows.�
+
+Marcia drew her hands sharply from the keys as if she had been struck.
+Somehow Miranda and music were inharmonious. She scarcely knew what to
+say. She felt as if her morning were spoiled. But Miranda was too full of
+her own errand to notice the clouded face and cool welcome. “Say, you
+can’t guess how I got over here. I’ll tell you. You’re going over to the
+Spafford house to-night, ain’t you? and there’s going to be a lot of folks
+there. Of course we all know all about it. It’s been planned for months.
+And my cousin Hannah Heath has an invite. You can’t think how fond Miss
+Amelia and Miss Hortense are of her. They tried their level best to make
+David pay attention to her, but it didn’t work. Well, she was talking
+about what she’d wear. She’s had three new frocks made last week, all
+frilled and fancy. You see she don’t want to let folks think she is down
+in the mouth the least bit about David. She’ll likely make up to you, to
+your face, a whole lot, and pretend she’s the best friend you’ve got in
+the world. But I’ve just got this to say, don’t you be too sure of her
+friendship. She’s smooth as butter, but she can give you a slap in the
+face if you don’t serve her purpose. I don’t mind telling you for she’s
+given me many a one,� and the pale eyes snapped in unison with the color
+of her hair. “Well, you see I heard her talking to Grandma, and she said
+she’d give anything to know what you were going to wear to-night.�
+
+“How curious!� said Marcia surprised. “I’m sure I do not see why she
+should care!� There was the coolness born of utter indifference in her
+reply which filled the younger girl with admiration. Perhaps too there was
+the least mite of haughtiness in her manner, born of the knowledge that
+she belonged to an old and honored family, and that she had in her
+possession a trunk full of clothes that could vie with any that Hannah
+Heath could display. Miranda wished silently that she could convey that
+cool manner and that wide-eyed indifference to the sight of her cousin
+Hannah.
+
+“H’m!� giggled Miranda. “Well, she does! If you were going to wear blue
+you’d see she’d put on her green. She’s got one that’ll kill any blue
+that’s in the same room with it, no matter if it’s on the other side. Its
+just sick’ning to see them together. And she looks real well in it too. So
+when she said she wanted to know so bad, Grandma said she’d send me over
+to know if you’d accept a jar of her fresh pickle-lily, and mebbe I could
+find out about your clothes. The pickle-lily’s on the kitchen table. I
+left it when I came through. It’s good, but there ain’t any love in it.�
+And Miranda laughed a hard mirthless laugh, and then settled down to her
+subject again.
+
+“Now, you needn’t be a mite afraid to tell me about it. I won’t tell it
+straight, you know. I’d just like to see what you are going to wear so I
+could keep her out of her tricks for once. Is your frock blue?�
+
+Now it is true that the trunk upstairs contained a goodly amount of the
+color blue, for Kate Schuyler had been her bonniest in blue, and the
+particular frock which had been made with reference to this very first
+significant gathering was blue. Marcia had accepted the fact as
+unalterable. The garment was made for a purpose, and its mission must be
+fulfilled however much she might wish to wear something else, but suddenly
+as Miranda spoke there came to her mind the thought of rebellion. Why
+should she be bound down to do exactly as Kate would do in her place? If
+she had accepted the sacrifice of living Kate’s life for her, she might at
+least have the privilege of living it in the pleasantest possible way, and
+surely the matter of dress was one she might be allowed to settle for
+herself if she was old enough at all to be trusted away from home. Among
+the pretty things that Kate had made was a sweet rose-pink silk tissue.
+Madam Schuyler had frowned upon it as frivolous, and besides she did not
+think it becoming to Kate. She had a fixed theory that people with blue
+eyes and gold hair should never wear pink or red, but Kate as usual had
+her own way, and with her wild rose complexion had succeeded in looking
+like the wild rose itself in spite of blue eyes and golden hair. Marcia
+knew in her heart, in fact she had known from the minute the lovely pink
+thing had come into the house, that it was the very thing to set her off.
+Her dark eyes and hair made a charming contrast with the rose, and her
+complexion was even fresher than Kate’s. Her heart grew suddenly eager to
+don this dainty, frilley thing and outshine Hannah Heath beyond any chance
+of further trying. There were other frocks, too, in the trunk. Why should
+she be confined to the stately blue one that had been marked out for this
+occasion? Marcia, with sudden inspiration, answered calmly, just as though
+all these tumultuous possibilities of clothes had not been whirling
+through her brain in that half second’s hesitation:
+
+“I have not quite decided what I shall wear. It is not an important
+matter, I’m sure. Let us go and see the piccalilli. I’m very much obliged
+to your grandmother, I’m sure. It was kind of her.�
+
+Somewhat awed, Miranda followed her hostess into the kitchen. She could
+not reconcile this girl’s face with the stately little airs that she wore,
+but she liked her and forthwith she told her so.
+
+“I like you,� she said fervently. “You remind me of one of Grandma’s
+sturtions, bright and independent and lively, with a spice and a color to
+’em, and Hannah makes you think of one of them tall spikes of gladiolus
+all fixed up without any smell.�
+
+Marcia tried to smile over the doubtful compliment. Somehow there was
+something about Miranda that reminded her of Mary Ann. Poor Mary Ann!
+_Dear_ Mary Ann! For suddenly she realized that everything that reminded
+her of the precious life of her childhood, left behind forever, was dear.
+If she could see Mary Ann at this moment she would throw her arms about
+her neck and call her “Dear Mary Ann,� and say, “I love you,� to her.
+Perhaps this feeling made her more gentle with the annoying Miranda than
+she might have been.
+
+When Miranda was gone the precious play hour was gone too. Marcia had only
+time to steal hurriedly into the parlor, close the instrument, and then
+fly about getting her dinner ready. But as she worked she had other
+thoughts to occupy her mind. She was becoming adjusted to her new
+environment and she found many unexpected things to make it hard. Here,
+for instance, was Hannah Heath. Why did there have to be a Hannah Heath?
+And what was Hannah Heath to her? Kate might feel jealous, indeed, but not
+she, not the unloved, unreal, wife of David. She should rather pity Hannah
+that David had not loved her instead of Kate, or pity David that he had
+not. But somehow she did not, somehow she could not. Somehow Hannah Heath
+had become a living, breathing enemy to be met and conquered. Marcia felt
+her fighting blood rising, felt the Schuyler in her coming to the front.
+However little there was in her wifehood, its name at least was hers. The
+tale that Miranda had told was enough, if it were true, to put any woman,
+however young she might be, into battle array. Marcia was puzzling her
+mind over the question that has been more or less of a weary burden to
+every woman since the fatal day that Eve made her great mistake.
+
+David was silent and abstracted at the dinner table, and Marcia absorbed
+in her own problems did not feel cut by it. She was trying to determine
+whether to blossom out in pink, or to be crushed and set aside into
+insignificance in blue, or to choose a happy medium and wear neither. She
+ventured a timid little question before David went away again: Did he,
+would he,—that is, was there any thing,—any word he would like to say to
+her? Would she have to do anything to-night?
+
+David looked at her in surprise. Why, no! He knew of nothing. Just go and
+speak pleasantly to every one. He was sure she knew what to do. He had
+always thought her very well behaved. She had manners like any woman. She
+need not feel shy. No one knew of her peculiar position, and he felt
+reasonably sure that the story would not soon get around. Her position
+would be thoroughly established before it did, at least. She need not feel
+uncomfortable. He looked down at her thinking he had said all that could
+be expected of him, but somehow he felt the trouble in the girl’s eyes and
+asked her gently if there was anything more.
+
+“No,� she said slowly, “unless, perhaps—I don’t suppose you know what it
+would be proper for me to wear.�
+
+“Oh, that does not matter in the least,� he replied promptly. “Anything.
+You always look nice. Why, I’ll tell you, wear the frock you had on the
+night I came.� Then he suddenly remembered the reason why that was a
+pleasant memory to him, and that it was not for her sake at all, but for
+the sake of one who was lost to him forever. His face contracted with
+sudden pain, and Marcia, cut to the heart, read the meaning, and felt sick
+and sore too.
+
+“Oh, I could not wear that,� she said sadly, “it is only chintz. It would
+not be nice enough, but thank you. I shall be all right. Don’t trouble
+about me,� and she forced a weak smile to light him from the house, and
+shut from his pained eyes the knowledge of how he had hurt her, for with
+those words of his had come the vision of herself that happy night as she
+stood at the gate in the stillness and moonlight looking from the portal
+of her maidenhood into the vista of her womanhood, which had seemed then
+so far away and bright, and was now upon her in sad reality. Oh, if she
+could but have caught that sentence of his about her little chintz frock
+to her heart with the joy of possession, and known that he said it because
+he too had a happy memory about her in it, as she had always felt the
+coming, misty, dream-expected lover would do!
+
+She spread the available frocks out upon the bed after the other things
+were put neatly away in closet and drawer, and sat down to decide the
+matter. David’s suggestion while impossible had given her an idea, and she
+proceeded to carry it out. There was a soft sheer white muslin, whereon
+Kate had expended her daintiest embroidering, edged with the finest of
+little lace frills. It was quaint and simple and girlish, the sweetest,
+most simple affair in all of Kate’s elaborate wardrobe, and yet, perhaps,
+from an artistic point of view, the most elegant. Marcia soon made up her
+mind.
+
+She dressed herself early, for David had said he would be home by four
+o’clock and they would start as soon after as he could get ready. His
+aunts wished to show her the old garden before dark.
+
+When she came to the arrangement of her hair she paused. Somehow her soul
+rebelled at the style of Kate. It did not suit her face. It did not accord
+with her feeling. It made her seem unlike herself, or unlike the self she
+would ever wish to be. It suited Kate well, but not her. With sudden
+determination she pulled it all down again from the top of her head and
+loosened its rich waves about her face, then loosely twisted it behind,
+low on her neck, falling over her delicate ears, until her head looked
+like that of an old Greek statue. It was not fashion, it was pure instinct
+the child was following out, and there was enough conformity to one of the
+fashionable modes of the day to keep her from looking odd. It was lovely.
+Marcia could not help seeing herself that it was much more becoming than
+the way she had arranged it for her marriage, though then she had had the
+wedding veil to soften the tightly drawn outlines of her head. She put on
+the sheer white embroidered frock then, and as a last touch pinned the bit
+of black velvet about her throat with a single pearl that had been her
+mother’s. It was the bit of black velvet she had worn the night David
+came. It gave her pleasure to think that in so far she was conforming to
+his suggestion.
+
+She had just completed her toilet when she heard David’s step coming up
+the walk.
+
+David, coming in out of the sunshine and beholding this beautiful girl in
+the coolness and shadow of the hall awaiting him shyly, almost started
+back as he rubbed his eyes and looked at her again. She was beautiful. He
+had to admit it to himself, even in the midst of his sadness, and he
+smiled at her, and felt another pang of condemnation that he had taken
+this beauty from some other man’s lot perhaps, and appropriated it to
+shield himself from the world’s exclamation about his own lonely life.
+
+“You have done it admirably. I do not see that there is anything left to
+be desired,� he said in his pleasant voice that used to make her
+girl-heart flutter with pride that her new brother-to-be was pleased with
+her. It fluttered now, but there was a wider sweep to its wings, and a
+longer flight ahead of the thought.
+
+Quite demurely the young wife accepted her compliment, and then she meekly
+folded her little white muslin cape with its dainty frills about her
+pretty shoulders, drew on the new lace mitts, and tied beneath her chin
+the white strings of a shirred gauze bonnet with tiny rosebuds nestling in
+the ruching of tulle about the face.
+
+Once more the bride walked down the world the observed of all observers,
+the gazed at of the town, only this time it was brick pavement not oaken
+stairs she trod, and most of the eyes that looked upon her were sheltered
+behind green jalousies. None the less, however, was she conscious of them
+as she made her way to the house of solemn feasting with David by her
+side. Her eyes rested upon the ground, or glanced quietly at things in the
+distance, when they were not lifted for a moment in wifely humility to her
+husband’s face at some word of his. Just as she imagined a hundred times
+in her girlish thoughts that her sister Kate would do, so did she, and
+after what seemed to her an interminable walk, though in reality it was
+but four village blocks, they arrived at the house of Spafford.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XII
+
+
+“This is your Aunt Clarinda!�
+
+There was challenge in the severely spoken pronoun Aunt Hortense used. It
+seemed to Marcia that she wished to remind her that all her old life and
+relations were passed away, and she had nothing now but David’s,
+especially David’s relatives. She shrank from lifting her eyes, expecting
+to find the third aunt, who was older, as much sourer and sharper in
+proportion to the other two, but she controlled herself and lifted her
+flower face to meet a gentle, meek, old face set in soft white frills of a
+cap, with white ribbons flying, and though the old lady leaned upon a
+crutch she managed to give the impression that she had fairly flown in her
+gladness to welcome her new niece. There was the lighting of a repressed
+nature let free in her kind old face as she looked with true pleasure upon
+the lovely young one, and Marcia felt herself folded in truly loving arms
+in an embrace which her own passionate, much repressed, loving nature
+returned with heartiness. At last she had found a friend!
+
+She felt it every time she spoke, more and more. They walked out into the
+garden almost immediately, and Aunt Clarinda insisted upon hobbling along
+by Marcia’s side, though her sisters both protested that it would be too
+hard for her that warm afternoon. Every time that Marcia spoke she felt
+the kind old eyes upon her, and she knew that at least one of the aunts
+was satisfied with her as a wife for David, for her eyes would travel from
+David to Marcia and back again to David, and when they met Marcia’s there
+was not a shade of disparagement in them.
+
+It was rather a tiresome walk through a tiresome old garden, laid out in
+the ways of the past generation, and bordered with much funereal box. The
+sisters, Amelia and Hortense, took the new member of the family,
+conscientiously, through every path, and faithfully told how each spot was
+associated with some happening in the family history. Occasionally there
+was a solemn pause for the purpose of properly impressing the new member
+of the house, and Amelia wiped her eyes with her carefully folded
+handkerchief. Marcia felt extremely like laughing. She was sure that if
+Kate had been obliged to pass through this ordeal she would have giggled
+out at once and said some shockingly funny thing that would have horrified
+the aunts beyond forgiveness. The thought of this nerved her to keep a
+sober face. She wondered what David thought of it all, but when she looked
+at him she wondered no longer, for David stood as one waiting for a
+certain ceremony to be over, a ceremony which he knew to be inevitable,
+but which was wholly and familiarly uninteresting. He did not even see how
+it must strike the girl who was going through it all for him, for David’s
+thoughts were out on the flood-tide of sorrow, drifting against the rocks
+of the might-have-been.
+
+They went in to tea presently, just when the garden was growing loveliest
+with a tinge of the setting sun, and Marcia longed to run up and down the
+little paths like a child and call to them all to catch her if they could.
+The house was dark and stately and gloomy.
+
+“You are coming up to my room for a few minutes after supper,� whispered
+Aunt Clarinda encouragingly as they passed into the dark hall. The supper
+table was alight with a fine old silver candelabra whose many wavering
+lights cast a solemn, grotesque shadow on the different faces.
+
+Beside her plate the young bride saw an ostentatious plate of puffy soda
+biscuits, and involuntarily her eyes searched the table for the bread
+plate.
+
+Aunt Clarinda almost immediately pounced upon the bread plate and passed
+it with a smile to Marcia, and as Marcia with an answering smile took a
+generous slice she heard the other two aunts exclaim in chorus, “Oh, don’t
+pass her the bread, Clarinda; take it away sister, quick! She does not
+like salt-rising! It is unpleasant to her!�
+
+Then with blazing cheeks the girl protested that she wished to keep the
+bread, that they were mistaken, she had not said it was obnoxious to her,
+but had merely given them her stepmother’s opinion when they asked. They
+must excuse her for her seeming rudeness, for she had not intended to hurt
+them. She presumed salt-rising bread was very nice; it looked beautiful.
+This was a long speech for shy Marcia to make before so many strangers,
+but David’s wondering, troubled eyes were upon her, questioning what it
+all might mean, and she felt she could do anything to save David from more
+suffering or annoyance of any kind.
+
+David said little. He seemed to perceive that there had been an unpleasant
+prelude to this, and perhaps knew from former experience that the best way
+to do was to change the subject. He launched into a detailed account of
+their wedding journey. Marcia on her part was grateful to him, for when
+she took the first brave bite into the very puffy, very white slice of
+bread she had taken, she perceived that it was much worse than that which
+had been baked for their homecoming, and not only justified all her
+stepmother’s execrations, but in addition it was sour. For an instant,
+perceiving down the horoscope of time whole calendars full of such suppers
+with the aunts, and this bread, her soul shuddered and shrank. Could she
+ever learn to like it? Impossible! Could she ever tolerate it? Could she?
+She doubted. Then she swallowed bravely and perceived that the impossible
+had been accomplished once. It could be again, but she must go slowly else
+she might have to eat two slices instead of one. David was kind. He had
+roused himself to help his helper. Perhaps something in her girlish beauty
+and helplessness, helpless here for his sake, appealed to him. At least
+his eyes sought hers often with a tender interest to see if she were
+comfortable, and once, when Aunt Amelia asked if they stopped nowhere for
+rest on their journey, his eyes sought Marcia’s with a twinkling reminder
+of their roadside nap, and he answered, “Once, Aunt Amelia. No, it was not
+a regular inn. It was quieter than that. Not many people stopping there.�
+
+Marcia’s merry laugh almost bubbled forth, but she suppressed it just in
+time, horrified to think what Aunt Hortense would say, but somehow after
+David had said that her heart felt a trifle lighter and she took a big
+bite from the salt-rising and smiled as she swallowed it. There were worse
+things in the world, after all, than salt-rising, and, when one could
+smother it in Aunt Amelia’s peach preserves, it was quite bearable.
+
+Aunt Clarinda slipped her off to her own room after supper, and left the
+other two sisters with their beloved idol, David. In their stately parlor
+lighted with many candles in honor of the occasion, they sat and talked in
+low tones with him, their voices suggesting condolence with his misfortune
+of having married out of the family, and disapproval with the married
+state in general. Poor souls! How their hard, loving hearts would have
+been wrung could they but have known the true state of the case! And,
+strange anomaly, how much deeper would have been their antagonism toward
+poor, self-sacrificing, loving Marcia! Just because she had dared to think
+herself fit for David, belonging as she did to her renegade sister Kate.
+But they did not know, and for this fact David was profoundly thankful.
+Those were not the days of rapid transit, of telegraph and telephone, nor
+even of much letter writing, else the story would probably have reached
+the aunts even before the bride and bridegroom arrived at home. As it was,
+David had some hope of keeping the tragedy of his life from the ears of
+his aunts forever. Patiently he answered their questions concerning the
+wedding, questions that were intended to bring out facts showing whether
+David had received his due amount of respect, and whether the family he
+had so greatly honored felt the burden of that honor sufficiently.
+
+Upstairs in a quaint old-fashioned room Aunt Clarinda was taking Marcia’s
+face in her two wrinkled hands and looking lovingly into her eyes; then
+she kissed her on each rosy cheek and said:
+
+“Dear child! You look just as I did when I was young. You wouldn’t think
+it from me now, would you? But it’s true. I might not have grown to be
+such a dried-up old thing if I had had somebody like David. I’m so glad
+you’ve got David. He’ll take good care of you. He’s a dear boy. He’s
+always been good to me. But you mustn’t let the others crush those roses
+out of your cheeks. They crushed mine out. They wouldn’t let me have my
+life the way I wanted it, and the pink in my cheeks all went back into my
+heart and burst it a good many years ago. But they can’t spoil your life,
+for you’ve got David and that’s worth everything.�
+
+Then she kissed her on the lips and cheeks and eyes and let her go. But
+that one moment had given Marcia a glimpse into another life-story and put
+her in touch forever with Aunt Clarinda, setting athrob the chord of
+loving sympathy.
+
+When they came into the parlor the other two aunts looked up with a quick,
+suspicious glance from one to the other and then fastened disapproving
+eyes upon Marcia. They rather resented it that she was so pretty. Hannah
+had been their favorite, and Hannah was beautiful in their eyes. They
+wanted no other to outshine her. Albeit they would be proud enough before
+their neighbors to have it said that their nephew’s wife was beautiful.
+
+After a chilling pause in which David was wondering anew at Marcia’s
+beauty, Aunt Hortense asked, as though it were an omission from the former
+examination, “Did you ever make a shirt?�
+
+“Oh, plenty of them!� said Marcia, with a merry laugh, so relieved that
+she fairly bubbled. “I think I could make a shirt with my eyes shut.�
+
+Aunt Clarinda beamed on her with delight. A shirt was something she had
+never succeeded in making right. It was one of the things which her
+sisters had against her that she could not make good shirts. Any one who
+could not make a shirt was deficient. Clarinda was deficient. She could
+not make a shirt. Meekly had she tried year after year. Humbly had she
+ripped out gusset and seam and band, having put them on upside down or
+inside out. Never could she learn the ins and outs of a shirt. But her old
+heart trembled with delight that the new girl, who was going to take the
+place in her heart of her old dead self and live out all the beautiful
+things which had been lost to her, had mastered this one great
+accomplishment in which she had failed so supremely.
+
+But Aunt Hortense was not pleased. True, it was one of the seven virtues
+in her mind which a young wife should possess, and she had carefully
+instructed Hannah Heath for a number of years back, while Hannah bungled
+out a couple for her father occasionally, but Aunt Hortense had been sure
+that if Hannah ever became David’s wife she might still have the honor of
+making most of David’s shirts. That had been her happy task ever since
+David had worn a shirt, and she hoped to hold the position of shirt-maker
+to David until she left this mortal clay. Therefore Aunt Hortense was not
+pleased, even though David’s wife was not lacking, and, too, even though
+she foreheard herself telling her neighbors next day how many shirts
+David’s wife had made.
+
+“Well, David will not need any for some time,� she said grimly. “I made
+him a dozen just before he was married.�
+
+Marcia reflected that it seemed to be impossible to make any headway into
+the good graces of either Aunt Hortense or Aunt Amelia. Aunt Amelia then
+took her turn at a question.
+
+“Hortense,� said she, and there was an ominous inflection in the word as
+if the question were portentous, “have you asked our new niece by what
+name she desires us to call her?�
+
+“I have not,� said Miss Hortense solemnly, “but I intend to do so
+immediately,� and then both pairs of steely eyes were leveled at the girl.
+Marcia suddenly was face to face with a question she had not considered,
+and David started upright from his position on the hair-cloth sofa. But if
+a thunderbolt had fallen from heaven and rendered him utterly unconscious
+David would not have been more helpless than he was for the time being.
+Marcia saw the mingled pain and perplexity in David’s face, and her own
+courage gathered itself to brave it out in some way. The color flew to her
+cheeks, and rose slowly in David’s, through heavy veins that swelled in
+his neck till he could feel their pulsation against his stock, but his
+smooth shaven lips were white. He felt that a moment had come which he
+could not bear to face.
+
+Then with a hesitation that was but pardonable, and with a shy sweet look,
+Marcia answered; and though her voice trembled just the least bit, her
+true, dear eyes looked into the battalion of steel ones bravely.
+
+“I would like you to call me Marcia, if you please.�
+
+“Marcia!� Miss Hortense snipped the word out as if with scissors of
+surprise.
+
+But there was a distinct relaxation about Miss Amelia’s mouth. She heaved
+a relieved sigh. Marcia was so much better than Kate, so much more
+classical, so much more to be compared with Hannah, for instance.
+
+“Well, I’m glad!� she allowed herself to remark. “David has been calling
+you ‘Kate’ till it made me sick, such a frivolous name and no sense in it
+either. Marcia sounds quite sensible. I suppose Katharine is your middle
+name. Do you spell it with a K or a C?�
+
+But the knocker sounded on the street door and Marcia was spared the
+torture of a reply. She dared not look at David’s face, for she knew there
+must be pain and mortification mingling there, and she hoped that the
+trying subject would not come up again for discussion.
+
+The guests began to arrive. Old Mrs. Heath and her daughter-in-law and
+grand-daughter came first.
+
+Hannah’s features were handsome and she knew exactly how to manage her
+shapely hands with their long white fingers. The soft delicate
+undersleeves fell away from arms white and well moulded, and she carried
+her height gracefully. Her hair was elaborately stowed upon the top of her
+head in many puffs, ending in little ringlets carelessly and coquettishly
+straying over temple, or ears, or gracefully curved neck. She wore a frock
+of green, and its color sent a pang through the bride’s heart to realize
+that perhaps it had been worn with an unkindly purpose. Nevertheless
+Hannah Heath was beautiful and fascinated Marcia. She resolved to try to
+think the best of her, and to make her a friend if possible. Why, after
+all, should she be to blame for wanting David? Was he not a man to be
+admired and desired? It was unwomanly, of course, that she had let it be
+known, but perhaps her relatives were more to blame than herself. At least
+Marcia made up her mind to try and like her.
+
+Hannah’s frock was of silk, not a common material in those days, soft and
+shimmery and green enough to take away the heart from anything blue that
+was ever made, but Hannah was stately and her skin as white as the lily
+she resembled, in her bright leaf green.
+
+Hannah chose to be effusive and condescending to the bride, giving the
+impression that she and David had been like brother and sister all their
+lives and that she might have been his choice if she had chosen, but as
+she had not chosen, she was glad that David had found some one wherewith
+to console himself. She did not say all this in so many words, but Marcia
+found that impression left after the evening was over.
+
+With sweet dignity Marcia received her introductions, given in Miss
+Amelia’s most commanding tone, “Our niece, Marcia!�
+
+“Marshy! Marshy!� the bride heard old Mrs. Heath murmur to Miss Spafford.
+“Why, I thought ’twas to be Kate!�
+
+“Her name is Marcia,� said Miss Amelia in a most satisfied tone; “you must
+have misunderstood.�
+
+Marcia caught a look in Miss Heath’s eyes, alert, keen, questioning, which
+flashed all over her like something searching and bright but not friendly.
+
+She felt a painful shyness stealing over her and wished that David were by
+her side. She looked across the room at him. His face had recovered its
+usual calmness, though he looked pale. He was talking on his favorite
+theme with old Mr. Heath: the newly invented steam engine and its
+possibilities. He had forgotten everything else for the time, and his face
+lighted with animation as he tried to answer William Heath’s arguments
+against it.
+
+“Have you read what the Boston _Courier_ said, David? ’Long in June it was
+I think,� Marcia heard Mr. Heath ask. Indeed his voice was so large that
+it filled the room, and for the moment Marcia had been left to herself
+while some new people were being ushered in. “It says, David, that ‘the
+project of a railroad from Bawston to Albany is impracticable as everybody
+knows who knows the simplest rule of arithmetic, and the expense would be
+little less than the market value of the whole territory of Massachusetts;
+and which, if practicable, every person of common sense knows would be as
+useless as a railroad from Bawston to the moon.’ There, David, what do ye
+think o’ that?� and William Heath slapped David on the knee with his
+broad, fat fist and laughed heartily, as though he had him in a tight
+corner.
+
+Marcia would have given a good deal to slip in beside David on the sofa
+and listen to the discussion. She wanted with all her heart to know how he
+would answer this man who could be so insufferably wise, but there was
+other work for her, and her attention was brought back to her own
+uncomfortable part by Hannah Heath’s voice:
+
+“Come right ovah heah, Mistah Skinnah, if you want to meet the bride. You
+must speak verra nice to me or I sha’n’t introduce you at all.�
+
+A tall lanky man with stiff sandy hair and a rubicund complexion was
+making his way around the room. He had a small mouth puckered a little as
+if he might be going to whistle, and his chin had the look of having been
+pushed back out of the way, a stiff fuzz of sandy whiskers made a hedge
+down either cheek, and but for that he was clean shaven. The skin over his
+high cheek bones was stretched smooth and tight as if it were a trifle too
+close a fit for the genial cushion beneath. He did not look brilliant, and
+he certainly was not handsome, but there was an inoffensive desire to
+please about him. He was introduced as Mr. Lemuel Skinner. He bowed low
+over Marcia’s hand, said a few embarrassed, stiff sentences and turned to
+Hannah Heath with relief. It was evident that Hannah was in his eyes a
+great and shining light, to which he fluttered as naturally as does the
+moth to the candle. But Hannah did not scruple to singe his wings whenever
+she chose. Perhaps she knew, no matter how badly he was burned he would
+only flutter back again whenever she scintillated. She had turned her back
+upon him now, and left him to Marcia’s tender mercies. Hannah was engaged
+in talking to a younger man. “Harry Temple, from New York,� Lemuel
+explained to Marcia.
+
+The young man, Harry Temple, had large lazy eyes and heavy dark hair.
+There was a discontented look in his face, and a looseness about the set
+of his lips that Marcia did not like, although she had to admit that he
+was handsome. Something about him reminded her of Captain Leavenworth, and
+she instinctively shrank from him. But Harry Temple had no mind to talk to
+any one but Marcia that evening, and he presently so managed it that he
+and she were ensconced in a corner of the room away from others. Marcia
+felt perturbed. She did not feel flattered by the man’s attentions, and
+she wanted to be at the other end of the room listening to the
+conversation.
+
+She listened as intently as she might between sentences, and her keen ears
+could catch a word or two of what David was saying. After all, it was not
+so much the new railroad project that she cared about, though that was
+strange and interesting enough, but she wanted to watch and listen to
+David.
+
+Harry Temple said a great many pretty things to Marcia. She did not half
+hear some of them at first, but after a time she began to realize that she
+must have made a good impression, and the pretty flush in her cheeks grew
+deeper. She did little talking. Mr. Temple did it all. He told her of New
+York. He asked if she were not dreadfully bored with this little town and
+its doings, and bewailed her lot when he learned that she had not had much
+experience there. Then he asked if she had ever been to New York and began
+to tell of some of its attractions. Among other things he mentioned some
+concerts, and immediately Marcia was all attention. Her dark eyes glowed
+and her speaking face gave eager response to his words. Seeing he had
+interested her at last, he kept on, for he was possessor of a glib tongue,
+and what he did not know he could fabricate without the slightest
+compunction. He had been about the world and gathered up superficial
+knowledge enough to help him do this admirably, therefore he was able to
+use a few musical terms, and to bring before Marcia’s vivid imagination
+the scene of the performance of Handel’s great “Creation� given in Boston,
+and of certain musical events that were to be attempted soon in New York.
+He admitted that he could play a little upon the harpsichord, and, when he
+learned that Marcia could play also and that she was the possessor of a
+piano, one of the latest improved makes, he managed to invite himself to
+play upon it. Marcia found to her dismay that she actually seemed to have
+invited him to come some afternoon when her husband was away. She had only
+said politely that she would like to hear him play sometime, and expressed
+her great delight in music, and he had done the rest, but in her
+inexperience somehow it had happened and she did not know what to do.
+
+It troubled her a good deal, and she turned again toward the other end of
+the room, where the attention of most of the company was riveted upon the
+group who were discussing the railroad, its pros and cons. David was the
+centre of that group.
+
+“Let us go over and hear what they are saying,� she said, turning to her
+companion eagerly.
+
+“Oh, it is all stupid politics and arguments about that ridiculous
+fairy-tale of a railroad scheme. You would not enjoy it,� answered the
+young man disappointedly. He saw in Marcia a beautiful young soul, the
+only one who had really attracted him since he had left New York, and he
+wished to become intimate enough with her to enjoy himself.
+
+It mattered not to him that she was married to another man. He felt secure
+in his own attractions. He had ever been able to while away the time with
+whom he chose, why should a simple village maiden resist him? And this was
+an unusual one, the contour of her head was like a Greek statue.
+
+Nevertheless he was obliged to stroll after her. Once she had spoken. She
+had suddenly become aware that they had been in their corner together a
+long time, and that Aunt Amelia’s cold eyes were fastened upon her in
+disapproval.
+
+“The farmers would be ruined, man alive!� Mr. Heath was saying. “Why, all
+the horses would have to be killed, because they would be wholly useless
+if this new fandango came in, and then where would be a market for the
+wheat and oats?�
+
+“Yes, an’ I’ve heard some say the hens wouldn’t lay, on account of the
+noise,� ventured Lemuel Skinner in his high voice. “And think of the fires
+from the sparks of the engine. I tell you it would be dangerous.� He
+looked over at Hannah triumphantly, but Hannah was endeavoring to signal
+Harry Temple to her side and did not see nor hear.
+
+“I tell you,� put in Mr. Heath’s heavy voice again, “I tell you, Dave, it
+can’t be done. It’s impractical. Why, no car could advance against the
+wind.�
+
+“They told Columbus he couldn’t sail around the earth, but he did it!�
+
+There was sudden stillness in the room, for it was Marcia’s clear, grave
+voice that had answered Mr. Heath’s excited tones, and she had not known
+she was going to speak aloud. It came before she realized it. She had been
+used to speak her mind sometimes with her father, but seldom when there
+were others by, and now she was covered with confusion to think what she
+had done. The aunts, Amelia and Hortense, were shocked. It was so
+unladylike. A woman should not speak on such subjects. She should be
+silent and leave such topics to her husband.
+
+“Deah me, she’s strong minded, isn’t she?� giggled Hannah Heath to Lemuel,
+who had taken the signals to himself and come to her side.
+
+“Quite so, quite so!� murmured Lemuel, his lips looking puffier and more
+cherry-fied than ever and his chin flattened itself back till he looked
+like a frustrated old hen who did not understand the perplexities of life
+and was clucking to find out, after having been startled half out of its
+senses.
+
+But Marcia was not wholly without consolation, for David had flashed a
+look of approval at her and had made room for her to sit down by his side
+on the sofa. It was almost like belonging to him for a minute or two.
+Marcia felt her heart glow with something new and pleasant.
+
+Mr. William Heath drew his heavy grey brows together and looked at her
+grimly over his spectacles, poking his bristly under-lip out in
+astonishment, bewildered that he should have been answered by a gentle,
+pretty woman, all frills and sparkle like his own daughter. He had been
+wont to look upon a woman as something like a kitten,—that is, a young
+woman,—and suddenly the kitten had lifted a velvet paw and struck him
+squarely in the face. He had felt there were claws in the blow, too, for
+there had been a truth behind her words that set the room a mocking him.
+
+“Well, Dave, you’ve got your wife well trained already!� he laughed,
+concluding it was best to put a smiling front upon the defeat. “She knows
+just when to come in and help when your side’s getting weak!�
+
+They served cake and raspberry vinegar then, and a little while after
+everybody went home. It was later than the hours usually kept in the
+village, and the lights in most of the houses were out, or burning dimly
+in upper stories. The voices of the guests sounded subdued in the misty
+waning moonlight air. Marcia could hear Hannah Heath’s voice ahead
+giggling affectedly to Harry Temple and Lemuel Skinner, as they walked one
+on either side of her, while her father and mother and grandmother came
+more slowly.
+
+David drew Marcia’s hand within his arm and walked with her quietly down
+the street, making their steps hushed instinctively that they might so
+seem more removed from the others. They were both tired with the unusual
+excitement and the strain they had been through, and each was glad of the
+silence of the other.
+
+But when they reached their own doorstep David said: “You spoke well,
+child. You must have thought about these things.�
+
+Marcia felt a sob rising in a tide of joy into her throat. Then he was not
+angry with her, and he did not disapprove as the two aunts had done. Aunt
+Clarinda had kissed her good-night and murmured, “You are a bright little
+girl, Marcia, and you will make a good wife for David. You will come soon
+to see me, won’t you?� and that had made her glad, but these words of
+David’s were so good and so unexpected that Marcia could hardly hide her
+happy tears.
+
+“I was afraid I had been forward,� murmured Marcia in the shadow of the
+front stoop.
+
+“Not at all, child, I like to hear a woman speak her mind,—that is,
+allowing she has any mind to speak. That can’t be said of all women.
+There’s Hannah Heath, for instance. I don’t believe she would know a
+railroad project from an essay on ancient art.�
+
+After that the house seemed a pleasant place aglow as they entered it, and
+Marcia went up to her rest with a lighter heart.
+
+But the child knew not that she had made a great impression that night
+upon all who saw her as being beautiful and wise.
+
+The aunts would not express it even to each other,—for they felt in duty
+bound to discountenance her boldness in speaking out before the men and
+making herself so prominent, joining in their discussions,—but each in
+spite of her convictions felt a deep satisfaction that their neighbors had
+seen what a beautiful and bright wife David had selected. They even felt
+triumphant over their favorite Hannah, and thought secretly that Marcia
+compared well with her in every way, but they would not have told this
+even to themselves, no, not for worlds.
+
+So the kindly gossipy town slept, and the young bride became a part of its
+daily life.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Life began to take on a more familiar and interesting aspect to Marcia
+after that. She had her daily round of pleasant household duties and she
+enjoyed them.
+
+There were many other gatherings in honor of the bride and groom,
+tea-drinkings and evening calls, and a few called in to a neighbor’s house
+to meet them. It was very pleasant to Marcia as she became better
+acquainted with the people and grew to like some of them, only there was
+the constant drawback of feeling that it was all a pain and weariness to
+David.
+
+But Marcia was young, and it was only natural that she should enjoy her
+sudden promotion to the privileges of a matron, and the marked attention
+that was paid her. It was a mercy that her head was not turned, living as
+she did to herself, and with no one in whom she could confide. For David
+had shrunk within himself to such an extent that she did not like to
+trouble him with anything.
+
+It was only two days after the evening at the old Spafford house that
+David came home to tea with ashen face, haggard eyes and white lips. He
+scarcely tasted his supper and said he would go and lie down, that his
+head ached. Marcia heard him sigh deeply as he went upstairs. It was that
+afternoon that the post had brought him Kate’s letter.
+
+Sadly Marcia put away the tea things, for she could not eat anything
+either, though it was an unusually inviting meal she had prepared. Slowly
+she went up to her room and sat looking out into the quiet, darkening
+summer night, wondering what additional sorrow had come to David.
+
+David’s face looked like death the next morning when he came down. He
+drank a cup of coffee feverishly, then took his hat as if he would go to
+the office, but paused at the door and came back saying he would not go if
+Marcia would not mind taking a message for him. His head felt badly. She
+need only tell the man to go on with things as they had planned and say he
+was detained. Marcia was ready at once to do his bidding with quiet
+sympathy in her manner.
+
+She delivered her message with the frank straightforward look of a school
+girl, mingled with a touch of matronly dignity she was trying to assume,
+which added to her charm; and she smiled her open smile of comradeship,
+such as she would have dispensed about the old red school house at home,
+upon boys and girls alike, leaving the clerk and type-setters in a most
+subjected state, and ready to do anything in the service of their master’s
+wife. It is to be feared that they almost envied David. They watched her
+as she moved gracefully down the street, and their eyes had a reverent
+look as they turned away from the window to their work, as though they had
+been looking upon something sacred.
+
+Harry Temple watched her come out of the office.
+
+She impressed him again as something fresh and different from the common
+run of maidens in the village. He lazily stepped from the store where he
+had been lounging and walked down the street to intercept her as she
+crossed and turned the corner.
+
+“Good morning, Mrs. Spafford,� he said, with a courtly grace that was
+certainly captivating, “are you going to your home? Then our ways lie
+together. May I walk beside you?�
+
+Marcia smiled and tried to seem gracious, though she would rather have
+been alone just then, for she wanted to enjoy the day and not be bothered
+with talking.
+
+Harry Temple mentioned having a letter from a friend in Boston who had
+lately heard a great chorus rendered. He could not be quite sure of the
+name of the composer because he had read the letter hurriedly and his
+friend was a blind-writer, but that made no difference to Harry. He could
+fill in facts enough about the grandeur of the music from his own
+imagination to make up for the lack of a little matter like the name of a
+composer. He was keen enough to see that Marcia was more interested in
+music than in anything he said, therefore he racked his brains for all the
+music talk he had ever heard, and made up what he did not know, which was
+not hard to do, for Marcia was very ignorant on the subject.
+
+At the door they paused. Marcia was eager to get in. She began to wonder
+how David felt, and she longed to do something for him. Harry Temple
+looked at her admiringly, noted the dainty set of chin, the clear curve of
+cheek, the lovely sweep of eyelashes, and resolved to get better
+acquainted with this woman, so young and so lovely.
+
+“I have not forgotten my promise to play for you,� he said lightly,
+watching to see if the flush of rose would steal into her cheek, and that
+deep light into her expressive eyes. “How about this afternoon? Shall you
+be at home and disengaged?�
+
+But welcome did not flash into Marcia’s face as he had hoped. Instead a
+troubled look came into her eyes.
+
+“I am afraid it will not be possible this afternoon,� said Marcia, the
+trouble in her eyes creeping into her voice. “That is—I expect to be at
+home, but—I am not sure of being disengaged.�
+
+“Ah! I see!� he raised his eyebrows archly, looking her meanwhile straight
+in the eyes; “some one else more fortunate than I. Some one else coming?�
+
+Although Marcia did not in the least understand his insinuation, the color
+flowed into her cheeks in a hurry now, for she instinctively felt that
+there was something unpleasant in his tone, something below her standard
+of morals or culture, she did not quite know what. But she felt she must
+protect herself at any cost. She drew up a little mantle of dignity.
+
+“Oh, no,� she said quickly, “I’m not expecting any one at all, but Mr.
+Spafford had a severe headache this morning, and I am not sure but the
+sound of the piano would make it worse. I think it would be better for you
+to come another time, although he may be better by that time.�
+
+“Oh, I see! Your husband’s at home!� said the young man with relief. His
+manner implied that he had a perfect understanding of something that
+Marcia did not mean nor comprehend.
+
+“I understand perfectly,� he said, with another meaning smile as though he
+and she had a secret together; “I’ll come some other time,� and he took
+himself very quickly away, much to Marcia’s relief. But the trouble did
+not go out of her eyes as she saw him turn the corner. Instead she went in
+and stood at the dining room window a long time looking out on the Heaths’
+hollyhocks beaming in the sun behind the picket fence, and wondered what
+he could have meant, and why he smiled in that hateful way. She decided
+she did not like him, and she hoped he would never come. She did not think
+she would care to hear him play. There was something about him that
+reminded her of Captain Leavenworth, and now that she saw it in him she
+would dislike to have him about.
+
+With a sigh she turned to the getting of a dinner which she feared would
+not be eaten. Nevertheless, she put more dainty thought in it than usual,
+and when it was done and steaming upon the table she went gently up and
+tapped on David’s door. A voice hoarse with emotion and weariness
+answered. Marcia scarcely heard the first time.
+
+“Dinner is ready. Isn’t your head any better,—David?� There was caressing
+in his name. It wrung David’s heart. Oh, if it were but Kate, his Kate,
+his little bride that were calling him, how his heart would leap with joy!
+How his headache would disappear and he would be with her in an instant.
+
+For Kate’s letter had had its desired effect. All her wrongdoings, her
+crowning outrage of his noble intentions, had been forgotten in the one
+little plaintive appeal she had managed to breathe in a minor wail
+throughout that treacherous letter, treacherous alike to her husband and
+to her lover. Just as Kate had always been able to do with every one about
+her, she had blinded him to her faults, and managed to put herself in the
+light of an abused, troubled maiden, who was in a predicament through no
+fault of her own, and sat in sorrow and a baby-innocence that was
+bewilderingly sweet.
+
+There had been times when David’s anger had been hot enough to waft away
+this filmy mist of fancies that Kate had woven about herself and let him
+see the true Kate as she really was. At such times David would confess
+that she must be wholly heartless. That bright as she was it was
+impossible for her to have been so easily persuaded into running away with
+a man she did not love. He had never found it so easy to persuade her
+against her will. Did she love him? Had she truly loved him, and was she
+suffering now? His very soul writhed in agony to think of his bride the
+wife of another against her will. If he might but go and rescue her. If he
+might but kill that other man! Then his soul would be confronted with the
+thought of murder. Never before had he felt hate, such hate, for a human
+being. Then again his heart would soften toward him as he felt how the
+other must have loved her, Kate, his little wild rose! and there was a
+fellow feeling between them too, for had she not let him see that she did
+not half care aright for that other one? Then his mind would stop in a
+whirl of mingled feeling and he would pause, and pray for steadiness to
+think and know what was right.
+
+Around and around through this maze of arguing he had gone through the
+long hours of the morning, always coming sharp against the thought that
+there was nothing he could possibly do in the matter but bear it, and that
+Kate, after all, the Kate he loved with his whole soul, had done it and
+must therefore be to blame. Then he would read her letter over, burning
+every word of it upon his brain, until the piteous minor appeal would
+torture him once more and he would begin again to try to get hold of some
+thread of thought that would unravel this snarl and bring peace.
+
+Like a sound from another world came Marcia’s sweet voice, its very
+sweetness reminding him of that other lost voice, whose tantalizing music
+floated about his imagination like a string of phantom silver bells that
+all but sounded and then vanished into silence.
+
+And while all this was going on, this spiritual torture, his living,
+suffering, physical self was able to summon its thoughts, to answer gently
+that he did not want any dinner; that his head was no better; that he
+thanked her for her thought of him; and that he would take the tea she
+offered if it was not too much trouble.
+
+Gladly, with hurried breath and fingers that almost trembled, Marcia
+hastened to the kitchen once more and prepared a dainty tray, not even
+glancing at the dinner table all so fine and ready for its guest, and back
+again she went to his door, an eager light in her eyes, as if she had
+obtained audience to a king.
+
+He opened the door this time and took the tray from her with a smile. It
+was a smile of ashen hue, and fell like a pall upon Marcia’s soul. It was
+as if she had been permitted for a moment to gaze upon a martyred soul
+upon the rack. Marcia fled from it and went to her own room, where she
+flung herself on her knees beside her bed and buried her face in the
+pillows. There she knelt, unmindful of the dinner waiting downstairs,
+unmindful of the bright day that was droning on its hours. Whether she
+prayed she knew not, whether she was weeping she could not have told. Her
+heart was crying out in one great longing to have this cloud of sorrow
+that had settled upon David lifted.
+
+She might have knelt there until night had there not come the sound of a
+knock upon the front door. It startled her to her feet in an instant, and
+she hastily smoothed her rumpled hair, dashed some water on her eyes, and
+ran down.
+
+It was the clerk from the office with a letter for her. The post chaise
+had brought it that afternoon, and he had thought perhaps she would like
+to have it at once as it was postmarked from her home. Would she tell Mr.
+Spafford when he returned—he seemed to take it for granted that David was
+out of town for the day—that everything had been going on all right at the
+office during his absence and the paper was ready to send to press. He
+took his departure with a series of bows and smiles, and Marcia flew up to
+her room to read her letter. It was in the round unformed hand of Mary
+Ann. Marcia tore it open eagerly. Never had Mary Ann’s handwriting looked
+so pleasant as at that moment. A letter in those days was a rarity at all
+times, and this one to Marcia in her distress of mind seemed little short
+of a miracle. It began in Mary Ann’s abrupt way, and opened up to her the
+world of home since she had left it. But a few short days had passed,
+scarcely yet numbering into weeks, since she left, yet it seemed half a
+lifetime to the girl promoted so suddenly into womanhood without the
+accompanying joy of love and close companionship that usually makes
+desolation impossible.
+
+
+    “DEAR MARSH,�—the letter ran:—
+
+    “I expect you think queer of me to write you so soon. I ain’t much
+    on writing you know, but something happened right after you
+    leaving and has kept right on happening that made me feel I kinder
+    like to tell you. Don’t you mind the mistakes I make. I’m thankful
+    to goodness you ain’t the school teacher or I’d never write ‘slong
+    s’ I’m living, but ennyhow I’m going to tell you all about it.
+
+    “The night you went away I was standing down by the gate under the
+    old elm. I had on my best things yet from the wedding, and I hated
+    to go in and have the day over and have to begin putting on my old
+    calico to-morrow morning again, and washing dishes just the same.
+    Seemed as if I couldn’t bear to have the world just the same now
+    you was gone away. Well, I heard someone coming down the street,
+    and who do you think it was? Why, Hanford Weston. He came right up
+    to the gate and stopped. I don’t know’s he ever spoke two words to
+    me in my life except that time he stopped the big boys from
+    snow-balling me and told me to run along quick and git in the
+    school-house while he fit ’em. Well, he stopped and spoke, and he
+    looked so sad, seemed like I knew just what he was feeling sad
+    about, and I told him all about you getting married instead of
+    your sister. He looked at me like he couldn’t move for a while and
+    his face was as white as that marble man in the cemetery over
+    Squire Hancock’s grave. He grabbed the gate real hard and I
+    thought he was going to fall. He couldn’t even move his lips for a
+    while. I felt just awful sorry for him. Something came in my
+    throat like a big stone and my eyes got all blurred with the
+    moonlight. He looked real handsome. I just couldn’t help thinking
+    you ought to see him. Bimeby he got his voice back again, and we
+    talked a lot about you. He told me how he used to watch you when
+    you was a little girl wearing pantalettes. You used to sit in the
+    church pew across from his father’s and he could just see your big
+    eyes over the top of the door. He says he always thought to
+    himself he would marry you when he grew up. Then when you began to
+    go to school and was so bright he tried hard to study and keep up
+    just to have you think him good enough for you. He owned up he was
+    a bad speller and he’d tried his level best to do better but it
+    didn’t seem to come natural, and he thought maybe ef he was a good
+    farmer you wouldn’t mind about the spelling. He hired out to his
+    father for the summer and he was trying with all his might to get
+    to be the kind of man t’would suit you, and then when he was
+    plowing and planning all what kind of a house with big columns to
+    the front he would build here comes the coach driving by and _you_
+    in it! He said he thought the sky and fields was all mixed up and
+    his heart was going out of him. He couldn’t work any more and he
+    started out after supper to see what it all meant.
+
+    “That wasn’t just the exact way he told it, Marsh, it was more
+    like poetry, that kind in our reader about “Lord Ullin’s
+    daughter�—you know. We used to recite it on examination
+    exhibition. I didn’t know Hanford could talk like that. His words
+    were real pretty, kind of sorrowful you know. And it all come over
+    me that you ought to know about it. You’re married of course, and
+    can’t help it now, but ’taint every girl that has a boy care for
+    her like that from the time she’s a baby with a red hood on, and
+    you ought to know ’bout it, fer it wasn’t Hanford’s fault he
+    didn’t have time to tell you. He’s just been living fer you fer a
+    number of years, and its kind of hard on him. ’Course you may not
+    care, being you’re married and have a fine house and lots of
+    clo’es of your own and a good time, but it does seem hard for him.
+    It seems as if somebody ought to comfort him. I’d like to try if
+    you don’t mind. He does seem to like to talk about you to me, and
+    I feel so sorry for him I guess I could comfort him a little, for
+    it seems as if it would be the nicest thing in the world to have
+    some one like you that way for years, just as they do in books,
+    only every time I think about being a comfort to him I think he
+    belongs to you and it ain’t right. So Marsh, you just speak out
+    and say if your willing I should try to comfort him a little and
+    make up to him fer what he lost in you, being as you’re married
+    and fixed so nice yourself.
+
+    “Of course I know I aint pretty like you, nor can’t hold my head
+    proud and step high as you always did, even when you was little,
+    but I can feel, and perhaps that’s something. Anyhow Hanford’s
+    been down three times to talk about you to me, and ef you don’t
+    mind I’m going to let him come some more. But if you mind the
+    leastest little bit I want you should say so, for things are mixed
+    in this world and I don’t want to get to trampling on any other
+    person’s feelings, much less you who have always been my best
+    friend and always will be as long as I live I guess. ’Member how
+    we used to play house on the old flat stone in the orchard, and
+    you give me all the prettiest pieces of china with sprigs on ’em?
+    I aint forgot that, and never will. I shall always say you made
+    the prettiest bride I ever saw, no matter how many more I see, and
+    I hope you won’t forget me. It’s lonesome here without you. If it
+    wasn’t for comforting Hanford I shouldn’t care much for anything.
+    I can’t think of you a grown up woman. Do you feel any different?
+    I spose you wouldn’t climb a fence nor run through the pasture lot
+    for anything now. Have you got a lot of new friends? I wish I
+    could see you. And now Marsh, I want you to write right off and
+    tell me what to do about comforting Hanford, and if you’ve any
+    message to send to him I think it would be real nice. I hope
+    you’ve got a good husband and are happy.
+
+                       “From your devoted and loving school mate,
+
+                                                “MARY ANN FOTHERGILL.�
+
+
+Marcia laid down the letter and buried her face in her hands. To her too
+had come a thrust which must search her life and change it. So while David
+wrestled with his sorrow Marcia entered upon the knowledge of her own
+heart.
+
+There was something in this revelation by Mary Ann of Hanford Weston’s
+feelings toward her that touched her immeasurably. Had it all happened
+before she left home, had Hanford come to her and told her of his love,
+she would have turned from him in dismay, almost disgust, and have told
+him that they were both but children, how could they talk of love. She
+could never have loved him. She would have felt it instantly, and her
+mocking laugh might have done a good deal toward saving him from sorrow.
+But now, with miles between them, with the wall of the solemn marriage
+vows to separate them forever, with her own youth locked up as she
+supposed until the day of eternity should perhaps set it free, with no
+hope of any bright dream of life such as girls have, could she turn from
+even a school boy’s love without a passing tenderness, such as she would
+never have felt if she had not come away from it all? Told in Mary Ann’s
+blunt way, with her crude attempts at pathos, it reached her as it could
+not otherwise. With her own new view of life she could sympathize better
+with another’s disappointments. Perhaps her own loneliness gave her pity
+for another. Whatever it was, Marcia’s heart suddenly turned toward
+Hanford Weston with a great throb of gratitude. She felt that she had been
+loved, even though it had been impossible for that love to be returned,
+and that whatever happened she would not go unloved down to the end of her
+days. Suddenly, out of the midst of the perplexity of her thoughts, there
+formed a distinct knowledge of what was lacking in her life, a lack she
+had never felt before, and probably would not have felt now had she not
+thus suddenly stepped into a place much beyond her years. It seemed to the
+girl as she sat in the great chintz chair and read and re-read that
+letter, as if she lived years that afternoon, and all her life was to be
+changed henceforth. It was not that she was sorry that she could not go
+back, and live out her girlhood and have it crowned with Hanford Weston’s
+love. Not at all. She knew, as well now as she ever had known, that he
+could never be anything to her, but she knew also, or thought she knew,
+that he could have given her something, in his clumsy way, that now she
+could never have from any man, seeing she was David’s and David could not
+love her that way, of course.
+
+Having come to this conclusion, she arose and wrote a letter giving and
+bequeathing to Mary Ann Fothergill all right, title, and claim to the
+affections of Hanford Weston, past, present, and future—sending him a
+message calculated to smooth his ruffled feelings, with her pretty thanks
+for his youthful adoration; comfort his sorrow with the thought that it
+must have been a hallucination, that some day he would find his true ideal
+which he had only thought he had found in her; and send him on his way
+rejoicing with her blessings and good wishes for a happy life. As for Mary
+Ann, for once she received her meed of Marcia’s love, for homesick Marcia
+felt more tenderness for her than she had ever been able to feel before;
+and Marcia’s loving messages set Mary Ann in a flutter of delight, as she
+laid her plans for comforting Hanford Weston.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+David slowly recovered his poise. Faced by that terrible, impenetrable
+wall of impossibility he stood helpless, his misery eating in upon his
+soul, but there still remained the fact that there was nothing, absolutely
+nothing, which he could possibly do. At times the truth rose to the
+surface, the wretched truth, that Kate was at fault, that having done the
+deed she should abide by it, and not try to keep a hold upon him, but it
+was not often he was able to think in this way. Most of the time he
+mourned over and for the lovely girl he had lost.
+
+As for Marcia, she came and went unobtrusively, making quiet comfort for
+David which he scarcely noticed. At times he roused himself to be polite
+to her, and made a labored effort to do something to amuse her, just as if
+she had been visiting him as a favor and he felt in duty bound to make the
+time pass pleasantly, but she troubled him so little with herself, that
+nearly always he forgot her. Whenever there was any public function to
+which they were bidden he always told her apologetically, as though it
+must be as much of a bore to her as to him, and he regretted that it was
+necessary to go in order to carry out their mutual agreement. Marcia,
+hailing with delight every chance to go out in search of something which
+would keep her from thinking the new thoughts which had come to her,
+demurely covered her pleasure and dressed herself dutifully in the robes
+made for her sister, hating them secretly the while, and was always ready
+when he came for her. David had nothing to complain of in his wife, so far
+as outward duty was concerned, but he was too busy with his own heart’s
+bitterness to even recognize it.
+
+One afternoon, of a day when David had gone out of town not expecting to
+return until late in the evening, there came a knock at the door.
+
+There was something womanish in the knock, Marcia thought, as she hastened
+to answer it, and she wondered, hurriedly smoothing her shining hair, if
+it could be the aunts come to make their fortnightly-afternoon penance
+visit. She gave a hasty glance into the parlor hoping all was right, and
+was relieved to make sure she had closed the piano. The aunts would
+consider it a great breach of housewifely decorum to allow a moment’s dust
+to settle upon its sacred keys.
+
+But it was not the aunts who stood upon the stoop, smiling and bowing with
+a handsome assurance of his own welcome. It was Harry Temple.
+
+Marcia was not glad to see him. A sudden feeling of unreasoning alarm took
+possession of her.
+
+“You’re all alone this time, sweet lady, aren’t you?� he asked with easy
+nonchalance, as he lounged into the hall without waiting her bidding.
+
+“Sir!� said Marcia, half frightened, half wondering.
+
+But he smiled reassuringly down upon her and took the door knob in his own
+hands to close the door.
+
+“Your good man is out this time, isn’t he?� he smiled again most
+delightfully. His face was very handsome when he smiled. He knew this fact
+well.
+
+Marcia did not smile. Why did he speak as if he knew where David was, and
+seemed to be pleased that he was away?
+
+“My husband is not in at present,� she said guardedly, her innocent eyes
+searching his face, “did you wish to see him?�
+
+She was beautiful as she stood there in the wide hall, with only the light
+from the high transom over the door, shedding an afternoon glow through
+its pleated Swiss oval. She looked more sweet and little-girlish than
+ever, and he felt a strong desire to take her in his arms and tell her so,
+only he feared, from something he saw in those wide, sweet eyes, that she
+might take alarm and run away too soon, so he only smiled and said that
+his business with her husband could wait until another time, and meantime
+he had called to fulfil his promise to play for her.
+
+She took him into the darkened parlor, gave him the stiffest and
+stateliest hair-cloth chair; but he walked straight over to the
+instrument, and with not at all the reverence she liked to treat it, flung
+back the coverings, threw the lid open, and sat down.
+
+He had white fingers, and he ran them over the keys with an air of being
+at home among them, light little airs dripping from his touch like dew
+from a glistening grass blade. Marcia felt there were butterflies in the
+air, and buzzing bees, and fairy flowers dancing on the slightest of
+stems, with a sky so blue it seemed to be filled with the sound of lily
+bells. The music he played was of the nature of what would be styled
+to-day “popular,� for this man was master of nothing but having a good
+time. Quick music with a jingle he played, that to the puritanic-bred girl
+suggested nothing but a heart bubbling over with gladness, but he meant it
+should make her heart flutter and her foot beat time to the tripping
+measure. In his world feet were attuned to gay music. But Marcia stood
+with quiet dignity a little away from the instrument, her lips parted, her
+eyes bright with the pleasure of the melody, her hands clasped, and her
+breath coming quickly. She was all absorbed with the music. All
+unknowingly Marcia had placed herself where the light from the window fell
+full across her face, and every flitting expression as she followed the
+undulant sounds was visible. The young man gazed, almost as much pleased
+with the lovely face as Marcia was with the music.
+
+At last he drew a chair quite near his own seat.
+
+“Come and sit down,� he said, “and I will sing to you. You did not know I
+could sing, too, did you? Oh, I can. But you must sit down for I couldn’t
+sing right when you are standing.�
+
+He ended with his fascinating smile, and Marcia shyly sat down, though she
+drew the chair a bit back from where he had placed it and sat up quite
+straight and stiff with her shoulders erect and her head up. She had
+forgotten her distrust of the man in what seemed to her his wonderful
+music. It was all new and strange to her, and she could not know how
+little there really was to it. She had decided as he played that she liked
+the kind best that made her think of the birds and the sunny sky, rather
+than the wild whirlly kind that seemed all a mad scramble. She meant to
+ask him to play over again what he played at the beginning, but he struck
+into a Scotch love ballad. The melody intoxicated her fancy, and her face
+shone with pleasure. She had not noticed the words particularly, save that
+they were of love, and she thought with pain of David and Kate, and how
+the pleading tenderness might have been his heart calling to hers not to
+forget his love for her. But Harry Temple mistook her expression for one
+of interest in himself. With his eyes still upon hers, as a cat might
+mesmerize a bird, he changed into a minor wail of heart-broken love, whose
+sadness brought great tears to Marcia’s eyes, and deep color to her
+already burning cheeks, while the music throbbed out her own half-realized
+loneliness and sorrow. It was as if the sounds painted for her a picture
+of what she had missed out of love, and set her sorrow flowing tangibly.
+
+The last note died away in an impressive diminuendo, and the young man
+turned toward her. His eyes were languishing, his voice gentle,
+persuasive, as though it had but been the song come a little nearer.
+
+“And that is the way I feel toward you, dear,� he said, and reached out
+his white hands to where hers lay forgotten in her lap.
+
+But his hands had scarcely touched hers, before Marcia sprang back, in her
+haste knocking over the chair.
+
+Erect, her hands snatched behind her, frightened, alert, she stood a
+moment bewildered, all her fears to the front.
+
+Ah! but he was used to shy maidens. He was not to be baffled thus. A
+little coaxing, a little gentle persuasion, a little boldness—that was all
+he needed. He had conquered hearts before, why should he not this
+unsophisticated one?
+
+“Don’t be afraid, dear; there is no one about. And surely there is no harm
+in telling you I love you, and letting you comfort my poor broken heart to
+think that I have found you too late—�
+
+He had arisen and with a passionate gesture put his arms about Marcia and
+before she could know what was coming had pressed a kiss upon her lips.
+
+But she was aroused now. Every angry force within her was fully awake.
+Every sense of right and justice inherited and taught came flocking
+forward. Horror unspeakable filled her, and wrath, that such a dreadful
+thing should come to her. There was no time to think. She brought her two
+strong supple hands up and beat him in the face, mouth, cheeks, and eyes,
+with all her might, until he turned blinded; and then she struggled away
+crying, “You are a wicked man!� and fled from the room.
+
+Out through the hall she sped to the kitchen, and flinging wide the door
+before her, the nearest one at hand, she fairly flew down the garden walk,
+past the nodding dahlias, past the basking pumpkins, past the whispering
+corn, down through the berry bushes, at the lower end of the lot, and
+behind the currant bushes. She crouched a moment looking back to see if
+she were pursued. Then imagining she heard a noise from the open door, she
+scrambled over the low back fence, the high comb with which her hair was
+fastened falling out unheeded behind her, and all her dark waves of hair
+coming about her shoulders in wild disarray.
+
+She was in a field of wheat now, and the tall shocks were like waves all
+about her, thick and close, kissing her as she passed with their bended
+stalks. Ahead of her it looked like an endless sea to cross before she
+could reach another fence, and a bare field, and then another fence and
+the woods. She knew not that in her wake she left a track as clear as if
+she had set up signals all along the way. She felt that the kind wheat
+would flow back like real waves and hide the way she had passed over. She
+only sped on, to the woods. In all the wide world there seemed no refuge
+but the woods. The woods were home to her. She loved the tall shadows, the
+whispering music in the upper branches, the quiet places underneath, the
+hushed silence like a city of refuge with cool wings whereunder to hide.
+And to it, as her only friend, she was hastening. She went to the woods as
+she would have flown to the minister’s wife at home, if she only had been
+near, and buried her face in her lap and sobbed out her horror and shame.
+Breathless she sped, without looking once behind her, now over the next
+fence and still another. They were nothing to her. She forgot that she was
+wearing Kate’s special sprigged muslin, and that it might tear on the
+rough fences. She forgot that she was a matron and must not run wild
+through strange fields. She forgot that some one might be watching her.
+She forgot everything save that she must get away and hide her poor shamed
+face.
+
+At last she reached the shelter of the woods, and, with one wild furtive
+look behind her to assure herself that she was not pursued, she flung
+herself into the lap of mother earth, and buried her face in the soft moss
+at the foot of a tree. There she sobbed out her horror and sorrow and
+loneliness, sobbed until it seemed to her that her heart had gone out with
+great shudders. Sobbed and sobbed and sobbed! For a time she could not
+even think clearly. Her brain was confused with the magnitude of what had
+come to her. She tried to go over the whole happening that afternoon and
+see if she might have prevented anything. She blamed herself most
+unmercifully for listening to the foolish music and, too, after her own
+suspicions had been aroused, though how could she dream any man in his
+senses would do a thing like that! Not even Captain Leavenworth would
+stoop to that, she thought. Poor child! She knew so little of the world,
+and her world had been kept so sweet and pure and free from contamination.
+She turned cold at the thought of her father’s anger if he should hear
+about this strange young man. She felt sure he would blame her for
+allowing it. He had tried to teach his girls that they must exercise
+judgment and discretion, and surely, surely, she must have failed in both
+or this would not have happened. Oh, why had not the aunts come that
+afternoon! Why had they not arrived before this man came! And yet, oh,
+horror! if they had come after he was there! How disgusting he seemed to
+her with his smirky smile, and slim white fingers! How utterly unfit
+beside David did he seem to breathe the same air even. David, her
+David—no, Kate’s David! Oh, pity! What a pain the world was!
+
+There was nowhere to turn that she might find a trace of comfort. For what
+would David say, and how could she ever tell him? Would he find it out if
+she did not? What would he think of her? Would he blame her? Oh, the agony
+of it all! What would the aunts think of her! Ah! that was worse than all,
+for even now she could see the tilt of Aunt Hortense’s head, and the purse
+of Aunt Amelia’s lips. How dreadful if they should have to know of it.
+They would not believe her, unless perhaps Aunt Clarinda might. She did
+not look wise, but she seemed kind and loving. If it had not been for the
+other two she might have fled to Aunt Clarinda. Oh, if she might but flee
+home to her father’s house! How could she ever go back to David’s house!
+How could she ever play on that dreadful piano again? She would always see
+that hateful, smiling face sitting there and think how he had looked at
+her. Then she shuddered and sobbed harder than ever. And mother earth,
+true to all her children, received the poor child with open arms. There
+she lay upon the resinous pine needles, at the foot of the tall trees, and
+the trees looked down tenderly upon her and consulted in whispers with
+their heads bent together. The winds blew sweetness from the buckwheat
+fields in the valley about her, murmuring delicious music in the air above
+her, and even the birds hushed their loud voices and peeped curiously at
+the tired, sorrowful creature of another kind that had come among them.
+
+Marcia’s overwrought nerves were having their revenge. Tears had their way
+until she was worn out, and then the angel of sleep came down upon her.
+There upon the pine-needle bed, with tear-wet cheeks she lay, and slept
+like a tired child come home to its mother from the tumult of the world.
+
+Harry Temple, recovering from his rebuff, and left alone in the parlor,
+looked about him with surprise. Never before in all his short and
+brilliant career as a heart breaker had he met with the like, and this
+from a mere child! He could not believe his senses! She must have been in
+play. He would sit still and presently she would come back with eyes full
+of mischief and beg his pardon. But even as he sat down to wait her
+coming, something told him he was mistaken and that she would not come.
+There had been something beside mischief in the smart raps whose tingle
+even now his cheeks and lips felt. The house, too, had grown strangely
+hushed as though no one else besides himself were in it. She must have
+gone out. Perhaps she had been really frightened and would tell somebody!
+How awkward if she should presently return with one of those grim aunts,
+or that solemn puritan-like husband of hers. Perhaps he had better decamp
+while the coast was still clear. She did not seem to be returning and
+there was no telling what the little fool might do.
+
+With a deliberation which suddenly became feverish in his haste to be
+away, he compelled himself to walk slowly, nonchalantly out through the
+hall. Still as a thief he opened and closed the front door and got himself
+down the front steps, but not so still but that a quick ear caught the
+sound of the latch as it flew back into place, and the scrape of a boot on
+the path; and not so invisibly nor so quickly but that a pair of keen eyes
+saw him.
+
+When Harry Temple had made his way toward the Spafford house that
+afternoon, with his dauntless front and conceited smile, Miranda had been
+sent out to pick raspberries along the fence that separated the Heath
+garden from the Spafford garden.
+
+Harry Temple was too new in the town not to excite comment among the young
+girls wherever he might go, and Miranda was always having her eye out for
+anything new. Not for herself! Bless you! no! Miranda never expected
+anything from a young man for herself, but she was keenly interested in
+what befell other girls.
+
+So Miranda, crouched behind the berry bushes, watched Harry Temple saunter
+down the street and saw with surprise that he stopped at the house of her
+new admiration. Now, although Marcia was a married woman, Miranda felt
+pleased that she should have the attention of others, and a feeling of
+pride in her idol, and of triumph over her cousin Hannah that he had not
+stopped to see her, swelled in her brown calico breast.
+
+She managed to bring her picking as near to the region of the Spafford
+parlor windows as possible, and much did her ravished ear delight itself
+in the music that tinkled through the green shaded window, for Miranda had
+tastes that were greatly appealed to by the gay dance music. She fancied
+that her idol was the player. But then she heard a man’s voice, and her
+picking stopped short insomuch that her grandmother’s strident tones
+mingled with the liquid tenor of Mr. Temple, calling to Miranda to “be
+spry there or the sun’ll catch you ’fore you get a quart.� All at once the
+music ceased, and then in a minute or two Miranda heard the Spafford
+kitchen door thrown violently open and saw Marcia rush forth.
+
+She gazed in astonishment, too surprised to call out to her, or to
+remember to keep on picking for a moment. She watched her as she fairly
+flew down between the rows of currant bushes, saw the comb fly from her
+hair, saw the glow of excitement on her cheek, and the fire in her eye,
+saw her mount the first fence. Then suddenly a feeling of protection arose
+within her, and, with a hasty glance toward her grandmother’s window to
+satisfy herself that no one else saw the flying figure, she fell to
+picking with all her might, but what went into her pail, whether
+raspberries or green leaves or briars, she did not know. Her eyes were on
+the flying figure through the wheat, and she progressed in her picking
+very fast toward the lower end of the lot where nothing but runty old sour
+berries ever grew, if any at all. Once hidden behind the tall corn that
+grew between her and her grandmother’s vigilant gaze, she hastened to the
+end of the lot and watched Marcia; watched her as she climbed the fences,
+held her breath at the daring leaps from the top rails, expecting to see
+the delicate muslin catch on the rough fence and send the flying figure to
+the ground senseless perhaps. It was like a theatre to Miranda, this
+watching the beautiful girl in her flight, the long dark hair in the wind,
+the graceful untrammeled bounds. Miranda watched with unveiled admiration
+until the dark of the green-blue wood had swallowed her up, then slowly
+her eyes traveled back over the path which Marcia had taken, back through
+the meadow and the wheat, to the kitchen door left standing wide. Slowly,
+painfully, Miranda set herself to understand it. Something had happened!
+That was flight with fear behind it, fear that left everything else
+forgotten. What had happened?
+
+Miranda was wiser in her generation than Marcia. She began to put two and
+two together. Her brows darkened, and a look of cunning came into her
+honest blue eyes. Stealthily she crept with cat-like quickness along the
+fence near to the front, and there she stood like a red-haired Nemesis in
+a sunbonnet, with irate red face, confronting the unsuspecting man as he
+sauntered forth from the unwelcoming roof where he had whiled away a
+mistaken hour.
+
+“What you ben sayin’ to her?�
+
+It was as if a serpent had stung him, so unexpected, so direct. He jumped
+aside and turned deadly pale. She knew her chance arrow had struck the
+truth. But he recovered himself almost immediately when he saw what a
+harmless looking creature had attacked him.
+
+“Why, my dear girl,� he said patronizingly, “you quite startled me! I’m
+sure you must have made some mistake!�
+
+“I ain’t your girl, thank goodness!� snapped Miranda, “and I guess by your
+looks there ain’t anybody ‘dear’ to you but yourself. But I ain’t made a
+mistake. It’s you I was asking. _What you bin in there for?_� There was a
+blaze of defiance in Miranda’s eyes, and her stubby forefinger pointed at
+him like a shotgun. Before her the bold black eyes quailed for an instant.
+The young man’s hand sought his pocket, brought out a piece of money and
+extended it.
+
+“Look here, my friend,� he said trying another line, “you take this and
+say nothing more about it. That’s a good girl. No harm’s been done.�
+
+Miranda looked him in the face with noble scorn, and with a sudden motion
+of her brown hand sent the coin flying on the stone pavement.
+
+“I tell you I’m not your friend, and I don’t want your money. I wouldn’t
+trust its goodness any more than your face. As fer keepin’ still I’ll do
+as I see fit about it. I intend to know what this means, and if you’ve
+made _her_ any trouble you’d better leave this town, for I’ll make it too
+unpleasant fer you to stay here!�
+
+With a stealthy glance about him, cautious, concerned, the young man
+suddenly hurried down the street. He wanted no more parley with this
+loud-voiced avenging maiden. His fear came back upon him in double force,
+and he was seen to glance at his watch and quicken his pace almost to a
+run as though a forgotten engagement had suddenly come to mind. Miranda,
+scowling, stood and watched him disappear around the corner, then she
+turned back and began to pick raspberries with a diligence that would have
+astonished her grandmother had she not been for the last hour engaged with
+a calling neighbor in the room at the other side of the house, where they
+were overhauling the character of a fellow church member.
+
+Miranda picked on, and thought on, and could not make up her mind what she
+ought to do. From time to time she glanced anxiously toward the woods, and
+then at the lowering sun in the West, and half meditated going after
+Marcia, but a wholesome fear of her grandmother held her hesitating.
+
+At length she heard a firm step coming down the street. Could it be? Yes,
+it was David Spafford. How was it he happened to come home so soon?
+Miranda had heard in a round-about-way, as neighbors hear and know these
+things, that David had taken the stage that morning, presumably on
+business to New York, and was hardly expected to return for several days.
+She had wondered if Marcia would stay all night alone in the house or if
+she would go to the aunts. But now here was David!
+
+Miranda looked again over the wheat, half expecting to see the flying
+figure returning in haste, but the parted wheat waved on and sang its song
+of the harvest, unmindful and alone, with only a fluttering butterfly to
+give life to the landscape. A little rusty-throated cricket piped a
+doleful sentence now and then between the silences.
+
+David Spafford let himself in at his own door, and went in search of
+Marcia.
+
+He wanted to find Marcia for a purpose. The business which had taken him
+away in the morning, and which he had hardly expected to accomplish before
+late that night, had been partly transacted at a little tavern where the
+coach horses had been changed that morning, and where he had met most
+unexpectedly the two men whom he had been going to see, who were coming
+straight to his town. So he turned him back with them and came home, and
+they were at this minute attending to some other business in the town,
+while he had come home to announce to Marcia that they would take supper
+with him and perhaps spend the night.
+
+Marcia was nowhere to be found. He went upstairs and timidly knocked at
+her door, but no answer came. Then he thought she might be asleep and
+knocked louder, but only the humming-bird in the honeysuckle outside her
+window sent back a little humming answer through the latch-hole. Finally
+he ventured to open the door and peep in, but he saw that quiet loneliness
+reigned there.
+
+He went downstairs again and searched in the pantry and kitchen and then
+stood still. The back door was stretched open as though it had been thrown
+back in haste. He followed its suggestion and went out, looking down the
+little brick path that led to the garden. Ah! what was that? Something
+gleamed in the sun with a spot of blue behind it. The bit of blue ribbon
+she had worn at her throat, with a tiny gold brooch unclasped sticking in.
+
+Miranda caught sight of him coming, and crouched behind the currants.
+
+David came on searching the path on every side. A bit of a branch had been
+torn from a succulent, tender plant that leaned over the path and was
+lying in the way. It seemed another blaze along the trail. Further down
+where the bushes almost met a single fragment of a thread waved on a thorn
+as though it had snatched for more in the passing and had caught only
+this. David hardly knew whether he was following these little things or
+not, but at any rate they were apparently not leading him anywhere for he
+stopped abruptly in front of the fence and looked both ways behind the
+bushes that grew along in front of it. Then he turned to go back again.
+Miranda held her breath. Something touched David’s foot in turning, and,
+looking down, he saw Marcia’s large shell comb lying there in the grass.
+Curiously he picked it up and examined it. It was like finding fragments
+of a wreck along the sand.
+
+All at once Miranda arose from her hiding place and confronted him
+timidly. She was not the same Miranda who came down upon Harry Temple,
+however.
+
+“She ain’t in the house,� she said hoarsely. “She’s gone over there!�
+
+David Spafford turned surprised.
+
+“Is that you, Miranda? Oh, thank you! Where do you say she has gone?
+Where?�
+
+“Through there, don’t you see?� and again the stubby forefinger pointed to
+the rift in the wheat.
+
+David gazed stupidly at the path in the wheat, but gradually it began to
+dawn upon him that there was a distinct line through it where some one
+must have gone.
+
+“Yes, I see,� he said thinking aloud, “but why should she have gone there?
+There is nothing over there.�
+
+“She went on further, she went to the woods,� said Miranda, looking
+fearfully around lest even now her grandmother might be upon her, “and she
+was scared, I guess. She looked it. Her hair all come tumblin’ down when
+she clum the fence, an’ she just went flyin’ over like some bird, didn’t
+care a feather if she did fall, an’ she never oncet looked behind her till
+she come to the woods.�
+
+David’s bewilderment was growing uncomfortable. There was a shade of alarm
+in his face and of the embarrassment one feels when a neighbor divulges
+news about a member of one’s own household.
+
+“Why, surely, Miranda, you must be mistaken. Maybe it was some one else
+you saw. I do not think Mrs. Spafford would be likely to run over there
+that way, and what in the world would she have to be frightened at?�
+
+“No, I ain’t mistaken,� said Miranda half sullenly, nettled at his
+unbelief. “It was her all right. She came flyin’ out the kitchen door when
+I was picking raspberries, and down that path to the fence, and never
+stopped fer fence ner wheat, ner medder lot, but went into them woods
+there, right up to the left of them tall pines, and she,—she looked plum
+scared to death ’s if a whole circus menagerie was after her, lions and
+’nelefunts an’ all. An’ I guess she had plenty to be scared at ef I ain’t
+mistaken. That dandy Temple feller went there to call on her, an’ I heard
+him tinklin’ that music box, and its my opinion he needs a wallupin’! You
+better go after her! It’s gettin’ late and you’ll have hard times finding
+her in the dark. Just you foller her path in the wheat, and then make fer
+them pines. I’d a gone after her myself only grandma’d make sech a fuss,
+and hev to know it all. You needn’t be afraid o’ me. I’ll keep still.�
+
+By this time David was thoroughly alive to the situation and much alarmed.
+He mounted the fence with alacrity, gave one glance with “thank you� at
+Miranda, and disappeared through the wheat, Miranda watched him till she
+was sure he was making for the right spot, then with a sigh of relief she
+hastened into the house with her now brimming pail of berries.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER XV
+
+
+As David made his way with rapid strides through the rippling wheat, he
+experienced a series of sensations. For the first time since his wedding
+day he was aroused to entirely forget himself and his pain. What did it
+mean? Marcia frightened! What at? Harry Temple at their house! What did he
+know of Harry Temple? Nothing beyond the mere fact that Hannah Heath had
+introduced him and that he was doing business in the town. But why had Mr.
+Temple visited the house? He could have no possible business with himself,
+David was sure; moreover he now remembered having seen the young man
+standing near the stable that morning when he took his seat in the coach,
+and knew that he must have heard his remark that he would not return till
+the late coach that night, or possibly not till the next day. He
+remembered as he said it that he had unconsciously studied Mr. Temple’s
+face and noted its weak points. Did the young man then have a purpose in
+coming to the house during his absence? A great anger rose within him at
+the thought.
+
+There was one strange thing about David’s thoughts. For the first time he
+looked at himself in the light of Marcia’s natural protector—her husband.
+He suddenly saw a duty from himself to her, aside from the mere feeding
+and clothing her. He felt a personal responsibility, and an actual
+interest in her. Out of the whole world, now, he was the only one she
+could look to for help.
+
+It gave him a feeling of possession that was new, and almost seemed
+pleasant. He forgot entirely the errand that had made him come to search
+for Marcia in the first place, and the two men who were probably at that
+moment preparing to go to his house according to their invitation. He
+forgot everything but Marcia, and strode into the purply-blue shadows of
+the wood and stopped to listen.
+
+The hush there seemed intense. There were no echoes lingering of flying
+feet down that pine-padded pathway of the aisle of the woods. It was long
+since he had had time to wander in the woods, and he wondered at their
+silence. So much whispering above, the sky so far away, the breeze so
+quiet, the bird notes so subdued, it seemed almost uncanny. He had not
+remembered that it was thus in the woods. It struck him in passing that
+here would be a good place to bring his pain some day when he had time to
+face it again, and wished to be alone with it.
+
+He took his hat in his hand and stepped firmly into the vast solemnity as
+if he had entered a great church when the service was going on, on an
+errand of life and death that gave excuse for profaning the holy silence.
+He went a few paces and stopped again, listening. Was that a long-drawn
+sighing breath he heard, or only the wind soughing through the waving
+tassels overhead? He summoned his voice to call. It seemed a great effort,
+and sounded weak and feeble under the grandeur of the vaulted green dome.
+“Marcia!� he called,—and “Marcia!� realizing as he did so that it was the
+first time he had called her by her name, or sought after her in any way.
+He had always said “you� to her, or “child,� or spoken of her in company
+as “Mrs. Spafford,� a strange and far-off mythical person whose very
+intangibility had separated her from himself immeasurably.
+
+He went further into the forest, called again, and yet again, and stood to
+listen. All was still about him, but in the far distance he heard the
+faint report of a gun. With a new thought of danger coming to mind he
+hurried further into the shadows. The gun sounded again more clearly. He
+shuddered involuntarily and looked about in all directions, hoping to see
+the gleam of her gown. It was not likely there were any wild beasts about
+these parts, so near the town and yet, they had been seen occasionally,—a
+stray fox, or even a bear,—and the sun was certainly very low. He glanced
+back, and the low line of the horizon gleamed the gold of intensified
+shining that is the sun’s farewell for the night. The gun again! Stray
+shots had been known to kill people wandering in the forest. He was
+growing nervous as a woman now, and went this way and that calling, but
+still no answer came. He began to think he was not near the clump of pines
+of which Miranda spoke, and went a little to the right and then turned to
+look back to where he had entered the wood, and there, almost at his feet,
+she lay!
+
+She slept as soundly as if she had been lying on a couch of velvet, one
+round white arm under her cheek. Her face was flushed with weeping, and
+her lashes still wet. Her tender, sensitive mouth still quivered slightly
+as she gave a long-drawn breath with a catch in it that seemed like a sob,
+and all her lovely dark hair floated about her as if it were spread upon a
+wave that upheld her. She was beautiful indeed as she lay there sleeping,
+and the man, thus suddenly come upon her, anxious and troubled and every
+nerve quivering, stopped, awed with the beauty of her as if she had been
+some heavenly being suddenly confronting him. He stepped softly to her
+side and bending down observed her, first anxiously, to make sure she was
+alive and safe, then searchingly, as though he would know every detail of
+the picture there before him because it was his, and he not only had a
+right but a duty to possess it, and to care for it.
+
+She might have been a statue or a painting as he looked upon her and noted
+the lovely curve of her flushed cheek, but when his eyes reached the firm
+little brown hand and the slender finger on which gleamed the wedding ring
+that was not really hers, something pathetic in the tear-wet lashes, and
+the whole sorrowful, beautiful figure, touched him with a great
+tenderness, and he stooped down gently and put his arm about her.
+
+“Marcia,—child!� he said in a low, almost crooning voice, as one might
+wake a baby from its sleep, “Marcia, open your eyes, child, and tell me if
+you are all right.�
+
+At first she only stirred uneasily and slept on, the sleep of utter
+exhaustion; but he raised her, and, sitting down beside her, put her head
+upon his shoulder, speaking gently. Then Marcia opened her eyes
+bewildered, and with a start, sprang back and looked at David, as though
+she would be sure it was he and not that other dreadful man from whom she
+had fled.
+
+“Why, child! What’s the matter?� said David, brushing her hair back from
+her face. Bewildered still, Marcia scarcely knew him, his voice was so
+strangely sweet and sympathetic. The tears were coming back, but she could
+not stop them. She made one effort to control herself and speak, but her
+lips quivered a moment, and then the flood-gates opened again, and she
+covered her face with her hands and shook with sobs. How could she tell
+David what a dreadful thing had happened, now, when he was kinder to her
+than he had ever thought of being before! He would grow grave and stern
+when she had told him, and she could not bear that. He would likely blame
+her too, and how could she endure more?
+
+But he drew her to him again and laid her head against his coat, trying to
+smooth her hair with unaccustomed passes of his hand. By and by the tears
+subsided and she could control herself again. She hushed her sobs and drew
+back a little from the comforting rough coat where she had lain.
+
+“Indeed, indeed, I could not help it, David,�—she faltered, trying to
+smile like a bit of rainbow through the rain.
+
+“I know you couldn’t, child.� His answer was wonderfully kind and his eyes
+smiled at her as they had never done before. Her heart gave a leap of
+astonishment and fluttered with gladness over it. It was so good to have
+David care. She had not known how much she wanted him to speak to her as
+if he saw her and thought a little about her.
+
+“And now what was it? Remember I do not know. Tell me quick, for it is
+growing late and damp, and you will take cold out here in the woods with
+that thin frock on. You are chilly already.�
+
+“I better go at once,� she said reservedly, willing to put off the telling
+as long as possible, peradventure to avoid it altogether.
+
+“No, child,� he said firmly drawing her back again beside him, “you must
+rest a minute yet before taking that long walk. You are weary and excited,
+and besides it will do you good to tell me. What made you run off up here?
+Are you homesick?�
+
+He scanned her face anxiously. He began to fear with sudden compunction
+that the sacrifice he had accepted so easily had been too much for the
+victim, and it suddenly began to be a great comfort to him to have Marcia
+with him, to help him hide his sorrow from the world. He did not know
+before that he cared.
+
+“I was frightened,� she said, with drooping lashes. She was trying to keep
+her lips and fingers from trembling, for she feared greatly to tell him
+all. But though the woods were growing dusky he saw the fluttering little
+fingers and gathered them firmly in his own.
+
+“Now, child,� he said in that tone that even his aunts obeyed, “tell me
+all. What frightened you, and why did you come up here away from everybody
+instead of calling for help?�
+
+Brought to bay she lifted her beautiful eyes to his face and told him
+briefly the story, beginning with the night when she had first met Harry
+Temple. She said as little about music as possible, because she feared
+that the mention of the piano might be painful to David, but she made the
+whole matter quite plain in a few words, so that David could readily fill
+in between the lines.
+
+“Scoundrel!� he murmured clenching his fists, “he ought to be strung up!�
+Then quite gently again, “Poor child! How frightened you must have been!
+You did right to run away, but it was a dangerous thing to run out here!
+Why, he might have followed you!�
+
+“Oh!� said Marcia, turning pale, “I never thought of that. I only wanted
+to get away from everybody. It seemed so dreadful I did not want anybody
+to know. I did not want you to know. I wanted to run away and hide, and
+never come back!� She covered her face with her hands and shuddered. David
+thought the tears were coming back again.
+
+“Child, child!� he said gently, “you must not talk that way. What would I
+do if you did that?� and he laid his hand softly upon the bowed head.
+
+It was the first time that anything like a personal talk had passed
+between them, and Marcia felt a thrill of delight at his words. It was
+like heavenly comfort to her wounded spirit.
+
+She stole a shy look at him under her lashes, and wished she dared say
+something, but no words came. They sat for a moment in silence, each
+feeling a sort of comforting sense of the other’s presence, and each
+clasping the hand of the other with clinging pressure, yet neither fully
+aware of the fact.
+
+The last rays of the sun which had been lying for a while at their feet
+upon the pine needles suddenly slipped away unperceived, and behold! the
+world was in gloom, and the place where the two sat was almost utterly
+dark. David became aware of it first, and with sudden remembrance of his
+expected guests he started in dismay.
+
+“Child!� said he,—but he did not let go of her hand, nor forget to put the
+tenderness in his voice, “the sun has gone down, and here have I been
+forgetting what I came to tell you in the astonishment over what you had
+to tell me. We must hurry and get back. We have guests to-night to supper,
+two gentlemen, very distinguished in their lines of work. We have business
+together, and I must make haste. I doubt not they are at the house
+already, and what they think of me I cannot tell; let us hurry as fast as
+possible.�
+
+“Oh, David!� she said in dismay. “And you had to come out here after me,
+and have stayed so long! What a foolish girl I have been and what a mess I
+have made! They will perhaps be angry and go away, and I will be to blame.
+I am afraid you can never forgive me.�
+
+“Don’t worry, child,� he said pleasantly. “It couldn’t be helped, you
+know, and is in no wise your fault. I am only sorry that these two
+gentlemen will delay me in the pleasure of hunting up that scoundrel of a
+Temple and suggesting that he leave town by the early morning stage. I
+should like to give him what Miranda suggested, a good ‘wallupin’,’ but
+perhaps that would be undignified.�
+
+He laughed as he said it, a hearty laugh with a ring to it like his old
+self. Marcia felt happy at the sound. How wonderful it would be if he
+would be like that to her all the time! Her heart swelled with the great
+thought of it.
+
+He helped her to her feet and taking her hand led her out to the open
+field where they could walk faster. As he walked he told her about Miranda
+waiting for him behind the currant bushes. They laughed together and made
+the way seem short.
+
+It was quite dark now, with the faded moon trembling feebly in the West as
+though it meant to retire early, and wished they would hurry home while
+she held her light for them. David had drawn Marcia’s arm within his, and
+then, noticing that her dress was thin, he pulled off his coat and put it
+firmly about her despite her protest that she did not need it, and so,
+warmed, comforted, and cheered Marcia’s feet hurried back over the path
+she had taken in such sorrow and fright a few hours before.
+
+When they could see the lights of the village twinkling close below them
+David began to tell her about the two men who were to be their guests, if
+they were still waiting, and so interesting was his brief story of each
+that Marcia hardly knew they were at home before David was helping her
+over their own back fence.
+
+“Oh, David! There seems to be a light in the kitchen! Do you suppose they
+have gone in and are getting their own supper? What shall I do with my
+hair? I cannot go in with it this way. How did that light get there?�
+
+“Here!� said David, fumbling in his pocket, “will this help you?� and he
+brought out the shell comb he had picked up in the garden.
+
+By the light of the feeble old moon David watched her coil the long wavy
+hair and stood to pass his criticism upon the effect before they should go
+in. They were just back of the tall sunflowers, and talked in whispers. It
+was all so cheery, and comradey, and merry, that Marcia hated to go in and
+have it over, for she could not feel that this sweet evening hour could
+last. Then they took hold of hands and swiftly, cautiously, stole up to
+the kitchen window and looked in. The door still stood open as both had
+left it that afternoon, and there seemed to be no one in the kitchen. A
+candle was burning on the high little shelf over the table, and the tea
+kettle was singing on the crane by the hearth, but the room was without
+occupant. Cautiously, looking questioningly at one another, they stole
+into the kitchen, each dreading lest the aunts had come by chance and
+discovered their lapse. There was a light in the front part of the house
+and they could hear voices, two men were earnestly discussing politics.
+They listened longer, but no other presence was revealed.
+
+David in pantomime outlined the course of action, and Marcia,
+understanding perfectly flew up the back stairs as noiselessly as a mouse,
+to make her toilet after her nap in the woods, while David with much show
+and to-do of opening and shutting the wide-open kitchen door walked
+obviously into the kitchen and hurried through to greet his guests
+wondering,—not suspecting in the least,—what good angel had been there to
+let them in.
+
+Good fortune had favored Miranda. The neighbor had stayed longer than
+usual, perhaps in hopes of an invitation to stay to tea and share in the
+gingerbread she could smell being taken from the oven by Hannah, who
+occasionally varied her occupations by a turn at the culinary art. Hannah
+could make delicious gingerbread. Her grandmother had taught her when she
+was but a child.
+
+Miranda stole into the kitchen when Hannah’s back was turned and picked
+over her berries so fast that when Hannah came into the pantry to set her
+gingerbread to cool Miranda had nearly all her berries in the big yellow
+bowl ready to wash, and Hannah might conjecture if she pleased that
+Miranda had been some time picking them over. It is not stated just how
+thoroughly those berries were picked over. But Miranda cared little for
+that. Her mind was upon other things. The pantry window overlooked the
+hills and the woods. She could see if David and Marcia were coming back
+soon. She wanted to watch her play till the close, and had no fancy for
+having the curtain fall in the middle of the most exciting act, the rescue
+of the princess. But the talk in the sitting room went on and on. By and
+by Hannah Heath washed her hands, untied her apron, and taking her
+sunbonnet slipped over to Ann Bertram’s for a pattern of her new sleeve.
+Miranda took the opportunity to be off again.
+
+Swiftly down behind the currants she ran, and standing on the fence behind
+the corn she looked off across the wheat, but no sign of anybody yet
+coming out of the woods was granted her. She stood so a long time. It was
+growing dusk. She wondered if Harry Temple had shut the front door when he
+went out. But then David went in that way, and he would have closed it, of
+course. Still, he went away in a hurry, maybe it would be as well to go
+and look. She did not wish to be caught by her grandmother, so she stole
+along like a cat close to the dark berry bushes, and the gathering dusk
+hid her well. She thought she could see from the front of the fence
+whether the door looked as if it were closed. But there were people coming
+up the street. She would wait till they had passed before she looked over
+the fence.
+
+They were two men coming, slowly, and in earnest conversation upon some
+deeply interesting theme. Each carried a heavy carpet-bag, and they walked
+wearily, as if their business were nearly over for the day and they were
+coming to a place of rest.
+
+“This must be the house, I think,� said one. “He said it was exactly
+opposite the Seceder church. That’s the church, I believe. I was here once
+before.�
+
+“There doesn’t seem to be a light in the house,� said the other, looking
+up to the windows over the street. “Are you sure? Brother Spafford said he
+was coming directly home to let his wife know of our arrival.�
+
+“A little strange there’s no light yet, for it is quite dark now, but I’m
+sure this must be the house. Maybe they are all in the kitchen and not
+expecting us quite so soon. Let’s try anyhow,� said the other, setting
+down his carpet-bag on the stoop and lifting the big brass knocker.
+
+Miranda stood still debating but a moment. The situation was made plain to
+her in an instant. Not for nothing had she stood at Grandma Heath’s elbow
+for years watching the movements of her neighbors and interpreting exactly
+what they meant. Miranda’s wits were sharpened for situations of all
+kinds. Miranda was ready and loyal to those she adored. Without further
+ado she hastened to a sheltered spot she knew and climbed the picket fence
+which separated the Heath garden from the Spafford side yard. Before the
+brass knocker had sounded through the empty house the second time Miranda
+had crossed the side porch, thrown her sunbonnet upon a chair in the dark
+kitchen, and was hastening with noisy, encouraging steps to the front
+door.
+
+She flung it wide open, saying in a breezy voice, “Just wait till I get a
+light, won’t you, the wind blew the candle out.�
+
+There wasn’t a particle of wind about that soft September night, but that
+made little difference to Miranda. She was part of a play and she was
+acting her best. If her impromptu part was a little irregular, it was at
+least well meant, boldly and bravely presented.
+
+Miranda found a candle on the shelf and, stooping to the smouldering fire
+upon the hearth, blew and coaxed it into flame enough to light it.
+
+“This is Mr. Spafford’s home, is it not?� questioned the old gentleman
+whom Miranda had heard speak first on the sidewalk.
+
+“Oh, yes, indeed,� said the girl glibly. “Jest come in and set down. Here,
+let me take your hats. Jest put your bags right there on the floor.�
+
+“You are— Are you—Mrs. Spafford?� hesitated the courtly old gentleman.
+
+“Oh, landy sakes, no, I ain’t her,� laughed Miranda well pleased. “Mis’
+Spafford had jest stepped out a bit when her husband come home, an’ he’s
+gone after her. You see she didn’t expect her husband home till late
+to-night. But you set down. They’ll be home real soon now. They’d oughter
+ben here before this. I ’spose she’d gone on further’n she thought she’d
+go when she stepped out.�
+
+“It’s all right,� said the other gentleman, “no harm done, I’m sure. I
+hope we shan’t inconvenience Mrs. Spafford any coming so unexpectedly.�
+
+“No, indeedy!� said quick-witted Miranda. “You can’t ketch Mis’ Spafford
+unprepared if you come in the middle o’ the night. She’s allus ready fer
+comp’ny.� Miranda’s eyes shone. She felt she was getting on finely doing
+the honors.
+
+“Well, that’s very nice. I’m sure it makes one feel at home. I wonder now
+if she would mind if we were to go right up to our room and wash our
+hands. I feel so travel-stained. I’d like to be more presentable before we
+meet her,� said the first gentleman, who looked very weary.
+
+But Miranda was not dashed.
+
+“Why, that’s all right. ’Course you ken go right up. Jest you set in the
+keepin’ room a minnit while I run up’n be sure the water pitcher’s filled.
+I ain’t quite sure ’bout it. I won’t be long.�
+
+Miranda seated them in the parlor with great gusto and hastened up the
+back stairs to investigate. She was not at all sure which room would be
+called the guest room and whether the two strangers would have a room
+apiece or occupy the same together. At least it would be safe to show them
+one till the mistress of the house returned. She peeped into Marcia’s
+room, and knew it instinctively before she caught sight of a cameo brooch
+on the pin cushion, and a rose colored ribbon neatly folded lying on the
+foot of the bed where it had been forgotten. That question settled, she
+thought any other room would do, and chose the large front room across the
+hall with its high four-poster and the little ball fringe on the valance
+and canopy. Having lighted the candle which stood in a tall glass
+candlestick on the high chest of drawers, she hurried down to bid her
+guests come up.
+
+Then she hastened back into the kitchen and went to work with swift
+skilful fingers. Her breath came quickly and her cheeks grew red with the
+excitement of it all. It was like playing fairy. She would get supper for
+them and have everything all ready when the mistress came, so that there
+would be no bad breaks. She raked the fire and filled the tea kettle,
+swinging it from the crane. Then she searched where she thought such
+things should be and found a table cloth and set the table. Her hands
+trembled as she put out the sprigged china that was kept in the corner
+cupboard. Perhaps this was wrong, and she would be blamed for it, but at
+least it was what she would have done, she thought, if she were mistress
+of this house and had two nice gentlemen come to stay to tea. It was not
+often that Grandmother Heath allowed her to handle her sprigged china, to
+be sure, so Miranda felt the joy and daring of it all the more. Once a
+delicate cup slipped and rolled over on the table and almost reached the
+edge. A little more and it would have rolled off to the floor and been
+shivered into a dozen fragments, but Miranda spread her apron in front and
+caught it fairly as it started and then hugged it in fear and delight for
+a moment as she might have done a baby that had been in danger. It was a
+great pleasure to her to set that table. In the first place she was not
+doing it to order but because she wanted to please and surprise some one
+whom she adored, and in the second place it was an adventure. Miranda had
+longed for an adventure all her life and now she thought it had come to
+her.
+
+When the table was set it looked very pretty. She slipped into the pantry
+and searched out the stores. It was not hard to find all that was needed;
+cold ham, cheese, pickles, seed cakes, gingerbread, fruit cake, preserves
+and jelly, bread and raised biscuit, then she went down cellar and found
+the milk and cream and butter. She had just finished the table and set out
+the tea pot and caddy of tea when she heard the two gentlemen coming down
+the stairs. They went into the parlor and sat down, remarking that their
+friend had a pleasant home, and then Miranda heard them plunge into a
+political discussion again and she felt that they were safe for a while.
+She stole out into the dewy dark to see if there were yet signs of the
+home-comers. A screech owl hooted across the night. She stood a while by
+the back fence looking out across the dark sea of whispering wheat. By and
+by she thought she heard subdued voices above the soft swish of the
+parting wheat, and by the light of the stars she saw them coming. Quick as
+a wink she slid over the fence into the Heath back-yard and crouched in
+her old place behind the currant bushes. So she saw them come up together,
+saw David help Marcia over the fence and watched them till they had passed
+up the walk to the light of the kitchen door. Then swiftly she turned and
+glided to her own home, well knowing the reckoning that would be in store
+for her for this daring bit of recreation. There was about her, however,
+an air of triumphant joy as she entered.
+
+“Where have you ben to, Miranda Griscom, and what on airth you ben up to
+now?� was the greeting she received as she lifted the latch of the old
+green kitchen door of her grandmother’s house.
+
+Miranda knew that the worst was to come now, for her grandmother never
+mentioned the name of Griscom unless she meant business. It was a hated
+name to her because of the man who had broken the heart of her daughter.
+Grandma Heath always felt that Miranda was an out and out Griscom with not
+a streak of Heath about her. The Griscoms all had red hair. But Miranda
+lifted her chin high and felt like a princess in disguise.
+
+“Ben huntin’ hen’s eggs down in the grass,� she said, taking the first
+excuse that came into her head. “Is it time to get supper?�
+
+“Hen’s eggs! This time o’ night an’ dark as pitch. Miranda Griscom, you
+ken go up to your room an’ not come down tell I call you!�
+
+It was a dire punishment, or would have been if Miranda had not had her
+head full of other things, for the neighbor had been asked to tea and
+there would have been much to hear at the table. Besides, it was apparent
+that her disgrace was to be made public. However, Miranda did not care.
+She hastened to her little attic window, which looked down, as good
+fortune would have it, upon the dining-room windows of the Spafford house.
+With joy Miranda observed that no one had thought to draw down the shades
+and she might sit and watch the supper served over the way,—the supper she
+had prepared,—and might think how delectable the doughnuts were, and let
+her mouth water over the currant jelly and the quince preserves and
+pretend she was a guest, and forget the supper downstairs she was missing.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+David made what apology he could for his absence on the arrival of his
+guests, and pondered in his heart who it could have been that they
+referred to as “the maid,� until he suddenly remembered Miranda, and
+inwardly blessed her for her kindliness. It was more than he would have
+expected from any member of the Heath household. Miranda’s honest face
+among the currant bushes when she had said, “You needn’t be afraid of me,
+I’ll keep still,� came to mind. Miranda had evidently scented out the true
+state of the case and filled in the breach, taking care not to divulge a
+word. He blest her kindly heart and resolved to show his gratitude to her
+in some way. Could poor Miranda, sitting supperless in the dark, have but
+known his thought, her lonely heart would have fluttered happily. But she
+did not, and virtue had to bring its own reward in a sense of duty done.
+Then, too, there was a spice of adventure to Miranda’s monotonous life in
+what she had done, and she was not altogether sad as she sat and let her
+imagination revel in what the Spaffords had said and thought, when they
+found the house lighted and supper ready. It was better than playing house
+down behind the barn when she was a little girl.
+
+Marcia was the most astonished when she slipped down from her hurried
+toilet and found the table decked out in all the house afforded, fairly
+groaning under its weight of pickles, preserves, doughnuts, and pie. In
+fact, everything that Miranda had found she had put upon that table, and
+it is safe to say that the result was not quite as it would have been had
+the preparation of the supper been left to Marcia.
+
+She stood before it and looked, and could not keep from laughing softly to
+herself at the array of little dishes of things. Marcia thought at first
+that one of the aunts must be here, in the parlor, probably entertaining
+the guests, and that the supper was a reproof to her for being away when
+she should have been at home attending to her duties, but still she was
+puzzled. It scarcely seemed like the aunts to set a table in such a
+peculiar manner. The best china was set out, it is true, but so many
+little bits of things were in separate dishes. There was half a mould of
+currant jelly in a large china plate, there was a fresh mould of quince
+jelly quivering on a common dish. All over the table in every available
+inch there was something. It would not do to call the guests out to a
+table like that. What would David say? And yet, if one of the aunts had
+set it and was going to stay to tea, would she be hurt? She tiptoed to the
+door and listened, but heard no sound save of men’s voices. If an aunt had
+been here she was surely gone now and would be none the wiser if a few
+dishes were removed.
+
+With swift fingers Marcia weeded out the things, and set straight those
+that were to remain, and then made the tea. She was so quick about it
+David had scarcely time to begin to worry because supper was not announced
+before she stood in the parlor door, shy and sweet, with a brilliant color
+in her cheeks. His little comrade, David felt her to be, and again it
+struck him that she was beautiful as he arose to introduce her to the
+guests. He saw their open admiration as they greeted her, and he found
+himself wondering what they would have thought of Kate, wild-rose Kate
+with her graceful witching ways. A tinge of sadness came into his face,
+but something suggested to him the thought that Marcia was even more
+beautiful than Kate, more like a half-blown bud of a thing. He wondered
+that he had never noticed before how her eyes shone. He gave her a
+pleasant smile as they passed into the hall, which set the color flaming
+in her cheeks again. David seemed different somehow, and that lonely,
+set-apart feeling that she had had ever since she came here to live was
+gone. David was there and he understood, at least a little bit, and they
+had something,—just something, even though it was but a few minutes in a
+lonely woods and some gentle words of his,—to call their very own
+together. At least that experience did not belong to Kate, never had been
+hers, and could not have been borrowed from her. Marcia sighed a happy
+sigh as she took her seat at the table.
+
+The talk ran upon Andrew Jackson, and some utterances of his in his last
+message to Congress. The elder of the two gentlemen expressed grave fears
+that a mistake had been made in policy and that the country would suffer.
+
+Governor Clinton was mentioned and his policy discussed. But all this talk
+was familiar to Marcia. Her father had been interested in public affairs
+always, and she had been brought up to listen to discussions deep and
+long, and to think about such things for herself. When she was quite a
+little girl her father had made her read the paper aloud to him, from one
+end to the other, as he lay back in his big chair with his eyes closed and
+his shaggy brows drawn thoughtfully into a frown. Sometimes as she read he
+would burst forth with a tirade against this or that man or set of men who
+were in opposition to his own pronounced views, and he would pour out a
+lengthy reply to little Marcia as she sat patient, waiting for a chance to
+go on with her reading. As she grew older she became proud of the
+distinction of being her father’s _confidante_ politically, and she was
+able to talk on such matters as intelligently and as well if not better
+than most of the men who came to the house. It was a position which no one
+disputed with her. Kate had been much too full of her own plans and Madam
+Schuyler too busy with household affairs to bother with politics and
+newspapers, so Marcia had always been the one called upon to read when her
+father’s eyes were tired. As a consequence she was far beyond other girls
+of her age in knowledge on public affairs. Well she knew what Andrew
+Jackson thought about the tariff, and about the system of canals, and
+about improvements in general. She knew which men in Congress were opposed
+to and which in favor of certain bills. All through the struggle for
+improvements in New York state she had been an eager observer. The
+minutest detail of the Erie canal project had interested her, and she was
+never without her own little private opinion in the matter, which,
+however, seldom found voice except in her eager eyes, whose listening
+lights would have been an inspiration to the most eloquent speaker.
+
+Therefore, Marcia as she sat behind her sprigged china teacups and
+demurely poured tea, was taking in all that had been said, and she drew
+her breath quickly in a way she had when she was deeply excited, as at
+last the conversation neared the one great subject of interest which to
+her seemed of most importance in the country at the present day, the
+project of a railroad run by steam.
+
+Nothing was too great for Marcia to believe. Her father had been inclined
+to be conservative in great improvements. He had favored the Erie canal,
+though had feared it would be impossible to carry so great a project
+through, and Marcia in her girlish mind had rejoiced with a joy that to
+her was unspeakable when it had been completed and news had come that many
+packets were travelling day and night upon the wonderful new water way.
+There had been a kind of triumph in her heart to think that men who could
+study out these big schemes and plan it all, had been able against so
+great odds to carry out their project and prove to all unbelievers that it
+was not only possible but practicable.
+
+Marcia’s brain was throbbing with the desire for progress. If she were a
+man with money and influence she felt she would so much like to go out
+into the world and make stupid people do the things for the country that
+ought to be done. Progress had been the keynote of her upbringing, and she
+was teeming with energy which she had no hope could ever be used to help
+along that for which she felt her ambitions rising. She wanted to see the
+world alive, and busy, the great cities connected with one another. She
+longed to have free access to cities, to great libraries, to pictures, to
+wonderful music. She longed to meet great men and women, the men and women
+who were making the history of the world, writing, speaking, and doing
+things that were moulding public opinion. Reforms of all sorts were what
+helped along and made possible her desires. Why did not the people want a
+steam railroad? Why were they so ready to say it could never succeed, that
+it would be an impossibility; that the roads could not be made strong
+enough to bear so great weights and so constant wear and tear? Why did
+they interpose objections to every suggestion made by inventors and
+thinking men? Why did even her dear father who was so far in advance of
+his times in many ways, why did even he too shake his head and say that he
+feared it would never be in this country, at least not in his day, that it
+was impracticable?
+
+The talk was very interesting to Marcia. She ate bits of her biscuit
+without knowing, and she left her tea untasted till it was cold. The
+younger of the two guests was talking. His name was Jervis. Marcia thought
+she had heard the name somewhere, but had not yet placed him in her mind:
+
+“Yes,� said he, with an eager look on his face, “it is coming, it is
+coming sooner than they think. Oliver Evans said, you know, that good
+roads were all we could expect one generation to do. The next must make
+canals, the next might build a railroad which should run by horse power,
+and perhaps the next would run a railroad by steam. But we shall not have
+to wait so long. We shall have steam moving railway carriages before
+another year.�
+
+“What!� said David, “you don’t mean it! Have you really any foundation for
+such a statement?� He leaned forward, his eyes shining and his whole
+attitude one of deep interest. Marcia watched him, and a great pride began
+to glow within her that she belonged to him. She looked at the other men.
+Their eyes were fixed upon David with heightening pleasure and pride.
+
+The older man watched the little tableau a moment and then he explained:
+
+“The Mohawk and Hudson Company have just made an engagement with Mr.
+Jervis as chief engineer of their road. He expects to run that road by
+steam!�
+
+He finished his fruit cake and preserves under the spell of astonishment
+he had cast upon his host and hostess.
+
+David and Marcia turned simultaneously toward Mr. Jervis for a
+confirmation of this statement. Mr. Jervis smiled in affirmation.
+
+“But will it not be like all the rest, no funds?� asked David a trifle
+sadly. “It may be years even yet before it is really started.�
+
+But Mr. Jervis’ face was reassuring.
+
+“The contract is let for the grading. In fact work has already begun. I
+expect to begin laying the track by next Spring, perhaps sooner. As soon
+as the track is laid we shall show them.�
+
+David’s eyes shone and he reached out and grasped the hand of the man who
+had the will and apparently the means of accomplishing this great thing
+for the country.
+
+“It will make a wonderful change in the whole land,� said David musingly.
+He had forgotten to eat. His face was aglow and a side of his nature which
+Marcia did not know was uppermost. Marcia saw the man, the thinker, the
+writer, the former of public opinion, the idealist. Heretofore David had
+been to her in the light of her sister’s lover, a young man of promise,
+but that was all. Now she saw something more earnest, and at once it was
+revealed to her what a man he was, a man like her father. David’s eyes
+were suddenly drawn to meet hers. He looked on Marcia and seemed to be
+sharing his thought with her, and smiled a smile of comradeship. He felt
+all at once that she could and would understand his feelings about this
+great new enterprise, and would be glad too. It pleased him to feel this.
+It took a little of his loneliness away. Kate would never have been
+interested in these things. He had never expected such sympathy from her.
+She had been something beautiful and apart from his world, and as such he
+had adored her. But it was pleasant to have some one who could understand
+and feel as he did. Just then he was not thinking of his lost Kate. So he
+smiled and Marcia felt the glow of warmth from his look and returned it,
+and the two visitors knew that they were among friends who understood and
+sympathized.
+
+“Yes, it will make a change,� said the older man. “I hope I may live to
+see at least a part of it.�
+
+“If you succeed there will be many others to follow. The land will soon be
+a network of railroads,� went on David, still musing.
+
+“We shall succeed!� said Mr. Jervis, closing his lips firmly in a way that
+made one sure he knew whereof he spoke.
+
+“And now tell me about it,� said David, with his most engaging smile, as a
+child will ask to have a story. David could be most fascinating when he
+felt he was in a sympathetic company. At other times he was wont to be
+grave, almost to severity. But those who knew him best and had seen him
+thus melted into child-like enthusiasm, felt his lovableness as the others
+never dreamed.
+
+The table talk launched into a description of the proposed road, the road
+bed, the manner of laying the rails, their thickness and width, and the
+way of bolting them down to the heavy timbers that lay underneath. It was
+all intensely fascinating to Marcia. Mr. Jervis took knives and forks to
+illustrate and then showed by plates and spoons how they were fastened
+down.
+
+David asked a question now and then, took out his note book and wrote down
+some things. The two guests were eager and plain in their answers. They
+wanted David to write it up. They wanted the information to be accurate
+and full.
+
+“The other day I saw a question in a Baltimore paper, sent in by a
+subscriber, ‘What is a railroad?’� said the old gentleman, “and the
+editor’s reply was, ‘Can any of our readers answer this question and tell
+us what is a railroad?’�
+
+There was a hearty laugh over the unenlightened unbelievers who seemed to
+be only too willing to remain in ignorance of the march of improvement.
+
+David finally laid down his note book, feeling that he had gained all the
+information he needed at present. “I have much faith in you and your
+skill, but I do not quite see how you are going to overcome all the
+obstacles. How, for instance, are you going to overcome the inequalities
+in the road? Our country is not a flat even one like those abroad where
+the railroad has been tried. There are sharp grades, and many curves will
+be necessary,� said he.
+
+Mr. Jervis had shoved his chair back from the table, but now he drew it up
+again sharply and began to move the dishes back from his place, a look of
+eagerness gleaming in his face.
+
+Once again the dishes and cups were brought into requisition as the
+engineer showed a crude model, in china and cutlery, of an engine he
+proposed to have constructed, illustrating his own idea about a truck for
+the forward wheels which should move separately from the back wheels and
+enable the engine to conform to curves more readily.
+
+Marcia sat with glowing cheeks watching the outline of history that was to
+be, not knowing that the little model before her, made from her own
+teacups and saucers, was to be the model for all the coming engines of the
+many railroads of the future.
+
+Finally the chairs were pushed back, and yet the talk went on. Marcia
+slipped silently about conveying the dishes away. And still the guests sat
+talking. She could hear all they said even when she was in the kitchen
+washing the china, for she did it very softly and never a clink hid a
+word. They talked of Governor Clinton again and of his attitude toward the
+railroad. They spoke of Thurlow Weed and a number of others whose names
+were familiar to Marcia in the papers she had read to her father. They
+told how lately on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad Peter Cooper had
+experimented with a little locomotive, and had beaten a gray horse
+attached to another car.
+
+Marcia smiled brightly as she listened, and laid the delicate china teapot
+down with care lest she should lose a word. But ever with her interest in
+the march of civilization, there were other thoughts mingling. Thoughts of
+David and of how he would be connected with it all. He would write it up
+and be identified with it. He was brave enough to face any new movement.
+
+David’s paper was a temperance paper. There were not many temperance
+papers in those days. David was brave. He had already faced a number of
+unpleasant circumstances in consequence. He was not afraid of sneers or
+sarcasms, nor of being called a fanatic. He had taken such a stand that
+even those who were opposed had to respect him. Marcia felt the joy of a
+great pride in David to-night.
+
+She sang a happy little song at the bottom of her heart as she worked. The
+new railroad was an assured thing, and David was her comrade, that was the
+song, and the refrain was, “David, David, David!�
+
+Later, after the guests had talked themselves out and taken their candles
+to their rooms, David with another comrade’s smile, and a look in his eyes
+that saw visions of the country’s future, and for this one night at least
+promised not to dream of the past, bade her good night.
+
+She went up to her white chamber and lay down upon the pillow, whose case
+was fragrant of lavendar blossoms, dreaming with a smile of to-morrow. She
+thought she was riding in a strange new railroad train with David’s arm
+about her and Harry Temple running along at his very best pace to try to
+catch them, but he could not.
+
+Miranda, at her supperless window, watched the evening hours and thought
+many thoughts. She wondered why they stayed in the dining room so late,
+and why they did not go into the parlor and make Marcia play the “music
+box� as she called it; and why there was a light so long in that back
+chamber over the kitchen. Could it be they had put one of the guests
+there? Surely not. Perhaps that was David’s study. Perhaps he was writing.
+Ah! She had guessed aright. David was sitting up to write while the
+inspiration was upon him.
+
+But Miranda slept and ceased to wonder long before David’s light was
+extinguished, and when he finally lay down it was with a body healthily
+weary, and a mind for the time free from any intruding thought of himself
+and his troubles.
+
+He had written a most captivating article that would appear in his paper
+in a few days, and which must convince many doubters that a railroad was
+at last an established fact among them.
+
+There were one or two points which he must ask the skilled engineer in the
+morning, but as he reviewed what he had written he felt a sense of deep
+satisfaction, and a true delight in his work. His soul thrilled with the
+power of his gift. He loved it, exulted in it. It was pleasant to feel
+that delight in his work once more. He had thought since his marriage that
+it was gone forever, but perhaps by and by it would return to console him,
+and he would be able to do greater things in the world because of his
+suffering.
+
+Just as he dropped to sleep there came a thought of Marcia, pleasantly, as
+one remembers a flower. He felt that there was a comfort about Marcia, a
+something helpful in her smile. There was more to her than he had
+supposed. She was not merely a child. How her face had glowed as the men
+talked of the projected railroad, and almost she seemed to understand as
+they described the proposed engine with its movable trucks. She would be a
+companion who would be interested in his pursuits. He had hoped to teach
+Kate to understand his life work and perhaps help him some, but Kate was
+by nature a butterfly, a bird of gay colors, always on the wing. He would
+not have wanted her to be troubled with deep thoughts. Marcia seemed to
+enjoy such things. What if he should take pains to teach her, read with
+her, help cultivate her mind? It would at least be an occupation for
+leisure hours, something to interest him and keep away the awful pall of
+sadness.
+
+How sweet she had looked as she lay asleep in the woods with the tears on
+her cheek like the dew-drops upon a rose petal! She was a dear little girl
+and he must take care of her and protect her. That scoundrel Temple! What
+were such men made for? He must settle him to-morrow.
+
+And so he fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Harry Temple sat in his office the next morning with his feet upon the
+table and his wooden armed chair tilted back against the wall.
+
+He had letters to write, a number of them, that should go out with the
+afternoon coach, to reach the night packet. There were at least three men
+he ought to go and see at once if he would do the best for his employers,
+and the office he sat in was by no means in the best of order. But his
+feet were elevated comfortably on the table and he was deep in the pages
+of a story of the French Court, its loves and hates and intrigues.
+
+It was therefore with annoyance that he looked up at the opening of the
+office door.
+
+But the frown changed to apprehension, as he saw who was his visitor. He
+brought the chair legs suddenly to the floor and his own legs followed
+them swiftly. David Spafford was not a man before whom another would sit
+with his feet on a table, even to transact business.
+
+There was a look of startled enquiry on Harry Temple’s face. For an
+instant his self-complacency was shaken. He hesitated, wondering what tack
+to take. Perhaps after all his alarm was unnecessary. Marcia likely had
+been too frightened to tell of what had occurred. He noticed the broad
+shoulder, the lean, active body, the keen eye, and the grave poise of his
+visitor, and thought he would hardly care to fight a duel with that man.
+It was natural for him to think at once of a duel on account of the French
+court life from which his mind had just emerged. A flash of wonder passed
+through his mind whether it would be swords or pistols, and then he set
+himself to face the other man.
+
+David Spafford stood for a full minute and looked into the face of the man
+he had come to shame. He looked at him with a calm eye and brow, but with
+a growing contempt that did not need words to express it. Harry Temple
+felt the color rise in his cheek, and his soul quaked for an instant. Then
+his habitual conceit arose and he tried to parry with his eye that keen
+piercing gaze of the other. It must have lasted a full minute, though it
+seemed to Mr. Temple it was five at the least. He made an attempt to offer
+his visitor a chair, but it was not noticed. David Spafford looked his man
+through and through, and knew him for exactly what he was. At last he
+spoke, quietly, in a tone that was too courteous to be contemptuous, but
+it humiliated the listener more even than contempt:
+
+“It would be well for you to leave town at once.�
+
+That was all. The listener felt that it was a command. His wrath arose
+hotly, and beat itself against the calm exterior of his visitor’s gaze in
+a look that was brazen enough to have faced a whole town of accusers.
+Harry Temple could look innocent and handsome when he chose.
+
+“I do not understand you, sir!� he said. “That is a most extraordinary
+statement!�
+
+“It would be well for you to leave town at once.�
+
+This time the command was imperative. Harry’s eyes blazed.
+
+“Why?� He asked it with that impertinent tilt to his chin which usually
+angered his opponent in any argument. Once he could break that steady,
+iron, self-control he felt he would have the best of things. He could
+easily persuade David Spafford that everything was all right if he could
+get him off his guard and make him angry. An angry man could do little but
+bluster.
+
+“You understand very well,� replied David, his voice still, steady and his
+gaze not swerving.
+
+“Indeed! Well, this is most extraordinary,� said Harry, losing control of
+himself again. “Of what do you accuse me, may I enquire?�
+
+“Of nothing that your own heart does not accuse you,� said David. And
+somehow there was more than human indignation in the gaze now: there was
+pity, a sense of shame for another soul who could lower himself to do
+unseemly things. Before that look the blood crept into Harry’s cheek
+again. An uncomfortable sensation entirely new was stealing over him. A
+sense of sin—no, not that exactly,—a sense that he had made a mistake,
+perhaps. He never was very hard upon himself even when the evidence was
+clear against him. It angered him to feel humiliated. What a fuss to make
+about a little thing! What a tiresome old cad to care about a little
+flirtation with his wife! He wished he had let the pretty baby alone
+entirely. She was of no finer stuff than many another who had accepted his
+advances with pleasure. He stiffened his neck and replied with much
+haughtiness:
+
+“My heart accuses me of nothing, sir. I assure you I consider your words
+an insult! I demand satisfaction for your insulting language, sir!� Harry
+Temple had never fought a duel, and had never been present when others
+fought, but that was the language in which a challenge was usually
+delivered in French novels.
+
+“It is not a matter for discussion!� said David Spafford, utterly ignoring
+the other’s blustering words. “I am fully informed as to all that occurred
+yesterday afternoon, and I tell you once more, it would be well for you to
+leave town at once. I have nothing further to say.�
+
+David turned and walked toward the door, and Harry stood, ignored, angry,
+crestfallen, and watched him until he reached the door.
+
+“You would better ask your informant further of her part in the matter!�
+he hissed, suddenly, an open sneer in his voice and a covert implication
+of deep meaning.
+
+David turned, his face flashing with righteous indignation. The man who
+was withered by the scorn of that glance wished heartily that he had not
+uttered the false sentence. He felt the smallness of his own soul, during
+the instant of silence in which his visitor stood looking at him.
+
+Then David spoke deliberately:
+
+“I knew you were a knave,� said he, “but I did not suppose you were also a
+coward. A man who is not a coward will not try to put the blame upon a
+woman, especially upon an innocent one. You, sir, will leave town this
+evening. Any business further than you can settle between this and that I
+will see properly attended to. I warn you, sir, it will be unwise for you
+to remain longer than till the evening coach.�
+
+Perfectly courteous were David’s tones, keen command was in his eye and
+determination in every line of his face. Harry could not recover himself
+to reply, could not master his frenzy of anger and humiliation to face the
+righteous look of his accuser. Before he realized it, David was gone.
+
+He stood by the window and watched him go down the street with rapid, firm
+tread and upright bearing. Every line in that erect form spoke of
+determination. The conviction grew within him that the last words of his
+visitor were true, and that it would be wise for him to leave town. He
+rebelled at the idea. He did not wish to leave, for business matters were
+in such shape, or rather in such chaos, that it would be extremely awkward
+for him to meet his employers and explain his desertion at that time.
+Moreover there were several homes in the town open to him whenever he
+chose, where were many attractions. It was a lazy pleasant life he had
+been leading here, fully trusted, and wholly disloyal to the trust,
+troubled by no uneasy overseers, not even his own conscience, dined and
+smiled upon with lovely languishing eyes. He did not care to go, even
+though he had decried the town as dull and monotonous.
+
+But, on the other hand, things had occurred—not the unfortunate little
+mistake of yesterday, of course, but others, more serious things—that he
+would hardly care to have brought to the light of day, especially through
+the keen sarcastic columns of David Spafford’s paper. He had seen other
+sinners brought to a bloodless retribution in those columns by dauntless
+weapons of sarcasm and wit which in David Spafford’s hands could be made
+to do valiant work. He did not care to be humiliated in that way. He could
+not brazen it out. He was convinced that the man meant what he said, and
+from what he knew of his influence he felt that he would leave no stone
+unturned till he had made the place too hot to hold him. Only Harry Temple
+himself knew how easy that would be to do, for no one else knew how many
+“mistakes� (?) Harry had made, and he, unfortunately for himself, did not
+know how many of them were not known, by any who could harm him.
+
+He stood a long time clinking some sixpences and shillings together in his
+pocket, and scowling down the street after David had disappeared from
+sight.
+
+“Blame that little pink-cheeked, baby-eyed fool!� he said at last, turning
+on his heel with a sigh. “I might have known she was too goody-goody. Such
+people ought to die young before they grow up to make fools of other
+people. Bah! Think of a wife like that with no spirit of her own. A baby!
+Merely a baby!�
+
+Nevertheless, in his secret heart, he knew he honored Marcia and felt a
+true shame that she had looked into his tarnished soul.
+
+Then he looked round about upon his papers that represented a whole week’s
+hard work and maybe more before they were cleared away, and reflected how
+much easier after all it would be to get up a good excuse and go away,
+leaving all this to some poor drudge who should be sent here in his place.
+He looked around again and his eyes lighted upon his book. He remembered
+the exciting crisis in which he had left the heroine and down he sat to
+his story again. At least there was nothing demanding attention this
+moment. He need not decide what he would do. If he went there were few
+preparations to make. He would toss some things into his carpet-bag and
+pretend to have been summoned to see a sick and dying relative, a
+long-lost brother or something. It would be easy to invent one when the
+time came. Then he could leave directions for the rest of his things to be
+packed if he did not return, and get rid of the trouble of it all. As for
+the letters, if he was going what use to bother with them? Let them wait
+till his successor should come. It mattered little to him whether his
+employers suffered for his negligence or not so long as he finished his
+story. Besides, it would not do to let that cad think he had frightened
+him. He would pretend he was not going, at least during his hours of
+grace. So he picked up his book and went on reading.
+
+At noon he sauntered back to his boarding house as usual for his dinner,
+having professed an unusually busy morning to those who came in to the
+office on business and made appointments with them for the next day. This
+had brought him much satisfaction as the morning wore away and he was left
+free to his book, and so before dinner he had come to within a very few
+pages of the end.
+
+After a leisurely dinner he sauntered back to the office again, rejoicing
+in the fact that circumstances had so arranged themselves that he had
+passed David Spafford in front of the newspaper office and given him a
+most elaborate and friendly bow in the presence of four or five
+bystanders. David’s look in return had meant volumes, and decided Harry
+Temple to do as he had been ordered, not, of course, because he had been
+ordered to do so, but because it would be an easier thing to do. In fact
+he made up his mind that he was weary of this part of the country. He went
+back to his book.
+
+About the middle of the afternoon he finished the last pages. He rose up
+with alacrity then and began to think what he should do. He glanced around
+the room, sought out a few papers, took some daguerreotypes of girls from
+a drawer of his desk, gave a farewell glance around the dismal little room
+that had seen so much shirking for the past few months, and then went out
+and locked the door.
+
+He paused at the corner. Which way should he go? He did not care to go
+back to the office, for his book was done, and he scarcely needed to go to
+his room at his boarding place yet either, for the afternoon was but half
+over and he wished his departure to appear to be entirely unpremeditated.
+A daring thought came into his head. He would walk past David Spafford’s
+house. He would let Marcia see him if possible. He would show them that he
+was not afraid in the least. He even meditated going in and explaining to
+Marcia that she had made a great mistake, that he had been merely admiring
+her, and that there was no harm in anything he had said or done yesterday,
+that he was exceedingly grieved and mortified that she should have
+mistaken his meaning for an insult, and so on and so on. He knew well how
+to make such honeyed talk when he chose, but the audacity of the thing was
+a trifle too much for even his bold nature, so he satisfied himself by
+strolling in a leisurely manner by the house.
+
+When he was directly opposite to it he raised his eyes casually and bowed
+and smiled with his most graceful air. True, he did not see any one, for
+Marcia had caught sight of him as she was coming out upon the stoop and
+had fled into her own room with the door buttoned, she was watching unseen
+from behind the folds of her curtain, but he made the bow as complete as
+though a whole family had been greeting him from the windows. Marcia, poor
+child, thought he must see her, and she felt frozen to the spot, and
+stared wildly through the little fold of her curtain with trembling hands
+and weak knees till he was passed. Well pleased at himself the young man
+walked on, knowing that at least three prominent citizens had seen him bow
+and smile, and that they would be witnesses, against anything David might
+say to the contrary, that he was on friendly terms with Mrs. Spafford.
+
+Hannah Heath was sitting on the front stoop with her knitting. She often
+sat there dressed daintily of an afternoon. Her hands were white and
+looked well against the blue yarn she was knitting. Besides there was
+something domestic and sentimental in a stocking. It gave a cosy, homey,
+air to a woman, Hannah considered. So she sat and knitted and smiled at
+whomsoever passed by, luring many in to sit and talk with her, so that the
+stockings never grew rapidly, but always kept at about the same stage. If
+it had been Miranda, Grandmother Heath would have made some sharp remarks
+about the length of time it took to finish that blue stocking, but as it
+was Hannah it was all right.
+
+Hannah sat upon the stoop and knitted as Harry Temple came by. Now, Hannah
+was not so great a favorite with Harry as Harry was with Hannah. She was
+of the kind who was conquered too easily, and he did not consider it worth
+his while to waste time upon her simperings usually. But this afternoon
+was different. He had nowhere to go for a little while, and Hannah’s
+appearance on the stoop was opportune and gave him an idea. He would
+lounge there with her. Perchance fortune would favor him again and David
+Spafford would pass by and see him. There would be one more opportunity to
+stare insolently at him and defy him, before he bent his neck to obey.
+David had given him the day in which to do what he would, and he would
+make no move until the time was over and the coach he had named departed,
+but he knew that then he would bring down retribution. In just what form
+that retribution would come he was not quite certain, but he knew it would
+be severe.
+
+So when Hannah smiled upon him, Harry Temple stepped daintily across the
+mud in the road, and came and sat down beside her. He toyed with her
+knitting, caught one of her plump white hands, the one on the side away
+from the street, and held it, while Hannah pretended not to notice, and
+drooped her long eyelashes in a telling way. Hannah knew how. She had been
+at it a good many years.
+
+So he sat, toward five o’clock, when David came by, and bowed gravely to
+Hannah, but seemed not to see Harry. Harry let his eyes follow the tall
+figure in an insolent stare.
+
+“What a dough-faced cad that man is!� he said lazily, “no wonder his
+little pink-cheeked wife seeks other society. Handsome baby, though, isn’t
+she?�
+
+Hannah pricked up her ears. Her loss of David was too recent not to cause
+her extreme jealousy of his pretty young wife. Already she fairly hated
+her. Her upbringing in the atmosphere of Grandmother Heath’s sarcastic,
+ill-natured gossip had prepared her to be quick to see meaning in any
+insinuation.
+
+She looked at him keenly, archly for a moment, then replied with drooping
+gaze and coquettish manner:
+
+“You should not blame any one for enjoying your company.�
+
+Hannah stole sly glances to see how he took this, but Harry was an old
+hand and proof against such scrutiny. He only shrugged his shoulder
+carelessly, as though he dropped all blame like a garment that he had no
+need for.
+
+“And what’s the matter with David?� asked Hannah, watching David as he
+mounted his own steps, and thinking how often she had watched that tall
+form go down the street, and thought of him as destined to belong to her.
+The mortification that he had chosen some one else was not yet forgotten.
+It amounted almost to a desire for revenge.
+
+Harry lingered longer than he intended. Hannah begged him to remain to
+supper, but he declined, and when she pressed him to do so he looked
+troubled and said he was expecting a letter and must hurry back to see if
+it came in the afternoon coach. He told her that a dear friend, a beloved
+cousin, was lying very ill, and he might be summoned at any moment to his
+bedside, and Hannah said some comforting little things in a caressing
+voice, and hoped he would find the letter saying the cousin was better.
+Then he hurried away.
+
+It was easy at his boarding house to say he had been called away, and he
+rushed up to his room and threw some necessaries into his carpet-bag,
+scattering things around the room and helping out the impression that he
+was called away in a great hurry. When he was ready he looked at his
+watch. It was growing late. The evening coach left in half an hour. He
+knew its route well. It started at the village inn, and went down the old
+turnpike, stopping here and there to pick up passengers. There was always
+a convocation when it started. Perhaps David Spafford would be there and
+witness his obedience to the command given him. He set his lips and made
+up his mind to escape that at least. He would cheat his adversary of that
+satisfaction.
+
+It would involve a sacrifice. He would have to go without his supper, and
+he could smell the frying bacon coming up the stairs. But it would help
+the illusion and he could perhaps get something on the way when the coach
+stopped to change horses.
+
+He rushed downstairs and told his landlady that he must start at once, as
+he must see a man before the coach went, and she, poor lady, had no chance
+to suggest that he leave her a little deposit on the sum of his board
+which he already owed her. There was perhaps some method in his hurry for
+that reason also. It always bothered him to pay his bills, he had so many
+other ways of spending his money.
+
+So he hurried away and caught a ride in a farm wagon going toward the
+Cross Roads. When it turned off he walked a little way until another wagon
+came along; finally crossed several fields at a breathless pace and caught
+the coach just as it was leaving the Cross Roads, which was the last
+stopping place anywhere near the village. He climbed up beside the driver,
+still in a breathless condition, and detailed to him how he had received
+word, just before the coach started, by a messenger who came
+across-country on horseback, that his cousin was dying.
+
+After he had answered the driver’s minutest questions, he sat back and
+reflected upon his course with satisfaction. He was off, and he had not
+been seen nor questioned by a single citizen, and by to-morrow night his
+story as he had told it to the driver would be fully known and circulated
+through the place he had just left. The stage driver was one of the best
+means of advertisement. It was well to give him full particulars.
+
+The driver after he had satisfied his curiosity about the young man by his
+side, and his reasons for leaving town so hastily, began to wax eloquent
+upon the one theme which now occupied his spare moments and his fluent
+tongue, the subject of a projected railroad. Whether some of the
+sentiments he uttered were his own, or whether he had but borrowed from
+others, they were at least uttered with force and apparent conviction, and
+many a traveller sat and listened as they were retailed and viewed the
+subject from the standpoint of the loud-mouthed coachman.
+
+A little later Tony Weller, called by some one “the best beloved of all
+coachmen,� uttered much the same sentiments in the following words:
+
+“I consider that the railroad is unconstitutional and an invader o’
+privileges. As to the comfort, as an old coachman I may say it,—vere’s the
+comfort o’ sittin’ in a harm-chair a lookin’ at brick walls, and heaps o’
+mud, never comin’ to a public ’ouse, never seein’ a glass o’ ale, never
+goin’ through a pike, never meetin’ a change o’ no kind (hosses or
+otherwise), but always comin’ to a place, ven you comes to vun at all, the
+werry picter o’ the last.
+
+“As to the honor an’ dignity o’ travellin’ vere can that be without a
+coachman, and vat’s the rail, to sich coachmen as is sometimes forced to
+go by it, but an outrage and an hinsult? As to the ingen, a nasty,
+wheezin’, gaspin’, puffin’, bustin’ monster always out o’ breath, with a
+shiny green and gold back like an onpleasant beetle; as to the ingen as is
+always a pourin’ out red ’ot coals at night an’ black smoke in the day,
+the sensiblest thing it does, in my opinion, is ven there’s somethin’ in
+the vay, it sets up that ’ere frightful scream vich seems to say, ‘Now
+’ere’s two ’undred an’ forty passengers in the werry greatest extremity o’
+danger, an’ ’ere’s their two ’undred an’ forty screams in vun!’�
+
+But such sentiments as these troubled Harry Temple not one whit. He cared
+not whether the present century had a railroad or whether it travelled by
+foot. He would not lift a white finger to help it along or hinder. As the
+talk went on he was considering how and where he might get his supper.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+The weather turned suddenly cold and raw that Fall, and almost in one day,
+the trees that had been green, or yellowing in the sunshine, put on their
+autumn garments of defeat, flaunted them for a brief hour, and dropped
+them early in despair. The pleasant woods, to which Marcia had fled in her
+dismay, became a mass of finely penciled branches against a wintry sky,
+save for the one group of tall pines that hung out heavy above the rest,
+and seemed to defy even snowy blasts.
+
+Marcia could see those pines from her kitchen window, and sometimes as she
+worked, if her heart was heavy, she would look out and away to them, and
+think of the day she laid her head down beneath them to sob out her
+trouble, and awoke to find comfort. Somehow the memory of that little talk
+that she and David had then grew into vast proportions in her mind, and
+she loved to cherish it.
+
+There had come letters from home. Her stepmother had written, a stiff, not
+unloving letter, full of injunctions to be sure to remember this, and not
+do that, and on no account to let any relative or neighbor persuade her
+out of the ways in which she had been brought up. She was attempting to do
+as many mothers do, when they see the faults in the child they have
+brought up, try to bring them up over again. At some of the sentences a
+wild homesickness took possession of her. Some little homely phrase about
+one of the servants, or the mention of a pet hen or cow, would bring the
+longing tears to her eyes, and she would feel that she must throw away
+this new life and run back to the old one.
+
+School was begun at home. Mary Ann and Hanford would be taking the long
+walk back and forth together twice a day to the old school-house. She half
+envied them their happy, care-free life. She liked to think of the shy
+courting that she had often seen between scholars in the upper classes.
+Her imagination pleased itself sometimes when she was going to sleep,
+trying to picture out the school goings and home comings, and their sober
+talk. Not that she ever looked back to Hanford Weston with regret, not
+she. She knew always that he was not for her, and perhaps, even so early
+as that in her new life, if the choice had been given her whether she
+would go back to her girlhood again and be as she was before Kate had run
+away, or whether she would choose to stay here in the new life with David,
+it is likely she would have chosen to stay.
+
+There were occasional letters from Squire Schuyler. He wrote of politics,
+and sent many messages to his son-in-law which Marcia handed over to David
+at the tea table to read, and which always seemed to soften David and
+bring a sweet sadness into his eyes. He loved and respected his
+father-in-law. It was as if he were bound to him by the love of some one
+who had died. Marcia thought of that every time she handed David a letter,
+and sat and watched him read it.
+
+Sometimes little Harriet or the boys printed out a few words about the
+family cat, or the neighbors’ children, and Marcia laughed and cried over
+the poor little attempts at letters and longed to have the eager childish
+faces of the writers to kiss.
+
+But in all of them there was never a mention of the bright, beautiful,
+selfish girl around whom the old home life used to centre and who seemed
+now, judging from the home letters, to be worse than dead to them all. But
+since the afternoon upon the hill a new and pleasant intercourse had
+sprung up between David and Marcia. True it was confined mainly to
+discussions of the new railroad, the possibilities of its success, and the
+construction of engines, tracks, etc. David was constantly writing up the
+subject for his paper, and he fell into the habit of reading his articles
+aloud to Marcia when they were finished. She would listen with breathless
+admiration, sometimes combating a point ably, with the old vim she had
+used in her discussion over the newspaper with her father, but mainly
+agreeing with every word he wrote, and always eager to understand it down
+to the minutest detail.
+
+He always seemed pleased at her praise, and wrote on while she put away
+the tea-things with a contented expression as though he had passed a high
+critic, and need not fear any other. Once he looked up with a quizzical
+expression and made a jocose remark about “our article,� taking her into a
+sort of partnership with him in it, which set her heart to beating
+happily, until it seemed as if she were really in some part at least
+growing into his life.
+
+But after all their companionship was a shy, distant one, more like that
+of a brother and sister who had been separated all their lives and were
+just beginning to get acquainted, and ever there was a settled sadness
+about the lines of David’s mouth and eyes. They sat around one table now,
+the evenings when they were at home, for there were still occasional
+tea-drinkings at their friends’ houses; and there was one night a week
+held religiously for a formal supper with the aunts, which David kindly
+acquiesced in—more for the sake of his Aunt Clarinda than the
+others,—whenever he was not detained by actual business. Then, too, there
+was the weekly prayer meeting held at “early candle light� in the dim old
+shadowed church. They always walked down the twilighted streets together,
+and it seemed to Marcia there was a sweet solemnity about that walk. They
+never said much to each other on the way. David seemed preoccupied with
+holy thoughts, and Marcia walked softly beside him as if he had been the
+minister, looking at him proudly and reverently now and then. David was
+often called upon to pray in meeting and Marcia loved to listen to his
+words. He seemed to be more intimate with God than the others, who were
+mostly old men and prayed with long, rolling, solemn sentences that put
+the whole community down into the dust and ashes before their Creator.
+
+Marcia rather enjoyed the hour spent in the sombreness of the church, with
+the flickering candle light making grotesque forms of shadows on the wall
+and among the tall pews. The old minister reminded her of the one she had
+left at home, though he was more learned and scholarly, and when he had
+read the Scripture passages he would take his spectacles off and lay them
+across the great Bible where the candle light played at glances with the
+steel bows, and say: “Let us pray!� Then would come that soft stir and
+hush as the people took the attitude of prayer. Marcia sometimes joined in
+the prayer in her heart, uttering shy little petitions that were vague and
+indefinite, and had to do mostly with the days when she was troubled and
+homesick, and felt that David belonged wholly to Kate. Always her clear
+voice joined in the slow hymns that quavered out now and again, lined out
+to the worshippers.
+
+Marcia and David went out from that meeting down the street to their home
+with the hush upon them that must have been upon the Israelites of old
+after they had been to the solemn congregation.
+
+But once David had come in earlier than usual and had caught Marcia
+reading the Scottish Chiefs, and while she started guiltily to be found
+thus employed he smiled indulgently. After supper he said: “Get your book,
+child, and sit down. I have some writing to do, and after it is done I
+will read it to you.� So after that, more and more often, it was a book
+that Marcia held in her hands in the long evenings when they sat together,
+instead of some useful employment, and so her education progressed. Thus
+she read Epictetus, Rasselas, The Deserted Village, The Vicar of
+Wakefield, Paradise Lost, the Mysteries of the Human Heart, Marshall’s
+Life of Columbus, The Spy, The Pioneers, and The Last of the Mohicans.
+
+She had been asked to sing in the village choir. David sang a sweet high
+tenor there, and Marcia’s voice was clear and strong as a blackbird’s,
+with the plaintive sweetness of the wood-robin’s.
+
+Hannah Heath was in the choir also, and jealously watched her every move,
+but of this Marcia was unaware until informed of it by Miranda. With her
+inherited sweetness of nature she scarcely credited it, until one Sunday,
+a few weeks after the departure of Harry Temple, Hannah leaned forward
+from her seat among the altos and whispered quite distinctly, so that
+those around could hear—it was just before the service—“I’ve just had a
+letter from your friend Mr. Temple. I thought you might like to know that
+his cousin got well and he has gone back to New York. He won’t be
+returning here this year. On some accounts he thought it was better not.�
+
+It was all said pointedly, with double emphasis upon the “your friend,�
+and “some accounts.� Marcia felt her cheeks glow, much to her vexation,
+and tried to control her whisper to seem kindly as she answered
+indifferently enough.
+
+“Oh, indeed! But you must have made a mistake. Mr. Temple is a very slight
+acquaintance of mine. I have met him only a few times, and I know nothing
+about his cousin. I was not aware even that he had gone away.�
+
+Hannah raised her speaking eyebrows and replied, quite loud now, for the
+choir leader had stood up already with his tuning-fork in hand, and one
+could hear it faintly twang:
+
+“Indeed!�—using Marcia’s own word—and quite coldly, “I should have thought
+differently from what Harry himself told me,� and there was that in her
+tone which deepened the color in Marcia’s cheeks and caused it to stay
+there during the entire morning service as she sat puzzling over what
+Hannah could have meant. It rankled in her mind during the whole day. She
+longed to ask David about it, but could not get up the courage.
+
+She could not bear to revive the memory of what seemed to be her shame. It
+was at the minister’s donation party that Hannah planted another thorn in
+her heart,—Hannah, in a green plaid silk with delicate undersleeves of
+lace, and a tiny black velvet jacket.
+
+She selected a time when Lemuel was near, and when Aunt Amelia and Aunt
+Hortense, who believed that all the young men in town were hovering about
+David’s wife, sat one on either side of Marcia, as if to guard her for
+their beloved nephew—who was discussing politics with Mr. Heath—and who
+never seemed to notice, so blind he was in his trust of her.
+
+So Hannah paused and posed before the three ladies, and with Lemuel
+smiling just at her elbow, began in her affected way:
+
+“I’ve had another letter from New York, from your friend Mr. Temple,� she
+said it with the slightest possible glance over her shoulder to get the
+effect of her words upon the faithful Lemuel, “and he tells me he has met
+a sister of yours. By the way, she told him that David used to be very
+fond of her before she was married. I suppose she’ll be coming to visit
+you now she’s so near as New York.�
+
+Two pairs of suspicious steely eyes flew like stinging insects to gaze
+upon her, one on either side, and Marcia’s heart stood still for just one
+instant, but she felt that here was her trying time, and if she would help
+David and do the work for which she had become his wife, she must protect
+him now from any suspicions or disagreeable tongues. By very force of will
+she controlled the trembling of her lips.
+
+“My sister will not likely visit us this winter, I think,� she replied as
+coolly as if she had had a letter to that effect that morning, and then
+she deliberately looked at Lemuel Skinner and asked if he had heard of the
+offer of prizes of four thousand dollars in cash that the Baltimore and
+Ohio railroad had just made for the most approved engine delivered for
+trial before June first, 1831, not to exceed three and a half tons in
+weight and capable of drawing, day by day, fifteen tons inclusive of
+weight of wagons, fifteen miles per hour. Lemuel looked at her blankly and
+said he had not heard of it. He was engaged in thinking over what Hannah
+had said about a letter from Harry Temple. He cared nothing about
+railroads.
+
+“The second prize is thirty-five hundred dollars,� stated Marcia eagerly,
+as though it were of the utmost importance to her.
+
+“Are you thinking of trying for one of the prizes?� sneered Hannah,
+piercing her with her eyes, and now indeed the ready color flowed into
+Marcia’s face. Her ruse had been detected.
+
+“If I were a man and understood machinery I believe I would. What a grand
+thing it would be to be able to invent a thing like an engine that would
+be of so much use to the world,� she answered bravely.
+
+“They are most dangerous machines,� said Aunt Amelia disapprovingly. “No
+right-minded Christian who wishes to live out the life his Creator has
+given him would ever ride behind one. I have heard that boilers always
+explode.�
+
+“They are most unnecessary!� said Aunt Hortense severely, as if that
+settled the question for all time and all railroad corporations.
+
+But Marcia was glad for once of their disapproval and entered most
+heartily into a discussion of the pros and cons of engines and steam,
+quoting largely from David’s last article for the paper on the subject,
+until Hannah and Lemuel moved slowly away. The discussion served to keep
+the aunts from inquiring further that evening about the sister in New
+York.
+
+Marcia begged them to go with her into the kitchen and see the store of
+good things that had been brought to the minister’s house by his loving
+parishioners. Bags of flour and meal, pumpkins, corn in the ear, eggs, and
+nice little pats of butter. A great wooden tub of doughnuts, baskets of
+apples and quinces, pounds of sugar and tea, barrels of potatoes, whole
+hams, a side of pork, a quarter of beef, hanks of yarn, and strings of
+onions. It was a goodly array. Marcia felt that the minister must be
+beloved by his people. She watched him and his wife as they greeted their
+people, and wished she knew them better, and might come and see them
+sometimes, and perhaps eventually feel as much at home with them as with
+her own dear minister.
+
+She avoided Hannah during the remainder of the evening. When the evening
+was over and she went upstairs to get her wraps from the high four-poster
+bedstead, she had almost forgotten Hannah and her ill-natured, prying
+remarks. But Hannah had not forgotten her. She came forth from behind the
+bed curtains where she had been searching for a lost glove, and remarked
+that she should think Marcia would be lonely this first winter away from
+home and want her sister with her a while.
+
+But the presence of Hannah always seemed a mental stimulus to the spirit
+of Marcia.
+
+“Oh, I’m not in the least lonely,� she laughed merrily. “I have a great
+many interesting things to do, and I love music and books.�
+
+“Oh, yes, I forgot you are very fond of music. Harry Temple told me about
+it,� said Hannah. Again there was that disagreeable hint of something more
+behind her words, that aggravated Marcia almost beyond control. For an
+instant a cutting reply was upon her lips and her eyes flashed fire; then
+it came to her how futile it would be, and she caught the words in time
+and walked swiftly down the stairs. David watching her come down saw the
+admiring glances of all who stood in the hall below, and took her under
+his protection with a measure of pride in her youth and beauty that he did
+not himself at all realize. All the way home he talked with her about the
+new theory of railroad construction, quite contented in her companionship,
+while she, poor child, much perturbed in spirit, wondered how he would
+feel if he knew what Hannah had said.
+
+David fell into a deep study with a book and his papers about him, after
+they had reached home. Marcia went up to her quiet, lonely chamber, put
+her face in the pillow and thought and wept and prayed. When at last she
+lay down to rest she did not know anything she could do but just to go on
+living day by day and helping David all she could. At most there was
+nothing to fear for herself, save a kind of shame that she had not been
+the first sister chosen, and she found to her surprise that that was
+growing to be deeper than she had supposed.
+
+She wished as she fell asleep that her girl-dreams might have been left to
+develop and bloom like other girls’, and that she might have had a real
+lover,—like David in every way, yet of course not David because he was
+Kate’s. But a real lover who would meet her as David had done that night
+when he thought she was Kate, and speak to her tenderly.
+
+One afternoon David, being wearied with an unusual round of taxing cares,
+came home to rest and study up some question in his library.
+
+Finding the front door fastened, and remembering that he had left his key
+in his other pocket, he came around to the back door, and much preoccupied
+with thought went through the kitchen and nearly to the hall before the
+unusual sounds of melody penetrated to his ears. He stopped for an instant
+amazed, forgetting the piano, then comprehending he wondered who was
+playing. Perhaps some visitor was in the parlor. He would listen and find
+out. He was weary and dusty with the soil of the office upon his hands and
+clothes. He did not care to meet a visitor, so under cover of the music he
+slipped into the door of his library across the hall from the parlor and
+dropped into his great arm-chair.
+
+Softly and tenderly stole the music through the open door, all about him,
+like the gentle dropping of some tender psalms or comforting chapter in
+the Bible to an aching heart. It touched his brow like a soft soothing
+hand, and seemed to know and recognize all the agonies his heart had been
+passing through, and all the weariness his body felt.
+
+He put his head back and let it float over him and rest him. Tinkling
+brooks and gentle zephyrs, waving of forest trees, and twitterings of
+birds, calm lazy clouds floating by, a sweetness in the atmosphere, bells
+far away, lowing herds, music of the angels high in heaven, the soothing
+strain from each extracted and brought to heal his broken heart. It fell
+like dew upon his spirit. Then, like a fresh breeze with zest and life
+borne on, came a new strain, grand and fine and high, calling him to
+better things. He did not know it was a strain of Handel’s music grown
+immortal, but his spirit recognized the higher call, commanding him to
+follow, and straightway he felt strengthened to go onward in the course he
+had been pursuing. Old troubles seemed to grow less, anguish fell away
+from him. He took new lease of life. Nothing seemed impossible.
+
+Then she played by ear one or two of the old tunes they sang in church,
+touching the notes tenderly and almost making them speak the words. It
+seemed a benediction. Suddenly the playing ceased and Marcia remembered it
+was nearly supper time.
+
+He met her in the doorway with a new look in his eyes, a look of high
+purpose and exultation. He smiled upon her and said: “That was good,
+child. I did not know you could do it. You must give it to us often.�
+Marcia felt a glow of pleasure in his kindliness, albeit she felt that the
+look in his eyes set him apart and above her, and made her feel the child
+she was. She hurried out to get the supper between pleasure and a nameless
+unrest. She was glad of this much, but she wanted more, a something to
+meet her soul and satisfy.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+The world had not gone well with Mistress Kate Leavenworth, and she was
+ill-pleased. She had not succeeded in turning her father’s heart toward
+herself as she had confidently expected to do when she ran away with her
+sea captain. She had written a gay letter home, taking for granted, in a
+pretty way, the forgiveness she did not think it necessary to ask, but
+there had come in return a brief harsh statement from her father that she
+was no longer his daughter and must cease from further communication with
+the family in any way; that she should never enter his house again and not
+a penny of his money should ever pass to her. He also informed her plainly
+that the trousseau made for her had been given to her sister who was now
+the wife of the man she had not seen fit to marry.
+
+Over this letter Mistress Kate at first stormed, then wept, and finally
+sat down to frame epistle after epistle in petulant, penitent language.
+These epistles following each other by daily mail coaches still brought
+nothing further from her irate parent, and my lady was at last forced to
+face the fact that she must bear the penalty of her own misdeeds; a lesson
+she should have learned much earlier in life.
+
+The young captain, who had always made it appear that he had plenty of
+money, had spent his salary, and most of his mother’s fortune, which had
+been left in his keeping as administrator of his father’s estate; so he
+had really very little to offer the spoiled and petted beauty, who simply
+would not settle down to the inevitable and accept the fate she had
+brought upon herself and others. Day after day she fretted and blamed her
+husband until he heartily wished her back from whence he had taken her;
+wished her back with her straitlaced lover from whom he had stolen her;
+wished her anywhere save where she was. Her brightness and beauty seemed
+all gone: she was a sulky child insisting upon the moon or nothing. She
+waited to go to New York and be established in a fine house with plenty of
+servants and a carriage and horses, and the young captain had not the
+wherewithal to furnish these accessories to an elegant and luxurious life.
+
+He had loved her so far as his shallow nature could love, and perhaps she
+had returned it in the beginning. He wanted to spend his furlough in quiet
+places where he might have a honeymoon of his ideal, bantering Kate’s
+sparkling sentences, looking into her beautiful eyes, touching her rosy
+lips with his own as often as he chose. But Mistress Kate had lost her
+sparkle. She would not be kissed until she had gained her point, her
+lovely eyes were full of disfiguring tears and angry flashes, and her
+speech scintillated with cutting sarcasms, which were none the less hard
+to bear that they pressed home some disagreeable truths to the easy,
+careless spendthrift. The rose had lost its dew and was making its thorns
+felt.
+
+And so they quarreled through their honeymoon, and Captain Leavenworth was
+not sorry when a hasty and unexpected end came to his furlough and he was
+ordered off with his ship for an indefinite length of time.
+
+Even then Kate thought to get her will before he left, and held on her
+sullen ways and her angry, blameful talk until the last minute, so that he
+hurried away without even one good-bye kiss, and with her angry sentences
+sounding in his ears.
+
+True, he repented somewhat on board the ship and sent her back more money
+than she could reasonably have expected under the circumstances, but he
+sent it without one word of gentleness, and Kate’s heart was hard toward
+her husband.
+
+Then with bitterness and anguish,—that was new and fairly astonishing that
+it had come to her who had always had her way,—she sat down to think of
+the man she had jilted. He would have been kind to her. He would have
+given her all she asked and more. He would even have moved his business to
+New York to please her, she felt sure. Why had she been so foolish! And
+then, like many another sinner who is made at last to see the error of his
+ways, she cast hard thoughts at a Fate which had allowed her to make so
+great a mistake, and pitied her poor little self out of all recognition of
+the character she had formed.
+
+But she took her money and went to New York, for she felt that there only
+could she be at all happy, and have some little taste of the delights of
+true living.
+
+She took up her abode with an ancient relative of her own mother’s, who
+lived in a quiet respectable part of the city, and who was glad to piece
+out her small annuity with the modest sum that Kate agreed to pay for her
+board.
+
+It was not long before Mistress Kate, with her beautiful face, and the
+pretty clothes which she took care to provide at once for herself,
+spending lavishly out of the diminishing sum her husband had sent her, and
+thinking not of the morrow, nor the day when the board bills would be due,
+became well known. The musty little parlor of the ancient relative was
+daily filled with visitors, and every evening Kate held court, with the
+old aunt nodding in her chair by the fireside.
+
+Neither did the poor old lady have a very easy time of it, in spite of the
+promise of weekly pay. Kate laughed at the old furniture and the old ways.
+She demanded new things, and got them, too, until the old lady saw little
+hope of any help from the board money when Kate was constantly saying: “I
+saw this in a shop down town, auntie, and as I knew you needed it I just
+bought it. My board this week will just pay for it.� As always, Kate
+ruled. The little parlor took on an air of brightness, and Kate became
+popular. A few women of fashion took her up, and Kate launched herself
+upon a gay life, her one object to have as good a time as possible,
+regardless of what her husband or any one else might think.
+
+When Kate had been in New York about two months it happened one day that
+she went out to drive with one of her new acquaintances, a young married
+woman of about her own age, who had been given all in a worldly way that
+had been denied to Kate.
+
+They made some calls in Brooklyn, and returned on the ferry-boat, carriage
+and all, just as the sun was setting.
+
+The view was marvellous. The water a flood of pink and green and gold; the
+sails of the vessels along the shore lit up resplendently; the buildings
+of the city beyond sent back occasional flashes of reflected light from
+window glass or church spire. It was a picture worth looking upon, and
+Kate’s companion was absorbed in it.
+
+Not so Kate. She loved display above all things. She sat up statelily,
+aware that she looked well in her new frock with the fine lace collar she
+had extravagantly purchased the day before, and her leghorn bonnet with
+its real ostrich feather, which was becoming in the extreme. She enjoyed
+sitting back of the colored coachman, her elegant friend by her side, and
+being admired by the two ladies and the little girl who sat in the ladies’
+cabin and occasionally peeped curiously at her from the window. She drew
+herself up haughtily and let her soul “delight itself in fatness�—borrowed
+fatness, perhaps, but still, the long desired. She told herself she had a
+right to it, for was she not a Schuyler? That name was respected
+everywhere.
+
+She bore a grudge at a man and woman who stood by the railing absorbed in
+watching the sunset haze that lay over the river showing the white sails
+in gleams like flashes of white birds here and there.
+
+A young man well set up, and fashionably attired, sauntered up to the
+carriage. He spoke to Kate’s friend, and was introduced. Kate felt in her
+heart it was because of her presence there he came. His bold black eyes
+told her as much and she was flattered.
+
+They fell to talking.
+
+“You say you spent the summer near Albany, Mr. Temple,� said Kate
+presently, “I wonder if you happen to know any of my friends. Did you meet
+a Mr. Spafford? David Spafford?�
+
+“Of course I did, knew him well,� said the young man with guarded tone.
+But a quick flash of dislike, and perhaps fear had crossed his face at the
+name. Kate was keen. She analyzed that look. She parted her charming red
+lips and showed her sharp little teeth like the treacherous pearls in a
+white kitten’s pink mouth.
+
+“He was once a lover of mine,� said Kate carelessly, wrinkling her piquant
+little nose as if the idea were comical, and laughing out a sweet ripple
+of mirth that would have cut David to the heart.
+
+“Indeed!� said the ever ready Harry, “and I do not wonder. Is not every
+one that at once they see you, Madam Leavenworth? How kind of your husband
+to stay away at sea for so long a time and give us other poor fellows a
+chance to say pleasant things.�
+
+Then Kate pouted her pretty lips in a way she had and tapped the delighted
+Harry with her carriage parasol across the fingers of his hand that had
+taken familiar hold of the carriage beside her arm.
+
+“Oh, you naughty man!� she exclaimed prettily. “How dare you! Yes, David
+Spafford and I were quite good friends. I almost gave in at one time and
+became Mrs. Spafford, but he was too good for me!�
+
+She uttered this truth in a mocking tone, and Harry saw her lead and
+hastened to follow. Here was a possible chance for revenge. He was ready
+for any. He studied the lady before him keenly. Of what did that face
+remind him? Had he ever seen her before?
+
+“I should judge him a little straitlaced for your merry ways,� he
+responded gallantly, “but he’s like all the rest, fickle, you know. He’s
+married. Have you heard?�
+
+Kate’s face darkened with something hard and cruel, but her voice was soft
+as a cat’s purr:
+
+“Yes,� she sighed, “I know. He married my sister. Poor child! I am sorry
+for her. I think he did it out of revenge, and she was too young to know
+her own mind. But they, poor things, will have to bear the consequences of
+what they have done. Isn’t it a pity that that has to be, Mr. Temple? It
+is dreadful to have the innocent suffer. I have been greatly anxious about
+my sister.� She lifted her large eyes swimming in tears, and he did not
+perceive the insincerity in her purring voice just then. He was thanking
+his lucky stars that he had been saved from any remarks about young Mrs.
+Spafford, whom her sister seemed to love so deeply. It had been on the tip
+of his tongue to suggest that she might be able to lead her husband a gay
+little dance if she chose. How lucky he had not spoken! He tried to say
+some pleasant comforting nothings, and found it delightful to see her face
+clear into smiles and her blue eyes look into his so confidingly. By the
+time the boat touched the New York side the two felt well acquainted, and
+Harry Temple had promised to call soon, which promise he lost no time in
+keeping.
+
+Kate’s heart had grown bitter against the young sister who had dared to
+take her place, and against the lover who had so easily solaced himself.
+She could not understand it.
+
+She resolved to learn all that Mr. Temple knew about David, and to find
+out if possible whether he were happy. It was Kate’s nature not to be able
+to give up anything even though she did not want it. She desired the
+life-long devotion of every man who came near her, and have it she would
+or punish him.
+
+Harry Temple, meanwhile, was reflecting upon his chance meeting that
+afternoon and wondering if in some way he might not yet have revenge upon
+the man who had humbled him. Possibly this woman could help him.
+
+After some thought he sat down and penned a letter to Hannah Heath,
+begemming it here and there with devoted sentences which caused that young
+woman’s eyes to sparkle and a smile of anticipation to wreathe her lips.
+When she heard of the handsome sister in New York, and of her former
+relations with David Spafford, her eyes narrowed speculatively, and her
+fair brow drew into puzzled frowns. Harry Temple had drawn a word picture
+of Mrs. Leavenworth. Harry should have been a novelist. If he had not been
+too lazy he would have been a success. Gold hair! Ah! Hannah had heard of
+gold hair before, and in connection with David’s promised wife. Here was a
+mystery and Hannah resolved to look into it. It would at least be
+interesting to note the effect of her knowledge upon the young bride next
+door. She would try it.
+
+Meantime, the acquaintance of Harry Temple and Kate Leavenworth had
+progressed rapidly. The second sight of the lady proved more interesting
+than the first, for now her beautiful gold hair added to the charm of her
+handsome face. Harry ever delighted in beauty of whatever type, and a
+blonde was more fascinating to him than a brunette. Kate had dressed
+herself bewitchingly, and her manner was charming. She knew how to assume
+pretty child-like airs, but she was not afraid to look him boldly in the
+eyes, and the light in her own seemed to challenge him. Here was a
+delightful new study. A woman fresh from the country, having all the charm
+of innocence, almost as child-like as her sister, yet with none of her
+prudishness. Kate’s eyes held latent wickedness in them, or he was much
+mistaken. She did not droop her lids and blush when he looked boldly and
+admiringly into her face, but stared him back, smilingly, merrily,
+daringly, as though she would go quite as far as he would. Moreover, with
+her he was sure he need feel none of the compunctions he might have felt
+with her younger sister who was so obviously innocent, for whether Kate’s
+boldness was from lack of knowledge, or from lack of innocence, she was
+quite able to protect herself, that was plain.
+
+So Harry settled into his chair with a smile of pleasant anticipation upon
+his face. He not only had the prospect before him of a possible ally in
+revenge against David Spafford, but he had the promise of a most unusually
+delightful flirtation with a woman who was worthy of his best efforts in
+that line.
+
+Almost at once it began, with pleasant banter, adorned with personal
+compliments.
+
+“Lovelier than I thought, my lady,� said Harry, bowing low over the hand
+she gave him, in a courtly manner he had acquired, perhaps from the
+old-world novels he had read, and he brushed her pink finger tips with his
+lips in a way that signified he was her abject slave.
+
+Kate blushed and smiled, greatly pleased, for though she had held her own
+little court in the village where she was brought up, and queened it over
+the young men who had flocked about her willingly, she had not been used
+to the fulsome flattery that breathed from Harry Temple in every word and
+glance.
+
+He looked at her keenly as he stood back a moment, to see if she were in
+any wise offended with his salutation, and saw as he expected that she was
+pleased and flattered. Her cheeks had grown rosier, and her eyes sparkled
+with pleasure as she responded with a pretty, gracious speech.
+
+Then they sat down and faced one another. A good woman would have called
+his look impudent—insulting. Kate returned it with a look that did not
+shrink, nor waver, but fearlessly, recklessly accepted the challenge.
+Playing with fire, were these two, and with no care for the fearful
+results which might follow. Both knew it was dangerous, and liked it the
+better for that. There was a long silence. The game was opening on a wider
+scale than either had ever played before.
+
+“Do you believe in affinities?� asked the devil, through the man’s voice.
+
+The woman colored and showed she understood his deeper meaning. Her eyes
+drooped for just the shade of an instant, and then she looked up and faced
+him saucily, provokingly:
+
+“Why?�
+
+He admired her with his gaze, and waited, lazily watching the color play
+in her cheeks.
+
+“Do you need to ask why?� he said at last, looking at her significantly.
+“I knew that you were my affinity the moment I laid my eyes upon you, and
+I hoped you felt the same. But perhaps I was mistaken.� He searched her
+face.
+
+She kept her eyes upon his, returning their full gaze, as if to hold it
+from going too deep into her soul.
+
+“I did not say you were mistaken, did I?� said the rosy lips coquettishly,
+and Kate drooped her long lashes till they fell in becoming sweeps over
+her burning cheeks.
+
+Something in the curve of cheek and chin, and sweep of dark lash over
+velvet skin, reminded him of her sister. It was so she had sat, though
+utterly unconscious, while he had been singing, when there had come over
+him that overwhelming desire to kiss her. If he should kiss this fair lady
+would she slap him in the face and run into the garden? He thought not.
+Still, she was brought up by the same father and mother in all likelihood,
+and it was well to go slow. He reached forward, drawing his chair a little
+nearer to her, and then boldly took one of her small unresisting hands,
+gently, that he might not frighten her, and smoothed it thoughtfully
+between his own. He held it in a close grasp and looked into her face
+again, she meanwhile watching her hand amusedly, as though it were
+something apart from herself, a sort of distant possession, for which she
+was in no wise responsible.
+
+“I feel that you belong to me,� he said boldly looking into her eyes with
+a languishing gaze. “I have known it from the first moment.�
+
+Kate let her hand lie in his as if she liked it, but she said:
+
+“And what makes you think that, most audacious sir? Did you not know that
+I am married?� Then she swept her gaze up provokingly at him again and
+smiled, showing her dainty, treacherous, little teeth. She was so
+bewitchingly pretty and tempting then that he had a mind to kiss her on
+the spot, but a thought came to him that he would rather lead her further
+first. He was succeeding well. She had no mind to be afraid. She did her
+part admirably.
+
+“That makes no difference,� said he smiling. “That another man has secured
+you first, and has the right to provide for you, and be near you, is my
+misfortune of course, but it makes no difference, you are mine? By all the
+power of love you are mine. Can any other man keep my soul from yours, can
+he keep my eyes from looking into yours, or my thoughts from hovering over
+you, or—� he hesitated and looked at her keenly, while she furtively
+watched him, holding her breath and half inviting him—“or my lips from
+drinking life from yours?� He stooped quickly and pressed his lips upon
+hers.
+
+Kate gave a quick little gasp like a sob and drew back. The aunt nodding
+over her Bible in the next room had not heard,—she was very deaf,—but for
+an instant the young woman felt that all the shades of her worthy
+patriarchal ancestors were hurrying around and away from her in horror.
+She had come of too good Puritan stock not to know that she was treading
+in the path of unrighteousness. Nevertheless it was a broad path, and
+easy. It tempted her. It was exciting. It lured her with promise of
+satisfying some of her untamed longings and impulses.
+
+She did not look offended. She only drew back to get breath and consider.
+The wild beating of her heart, the tumult of her cheeks and eyes were all
+a part of a new emotion. Her vanity was excited, and she thrilled with a
+wild pleasure. As a duck will take to swimming so she took to the new
+game, with wonderful facility.
+
+“But I didn’t say you might,� she cried with a bewildering smile.
+
+“I beg your pardon, fair lady, may I have another?�
+
+His bold, bad face was near her own, so that she did not see the evil
+triumph that lurked there. She had come to the turning of another way in
+her life, and just here she might have drawn back if she would. Half she
+knew this, yet she toyed with the opportunity, and it was gone. The new
+way seemed so alluring.
+
+“You will first have to prove your right!� she said decidedly, with that
+pretty commanding air that had conquered so many times.
+
+And in like manner on they went through the evening, frittering the time
+away at playing with edged tools.
+
+A friendship so begun—if so unworthy an intimacy may be called by that
+sweet name—boded no good to either of the two, and that evening marked a
+decided turn for the worse in Kate Leavenworth’s career.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER XX
+
+
+David had found it necessary to take a journey which might keep him away
+for several weeks.
+
+He told Marcia in the evening when he came home from the office. He told
+her as he would have told his clerk. It meant nothing to him but an
+annoyance that he had to start out in the early winter, leave his business
+in other’s hands for an indefinite period, and go among strangers. He did
+not see the whitening of Marcia’s lips, nor the quick little movement of
+her hand to her heart. Even Marcia herself did not realize all that it
+meant to her. She felt as if a sudden shock had almost knocked her off her
+feet. This quiet life in the big house, with only David at intervals to
+watch and speak to occasionally, and no one to open her true heart to, had
+been lonely; and many a time when she was alone at night she had wept
+bitter tears upon her pillow,—why she did not quite know. But now when she
+knew that it was to cease, and David was going away from her for a long
+time, perhaps weeks, her heart suddenly tightened and she knew how sweet
+it had been growing. Almost the tears came to her eyes, but she made a
+quick errand to the hearth for the teapot, busying herself there till they
+were under control again. When she returned to her place at the table she
+was able to ask David some commonplace question about the journey which
+kept her true feeling quite hidden from him.
+
+He was to start the next evening if possible. It appeared that there was
+something important about railroading coming up in Congress. It was
+necessary that he should be present to hear the debate, and also that he
+should see and interview influential men. It meant much to the success of
+the great new enterprises that were just in their infancy that he should
+go and find out all about them and write them up as only he whose heart
+was in it could do. He was pleased to have been selected for this; he was
+lifted for the time above himself and his life troubles, and given to feel
+that he had a work in the world that was worth while, a high calling, a
+chance to give a push to the unrolling of the secret possibilities of the
+universe and help them on their way.
+
+Marcia understood it all, and was proud and glad for him, but her own
+heart which beat in such perfect sympathy with the work felt lonely and
+left out. If only she could have helped too!
+
+There was no time for David to take Marcia to her home to stay during his
+absence. He spoke of it regretfully just as he was about to leave, and
+asked if she would like him to get some one to escort her by coach to her
+father’s house until he could come for her; but she held back the tears by
+main force and shook her head. She had canvassed that question in the
+still hours of the night. She had met in imagination the home village with
+its kindly and unkindly curiosity, she had seen their hands lifted in
+suspicion; heard their covert whispers as to why her husband did not come
+with her; why he had left her so soon after the honeymoon; why—a hundred
+things. She had even thought of Aunt Polly and her acrid tongue and made
+up her mind that whatever happened she did not want to go home to stay.
+
+The only other alternative was to go to the aunts. David expected it, and
+the aunts spoke of it as if nothing else were possible. Marcia would have
+preferred to remain alone in her own house, with her beloved piano, but
+David would not consent, and the aunts were scandalized at the suggestion.
+So to the aunts went Marcia, and they took her in with a hope in their
+hearts that she might get the same good from the visit that the sluggard
+in the Bible is bidden to find.
+
+“We must do our duty by her for David’s sake,� said Aunt Hortense, with
+pursed lips and capable, folded hands that seemed fairly to ache to get at
+the work of reconstructing the new niece.
+
+“Yes, it is our opportunity,� said Aunt Amelia with a snap as though she
+thoroughly enjoyed the prospect. “Poor David!� and so they sat and laid
+out their plans for their sweet young victim, who all unknowingly was
+coming to one of those tests in her life whereby we are tried for greater
+things and made perfect in patience and sweetness.
+
+It began with the first breakfast—the night before she had been company,
+at supper—but when the morning came they felt she must be counted one of
+the family. They examined her thoroughly on what she had been taught with
+regard to housekeeping. They made her tell her recipes for pickling and
+preserving. They put her through a catechism of culinary lore, and always
+after her most animated account of the careful way in which she had been
+trained in this or that housewifely art she looked up with wistful eyes
+that longed to please, only to be met by the hard set lips and steely
+glances of the two mentors who regretted that she should not have been
+taught their way which was so much better.
+
+Aunt Hortense even went so far once as to suggest that Marcia write to her
+stepmother and tell her how much better it was to salt the water in which
+potatoes were to be boiled before putting them in, and was much offended
+by the clear girlish laugh that bubbled up involuntarily at the thought of
+teaching her stepmother anything about cooking.
+
+“Excuse me,� she said, instantly sobering as she saw the grim look of the
+aunt, and felt frightened at what she had done. “I did not mean to laugh,
+indeed I did not; but it seemed so funny to think of my telling mother how
+to do anything.�
+
+“People are never too old to learn,� remarked Aunt Hortense with offended
+mien, “and one ought never to be too proud when there is a better way.�
+
+“But mother thinks there is no better way I am sure. She says that it
+makes potatoes soggy to boil them in salt. All that grows below the ground
+should be salted after it is cooked and all that grows above the ground
+should be cooked in salted water, is her rule.�
+
+“I am surprised that your stepmother should uphold any such superstitious
+ideas,� said Aunt Amelia with a self-satisfied expression.
+
+“One should never be too proud to learn something better,� Aunt Hortense
+said grimly, and Marcia retreated in dire consternation at the thought of
+what might follow if these three notable housekeeping gentlewomen should
+come together. Somehow she felt a wicked little triumph in the thought
+that it would be hard to down her stepmother.
+
+Marcia was given a few light duties ostensibly to “make her feel at home,�
+but in reality, she knew, because the aunts felt she needed their
+instruction. She was asked if she would like to wash the china and glass;
+and regularly after each meal a small wooden tub and a mop were brought in
+with hot water and soap, and she was expected to handle the costly
+heirlooms under the careful scrutiny of their worshipping owners, who
+evidently watched each process with strained nerves lest any bit of
+treasured pottery should be cracked or broken. It was a trying ordeal.
+
+The girl would have been no girl if she had not chafed under this
+treatment. To hold her temper steady and sweet under it was almost more
+than she could bear.
+
+There were long afternoons when it was decreed that they should knit.
+
+Marcia had been used to take long walks at home, over the smooth crust of
+the snow, going to her beloved woods, where she delighted to wander among
+the bare and creaking trees; fancying them whispering sadly to one another
+of the summer that was gone and the leaves they had borne now dead. But it
+would be a dreadful thing in the aunts’ opinion for a woman, and
+especially a young one, to take a long walk in the woods alone, in winter
+too, and with no object whatever in view but a walk! What a waste of time!
+
+There were two places of refuge for Marcia during the weeks that followed.
+There was home. How sweet that word sounded to her! How she longed to go
+back there, with David coming home to his quiet meals three times a day,
+and with her own time to herself to do as she pleased. With housewifely
+zeal that was commendable in the eyes of the aunts, Marcia insisted upon
+going down to her own house every morning to see that all was right,
+guiltily knowing that in her heart she meant to hurry to her beloved books
+and piano. To be sure it was cold and cheerless in the empty house. She
+dared not make up fires and leave them, and she dared not stay too long
+lest the aunts would feel hurt at her absence, but she longed with an
+inexpressible longing to be back there by herself, away from that terrible
+supervision and able to live her own glad little life and think her own
+thoughts untrammeled by primness.
+
+Sometimes she would curl up in David’s big arm-chair and have a good cry,
+after which she would take a book and read until the creeping chills down
+her spine warned her she must stop. Even then she would run up and down
+the hall or take a broom and sweep vigorously to warm herself and then go
+to the cold keys and play a sad little tune. All her tunes seemed sad like
+a wail while David was gone.
+
+The other place of refuge was Aunt Clarinda’s room. Thither she would
+betake herself after supper, to the delight of the old lady. Then the
+other two occupants of the house were left to themselves and might unbend
+from their rigid surveillance for a little while. Marcia often wondered if
+they ever did unbend.
+
+There was a large padded rocking chair in Aunt Clarinda’s room and Marcia
+would laughingly take the little old lady in her arms and place her
+comfortably in it, after a pleasant struggle on Miss Clarinda’s part to
+put her guest into it. They had this same little play every evening, and
+it seemed to please the old lady mightily. Then when she was conquered she
+always sat meekly laughing, a fine pink color in her soft peachy cheek,
+the candle light from the high shelf making flickering sparkles in her old
+eyes that always seemed young; and she would say: “That’s just as David
+used to do.�
+
+Then Marcia drew up the little mahogany stool covered with the worsted dog
+which Aunt Clarinda had worked when she was ten years old, and snuggling
+down at the old lady’s feet exclaimed delightedly: “Tell me about it!� and
+they settled down to solid comfort.
+
+There came a letter from David after he had been gone a little over a
+week. Marcia had not expected to hear from him. He had said nothing about
+writing, and their relations were scarcely such as to make it necessary.
+Letters were an expensive luxury in those days. But when the letter was
+handed to her, Marcia’s heart went pounding against her breast, the color
+flew into her cheeks, and she sped away home on feet swift as the wings of
+a bird. The postmaster’s daughter looked after her, and remarked to her
+father: “My, but don’t she think a lot of him!�
+
+Straight to the cold, lonely house she flew, and sitting down in his big
+chair read it.
+
+It was a pleasant letter, beginning formally: “My dear Marcia,� and asking
+after her health. It brought back a little of the unacquaintedness she had
+felt when he was at home, and which had been swept away in part by her
+knowledge of his childhood. But it went on quite happily telling all about
+his journey and describing minutely the places he had passed through and
+the people he had met on the way; detailing every little incident as only
+a born writer and observer could do, until she felt as if he were talking
+to her. He told her of the men whom he had met who were interested in the
+new project. He told of new plans and described minutely his visit to the
+foundry at West Point and the machinery he had seen. Marcia read it all
+breathlessly, in search of something, she knew not what, that was not
+there. When she had finished and found it not, there was a sense of
+aloofness, a sad little disappointment which welled up in her throat. She
+sat back to think about it. He was having a good time, and he was not
+lonely. He had no longing to be back in the house and everything running
+as before he had gone. He was out in the big glorious world having to do
+with progress, and coming in contact with men who were making history. Of
+course he did not dream how lonely she was here, and how she longed, if
+for nothing else, just to be back here alone and do as she pleased, and
+not to be watched over. If only she might steal Aunt Clarinda and bring
+her back to live here with her while David was away! But that was not to
+be thought of, of course. By and by she mustered courage to be glad of her
+letter, and to read it over once more.
+
+That night she read the letter to Aunt Clarinda and together they
+discussed the great inventions, and the changes that were coming to pass
+in the land. Aunt Clarinda was just a little beyond her depth in such a
+conversation, but Marcia did most of the talking, and the dear old lady
+made an excellent listener, with a pat here, and a “Dearie me! Now you
+don’t say so!� there, and a “Bless the boy! What great things he does
+expect. And I hope he won’t be disappointed.�
+
+That letter lasted them for many a day until another came, this time from
+Washington, with many descriptions of public men and public doings, and a
+word picture of the place which made it appear much like any other place
+after all if it was the capitol of the country. And once there was a
+sentence which Marcia treasured. It was, “I wish you could be here and see
+everything. You would enjoy it I know.�
+
+There came another letter later beginning, “My dear little girl.� There
+was nothing else in it to make Marcia’s heart throb, it was all about his
+work, but Marcia carried it many days in her bosom. It gave her a thrill
+of delight to think of those words at the beginning. Of course it meant no
+more than that he thought of her as a girl, his little sister that was to
+have been, but there was a kind of ownership in the words that was sweet
+to Marcia’s lonely heart. It had come to her that she was always looking
+for something that would make her feel that she belonged to David.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+When David had been in New York about three weeks, he happened one day to
+pass the house where Kate Leavenworth was living.
+
+Kate was standing listlessly by the window looking into the street. She
+was cross and felt a great depression settling over her. The flirtation
+with Harry Temple had begun to pall upon her. She wanted new worlds to
+conquer. She was restless and feverish. There was not excitement enough in
+the life she was living. She would like to meet more people, senators and
+statesmen—and to have plenty of money to dress as became her beauty, and
+be admired publicly. She half wished for the return of her husband, and
+meditated making up with him for the sake of going to Washington to have a
+good time in society there. What was the use of running away with a naval
+officer if one could not have the benefit of it? She had been a fool. Here
+she was almost to the last penny, and so many things she wanted. No word
+had come from her husband since he sent her the money at sailing. She felt
+a bitter resentment toward him for urging her to marry him. If she had
+only gone on and married David she would be living a life of ease
+now—plenty of money—nothing to do but what she pleased and no anxiety
+whatever, for David would have done just what she wanted.
+
+Then suddenly she looked up and David passed before her!
+
+He was walking with a tall splendid-looking man, with whom he was engaged
+in most earnest conversation, and his look was grave and deeply absorbed.
+He did not know of Kate’s presence in New York, and passed the house in
+utter unconsciousness of the eyes watching him.
+
+Kate’s lips grew white, and her limbs seemed suddenly weak, but she
+strained her face against the window to watch the retreating figure of the
+man who had almost been her husband. How well she knew the familiar
+outline. How fine and handsome he appeared now! Why had she not thought so
+before? Were her eyes blind, or had she been under some strange
+enchantment? Why had she not known that her happiness lay in the way that
+had been marked out for her? Well, at least she knew it now.
+
+She sat all day by that window and watched. She professed to have no
+appetite when pressed to come to the table, though she permitted herself
+to languidly consume the bountiful tray of good things that was brought
+her, but her eyes were on the street. She was watching to see if David
+would pass that way again. But though she watched until the sun went down
+and dusk sifted through the streets, she saw no sign nor heard the sound
+of his footsteps. Then she hastened up to her room, which faced upon the
+street also, and there, wrapped in blankets she sat in the cold frosty
+air, waiting and listening. And while she watched she was thinking bitter
+feverish thoughts. She heard Harry Temple knock and knew that he was told
+that she was not feeling well and had retired early. She watched him pause
+on the stoop thoughtfully as if considering what to do with the time thus
+unexpectedly thrown upon his hands, then saw him saunter up the street
+unconcernedly, and she wondered idly where he would go, and what he would
+do.
+
+It grew late, even for New York. One by one the lights in the houses along
+the street went out, and all was quiet. She drew back from the window at
+last, weary with excitement and thinking, and lay down on the bed, but she
+could not sleep. The window was open and her ears were on the alert, and
+by and by there came the distant echo of feet ringing on the pavement.
+Some one was coming. She sprang up. She felt sure he was coming. Yes,
+there were two men. They were coming back together. She could hear their
+voices. She fancied she heard David’s long before it was possible to
+distinguish any words. She leaned far out of her upper window till she
+could discern dim forms under the starlight, and then just as they were
+under the window she distinctly heard David say:
+
+“There is no doubt but we shall win. The right is on our side, and it is
+the march of progress. Some of the best men in Congress are with us, and
+now that we are to have your influence I do not feel afraid of the issue.�
+
+They had passed by rapidly, like men who had been on a long day’s jaunt of
+some kind and were hastening home to rest. There was little in the
+sentence that Kate could understand. She had no more idea whether the
+subject of their discourse was railroads or the last hay crop. The
+sentence meant to her but one thing. It showed that David companioned with
+the great men of the land, and his position would have given her a
+standing that would have been above the one she now occupied. Tears of
+defeat ran down her cheeks. She had made a bad mistake and she saw no way
+to rectify it. If her husband should die,—and it might be, for the sea was
+often treacherous—of course there were all sorts of possibilities,—but
+even then there was Marcia! She set her sharp little teeth into her red
+lips till the blood came. She could not get over her anger at Marcia. It
+would not have been so bad if David had remained her lone lorn lover,
+ready to fly to her if others failed. Her self-love was wounded sorely,
+and she, poor silly soul, mistook it for love of David. She began to fancy
+that after all she had loved him, and that Fate had somehow played her a
+mad trick and tied her to a husband she had not wanted.
+
+Then out of the watchings of the day and the fancies of the night, there
+grew a thought—and the thought widened into a plan. She thought of her
+intimacy with Harry and her new found power. Might she perhaps exercise it
+over others as well as Harry Temple? Might she possibly lead back this man
+who had once been her lover, to bow at her feet again and worship her? If
+that might be she could bear all the rest. She began to long with intense
+craving to see David grovel at her feet, to hear him plead for a kiss from
+her, and tell her once more how beautiful she was, and how she fulfilled
+all his soul’s ideals. She sat by the open window yet with the icy air of
+the night blowing upon her, but her cheeks burned red in the darkness, and
+her eyes glowed like coals of fire from the tawny framing of her fallen
+hair. The blankets slipped away from her throat and still she heeded not
+the cold, but sat with hot clenched hands planning with the devil’s own
+strategy her shameless scheme.
+
+By and by she lighted a candle and drew her writing materials toward her
+to write, but it was long she sat and thought before she finally wrote the
+hastily scrawled note, signed and sealed it, and blowing out her candle
+lay down to sleep.
+
+The letter was addressed to David, and it ran thus:
+
+
+    “DEAR DAVID:�
+
+    “I have just heard that you are in New York. I am in great
+    distress and do not know where to turn for help. For the sake of
+    what we have been to each other in the past will you come to me?
+
+                                          “Hastily, your loving KATE.�
+
+
+She did not know where David was but she felt reasonably sure she could
+find out his address in the morning. There was a small boy living next
+door who was capable of ferreting out almost anything for money. Kate had
+employed him more than once as an amateur detective in cases of minor
+importance. So, with a bit of silver and her letter she made her way to
+his familiar haunts and explained most carefully that the letter was to be
+delivered to no one but the man to whom it was addressed, naming several
+stopping places where he might be likely to be found, and hinting that
+there was more silver to be forthcoming when he should bring her an answer
+to the note. With a minute description of David the keen-eyed urchin set
+out, while Kate betook herself to her room to dress for David’s coming.
+She felt sure he would be found, and confident that he would come at once.
+
+The icy wind of the night before blowing on her exposed throat and chest
+had given her a severe cold, but she paid no heed to that. Her eyes and
+cheeks were shining with fever. She knew she was entering upon a dangerous
+and unholy way. The excitement of it stimulated her. She felt she did not
+care for anything, right or wrong, sin or sorrow, only to win. She wanted
+to see David at her feet again. It was the only thing that would satisfy
+this insatiable longing in her, this wounded pride of self.
+
+When she was dressed she stood before the mirror and surveyed herself. She
+knew she was beautiful, and she defied the glass to tell her anything
+else. She raised her chin in haughty challenge to the unseen David to
+resist her charms. She would bring him low before her. She would make him
+forget Marcia, and his home and his staid Puritan notions, and all else he
+held dear but herself. He should bend and kiss her hand as Harry had done,
+only more warmly, for instinctively she felt that his had been the purer
+life and therefore his surrender would mean more. He should do whatever
+she chose. And her eyes glowed with an unhallowed light.
+
+She had chosen to array herself regally, in velvet, but in black, without
+a touch of color or of white. From her rich frock her slender throat rose
+daintily, like a stem upon which nodded the tempting flower of her face.
+No enameled complexion could have been more striking in its vivid reds and
+whites, and her mass of gold hair made her seem more lovely than she
+really was, for in her face was love of self, alluring, but heartless and
+cruel.
+
+The boy found David, as Kate had thought he would, in one of the quieter
+hostelries where men of letters were wont to stop when in New York, and
+David read the letter and came at once. She had known that he would do
+that, too. His heart beat wildly, to the exclusion of all other thoughts
+save that she was in trouble, his love, his dear one. He forgot Marcia,
+and the young naval officer, and everything but her trouble, and before he
+had reached her house the sorrow had grown in his imagination into some
+great danger to protect her from which he was hastening.
+
+She received him alone in the room where Harry Temple had first called,
+and a moment later Harry himself came to knock and enquire for the health
+of Mistress Leavenworth, and was told she was very much engaged at present
+with a gentleman and could not see any one, whereupon Harry scowled, and
+set himself at a suitable distance from the house to watch who should come
+out.
+
+David’s face was white as death as he entered, his eyes shining like dark
+jewels blazing at her as if he would absorb the vision for the lonely
+future. She stood and posed,—not by any means the picture of broken sorrow
+he had expected to find from her note,—and let the sense of her beauty
+reach him. There she stood with the look on her face he had pictured to
+himself many a time when he had thought of her as his wife. It was a look
+of love unutterable, bewildering, alluring, compelling. It was so he had
+thought she would meet him when he came home to her from his daily
+business cares. And now she was there, looking that way, and he stood
+here, so near her, and yet a great gulf fixed! It was heaven and hell met
+together, and he had no power to change either.
+
+He did not come over to her and bow low to kiss the white hand as Harry
+had done,—as she had thought she could compel him to do. He only stood and
+looked at her with the pain of an anguish beyond her comprehension, until
+the look would have burned through to her heart—if she had had a heart.
+
+“You are in trouble,� he spoke hoarsely, as if murmuring an excuse for
+having come.
+
+She melted at once into the loveliest sorrow, her mobile features taking
+on a wan cast only enlivened by the glow of her cheeks.
+
+“Sit down,� she said, “you were so good to come to me, and so soon—� and
+her voice was like lily-bells in a quiet church-yard among the
+head-stones. She placed him a chair.
+
+“Yes, I am in trouble. But that is a slight thing compared to my
+unhappiness. I think I am the most miserable creature that breathes upon
+this earth.�
+
+And with that she dropped into a low chair and hid her glowing face in a
+dainty, lace bordered kerchief that suppressed a well-timed sob.
+
+Kate had wisely calculated how she could reach David’s heart. If she had
+looked up then and seen his white, drawn look, and the tense grasp of his
+hands that only the greatest self-control kept quiet on his knee, perhaps
+even her mercilessness would have been softened. But she did not look, and
+she felt her part was well taken. She sobbed quietly, and waited, and his
+hoarse voice asked once more, as gently as a woman’s through his pain:
+
+“Will you tell me what it is and how I can help you?� He longed to take
+her in his arms like a little child and comfort her, but he might not. She
+was another’s. And perhaps that other had been cruel to her! His clenched
+fists showed how terrible was the thought. But still the bowed figure in
+its piteous black sobbed and did not reply anything except, “Oh, I am so
+unhappy! I cannot bear it any longer.�
+
+“Is—your—your—husband unkind to you?� The words tore themselves from his
+tense lips as though they were beyond his control.
+
+“Oh, no,—not exactly unkind—that is—he was not very nice before he went
+away,� wailed out a sad voice from behind the linen cambric and lace, “and
+he went away without a kind word, and left me hardly any money—and he
+hasn’t sent me any word since—and fa-father won’t have anything to do with
+me any more—but—but—it’s not that I mind, David. I don’t think about those
+things at all. I’m so unhappy about you. I feel you do not forgive me, and
+I cannot stand it any longer. I have made a fearful mistake, and you are
+angry with me—I think about it at night�—the voice was growing lower now,
+and the sentences broken by sobs that told better than words what distress
+the sufferer would convey.
+
+“I have been so wicked—and you were so good and kind—and now you will
+never forgive me—I think it will kill me to keep on thinking about it—�
+her voice trailed off in tears again.
+
+David white with anguish sprang to his feet.
+
+“Oh, Kate,� he cried, “my darling! Don’t talk that way. You know I forgive
+you. Look up and tell me you know I forgive you.�
+
+Almost she smiled her triumph beneath her sobs in the little lace border,
+but she looked up with real tears on her face. Even her tears obeyed her
+will. She was a good actress, also she knew her power over David.
+
+“Oh, David,� she cried, standing up and clasping her hands beseechingly,
+“can it be true? Do you really forgive me? Tell me again.�
+
+She came and stood temptingly near to the stern, suffering man wild with
+the tumult that raged within him. Her golden head was near his shoulder
+where it had rested more than once in time gone by. He looked down at her
+from his suffering height his arms folded tightly and said, as though
+taking oath before a court of justice:
+
+“I do.�
+
+She looked up with her pleading blue eyes, like two jewels of light now,
+questioning whether she might yet go one step further. Her breath came
+quick and soft, he fancied it touched his cheek, though she was not tall
+enough for that. She lifted her tear-wet face like a flower after a storm,
+and pleaded with her eyes once more, saying in a whisper very soft and
+sweet:
+
+“If you really forgive me, then kiss me, just once, so I may remember it
+always.�
+
+It was more than he could bear. He caught her to himself and pressed his
+lips upon hers in one frenzied kiss of torture. It was as if wrung from
+him against his will. Then suddenly it came upon him what he had done, as
+he held her in his arms, and he put her from him gently, as a mother might
+put away the precious child she was sacrificing tenderly, agonizingly, but
+finally. He put her from him thus and stood a moment looking at her, while
+she almost sparkled her pleasure at him through the tears. She felt that
+she had won.
+
+But gradually the silence grew ominous. She perceived he was not smiling.
+His mien was like one who looks into an open grave, and gazes for the last
+time at all that remains of one who is dear. He did not seem like one who
+had yielded a moral point and was ready now to serve her as she would. She
+grew uneasy under his gaze. She moved forward and put out her hands
+inviting, yielding, as only such a woman could do, and the spell which
+bound him seemed to be broken. He fumbled for a moment in his waistcoat
+pocket and brought out a large roll of bills which he laid upon the table,
+and taking up his hat turned toward the door. A cold wave of weakness
+seemed to pass over her, stung here and there by mortal pride that was in
+fear of being wounded beyond recovery.
+
+“Where are you going?� she asked weakly, and her voice sounded to her from
+miles away, and strange.
+
+He turned and looked at her again and she knew the look meant farewell. He
+did not speak. Her whole being rose for one more mighty effort.
+
+“You are not going to leave me—now?� There was angelic sweetness in the
+voice, pleading, reproachful, piteous.
+
+“I must!� he said, and his voice sounded harsh. “I have just done that for
+which, were I your husband, I would feel like killing any other man. I
+must protect you against yourself,—against myself. You must be kept pure
+before God if it kills us both. I would gladly die if that could help you,
+but I am not even free to do that, for I belong to another.�
+
+Then he turned and was gone.
+
+Kate’s hands fell to her sides, and seemed stiff and lifeless. The bright
+color faded from her cheeks, and a cold frenzy of horror took possession
+of her. “Pure before God!� She shuddered at the name, and crimson shame
+rolled over forehead and cheek. She sank in a little heap on the floor
+with her face buried in the chair beside which she had been standing, and
+the waters of humiliation rolled wave on wave above her. She had failed,
+and for one brief moment she was seeing her own sinful heart as it was.
+
+But the devil was there also. He whispered to her now the last sentence
+that David had spoken: “I belong to another!�
+
+Up to that moment Marcia had been a very negative factor in the affair to
+Kate’s mind. She had been annoyed and angry at her as one whose ignorance
+and impertinence had brought her into an affair where she did not belong,
+but now she suddenly faced the fact that Marcia must be reckoned with.
+Marcia the child, who had for years been her slave and done her bidding,
+had arisen in her way, and she hated her with a sudden vindictive hate
+that would have killed without flinching if the opportunity had presented
+at that moment. Kate had no idea how utterly uncontrolled was her whole
+nature. She was at the mercy of any passing passion. Hate and revenge took
+possession of her now. With flashing eyes she rose to her feet, brushing
+her tumbled hair back and wiping away angry tears. She was too much
+agitated to notice that some one had knocked at the front door and been
+admitted, and when Harry Temple walked into the room he found her standing
+so with hands clenched together, and tears flowing down her cheeks
+unchecked.
+
+Now a woman in tears, when the tears were not caused by his own actions,
+was Harry’s opportunity. He had ways of comforting which were as
+unscrupulous as they generally proved effective, and so with affectionate
+tenderness he took Kate’s hand and held it impressively, calling her
+“dear.� He spoke soothing words, smoothed her hair, and kissed her flushed
+cheeks and eyes. It was all very pleasant to Kate’s hurt pride. She let
+Harry comfort her, and pet her a while, and at last he said:
+
+“Now tell me all about it, dear. I saw Lord Spafford trail dejectedly away
+from here looking like death, and I come here and find my lady in a fine
+fury. What has happened? If I mistake not the insufferable cad has got
+badly hurt, but it seems to have ruffled the lady also.�
+
+This helped. It was something to feel that David was suffering. She wanted
+him to suffer. He had brought shame and humiliation upon her. She never
+realized that the thing that shamed her was that he thought her better
+than she was.
+
+“He is offensively good. I _hate_ him!� she remarked as a kitten might who
+had got hurt at playing with a mouse in a trap.
+
+The man’s face grew bland with satisfaction.
+
+“Not so good, my lady, but that he has been making love to you, if I
+mistake not, and he with a wife at home.� The words were said quietly, but
+there was more of a question in them than the tone conveyed. The man
+wished to have evidence against his enemy.
+
+Kate colored uneasily and drooped her lashes.
+
+Harry studied her face keenly, and then went on cautiously:
+
+“If his wife were not your sister I should say that one might punish him
+well through her.�
+
+Kate cast him a hard, scrutinizing look.
+
+“You have some score against him yourself,� she said with conviction.
+
+“Perhaps I have, my lady. Perhaps I too hate him. He is offensively good,
+you know.�
+
+There was silence in the room for a full minute while the devil worked in
+both hearts.
+
+“What did you mean by saying one might punish him through his wife? He
+does not love his wife.�
+
+“Are you sure?�
+
+“Quite sure.�
+
+“Perhaps he loves some one else, my lady.�
+
+“He does.� She said it proudly.
+
+“Perhaps he loves you, my lady.� He said it softly like the suggestion
+from another world. The lady was silent, but he needed no other answer.
+
+“Then indeed, the way would be even clearer,—were not his wife your
+sister.�
+
+Kate looked at him, a half knowledge of his meaning beginning to dawn in
+her eyes.
+
+“How?� she asked laconically.
+
+“In case his wife should leave him do you think my lord would hold his
+head so high?�
+
+Kate still looked puzzled.
+
+“If some one else should win her affection, and should persuade her to
+leave a husband who did not love her, and who was bestowing his heart�—he
+hesitated an instant and his eye traveled significantly to the roll of
+bills still lying where David had left them—“and his gifts,� he hazarded,
+“upon another woman——�
+
+Kate grasped the thought at once and an evil glint of eagerness showed in
+her eyes. She could see what an advantage it would be to herself to have
+Marcia removed from the situation. It would break one more cord of honor
+that bound David to a code which was hateful to her now, because its
+existence shamed her. Nevertheless, unscrupulous as she was she could not
+see how this was a possibility.
+
+“But she is offensively good too,� she said as if answering her own
+thoughts.
+
+“All goodness has its weak spot,� sneered the man. “If I mistake not you
+have found my lord’s. It is possible I might find his wife’s.�
+
+The two pairs of eyes met then, filled with evil light. It was as if for
+an instant they were permitted to look into the pit, and see the
+possibilities of wickedness, and exult in it. The lurid glare of their
+thoughts played in their faces. All the passion of hate and revenge rushed
+upon Kate in a frenzy. With all her heart she wished this might be. She
+looked her co-operation in the plan even before her hard voice answered:
+
+“You need not stop because she is my sister.�
+
+He felt he had her permission, and he permitted himself a glance of
+admiration for the depths to which she could go without being daunted.
+Here was evil courage worthy of his teaching. She seemed to him beautiful
+enough and daring enough for Satan himself to admire.
+
+“And may I have the pleasure of knowing that I would by so doing serve my
+lady in some wise?�
+
+She drooped her shameless eyes and murmured guardedly, “Perhaps.� Then she
+swept him a coquettish glance that meant they understood one another.
+
+“Then I shall feel well rewarded,� he said gallantly, and bowing with more
+than his ordinary flattery of look bade her good day and went out.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+David stumbled blindly out the door and down the street. His one thought
+was to get to his room at the tavern and shut the door. He had an
+important appointment that morning, but it passed completely from his
+mind. He met one or two men whom he knew, but he did not see them, and
+passed them swiftly without a glance of recognition. They said one to
+another, “How absorbed he is in the great themes of the world!� but David
+passed on in his pain and misery and humiliation and never knew they were
+near him.
+
+He went to the room that had been his since he had reached New York, and
+fastening the door against all intrusion fell upon his knees beside the
+bed, and let the flood-tide of his sorrow roll over him. Not even when
+Kate had played him false on his wedding morning had he felt the pain that
+now cut into his very soul. For now there was mingled with it the agony of
+consciousness of sin. He had sinned against heaven, against honor and
+love, and all that was pure and good. He was just like any bad man. He had
+yielded to sudden temptation and taken another man’s wife in his arms and
+kissed her! That the woman had been his by first right, and that he loved
+her: that she had invited the kiss, indeed pleaded for it, his sensitive
+conscience told him in no wise lessened the offense. He had also caused
+her whom he loved to sin. He was a man and knew the world. He should have
+shielded her against herself. And yet as he went over and over the whole
+painful scene through which he had just passed his soul cried out in agony
+and he felt his weakness more and more. He had failed, failed most
+miserably. Acted like any coward!
+
+The humiliation of it was unspeakable. Could any sorrow be like unto his?
+Like a knife flashing through the gloom of his own shame would come the
+echo of her words as she pleaded with him to kiss her. It was a kiss of
+forgiveness she had wanted, and she had put her heart into her eyes and
+begged as for her very life. How could he have refused? Then he would
+parley with himself for a long time trying to prove to himself that the
+kiss and the embrace were justified, that he had done no wrong in God’s
+sight. And ever after this round of confused arguing he would end with the
+terrible conviction that he had sinned.
+
+Sometimes Marcia’s sweet face and troubled eyes would appear to him as he
+wrestled all alone, and seemed to be longing to help him, and again would
+come the piercing thought that he had harmed this gentle girl also. He had
+tangled her into his own spoiled web of life, and been disloyal to her.
+She was pure and true and good. She had given up every thing to help him
+and he had utterly forgotten her. He had promised to love, cherish, and
+protect her! That was another sin. He could not love and cherish her when
+his whole heart was another’s. Then he thought of Kate’s husband, that
+treacherous man who had stolen his bride and now gone away and left her
+sorrowing—left her without money, penniless in a strange city. Why had he
+not been more calm and questioned her before he came away. Perhaps she was
+in great need. It comforted him to think he had left her all the money he
+had with him. There was enough to keep her from want for a while. And yet,
+perhaps he had been wrong to give it to her. He had no right to give it!
+
+He groaned aloud at the thought of his helplessness to help her
+helplessness. Was there not some way he could find out and help her
+without doing wrong?
+
+Over and over he went through the whole dreadful day, until his brain was
+weary and his heart failed him. The heavens seemed brass and no answer
+came to his cry,—the appeal of a broken soul. It seemed that he could not
+get up from his knees, could not go out into the world again and face
+life. He had been tried and had failed, and yet though he knew his sin he
+felt an intolerable longing to commit it over again. He was frightened at
+his own weakness, and with renewed vigor he began to pray for help. It was
+like the prayer of Jacob of old, the crying out of a soul that would not
+be denied. All day long the struggle continued, and far into the night. At
+last a great peace began to settle upon David’s soul. Things that had been
+confused by his passionate longings grew clear as day. Self dropped away,
+and sin, conquered, slunk out of sight. Right and Wrong were once more
+clearly defined in his mind. However wrong it might or might not be he was
+here in this situation. He had married Marcia and promised to be true to
+her. He was doubly cut off from Kate by her own act and by his. That was
+his punishment,—and hers. He must not seek to lessen it even for her, for
+it was God-sent. Henceforth his path and hers must be apart. If she were
+to be helped in any way from whatsoever trouble was hers, it was not
+permitted him to be the instrument. He had shown his unfitness for it in
+his interview that morning, even if in the eyes of the world it could have
+been at all. It was his duty to cut himself off from her forever. He must
+not even think of her any more. He must be as true and good to Marcia as
+was possible. He must do no more wrong. He must grow strong and suffer.
+
+The peace that came with conviction brought sleep to his weary mind and
+body.
+
+When he awoke it was almost noon. He remembered the missed appointment of
+the day before, and the journey to Washington which he had planned for
+that day. With a start of horror he looked at his watch and found he had
+but a few hours in which to try to make up for the remissness of yesterday
+before the evening coach left for Philadelphia. It was as if some guardian
+angel had met his first waking thoughts with business that could not be
+delayed and so kept him from going over the painful events of the day
+before. He arose and hastened out into the world once more.
+
+Late in the afternoon he found the man he was to have met the day before,
+and succeeded in convincing him that he ought to help the new enterprise.
+He was standing on the corner saying the last few words as the two
+separated, when Kate drove by in a friend’s carriage, surrounded by
+parcels. She had been on a shopping tour spending the money that David had
+given her, for silks and laces and jewelry, and now she was returning in
+high glee with her booty. The carriage passed quite near to David who
+stood with his back to the street, and she could see his animated face as
+he smiled at the other man, a fine looking man who looked as if he might
+be some one of note. The momentary glance did not show the haggard look of
+David’s face nor the lines that his vigil of the night before had traced
+under his eyes, and Kate was angered to see him so unconcerned and
+forgetful of his pain of yesterday. Her face darkened with spite, and she
+resolved to make him suffer yet, and to the utmost, for the sin of
+forgetting her.
+
+But David was in the way of duty, and he did not see her, for his guardian
+angel was hovering close at hand.
+
+
+
+As the Fall wore on and the winter set in Harry’s letters became less
+frequent and less intimate. Hannah was troubled, and after consultation
+with her grandmother, to which Miranda listened at the latch hole, duly
+reporting quotations to her adored Mrs. Spafford, Hannah decided upon an
+immediate trip to the metropolis.
+
+“Hannah’s gone to New York to find out what’s become of that nimshi Harry
+Temple. She thought she had him fast, an’ she’s been holdin’ him over poor
+Lemuel Skinner’s head like thet there sword hangin’ by a hair I heard the
+minister tell about last Sunday, till Lemuel, he don’t know but every
+minute’s gone’ll be his last. You mark my words, she’ll hev to take poor
+Lem after all, an’ be glad she’s got him, too,—and she’s none too good for
+him neither. He’s ben faithful to her ever since she wore pantalets, an’
+she’s ben keepin’ him off’n on an’ hopin’ an’ tryin’ fer somebody bigger.
+It would jes’ serve her right ef she’d get that fool of a Harry Temple,
+but she won’t. He’s too sharp for that ef he _is_ a fool. He don’t want to
+tie himself up to no woman’s aprun strings. He rather dandle about after
+’em all an’ say pretty things, an’ keep his earnin’s fer himself.�
+
+Hannah reached New York the week after David left for Washington. She
+wrote beforehand to Harry to let him know she was coming, and made plain
+that she expected his attentions exclusively while there, and he smiled
+blandly as he read the letter and read her intentions between the lines.
+He told Kate a good deal about her that evening when he went to call, told
+her how he had heard she was an old flame of David’s, and Kate’s jealousy
+was immediately aroused. She wished to meet Hannah Heath. There was a sort
+of triumph in the thought that she had scorned and flung aside the man
+whom this woman had “set her cap� for, even though another woman was now
+in the place that neither had. Hannah went to visit a cousin in New York
+who lived in a quiet part of the city and did not go out much, but for
+reasons best known to themselves, both Kate Leavenworth and Harry Temple
+elected to see a good deal of her while she was in the city. Harry was
+pleasant and attentive, but not more to one woman than to the other.
+Hannah, watching him jealously, decided that at least Kate was not her
+rival in his affections, and so Hannah and Kate became quite friendly.
+Kate had a way of making much of her women friends when she chose, and she
+happened to choose in this case, for it occurred to her it would be well
+to have a friend in the town where lived her sister and her former lover.
+There might be reasons why, sometime. She opened her heart of hearts to
+Hannah, and Hannah, quite discreetly, and without wasting much of her
+scanty store of love, entered, and the friendship was sealed. They had not
+known each other many days before Kate had confided to Hannah the story of
+her own marriage and her sister’s, embellished of course as she chose.
+Hannah, astonished, puzzled, wondering, curious, at the tragedy that had
+been enacted at her very home door, became more friendly than ever and
+hated more cordially than ever the young and innocent wife who had stepped
+into the vacant place and so made her own hopes and ambitions impossible.
+She felt that she would like to put down the pert young thing for daring
+to be there, and to be pretty, and now she felt she had the secret which
+would help her to do so.
+
+As the visit went on and it became apparent to Hannah Heath that she was
+not the one woman in all the world to Harry Temple, she hinted to Kate
+that it was likely she would be married soon. She even went so far as to
+say that she had come away from home to decide the matter, and that she
+had but to say the word and the ceremony would come off. Kate questioned
+eagerly, and seeing her opportunity asked if she might come to the
+wedding. Hannah, flattered, and seeing a grand opportunity for a wholesale
+triumph and revenge, assented with pleasure. Afterward as Hannah had hoped
+and intended, Kate carried the news of the impending decision and probable
+wedding to the ears of Harry Temple.
+
+But Hannah’s hint had no further effect upon the redoubtable Harry. Two
+days later he appeared, smiling, congratulatory, deploring the fact that
+she would be lost in a certain sense to his friendship, although he hoped
+always to be looked upon as a little more than a friend.
+
+Hannah covered her mortification under a calm and condescending exterior.
+She blushed appropriately, said some sentimental things about hoping their
+friendship would not be affected by the change, told him how much she had
+enjoyed their correspondence, but gave him to understand that it had been
+mere friendship of course from her point of view, and Harry indulgently
+allowed her to think that he had hoped for more and was grieved but
+consolable over the outcome.
+
+They waxed a trifle sentimental at the parting, but when Harry was gone,
+Hannah wrote a most touching letter to Lemuel Skinner which raised him to
+the seventh heaven of delight, causing him to feel that he was treading
+upon air as he walked the prosaic streets of his native town where he had
+been going about during Hannah’s absence like a lost spirit without a
+guiding star.
+
+
+    “DEAR LEMUEL:� she wrote:—
+
+    “I am coming home. I wonder if you will be glad?
+
+
+(Artful Hannah, as if she did not know!)
+
+
+    “It is very delightful in New York and I have been having a gay
+    time since I came, and everybody has been most pleasant, but—
+
+      “’Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
+      Still, be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.
+      A charm from the skies seems to hallow it there,
+      Which, go through the world, you’ll not meet with elsewhere.
+                          Home, home, sweet home!
+                        There’s no place like home.
+
+    “That is a new song, Lemuel, that everybody here is singing. It is
+    written by a young American named John Howard Payne who is in
+    London now acting in a great playhouse. Everybody is wild over
+    this song. I’ll sing it for you when I come home.
+
+    “I shall be at home in time for singing school next week, Lemuel.
+    I wonder if you’ll come to see me at once and welcome me. You
+    cannot think how glad I shall be to get home again. It seems as
+    though I had been gone a year at least. Hoping to see you soon, I
+    remain
+
+                                     “Always your sincere friend,
+
+                                                       “HANNAH HEATH.�
+
+
+And thus did Hannah make smooth her path before her, and very soon after
+inditing this epistle she bade good-bye to New York and took her way home
+resolved to waste no further time in chasing will-o-the-wisps.
+
+When Lemuel received that letter he took a good look at himself in the
+glass. More than seven years had he served for Hannah, and little hope had
+he had of a final reward. He was older by ten years than she, and already
+his face began to show it. He examined himself critically, and was pleased
+to find with that light of hope in his eyes he was not so bad looking as
+he feared. He betook himself to the village tailor forthwith and ordered a
+new suit of clothes, though his Sunday best was by no means shiny yet. He
+realized that if he did not win now he never would, and he resolved to do
+his best.
+
+On the way home, during all the joltings of the coach over rough roads
+Hannah Heath was planning two campaigns, one of love with Lemuel, and one
+of hate with Marcia Spafford. She was possessed of knowledge which she
+felt would help her in the latter, and often she smiled vindictively as
+she laid her neat plans for the destruction of the bride’s complacency.
+
+That night the fire in the Heath parlor burned high and glowed, and the
+candles in their silver holders flickered across fair Hannah’s face as she
+dimpled and smiled and coquetted with poor Lemuel. But Lemuel needed no
+pity. He was not afraid of Hannah. Not for nothing had he served his seven
+years, and he understood every fancy and foible of her shallow nature. He
+knew his time had come at last, and he was getting what he had wanted
+long, for Lemuel had admired and loved Hannah in spite of the dance she
+had led him, and in spite of the other lovers she had allowed to come
+between them.
+
+Hannah had not been at home many days before she called upon Marcia.
+
+Marcia had just seated herself at the piano when Hannah appeared to her
+from the hall, coming in unannounced through the kitchen door according to
+old neighborly fashion.
+
+Marcia was vexed. She arose from the instrument and led the way to the
+little morning room which was sunny and cosy, and bare of music or books.
+She did not like to visit with Hannah in the parlor. Somehow her presence
+reminded her of the evil face of Harry Temple as he had stooped to kiss
+her.
+
+“You know how to play, too, don’t you?� said Hannah as they sat down.
+“Your sister plays beautifully. Do you know the new song, ‘Home, Sweet
+Home?’ She plays it with so much feeling and sings it so that one would
+think her heart was breaking for her home. You must have been a united
+family.� Hannah said it with sharp scrutiny in voice and eyes.
+
+“Sit down, Miss Heath,� said Marcia coolly, lowering the yellow shades
+that her visitor’s eyes might not be troubled by a broad sunbeam. “Did you
+have a pleasant time in New York?�
+
+Hannah could not be sure whether or not the question was an evasion. The
+utterly child-like manner of Marcia disarmed suspicion.
+
+“Oh, delightful, of course. Could any one have anything else in New York?�
+
+Hannah laughed disagreeably. She realized the limitations of life in a
+town.
+
+“I suppose,� said Marcia, her eyes shining with the thought, “that you saw
+all the wonderful things of the city. I should enjoy being in New York a
+little while. I have heard of so many new things. Were there any ships in
+the harbor? I have always wanted to go over a great ship. Did you have
+opportunity of seeing one?�
+
+“Oh, dear me. No!� said Hannah. “I shouldn’t have cared in the least for
+that. I’m sure I don’t know whether there were any ships in or not. I
+suppose there were. I saw a lot of sails on the water, but I did not ask
+about them. I’m not interested in dirty boats. I liked visiting the shops
+best. Your sister took me about everywhere. She is a most charming
+creature. You must miss her greatly. You were a sly little thing to cut
+her out.�
+
+Marcia’s face flamed crimson with anger and amazement. Hannah’s dart had
+hit the mark, and she was watching keenly to see her victim quiver.
+
+“I do not understand you,� said Marcia with girlish dignity.
+
+“Oh, now don’t pretend to misunderstand. I’ve heard all about it from
+headquarters,� she said it archly, laughing. “But then I don’t blame you.
+David was worth it.� Hannah ended with a sigh. If she had ever cared for
+any one besides herself that one was David Spafford.
+
+“I do not understand you,� said Marcia again, drawing herself up with all
+the Schuyler haughtiness she could master, till she quite resembled her
+father.
+
+“Now, Mrs. Spafford,� said the visitor, looking straight into her face and
+watching every expression as a cat would watch a mouse, “you don’t mean to
+tell me your sister was not at one time very intimate with your husband.�
+
+“Mr. Spafford has been intimate in our family for a number of years,� said
+Marcia proudly, her fighting fire up, “but as for my having ‘cut my sister
+out’ as you call it, you have certainly been misinformed. Excuse me, I
+think I will close the kitchen door. It seems to blow in here and make a
+draft.�
+
+Marcia left the room with her head up and her fine color well under
+control, and when she came back her head was still up and a distant
+expression was in her face. Somehow Hannah felt she had not gained much
+after all. But Marcia, after Hannah’s departure, went up to her cold room
+and wept bitter tears on her pillow alone.
+
+                 [Illustration: Copyright by C. Klackner
+       MARCIA PASSED FROM THE OLD STONE CHURCH WITH THE TWO AUNTS.]
+
+                        Copyright by C. Klackner
+       MARCIA PASSED FROM THE OLD STONE CHURCH WITH THE TWO AUNTS.
+
+
+After that first visit Hannah never found the kitchen door unlocked when
+she came to make a morning call, but she improved every little opportunity
+to torment her gentle victim. She had had a letter from Kate and had
+Marcia heard? How often did Kate write her? Did Marcia know how fond Harry
+Temple was of Kate? And where was Kate’s husband? Would he likely be
+ordered home soon? These little annoyances were almost unbearable
+sometimes and Marcia had much ado to keep her sweetness of outward
+demeanor.
+
+People looked upon Lemuel with new respect. He had finally won where they
+had considered him a fool for years for hanging on. The added respect
+brought added self-respect. He took on new manliness. Grandmother Heath
+felt that he really was not so bad after all, and perhaps Hannah might as
+well have taken him at first. Altogether the Heath family were well
+pleased, and preparations began at once for a wedding in the near future.
+
+And still David lingered, held here and there by a call from first one man
+and then another, and by important doings in Congress. He seemed to be
+rarely fitted for the work.
+
+Once he was called back to New York for a day or two, and Harry Temple
+happened to see him as he arrived. That night he wrote to Hannah a
+friendly letter—Harry was by no means through with Hannah yet—and casually
+remarked that he saw David Spafford was in New York again. He supposed now
+that Mrs. Leavenworth’s evenings would be fully occupied and society would
+see little of her while he remained.
+
+The day after Hannah received that letter was Sunday.
+
+The weeks had gone by rapidly since David left his home, and now the
+spring was coming on. The grass was already green as summer and the willow
+tree by the graveyard gate was tender and green like a spring-plume. All
+the foliage was out and fluttering its new leaves in the sunshine as
+Marcia passed from the old stone church with the two aunts and opened her
+little green sunshade. Her motion made David’s last letter rustle in her
+bosom. It thrilled her with pleasure that not even the presence of Hannah
+Heath behind her could cloud.
+
+However prim and fault-finding the two aunts might be in the seclusion of
+their own home, in public no two could have appeared more adoring than
+Amelia and Hortense Spafford. They hovered near Marcia and delighted to
+show how very close and intimate was the relationship between themselves
+and their new and beautiful niece, of whom in their secret hearts they
+were prouder than they would have cared to tell. In their best black silks
+and their fine lace shawls they walked beside her and talked almost
+eagerly, if those two stately beings could have anything to do with a
+quality so frivolous as eagerness. They wished it understood that David’s
+wife was worthy of appreciation and they were more conscious than she of
+the many glances of admiration in her direction.
+
+Hannah Heath encountered some of those admiring glances and saw jealously
+for whom they were meant. She hastened to lean forward and greet Marcia,
+her spiteful tongue all ready for a stab.
+
+“Good morning, Mrs. Spafford. Is that husband of yours not home yet?
+Really! Why, he’s quite deserted you. I call that hard for the first year,
+and your honeymoon scarcely over yet.�
+
+“He’s been called back to New York again,� said Marcia annoyed over the
+spiteful little sentences. “He says he may be at home soon, but he cannot
+be sure. His business is rather uncertain.�
+
+“New York!� said Hannah, and her voice was annoyingly loud. “What! Not
+again! There must be some great attraction there,� and then with a meaning
+glance, “I suppose your sister is still there!�
+
+Marcia felt her face crimsoning, and the tears starting from angry eyes.
+She felt a sudden impulse to slap Hannah. What if she should! What would
+the aunts say? The thought of the tumult she might make roused her sense
+of humor and a laugh bubbled up instead of the tears, and Hannah,
+watching, cat-like, could only see eyes dancing with fun though the cheeks
+were charmingly red. By Hannah’s expression Marcia knew she was baffled,
+but Marcia could not get away from the disagreeable suggestion that had
+been made.
+
+Yes, David was in New York, and Kate was there. Not for an instant did she
+doubt her husband’s nobleness. She knew David would be good and true. She
+knew little of the world’s wickedness, and never thought of any blame, as
+other women might, in such a suggestion. But a great jealousy sprang into
+being that she never dreamed existed. Kate was there, and he would perhaps
+see her, and all his old love and disappointment would be brought to mind
+again. Had she, Marcia, been hoping he would forget it? Had she been
+claiming something of him in her heart for herself? She could not tell.
+She did not know what all this tumult of feeling meant. She longed to get
+away and think it over, but the solemn Sunday must be observed. She must
+fold away her church things, put on another frock and come down to the
+oppressive Sunday dinner, hear Deacon Brown’s rheumatism discussed, or
+listen to a long comparison of the morning’s sermon with one preached
+twenty years ago by the minister, now long dead upon the same text. It was
+all very hard to keep her mind upon, with these other thoughts rushing
+pell-mell through her brain; and when Aunt Amelia asked her to pass the
+butter, she handed the sugar-bowl instead. Miss Amelia looked as shocked
+as if she had broken the great-grandmother’s china teapot.
+
+Aunt Clarinda claimed her after dinner and carried her off to her room to
+talk about David, so that Marcia had no chance to think even then. Miss
+Clarinda looked into the sweet shadowed eyes and wondered why the girl
+looked so sad. She thought it was because David stayed away so long, and
+so she kept her with her all the rest of the day.
+
+When Marcia went to her room that night she threw herself on her knees
+beside the bed and tried to pray. She felt more lonely and heartsick than
+she ever felt before in her life. She did not know what the great hunger
+in her heart meant. It was terrible to think David had loved Kate. Kate
+never loved him in return in the right way. Marcia felt very sure of that.
+She wished she might have had the chance in Kate’s place, and then all of
+a sudden the revelation came to her. She loved David herself with a great
+overwhelming love. Not just a love that could come and keep house for him
+and save him from the criticisms and comments of others; but with a love
+that demanded to be loved in return; a love that was mindful of every dear
+lineament of his countenance. The knowledge thrilled through her with a
+great sweetness. She did not seem to care for anything else just now, only
+to know that she loved David. David could never love her of course, not in
+that way, but she would love him. She would try to shut out the thought of
+Kate from him forever.
+
+And so, dreaming, hovering on the edge of all that was bitter and all that
+was sweet, she fell asleep with David’s letter clasped close over her
+heart.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+Marcia had gone down to her own house the next morning very early. She had
+hoped for a letter but none had come. Her soul was in torment between her
+attempt to keep out of her mind the hateful things Hannah Heath had said,
+and reproaching herself for what seemed to her her unseemly feeling toward
+David, who loved another and could never love her. It was not a part of
+her life-dream to love one who belonged to another. Yet her heart was his
+and she was beginning to know that everything belonging to him was dear to
+her. She went and sat in his place at the table, she touched with
+tenderness the books upon his desk that he had used before he went away,
+she went up to his room and laid her lips for one precious daring instant
+upon his pillow, and then drew back with wildly beating heart ashamed of
+her emotion. She knelt beside his bed and prayed: “Oh, God, I love him, I
+love him! I cannot help it!� as if she would apologize for herself, and
+then she hugged the thought of her love to herself, feeling its sweet pain
+drift through her like some delicious agony. Her love had come through
+sorrow to her, and was not as she would have had it could she have chosen.
+It brought no ray of happy hope for the future, save just the happiness of
+loving in secret, and of doing for the object loved, with no thought of a
+returned affection.
+
+Then she went slowly down the stairs, trying to think how it would seem
+when David came back. He had been so long gone that it seemed as if
+perhaps he might never return. She felt that it had been no part of the
+spirit of her contract with David that she should render to him this wild
+sweet love that he had expected Kate to give. He had not wanted it. He had
+only wanted a wife in name.
+
+Then the color would sweep over her face in a crimson drift and leave it
+painfully white, and she would glide to the piano like a ghost of her
+former self and play some sad sweet strain, and sometimes sing.
+
+She had no heart for her dear old woods in these days. She had tried it
+one day in spring; slipped over the back fence and away through the
+ploughed field where the sea of silver oats had surged, and up to the
+hillside and the woods; but she was so reminded of David that it only
+brought heart aches and tears. She wondered if it was because she was
+getting old that the hillside did not seem so joyous now, and she did not
+care to look up into the sky just for the pure joy of sky and air and
+clouds, nor to listen to the branches whisper to the robins nesting. She
+stooped and picked a great handful of spring beauties, but they did not
+seem to give her pleasure, and by and by she dropped them from listless
+fingers and walked sedately down to the house once more.
+
+On this morning she did not even care to play. She went into the parlor
+and touched a few notes, but her heart was heavy and sad. Life was growing
+too complex.
+
+Last week there had come a letter from Harry Temple. It had startled her
+when it arrived. She feared it was some ill-news about David, coming as it
+did from New York and being written in a strange hand.
+
+It had been a plea for forgiveness, representing that the writer had
+experienced nothing but deep repentance and sorrow since the time he had
+seen her last. He set forth his case in a masterly way, with little
+touching facts of his childhood, and lonely upbringing, with no mother to
+guide. He told her that her noble action toward him had but made him
+revere her the more, and that, in short, she had made a new creature of
+him by refusing to return his kiss that day, and leaving him alone with so
+severe a rebuke. He felt that if all women were so good and true men would
+be a different race, and now he looked up to her as one might look up to
+an angel, and he felt he could never be happy again on this earth until he
+had her written word of forgiveness. With that he felt he could live a new
+life, and she must rest assured that he would never offer other than
+reverence to any woman again. He further added that his action had not
+intended any insult to her, that he was merely expressing his natural
+admiration for a spirit so good and true, and that his soul was innocent
+of any intention of evil. With sophistry in the use of which he was an
+adept, he closed his epistle, fully clearing himself, and assuring her
+that he could have made her understand it that day if she had not left so
+suddenly, and he had not been almost immediately called away to the dying
+bed of his dear cousin. This contradictory letter had troubled Marcia
+greatly. She was keen enough to see that his logic was at fault, and that
+the two pages of his letter did not hang together, but one thing was
+plain, that he wished her forgiveness. The Bible said that one must
+forgive, and surely it was right to let him know that she did, though when
+she thought of the fright he had given her it was hard to do. Still, it
+was right, and if he was so unhappy, perhaps she had better let him know.
+She would rather have waited until David returned to consult him in the
+matter, but the letter seemed so insistent that she had finally written a
+stiff little note, in formal language, “Mrs. Spafford sends herewith her
+full and free forgiveness to Mr. Harry Temple, and promises to think no
+more of the matter.�
+
+She would have liked to consult some one. She almost thought of taking
+Aunt Clarinda into her confidence, but decided that she might not
+understand. So she finally sent off the brief missive, and let her
+troubled thoughts wander after it more than once.
+
+She was standing by the window looking out into the yard perplexing
+herself over this again when there came a loud knocking at the front door.
+She started, half frightened, for the knock sounded through the empty
+house so insistently. It seemed like trouble coming. She felt nervous as
+she went down the hall.
+
+It was only a little urchin, barefoot, and tow-headed. He had ridden an
+old mare to the door, and left her nosing at the dusty grass. He brought
+her a letter. Again her heart fluttered excitedly. Who could be writing to
+her? It was not David. Why did the handwriting look familiar? It could not
+be from any one at home. Father? Mother? No, it was no one she knew. She
+tore it open, and the boy jumped on his horse and was off down the street
+before she realized that he was gone.
+
+
+    “DEAR MADAM:� the letter read,
+
+    “I bring you news of your husband, and having met with an accident
+    I am unable to come further. You will find me at the Green Tavern
+    two miles out on the corduroy road. As the business is private,
+    please come alone.
+
+                                                        “A MESSENGER.�
+
+
+Marcia trembled so that she sat down on the stairs. A sudden weakness went
+over her like a wave, and the hall grew dark around her as though she were
+going to faint. But she did not. She was strong and well and had never
+fainted in her life. She rallied in a moment and tried to think. Something
+had happened to David. Something dreadful, perhaps, and she must go at
+once and find out. Still it must be something mysterious, for the man had
+said it was private. Of course that meant David would not want it known.
+David had intended that the man would come to her and tell her by herself.
+She must go. There was nothing else to be done. She must go at once and
+get rid of this awful suspense. It was a good day for the message to have
+come, for she had brought her lunch expecting to do some spring cleaning.
+David had been expected home soon, and she liked to make a bustle of
+preparation as if he might come in any day, for it kept up her good cheer.
+
+Having resolved to go she got up at once, closed the doors and windows,
+put on her bonnet and went out down the street toward the old corduroy
+road. It frightened her to think what might be at the end of her journey.
+Possibly David himself, hurt or dying, and he had sent for her in this way
+that she might break the news gently to his aunts. As she walked along she
+conjured various forms of trouble that might have come to him. Now and
+then she would try to take a cheerful view, saying to herself that David
+might have needed more important papers, papers which he would not like
+everyone to know about, and had sent by special messenger to her to get
+them. Then her face would brighten and her step grow more brisk. But
+always would come the dull thud of possibility of something more serious.
+Her heart beat so fast sometimes that she was forced to lessen her speed
+to get her breath, for though she was going through town, and must
+necessarily walk somewhat soberly lest she call attention to herself, she
+found that her nerves and imagination were fairly running ahead, and
+waiting impatiently for her feet to catch up at every turning place.
+
+At last she came to the corduroy road—a long stretch of winding way
+overlaid with logs which made an unpleasant path. Most of the way was
+swampy, and bordered in some places by thick, dark woods. Marcia sped on
+from log to log, with a nervous feeling that she must step on each one or
+her errand would not be successful. She was not afraid of the loneliness,
+only of what might be coming at the end of her journey.
+
+But suddenly, in the densest part of the wood, she became conscious of
+footsteps echoing hers, and a chill laid hold upon her. She turned her
+head and there, wildly gesticulating and running after her, was Miranda!
+
+Annoyed, and impatient to be on her way, and wondering what to do with
+Miranda, or what she could possibly want, Marcia stopped to wait for her.
+
+“I thought—as you was goin’ ’long my way�—puffed Miranda, “I’d jes’ step
+along beside you. You don’t mind, do you?�
+
+Marcia looked troubled. If she should say she did then Miranda would think
+it queer and perhaps suspect something.
+
+She tried to smile and ask how far Miranda was going.
+
+“Oh, I’m goin’ to hunt fer wild strawberries,� said the girl nonchalantly
+clattering a big tin pail.
+
+“Isn’t it early yet for strawberries?� questioned Marcia.
+
+“Well, mebbe, an’ then ag’in mebbe ’tain’t. I know a place I’m goin’ to
+look anyway. Are you goin’ ’s fur ’s the Green Tavern?�
+
+Miranda’s bright eyes looked her through and through, and Marcia’s
+truthful ones could not evade. Suddenly as she looked into the girl’s
+homely face, filled with a kind of blind adoration, her heart yearned for
+counsel in this trying situation. She was reminded of Miranda’s
+helpfulness the time she ran away to the woods, and the care with which
+she had guarded the whole matter so that no one ever heard of it. An
+impulse came to her to confide in Miranda. She was a girl of sharp common
+sense, and would perhaps be able to help with her advice. At least she
+could get comfort from merely telling her trouble and anxiety.
+
+“Miranda,� she said, “can you keep a secret?�
+
+The girl nodded.
+
+“Well, I’m going to tell you something, just because I am so troubled and
+I feel as if it would do me good to tell it.� She smiled and Miranda
+answered the smile with much satisfaction and no surprise. Miranda had
+come for this, though she did not expect her way to be so easy.
+
+“I’ll be mum as an oyster,� said Miranda. “You jest tell me anything you
+please. You needn’t be afraid Hannah Heath’ll know a grain about it.
+She’n’ I are two people. I know when to shut up.�
+
+“Well, Miranda, I’m in great perplexity and anxiety. I’ve just had a note
+from a messenger my husband has sent asking me to come out to that Green
+Tavern you were talking about. He was sent to me with some message and has
+had an accident so he couldn’t come. It kind of frightened me to think
+what might be the matter. I’m glad you are going this way because it keeps
+me from thinking about it. Are we nearly there? I never went out this road
+so far before.�
+
+“It ain’t fur,� said Miranda as if that were a minor matter. “I’ll go
+right along in with you, then you needn’t feel lonely. I guess likely it’s
+business. Don’t you worry.� The tone was reassuring, but Marcia’s face
+looked troubled.
+
+“No, I guess that won’t do, Miranda, for the note says it is a private
+matter and I must come alone. You know Mr. Spafford has matters to write
+about that are very important, railroads, and such things, and sometimes
+he doesn’t care to have any one get hold of his ideas before they appear
+in the paper. His enemies might use them to stop the plans of the great
+improvements he is writing about.�
+
+“Let me see that note!� demanded Miranda. “Got it with you?� Marcia
+hesitated. Perhaps she ought not to show it, and yet there was nothing in
+the note but what she had already told the girl, and she felt sure she
+would not breathe a word to a living soul after her promise. She handed
+Miranda the letter, and they stopped a moment while she slowly spelled it
+out. Miranda was no scholar. Marcia watched her face eagerly, as if to
+gather a ray of hope from it, but she was puzzled by Miranda’s look. A
+kind of satisfaction had overspread her homely countenance.
+
+“Should you think from that that David was hurt—or ill—or—or—killed—or
+anything?� She asked the question as if Miranda were a wizard, and hung
+anxiously upon her answer.
+
+“Naw, I don’t reckon so!� said Miranda. “Don’t you worry. David’s all
+right somehow. I’ll take care o’ you. You go ’long up and see what’s the
+business, an’ I’ll wait here out o’ sight o’ the tavern. Likely’s not he
+might take a notion not to tell you ef he see me come along with you. You
+jest go ahead, and I’ll be on hand when you get through. If you need me
+fer anything you jest holler out ‘Randy!’ good and loud an’ I’ll hear you.
+Guess I’ll set on this log. The tavern’s jest round that bend in the road.
+Naw, you needn’t thank me. This is a real pretty mornin’ to set an’ rest.
+Good-bye.�
+
+Marcia hurried on, glancing back happily at her protector in a calico
+sunbonnet seated stolidly on a log with her tin pail beside her.
+
+Poor stupid Miranda! Of course she could not understand what a comfort it
+was to have confided her trouble. Marcia went up to the tavern with almost
+a smile on her face, though her heart began to beat wildly as a slatternly
+girl led her into a big room at the right of the hall.
+
+As Marcia disappeared behind the bend in the road, Miranda stealthily
+stole along the edge of the woods, till she stood hidden behind a clump of
+alders where she could peer out and watch Marcia until she reached the
+tavern and passed safely by the row of lounging, smoking men, and on into
+the doorway. Then Miranda waited just an instant to look in all
+directions, and sped across the road, mounting the fence and on through
+two meadows, and the barnyard to the kitchen door of the tavern.
+
+“Mornin’! Mis’ Green,� she said to the slovenly looking woman who sat by
+the table peeling potatoes. “Mind givin’ me a drink o’ water? I’m terrible
+thirsty, and seemed like I couldn’t find the spring. Didn’t thare used to
+be a spring ’tween here’n town?�
+
+“Goodness sakes! Randy! Where’d you come from? Water! Jes’ help yourself.
+There’s the bucket jes’ from the spring five minutes since, an’ there’s
+the gourd hanging up on the wall. I can’t get up, I’m that busy. Twelve to
+dinner to-day, an’ only me to do the cookin’. ’Melia she’s got to be
+upstairs helpin’ at the bar.�
+
+“Who all you got here?� questioned Miranda as she took a draught from the
+old gourd.
+
+“Well, got a gentleman from New York fur one. He’s real pretty. Quite a
+beau. His clo’es are that nice you’d think he was goin’ to court. He’s
+that particular ’bout his eatin’ I feel flustered. Nothin’ would do but he
+hed to hev a downstairs room. He said he didn’t like goin’ upstairs. He
+don’t look sickly, neither.�
+
+“Mebbe he’s had a accident an’ lamed himself,� suggested Miranda
+cunningly. “Heard o’ any accidents? How’d he come? Coach or horseback?�
+
+“Coach,� said Mrs. Green. “Why do you ask? Got any friends in New York?�
+
+“Not many,� responded Miranda importantly, “but my cousin Hannah Heath
+has. You know she’s ben up there for a spell visitin’ an’ they say there
+was lots of gentlemen in love with her. There’s one in particular used to
+come round a good deal. It might be him come round to see ef it’s true
+Hannah’s goin’ to get married to Lem Skinner. Know what this fellow’s name
+is?�
+
+“You don’t say! Well now it might be. No, I don’t rightly remember his
+name. Seems though it was something like Church er Chapel. ’Melia could
+tell ye, but she’s busy.�
+
+“Where’s he at? Mebbe I could get a glimpse o’ him. I’d jest like to know
+ef he was comin’ to bother our Hannah.�
+
+“Well now. Mebbe you could get a sight o’ him. There’s a cupboard between
+his room an’ the room back. It has a door both sides. Mebbe ef you was to
+slip in there you might see him through the latch hole. I ain’t usin’ that
+back room fer anythin’ but a store-room this spring, so look out you don’t
+stumble over nothin’ when you go in fer it’s dark as a pocket. You go
+right ’long in. I reckon you’ll find the way. Yes, it’s on the right hand
+side o’ the hall. I’ve got to set here an’ finish these potatoes er
+dinner’ll be late. I’d like to know real well ef he’s one o’ Hannah
+Heath’s beaux.�
+
+Miranda needed no second bidding. She slipped through the hall and store
+room, and in a moment stood before the door of the closet. Softly she
+opened it, and stepped in, lifting her feet cautiously, for the closet
+floor seemed full of old boots and shoes.
+
+It was dark in there, very dark, and only one slat of light stabbed the
+blackness coming through the irregular shape of the latch hole. She could
+hear voices in low tones speaking on the other side of the door. Gradually
+her eyes grew accustomed to the light and one by one objects came out of
+the shadows and looked at her. A white pitcher with a broken nose, a row
+of bottles, a bunch of seed corn with the husks braided together and hung
+on a nail, an old coat on another nail.
+
+Down on her knees beside the crack of light went Miranda. First her eye
+and then her ear were applied to the small aperture. She could see nothing
+but a table directly in front of the door about a foot away on which were
+quills, paper, and a large horn inkstand filled with ink. Some one
+evidently had been writing, for a page was half done, and the pen was laid
+down beside a word.
+
+The limits of the latch hole made it impossible for Miranda to make out
+any more. She applied her ear and could hear a man’s voice talking in low
+insinuating tones, but she could make little of what was said. It drove
+her fairly frantic to think that she was losing time. Miranda had no mind
+to be balked in her purpose. She meant to find out who was in that room
+and what was going on. She felt a righteous interest in it.
+
+Her eyes could see quite plainly now in the dark closet. There was a big
+button on the door. She no sooner discovered it than she put up her hand
+and tried to turn it. It was tight and made a slight squeak in turning.
+She stopped but the noise seemed to have no effect upon the evenly
+modulated tones inside. Cautiously she moved the button again, holding the
+latch firmly in her other hand lest the door should suddenly fly open. It
+was an exciting moment when at last the button was turned entirely away
+from the door frame and the lifted latch swung free in Miranda’s hand. The
+door opened outward. If it were allowed to go it would probably strike
+against the table. Miranda only allowed it to open a crack. She could hear
+words now, and the voice reminded her of something unpleasant. The least
+little bit more she dared open the door, and she could see, as she had
+expected, Marcia’s bonnet and shoulder cape as she sat at the other side
+of the room. This then was the room of the messenger who had sent for Mrs.
+Spafford so peremptorily. The next thing was to discover the identity of
+the messenger. Miranda had suspicions.
+
+The night before she had seen a man lurking near the Spafford house when
+she went out in the garden to feed the chickens. She had watched him from
+behind the lilac bush, and when he had finally gone away she had followed
+him some distance until he turned into the old corduroy road and was lost
+in the gathering dusk. The man she had seen before, and had reason to
+suspect. It was not for nothing that she had braved her grandmother and
+gone hunting wild strawberries out of season.
+
+With the caution of a creature of the forest Miranda opened the door an
+inch further, and applied her eye to the latch hole again. The man’s head
+was in full range of her eye then, and her suspicion proved true.
+
+When Marcia entered the big room and the heavy oak door closed behind her
+her heart seemed almost choking her, but she tried with all her might to
+be calm. She was to know the worst now.
+
+On the other side of the room in a large arm-chair, with his feet extended
+on another and covered by a travelling shawl, reclined a man. Marcia went
+toward him eagerly, and then stopped:
+
+“Mr. Temple!� There was horror, fear, reproach in the way she spoke it.
+
+“I know you are astonished, Mrs. Spafford, that the messenger should be
+one so unworthy, and let me say at the beginning that I am more thankful
+than I can express that your letter of forgiveness reached me before I was
+obliged to start on my sorrowful commission. I beg you will sit down and
+be as comfortable as you can while I explain further. Pardon my not
+rising. I have met with a bad sprain caused by falling from my horse on
+the way, and was barely able to reach this stopping place. My ankle is
+swollen so badly that I cannot step upon my foot.�
+
+Marcia, with white face, moved to the chair he indicated near him, and sat
+down. The one thought his speech had conveyed to her had come through
+those words “my sorrowful commission.� She felt the need of sitting down,
+for her limbs would no longer bear her up, and she felt she must
+immediately know what was the matter.
+
+“Mrs. Spafford, may I ask you once more to speak your forgiveness? Before
+I begin to tell you what I have come for, I long to hear you say the words
+‘I forgive you.’ Will you give me your hand and say them?�
+
+“Mr. Temple, I beg you will tell me what is the matter. Do not think any
+further about that other matter. I meant what I said in the note. Tell me
+quick! Is my husband—has anything happened to Mr. Spafford? Is he ill? Is
+he hurt?�
+
+“My poor child! How can I bear to tell you? It seems terrible to put your
+love and trust upon another human being and then suddenly find—— But wait.
+Let me tell the story in my own way. No, your husband is not hurt,
+physically. Illness, and death even, are not the worst things that can
+happen to a mortal soul. It seems to me cruel, as I see you sit there so
+young and tender and beautiful, that I should have to hurt you by what I
+have to say. I come from the purest of motives to tell you a sad truth
+about one who should be nearest and dearest to you of all the earth. I beg
+you will look upon me kindly and believe that it hurts me to have to tell
+you these things. Before I begin I pray you will tell me that you forgive
+me for all I have to say. Put your hand in mine and say so.�
+
+Marcia had listened to this torrent of words unable to stop them, a
+choking sensation in her throat, fear gripping her heart. Some terrible
+thing had happened. Her senses refused to name the possibility. Would he
+never tell? What ailed the man that he wanted her hand in forgiveness? Of
+course she forgave him. She could not speak, and he kept urging.
+
+“I cannot talk until I have your hand as a pledge that you will forgive me
+and think not unkindly of me for what I am about to tell you.�
+
+He must have seen how powerfully he wrought upon her, for he continued
+until wild with frantic fear she stumbled toward him and laid her hand in
+his. He grasped it and thanked her profusely. He looked at the little cold
+hand in his own, and his lying tongue went on:
+
+“Mrs. Spafford, you are good and true. You have saved me from a life of
+uselessness, and your example and high noble character have given me new
+inspiration. It seems a poor gratitude that would turn and stab you to the
+heart. Ah! I cannot do it, and yet I must.�
+
+This was torture indeed! Marcia drew her hand sharply away and held it to
+her heart. She felt her brain reeling with the strain. Harry Temple saw he
+must go on at once or he would lose what he had gained. He had meant to
+keep that little hand and touch it gently with a comforting pressure as
+his story went on, but it would not do to frighten her or she might take
+sudden alarm.
+
+“Sit down,� he begged, reaching out and drawing a chair near to his own,
+but she stepped back and dropped into the one which she had first taken.
+
+“You know your husband has been in New York?� he began. She nodded. She
+could not speak.
+
+“Did you never suspect why he is there and why he stays so long?� A cold
+vise gripped Marcia’s heart, but though she turned white she said nothing,
+only looked steadily into the false eyes that glowed and burned at her
+like two hateful coals of fire that would scorch her soul and David’s to a
+horrid death.
+
+“Poor child, you cannot answer. You have trusted perfectly. You thought he
+was there on business connected with his writing, but did it never occur
+to you what a very long time he has been away and that—that there might be
+some other reason also which he has not told? But you must know it now, my
+child. I am sorry to say it, but he has been keeping it from you, and
+those who love you think you ought to know. Let me explain. Very soon
+after he reached New York he met a lady whom he used to know and admire.
+She is a very beautiful woman, and though she is married is still much
+sought after. Your husband, like the rest of her admirers, soon lost his
+heart completely, and his head. Strange that he could so easily forget the
+pearl of women he had left behind! He went to see her. He showed his
+affection for her in every possible way. He gave her large sums of money.
+In fact, to make a long story short, he is lingering in New York just to
+be near her. I hesitate to speak the whole truth, but he has surely done
+that which you cannot forgive. You with your lofty ideas—Mrs. Spafford—he
+has cut himself off from any right to your respect or love.
+
+“And now I am here to-day to offer to do all in my power to help you. From
+what I know of your husband’s movements, he is likely to return to you
+soon. You cannot meet him knowing that the lips that will salute you have
+been pressed upon the lips of another woman, and that woman _your own
+sister_, dear Mrs. Spafford!
+
+“Ah! Now you understand, poor child. Your lips quiver! You have reason to
+understand. I know, I know you cannot think what to do. Let me think for
+you.� His eyes were glowing and his face animated. He was using all his
+persuasive power, and her gaze was fixed upon him as though he had
+mesmerized her. She could not resist the flood-tide of his eloquence. She
+could only look on and seem to be gradually turning to stone—frozen with
+horror.
+
+He felt he had almost won, and with demoniacal skill he phrased his
+sentences.
+
+“I am here for that purpose. I am here to help you and for no other
+reason. In the stable are horses harnessed and a comfortable carriage. My
+advice to you is to fly from here as fast as these fleet horses can carry
+you. Where you go is for you to say. I should advise going to your
+father’s house. That I am sure is what will please him best. He is your
+natural refuge at such a time as this. If, however, you shrink from
+appearing before the eyes of the village gossips in your native town, I
+will take you to the home of a dear old friend of mine, hidden among the
+quiet hills, where you will be cared for most royally and tenderly for my
+sake, and where you can work out your life problem in the way that seems
+best to you. It is there that I am planning to take you to-night. We can
+easily reach there before evening if we start at once.�
+
+Marcia started to her feet in horror.
+
+“What do you mean?� she stammered in a choking voice. “I could never go
+anywhere with you Mr. Temple. You are a bad man! You have been telling me
+lies! I do not believe one word of what you have said. My husband is noble
+and good. If he did any of those things you say he did he had a reason for
+it. I shall never distrust him.�
+
+Marcia’s head was up grandly now and her voice had come back. She looked
+the man in the eye until he quailed, but still he sought to hold his power
+over her.
+
+“You poor child!� and his voice was gentleness and forbearance itself. “I
+do not wonder in your first horror and surprise that you feel as you do. I
+anticipated this. Sit down and calm yourself and let me tell you more
+about it. I can prove everything that I have said. I have letters here——�
+and he swept his hand toward a pile of letters lying on the table; Miranda
+in the closet marked well the position of those letters. “All that I have
+said is only too true, I am sorry to say, and you must listen to me——�
+
+Marcia interrupted him, her eyes blazing, her face excited: “Mr. Temple, I
+shall not listen to another word you say. You are a wicked man and I was
+wrong to come here at all. You deceived me or I should not have come. I
+must go home at once.� With that she started toward the door.
+
+Harry Temple flung aside the shawl that covered his sometime sprained
+ankle and arose quickly, placing himself before her, forgetful of his
+invalid rôle:
+
+“Not so fast, my pretty lady,� he said, grasping her wrists fiercely in
+both his hands. “You need not think to escape so easily. You shall not
+leave this room except in my company. Do you not know that you are in my
+power? You have spent nearly an hour alone in my bedchamber, and what will
+your precious husband have to do with you after this is known?�
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+Miranda’s time had come. She had seen it coming and was prepared.
+
+With a movement like a flash she pushed open the closet door, seized the
+pot of ink from the table, and before the two excited occupants of the
+room had time to even hear her or realize that she was near, she hurled
+the ink pot full into the insolent face of Harry Temple. The inkstand
+itself was a light affair of horn and inflicted only a slight wound, but
+the ink came into his eyes in a deluge blinding him completely, as Miranda
+had meant it should do. She had seen no other weapon of defense at hand.
+
+Harry Temple dropped Marcia’s wrists and groaned in pain, staggering back
+against the wall and sinking to the floor. But Miranda would not stay to
+see the effect of her punishment. She seized the frightened Marcia,
+dragged her toward the cupboard door, sweeping as she passed the pile of
+letters, finished and unfinished, into her apron, and closed the cupboard
+doors carefully behind her. Then she guided Marcia through the dark mazes
+of the store room to the hall, and pushing her toward the front door,
+whispered: “Go quick ’fore he gets his eyes open. I’ve got to go this way.
+Run down the road fast as you can an’ I’ll be at the meetin’ place first.
+Hurry, quick!�
+
+Marcia went with feet that shook so that every step seemed like to slip,
+but with beating heart she finally traversed the length of the piazza with
+a show of dignity, passed the loungers, and was out in the road. Then
+indeed she took courage and fairly flew.
+
+Miranda, breathless, but triumphant, went back into the kitchen: “I guess
+’tain’t him after all,� she said to the interested woman who was putting
+on the potatoes to boil. “He’s real interesting to look at though. I’d
+like to stop and watch him longer but I must be goin’. I come out to hunt
+fer�—Miranda hesitated for a suitable object before this country-bred
+woman who well knew that strawberries were not ripe yet—“wintergreens fer
+Grandma,� she added cheerfully, not quite sure whether they grew around
+these parts, “and I must be in a hurry. Good-bye! Thank you fer the
+drink.�
+
+Miranda whizzed out of the door breezily, calling a good morning to one of
+the hostlers as she passed the barnyard, and was off through the meadows
+and over the fence like a bird, the package of letters rustling loud in
+her bosom where she had tucked them before she entered the kitchen.
+
+Neither of the two girls spoke for some minutes after they met, but
+continued their rapid gait, until the end of the corduroy road was in
+sight and they felt comparatively safe.
+
+“Wal, that feller certainly ought to be strung up an’ walluped, now, fer
+sure,� remarked Miranda, “an I’d like to help at the wallupin’.�
+
+Marcia’s overstrung nerves suddenly dissolved into hysterical laughter.
+The contrast from the tragic to the ridiculous was too much for her. She
+laughed until the tears rolled down her cheeks, and then she cried in
+earnest. Miranda stopped and put her arms about her as gently as a mother
+might have done, and smoothed her hair back from the hot cheek, speaking
+tenderly:
+
+“There now, you poor pretty little flower. Jest you cry ’s hard ’s you
+want to. I know how good it makes you feel to cry. I’ve done it many a
+time up garret where nobody couldn’t hear me. That old Satan, he won’t
+trouble you fer a good long spell again. When he gets his evil eyes open,
+if he ever does, he’ll be glad to get out o’ these parts or I miss my
+guess. Now don’t you worry no more. He can’t hurt you one mite. An’ don’t
+you think a thing about what he said. He’s a great big liar, that’s what
+he is.�
+
+“Miranda, you saved me. Yes, you did. I never can thank you enough. If you
+hadn’t come and helped me something awful might have happened!� Marcia
+shuddered and began to sob convulsively again.
+
+“Nonsense!� said Miranda, pleased. “I didn’t do a thing worth mentioning.
+Now you jest wipe your eyes and chirk up. We’ve got to go through town an’
+you don’t want folks to wonder what’s up.�
+
+Miranda led Marcia up to the spring whose location had been known to her
+all the time of course, and Marcia bathed her eyes and was soon looking
+more like herself, though there was a nervous tremor to her lips now and
+then. But her companion talked gaily, and tried to keep her mind from
+going over the events of the morning.
+
+When they reached the village Miranda suggested they go home by the back
+street, slipping through a field of spring wheat and climbing the garden
+fence. She had a mind to keep out of her grandmother’s sight for a while
+longer.
+
+“I might’s well be hung for a sheep’s a lamb,� she remarked, as she slid
+in at Marcia’s kitchen door in the shadow of the morning-glory vines. “I’m
+goin’ to stay here a spell an’ get you some dinner while you go upstairs
+an’ lie down. You don’t need to go back to your aunt’s till near night,
+an’ you can wait till dusk an’ I’ll go with you. Then you needn’t be out
+alone at all. I know how you feel, but I don’t believe you need worry.
+He’ll be done with you now forever, er I’ll miss my guess. Now you go lie
+down till I make a cup o’ tea.�
+
+Marcia was glad to be alone, and soon fell asleep, worn out with the
+excitement, her brain too weary to go over the awful occurrences of the
+morning. That would come later. Now her body demanded rest.
+
+Miranda, coming upstairs with the tea, tiptoed in and looked at her,—one
+round arm thrown over her head, and her smooth peachy cheek resting
+against it. Miranda, homely, and with no hope of ever attaining any of the
+beautiful things of life, loved unselfishly this girl who had what she had
+not, and longed with all her heart to comfort and protect the sweet young
+thing who seemed so ill-prepared to protect herself. She stooped over the
+sleeper for one yearning moment, and touched her hair lightly with her
+lips. She felt a great desire to kiss the soft round cheek, but was afraid
+of wakening her. Then she took the cup of tea and tiptoed out again, her
+eyes shining with satisfaction. She had a self-imposed task before her,
+and was well pleased that Marcia slept, for it gave her plenty of
+opportunity to carry out her plans.
+
+She went quickly to David’s library, opened drawers and doors in the desk
+until she found writing materials, and sat down to work. She had a letter
+to write, and a letter, to Miranda, was the achievement of a lifetime. She
+did not much expect to ever have to write another. She plunged into her
+subject at once.
+
+
+    “DEAR MR. DAVID:� (she was afraid that sounded a little stiff, but
+    she felt it was almost too familiar to say “David� as he was
+    always called.)
+
+    “I ain’t much on letters, but this one has got to be writ.
+    Something happened and somebody’s got to tell you about it. I’m
+    most sure she wont, and nobody else knows cept me.
+
+    “Last night ’bout dark I went out to feed the chickens, an’ I see
+    that nimshi Harry Temple skulkin round your house. It was all dark
+    there, an he walked in the side gate and tried to peek in the
+    winders, only the shades was down an he couldn’t see a thing. I
+    thought he was up to some mischief so I followed him down the
+    street a piece till he turned down the old corduroy road. It was
+    dark by then an I come home, but I was on the watchout this
+    morning, and after Mis’ Spafford come down to the house I heard a
+    horse gallopin by an I looked out an saw a boy get off an take a
+    letter to the door an ride away, an pretty soon all in a hurry
+    your wife come out tyin her bonnet and hurryin along lookin
+    scared. I grabbed my sunbonnet an clipped after her, but she went
+    so fast I didn’t get up to her till she got on the old corduroy
+    road. She was awful scared lookin an she didn’t want me much I
+    see, but pretty soon she up an told me she had a note sayin there
+    was a messenger with news from you out to the old Green Tavern. He
+    had a accident an couldn’t come no further. He wanted her to come
+    alone cause the business was private, so I stayed down by the turn
+    of the road till she got in an then I went cross lots an round to
+    the kitchen an called on Mis’ Green a spell. She was tellin me
+    about her boarders an I told her I thought mebbe one of em was a
+    friend o’ Hannah Heath’s so she said I might peek through the key
+    hole of the cubberd an see. She was busy so I went alone.
+
+    “Well sir, I jest wish you’d been there. That lying nimshi was
+    jest goin on the sweetest, as respectful an nice a thankin your
+    wife fer comin, an excusin himself fer sendin fer her, and sayin
+    he couldn’t bear to tell her what he’d come fer, an pretty soon
+    when she was scared ’s death he up an told her a awful fib bout
+    you an a woman called Kate, whoever she is, an he jest poured the
+    words out fast so she couldn’t speak, an he said things about you
+    he shouldn’t uv, an you could see he was makin it up as he went
+    along, an he said he had proof. So he pointed at a pile of letters
+    on the table an I eyed em good through the hole in the door.
+    Pretty soon he ups and perposes that he carry her off in a
+    carriage he has all ready, and takes her to a friend of his, so
+    she wont be here when you come home, cause you’re so bad, and she
+    gets up looking like she wanted to scream only she didn’t dare,
+    and she says he dont tell the truth, it wasn’t so any of it, and
+    if it was it was all right anyway, that you had some reason, an
+    she wouldn’t go a step with him anywhere. An then he forgets all
+    about the lame ankle he had kept covered up on a chair pertendin
+    it was hurt fallin off his horse when the coach brought him all
+    the way fer I asked Mis’ Green—and he ketches her by the wrists,
+    and he says she can’t go without him, and she needn’t be in such a
+    hurry fer you wouldn’t have no more to do with her anyway after
+    her being shut up there with him so long, an then she looked jest
+    like she was going to faint, an I bust out through the door an
+    ketched up the ink pot, it want heavy enough to kill him, an I
+    slung it at him, an the ink went square in his eyes, an we slipped
+    through the closet an got away quick fore anybody knew a thing.
+
+    “I brought all the letters along so here they be. I havn’t read a
+    one, cause I thought mebbe you’d ruther not. She aint seen em
+    neither. She dont know I’ve got em. I hid em in my dress. She’s
+    all wore out with cryin and hurryin, and being scared, so she’s
+    upstairs now asleep, an she dont know I’m writing. I’m goin to
+    send this off fore she knows, fer I think she wouldn’t tell you
+    fear of worryin you. I’ll look after her es well’s I can till you
+    get back, but I think that feller ought to be strung up. But
+    you’ll know what to do, so no more at present from your obedient
+    servent,
+
+                                                    “MIRANDA GRISCOM.�
+
+
+Having at last succeeded in sealing her packet to her satisfaction and the
+diminishing of the stick of sealing wax she had found in the drawer,
+Miranda slid out the front door, and by a detour went to David Spafford’s
+office.
+
+“Good afternoon, Mr. Clark,� she said to the clerk importantly. “Grandma
+sends her respecks and wants to know ef you’d be so kind as to back this
+letter fer her to Mr. David Spafford. She’s writin’ to him on business an’
+she don’t rightly know his street an’ number in New York.�
+
+Mr. Clark willingly wrote the address, and Miranda took it to the post
+office, and sped back to Marcia, happy in the accomplishment of her
+purpose.
+
+
+
+In the same mail bag that brought Miranda’s package came a letter from
+Aunt Clarinda. David’s face lit up with a pleased smile. Her letters were
+so infrequent that they were a rare pleasure. He put aside the thick
+package written in his clerk’s hand. It was doubtless some business papers
+and could wait.
+
+Aunt Clarinda wrote in a fine old script that in spite of her eighty years
+was clear and legible. She told about the beauty of the weather, and how
+Amelia and Hortense were almost done with the house cleaning, and how
+Marcia had been going to their house every day putting it in order. Then
+she added a paragraph which David, knowing the old lady well, understood
+to be the _raison d’être_ of the whole letter:
+
+“I think your wife misses you very much, Davie, she looks sort of peeked
+and sad. It is hard on her being separated from you so long this first
+year. Men don’t think of those things, but it is lonely for a young thing
+like her here with three old women, and you know Hortense and Amelia never
+try to make it lively for anybody. I have been watching her, and I think
+if I were you I would let the business finish itself up as soon as
+possible and hurry back to put a bit of cheer into that child. She’s
+whiter than she ought to be.�
+
+David read it over three times in astonishment with growing, mingled
+feelings which he could not quite analyze.
+
+Poor Aunt Clarinda! Of course she did not understand the situation, and
+equally of course she was mistaken. Marcia was not sighing for him, though
+it might be dull for her at the old house. He ought to have thought of
+that; and a great burden suddenly settled down upon him. He was not doing
+right by Marcia. It could not be himself of course that Marcia was
+missing, if indeed Aunt Clarinda was right and she was worried about
+anything. Perhaps something had occurred to trouble her. Could that snake
+of a Temple have turned up again? No, he felt reasonably sure he would
+have heard of that, besides he saw him not long ago on the street at a
+distance. Could it be some boy-lover at home whose memory came to trouble
+her? Or had she discovered what a sacrifice she had made of her young
+life? Whatever it was, it was careless and cruel in him to have left her
+alone with his aunts all this time. He was a selfish man, he told himself,
+to have accepted her quiet little sacrifice of all for him. He read the
+letter over again, and suddenly there came to him a wish that Marcia _was_
+missing him. It seemed a pleasant thought to have her care. He had been
+trying to train himself to the fact that no one would ever care for him
+again, but now it seemed dear and desirable that his sweet young companion
+should like to have him back. He had a vision of home as it had been, so
+pleasant and restful, always the food that he liked, always the thought
+for his wishes, and he felt condemned. He had not noticed or cared. Had
+she thought him ungrateful?
+
+He read the letter over again, noting every mention of his wife in the
+account of the daily living at home. He was searching for some clue that
+would give him more information about her. And when he reached the last
+paragraph about missing him, a little tingle of pleasure shot through him
+at the thought. He did not understand it. After all she was his, and if it
+was possible he must help to make up to her for what she had lost in
+giving herself to him. If the thought of doing so brought a sense of
+satisfaction to him that was unexpected, he was not to blame in any wise.
+
+Since his interview with Kate, and the terrible night of agony through
+which he had passed, David had plunged into his business with all his
+might. Whenever a thought of Kate came he banished it if possible, and if
+it would not go he got out his writing materials and went to work at an
+article, to absorb his mind. He had several times arisen in the night to
+write because he could not sleep, and must think.
+
+When he was obliged to be in New York he had steadily kept away from the
+house where Kate lived, and never walked through the streets without
+occupying his mind as fully as possible so that he should not chance to
+see her. In this way his sorrow was growing old without having been worn
+out, and he was really regaining a large amount of his former happiness
+and interest in life. Not so often now did the vision of Kate come to
+trouble him. He thought she was still his one ideal of womanly beauty and
+grace and perfection of course, and always would be, but she was not for
+him to think upon any more. A strong true man he was growing, out of his
+sorrow. And now when the thought of Marcia came to him with a certain
+sweetness he could be glad that it was so, and not resent it. Of course no
+one could ever take the place of Kate, that was impossible.
+
+So reflecting, with a pleasant smile upon his face, he opened Miranda’s
+epistle.
+
+Puzzled and surprised he began to read the strange chirography, and as he
+read his face darkened and he drew his brows in a heavy frown. “The
+scoundrel!� he muttered as he turned the sheet. Then as he went on his
+look grew anxious. He scanned the page quickly as if he would gather the
+meaning from the crooked ill-spelled words without taking them one by one.
+But he had to go slowly, for Miranda had not written with as much
+plainness as haste. He fairly held his breath when he thought of the
+gentle girl in the hands of the unscrupulous man of the world. A terrible
+fear gripped his heart, Marcia, little Marcia, so sweet and pure and good.
+A vision of her face as she lay asleep in the woods came between him and
+the paper. Why had he left her unprotected all these months? Fool that he
+was! She was worth more than all the railroads put together. As if his own
+life was in the balance, he read on, growing sick with horror. Poor child!
+what had she thought? And how had his own sin and weakness been found out,
+or was it merely Harry Temple’s wicked heart that had evolved these
+stories? The letter smote him with terrible accusation, and all at once it
+was fearful to him to think that Marcia had heard such things about him.
+When he came to her trust in him he groaned aloud and buried his face in
+the letter, and then raised it quickly to read to the end.
+
+When he had finished he rose with sudden determination to pack his
+carpet-bag and go home at once. Marcia needed him, and he felt a strong
+desire to be near her, to see her and know she was safe. It was
+overwhelming. He had not known he could ever feel strongly again. He must
+confess his own weakness of course, and he would. She should know all and
+know that she might trust his after all.
+
+But the motion of rising had sent the other papers to the floor, and in
+falling the bundle of letters that Miranda had enclosed, scattered about
+him. He stooped to pick them up and saw his own name written in Kate’s
+handwriting. Old association held him, and wondering, fearful, not wholly
+glad to see it, he picked up the letter. It was an epistle of Kate’s,
+written in intimate style to Harry Temple and speaking of himself in terms
+of the utmost contempt. She even stooped to detail to Harry an account of
+her own triumph on that miserable morning when he had taken her in his
+arms and kissed her. There were expressions in the letter that showed her
+own wicked heart, as nothing else could ever have done, to David. As he
+read, his soul growing sick within him,—read one letter after another, and
+saw how she had plotted with this bad man to wreck the life of her young
+sister for her own triumph and revenge,—the beautiful woman whom he had
+loved, and whom he had thought beautiful within as well as without,
+crumbled into dust before him. When he looked up at last with white face
+and firmly set lips, he found that his soul was free forever from the
+fetters that had bound him to her.
+
+He went to the fireplace and laid the pile of letters among the embers,
+blowing them into a blaze, and watched them until they were eaten up by
+the fire and nothing remained but dead grey ashes. The thought came to him
+that that was like his old love. It was burnt out. There had not been the
+right kind of fuel to feed it. Kate was worthless, but his own self was
+alive, and please God he would yet see better days. He would go home at
+once to the child wife who needed him, and whom now he might love as she
+should be loved. The thought became wondrously sweet to him as he rapidly
+threw the things into his travelling bag and went about arrangements for
+his trip home. He determined that if he ever came to New York again Marcia
+should come with him.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+Marcia hurried down to her own house early one morning. The phantoms of
+her experiences in the old Green Tavern were pursuing her.
+
+Once there she could do nothing but go over and over the dreadful things
+that Harry Temple had said. In vain did she try to work. She went into the
+library and took up a book, but her mind would wander to David.
+
+She sat down at the piano and played a few tender chords and sang an old
+Italian song which somebody had left at their house several years before:
+
+                “Dearest, believe,
+                   When e’er we part:
+                 Lonely I grieve,
+                   In my sad heart:—�
+
+With a sob her head dropped upon her hands in one sad little crash of
+wailing tones, while the sound died away in reverberation after
+reverberation of the strings till Marcia felt as if a sea of sound were
+about her in soft ebbing, flowing waves.
+
+The sound covered the lifting of the side door latch and the quiet step of
+a foot. Marcia was absorbed in her own thoughts. Her smothered sobs were
+mingling with the dying sounds of the music, still audible to her fine
+ear.
+
+David had come by instinct to his own home first. He felt that Marcia
+would be there, and now that he was come and the morning sun flooded
+everything and made home look so good he felt that he must find her first
+of all before his relationship with home had been re-established. He
+passed through kitchen, dining room and hall, and by the closed parlor
+door. He never thought of her being in there with the door closed. He
+glanced into the library and saw the book lying in his chair as she had
+left it, and it gave a touch of her presence which pleased him. He went
+softly toward the stairs thinking to find her. He had stopped at a shop
+the last thing and bought a beautiful creamy shawl of China crêpe heavily
+embroidered, and finished with long silken fringe. He had taken it from
+his carpet-bag and was carrying it in its rice paper wrappings lest it
+should be crushed. He was pleased as a child at the present he had brought
+her, and felt strangely shy about giving it to her.
+
+Just then there came a sound from the parlor, sweet and tender and
+plaintive. Marcia had conquered her sobs and was singing again with her
+whole soul, singing as if she were singing to David. The words drew him
+strangely, wonderingly toward the parlor door, yet so softly that he heard
+every syllable.
+
+                “Dearest, believe,
+                   When e’er we part:
+                 Lonely I grieve,
+                   In my sad heart:—
+                 Thy faithful slave,
+                   Languishing sighs,
+                 Haste then and save—�
+
+Here the words trailed away again into a half sob, and the melody
+continued in broken, halting chords that flickered out and faded into the
+shadows of the room.
+
+David’s heart was pierced with a belief that Aunt Clarinda was right and
+something was the matter with Marcia. A great trouble and tenderness, and
+almost jealousy, leaped up in his heart which were incomprehensible to
+him. Who was Marcia singing this song for? That it was a true cry from a
+lonely soul he could but believe. Was she feeling her prison-bars here in
+the lonely old house with only a forlorn man whose life and love had been
+thrown away upon another? Poor child! Poor child! If he might but save her
+from suffering, cover her with his own tenderness and make her content
+with that. Would it be possible if he devoted himself to it to make her
+forget the one for whom she was sighing; to bring peace and a certain sort
+of sweet forgetfulness and interest in other things into her life? He
+wanted to make a new life for her, his little girl whom he had so
+unthinkingly torn from the home nest and her future, and compelled to take
+up his barren way with him. He would make it up to her if such a thing
+were possible. Then he opened the door.
+
+In the soft green light of the noonday coming through the shades Marcia’s
+color did not show as it flew into her cheeks. Her hands grew weak and
+dropped upon the keys with a soft little tinkle of surprise and joy. She
+sprang up and came a step toward him, then clasped her hands against her
+breast and stopped shyly. David coming into the room, questioning,
+wondering, anxious, stopped midway too, and for an instant they looked
+upon one another. David saw a new look in the girl’s face. She seemed
+older, much older than when he had left her. The sweet round cheeks were
+thinner, her mouth drooped sadly, pathetically. For an instant he longed
+to take her in his arms and kiss her. The longing startled him. So many
+months he had thought of only Kate in that way, and then had tried to
+teach himself never to think of Kate or any woman as one to be caressed by
+him, that it shocked him. He felt that he had been disloyal to himself, to
+honor,—to Kate—no—not to Kate, he had no call to be loyal to her. She had
+not been loyal to him ever. Perhaps rather he would have put it loyalty to
+Love for Love’s sake, love that is worthy to be crowned by a woman’s love.
+
+With all these mingling feelings David was embarrassed. He came toward her
+slowly, trying to be natural, trying to get back his former way with her.
+He put out his hand stiffly to shake hands as he had done when he left,
+and timidly she put hers into it, yet as their fingers closed there leaped
+from one to the other a thrill of sweetness, that neither guessed the
+other knew and each put by in memory for closer inspection as to what it
+could mean. Their hands clung together longer than either had meant, and
+there was something pleasant to each in the fact that they were together
+again. David thought it was just because it was home, rest, and peace, and
+a relief from his anxiety about Marcia now that he saw she was all right.
+Marcia knew it was better to have David standing there with his strong
+fingers about her trembling ones, than to have anything else in the world.
+But she would not have told him so.
+
+“That was a sweet song you were singing,� said David. “I hope you were
+singing it for me, and that it was true! I am glad I am come home, and you
+must sing it again for me soon.�
+
+It was not in the least what he intended to say, and the words tumbled
+themselves out so tumultuously that he was almost ashamed and wondered if
+Marcia would think he had lost his mind in New York. Marcia, dear child,
+treasured them every word and hugged them to her heart, and carried them
+in her prayers.
+
+They went out together and got dinner as if they had been two children,
+with a wild excited kind of glee; and they tried to get back their natural
+ways of doing and saying things, but they could not.
+
+Instead they were forever blundering and halting in what they said; coming
+face to face and almost running over one another as they tried to help
+each other; laughing and blushing and blundering again.
+
+When they each tried to reach for the tea kettle to fill the coffee pot
+and their fingers touched, each drew back and pretended not to notice, but
+yet had felt the contact sweet.
+
+They were lingering over the dinner when Hannah Heath came to the door.
+David had been telling of some of his adventures in detail and was
+enjoying the play of expression on Marcia’s face as she listened eagerly
+to every word. They had pushed their chairs back a little and were sitting
+there talking,—or rather David was talking, Marcia listening. Hannah stood
+for one jealous instant and saw it all. This was what she had dreamed for
+her own long years back, she and David. She had questioned much just what
+feeling there might be between him and Marcia, and now more than ever she
+desired to bring him face to face with Kate and read for herself what the
+truth had been. She hated Marcia for that look of intense delight and
+sympathy upon her face; hated her that she had the right to sit there and
+hear what David had to say—some stupid stuff about railroads. She did not
+see that she herself would have made an ill companion for a man like
+David.
+
+As yet neither Marcia nor David had touched upon the subjects which had
+troubled them. They did not realize it, but they were so suddenly happy in
+each other’s company they had forgotten for the moment. The pleasant
+converse was broken up at once. Marcia’s face hardened into something like
+alarm as she saw who stood in the doorway.
+
+“Why, David, have you got home at last?� said Hannah. “I did not know it.�
+That was an untruth. She had watched him from behind Grandmother Heath’s
+rose bush. “Where did you come from last? New York? Oh, then you saw Mrs.
+Leavenworth. How is she? I fell in love with her when I was there.�
+
+Now David had never fully taken in Kate’s married name. He knew it of
+course, but in his present state of happiness at getting home, and his
+absorption in the work he had been doing, the name “Mrs. Leavenworth�
+conveyed nothing whatever to David’s mind. He looked blankly at Hannah and
+replied indifferently enough with a cool air. “No, Miss Hannah, I had no
+time for social life. I was busy every minute I was away.�
+
+David never expected Hannah to say anything worth listening to, and he was
+so full of his subject that he had not noticed that she made no reply.
+
+Hannah watched him curiously as he talked, his remarks after all were
+directed more to Marcia than to her, and when he paused she said with a
+contemptuous sneer in her voice, “I never could understand, David, how you
+who seem to have so much sense in other things will take up with such
+fanciful, impractical dreams as this railroad. Lemuel says it’ll never
+run.�
+
+Hannah quoted her lover with a proud bridling of her head as if the matter
+were settled once and for all. It was the first time she had allowed the
+world to see that she acknowledged her relation to Lemuel. She was not
+averse to having David understand that she felt there were other men in
+the world besides himself. But David turned merry eyes on her.
+
+“Lemuel says?� he repeated, and he made a sudden movement with his arm
+which sent a knife and spoon from the table in a clatter upon the floor.
+
+“And how much does Lemuel know about the matter?�
+
+“Lemuel has good practical common sense,� said Hannah, vexed, “and he
+knows what is possible and what is not. He does not need to travel all
+over the country on a wild goose chase to learn that.�
+
+Now that she had accepted him Hannah did not intend to allow Lemuel to be
+discounted.
+
+“He has not long to wait to be convinced,� said David thoughtfully and
+unaware of her tart tone. “Before the year is out it will be a settled
+fact that every one can see.�
+
+“Well, it’s beyond comprehension what you care, anyway,� said Hannah
+contemptuously. “Did you really spend all your time in New York on such
+things? It seems incredible. There certainly must have been other
+attractions?�
+
+There was insinuation in Hannah’s voice though it was smooth as butter,
+but David had had long years of experience in hearing Hannah Heath’s sharp
+tongue. He minded it no more than he would have minded the buzzing of a
+fly. Marcia’s color rose, however. She made a hasty errand to the pantry
+to put away the bread, and her eyes flashed at Hannah through the close
+drawn pantry door. But Hannah did not give up so easily.
+
+“It is strange you did not stay with Mrs. Leavenworth,� she said. “She
+told me you were one of her dearest friends, and you used to be quite fond
+of one another.�
+
+Then it suddenly dawned upon David who Mrs. Leavenworth was, and a
+sternness overspread his face.
+
+“Mrs. Leavenworth, did you say? Ah! I did not understand. I saw her but
+once and that for only a few minutes soon after I first arrived. I did not
+see her again.� His voice was cool and steady. Marcia coming from the
+pantry with set face, ready for defence if there was any she could give,
+marvelled at his coolness. Her heart was gripped with fear, and yet
+leaping with joy at David’s words. He had not seen Kate but once. He had
+known she was there and yet had kept away. Hannah’s insinuations were
+false. Mr. Temple’s words were untrue. She had known it all the time, yet
+what sorrow they had given her!
+
+“By the way, Marcia,� said David, turning toward her with a smile that
+seemed to erase the sternness in his voice but a moment before. “Did you
+not write me some news? Miss Hannah, you are to be congratulated I
+believe. Lemuel is a good man. I wish you much happiness.�
+
+And thus did David, with a pleasant speech, turn aside Hannah Heath’s
+dart. Yet while she went from the house with a smile and a sound of
+pleasant wishes in her ears, she carried with her a bitter heart and a
+revengeful one.
+
+David was suddenly brought face to face with the thing he had to tell
+Marcia. He sat watching her as she went back and forth from pantry to
+kitchen, and at last he came and stood beside her and took her hands in
+his looking down earnestly into her face. It seemed terrible to him to
+tell this thing to the innocent girl, now, just when he was growing
+anxious to win her confidence, but it must be told, and better now than
+later lest he might be tempted not to tell it at all.
+
+“Marcia!� He said the name tenderly, with an inflection he had never used
+before. It was not lover-like, nor passionate, but it reached her heart
+and drew her eyes to his and the color to her cheeks. She thought how
+different his clasp was from Harry Temple’s hateful touch. She looked up
+at him trustingly, and waited.
+
+“You heard what I said to Hannah Heath just now, about—your——� He paused,
+dissatisfied—“about Mrs. Leavenworth�—it was as if he would set the
+subject of his words far from them. Marcia’s heart beat wildly,
+remembering all that she had been told, yet she looked bravely, trustingly
+into his eyes.
+
+“It was true what I told her. I met Mrs. Leavenworth but once while I was
+away. It was in her own home and she sent for me saying she was in
+trouble. She told me that she was in terrible anxiety lest I would not
+forgive her. She begged me to say that I forgave her, and when I told her
+I did she asked me to kiss her once to prove it. I was utterly overcome
+and did so, but the moment my lips touched hers I knew that I was doing
+wrong and I put her from me. She begged me to remain, and I now know that
+she was utterly false from the first. It was but a part she was playing
+when she touched my heart until I yielded and sinned. I have only learned
+that recently, within a few days, and from words written by her own hand
+to another. I will tell you about it all sometime. But I want to confess
+to you this wrong I have done, and to let you know that I went away from
+her that day and have never seen her since. She had said she was without
+money, and I left her all I had with me. I know now that that too was
+unwise,—perhaps wrong. I feel that all this was a sin against you. I would
+like you to forgive me if you can, and I want you to know that this other
+woman who was the cause of our coming together, and yet has separated us
+ever since we have been together, is no longer anything to me. Even if she
+and I were both free as we were when we first met, we could never be
+anything but strangers. Can you forgive me now, Marcia, and can you ever
+trust me after what I have told you?�
+
+Marcia looked into his eyes, and loved him but the more for his
+confession. She felt she could forgive him anything, and her whole soul in
+her countenance answered with her voice, as she said: “I can.� It made
+David think of their wedding day, and suddenly it came over him with a
+thrill that this sweet womanly woman belonged to him. He marvelled at her
+sweet forgiveness. The joy of it surprised him beyond measure.
+
+“You have had some sad experiences yourself. Will you tell me now all
+about it?� He asked the question wistfully still holding her hands in a
+firm close grasp, and she let them lie nestling there feeling safe as
+birds in the nest.
+
+“Why, how did you know?� questioned Marcia, her whole face flooded with
+rosy light for joy at his kind ways and relief that she did not have to
+open the story.
+
+“Oh, a little bird, or a guardian angel whispered the tale,� he said
+pleasantly. “Come into the room where we can be sure no Hannah Heaths will
+trouble us,� and he drew her into the library and seated her beside him on
+the sofa.
+
+“But, indeed, Marcia,� and his face sobered, “it is no light matter to me,
+what has happened to you. I have been in an agony all the way home lest I
+might not find you safe and well after having escaped so terrible a
+danger.�
+
+He drew the whole story from her bit by bit, tenderly questioning her, his
+face blazing with righteous wrath, and darkening with his wider knowledge
+as she told on to the end, and showed him plainly the black heart of the
+villain who had dared so diabolical a conspiracy; and the inhumanity of
+the woman who had helped in the intrigue against her own sister,—nay even
+instigated it. His feelings were too deep for utterance. He was shaken to
+the depths. His new comprehension of Kate’s character was confirmed at the
+worst. Marcia could only guess his deep feelings from his shaken
+countenance and the earnest way in which he folded his hands over hers and
+said in low tones filled with emotion: “We should be deeply thankful to
+God for saving you, and I must be very careful of you after this. That
+villain shall be searched out and punished if it takes a lifetime, and
+Miranda,—what shall we do for Miranda? Perhaps we can induce her
+grandmother to let us have her sometime to help take care of us. We seem
+to be unable to get on without her. We’ll see what we can do sometime in
+return for the great service she has rendered.�
+
+But the old clock striking in the hall suddenly reminded David that he
+should go at once to the office, so he hurried away and Marcia set about
+her work with energy, a happy song of praise in her heart.
+
+There was much to be done. David had said he would scarcely have time to
+go over to his aunts that night, so she had decided to invite them to tea.
+She would far rather have had David to herself this first evening, but it
+would please them to come, especially Aunt Clarinda. There was not much
+time to prepare supper to be sure, but she would stir up a gingerbread,
+make some puffy cream biscuits, and there was lovely white honey and fresh
+eggs and peach preserves.
+
+So she ran to Deacon Appleby’s to get some cream for her biscuits and to
+ask Tommy Appleby to harness David’s horse and drive over for Aunt
+Clarinda. Then she hurried down to the aunts to give her invitation.
+
+Aunt Clarinda sat down in her calico-covered rocking chair, wiped her dear
+old eyes and her glasses, and said, over and over again: “Dear child!
+Bless her! Bless her!�
+
+It was a happy gathering that evening. David was as pleased as they could
+have desired, and looked about upon the group in the dining-room with
+genuine boyish pleasure. It did his heart good to see Aunt Clarinda there.
+It had never occurred to him before that she could come. He turned to
+Marcia with a light in his eyes that fully repaid her for the little
+trouble she had had in carrying out her plan. He began to feel that home
+meant something even though he had lost the home of his long dreams and
+ideals.
+
+He talked a great deal about his trip, and in between the sentences, he
+caught himself watching Marcia, noting the curve of her round chin, the
+dimple in her left cheek when she smiled, the way her hair waved off from
+her forehead, the pink curves of her well-shaped ears. He found a distinct
+pleasure in noting these things and he wondered at himself. It was as if
+he had suddenly been placed before some great painting and become
+possessed of the knowledge wherewith to appreciate art to its fullest. It
+was as if he had heard a marvellous piece of music and had the eyes and
+ears of his understanding opened to take in the gracious melodies and
+majestic harmonies.
+
+Aunt Clarinda watched his eyes, and Aunt Clarinda was satisfied. Aunt
+Hortense watched his eyes, jealously and sighed. Aunt Amelia watched his
+eyes and set her lips and feared to herself. “He will spoil her if he does
+like that. She will think she can walk right over him.� But Aunt Clarinda
+knew better. She recognized the eternal right of love.
+
+They took the three old ladies home in the rising of an early moon, Marcia
+walking demurely on the sidewalk with Aunt Amelia, while David drove the
+chaise with Aunt Clarinda and Aunt Hortense.
+
+As he gently lifted Aunt Clarinda down and helped her to her room David
+felt her old hands tremble and press his arm, and when he had reached her
+door he stooped and kissed her.
+
+“Davie,� she said in the voice that used to comfort his little childish
+troubles, or tell him of some nice surprise she had for him, “Davie, she’s
+a dear child! She’s just as good as gold. She’s the princess I used to put
+in all your fairy-tales. David, she’s just the right one for you!� and
+David answered earnestly, solemnly, as if he were discovering a truth
+which surprised him but yet was not unwelcome. “I believe she is, Aunt
+Clarinda.�
+
+They drove to the barn and Marcia sat in the chaise in the sweet
+hay-scented darkness while David put up the horse by the cobwebby light of
+the lantern; then they walked quietly back to the house. David had drawn
+Marcia’s hand through his arm and it rested softly on his coat sleeve. She
+was silently happy, she knew not why, afraid to think of it lest to-morrow
+would show her there was nothing out of the ordinary monotony to be happy
+about.
+
+David was silent, wondering at himself. What was this that had come to
+him? A new pleasure in life. A little trembling rill of joy bubbling up in
+his heart; a rift in the dark clouds of fate; a show of sunshine where he
+had expected never to see the light again. Why was it so pleasant to have
+that little hand resting upon his arm? Was it really pleasant or was it
+only a part of the restfulness of getting home again away from strange
+faces and uncomfortable beds, and poor tables?
+
+They let themselves into the house as if they were walking into a new
+world together and both were glad to be there again. When she got up to
+her room Marcia went and stood before the glass and looked at herself by
+the flickering flame of the candle. Her eyes were bright and her cheeks
+burned red in the centre like two soft deep roses. She felt she hardly
+knew herself. She tried to be critical. Was this person she was examining
+a pretty person? Would she be called so in comparison with Kate and Hannah
+Heath? Would a man,—would David,—if his heart were not filled,—think so?
+She decided not. She felt she was too immature. There was too much shyness
+in her glance, too much babyishness about her mouth. No, David could never
+have thought her beautiful, even if he had seen her before he knew Kate.
+But perhaps, if Kate had been married first and away and then he had come
+to their home, perhaps if he knew no one else well enough to love,—could
+he have cared for her?
+
+Oh, it was a dreadful, beautiful thought. It thrilled through and through
+her till she hid her face from her own gaze. She suddenly kissed the hand
+that had rested on his sleeve, and then reproached herself for it. She
+loved him, but was it right to do so?
+
+As for David, he was sitting on the side of his bed with his chin in his
+hands examining himself.
+
+He had supposed that with the reading of those letters which had come to
+him but two short days before all possibility of love and happiness had
+died, but lo! he found himself thrilling with pleasure over the look in a
+girl’s soft eyes, and the touch of her hand. And that girl was his wife.
+It was enough to keep him awake to try to understand himself.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+Hannah Heath’s wedding day dawned bright enough for a less calculating
+bride.
+
+David did not get home until half past three. He had been obliged to drive
+out to the starting place of the new railroad, near Albany, where it was
+important that he get a few points correctly. On the morrow was to be the
+initial trip, by the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, of the first train drawn
+by a steam engine in the state of New York.
+
+His article about it, bargained for by a New York paper, must be on its
+way by special post as soon after the starting of the train as possible.
+He must have all items accurate; technicalities of preparation;
+description of engine and coaches; details of arrangements, etc.; before
+he added the final paragraphs describing the actual start of the train.
+His article was practically done now, save for these few items. He had
+started early that morning on his long drive, and, being detained longer
+than he had expected, arrived at home with barely time to put himself into
+wedding garments, and hasten in at the last moment with Marcia who stood
+quietly waiting for him in the front hall. They were the last guests to
+arrive. It was time for the ceremony, but the bride, true to her nature to
+the last, still kept Lemuel waiting; and Lemuel, true to the end, stood
+smiling and patient awaiting her pleasure.
+
+David and Marcia entered the wide parlor and shook hands here and there
+with those assembled, though for the most part a hushed air pervaded the
+room, as it always does when something is about to happen.
+
+Soon after their arrival some one in purple silk came down the stairs and
+seated herself in a vacant chair close to where the bride was to stand.
+She had gold hair and eyes like forget-me-nots. She was directly opposite
+to David and Marcia. David was engrossed in a whispered conversation with
+Mr. Brentwood about the events of the morrow, and did not notice her
+entrance, though she paused in the doorway and searched him directly from
+amongst the company before she took her seat. Marcia, who was talking with
+Rose Brentwood, caught the vision of purple and gold and turned to face
+for one brief instant the scornful, half-merry glance of her sister. The
+blood in her face fled back to her heart and left it white.
+
+Then Marcia summoned all her courage and braced herself to face what was
+to come. She forced herself to smile in answer to Rose Brentwood’s
+question. But all the while she was trying to understand what it was in
+her sister’s look that had hurt her so. It was not the anger,—for that she
+was prepared. It was not the scorn, for she had often faced that. Was it
+the almost merriment? Yes, there was the sting. She had felt it so keenly
+when as a little girl Kate had taken to making fun of some whim of hers.
+She could not see why Kate should find cause for fun just now. It was as
+if she by her look ignored Marcia’s relation to David in scornful laugh
+and appropriated him herself. Marcia’s inmost soul rebelled. The color
+came back as if by force of her will. She would show Kate,—or she would
+show David at least,—that she could bear all things for him. She would
+play well her part of wife this day. The happy two months that had passed
+since David came back from New York had made her almost feel as if she was
+really his and he hers. For this hour she would forget that it was
+otherwise. She would look at him and speak to him as if he had been her
+husband for years, as if there were the truest understanding between
+them,—as indeed, of a certain wistful, pleasant sort there was. She would
+not let the dreadful thought of Kate cloud her face for others to see.
+Bravely she faced the company, but her heart under Kate’s blue frock sent
+up a swift and pleading prayer demanding of a higher Power something she
+knew she had not in herself, and must therefore find in Him who had
+created her. It was the most trustful, and needy prayer that Marcia ever
+uttered and yet there were no words, not even the closing of an eyelid.
+Only her heart took the attitude of prayer.
+
+The door upstairs opened in a business-like way, and Hannah’s composed
+voice was heard giving a direction. Hannah’s silken tread began to be
+audible. Miranda told Marcia afterward that she kept her standing at the
+window for an hour beforehand to see when David arrived, and when they
+started over to the house. Hannah kept herself posted on what was going on
+in the room below as well as if she were down there. She knew where David
+and Marcia stood, and told Kate exactly where to go. It was like Hannah
+that in the moment of her sacrifice of the long cherished hopes of her
+life she should have planned a dramatic revenge to help carry her through.
+
+The bride’s rustle became at last so audible that even David and Mr.
+Brentwood heard and turned from their absorbing conversation to the
+business in hand.
+
+Hannah was in the doorway when David looked up, very cold and beautiful in
+her bridal array despite the years she had waited, and almost at once
+David saw the vision in purple and gold like a saucy pansy, standing near
+her.
+
+Kate’s eyes were fixed upon him with their most bewitching, dancing smile
+of recognition, like a naughty little child who had been in hiding for a
+time and now peeps out laughing over the discomfiture of its elders. So
+Kate encountered the steadfast gaze of David’s astonished eyes.
+
+But there was no light of love in those eyes as she had expected to see.
+Instead there grew in his face such a blaze of righteous indignation as
+the lord of the wedding feast might have turned upon the person who came
+in without a wedding garment. In spite of herself Kate was disconcerted.
+She was astonished. She felt that David was challenging her presence
+there. It seemed to her he was looking through her, searching her, judging
+her, sentencing her, and casting her out, and presently his eyes wandered
+beyond her through the open hall door and out into God’s green world; and
+when they came back and next rested upon her his look had frozen into the
+glance of a stranger.
+
+Angry, ashamed, baffled, she bit her lips in vexation, but tried to keep
+the merry smile. In her heart she hated him, and vowed to make him bow
+before her smiles once more.
+
+David did not see the bride at all to notice her, but the bride, unlike
+the one of the psalmist’s vision whose eyes were upon “her dear
+bridegroom’s face,� was looking straight across the room with evident
+intent to observe David.
+
+The ceremony proceeded, and Hannah went through her part correctly and
+calmly, aware that she was giving herself to Lemuel Skinner irrevocably,
+yet perfectly aware also of the discomfiture of the sweet-faced girl-wife
+who sat across the room bravely watching the ceremony with white cheeks
+and eyes that shone like righteous lights.
+
+Marcia did not look at David. She was with him in heart, suffering with
+him, feeling for him, quivering in every nerve for what he might be
+enduring. She had no need to look. Her part was to ignore, and help to
+cover.
+
+They went through it all well. Not once did Aunt Amelia or Aunt Hortense
+notice anything strange in the demeanor of their nephew or his wife. Aunt
+Clarinda was not there. She was not fond of Hannah.
+
+As soon as the service was over and the relatives had broken the solemn
+hush by kissing the bride, David turned and spoke to Rose Brentwood,
+making some smiling remark about the occasion. Rose Brentwood was looking
+her very prettiest in a rose-sprigged delaine and her wavy dark hair in a
+beaded net tied round with a rose-colored lute-string ribbon.
+
+Kate flushed angrily at this. If it had been Marcia to whom he had spoken
+she would have judged he did it out of pique, but a pretty stranger coming
+upon the scene at this critical moment was trying. And then, too, David’s
+manner was so indifferent, so utterly natural. He did not seem in the
+least troubled by the sight of herself.
+
+David and Marcia did not go up to speak to the bride at once. David
+stepped back into the deep window seat to talk with Mr. Brentwood, and
+seemed to be in no hurry to follow the procession who were filing past the
+calm bride to congratulate her. Marcia remained quietly talking to Rose
+Brentwood.
+
+At last David turned toward his wife with a smile as though he had known
+she was there all the time, and had felt her sympathy. Her heart leaped up
+with new strength at that look, and her husband’s firm touch as he drew
+her hand within his arm to lead her over to the bride gave her courage.
+She felt that she could face the battle, and with a bright smile that lit
+up her whole lovely face she marched bravely to the front to do or to die.
+
+“I had about given up expecting any congratulations from you,� said Hannah
+sharply as they came near. It was quite evident she had been watching for
+them.
+
+“I wish you much joy, Mrs. Skinner,� said David mechanically, scarcely
+feeling that she would have it for he knew her unhappy, dissatisfied
+nature.
+
+“Yes,� said Marcia, “I wish you may be happy,—as happy as I am!�
+
+It was an impetuous, childish thing to say, and Marcia scarcely realized
+what words she meant to speak until they were out, and then she blushed
+rosy red. Was she happy? Why was she happy? Yes, even in the present
+trying circumstances she suddenly felt a great deep happiness bubbling up
+in her heart. Was it David’s look and his strong arm under her hand?
+
+Hannah darted a look at her. She was stung by the words. But did the
+girl-bride before her mean to flaunt her own triumphs in her face? Did she
+fully understand? Or was she trying to act a part and make them believe
+she was happy? Hannah was baffled once more as she had been before with
+Marcia.
+
+Kate turned upon Marcia for one piercing instant again, that look of
+understanding, mocking merriment, which cut through the soul of her
+sister.
+
+But did Marcia imagine it, or was it true that at her words to Hannah,
+David’s arm had pressed hers closer as they stood there in the crowd? The
+thought thrilled through her and gave her greater strength.
+
+Hannah turned toward Kate.
+
+“David,� she said, as she had always called him, and it is possible that
+she enjoyed the triumph of this touch of intimacy before her guest, “you
+knew my friend Mrs. Leavenworth!�
+
+David bowed gravely, but did not attempt to put out his hand to take the
+one which Kate offered in greeting. Instead he laid it over Marcia’s
+little trembling one on his arm as if to steady it.
+
+“We have met before,� said David briefly in an impenetrable tone, and
+turning passed out of the room to make way for the Brentwoods who were
+behind him.
+
+Hannah scarcely treated the Brentwoods with decency, so vexed was she with
+the way things were turning out. To think that David should so completely
+baffle her. She turned an annoyed look at Kate, who flashed her blue eyes
+contemptuously as if to blame Hannah.
+
+Soon the whole little gathering were in the dining-room and wide hall
+being served with Grandmother Heath’s fried chicken and currant jelly,
+delicate soda biscuits, and fruit cake baked months before and left to
+ripen.
+
+The ordeal through which they were passing made David and Marcia feel, as
+they sat down, that they would not be able to swallow a mouthful, but
+strangely enough they found themselves eating with relish, each to
+encourage the other perhaps, but almost enjoying it, and feeling that they
+had not yet met more than they would be able to withstand.
+
+Kate was seated on the other side of the dining-room, by Hannah, and she
+watched the two incessantly with that half merry contemptuous look, toying
+with her own food, and apparently waiting for their acting to cease and
+David to put on his true character. She never doubted for an instant that
+they were acting.
+
+The wedding supper was over at last. The guests crowded out to the front
+stoop to bid good-bye to the happy bridegroom and cross-looking bride, who
+seemed as if she left the gala scene reluctantly.
+
+Marcia, for the instant, was separated from David, who stepped down upon
+the grass and stood to one side to let the bridal party pass. The minister
+was at the other side. Marcia had slipped into the shelter of Aunt
+Amelia’s black silk presence and wished she might run out the back door
+and away home.
+
+Suddenly a shimmer of gold with the sunlight through it caught her gaze,
+and a glimpse of sheeny purple. There, close behind David, standing upon
+the top step, quite unseen by him, stood her sister Kate.
+
+Marcia’s heart gave a quick thump and seemed to stop, then went painfully
+laboring on. She stood quite still watching for the moment to come when
+David would turn around and see Kate that she might look into his face and
+read there what was written.
+
+Hannah had been put carefully into the carriage by the adoring Lemuel,
+with many a pat, and a shaking of cushions, and an adjustment of curtains
+to suit her whim. It pleased Hannah, now in her last lingering moment of
+freedom, to be exacting and show others what a slave her husband was.
+
+They all stood for an instant looking after the carriage, but Marcia
+watched David. Then, just as the carriage wound around the curve in the
+road and was lost from view, she saw him turn, and at once knew she must
+not see his face as he looked at Kate. Closing her eyes like a flash she
+turned and fled upstairs to get her shawl and bonnet. There she took
+refuge behind the great white curtains, and hid her face for several
+minutes, praying wildly, she hardly knew what, thankful she had been kept
+from the sight which yet she had longed to behold.
+
+As David turned to go up the steps and search for Marcia he was confronted
+by Kate’s beautiful, smiling face, radiant as it used to be when it had
+first charmed him. He exulted, as he looked into it, that it did not any
+longer charm.
+
+“David, you don’t seem a bit glad to see me,� blamed Kate sweetly in her
+pretty, childish tones, looking into his face with those blue eyes so like
+to liquid skies. Almost there was a hint of tears in them. He had been
+wont to kiss them when she looked like that. Now he felt only disgust as
+some of the flippant sentences in her letters to Harry Temple came to his
+mind.
+
+His face was stern and unrecognizing.
+
+“David, you are angry with me yet! You said you would forgive!� The gentle
+reproach minimized the crime, and enlarged the punishment. It was Kate’s
+way. The pretty pout on the rosy lips was the same as it used to be when
+she chided him for some trifling forgetfulness of her wishes.
+
+The other guests had all gone into the house now. David made no response,
+but, nothing daunted, Kate spoke again.
+
+“I have something very important to consult you about. I came here on
+purpose. Can you give me some time to-morrow morning?�
+
+She wrinkled her pretty face into a thousand dimples and looked her most
+bewitching like a naughty child who knew she was loved in spite of
+anything, and coquettishly putting her head on one side, added, in the
+tone she used of old to cajole him:
+
+“You know you never could refuse me anything, David.�
+
+David did not smile. He did not answer the look. With a voice that
+recognized her only as a stranger he said gravely:
+
+“I have an important engagement to-morrow morning.�
+
+“But you will put off the engagement.� She said it confidently.
+
+“It is impossible!� said David decidedly. “I am starting quite early to
+drive over to Albany. I am under obligation to be present at the starting
+of the new steam railroad.�
+
+“Oh, how nice!� said Kate, clapping her hands childishly, “I have wanted
+to be there, and now you will take me. Then I—we—can talk on the way. How
+like old times that will be!� She flashed him a smile of molten sunshine,
+alluring and transforming.
+
+“That, too, is impossible, Mrs. Leavenworth. My wife accompanies me!� he
+answered her promptly and clearly and with a curt bow left her and went
+into the house.
+
+Kate Leavenworth was angry, and for Kate to be angry, meant to visit it
+upon some one, the offender if possible, if not the nearest to the
+offender. She had failed utterly in her attempt to win back the friendship
+of her former lover. She had hoped to enjoy his attention to a certain
+extent and bathe her sad (?) heart in the wistful glances of the man she
+had jilted; and incidentally perhaps be invited to spend a little time in
+his house, by which she would contrive to have a good many of her own
+ways. A rich brother-in-law who adored one was not a bad thing to have,
+especially when his wife was one’s own little sister whom one had always
+dominated. She was tired of New York and at this season of the year the
+country was much preferable. She could thus contrive to hoard her small
+income, and save for the next winter, as well as secure a possible
+entrance finally into her father’s good graces again through the
+forgiveness of David and Marcia. But she had failed. Could it be that he
+cared for Marcia! That child! Scout the idea! She would discover at once.
+
+Hurriedly she searched through the rooms downstairs and then went
+stealthily upstairs. Instinctively she went to the room where Marcia had
+hidden herself.
+
+Marcia, with that strong upward breath of prayer had grown steady again.
+She was standing with her back to the door looking out of the window
+toward her own home when Kate entered the room. Without turning about she
+felt Kate’s presence and knew that it was she. The moment had come. She
+turned around, her face calm and sweet, with two red spots upon her
+cheeks, and her bonnet,—Kate’s bonnet and shawl, Kate’s fine lace shawl
+sent from Paris—grasped in her hands.
+
+They faced each other, the sisters, and much was understood between them
+in a flash without a word spoken. Marcia suddenly saw herself standing
+there in Kate’s rightful place, Kate’s things in her hands, Kate’s
+garments upon her body, Kate’s husband held by her. It was as if Kate
+charged her with all these things, as she looked her through and over,
+from her slipper tips to the ruffle around the neck. And oh, the scorn
+that flamed from Kate’s eyes playing over her, and scorching her cheeks
+into crimson, and burning her lips dry and stiff! And yet when Kate’s eyes
+reached her face and charged her with the supreme offense of taking David
+from her, Marcia’s eyes looked bravely back, and were not burned by the
+fire, and she felt that her soul was not even scorched by it. Something
+about the thought of David like an angelic presence seemed to save her.
+
+The silence between them was so intense that nothing else could be heard
+by the two. The voices below were drowned by it, the footstep on the stair
+was as if it were not.
+
+At last Kate spoke, angered still more by her sister’s soft eyes which
+gazed steadily back and did not droop before her own flashing onslaught.
+Her voice was cold and cruel. There was nothing sisterly in it, nothing to
+remind either that the other had ever been beloved.
+
+“Fool!� hissed Kate. “Silly fool! Did you think you could steal a husband
+as you stole your clothes? Did you suppose marrying David would make him
+yours, as putting on my clothes seemed to make them yours? Well I can tell
+you he will never be a husband to you. He doesn’t love you and he never
+can. He will always love me. He’s as much mine as if I had married him, in
+spite of all your attempts to take him. Oh, you needn’t put up your baby
+mouth and pucker it as if you were going to cry. Cry away. It won’t do any
+good. You can’t make a man yours, any more than you can make somebody’s
+clothes yours. They don’t fit you any more than he does. You look horrid
+in blue, and you know it, in spite of all your prinking around and
+pretending. I’d be ashamed to be tricked out that way and know that every
+dud I had was made for somebody else. As for going around and pretending
+you have a husband—it’s a lie. You know he’s nothing to you. You know he
+never told you he cared for you. I tell you he’s mine, and he always will
+be.�
+
+“Kate, you’re married!� cried Marcia in shocked tones. “How can you talk
+like that?�
+
+“Married! Nonsense! What difference does that make? It’s hearts that
+count, not marriages. Has your marriage made you a wife? Answer me that!
+Has it? Does David love you? Does he ever kiss you? Yet he came to see me
+in New York this winter, and took me in his arms and kissed me. He gave me
+money too. See this brooch?�—she exhibited a jeweled pin—“that was bought
+with his money. You see he loves me still. I could bring him to my feet
+with a word to-day. He would kiss me if I asked him. He is weak as water
+in my hands.�
+
+Marcia’s cheeks burned with shame and anger. Almost she felt at the limit
+of her strength. For the first time in her life she felt like
+striking,—striking her own sister. Horrified over her feelings, and the
+rage which was tearing her soul, she looked up, and there stood David in
+the doorway, like some tall avenging angel!
+
+Kate had her back that way and did not see at once, but Marcia’s eyes
+rested on him hungrily, pleadingly, and his answered hers. From her sudden
+calmness Kate saw there was some one near, and turning, looked at David.
+But he did not glance her way. How much or how little he had heard of
+Kate’s tirade, which in her passion had been keyed in a high voice, he
+never let them know and neither dared to ask him, lest perhaps he had not
+heard anything. There was a light of steel in his eyes toward everything
+but Marcia, and his tone had in it kindness and a recognition of mutual
+understanding as he said:
+
+“If you are ready we had better go now, dear, had we not?�
+
+Oh how gladly Marcia followed her husband down the stairs and out the
+door! She scarcely knew how she went through the formalities of getting
+away. It seemed as she looked back upon them that David had sheltered her
+from it all, and said everything needful for her, and all she had done was
+to smile an assent. He talked calmly to her all the way home; told her Mr.
+Brentwood’s opinion about the change in the commerce of the country the
+new railroad was going to make; told her though he must have known she
+could not listen. Perhaps both were conscious of the bedroom window over
+the way and a pair of blue eyes that might be watching them as they passed
+into the house. David took hold of her arm and helped her up the steps of
+their own home as if she had been some great lady. Marcia wondered if Kate
+saw that. In her heart she blessed David for this outward sign of their
+relationship. It gave her shame a little cover at least. She glanced up
+toward the next house as she passed in and felt sure she saw a glimmer of
+purple move away from the window. Then David shut the door behind them and
+led her gently in.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+He made her go into the parlor and sit down and she was all unnerved by
+his gentle ways. The tears would come in spite of her. He took his own
+fine wedding handkerchief and wiped them softly off her hot cheeks. He
+untied the bonnet that was not hers, and flung it far into a corner in the
+room. Marcia thought he put force into the fling. Then he unfolded the
+shawl from her shoulders and threw that into another corner. Kate’s
+beautiful thread lace shawl. Marcia felt a hysterical desire to laugh, but
+David’s voice was steady and quiet when he spoke as one might speak to a
+little child in trouble.
+
+“There now, dear,� he said. He had never called her dear before. “There,
+that was an ordeal, and I’m glad, it’s over. It will never trouble us that
+way again. Let us put it aside and never think about it any more. We have
+our own lives to live. I want you to go with me to-morrow morning to see
+the train start if you feel able. We must start early and you must take a
+good rest. Would you like to go?�
+
+Marcia’s face like a radiant rainbow answered for her as she smiled behind
+her tears, and all the while he talked David’s hand, as tender as a
+woman’s, was passing back and forth on Marcia’s hot forehead and smoothing
+the hair. He talked on quietly to soothe her, and give her a chance to
+regain her composure, speaking of a few necessary arrangements for the
+morning’s ride. Then he said, still in his quiet voice: “Now dear, I want
+you to go to bed, for we must start rather early, but first do you think
+you could sing me that little song you were singing the day I came home?
+Don’t if you feel too tired, you know.�
+
+Then Marcia, an eager light in her eyes, sprang up and went to the piano,
+and began to play softly and sing the tender words she had sung once
+before when he was listening and she knew it not.
+
+                “Dearest, believe,
+                   When e’er we part:
+                 Lonely I grieve,
+                   In my sad heart:—�
+
+Kate, standing within the chintz curtains across the yard shedding angry
+tears upon her purple silk, heard presently the sweet tones of the piano,
+which might have been hers; heard her sister’s voice singing, and began to
+understand that she must bear the punishment of her own rash deeds.
+
+The room had grown from a purple dusk into quiet darkness while Marcia was
+singing, for the sun was almost down when they walked home. When the song
+was finished David stood half wistfully looking at Marcia for a moment.
+Her eyes shone to his through the dusk like two bright stars. He hesitated
+as though he wanted to say something more, and then thought better of it.
+At last he stooped and lifted her hand from the keys and led her toward
+the door.
+
+“You must go to sleep at once,� he said gently. “You’ll need all the rest
+you can get.� He lighted a candle for her and said good-night with his
+eyes as well as his lips. Marcia felt that she was moving up the stairs
+under a spell of some gentle loving power that surrounded her and would
+always guard her.
+
+And it was about this time that Miranda, having been sent over to take a
+forgotten piece of bride’s cake to Marcia, and having heard the piano, and
+stolen discreetly to the parlor window for a moment, returned and detailed
+for the delectation of that most unhappy guest Mrs. Leavenworth why she
+could not get in and would have to take it over in the morning:
+
+“The window was open in the parlor and they were in there, them two, but
+they was so plum took up with their two selves, as they always are, that
+there wasn’t no use knockin’ fer they’d never hev heard.�
+
+Miranda enjoyed making those remarks to the guest. Some keen instinct
+always told her where best to strike her blows.
+
+When Marcia had reached the top stair she looked down and there was David
+smiling up to her.
+
+“Marcia,� said he in a tone that seemed half ashamed and half amused,
+“have you, any—that is—things—that you had before—all your own I mean?�
+With quick intuition Marcia understood and her own sweet shame about her
+clothes that were not her own came back upon her with double force. She
+suddenly saw herself again standing before the censure of her sister. She
+wondered if David had heard. If not, how then did he know? Oh, the shame
+of it!
+
+She sat down weakly upon the stair.
+
+“Yes,� said she, trying to think. “Some old things, and one frock.�
+
+“Wear it then to-morrow, dear,� said David, in a compelling voice and with
+the sweet smile that took the hurt out of his most severe words.
+
+Marcia smiled. “It is very plain,� she said, “only chintz, pink and white.
+I made it myself.�
+
+“Charming!� said David. “Wear it, dear. Marcia, one thing more. Don’t wear
+any more things that don’t belong to you. Not a Dud. Promise me? Can you
+get along without it?�
+
+“Why, I guess so,� said Marcia laughing joyfully. “I’ll try to manage. But
+I haven’t any bonnet. Nothing but a pink sunbonnet.�
+
+“All right, wear that,� said David.
+
+“It will look a little queer, won’t it?� said Marcia doubtfully, and yet
+as if the idea expressed a certain freedom which was grateful to her.
+
+“Never mind,� said David. “Wear it. Don’t wear any more of those other
+things. Pack them all up and send them where they belong, just as quick as
+we get home.�
+
+There was something masterful and delightful in David’s voice, and Marcia
+with a happy laugh took her candle and got up saying, with a ring of joy
+in her voice: “All right!� She went to her room with David’s second
+good-night ringing in her ears and her heart so light she wanted to sing.
+
+Not at once did Marcia go to her bed. She set her candle upon the bureau
+and began to search wildly in a little old hair-cloth trunk, her own
+special old trunk that had contained her treasures and which had been sent
+her after she left home. She had scarcely looked into it since she came to
+the new home. It seemed as if her girlhood were shut up in it. Now she
+pulled it out from the closet.
+
+What a flood of memories rushed over her as she opened it! There were
+relics of her school days, and of her little childhood. But she had no
+time for them now. She was in search of something. She touched them
+tenderly, but laid them all out one after another upon the floor until
+down in the lower corner she found a roll of soft white cloth. It
+contained a number of white garments, half a dozen perhaps in all,
+finished, and several others cut out barely begun. They were her own work,
+every stitch, the first begun when she was quite a little girl, and her
+stepmother started to teach her to sew. What pride she had taken in them!
+How pleased she had been when allowed to put real tucks in some of them!
+She had thought as she sewed upon them at different times that they were
+to be a part of her own wedding trousseau. And then her wedding had come
+upon her unawares, with the trousseau ready-made, and everything belonged
+to some one else. She had folded her own poor little garments away and
+thought never to take them out again, for they seemed to belong to her
+dead self.
+
+But now that dead self had suddenly come to life again. These hated things
+that she had worn for a year that were not hers were to be put away, and,
+pretty as they were, many of them, she regretted not a thread of them.
+
+She laid the white garments out upon a chair and decided that she would
+put on what she needed of them on the morrow, even though they were
+rumpled with long lying away. She even searched out an old pair of her own
+stockings and laid them on a chair with the other things. They were neatly
+darned as all things had always been under her stepmother’s supervision.
+Further search brought a pair of partly worn prunella slippers to light,
+with narrow ankle ribbons.
+
+Then Marcia took down the pink sprigged chintz that she had made a year
+ago and laid it near the other things, with a bit of black velvet and the
+quaint old brooch. She felt a little dubious about appearing on such a
+great occasion, almost in Albany, in a chintz dress and with no wrap.
+Stay! There was the white crêpe shawl, all her own, that David had brought
+her. She had not felt like wearing it to Hannah Heath’s wedding, it seemed
+too precious to take near an unloving person like Hannah. Before that she
+had never felt an occasion great enough. Now she drew it forth
+breathlessly. A white crêpe shawl and a pink calico sunbonnet! Marcia
+laughed softly. But then, what matter! David had said wear it.
+
+All things were ready for the morrow now. There were even her white lace
+mitts that Aunt Polly in an unusual fit of benevolence had given her.
+
+Then, as if to make the change complete, she searched out an old night
+robe, plain but smooth and clean and arrayed herself in it, and so,
+thankful, happy, she lay down as she had been bidden and fell asleep.
+
+David in the room below pondered, strange to say, the subject of dress.
+There was some pride beneath it all, of course; there always is behind the
+great problem of dress. It was the rejected bonnet lying in the corner
+with its blue ribbons limp and its blue flowers crushed that made that
+subject paramount among so many others he might have chosen for his
+night’s meditation.
+
+He was going over to close the parlor window, when he saw the thing lying
+innocent and discarded in the corner. Though it bore an injured look, it
+yet held enough of its original aristocratic style to cause him to stop
+and think.
+
+It was all well enough to suggest that Marcia wear a pink sunbonnet. It
+sounded deliciously picturesque. She looked lovely in pink and a sunbonnet
+was pretty and sensible on any one; but the morrow was a great day. David
+would be seen of many and his wife would come under strict scrutiny.
+Moreover it was possible that Kate might be upon the scene to jeer at her
+sister in a sunbonnet. In fact, when he considered it he would not like to
+take his wife to Albany in a sunbonnet. It behoved him to consider. The
+outrageous words which he had heard Mistress Leavenworth speak to his wife
+still burned in his brain like needles of torture: revelation of the true
+character of the woman he had once longed to call his own.
+
+But that bonnet! He stood and examined it. What was a bonnet like? The
+proper kind of a bonnet for a woman in his wife’s position to wear. He had
+never noticed a woman’s bonnet before except as he had absent-mindedly
+observed them in front of him in meeting. Now he brought his mind to bear
+upon that bonnet. It seemed to be made up of three component parts—a
+foundation: a girdle apparently to bind together and tie on the head; and
+a decoration. Straw, silk and some kind of unreal flowers. Was that all?
+He stooped down and picked the thing up with the tips of his fingers, held
+it at arms length as though it were contaminating, and examined the
+inside. Ah! There was another element in its construction, a sort of frill
+of something thin,—hardly lace,—more like the foam of a cloud. He touched
+the tulle clumsily with his thumb and finger and then he dropped the
+bonnet back into the corner again. He thought he understood well enough to
+know one again. He stood pondering a moment, and looked at his watch.
+
+Yes, it was still early enough to try at least, though of course the shop
+would be closed. But the village milliner lived behind her little store.
+It would be easy enough to rouse her, and he had known her all his life.
+He took his hat as eagerly as he had done when as a boy Aunt Clarinda had
+given him a penny to buy a top and permission to go to the corner and buy
+it before Aunt Amelia woke up from her nap. He went quietly out of the
+door, fastening it behind him and walked rapidly down the street.
+
+Yes, the milliner’s shop was closed, but a light in the side windows
+shining through the veiling hop-vines guided him, and he was presently
+tapping at Miss Mitchell’s side door. She opened the door cautiously and
+peeped over her glasses at him, and then a bright smile overspread her
+face. Who in the whole village did not welcome David whenever he chanced
+to come? Miss Mitchell was resting from her labors and reading the village
+paper. She had finished the column of gossip and was quite ready for a
+visitor.
+
+“Come right in, David,� she said heartily, for she had known him all the
+years, “it does a body good to see you though your visits are as few and
+far between as angels’ visits. I’m right glad to see you! Sit down.� But
+David was too eager about his business.
+
+“I haven’t any time to sit down to-night, Miss Susan,� he said eagerly,
+“I’ve come to buy a bonnet. Have you got one? I hope it isn’t too late
+because I want it very early in the morning.�
+
+“A bonnet! Bless me! For yourself?� said Miss Mitchell from mere force of
+commercial habit. But neither of them saw the joke, so intent upon
+business were they. “For my wife, Miss Mitchell. You see she is going with
+me over to Albany to-morrow morning and we start quite early. We are going
+to see the new railroad train start, you know, and she seems to think she
+hasn’t a bonnet that’s suitable.�
+
+“Going to see a steam engine start, are you! Well, take care, David, you
+don’t get too near. They do say they’re terrible dangerous things, and fer
+my part I can’t see what good they’ll be, fer nobody’ll ever be willin’ to
+ride behind ’em, but I’d like to see it start well enough. And that sweet
+little wife of yours thinks she ain’t got a good enough bonnet. Land
+sakes! What is the matter with her Dunstable straw, and what’s become of
+that one trimmed with blue lutestrings, and where’s the shirred silk one
+she wore last Sunday? They’re every one fine bonnets and ought to last her
+a good many years yet if she cares fer ’em. The mice haven’t got into the
+house and et them, hev they?�
+
+“No, Miss Susan, those bonnets are all whole yet I believe, but they don’t
+seem to be just the suitable thing. In fact, I don’t think they’re
+over-becoming to her, do you? You see they’re mostly blue——�
+
+“That’s so!� said Miss Mitchell. “I think myself she’d look better in
+pink. How’d you like white? I’ve got a pretty thing that I made fer Hannah
+Heath an’ when it was done Hannah thought it was too plain and wouldn’t
+have it. I sent for the flowers to New York and they cost a high price.
+Wait! I will show it to you.�
+
+She took a candle and he followed her to the dark front room ghostly with
+bonnets in various stages of perfection.
+
+It was a pretty thing. Its foundation was of fine Milan braid, creamy
+white and smooth and even. He knew at a glance it belonged to the higher
+order of things, and was superior to most of the bonnets produced in the
+village.
+
+It was trimmed with plain white taffeta ribbon, soft and silky. That was
+all on the outside. Around the face was a soft ruching of tulle, and
+clambering among it a vine of delicate green leaves that looked as if they
+were just plucked from a wild rose bank. David was delighted. Somehow the
+bonnet looked like Marcia. He paid the price at once, declining to look at
+anything else. It was enough that he liked it and that Hannah Heath had
+not. He had never admired Hannah’s taste. He carried it home in triumph,
+letting himself softly into the house, lighted three candles, took the
+bonnet out and hung it upon a chair. Then he walked around it surveying it
+critically, first from this side, then from that. It pleased him
+exceedingly. He half wished Marcia would hear him and come down. He wanted
+to see it on her, but concluded that he was growing boyish and had better
+get himself under control.
+
+The bonnet approved, he walked back and forth through the kitchen and
+dining-room thinking. He compelled himself to go over the events of the
+afternoon and analyze most carefully his own innermost feelings. In fact,
+after doing that he began further back and tried to find out how he felt
+toward Marcia. What was this something that had been growing in him
+unaware through the months; that had made his homecoming so sweet, and had
+brightened every succeeding day; and had made this meeting with Kate a
+mere commonplace? What was this precious thing that nestled in his heart?
+Might he, had he a right to call it love? Surely! Now all at once his
+pulses thrilled with gladness. He loved her! It was good to love her! She
+was the most precious being on earth to him. What was Kate in comparison
+with her? Kate who had shown herself cold and cruel and unloving in every
+way?
+
+His anger flamed anew as he thought of those cutting sentences he had
+overheard, taunting her own sister about the clothes she wore. Boasting
+that he still belonged to her! She, a married woman! A woman who had of
+her own free will left him at the last moment and gone away with another!
+His whole nature recoiled against her. She had sinned against her
+womanhood, and might no longer demand from man the homage that a true
+woman had a right to claim.
+
+Poor little bruised flower! His heart went out to Marcia. He could not
+bear to think of her having to stand and listen to that heartless tirade.
+And he had been the cause of all this. He had allowed her to take a
+position which threw her open to Kate’s vile taunts.
+
+Up and down he paced till the torrent of his anger spent itself, and he
+was able to think more calmly. Then he went back in his thoughts to the
+time when he had first met Kate and she had bewitched him. He could see
+now the heartlessness of her. He had met her first at the house of a
+friend where he was visiting, partly on pleasure, partly on business. She
+had devoted herself to him during the time of her stay in a most charming
+way, though now he recalled that she had also been equally devoted to the
+son of the house whom he was visiting. When she went home she had asked
+him to come and call, for her home was but seven miles away. He had been
+so charmed with her that he had accepted the invitation, and, rashly he
+now saw, had engaged himself to her, after having known her in all face to
+face but a few days. To be sure he had known of her father for years, and
+he took a good deal for granted on account of her fine family. They had
+corresponded after their engagement which had lasted for nearly a year,
+and in that time David had seen her but twice, for a day or two at a time,
+and each time he had thought her grown more lovely. Her letters had been
+marvels of modesty, and shy admiration. It was easy for Kate to maintain
+her character upon paper, though she had had little trouble in making
+people love her under any circumstances. Now as he looked back he could
+recall many instances when she had shown a cruel, heartless nature.
+
+Then, all at once, with a throb of joy, it came to him to be thankful to
+God for the experience through which he had passed. After all it had not
+been taken from him to love with a love enduring, for though Kate had been
+snatched from him just at the moment of his possession, Marcia had been
+given him. Fool that he was! He had been blind to his own salvation.
+Suppose he had been allowed to go on and marry Kate! Suppose he had had
+her character revealed to him suddenly as those letters of hers to Harry
+Temple had revealed it—as it surely would have been revealed in time, for
+such things cannot be hid,—and she had been his _wife!_ He shuddered. How
+he would have loathed her! How he loathed her now!
+
+Strangely enough the realization of that fact gave him joy. He sprang up
+and waved his hands about in silent delight. He felt as if he must shout
+for gladness. Then he gravely knelt beside his chair and uttered an
+audible thanksgiving for his escape and the joy he had been given. Nothing
+else seemed fitting expression of his feelings.
+
+There was one other question to consider—Marcia’s feelings. She had always
+been kind and gentle and loving to him, just as a sister might have been.
+She was exceedingly young yet. Did she know, could she understand what it
+meant to be loved the way he was sure he could love a woman? And would she
+ever be able to love him in that way? She was so silent and shy he hardly
+knew whether she cared for him or not. But there was one thought that gave
+him unbounded joy and that was that she was his wife. At least no one else
+could take her from him. He had felt condemned that he had married her
+when his heart was heavy lest she would lose the joy of life, but all that
+was changed now. Unless she loved some one else surely such love as his
+could compel hers and finally make her as happy as a woman could be made.
+
+A twinge of misgiving crossed his mind as he admitted the possibility that
+Marcia might love some one else. True, he knew of no one, and she was so
+young it was scarcely likely she had left any one back in her girlhood to
+whom her heart had turned when she was out of his sight. Still there were
+instances of strong union of hearts of those who had loved from early
+childhood. It might be that Marcia’s sometime-sadness was over a companion
+of her girlhood.
+
+A great longing took possession of him to rush up and waken her and find
+out if she could ever care for him. He scarcely knew himself. This was not
+his dignified contained self that he had lived with for twenty-seven
+years.
+
+It was very late before he finally went upstairs. He walked softly lest he
+disturb Marcia. He paused before her door listening to see if she was
+asleep, but there was only the sound of the katydids in the branches
+outside her window, and the distant tree-toads singing a fugue in an
+orchard not far away. He tiptoed to his room but he did not light his
+candle, therefore there was no light in the back room of the Spafford
+house that night for any watching eyes to ponder over. He threw himself
+upon the bed. He was weary in body yet his soul seemed buoyant as a bird
+in the morning air. The moon was casting long bars of silver across the
+rag carpet and white counterpane. It was almost full moon. Yes, to-morrow
+it would be entirely full. It was full moon the night he had met Marcia
+down by the gate, and kissed her. It was the first time he had thought of
+that kiss with anything but pain. It used to hurt him that he had made the
+mistake and taken her for Kate. It had seemed like an ill-omen of what was
+to come. But now, it thrilled him with a great new joy. After all he had
+given the kiss to the right one. It was Marcia to whom his soul bowed in
+the homage that a man may give to a woman. Did his good angel guide him to
+her that night? And how was it he had not seen the sweetness of Marcia
+sooner? How had he lived with her nearly a year, and watched her dainty
+ways, and loving ministry and not known that his heart was hers? How was
+it he had grieved so long over Kate, and now since he had seen her once
+more, not a regret was in his heart that she was not his; but a beautiful
+revelation of his own love to Marcia had been wrought in him? How came it?
+
+And the importunate little songsters in the night answered him a thousand
+times: “Kate-did-it! Kate-she-did it! Yes she did! I say she did. Kate did
+it!�
+
+Had angel voices reached him through his dreams, and suddenly given him
+the revelation which the little insects had voiced in their ridiculous
+colloquy? It was Kate herself who had shown him how he loved Marcia.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+Slowly the moon rode over the house, and down toward its way in the West,
+and after its vanishing chariot the night stretched wistful arms. Softly
+the grey in the East tinged into violet and glowed into rose and gold. The
+birds woke up and told one another that the first of August was come and
+life was good.
+
+The breath that came in the early dawn savored of new-mown hay, and the
+bird songs thrilled Marcia as if it were the day of her dreams.
+
+She forgot all her troubles; forgot even her wayward sister next door; and
+rose with the song of the birds in her heart. This was to be a great day.
+No matter what happened she had now this day to date from. David had asked
+her to go somewhere just because he wanted her to. She knew it from the
+look in his eyes when he told her, and she knew it because he might have
+asked a dozen men to go with him. There was no reason why he need have
+taken her to-day, for it was distinctly an affair for men, this great
+wonder of machinery. It was a privilege for a woman to go. She felt it.
+She understood the honor.
+
+With fingers trembling from joy she dressed. Not the sight of her pink
+calico sunbonnet lying on the chair, nor the thought of wearing it upon so
+grand an occasion, could spoil the pleasure of the day. Among so large a
+company her bonnet would hardly be noticed. If David was satisfied why
+what difference did it make? She was glad it would be early when they
+drove by the aunts, else they might be scandalized. But never mind! Trill!
+She hummed a merry little tune which melted into the melody of the song
+she had sung last night.
+
+Then she smiled at herself in the glass. She was fastening the brooch in
+the bit of velvet round her neck, and she thought of the day a year ago
+when she had fastened that brooch. She had wondered then how she would
+feel if the next day was to be her own wedding day. Now as she smiled back
+at herself in the glass all at once she thought it seemed as if this was
+her wedding day. Somehow last night had seemed to realize her dreams. A
+wonderful joy had descended upon her heart. Maybe she was foolish, but was
+she not going to ride with David? She did not long for the green fields
+and a chance to run wild through the wood now. This was better than those
+childish pleasures. This was real happiness. And to think it should have
+come through David!
+
+She hurried with the arrangement of her hair until her fingers trembled
+with excitement. She wanted to get downstairs and see if it were all
+really true or if she were dreaming it. Would David look at her as he had
+done last night? Would he speak that precious word “dear� to her again
+to-day? Would he take her by the hand and lead her sometimes, or was that
+a special gentleness because he knew she had suffered from her sister’s
+words? She clasped her hands with a quick, convulsive gesture over her
+heart and looking back to the sweet face in the glass, said softly, “Oh, I
+love him, love him! And it cannot be wrong, for Kate is married.�
+
+But though she was up early David had been down before her. The fire was
+ready lighted and the kettle singing over it on the crane. He had even
+pulled out the table and put up the leaf, and made some attempt to put the
+dishes upon it for breakfast. He was sitting by the hearth impatient for
+her coming, with a bandbox by his side.
+
+It was like another sunrise to watch their eyes light up as they saw one
+another. Their glances rushed together as though they had been a long time
+withholden from each other, and a rosy glow came over Marcia’s face that
+made her long to hide it for a moment from view. Then she knew in her
+heart that her dream was not all a dream. David was the same. It had
+lasted, whatever this wonderful thing was that bound them together. She
+stood still in her happy bewilderment, looking at him, and he, enjoying
+the radiant morning vision of her, stood too.
+
+David found that longing to take her in his arms overcoming him again. He
+had made strict account with himself and was resolved to be careful and
+not frighten her. He must be sure it would not be unpleasant to her before
+he let her know his great deep love. He must be careful. He must not take
+advantage of the fact that she was his and could not run away from him. If
+she dreaded his attentions, neither could she any more say no.
+
+And so their two looks met, and longed to come closer, but were held back,
+and a lovely shyness crept over Marcia’s sweet face. Then David bethought
+himself of his bandbox.
+
+He took up the box and untied it with unaccustomed fingers, fumbling among
+the tissue paper for the handle end of the thing. Where did they take hold
+of bonnets anyway? He had no trouble with it the night before, but then he
+was not thinking about it. Now he was half afraid she might not like it.
+He remembered that Hannah Heath had pronounced against it. It suddenly
+seemed impossible that he should have bought a bonnet that a pretty woman
+had said was not right. There must be something wrong with it after all.
+
+Marcia stood wondering.
+
+“I thought maybe this would do instead of the sunbonnet,� he said at last,
+getting out the bonnet by one string and holding it dangling before him.
+
+Marcia caught it with deft careful hands and an exclamation of delight. He
+watched her anxiously. It had all the requisite number of materials,—one,
+two, three, four,—like the despised bonnet he threw on the floor—straw,
+silk, lace and flowers. Would she like it? Her face showed that she did.
+Her cheeks flushed with pleasure, and her eyes danced with joy. Marcia’s
+face always showed it when she liked anything. There was nothing half-way
+about her.
+
+“Oh, it is beautiful!� she said delightedly. “It is so sweet and white and
+cool with that green vine. Oh, I am glad, glad, glad! I shall never wear
+that old blue bonnet again.� She went over to the glass and put it on. The
+soft ruching settled about her brown hair, and made a lovely setting for
+her face. The green vine twined and peeped in and out under the round brim
+and the ribbon sat in a prim bow beneath her pretty chin.
+
+She gave one comprehensive glance at herself in the glass and then turned
+to David. In that glance was revealed to her just how much she had dreaded
+wearing her pink sunbonnet, and just how relieved she was to have a
+substitute.
+
+Her look was shy and sweet as she said with eyes that dared and then
+drooped timidly:
+
+“You—are—very—good to me!�
+
+Almost he forgot his vow of carefulness at that, but remembered when he
+had got half across the room toward her, and answered earnestly:
+
+“Dear, _you_ have been very good to _me_.�
+
+Marcia’s eyes suddenly sobered and half the glow faded from her face. Was
+it then only gratitude? She took off the bonnet and touched the bows with
+wistful tenderness as she laid it by till after breakfast. He watched her
+and misinterpreted the look. Was she then disappointed in the bonnet? Was
+it not right after all? Had Hannah known better than he? He hesitated and
+then asked her:
+
+“Is there—— Is it—— That is—perhaps you would rather take it back and and
+choose another. You know how to choose one better than I. There were
+others I think. In fact, I forgot to look at any but this because I liked
+it, but I’m only a man——� he finished helplessly.
+
+“No! No! No!� said Marcia, her eyes sparkling emphatically again. “There
+couldn’t be a better one. This is just exactly what I like. I do not want
+anything else. And I—like it all the better because you selected it,� she
+added daringly, suddenly lifting her face to his with a spice of her own
+childish freedom.
+
+His eyes admired her.
+
+“She told me Hannah Heath thought it too plain,� he added honestly.
+
+“Then I’m sure I like it all the better for that,� said Marcia so
+emphatically that they both laughed.
+
+It all at once became necessary to hurry, for the old clock in the hall
+clanged out the hour and David became aware that haste was imperative.
+
+Early as Marcia had come down, David had been up long before her, his
+heart too light to sleep. In a dream, or perchance on the borders of the
+morning, an idea had come to him. He told Marcia that he must go out now
+to see about the horse, but he also made a hurried visit to the home of
+his office clerk and another to the aunts, and when he returned with the
+horse he had left things in such train that if he did not return that
+evening he would not be greatly missed. But he said nothing to Marcia
+about it. He laughed to himself as he thought of the sleepy look on his
+clerk’s face, and the offended dignity expressed in the ruffle of Aunt
+Hortense’s night cap all awry as she had peered over the balusters to
+receive his unprecedentedly early visit. The aunts were early risers. They
+prided themselves upon it. It hurt their dignity and their pride to have
+anything short of sudden serious illness, or death, or a fire cause others
+to arise before them. Therefore they did not receive the message that
+David was meditating another trip away from the village for a few days
+with good grace. Aunt Hortense asked Aunt Amelia if she had ever feared
+that Marcia would have a bad effect upon David by making him frivolous.
+Perhaps he would lose interest in his business with all his careering
+around the country. Aunt Amelia agreed that Marcia must be to blame in
+some way, and then discovering they had a whole hour before their usual
+rising time, the two good ladies settled themselves with indignant
+composure to their interrupted repose.
+
+Breakfast was ready when David returned. Marcia supposed he had only been
+to harness the horse. She glanced out happily through the window to where
+the horse stood tied to the post in front of the house. She felt like
+waving her hand to him, and he turned and seemed to see her; rolling the
+whites of his eyes around, and tossing his head as if in greeting.
+
+Marcia would scarcely have eaten anything in her excitement if David had
+not urged her to do so. She hurried with her clearing away, and then flew
+upstairs to arrange her bonnet before the glass and don the lovely folds
+of the creamy crêpe shawl, folding it demurely around her shoulders and
+knotting it in front. She put on her mitts, took her handkerchief folded
+primly, and came down ready.
+
+But David no longer seemed in such haste. He made a great fuss fastening
+up everything. She wondered at his unusual care, for she thought
+everything quite safe for the day.
+
+She raised one shade toward the Heath house. It was the first time she had
+permitted herself this morning to think of Kate. Was she there yet?
+Probably, for no coach had left since last night, and unless she had gone
+by private conveyance there would have been no way to go. She looked up to
+the front corner guest room where the windows were open and the white
+muslin curtains swayed in the morning breeze. No one seemed to be moving
+about in the room. Perhaps Kate was not awake. Just then she caught the
+flutter of a blue muslin down on the front stoop. Kate was up, early as it
+was, and was coming out. A sudden misgiving seized Marcia’s heart, as when
+a little child, she had seen her sister coming to eat up the piece of cake
+or sweetmeat that had been given to her. Many a time had that happened.
+Now, she felt that in some mysterious way Kate would contrive to take from
+her her new-found joy.
+
+She could not resist her,—David could not resist her,—no one could ever
+resist Kate. Her face turned white and her hand began to tremble so that
+she dropped the curtain she had been holding up.
+
+Just then came David’s clear voice, louder than would have been necessary,
+and pitched as if he were calling to some one upstairs, though he knew she
+was just inside the parlor where she had gone to make sure of the window
+fastening.
+
+“Come, dear! Aren’t you ready? It is more than time we started.�
+
+There was a glad ring in David’s voice that somehow belied the somewhat
+exacting words he had spoken, and Marcia’s heart leaped up to meet him.
+
+“Yes, I’m all ready, dear!� she called back with a hysterical little
+laugh. Of course Kate could not hear so far, but it gave her satisfaction
+to say it. The final word was unpremeditated. It bubbled up out of the
+depths of her heart and made the red rush back into her cheeks when she
+realized what she had said. It was the first time she had ever used a term
+of endearment toward David. She wondered if he noticed it and if he would
+think her very—bold,—queer,—immodest, to use it. She looked shyly up at
+him, enquiring with her eyes, as she came out to him on the front stoop,
+and he looked down with such a smile she felt as if it were a caress. And
+yet neither was quite conscious of this little real by-play they were
+enacting for the benefit of the audience of one in blue muslin over the
+way. How much she heard, or how little they could not tell, but it gave
+satisfaction to go through with it inasmuch as it was real, and not acting
+at all.
+
+David fastened the door and then helped Marcia into the carriage. They
+were both laughing happily like two children starting upon a picnic.
+Marcia was serenely conscious of her new bonnet, and it was pleasant to
+have David tuck the linen lap robe over her chintz frock so carefully. She
+was certain Kate could not identify it now at that distance, thanks to the
+lap robe and her crêpe shawl. At least Kate could not see any of her own
+trousseau on her sister now.
+
+Kate was sitting on the little white seat in the shelter of the
+honeysuckle vine facing them on the stoop of the Heath house. It was
+impossible for them to know whether she was watching them or not. They did
+not look up to see. She was talking with Mr. Heath who, in his milking
+garb, was putting to rights some shrubs and plants near the walk that had
+been trampled upon during the wedding festivities. But Kate must have seen
+a good deal that went on.
+
+David took up the reins, settled himself with a smile at Marcia, touched
+the horse with the tip of the whip, which caused him to spring forward in
+astonishment—that from David! No horse in town would have expected it of
+him. They had known him from babyhood, most of them, and he was gentleness
+itself. It must have been a mistake. But the impression lasted long enough
+to carry them a rod or two past the Heath house at a swift pace, with only
+time for a lifting of David’s hat, prolonged politely,—which might or
+might not have included Kate, and they were out upon their way together.
+
+Marcia could scarcely believe her senses that she was really here beside
+David, riding with him swiftly through the village and leaving Kate
+behind. She felt a passing pity for Kate. Then she looked shyly up at
+David. Would his gaiety pass when they were away, and would he grow grave
+and sad again so soon as he was out of Kate’s sight? She had learned
+enough of David’s principles to know that he would not think it right to
+let his thoughts stray to Kate now, but did his heart still turn that way
+in spite of him?
+
+Through the town they sped, glad with every roll of the wheels that took
+them further away from Kate. Each was conscious, as they rolled along, of
+that day one year ago when they rode together thus, out through the fields
+into the country. It was a day much as that other one, just as bright,
+just as warm, yet oh, so much more radiant to both! Then they were sad and
+fearful of the future. All their life seemed in the past. Now the darkness
+had been led through, and they had reached the brightness again. In fact,
+all the future stretched out before them that fair morning and looked
+bright as the day.
+
+They were conscious of the blueness of the sky, of the soft clouds that
+hovered in haziness on the rim of the horizon, as holding off far enough
+to spoil no moment of that perfect day. They were conscious of the waving
+grains and of the perfume of the buckwheat drifting like snow in the
+fields beyond the wheat; conscious of the meadow-lark and the wood-robin’s
+note; of the whirr of a locust; and the thud of a frog in the cool green
+of a pool deep with brown shadows; conscious of the circling of mated
+butterflies in the simmering gold air; of the wild roses lifting fair pink
+petals from the brambly banks beside the road; conscious of the whispering
+pine needles in a wood they passed; the fluttering chatter of leaves and
+silver flash of the lining of poplar leaves, where tall trees stood like
+sentinels, apart and sad; conscious of a little brook that tinkled under a
+log bridge they crossed, then hurried on its way unmindful of their happy
+crossing; conscious of the dusty daisy beside the road, closing with a
+bumbling bee who wanted honey below the market price; conscious of all
+these things; but most conscious of each other, close, side by side.
+
+It was all so dear, that ride, and over so soon. Marcia was just trying to
+get used to looking up into the dazzling light of David’s eyes. She had to
+droop her own almost immediately for the truth she read in his was
+overpowering. Could it be? A fluttering thought came timidly to her heart
+and would not be denied.
+
+“Can it be, can it be that he cares for me? He loves me. He loves me!� It
+sang its way in with thrill after thrill of joy and more and more David’s
+eyes told the story which his lips dared not risk yet. But eyes and hearts
+are not held by the conventions that bind lips. They rushed into their
+inheritance of each other and had that day ahead, a day so rare and sweet
+that it would do to set among the jewels of fair days for all time and for
+any one.
+
+All too soon they began to turn into roads where were other vehicles, many
+of them, and all going in the same direction. Men and women in gala day
+attire all laughing and talking expectantly and looking at one another as
+the carriages passed with a degree of familiar curiosity which betokens a
+common errand. Family coaches, farm wagons, with kitchen chairs for
+accommodation of the family; old one-horse chaises, carryalls, and even a
+stage coach or two wheeled into the old turnpike. David and Marcia settled
+into subdued quiet, their joy not expressing itself in the ripples of
+laughter that had rung out earlier in the morning when they were alone.
+They sought each other’s eyes often and often, and in one of these
+excursions that David’s eyes made to Marcia’s face he noticed how
+extremely becoming the new bonnet was. After thinking it over he decided
+to risk letting her know. He was not shy about it now.
+
+“Do you know, dear,� he said,—there had been a good many “dear’s� slipping
+back and forth all unannounced during that ride, and not openly
+acknowledged either. “Do you know how becoming your new bonnet is to you?
+You look prettier than I ever saw you look but once before.� He kept his
+eyes upon her face and watched the sweet color steal up to her drooping
+eyelashes.
+
+“When was that?� she asked coyly, to hide her embarrassment, and sweeping
+him one laughing glance.
+
+“Why, that night, dear, at the gate, in the moonlight. Don’t you
+remember?�
+
+“Oh-h-h-h!� Marcia caught her breath and a thrill of joy passed through
+her that made her close her eyes lest the glad tears should come. Then the
+little bird in her heart set up the song in earnest to the tune of Wonder:
+“He loves me, He loves me, He loves me!�
+
+He leaned a little closer to her.
+
+“If there were not so many people looking I think I should have to kiss
+you now.�
+
+“Oh-h-h-h!� said Marcia drawing in her breath and looking around
+frightened on the number of people that were driving all about them, for
+they were come almost to the railroad now, and could see the black smoke
+of the engine a little beyond as it stood puffing and snorting upon its
+track like some sulky animal that had been caught and chained and
+harnessed and was longing to leap forward and upset its load.
+
+But though Marcia looked about in her happy fright, and sat a trifle
+straighter in the chaise, she did not move her hand away that lay next
+David’s, underneath the linen lap robe, and he put his own hand over it
+and covered it close in his firm hold. Marcia trembled and was so happy
+she was almost faint with joy. She wondered if she were very foolish
+indeed to feel so, and if all love had this terrible element of solemn joy
+in it that made it seem too great to be real.
+
+They had to stop a number of times to speak to people. Everybody knew
+David, it appeared. This man and that had a word to speak with him, some
+bit of news that he must not omit to notice in his article, some new
+development about the attitude of a man of influence that was important;
+the change of two or three of those who were to go in the coaches on this
+trial trip.
+
+To all of them David introduced his wife, with a ring of pride in his
+voice as he said the words “My wife,� and all of them stopped whatever
+business they had in hand and stepped back to bow most deferentially to
+the beautiful woman who sat smiling by his side. They wondered why they
+had not heard of her before, and they looked curiously, enviously at
+David, and back in admiration at Marcia. It was quite a little court she
+held sitting there in the chaise by David’s side.
+
+Men who have since won a mention in the pages of history were there that
+day, and nearly all of them had a word for David Spafford and his lovely
+wife. Many of them stood for some time and talked with her. Mr. Thurlow
+Weed was the last one to leave them before the train was actually ready
+for starting, and he laid an urging hand upon David’s arm as he went.
+“Then you think you cannot go with us? Better come. Mrs. Spafford will let
+you I am sure. You’re not afraid are you, Mrs. Spafford? I am sure you are
+a brave woman. Better come, Spafford.�
+
+But David laughingly thanked him again as he had thanked others, and said
+that he would not be able to go, as he and his wife had other plans, and
+he must go on to Albany as soon as the train had started.
+
+Marcia looked up at him half worshipfully as he said this, wondering what
+it was, instinctively knowing that it was for her sake he was giving up
+this honor which they all wished to put upon him. It would naturally have
+been an interesting thing to him to have taken this first ride behind the
+new engine “Dewitt Clinton.�
+
+Then, suddenly, like a chill wind from a thunder cloud that has stolen up
+unannounced and clutched the little wild flowers before they have time to
+bind up their windy locks and duck their heads under cover, there happened
+a thing that clutched Marcia’s heart and froze all the joy in her veins.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+A coach was approaching filled with people, some of them Marcia knew; they
+were friends and neighbors from their own village, and behind it plodding
+along came a horse with a strangely familiar gait drawing four people. The
+driver was old Mr. Heath looking unbelievingly at the scene before him. He
+did not believe that an engine would be able to haul a train any
+appreciable distance whatever, and he believed that he had come out here
+to witness this entire company of fanatics circumvented by the ill-natured
+iron steed who stood on the track ahead surrounded by gaping boys and a
+flock of quacking ganders, living symbol of the people who had come to see
+the thing start; so thought Mr. Heath. He told himself he was as much of a
+goose as any of them to have let this chit of a woman fool him into coming
+off out here when he ought to have been in the hay field to-day.
+
+By his side in all the glory of shimmering blue with a wide white lace
+bertha and a bonnet with a steeple crown wreathed about heavily with roses
+sat Kate, a blue silk parasol shading her eyes from the sun, those eyes
+that looked to conquer, and seemed to pierce beyond and through her sister
+and ignore her. Old Mrs. Heath and Miranda were along, but they did not
+count, except to themselves. Miranda was all eyes, under an ugly bonnet.
+She desired above all things to see that wonderful engine in which David
+was so interested.
+
+Marcia shrunk and seemed to wither where she sat. All her bright bloom
+faded in an instant and a kind of frenzy seized her. She had a wild desire
+to get down out of the carriage and run with all her might away from this
+hateful scene. The sky seemed to have suddenly clouded over and the hum
+and buzz of voices about seemed a babel that would never cease.
+
+David felt the arm beside his cringe, and shrink back, and looking down
+saw the look upon her sweet frightened face; following her glance his own
+face hardened into what might have been termed righteous wrath. But not a
+word did he say, and neither did he apparently notice the oncoming
+carriage. He busied himself at once talking with a man who happened to
+pass the carriage, and when Mr. Heath drove by to get a better view of the
+engine he was so absorbed in his conversation that he did not notice them,
+which seemed but natural.
+
+But Kate was not to be thus easily foiled. She had much at stake and she
+must win if possible. She worked it about that Squire Heath should drive
+around to the end of the line of coaches, quite out of sight of the engine
+and where there was little chance of seeing the train and its
+passengers,—the only thing Squire Heath cared about. But there was an
+excellent view of David’s carriage and Kate would be within hailing
+distance if it should transpire that she had no further opportunity of
+speaking with David. It seemed strange to Squire Heath, as he sat there
+behind the last coach patiently, that he had done what she asked. She did
+not look like a woman who was timid about horses, yet she had professed a
+terrible fear that the screech of the engine would frighten the staid old
+Heath horse. Miranda, at that, had insisted upon changing seats, thereby
+getting herself nearer the horse, and the scene of action. Miranda did not
+like to miss seeing the engine start.
+
+At last word to start was given. A man ran along by the train and mounted
+into his high seat with his horn in his hand ready to blow. The fireman
+ceased his raking of the glowing fire and every traveller sprang into his
+seat and looked toward the crowd of spectators importantly. This was a
+great moment for all interested. The little ones whose fathers were in the
+train began to call good-bye and wave their hands, and one old lady whose
+only son was going as one of the train assistants began to sob aloud.
+
+A horse in the crowd began to act badly. Every snort of the engine as the
+steam was let off made him start and rear. He was directly behind Marcia,
+and she turned her head and looked straight into his fiery frightened
+eyes, red with fear and frenzy, and felt his hot breath upon her cheek. A
+man was trying most ineffectually to hold him, but it seemed as if in
+another minute he would come plunging into the seat with them. Marcia
+uttered a frightened cry and clutched at David’s arm. He turned, and
+seeing instantly what was the matter, placed his arm protectingly about
+her and at once guided his own horse out of the crowd, and around nearer
+to the engine. Somehow that protecting arm gave Marcia a steadiness once
+more and she was able to watch the wonderful wheels begin to turn and the
+whole train slowly move and start on its way. Her lips parted, her breath
+came quick, and for the instant she forgot her trouble. David’s arm was
+still about her, and there was a reassuring pressure in it. He seemed to
+have forgotten that the crowd might see him—if the crowd had not been too
+busy watching something more wonderful. It is probable that only one
+person in that whole company saw David sitting with his arm about his
+wife—for he soon remembered and put it quietly on the back of the seat,
+where it would call no one’s attention—and that person was Kate. She had
+not come to this hot dusty place to watch an engine creak along a track,
+she had come to watch David, and she was vexed and angry at what she saw.
+Here was Marcia flaunting her power over David directly in her face.
+Spiteful thing! She would pay her back yet and let her know that she could
+not touch the things that she, Kate, had put her own sign and seal upon.
+For this reason it was that at the last minute Kate allowed poor Squire
+Heath to drive around near the front of the train, saying that as David
+Spafford seemed to find it safe she supposed she ought not to hold them
+back for her fears. It needed but the word to send the vexed and curious
+Squire around through the crowd to a spot directly behind David’s
+carriage, and there Miranda could see quite well, and Kate could sit and
+watch David and frame her plans for immediate action so soon as the
+curtain should fall upon this ridiculous engine play over which everybody
+was wild.
+
+And so, amid shouts and cheers, and squawking of the geese that attempted
+to precede the engine like a white frightened body-guard down the track;
+amid the waving of handkerchiefs, the shouts of excited little boys, and
+the neighing of frightened horses, the first steam engine that ever drew a
+train in New York state started upon its initial trip.
+
+Then there came a great hush upon the spectators assembled. The wheels
+were rolling, the carriages were moving, the train was actually going by
+them, and what had been so long talked about was an assured fact. They
+were seeing it with their own eyes, and might be witnesses of it to all
+their acquaintances. It was true. They dared not speak nor breathe lest
+something should happen and the great miracle should stop. They hushed
+simultaneously as though at the passing of some great soul. They watched
+in silence until the train went on between the meadows, grew smaller in
+the distance, slipped into the shadow of the wood, flashed out into the
+sunlight beyond again, and then was lost behind a hill. A low murmur
+growing rapidly into a shout of cheer arose as the crowd turned and faced
+one another and the fact of what they had seen.
+
+“By gum! She kin do it!� ejaculated Squire Heath, who had watched the
+melting of his skeptical opinions in speechless amazement.
+
+The words were the first intimation the Spaffords had of the proximity of
+Kate. They made David smile, but Marcia turned white with sudden fear
+again. Not for nothing had she lived with her sister so many years. She
+knew that cruel nature and dreaded it.
+
+David looked at Marcia for sympathy in his smile at the old Squire, but
+when he saw her face he turned frowning toward those behind him.
+
+Kate saw her opportunity. She leaned forward with honeyed smile, and wily
+as the serpent addressed her words to Marcia, loud and clear enough for
+all those about them to hear.
+
+“Oh, Mrs. Spafford! I am going to ask a great favor of you. I am sure you
+will grant it when you know I have so little time. I am extremely anxious
+to get a word of advice from your husband upon business matters that are
+very pressing. Would you kindly change places with me during the ride
+home, and give me a chance to talk with him about it? I would not ask it
+but that I must leave for New York on the evening coach and shall have no
+other opportunity to see him.�
+
+Kate’s smile was roses and cream touched with frosty sunshine, and to
+onlookers nothing could have been sweeter. But her eyes were coldly cruel
+as sharpened steel, and they said to her sister as plainly as words could
+have spoken: “Do you obey my wish, my lady, or I will freeze the heart out
+of you.�
+
+Marcia turned white and sick. She felt as if her lips had suddenly
+stiffened and refused to obey her when they ought to have smiled. What
+would all these people think of her, and how was she behaving? For David’s
+sake she ought to do something, say something, look something, but
+what—what should she do?
+
+While she was thinking this, with the freezing in her heart creeping up
+into her throat, the great tears beating at the portals of her eyes, and
+time standing suddenly still waiting for her leaden tongue to speak, David
+answered:
+
+All gracefully ’twas done, with not so much as a second’s
+hesitation,—though it had seemed so long to Marcia,—nor the shadow of a
+sign that he was angry:
+
+“Mrs. Leavenworth,� he said in his masterful voice, “I am sure my wife
+would not wish to seem ungracious, or unwilling to comply with your
+request, but as it happens it is impossible. We are not returning home for
+several days. My wife has some shopping to do in Albany, and in fact we
+are expecting to take a little trip. A sort of second honeymoon, you
+know,�—he added, smiling toward Mrs. Heath and Miranda; “it is the first
+time I have had leisure to plan for it since we were married. I am sorry I
+have to hurry away, but I am sure that my friend Squire Heath can give as
+much help in a business way as I could, and furthermore, Squire Schuyler
+is now in New York for a few days as I learned in a letter from him which
+arrived last evening. I am sure he can give you more and better advice
+than any I could give. I wish you good morning. Good morning, Mrs. Heath.
+Good morning, Miss Miranda!�
+
+Lifting his hat David drove away from them and straight over to the little
+wayside hostelry where he was to finish his article to send by the
+messenger who was even then ready mounted for the purpose.
+
+“My! Don’t he think a lot of her though!� said Miranda, rolling the words
+as a sweet morsel under her tongue. “It must be nice to have a man so fond
+of you.� This was one of the occasions when Miranda wished she had eyes in
+the back of her head. She was sharp and she had seen a thing or two, also
+she had heard scraps of her cousin Hannah’s talk. But she sat demurely in
+the recesses of her deep, ugly bonnet and tried to imagine how the guest
+behind her looked.
+
+All trembling sat Marcia in the rusty parlor of the little hostelry, while
+David at the table wrote with hurried hand, glancing up at her to smile
+now and then, and passing over the sheets as he finished them for her
+criticism. She thought she had seen the Heath wagon drive away in the home
+direction, but she was not sure. She half expected to see the door open
+and Kate walk in. Her heart was thumping so she could scarcely sit still
+and the brightness of the world outside seemed to make her dizzy. She was
+glad to have the sheets to look over, for it took her thoughts away from
+herself and her nameless fears. She was not quite sure what it was she
+feared, only that in some way Kate would have power over David to take him
+away from her. As he wrote she studied the dear lines of his face and
+knew, as well as human heart may ever know, how dear another soul had
+grown to hers.
+
+David had not much to write and it was soon signed, approved, and sealed.
+He sent his messenger on the way and then coming back closed the door and
+went and stood before Marcia.
+
+As though she felt some critical moment had come she arose, trembling, and
+looked into his eyes questioningly.
+
+“Marcia,� he said, and his tone was grave and earnest, putting her upon an
+equality with him, not as if she were a child any more. “Marcia, I have
+come to ask your forgiveness for the terrible thing I did to you in
+allowing you, who scarcely knew what you were doing then, to give your
+life away to a man who loved another woman.�
+
+Marcia’s heart stood still with horror. It had come then, the dreadful
+thing she had feared. The blow was going to fall. He did not love her!
+What a fool she had been!
+
+But the steady voice went on, though the blood in her neck and temples
+throbbed in such loud waves that she could scarcely hear the words to
+understand them.
+
+“It was a crime, Marcia, and I have come to realize it more and more
+during all the days of this year that you have so uncomplainingly spent
+yourself for me. I know now, as I did not think then in my careless,
+selfish sorrow, that I was as cruel to you, with your sweet young life, as
+your sister was cruel to me. You might already have given your heart to
+some one else; I never stopped to inquire. You might have had plans and
+hopes for your own future; I never even thought of it. I was a brute. Can
+you forgive me? Sometimes the thought of the responsibility I took upon
+myself has been so terrible to me that I felt I could not stand it. You
+did not realize what it was then that you were giving, perhaps, but
+somehow I think you have begun to realize now. Will you forgive me?� He
+stopped and looked at her anxiously. She was drooped and white as if a
+blast had suddenly struck her and faded her sweet bloom. Her throat was
+hot and dry and she had to try three times before she could frame the
+words, “Yes, I forgive.�
+
+There was no hope, no joy in the words, and a sudden fear descended upon
+David’s heart. Had he then done more damage than he knew? Was the child’s
+heart broken by him, and did she just realize it? What could he do? Must
+he conceal his love from her? Perhaps this was no time to tell it. But he
+must. He could not bear the burden of having done her harm and not also
+tell her how he loved her. He would be very careful, very considerate, he
+would not press his love as a claim, but he must tell her.
+
+“And Marcia, I must tell you the rest,� he went on, his own words seeming
+to stay upon his lips, and then tumble over one another; “I have learned
+to love you as I never loved your sister. I love you more and better than
+I ever could have loved her. I can see how God has led me away from her
+and brought me to you. I can look back to that night when I came to her
+and found you there waiting for me, and kissed you,—darling. Do you
+remember?� He took her cold little trembling hands and held them firmly as
+he talked, his whole soul in his face, as if his life depended upon the
+next few moments. “I was troubled at the time, dear, for having kissed
+you, and given you the greeting that I thought belonged to her. I have
+rebuked myself for thinking since how lovely you looked as you stood there
+in the moonlight. But afterward I knew that it was you after all that my
+love belonged to, and to you rightfully the kiss should have gone. I am
+glad it was so, glad that God overruled my foolish choosing. Lately I have
+been looking back to that night I met you at the gate, and feeling jealous
+that that meeting was not all ours; that it should be shadowed for us by
+the heartlessness of another. It gives me much joy now to think how I took
+you in my arms and kissed you. I cannot bear to think it was a mistake.
+Yet glad as I am that God sent you down to that gate to meet me, and much
+as I love you, I would rather have died than feel that I have brought
+sorrow into your life, and bound you to one whom you cannot love. Marcia,
+tell me truly, never mind my feelings, tell me! Can you ever love me?�
+
+Then did Marcia lift her flower-like face, all bright with tears of joy
+and a flood of rosy smiles, the light of seven stars in her eyes. But she
+could not speak, she could only look, and after a little whisper, “Oh,
+David, I think I have always loved you! I think I was waiting for you that
+night, though I did not know it. And look!�—with sudden thought——
+
+She drew from the folds of her dress a little old-fashioned locket hung by
+a chain about her neck out of sight. She opened it and showed him a soft
+gold curl which she touched gently with her lips, as though it were
+something very sacred.
+
+“What is it, darling?� asked David perplexed, half happy, half afraid as
+he took the locket and touched the curl more thrilled with the thought
+that she had carried it next her heart than with the sight of it.
+
+“It is yours,� she said, disappointed that he did not understand. “Aunt
+Clarinda gave it to me while you were away. I’ve worn it ever since. And
+she gave me other things, and told me all about you. I know it all, about
+the tops and marbles, and the spelling book, and I’ve cried with you over
+your punishments, and—I—love it all!�
+
+He had fastened the door before he began to talk, but he caught her in his
+arms now, regardless of the fact that the shades were not drawn down, and
+that they swayed in the summer breeze.
+
+“Oh, my darling! My wife!� he cried, and kissed her lips for the third
+time.
+
+The world was changed then for those two. They belonged to each other they
+believed, as no two that ever walked through Eden had ever belonged. When
+they thought of the precious bond that bound them together their hearts
+throbbed with a happiness that well-nigh overwhelmed them.
+
+A dinner of stewed chickens and little white soda biscuits was served
+them, fit for a wedding breakfast, for the barmaid whispered to the cook
+that she was sure there was a bride and groom in the parlor they looked so
+happy and seemed to forget anybody else was by. But it might have been ham
+and eggs for all they knew what it was they ate, these two who were so
+happy they could but look into each other’s eyes.
+
+When the dinner was over and they started on their way again, with Albany
+shimmering in the hot sun in the distance, and David’s arm sliding from
+the top of the seat to circle Marcia’s waist, David whispered:
+
+“This is our real wedding journey, dearest, and this is our bridal day.
+We’ll go to Albany and buy you a trousseau, and then we will go wherever
+you wish. I can stay a whole week if you wish. Would you like to go home
+for a visit?�
+
+Marcia, with shining eyes and glowing cheeks, looked her love into his
+face and answered: “Yes, _now_ I would like to go home,—just for a few
+days—and then back to our home.�
+
+And David looking into her eyes understood why she had not wanted to go
+before. She was taking her husband, _her_ husband, not Kate’s, with her
+now, and might be proud of his love. She could go among her old comrades
+and be happy, for he loved her. He looked a moment, comprehended,
+sympathized, and then pressing her hand close—for he might not kiss her,
+as there was a load of hay coming their way—he said: “Darling!� But their
+eyes said more.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 AD PAGES
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                         FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS
+                        IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS
+
+Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size.
+Printed on excellent paper—most of them with illustrations of marked
+beauty—and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+BEVERLY OF GRAUSTARK. By George Barr McCutcheon. With Color Frontispiece
+and other illustrations by Harrison Fisher. Beautiful inlay picture in
+colors of Beverly on the cover.
+
+“The most fascinating, engrossing and picturesque of the season’s
+novels.�—_Boston Herald._ “‘Beverly’ is altogether charming—almost living
+flesh and blood.�—_Louisville Times._ “Better than ‘Graustark’.�—_Mail and
+Express._ “A sequel quite as impossible as ‘Graustark’ and quite as
+entertaining.�—_Bookman._ “A charming love story well told.�—_Boston
+Transcript_.
+
+
+HALF A ROGUE. By Harold MacGrath. With illustrations and inlay cover
+picture by Harrison Fisher.
+
+“Here are dexterity of plot, glancing play at witty talk, characters
+really human and humanly real, spirit and gladness, freshness and quick
+movement. ‘Half a Rogue’ is as brisk as a horseback ride on a glorious
+morning. It is as varied as an April day. It is as charming as two most
+charming girls can make it. Love and honor and success and all the great
+things worth fighting for and living for the involved in ‘Half a
+Rogue.’�—_Phila. Press._
+
+
+THE GIRL FROM TIM’S PLACE. By Charles Clark Munn. With illustrations by
+Frank T. Merrill.
+
+“Figuring in the pages of this story there are several strong characters.
+Typical New England folk and an especially sturdy one, old Cy Walker,
+through whose instrumentality Chip comes to happiness and fortune. There
+is a chain of comedy, tragedy, pathos and love, which makes a dramatic
+story.�—_Boston Herald._
+
+
+THE LION AND THE MOUSE. A story of American Life. By Charles Klein, and
+Arthur Hornblow. With illustrations by Stuart Travis, and Scenes from the
+Play.
+
+The novel duplicated the success of the play; in fact the book is greater
+than the play. A portentous clash of dominant personalties that form the
+essence of the play are necessarily touched upon but briefly in the short
+space of four acts. All this is narrated in the novel with a wealth of
+fascinating and absorbing detail, making it one of the most powerfully
+written and exciting works of fiction given to the world in years.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                       GROSSET & DUNLAP, - NEW YORK
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                         FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS
+                        IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS
+
+Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size.
+Printed on excellent paper—most of them with illustrations of marked
+beauty—and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+BARBARA WINSLOW, REBEL. By Elizabeth Ellis. With illustrations by John
+Rae, and colored inlay cover.
+
+The following, taken from story, will best describe the heroine: A TOAST:
+“To the bravest comrade in misfortune, the sweetest companion in peace and
+at all times the most courageous of women.�—_Barbara Winslow._ “A romantic
+story, buoyant, eventful, and in matters of love exactly what the heart
+could desire.�—_New York Sun._
+
+
+SUSAN. By Ernest Oldmeadow. With a color frontispiece by Frank Haviland.
+Medallion in color on front cover.
+
+Lord Ruddington falls helplessly in love with Miss Langley, whom he sees
+in one of her walks accompanied by her maid, Susan. Through a
+misapprehension of personalities his lordship addresses a love missive to
+the maid. Susan accepts in perfect good faith, and an epistolary
+love-making goes on till they are disillusioned. It naturally makes a
+droll and delightful little comedy; and is a story that is particularly
+clever in the telling.
+
+
+WHEN PATTY WENT TO COLLEGE. By Jean Webster. With illustrations by C. D.
+Williams.
+
+“The book is a treasure.�—_Chicago Daily News._ “Bright, whimsical, and
+thoroughly entertaining.�—_Buffalo Express._ “One of the best stories of
+life in a girl’s college that has ever been written.�—_N. Y. Press._ “To
+any woman who has enjoyed the pleasures of a college life this book cannot
+fail to bring back many sweet recollections; and to those who have not
+been to college the wit, lightness, and charm of Patty are sure to be no
+less delightful.�—_Public Opinion._
+
+
+THE MASQUERADER. By Katherine Cecil Thurston. With illustrations by
+Clarence F. Underwood.
+
+“You can’t drop it till you have turned the last page.�—_Cleveland
+Leader._ “Its very audacity of motive, of execution, of solution, almost
+takes one’s breath away. The boldness of its denouement is
+sublime.�—_Boston Transcript._ “The literary hit of a generation. The best
+of it is the story deserves all its success. A masterly story.�—_St. Louis
+Dispatch._ “The story is ingeniously told, and cleverly constructed.�—_The
+Dial._
+
+
+THE GAMBLER. By Katherine Cecil Thurston. With illustrations by John
+Campbell.
+
+“Tells of a high strung young Irish woman who has a passion for gambling,
+inherited from a long line of sporting ancestors. She has a high sense of
+honor, too, and that causes complications. She is a very human, lovable
+character, and love saves her.�—_N. Y. Times._
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                       GROSSET & DUNLAP, - NEW YORK
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                         FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS
+                        IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS
+
+Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size.
+Printed on excellent paper—most of them with illustrations of marked
+beauty—and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE AFFAIR AT THE INN. By Kate Douglas Wiggin. With illustrations by
+Martin Justice.
+
+“As superlatively clever in the writing as it is entertaining in the
+reading. It is actual comedy of the most artistic sort, and it is handled
+with a freshness and originality that is unquestionably novel.�—_Boston
+Transcript._ “A feast of humor and good cheer, yet subtly pervaded by
+special shades of feeling, fancy, tenderness, or whimsicality. A merry
+thing in prose.�—_St. Louis Democrat._
+
+
+ROSE O’ THE RIVER. By Kate Douglas Wiggin. With illustrations by George
+Wright.
+
+“‘Rose o’ the River,’ a charming bit of sentiment, gracefully written and
+deftly touched with a gentle humor. It is a dainty book—daintily
+illustrated.�—_New York Tribune._ “A wholesome, bright, refreshing story,
+an ideal book to give a young girl.�—_Chicago Record-Herald._ “An idyllic
+story, replete with pathos and inimitable humor. As story-telling it is
+perfection, and as portrait-painting it is true to the life.�—_London
+Mail._
+
+
+TILLIE: A Mennonite Maid. By Helen R. Martin. With illustrations by
+Florence Scovel Shinn.
+
+The little “Mennonite Maid� who wanders through these pages is something
+quite new in fiction. Tillie is hungry for books and beauty and love; and
+she comes into her inheritance at the end. “Tillie is faulty, sensitive,
+big-hearted, eminently human, and first, last and always lovable. Her
+charm glows warmly, the story is well handled, the characters skilfully
+developed.�—_The Book Buyer._
+
+
+LADY ROSE’S DAUGHTER. By Mrs. Humphry Ward. With illustrations by Howard
+Chandler Christy.
+
+“The most marvellous work of its wonderful author.�—_New York World._ “We
+touch regions and attain altitudes which it is not given to the ordinary
+novelist even to approach.�—_London Times._ “In no other story has Mrs.
+Ward approached the brilliancy and vivacity of Lady Rose’s
+Daughter.�—_North American Review._
+
+
+THE BANKER AND THE BEAR. By Henry K. Webster.
+
+“An exciting and absorbing story.�—_New York Times._ “Intensely thrilling
+in parts, but an unusually good story all through. There is a love affair
+of real charm and most novel surroundings, there is a run on the bank
+which is almost worth a year’s growth, and there is all manner of
+exhilarating men and deeds which should bring the book into high and
+permanent favor.�—_Chicago Evening Post._
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                       GROSSET & DUNLAP, - NEW YORK
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                               NATURE BOOKS
+
+             With Colored Plates, and Photographs from Life.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+BIRD NEIGHBORS. An Introductory Acquaintance with 150 Birds Commonly Found
+in the Woods, Fields and Gardens About Our Homes. By Neltje Blanchan. With
+an Introduction by John Burroughs, and many plates of birds in natural
+colors. Large Quarto, size 7-3/4 x 10-3/8, Cloth. Formerly published at
+$2.00. Our special price, $1.00.
+
+As an aid to the elementary study of bird life nothing has ever been
+published more satisfactory than this most successful of Nature Books.
+This book makes the identification of our birds simple and positive, even
+to the uninitiated, through certain unique features. I. All the birds are
+grouped according to color, in the belief that a bird’s coloring is the
+first and often the only characteristic noticed. II. By another
+classification, the birds are grouped according to their season. III. All
+the popular names by which a bird is known are given both in the
+descriptions and the index. The colored plates are the most beautiful and
+accurate ever given in a moderate-priced and popular book. The most
+successful and widely sold Nature Book yet published.
+
+
+BIRDS THAT HUNT AND ARE HUNTED. Life Histories of 170 Birds of Prey, Game
+Birds and Water-Fowls. By Neltje Blanchan. With Introduction by G. O.
+Shields (Coquina). 24 photographic illustrations in color. Large Quarto,
+size 7-3/4 x 10-3/8. Formerly published at $2.00. Our special price,
+$1.00.
+
+No work of its class has ever been issued that contains so much valuable
+information, presented with such felicity and charm. The colored plates
+are true to nature. By their aid alone any bird illustrated may be readily
+identified. Sportsmen will especially relish the twenty-four color plates
+which show the more important birds in characteristic poses. They are
+probably the most valuable and artistic pictures of the kind available
+to-day.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                       GROSSET & DUNLAP, - NEW YORK
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                               NATURE BOOKS
+
+             With Colored Plates, and Photographs from Life.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+NATURE’S GARDEN. An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and Their Insect
+Visitors. 24 colored plates, and many other illustrations photographed
+directly from nature. Text by Neltje Blanchan. Large Quarto, size 7-3/4 x
+10-3/8. Cloth. Formerly published at $3.00 net. Our special price, $1.25.
+
+Superb color portraits of many familiar flowers in their living tints, and
+no less beautiful pictures in black and white of others—each blossom
+photographed directly from nature—form an unrivaled series. By their aid
+alone the novice can name the flowers met afield.
+
+Intimate life-histories of over five hundred species of wild flowers,
+written in untechnical, vivid language, emphasize the marvelously
+interesting and vital relationship existing between these flowers and the
+special insect to which each is adapted.
+
+The flowers are divided into five color groups, because by this
+arrangement any one with no knowledge of botany whatever can readily
+identify the specimens met during a walk. The various popular names by
+which each species is known, its preferred dwelling-place, months of
+blooming and geographical distribution follow its description. Lists of
+berry-bearing and other plants most conspicuous after the flowering
+season, of such as grow together in different kinds of soil, and finally
+of family groups arranged by that method of scientific classification
+adopted by the International Botanical Congress which has now superseded
+all others, combine to make “Nature’s Garden� an indispensable guide.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                       GROSSET & DUNLAP, - NEW YORK
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                         FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS
+                        IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS
+
+Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size.
+Printed on excellent paper—most of them with illustrations of marked
+beauty—and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE. By Edith Elmer Wood. With illustrations by
+Rufus Zogbaum.
+
+The standards and life of “the new navy� are breezily set forth with a
+genuine ring impossible from the most gifted “outsider.� “The story of the
+destruction of the ‘Maine,’ and of the Battle of Manila, are very
+dramatic. The author is the daughter of one naval officer and the wife of
+another. Naval folks will find much to interest them in ‘The Spirit of the
+Service.’�—_The Book Buyer._
+
+
+A SPECTRE OF POWER. By Charles Egbert Craddock.
+
+Miss Murfree has pictured Tennessee mountains and the mountain people in
+striking colors and with dramatic vividness, but goes back to the time of
+the struggles of the French and English in the early eighteenth century
+for possession of the Cherokee territory. The story abounds in adventure,
+mystery, peril and suspense.
+
+
+THE STORM CENTRE. By Charles Egbert Craddock.
+
+A war story; but more of flirtation, love and courtship than of fighting
+or history. The tale is thoroughly readable and takes its readers again
+into golden Tennessee, into the atmosphere which has distinguished all of
+Miss Murfree’s novels.
+
+
+THE ADVENTURESS. By Coralie Stanton. With color frontispiece by Harrison
+Fisher, and attractive inlay cover in colors.
+
+As a penalty for her crimes, her evil nature, her flint-like callousness,
+her more than inhuman cruelty, her contempt for the laws of God and man,
+she was condemned to bury her magnificent personality, her transcendent
+beauty, her superhuman charms, in gilded obscurity at a King’s left hand.
+A powerful story powerfully told.
+
+
+THE GOLDEN GREYHOUND. A Novel by Dwight Tilton. With illustrations by E.
+Pollak.
+
+A thoroughly good story that keeps you guessing to the very end, and never
+attempts to instruct or reform you. It is a strictly up-to-date story of
+love and mystery with wireless telegraphy and all the modern improvements.
+The events nearly all take place on a big Atlantic liner and the romance
+of the deep is skilfully made to serve as a setting for the romance, old
+as mankind, yet always new, involving our hero.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                       GROSSET & DUNLAP, - NEW YORK
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+
+                                  ERRATA
+
+
+      CHAPTER I
+      Changed: girl in the *fairy tale* who left jewels
+      To: girl in the *fairy-tale* who left jewels
+
+      CHAPTER I
+      Changed: ever walked in *fairy tale*. But she saw
+      To: ever walked in *fairy-tale*. But she saw
+
+      CHAPTER III
+      Changed: before, but covered *wth* confusion and shame,
+      To: before, but covered *with* confusion and shame,
+
+      CHAPTER III
+      Changed: and she turned *delberately*, one dainty, slippered
+      To: and she turned *deliberately*, one dainty, slippered
+
+      CHAPTER V
+      Changed: her that this *wholsale* disposal of Marcia
+      To: her that this *wholesale* disposal of Marcia
+
+      CHAPTER V
+      Changed: Phoebe takes your place and then come back.* *
+      To: Phoebe takes your place and then come back.*�*
+
+      CHAPTER V
+      Changed: fine places, to *tea drinkings* and the like,
+      To: fine places, to *tea-drinkings* and the like,
+
+      CHAPTER VI
+      Changed: out radiant and *childlike* through her tears.
+      To: out radiant and *child-like* through her tears.
+
+      CHAPTER X
+      Changed: was always something *childlike* about Marcia’s
+      To: was always something *child-like* about Marcia’s
+
+      CHAPTER X
+      Changed: her old home *plentfully* supplied with those
+      To: her old home *plentifully* supplied with those
+
+      CHAPTER XII
+      Changed: got David that’s worth everything.* *
+      To: got David that’s worth everything.*�*
+
+      CHAPTER XII
+      Changed: position on the *haircloth* sofa. But if
+      To: position on the *hair-cloth* sofa. But if
+
+      CHAPTER XIII
+      Changed: had Mary Ann’s *hand-writing* looked so pleasant
+      To: had Mary Ann’s *handwriting* looked so pleasant
+
+      CHAPTER XIII
+      Changed: seemed half a *life-time* to the girl
+      To: seemed half a *lifetime* to the girl
+
+      CHAPTER XIII
+      Changed: my old calico *tomorrow* morning again, and
+      To: my old calico *to-morrow* morning again, and
+
+      CHAPTER XIII
+      Changed: house with big *collums* to the front
+      To: house with big *columns* to the front
+
+      CHAPTER XV
+      Changed: table, and the *tea-kettle* was singing on
+      To: table, and the *tea kettle* was singing on
+
+      CHAPTER XV
+      Changed: The neighbor had *staid* longer than usual,
+      To: The neighbor had *stayed* longer than usual,
+
+      CHAPTER XVI
+      Changed: thus melted into *childlike* enthusiasm, felt his
+      To: thus melted into *child-like* enthusiasm, felt his
+
+      CHAPTER XVIII
+      Changed: with the flickering *candle-light* making grotesque
+      To: with the flickering *candle light* making grotesque
+
+      CHAPTER XVIII
+      Changed: Bible where the *candle-light* played at glances
+      To: Bible where the *candle light* played at glances
+
+      CHAPTER XXI
+      Changed: if he would *absord* the vision for
+      To: if he would *absorb* the vision for
+
+      CHAPTER XXII
+      Changed: and let the *floodtide* of his sorrow
+      To: and let the *flood-tide* of his sorrow
+
+      CHAPTER XXII
+      Changed: an’ hopin’ an’ *tryin* fer somebody bigger.
+      To: an’ hopin’ an’ *tryin’* fer somebody bigger.
+
+      CHAPTER XXII
+      Changed: There’s no place like home.*’*
+      To: There’s no place like home.* *
+
+      CHAPTER XXIV
+      Changed: * *MIRANDA GRISCOM.�
+      To: *“*MIRANDA GRISCOM.�
+
+      CHAPTER XXVI
+      Changed: all items accurate* * technicalities of preparation;
+      To: all items accurate*;* technicalities of preparation;
+
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+      Changed: need all the rest you can get.* *
+      To: need all the rest you can get.*�*
+
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+      Changed: had before—all your own I mean?* *
+      To: had before—all your own I mean?*�*
+
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+      Changed: any bonnet. Nothing but a pink sunbonnet.* *
+      To: any bonnet. Nothing but a pink sunbonnet.*�*
+
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+      Changed: a little old *haircloth* trunk, her own
+      To: a little old *hair-cloth* trunk, her own
+
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+      Changed: had done when* *a boy Aunt Clarinda
+      To: had done when* as *a boy Aunt Clarinda
+
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+      Changed: Kate a mere *common-place*? What was this
+      To: Kate a mere *commonplace*? What was this
+
+      CHAPTER XXIX
+      Changed: Marcia lift her *flowerlike* face, all bright
+      To: Marcia lift her *flower-like* face, all bright
+
+      AD PAGES
+      Changed: love story well told.�—_Boston Transcript_*,*
+      To: love story well told.�—_Boston Transcript_*.*
+
+      AD PAGES
+      Changed: by Frank Haviland. *Medalion* in color on
+      To: by Frank Haviland. *Medallion* in color on
+
+      AD PAGES
+      Changed: *Suberb* color portraits of many familiar flowers
+      To: *Superb* color portraits of many familiar flowers
+
+      AD PAGES
+      Changed: her magnificent *personalty*, her transcendent
+      To: her magnificent *personality*, her transcendent
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARCIA SCHUYLER***
+
+
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+</style></head><body class="tei">
+
+
+<div lang="en" class="tei tei-text" style="margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em" xml:lang="en">
+
+<div class="tei tei-front" style="margin-bottom: 6.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+  <div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+    <div id="pgheader" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em"><p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 2.00em">The Project Gutenberg EBook of Marcia Schuyler by Grace Livingston Hill Lutz</p></div><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em"><p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">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 <a href="#pglicense" class="tei tei-ref">included with this
+          eBook</a> or online at <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license" class="tei tei-xref">http://www.gutenberg.org/license</a></p></div><pre class="pre tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">Title: Marcia Schuyler
+
+Author: Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+
+Release Date: August 2007 [Ebook #23132]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARCIA SCHUYLER***
+</pre></div>
+  </div>
+
+  <div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+    
+  </div>
+
+  <div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+    <div class="block tei tei-docTitle"><div class="block tei tei-titlePart" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Marcia Schuyler</span></div></div><div class="block tei tei-byline" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">by </span><span class="inline tei tei-docAuthor" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 173%">Grace Livingston Hill Lutz</span></span></div><div class="tei tei-div" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 5.76em; margin-top: 5.76em"><span class="tei tei-docEdition" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-edition" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">Edition 1</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 144%">, (</span><span class="tei tei-docDate" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-date" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">August 2007</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 144%">)</span></div>
+  </div>
+
+  
+
+  
+
+  <hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+    <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page1"></span><a name="Pg1" id="Pg1" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.50em"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 150%; font-variant: small-caps">Marcia Schuyler</span></span><br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 75%">SIXTH EDITION</span></span></p>
+  </div>
+
+  
+
+  
+
+  <hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+    <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page4"></span><a name="Pg4" id="Pg4" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+      </p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="width: 95%; text-align: center"><img src="images/image01.png" width="760" height="520" alt="Illustration: Copyright by C. Klackner“Oh, You Naughty Man!� She Exclaimed Prettily, “How Dare You!�" title="Copyright by C. Klackner “Oh, You Naughty Man!� She Exclaimed Prettily, “How Dare You!�" /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 50%">Copyright by C. Klackner</span></span><br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 63%; font-variant: small-caps">“</span><span style="font-size: 63%; font-variant: small-caps">Oh, You Naughty
+        Man!</span><span style="font-size: 63%; font-variant: small-caps">�</span></span><span style="font-size: 63%; font-variant: small-caps"> She Exclaimed Prettily, </span><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 63%; font-variant: small-caps">“</span><span style="font-size: 63%; font-variant: small-caps">How Dare You!</span><span style="font-size: 63%; font-variant: small-caps">�</span></span></span></div></div>
+  </div>
+
+  <hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+    <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page5"></span><a name="Pg5" id="Pg5" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.50em"><span style="font-size: 250%">Marcia
+    Schuyler</span><br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.75em"><span style="font-size: 75%">by</span><br /><br /><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 150%">Grace Livingston Hill
+    Lutz</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: 75%">Author of </span><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 75%">“</span><span style="font-size: 75%">The Story of a Whim,</span><span style="font-size: 75%">�</span></span> <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 75%">“</span><span style="font-size: 75%">According to
+    the</span><br /><span style="font-size: 75%">Pattern,</span><span style="font-size: 75%">�</span></span> <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 75%">“</span><span style="font-size: 75%">An Unwilling Guest,</span><span style="font-size: 75%">�</span></span><span style="font-size: 75%"> etc.</span><br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.75em"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 75%; font-style: italic">Illustrations by</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: 75%">E. L. HENRY,
+    N.A.</span><br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">GROSSET
+    &amp; DUNLAP<br /><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 75%">PUBLISHERS ·
+    NEW YORK</span></span></p>
+  </div>
+
+  <hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+    <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page6"></span><a name="Pg6" id="Pg6" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.50em"><span style="font-size: 50%">Copyright,
+    1908</span><br /><span style="font-size: 50%">By J. B. Lippincott Company</span><br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.50em"><span style="font-size: 50%">Published
+    February, 1908</span><br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.50em"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 50%; font-style: italic">Electrotyped and printed by J. B.
+    Lippincott Company</span><br /><span style="font-size: 50%; font-style: italic">The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S.
+    A.</span></span></p>
+  </div>
+
+  <hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+    <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page7"></span><a name="Pg7" id="Pg7" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.50em"><span style="font-size: 50%">TO</span><br /><span style="font-size: 50%">THE
+    DEAR MEMORY OF</span><br /><span style="font-size: 50%">MY FATHER</span><br /><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 75%">The Rev.
+    CHARLES MONTGOMERY LIVINGSTON</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: 50%">WHOSE COMPANIONSHIP AND
+    ENCOURAGEMENT</span><br /><span style="font-size: 50%">HAVE BEEN MY HELP THROUGH</span><br /><span style="font-size: 50%">THE YEARS</span></p>
+  </div>
+
+  
+
+  <hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+    <a name="pdf1" id="pdf1"></a>
+    <h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">CONTENTS</span></h1>
+    <ul class="tei tei-index tei-index-toc"><li><a href="#toc2">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER I</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc4">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER II</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc6">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER III</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc8">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER IV</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc10">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER V</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc12">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER VI</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc14">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER VII</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc16">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER VIII</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc18">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER IX</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc20">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER X</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc22">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XI</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc24">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XII</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc26">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XIII</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc28">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XIV</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc30">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XV</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc32">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XVI</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc34">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XVII</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc36">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XVIII</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc38">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XIX</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc40">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XX</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc42">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XXI</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc44">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XXII</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc46">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XXIII</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc48">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XXIV</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc50">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XXV</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc52">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XXVI</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc54">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XXVII</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc56">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XXVIII</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc58">
+  <span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XXIX</span>
+</a></li><li><a href="#toc60">
+      <span style="font-size: 100%">AD PAGES</span>
+    </a></li><li><a href="#toc62">
+      <span style="font-size: 100%">ERRATA</span>
+    </a></li></ul>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="tei tei-body" style="margin-bottom: 6.00em; margin-top: 6.00em">
+<hr class="doublepage" /><div id="MS01" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page9"></span><a name="Pg9" id="Pg9" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc2" id="toc2"></a>
+<a name="pdf3" id="pdf3"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 183%">Marcia Schuyler</span></span>
+</h1>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER I</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The sun was already up and the grass blades were twinkling
+with sparkles of dew, as Marcia stepped from the
+kitchen door.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She wore a chocolate calico with little sprigs of red and
+white scattered over it, her hair was in smooth brown braids
+down her back, and there was a flush on her round cheeks that
+might have been but the reflection of the rosy light in the
+East. Her face was as untroubled as the summer morning,
+in its freshness, and her eyes as dreamy as the soft clouds that
+hovered upon the horizon uncertain where they were to be sent
+for the day.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia walked lightly through the grass, and the way
+behind her sparkled again like that of the girl in the
+<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E1" id="E1" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e1" class="tei tei-ref">fairy-tale</a></span>
+who left jewels wherever she passed.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A rail fence stopped her, which she mounted as though it
+had been a steed to carry her onward, and sat a moment
+looking at the beauty of the morning, her eyes taking on
+that far-away look that annoyed her stepmother when she
+wanted her to hurry with the dishes, or finish a long seam
+before it was time to get supper.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She loitered but a moment, for her mind was full of
+business, and she wished to accomplish much before the day
+was done. Swinging easily down to the other side of the
+fence she moved on through the meadow, over another fence,
+and another meadow, skirting the edge of a cool little strip
+of woods which lured her with its green mysterious shadows,
+its whispering leaves, and twittering birds. One wistful
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page10"></span><a name="Pg10" id="Pg10" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+glance she gave into the sweet silence, seeing a clump of
+maiden-hair ferns rippling their feathery locks in the breeze.
+Then resolutely turning away she sped on to the slope of
+Blackberry Hill.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was not a long climb to where the blackberries grew,
+and she was soon at work, the great luscious berries dropping
+into her pail almost with a touch. But while she worked
+the vision of the hills, the sheep meadow below, the river
+winding between the neighboring farms, melted away, and
+she did not even see the ripe fruit before her, because she
+was planning the new frock she was to buy with these
+berries she had come to pick.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Pink and white it was to be; she had seen it in the store
+the last time she went for sugar and spice. There were
+dainty sprigs of pink over the white ground, and every berry
+that dropped into her bright pail was no longer a berry but a
+sprig of pink chintz. While she worked she went over her
+plans for the day.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There had been busy times at the old house during the past
+weeks. Kate, her elder sister, was to be married. It was
+only a few days now to the wedding.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There had been a whole year of preparation: spinning and
+weaving and fine sewing. The smooth white linen lay ready,
+packed between rose leaves and lavender. There had been
+yards and yards of tatting and embroidery made by the two
+girls for the trousseau, and the village dressmaker had spent
+days at the house, cutting, fitting, shirring, till now there
+was a goodly array of gorgeous apparel piled high upon bed,
+and chairs, and hanging in the closets of the great spare bedroom.
+The outfit was as fine as that made for Patience
+Hartrandt six months before, and Mr. Hartrandt had given
+his one daughter all she had asked for in the way of a <span class="tei tei-q">“setting
+out.�</span> Kate had seen to it that her things were as fine as
+Patience’s,—but, they were all for Kate!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Of course, that was right! Kate was to be married, not
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page11"></span><a name="Pg11" id="Pg11" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+Marcia, and everything must make way for that. Marcia
+was scarcely more than a child as yet, barely seventeen. No
+one thought of anything new for her just then, and she
+did not expect it. But into her heart there had stolen a
+longing for a new frock herself amid all this finery for
+Kate. She had her best one of course. That was good, and
+pretty, and quite nice enough to wear to the wedding, and
+her stepmother had taken much relief in the thought that
+Marcia would need nothing during the rush of getting Kate
+ready.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But there were people coming to the house every day,
+especially in the afternoons, friends of Kate, and of her stepmother,
+to be shown Kate’s wardrobe, and to talk things over
+curiously. Marcia could not wear her best dress all the
+time. And <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">he</span></span> was coming! That was the way Marcia
+always denominated the prospective bridegroom in her mind.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">His name was David Spafford, and Kate often called him
+Dave, but Marcia, even to herself, could never bring herself
+to breathe the name so familiarly. She held him in great
+awe. He was so fine and strong and good, with a face like
+a young saint in some old picture, she thought. She often
+wondered how her wild, sparkling sister Kate dared to be so
+familiar with him. She had ventured the thought once
+when she watched Kate dressing to go out with some young
+people and preening herself like a bird of Paradise before the
+glass. It all came over her, the vanity and frivolousness of
+the life that Kate loved, and she spoke out with conviction:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Kate, you’ll have to be very different when you’re
+married.�</span> Kate had faced about amusedly and asked why.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Because <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">he</span></span> is so good,�</span> Marcia had replied, unable to
+explain further.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, is that all?�</span> said the daring sister, wheeling back to
+the glass. <span class="tei tei-q">“Don’t you worry; I’ll soon take that out of him.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But Kate’s indifference had never lessened her young sister’s
+awe of her prospective brother-in-law. She had listened
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page12"></span><a name="Pg12" id="Pg12" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+to his conversations with her father during the brief visits
+he had made, and she had watched his face at church while
+he and Kate sang together as the minister lined it out:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Rock of Ages cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee,�</span>
+a new song which had just been written. And she had mused
+upon the charmed life Kate would lead. It was wonderful
+to be a woman and be loved as Kate was loved, thought
+Marcia.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">So in all the hurry no one seemed to think much about
+Marcia, and she was not satisfied with her brown delaine
+afternoon dress. Truth to tell, it needed letting down, and
+there was no more left to let down. It made her feel like
+last year to go about in it with her slender ankles so plainly
+revealed. So she set her heart upon the new chintz.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Now, with Marcia, to decide was to do. She did not speak
+to her stepmother about it, for she knew it would be useless;
+neither did she think it worth while to go to her father, for
+she knew that both his wife and Kate would find it out and
+charge her with useless expense just now when there were
+so many other uses for money, and they were anxious to have
+it all flow their way. She had an independent spirit, so she
+took the time that belonged to herself, and went to the blackberry
+patch which belonged to everybody.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s fingers were nimble and accustomed, and the sun
+was not very high in the heavens when she had finished her
+task and turned happily toward the village. The pails would
+not hold another berry.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Her cheeks were glowing with the sun and exercise, and
+little wisps of wavy curls had escaped about her brow, damp
+with perspiration. Her eyes were shining with her purpose,
+half fulfilled, as she hastened down the hill.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Crossing a field she met Hanford Weston with a rake over
+his shoulder and a wide-brimmed straw hat like a small shed
+over him. He was on his way to the South meadow. He
+blushed and greeted her as she passed shyly by. When she
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page13"></span><a name="Pg13" id="Pg13" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+had passed he paused and looked admiringly after her. They
+had been in the same classes at school all winter, the girl at
+the head, the boy at the foot. But Hanford Weston’s father
+owned the largest farm in all the country round about, and
+he felt that did not so much matter. He would rather see
+Marcia at the head anyway, though there never had been the
+slightest danger that he would take her place. He felt a
+sudden desire now to follow her. It would be a pleasure to
+carry those pails that she bore as if they were mere featherweights.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He watched her long, elastic step for a moment, considered
+the sun in the sky, and his father’s command about the South
+meadow, and then strode after her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It did not take long to reach her side, swiftly as she had
+gone.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As well as he could, with the sudden hotness in his face
+and the tremor in his throat, he made out to ask if he might
+carry her burden for her. Marcia stopped annoyed. She
+had forgotten all about him, though he was an attractive
+fellow, sometimes called by the girls <span class="tei tei-q">“handsome Hanford.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She had been planning exactly how that pink sprigged
+chintz was to be made, and which parts she would cut first
+in order to save time and material. She did not wish to be
+interrupted. The importance of the matter was too great to
+be marred by the appearance of just a schoolmate whom
+she might meet every day, and whom she could so easily
+<span class="tei tei-q">“spell down.�</span> She summoned her thoughts from the details
+of mutton-leg sleeves and looked the boy over, to his great
+confusion. She did not want him along, and she was considering
+how best to get rid of him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Weren’t you going somewhere else?�</span> she asked sweetly.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Wasn’t there a rake over your shoulder? What have you
+done with it?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The culprit blushed deeper.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Where were you going?�</span> she demanded.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page14"></span><a name="Pg14" id="Pg14" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“To the South meadow,�</span> he stammered out.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, well, then you must go back. I shall do quite well,
+thank you. Your father will not be pleased to have you
+neglect your work for me, though I’m much obliged I’m
+sure.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Was there some foreshadowing of her womanhood in the
+decided way she spoke, and the quaint, prim set of her head
+as she bowed him good morning and went on her way once
+more? The boy did not understand. He only felt abashed,
+and half angry that she had ordered him back to work; and,
+too, in a tone that forbade him to take her memory with him
+as he went. Nevertheless her image lingered by the way, and
+haunted the South meadow all day long as he worked.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia, unconscious of the admiration she had stirred in
+the boyish heart, went her way on fleet feet, her spirit one
+with the sunny morning, her body light with anticipation, for
+a new frock of her own choice was yet an event in her life.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She had thought many times, as she spent long hours
+putting delicate stitches into her sister’s wedding garments,
+how it would seem if they were being made for her. She
+had whiled away many a dreary seam by thinking out, in a
+sort of dream-story, how she would put on this or that at
+will if it were her own, and go here or there, and have people
+love and admire her as they did Kate. It would never come
+true, of course. She never expected to be admired and loved
+like Kate. Kate was beautiful, bright and gay. Everybody
+loved her, no matter how she treated them. It was a matter
+of course for Kate to have everything she wanted. Marcia
+felt that she never could attain to such heights. In the first
+place she considered her own sweet serious face with its pure
+brown eyes as exceedingly plain. She could not catch the
+lights that played at hide and seek in her eyes when she
+talked with animation. Indeed few saw her at her best,
+because she seldom talked freely. It was only with certain
+people that she could forget herself.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page15"></span><a name="Pg15" id="Pg15" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She did not envy Kate. She was proud of her sister, and
+loved her, though there was an element of anxiety in the love.
+But she never thought of her many faults. She felt that
+they were excusable because Kate was Kate. It was as if you
+should find fault with a wild rose because it carried a thorn.
+Kate was set about with many a thorn, but amid them all she
+bloomed, her fragrant pink self, as apparently unconscious
+of the many pricks she gave, and as unconcerned, as the flower
+itself.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">So Marcia never thought to be jealous that Kate had so
+many lovely things, and was going out into the world to do
+just as she pleased, and lead a charmed life with a man who
+was greater in the eyes of this girl than any prince that ever
+walked in <span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E2" id="E2" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e2" class="tei tei-ref">fairy-tale</a></span>. But she saw no harm in playing a
+delightful little dream-game of <span class="tei tei-q">“pretend�</span> now and then,
+and letting her imagination make herself the beautiful, admired,
+elder sister instead of the plain younger one.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But this morning on her way to the village store with her
+berries she thought no more of her sister’s things, for her
+mind was upon her own little frock which she would purchase
+with the price of the berries, and then go home and
+make.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A whole long day she had to herself, for Kate and her
+stepmother were gone up to the neighboring town on the
+packet to make a few last purchases.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She had told no one of her plans, and was awake betimes
+in the morning to see the travellers off, eager to have them
+gone that she might begin to carry out her plan.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Just at the edge of the village Marcia put down the pails
+of berries by a large flat stone and sat down for a moment
+to tidy herself. The lacing of one shoe had come untied, and
+her hair was rumpled by exercise. But she could not sit long
+to rest, and taking up her burdens was soon upon the way
+again.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Mary Ann Fothergill stepped from her own gate lingering
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page16"></span><a name="Pg16" id="Pg16" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+till Marcia should come up, and the two girls walked along
+side by side. Mary Ann had stiff, straight, light hair, and
+high cheek bones. Her eyes were light and her eyelashes
+almost white. They did not show up well beneath her
+checked sunbonnet. Her complexion was dull and tanned.
+She was a contrast to Marcia with her clear red and white
+skin. She was tall and awkward and wore a linsey-woolsey
+frock as though it were a meal sack temporarily appropriated.
+She had the air of always trying to hide her feet and hands.
+Mary Ann had some fine qualities, but beauty was not one of
+them. Beside her Marcia’s delicate features showed clear-cut
+like a cameo, and her every movement spoke of patrician blood.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Mary Ann regarded Marcia’s smooth brown braids enviously.
+Her own sparse hair barely reached to her shoulders,
+and straggled about her neck helplessly and hopelessly, in
+spite of her constant efforts.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“It must be lots of fun at your house these days,�</span> said
+Mary Ann wistfully. <span class="tei tei-q">“Are you most ready for the wedding?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia nodded. Her eyes were bright. She could see the
+sign of the village store just ahead and knew the bolts of
+new chintz were displaying their charms in the window.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“My, but your cheeks do look pretty,�</span> admired Mary Ann
+impulsively. <span class="tei tei-q">“Say, how many of each has your sister got?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Two dozens,�</span> said Marcia conscious of a little swelling
+of pride in her breast. It was not every girl that had such a
+setting out as her sister.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“My!�</span> sighed Mary Ann. <span class="tei tei-q">“And outside things, too. I
+’spose she’s got one of every color. What are her frocks?
+Tell me about them. I’ve been up to Dutchess county and
+just got back last night, but Ma wrote Aunt Tilly that Mis’
+Hotchkiss said her frocks was the prettiest Miss Hancock’s
+ever sewed on.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“We think they are pretty,�</span> admitted Marcia modestly.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“There’s a sprigged chin—�</span> here she caught herself, remembering,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page17"></span><a name="Pg17" id="Pg17" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+and laughed. <span class="tei tei-q">“I mean muslin-de-laine, and a blue
+delaine, and a blue silk&mdash;&mdash;�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“My! silk!�</span> breathed Mary Ann in an ecstasy of wonder.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“And what’s she going to be married in?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“White,�</span> answered Marcia, <span class="tei tei-q">“white satin. And the veil
+was mother’s—our own mother’s, you know.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia spoke it reverently, her eyes shining with something
+far away that made Mary Ann think she looked like
+an angel.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, my! Don’t you just envy her?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“No,�</span> said Marcia slowly; <span class="tei tei-q">“I think not. At least—I hope
+not. It wouldn’t be right, you know. And then she’s my
+sister and I love her dearly, and it’s nearly as nice to have
+one’s sister have nice things and a good time as to have them
+one’s self.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You’re good,�</span> said Mary Ann decidedly as if that were
+a foregone conclusion. <span class="tei tei-q">“But I should envy her, I just should.
+Mis’ Hotchkiss told Ma there wa’nt many lots in life so all
+honey-and-dew-prepared like your sister’s. All the money
+she wanted to spend on clo’es, and a nice set out, and a man
+as handsome as you’ll find anywhere, and he’s well off too,
+ain’t he? Ma said she heard he kept a horse and lived right
+in the village too, not as how he needed to keep one to get
+anywhere, either. That’s what I call luxury—a horse to ride
+around with. And then Mr. What’s-his-name? I can’t remember.
+Oh, yes, Spafford. He’s good, and everybody says
+he won’t make a bit of fuss if Kate does go around and have
+a good time. He’ll just let her do as she pleases. Only old
+Grandma Doolittle says she doesn’t believe it. She thinks
+every man, no matter how good he is, wants to manage his
+wife, just for the name of it. She says your sister’ll have
+to change her ways or else there’ll be trouble. But that’s
+Grandma! Everybody knows her. She croaks! Ma says
+Kate’s got her nest feathered well if ever a girl had. My!
+I only wish I had the same chance!�</span></p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page18"></span><a name="Pg18" id="Pg18" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia held her head a trifle high when Mary Ann touched
+upon her sister’s personal character, but they were nearing
+the store, and everybody knew Mary Ann was blunt. Poor
+Mary Ann! She meant no harm. She was but repeating the
+village gossip. Besides, Marcia must give her mind to
+sprigged chintz. There was no time for discussions if she
+would accomplish her purpose before the folks came home
+that night.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Mary Ann,�</span> she said in her sweet, prim way that always
+made the other girl stand a little in awe of her, <span class="tei tei-q">“you mustn’t
+listen to gossip. It isn’t worth while. I’m sure my sister
+Kate will be very happy. I’m going in the store now, are
+you?�</span> And the conversation was suddenly concluded.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Mary Ann followed meekly watching with wonder and envy
+as Marcia made her bargain with the kindly merchant, and
+selected her chintz. What a delicious swish the scissors
+made as they went through the width of cloth, and how
+delightfully the paper crackled as the bundle was being
+wrapped! Mary Ann did not know whether Kate or Marcia
+was more to be envied.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Did you say you were going to make it up yourself?�</span>
+asked Mary Ann.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia nodded.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, my! Ain’t you afraid? I would be. It’s the
+prettiest I ever saw. Don’t you go and cut both sleeves for
+one arm. That’s what I did the only time Ma ever let me
+try.�</span> And Mary Ann touched the package under Marcia’s
+arm with wistful fingers.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They had reached the turn of the road and Mary Ann
+hoped that Marcia would ask her out to <span class="tei tei-q">“help,�</span> but Marcia
+had no such purpose.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Well, good-bye! Will you wear it next Sunday?�</span> she
+asked.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Perhaps,�</span> answered Marcia breathlessly, and sped on her
+homeward way, her cheeks bright with excitement.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+  </p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="width: 100%; text-align: center"><img src="images/image02.png" width="760" height="435" alt="Illustration: Copyright by C. KlacknerKate and Her Stepmother were Gone Up to the Neighboring Town on the Packet." title="Copyright by C. Klackner Kate and Her Stepmother were Gone Up to the Neighboring Town on the Packet." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 50%">Copyright by C. Klackner</span></span><br />
+    <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 63%; font-variant: small-caps">Kate and Her
+    Stepmother were Gone Up to the Neighboring Town on the
+    Packet.</span></span></div></div>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page19"></span><a name="Pg19" id="Pg19" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">In her own room she spread the chintz out upon the bed
+and with trembling fingers set about her task. The bright
+shears clipped the edge and tore off the lengths exultantly
+as if in league with the girl. The bees hummed outside in
+the clover, and now and again buzzed between the muslin
+curtains of the open window, looked in and grumbled out
+again. The birds sang across the meadows and the sun
+mounted to the zenith and began its downward march, but
+still the busy fingers worked on. Well for Marcia’s scheme
+that the fashion of the day was simple, wherein were few
+puckers and plaits and tucks, and little trimming required,
+else her task would have been impossible.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Her heart beat high as she tried it on at last, the new chintz
+that she had made. She went into the spare room and stood
+before the long mirror in its wide gilt frame that rested on
+two gilt knobs standing out from the wall like giant rosettes.
+She had dared to make the skirt a little longer than that of
+her best frock. It was almost as long as Kate’s, and for a
+moment she lingered, sweeping backward and forward before
+the glass and admiring herself in the long graceful folds.
+She caught up her braids in the fashion that Kate wore her
+hair and smiled at the reflection of herself in the mirror.
+How funny it seemed to think she would soon be a woman
+like Kate. When Kate was gone they would begin to call
+her <span class="tei tei-q">“Miss�</span> sometimes. Somehow she did not care to look
+ahead. The present seemed enough. She had so wrapped
+her thoughts in her sister’s new life that her own seemed
+flat and stale in comparison.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The sound of a distant hay wagon on the road reminded
+her that the sun was near to setting. The family carryall
+would soon be coming up the lane from the evening packet.
+She must hurry and take off her frock and be dressed before
+they arrived.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia was so tired that night after supper that she was
+glad to slip away to bed, without waiting to hear Kate’s
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page20"></span><a name="pg20" id="pg20" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+voluble account of her day in town, the beauties she had seen
+and the friends she had met.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She lay down and dreamed of the morrow, and of the next
+day, and the next. In strange bewilderment she awoke in
+the night and found the moonlight streaming full into her
+face. Then she laughed and rubbed her eyes and tried to go
+to sleep again; but she could not, for she had dreamed that she
+was the bride herself, and the words of Mary Ann kept going
+over and over in her mind. <span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, don’t you envy her?�</span> <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Did</span></span>
+she envy her sister? But that was wicked. It troubled her
+to think of it, and she tried to banish the dream, but it would
+come again and again with a strange sweet pleasure.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She lay wondering if such a time of joy would ever come
+to her as had come to Kate, and whether the spare bed would
+ever be piled high with clothes and fittings for her new life.
+What a wonderful thing it was anyway to be a woman and
+be loved!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then her dreams blended again with the soft perfume of
+the honeysuckle at the window, and the hooting of a young
+owl.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The moon dropped lower, the bright stars paled, dawn stole
+up through the edges of the woods far away and awakened a
+day that was to bring a strange transformation over Marcia’s
+life.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS02" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page21"></span><a name="pg21" id="pg21" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc4" id="toc4"></a>
+<a name="pdf5" id="pdf5"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER II</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As a natural consequence of her hard work and her midnight
+awakening, Marcia overslept the next morning. Her
+stepmother called her sharply and she dressed in haste, not
+even taking time to glance toward the new folds of chintz
+that drew her thoughts closetward. She dared not say anything
+about it yet. There was much to be done, and not
+even Kate had time for an idle word with her. Marcia was
+called upon to run errands, to do odds and ends of things, to
+fill in vacant places, to sew on lost buttons, to do everything
+for which nobody else had time. The household had suddenly
+become aware that there was now but one more intervening
+day between them and the wedding.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was not until late in the afternoon that Marcia ventured
+to put on her frock. Even then she felt shy about appearing
+in it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Madam Schuyler was busy in the parlor with callers, and
+Kate was locked in her own room whither she had gone to
+rest. There was no one to notice if Marcia should <span class="tei tei-q">“dress
+up,�</span> and it was not unlikely that she might escape much
+notice even at the supper table, as everybody was so absorbed
+in other things.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She lingered before her own little glass looking wistfully
+at herself. She was pleased with the frock she had made and
+liked her appearance in it, but yet there was something
+disappointing about it. It had none of the style of her
+sister’s garments, newly come from the hand of the village
+mantua-maker. It was girlish, and showed her slip of a
+form prettily in the fashion of the day, but she felt too
+young. She wanted to look older. She searched her drawer
+and found a bit of black velvet which she pinned about her
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page22"></span><a name="pg22" id="pg22" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+throat with a pin containing the miniature of her mother,
+then with a second thought she drew the long braids up in
+loops and fastened them about her head in older fashion. It
+suited her well, and the change it made astonished her. She
+decided to wear them so and see if others would notice.
+Surely, some day she would be a young woman, and perhaps
+then she would be allowed to have a will of her own occasionally.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She drew a quick breath as she descended the stairs and
+found her stepmother and the visitor just coming into the
+hall from the parlor.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They both involuntarily ceased their talk and looked at
+her in surprise. Over Madam Schuyler’s face there came a
+look as if she had received a revelation. Marcia was no longer
+a child, but had suddenly blossomed into young womanhood.
+It was not the time she would have chosen for such an event.
+There was enough going on, and Marcia was still in school.
+She had no desire to steer another young soul through the
+various dangers and follies that beset a pretty girl from the
+time she puts up her hair until she is safely married to the
+right man—or the wrong one. She had just begun to look
+forward with relief to having Kate well settled in life. Kate
+had been a hard one to manage. She had too much will of
+her own and a pretty way of always having it. She had no
+deep sense of reverence for old, staid manners and customs.
+Many a long lecture had Madam Schuyler delivered to Kate
+upon her unseemly ways. It did not please her to think of
+having to go through it all so soon again, therefore upon her
+usually complacent brow there came a look of dismay.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Why!�</span> exclaimed the visitor, <span class="tei tei-q">“is this the bride? How
+tall she looks! No! Bless me! it isn’t, is it? Yes,—Well!
+I’ll declare. It’s just Marsh! What have you got on, child?
+How old you look!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia flushed. It was not pleasant to have her young
+womanhood questioned, and in a tone so familiar and patronizing.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page23"></span><a name="pg23" id="pg23" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+She disliked the name of <span class="tei tei-q">“Marsh�</span> exceedingly,
+especially upon the lips of this woman, a sort of second cousin
+of her stepmother’s. She would rather have chosen the new
+frock to pass under inspection of her stepmother without
+witnesses, but it was too late to turn back now. She must
+face it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Though Madam Schuyler’s equilibrium was a trifle disturbed,
+she was not one to show it before a visitor. Instantly
+she recovered her balance, and perhaps Marcia’s ordeal was
+less trying than if there had been no third person present.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“That looks very well, child!�</span> she said critically with a
+shade of complacence in her voice. It is true that Marcia
+had gone beyond orders in purchasing and making garments
+unknown to her, yet the neatness and fit could but reflect
+well upon her training. It did no harm for cousin Maria
+to see what a child of her training could do. It was, on the
+whole, a very creditable piece of work, and Madam Schuyler
+grew more reconciled to it as Marcia came down toward them.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Make it herself?�</span> asked cousin Maria. <span class="tei tei-q">“Why, Marsh,
+you did real well. My Matilda does all her own clothes now.
+It’s time you were learning. It’s a trifle longish to what
+you’ve been wearing them, isn’t it? But you’ll grow into it,
+I dare say. Got your hair a new way too. I thought you
+were Kate when you first started down stairs. You’ll make a
+good-looking young lady when you grow up; only don’t be
+in too much hurry. Take your girlhood while you’ve got it,
+is what I always tell Matilda.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Matilda was well on to thirty and showed no signs of taking
+anything else.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Madam Schuyler smoothed an imaginary pucker across the
+shoulders and again pronounced the work good.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I picked berries and got the cloth,�</span> confessed Marcia.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Madam Schuyler smiled benevolently and patted Marcia’s
+cheek.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You needn’t have done that, child. Why didn’t you come
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page24"></span><a name="pg24" id="pg24" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+to me for money? You needed something new, and that is a
+very good purchase, a little light, perhaps, but very pretty.
+We’ve been so busy with Kate’s things you have been
+neglected.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia smiled with pleasure and passed into the dining
+room wondering what power the visitor had over her stepmother
+to make her pass over this digression from her rules
+so sweetly,—nay, even with praise.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At supper they all rallied Marcia upon her changed appearance.
+Her father jokingly said that when the bridegroom
+arrived he would hardly know which sister to choose, and he
+looked from one comely daughter to the other with fatherly
+pride. He praised Marcia for doing the work so neatly, and
+inwardly admired the courage and independence that
+prompted her to get the money by her own unaided efforts
+rather than to ask for it, and later, as he passed through the
+room where she was helping to remove the dishes from the
+table, he paused and handed her a crisp five-dollar note. It
+had occurred to him that one daughter was getting all the
+good things and the other was having nothing. There was
+a pleasant tenderness in his eyes, a recognition of her rights
+as a young woman, that made Marcia’s heart exceedingly
+light. There was something strange about the influence this
+little new frock seemed to have upon people.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Even Kate had taken a new tone with her. Much of the
+time at supper she had sat staring at her sister. Marcia
+wondered about it as she walked down toward the gate after
+her work was done. Kate had never seemed so quiet. Was
+she just beginning to realize that she was leaving home forever,
+and was she thinking how the home would be after she
+had left it? How she, Marcia, would take the place of elder
+sister, with only little Harriet and the boys, their stepsister
+and brothers, left? Was Kate sad over the thought of
+going so far away from them, or was she feeling suddenly
+the responsibility of the new position she was to occupy and
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page25"></span><a name="pg25" id="pg25" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+the duties that would be hers? No, that could not be it, for
+surely that would bring a softening of expression, a sweetness
+of anticipation, and Kate’s expression had been wondering,
+perplexed, almost troubled. If she had not been her own
+sister Marcia would have added, <span class="tei tei-q">“hard,�</span> but she stopped
+short at that.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was a lovely evening. The twilight was not yet over as
+she stepped from the low piazza that ran the length of the
+house bearing another above it on great white pillars. A
+drapery of wistaria in full bloom festooned across one end
+and half over the front. Marcia stepped back across the
+stone flagging and driveway to look up the purple clusters
+of graceful fairy-like shape that embowered the house, and
+thought how beautiful it would look when the wedding
+guests should arrive the day after the morrow. Then she
+turned into the little gravel path, box-bordered, that led to
+the gate. Here and there on either side luxuriant blooms of
+dahlias, peonies and roses leaned over into the night and
+peered at her. The yard had never looked so pretty. The
+flowers truly had done their best for the occasion, and they
+seemed to be asking some word of commendation from her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They nodded their dewy heads sleepily as she went on.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">To-morrow the children would be coming back from Aunt
+Eliza’s, where they had been sent safely out of the way for a
+few days, and the last things would arrive,—and <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">he</span></span> would
+come. Not later than three in the afternoon he ought to
+arrive, Kate had said, though there was a possibility that he
+might come in the morning, but Kate was not counting upon
+it. He was to drive from his home to Schenectady and, leaving
+his own horse there to rest, come on by coach. Then he
+and Kate would go back in fine style to Schenectady in a
+coach and pair, with a colored coachman, and at Schenectady
+take their own horse and drive on to their home, a long
+beautiful ride, so thought Marcia half enviously. How beautiful
+it would be! What endless delightful talks they might
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page26"></span><a name="pg26" id="pg26" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+have about the trees and birds and things they saw in passing
+only Kate did not love to talk about such things. But then
+she would be with David, and he talked beautifully about
+nature or anything else. Kate would learn to love it if she
+loved him. Did Kate love David? Of course she must or
+why should she marry him? Marcia resented the thought
+that Kate might have other objects in view, such as Mary Ann
+Fothergill had suggested for instance. Of course Kate would
+never marry any man unless she loved him. That would
+be a dreadful thing to do. Love was the greatest thing in
+the world. Marcia looked up to the stars, her young soul
+thrilling with awe and reverence for the great mysteries of
+life. She wondered again if life would open sometime for
+her in some such great way, and if she would ever know
+better than now what it meant. Would some one come and
+love her? Some one whom she could love in return with
+all the fervor of her nature?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She had dreamed such dreams before many times, as girls
+will, while lovers and future are all in one dreamy, sweet
+blending of rosy tints and joyous mystery, but never had they
+come to her with such vividness as that night. Perhaps it
+was because the household had recognized the woman in her
+for the first time that evening. Perhaps because the vision
+she had seen reflected in her mirror before she left her room
+that afternoon had opened the door of the future a little wider
+than it had ever opened before.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She stood by the gate where the syringa and lilac bushes
+leaned over and arched the way, and the honeysuckle climbed
+about the fence in a wild pretty way of its own and flung
+sweetness on the air in vivid, erratic whiffs.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The sidewalk outside was brick, and whenever she heard
+footsteps coming she stepped back into the shadow of the
+syringa and was hidden from view. She was in no mood
+to talk with any one.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She could look out into the dusty road and see dimly the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page27"></span><a name="pg27" id="pg27" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+horses and carryalls as they passed, and recognize an occasional
+laughing voice of some village maiden out with her
+best young man for a ride. Others strolled along the sidewalk,
+and fragments of talk floated back. Almost every one
+had a word to say about the wedding as they neared the gate,
+and if Marcia had been in another mood it would have been
+interesting and gratifying to her pride. Every one had a
+good word for Kate, though many disapproved of her in a
+general way for principle’s sake.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hanford Weston passed, with long, slouching gait, hands
+in his trousers pockets, and a frightened, hasty, sideways
+glance toward the lights of the house beyond. He would
+have gone in boldly to call if he had dared, and told Marcia
+that he had done her bidding and now wanted a reward, but
+John Middleton had joined him at the corner and he dared
+not make the attempt. John would have done it in a minute
+if he had wished. He was brazen by nature, but Hanford
+knew that he would as readily laugh at another for doing it.
+Hanford shrank from a laugh more than from the cannon’s
+mouth, so he slouched on, not knowing that his goddess held
+her breath behind a lilac bush not three feet away, her heart
+beating in annoyed taps to be again interrupted by him in her
+pleasant thoughts.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Merry, laughing voices mingling with many footsteps came
+sounding down the street and paused beside the gate. Marcia
+knew the voices and again slid behind the shrubbery that
+bordered all the way to the house, and not even a gleam of
+her light frock was visible. They trooped in, three or four
+girl friends of Kate’s and a couple of young men.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia watched them pass up the box-bordered path from
+her shadowy retreat, and thought how they would miss Kate,
+and wondered if the young men who had been coming there
+so constantly to see her had no pangs of heart that their
+friend and leader was about to leave them. Then she smiled
+at herself in the dark. She seemed to be doing the retrospect
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page28"></span><a name="pg28" id="pg28" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+for Kate, taking leave of all the old friends, home, and
+life, in Kate’s place. It was not her life anyway, and why
+should she bother herself and sigh and feel this sadness
+creeping over her for some one else? Was it that she was
+going to lose her sister? No, for Kate had never been much
+of a companion to her. She had always put her down as a
+little girl and made distinct and clear the difference in their
+ages. Marcia had been the little maid to fetch and carry, the
+errand girl, and unselfish, devoted slave in Kate’s life. There
+had been nothing protective and elder-sisterly in her manner
+toward Marcia. At times Marcia had felt this keenly, but
+no expression of this lack had ever crossed her lips, and afterwards
+her devotion to her sister had been the greater, to in a
+measure compensate for this reproachful thought.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But Marcia could not shake the sadness off. She stole in
+further among the trees to think about it till the callers should
+go away. She felt no desire to meet any of them.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She began again to wonder how she would feel if day after
+to-morrow were her wedding day, and she were going away
+from home and friends and all the scenes with which she had
+been familiar since babyhood. Would she mind very much
+leaving them all? Father? Yes, father had been good to
+her, and loved her and was proud of her in a way. But one
+does not lose one’s father no matter how far one goes. A
+father is a father always; and Mr. Schuyler was not a demonstrative
+man. Marcia felt that her father would not miss her
+deeply, and she was not sure she would miss him so very
+much. She had read to him a great deal and talked politics
+with him whenever he had no one better by, but aside from
+that her life had been lived much apart from him. Her stepmother?
+Yes, she would miss her as one misses a perfect
+mentor and guide. She had been used to looking to her for
+direction. She was thoroughly conscious that she had a will
+of her own and would like a chance to exercise it, still, she
+knew that in many cases without her stepmother she would
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page29"></span><a name="pg29" id="pg29" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+be like a rudderless ship, a guideless traveller. And she loved
+her stepmother too, as a young girl can love a good woman
+who has been her guide and helper, even though there never
+has been great tenderness between them. Yes, she would miss
+her stepmother, but she would not feel so very sad over it.
+Harriet and the little brothers? Oh, yes, she would miss
+them, they were dear little things and devoted to her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then there were the neighbors, and the schoolmates, and
+the people of the village. She would miss the minister,—the
+dear old minister and his wife. Many a time she had gone
+with her arms full of flowers to the parsonage down the
+street, and spent the afternoon with the minister’s wife. Her
+smooth white hair under its muslin cap, and her soft wrinkled
+cheek were very dear to the young girl. She had talked to
+this friend more freely about her innermost thoughts than
+she had ever spoken to any living being. Oh, she would miss
+the minister’s wife very much if she were to go away.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The names of her schoolmates came to her. Harriet Woodgate,
+Eliza Buchanan, Margaret Fletcher, three girls who
+were her intimates. She would miss them, of course, but how
+much? She could scarcely tell. Margaret Fletcher more
+than the other two. Mary Ann Fothergill? She almost
+laughed at the thought of anybody missing Mary Ann. John
+Middleton? Hanford Weston? There was not a boy in the
+school she would miss for an instant, she told herself with
+conviction. Not one of them realized her ideal. There was
+much pairing off of boy and girl in school, but Marcia, like
+the heroine of <span class="tei tei-q">“Comin’ thro’ the Rye,�</span> was good friends with
+all the boys and intimate with none. They all counted it an
+honor to wait upon her, and she cared not a farthing for any.
+She felt herself too young, of course, to think of such things,
+but when she dreamed her day dreams the lover and prince
+who figured in them bore no familiar form or feature. He
+was a prince and these were only schoolboys.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The merry chatter of the young people in the house floated
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page30"></span><a name="pg30" id="pg30" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+through the open windows, and Marcia could hear her sister’s
+voice above them all. Chameleon-like she was all gaiety and
+laughter now, since her gravity at supper.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They were coming out the front door and down the walk.
+Kate was with them. Marcia could catch glimpses of the
+girls’ white frocks as they came nearer. She saw that her
+sister was walking with Captain Leavenworth. He was a
+handsome young man who made a fine appearance in his
+uniform. He and Kate had been intimate for two years,
+and it might have been more than friendship had not Kate’s
+father interfered between them. He did not think so well
+of the handsome young captain as did either his daughter
+Kate or the United States Navy who had given him his position.
+Squire Schuyler required deep integrity and strength
+of moral character in the man who aspired to be his son-in-law.
+The captain did not number much of either among his
+virtues.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There had been a short, sharp contest which had ended in
+the departure of young Leavenworth from the town some
+three years before, and the temporary plunging of Kate
+Schuyler into a season of tears and pouting. But it had not
+been long before her gay laughter was ringing again, and her
+father thought she had forgotten. About that time David
+Spafford had appeared and promptly fallen in love with the
+beautiful girl, and the Schuyler mind was relieved. So it
+came about that, upon the reappearance of the handsome
+young captain wearing the insignia of his first honors, the
+Squire received him graciously. He even felt that he might
+be more lenient about his moral character, and told himself
+that perhaps he was not so bad after all, he must have something
+in him or the United States government would not have
+seen fit to honor him. It was easier to think so, now Kate
+was safe.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia watched her sister and the captain go laughing
+down to the gate, and out into the street. She wondered that
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page31"></span><a name="pg31" id="pg31" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+Kate could care to go out to-night when it was to be almost
+her last evening at home; wondered, too, that Kate would
+walk with Captain Leavenworth when she belonged to David
+now. She might have managed it to go with one of the girls.
+But that was Kate’s way. Kate’s ways were not Marcia’s
+ways.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia wondered if she would miss Kate, and was obliged
+to acknowledge to herself that in many ways her sister’s
+absence would be a relief to her. While she recognized the
+power of her sister’s beauty and will over her, she felt
+oppressed sometimes by the strain she was under to please,
+and wearied of the constant, half-fretful, half playful fault-finding.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The gay footsteps and voices died away down the village
+street, and Marcia ventured forth from her retreat. The
+moon was just rising and came up a glorious burnished disk,
+silhouetting her face as she stood a moment listening to the
+stirring of a bird among the branches. It was her will
+to-night to be alone and let her fancies wander where they
+would. The beauty and the mystery of a wedding was upon
+her, touching all her deeper feelings, and she wished to dream
+it out and wonder over it. Again it came to her what if the
+day after the morrow were her wedding day and she stood
+alone thinking about it. She would not have gone off down
+the street with a lot of giggling girls nor walked with another
+young man. She would have stood here, or down by the
+gate—and she moved on toward her favorite arch of lilac and
+syringa—yes, down by the gate in the darkness looking out
+and thinking how it would be when he should come. She felt
+sure if it had been herself who expected David she would
+have begun to watch for him a week before the time he had
+set for coming, heralding it again and again to her heart in
+joyous thrills of happiness, for who knew but he might come
+sooner and surprise her? She would have rejoiced that to-night
+she was alone, and would have excused herself from
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page32"></span><a name="pg32" id="pg32" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+everything else to come down there in the stillness and watch
+for him, and think how it would be when he would really get
+there. She would hear his step echoing down the street and
+would recognize it as his. She would lean far over the gate
+to listen and watch, and it would come nearer and nearer,
+and her heart would beat faster and faster, and her breath
+come quicker, until he was at last by her side, his beautiful
+surprise for her in his eyes. But now, if David should really
+try to surprise Kate by coming that way to-night he would
+not find her waiting nor thinking of him at all, but off with
+Captain Leavenworth.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">With a passing pity for David she went back to her own
+dream. With one elbow on the gate and her cheek in her
+hand she thought it all over. The delayed evening coach
+rumbled up to the tavern not far away and halted. Real
+footsteps came up the street, but Marcia did not notice them
+only as they made more vivid her thoughts.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Her dream went on and the steps drew nearer until suddenly
+they halted and some one appeared out of the shadow.
+Her heart stood still, for form and face in the darkness seemed
+unreal, and the dreams had been most vivid. Then with
+tender masterfulness two strong arms were flung about her
+and her face was drawn close to his across the vine-twined gate
+until her lips touched his. One long clinging kiss of tenderness
+he gave her and held her head close against his breast
+for just a moment while he murmured: <span class="tei tei-q">“My darling! My
+precious, precious Kate, I have you at last!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The spell was broken! Marcia’s dream was shattered.
+Her mind awoke. With a scream she sprang from him, horror
+and a wild but holy joy mingling with her perplexity. She
+put her hand upon her heart, marvelling over the sweetness
+that lingered upon her lips, trying to recover her senses as
+she faced the eager lover who opened the little gate and came
+quickly toward her, as yet unaware that it was not Kate to
+whom he had been talking.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS03" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page33"></span><a name="pg33" id="pg33" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc6" id="toc6"></a>
+<a name="pdf7" id="pdf7"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER III</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia stood quivering, trembling. She comprehended all
+in an instant. David Spafford had come a day earlier than
+he had been expected, to surprise Kate, and Kate was off
+having a good time with some one else. He had mistaken
+her for Kate. Her long dress and her put-up hair had
+deceived him in the moonlight. She tried to summon some
+womanly courage, and in her earnestness to make things right
+she forgot her natural timidity.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“It is not Kate,�</span> she said gently; <span class="tei tei-q">“it is only Marcia.
+Kate did not know you were coming to-night. She did not
+expect you till to-morrow. She had to go out,—that is—she
+has gone with—�</span> the truthful, youthful, troubled sister
+paused. To her mind it was a calamity that Kate was not
+present to meet her lover. She should at least have been in
+the house ready for a surprise like this. Would David not
+feel the omission keenly? She must keep it from him if she
+could about Captain Leavenworth. There was no reason why
+he should feel badly about it, of course, and yet it might
+annoy him. But he stepped back laughing at his mistake.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Why! Marcia, is it you, child? How you have grown!
+I never should have known you!�</span> said the young man
+pleasantly. He had always a grave tenderness for this little
+sister of his love. <span class="tei tei-q">“Of course your sister did not know I
+was coming,�</span> he went on, <span class="tei tei-q">“and doubtless she has many
+things to attend to. I did not expect her to be out here
+watching for me, though for a moment I did think she was
+at the gate. You say she is gone out? Then we will go up
+to the house and I will be there to surprise her when she
+comes.�</span></p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page34"></span><a name="pg34" id="pg34" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia turned with relief. He had not asked where Kate
+was gone, nor with whom.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Squire and Madam Schuyler greeted the arrival with
+elaborate welcome. The Squire like Marcia seemed much
+annoyed that Kate had gone out. He kept fuming back and
+forth from the window to the door and asking: <span class="tei tei-q">“What did
+she go out for to-night? She ought to have stayed at home!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But Madam Schuyler wore ample satisfaction upon her
+smooth brow. The bridegroom had arrived. There could be
+no further hitch in the ceremonies. He had arrived a day
+before the time, it is true; but he had not found <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">her</span></span> unprepared.
+So far as she was concerned, with a few extra touches
+the wedding might proceed at once. She was always ready
+for everything in time. No one could find a screw loose in
+the machinery of her household.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She bustled about, giving orders and laying a bountiful
+supper before the young man, while the Squire sat and talked
+with him, and Marcia hovered watchfully, waiting upon the
+table, noticing with admiring eyes the beautiful wave of his
+abundant hair, tossed back from his forehead. She took a
+kind of pride of possession in his handsome face,—the far-removed
+possession of a sister-in-law. There was his sunny
+smile, that seemed as though it could bring joy out of the
+gloom of a bleak December day, and there were the two
+dimples—not real dimples, of course, men never had dimples—but
+hints, suggestions of dimples, that caught themselves
+when he smiled, here and there like hidden mischief well kept
+under control, but still merrily ready to come to the surface.
+His hands were white and firm, the fingers long and shapely,
+the hands of a brain worker. The vision of Hanford Weston’s
+hands, red and bony, came up to her in contrast. She
+had not known that she looked at them that day when he had
+stood awkwardly asking if he might walk with her. Poor
+Hanford! He would ill compare with this cultured scholarly
+man who was his senior by ten years, though it is possible that
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page35"></span><a name="pg35" id="pg35" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+with the ten years added he would have been quite worthy
+of the admiration of any of the village girls.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The fruit cake and raspberry preserves and doughnuts and
+all the various viands that Madam Schuyler had ordered set
+out for the delectation of her guest had been partaken of, and
+David and the Squire sat talking of the news of the day,
+touching on politics, with a bit of laughter from the Squire
+at the man who thought he had invented a machine to draw
+carriages by steam in place of horses.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“There’s a good deal in it, I believe,�</span> said the younger
+man. <span class="tei tei-q">“His theory is all right if he can get some one to help
+him carry it out.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Well, maybe, maybe,�</span> said the Squire shaking his head
+dubiously, <span class="tei tei-q">“but it seems to me a very fanciful scheme. Horses
+are good enough for me. I shouldn’t like to trust myself
+to an unknown quantity like steam, but time will tell.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Yes, and the world is progressing. Something of the sort
+is sure to come. It has come in England. It would make
+a vast change in our country, binding city to city and practically
+eradicating space.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Visionary schemes, David, visionary schemes, that’s what
+I call them. You and I’ll never see them in our day, I’m
+sure of that. Remember this is a new country and must go
+slow.�</span> The Squire was half laughing, half in earnest.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Amid the talk Marcia had quietly slipped out. It had
+occurred to her that perhaps the captain might return with
+her sister.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She must watch for Kate and warn her. Like a shadow in
+the moonlight she stepped softly down the gravel path once
+more and waited at the gate. Did not that sacred kiss placed
+upon her lips all by mistake bind her to this solemn duty?
+Had it not been given to her to see as in a revelation, by
+that kiss, the love of one man for one woman, deep and tender
+and true?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">In the fragrant darkness her soul stood still and wondered
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page36"></span><a name="pg36" id="pg36" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+over Love, the marvellous. With an insight such as few have
+who have not tasted years of wedded joy, Marcia comprehended
+the possibility and joy of sacrifice that made even
+sad things bright because of Love. She saw like a flash how
+Kate could give up her gay life, her home, her friends, everything
+that life had heretofore held dear for her, that she
+might be by the side of the man who loved her so. But with
+this knowledge of David’s love for Kate came a troubled
+doubt. Did Kate love David that way? If Kate had been
+the one who received that kiss would she have returned it
+with the same tenderness and warmth with which it was
+given? Marcia dared not try to answer this. It was Kate’s
+question, not hers, and she must never let it enter her mind
+again. Of course she must love him that way or she would
+never marry him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The night crept slowly for the anxious little watcher at the
+gate. Had she been sure where to look for her sister, and
+not afraid of the tongues of a few interested neighbors who
+had watched everything at the house for days that no item
+about the wedding should escape them, she would have started
+on a search at once. She knew if she just ran into old Miss
+Pemberton’s, whose house stood out upon the street with two
+straight-backed little, high, white seats each side of the stoop,
+a most delightful post of observation, she could discover at
+once in which direction Kate had gone, and perhaps a good
+deal more of hints and suggestions besides. But Marcia had
+no mind to make gossip. She must wait as patiently as she
+could for Kate. Moreover Kate might be walking even now
+in some secluded, rose-lined lane arm in arm with the captain,
+saying a pleasant farewell. It was Kate’s way and no one
+might gainsay her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s dreams came back once more, the thoughts that
+had been hers as she stood there an hour before. She thought
+how the kiss had fitted into the dream. Then all at once
+conscience told her it was Kate’s lover, not her own, whose
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page37"></span><a name="pg37" id="pg37" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+arms had encircled her. And now there was a strange unwillingness
+to go back to the dreams at all, a lingering longing
+for the joys into whose glory she had been for a moment
+permitted to look. She drew back from all thoughts and
+tried to close the door upon them. They seemed too sacred
+to enter. Her maidenhood was but just begun and she had
+much yet to learn of life. She was glad, glad for Kate that
+such wonderfulness was coming to her. Kate would be
+sweeter, softer in her ways now. She could not help it with
+a love like that enfolding her life.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At last there were footsteps! Hark! Two people—only
+two! Just what Marcia had expected. The other girls and
+boys had dropped into other streets or gone home. Kate and
+her former lover were coming home alone. And, furthermore,
+Kate would not be glad to see her sister at the gate. This
+last thought came with sudden conviction, but Marcia did not
+falter.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Kate, David has come!�</span> Marcia said it in low, almost
+accusing tones, at least so it sounded to Kate, before the two
+had hardly reached the gate. They had been loitering along
+talking in low tones, and the young captain’s head was bent
+over his companion in an earnest, pleading attitude. Marcia
+could not bear to look, and did not wish to see more, so she
+had spoken.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate, startled, sprang away from her companion, a white
+angry look in her face.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“How you scared me, Marsh!�</span> she exclaimed pettishly.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“What if he has come? That’s nothing. I guess he can wait
+a few minutes. He had no business to come to-night anyway.
+He knew we wouldn’t be ready for him till to-morrow.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate was recovering her self-possession in proportion as
+she realized the situation. That she was vexed over her
+bridegroom’s arrival neither of the two witnesses could doubt.
+It stung her sister with a deep pity for David. He was not
+getting as much in Kate as he was giving. But there was
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page38"></span><a name="pg38" id="pg38" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+no time for such thoughts, besides Marcia was trembling
+from head to foot, partly with her own daring, partly with
+wrath at her sister’s words.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“For shame, Kate!�</span> she cried. <span class="tei tei-q">“How can you talk so,
+even in fun! David came to surprise you, and I think he
+had a right to expect to find you here so near to the time of
+your marriage.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was a flash in the young eyes as she said it, and a
+delicate lifting of her chin with the conviction of the truth
+she was speaking, that gave her a new dignity even in the
+moonlight. Captain Leavenworth looked at her in lazy
+admiration and said:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Why, Marsh, you’re developing into quite a spitfire. What
+have you got on to-night that makes you look so tall and
+handsome? Why didn’t you stay in and talk to your fine
+gentleman? I’m sure he would have been just as well satisfied
+with you as your sister.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia gave one withering glance at the young man and
+then turned her back full upon him. He was not worth
+noticing. Besides he was to be pitied, for he evidently cared
+still for Kate.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But Kate was fairly white with anger. Perhaps her own
+accusing conscience helped it on. Her voice was imperious
+and cold. She drew herself up haughtily and pointed toward
+the house.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Marcia Schuyler,�</span> she said coldly, facing her sister, <span class="tei tei-q">“go
+into the house and attend to your own affairs. You’ll find
+that you’ll get into serious trouble if you attempt to meddle
+with mine. You’re nothing but a child yet and ought to be
+punished for your impudence. Go! I tell you!�</span> she stamped
+her foot, <span class="tei tei-q">“I will come in when I get ready.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia went. Not proudly as she might have gone the
+moment before, but covered <span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E3" id="E3" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e3" class="tei tei-ref">with</a></span> confusion and shame, her
+head drooping like some crushed lily on a bleeding stalk.
+Through her soul rushed indignation, mighty and forceful;
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page39"></span><a name="pg39" id="pg39" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+indignation and shame, for her sister, for David, for herself.
+She did not stop to analyze her various feelings, nor did she
+stop to speak further with those in the house. She fled to
+her own room, and burying her face in the pillow she wept
+until she fell asleep.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The moon-shadows grew longer about the arbored gateway
+where the two she had left stood talking in low tones, looking
+furtively now and then toward the house, and withdrawing
+into the covert of the bushes by the walk. But Kate dared
+not linger long. She could see her father’s profile by the
+candle light in the dining room. She did not wish to receive
+further rebuke, and so in a very few minutes the two parted
+and Kate ran up the box-edged path, beginning to hum a
+sweet old love song in a gay light voice, as she tripped by
+the dining-room windows, and thus announced her arrival.
+She guessed that Marcia would have gone straight to her
+room and told nothing. Kate intended to be fully surprised.
+She paused in the hall to hang up the light shawl she had
+worn, calling good-night to her stepmother and saying she
+was very tired and was going straight to bed to be ready for
+to-morrow. Then she ran lightly across the hall to the stairs.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She knew they would call her back, and that they would
+all come into the hall with David to see the effect of his surprise
+upon her. She had planned to a nicety just which stair
+she could reach before they got there, and where she would
+pause and turn and poise, and what pose she would take with
+her round white arm stretched to the handrail, the sleeve
+turned carelessly back. She had ready her countenances, a
+sleepy indifference, then a pleased surprise, and a climax of
+delight. She carried it all out, this little bit of impromptu
+acting, as well as though she had rehearsed it for a month.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They called her, and she turned <span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E4" id="E4" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e4" class="tei tei-ref">deliberately</a></span>, one dainty,
+slippered foot, with its crossed black ribbons about the slender
+ankle, just leaving the stair below, and showing the arch of
+the aristocratic instep. Her gown was blue and she held it
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page40"></span><a name="pg40" id="pg40" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+back just enough for the stiff white frill of her petticoat to
+peep below. Well she read the admiration in the eyes below
+her. Admiration was Kate’s life: she thrived upon it. She
+could not do without it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David stood still, his love in his eyes, looking upon the
+vision of his bride, and his heart swelled within him that so
+great a treasure should be his. Then straightway they all
+forgot to question where she had been or to rebuke her that
+she had been at all. She had known they would. She ever
+possessed the power to make others forget her wrong doings
+when it was worth her while to try.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The next morning things were astir even earlier than usual.
+There was the sound of the beating of eggs, the stirring of
+cakes, the clatter of pots and pans from the wide, stone-flagged
+kitchen.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia, fresh as a flower from its morning dew in spite
+of her cry the night before, had arisen to new opportunities
+for service. She was glad with the joyous forgetfulness of
+youth when she looked at David’s happy face, and she thought
+no more of Kate’s treatment of herself.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David followed Kate with a true lover’s eyes and was never
+for more than a few moments out of her sight, though it
+seemed to Marcia that Kate did not try very hard to stay with
+him. When afternoon came she dismissed him for what she
+called her <span class="tei tei-q">“beauty nap.�</span> Marcia was passing through the
+hall at the time and she caught the tender look upon his face
+as he touched her brow with reverent fingers and told her she
+had no need for that. Her eyes met Kate’s as they were going
+up the stairs, and in spite of what Kate had said the night
+before Marcia could not refrain from saying: <span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, Kate!
+how could you when he loves you so? You know you never
+take a nap in the daytime!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You silly girl!�</span> said Kate pleasantly enough, <span class="tei tei-q">“don’t you
+know the less a man sees of one the more he thinks of her?�</span>
+With this remark she closed and fastened her door after her.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page41"></span><a name="pg41" id="pg41" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia pondered these words of wisdom for some time,
+wondering whether Kate had really done it for that reason,
+or whether she did not care for the company of her lover.
+And why should it be so that a man loved you less because
+he saw you more? In her straightforward code the more you
+loved persons the more you desired to be in their company.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate had issued from her <span class="tei tei-q">“beauty nap�</span> with a feverish
+restlessness in her eyes, an averted face, and ink upon one
+finger. At supper she scarcely spoke, and when she did she
+laughed excitedly over little things. Her lover watched her
+with eyes of pride and ever increasing wonder over her beauty,
+and Marcia, seeing the light in his face, watched for its
+answer in her sister’s, and finding it not was troubled.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She watched them from her bedroom window as they
+walked down the path where she had gone the evening before,
+decorously side by side, Kate holding her light muslin frock
+back from the dew on the hedges. She wondered if it was
+because Kate had more respect for David than for Captain
+Leavenworth that she never seemed to treat him with as
+much familiarity. She did not take possession of him in
+the same sweet imperious way.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia had not lighted her candle. The moon gave light
+enough and she was very weary, so she undressed in the dim
+chamber and pondered upon the ways of the great world.
+Out there in the moonlight were those two who to-morrow
+would be one, and here was she, alone. The world seemed
+all circling about that white chamber of hers, and echoing
+with her own consciousness of self, and a loneliness she had
+never felt before. She wondered what it might be. Was it
+all sadness at parting with Kate, or was it the sadness over
+inevitable partings of all human relationships, and the all-aloneness
+of every living spirit?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She stood for a moment, white-robed, beside her window,
+looking up into the full round moon, and wondering if God
+knew the ache of loneliness in His little human creatures’
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page42"></span><a name="pg42" id="pg42" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+souls that He had made, and whether He had ready something
+wherewith to satisfy. Then her meek soul bowed before
+the faith that was in her and she knelt for her shy but
+reverent evening prayer.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She heard the two lovers come in early and go upstairs, and
+she heard her father fastening up the doors and windows
+for the night. Then stillness gradually settled down and she
+fell asleep. Later, in her dreams, there echoed the sound of
+hastening hoofs far down the deserted street and over the old
+covered bridge, but she took no note of any sound, and the
+weary household slept on.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS04" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page43"></span><a name="pg43" id="pg43" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc8" id="toc8"></a>
+<a name="pdf9" id="pdf9"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER IV</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The wedding was set for ten o’clock in the morning, after
+which there was to be a wedding breakfast and the married
+couple were to start immediately for their new home.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David had driven the day before with his own horse and
+chaise to a town some twenty miles away, and there left his
+horse at a tavern to rest for the return trip, for Kate would
+have it that they must leave the house in high style. So the
+finest equipage the town afforded had been secured to bear
+them on the first stage of their journey, with a portly negro
+driver and everything according to the custom of the greatest
+of the land. Nothing that Kate desired about the arrangements
+had been left undone.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The household was fully astir by half past four, for the
+family breakfast was to be at six promptly, that all might be
+cleared away and in readiness for the early arrival of the
+various aunts and uncles and cousins and friends who would
+<span class="tei tei-q">“drive over�</span> from the country round about. It would have
+been something Madam Schuyler would never have been able
+to get over if aught had been awry when a single uncle or
+aunt appeared upon the scene, or if there seemed to be the
+least evidence of fluster and nervousness.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The rosy sunlight in the east was mixing the morning with
+fresher air, and new odors for the new day that was dawning,
+when Marcia awoke. The sharp click of spoons and dishes,
+the voices of the maids, the sizzle, sputter, odor of frying
+ham and eggs, mingled with the early chorus of the birds,
+and calling to life of all living creatures, like an intrusion
+upon nature. It seemed not right to steal the morning’s
+<span class="tei tei-q">“quiet hour�</span> thus rudely. The thought flitted through the
+girl’s mind, and in an instant more the whole panorama of
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page44"></span><a name="pg44" id="pg44" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+the day’s excitement was before her, and she sprang from her
+bed. As if it had been her own wedding day instead of her
+sister’s, she performed her dainty toilet, for though there was
+need for haste, she knew she would have no further time
+beyond a moment to slip on her best gown and smooth her
+hair.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia hurried downstairs just as the bell rang for breakfast,
+and David, coming down smiling behind her, patted her
+cheek and greeted her with, <span class="tei tei-q">“Well, little sister, you look as
+rested as if you had not done a thing all day yesterday.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She smiled shyly back at him, and her heart filled with
+pleasure over his new name for her. It sounded pleasantly
+from his happy lips. She was conscious of a gladness
+that he was to be so nearly related to her. She fancied
+how it would seem to say to Mary Ann: <span class="tei tei-q">“My brother-in-law
+says so and so.�</span> It would be grand to call such a
+man <span class="tei tei-q">“brother.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They were all seated at the table but Kate, and Squire
+Schuyler waited with pleasantly frowning brows to ask the
+blessing on the morning food. Kate was often late. She
+was the only member of the family who dared to be late to
+breakfast, and being the bride and the centre of the occasion
+more leniency was granted her this morning than ever before.
+Madam Schuyler waited until every one at the table was
+served to ham and eggs, coffee and bread-and-butter, and
+steaming griddle cakes, before she said, looking anxiously at
+the tall clock: <span class="tei tei-q">“Marcia, perhaps you better go up and see if
+your sister needs any help. She ought to be down by now.
+Uncle Joab and Aunt Polly will be sure to be here by eight.
+She must have overslept, but we made so much noise she is
+surely awake by this time.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia left her half-eaten breakfast and went slowly upstairs.
+She knew her sister would not welcome her, for she
+had often been sent on like errands before, and the brunt of
+Kate’s anger had fallen upon the hapless messenger, wearing
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page45"></span><a name="pg45" id="pg45" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+itself out there so that she might descend all smiles to greet
+father and mother and smooth off the situation in a most
+harmonious manner.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia paused before the door to listen. Perhaps Kate was
+nearly ready and her distasteful errand need not be performed.
+But though she held her breath to listen, no sound
+came from the closed door. Very softly she tried to lift the
+latch and peep in. Kate must still be asleep. It was not the
+first time Marcia had found that to be the case when sent
+to bring her sister.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But the latch would not lift. The catch was firmly down
+from the inside. Marcia applied her eye to the keyhole, but
+could get no vision save a dim outline of the window on the
+other side of the room. She tapped gently once or twice and
+waited again, then called softly: <span class="tei tei-q">“Kate, Kate! Wake up.
+Breakfast is ready and everybody is eating. Aunt Polly and
+Uncle Joab will soon be here.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She repeated her tapping and calling, growing louder as she
+received no answer. Kate would often keep still to tease her
+thus. Surely though she would not do so upon her wedding
+morning!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She called and called and shook the door, not daring, however,
+to make much of an uproar lest David should hear.
+She could not bear he should know the shortcomings of his
+bride.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But at last she grew alarmed. Perhaps Kate was ill. At
+any rate, whatever it was, it was time she was up. She worked
+for some minutes trying to loosen the catch that held the
+latch, but all to no purpose. She was forced to go down
+stairs and whisper to her stepmother the state of the case.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Madam Schuyler, excusing herself from the table, went upstairs,
+purposeful decision in every line of her substantial
+body, determination in every sound of her footfall. Bride
+though she be, Kate would have meted out to her just dues
+this time. Company and a lover and the nearness of the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page46"></span><a name="pg46" id="pg46" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+wedding hour were things not to be trifled with even by a
+charming Kate.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But Madam Schuyler returned in a short space of time,
+puffing and panting, somewhat short of breath, and color in
+her face. She looked troubled, and she interrupted the Squire
+without waiting for him to finish his sentence to David.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I cannot understand what is the matter with Kate,�</span> she
+said, looking at her husband. <span class="tei tei-q">“She does not seem to be awake,
+and I cannot get her door open. She sleeps soundly, and I
+suppose the unusual excitement has made her very tired. But
+I should think she ought to hear my voice. Perhaps you
+better see if you can open the door.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was studied calm in her voice, but her face belied
+her words. She was anxious lest Kate was playing one of her
+pranks. She knew Kate’s careless, fun-loving ways. It was
+more to her that all things should move decently and in order
+than that Kate should even be perfectly well. But Marcia’s
+white face behind her stepmother’s ample shoulder showed a
+dread of something worse than a mere indisposition. David
+Spafford took alarm at once. He put down the silver syrup
+jug from which he had been pouring golden maple syrup on
+his cakes, and pushed his chair back with a click.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Perhaps she has fainted!�</span> he said, and Marcia saw how
+deeply he was concerned. Father and lover both started up
+stairs, the father angry, the lover alarmed. The Squire
+grumbled all the way up that Kate should sleep so late, but
+David said nothing. He waited anxiously behind while the
+Squire worked with the door. Madam Schuyler and Marcia
+had followed them, and halting curiously just behind came
+the two maids. They all loved Miss Kate and were deeply
+interested in the day’s doings. They did not want anything
+to interfere with the well-planned pageant.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Squire fumbled nervously with the latch, all the time
+calling upon his daughter to open the door; then wrathfully
+placed his solid shoulder and knee in just the right place,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page47"></span><a name="pg47" id="pg47" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+and with a groan and wrench the latch gave way, and the
+solid oak door swung open, precipitating the anxious group
+somewhat suddenly into the room.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Almost immediately they all became aware that there was
+no one there. David had stood with averted eyes at first, but
+that second sense which makes us aware without sight when
+others are near or absent, brought with it an unnamed anxiety.
+He looked wildly about.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The bed had not been slept in; that they all saw at once.
+The room was in confusion, but perhaps not more than might
+have been expected when the occupant was about to leave
+on the morrow. There were pieces of paper and string upon
+the floor and one or two garments lying about as if carelessly
+cast off in a hurry. David recognized the purple muslin
+frock Kate had worn the night before, and put out his
+hand to touch it as it lay across the foot of the bed, vainly
+reaching after her who was not there.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They stood in silence, father, mother, sister, and lover,
+and took in every detail of the deserted room, then looked
+blankly into one another’s white faces, and in the eyes of each
+a terrible question began to dawn. Where was she?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Madam Schuyler recovered her senses first. With her sharp
+practical system she endeavored to find out the exact situation.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Who saw her last?�</span> she asked sharply looking from one
+to the other. <span class="tei tei-q">“Who saw her last? Has she been down
+stairs this morning?�</span> she looked straight at Marcia this time,
+but the girl shook her head.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I went to bed last night before they came in,�</span> she said,
+looking questioningly at David, but a sudden remembrance
+and fear seized her heart. She turned away to the window
+to face it where they could not look at her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“We came in early,�</span> said David, trying to keep the anxiety
+out of his voice, as he remembered his well-beloved’s good-night.
+Surely, surely, nothing very dreadful could have happened
+just over night, and in her father’s own house. He
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page48"></span><a name="pg48" id="pg48" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+looked about again to see the natural, every-day, little things
+that would help him drive away the thoughts of possible
+tragedy.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Kate was tired. She said she was going to get up very
+early this morning and wash her face in the dew on the
+grass.�</span> He braved a smile and looked about on the troubled
+group. <span class="tei tei-q">“She must be out somewhere upon the place,�</span> he
+continued, gathering courage with the thought; <span class="tei tei-q">“she told me
+it was an old superstition. She has maybe wandered further
+than she intended, and perhaps got into some trouble. I’d
+better go and search for her. Is there any place near here
+where she would be likely to be?�</span> He turned to Marcia for
+help.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“But Kate would never delay so long I’m sure,�</span> said the
+stepmother severely. <span class="tei tei-q">“She’s not such a fool as to go traipsing
+through the wet grass before daylight for any nonsense. If
+it were Marcia now, you might expect anything, but Kate
+would be satisfied with the dew on the grass by the kitchen
+pump. I know Kate.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s face crimsoned at her stepmother’s words, but she
+turned her troubled eyes to David and tried to answer him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“There are plenty of places, but Kate has never cared to
+go to them. I could go out and look everywhere.�</span> She
+started to go down, but as she passed the wide mahogany
+bureau she saw a bit of folded paper lying under the corner
+of the pincushion. With a smothered exclamation she went
+over and picked it up. It was addressed to David in Kate’s
+handwriting, fine and even like copperplate. Without a word
+Marcia handed it to him, and then stood back where the
+wide draperies of the window would shadow her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Madam Schuyler, with sudden keen prescience, took alarm.
+Noticing the two maids standing wide-mouthed in the hallway,
+she summoned her most commandatory tone, stepped
+into the hall, half closing the door behind her, and cowed the
+two handmaidens under her glance.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page49"></span><a name="pg49" id="pg49" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“It is all right!�</span> she said calmly. <span class="tei tei-q">“Miss Kate has left
+a note, and will soon return. Go down and keep her breakfast
+warm, and not a word to a soul! Dolly, Debby, do you
+understand? Not a word of this! Now hurry and do all
+that I told you before breakfast.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They went with downcast eyes and disappointed droops to
+their mouths, but she knew that not a word would pass their
+lips. They knew that if they disobeyed that command they
+need never hope for favor more from madam. Madam’s word
+was law. She would be obeyed. Therefore with remarkable
+discretion they masked their wondering looks and did as
+they were bidden. So while the family stood in solemn
+conclave in Kate’s room the preparations for the wedding
+moved steadily forward below stairs, and only two solemn
+maids, of all the helpers that morning, knew that a tragedy
+was hovering in the air and might burst about them.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David had grasped for the letter eagerly, and fumbled it
+open with trembling hand, but as he read, the smile of expectation
+froze upon his lips and his face grew ashen. He
+tottered and grasped for the mantel shelf to steady himself
+as he read further, but he did not seem to take in the meaning
+of what he read. The others waited breathless, a reasonable
+length of time, Madam Schuyler impatiently patient. She
+felt that long delay would be perilous to her arrangements.
+She ought to know the whole truth at once and be put in
+command of the situation. Marcia with sorrowful face and
+drooping eyelashes stood quiet behind the curtain, while over
+and over the echo of a horse’s hoofs in a silent street and
+over a bridge sounded in her brain. She did not need to be
+told, she knew intuitively what had happened, and she dared
+not look at David.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Well, what has she done with herself?�</span> said the Squire
+impatiently. He had not finished his plate of cakes, and
+now that there was word he wanted to know it at once and
+go back to his breakfast. The sight of his daughter’s handwriting
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page50"></span><a name="pg50" id="pg50" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+relieved and reassured him. Some crazy thing she
+had done of course, but then Kate had always done queer
+things, and probably would to the end of time. She was a
+hussy to frighten them so, and he meant to tell her so when
+she returned, if it was her wedding day. But then, Kate
+would be Kate, and his breakfast was getting cold. He had
+the horses to look after and orders to give to the hands
+before the early guests arrived.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But David did not answer, and the sight of him was alarming.
+He stood as one stricken dumb all in a moment. He
+raised his eyes to the Squire’s—pleading, pitiful. His face
+had grown strained and haggard.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Speak out, man, doesn’t the letter tell?�</span> said the Squire
+imperiously. <span class="tei tei-q">“Where is the girl?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And this time David managed to say brokenly: <span class="tei tei-q">“She’s
+gone!�</span> and then his head dropped forward on his cold hand
+that rested on the mantel. Great beads of perspiration stood
+out upon his white forehead, and the letter fluttered gayly,
+coquettishly to the floor, a reminder of the uncertain ways
+of its writer.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Squire reached for it impatiently, and wiping his
+spectacles laboriously put them on and drew near to the
+window to read, his heavy brows lowering in a frown. But
+his wife did not need to read the letter, for she, like Marcia,
+had divined its purport, and already her able faculties were
+marshalled to face the predicament.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Squire with deepening frown was studying his elder
+daughter’s letter, scarce able to believe the evidence of his
+senses that a girl of his could be so heartless.</p>
+
+<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-variant: small-caps">Dear David</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">,</span><span style="font-size: 90%">�</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">
+  the letter ran,—written as though in a hurry, done at the last
+  moment,—which indeed it was:—</span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">I want you to forgive me for what I am
+  doing. I know you will feel bad about it, but really I never was the right
+  one for you. I’m sure you thought me all too good, and I never could
+  have stayed in a strait-jacket, it would have
+  </span><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page51"></span><a name="pg51" id="pg51" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span style="font-size: 90%">
+  killed me. I shall always consider you the best man in the world, and I
+  like you better than anyone else except Captain Leavenworth. I can’t
+  help it, you know, that I care more for him than anyone else, though
+  I’ve tried. So I am going away to-night and when you read this we
+  shall have been married. You are so very good that I know you will forgive
+  me, and be glad I am happy. Don’t think hardly of me for I always did
+  care a great deal for you.</span></span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: right; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-right: 4.50em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Your
+  loving</span></span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: right; margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-variant: small-caps">Kate.</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">�</span></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was characteristic of Kate that she demanded the love
+and loyalty of her betrayed lover to the bitter end, false and
+heartless though she had been. The coquette in her played
+with him even now in the midst of the bitter pain she must
+have known she was inflicting. No word of contrition spoke
+she, but took her deed as one of her prerogatives, just as she
+had always taken everything she chose. She did not even
+spare him the loving salutation that had been her custom in
+her letters to him, but wrote herself down as she would have
+done the day before when all was fair and dear between them.
+She did not hint at any better day for David, or give him
+permission to forget her, but held him for all time as her
+own, as she had known she would by those words of hers,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“I like you better than anyone else except!—�</span> Ah! That
+fatal <span class="tei tei-q">“except!�</span> Could any knife cut deeper and more ways?
+They sank into the young man’s heart as he stood there those
+first few minutes and faced his trouble, his head bowed upon
+the mantel-piece.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Meantime Madam Schuyler’s keen vision had spied another
+folded paper beside the pincushion. Smaller it was than the
+other, and evidently intended to be placed further out of
+sight. It was addressed to Kate’s father, and her stepmother
+opened it and read with hard pressure of her thin lips, slanted
+down at the corners, and a steely look in her eyes. Was it
+possible that the girl, even in the midst of her treachery, had
+enjoyed with a sort of malicious glee the thought of her stepmother
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page52"></span><a name="pg52" id="pg52" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+reading that note and facing the horror of a wedding
+party with no bride? Knowing her stepmother’s vast resources
+did she not think that at last she had brought her to a
+situation to which she was unequal? There had always been
+this unseen, unspoken struggle for supremacy between them;
+though it had been a friendly one, a sort of testing on the
+girl’s part of the powers and expedients of the woman, with
+a kind of vast admiration, mingled with amusement, but no
+fear for the stepmother who had been uniformly kind and
+loving toward her, and for whom she cared, perhaps as much
+as she could have cared for her own mother. The other note
+read:</p>
+
+<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-variant: small-caps">Dear
+  Father</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">:—I am going away to-night to marry Captain Leavenworth.
+  You wouldn’t let me have him in the right way, so I had to take this.
+  I tried very hard to forget him and get interested in David, but it was no
+  use. You couldn’t stop it. So now I hope you will see it the way we
+  do and forgive us. We are going to Washington and you can write us there
+  and say you forgive us, and then we will come home. I know you will forgive
+  us, Daddy dear. You know you always loved your little Kate and you
+  couldn’t really want me to be unhappy. Please send my trunks to
+  Washington. I’ve tacked the card with the address on the ends.</span></span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: right; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-right: 4.50em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Your
+  loving little girl,</span></span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: right; margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-variant: small-caps">Kate.</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">�</span></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was a terrible stillness in the room, broken only by
+the crackling of paper as the notes were turned in the hands
+of their readers. Marcia felt as if centuries were passing.
+David’s soul was pierced by one awful thought. He had no
+room for others. She was gone! Life was a blank for him!
+stretching out into interminable years. Of her treachery and
+false-heartedness in doing what she had done in the way she
+had done it, he had no time to take account. That would
+come later. Now he was trying to understand this one awful
+fact.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page53"></span><a name="pg53" id="pg53" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Madam Schuyler handed the second note to her husband,
+and with set lips quickly skimmed through the other one.
+As she read, indignation rose within her, and a great desire
+to outwit everybody. If it had been possible to bring the
+erring girl back and make her face her disgraced wedding
+alone, Madam Schuyler would have been glad to do it. She
+knew that upon her would likely rest all the re-arrangements,
+and her ready brain was already taking account of her servants
+and the number of messages that would have to be sent
+out to stop the guests from arriving. She waited impatiently
+for her husband to finish reading that she might consult
+with him as to the best message to send, but she was scarcely
+prepared for the burst of anger that came with the finish of
+the letters. The old man crushed his daughter’s note in his
+hand and flung it from him. He had great respect and love
+for David, and the sight of him broken in grief, the deed of
+his daughter, roused in him a mighty indignation. His voice
+shook, but there was a deep note of command in it that made
+Madam Schuyler step aside and wait. The Squire had arisen
+to the situation, and she recognized her lord and master.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“She must be brought back at once at all costs!�</span> he
+exclaimed. <span class="tei tei-q">“That rascal shall not outwit us. Fool that I
+was to trust him in the house! Tell the men to saddle the
+horses. They cannot have gone far yet, and there are not so
+many roads to Washington. We may yet overtake them, and
+married or unmarried the hussy shall be here for her wedding!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But David raised his head from the mantel-shelf and
+steadied his voice:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“No, no, you must not do that—father—�</span> the appellative
+came from his lips almost tenderly, as if he had long considered
+the use of it with pleasure, and now he spoke it as a
+tender bond meant to comfort.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The older man started and his face softened. A flash of
+understanding and love passed between the two men.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page54"></span><a name="pg54" id="pg54" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Remember, she has said she loves some one else. She could
+never be mine now.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was terrible sadness in the words as David spoke
+them, and his voice broke. Madam Schuyler turned away
+and took out her handkerchief, an article of apparel for which
+she seldom had use except as it belonged to every well ordered
+toilet.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The father stood looking hopelessly at David and taking in
+the thought. Then he too bowed his head and groaned.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“And my daughter, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">my little Kate</span></span> has done it!�</span> Marcia
+covered her face with the curtains and her tears fell fast.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David went and stood beside the Squire and touched his
+arm.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Don’t!�</span> he said pleadingly. <span class="tei tei-q">“You could not help it. It
+was not your fault. Do not take it so to heart!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“But it is my disgrace. I have brought up a child who
+could do it. I cannot escape from that. It is the most dishonorable
+thing a woman can do. And look how she has done
+it, brought shame upon us all! Here we have a wedding on
+our hands, and little or no time to do anything! I have
+lived in honor all my life, and now to be disgraced by my
+own daughter!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia shuddered at her father’s agony. She could not
+bear it longer. With a soft cry she went to him, and nestled
+her head against his breast unnoticed.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Father, father, don’t!�</span> she cried.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But her father went on without seeming to see her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“To be disgraced and deserted and dishonored by my own
+child! Something must be done. Send the servants! Let
+the wedding be stopped!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He looked at Madam and she started toward the door to
+carry out his bidding, but he recalled her immediately.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“No, stay!�</span> he cried. <span class="tei tei-q">“It is too late to stop them all.
+Let them come. Let them be told! Let the disgrace rest
+upon the one to whom it belongs!�</span></p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page55"></span><a name="pg55" id="pg55" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Madam stopped in consternation! A wedding without a
+bride! Yet she knew it was a serious thing to try to dispute
+with her husband in that mood. She paused to consider.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, father!�</span> exclaimed Marcia, <span class="tei tei-q">“we couldn’t! Think
+of David.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Her words seemed to touch the right chord, for he turned
+toward the young man, intense, tender pity in his face.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Yes, David! We are forgetting David! We must do all
+we can to make it easier for you. You will be wanting to get
+away from us as quickly as possible. How can we manage it
+for you? And where will you go? You will not want to go
+home just yet?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He paused, a new agony of the knowledge of David’s part
+coming to him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“No, I cannot go home,�</span> said David hopelessly, a look of
+keen pain darting across his face, <span class="tei tei-q">“for the house will be all
+ready for her, and the table set. The friends will be coming
+in, and we are invited to dinner and tea everywhere. They
+will all be coming to the house, my friends, to welcome us.
+No, I cannot go home.�</span> Then he passed his hand over his
+forehead blindly, and added, in a stupefied tone, <span class="tei tei-q">“and yet I
+must—sometime—I must—go—home!�</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS05" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page56"></span><a name="pg56" id="pg56" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc10" id="toc10"></a>
+<a name="pdf11" id="pdf11"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER V</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The room was very still as he spoke. Madam Schuyler
+forgot the coming guests and the preparations, in consternation
+over the thought of David and his sorrow. Marcia
+sobbed softly upon her father’s breast, and her father involuntarily
+placed his arm about her as he stood in painful thought.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“It is terrible!�</span> he murmured, <span class="tei tei-q">“terrible! How could she
+bear to inflict such sorrow! She might have saved us the
+scorn of all of our friends. David, you must not go back
+alone. It must not be. You must not bear that. There
+are lovely girls in plenty elsewhere. Find another one and
+marry her. Take your bride home with you, and no one in
+your home need be the wiser. Don’t sorrow for that cruel
+girl of mine. Give her not the satisfaction of feeling that your
+life is broken. Take another. Any girl might be proud to
+go with you for the asking. Had I a dozen other daughters
+you should have your pick of them, and one should go with
+you, if you would condescend to choose another from the
+home where you have been so treacherously dealt with. But
+I have only this one little girl. She is but a child as yet
+and cannot compare with what you thought you had. I blame
+you not if you do not wish to wed another Schuyler, but if
+you will she is yours. And she is a good girl. David, though
+she is but a child. Speak up, child, and say if you will make
+amends for the wrong your sister has done!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The room was so still one could almost hear the heartbeats.
+David had raised his head once more and was looking
+at Marcia. Sad and searching was his gaze, as if he fain
+would find the features of Kate in her face, yet it seemed to
+Marcia, as she raised wide tear-filled eyes from her father’s
+breast where her head still lay, that he saw her not. He was
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page57"></span><a name="pg57" id="pg57" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+looking beyond her and facing the home-going alone, and the
+empty life that would follow.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Her thoughts the last few days had matured her wonderfully.
+She understood and pitied, and her woman-nature
+longed to give comfort, yet she shrunk from going unasked.
+It was all terrible, this sudden situation thrust upon her, yet
+she felt a willing sacrifice if she but felt sure it was his wish.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But David did not seem to know that he must speak. He
+waited, looking earnestly at her, through her, beyond her, to
+see if Heaven would grant this small relief to his sufferings.
+At last Marcia summoned her voice:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“If David wishes I will go.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She spoke the words solemnly, her eyes lifted slightly above
+him as if she were speaking to Another One higher than he.
+It was like an answer to a call from God. It had come to
+Marcia this way. It seemed to leave her no room for drawing
+back, if indeed she had wished to do so. Other considerations
+were not present. There was just the one great desire in her
+heart to make amends in some measure for the wrong that had
+been done. She felt almost responsible for it, a family responsibility.
+She seemed to feel the shame and pain as her
+father was feeling it. She would step into the empty place
+that Kate had left and fill it as far as she could. Her only
+fear was that she was not acceptable, not worthy to fill so high
+a place. She trembled over it, yet she could not hold back
+from the high calling. It was so she stood in a kind of
+sorrowful exaltation waiting for David. Her eyes lowered
+again, looking at him through the lashes and pleading for
+recognition. She did not feel that she was pleading for anything
+for herself, only for the chance to help him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Her voice had broken the spell. David looked down upon
+her kindly, a pleasant light of gratitude flashing through
+the sternness and sorrow in his face. Here was comradeship
+in trouble, and his voice recognized it as he said:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Child, you are good to me, and I thank you. I will try
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page58"></span><a name="pg58" id="pg58" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+to make you happy if you will go with me, and I am sure your
+going will be a comfort in many ways, but I would not have
+you go unwillingly.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was a dull ache in Marcia’s heart, its cause she could
+not understand, but she was conscious of a gladness that she
+was not counted unworthy to be accepted, young though she
+was, and child though he called her. His tone had been
+kindness itself, the gentle kindliness that had won her childish
+sisterly love when first he began to visit her sister. She had
+that answer of his to remember for many a long day, and to
+live upon, when questionings and loneliness came upon her.
+But she raised her face to her father now, and said: <span class="tei tei-q">“I will
+go, father!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Squire stooped and kissed his little girl for the last
+time. Perhaps he realized that from this time forth she
+would be a little girl no longer, and that he would never look
+into those child-eyes of hers again, unclouded with the sorrows
+of life, and filled only with the wonder-pictures of a
+rosy future. She seemed to him and to herself to be renouncing
+her own life forever, and to be taking up one of
+sacrificial penitence for her sister’s wrong doing.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The father then took Marcia’s hand and placed it in
+David’s, and the betrothal was complete.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Madam Schuyler, whose reign for the time was set aside,
+stood silent, half disapproving, yet not interfering. Her
+conscience told her that this <span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E5" id="E5" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e5" class="tei tei-ref">wholesale</a></span> disposal of Marcia was
+against nature. The new arrangement was a relief to her in
+many ways, and would make the solution of the day less
+trying for every one. But she was a woman and knew a
+woman’s heart. Marcia was not having her chance in life as
+her sister had had, as every woman had a right to have. Then
+her face hardened. How had Kate used her chances? Perhaps
+it was better for Marcia to be well placed in life before
+she grew headstrong enough to make a fool of herself as Kate
+had done. David would be good to her, that was certain.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page59"></span><a name="pg59" id="pg59" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+One could not look at the strong, pleasant lines of his well
+cut mouth and chin and not be sure of that. Perhaps it was
+all for the best. At least it was not her doing. And it was
+only the night before that she had been looking at Marcia and
+worrying because she was growing into a woman so fast. Now
+she would be relieved of that care, and could take her ease and
+enjoy life until her own children were grown up. But the
+voice of her husband aroused her to the present.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Let the wedding go on as planned, Sarah, and no one need
+know until the ceremony is over except the minister. I
+myself will go and tell the minister. There will need to be
+but a change of names.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“But,�</span> said the Madam, with housewifely alarm, as the
+suddenness of the whole thing flashed over her, <span class="tei tei-q">“Marcia is
+not ready. She has no suitable clothes for her wedding.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Not ready! No clothes!�</span> said the Squire, now thoroughly
+irritated over this trivial objection, as a fly will sometimes
+ruffle the temper of a man who has kept calm under fire
+of an enemy. <span class="tei tei-q">“And where are all the clothes that have been
+making these weeks and months past? What more preparation
+does she need? Did the hussy take her wedding things
+with her? What’s in this trunk?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“But those are Kate’s things, father,�</span> said Marcia in gentle
+explanation. <span class="tei tei-q">“Kate would be very angry if I took her things.
+They were made for her, you know.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“And what if they were made for her?�</span> answered the
+father, very angry now at Kate. <span class="tei tei-q">“You are near of a size.
+What will do for one is good enough for the other, and Kate
+may be angry and get over it, for not one rag of it all will
+she get, nor a penny of my money will ever go to her again.
+She is no daughter of mine from henceforth. That rascal
+has beaten me and stolen my daughter, but he gets a dowerless
+lass. Not a penny will ever go from the Schuyler estate into
+his pocket, and no trunk will ever travel from here to Washington
+for that heartless girl. I forbid it. Let her feel some
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page60"></span><a name="pg60" id="pg60" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+of the sorrow she has inflicted upon others more innocent. I
+forbid it, do you hear?�</span> He brought his fist down upon the
+solid mahogany bureau until the prisms on a candle-stand in
+front of the mirror jangled discordantly.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, father!�</span> gasped Marcia, and turned with terror to
+her stepmother. But David stood with his back toward the
+rest looking out of the window. He had forgotten them all.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Madam Schuyler was now in command again. For once
+the Squire had anticipated his wife, and the next move
+had been planned without her help, but it was as she would
+have it. Her face had lost its consternation and beamed with
+satisfaction beneath its mask of grave perplexity. She could
+not help it that she was glad to have the terrible ordeal of a
+wedding without a bride changed into something less formidable.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At least the country round about could not pity, for who
+was to say but that David was as well suited with one sister
+as with the other? And Marcia was a good girl; doubtless she
+would grow into a good wife. Far more suitable for so good
+and steady a man as David than pretty, imperious Kate.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Madam Schuyler took her place of command once more and
+began to issue her orders.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Come, then, Marcia, we have no time to waste. It is
+all right, as your father has said. Kate’s things will fit you
+nicely and you must go at once and put everything in readiness.
+You will want all your time to dress, and pack a few
+things, and get calm. Go to your room right away and pick
+up anything you will want to take with you, and I’ll go down
+and see that Phoebe takes your place and then come back.<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E6" id="E6" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e6" class="tei tei-ref">�</a></span></span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David and the Squire went out like two men who had suddenly
+grown old, and had not the strength to walk rapidly.
+No one thought any more of breakfast. It was half-past seven
+by the old tall clock that stood upon the stair-landing. It
+would not be long before Aunt Polly and Uncle Joab would
+be driving up to the door.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page61"></span><a name="pg61" id="pg61" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Straight ahead went the preparations, just as if nothing
+had happened, and if Mistress Kate Leavenworth could have
+looked into her old room an hour after the discovery of her
+flight she would have been astonished beyond measure.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Up in her own room stood poor bewildered Marcia. She
+looked about upon her little white bed, and thought she would
+never likely sleep in it again. She looked out of the small-paned
+window with its view of distant hill and river, and
+thought she was bidding it good-bye forever. She went toward
+her closet and put out her hand to choose what she
+would take with her, and her heart sank. There hung the
+faded old ginghams short and scant, and scorned but yesterday,
+yet her heart wildly clung to them. Almost would she
+have put one on and gone back to her happy care-free school
+life. The thought of the new life frightened her. She must
+give up her girlhood all at once. She might not keep a
+vestige of it, for that would betray David. She must be Kate
+from morning to evening. Like a sword thrust came the remembrance
+that she had envied Kate, and God had given
+her the punishment of being Kate in very truth. Only there
+was this great difference. She was not the chosen one, and
+Kate had been. She must bear about forever in her heart the
+thought of Kate’s sin.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The voice of her stepmother drew nearer and warned her
+that her time alone was almost over, and out on the lawn
+she could hear the voices of Uncle Joab and Aunt Polly who
+had just arrived.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She dropped upon her knees for one brief moment and let
+her young soul pour itself out in one great cry of distress to
+God, a cry without words borne only on the breath of a sob.
+Then she arose, hastily dashed cold water in her face, and
+dried away the traces of tears. There was no more time to
+think. With hurried hand she began to gather a few trifles
+together from closet and drawer.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">One last lingering look she took about her room as she left
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page62"></span><a name="pg62" id="pg62" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+it, her arms filled with the things she had hastily culled
+from among her own. Then she shut the door quickly and
+went down the hall to her sister’s room to enter upon her
+new life. She was literally putting off herself and putting
+on a new being as far as it was possible to do so outwardly.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There on the bed lay the bridal outfit. Madam Schuyler
+had just brought it from the spare room that there might be
+no more going back and forth through the halls to excite
+suspicion. She was determined that there should be no
+excitement or demonstration or opportunity for gossip among
+the guests at least until the ceremony was over. She had
+satisfied herself that not a soul outside the family save the
+two maids suspected that aught was the matter, and she felt
+sure of their silence.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate had taken very little with her, evidently fearing to
+excite suspicion, and having no doubt that her father would
+relent and send all her trousseau as she had requested in her
+letter. For once Mistress Kate had forgotten her fineries and
+made good her escape with but two frocks and a few other
+necessaries in a small hand-bag.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Madam Schuyler was relieved to the point of genuine cheerfulness,
+over this, despite the cloud of tragedy that hung over
+the day. She began to talk to Marcia as if she had been Kate,
+as she smoothed down this and that article and laid them back
+in the trunk, telling how the blue gown would be the best for
+church and the green silk for going out to very fine places, to
+<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E7" id="E7" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e7" class="tei tei-ref">tea-drinkings</a></span>
+and the like, and how she must always be
+sure to wear the cream undersleeves with the Irish point lace
+with her silk gown as they set it off to perfection. She recalled,
+too, how little experience Marcia had had in the ways
+of the world, and all the while the girl was being dressed in
+the dainty bridal garments she gave her careful instructions
+in the art of being a success in society, until Marcia felt that
+the green fields and the fences and trees to climb and the
+excursions after blackberries, and all the joyful merry-makings
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page63"></span><a name="pg63" id="pg63" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+of the boys and girls were receding far from her. She
+could even welcome Hanford Weston as a playfellow in her
+new future, if thereby a little fresh air and freedom of her
+girlhood might be left. Nevertheless there gradually came
+over her an elation of excitement. The feel of the dainty garments,
+the delicate embroidery, the excitement lest the white
+slippers would not fit her, the difficulty of making her hair
+stay up in just Kate’s style—for her stepmother insisted that
+she must dress it exactly like Kate’s and make herself look as
+nearly as possible as Kate would have looked,—all drove sadness
+from her mind and she began to taste a little delight in
+the pretty clothes, the great occasion, and her own importance.
+The vision in the looking-glass, too, told her that her own
+face was winsome, and the new array not unbecoming. Something
+of this she had seen the night before when she put on
+her new chintz; now the change was complete, as she stood in
+the white satin and lace with the string of seed pearls that
+had been her mother’s tied about her soft white throat. She
+thought about the tradition of the pearls that Kate’s girl
+friends had laughingly reminded her of a few days before
+when they were looking at the bridal garments. They had
+said that each pearl a bride wore meant a tear she would shed.
+She wondered if Kate had escaped the tears with the pearls,
+and left them for her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She was ready at last, even to the veil that had been her
+mother’s, and her mother’s mother’s before her. It fell in its
+rich folds, yellowed by age, from her head to her feet, with its
+creamy frost-work of rarest handiwork, transforming the girl
+into a woman and a bride.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Madam Schuyler arranged and rearranged the folds, and
+finally stood back to look with half-closed eyes at the effect,
+deciding that very few would notice that the bride was other
+than they had expected until the ceremony was over and the
+veil thrown back. The sisters had never looked alike, yet there
+was a general family resemblance that was now accentuated by
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page64"></span><a name="pg64" id="pg64" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+the dress; perhaps only those nearest would notice that it was
+Marcia instead of Kate. At least the guests would have the
+good grace to keep their wonderment to themselves until the
+ceremony was over.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then Marcia was left to herself with trembling hands and
+wildly throbbing heart. What would Mary Ann think! What
+would all the girls and boys think? Some of them would be
+there, and others would be standing along the shady streets to
+watch the progress of the carriage as it drove away. And
+they would see her going away instead of Kate. Perhaps
+they would think it all a great joke and that she had been
+going to be married all the time and not Kate. But no; the
+truth would soon come out. People would not be astonished
+at anything Kate did. They would only say it was just what
+they had all along expected of her, and pity her father, and
+pity her perhaps. But they would look at her and admire her
+and for once she would be the centre of attraction. The pink
+of pride swelled up into her cheeks, and then realizing what
+she was thinking she crushed the feeling down. How could
+she think of such things when Kate had done such a dreadful
+thing, and David was suffering so terribly? Here was she
+actually enjoying, and delighting in the thought of being in
+Kate’s place. Oh, she was wicked, wicked! She must not
+be happy for a moment in what was Kate’s shame and David’s
+sorrow. Of her future with David she did not now think.
+It was of the pageant of the day that her thoughts were full.
+If the days and weeks and months that were to follow came
+into her mind at all between the other things it was always
+that she was to care for David and to help him, and that she
+would have to grow up quickly; and remember all the hard
+housewifely things her stepmother had taught her; and try
+to order his house well. But that troubled her not at all at
+present. She was more concerned with the ceremony, and the
+many eyes that would be turned upon her. It was a relief
+when a tap came on the door and the dear old minister entered.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS06" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page65"></span><a name="pg65" id="pg65" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc12" id="toc12"></a>
+<a name="pdf13" id="pdf13"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER VI</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He stood a moment by the door looking at her, half startled.
+Then he came over beside her, put his hands upon her shoulders,
+looking down into her upturned, veiled face.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“My child!�</span> he said tenderly, <span class="tei tei-q">“my little Marcia, is this
+you? I did not know you in all this beautiful dress. You
+look as your own mother looked when she was married. I
+remember perfectly as if it were but yesterday, her face as
+she stood by your father’s side. I was but a young man then,
+you know, and it was my first wedding in my new church, so
+you see I could not forget it. Your mother was a beautiful
+woman, Marcia, and you are like her both in face and life.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The tears came into Marcia’s eyes and her lips trembled.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Are you sure, child,�</span> went on the gentle voice of the old
+man, <span class="tei tei-q">“that you understand what a solemn thing you are
+doing? It is not a light thing to give yourself in marriage
+to any man. You are so young yet! Are you doing this
+thing quite willingly, little girl? Are you sure? Your
+father is a good man, and a dear old friend of mine, but I
+know what has happened has been a terrible blow to him, and
+a great humiliation. It has perhaps unnerved his judgment
+for the time. No one should have brought pressure to bear
+upon a child like you to make you marry against your will.
+Are you sure it is all right, dear?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, yes, sir!�</span> Marcia raised her tear-filled eyes. <span class="tei tei-q">“I am
+doing it quite of myself. No one has made me. I was glad
+I might. It was so dreadful for David!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“But child, do you love him?�</span> the old minister said,
+searching her face closely.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s eyes shone out radiant and
+<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E8" id="E8" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e8" class="tei tei-ref">child-like</a></span>
+through her tears.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page66"></span><a name="pg66" id="pg66" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, yes, sir! I love him of course. No one could help
+loving David.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was a tap at the door and the Squire entered. With
+a sigh the minister turned away, but there was trouble in his
+heart. The love of the girl had been all too frankly confessed.
+It was not as he would have had things for a daughter
+of his, but it could not be helped of course, and he had
+no right to interfere. He would like to speak to David, but
+David had not come out of his room yet. When he did there
+was but a moment for them alone and all he had opportunity
+to say was:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Mr. Spafford, you will be good to the little girl, and remember
+she is but a child. She has been dear to us all.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David looked at him wonderingly, earnestly, in reply:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I will do all in my power to make her happy,�</span> he said.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The hour had come, and all things, just as Madam Schuyler
+had planned, were ready. The minister took his place, and
+the impatient bridesmaids were in a flutter, wondering why
+Kate did not call them in to see her. Slowly, with measured
+step, as if she had practised many times, Marcia, the maiden,
+walked down the hall on her father’s arm. He was bowed
+with his trouble and his face bore marks of the sudden
+calamity that had befallen his house, but the watching guests
+thought it was for sorrow at giving up his lovely Kate, and
+they said one to another, <span class="tei tei-q">“How much he loved her!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The girl’s face drooped with gentle gravity. She scarcely
+felt the presence of the guests she had so much dreaded, for
+to her the ceremony was holy. She was giving herself as a
+sacrifice for the sin of her sister. She was too young and
+inexperienced to know all that would be thought and said as
+soon as the company understood. She also felt secure behind
+that film of lace. It seemed impossible that they could know
+her, so softly and so mistily it shut her in from the world.
+It was like a kind of moving house about her, a protection
+from all eyes. So sheltered she might go through the ceremony
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page67"></span><a name="pg67" id="pg67" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+with composure. As yet she had not begun to dread
+the afterward. The hall was wide through which she passed,
+and the day was bright, but the windows were so shadowed
+by the waiting bridesmaids that the light did not fall in full
+glare upon her, and it was not strange they did not know
+her at once. She heard their smothered exclamations of wonder
+and admiration, and one, Kate’s dearest friend, whispered
+softly behind her: <span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, Kate, why did you keep us waiting,
+you sly girl! How lovely you are! You look like an angel
+straight from heaven.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There were other whispered words which Marcia heard
+sadly. They gave her no pleasure. The words were for Kate,
+not her. What would they say when they knew all?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was David in the distance waiting for her. How
+fine he looked in his wedding clothes! How proud Kate
+might have been of him! How pitiful was his white face!
+He had summoned his courage and put on a mask of happiness
+for the eyes of those who saw him, but it could not
+deceive the heart of Marcia. Surely not since the days when
+Jacob served seven years for Rachel and then lifted the bridal
+veil to look upon the face of her sister Leah, walked there
+sadder bridegroom on this earth than David Spafford walked
+that day.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Down the stairs and through the wide hall they came,
+Marcia not daring to look up, yet seeing familiar glimpses
+as she passed. That green plaid silk lap at one side of the
+parlor door, in which lay two nervous little hands and a neatly
+folded pocket handkerchief, belonged to Sabrina Bates, she
+knew; and the round lace collar a little farther on, fastened
+by the brooch with a colored daguerreotype encircled by a
+braid of faded brown hair under glass, must be about the neck
+of Aunt Polly. There was not another brooch like that in
+New York state, Marcia felt sure. Beyond were Uncle Joab’s
+small meek Sunday boots, toeing in, and next were little feet
+covered by white stockings and slippers fastened with crossed
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page68"></span><a name="pg68" id="pg68" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+black ribbons, some child’s, not Harriet—Marcia dared not
+raise her eyes to identify them now. She must fix her mind
+upon the great things before her. She wondered at herself
+for noticing such trivial things when she was walking up to
+the presence of the great God, and there before her stood the
+minister with his open book!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Now, at last, with the most of the audience behind her,
+shut in by the film of lace, she could raise her eyes to the
+minister’s familiar face, take David’s arm without letting her
+hand tremble much, and listen to the solemn words read out
+to her. For her alone they seemed to be read. David’s heart
+she knew was crushed, and it was only a form for him. She
+must take double vows upon her for the sake of the wrong
+done to him. So she listened:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Dearly beloved, we are gathered together�</span>—how the
+words thrilled her!—<span class="tei tei-q">“in the sight of God and in the presence
+of this company to join together this man and woman
+in the bonds of holy matrimony;�</span>—a deathly stillness rested
+upon the room and the painful throbbing of her heart was all
+the little bride could hear. She was glad she might look
+straight into the dear face of the old minister. Had her
+mother felt this way when she was being married? Did her
+stepmother understand it? Yes, she must, in part at least,
+for she had bent and kissed her most tenderly upon the brow
+just before leaving her, a most unusually sentimental thing
+for her to do. It touched Marcia deeply, though she was fond
+of her stepmother at all times.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She waited breathless with drooped eyes while the minister
+demanded, <span class="tei tei-q">“If any man can show just cause why they may
+not be lawfully joined together, let him now declare it, or else
+hereafter forever hold his peace.�</span> What if some one should
+recognize her and, thinking she had usurped Kate’s place, speak
+out and stop the marriage! How would David feel? And
+she? She would sink to the floor. Oh, did they any of them
+know? How she wished she dared raise her eyes to look about
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page69"></span><a name="pg69" id="pg69" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+and see. But she must not. She must listen. She must
+shake off these worldly thoughts. She was not hearing for
+idle thinking. It was a solemn, holy vow she was taking
+upon herself for life. She brought herself sharply back to
+the ceremony. It was to David the minister was talking
+now:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in
+sickness and in health, and forsaking all other, keep thee
+only unto her, so long as ye both shall live?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was hard to make David promise that when his heart
+belonged to Kate. She wondered that his voice could be so
+steady when it said, <span class="tei tei-q">“I will,�</span> and the white glove of Kate’s
+which was just a trifle large for her, trembled on David’s
+arm as the minister next turned to her:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Wilt thou, Marcia�</span>—Ah! It was out now! and the
+sharp rustle of silk and stiff linen showed that all the company
+were aware at last who was the bride; but the minister
+went steadily on. He cared not what the listening assembly
+thought. He was talking earnestly to his little friend,
+Marcia,—<span class="tei tei-q">“have this man to be thy wedded husband, to live
+together after God’s ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony?
+Wilt thou obey him, and serve him, love, honor, and
+keep him, in sickness and in health�</span>—the words of the pledge
+went on. It was not hard. The girl felt she could do all
+that. She was relieved to find it no more terrible, and to
+know that she was no longer acting a lie. They all knew who
+she was now. She held up her flower-like head and answered
+in her clear voice, that made her few schoolmates present gasp
+with admiration:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I will!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And the dear old minister’s wife, sitting sweet and dove-like
+in her soft grey poplin, fine white kerchief, and cap of
+book muslin, smiled to herself at the music in Marcia’s voice
+and nodded approval. She felt that all was well with her
+little friend.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page70"></span><a name="pg70" id="pg70" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They waited, those astonished people, till the ceremony
+was concluded and the prayer over, and then they broke forth.
+There had been lifted brows and looks passing from one to
+another, of question, of disclaiming any knowledge in the
+matter, and just as soon as the minister turned and took the
+bride’s hand to congratulate her the heads bent together
+behind fans and the soft buzz of whispers began.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">What does it mean? Where is Kate? She isn’t in the
+room! Did he change his mind at the last minute? How
+old is Marcia? Mercy me! Nothing but a child! Are you
+sure? Why, my Mary Ann is older than that by three months,
+and she’s no more able to become mistress of a home than a
+nine-days-old kitten. Are you sure it’s Marcia? Didn’t the
+minister make a mistake in the name? It looked to me like
+Kate. Look again. She’s put her veil back. No, it can’t
+be! Yes, it is! No, it looks like Kate! Her hair’s done the
+same, but, no, Kate never had such a sweet innocent look as
+that. Why, when she was a child her face always had a
+sharpness to it. Look at Marcia’s eyes, poor lamb! I don’t
+see how her father could bear it, and she so young. But
+Kate! Where can she be? What has happened? You don’t
+say! Yes, I did see that captain about again last week or
+so. Do you believe it? Surely she never would. Who told
+you? Was he sure? But Maria and Janet are bridesmaids
+and they didn’t see any signs of anything. They were over
+here yesterday. Yes, Kate showed them everything and
+planned how they would all walk in. No, she didn’t do anything
+queer, for Janet would have mentioned it. Janet always
+sees everything. Well, they say he’s a good man and Marcia’ll
+be well provided for. Madam Schuyler’ll be relieved about
+that. Marcia can’t ever lead her the dance Kate has among
+the young men. How white he looks! Do you suppose he
+loves her? What on earth can it all mean? Do you s’pose
+Kate feels bad? Where is she anyway? Wouldn’t she come
+down? Well, if ’twas his choosing it serves her right. She’s
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page71"></span><a name="pg71" id="pg71" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+too much of a flirt for a good man and maybe he found her
+out. She’s probably got just what she deserves, and <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">I</span></span> think
+Marcia’ll make a good little wife. She always was a quiet,
+grown-up child and Madam Schuyler has trained her well!
+But what will Kate do now? Hush! They are coming this
+way. How do you suppose we can find out? Go ask Cousin
+Janet, perhaps they’ve told her, or Aunt Polly. Surely she
+knows.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But Aunt Polly sat with pursed lips of disapproval. She
+had not been told, and it was her prerogative to know everything.
+She always made a point of being on hand early at
+all funerals and weddings, especially in the family circle, and
+learning the utmost details, which she dispensed at her discretion
+to late comers in fine sepulchral whispers.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Now she sat silent, disgraced, unable to explain a thing.
+It was unhandsome of Sarah Schuyler, she felt, though no
+more than she might have expected of her, she told herself.
+She had never liked her. Well, wait until her opportunity
+came. If they did not wish her to say the truth she must
+say something. She could at least tell what she thought.
+And what more natural than to let it be known that Sarah
+Schuyler had always held a dislike for Marcia, and to suggest
+that it was likely she was glad to get her off her hands. Aunt
+Polly meant to find a trail somewhere, no matter how many
+times they threw her off the scent.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Meantime for Marcia the sun seemed to have shined out
+once more with something of its old brightness. The terrible
+deed of self-renunciation was over, and familiar faces actually
+were smiling upon her and wishing her joy. She felt the
+flutter of her heart in her throat beneath the string of pearls,
+and wondered if after all she might hope for a little happiness
+of her own. She could climb no more fences nor wade in
+gurgling brooks, but might there not be other happy things
+as good? A little touch of the pride of life had settled upon
+her. The relatives were coming with pleasant words and
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page72"></span><a name="pg72" id="pg72" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+kisses. The blushes upon her cheeks were growing deeper.
+She almost forgot David in the pretty excitement. A few of
+her girl friends ventured shyly near, as one might look at a
+mate suddenly and unexpectedly translated into eternal bliss.
+They put out cold fingers in salute with distant, stiff phrases
+belonging to a grown-up world. Not one of them save Mary
+Ann dared recognize their former bond of playmates. Mary
+Ann leaned down and whispered with a giggle: <span class="tei tei-q">“Say, you
+didn’t need to envy Kate, did you? My! Ain’t you in
+clover! Say, Marsh,�</span> wistfully, <span class="tei tei-q">“do invite me fer a visit
+sometime, won’t you?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Now Mary Ann was not quite on a par with the Schuylers
+socially, and had it not been for a distant mutual relative
+she would not have been asked to the wedding. Marcia never
+liked her very much, but now, with the uncertain, dim future
+it seemed pleasant and home-like to think of a visit from Mary
+Ann and she nodded and said childishly: <span class="tei tei-q">“Sometime, Mary
+Ann, if I can.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Mary Ann squeezed her hand, kissed her, blushed and
+giggled herself out of the way of the next comer.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They went out to the dining room and sat around the long
+table. It was Marcia’s timid hand that cut the bridecake,
+and all the room full watched her. Seeing the pretty color
+come and go in her excited cheeks, they wondered that they
+had never noticed before how beautiful Marcia was growing.
+A handsome couple they would make! And they looked from
+Marcia to David and back again, wondering and trying to
+fathom the mystery.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was gradually stealing about the company, the truth
+about Kate and Captain Leavenworth. The minister had told
+it in his sad and gentle way. Just the facts. No gossip.
+Naturally every one was bristling with questions, but not much
+could be got from the minister.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I really do not know,�</span> he would say in his courteous, old-worldly
+way, and few dared ask further. Perhaps the minister,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page73"></span><a name="pg73" id="pg73" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+wise by reason of much experience, had taken care to
+ask as few questions as possible himself, and not to know too
+much before undertaking this task for his old friend the
+Squire.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And so Kate’s marriage went into the annals of the village,
+at least so far as that morning was concerned, quietly, and
+with little exclamation before the family. The Squire and
+his wife controlled their faces wonderfully. There was an
+austerity about the Squire as he talked with his friends that
+was new to his pleasant face, but Madam conversed with her
+usual placid self-poise, and never gave cause for conjecture
+as to her true feelings.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There were some who dared to offer their surprised condolences.
+To such the stepmother replied that of course the
+outcome of events had been a sore trial to the Squire, and all
+of them, but they were delighted at the happy arrangement
+that had been made. She glanced contentedly toward the
+child-bride.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was a revelation to the whole village that Marcia had
+grown up and was so handsome.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Dismay filled the breasts of the village gossips. They had
+been defrauded. Here was a fine scandal which they had
+failed to discover in time and spread abroad in its due course.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Everybody was shy of speaking to the bride. She sat in
+her lovely finery like some wild rose caught as a sacrifice.
+Yet every one admitted that she might have done far worse.
+David was a good man, with prospects far beyond most young
+men of his time. Moreover he was known to have a brilliant
+mind, and the career he had chosen, that of journalism, in
+which he was already making his mark, was one that promised
+to be lucrative as well as influential.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was all very hurried at the last. Madam Schuyler and
+Dolly the maid helped her off with the satin and lace
+finery, and she was soon out of her bridal attire and struggling
+with the intricacies of Kate’s travelling costume.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page74"></span><a name="pg74" id="pg74" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia was not Marcia any longer, but Mrs. David Spafford.
+She had been made to feel the new name almost at
+once, and it gave her a sense of masquerading pleasant enough
+for the time being, but with a dim foreboding of nameless
+dread and emptiness for the future, like all masquerading
+which must end sometime. And when the mask is taken off
+how sad if one is not to find one’s real self again: or worse
+still if one may never remove the mask, but must grow to it
+and be it from the soul.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">All this Marcia felt but dimly of course, for she was young
+and light hearted naturally, and the excitement and pretty
+things about her could not but be pleasant.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">To have Kate’s friends stand about her, half shyly trying
+to joke with her as they might have done with Kate, to feel
+their admiring glances, and half envious references to her
+handsome husband, almost intoxicated her for the moment.
+Her cheeks grew rosier as she tied on Kate’s pretty poke
+bonnet whose nodding blue flowers had been brought over
+from Paris by a friend of Kate’s. It seemed a shame that
+Kate should not have her things after all. The pleasure died
+out of Marcia’s eyes as she carefully looped the soft blue ribbons
+under her round chin and drew on Kate’s long gloves.
+There was no denying the fact that Kate’s outfit was becoming
+to Marcia, for she had that complexion that looks well with
+any color under the sun, though in blue she was not at her
+best.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When Marcia was ready she stood back from the little
+looking-glass, with a frightened, half-childish gaze about the
+room.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Now that the last minute was come, there was no one to
+understand Marcia’s feelings nor help her. Even the girls
+were merely standing there waiting to say the last formal farewell
+that they might be free to burst into an astonished chatter
+of exclamations over Kate’s romantic disappearance. They
+were Kate’s friends, not Marcia’s, and they were bidding
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page75"></span><a name="pg75" id="pg75" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+Kate’s clothes good-bye for want of the original bride. Marcia’s
+friends were too young and too shy to do more than
+stand back in awe and gaze at their mate so suddenly promoted
+to a life which but yesterday had seemed years away
+for any of them.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+  </p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="width: 100%; text-align: center"><img src="images/image03.png" width="760" height="455" alt="Illustration: Copyright by C. KlacknerThe Stepmother’s Arms were Around Her." title="Copyright by C. Klackner The Stepmother’s Arms were Around Her." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 50%">Copyright by C. Klackner</span></span><br />
+    <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 63%; font-variant: small-caps">The
+    Stepmother’s Arms were Around Her.</span></span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">So Marcia walked alone down the hall—yet, no, not all the
+way alone. A little wrinkled hand was laid upon her gloved
+one, and a little old lady, her true friend, the minister’s wife,
+walked down the stairs with the bride arm in arm. Marcia’s
+heart fluttered back to warmth again and was glad for her
+friend, yet all she had said was: <span class="tei tei-q">“My dear!�</span> but there was
+that in her touch and the tone of her gentle voice that comforted
+Marcia.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She stood at the edge of the steps, with her white hair
+shining in the morning, her kind-faced husband just behind
+her during all the farewell, and Marcia felt happier because
+of her motherly presence.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The guests were all out on the piazza in the gorgeousness
+of the summer morning. David stood on the flagging below
+the step beside the open coach door, a carriage lap-robe over
+his arm and his hat on, ready. He was talking with the
+Squire. Every one was looking at them, and they were entirely
+conscious of the fact. They laughed and talked with studied
+pleasantness, though there seemed to be an undertone of sadness
+that the most obtuse guest could not fail to detect.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Harriet, as a small flower-girl, stood upon the broad low
+step ready to fling posies before the bride as she stepped into
+the coach.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The little boys, to whom a wedding merely meant a delightful
+increase of opportunities, stood behind a pillar munching
+cake, more of which protruded from their bulging pockets.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia, with a lump in her throat that threatened tears,
+slipped behind the people, caught the two little step-brothers
+in her arms and smothered them with kisses, amid their loud
+protestations and the laughter of those who stood about. But
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page76"></span><a name="pg76" id="pg76" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+the little skirmish had served to hide the tears, and the bride
+came back most decorously to where her stepmother stood
+awaiting her with a smile of complacent—almost completed—duty
+upon her face. She wore the sense of having carried off
+a trying situation in a most creditable manner, and she knew
+she had won the respect and awe of every matron present
+thereby. That was a great deal to Madam Schuyler.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The stepmother’s arms were around her and Marcia remembered
+how kindly they had felt when they first clasped her
+little body years ago, and she had been kissed, and told to be
+a good little girl. She had always liked her stepmother.
+And now, as she came to say good-bye to the only mother she
+had ever known, who had been a true mother to her in many
+ways, her young heart almost gave way, and she longed to
+hide in that ample bosom and stay under the wing of one who
+had so ably led her thus far along the path of life.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Perhaps Madam Schuyler felt the clinging of the girl’s
+arms about her, and perchance her heart rebuked her that she
+had let so young and inexperienced a girl go out to the cares
+of life all of a sudden in this way. At least she stooped and
+kissed Marcia again and whispered: <span class="tei tei-q">“You have been a good
+girl, Marcia.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Afterwards, Marcia cherished that sentence among memory’s
+dearest treasures. It seemed as though it meant that
+she had fulfilled her stepmother’s first command, given on
+the night when her father brought home their new mother.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then the flowers were thrown upon the pavement, to make
+it bright for the bride. She was handed into the coach behind
+the white-haired negro coachman, and by his side Kate’s fine
+new hair trunk. Ah! That was a bitter touch! Kate’s
+trunk! Kate’s things! Kate’s husband! If it had only
+been her own little moth-eaten trunk that had belonged to
+her mother, and filled with her own things—and if he had
+only been her own husband! Yet she wanted no other than
+David—only if he could have been <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">her</span></span> David!</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page77"></span><a name="pg77" id="pg77" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then Madam Schuyler, her heart still troubled about
+Marcia, stepped down and whispered:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“David, you will remember she is young. You will deal
+gently with her?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Gravely David bent his head and answered:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I will remember. She shall not be troubled. I will care
+for her as I would care for my own sister.�</span> And Madam
+Schuyler turned away half satisfied. After all, was that what
+woman wanted? Would she have been satisfied to have been
+cared for as a sister?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then gravely, with his eyes half unseeing her, the father
+kissed his daughter good-bye, David got into the coach, the
+door was slammed shut, and the white horses arched their
+necks and stepped away, amid a shower of rice and slippers.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS07" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page78"></span><a name="pg78" id="pg78" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc14" id="toc14"></a>
+<a name="pdf15" id="pdf15"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER VII</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">For some distance the way was lined with people they knew,
+servants and negroes, standing about the driveway and outside
+the fence, people of the village grouped along the sidewalk,
+everybody out upon their doorsteps to watch the coach
+go by, and to all the face of the bride was a puzzle and a
+surprise. They half expected to see another coach coming
+with the other bride behind.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia nodded brightly to those she knew, and threw
+flowers from the great nosegay that had been put upon her lap
+by Harriet. She felt for a few minutes like a girl in a fairy-tale
+riding in this fine coach in grand attire. She stole a look
+at David. He certainly looked like a prince, but gravity was
+already settling about his mouth. Would he always look so
+now, she wondered, would he never laugh and joke again as he
+used to do? Could she manage to make him happy sometimes
+for a little while and help him to forget?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Down through the village they passed, in front of the store
+and post-office where Marcia had bought her frock but three
+days before, and they turned up the road she had come with
+Mary Ann. How long ago that seemed! How light her
+heart was then, and how young! All life was before her with
+its delightful possibilities. Now it seemed to have closed for
+her and she was some one else. A great ache came upon her
+heart. For a moment she longed to jump down and run away
+from the coach and David and the new clothes that were not
+hers. Away from the new life that had been planned for
+some one else which she must live now. She must always be a
+woman, never a girl any more.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Out past Granny McVane’s they drove, the old lady sitting
+upon her front porch knitting endless stockings. She stared
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page79"></span><a name="pg79" id="pg79" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+mildly, unrecognizingly at Marcia and paused in her rocking
+to crane her neck after the coach.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The tall corn rustled and waved green arms to them as they
+passed, and the cows looked up munching from the pasture in
+mild surprise at the turnout. The little coach dog stepped
+aside from the road to give them a bark as he passed, and
+then pattered and pattered his tiny feet to catch up. The
+old school house came in sight with its worn playground and
+dejected summer air, and Marcia’s eyes searched out the window
+where she used to sit to eat her lunch in winters, and the
+tree under which she used to sit in summers, and the path by
+which she and Mary Ann used to wander down to the brook,
+or go in search of butternuts, even the old door knob that
+her hand would probably never grasp again. She searched
+them all out and bade them good-bye with her eyes. Then
+once she turned a little to see if she could catch a glimpse of
+the old blackboard through the window where she and
+Susanna Brown and Miller Thompson used to do arithmetic
+examples. The dust of the coach, or the bees in the sunshine,
+or something in her eyes blurred her vision. She could only
+see a long slant ray of a sunbeam crossing the wall where she
+knew it must be. Then the road wound around through a
+maple grove and the school was lost to view.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They passed the South meadow belonging to the Westons,
+and Hanford was plowing. Marcia could see him stop to
+wipe the perspiration from his brow, and her heart warmed
+even to this boy admirer now that she was going from him
+forever.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hanford had caught sight of the coach and he turned to
+watch it thinking to see Kate sitting in the bride’s place.
+He wondered if the bride would notice him, and turned a
+deeper red under his heavy coat of tan.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And the bride did notice him. She smiled the sweetest
+smile the boy had ever seen upon her face, the smile he had
+dreamed of as he thought of her, at night standing under the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page80"></span><a name="pg80" id="pg80" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+stars all alone by his father’s gate post whittling the cross
+bar of the gate. For a moment he forgot that it was the
+bridal party passing, forgot the stern-faced bridegroom, and
+saw only Marcia—his girl love. His heart stood still, and a
+bright light of response filled his eyes. He took off his wide
+straw hat and bowed her reverence. He would have called
+to her, and tried three times, but his dry throat gave forth
+no utterance, and when he looked again the coach was passed
+and only the flutter of a white handkerchief came back to him
+and told him the beginning of the truth.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then the poor boy’s face grew white, yes, white and stricken
+under the tan, and he tottered to the roadside and sat down
+with his face in his hands to try and comprehend what it
+might mean, while the old horse dragged the plow whither
+he would in search of a bite of tender grass.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">What could it mean? And why did Marcia occupy that
+place beside the stranger, obviously the bridegroom? Was
+she going on a visit? He had heard of no such plan. Where
+was her sister? Would there be another coach presently, and
+was this man then not the bridegroom but merely a friend
+of the family? Of course, that must be it. He got up and
+staggered to the fence to look down the road, but no one came
+by save the jogging old gray and carryall, with Aunt Polly
+grim and offended and Uncle Joab meek and depressed
+beside her. Could he have missed the bridal carriage when
+he was at the other end of the lot? Could they have gone
+another way? He had a half a mind to call to Uncle Joab
+to enquire only he was a timid boy and shrank back until it
+was too late.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But why had Marcia as she rode away wafted that strange
+farewell that had in it the familiarity of the final? And
+why did he feel so strange and weak in his knees?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia was to help his mother next week at the quilting
+bee. She had not gone away to stay, of course. He got up
+and tried to whistle and turn the furrows evenly as before,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page81"></span><a name="pg81" id="pg81" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+but his heart was heavy, and, try as he would, he could not
+understand the feeling that kept telling him Marcia was gone
+out of his life forever.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At last his day’s work was done and he could hasten to
+the house. Without waiting for his supper, he <span class="tei tei-q">“slicked up,�</span>
+as he called it, and went at once to the village, where he
+learned the bitter truth.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was Mary Ann who told him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Mary Ann, the plain, the awkward, who secretly admired
+Hanford Weston as she might have admired an angel, and
+who as little expected him to speak to her as if he had been
+one. Mary Ann stood by her front gate in the dusk of the
+summer evening, the halo of her unusual wedding finery upon
+her, for she had taken advantage of being dressed up to make
+two or three visits since the wedding, and so prolong the
+holiday. The light of the sunset softened her plain features,
+and gave her a gentler look than was her wont. Was it that,
+and an air of lonesomeness akin to his own, that made Hanford
+stop and speak to her?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And then she told him. She could not keep it in long. It
+was the wonder of her life, and it filled her so that her thought
+had no room for anything else. To think of Marcia taken
+in a day, gone from their midst forever, gone to be a grown-up
+woman in a new world! It was as strange as sudden death,
+and almost as terrible and beautiful.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There were tears in her eyes, and in the eyes of the boy as
+they spoke about the one who was gone, and the kind dusk
+hid the sight so that neither knew, but each felt a subtle
+sympathy with the other, and before Hanford started upon
+his desolate way home under the burden of his first sorrow
+he took Mary Ann’s slim bony hand in his and said quite
+stiffly: <span class="tei tei-q">“Well, good night, Miss Mary Ann. I’m glad you
+told me,�</span> and Mary Ann responded, with a deep blush under
+her freckles in the dark, <span class="tei tei-q">“Good night, Mr. Weston, and—call
+again!�</span></p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page82"></span><a name="pg82" id="pg82" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Something of the sympathy lingered with the boy as he
+went on his way and he was not without a certain sort of
+comfort, while Mary Ann climbed to her little chamber in
+the loft with a new wonder to dream over.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Meanwhile the coach drove on, and Marcia passed from
+her childhood’s home into the great world of men and women,
+changes, heartbreakings, sorrows and joys.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David spoke to her kindly now and then; asked if she
+was comfortable; if she would prefer to change seats with
+him; if the cushions were right; and if she had forgotten
+anything. He seemed nervous, and anxious to have this
+part of the journey over and asked the coachman frequent
+questions about the horses and the speed they could make.
+Marcia thought she understood that he was longing to get
+away from the painful reminder of what he had expected to
+be a joyful trip, and her young heart pitied him, while yet it
+felt an undertone of hurt for herself. She found so much
+unadulterated joy in this charming ride with the beautiful
+horses, in this luxurious coach, that she could not bear to have
+it spoiled by the thought that only David’s sadness and pain
+had made it possible for her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Constantly as the scene changed, and new sights came
+upon her view, she had to restrain herself from crying out
+with happiness over the beauty and calling David’s attention.
+Once she did point out a bird just leaving a stalk of goldenrod,
+its light touch making the spray to bow and bend.
+David had looked with unseeing eyes, and smiled with uncomprehending
+assent. Marcia felt she might as well have
+been talking to herself. He was not even the old friend and
+brother he used to be. She drew a gentle little sigh and
+wished this might have been only a happy ride with the ending
+at home, and a longer girlhood uncrossed by this wall of
+trouble that Kate had put up in a night for them all.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The coach came at last to the town where they were to stop
+for dinner and a change of horses.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page83"></span><a name="pg83" id="pg83" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia looked about with interest at the houses, streets, and
+people. There were two girls of about her own age with
+long hair braided down their backs. They were walking with
+arms about each other as she and Mary Ann had often done.
+She wondered if any such sudden changes might be coming
+to them as had come into her life. They turned and looked
+at her curiously, enviously it seemed, as the coach drew up to
+the tavern and she was helped out with ceremony. Doubtless
+they thought of her as she had thought of Kate but last week.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She was shown into the dim parlor of the tavern and seated
+in a stiff hair-cloth chair. It was all new and strange and
+delightful.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Before a high gilt mirror set on great glass knobs like
+rosettes, she smoothed her wind-blown hair, and looked back
+at the reflection of her strange self with startled eyes. Even
+her face seemed changed. She knew the bonnet and arrangement
+of hair were becoming, but she felt unacquainted with
+them, and wished for her own modest braids and plain bonnet.
+Even a sunbonnet would have been welcome and have made
+her feel more like herself.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David did not see how pretty she looked when he came to
+take her to the dining room ten minutes later. His eyes were
+looking into the hard future, and he was steeling himself
+against the glances of others. He must be the model bridegroom
+in the sight of all who knew him. His pride bore him
+out in this. He had acquaintances all along the way home.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They were expecting the bridal party, for David had arranged
+that a fine dinner should be ready for his bride. Fine
+it was, with the best cooking and table service the mistress of
+the tavern could command, and with many a little touch
+new and strange to Marcia, and therefore interesting. It was
+all a lovely play till she looked at David.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David ate but little, and Marcia felt she must hurry through
+the meal for his sake. Then when the carryall was ready he
+put her in and they drove away.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page84"></span><a name="pg84" id="pg84" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s keen intuition told her how many little things had
+been thought of and planned for, for the comfort of the one
+who was to have taken this journey with David. Gradually
+the thought of how terrible it was for him, and how dreadful
+of Kate to have brought this sorrow upon him, overcame
+all other thoughts.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Sitting thus quietly, with her hands folded tight in the
+faded bunch of roses little Harriet had given her at parting,
+the last remaining of the flowers she had carried with her,
+Marcia let the tears come. Silently they flowed in gentle
+rain, and had not David been borne down with the thought of
+his own sorrow he must have noticed long before he did the
+sadness of the sweet young face beside him. But she turned
+away from him as much as possible that he might not see,
+and so they must have driven for half an hour through a dim
+sweet wood before he happened to catch a sight of the tear-wet
+face, and knew suddenly that there were other troubles in
+the world beside his own.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Why, child, what is the matter?�</span> he said, turning to her
+with grave concern. <span class="tei tei-q">“Are you so tired? I’m afraid I have
+been very dull company,�</span> with a sigh. <span class="tei tei-q">“You must forgive
+me—child, to-day.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, David, don’t,�</span> said Marcia putting her face down
+into her hands and crying now regardless of the roses. <span class="tei tei-q">“I do
+not want you to think of me. It is dreadful, dreadful for
+you. I am so sorry for you. I wish I could do something.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Dear child!�</span> he said, putting his hand upon hers. <span class="tei tei-q">“Bless
+you for that. But do not let your heart be troubled about me.
+Try to forget me and be happy. It is not for you to bear,
+this trouble.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“But I must bear it,�</span> said Marcia, sitting up and trying
+to stop crying. <span class="tei tei-q">“She was my sister and she did an awful
+thing. I cannot forget it. How could she, how <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">could</span></span> she
+do it? How could she leave a man like you that—�</span> Marcia
+stopped, her brown eyes flashing fiercely as she thought of
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page85"></span><a name="pg85" id="pg85" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+Captain Leavenworth’s hateful look at her that night in the
+moonlight. She shuddered and hid her face in her hands
+once more and cried with all the fervor of her young and
+undisciplined soul.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David did not know what to do with a young woman in
+tears. Had it been Kate his alarm would have vied with a
+delicious sense of his own power to comfort, but even the
+thought of comforting any one but Kate was now a bitter
+thing. Was it always going to be so? Would he always have
+to start and shrink with sudden remembrance of his pain at
+every turn of his way? He drew a deep sigh and looked helplessly
+at his companion. Then he did a hard thing. He
+tried to justify Kate, just as he had been trying all the morning
+to justify her to himself. The odd thing about it all was
+that the very deepest sting of his sorrow was that Kate could
+have done this thing! His peerless Kate!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“She cared for him,�</span> he breathed the words as if they
+hurt him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“She should have told you so before then. She should
+not have let you think she cared for you—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">ever!</span></span>�</span> said Marcia
+fiercely. Strangely enough the plain truth was bitter to the
+man to hear, although he had been feeling it in his soul ever
+since they had discovered the flight of the bride.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Perhaps there was too much pressure brought to bear
+upon her,�</span> he said lamely. <span class="tei tei-q">“Looking back I can see times
+when she did not second me with regard to hurrying the
+marriage, so warmly as I could have wished. I laid it to her
+shyness. Yet she seemed happy when we met. Did you—did
+she—have you any idea she had been planning this for
+long, or was it sudden?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The words were out now, the thing he longed to know. It
+had been writing its fiery way through his soul. Had she
+meant to torture him this way all along, or was it the yielding
+to a sudden impulse that perhaps she had already repented?
+He looked at Marcia with piteous, almost pleading eyes, and
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page86"></span><a name="pg86" id="pg86" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+her tortured young soul would have given anything to have
+been able to tell him what he wanted to know. Yet she could
+not help him. She knew no more than he. She steadied her
+own nerves and tried to tell all she knew or surmised, tried her
+best to reveal Kate in her true character before him. Not
+that she wished to speak ill of her sister, only that she would
+be true and give this lover a chance to escape some of the
+pain if possible, by seeing the real Kate as she was at home
+without varnish or furbelows. Yet she reflected that those
+who knew Kate’s shallowness well, still loved her in spite of
+it, and always bowed to her wishes.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Gradually their talk subsided into deep silence once more,
+broken only by the jog-trot of the horse or the stray note of
+some bird.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The road wound into the woods with its fragrant scents
+of hemlock, spruce and wintergreen, and out into a broad,
+hot, sunny way.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The bees hummed in the flowers, and the grasshoppers sang
+hotly along the side of the dusty road. Over the whole
+earth there seemed to be the sound of a soft simmering, as if
+nature were boiling down her sweets, the better to keep them
+during the winter.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The strain of the day’s excitement and hurry and the
+weariness of sorrow were beginning to tell upon the two
+travellers. The road was heavy with dust and the horse
+plodded monotonously through it. With the drone of the
+insects and the glare of the afternoon sun, it was not strange
+that little by little a great drowsiness came over Marcia and
+her head began to droop like a poor wilted flower until she was
+fast asleep.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David noticed that she slept, and drew her head against
+his shoulder that she might rest more comfortably. Then he
+settled back to his own pain, a deeper pang coming as he
+thought how different it would have been if the head resting
+against his shoulder had been golden instead of brown. Then
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page87"></span><a name="pg87" id="pg87" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+soon he too fell asleep, and the old horse, going slow, and yet
+more slowly, finding no urging voice behind her and seeing
+no need to hurry herself, came at last on the way to the
+shade of an apple tree, and halted, finding it a pleasant place
+to remain and think until the heat of the afternoon was
+passed. Awhile she ate the tender grass that grew beneath
+the generous shade, and nipped daintily at an apple or two
+that hung within tempting reach. Then she too drooped her
+white lashes, and nodded and drooped, and took an afternoon
+nap.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A farmer, trundling by in his empty hay wagon, found
+them so, looked curiously at them, then drew up his team and
+came and prodded David in the chest with his long hickory
+stick.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Wake up, there, stranger, and move on,�</span> he called, as he
+jumped back into his wagon and took up the reins. <span class="tei tei-q">“We
+don’t want no tipsy folks around these parts,�</span> and with a loud
+clatter he rode on.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David, whose strong temperance principles had made him
+somewhat marked in his own neighborhood, roused and flushed
+over the insinuation, and started up the lazy horse, which flung
+out guiltily upon the way as if to make up for lost time. The
+driver, however, was soon lost in his own troubles, which returned
+upon him with redoubled sharpness as new sorrow
+always does after brief sleep.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But Marcia slept on.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS08" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page88"></span><a name="pg88" id="pg88" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc16" id="toc16"></a>
+<a name="pdf17" id="pdf17"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER VIII</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Owing to the horse’s nap by the roadside, it was quite late
+in the evening when they reached the town and David saw
+the lights of his own neighborhood gleaming in the distance.
+He was glad it was late, for now there would be no one to meet
+them that night. His friends would think, perhaps, that
+they had changed their plans and stopped over night on the
+way, or met with some detention.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia still slept.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David as he drew near the house began to feel that perhaps
+he had made a mistake in carrying out his marriage just as
+if nothing had happened and everything was all right. It
+would be too great a strain upon him to live there in that
+house without Kate, and come home every night just as he had
+planned it, and not to find her there to greet him as he had
+hoped. Oh, if he might turn even now and flee from it,
+out into the wilderness somewhere and hide himself from
+human kind, where no one would know, and no one ever ask
+him about his wife!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He groaned in spirit as the horse drew up to the door, and
+the heavy head of the sweet girl who was his wife reminded
+him that he could not go away, but must stay and face the
+responsibilities of life which he had taken upon himself, and
+bear the pain that was his. It was not the fault of the girl
+he had married. She sorrowed for him truly, and he felt
+deeply grateful for the great thing she had done to save
+his pride.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He leaned over and touched her shoulder gently to rouse
+her, but her sleep was deep and healthy, the sleep of exhausted
+youth. She did not rouse nor even open her eyes, but murmured
+half audibly; <span class="tei tei-q">“David has come, Kate, hurry!�</span></p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page89"></span><a name="pg89" id="pg89" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Half guessing what had passed the night he arrived, David
+stooped and tenderly gathered her up in his arms. He felt
+a bond of kindliness far deeper than brotherly love. It was
+a bond of common suffering, and by her own choice she had
+made herself his comrade in his trouble. He would at least
+save her what suffering he could.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She did not waken as he carried her into the house, nor
+when he took her upstairs and laid her gently upon the white
+bed that had been prepared for the bridal chamber.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The moonlight stole in at the small-paned windows and fell
+across the floor, showing every object in the room plainly.
+David lighted a candle and set it upon the high mahogany
+chest of drawers. The light flickered and played over the
+sweet face and Marcia slept on.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David went downstairs and put up the horse, and then
+returned, but Marcia had not stirred. He stood a moment
+looking at her helplessly. It did not seem right to leave her
+this way, and yet it was a pity to disturb her sleep, she seemed
+so weary. It had been a long ride and the day had been
+filled with unwonted excitement. He felt it himself, and
+what must it be for her? She was a woman.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David had the old-fashioned gallant idea of woman.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Clumsily he untied the gay blue ribbons and pulled the
+jaunty poke bonnet out of her way. The luxuriant hair, unused
+to the confinement of combs, fell rich about her sleep-flushed
+face. Contentedly she nestled down, the bonnet out
+of her way, her red lips parted the least bit with a half smile,
+the black lashes lying long upon her rosy cheek, one childish
+hand upon which gleamed the new wedding ring—that was
+not hers,—lying relaxed and appealing upon her breast, rising
+and falling with her breath. A lovely bride!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David, stern, true, pained and appreciative, suddenly
+awakened to what a dreadful thing he had done.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Here was this lovely woman, her womanhood not yet unfolded
+from the bud, but lovely in promise even as her sister
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page90"></span><a name="pg90" id="pg90" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+had been in truth, her charms, her dreams, her woman’s
+ways, her love, her very life, taken by him as ruthlessly and
+as thoughtlessly as though she had been but a wax doll, and
+put into a home where she could not possibly be what she
+ought to be, because the place belonged to another. Thrown
+away upon a man without a heart! That was what she was!
+A sacrifice to his pride! There was no other way to put it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It fairly frightened him to think of the promises he had
+made. <span class="tei tei-q">“Love, honor, cherish,�</span> yes, all those he had promised,
+and in a way he could perform, but not in the sense
+that the wedding ceremony had meant, not in the way in
+which he would have performed them had the bride been
+Kate, the choice of his love. Oh, why, why had this awful
+thing come upon him!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And now his conscience told him he had done wrong to take
+this girl away from the possibilities of joy in the life that
+might have been hers, and sacrifice her for the sake of saving
+his own sufferings, and to keep his friends from knowing that
+the girl he was to marry had jilted him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As he stood before the lovely, defenceless girl her very
+beauty and innocence arraigned him. He felt that God would
+hold him accountable for the act he had so thoughtlessly
+committed that day, and a burden of responsibility settled
+upon his weight of sorrow that made him groan aloud. For
+a moment his soul cried out against it in rebellion. Why
+could he not have loved this sweet self-sacrificing girl instead
+of her fickle sister? Why? Why? She might perhaps have
+loved him in return, but now nothing could ever be! Earth
+was filled with a black sorrow, and life henceforth meant renunciation
+and one long struggle to hide his trouble from the
+world.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But the girl whom he had selfishly drawn into the darkness
+of his sorrow with him, she must not be made to suffer more
+than he could help. He must try to make her happy, and
+keep her as much as possible from knowing what she had
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page91"></span><a name="pg91" id="pg91" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+missed by coming with him! His lips set in stern resolve,
+and a purpose, half prayer, went up on record before God,
+that he would save her as much as he knew how.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Lying helpless so, she appealed to him. Asking nothing
+she yet demanded all from him in the name of true chivalry.
+How readily had she given up all for him! How sweetly she
+had said she would fill the place left vacant by her sister, just
+to save him pain and humiliation!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A desire to stoop and kiss the fair face came to him, not
+for affection’s sake, but reverently, as if to render to her
+before God some fitting sign that he knew and understood her
+act of self sacrifice, and would not presume upon it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Slowly, as though he were performing a religious ceremony,
+a sacred duty laid upon him on high, David stooped over her,
+bringing his face to the gentle sleeping one. Her sweet
+breath fanned his cheek like the almost imperceptible fragrance
+of a bud not fully opened yet to give forth its sweetness
+to the world. His soul, awake and keen through the thoughts
+that had just come to him, gave homage to her sweetness,
+sadly, wistfully, half wishing his spirit free to gather this
+sweetness for his own.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And so he brought his lips to hers, and kissed her, his
+bride, yet not his bride. Kissed her for the second time.
+That thought came to him with the touch of the warm lips
+and startled him. Had there been something significant in
+the fact that he had met Marcia first and kissed her instead
+of Kate by mistake?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It seemed as though the sleeping lips clung to his lingeringly,
+and half responded to the kiss, as Marcia in her dreams
+lived over again the kiss she had received by her father’s
+gate in the moonlight. Only the dream lover was her own
+and not another’s. David, as he lifted up his head and looked
+at her gravely, saw a half smile illuminating her lips as if
+the sleeping soul within had felt the touch and answered to
+the call.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page92"></span><a name="pg92" id="pg92" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">With a deep sigh he turned away, blew out the candle, and
+left her with the moonbeams in her chamber. He walked
+sadly to a rear room of the house and lay down upon the
+bed, his whole soul crying out in agony at his miserable state.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-tb"> </div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate, the careless one, who had made all this heart-break
+and misery, had quarreled with her husband already because
+he did not further some expensive whim of hers. She had
+told him she was sorry she had not stayed where she was and
+carried on her marriage with David as she had planned to do.
+Now she sat sulkily in her room alone, too angry to sleep;
+while her husband smoked sullenly in the barroom below, and
+drank frequent glasses of brandy to fortify himself against
+Kate’s moods.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate was considering whether or not she had been a fool
+in marrying the captain instead of David, though she called
+herself by a much milder word than that. The romance
+was already worn away. She wished for her trunk and her
+pretty furbelows. Her father’s word of reconciliation would
+doubtless come in a few days, also the trunks.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">After all there was intense satisfaction to Kate in having
+broken all bounds and done as she pleased. Of course it
+would have been a bit more comfortable if David had not been
+so absurdly in earnest, and believed in her so thoroughly.
+But it was nice to have some one believe in you no matter
+what you did, and David would always do that. It began
+to look doubtful if the captain would. But David would
+never marry, she was sure, and perhaps, by and by, when
+everything had been forgotten and forgiven, she might establish
+a pleasant relationship with him again. It would be
+charming to coquet with him. He made love so earnestly,
+and his great eyes were so handsome when he looked at one
+with his whole soul in them. Yes, she certainly must keep
+in with him, for it would be good to have a friend like that
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page93"></span><a name="pg93" id="pg93" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+when her husband was off at sea with his ship. Now that she
+was a married woman she would be free from all such childish
+trammels as being guarded at home and never going anywhere
+alone. She could go to New York, and she would let
+David know where she was and he would come up on business
+and perhaps take her to the theatre. To be sure, she had
+heard David express views against theatre-going, and she knew
+he was as much of a church man, almost, as her father, but
+she was sure she could coax him to do anything for her, and
+she had always wanted to go to the theatre. His scruples
+might be strong, but she knew his love for her, and thought
+it was stronger. She had read in his eyes that it would never
+fail her. Yes, she thought, she would begin at once to make
+a friend of David. She would write him a letter asking forgiveness,
+and then she would keep him under her influence.
+There was no telling what might happen with her husband
+off at sea so much. It was well to be foresighted, besides, it
+would be wholesome for the captain to know she had another
+friend. He might be less stubborn. What a nuisance that the
+marriage vows had to be taken for life! It would be much
+nicer if they could be put off as easily as they were put on.
+Rather hard on some women perhaps, but she could keep any
+man as long as she chose, and then—she snapped her pretty
+thumb and finger in the air to express her utter disdain for
+the man whom she chose to cast off.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It seemed that Kate, in running away from her father’s
+house and her betrothed bridegroom, and breaking the laws
+of respectable society, had with that act given over all attempt
+at any principle.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">So she set herself down to write her letter, with a pout
+here and a dimple there, and as much pretty gentleness as if
+she had been talking with her own bewitching face and eyes
+quite near to his. She knew she could bewitch him if she
+chose, and she was in the mood just now to choose very
+much, for she was deeply angry with her husband.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page94"></span><a name="pg94" id="pg94" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She had ever been utterly heartless when she pleased, knowing
+that it needed but her returning smile, sweet as a May
+morning, to bring her much abused subjects fondly to her
+feet once more. It did not strike her that this time she had
+sinned not only against her friends, but against heaven, and
+God-given love, and that a time of reckoning must come to
+her,—had come, indeed.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She had never believed they would be angry with her, her
+father least of all. She had no thought they would do anything
+desperate. She had expected the wedding would be put
+off indefinitely, that the servants would be sent out hither and
+yon in hot haste to unbid the guests, upon some pretext of
+accident or illness, and that it would be left to rest until the
+village had ceased to wonder and her real marriage with
+Captain Leavenworth could be announced.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She had counted upon David to stand up for her. She had
+not understood how her father’s righteous soul would be
+stirred to the depths of shame and utter disgrace over her
+wanton action. Not that she would have been in the least
+deterred from doing as she pleased had she understood, only
+that she counted upon too great power with all of them.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When the letter was written it sounded quite pathetic and
+penitent, putting all the blame of her action upon her husband,
+and making herself out a poor, helpless, sweet thing, bewildered
+by so much love put upon her, and suggesting, just in
+a hint, that perhaps after all she had made a mistake not to
+have kept David’s love instead of the wilder, fiercer one.
+She ended by begging David to be her friend forever, and
+leaving an impression with him, though it was but slight, that
+already shadows had crossed her path that made her feel his
+friendship might be needed some day.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was a letter calculated to drive such a lover as David
+had been, half mad with anguish, even without the fact of his
+hasty marriage added to the situation.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And in due time, by coach, the letter came to David.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS09" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page95"></span><a name="pg95" id="pg95" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc18" id="toc18"></a>
+<a name="pdf19" id="pdf19"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER IX</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The morning sunbeams fell across the floor when Marcia
+awoke suddenly to a sense of her new surroundings. For a
+moment she could not think where she was nor how she came
+there. She looked about the unfamiliar walls, covered with
+paper decorated in landscapes—a hill in the distance with a
+tall castle among the trees, a blue lake in the foreground and
+two maidens sitting pensively upon a green bank with their
+arms about one another. Marcia liked it. She felt there
+was a story in it. She would like to imagine about the lives
+of those two girls when she had more time.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There were no pictures in the room to mar those upon the
+paper, but the walls did not look bare. Everything was new
+and stiff and needed a woman’s hand to bring the little homey
+touches, but the newness was a delight to the girl. It was as
+good as the time when she was a little girl and played house
+with Mary Ann down on the old flat stone in the pasture,
+with acorns for cups and saucers, and bits of broken china
+carefully treasured upon the mossy shelves in among the roots
+of the old elm tree that arched over the stone.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She was stiff from the long ride, but her sleep had wonderfully
+refreshed her, and now she was ready to go to work.
+She wondered as she rose how she got upon that bed, how the
+blue bonnet got untied and laid upon the chair beside her.
+Surely she could not have done it herself and have no memory
+of it. Had she walked upstairs herself, or did some one carry
+her? Did David perhaps? Good kind David! A bird
+hopped upon the window seat and trilled a song, perked his
+head knowingly at her and flitted away. Marcia went to the
+window to look after him, and was held by the new sights
+that met her gaze. She could catch glimpses of houses through
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page96"></span><a name="pg96" id="pg96" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+bowers of vines, and smoke rising from chimneys. She wondered
+who lived near, and if there were girls who would prove
+pleasant companions. Then she suddenly remembered that
+she was a girl no longer and must associate with married
+women hereafter.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But suddenly the clock on the church steeple across the way
+warned her that it was late, and with a sense of deserving
+reprimand she hurried downstairs.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The fire was already lighted and David had brought
+in fresh water. So much his intuition had told him was
+necessary. He had been brought up by three maiden aunts
+who thought that a man in the kitchen was out of his sphere,
+so the kitchen was an unknown quantity to him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia entered the room as if she were not quite certain
+of her welcome. She was coming into a kingdom she only
+half understood.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Good morning,�</span> she said shyly, and a lovely color stole
+into her cheeks. Once more David’s conscience smote him as
+her waking beauty intensified the impression made the night
+before.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Good morning,�</span> he said gravely, studying her face as
+he might have studied some poor waif whom he had unknowingly
+run over in the night and picked up to resuscitate.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Are you rested? You were very tired last night.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“What a baby I was!�</span> said Marcia deprecatingly, with a
+soft little gurgle of a laugh like a merry brook. David was
+amazed to find she had two dimples located about as Kate’s
+were, only deeper, and more gentle in their expression.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Did I sleep all the afternoon after we left the canal?
+And did you have hard work to get me into the house and
+upstairs?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You slept most soundly,�</span> said David, smiling in spite of
+his heavy heart. <span class="tei tei-q">“It seemed a pity to waken you, so I did
+the next best thing and put you to bed as well as I knew how.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“It was very good of you,�</span> said Marcia, coming over to
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page97"></span><a name="pg97" id="pg97" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+him with her hands clasped earnestly, <span class="tei tei-q">“and I don’t know
+how to thank you.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was something quaint and old-fashioned in her way
+of speaking, and it struck David pitifully that she should be
+thanking her husband, the man who had pledged himself to
+care for her all his life. It seemed that everywhere he turned
+his conscience would be continually reproaching him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was a dainty breakfast to which they presently sat down.
+There was plenty of bread and fresh butter just from the hands
+of the best butter-maker in the county; the eggs had been laid
+the day before, and the bacon was browned just right. Marcia
+well knew how to make coffee, there was cream rich and yellow
+as ever came from the cows at home and there were blackberries
+as large and fine every bit as those Marcia picked but
+a few days before for the purchase of her pink sprigged chintz.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David watched her deft movements and all at once keen
+smiting conscience came to remind him that Marcia was
+defrauded of all the loving interchange of mirth that would
+have been if Kate had been here. Also, keener still the
+thought that Kate had not wanted it: that she had preferred
+the love of another man to his, and that these joys
+had not been held in dear anticipation with her as they had
+with him. He had been a fool. All these months of waiting
+for his marriage he had thought that he and Kate held feelings
+in common, joys and hopes and tender thoughts of one
+another; and, behold, he was having these feelings all to himself,
+fool and blind that he was! A bitter sigh came to his
+lips, and Marcia, eager in the excitement of getting her first
+breakfast upon her own responsibility, heard and forgot to
+smile over the completed work. She could hardly eat what
+she had prepared, her heart felt David’s sadness so keenly.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Shyly she poured the amber coffee and passed it to David.
+She was pleased that he drank it eagerly and passed his cup
+back for more. He ate but little, but seemed to approve of
+all she had done.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page98"></span><a name="pg98" id="pg98" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">After breakfast David went down to the office. He had
+told Marcia that he would step over and tell his aunts of
+their arrival, and they would probably come over in the course
+of the day to greet her. He would be back to dinner at
+twelve. He suggested that she spend her time in resting, as
+she must be weary yet. Then hesitating, he went out and
+closed the door behind him. He waited again on the door
+stone outside and opened the door to ask:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You won’t be lonesome, will you, child?�</span> He had the
+feeling of troubled responsibility upon him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, no!�</span> said Marcia brightly, smiling back. She
+thought it so kind of him to take the trouble to think of her.
+She was quite anticipating a trip of investigation over her
+new domain, and the pleasure of feeling that she was mistress
+and might do as she pleased. Yet she stood by the window
+after he was gone and watched his easy strides down the
+street with a feeling of mingled pride and disappointment.
+It was a very nice play she was going through, and David
+was handsome, and her young heart swelled with pride to
+belong to him, but after all there was something left out. A
+great lack, a great unknown longing unsatisfied. What was
+it? What made it? Was it David’s sorrow?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She turned with a sigh as he disappeared around a curve
+in the sidewalk and was lost to view. Then casting aside
+the troubles which were trying to settle upon her, she gave
+herself up to a morning of pure delight.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She flew about the kitchen putting things to rights, washing
+the delicate sprigged china with its lavendar sprays and
+buff bands, and putting it tenderly upon the shelves behind
+the glass doors; shoving the table back against the wall
+demurely with dropped leaves. It did not take long.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was no need to worry about the dinner. There was
+a leg of lamb beautifully cooked, half a dozen pies, their flaky
+crusts bearing witness to the culinary skill of the aunts, a
+fruit cake, a pound cake, a jar of delectable cookies and another
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page99"></span><a name="pg99" id="pg99" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+of fat sugary doughnuts, three loaves of bread, and a
+sheet of puffy rusks with their shining tops dusted with sugar.
+Besides the preserve closet was rich in all kinds of preserves,
+jellies and pickles. No, it would not take long to get dinner.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was into the great parlor that Marcia peeped first. It
+had been toward that room that her hopes and fears had
+turned while she washed the dishes.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Schuylers were one of the few families in those days
+that possessed a musical instrument, and it had been the
+delight of Marcia’s heart. She seemed to have a natural
+talent for music, and many an hour she spent at the old
+spinet drawing tender tones from the yellowed keys. The
+spinet had been in the family for a number of years and
+very proud had the Schuyler girls been of it. Kate could
+rattle off gay waltzes and merry, rollicking tunes that fairly
+made the feet of the sedate village maidens flutter in time
+to their melody, but Marcia’s music had always been more
+tender and spiritual. Dear old hymns, she loved, and some
+of the old classics. <span class="tei tei-q">“Stupid old things without any tune,�</span>
+Kate called them. But Marcia persevered in playing them
+until she could bring out the beautiful passages in a way
+that at least satisfied herself. Her one great desire had been
+to take lessons of a real musician and be able to play the
+wonderful things that the old masters had composed. It is
+true that very few of these had come in her way. One somewhat
+mutilated copy of Handel’s <span class="tei tei-q">“Creation,�</span> a copy of
+Haydn’s <span class="tei tei-q">“Messiah,�</span> and a few fragments of an old book of
+Bach’s Fugues and Preludes. Many of these she could not
+play at all, but others she had managed to pick out. A visit
+from a cousin who lived in Boston and told of the concerts
+given there by the Handel and Haydn Society had served to
+strengthen her deeper interest in music. The one question
+that had been going over in her mind ever since she awoke had
+been whether there was a musical instrument in the house.
+She felt that if there was not she would miss the old spinet
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page100"></span><a name="pg100" id="pg100" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+in her father’s house more than any other thing about her
+childhood’s home.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">So with fear and trepidation she entered the darkened
+room, where the careful aunts had drawn the thick green
+shades. The furniture stood about in shadowed corners, and
+every footfall seemed a fearsome thing.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s bright eyes hurried furtively about, noting the
+great glass knobs that held the lace curtains with heavy silk
+cords, the round mahogany table, with its china vase of
+<span class="tei tei-q">“everlastings,�</span> the high, stiff-backed chairs all decked in
+elaborate antimacassars of intricate pattern. Then, in the
+furthest corner, shrouded in dark coverings she found what
+she was searching for. With a cry she sprang to it, touched
+its polished wood with gentle fingers, and lovingly felt for the
+keyboard. It was closed. Marcia pushed up the shade to see
+better, and opened the instrument cautiously.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was a pianoforte of the latest pattern, and with exclamations
+of delight she sat down and began to strike chords,
+softly at first, as if half afraid, then more boldly. The tone
+was sweeter than the old spinet, or the harpsichord owned
+by Squire Hartrandt. Marcia marvelled at the volume of
+sound. It filled the room and seemed to echo through the
+empty halls.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She played soft little airs from memory, and her soul was
+filled with joy. Now she knew she would never be lonely
+in the new life, for she would always have this wonderful
+instrument to flee to when she felt homesick.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Across the hall were two square rooms, the front one furnished
+as a library. Here were rows of books behind glass
+doors. Marcia looked at them with awe. Might she read
+them all? She resolved to cultivate her mind that she might
+be a fit companion for David. She knew he was wise beyond
+his years for she had heard her father say so. She went
+nearer and scanned the titles, and at once there looked out to
+her from the rows of bindings a few familiar faces of books
+she had read and re-read. <span class="tei tei-q">“Thaddeus of Warsaw,�</span> <span class="tei tei-q">“The
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page101"></span><a name="pg101" id="pg101" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+Scottish Chiefs,�</span> <span class="tei tei-q">“Mysteries of Udolpho,�</span> <span class="tei tei-q">“Romance of the
+Forest,�</span> <span class="tei tei-q">“Baker’s Livy,�</span> <span class="tei tei-q">“Rollin’s History,�</span> <span class="tei tei-q">“Pilgrim’s
+Progress,�</span> and a whole row of Sir Walter Scott’s novels. She
+caught her breath with delight. What pleasure was opening
+before her! All of Scott! And she had read but one!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was with difficulty she tore herself away from the tempting
+shelves and went on to the rest of the house.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Back of David’s library was a sunny sitting room, or breakfast
+room,—or <span class="tei tei-q">“dining room�</span> as it would be called at the
+present time. In Marcia’s time the family ate most of their
+meals in one end of the large bright kitchen, that end furnished
+with a comfortable lounge, a few bookshelves, a thick
+ingrain carpet, and a blooming geranium in the wide window
+seat. But there was always the other room for company, for
+<span class="tei tei-q">“high days and holidays.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Out of this morning room the pantry opened with its spicy
+odors of preserves and fruit cake.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia looked about her well pleased. The house itself
+was a part of David’s inheritance, his mother’s family homestead.
+Things were all on a grand scale for a bride. Most
+brides began in a very simple way and climbed up year by
+year. How Kate would have liked it all! David must have
+had in mind her fastidious tastes, and spent a great deal of
+money in trying to please her. That piano must have been
+very expensive. Once more Marcia felt how David had loved
+Kate and a pang went through her as she wondered however he
+was to live without her. Her young soul had not yet awakened
+to the question of how <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">she</span></span> was to live <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">with</span></span> him, while his heart
+went continually mourning for one who was lost to him forever.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The rooms upstairs were all pleasant, spacious, and comfortably
+furnished. There was no suggestion of bareness or
+anything left unfinished. Much of the furniture was old,
+having belonged to David’s mother, and was in a state of fine
+preservation, a possession of which to be justly proud.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There were four rooms besides the one in which Marcia
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page102"></span><a name="pg102" id="pg102" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+had slept: a front and back on the opposite side of the hall,
+a room just back of her own, and one at the end of the hall
+over the large kitchen.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She entered them all and looked about. The three beside
+her own in the front part of the house were all large and
+airy, furnished with high four-posted bedsteads, and pretty
+chintz hangings. Each was immaculate in its appointments.
+Cautiously she lifted the latch of the back room. David had
+not slept in any of the others, for the bedcoverings and
+pillows were plump and undisturbed. Ah! It was here
+in the back room that he had carried his heavy heart, as far
+away from the rest of the house as possible!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The bed was rumpled as if some one had thrown himself
+heavily down without stopping to undress. There was water
+in the washbowl and a towel lay carelessly across a chair as
+if it had been hastily used. There was a newspaper on the
+bureau and a handkerchief on the floor. Marcia looked sadly
+about at these signs of occupancy, her eyes dwelling upon
+each detail. It was here that David had suffered, and her
+loving heart longed to help him in his suffering.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But there was nothing in the room to keep her, and remembering
+the fire she had left upon the hearth, which must be
+almost spent and need replenishing by this time, she turned
+to go downstairs.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Just at the door something caught her eye under the edge
+of the chintz valence round the bed. It was but the very
+tip of the corner of an old daguerreotype, but for some reason
+Marcia was moved to stoop and draw it from its concealment.
+Then she saw it was her sister’s saucy, pretty face that laughed
+back at her in defiance from the picture.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As if she had touched something red hot Marcia dropped
+it, and pushed it with her foot far back under the bed. Then
+shutting the door quickly she went downstairs. Was it always
+to be thus? Would Kate ever blight all her joy from this
+time forth?</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS10" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page103"></span><a name="pg103" id="pg103" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc20" id="toc20"></a>
+<a name="pdf21" id="pdf21"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER X</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s cheeks were flushed when David came home to
+dinner, for at the last she had to hurry.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As he stood in the doorway of the wide kitchen and caught
+the odor of the steaming platter of green corn she was putting
+upon the table, David suddenly realized that he had eaten
+scarcely anything for breakfast.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Also, he felt a certain comfort from the sweet steady look
+of wistful sympathy in Marcia’s eyes. Did he fancy it, or
+was there a new look upon her face, a more reserved bearing,
+less childish, more touched by sad knowledge of life and its
+bitterness? It was mere fancy of course, something he had
+just not noticed. He had seen so little of her before.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">In the heart of the maiden there stirred a something which
+she did not quite understand, something brought to life by
+the sight of her sister’s daguerreotype lying at the edge of
+the valence, where it must have fallen from David’s pocket
+without his knowledge as he lay asleep. It had seemed to
+put into tangible form the solid wall of fact that hung between
+her and any hope of future happiness as a wife, and for the
+first time she too began to realize what she had sacrificed in
+thus impetuously throwing her young life into the breach
+that it might be healed. But she was not sorry,—not yet,
+anyway,—only frightened, and filled with dreary forebodings.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The meal was a pleasant one, though constrained. David
+roused himself to be cheerful for Marcia’s sake, as he would
+have done with any other stranger, and the girl, suddenly
+grown sensitive, felt it, and appreciated it, yet did not
+understand why it made her unhappy.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She was anxious to please him, and kept asking if the
+potatoes were seasoned right and if his corn were tender, and
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page104"></span><a name="pg104" id="pg104" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+if he wouldn’t have another cup of coffee. Her cheeks were
+quite red with the effort at matronly dignity when David was
+finally through his dinner and gone back to the office, and
+two big tears came and sat in her eyes for a moment, but
+were persuaded with a determined effort to sink back again
+into those unfathomable wells that lie in the depths of a
+woman’s eyes. She longed to get out of doors and run wild
+and free in the old south pasture for relief. She did not
+know how different it all was from the first dinner of the
+ordinary young married couple; so stiff and formal, with no
+gentle touches, no words of love, no glances that told more
+than words. And yet, child as she was, she felt it, a lack
+somewhere, she knew not what.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But training is a great thing. Marcia had been trained to
+be on the alert for the next duty and to do it before she gave
+herself time for any of her own thoughts. The dinner table
+was awaiting her attention, and there was company coming.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She glanced at the tall clock in the hall and found she had
+scarcely an hour before she might expect David’s aunts, for
+David had brought her word that they would come and spend
+the afternoon and stay to tea.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She shrank from the ordeal and wished David had seen fit
+to stay and introduce her. It would have been a relief to
+have had him for a shelter. Somehow she knew that he would
+have stayed if it had been Kate, and that thought pained her,
+with a quick sharpness like the sting of an insect. She wondered
+if she were growing selfish, that it should hurt to find
+herself of so little account. And, yet, it was to be expected,
+and she must stop thinking about it. Of course, Kate was
+the one he had chosen and Kate would always be the only
+one to him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It did not take her long to reduce the dinner table to
+order and put all things in readiness for tea time; and in
+doing her work Marcia’s thoughts flew to pleasanter themes.
+She wondered what Dolly and Debby, the servants at home,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page105"></span><a name="pg105" id="pg105" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+would say if they could see her pretty china and the nice
+kitchen. They had always been fond of her, and naturally
+her new honors made her wish to have her old friends see her.
+What would Mary Ann say? What fun it would be to have
+Mary Ann there sometime. It would be almost like the days
+when they had played house under the old elm on the big flat
+stone, only this would be a real house with real sprigged china
+instead of bits of broken things. Then she fell into a song,
+one they sang in school,</p>
+
+<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-left: 13.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+  <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: -1.00em">“Sister, thou wast mild and lovely,</div>
+  <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">Gentle as the summer breeze,</div>
+  <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Pleasant as the air of evening</div>
+  <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">When it floats among the trees.�</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But the first words set her to thinking of her own
+sister, and how little the song applied to her, and she thought with a sigh
+how much better it would have been, how much less bitter, if
+Kate had been that way and had lain down to die and they
+could have laid her away in the little hilly graveyard under
+the weeping willows, and felt about her as they did about the
+girl for whom that song was written.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The work was done, and Marcia arrayed in one of the
+simplest of Kate’s afternoon frocks, when the brass knocker
+sounded through the house, startling her with its unfamiliar
+sound.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Breathlessly she hurried downstairs. The crucial moment
+had come when she must stand to meet her new relatives alone.
+With her hand trembling she opened the door, but there was
+only one person standing on the stoop, a girl of about her
+own age, perhaps a few months younger. Her hair was red,
+her face was freckled, and her blue eyes under the red lashes
+danced with repressed mischief. Her dress was plain and
+she wore a calico sunbonnet of chocolate color.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Let me in quick before Grandma sees me,�</span> she demanded
+unceremoniously, entering at once before there was opportunity
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page106"></span><a name="pg106" id="pg106" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+for invitation. <span class="tei tei-q">“Grandma thinks I’ve gone to the
+store, so she won’t expect me for a little while. I was jest
+crazy to see how you looked. I’ve ben watchin’ out o’ the
+window all the morning, but I couldn’t ketch a glimpse of
+you. When David came out this morning I thought you’d
+sure be at the kitchen door to kiss him good-bye, but you
+wasn’t, and I watched every chance I could get, but I couldn’t
+see you till you run out in the garden fer corn. Then I saw
+you good, fer I was out hangin’ up dish towels. You didn’t
+have a sunbonnet on, so I could see real well. And when I
+saw how young you was I made up my mind I’d get acquainted
+in spite of Grandma. You don’t mind my comin’ over this
+way without bein’ dressed up, do you? There wouldn’t be
+any way to get here without Grandma seeing me, you know, if
+I put on my Sunday clo’es.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I’m glad you came!�</span> said Marcia impulsively, feeling a
+rush of something like tears in her throat at the relief of
+delay from the aunts. <span class="tei tei-q">“Come in and sit down. Who are
+you, and why wouldn’t your Grandmother like you to come?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The strange girl laughed a mirthless laugh.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Me? Oh, I’m Mirandy. Nobody ever calls me anything
+but Mirandy. My pa left ma when I was a baby an’ never
+come back, an’ ma died, and I live with Grandma Heath.
+An’ Grandma’s mad ’cause David didn’t marry Hannah Heath.
+She wanted him to an’ she did everything she could to make
+him pay ’tention to Hannah, give her fine silk frocks, two of
+’em, and a real pink parasol, but David he never seemed to
+know the parasol was pink at all, fer he’d never offer to hold
+it over Hannah even when Grandma made him walk with her
+home from church ahead of us. So when it come out that
+David was really going to marry, and wouldn’t take Hannah,
+Grandma got as mad as could be and said we never any of us
+should step over his door sill. But I’ve stepped, I have, and
+Grandma can’t help herself.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“And who is Hannah Heath?�</span> questioned the dazed young
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page107"></span><a name="pg107" id="pg107" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+bride. It appeared there was more than a sister to be taken
+into account.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Hannah? Oh, Hannah is my cousin, Uncle Jim’s oldest
+daughter, and she’s getting on toward thirty somewhere. She
+has whitey-yellow hair and light blue eyes and is tall and real
+pretty. She held her head high fer a good many years waitin’
+fer David, and I guess she feels she made a mistake now.
+I noticed she bowed real sweet to Hermon Worcester last
+Sunday and let him hold her parasol all the way to Grandma’s
+gate. Hannah was mad as hops when she heard that you had
+gold hair and blue eyes, for it did seem hard to be beaten
+by a girl of the same kind? but you haven’t, have you? Your
+hair is almost black and your eyes are brownie-brown. You’re
+years younger than Hannah, too. My! Won’t she be astonished
+when she sees you! But I don’t understand how it got
+around about your having gold hair. It was a man that
+stopped at your father’s house once told it&mdash;&mdash;�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“It was my sister!�</span> said Marcia, and then blushed crimson
+to think how near she had come to revealing the truth which
+must not be known.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Your sister? Have you got a sister with gold hair?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Yes, he must have seen her,�</span> said Marcia confusedly.
+She was not used to evasion.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“How funny!�</span> said Miranda. <span class="tei tei-q">“Well, I’m glad he did,
+for it made Hannah so jealous it was funny. But I guess
+she’ll get a set-back when she sees how young you are. You’re
+not as pretty as I thought you would be, but I believe I like
+you better.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miranda’s frank speech reminded Marcia of Mary Ann
+and made her feel quite at home with her curious visitor.
+She did not mind being told she was not up to the mark of
+beauty. From her point of view she was not nearly so pretty
+as Kate, and her only fear was that her lack of beauty might
+reveal the secret and bring confusion to David. But she need
+not have feared: no one watching the two girls, as they sat in
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page108"></span><a name="pg108" id="pg108" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+the large sunny room and faced each other, but would have
+smiled to think the homely crude girl could suggest that the
+other calm, cool bud of womanhood was not as near perfection
+of beauty as a bud could be expected to come. There was
+always something 
+<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E9" id="E9" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e9" class="tei tei-ref">child-like</a></span>
+about Marcia’s face, especially her
+profile, something deep and other-world-like in her eyes, that
+gave her an appearance so distinguished from other girls that
+the word <span class="tei tei-q">“pretty�</span> did not apply, and surface observers might
+have passed her by when searching for prettiness, but not so
+those who saw soul beauties.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But Miranda’s time was limited, and she wanted to make
+as much of it as possible.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Say, I heard you making music this morning. Won’t
+you do it for me? I’d just love to hear you.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s face lit up with responsive enthusiasm, and she led
+the way to the darkened parlor and folded back the covers of
+the precious piano. She played some tender little airs she
+loved as she would have played them for Mary Ann, and the
+two young things stood there together, children in thought
+and feeling, half a generation apart in position, and neither
+recognized the difference.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“My land!�</span> said the visitor, <span class="tei tei-q">“’f I could play like that I
+wouldn’t care ef I had freckles and no father and red hair,�</span>
+and looking up Marcia saw tears in the light blue eyes, and
+knew she had a kindred feeling in her heart for Miranda.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They had been talking a minute or two when the knocker
+suddenly sounded through the long hall again making both
+girls start. Miranda boldly tiptoed over to the front window
+and peeped between the green slats of the Venetian blind to
+see who was at the door, while Marcia started guiltily and
+quickly closed the instrument.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“It’s David’s aunts,�</span> announced Miranda in a stage whisper
+hurriedly. <span class="tei tei-q">“I might ’a’ known they would come this afternoon.
+Well, I had first try at you anyway, and I like you real
+well. May I come again and hear you play? You go quick
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page109"></span><a name="pg109" id="pg109" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+to the door, and I’ll slip into the kitchen till they get in, and
+then I’ll go out the kitchen door and round the house out the
+little gate so Grandma won’t see me. I must hurry for I
+ought to have been back ten minutes ago.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“But you haven’t been to the store,�</span> said Marcia in a dismayed
+whisper.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, well, that don’t matter! I’ll tell her they didn’t
+have what she sent me for. Good-bye. You better hurry.�</span>
+So saying, she disappeared into the kitchen; and Marcia,
+startled by such easy morality, stood dazed until the knocker
+sounded forth again, this time a little more peremptorily, as
+the elder aunt took her turn at it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And so at last Marcia was face to face with the Misses
+Spafford.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They came in, each with her knitting in a black silk bag
+on her slim arm, and greeted the flushed, perturbed Marcia
+with gentle, righteous, rigid inspection. She felt with the
+first glance that she was being tried in the fire, and that it
+was to be no easy ordeal through which she was to pass. They
+had come determined to sift her to the depths and know at
+once the worst of what their beloved nephew had brought upon
+himself. If they found aught wrong with her they meant
+to be kindly and loving with her, but they meant to take it
+out of her. This had been the unspoken understanding between
+them as they wended their dignified, determined way to
+David’s house that afternoon, and this was what Marcia faced
+as she opened the door for them.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She gasped a little, as any girl overwhelmed thus might
+have done. She did not tilt her chin in defiance as Kate
+would have done. The thought of David came to support her,
+and she grasped for her own little part and tried to play it
+creditably. She did not know whether the aunts knew of her
+true identity or not, but she was not left long in doubt.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“My dear, we have long desired to know you, of whom we
+have heard so much,�</span> recited Miss Amelia, with slightly
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page110"></span><a name="pg110" id="pg110" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+agitated mien, as she bestowed a cool kiss of duty upon
+Marcia’s warm cheek. It chilled the girl, like the breath
+from a funeral flower.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Yes, it is indeed a pleasure to us to at last look upon our
+dear nephew’s wife,�</span> said Miss Hortense quite precisely, and
+laid the sister kiss upon the other cheek. In spite of her there
+flitted through Marcia’s brain the verse, <span class="tei tei-q">“Whosoever shall
+smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.�</span>
+Then she was shocked at her own irreverence and tried to put
+away a hysterical desire to laugh.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The aunts, too, were somewhat taken aback. They had
+not looked for so girlish a wife. She was not at all what they
+had pictured. David had tried to describe Kate to them
+once, and this young, sweet, disarming thing did not in the
+least fit their preconceived ideas of her. What should they
+do? How could they carry on a campaign planned against a
+certain kind of enemy, when lo, as they came upon the field
+of action the supposed enemy had taken another and more
+bewildering form than the one for whom they had prepared.
+They were for the moment silent, gathering their thoughts,
+and trying to fit their intended tactics to the present situation.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">During this operation Marcia helped them to remove their
+bonnets and silk capes and to lay them neatly on the parlor
+sofa. She gave them chairs, suggested palm-leaf fans, and
+looked about, for the moment forgetting that this was not her
+old home
+<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E10" id="E10" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e10" class="tei tei-ref">plentifully</a></span>
+supplied with those gracious breeze
+wafters.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They watched her graceful movements, those two angular
+old ladies, and marvelled over her roundness and suppleness.
+They saw with appalled hearts what a power youth and beauty
+might have over a man. Perhaps she might be even worse
+than they had feared, though if you could have heard them
+talk about their nephew’s coming bride to their neighbors for
+months beforehand, you would have supposed they knew her
+to be a model in every required direction. But their stately
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page111"></span><a name="pg111" id="pg111" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+pride required that of them, an outward loyalty at least. Now
+that loyalty was to be tried, and Marcia had two old, narrow
+and well-fortified hearts to conquer ere her way would be
+entirely smooth.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Well might Madam Schuyler have been proud of her pupil
+as alone and unaided she faced the trying situation and
+mastered it in a sweet and unassuming way.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They began their inquisition at once, so soon as they were
+seated, and the preliminary sentences uttered. The gleaming
+knitting needles seemed to Marcia like so many swarming,
+vindictive bees, menacing her peace of mind.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You look young, child, to have the care of so large a
+house as this,�</span> said Aunt Amelia, looking at Marcia over her
+spectacles as if she were expected to take the first bite out of
+her. <span class="tei tei-q">“It’s a great responsibility!�</span> she shut her thin lips
+tightly and shook her head, as if she had said: <span class="tei tei-q">“It’s a great
+<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">impossibility</span></span>.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Have you ever had the care of a house?�</span> asked Miss
+Hortense, going in a little deeper. <span class="tei tei-q">“David likes everything
+nice, you know, he has always been used to it.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was something in the tone, and in the set of the bow
+on Aunt Hortense’s purple-trimmed cap that roused the spirit
+in Marcia.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I think I rather enjoy housework,�</span> she responded coolly.
+This unexpected statement somewhat mollified the aunts.
+They had heard to the contrary from some one who had lived
+in the same town with the Schuylers. Kate’s reputation was
+widely known, as that of a spoiled beauty, who did not care
+to work, and would do whatever she pleased. The aunts had
+entertained many forebodings from the few stray hints an old
+neighbor of Kate’s had dared to utter in their hearing.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The talk drifted at once into household matters, as though
+that were the first division of the examination the young bride
+was expected to undergo. Marcia took early opportunity to
+still further mollify her visitors by her warmest praise of the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page112"></span><a name="pg112" id="pg112" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+good things with which the pantry and store-closet had been
+filled. The expression that came upon the two old faces was
+that of receiving but what is due. If the praise had not
+been forthcoming they would have marked it down against
+her, but it counted for very little with them, warm as it was.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Can you make good bread?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The question was flung out by Aunt Hortense like a challenge,
+and the very set of her nostrils gave Marcia warning.
+But it was in a relieved voice that ended almost in a ripple of
+laugh that she answered quite assuredly: <span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, yes, indeed.
+I can make beautiful bread. I just love to make it, too!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“But how do you make it?�</span> quickly questioned Aunt
+Amelia, like a repeating rifle. If the first shot had not struck
+home, the second was likely to. <span class="tei tei-q">“Do you use hop yeast?
+Potatoes? I thought so. Don’t know how to make salt-rising,
+do you? It’s just what might have been expected.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“David has always been used to salt-rising bread,�</span> said
+Aunt Hortense with a grim set of her lips as though she were
+delivering a judgment. <span class="tei tei-q">“He was raised on it.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“If David does not like my bread,�</span> said Marcia with a
+rising color and a nervous little laugh, <span class="tei tei-q">“then I shall try to
+make some that he does like.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was an assurance about the <span class="tei tei-q">“if�</span> that did not please
+the oracle.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“David was raised on salt-rising bread,�</span> said Aunt Hortense
+again as if that settled it. <span class="tei tei-q">“We can send you down a
+loaf or two every time we bake until you learn how.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I’m sure it’s very kind of you,�</span> said Marcia, not at all
+pleased, <span class="tei tei-q">“but I do not think that will be necessary. David
+has always seemed to like our bread when he visited at home.
+Indeed he often praised it.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“David would not be impolite,�</span> said Aunt Amelia, after a
+suitable pause in which Marcia felt disapprobation in the air.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“It would be best for us to send it. David’s health might
+suffer if he was not suitably nourished.�</span></p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page113"></span><a name="pg113" id="pg113" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s cheeks grew redder. Bread had been one of her
+stepmother’s strong points, well infused into her young pupil.
+Madam Schuyler had never been able to say enough to sufficiently
+express her scorn of people who made salt-rising
+bread.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“My stepmother made beautiful bread,�</span> she said quite
+childishly; <span class="tei tei-q">“she did not think salt-rising was so healthy as
+that made from hop yeast. She disliked the odor in the
+house from salt-rising bread.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Now indeed the aunts exchanged glances of <span class="tei tei-q">“On to the
+combat.�</span> Four red spots flamed giddily out in their four
+sallow cheeks, and eight shining knitting needles suddenly
+became idle. The moment was too momentous to work. It
+was as they feared, even the worst. For, be it known, salt-rising
+bread was one of their most tender points, and for it
+they would fight to the bitter end. They looked at her with
+four cold, forbidding, steely, spectacled eyes, and Marcia felt
+that their looks said volumes: <span class="tei tei-q">“And she so young too! To
+be so out of the way!�</span> was what they might have expressed to
+one another. Marcia felt she had been unwise in uttering
+her honest, indignant sentiments concerning salt-rising bread.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The pause was long and impressive, and the bride felt like
+a naughty little four-year-old.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At last Aunt Hortense took up her knitting again with the
+air that all was over and an unrevokable verdict was passed
+upon the culprit.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“People have never seemed to stay away from our house
+on that account,�</span> she said dryly. <span class="tei tei-q">“I’m sure I hope it will
+not be so disagreeable that it will affect your coming to see
+us sometimes with David.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was an iciness in her manner that seemed to suggest
+a long line of offended family portraits of ancestors frowning
+down upon her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s cheeks flamed crimson and her heart fairly
+stopped beating.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page114"></span><a name="pg114" id="pg114" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I beg your pardon,�</span> she said quickly, <span class="tei tei-q">“I did not mean to
+say anything disagreeable. I am sure I shall be glad to come
+as often as you will let me.�</span> As she said it Marcia wondered
+if that were quite true. Would she ever be glad to go to the
+home of those two severe-looking aunts? There were three
+of them. Perhaps the other one would be even more withered
+and severe than these two. A slight shudder passed over
+Marcia, and a sudden realization of a side of married life that
+had never come into her thoughts before. For a moment she
+longed with all the intensity of a child for her father’s house
+and the shelter of his loving protection, amply supported by
+her stepmother’s capable, self-sufficient, comforting countenance.
+Her heart sank with the fear that she would never be
+able to do justice to the position of David’s wife, and David
+would be disappointed in her and sorry he had accepted her
+sacrifice. She roused herself to do better, and bit her tongue
+to remind it that it must make no more blunders. She praised
+the garden, the house and the furnishings, in voluble, eager,
+girlish language until the thin lines of lips relaxed and the
+drawn muscles of the aunts’ cheeks took on a less severe
+aspect. They liked to be appreciated, and they certainly had
+taken a great deal of pains with the house—for David’s sake—not
+for hers. They did not care to have her deluded by the
+idea that they had done it for her sake. David was to them
+a young god, and with this one supreme idea of his supremacy
+they wished to impress his young wife. It was a foregone
+conclusion in their minds that no mere pretty young girl was
+capable of appreciating David, as could they, who had watched
+him from babyhood, and pampered and petted and been severe
+with him by turns, until if he had not had the temper of an
+angel he would surely have been spoiled.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“We did our best to make the house just as David would
+have wished to have it,�</span> said Aunt Amelia at last, a self-satisfied
+shadow of what answered for a smile with her, passing
+over her face for a moment.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page115"></span><a name="pg115" id="pg115" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“We did not at all approve of this big house, nor indeed of
+David’s setting up in a separate establishment for himself,�</span>
+said Aunt Hortense, taking up her knitting again. <span class="tei tei-q">“We
+thought it utterly unnecessary and uneconomical, when he
+might have brought his wife home to us, but he seemed to
+think you would want a house to yourself, so we did the best
+we could.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was a martyr-like air in Aunt Hortense’s words that
+made Marcia feel herself again a criminal, albeit she knew she
+was suffering vicariously. But in her heart she felt a sudden
+thankfulness that she was spared the trial of living daily
+under the scrutiny of these two, and she blest David for his
+thoughtfulness, even though it had not been meant for her.
+She went into pleased ecstasies once more over the house, and
+its furnishings, and ended by her pleasure over the piano.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was grim stillness when she touched upon that subject.
+The aunts did not approve of that musical instrument,
+that was plain. Marcia wondered if they always paused so
+long before speaking when they disapproved, in order to show
+their displeasure. In fact, did they always disapprove of
+everything?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You will want to be very careful of it,�</span> said Aunt Amelia,
+looking at the disputed article over her glasses, <span class="tei tei-q">“it cost a good
+deal of money. It was the most foolish thing I ever knew
+David to do, buying that.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Yes,�</span> said Aunt Hortense, <span class="tei tei-q">“you will not want to use it
+much, it might get scratched. It has a fine polish. I’d keep
+it closed up only when I had company. You ought to be very
+proud to have a husband who could buy a thing like that.
+There’s not many has them. When I was a girl my grandfather
+had a spinet, the only one for miles around, and it
+was taken great care of. The case hadn’t a scratch on it.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia had started toward the piano intending to open it
+and play for her new relatives, but she halted midway in the
+room and came back to her seat after that speech, feeling
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page116"></span><a name="pg116" id="pg116" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+that she must just sit and hold her hands until it was time
+to get supper, while these dreadful aunts picked her to pieces,
+body, soul and spirit.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was with great relief at last that she heard David’s step
+and knew she might leave the room and put the tea things
+upon the table.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS11" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page117"></span><a name="pg117" id="pg117" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc22" id="toc22"></a>
+<a name="pdf23" id="pdf23"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XI</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They got through the supper without any trouble, and the
+aunts went home in the early twilight, each with her bonnet
+strings tied precisely, her lace mitts drawn smoothly over her
+bony hands, and her little knitting bag over her right arm.
+They walked decorously up the shaded, elm-domed street, each
+mindful of her aristocratic instep, and trying to walk erect as
+in the days when they were gazed upon with admiration,
+knowing that still an air of former greatness hovered about
+them wherever they went.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They had brightened considerably at the supper table, under
+the genial influence of David’s presence. They came as near
+to worshiping David as one can possibly come to worshiping
+a human being. David, desirous above all things of
+blinding their keen, sure-to-say-<span class="tei tei-q">“I-told-you-so�</span> old eyes,
+roused to be his former gay self with them, and pleased
+them so that they did not notice how little lover-like reference
+he made to his bride, who was decidedly in the background
+for the time, the aunts, perhaps purposely, desiring to show
+her a wife’s true place,—at least the true place of a wife of
+a David.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They had allowed her to bring their things and help them
+on with capes and bonnets, and, when they were ready to
+leave, Aunt Amelia put out a lifeless hand, that felt in its
+silk mitt like a dead fish in a net, and said to Marcia:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Our sister Clarinda is desirous of seeing David’s wife.
+She wished us most particularly to give you her love and say
+to you that she wishes you to come to her at the earliest possible
+moment. You know she is lame and cannot easily get
+about.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Young folks should always be ready to wait upon their
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page118"></span><a name="pg118" id="pg118" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+elders,�</span> said Aunt Hortense, grimly. <span class="tei tei-q">“Come as soon as you
+can,—that is, if you think you can stand the smell of salt-rising.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s face flushed painfully, and she glanced quickly at
+David to see if he had noticed what his aunt had said, but
+David was already anticipating the moment when he would
+be free to lay aside his mask and bury his face in his hands
+and his thoughts in sadness.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s heart sank as she went about clearing off the
+supper things. Was life always to be thus? Would she be
+forever under the espionage of those two grim spectres of
+women, who seemed, to her girlish imagination, to have nothing
+about them warm or loving or woman-like?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She seemed to herself to be standing outside of a married
+life and looking on at it as one might gaze on a panorama. It
+was all new and painful, and she was one of the central
+figures expected to act on through all the pictures, taking
+another’s place, yet doing it as if it were her own. She
+glanced over at David’s pale, grave face, set in its sadness, and
+a sharp pain went through her heart. Would he ever get
+over it? Would life never be more cheerful than it now was?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He spoke to her occasionally, in a pleasant abstracted way,
+as to one who understood him and was kind not to trouble
+his sadness, and he lighted a candle for her when the work
+was done and said he hoped she would rest well, that she must
+still be weary from the long journey. And so she went up
+to her room again.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She did not go to bed at once, but sat down by the window
+looking out on the moonlit street. There had been some sort
+of a meeting at the church across the way, and the people were
+filing out and taking their various ways home, calling pleasant
+good nights, and speaking cheerily of the morrow. The moon,
+though beginning to wane, was bright and cast sharp shadows.
+Marcia longed to get out into the night. If she could have
+got downstairs without being heard she would have slipped
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page119"></span><a name="pg119" id="pg119" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+out into the garden. But downstairs she could hear David
+pacing back and forth like some hurt, caged thing. Steadily,
+dully, he walked from the front hall back into the kitchen and
+back again. There was no possibility of escaping his notice.
+Marcia felt as if she might breathe freer in the open air, so
+she leaned far out of her window and looked up and down
+the street, and thought. Finally,—her heart swelled to
+bursting, as young hearts with their first little troubles will
+do,—she leaned down her dark head upon the window seat
+and wept and wept, alone.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was the next morning at breakfast that David told her
+of the festivities that were planned in honor of their home
+coming. He spoke as if they were a great trial through which
+they both must pass in order to have any peace, and expressed
+his gratitude once more that she had been willing to come
+here with him and pass through it. Marcia had the impression,
+after he was done speaking and had gone away to the
+office, that he felt that she had come here merely for these
+few days of ceremony and after they were passed she was dismissed,
+her duty done, and she might go home. A great lump
+arose in her throat and she suddenly wished very much indeed
+that it were so. For if it were, how much, how very much
+she would enjoy queening it for a few days—except for
+David’s sadness. But already, there had begun to be an element
+to her in that sadness which in spite of herself she
+resented. It was a heavy burden which she began dimly to
+see would be harder and harder to bear as the days went by.
+She had not yet begun to think of the time before her in
+years.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They were to go to the aunts’ to tea that evening, and after
+tea a company of David’s old friends—or rather the old
+friends of David’s aunts—were coming in to meet them. This
+the aunts had planned: but it seemed they had not counted her
+worthy to be told of the plans, and had only divulged them to
+David. Marcia had not thought that a little thing could annoy
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page120"></span><a name="pg120" id="pg120" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+her so much, but she found it vexed her more and more
+as she thought upon it going about her work.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was not so much to be done in the house that morning
+after the breakfast things were cleared away. Dinners
+and suppers would not be much of a problem for some days to
+come, for the house was well stocked with good things.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The beds done and the rooms left in dainty order with the
+sweet summer breeze blowing the green tassels on the window
+shades, Marcia went softly down like some half guilty
+creature to the piano. She opened it and was forthwith lost
+in delight of the sounds her own fingers brought forth.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She had been playing perhaps half an hour when she became
+conscious of another presence in the room. She looked up
+with a start, feeling that some one had been there for some
+time, she could not tell just how long. Peering into the
+shadowy room lighted only from the window behind her, she
+made out a head looking in at the door, the face almost hidden
+by a capacious sunbonnet. She was not long in recognizing
+her visitor of the day before. It was like a sudden dropping
+from a lofty mountain height down into a valley of annoyance
+to hear Miranda’s sharp metallic voice:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Morning!�</span> she courtesied, coming in as soon as she perceived
+that she was seen. <span class="tei tei-q">“At it again? I ben listening
+sometime. It’s as pretty as Silas Drew’s harmonicker when
+he comes home evenings behind the cows.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia drew her hands sharply from the keys as if she had
+been struck. Somehow Miranda and music were inharmonious.
+She scarcely knew what to say. She felt as if her
+morning were spoiled. But Miranda was too full of her own
+errand to notice the clouded face and cool welcome. <span class="tei tei-q">“Say,
+you can’t guess how I got over here. I’ll tell you. You’re
+going over to the Spafford house to-night, ain’t you? and
+there’s going to be a lot of folks there. Of course we all know
+all about it. It’s been planned for months. And my cousin
+Hannah Heath has an invite. You can’t think how fond
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page121"></span><a name="pg121" id="pg121" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+Miss Amelia and Miss Hortense are of her. They tried their
+level best to make David pay attention to her, but it didn’t
+work. Well, she was talking about what she’d wear. She’s
+had three new frocks made last week, all frilled and fancy.
+You see she don’t want to let folks think she is down in the
+mouth the least bit about David. She’ll likely make up to
+you, to your face, a whole lot, and pretend she’s the best
+friend you’ve got in the world. But I’ve just got this to
+say, don’t you be too sure of her friendship. She’s smooth
+as butter, but she can give you a slap in the face if you don’t
+serve her purpose. I don’t mind telling you for she’s given
+me many a one,�</span> and the pale eyes snapped in unison with
+the color of her hair. <span class="tei tei-q">“Well, you see I heard her talking to
+Grandma, and she said she’d give anything to know what you
+were going to wear to-night.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“How curious!�</span> said Marcia surprised. <span class="tei tei-q">“I’m sure I do
+not see why she should care!�</span> There was the coolness born
+of utter indifference in her reply which filled the younger
+girl with admiration. Perhaps too there was the least mite
+of haughtiness in her manner, born of the knowledge that she
+belonged to an old and honored family, and that she had in
+her possession a trunk full of clothes that could vie with any
+that Hannah Heath could display. Miranda wished silently
+that she could convey that cool manner and that wide-eyed
+indifference to the sight of her cousin Hannah.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“H’m!�</span> giggled Miranda. <span class="tei tei-q">“Well, she does! If you
+were going to wear blue you’d see she’d put on her green.
+She’s got one that’ll kill any blue that’s in the same room
+with it, no matter if it’s on the other side. Its just sick’ning
+to see them together. And she looks real well in it too. So
+when she said she wanted to know so bad, Grandma said she’d
+send me over to know if you’d accept a jar of her fresh pickle-lily,
+and mebbe I could find out about your clothes. The
+pickle-lily’s on the kitchen table. I left it when I came
+through. It’s good, but there ain’t any love in it.�</span> And
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page122"></span><a name="pg122" id="pg122" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+Miranda laughed a hard mirthless laugh, and then settled
+down to her subject again.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Now, you needn’t be a mite afraid to tell me about it. I
+won’t tell it straight, you know. I’d just like to see what you
+are going to wear so I could keep her out of her tricks for
+once. Is your frock blue?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Now it is true that the trunk upstairs contained a goodly
+amount of the color blue, for Kate Schuyler had been her
+bonniest in blue, and the particular frock which had been
+made with reference to this very first significant gathering was
+blue. Marcia had accepted the fact as unalterable. The
+garment was made for a purpose, and its mission must be fulfilled
+however much she might wish to wear something else,
+but suddenly as Miranda spoke there came to her mind the
+thought of rebellion. Why should she be bound down to do
+exactly as Kate would do in her place? If she had accepted
+the sacrifice of living Kate’s life for her, she might at least
+have the privilege of living it in the pleasantest possible way,
+and surely the matter of dress was one she might be allowed
+to settle for herself if she was old enough at all to be trusted
+away from home. Among the pretty things that Kate had
+made was a sweet rose-pink silk tissue. Madam Schuyler
+had frowned upon it as frivolous, and besides she did not
+think it becoming to Kate. She had a fixed theory that people
+with blue eyes and gold hair should never wear pink or red,
+but Kate as usual had her own way, and with her wild rose
+complexion had succeeded in looking like the wild rose itself
+in spite of blue eyes and golden hair. Marcia knew in her
+heart, in fact she had known from the minute the lovely
+pink thing had come into the house, that it was the very thing
+to set her off. Her dark eyes and hair made a charming
+contrast with the rose, and her complexion was even fresher
+than Kate’s. Her heart grew suddenly eager to don this
+dainty, frilley thing and outshine Hannah Heath beyond any
+chance of further trying. There were other frocks, too, in
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page123"></span><a name="pg123" id="pg123" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+the trunk. Why should she be confined to the stately blue
+one that had been marked out for this occasion? Marcia,
+with sudden inspiration, answered calmly, just as though all
+these tumultuous possibilities of clothes had not been whirling
+through her brain in that half second’s hesitation:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I have not quite decided what I shall wear. It is not
+an important matter, I’m sure. Let us go and see the piccalilli.
+I’m very much obliged to your grandmother, I’m sure.
+It was kind of her.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Somewhat awed, Miranda followed her hostess into the
+kitchen. She could not reconcile this girl’s face with the
+stately little airs that she wore, but she liked her and forthwith
+she told her so.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I like you,�</span> she said fervently. <span class="tei tei-q">“You remind me of one
+of Grandma’s sturtions, bright and independent and lively,
+with a spice and a color to ’em, and Hannah makes you
+think of one of them tall spikes of gladiolus all fixed up
+without any smell.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia tried to smile over the doubtful compliment. Somehow
+there was something about Miranda that reminded her
+of Mary Ann. Poor Mary Ann! <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Dear</span></span> Mary Ann! For
+suddenly she realized that everything that reminded her of
+the precious life of her childhood, left behind forever, was
+dear. If she could see Mary Ann at this moment she would
+throw her arms about her neck and call her <span class="tei tei-q">“Dear Mary
+Ann,�</span> and say, <span class="tei tei-q">“I love you,�</span> to her. Perhaps this feeling
+made her more gentle with the annoying Miranda than she
+might have been.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When Miranda was gone the precious play hour was gone
+too. Marcia had only time to steal hurriedly into the parlor,
+close the instrument, and then fly about getting her dinner
+ready. But as she worked she had other thoughts to occupy
+her mind. She was becoming adjusted to her new environment
+and she found many unexpected things to make it hard.
+Here, for instance, was Hannah Heath. Why did there have
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page124"></span><a name="pg124" id="pg124" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+to be a Hannah Heath? And what was Hannah Heath to
+her? Kate might feel jealous, indeed, but not she, not the
+unloved, unreal, wife of David. She should rather pity
+Hannah that David had not loved her instead of Kate, or
+pity David that he had not. But somehow she did not, somehow
+she could not. Somehow Hannah Heath had become a
+living, breathing enemy to be met and conquered. Marcia
+felt her fighting blood rising, felt the Schuyler in her coming
+to the front. However little there was in her wifehood, its
+name at least was hers. The tale that Miranda had told was
+enough, if it were true, to put any woman, however young
+she might be, into battle array. Marcia was puzzling her
+mind over the question that has been more or less of a weary
+burden to every woman since the fatal day that Eve made her
+great mistake.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David was silent and abstracted at the dinner table, and
+Marcia absorbed in her own problems did not feel cut by it.
+She was trying to determine whether to blossom out in pink,
+or to be crushed and set aside into insignificance in blue, or
+to choose a happy medium and wear neither. She ventured
+a timid little question before David went away again: Did
+he, would he,—that is, was there any thing,—any word he
+would like to say to her? Would she have to do anything to-night?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David looked at her in surprise. Why, no! He knew of
+nothing. Just go and speak pleasantly to every one. He was
+sure she knew what to do. He had always thought her very
+well behaved. She had manners like any woman. She need
+not feel shy. No one knew of her peculiar position, and
+he felt reasonably sure that the story would not soon get
+around. Her position would be thoroughly established before
+it did, at least. She need not feel uncomfortable. He looked
+down at her thinking he had said all that could be expected of
+him, but somehow he felt the trouble in the girl’s eyes and
+asked her gently if there was anything more.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page125"></span><a name="pg125" id="pg125" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“No,�</span> she said slowly, <span class="tei tei-q">“unless, perhaps—I don’t suppose
+you know what it would be proper for me to wear.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, that does not matter in the least,�</span> he replied
+promptly. <span class="tei tei-q">“Anything. You always look nice. Why, I’ll
+tell you, wear the frock you had on the night I came.�</span> Then
+he suddenly remembered the reason why that was a pleasant
+memory to him, and that it was not for her sake at all, but
+for the sake of one who was lost to him forever. His face
+contracted with sudden pain, and Marcia, cut to the heart,
+read the meaning, and felt sick and sore too.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, I could not wear that,�</span> she said sadly, <span class="tei tei-q">“it is only
+chintz. It would not be nice enough, but thank you. I shall
+be all right. Don’t trouble about me,�</span> and she forced a weak
+smile to light him from the house, and shut from his pained
+eyes the knowledge of how he had hurt her, for with those
+words of his had come the vision of herself that happy night
+as she stood at the gate in the stillness and moonlight looking
+from the portal of her maidenhood into the vista of her
+womanhood, which had seemed then so far away and bright,
+and was now upon her in sad reality. Oh, if she could but
+have caught that sentence of his about her little chintz frock
+to her heart with the joy of possession, and known that he
+said it because he too had a happy memory about her in it,
+as she had always felt the coming, misty, dream-expected lover
+would do!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She spread the available frocks out upon the bed after the
+other things were put neatly away in closet and drawer, and
+sat down to decide the matter. David’s suggestion while
+impossible had given her an idea, and she proceeded to carry
+it out. There was a soft sheer white muslin, whereon Kate
+had expended her daintiest embroidering, edged with the finest
+of little lace frills. It was quaint and simple and girlish, the
+sweetest, most simple affair in all of Kate’s elaborate wardrobe,
+and yet, perhaps, from an artistic point of view, the most
+elegant. Marcia soon made up her mind.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page126"></span><a name="pg126" id="pg126" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She dressed herself early, for David had said he would be
+home by four o’clock and they would start as soon after as
+he could get ready. His aunts wished to show her the old
+garden before dark.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When she came to the arrangement of her hair she paused.
+Somehow her soul rebelled at the style of Kate. It did not
+suit her face. It did not accord with her feeling. It made
+her seem unlike herself, or unlike the self she would ever
+wish to be. It suited Kate well, but not her. With sudden
+determination she pulled it all down again from the top of
+her head and loosened its rich waves about her face, then
+loosely twisted it behind, low on her neck, falling over her
+delicate ears, until her head looked like that of an old Greek
+statue. It was not fashion, it was pure instinct the child
+was following out, and there was enough conformity to one
+of the fashionable modes of the day to keep her from looking
+odd. It was lovely. Marcia could not help seeing herself
+that it was much more becoming than the way she had arranged
+it for her marriage, though then she had had the
+wedding veil to soften the tightly drawn outlines of her head.
+She put on the sheer white embroidered frock then, and as a
+last touch pinned the bit of black velvet about her throat with
+a single pearl that had been her mother’s. It was the bit of
+black velvet she had worn the night David came. It gave her
+pleasure to think that in so far she was conforming to his
+suggestion.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She had just completed her toilet when she heard David’s
+step coming up the walk.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David, coming in out of the sunshine and beholding this
+beautiful girl in the coolness and shadow of the hall awaiting
+him shyly, almost started back as he rubbed his eyes and
+looked at her again. She was beautiful. He had to admit it
+to himself, even in the midst of his sadness, and he smiled
+at her, and felt another pang of condemnation that he had
+taken this beauty from some other man’s lot perhaps, and
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page127"></span><a name="pg127" id="pg127" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+appropriated it to shield himself from the world’s exclamation
+about his own lonely life.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You have done it admirably. I do not see that there is
+anything left to be desired,�</span> he said in his pleasant voice that
+used to make her girl-heart flutter with pride that her new
+brother-to-be was pleased with her. It fluttered now, but
+there was a wider sweep to its wings, and a longer flight
+ahead of the thought.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Quite demurely the young wife accepted her compliment,
+and then she meekly folded her little white muslin cape with
+its dainty frills about her pretty shoulders, drew on the new
+lace mitts, and tied beneath her chin the white strings of a
+shirred gauze bonnet with tiny rosebuds nestling in the
+ruching of tulle about the face.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Once more the bride walked down the world the observed
+of all observers, the gazed at of the town, only this time it was
+brick pavement not oaken stairs she trod, and most of the eyes
+that looked upon her were sheltered behind green jalousies.
+None the less, however, was she conscious of them as she
+made her way to the house of solemn feasting with David by
+her side. Her eyes rested upon the ground, or glanced quietly
+at things in the distance, when they were not lifted for a
+moment in wifely humility to her husband’s face at some
+word of his. Just as she imagined a hundred times in her
+girlish thoughts that her sister Kate would do, so did she,
+and after what seemed to her an interminable walk, though
+in reality it was but four village blocks, they arrived at the
+house of Spafford.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS12" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page128"></span><a name="pg128" id="pg128" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc24" id="toc24"></a>
+<a name="pdf25" id="pdf25"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XII</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“This is your Aunt Clarinda!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was challenge in the severely spoken pronoun Aunt
+Hortense used. It seemed to Marcia that she wished to
+remind her that all her old life and relations were passed away,
+and she had nothing now but David’s, especially David’s
+relatives. She shrank from lifting her eyes, expecting to
+find the third aunt, who was older, as much sourer and sharper
+in proportion to the other two, but she controlled herself and
+lifted her flower face to meet a gentle, meek, old face set in
+soft white frills of a cap, with white ribbons flying, and
+though the old lady leaned upon a crutch she managed to give
+the impression that she had fairly flown in her gladness to
+welcome her new niece. There was the lighting of a repressed
+nature let free in her kind old face as she looked with true
+pleasure upon the lovely young one, and Marcia felt herself
+folded in truly loving arms in an embrace which her own
+passionate, much repressed, loving nature returned with
+heartiness. At last she had found a friend!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She felt it every time she spoke, more and more. They
+walked out into the garden almost immediately, and Aunt
+Clarinda insisted upon hobbling along by Marcia’s side,
+though her sisters both protested that it would be too hard for
+her that warm afternoon. Every time that Marcia spoke she
+felt the kind old eyes upon her, and she knew that at least
+one of the aunts was satisfied with her as a wife for David,
+for her eyes would travel from David to Marcia and back
+again to David, and when they met Marcia’s there was not a
+shade of disparagement in them.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was rather a tiresome walk through a tiresome old
+garden, laid out in the ways of the past generation, and
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page129"></span><a name="pg129" id="pg129" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+bordered with much funereal box. The sisters, Amelia and
+Hortense, took the new member of the family, conscientiously,
+through every path, and faithfully told how each spot was
+associated with some happening in the family history. Occasionally
+there was a solemn pause for the purpose of properly
+impressing the new member of the house, and Amelia wiped
+her eyes with her carefully folded handkerchief. Marcia felt
+extremely like laughing. She was sure that if Kate had been
+obliged to pass through this ordeal she would have giggled
+out at once and said some shockingly funny thing that would
+have horrified the aunts beyond forgiveness. The thought of
+this nerved her to keep a sober face. She wondered what
+David thought of it all, but when she looked at him she wondered
+no longer, for David stood as one waiting for a certain
+ceremony to be over, a ceremony which he knew to be
+inevitable, but which was wholly and familiarly uninteresting.
+He did not even see how it must strike the girl who was going
+through it all for him, for David’s thoughts were out on the
+flood-tide of sorrow, drifting against the rocks of the might-have-been.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They went in to tea presently, just when the garden was
+growing loveliest with a tinge of the setting sun, and Marcia
+longed to run up and down the little paths like a child and
+call to them all to catch her if they could. The house was
+dark and stately and gloomy.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You are coming up to my room for a few minutes after
+supper,�</span> whispered Aunt Clarinda encouragingly as they
+passed into the dark hall. The supper table was alight with
+a fine old silver candelabra whose many wavering lights cast
+a solemn, grotesque shadow on the different faces.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Beside her plate the young bride saw an ostentatious plate
+of puffy soda biscuits, and involuntarily her eyes searched the
+table for the bread plate.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Aunt Clarinda almost immediately pounced upon the bread
+plate and passed it with a smile to Marcia, and as Marcia
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page130"></span><a name="pg130" id="pg130" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+with an answering smile took a generous slice she heard the
+other two aunts exclaim in chorus, <span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, don’t pass her the
+bread, Clarinda; take it away sister, quick! She does not like
+salt-rising! It is unpleasant to her!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then with blazing cheeks the girl protested that she wished
+to keep the bread, that they were mistaken, she had not said
+it was obnoxious to her, but had merely given them her stepmother’s
+opinion when they asked. They must excuse her
+for her seeming rudeness, for she had not intended to hurt
+them. She presumed salt-rising bread was very nice; it
+looked beautiful. This was a long speech for shy Marcia to
+make before so many strangers, but David’s wondering,
+troubled eyes were upon her, questioning what it all might
+mean, and she felt she could do anything to save David from
+more suffering or annoyance of any kind.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David said little. He seemed to perceive that there had
+been an unpleasant prelude to this, and perhaps knew from
+former experience that the best way to do was to change the
+subject. He launched into a detailed account of their wedding
+journey. Marcia on her part was grateful to him, for
+when she took the first brave bite into the very puffy, very
+white slice of bread she had taken, she perceived that it was
+much worse than that which had been baked for their homecoming,
+and not only justified all her stepmother’s execrations,
+but in addition it was sour. For an instant, perceiving
+down the horoscope of time whole calendars full of such
+suppers with the aunts, and this bread, her soul shuddered
+and shrank. Could she ever learn to like it? Impossible!
+Could she ever tolerate it? Could she? She doubted. Then
+she swallowed bravely and perceived that the impossible had
+been accomplished once. It could be again, but she must go
+slowly else she might have to eat two slices instead of one.
+David was kind. He had roused himself to help his helper.
+Perhaps something in her girlish beauty and helplessness,
+helpless here for his sake, appealed to him. At least his eyes
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page131"></span><a name="pg131" id="pg131" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+sought hers often with a tender interest to see if she were
+comfortable, and once, when Aunt Amelia asked if they
+stopped nowhere for rest on their journey, his eyes sought
+Marcia’s with a twinkling reminder of their roadside nap,
+and he answered, <span class="tei tei-q">“Once, Aunt Amelia. No, it was not a
+regular inn. It was quieter than that. Not many people
+stopping there.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s merry laugh almost bubbled forth, but she suppressed
+it just in time, horrified to think what Aunt Hortense
+would say, but somehow after David had said that her heart
+felt a trifle lighter and she took a big bite from the salt-rising
+and smiled as she swallowed it. There were worse things in
+the world, after all, than salt-rising, and, when one could
+smother it in Aunt Amelia’s peach preserves, it was quite
+bearable.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Aunt Clarinda slipped her off to her own room after
+supper, and left the other two sisters with their beloved idol,
+David. In their stately parlor lighted with many candles in
+honor of the occasion, they sat and talked in low tones with
+him, their voices suggesting condolence with his misfortune
+of having married out of the family, and disapproval with
+the married state in general. Poor souls! How their hard,
+loving hearts would have been wrung could they but have
+known the true state of the case! And, strange anomaly, how
+much deeper would have been their antagonism toward poor,
+self-sacrificing, loving Marcia! Just because she had dared
+to think herself fit for David, belonging as she did to her
+renegade sister Kate. But they did not know, and for this
+fact David was profoundly thankful. Those were not the
+days of rapid transit, of telegraph and telephone, nor even
+of much letter writing, else the story would probably have
+reached the aunts even before the bride and bridegroom
+arrived at home. As it was, David had some hope of keeping
+the tragedy of his life from the ears of his aunts forever.
+Patiently he answered their questions concerning the wedding,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page132"></span><a name="pg132" id="pg132" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+questions that were intended to bring out facts showing
+whether David had received his due amount of respect, and
+whether the family he had so greatly honored felt the burden
+of that honor sufficiently.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Upstairs in a quaint old-fashioned room Aunt Clarinda
+was taking Marcia’s face in her two wrinkled hands and looking
+lovingly into her eyes; then she kissed her on each rosy
+cheek and said:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Dear child! You look just as I did when I was young.
+You wouldn’t think it from me now, would you? But it’s
+true. I might not have grown to be such a dried-up old thing
+if I had had somebody like David. I’m so glad you’ve got
+David. He’ll take good care of you. He’s a dear boy. He’s
+always been good to me. But you mustn’t let the others
+crush those roses out of your cheeks. They crushed mine out.
+They wouldn’t let me have my life the way I wanted it, and
+the pink in my cheeks all went back into my heart and burst
+it a good many years ago. But they can’t spoil your life,
+for you’ve got David and that’s worth everything.<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E11" id="E11" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e11" class="tei tei-ref">�</a></span></span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then she kissed her on the lips and cheeks and eyes and
+let her go. But that one moment had given Marcia a glimpse
+into another life-story and put her in touch forever with Aunt
+Clarinda, setting athrob the chord of loving sympathy.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When they came into the parlor the other two aunts looked
+up with a quick, suspicious glance from one to the other and
+then fastened disapproving eyes upon Marcia. They rather
+resented it that she was so pretty. Hannah had been their
+favorite, and Hannah was beautiful in their eyes. They
+wanted no other to outshine her. Albeit they would be proud
+enough before their neighbors to have it said that their
+nephew’s wife was beautiful.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">After a chilling pause in which David was wondering anew
+at Marcia’s beauty, Aunt Hortense asked, as though it were
+an omission from the former examination, <span class="tei tei-q">“Did you ever
+make a shirt?�</span></p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page133"></span><a name="pg133" id="pg133" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, plenty of them!�</span> said Marcia, with a merry laugh,
+so relieved that she fairly bubbled. <span class="tei tei-q">“I think I could make
+a shirt with my eyes shut.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Aunt Clarinda beamed on her with delight. A shirt was
+something she had never succeeded in making right. It was
+one of the things which her sisters had against her that she
+could not make good shirts. Any one who could not make a
+shirt was deficient. Clarinda was deficient. She could not
+make a shirt. Meekly had she tried year after year. Humbly
+had she ripped out gusset and seam and band, having put
+them on upside down or inside out. Never could she learn
+the ins and outs of a shirt. But her old heart trembled with
+delight that the new girl, who was going to take the place in
+her heart of her old dead self and live out all the beautiful
+things which had been lost to her, had mastered this one great
+accomplishment in which she had failed so supremely.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But Aunt Hortense was not pleased. True, it was one of
+the seven virtues in her mind which a young wife should
+possess, and she had carefully instructed Hannah Heath for
+a number of years back, while Hannah bungled out a couple
+for her father occasionally, but Aunt Hortense had been sure
+that if Hannah ever became David’s wife she might still
+have the honor of making most of David’s shirts. That had
+been her happy task ever since David had worn a shirt, and
+she hoped to hold the position of shirt-maker to David until
+she left this mortal clay. Therefore Aunt Hortense was not
+pleased, even though David’s wife was not lacking, and, too,
+even though she foreheard herself telling her neighbors next
+day how many shirts David’s wife had made.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Well, David will not need any for some time,�</span> she said
+grimly. <span class="tei tei-q">“I made him a dozen just before he was married.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia reflected that it seemed to be impossible to make
+any headway into the good graces of either Aunt Hortense
+or Aunt Amelia. Aunt Amelia then took her turn at a
+question.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page134"></span><a name="pg134" id="pg134" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Hortense,�</span> said she, and there was an ominous inflection
+in the word as if the question were portentous, <span class="tei tei-q">“have you
+asked our new niece by what name she desires us to call her?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I have not,�</span> said Miss Hortense solemnly, <span class="tei tei-q">“but I intend
+to do so immediately,�</span> and then both pairs of steely eyes were
+leveled at the girl. Marcia suddenly was face to face with a
+question she had not considered, and David started upright
+from his position on the
+<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E12" id="E12" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e12" class="tei tei-ref">hair-cloth</a></span>
+sofa. But if a thunderbolt
+had fallen from heaven and rendered him utterly unconscious
+David would not have been more helpless than he
+was for the time being. Marcia saw the mingled pain and
+perplexity in David’s face, and her own courage gathered itself
+to brave it out in some way. The color flew to her cheeks,
+and rose slowly in David’s, through heavy veins that swelled
+in his neck till he could feel their pulsation against his stock,
+but his smooth shaven lips were white. He felt that a moment
+had come which he could not bear to face.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then with a hesitation that was but pardonable, and with
+a shy sweet look, Marcia answered; and though her voice
+trembled just the least bit, her true, dear eyes looked into
+the battalion of steel ones bravely.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I would like you to call me Marcia, if you please.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Marcia!�</span> Miss Hortense snipped the word out as if with
+scissors of surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But there was a distinct relaxation about Miss Amelia’s
+mouth. She heaved a relieved sigh. Marcia was so much
+better than Kate, so much more classical, so much more to be
+compared with Hannah, for instance.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Well, I’m glad!�</span> she allowed herself to remark. <span class="tei tei-q">“David
+has been calling you ‘Kate’ till it made me sick, such a
+frivolous name and no sense in it either. Marcia sounds
+quite sensible. I suppose Katharine is your middle name.
+Do you spell it with a K or a C?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But the knocker sounded on the street door and Marcia was
+spared the torture of a reply. She dared not look at David’s
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page135"></span><a name="pg135" id="pg135" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+face, for she knew there must be pain and mortification
+mingling there, and she hoped that the trying subject would
+not come up again for discussion.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The guests began to arrive. Old Mrs. Heath and her
+daughter-in-law and grand-daughter came first.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah’s features were handsome and she knew exactly
+how to manage her shapely hands with their long white
+fingers. The soft delicate undersleeves fell away from arms
+white and well moulded, and she carried her height gracefully.
+Her hair was elaborately stowed upon the top of her
+head in many puffs, ending in little ringlets carelessly and
+coquettishly straying over temple, or ears, or gracefully curved
+neck. She wore a frock of green, and its color sent a pang
+through the bride’s heart to realize that perhaps it had been
+worn with an unkindly purpose. Nevertheless Hannah Heath
+was beautiful and fascinated Marcia. She resolved to try to
+think the best of her, and to make her a friend if possible.
+Why, after all, should she be to blame for wanting David?
+Was he not a man to be admired and desired? It was unwomanly,
+of course, that she had let it be known, but perhaps
+her relatives were more to blame than herself. At least
+Marcia made up her mind to try and like her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah’s frock was of silk, not a common material in those
+days, soft and shimmery and green enough to take away the
+heart from anything blue that was ever made, but Hannah
+was stately and her skin as white as the lily she resembled, in
+her bright leaf green.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah chose to be effusive and condescending to the bride,
+giving the impression that she and David had been like
+brother and sister all their lives and that she might have
+been his choice if she had chosen, but as she had not chosen,
+she was glad that David had found some one wherewith to
+console himself. She did not say all this in so many words,
+but Marcia found that impression left after the evening
+was over.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page136"></span><a name="pg136" id="pg136" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">With sweet dignity Marcia received her introductions, given
+in Miss Amelia’s most commanding tone, <span class="tei tei-q">“Our niece,
+Marcia!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Marshy! Marshy!�</span> the bride heard old Mrs. Heath
+murmur to Miss Spafford. <span class="tei tei-q">“Why, I thought ’twas to be
+Kate!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Her name is Marcia,�</span> said Miss Amelia in a most satisfied
+tone; <span class="tei tei-q">“you must have misunderstood.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia caught a look in Miss Heath’s eyes, alert, keen,
+questioning, which flashed all over her like something searching
+and bright but not friendly.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She felt a painful shyness stealing over her and wished that
+David were by her side. She looked across the room at him.
+His face had recovered its usual calmness, though he looked
+pale. He was talking on his favorite theme with old Mr.
+Heath: the newly invented steam engine and its possibilities.
+He had forgotten everything else for the time, and his face
+lighted with animation as he tried to answer William Heath’s
+arguments against it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Have you read what the Boston <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Courier</span></span> said, David?
+’Long in June it was I think,�</span> Marcia heard Mr. Heath ask.
+Indeed his voice was so large that it filled the room, and for
+the moment Marcia had been left to herself while some new
+people were being ushered in. <span class="tei tei-q">“It says, David, that ‘the project
+of a railroad from Bawston to Albany is impracticable as
+everybody knows who knows the simplest rule of arithmetic,
+and the expense would be little less than the market value of
+the whole territory of Massachusetts; and which, if practicable,
+every person of common sense knows would be as useless as
+a railroad from Bawston to the moon.’ There, David, what
+do ye think o’ that?�</span> and William Heath slapped David on
+the knee with his broad, fat fist and laughed heartily, as
+though he had him in a tight corner.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia would have given a good deal to slip in beside David
+on the sofa and listen to the discussion. She wanted with all
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page137"></span><a name="pg137" id="pg137" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+her heart to know how he would answer this man who
+could be so insufferably wise, but there was other work for
+her, and her attention was brought back to her own uncomfortable
+part by Hannah Heath’s voice:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Come right ovah heah, Mistah Skinnah, if you want to
+meet the bride. You must speak verra nice to me or I sha’n’t
+introduce you at all.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A tall lanky man with stiff sandy hair and a rubicund
+complexion was making his way around the room. He had
+a small mouth puckered a little as if he might be going to
+whistle, and his chin had the look of having been pushed
+back out of the way, a stiff fuzz of sandy whiskers made a
+hedge down either cheek, and but for that he was clean
+shaven. The skin over his high cheek bones was stretched
+smooth and tight as if it were a trifle too close a fit for the
+genial cushion beneath. He did not look brilliant, and he
+certainly was not handsome, but there was an inoffensive
+desire to please about him. He was introduced as Mr. Lemuel
+Skinner. He bowed low over Marcia’s hand, said a few embarrassed,
+stiff sentences and turned to Hannah Heath with
+relief. It was evident that Hannah was in his eyes a great
+and shining light, to which he fluttered as naturally as does
+the moth to the candle. But Hannah did not scruple to
+singe his wings whenever she chose. Perhaps she knew, no
+matter how badly he was burned he would only flutter back
+again whenever she scintillated. She had turned her back
+upon him now, and left him to Marcia’s tender mercies.
+Hannah was engaged in talking to a younger man. <span class="tei tei-q">“Harry
+Temple, from New York,�</span> Lemuel explained to Marcia.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The young man, Harry Temple, had large lazy eyes and
+heavy dark hair. There was a discontented look in his face,
+and a looseness about the set of his lips that Marcia did not
+like, although she had to admit that he was handsome. Something
+about him reminded her of Captain Leavenworth, and
+she instinctively shrank from him. But Harry Temple had
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page138"></span><a name="pg138" id="pg138" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+no mind to talk to any one but Marcia that evening, and he
+presently so managed it that he and she were ensconced in a
+corner of the room away from others. Marcia felt perturbed.
+She did not feel flattered by the man’s attentions, and she
+wanted to be at the other end of the room listening to the
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She listened as intently as she might between sentences,
+and her keen ears could catch a word or two of what David
+was saying. After all, it was not so much the new railroad
+project that she cared about, though that was strange and
+interesting enough, but she wanted to watch and listen to
+David.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Harry Temple said a great many pretty things to Marcia.
+She did not half hear some of them at first, but after a time
+she began to realize that she must have made a good impression,
+and the pretty flush in her cheeks grew deeper. She
+did little talking. Mr. Temple did it all. He told her of
+New York. He asked if she were not dreadfully bored with
+this little town and its doings, and bewailed her lot when he
+learned that she had not had much experience there. Then
+he asked if she had ever been to New York and began to
+tell of some of its attractions. Among other things he mentioned
+some concerts, and immediately Marcia was all attention.
+Her dark eyes glowed and her speaking face gave
+eager response to his words. Seeing he had interested her at
+last, he kept on, for he was possessor of a glib tongue, and
+what he did not know he could fabricate without the slightest
+compunction. He had been about the world and gathered up
+superficial knowledge enough to help him do this admirably,
+therefore he was able to use a few musical terms, and to bring
+before Marcia’s vivid imagination the scene of the performance
+of Handel’s great <span class="tei tei-q">“Creation�</span> given in Boston, and
+of certain musical events that were to be attempted soon in
+New York. He admitted that he could play a little upon the
+harpsichord, and, when he learned that Marcia could play also
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page139"></span><a name="pg139" id="pg139" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+and that she was the possessor of a piano, one of the latest
+improved makes, he managed to invite himself to play upon
+it. Marcia found to her dismay that she actually seemed to
+have invited him to come some afternoon when her husband
+was away. She had only said politely that she would like to
+hear him play sometime, and expressed her great delight in
+music, and he had done the rest, but in her inexperience somehow
+it had happened and she did not know what to do.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It troubled her a good deal, and she turned again toward
+the other end of the room, where the attention of most of
+the company was riveted upon the group who were discussing
+the railroad, its pros and cons. David was the centre of that
+group.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Let us go over and hear what they are saying,�</span> she said,
+turning to her companion eagerly.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, it is all stupid politics and arguments about that
+ridiculous fairy-tale of a railroad scheme. You would not
+enjoy it,�</span> answered the young man disappointedly. He saw
+in Marcia a beautiful young soul, the only one who had really
+attracted him since he had left New York, and he wished
+to become intimate enough with her to enjoy himself.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It mattered not to him that she was married to another
+man. He felt secure in his own attractions. He had ever
+been able to while away the time with whom he chose, why
+should a simple village maiden resist him? And this was an
+unusual one, the contour of her head was like a Greek statue.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Nevertheless he was obliged to stroll after her. Once she
+had spoken. She had suddenly become aware that they had
+been in their corner together a long time, and that Aunt
+Amelia’s cold eyes were fastened upon her in disapproval.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“The farmers would be ruined, man alive!�</span> Mr. Heath
+was saying. <span class="tei tei-q">“Why, all the horses would have to be killed,
+because they would be wholly useless if this new fandango
+came in, and then where would be a market for the wheat
+and oats?�</span></p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page140"></span><a name="pg140" id="pg140" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Yes, an’ I’ve heard some say the hens wouldn’t lay, on
+account of the noise,�</span> ventured Lemuel Skinner in his high
+voice. <span class="tei tei-q">“And think of the fires from the sparks of the
+engine. I tell you it would be dangerous.�</span> He looked over
+at Hannah triumphantly, but Hannah was endeavoring to
+signal Harry Temple to her side and did not see nor hear.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I tell you,�</span> put in Mr. Heath’s heavy voice again, <span class="tei tei-q">“I tell
+you, Dave, it can’t be done. It’s impractical. Why, no car
+could advance against the wind.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“They told Columbus he couldn’t sail around the earth,
+but he did it!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was sudden stillness in the room, for it was Marcia’s
+clear, grave voice that had answered Mr. Heath’s excited
+tones, and she had not known she was going to speak aloud.
+It came before she realized it. She had been used to speak
+her mind sometimes with her father, but seldom when there
+were others by, and now she was covered with confusion to
+think what she had done. The aunts, Amelia and Hortense,
+were shocked. It was so unladylike. A woman should not
+speak on such subjects. She should be silent and leave such
+topics to her husband.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Deah me, she’s strong minded, isn’t she?�</span> giggled Hannah
+Heath to Lemuel, who had taken the signals to himself
+and come to her side.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Quite so, quite so!�</span> murmured Lemuel, his lips looking
+puffier and more cherry-fied than ever and his chin flattened
+itself back till he looked like a frustrated old hen who did not
+understand the perplexities of life and was clucking to find
+out, after having been startled half out of its senses.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But Marcia was not wholly without consolation, for David
+had flashed a look of approval at her and had made room
+for her to sit down by his side on the sofa. It was almost
+like belonging to him for a minute or two. Marcia felt her
+heart glow with something new and pleasant.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Mr. William Heath drew his heavy grey brows together
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page141"></span><a name="pg141" id="pg141" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+and looked at her grimly over his spectacles, poking his bristly
+under-lip out in astonishment, bewildered that he should have
+been answered by a gentle, pretty woman, all frills and sparkle
+like his own daughter. He had been wont to look upon a
+woman as something like a kitten,—that is, a young woman,—and
+suddenly the kitten had lifted a velvet paw and struck him
+squarely in the face. He had felt there were claws in the
+blow, too, for there had been a truth behind her words that
+set the room a mocking him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Well, Dave, you’ve got your wife well trained already!�</span>
+he laughed, concluding it was best to put a smiling front
+upon the defeat. <span class="tei tei-q">“She knows just when to come in and help
+when your side’s getting weak!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They served cake and raspberry vinegar then, and a little
+while after everybody went home. It was later than the hours
+usually kept in the village, and the lights in most of the
+houses were out, or burning dimly in upper stories. The
+voices of the guests sounded subdued in the misty waning
+moonlight air. Marcia could hear Hannah Heath’s voice
+ahead giggling affectedly to Harry Temple and Lemuel Skinner,
+as they walked one on either side of her, while her father
+and mother and grandmother came more slowly.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David drew Marcia’s hand within his arm and walked with
+her quietly down the street, making their steps hushed instinctively
+that they might so seem more removed from the
+others. They were both tired with the unusual excitement
+and the strain they had been through, and each was glad
+of the silence of the other.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But when they reached their own doorstep David said:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“You spoke well, child. You must have thought about these
+things.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia felt a sob rising in a tide of joy into her throat.
+Then he was not angry with her, and he did not disapprove
+as the two aunts had done. Aunt Clarinda had kissed her
+good-night and murmured, <span class="tei tei-q">“You are a bright little girl,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page142"></span><a name="pg142" id="pg142" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+Marcia, and you will make a good wife for David. You will
+come soon to see me, won’t you?�</span> and that had made her
+glad, but these words of David’s were so good and so unexpected
+that Marcia could hardly hide her happy tears.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I was afraid I had been forward,�</span> murmured Marcia in
+the shadow of the front stoop.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Not at all, child, I like to hear a woman speak her
+mind,—that is, allowing she has any mind to speak. That
+can’t be said of all women. There’s Hannah Heath, for
+instance. I don’t believe she would know a railroad project
+from an essay on ancient art.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">After that the house seemed a pleasant place aglow as they
+entered it, and Marcia went up to her rest with a lighter
+heart.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But the child knew not that she had made a great impression
+that night upon all who saw her as being beautiful and
+wise.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The aunts would not express it even to each other,—for
+they felt in duty bound to discountenance her boldness in
+speaking out before the men and making herself so prominent,
+joining in their discussions,—but each in spite of her
+convictions felt a deep satisfaction that their neighbors had
+seen what a beautiful and bright wife David had selected.
+They even felt triumphant over their favorite Hannah, and
+thought secretly that Marcia compared well with her in
+every way, but they would not have told this even to themselves,
+no, not for worlds.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">So the kindly gossipy town slept, and the young bride
+became a part of its daily life.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS13" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page143"></span><a name="pg143" id="pg143" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc26" id="toc26"></a>
+<a name="pdf27" id="pdf27"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XIII</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Life began to take on a more familiar and interesting
+aspect to Marcia after that. She had her daily round of
+pleasant household duties and she enjoyed them.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There were many other gatherings in honor of the bride
+and groom, tea-drinkings and evening calls, and a few called
+in to a neighbor’s house to meet them. It was very pleasant
+to Marcia as she became better acquainted with the people
+and grew to like some of them, only there was the constant
+drawback of feeling that it was all a pain and weariness to
+David.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But Marcia was young, and it was only natural that she
+should enjoy her sudden promotion to the privileges of a
+matron, and the marked attention that was paid her. It was
+a mercy that her head was not turned, living as she did to
+herself, and with no one in whom she could confide. For
+David had shrunk within himself to such an extent that she
+did not like to trouble him with anything.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was only two days after the evening at the old Spafford
+house that David came home to tea with ashen face, haggard
+eyes and white lips. He scarcely tasted his supper and said
+he would go and lie down, that his head ached. Marcia heard
+him sigh deeply as he went upstairs. It was that afternoon
+that the post had brought him Kate’s letter.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Sadly Marcia put away the tea things, for she could not
+eat anything either, though it was an unusually inviting
+meal she had prepared. Slowly she went up to her room and
+sat looking out into the quiet, darkening summer night,
+wondering what additional sorrow had come to David.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David’s face looked like death the next morning when
+he came down. He drank a cup of coffee feverishly, then took
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page144"></span><a name="pg144" id="pg144" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+his hat as if he would go to the office, but paused at the door
+and came back saying he would not go if Marcia would not
+mind taking a message for him. His head felt badly. She
+need only tell the man to go on with things as they had
+planned and say he was detained. Marcia was ready at once
+to do his bidding with quiet sympathy in her manner.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She delivered her message with the frank straightforward
+look of a school girl, mingled with a touch of matronly dignity
+she was trying to assume, which added to her charm; and she
+smiled her open smile of comradeship, such as she would
+have dispensed about the old red school house at home, upon
+boys and girls alike, leaving the clerk and type-setters in a
+most subjected state, and ready to do anything in the service
+of their master’s wife. It is to be feared that they almost
+envied David. They watched her as she moved gracefully
+down the street, and their eyes had a reverent look as they
+turned away from the window to their work, as though they
+had been looking upon something sacred.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Harry Temple watched her come out of the office.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She impressed him again as something fresh and different
+from the common run of maidens in the village. He lazily
+stepped from the store where he had been lounging and walked
+down the street to intercept her as she crossed and turned the
+corner.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Good morning, Mrs. Spafford,�</span> he said, with a courtly
+grace that was certainly captivating, <span class="tei tei-q">“are you going to your
+home? Then our ways lie together. May I walk beside
+you?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia smiled and tried to seem gracious, though she would
+rather have been alone just then, for she wanted to enjoy the
+day and not be bothered with talking.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Harry Temple mentioned having a letter from a friend in
+Boston who had lately heard a great chorus rendered. He
+could not be quite sure of the name of the composer because
+he had read the letter hurriedly and his friend was a blind-writer,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page145"></span><a name="pg145" id="pg145" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+but that made no difference to Harry. He could fill
+in facts enough about the grandeur of the music from his
+own imagination to make up for the lack of a little matter
+like the name of a composer. He was keen enough to see
+that Marcia was more interested in music than in anything
+he said, therefore he racked his brains for all the music talk
+he had ever heard, and made up what he did not know,
+which was not hard to do, for Marcia was very ignorant on
+the subject.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At the door they paused. Marcia was eager to get in. She
+began to wonder how David felt, and she longed to do something
+for him. Harry Temple looked at her admiringly, noted
+the dainty set of chin, the clear curve of cheek, the lovely
+sweep of eyelashes, and resolved to get better acquainted with
+this woman, so young and so lovely.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I have not forgotten my promise to play for you,�</span> he said
+lightly, watching to see if the flush of rose would steal into
+her cheek, and that deep light into her expressive eyes. <span class="tei tei-q">“How
+about this afternoon? Shall you be at home and disengaged?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But welcome did not flash into Marcia’s face as he had
+hoped. Instead a troubled look came into her eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I am afraid it will not be possible this afternoon,�</span> said
+Marcia, the trouble in her eyes creeping into her voice. <span class="tei tei-q">“That
+is—I expect to be at home, but—I am not sure of being
+disengaged.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Ah! I see!�</span> he raised his eyebrows archly, looking her
+meanwhile straight in the eyes; <span class="tei tei-q">“some one else more fortunate
+than I. Some one else coming?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Although Marcia did not in the least understand his insinuation,
+the color flowed into her cheeks in a hurry now,
+for she instinctively felt that there was something unpleasant
+in his tone, something below her standard of morals or culture,
+she did not quite know what. But she felt she must protect
+herself at any cost. She drew up a little mantle of dignity.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page146"></span><a name="pg146" id="pg146" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, no,�</span> she said quickly, <span class="tei tei-q">“I’m not expecting any one at
+all, but Mr. Spafford had a severe headache this morning, and
+I am not sure but the sound of the piano would make it worse.
+I think it would be better for you to come another time, although
+he may be better by that time.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, I see! Your husband’s at home!�</span> said the young
+man with relief. His manner implied that he had a perfect
+understanding of something that Marcia did not mean nor
+comprehend.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I understand perfectly,�</span> he said, with another meaning
+smile as though he and she had a secret together; <span class="tei tei-q">“I’ll come
+some other time,�</span> and he took himself very quickly away,
+much to Marcia’s relief. But the trouble did not go out of
+her eyes as she saw him turn the corner. Instead she went in
+and stood at the dining room window a long time looking
+out on the Heaths’ hollyhocks beaming in the sun behind
+the picket fence, and wondered what he could have meant,
+and why he smiled in that hateful way. She decided she did
+not like him, and she hoped he would never come. She
+did not think she would care to hear him play. There was
+something about him that reminded her of Captain Leavenworth,
+and now that she saw it in him she would dislike to
+have him about.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">With a sigh she turned to the getting of a dinner which
+she feared would not be eaten. Nevertheless, she put more
+dainty thought in it than usual, and when it was done and
+steaming upon the table she went gently up and tapped on
+David’s door. A voice hoarse with emotion and weariness
+answered. Marcia scarcely heard the first time.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Dinner is ready. Isn’t your head any better,—David?�</span>
+There was caressing in his name. It wrung David’s heart.
+Oh, if it were but Kate, his Kate, his little bride that were
+calling him, how his heart would leap with joy! How his
+headache would disappear and he would be with her in an
+instant.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page147"></span><a name="pg147" id="pg147" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">For Kate’s letter had had its desired effect. All her wrongdoings,
+her crowning outrage of his noble intentions, had been
+forgotten in the one little plaintive appeal she had managed
+to breathe in a minor wail throughout that treacherous letter,
+treacherous alike to her husband and to her lover. Just as
+Kate had always been able to do with every one about her,
+she had blinded him to her faults, and managed to put herself
+in the light of an abused, troubled maiden, who was in a
+predicament through no fault of her own, and sat in sorrow
+and a baby-innocence that was bewilderingly sweet.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There had been times when David’s anger had been hot
+enough to waft away this filmy mist of fancies that Kate had
+woven about herself and let him see the true Kate as she really
+was. At such times David would confess that she must be
+wholly heartless. That bright as she was it was impossible
+for her to have been so easily persuaded into running away
+with a man she did not love. He had never found it so easy
+to persuade her against her will. Did she love him? Had
+she truly loved him, and was she suffering now? His very
+soul writhed in agony to think of his bride the wife of another
+against her will. If he might but go and rescue her. If he
+might but kill that other man! Then his soul would be
+confronted with the thought of murder. Never before had
+he felt hate, such hate, for a human being. Then again
+his heart would soften toward him as he felt how the other
+must have loved her, Kate, his little wild rose! and there
+was a fellow feeling between them too, for had she not let
+him see that she did not half care aright for that other one?
+Then his mind would stop in a whirl of mingled feeling and
+he would pause, and pray for steadiness to think and know
+what was right.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Around and around through this maze of arguing he had
+gone through the long hours of the morning, always coming
+sharp against the thought that there was nothing he could
+possibly do in the matter but bear it, and that Kate, after all,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page148"></span><a name="pg148" id="pg148" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+the Kate he loved with his whole soul, had done it and must
+therefore be to blame. Then he would read her letter over,
+burning every word of it upon his brain, until the piteous
+minor appeal would torture him once more and he would begin
+again to try to get hold of some thread of thought that would
+unravel this snarl and bring peace.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Like a sound from another world came Marcia’s sweet voice,
+its very sweetness reminding him of that other lost voice,
+whose tantalizing music floated about his imagination like a
+string of phantom silver bells that all but sounded and then
+vanished into silence.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And while all this was going on, this spiritual torture, his
+living, suffering, physical self was able to summon its thoughts,
+to answer gently that he did not want any dinner; that his
+head was no better; that he thanked her for her thought of
+him; and that he would take the tea she offered if it was not
+too much trouble.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Gladly, with hurried breath and fingers that almost trembled,
+Marcia hastened to the kitchen once more and prepared
+a dainty tray, not even glancing at the dinner table all
+so fine and ready for its guest, and back again she went to
+his door, an eager light in her eyes, as if she had obtained
+audience to a king.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He opened the door this time and took the tray from her
+with a smile. It was a smile of ashen hue, and fell like a pall
+upon Marcia’s soul. It was as if she had been permitted for
+a moment to gaze upon a martyred soul upon the rack.
+Marcia fled from it and went to her own room, where she
+flung herself on her knees beside her bed and buried her
+face in the pillows. There she knelt, unmindful of the dinner
+waiting downstairs, unmindful of the bright day that was
+droning on its hours. Whether she prayed she knew not,
+whether she was weeping she could not have told. Her heart
+was crying out in one great longing to have this cloud of
+sorrow that had settled upon David lifted.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page149"></span><a name="pg149" id="pg149" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She might have knelt there until night had there not come
+the sound of a knock upon the front door. It startled her to
+her feet in an instant, and she hastily smoothed her rumpled
+hair, dashed some water on her eyes, and ran down.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was the clerk from the office with a letter for her. The
+post chaise had brought it that afternoon, and he had thought
+perhaps she would like to have it at once as it was postmarked
+from her home. Would she tell Mr. Spafford when he returned—he
+seemed to take it for granted that David was out
+of town for the day—that everything had been going on all
+right at the office during his absence and the paper was ready
+to send to press. He took his departure with a series of bows
+and smiles, and Marcia flew up to her room to read her letter.
+It was in the round unformed hand of Mary Ann. Marcia
+tore it open eagerly. Never had Mary Ann’s
+<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E13" id="E13" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e13" class="tei tei-ref">handwriting</a></span>
+looked so pleasant as at that moment. A letter in those days
+was a rarity at all times, and this one to Marcia in her distress
+of mind seemed little short of a miracle. It began in Mary
+Ann’s abrupt way, and opened up to her the world of home
+since she had left it. But a few short days had passed,
+scarcely yet numbering into weeks, since she left, yet it
+seemed half a
+<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E14" id="E14" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e14" class="tei tei-ref">lifetime</a></span>
+to the girl promoted so suddenly into
+womanhood without the accompanying joy of love and close
+companionship that usually makes desolation impossible.</p>
+
+<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-variant: small-caps">Dear Marsh</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">,</span><span style="font-size: 90%">�</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">—the
+  letter ran:—</span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">I expect you think queer of me to write you so
+  soon. I ain’t much on writing you know, but something happened right
+  after you leaving and has kept right on happening that made me feel I
+  kinder like to tell you. Don’t you mind the mistakes I make.
+  I’m thankful to goodness you ain’t the school teacher or
+  I’d never write ‘slong s’ I’m living, but ennyhow
+  I’m going to tell you all about it.</span></span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">The night you went away I was standing down by the
+  gate under the old elm. I had on my best things yet from the wedding, and I
+  hated to go in and have the day over and have to begin putting on my old
+  calico </span><span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E15" id="E15" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e15" class="tei tei-ref"><span style="font-size: 90%">to-morrow</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> morning
+  </span><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page150"></span><a name="pg150" id="pg150" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span style="font-size: 90%">
+  again, and washing dishes just the same. Seemed as if I couldn’t bear
+  to have the world just the same now you was gone away. Well, I heard
+  someone coming down the street, and who do you think it was? Why, Hanford
+  Weston. He came right up to the gate and stopped. I don’t
+  know’s he ever spoke two words to me in my life except that time he
+  stopped the big boys from snow-balling me and told me to run along quick
+  and git in the school-house while he fit ’em. Well, he stopped and
+  spoke, and he looked so sad, seemed like I knew just what he was feeling
+  sad about, and I told him all about you getting married instead of your
+  sister. He looked at me like he couldn’t move for a while and his
+  face was as white as that marble man in the cemetery over Squire
+  Hancock’s grave. He grabbed the gate real hard and I thought he was
+  going to fall. He couldn’t even move his lips for a while. I felt
+  just awful sorry for him. Something came in my throat like a big stone and
+  my eyes got all blurred with the moonlight. He looked real handsome. I just
+  couldn’t help thinking you ought to see him. Bimeby he got his voice
+  back again, and we talked a lot about you. He told me how he used to watch
+  you when you was a little girl wearing pantalettes. You used to sit in the
+  church pew across from his father’s and he could just see your big
+  eyes over the top of the door. He says he always thought to himself he would
+  marry you when he grew up. Then when you began to go to school and was so
+  bright he tried hard to study and keep up just to have you think him good
+  enough for you. He owned up he was a bad speller and he’d tried his
+  level best to do better but it didn’t seem to come natural, and he
+  thought maybe ef he was a good farmer you wouldn’t mind about the
+  spelling. He hired out to his father for the summer and he was trying with
+  all his might to get to be the kind of man t’would suit you, and then
+  when he was plowing and planning all what kind of a house with big
+  </span><span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E16" id="E16" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e16" class="tei tei-ref"><span style="font-size: 90%">columns</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 90%">
+  to the front he would build here comes the
+  coach driving by and </span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">you</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> in it! He said
+  he thought the sky and fields was all mixed up and his heart was going out
+  of him. He couldn’t work any more and he started out after supper to
+  see what it all meant.</span></span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">That wasn’t just the exact way he told it,
+  Marsh, it was
+  </span><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page151"></span><a name="pg151" id="pg151" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span style="font-size: 90%">
+  more like poetry, that kind in our reader about “Lord Ullin’s
+  daughter�—you know. We used to recite it on examination
+  exhibition. I didn’t know Hanford could talk like that. His words
+  were real pretty, kind of sorrowful you know. And it all come over me that
+  you ought to know about it. You’re married of course, and can’t
+  help it now, but ’taint every girl that has a boy care for her like
+  that from the time she’s a baby with a red hood on, and you ought to
+  know ’bout it, fer it wasn’t Hanford’s fault he
+  didn’t have time to tell you. He’s just been living fer you fer
+  a number of years, and its kind of hard on him. ’Course you may not
+  care, being you’re married and have a fine house and lots of
+  clo’es of your own and a good time, but it does seem hard for him. It
+  seems as if somebody ought to comfort him. I’d like to try if you
+  don’t mind. He does seem to like to talk about you to me, and I feel
+  so sorry for him I guess I could comfort him a little, for it seems as if
+  it would be the nicest thing in the world to have some one like you that
+  way for years, just as they do in books, only every time I think about
+  being a comfort to him I think he belongs to you and it ain’t right.
+  So Marsh, you just speak out and say if your willing I should try to
+  comfort him a little and make up to him fer what he lost in you, being as
+  you’re married and fixed so nice yourself.</span></span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Of course I know I aint pretty like you, nor
+  can’t hold my head proud and step high as you always did, even when
+  you was little, but I can feel, and perhaps that’s something. Anyhow
+  Hanford’s been down three times to talk about you to me, and ef you
+  don’t mind I’m going to let him come some more. But if you mind
+  the leastest little bit I want you should say so, for things are mixed in
+  this world and I don’t want to get to trampling on any other
+  person’s feelings, much less you who have always been my best friend
+  and always will be as long as I live I guess. ’Member how we used to
+  play house on the old flat stone in the orchard, and you give me all the
+  prettiest pieces of china with sprigs on ’em? I aint forgot that, and
+  never will. I shall always say you made the prettiest bride I ever saw, no
+  matter how many more I see, and I hope you won’t forget me.
+  It’s lonesome here without you. If it wasn’t for comforting
+  Hanford I shouldn’t care much for
+  </span><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page152"></span><a name="pg152" id="pg152" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span style="font-size: 90%">
+  anything. I can’t think of you a grown up woman. Do you feel any
+  different? I spose you wouldn’t climb a fence nor run through the
+  pasture lot for anything now. Have you got a lot of new friends? I wish I
+  could see you. And now Marsh, I want you to write right off and tell me
+  what to do about comforting Hanford, and if you’ve any message to
+  send to him I think it would be real nice. I hope you’ve got a good
+  husband and are happy.</span></span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: right; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-right: 4.50em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">From your
+  devoted and loving school mate,</span></span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: right; margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-variant: small-caps">Mary Ann
+  Fothergill.</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">�</span></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia laid down the letter and buried her face in her
+hands. To her too had come a thrust which must search her
+life and change it. So while David wrestled with his sorrow
+Marcia entered upon the knowledge of her own heart.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was something in this revelation by Mary Ann of
+Hanford Weston’s feelings toward her that touched her
+immeasurably. Had it all happened before she left home,
+had Hanford come to her and told her of his love, she would
+have turned from him in dismay, almost disgust, and have
+told him that they were both but children, how could they
+talk of love. She could never have loved him. She would
+have felt it instantly, and her mocking laugh might have done
+a good deal toward saving him from sorrow. But now, with
+miles between them, with the wall of the solemn marriage
+vows to separate them forever, with her own youth locked
+up as she supposed until the day of eternity should perhaps
+set it free, with no hope of any bright dream of life such as
+girls have, could she turn from even a school boy’s love without
+a passing tenderness, such as she would never have felt if
+she had not come away from it all? Told in Mary Ann’s
+blunt way, with her crude attempts at pathos, it reached her
+as it could not otherwise. With her own new view of life she
+could sympathize better with another’s disappointments. Perhaps
+her own loneliness gave her pity for another. Whatever
+it was, Marcia’s heart suddenly turned toward Hanford Weston
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page153"></span><a name="pg153" id="pg153" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+with a great throb of gratitude. She felt that she had
+been loved, even though it had been impossible for that love
+to be returned, and that whatever happened she would not go
+unloved down to the end of her days. Suddenly, out of the
+midst of the perplexity of her thoughts, there formed a distinct
+knowledge of what was lacking in her life, a lack she
+had never felt before, and probably would not have felt now
+had she not thus suddenly stepped into a place much beyond
+her years. It seemed to the girl as she sat in the great chintz
+chair and read and re-read that letter, as if she lived years
+that afternoon, and all her life was to be changed henceforth.
+It was not that she was sorry that she could not go back, and
+live out her girlhood and have it crowned with Hanford
+Weston’s love. Not at all. She knew, as well now as she
+ever had known, that he could never be anything to her, but
+she knew also, or thought she knew, that he could have given
+her something, in his clumsy way, that now she could never
+have from any man, seeing she was David’s and David could
+not love her that way, of course.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Having come to this conclusion, she arose and wrote a letter
+giving and bequeathing to Mary Ann Fothergill all right,
+title, and claim to the affections of Hanford Weston, past,
+present, and future—sending him a message calculated to
+smooth his ruffled feelings, with her pretty thanks for his
+youthful adoration; comfort his sorrow with the thought
+that it must have been a hallucination, that some day he
+would find his true ideal which he had only thought he had
+found in her; and send him on his way rejoicing with her
+blessings and good wishes for a happy life. As for Mary
+Ann, for once she received her meed of Marcia’s love, for
+homesick Marcia felt more tenderness for her than she had
+ever been able to feel before; and Marcia’s loving messages
+set Mary Ann in a flutter of delight, as she laid her plans for
+comforting Hanford Weston.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS14" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page154"></span><a name="pg154" id="pg154" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc28" id="toc28"></a>
+<a name="pdf29" id="pdf29"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XIV</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David slowly recovered his poise. Faced by that terrible,
+impenetrable wall of impossibility he stood helpless,
+his misery eating in upon his soul, but there still remained
+the fact that there was nothing, absolutely nothing, which
+he could possibly do. At times the truth rose to the surface,
+the wretched truth, that Kate was at fault, that having done
+the deed she should abide by it, and not try to keep a hold
+upon him, but it was not often he was able to think in this
+way. Most of the time he mourned over and for the lovely
+girl he had lost.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As for Marcia, she came and went unobtrusively, making
+quiet comfort for David which he scarcely noticed. At times
+he roused himself to be polite to her, and made a labored
+effort to do something to amuse her, just as if she had been
+visiting him as a favor and he felt in duty bound to make
+the time pass pleasantly, but she troubled him so little with
+herself, that nearly always he forgot her. Whenever there
+was any public function to which they were bidden he always
+told her apologetically, as though it must be as much of a
+bore to her as to him, and he regretted that it was necessary
+to go in order to carry out their mutual agreement. Marcia,
+hailing with delight every chance to go out in search of
+something which would keep her from thinking the new
+thoughts which had come to her, demurely covered her pleasure
+and dressed herself dutifully in the robes made for her
+sister, hating them secretly the while, and was always ready
+when he came for her. David had nothing to complain of
+in his wife, so far as outward duty was concerned, but he
+was too busy with his own heart’s bitterness to even recognize
+it.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page155"></span><a name="pg155" id="pg155" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">One afternoon, of a day when David had gone out of
+town not expecting to return until late in the evening, there
+came a knock at the door.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was something womanish in the knock, Marcia
+thought, as she hastened to answer it, and she wondered,
+hurriedly smoothing her shining hair, if it could be the aunts
+come to make their fortnightly-afternoon penance visit. She
+gave a hasty glance into the parlor hoping all was right, and
+was relieved to make sure she had closed the piano. The
+aunts would consider it a great breach of housewifely
+decorum to allow a moment’s dust to settle upon its sacred
+keys.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But it was not the aunts who stood upon the stoop, smiling
+and bowing with a handsome assurance of his own welcome.
+It was Harry Temple.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia was not glad to see him. A sudden feeling of
+unreasoning alarm took possession of her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You’re all alone this time, sweet lady, aren’t you?�</span> he
+asked with easy nonchalance, as he lounged into the hall
+without waiting her bidding.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Sir!�</span> said Marcia, half frightened, half wondering.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But he smiled reassuringly down upon her and took the
+door knob in his own hands to close the door.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Your good man is out this time, isn’t he?�</span> he smiled
+again most delightfully. His face was very handsome when
+he smiled. He knew this fact well.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia did not smile. Why did he speak as if he knew
+where David was, and seemed to be pleased that he was away?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“My husband is not in at present,�</span> she said guardedly,
+her innocent eyes searching his face, <span class="tei tei-q">“did you wish to see
+him?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She was beautiful as she stood there in the wide hall, with
+only the light from the high transom over the door, shedding
+an afternoon glow through its pleated Swiss oval. She looked
+more sweet and little-girlish than ever, and he felt a strong
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page156"></span><a name="pg156" id="pg156" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+desire to take her in his arms and tell her so, only he feared,
+from something he saw in those wide, sweet eyes, that she
+might take alarm and run away too soon, so he only smiled
+and said that his business with her husband could wait until
+another time, and meantime he had called to fulfil his
+promise to play for her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She took him into the darkened parlor, gave him the stiffest
+and stateliest hair-cloth chair; but he walked straight over
+to the instrument, and with not at all the reverence she liked
+to treat it, flung back the coverings, threw the lid open,
+and sat down.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He had white fingers, and he ran them over the keys with
+an air of being at home among them, light little airs dripping
+from his touch like dew from a glistening grass blade. Marcia
+felt there were butterflies in the air, and buzzing bees, and
+fairy flowers dancing on the slightest of stems, with a sky
+so blue it seemed to be filled with the sound of lily bells.
+The music he played was of the nature of what would be
+styled to-day <span class="tei tei-q">“popular,�</span> for this man was master of nothing
+but having a good time. Quick music with a jingle he played,
+that to the puritanic-bred girl suggested nothing but a heart
+bubbling over with gladness, but he meant it should make
+her heart flutter and her foot beat time to the tripping
+measure. In his world feet were attuned to gay music. But
+Marcia stood with quiet dignity a little away from the instrument,
+her lips parted, her eyes bright with the pleasure of
+the melody, her hands clasped, and her breath coming quickly.
+She was all absorbed with the music. All unknowingly
+Marcia had placed herself where the light from the window
+fell full across her face, and every flitting expression as she
+followed the undulant sounds was visible. The young man
+gazed, almost as much pleased with the lovely face as Marcia
+was with the music.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At last he drew a chair quite near his own seat.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Come and sit down,�</span> he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“and I will sing to you.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page157"></span><a name="pg157" id="pg157" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+You did not know I could sing, too, did you? Oh, I can.
+But you must sit down for I couldn’t sing right when you
+are standing.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He ended with his fascinating smile, and Marcia shyly
+sat down, though she drew the chair a bit back from where
+he had placed it and sat up quite straight and stiff with her
+shoulders erect and her head up. She had forgotten her
+distrust of the man in what seemed to her his wonderful
+music. It was all new and strange to her, and she could not
+know how little there really was to it. She had decided as he
+played that she liked the kind best that made her think of
+the birds and the sunny sky, rather than the wild whirlly kind
+that seemed all a mad scramble. She meant to ask him to
+play over again what he played at the beginning, but he
+struck into a Scotch love ballad. The melody intoxicated
+her fancy, and her face shone with pleasure. She had not
+noticed the words particularly, save that they were of love,
+and she thought with pain of David and Kate, and how the
+pleading tenderness might have been his heart calling to
+hers not to forget his love for her. But Harry Temple mistook
+her expression for one of interest in himself. With his
+eyes still upon hers, as a cat might mesmerize a bird, he
+changed into a minor wail of heart-broken love, whose sadness
+brought great tears to Marcia’s eyes, and deep color to
+her already burning cheeks, while the music throbbed out her
+own half-realized loneliness and sorrow. It was as if the
+sounds painted for her a picture of what she had missed out
+of love, and set her sorrow flowing tangibly.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The last note died away in an impressive diminuendo, and
+the young man turned toward her. His eyes were languishing,
+his voice gentle, persuasive, as though it had but been
+the song come a little nearer.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“And that is the way I feel toward you, dear,�</span> he said,
+and reached out his white hands to where hers lay forgotten
+in her lap.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page158"></span><a name="pg158" id="pg158" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But his hands had scarcely touched hers, before Marcia
+sprang back, in her haste knocking over the chair.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Erect, her hands snatched behind her, frightened, alert,
+she stood a moment bewildered, all her fears to the front.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Ah! but he was used to shy maidens. He was not to be
+baffled thus. A little coaxing, a little gentle persuasion, a
+little boldness—that was all he needed. He had conquered
+hearts before, why should he not this unsophisticated one?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Don’t be afraid, dear; there is no one about. And surely
+there is no harm in telling you I love you, and letting you
+comfort my poor broken heart to think that I have found you
+too late—�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He had arisen and with a passionate gesture put his arms
+about Marcia and before she could know what was coming
+had pressed a kiss upon her lips.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But she was aroused now. Every angry force within her
+was fully awake. Every sense of right and justice inherited
+and taught came flocking forward. Horror unspeakable
+filled her, and wrath, that such a dreadful thing should come
+to her. There was no time to think. She brought her
+two strong supple hands up and beat him in the face, mouth,
+cheeks, and eyes, with all her might, until he turned blinded;
+and then she struggled away crying, <span class="tei tei-q">“You are a wicked
+man!�</span> and fled from the room.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Out through the hall she sped to the kitchen, and flinging
+wide the door before her, the nearest one at hand, she fairly
+flew down the garden walk, past the nodding dahlias, past the
+basking pumpkins, past the whispering corn, down through
+the berry bushes, at the lower end of the lot, and behind the
+currant bushes. She crouched a moment looking back to see
+if she were pursued. Then imagining she heard a noise from
+the open door, she scrambled over the low back fence, the
+high comb with which her hair was fastened falling out
+unheeded behind her, and all her dark waves of hair coming
+about her shoulders in wild disarray.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page159"></span><a name="pg159" id="pg159" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She was in a field of wheat now, and the tall shocks were
+like waves all about her, thick and close, kissing her as she
+passed with their bended stalks. Ahead of her it looked like
+an endless sea to cross before she could reach another fence,
+and a bare field, and then another fence and the woods. She
+knew not that in her wake she left a track as clear as if she
+had set up signals all along the way. She felt that the kind
+wheat would flow back like real waves and hide the way she
+had passed over. She only sped on, to the woods. In all
+the wide world there seemed no refuge but the woods. The
+woods were home to her. She loved the tall shadows, the
+whispering music in the upper branches, the quiet places
+underneath, the hushed silence like a city of refuge with cool
+wings whereunder to hide. And to it, as her only friend, she
+was hastening. She went to the woods as she would have
+flown to the minister’s wife at home, if she only had been
+near, and buried her face in her lap and sobbed out her horror
+and shame. Breathless she sped, without looking once behind
+her, now over the next fence and still another. They
+were nothing to her. She forgot that she was wearing Kate’s
+special sprigged muslin, and that it might tear on the rough
+fences. She forgot that she was a matron and must not run
+wild through strange fields. She forgot that some one might
+be watching her. She forgot everything save that she must
+get away and hide her poor shamed face.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At last she reached the shelter of the woods, and, with one
+wild furtive look behind her to assure herself that she was not
+pursued, she flung herself into the lap of mother earth, and
+buried her face in the soft moss at the foot of a tree. There
+she sobbed out her horror and sorrow and loneliness, sobbed
+until it seemed to her that her heart had gone out with great
+shudders. Sobbed and sobbed and sobbed! For a time
+she could not even think clearly. Her brain was confused
+with the magnitude of what had come to her. She
+tried to go over the whole happening that afternoon and see
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page160"></span><a name="pg160" id="pg160" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+if she might have prevented anything. She blamed herself
+most unmercifully for listening to the foolish music and, too,
+after her own suspicions had been aroused, though how could
+she dream any man in his senses would do a thing like that!
+Not even Captain Leavenworth would stoop to that, she
+thought. Poor child! She knew so little of the world, and
+her world had been kept so sweet and pure and free from
+contamination. She turned cold at the thought of her
+father’s anger if he should hear about this strange young
+man. She felt sure he would blame her for allowing it.
+He had tried to teach his girls that they must exercise
+judgment and discretion, and surely, surely, she must have
+failed in both or this would not have happened. Oh, why
+had not the aunts come that afternoon! Why had they
+not arrived before this man came! And yet, oh, horror!
+if they had come after he was there! How disgusting he
+seemed to her with his smirky smile, and slim white fingers!
+How utterly unfit beside David did he seem to breathe the
+same air even. David, her David—no, Kate’s David! Oh,
+pity! What a pain the world was!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was nowhere to turn that she might find a trace of
+comfort. For what would David say, and how could she ever
+tell him? Would he find it out if she did not? What would
+he think of her? Would he blame her? Oh, the agony of
+it all! What would the aunts think of her! Ah! that was
+worse than all, for even now she could see the tilt of
+Aunt Hortense’s head, and the purse of Aunt Amelia’s lips.
+How dreadful if they should have to know of it. They
+would not believe her, unless perhaps Aunt Clarinda might.
+She did not look wise, but she seemed kind and loving. If
+it had not been for the other two she might have fled to
+Aunt Clarinda. Oh, if she might but flee home to her
+father’s house! How could she ever go back to David’s
+house! How could she ever play on that dreadful piano
+again? She would always see that hateful, smiling face
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page161"></span><a name="pg161" id="pg161" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+sitting there and think how he had looked at her. Then she
+shuddered and sobbed harder than ever. And mother earth,
+true to all her children, received the poor child with open
+arms. There she lay upon the resinous pine needles, at the
+foot of the tall trees, and the trees looked down tenderly
+upon her and consulted in whispers with their heads bent
+together. The winds blew sweetness from the buckwheat
+fields in the valley about her, murmuring delicious music in
+the air above her, and even the birds hushed their loud voices
+and peeped curiously at the tired, sorrowful creature of another
+kind that had come among them.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s overwrought nerves were having their revenge.
+Tears had their way until she was worn out, and then the
+angel of sleep came down upon her. There upon the pine-needle
+bed, with tear-wet cheeks she lay, and slept like a tired
+child come home to its mother from the tumult of the world.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Harry Temple, recovering from his rebuff, and left alone in
+the parlor, looked about him with surprise. Never before
+in all his short and brilliant career as a heart breaker had he
+met with the like, and this from a mere child! He could
+not believe his senses! She must have been in play. He
+would sit still and presently she would come back with eyes
+full of mischief and beg his pardon. But even as he sat
+down to wait her coming, something told him he was mistaken
+and that she would not come. There had been something
+beside mischief in the smart raps whose tingle even now his
+cheeks and lips felt. The house, too, had grown strangely
+hushed as though no one else besides himself were in it. She
+must have gone out. Perhaps she had been really frightened
+and would tell somebody! How awkward if she should presently
+return with one of those grim aunts, or that solemn
+puritan-like husband of hers. Perhaps he had better decamp
+while the coast was still clear. She did not seem to be returning
+and there was no telling what the little fool might do.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">With a deliberation which suddenly became feverish in his
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page162"></span><a name="pg162" id="pg162" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+haste to be away, he compelled himself to walk slowly, nonchalantly
+out through the hall. Still as a thief he opened and
+closed the front door and got himself down the front steps,
+but not so still but that a quick ear caught the sound of the
+latch as it flew back into place, and the scrape of a boot on
+the path; and not so invisibly nor so quickly but that a pair
+of keen eyes saw him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When Harry Temple had made his way toward the Spafford
+house that afternoon, with his dauntless front and conceited
+smile, Miranda had been sent out to pick raspberries along
+the fence that separated the Heath garden from the Spafford
+garden.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Harry Temple was too new in the town not to excite
+comment among the young girls wherever he might go, and
+Miranda was always having her eye out for anything new.
+Not for herself! Bless you! no! Miranda never expected
+anything from a young man for herself, but she was keenly
+interested in what befell other girls.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">So Miranda, crouched behind the berry bushes, watched
+Harry Temple saunter down the street and saw with surprise
+that he stopped at the house of her new admiration.
+Now, although Marcia was a married woman, Miranda felt
+pleased that she should have the attention of others, and a
+feeling of pride in her idol, and of triumph over her cousin
+Hannah that he had not stopped to see her, swelled in her
+brown calico breast.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She managed to bring her picking as near to the region
+of the Spafford parlor windows as possible, and much did her
+ravished ear delight itself in the music that tinkled through
+the green shaded window, for Miranda had tastes that were
+greatly appealed to by the gay dance music. She fancied
+that her idol was the player. But then she heard a man’s
+voice, and her picking stopped short insomuch that her grandmother’s
+strident tones mingled with the liquid tenor of Mr.
+Temple, calling to Miranda to <span class="tei tei-q">“be spry there or the sun’ll
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page163"></span><a name="pg163" id="pg163" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+catch you ’fore you get a quart.�</span> All at once the music
+ceased, and then in a minute or two Miranda heard the Spafford
+kitchen door thrown violently open and saw Marcia
+rush forth.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She gazed in astonishment, too surprised to call out to her,
+or to remember to keep on picking for a moment. She
+watched her as she fairly flew down between the rows of
+currant bushes, saw the comb fly from her hair, saw the glow
+of excitement on her cheek, and the fire in her eye, saw her
+mount the first fence. Then suddenly a feeling of protection
+arose within her, and, with a hasty glance toward her grandmother’s
+window to satisfy herself that no one else saw the
+flying figure, she fell to picking with all her might, but what
+went into her pail, whether raspberries or green leaves or
+briars, she did not know. Her eyes were on the flying figure
+through the wheat, and she progressed in her picking very
+fast toward the lower end of the lot where nothing but runty
+old sour berries ever grew, if any at all. Once hidden behind
+the tall corn that grew between her and her grandmother’s
+vigilant gaze, she hastened to the end of the lot and watched
+Marcia; watched her as she climbed the fences, held her
+breath at the daring leaps from the top rails, expecting to see
+the delicate muslin catch on the rough fence and send the flying
+figure to the ground senseless perhaps. It was like a
+theatre to Miranda, this watching the beautiful girl in her
+flight, the long dark hair in the wind, the graceful untrammeled
+bounds. Miranda watched with unveiled admiration
+until the dark of the green-blue wood had swallowed her up,
+then slowly her eyes traveled back over the path which Marcia
+had taken, back through the meadow and the wheat, to the
+kitchen door left standing wide. Slowly, painfully, Miranda
+set herself to understand it. Something had happened!
+That was flight with fear behind it, fear that left everything
+else forgotten. What had happened?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miranda was wiser in her generation than Marcia. She
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page164"></span><a name="pg164" id="pg164" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+began to put two and two together. Her brows darkened,
+and a look of cunning came into her honest blue eyes.
+Stealthily she crept with cat-like quickness along the fence
+near to the front, and there she stood like a red-haired
+Nemesis in a sunbonnet, with irate red face, confronting the
+unsuspecting man as he sauntered forth from the unwelcoming
+roof where he had whiled away a mistaken hour.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“What you ben sayin’ to her?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was as if a serpent had stung him, so unexpected, so
+direct. He jumped aside and turned deadly pale. She knew
+her chance arrow had struck the truth. But he recovered
+himself almost immediately when he saw what a harmless
+looking creature had attacked him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Why, my dear girl,�</span> he said patronizingly, <span class="tei tei-q">“you quite
+startled me! I’m sure you must have made some mistake!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I ain’t your girl, thank goodness!�</span> snapped Miranda,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“and I guess by your looks there ain’t anybody ‘dear’ to
+you but yourself. But I ain’t made a mistake. It’s you I
+was asking. <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">What you bin in there for?</span></span>�</span> There was a blaze
+of defiance in Miranda’s eyes, and her stubby forefinger
+pointed at him like a shotgun. Before her the bold black
+eyes quailed for an instant. The young man’s hand sought
+his pocket, brought out a piece of money and extended it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Look here, my friend,�</span> he said trying another line, <span class="tei tei-q">“you
+take this and say nothing more about it. That’s a good girl.
+No harm’s been done.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miranda looked him in the face with noble scorn, and with
+a sudden motion of her brown hand sent the coin flying on
+the stone pavement.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I tell you I’m not your friend, and I don’t want your
+money. I wouldn’t trust its goodness any more than your
+face. As fer keepin’ still I’ll do as I see fit about it. I
+intend to know what this means, and if you’ve made <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">her</span></span>
+any trouble you’d better leave this town, for I’ll make it too
+unpleasant fer you to stay here!�</span></p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page165"></span><a name="pg165" id="pg165" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">With a stealthy glance about him, cautious, concerned, the
+young man suddenly hurried down the street. He wanted
+no more parley with this loud-voiced avenging maiden. His
+fear came back upon him in double force, and he was seen to
+glance at his watch and quicken his pace almost to a run as
+though a forgotten engagement had suddenly come to mind.
+Miranda, scowling, stood and watched him disappear around
+the corner, then she turned back and began to pick raspberries
+with a diligence that would have astonished her grandmother
+had she not been for the last hour engaged with a
+calling neighbor in the room at the other side of the house,
+where they were overhauling the character of a fellow church
+member.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miranda picked on, and thought on, and could not make up
+her mind what she ought to do. From time to time she
+glanced anxiously toward the woods, and then at the lowering
+sun in the West, and half meditated going after Marcia,
+but a wholesome fear of her grandmother held her hesitating.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At length she heard a firm step coming down the street.
+Could it be? Yes, it was David Spafford. How was it he
+happened to come home so soon? Miranda had heard in a
+round-about-way, as neighbors hear and know these things,
+that David had taken the stage that morning, presumably on
+business to New York, and was hardly expected to return for
+several days. She had wondered if Marcia would stay all
+night alone in the house or if she would go to the aunts.
+But now here was David!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miranda looked again over the wheat, half expecting to
+see the flying figure returning in haste, but the parted wheat
+waved on and sang its song of the harvest, unmindful and
+alone, with only a fluttering butterfly to give life to the landscape.
+A little rusty-throated cricket piped a doleful sentence
+now and then between the silences.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David Spafford let himself in at his own door, and went in
+search of Marcia.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page166"></span><a name="pg166" id="pg166" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He wanted to find Marcia for a purpose. The business
+which had taken him away in the morning, and which he had
+hardly expected to accomplish before late that night, had been
+partly transacted at a little tavern where the coach horses
+had been changed that morning, and where he had met most
+unexpectedly the two men whom he had been going to see,
+who were coming straight to his town. So he turned him
+back with them and came home, and they were at this minute
+attending to some other business in the town, while he had
+come home to announce to Marcia that they would take supper
+with him and perhaps spend the night.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia was nowhere to be found. He went upstairs and
+timidly knocked at her door, but no answer came. Then he
+thought she might be asleep and knocked louder, but only the
+humming-bird in the honeysuckle outside her window sent
+back a little humming answer through the latch-hole. Finally
+he ventured to open the door and peep in, but he saw that
+quiet loneliness reigned there.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He went downstairs again and searched in the pantry and
+kitchen and then stood still. The back door was stretched
+open as though it had been thrown back in haste. He followed
+its suggestion and went out, looking down the little
+brick path that led to the garden. Ah! what was that?
+Something gleamed in the sun with a spot of blue behind
+it. The bit of blue ribbon she had worn at her throat, with
+a tiny gold brooch unclasped sticking in.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miranda caught sight of him coming, and crouched behind
+the currants.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David came on searching the path on every side. A bit
+of a branch had been torn from a succulent, tender plant that
+leaned over the path and was lying in the way. It seemed
+another blaze along the trail. Further down where the bushes
+almost met a single fragment of a thread waved on a thorn
+as though it had snatched for more in the passing and had
+caught only this. David hardly knew whether he was following
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page167"></span><a name="pg167" id="pg167" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+these little things or not, but at any rate they were
+apparently not leading him anywhere for he stopped abruptly
+in front of the fence and looked both ways behind the bushes
+that grew along in front of it. Then he turned to go back
+again. Miranda held her breath. Something touched David’s
+foot in turning, and, looking down, he saw Marcia’s large shell
+comb lying there in the grass. Curiously he picked it up
+and examined it. It was like finding fragments of a wreck
+along the sand.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">All at once Miranda arose from her hiding place and confronted
+him timidly. She was not the same Miranda who
+came down upon Harry Temple, however.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“She ain’t in the house,�</span> she said hoarsely. <span class="tei tei-q">“She’s gone
+over there!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David Spafford turned surprised.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Is that you, Miranda? Oh, thank you! Where do you
+say she has gone? Where?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Through there, don’t you see?�</span> and again the stubby
+forefinger pointed to the rift in the wheat.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David gazed stupidly at the path in the wheat, but gradually
+it began to dawn upon him that there was a distinct line
+through it where some one must have gone.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Yes, I see,�</span> he said thinking aloud, <span class="tei tei-q">“but why should she
+have gone there? There is nothing over there.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“She went on further, she went to the woods,�</span> said
+Miranda, looking fearfully around lest even now her grandmother
+might be upon her, <span class="tei tei-q">“and she was scared, I guess.
+She looked it. Her hair all come tumblin’ down when she
+clum the fence, an’ she just went flyin’ over like some bird,
+didn’t care a feather if she did fall, an’ she never oncet looked
+behind her till she come to the woods.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David’s bewilderment was growing uncomfortable. There
+was a shade of alarm in his face and of the embarrassment
+one feels when a neighbor divulges news about a member of
+one’s own household.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page168"></span><a name="pg168" id="pg168" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Why, surely, Miranda, you must be mistaken. Maybe it
+was some one else you saw. I do not think Mrs. Spafford
+would be likely to run over there that way, and what in the
+world would she have to be frightened at?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“No, I ain’t mistaken,�</span> said Miranda half sullenly, nettled
+at his unbelief. <span class="tei tei-q">“It was her all right. She came flyin’ out
+the kitchen door when I was picking raspberries, and down
+that path to the fence, and never stopped fer fence ner wheat,
+ner medder lot, but went into them woods there, right up to
+the left of them tall pines, and she,—she looked plum scared
+to death ’s if a whole circus menagerie was after her, lions
+and ’nelefunts an’ all. An’ I guess she had plenty to be
+scared at ef I ain’t mistaken. That dandy Temple feller
+went there to call on her, an’ I heard him tinklin’ that music
+box, and its my opinion he needs a wallupin’! You better
+go after her! It’s gettin’ late and you’ll have hard times
+finding her in the dark. Just you foller her path in the
+wheat, and then make fer them pines. I’d a gone after her
+myself only grandma’d make sech a fuss, and hev to know it
+all. You needn’t be afraid o’ me. I’ll keep still.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">By this time David was thoroughly alive to the situation
+and much alarmed. He mounted the fence with alacrity, gave
+one glance with <span class="tei tei-q">“thank you�</span> at Miranda, and disappeared
+through the wheat, Miranda watched him till she was sure
+he was making for the right spot, then with a sigh of relief
+she hastened into the house with her now brimming pail of
+berries.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS15" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page169"></span><a name="pg169" id="pg169" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc30" id="toc30"></a>
+<a name="pdf31" id="pdf31"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XV</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As David made his way with rapid strides through the
+rippling wheat, he experienced a series of sensations. For
+the first time since his wedding day he was aroused to entirely
+forget himself and his pain. What did it mean? Marcia
+frightened! What at? Harry Temple at their house! What
+did he know of Harry Temple? Nothing beyond the mere
+fact that Hannah Heath had introduced him and that he was
+doing business in the town. But why had Mr. Temple
+visited the house? He could have no possible business with
+himself, David was sure; moreover he now remembered having
+seen the young man standing near the stable that morning
+when he took his seat in the coach, and knew that he must
+have heard his remark that he would not return till the late
+coach that night, or possibly not till the next day. He remembered
+as he said it that he had unconsciously studied
+Mr. Temple’s face and noted its weak points. Did the young
+man then have a purpose in coming to the house during his
+absence? A great anger rose within him at the thought.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was one strange thing about David’s thoughts. For
+the first time he looked at himself in the light of Marcia’s
+natural protector—her husband. He suddenly saw a duty
+from himself to her, aside from the mere feeding and clothing
+her. He felt a personal responsibility, and an actual
+interest in her. Out of the whole world, now, he was the
+only one she could look to for help.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It gave him a feeling of possession that was new, and
+almost seemed pleasant. He forgot entirely the errand that
+had made him come to search for Marcia in the first place,
+and the two men who were probably at that moment preparing
+to go to his house according to their invitation. He forgot
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page170"></span><a name="pg170" id="pg170" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+everything but Marcia, and strode into the purply-blue
+shadows of the wood and stopped to listen.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The hush there seemed intense. There were no echoes
+lingering of flying feet down that pine-padded pathway of
+the aisle of the woods. It was long since he had had time to
+wander in the woods, and he wondered at their silence. So
+much whispering above, the sky so far away, the breeze so
+quiet, the bird notes so subdued, it seemed almost uncanny.
+He had not remembered that it was thus in the woods. It
+struck him in passing that here would be a good place to
+bring his pain some day when he had time to face it again,
+and wished to be alone with it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He took his hat in his hand and stepped firmly into the
+vast solemnity as if he had entered a great church when
+the service was going on, on an errand of life and death that
+gave excuse for profaning the holy silence. He went a few
+paces and stopped again, listening. Was that a long-drawn
+sighing breath he heard, or only the wind soughing through
+the waving tassels overhead? He summoned his voice to call.
+It seemed a great effort, and sounded weak and feeble under
+the grandeur of the vaulted green dome. <span class="tei tei-q">“Marcia!�</span> he
+called,—and <span class="tei tei-q">“Marcia!�</span> realizing as he did so that it was the
+first time he had called her by her name, or sought after her
+in any way. He had always said <span class="tei tei-q">“you�</span> to her, or <span class="tei tei-q">“child,�</span>
+or spoken of her in company as <span class="tei tei-q">“Mrs. Spafford,�</span> a strange
+and far-off mythical person whose very intangibility had
+separated her from himself immeasurably.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He went further into the forest, called again, and yet again,
+and stood to listen. All was still about him, but in the far
+distance he heard the faint report of a gun. With a new
+thought of danger coming to mind he hurried further into
+the shadows. The gun sounded again more clearly. He
+shuddered involuntarily and looked about in all directions,
+hoping to see the gleam of her gown. It was not likely there
+were any wild beasts about these parts, so near the town and
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page171"></span><a name="pg171" id="pg171" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+yet, they had been seen occasionally,—a stray fox, or even a
+bear,—and the sun was certainly very low. He glanced back,
+and the low line of the horizon gleamed the gold of intensified
+shining that is the sun’s farewell for the night. The gun
+again! Stray shots had been known to kill people wandering
+in the forest. He was growing nervous as a woman now, and
+went this way and that calling, but still no answer came.
+He began to think he was not near the clump of pines of
+which Miranda spoke, and went a little to the right and then
+turned to look back to where he had entered the wood, and
+there, almost at his feet, she lay!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She slept as soundly as if she had been lying on a couch
+of velvet, one round white arm under her cheek. Her face
+was flushed with weeping, and her lashes still wet. Her tender,
+sensitive mouth still quivered slightly as she gave a long-drawn
+breath with a catch in it that seemed like a sob, and
+all her lovely dark hair floated about her as if it were spread
+upon a wave that upheld her. She was beautiful indeed as she
+lay there sleeping, and the man, thus suddenly come upon
+her, anxious and troubled and every nerve quivering, stopped,
+awed with the beauty of her as if she had been some heavenly
+being suddenly confronting him. He stepped softly to her
+side and bending down observed her, first anxiously, to make
+sure she was alive and safe, then searchingly, as though he
+would know every detail of the picture there before him
+because it was his, and he not only had a right but a duty to
+possess it, and to care for it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She might have been a statue or a painting as he looked
+upon her and noted the lovely curve of her flushed cheek,
+but when his eyes reached the firm little brown hand and the
+slender finger on which gleamed the wedding ring that was
+not really hers, something pathetic in the tear-wet lashes,
+and the whole sorrowful, beautiful figure, touched him with a
+great tenderness, and he stooped down gently and put his
+arm about her.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page172"></span><a name="pg172" id="pg172" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Marcia,—child!�</span> he said in a low, almost crooning voice,
+as one might wake a baby from its sleep, <span class="tei tei-q">“Marcia, open your
+eyes, child, and tell me if you are all right.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At first she only stirred uneasily and slept on, the sleep
+of utter exhaustion; but he raised her, and, sitting down beside
+her, put her head upon his shoulder, speaking gently. Then
+Marcia opened her eyes bewildered, and with a start, sprang
+back and looked at David, as though she would be sure it
+was he and not that other dreadful man from whom she had
+fled.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Why, child! What’s the matter?�</span> said David, brushing
+her hair back from her face. Bewildered still, Marcia scarcely
+knew him, his voice was so strangely sweet and sympathetic.
+The tears were coming back, but she could not stop them.
+She made one effort to control herself and speak, but her lips
+quivered a moment, and then the flood-gates opened again,
+and she covered her face with her hands and shook with sobs.
+How could she tell David what a dreadful thing had happened,
+now, when he was kinder to her than he had ever
+thought of being before! He would grow grave and stern
+when she had told him, and she could not bear that. He
+would likely blame her too, and how could she endure more?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But he drew her to him again and laid her head against his
+coat, trying to smooth her hair with unaccustomed passes
+of his hand. By and by the tears subsided and she could
+control herself again. She hushed her sobs and drew back a
+little from the comforting rough coat where she had lain.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Indeed, indeed, I could not help it, David,�</span>—she faltered,
+trying to smile like a bit of rainbow through the rain.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I know you couldn’t, child.�</span> His answer was wonderfully
+kind and his eyes smiled at her as they had never done
+before. Her heart gave a leap of astonishment and fluttered
+with gladness over it. It was so good to have David care.
+She had not known how much she wanted him to speak to her
+as if he saw her and thought a little about her.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page173"></span><a name="pg173" id="pg173" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“And now what was it? Remember I do not know. Tell
+me quick, for it is growing late and damp, and you will take
+cold out here in the woods with that thin frock on. You
+are chilly already.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I better go at once,�</span> she said reservedly, willing to put
+off the telling as long as possible, peradventure to avoid it
+altogether.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“No, child,�</span> he said firmly drawing her back again beside
+him, <span class="tei tei-q">“you must rest a minute yet before taking that long
+walk. You are weary and excited, and besides it will do you
+good to tell me. What made you run off up here? Are you
+homesick?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He scanned her face anxiously. He began to fear with
+sudden compunction that the sacrifice he had accepted so
+easily had been too much for the victim, and it suddenly
+began to be a great comfort to him to have Marcia with him,
+to help him hide his sorrow from the world. He did not
+know before that he cared.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I was frightened,�</span> she said, with drooping lashes. She
+was trying to keep her lips and fingers from trembling, for she
+feared greatly to tell him all. But though the woods were
+growing dusky he saw the fluttering little fingers and gathered
+them firmly in his own.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Now, child,�</span> he said in that tone that even his aunts
+obeyed, <span class="tei tei-q">“tell me all. What frightened you, and why did you
+come up here away from everybody instead of calling for
+help?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Brought to bay she lifted her beautiful eyes to his face
+and told him briefly the story, beginning with the night when
+she had first met Harry Temple. She said as little about
+music as possible, because she feared that the mention of the
+piano might be painful to David, but she made the whole
+matter quite plain in a few words, so that David could readily
+fill in between the lines.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Scoundrel!�</span> he murmured clenching his fists, <span class="tei tei-q">“he ought
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page174"></span><a name="pg174" id="pg174" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+to be strung up!�</span> Then quite gently again, <span class="tei tei-q">“Poor child!
+How frightened you must have been! You did right to run
+away, but it was a dangerous thing to run out here! Why, he
+might have followed you!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh!�</span> said Marcia, turning pale, <span class="tei tei-q">“I never thought of
+that. I only wanted to get away from everybody. It seemed
+so dreadful I did not want anybody to know. I did not want
+you to know. I wanted to run away and hide, and never
+come back!�</span> She covered her face with her hands and
+shuddered. David thought the tears were coming back again.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Child, child!�</span> he said gently, <span class="tei tei-q">“you must not talk that
+way. What would I do if you did that?�</span> and he laid his
+hand softly upon the bowed head.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was the first time that anything like a personal talk
+had passed between them, and Marcia felt a thrill of delight
+at his words. It was like heavenly comfort to her wounded
+spirit.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She stole a shy look at him under her lashes, and wished
+she dared say something, but no words came. They sat for a
+moment in silence, each feeling a sort of comforting sense
+of the other’s presence, and each clasping the hand of the
+other with clinging pressure, yet neither fully aware of the
+fact.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The last rays of the sun which had been lying for a while
+at their feet upon the pine needles suddenly slipped away unperceived,
+and behold! the world was in gloom, and the place
+where the two sat was almost utterly dark. David became
+aware of it first, and with sudden remembrance of his expected
+guests he started in dismay.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Child!�</span> said he,—but he did not let go of her hand,
+nor forget to put the tenderness in his voice, <span class="tei tei-q">“the sun has
+gone down, and here have I been forgetting what I came to
+tell you in the astonishment over what you had to tell me.
+We must hurry and get back. We have guests to-night to
+supper, two gentlemen, very distinguished in their lines of
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page175"></span><a name="pg175" id="pg175" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+work. We have business together, and I must make haste.
+I doubt not they are at the house already, and what they think
+of me I cannot tell; let us hurry as fast as possible.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, David!�</span> she said in dismay. <span class="tei tei-q">“And you had to
+come out here after me, and have stayed so long! What a
+foolish girl I have been and what a mess I have made! They
+will perhaps be angry and go away, and I will be to blame.
+I am afraid you can never forgive me.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Don’t worry, child,�</span> he said pleasantly. <span class="tei tei-q">“It couldn’t
+be helped, you know, and is in no wise your fault. I am
+only sorry that these two gentlemen will delay me in the
+pleasure of hunting up that scoundrel of a Temple and suggesting
+that he leave town by the early morning stage. I
+should like to give him what Miranda suggested, a good
+‘wallupin’,’ but perhaps that would be undignified.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He laughed as he said it, a hearty laugh with a ring to it
+like his old self. Marcia felt happy at the sound. How
+wonderful it would be if he would be like that to her all
+the time! Her heart swelled with the great thought of it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He helped her to her feet and taking her hand led her out
+to the open field where they could walk faster. As he walked
+he told her about Miranda waiting for him behind the currant
+bushes. They laughed together and made the way seem
+short.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was quite dark now, with the faded moon trembling
+feebly in the West as though it meant to retire early, and
+wished they would hurry home while she held her light for
+them. David had drawn Marcia’s arm within his, and then,
+noticing that her dress was thin, he pulled off his coat
+and put it firmly about her despite her protest that she did
+not need it, and so, warmed, comforted, and cheered Marcia’s
+feet hurried back over the path she had taken in such sorrow
+and fright a few hours before.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When they could see the lights of the village twinkling
+close below them David began to tell her about the two men
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page176"></span><a name="pg176" id="pg176" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+who were to be their guests, if they were still waiting, and so
+interesting was his brief story of each that Marcia hardly
+knew they were at home before David was helping her over
+their own back fence.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, David! There seems to be a light in the kitchen!
+Do you suppose they have gone in and are getting their own
+supper? What shall I do with my hair? I cannot go in
+with it this way. How did that light get there?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Here!�</span> said David, fumbling in his pocket, <span class="tei tei-q">“will this
+help you?�</span> and he brought out the shell comb he had picked
+up in the garden.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">By the light of the feeble old moon David watched her
+coil the long wavy hair and stood to pass his criticism upon
+the effect before they should go in. They were just back of
+the tall sunflowers, and talked in whispers. It was all so
+cheery, and comradey, and merry, that Marcia hated to go
+in and have it over, for she could not feel that this sweet evening
+hour could last. Then they took hold of hands and
+swiftly, cautiously, stole up to the kitchen window and looked
+in. The door still stood open as both had left it that afternoon,
+and there seemed to be no one in the kitchen. A candle
+was burning on the high little shelf over the table, and the
+<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E17" id="E17" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e17" class="tei tei-ref">tea kettle</a></span>
+was singing on the crane by the hearth, but the room
+was without occupant. Cautiously, looking questioningly at
+one another, they stole into the kitchen, each dreading lest
+the aunts had come by chance and discovered their lapse.
+There was a light in the front part of the house and they
+could hear voices, two men were earnestly discussing politics.
+They listened longer, but no other presence was revealed.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David in pantomime outlined the course of action, and
+Marcia, understanding perfectly flew up the back stairs as
+noiselessly as a mouse, to make her toilet after her nap in
+the woods, while David with much show and to-do of opening
+and shutting the wide-open kitchen door walked obviously
+into the kitchen and hurried through to greet his guests
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page177"></span><a name="pg177" id="pg177" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+wondering,—not suspecting in the least,—what good angel
+had been there to let them in.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Good fortune had favored Miranda. The neighbor had
+<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E38" id="E38" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e38" class="tei tei-ref">stayed</a></span>
+longer than usual, perhaps in hopes of an invitation to
+stay to tea and share in the gingerbread she could smell
+being taken from the oven by Hannah, who occasionally
+varied her occupations by a turn at the culinary art. Hannah
+could make delicious gingerbread. Her grandmother had
+taught her when she was but a child.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miranda stole into the kitchen when Hannah’s back was
+turned and picked over her berries so fast that when Hannah
+came into the pantry to set her gingerbread to cool Miranda
+had nearly all her berries in the big yellow bowl ready to
+wash, and Hannah might conjecture if she pleased that
+Miranda had been some time picking them over. It is not
+stated just how thoroughly those berries were picked over.
+But Miranda cared little for that. Her mind was upon other
+things. The pantry window overlooked the hills and the
+woods. She could see if David and Marcia were coming
+back soon. She wanted to watch her play till the close, and
+had no fancy for having the curtain fall in the middle of
+the most exciting act, the rescue of the princess. But the
+talk in the sitting room went on and on. By and by Hannah
+Heath washed her hands, untied her apron, and taking her
+sunbonnet slipped over to Ann Bertram’s for a pattern of
+her new sleeve. Miranda took the opportunity to be off
+again.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Swiftly down behind the currants she ran, and standing on
+the fence behind the corn she looked off across the wheat,
+but no sign of anybody yet coming out of the woods was
+granted her. She stood so a long time. It was growing
+dusk. She wondered if Harry Temple had shut the front
+door when he went out. But then David went in that way,
+and he would have closed it, of course. Still, he went away
+in a hurry, maybe it would be as well to go and look. She
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page178"></span><a name="pg178" id="pg178" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+did not wish to be caught by her grandmother, so she stole
+along like a cat close to the dark berry bushes, and the gathering
+dusk hid her well. She thought she could see from the
+front of the fence whether the door looked as if it were
+closed. But there were people coming up the street. She
+would wait till they had passed before she looked over the
+fence.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They were two men coming, slowly, and in earnest conversation
+upon some deeply interesting theme. Each carried
+a heavy carpet-bag, and they walked wearily, as if their business
+were nearly over for the day and they were coming to
+a place of rest.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“This must be the house, I think,�</span> said one. <span class="tei tei-q">“He said
+it was exactly opposite the Seceder church. That’s the
+church, I believe. I was here once before.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“There doesn’t seem to be a light in the house,�</span> said the
+other, looking up to the windows over the street. <span class="tei tei-q">“Are you
+sure? Brother Spafford said he was coming directly home to
+let his wife know of our arrival.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“A little strange there’s no light yet, for it is quite dark
+now, but I’m sure this must be the house. Maybe they are
+all in the kitchen and not expecting us quite so soon. Let’s
+try anyhow,�</span> said the other, setting down his carpet-bag on
+the stoop and lifting the big brass knocker.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miranda stood still debating but a moment. The situation
+was made plain to her in an instant. Not for nothing had
+she stood at Grandma Heath’s elbow for years watching the
+movements of her neighbors and interpreting exactly what
+they meant. Miranda’s wits were sharpened for situations
+of all kinds. Miranda was ready and loyal to those she
+adored. Without further ado she hastened to a sheltered
+spot she knew and climbed the picket fence which separated
+the Heath garden from the Spafford side yard. Before the
+brass knocker had sounded through the empty house the
+second time Miranda had crossed the side porch, thrown her
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page179"></span><a name="pg179" id="pg179" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+sunbonnet upon a chair in the dark kitchen, and was hastening
+with noisy, encouraging steps to the front door.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She flung it wide open, saying in a breezy voice, <span class="tei tei-q">“Just
+wait till I get a light, won’t you, the wind blew the candle
+out.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There wasn’t a particle of wind about that soft September
+night, but that made little difference to Miranda. She was
+part of a play and she was acting her best. If her impromptu
+part was a little irregular, it was at least well meant, boldly
+and bravely presented.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miranda found a candle on the shelf and, stooping to the
+smouldering fire upon the hearth, blew and coaxed it into
+flame enough to light it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“This is Mr. Spafford’s home, is it not?�</span> questioned the
+old gentleman whom Miranda had heard speak first on the
+sidewalk.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, yes, indeed,�</span> said the girl glibly. <span class="tei tei-q">“Jest come in
+and set down. Here, let me take your hats. Jest put your
+bags right there on the floor.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You are— Are you—Mrs. Spafford?�</span> hesitated the
+courtly old gentleman.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, landy sakes, no, I ain’t her,�</span> laughed Miranda well
+pleased. <span class="tei tei-q">“Mis’ Spafford had jest stepped out a bit when
+her husband come home, an’ he’s gone after her. You see she
+didn’t expect her husband home till late to-night. But you
+set down. They’ll be home real soon now. They’d oughter
+ben here before this. I ’spose she’d gone on further’n she
+thought she’d go when she stepped out.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“It’s all right,�</span> said the other gentleman, <span class="tei tei-q">“no harm done,
+I’m sure. I hope we shan’t inconvenience Mrs. Spafford any
+coming so unexpectedly.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“No, indeedy!�</span> said quick-witted Miranda. <span class="tei tei-q">“You can’t
+ketch Mis’ Spafford unprepared if you come in the middle o’
+the night. She’s allus ready fer comp’ny.�</span> Miranda’s eyes
+shone. She felt she was getting on finely doing the honors.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page180"></span><a name="pg180" id="pg180" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Well, that’s very nice. I’m sure it makes one feel at
+home. I wonder now if she would mind if we were to go
+right up to our room and wash our hands. I feel so travel-stained.
+I’d like to be more presentable before we meet her,�</span>
+said the first gentleman, who looked very weary.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But Miranda was not dashed.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Why, that’s all right. ’Course you ken go right up. Jest
+you set in the keepin’ room a minnit while I run up’n be
+sure the water pitcher’s filled. I ain’t quite sure ’bout it.
+I won’t be long.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miranda seated them in the parlor with great gusto and
+hastened up the back stairs to investigate. She was not at all
+sure which room would be called the guest room and whether
+the two strangers would have a room apiece or occupy the
+same together. At least it would be safe to show them one
+till the mistress of the house returned. She peeped into
+Marcia’s room, and knew it instinctively before she caught
+sight of a cameo brooch on the pin cushion, and a rose
+colored ribbon neatly folded lying on the foot of the bed
+where it had been forgotten. That question settled, she
+thought any other room would do, and chose the large front
+room across the hall with its high four-poster and the little
+ball fringe on the valance and canopy. Having lighted the
+candle which stood in a tall glass candlestick on the high
+chest of drawers, she hurried down to bid her guests come up.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then she hastened back into the kitchen and went to work
+with swift skilful fingers. Her breath came quickly and her
+cheeks grew red with the excitement of it all. It was like
+playing fairy. She would get supper for them and have
+everything all ready when the mistress came, so that there
+would be no bad breaks. She raked the fire and filled the
+tea kettle, swinging it from the crane. Then she searched
+where she thought such things should be and found a table
+cloth and set the table. Her hands trembled as she put out
+the sprigged china that was kept in the corner cupboard.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page181"></span><a name="pg181" id="pg181" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+Perhaps this was wrong, and she would be blamed for it, but
+at least it was what she would have done, she thought, if she
+were mistress of this house and had two nice gentlemen come
+to stay to tea. It was not often that Grandmother Heath
+allowed her to handle her sprigged china, to be sure, so
+Miranda felt the joy and daring of it all the more. Once a
+delicate cup slipped and rolled over on the table and almost
+reached the edge. A little more and it would have rolled off
+to the floor and been shivered into a dozen fragments, but
+Miranda spread her apron in front and caught it fairly as
+it started and then hugged it in fear and delight for a moment
+as she might have done a baby that had been in danger. It
+was a great pleasure to her to set that table. In the first
+place she was not doing it to order but because she wanted
+to please and surprise some one whom she adored, and in the
+second place it was an adventure. Miranda had longed for
+an adventure all her life and now she thought it had come
+to her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When the table was set it looked very pretty. She slipped
+into the pantry and searched out the stores. It was not hard
+to find all that was needed; cold ham, cheese, pickles, seed
+cakes, gingerbread, fruit cake, preserves and jelly, bread and
+raised biscuit, then she went down cellar and found the milk
+and cream and butter. She had just finished the table and
+set out the tea pot and caddy of tea when she heard the two
+gentlemen coming down the stairs. They went into the
+parlor and sat down, remarking that their friend had a
+pleasant home, and then Miranda heard them plunge into a
+political discussion again and she felt that they were safe for
+a while. She stole out into the dewy dark to see if there were
+yet signs of the home-comers. A screech owl hooted across
+the night. She stood a while by the back fence looking out
+across the dark sea of whispering wheat. By and by she
+thought she heard subdued voices above the soft swish of
+the parting wheat, and by the light of the stars she saw
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page182"></span><a name="pg182" id="pg182" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+them coming. Quick as a wink she slid over the fence into
+the Heath back-yard and crouched in her old place behind
+the currant bushes. So she saw them come up together, saw
+David help Marcia over the fence and watched them till they
+had passed up the walk to the light of the kitchen door. Then
+swiftly she turned and glided to her own home, well knowing
+the reckoning that would be in store for her for this daring
+bit of recreation. There was about her, however, an air of
+triumphant joy as she entered.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Where have you ben to, Miranda Griscom, and what on
+airth you ben up to now?�</span> was the greeting she received as
+she lifted the latch of the old green kitchen door of her
+grandmother’s house.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miranda knew that the worst was to come now, for her
+grandmother never mentioned the name of Griscom unless
+she meant business. It was a hated name to her because of
+the man who had broken the heart of her daughter. Grandma
+Heath always felt that Miranda was an out and out Griscom
+with not a streak of Heath about her. The Griscoms all had
+red hair. But Miranda lifted her chin high and felt like a
+princess in disguise.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Ben huntin’ hen’s eggs down in the grass,�</span> she said,
+taking the first excuse that came into her head. <span class="tei tei-q">“Is it time
+to get supper?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Hen’s eggs! This time o’ night an’ dark as pitch.
+Miranda Griscom, you ken go up to your room an’ not come
+down tell I call you!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was a dire punishment, or would have been if Miranda
+had not had her head full of other things, for the neighbor
+had been asked to tea and there would have been much to hear
+at the table. Besides, it was apparent that her disgrace was
+to be made public. However, Miranda did not care. She
+hastened to her little attic window, which looked down, as
+good fortune would have it, upon the dining-room windows
+of the Spafford house. With joy Miranda observed that no
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page183"></span><a name="pg183" id="pg183" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+one had thought to draw down the shades and she might sit
+and watch the supper served over the way,—the supper she
+had prepared,—and might think how delectable the doughnuts
+were, and let her mouth water over the currant jelly and
+the quince preserves and pretend she was a guest, and forget
+the supper downstairs she was missing.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS16" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page184"></span><a name="pg184" id="pg184" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc32" id="toc32"></a>
+<a name="pdf33" id="pdf33"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XVI</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David made what apology he could for his absence on the
+arrival of his guests, and pondered in his heart who it could
+have been that they referred to as <span class="tei tei-q">“the maid,�</span> until he suddenly
+remembered Miranda, and inwardly blessed her for her
+kindliness. It was more than he would have expected from
+any member of the Heath household. Miranda’s honest face
+among the currant bushes when she had said, <span class="tei tei-q">“You needn’t
+be afraid of me, I’ll keep still,�</span> came to mind. Miranda had
+evidently scented out the true state of the case and filled in
+the breach, taking care not to divulge a word. He blest her
+kindly heart and resolved to show his gratitude to her in
+some way. Could poor Miranda, sitting supperless in the
+dark, have but known his thought, her lonely heart would
+have fluttered happily. But she did not, and virtue had to
+bring its own reward in a sense of duty done. Then, too,
+there was a spice of adventure to Miranda’s monotonous life
+in what she had done, and she was not altogether sad as she
+sat and let her imagination revel in what the Spaffords had
+said and thought, when they found the house lighted and
+supper ready. It was better than playing house down behind
+the barn when she was a little girl.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia was the most astonished when she slipped down
+from her hurried toilet and found the table decked out in all
+the house afforded, fairly groaning under its weight of pickles,
+preserves, doughnuts, and pie. In fact, everything that
+Miranda had found she had put upon that table, and it is
+safe to say that the result was not quite as it would have
+been had the preparation of the supper been left to Marcia.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She stood before it and looked, and could not keep from
+laughing softly to herself at the array of little dishes of
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page185"></span><a name="pg185" id="pg185" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+things. Marcia thought at first that one of the aunts must
+be here, in the parlor, probably entertaining the guests, and
+that the supper was a reproof to her for being away when
+she should have been at home attending to her duties, but
+still she was puzzled. It scarcely seemed like the aunts to
+set a table in such a peculiar manner. The best china was
+set out, it is true, but so many little bits of things were in
+separate dishes. There was half a mould of currant jelly in
+a large china plate, there was a fresh mould of quince jelly
+quivering on a common dish. All over the table in every
+available inch there was something. It would not do to call
+the guests out to a table like that. What would David say?
+And yet, if one of the aunts had set it and was going to stay
+to tea, would she be hurt? She tiptoed to the door and
+listened, but heard no sound save of men’s voices. If an
+aunt had been here she was surely gone now and would be
+none the wiser if a few dishes were removed.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">With swift fingers Marcia weeded out the things, and set
+straight those that were to remain, and then made the tea.
+She was so quick about it David had scarcely time to begin
+to worry because supper was not announced before she stood
+in the parlor door, shy and sweet, with a brilliant color in her
+cheeks. His little comrade, David felt her to be, and again
+it struck him that she was beautiful as he arose to introduce
+her to the guests. He saw their open admiration as they
+greeted her, and he found himself wondering what they would
+have thought of Kate, wild-rose Kate with her graceful witching
+ways. A tinge of sadness came into his face, but something
+suggested to him the thought that Marcia was even
+more beautiful than Kate, more like a half-blown bud of a
+thing. He wondered that he had never noticed before how
+her eyes shone. He gave her a pleasant smile as they passed
+into the hall, which set the color flaming in her cheeks again.
+David seemed different somehow, and that lonely, set-apart
+feeling that she had had ever since she came here to live was
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page186"></span><a name="pg186" id="pg186" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+gone. David was there and he understood, at least a little
+bit, and they had something,—just something, even though
+it was but a few minutes in a lonely woods and some gentle
+words of his,—to call their very own together. At least that
+experience did not belong to Kate, never had been hers, and
+could not have been borrowed from her. Marcia sighed a
+happy sigh as she took her seat at the table.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The talk ran upon Andrew Jackson, and some utterances
+of his in his last message to Congress. The elder of the two
+gentlemen expressed grave fears that a mistake had been
+made in policy and that the country would suffer.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Governor Clinton was mentioned and his policy discussed.
+But all this talk was familiar to Marcia. Her father had
+been interested in public affairs always, and she had been
+brought up to listen to discussions deep and long, and to
+think about such things for herself. When she was quite a
+little girl her father had made her read the paper aloud to
+him, from one end to the other, as he lay back in his big chair
+with his eyes closed and his shaggy brows drawn thoughtfully
+into a frown. Sometimes as she read he would burst forth
+with a tirade against this or that man or set of men who
+were in opposition to his own pronounced views, and he
+would pour out a lengthy reply to little Marcia as she sat
+patient, waiting for a chance to go on with her reading. As
+she grew older she became proud of the distinction of being
+her father’s <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">confidante</span></span> politically, and she was able to talk on
+such matters as intelligently and as well if not better than most
+of the men who came to the house. It was a position which no
+one disputed with her. Kate had been much too full of her
+own plans and Madam Schuyler too busy with household
+affairs to bother with politics and newspapers, so Marcia had
+always been the one called upon to read when her father’s
+eyes were tired. As a consequence she was far beyond other
+girls of her age in knowledge on public affairs. Well she
+knew what Andrew Jackson thought about the tariff, and
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page187"></span><a name="pg187" id="pg187" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+about the system of canals, and about improvements in general.
+She knew which men in Congress were opposed to and
+which in favor of certain bills. All through the struggle for
+improvements in New York state she had been an eager
+observer. The minutest detail of the Erie canal project had
+interested her, and she was never without her own little
+private opinion in the matter, which, however, seldom found
+voice except in her eager eyes, whose listening lights would
+have been an inspiration to the most eloquent speaker.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Therefore, Marcia as she sat behind her sprigged china teacups
+and demurely poured tea, was taking in all that had been
+said, and she drew her breath quickly in a way she had when
+she was deeply excited, as at last the conversation neared the
+one great subject of interest which to her seemed of most
+importance in the country at the present day, the project of
+a railroad run by steam.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Nothing was too great for Marcia to believe. Her father
+had been inclined to be conservative in great improvements.
+He had favored the Erie canal, though had feared it would
+be impossible to carry so great a project through, and Marcia
+in her girlish mind had rejoiced with a joy that to her was
+unspeakable when it had been completed and news had come
+that many packets were travelling day and night upon the
+wonderful new water way. There had been a kind of
+triumph in her heart to think that men who could study
+out these big schemes and plan it all, had been able against
+so great odds to carry out their project and prove to all unbelievers
+that it was not only possible but practicable.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s brain was throbbing with the desire for progress.
+If she were a man with money and influence she felt she
+would so much like to go out into the world and make stupid
+people do the things for the country that ought to be done.
+Progress had been the keynote of her upbringing, and she
+was teeming with energy which she had no hope could ever
+be used to help along that for which she felt her ambitions
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page188"></span><a name="pg188" id="pg188" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+rising. She wanted to see the world alive, and busy, the
+great cities connected with one another. She longed to have
+free access to cities, to great libraries, to pictures, to wonderful
+music. She longed to meet great men and women, the
+men and women who were making the history of the world,
+writing, speaking, and doing things that were moulding
+public opinion. Reforms of all sorts were what helped along
+and made possible her desires. Why did not the people want
+a steam railroad? Why were they so ready to say it could
+never succeed, that it would be an impossibility; that the
+roads could not be made strong enough to bear so great
+weights and so constant wear and tear? Why did they interpose
+objections to every suggestion made by inventors and
+thinking men? Why did even her dear father who was so
+far in advance of his times in many ways, why did even he
+too shake his head and say that he feared it would never be
+in this country, at least not in his day, that it was impracticable?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The talk was very interesting to Marcia. She ate bits of
+her biscuit without knowing, and she left her tea untasted
+till it was cold. The younger of the two guests was talking.
+His name was Jervis. Marcia thought she had heard the
+name somewhere, but had not yet placed him in her mind:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Yes,�</span> said he, with an eager look on his face, <span class="tei tei-q">“it is
+coming, it is coming sooner than they think. Oliver Evans
+said, you know, that good roads were all we could expect one
+generation to do. The next must make canals, the next
+might build a railroad which should run by horse power, and
+perhaps the next would run a railroad by steam. But we
+shall not have to wait so long. We shall have steam moving
+railway carriages before another year.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“What!�</span> said David, <span class="tei tei-q">“you don’t mean it! Have you
+really any foundation for such a statement?�</span> He leaned
+forward, his eyes shining and his whole attitude one of deep
+interest. Marcia watched him, and a great pride began to
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page189"></span><a name="pg189" id="pg189" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+glow within her that she belonged to him. She looked at the
+other men. Their eyes were fixed upon David with heightening
+pleasure and pride.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The older man watched the little tableau a moment and
+then he explained:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“The Mohawk and Hudson Company have just made an
+engagement with Mr. Jervis as chief engineer of their road.
+He expects to run that road by steam!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He finished his fruit cake and preserves under the spell of
+astonishment he had cast upon his host and hostess.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David and Marcia turned simultaneously toward Mr. Jervis
+for a confirmation of this statement. Mr. Jervis smiled in
+affirmation.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“But will it not be like all the rest, no funds?�</span> asked
+David a trifle sadly. <span class="tei tei-q">“It may be years even yet before it is
+really started.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But Mr. Jervis’ face was reassuring.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“The contract is let for the grading. In fact work has
+already begun. I expect to begin laying the track by next
+Spring, perhaps sooner. As soon as the track is laid we shall
+show them.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David’s eyes shone and he reached out and grasped the
+hand of the man who had the will and apparently the means
+of accomplishing this great thing for the country.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“It will make a wonderful change in the whole land,�</span> said
+David musingly. He had forgotten to eat. His face was
+aglow and a side of his nature which Marcia did not know
+was uppermost. Marcia saw the man, the thinker, the
+writer, the former of public opinion, the idealist. Heretofore
+David had been to her in the light of her sister’s lover, a young
+man of promise, but that was all. Now she saw something
+more earnest, and at once it was revealed to her what a man
+he was, a man like her father. David’s eyes were suddenly
+drawn to meet hers. He looked on Marcia and seemed to be
+sharing his thought with her, and smiled a smile of comradeship.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page190"></span><a name="pg190" id="pg190" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+He felt all at once that she could and would understand
+his feelings about this great new enterprise, and would
+be glad too. It pleased him to feel this. It took a little of
+his loneliness away. Kate would never have been interested
+in these things. He had never expected such sympathy from
+her. She had been something beautiful and apart from his
+world, and as such he had adored her. But it was pleasant
+to have some one who could understand and feel as he did.
+Just then he was not thinking of his lost Kate. So he smiled
+and Marcia felt the glow of warmth from his look and returned
+it, and the two visitors knew that they were among
+friends who understood and sympathized.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Yes, it will make a change,�</span> said the older man. <span class="tei tei-q">“I
+hope I may live to see at least a part of it.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“If you succeed there will be many others to follow. The
+land will soon be a network of railroads,�</span> went on David,
+still musing.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“We shall succeed!�</span> said Mr. Jervis, closing his lips firmly
+in a way that made one sure he knew whereof he spoke.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“And now tell me about it,�</span> said David, with his most
+engaging smile, as a child will ask to have a story. David
+could be most fascinating when he felt he was in a sympathetic
+company. At other times he was wont to be grave,
+almost to severity. But those who knew him best and had
+seen him thus melted into
+<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E18" id="E18" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e18" class="tei tei-ref">child-like</a></span>
+enthusiasm, felt his lovableness
+as the others never dreamed.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The table talk launched into a description of the proposed
+road, the road bed, the manner of laying the rails, their
+thickness and width, and the way of bolting them down to the
+heavy timbers that lay underneath. It was all intensely
+fascinating to Marcia. Mr. Jervis took knives and forks to
+illustrate and then showed by plates and spoons how they
+were fastened down.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David asked a question now and then, took out his note
+book and wrote down some things. The two guests were
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page191"></span><a name="pg191" id="pg191" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+eager and plain in their answers. They wanted David to
+write it up. They wanted the information to be accurate
+and full.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“The other day I saw a question in a Baltimore paper, sent
+in by a subscriber, ‘What is a railroad?’�</span> said the old gentleman,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“and the editor’s reply was, ‘Can any of our readers
+answer this question and tell us what is a railroad?’�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was a hearty laugh over the unenlightened unbelievers
+who seemed to be only too willing to remain in ignorance
+of the march of improvement.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David finally laid down his note book, feeling that he had
+gained all the information he needed at present. <span class="tei tei-q">“I have
+much faith in you and your skill, but I do not quite see how
+you are going to overcome all the obstacles. How, for instance,
+are you going to overcome the inequalities in the road?
+Our country is not a flat even one like those abroad where
+the railroad has been tried. There are sharp grades, and
+many curves will be necessary,�</span> said he.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Mr. Jervis had shoved his chair back from the table, but
+now he drew it up again sharply and began to move the
+dishes back from his place, a look of eagerness gleaming in
+his face.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Once again the dishes and cups were brought into requisition
+as the engineer showed a crude model, in china and
+cutlery, of an engine he proposed to have constructed, illustrating
+his own idea about a truck for the forward wheels which
+should move separately from the back wheels and enable the
+engine to conform to curves more readily.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia sat with glowing cheeks watching the outline of
+history that was to be, not knowing that the little model
+before her, made from her own teacups and saucers, was to
+be the model for all the coming engines of the many railroads
+of the future.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Finally the chairs were pushed back, and yet the talk went
+on. Marcia slipped silently about conveying the dishes away.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page192"></span><a name="pg192" id="pg192" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+And still the guests sat talking. She could hear all they said
+even when she was in the kitchen washing the china, for she
+did it very softly and never a clink hid a word. They talked
+of Governor Clinton again and of his attitude toward the
+railroad. They spoke of Thurlow Weed and a number of
+others whose names were familiar to Marcia in the papers
+she had read to her father. They told how lately on the
+Baltimore and Ohio railroad Peter Cooper had experimented
+with a little locomotive, and had beaten a gray horse attached
+to another car.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia smiled brightly as she listened, and laid the delicate
+china teapot down with care lest she should lose a word. But
+ever with her interest in the march of civilization, there were
+other thoughts mingling. Thoughts of David and of how he
+would be connected with it all. He would write it up and be
+identified with it. He was brave enough to face any new
+movement.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David’s paper was a temperance paper. There were not
+many temperance papers in those days. David was brave. He
+had already faced a number of unpleasant circumstances in
+consequence. He was not afraid of sneers or sarcasms, nor of
+being called a fanatic. He had taken such a stand that even
+those who were opposed had to respect him. Marcia felt the
+joy of a great pride in David to-night.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She sang a happy little song at the bottom of her heart as
+she worked. The new railroad was an assured thing, and
+David was her comrade, that was the song, and the refrain
+was, <span class="tei tei-q">“David, David, David!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Later, after the guests had talked themselves out and taken
+their candles to their rooms, David with another comrade’s
+smile, and a look in his eyes that saw visions of the country’s
+future, and for this one night at least promised not to dream
+of the past, bade her good night.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She went up to her white chamber and lay down upon the
+pillow, whose case was fragrant of lavendar blossoms, dreaming
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page193"></span><a name="pg193" id="pg193" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+with a smile of to-morrow. She thought she was riding
+in a strange new railroad train with David’s arm about her
+and Harry Temple running along at his very best pace to try
+to catch them, but he could not.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miranda, at her supperless window, watched the evening
+hours and thought many thoughts. She wondered why they
+stayed in the dining room so late, and why they did not go
+into the parlor and make Marcia play the <span class="tei tei-q">“music box�</span> as
+she called it; and why there was a light so long in that back
+chamber over the kitchen. Could it be they had put one of
+the guests there? Surely not. Perhaps that was David’s
+study. Perhaps he was writing. Ah! She had guessed
+aright. David was sitting up to write while the inspiration
+was upon him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But Miranda slept and ceased to wonder long before
+David’s light was extinguished, and when he finally lay down
+it was with a body healthily weary, and a mind for the time
+free from any intruding thought of himself and his troubles.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He had written a most captivating article that would appear
+in his paper in a few days, and which must convince
+many doubters that a railroad was at last an established fact
+among them.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There were one or two points which he must ask the skilled
+engineer in the morning, but as he reviewed what he had
+written he felt a sense of deep satisfaction, and a true delight
+in his work. His soul thrilled with the power of his gift.
+He loved it, exulted in it. It was pleasant to feel that delight
+in his work once more. He had thought since his marriage
+that it was gone forever, but perhaps by and by it would
+return to console him, and he would be able to do greater
+things in the world because of his suffering.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Just as he dropped to sleep there came a thought of
+Marcia, pleasantly, as one remembers a flower. He felt that
+there was a comfort about Marcia, a something helpful in her
+smile. There was more to her than he had supposed. She
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page194"></span><a name="pg194" id="pg194" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+was not merely a child. How her face had glowed as the
+men talked of the projected railroad, and almost she seemed
+to understand as they described the proposed engine with its
+movable trucks. She would be a companion who would be
+interested in his pursuits. He had hoped to teach Kate to
+understand his life work and perhaps help him some, but
+Kate was by nature a butterfly, a bird of gay colors, always
+on the wing. He would not have wanted her to be troubled
+with deep thoughts. Marcia seemed to enjoy such things.
+What if he should take pains to teach her, read with her, help
+cultivate her mind? It would at least be an occupation for
+leisure hours, something to interest him and keep away the
+awful pall of sadness.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">How sweet she had looked as she lay asleep in the woods
+with the tears on her cheek like the dew-drops upon a rose
+petal! She was a dear little girl and he must take care of
+her and protect her. That scoundrel Temple! What were
+such men made for? He must settle him to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And so he fell asleep.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS17" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page195"></span><a name="pg195" id="pg195" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc34" id="toc34"></a>
+<a name="pdf35" id="pdf35"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XVII</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Harry Temple sat in his office the next morning with his
+feet upon the table and his wooden armed chair tilted back
+against the wall.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He had letters to write, a number of them, that should go
+out with the afternoon coach, to reach the night packet.
+There were at least three men he ought to go and see at once
+if he would do the best for his employers, and the office he
+sat in was by no means in the best of order. But his feet
+were elevated comfortably on the table and he was deep in
+the pages of a story of the French Court, its loves and hates
+and intrigues.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was therefore with annoyance that he looked up at the
+opening of the office door.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But the frown changed to apprehension, as he saw who was
+his visitor. He brought the chair legs suddenly to the floor
+and his own legs followed them swiftly. David Spafford was
+not a man before whom another would sit with his feet on a
+table, even to transact business.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was a look of startled enquiry on Harry Temple’s
+face. For an instant his self-complacency was shaken. He
+hesitated, wondering what tack to take. Perhaps after all
+his alarm was unnecessary. Marcia likely had been too frightened
+to tell of what had occurred. He noticed the broad
+shoulder, the lean, active body, the keen eye, and the grave
+poise of his visitor, and thought he would hardly care to
+fight a duel with that man. It was natural for him to think
+at once of a duel on account of the French court life from
+which his mind had just emerged. A flash of wonder passed
+through his mind whether it would be swords or pistols, and
+then he set himself to face the other man.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page196"></span><a name="pg196" id="pg196" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David Spafford stood for a full minute and looked into the
+face of the man he had come to shame. He looked at him
+with a calm eye and brow, but with a growing contempt that
+did not need words to express it. Harry Temple felt the
+color rise in his cheek, and his soul quaked for an instant.
+Then his habitual conceit arose and he tried to parry with his
+eye that keen piercing gaze of the other. It must have lasted
+a full minute, though it seemed to Mr. Temple it was five at
+the least. He made an attempt to offer his visitor a chair,
+but it was not noticed. David Spafford looked his man
+through and through, and knew him for exactly what he was.
+At last he spoke, quietly, in a tone that was too courteous to
+be contemptuous, but it humiliated the listener more even
+than contempt:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“It would be well for you to leave town at once.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">That was all. The listener felt that it was a command.
+His wrath arose hotly, and beat itself against the calm exterior
+of his visitor’s gaze in a look that was brazen enough
+to have faced a whole town of accusers. Harry Temple could
+look innocent and handsome when he chose.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I do not understand you, sir!�</span> he said. <span class="tei tei-q">“That is a
+most extraordinary statement!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“It would be well for you to leave town at once.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This time the command was imperative. Harry’s eyes
+blazed.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Why?�</span> He asked it with that impertinent tilt to his
+chin which usually angered his opponent in any argument.
+Once he could break that steady, iron, self-control he felt he
+would have the best of things. He could easily persuade
+David Spafford that everything was all right if he could get
+him off his guard and make him angry. An angry man could
+do little but bluster.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You understand very well,�</span> replied David, his voice still,
+steady and his gaze not swerving.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Indeed! Well, this is most extraordinary,�</span> said Harry,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page197"></span><a name="pg197" id="pg197" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+losing control of himself again. <span class="tei tei-q">“Of what do you accuse me,
+may I enquire?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Of nothing that your own heart does not accuse you,�</span>
+said David. And somehow there was more than human indignation
+in the gaze now: there was pity, a sense of shame
+for another soul who could lower himself to do unseemly
+things. Before that look the blood crept into Harry’s cheek
+again. An uncomfortable sensation entirely new was stealing
+over him. A sense of sin—no, not that exactly,—a sense
+that he had made a mistake, perhaps. He never was very
+hard upon himself even when the evidence was clear against
+him. It angered him to feel humiliated. What a fuss to
+make about a little thing! What a tiresome old cad to care
+about a little flirtation with his wife! He wished he had
+let the pretty baby alone entirely. She was of no finer stuff
+than many another who had accepted his advances with
+pleasure. He stiffened his neck and replied with much
+haughtiness:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“My heart accuses me of nothing, sir. I assure you I
+consider your words an insult! I demand satisfaction for
+your insulting language, sir!�</span> Harry Temple had never
+fought a duel, and had never been present when others fought,
+but that was the language in which a challenge was usually
+delivered in French novels.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“It is not a matter for discussion!�</span> said David Spafford,
+utterly ignoring the other’s blustering words. <span class="tei tei-q">“I am fully
+informed as to all that occurred yesterday afternoon, and I
+tell you once more, it would be well for you to leave town at
+once. I have nothing further to say.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David turned and walked toward the door, and Harry
+stood, ignored, angry, crestfallen, and watched him until he
+reached the door.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You would better ask your informant further of her part
+in the matter!�</span> he hissed, suddenly, an open sneer in his
+voice and a covert implication of deep meaning.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page198"></span><a name="pg198" id="pg198" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David turned, his face flashing with righteous indignation.
+The man who was withered by the scorn of that glance wished
+heartily that he had not uttered the false sentence. He felt
+the smallness of his own soul, during the instant of silence
+in which his visitor stood looking at him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then David spoke deliberately:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I knew you were a knave,�</span> said he, <span class="tei tei-q">“but I did not suppose
+you were also a coward. A man who is not a coward
+will not try to put the blame upon a woman, especially upon
+an innocent one. You, sir, will leave town this evening.
+Any business further than you can settle between this and
+that I will see properly attended to. I warn you, sir, it will
+be unwise for you to remain longer than till the evening
+coach.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Perfectly courteous were David’s tones, keen command was
+in his eye and determination in every line of his face. Harry
+could not recover himself to reply, could not master his
+frenzy of anger and humiliation to face the righteous look of
+his accuser. Before he realized it, David was gone.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He stood by the window and watched him go down the
+street with rapid, firm tread and upright bearing. Every
+line in that erect form spoke of determination. The conviction
+grew within him that the last words of his visitor were
+true, and that it would be wise for him to leave town. He
+rebelled at the idea. He did not wish to leave, for business
+matters were in such shape, or rather in such chaos, that it
+would be extremely awkward for him to meet his employers
+and explain his desertion at that time. Moreover there were
+several homes in the town open to him whenever he chose,
+where were many attractions. It was a lazy pleasant life he
+had been leading here, fully trusted, and wholly disloyal to
+the trust, troubled by no uneasy overseers, not even his own
+conscience, dined and smiled upon with lovely languishing
+eyes. He did not care to go, even though he had decried
+the town as dull and monotonous.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page199"></span><a name="pg199" id="pg199" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But, on the other hand, things had occurred—not the
+unfortunate little mistake of yesterday, of course, but others,
+more serious things—that he would hardly care to have
+brought to the light of day, especially through the keen sarcastic
+columns of David Spafford’s paper. He had seen other
+sinners brought to a bloodless retribution in those columns
+by dauntless weapons of sarcasm and wit which in David
+Spafford’s hands could be made to do valiant work. He
+did not care to be humiliated in that way. He could not
+brazen it out. He was convinced that the man meant what
+he said, and from what he knew of his influence he felt that
+he would leave no stone unturned till he had made the place
+too hot to hold him. Only Harry Temple himself knew how
+easy that would be to do, for no one else knew how many
+<span class="tei tei-q">“mistakes�</span> (?) Harry had made, and he, unfortunately
+for himself, did not know how many of them were not known,
+by any who could harm him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He stood a long time clinking some sixpences and shillings
+together in his pocket, and scowling down the street after
+David had disappeared from sight.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Blame that little pink-cheeked, baby-eyed fool!�</span> he said
+at last, turning on his heel with a sigh. <span class="tei tei-q">“I might have
+known she was too goody-goody. Such people ought to die
+young before they grow up to make fools of other people.
+Bah! Think of a wife like that with no spirit of her own.
+A baby! Merely a baby!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Nevertheless, in his secret heart, he knew he honored
+Marcia and felt a true shame that she had looked into his
+tarnished soul.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then he looked round about upon his papers that represented
+a whole week’s hard work and maybe more before they
+were cleared away, and reflected how much easier after all
+it would be to get up a good excuse and go away, leaving all
+this to some poor drudge who should be sent here in his place.
+He looked around again and his eyes lighted upon his book.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page200"></span><a name="pg200" id="pg200" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+He remembered the exciting crisis in which he had left the
+heroine and down he sat to his story again. At least there
+was nothing demanding attention this moment. He need not
+decide what he would do. If he went there were few preparations
+to make. He would toss some things into his carpet-bag
+and pretend to have been summoned to see a sick and dying
+relative, a long-lost brother or something. It would be easy
+to invent one when the time came. Then he could leave
+directions for the rest of his things to be packed if he did
+not return, and get rid of the trouble of it all. As for the
+letters, if he was going what use to bother with them? Let
+them wait till his successor should come. It mattered little
+to him whether his employers suffered for his negligence or
+not so long as he finished his story. Besides, it would not do
+to let that cad think he had frightened him. He would pretend
+he was not going, at least during his hours of grace.
+So he picked up his book and went on reading.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At noon he sauntered back to his boarding house as usual
+for his dinner, having professed an unusually busy morning
+to those who came in to the office on business and made appointments
+with them for the next day. This had brought
+him much satisfaction as the morning wore away and he was
+left free to his book, and so before dinner he had come to
+within a very few pages of the end.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">After a leisurely dinner he sauntered back to the office
+again, rejoicing in the fact that circumstances had so arranged
+themselves that he had passed David Spafford in front
+of the newspaper office and given him a most elaborate and
+friendly bow in the presence of four or five bystanders.
+David’s look in return had meant volumes, and decided Harry
+Temple to do as he had been ordered, not, of course, because
+he had been ordered to do so, but because it would be an
+easier thing to do. In fact he made up his mind that he
+was weary of this part of the country. He went back to his
+book.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page201"></span><a name="pg201" id="pg201" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">About the middle of the afternoon he finished the last
+pages. He rose up with alacrity then and began to think
+what he should do. He glanced around the room, sought out
+a few papers, took some daguerreotypes of girls from a drawer
+of his desk, gave a farewell glance around the dismal little
+room that had seen so much shirking for the past few
+months, and then went out and locked the door.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He paused at the corner. Which way should he go? He
+did not care to go back to the office, for his book was done,
+and he scarcely needed to go to his room at his boarding
+place yet either, for the afternoon was but half over and
+he wished his departure to appear to be entirely unpremeditated.
+A daring thought came into his head. He would
+walk past David Spafford’s house. He would let Marcia see
+him if possible. He would show them that he was not afraid
+in the least. He even meditated going in and explaining to
+Marcia that she had made a great mistake, that he had been
+merely admiring her, and that there was no harm in anything
+he had said or done yesterday, that he was exceedingly
+grieved and mortified that she should have mistaken his
+meaning for an insult, and so on and so on. He knew well
+how to make such honeyed talk when he chose, but the audacity
+of the thing was a trifle too much for even his bold
+nature, so he satisfied himself by strolling in a leisurely
+manner by the house.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When he was directly opposite to it he raised his eyes
+casually and bowed and smiled with his most graceful air.
+True, he did not see any one, for Marcia had caught sight of
+him as she was coming out upon the stoop and had fled into
+her own room with the door buttoned, she was watching
+unseen from behind the folds of her curtain, but he made the
+bow as complete as though a whole family had been greeting
+him from the windows. Marcia, poor child, thought he must
+see her, and she felt frozen to the spot, and stared wildly
+through the little fold of her curtain with trembling hands
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page202"></span><a name="pg202" id="pg202" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+and weak knees till he was passed. Well pleased at himself
+the young man walked on, knowing that at least three prominent
+citizens had seen him bow and smile, and that they would
+be witnesses, against anything David might say to the contrary,
+that he was on friendly terms with Mrs. Spafford.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah Heath was sitting on the front stoop with her
+knitting. She often sat there dressed daintily of an afternoon.
+Her hands were white and looked well against the
+blue yarn she was knitting. Besides there was something
+domestic and sentimental in a stocking. It gave a cosy,
+homey, air to a woman, Hannah considered. So she sat and
+knitted and smiled at whomsoever passed by, luring many in to
+sit and talk with her, so that the stockings never grew rapidly,
+but always kept at about the same stage. If it had been
+Miranda, Grandmother Heath would have made some sharp
+remarks about the length of time it took to finish that blue
+stocking, but as it was Hannah it was all right.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah sat upon the stoop and knitted as Harry Temple
+came by. Now, Hannah was not so great a favorite with
+Harry as Harry was with Hannah. She was of the kind who
+was conquered too easily, and he did not consider it worth his
+while to waste time upon her simperings usually. But this
+afternoon was different. He had nowhere to go for a little
+while, and Hannah’s appearance on the stoop was opportune
+and gave him an idea. He would lounge there with her.
+Perchance fortune would favor him again and David Spafford
+would pass by and see him. There would be one more
+opportunity to stare insolently at him and defy him, before
+he bent his neck to obey. David had given him the day in
+which to do what he would, and he would make no move
+until the time was over and the coach he had named departed,
+but he knew that then he would bring down retribution. In
+just what form that retribution would come he was not quite
+certain, but he knew it would be severe.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">So when Hannah smiled upon him, Harry Temple stepped
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page203"></span><a name="pg203" id="pg203" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+daintily across the mud in the road, and came and sat down
+beside her. He toyed with her knitting, caught one of her
+plump white hands, the one on the side away from the
+street, and held it, while Hannah pretended not to notice,
+and drooped her long eyelashes in a telling way. Hannah
+knew how. She had been at it a good many years.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">So he sat, toward five o’clock, when David came by, and
+bowed gravely to Hannah, but seemed not to see Harry.
+Harry let his eyes follow the tall figure in an insolent stare.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“What a dough-faced cad that man is!�</span> he said lazily,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“no wonder his little pink-cheeked wife seeks other society.
+Handsome baby, though, isn’t she?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah pricked up her ears. Her loss of David was too
+recent not to cause her extreme jealousy of his pretty young
+wife. Already she fairly hated her. Her upbringing in
+the atmosphere of Grandmother Heath’s sarcastic, ill-natured
+gossip had prepared her to be quick to see meaning in any
+insinuation.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She looked at him keenly, archly for a moment, then replied
+with drooping gaze and coquettish manner:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You should not blame any one for enjoying your company.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah stole sly glances to see how he took this, but Harry
+was an old hand and proof against such scrutiny. He only
+shrugged his shoulder carelessly, as though he dropped all
+blame like a garment that he had no need for.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“And what’s the matter with David?�</span> asked Hannah,
+watching David as he mounted his own steps, and thinking
+how often she had watched that tall form go down the street,
+and thought of him as destined to belong to her. The mortification
+that he had chosen some one else was not yet forgotten.
+It amounted almost to a desire for revenge.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Harry lingered longer than he intended. Hannah begged
+him to remain to supper, but he declined, and when she
+pressed him to do so he looked troubled and said he was
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page204"></span><a name="pg204" id="pg204" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+expecting a letter and must hurry back to see if it came in
+the afternoon coach. He told her that a dear friend, a
+beloved cousin, was lying very ill, and he might be summoned
+at any moment to his bedside, and Hannah said some comforting
+little things in a caressing voice, and hoped he would find
+the letter saying the cousin was better. Then he hurried
+away.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was easy at his boarding house to say he had been called
+away, and he rushed up to his room and threw some necessaries
+into his carpet-bag, scattering things around the room
+and helping out the impression that he was called away
+in a great hurry. When he was ready he looked at his
+watch. It was growing late. The evening coach left in
+half an hour. He knew its route well. It started at the
+village inn, and went down the old turnpike, stopping here
+and there to pick up passengers. There was always a convocation
+when it started. Perhaps David Spafford would be
+there and witness his obedience to the command given him.
+He set his lips and made up his mind to escape that at least.
+He would cheat his adversary of that satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It would involve a sacrifice. He would have to go without
+his supper, and he could smell the frying bacon coming up the
+stairs. But it would help the illusion and he could perhaps get
+something on the way when the coach stopped to change horses.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He rushed downstairs and told his landlady that he must
+start at once, as he must see a man before the coach went, and
+she, poor lady, had no chance to suggest that he leave her a
+little deposit on the sum of his board which he already owed
+her. There was perhaps some method in his hurry for that
+reason also. It always bothered him to pay his bills, he had
+so many other ways of spending his money.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">So he hurried away and caught a ride in a farm wagon
+going toward the Cross Roads. When it turned off he walked
+a little way until another wagon came along; finally crossed
+several fields at a breathless pace and caught the coach just as
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page205"></span><a name="pg205" id="pg205" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+it was leaving the Cross Roads, which was the last stopping
+place anywhere near the village. He climbed up beside the
+driver, still in a breathless condition, and detailed to him
+how he had received word, just before the coach started, by a
+messenger who came across-country on horseback, that his
+cousin was dying.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">After he had answered the driver’s minutest questions, he
+sat back and reflected upon his course with satisfaction. He
+was off, and he had not been seen nor questioned by a single
+citizen, and by to-morrow night his story as he had told it to
+the driver would be fully known and circulated through the
+place he had just left. The stage driver was one of the best
+means of advertisement. It was well to give him full particulars.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The driver after he had satisfied his curiosity about the
+young man by his side, and his reasons for leaving town so
+hastily, began to wax eloquent upon the one theme which now
+occupied his spare moments and his fluent tongue, the subject
+of a projected railroad. Whether some of the sentiments
+he uttered were his own, or whether he had but borrowed from
+others, they were at least uttered with force and apparent
+conviction, and many a traveller sat and listened as they were
+retailed and viewed the subject from the standpoint of the
+loud-mouthed coachman.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A little later Tony Weller, called by some one <span class="tei tei-q">“the best
+beloved of all coachmen,�</span> uttered much the same sentiments
+in the following words:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I consider that the railroad is unconstitutional and
+an invader o’ privileges. As to the comfort, as an old coachman I may
+say it,—vere’s the comfort o’ sittin’ in a harm-chair
+a lookin’ at brick walls, and heaps o’ mud, never comin’
+to a public ’ouse, never seein’ a glass o’ ale, never
+goin’
+through a pike, never meetin’ a change o’ no kind (hosses or
+otherwise), but always comin’ to a place, ven you comes to
+vun at all, the werry picter o’ the last.</span></p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page206"></span><a name="pg206" id="pg206" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“As to the honor an’ dignity o’ travellin’ vere can that
+be without a coachman, and vat’s the rail, to sich coachmen as
+is sometimes forced to go by it, but an outrage and an hinsult?
+As to the ingen, a nasty, wheezin’, gaspin’, puffin’,
+bustin’
+monster always out o’ breath, with a shiny green and gold
+back like an onpleasant beetle; as to the ingen as is always a
+pourin’ out red ’ot coals at night an’ black smoke in the day,
+the sensiblest thing it does, in my opinion, is ven there’s
+somethin’ in the vay, it sets up that ’ere frightful scream
+vich seems to say, ‘Now ’ere’s two ’undred an’ forty passengers
+in the werry greatest extremity o’ danger, an’ ’ere’s
+their two ’undred an’ forty screams in vun!’�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But such sentiments as these troubled Harry Temple not
+one whit. He cared not whether the present century had a
+railroad or whether it travelled by foot. He would not lift
+a white finger to help it along or hinder. As the talk went
+on he was considering how and where he might get his supper.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS18" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page207"></span><a name="pg207" id="pg207" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc36" id="toc36"></a>
+<a name="pdf37" id="pdf37"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XVIII</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The weather turned suddenly cold and raw that Fall, and
+almost in one day, the trees that had been green, or yellowing
+in the sunshine, put on their autumn garments of defeat,
+flaunted them for a brief hour, and dropped them early in
+despair. The pleasant woods, to which Marcia had fled in her
+dismay, became a mass of finely penciled branches against a
+wintry sky, save for the one group of tall pines that hung out
+heavy above the rest, and seemed to defy even snowy blasts.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia could see those pines from her kitchen window, and
+sometimes as she worked, if her heart was heavy, she would
+look out and away to them, and think of the day she laid her
+head down beneath them to sob out her trouble, and awoke to
+find comfort. Somehow the memory of that little talk that
+she and David had then grew into vast proportions in her
+mind, and she loved to cherish it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There had come letters from home. Her stepmother had
+written, a stiff, not unloving letter, full of injunctions to be
+sure to remember this, and not do that, and on no account to
+let any relative or neighbor persuade her out of the ways in
+which she had been brought up. She was attempting to do
+as many mothers do, when they see the faults in the child
+they have brought up, try to bring them up over again. At
+some of the sentences a wild homesickness took possession of
+her. Some little homely phrase about one of the servants,
+or the mention of a pet hen or cow, would bring the longing
+tears to her eyes, and she would feel that she must throw
+away this new life and run back to the old one.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">School was begun at home. Mary Ann and Hanford
+would be taking the long walk back and forth together twice
+a day to the old school-house. She half envied them their
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page208"></span><a name="pg208" id="pg208" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+happy, care-free life. She liked to think of the shy courting
+that she had often seen between scholars in the upper classes.
+Her imagination pleased itself sometimes when she was going
+to sleep, trying to picture out the school goings and home
+comings, and their sober talk. Not that she ever looked back
+to Hanford Weston with regret, not she. She knew always
+that he was not for her, and perhaps, even so early as that
+in her new life, if the choice had been given her whether she
+would go back to her girlhood again and be as she was before
+Kate had run away, or whether she would choose to stay here
+in the new life with David, it is likely she would have chosen
+to stay.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There were occasional letters from Squire Schuyler. He
+wrote of politics, and sent many messages to his son-in-law
+which Marcia handed over to David at the tea table to read,
+and which always seemed to soften David and bring a sweet
+sadness into his eyes. He loved and respected his father-in-law.
+It was as if he were bound to him by the love of some
+one who had died. Marcia thought of that every time she
+handed David a letter, and sat and watched him read it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Sometimes little Harriet or the boys printed out a few
+words about the family cat, or the neighbors’ children, and
+Marcia laughed and cried over the poor little attempts at
+letters and longed to have the eager childish faces of the
+writers to kiss.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But in all of them there was never a mention of the bright,
+beautiful, selfish girl around whom the old home life used
+to centre and who seemed now, judging from the home letters,
+to be worse than dead to them all. But since the afternoon
+upon the hill a new and pleasant intercourse had sprung up
+between David and Marcia. True it was confined mainly to
+discussions of the new railroad, the possibilities of its success,
+and the construction of engines, tracks, etc. David was constantly
+writing up the subject for his paper, and he fell into
+the habit of reading his articles aloud to Marcia when they
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page209"></span><a name="pg209" id="pg209" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+were finished. She would listen with breathless admiration,
+sometimes combating a point ably, with the old vim she had
+used in her discussion over the newspaper with her father,
+but mainly agreeing with every word he wrote, and always
+eager to understand it down to the minutest detail.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He always seemed pleased at her praise, and wrote on
+while she put away the tea-things with a contented expression
+as though he had passed a high critic, and need not fear any
+other. Once he looked up with a quizzical expression and
+made a jocose remark about <span class="tei tei-q">“our article,�</span> taking her into a
+sort of partnership with him in it, which set her heart to
+beating happily, until it seemed as if she were really in some
+part at least growing into his life.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But after all their companionship was a shy, distant one,
+more like that of a brother and sister who had been separated
+all their lives and were just beginning to get acquainted,
+and ever there was a settled sadness about the lines of David’s
+mouth and eyes. They sat around one table now, the evenings
+when they were at home, for there were still occasional
+tea-drinkings at their friends’ houses; and there was one
+night a week held religiously for a formal supper with the
+aunts, which David kindly acquiesced in—more for the sake
+of his Aunt Clarinda than the others,—whenever he was not
+detained by actual business. Then, too, there was the weekly
+prayer meeting held at <span class="tei tei-q">“early candle light�</span> in the dim old
+shadowed church. They always walked down the twilighted
+streets together, and it seemed to Marcia there was a sweet
+solemnity about that walk. They never said much to each
+other on the way. David seemed preoccupied with holy
+thoughts, and Marcia walked softly beside him as if he had
+been the minister, looking at him proudly and reverently now
+and then. David was often called upon to pray in meeting
+and Marcia loved to listen to his words. He seemed to be
+more intimate with God than the others, who were mostly
+old men and prayed with long, rolling, solemn sentences that
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page210"></span><a name="pg210" id="pg210" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+put the whole community down into the dust and ashes before
+their Creator.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia rather enjoyed the hour spent in the sombreness
+of the church, with the flickering
+<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E19" id="E19" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e19" class="tei tei-ref">candle light</a></span>
+making grotesque
+forms of shadows on the wall and among the tall pews.
+The old minister reminded her of the one she had left at
+home, though he was more learned and scholarly, and when
+he had read the Scripture passages he would take his spectacles
+off and lay them across the great Bible where the
+<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E20" id="E20" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e20" class="tei tei-ref">candle light</a></span>
+played at glances with the steel bows, and say:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Let us pray!�</span> Then would come that soft stir and hush
+as the people took the attitude of prayer. Marcia sometimes
+joined in the prayer in her heart, uttering shy little petitions
+that were vague and indefinite, and had to do mostly with
+the days when she was troubled and homesick, and felt that
+David belonged wholly to Kate. Always her clear voice
+joined in the slow hymns that quavered out now and again,
+lined out to the worshippers.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia and David went out from that meeting down the
+street to their home with the hush upon them that must have
+been upon the Israelites of old after they had been to the
+solemn congregation.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But once David had come in earlier than usual and had
+caught Marcia reading the Scottish Chiefs, and while she
+started guiltily to be found thus employed he smiled indulgently.
+After supper he said: <span class="tei tei-q">“Get your book, child, and
+sit down. I have some writing to do, and after it is done I
+will read it to you.�</span> So after that, more and more often,
+it was a book that Marcia held in her hands in the long evenings
+when they sat together, instead of some useful employment,
+and so her education progressed. Thus she read
+Epictetus, Rasselas, The Deserted Village, The Vicar of
+Wakefield, Paradise Lost, the Mysteries of the Human Heart,
+Marshall’s Life of Columbus, The Spy, The Pioneers, and
+The Last of the Mohicans.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page211"></span><a name="pg211" id="pg211" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She had been asked to sing in the village choir. David
+sang a sweet high tenor there, and Marcia’s voice was clear
+and strong as a blackbird’s, with the plaintive sweetness of
+the wood-robin’s.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah Heath was in the choir also, and jealously watched
+her every move, but of this Marcia was unaware until informed
+of it by Miranda. With her inherited sweetness of
+nature she scarcely credited it, until one Sunday, a few weeks
+after the departure of Harry Temple, Hannah leaned forward
+from her seat among the altos and whispered quite
+distinctly, so that those around could hear—it was just before
+the service—<span class="tei tei-q">“I’ve just had a letter from your friend Mr.
+Temple. I thought you might like to know that his cousin
+got well and he has gone back to New York. He won’t be
+returning here this year. On some accounts he thought it
+was better not.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was all said pointedly, with double emphasis upon the
+<span class="tei tei-q">“your friend,�</span> and <span class="tei tei-q">“some accounts.�</span> Marcia felt her cheeks
+glow, much to her vexation, and tried to control her whisper
+to seem kindly as she answered indifferently enough.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, indeed! But you must have made a mistake. Mr.
+Temple is a very slight acquaintance of mine. I have met
+him only a few times, and I know nothing about his cousin.
+I was not aware even that he had gone away.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah raised her speaking eyebrows and replied, quite
+loud now, for the choir leader had stood up already with his
+tuning-fork in hand, and one could hear it faintly twang:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Indeed!�</span>—using Marcia’s own word—and quite coldly,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“I should have thought differently from what Harry himself
+told me,�</span> and there was that in her tone which deepened
+the color in Marcia’s cheeks and caused it to stay there during
+the entire morning service as she sat puzzling over what
+Hannah could have meant. It rankled in her mind during
+the whole day. She longed to ask David about it, but could
+not get up the courage.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page212"></span><a name="pg212" id="pg212" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She could not bear to revive the memory of what seemed to
+be her shame. It was at the minister’s donation party that
+Hannah planted another thorn in her heart,—Hannah, in a
+green plaid silk with delicate undersleeves of lace, and a tiny
+black velvet jacket.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She selected a time when Lemuel was near, and when Aunt
+Amelia and Aunt Hortense, who believed that all the young
+men in town were hovering about David’s wife, sat one on
+either side of Marcia, as if to guard her for their beloved
+nephew—who was discussing politics with Mr. Heath—and
+who never seemed to notice, so blind he was in his trust of
+her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">So Hannah paused and posed before the three ladies, and
+with Lemuel smiling just at her elbow, began in her affected
+way:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I’ve had another letter from New York, from your friend
+Mr. Temple,�</span> she said it with the slightest possible glance
+over her shoulder to get the effect of her words upon the
+faithful Lemuel, <span class="tei tei-q">“and he tells me he has met a sister of yours.
+By the way, she told him that David used to be very fond
+of her before she was married. I suppose she’ll be coming
+to visit you now she’s so near as New York.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Two pairs of suspicious steely eyes flew like stinging insects
+to gaze upon her, one on either side, and Marcia’s heart stood
+still for just one instant, but she felt that here was her trying
+time, and if she would help David and do the work for which
+she had become his wife, she must protect him now from any
+suspicions or disagreeable tongues. By very force of will she
+controlled the trembling of her lips.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“My sister will not likely visit us this winter, I think,�</span>
+she replied as coolly as if she had had a letter to that effect
+that morning, and then she deliberately looked at Lemuel
+Skinner and asked if he had heard of the offer of prizes of
+four thousand dollars in cash that the Baltimore and Ohio
+railroad had just made for the most approved engine delivered
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page213"></span><a name="pg213" id="pg213" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+for trial before June first, 1831, not to exceed three and
+a half tons in weight and capable of drawing, day by day,
+fifteen tons inclusive of weight of wagons, fifteen miles
+per hour. Lemuel looked at her blankly and said he had not
+heard of it. He was engaged in thinking over what Hannah
+had said about a letter from Harry Temple. He cared nothing
+about railroads.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“The second prize is thirty-five hundred dollars,�</span> stated
+Marcia eagerly, as though it were of the utmost importance
+to her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Are you thinking of trying for one of the prizes?�</span>
+sneered Hannah, piercing her with her eyes, and now indeed
+the ready color flowed into Marcia’s face. Her ruse had been
+detected.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“If I were a man and understood machinery I believe I
+would. What a grand thing it would be to be able to invent
+a thing like an engine that would be of so much use to the
+world,�</span> she answered bravely.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“They are most dangerous machines,�</span> said Aunt Amelia
+disapprovingly. <span class="tei tei-q">“No right-minded Christian who wishes to
+live out the life his Creator has given him would ever ride
+behind one. I have heard that boilers always explode.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“They are most unnecessary!�</span> said Aunt Hortense
+severely, as if that settled the question for all time and all
+railroad corporations.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But Marcia was glad for once of their disapproval and
+entered most heartily into a discussion of the pros and cons
+of engines and steam, quoting largely from David’s last
+article for the paper on the subject, until Hannah and
+Lemuel moved slowly away. The discussion served to keep
+the aunts from inquiring further that evening about the sister
+in New York.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia begged them to go with her into the kitchen and see
+the store of good things that had been brought to the minister’s
+house by his loving parishioners. Bags of flour and
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page214"></span><a name="pg214" id="pg214" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+meal, pumpkins, corn in the ear, eggs, and nice little pats
+of butter. A great wooden tub of doughnuts, baskets of
+apples and quinces, pounds of sugar and tea, barrels of
+potatoes, whole hams, a side of pork, a quarter of beef, hanks
+of yarn, and strings of onions. It was a goodly array.
+Marcia felt that the minister must be beloved by his people.
+She watched him and his wife as they greeted their people,
+and wished she knew them better, and might come and see
+them sometimes, and perhaps eventually feel as much at home
+with them as with her own dear minister.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She avoided Hannah during the remainder of the evening.
+When the evening was over and she went upstairs to get
+her wraps from the high four-poster bedstead, she had almost
+forgotten Hannah and her ill-natured, prying remarks. But
+Hannah had not forgotten her. She came forth from behind
+the bed curtains where she had been searching for a lost
+glove, and remarked that she should think Marcia would be
+lonely this first winter away from home and want her sister
+with her a while.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But the presence of Hannah always seemed a mental
+stimulus to the spirit of Marcia.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, I’m not in the least lonely,�</span> she laughed merrily.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“I have a great many interesting things to do, and I love
+music and books.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, yes, I forgot you are very fond of music. Harry
+Temple told me about it,�</span> said Hannah. Again there was
+that disagreeable hint of something more behind her words,
+that aggravated Marcia almost beyond control. For an instant
+a cutting reply was upon her lips and her eyes flashed
+fire; then it came to her how futile it would be, and she
+caught the words in time and walked swiftly down the stairs.
+David watching her come down saw the admiring glances of
+all who stood in the hall below, and took her under his protection
+with a measure of pride in her youth and beauty that
+he did not himself at all realize. All the way home he talked
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page215"></span><a name="pg215" id="pg215" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+with her about the new theory of railroad construction, quite
+contented in her companionship, while she, poor child, much
+perturbed in spirit, wondered how he would feel if he knew
+what Hannah had said.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David fell into a deep study with a book and his papers
+about him, after they had reached home. Marcia went up to
+her quiet, lonely chamber, put her face in the pillow and
+thought and wept and prayed. When at last she lay down to
+rest she did not know anything she could do but just to go
+on living day by day and helping David all she could. At
+most there was nothing to fear for herself, save a kind of
+shame that she had not been the first sister chosen, and she
+found to her surprise that that was growing to be deeper than
+she had supposed.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She wished as she fell asleep that her girl-dreams might
+have been left to develop and bloom like other girls’, and that
+she might have had a real lover,—like David in every way,
+yet of course not David because he was Kate’s. But a real
+lover who would meet her as David had done that night
+when he thought she was Kate, and speak to her tenderly.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">One afternoon David, being wearied with an unusual round
+of taxing cares, came home to rest and study up some question
+in his library.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Finding the front door fastened, and remembering that
+he had left his key in his other pocket, he came around to the
+back door, and much preoccupied with thought went through
+the kitchen and nearly to the hall before the unusual sounds
+of melody penetrated to his ears. He stopped for an instant
+amazed, forgetting the piano, then comprehending he wondered
+who was playing. Perhaps some visitor was in the
+parlor. He would listen and find out. He was weary and
+dusty with the soil of the office upon his hands and clothes.
+He did not care to meet a visitor, so under cover of the
+music he slipped into the door of his library across the hall
+from the parlor and dropped into his great arm-chair.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page216"></span><a name="pg216" id="pg216" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Softly and tenderly stole the music through the open door,
+all about him, like the gentle dropping of some tender psalms
+or comforting chapter in the Bible to an aching heart. It
+touched his brow like a soft soothing hand, and seemed to
+know and recognize all the agonies his heart had been passing
+through, and all the weariness his body felt.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He put his head back and let it float over him and rest him.
+Tinkling brooks and gentle zephyrs, waving of forest trees,
+and twitterings of birds, calm lazy clouds floating by, a sweetness
+in the atmosphere, bells far away, lowing herds, music
+of the angels high in heaven, the soothing strain from each
+extracted and brought to heal his broken heart. It fell like
+dew upon his spirit. Then, like a fresh breeze with zest
+and life borne on, came a new strain, grand and fine and high,
+calling him to better things. He did not know it was a strain
+of Handel’s music grown immortal, but his spirit recognized
+the higher call, commanding him to follow, and straightway
+he felt strengthened to go onward in the course he had been
+pursuing. Old troubles seemed to grow less, anguish fell
+away from him. He took new lease of life. Nothing seemed
+impossible.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then she played by ear one or two of the old tunes they
+sang in church, touching the notes tenderly and almost
+making them speak the words. It seemed a benediction.
+Suddenly the playing ceased and Marcia remembered it was
+nearly supper time.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He met her in the doorway with a new look in his eyes, a
+look of high purpose and exultation. He smiled upon her
+and said: <span class="tei tei-q">“That was good, child. I did not know you could
+do it. You must give it to us often.�</span> Marcia felt a glow
+of pleasure in his kindliness, albeit she felt that the look in
+his eyes set him apart and above her, and made her feel the
+child she was. She hurried out to get the supper between
+pleasure and a nameless unrest. She was glad of this much,
+but she wanted more, a something to meet her soul and satisfy.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS19" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page217"></span><a name="pg217" id="pg217" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc38" id="toc38"></a>
+<a name="pdf39" id="pdf39"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XIX</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The world had not gone well with Mistress Kate Leavenworth,
+and she was ill-pleased. She had not succeeded in
+turning her father’s heart toward herself as she had confidently
+expected to do when she ran away with her sea captain.
+She had written a gay letter home, taking for granted, in a
+pretty way, the forgiveness she did not think it necessary to
+ask, but there had come in return a brief harsh statement from
+her father that she was no longer his daughter and must cease
+from further communication with the family in any way;
+that she should never enter his house again and not a penny
+of his money should ever pass to her. He also informed her
+plainly that the trousseau made for her had been given to her
+sister who was now the wife of the man she had not seen fit
+to marry.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Over this letter Mistress Kate at first stormed, then wept,
+and finally sat down to frame epistle after epistle in petulant,
+penitent language. These epistles following each other by
+daily mail coaches still brought nothing further from her
+irate parent, and my lady was at last forced to face the fact
+that she must bear the penalty of her own misdeeds; a lesson
+she should have learned much earlier in life.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The young captain, who had always made it appear that
+he had plenty of money, had spent his salary, and most of
+his mother’s fortune, which had been left in his keeping as
+administrator of his father’s estate; so he had really very
+little to offer the spoiled and petted beauty, who simply
+would not settle down to the inevitable and accept the fate
+she had brought upon herself and others. Day after day she
+fretted and blamed her husband until he heartily wished her
+back from whence he had taken her; wished her back with
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page218"></span><a name="pg218" id="pg218" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+her straitlaced lover from whom he had stolen her; wished
+her anywhere save where she was. Her brightness and beauty
+seemed all gone: she was a sulky child insisting upon the
+moon or nothing. She waited to go to New York and be
+established in a fine house with plenty of servants and a
+carriage and horses, and the young captain had not the wherewithal
+to furnish these accessories to an elegant and luxurious
+life.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He had loved her so far as his shallow nature could love,
+and perhaps she had returned it in the beginning. He
+wanted to spend his furlough in quiet places where he might
+have a honeymoon of his ideal, bantering Kate’s sparkling
+sentences, looking into her beautiful eyes, touching her rosy
+lips with his own as often as he chose. But Mistress Kate
+had lost her sparkle. She would not be kissed until she had
+gained her point, her lovely eyes were full of disfiguring
+tears and angry flashes, and her speech scintillated with cutting
+sarcasms, which were none the less hard to bear that
+they pressed home some disagreeable truths to the easy, careless
+spendthrift. The rose had lost its dew and was making
+its thorns felt.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And so they quarreled through their honeymoon, and
+Captain Leavenworth was not sorry when a hasty and unexpected
+end came to his furlough and he was ordered off with
+his ship for an indefinite length of time.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Even then Kate thought to get her will before he left, and
+held on her sullen ways and her angry, blameful talk until the
+last minute, so that he hurried away without even one good-bye
+kiss, and with her angry sentences sounding in his ears.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">True, he repented somewhat on board the ship and sent her
+back more money than she could reasonably have expected
+under the circumstances, but he sent it without one word of
+gentleness, and Kate’s heart was hard toward her husband.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then with bitterness and anguish,—that was new and
+fairly astonishing that it had come to her who had always
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page219"></span><a name="pg219" id="pg219" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+had her way,—she sat down to think of the man she had
+jilted. He would have been kind to her. He would have
+given her all she asked and more. He would even have
+moved his business to New York to please her, she felt sure.
+Why had she been so foolish! And then, like many another
+sinner who is made at last to see the error of his ways, she
+cast hard thoughts at a Fate which had allowed her to make
+so great a mistake, and pitied her poor little self out of all
+recognition of the character she had formed.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But she took her money and went to New York, for she
+felt that there only could she be at all happy, and have some
+little taste of the delights of true living.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She took up her abode with an ancient relative of her
+own mother’s, who lived in a quiet respectable part of the
+city, and who was glad to piece out her small annuity with
+the modest sum that Kate agreed to pay for her board.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was not long before Mistress Kate, with her beautiful
+face, and the pretty clothes which she took care to provide
+at once for herself, spending lavishly out of the diminishing
+sum her husband had sent her, and thinking not of the
+morrow, nor the day when the board bills would be due,
+became well known. The musty little parlor of the ancient
+relative was daily filled with visitors, and every evening Kate
+held court, with the old aunt nodding in her chair by the
+fireside.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Neither did the poor old lady have a very easy time of it,
+in spite of the promise of weekly pay. Kate laughed at the
+old furniture and the old ways. She demanded new things,
+and got them, too, until the old lady saw little hope of any
+help from the board money when Kate was constantly saying:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“I saw this in a shop down town, auntie, and as I knew you
+needed it I just bought it. My board this week will just pay
+for it.�</span> As always, Kate ruled. The little parlor took on an
+air of brightness, and Kate became popular. A few women
+of fashion took her up, and Kate launched herself upon a
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page220"></span><a name="pg220" id="pg220" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+gay life, her one object to have as good a time as possible,
+regardless of what her husband or any one else might think.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When Kate had been in New York about two months it
+happened one day that she went out to drive with one of her
+new acquaintances, a young married woman of about her own
+age, who had been given all in a worldly way that had been
+denied to Kate.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They made some calls in Brooklyn, and returned on the
+ferry-boat, carriage and all, just as the sun was setting.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The view was marvellous. The water a flood of pink and
+green and gold; the sails of the vessels along the shore lit
+up resplendently; the buildings of the city beyond sent back
+occasional flashes of reflected light from window glass or
+church spire. It was a picture worth looking upon, and
+Kate’s companion was absorbed in it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Not so Kate. She loved display above all things. She sat
+up statelily, aware that she looked well in her new frock with
+the fine lace collar she had extravagantly purchased the day
+before, and her leghorn bonnet with its real ostrich feather,
+which was becoming in the extreme. She enjoyed sitting
+back of the colored coachman, her elegant friend by her side,
+and being admired by the two ladies and the little girl who
+sat in the ladies’ cabin and occasionally peeped curiously at
+her from the window. She drew herself up haughtily and let
+her soul <span class="tei tei-q">“delight itself in fatness�</span>—borrowed fatness, perhaps,
+but still, the long desired. She told herself she had a
+right to it, for was she not a Schuyler? That name was respected
+everywhere.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She bore a grudge at a man and woman who stood by
+the railing absorbed in watching the sunset haze that lay
+over the river showing the white sails in gleams like
+flashes of white birds here and there.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A young man well set up, and fashionably attired, sauntered
+up to the carriage. He spoke to Kate’s friend, and was
+introduced. Kate felt in her heart it was because of her
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page221"></span><a name="pg221" id="pg221" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+presence there he came. His bold black eyes told her as much
+and she was flattered.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They fell to talking.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You say you spent the summer near Albany, Mr. Temple,�</span>
+said Kate presently, <span class="tei tei-q">“I wonder if you happen to know
+any of my friends. Did you meet a Mr. Spafford? David
+Spafford?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Of course I did, knew him well,�</span> said the young man
+with guarded tone. But a quick flash of dislike, and perhaps
+fear had crossed his face at the name. Kate was keen. She
+analyzed that look. She parted her charming red lips and
+showed her sharp little teeth like the treacherous pearls in a
+white kitten’s pink mouth.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“He was once a lover of mine,�</span> said Kate carelessly,
+wrinkling her piquant little nose as if the idea were comical,
+and laughing out a sweet ripple of mirth that would have
+cut David to the heart.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Indeed!�</span> said the ever ready Harry, <span class="tei tei-q">“and I do not
+wonder. Is not every one that at once they see you, Madam
+Leavenworth? How kind of your husband to stay away
+at sea for so long a time and give us other poor fellows
+a chance to say pleasant things.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then Kate pouted her pretty lips in a way she had and
+tapped the delighted Harry with her carriage parasol across
+the fingers of his hand that had taken familiar hold of the
+carriage beside her arm.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, you naughty man!�</span> she exclaimed prettily. <span class="tei tei-q">“How
+dare you! Yes, David Spafford and I were quite good
+friends. I almost gave in at one time and became Mrs.
+Spafford, but he was too good for me!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She uttered this truth in a mocking tone, and Harry saw
+her lead and hastened to follow. Here was a possible chance
+for revenge. He was ready for any. He studied the lady
+before him keenly. Of what did that face remind him?
+Had he ever seen her before?</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page222"></span><a name="pg222" id="pg222" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I should judge him a little straitlaced for your merry
+ways,�</span> he responded gallantly, <span class="tei tei-q">“but he’s like all the rest,
+fickle, you know. He’s married. Have you heard?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate’s face darkened with something hard and cruel, but
+her voice was soft as a cat’s purr:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Yes,�</span> she sighed, <span class="tei tei-q">“I know. He married my sister.
+Poor child! I am sorry for her. I think he did it out of
+revenge, and she was too young to know her own mind.
+But they, poor things, will have to bear the consequences of
+what they have done. Isn’t it a pity that that has to be,
+Mr. Temple? It is dreadful to have the innocent suffer. I
+have been greatly anxious about my sister.�</span> She lifted her
+large eyes swimming in tears, and he did not perceive the
+insincerity in her purring voice just then. He was thanking
+his lucky stars that he had been saved from any remarks
+about young Mrs. Spafford, whom her sister seemed to love
+so deeply. It had been on the tip of his tongue to suggest
+that she might be able to lead her husband a gay little dance
+if she chose. How lucky he had not spoken! He tried to
+say some pleasant comforting nothings, and found it delightful
+to see her face clear into smiles and her blue eyes look
+into his so confidingly. By the time the boat touched the
+New York side the two felt well acquainted, and Harry
+Temple had promised to call soon, which promise he lost no
+time in keeping.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate’s heart had grown bitter against the young sister who
+had dared to take her place, and against the lover who had so
+easily solaced himself. She could not understand it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She resolved to learn all that Mr. Temple knew about
+David, and to find out if possible whether he were happy. It
+was Kate’s nature not to be able to give up anything even
+though she did not want it. She desired the life-long devotion
+of every man who came near her, and have it she would
+or punish him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Harry Temple, meanwhile, was reflecting upon his chance
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page223"></span><a name="pg223" id="pg223" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+meeting that afternoon and wondering if in some way he
+might not yet have revenge upon the man who had humbled
+him. Possibly this woman could help him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">After some thought he sat down and penned a letter to
+Hannah Heath, begemming it here and there with devoted
+sentences which caused that young woman’s eyes to sparkle
+and a smile of anticipation to wreathe her lips. When she
+heard of the handsome sister in New York, and of her former
+relations with David Spafford, her eyes narrowed speculatively,
+and her fair brow drew into puzzled frowns. Harry Temple
+had drawn a word picture of Mrs. Leavenworth. Harry
+should have been a novelist. If he had not been too lazy he
+would have been a success. Gold hair! Ah! Hannah had
+heard of gold hair before, and in connection with David’s
+promised wife. Here was a mystery and Hannah resolved
+to look into it. It would at least be interesting to note the
+effect of her knowledge upon the young bride next door. She
+would try it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Meantime, the acquaintance of Harry Temple and Kate
+Leavenworth had progressed rapidly. The second sight of
+the lady proved more interesting than the first, for now her
+beautiful gold hair added to the charm of her handsome face.
+Harry ever delighted in beauty of whatever type, and a blonde
+was more fascinating to him than a brunette. Kate had
+dressed herself bewitchingly, and her manner was charming.
+She knew how to assume pretty child-like airs, but she was not
+afraid to look him boldly in the eyes, and the light in her
+own seemed to challenge him. Here was a delightful new
+study. A woman fresh from the country, having all the
+charm of innocence, almost as child-like as her sister, yet with
+none of her prudishness. Kate’s eyes held latent wickedness
+in them, or he was much mistaken. She did not droop her
+lids and blush when he looked boldly and admiringly into
+her face, but stared him back, smilingly, merrily, daringly,
+as though she would go quite as far as he would. Moreover,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page224"></span><a name="pg224" id="pg224" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+with her he was sure he need feel none of the compunctions
+he might have felt with her younger sister who was so
+obviously innocent, for whether Kate’s boldness was from
+lack of knowledge, or from lack of innocence, she was quite
+able to protect herself, that was plain.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">So Harry settled into his chair with a smile of pleasant
+anticipation upon his face. He not only had the prospect
+before him of a possible ally in revenge against David Spafford,
+but he had the promise of a most unusually delightful
+flirtation with a woman who was worthy of his best efforts in
+that line.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Almost at once it began, with pleasant banter, adorned
+with personal compliments.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Lovelier than I thought, my lady,�</span> said Harry, bowing low
+over the hand she gave him, in a courtly manner he had
+acquired, perhaps from the old-world novels he had read,
+and he brushed her pink finger tips with his lips in a way
+that signified he was her abject slave.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate blushed and smiled, greatly pleased, for though
+she had held her own little court in the village where she
+was brought up, and queened it over the young men who had
+flocked about her willingly, she had not been used to the
+fulsome flattery that breathed from Harry Temple in every
+word and glance.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He looked at her keenly as he stood back a moment, to see
+if she were in any wise offended with his salutation, and
+saw as he expected that she was pleased and flattered. Her
+cheeks had grown rosier, and her eyes sparkled with pleasure
+as she responded with a pretty, gracious speech.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then they sat down and faced one another. A good woman
+would have called his look impudent—insulting. Kate returned
+it with a look that did not shrink, nor waver, but fearlessly,
+recklessly accepted the challenge. Playing with fire,
+were these two, and with no care for the fearful results which
+might follow. Both knew it was dangerous, and liked it the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page225"></span><a name="pg225" id="pg225" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+better for that. There was a long silence. The game was
+opening on a wider scale than either had ever played before.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Do you believe in affinities?�</span> asked the devil, through
+the man’s voice.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The woman colored and showed she understood his deeper
+meaning. Her eyes drooped for just the shade of an instant,
+and then she looked up and faced him saucily, provokingly:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Why?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He admired her with his gaze, and waited, lazily watching
+the color play in her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Do you need to ask why?�</span> he said at last, looking at
+her significantly. <span class="tei tei-q">“I knew that you were my affinity the
+moment I laid my eyes upon you, and I hoped you felt the
+same. But perhaps I was mistaken.�</span> He searched her face.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She kept her eyes upon his, returning their full gaze, as
+if to hold it from going too deep into her soul.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I did not say you were mistaken, did I?�</span> said the rosy
+lips coquettishly, and Kate drooped her long lashes till they
+fell in becoming sweeps over her burning cheeks.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Something in the curve of cheek and chin, and sweep of
+dark lash over velvet skin, reminded him of her sister. It was
+so she had sat, though utterly unconscious, while he had been
+singing, when there had come over him that overwhelming
+desire to kiss her. If he should kiss this fair lady would
+she slap him in the face and run into the garden? He
+thought not. Still, she was brought up by the same father
+and mother in all likelihood, and it was well to go slow.
+He reached forward, drawing his chair a little nearer to her,
+and then boldly took one of her small unresisting hands,
+gently, that he might not frighten her, and smoothed it
+thoughtfully between his own. He held it in a close grasp
+and looked into her face again, she meanwhile watching her
+hand amusedly, as though it were something apart from
+herself, a sort of distant possession, for which she was in no
+wise responsible.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page226"></span><a name="pg226" id="pg226" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I feel that you belong to me,�</span> he said boldly looking into
+her eyes with a languishing gaze. <span class="tei tei-q">“I have known it from
+the first moment.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate let her hand lie in his as if she liked it, but she said:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“And what makes you think that, most audacious sir?
+Did you not know that I am married?�</span> Then she swept
+her gaze up provokingly at him again and smiled, showing
+her dainty, treacherous, little teeth. She was so bewitchingly
+pretty and tempting then that he had a mind to kiss her on
+the spot, but a thought came to him that he would rather
+lead her further first. He was succeeding well. She had
+no mind to be afraid. She did her part admirably.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“That makes no difference,�</span> said he smiling. <span class="tei tei-q">“That
+another man has secured you first, and has the right to provide
+for you, and be near you, is my misfortune of course, but it
+makes no difference, you are mine? By all the power of
+love you are mine. Can any other man keep my soul from
+yours, can he keep my eyes from looking into yours, or my
+thoughts from hovering over you, or—�</span> he hesitated and
+looked at her keenly, while she furtively watched him, holding
+her breath and half inviting him—<span class="tei tei-q">“or my lips from
+drinking life from yours?�</span> He stooped quickly and pressed
+his lips upon hers.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate gave a quick little gasp like a sob and drew back.
+The aunt nodding over her Bible in the next room had not
+heard,—she was very deaf,—but for an instant the young
+woman felt that all the shades of her worthy patriarchal
+ancestors were hurrying around and away from her in horror.
+She had come of too good Puritan stock not to know that
+she was treading in the path of unrighteousness. Nevertheless
+it was a broad path, and easy. It tempted her. It was
+exciting. It lured her with promise of satisfying some of
+her untamed longings and impulses.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She did not look offended. She only drew back to get
+breath and consider. The wild beating of her heart, the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page227"></span><a name="pg227" id="pg227" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+tumult of her cheeks and eyes were all a part of a new emotion.
+Her vanity was excited, and she thrilled with a wild
+pleasure. As a duck will take to swimming so she took to the
+new game, with wonderful facility.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“But I didn’t say you might,�</span> she cried with a bewildering
+smile.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I beg your pardon, fair lady, may I have another?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">His bold, bad face was near her own, so that she did not
+see the evil triumph that lurked there. She had come to
+the turning of another way in her life, and just here she
+might have drawn back if she would. Half she knew this,
+yet she toyed with the opportunity, and it was gone. The
+new way seemed so alluring.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You will first have to prove your right!�</span> she said decidedly,
+with that pretty commanding air that had conquered
+so many times.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And in like manner on they went through the evening, frittering
+the time away at playing with edged tools.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A friendship so begun—if so unworthy an intimacy may
+be called by that sweet name—boded no good to either of the
+two, and that evening marked a decided turn for the worse
+in Kate Leavenworth’s career.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS20" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page228"></span><a name="pg228" id="pg228" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc40" id="toc40"></a>
+<a name="pdf41" id="pdf41"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XX</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David had found it necessary to take a journey which
+might keep him away for several weeks.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He told Marcia in the evening when he came home from
+the office. He told her as he would have told his clerk. It
+meant nothing to him but an annoyance that he had to
+start out in the early winter, leave his business in other’s
+hands for an indefinite period, and go among strangers. He
+did not see the whitening of Marcia’s lips, nor the quick little
+movement of her hand to her heart. Even Marcia herself
+did not realize all that it meant to her. She felt as if a
+sudden shock had almost knocked her off her feet. This
+quiet life in the big house, with only David at intervals to
+watch and speak to occasionally, and no one to open her true
+heart to, had been lonely; and many a time when she was
+alone at night she had wept bitter tears upon her pillow,—why
+she did not quite know. But now when she knew that
+it was to cease, and David was going away from her for a
+long time, perhaps weeks, her heart suddenly tightened
+and she knew how sweet it had been growing. Almost
+the tears came to her eyes, but she made a quick errand to
+the hearth for the teapot, busying herself there till they were
+under control again. When she returned to her place at the
+table she was able to ask David some commonplace question
+about the journey which kept her true feeling quite hidden
+from him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He was to start the next evening if possible. It appeared
+that there was something important about railroading coming
+up in Congress. It was necessary that he should be
+present to hear the debate, and also that he should see and
+interview influential men. It meant much to the success of
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page229"></span><a name="pg229" id="pg229" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+the great new enterprises that were just in their infancy
+that he should go and find out all about them and write
+them up as only he whose heart was in it could do. He
+was pleased to have been selected for this; he was lifted for
+the time above himself and his life troubles, and given to feel
+that he had a work in the world that was worth while, a high
+calling, a chance to give a push to the unrolling of the secret
+possibilities of the universe and help them on their way.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia understood it all, and was proud and glad for him,
+but her own heart which beat in such perfect sympathy with
+the work felt lonely and left out. If only she could have
+helped too!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was no time for David to take Marcia to her home
+to stay during his absence. He spoke of it regretfully just
+as he was about to leave, and asked if she would like him
+to get some one to escort her by coach to her father’s house
+until he could come for her; but she held back the tears by
+main force and shook her head. She had canvassed that
+question in the still hours of the night. She had met in
+imagination the home village with its kindly and unkindly
+curiosity, she had seen their hands lifted in suspicion; heard
+their covert whispers as to why her husband did not come
+with her; why he had left her so soon after the honeymoon;
+why—a hundred things. She had even thought of Aunt
+Polly and her acrid tongue and made up her mind that whatever
+happened she did not want to go home to stay.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The only other alternative was to go to the aunts. David
+expected it, and the aunts spoke of it as if nothing else were
+possible. Marcia would have preferred to remain alone in
+her own house, with her beloved piano, but David would not
+consent, and the aunts were scandalized at the suggestion. So
+to the aunts went Marcia, and they took her in with a hope
+in their hearts that she might get the same good from the
+visit that the sluggard in the Bible is bidden to find.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“We must do our duty by her for David’s sake,�</span> said
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page230"></span><a name="pg230" id="pg230" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+Aunt Hortense, with pursed lips and capable, folded hands
+that seemed fairly to ache to get at the work of reconstructing
+the new niece.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Yes, it is our opportunity,�</span> said Aunt Amelia with a
+snap as though she thoroughly enjoyed the prospect. <span class="tei tei-q">“Poor
+David!�</span> and so they sat and laid out their plans for their
+sweet young victim, who all unknowingly was coming to one
+of those tests in her life whereby we are tried for greater
+things and made perfect in patience and sweetness.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It began with the first breakfast—the night before she had
+been company, at supper—but when the morning came they
+felt she must be counted one of the family. They examined
+her thoroughly on what she had been taught with regard to
+housekeeping. They made her tell her recipes for pickling
+and preserving. They put her through a catechism of culinary
+lore, and always after her most animated account of the
+careful way in which she had been trained in this or that
+housewifely art she looked up with wistful eyes that longed
+to please, only to be met by the hard set lips and steely
+glances of the two mentors who regretted that she should not
+have been taught their way which was so much better.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Aunt Hortense even went so far once as to suggest that
+Marcia write to her stepmother and tell her how much
+better it was to salt the water in which potatoes were to be
+boiled before putting them in, and was much offended by
+the clear girlish laugh that bubbled up involuntarily at the
+thought of teaching her stepmother anything about cooking.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Excuse me,�</span> she said, instantly sobering as she saw the
+grim look of the aunt, and felt frightened at what she had
+done. <span class="tei tei-q">“I did not mean to laugh, indeed I did not; but
+it seemed so funny to think of my telling mother how to do
+anything.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“People are never too old to learn,�</span> remarked Aunt Hortense
+with offended mien, <span class="tei tei-q">“and one ought never to be too
+proud when there is a better way.�</span></p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page231"></span><a name="pg231" id="pg231" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“But mother thinks there is no better way I am sure.
+She says that it makes potatoes soggy to boil them in salt.
+All that grows below the ground should be salted after it
+is cooked and all that grows above the ground should be
+cooked in salted water, is her rule.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I am surprised that your stepmother should uphold any
+such superstitious ideas,�</span> said Aunt Amelia with a self-satisfied
+expression.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“One should never be too proud to learn something better,�</span>
+Aunt Hortense said grimly, and Marcia retreated in dire
+consternation at the thought of what might follow if these
+three notable housekeeping gentlewomen should come together.
+Somehow she felt a wicked little triumph in the
+thought that it would be hard to down her stepmother.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia was given a few light duties ostensibly to <span class="tei tei-q">“make
+her feel at home,�</span> but in reality, she knew, because the aunts
+felt she needed their instruction. She was asked if she
+would like to wash the china and glass; and regularly after
+each meal a small wooden tub and a mop were brought in
+with hot water and soap, and she was expected to handle the
+costly heirlooms under the careful scrutiny of their worshipping
+owners, who evidently watched each process with
+strained nerves lest any bit of treasured pottery should be
+cracked or broken. It was a trying ordeal.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The girl would have been no girl if she had not chafed
+under this treatment. To hold her temper steady and sweet
+under it was almost more than she could bear.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There were long afternoons when it was decreed that they
+should knit.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia had been used to take long walks at home, over
+the smooth crust of the snow, going to her beloved woods,
+where she delighted to wander among the bare and creaking
+trees; fancying them whispering sadly to one another of the
+summer that was gone and the leaves they had borne now
+dead. But it would be a dreadful thing in the aunts’ opinion
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page232"></span><a name="pg232" id="pg232" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+for a woman, and especially a young one, to take a long walk
+in the woods alone, in winter too, and with no object whatever
+in view but a walk! What a waste of time!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There were two places of refuge for Marcia during the
+weeks that followed. There was home. How sweet that
+word sounded to her! How she longed to go back there, with
+David coming home to his quiet meals three times a day, and
+with her own time to herself to do as she pleased. With
+housewifely zeal that was commendable in the eyes of the
+aunts, Marcia insisted upon going down to her own house
+every morning to see that all was right, guiltily knowing that
+in her heart she meant to hurry to her beloved books and
+piano. To be sure it was cold and cheerless in the empty
+house. She dared not make up fires and leave them, and
+she dared not stay too long lest the aunts would feel hurt
+at her absence, but she longed with an inexpressible longing
+to be back there by herself, away from that terrible supervision
+and able to live her own glad little life and think
+her own thoughts untrammeled by primness.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Sometimes she would curl up in David’s big arm-chair
+and have a good cry, after which she would take a book
+and read until the creeping chills down her spine warned
+her she must stop. Even then she would run up and down
+the hall or take a broom and sweep vigorously to warm
+herself and then go to the cold keys and play a sad little
+tune. All her tunes seemed sad like a wail while David
+was gone.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The other place of refuge was Aunt Clarinda’s room.
+Thither she would betake herself after supper, to the delight
+of the old lady. Then the other two occupants of the house
+were left to themselves and might unbend from their rigid
+surveillance for a little while. Marcia often wondered if
+they ever did unbend.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was a large padded rocking chair in Aunt Clarinda’s
+room and Marcia would laughingly take the little old lady
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page233"></span><a name="pg233" id="pg233" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+in her arms and place her comfortably in it, after a pleasant
+struggle on Miss Clarinda’s part to put her guest into it.
+They had this same little play every evening, and it seemed to
+please the old lady mightily. Then when she was conquered
+she always sat meekly laughing, a fine pink color in her soft
+peachy cheek, the candle light from the high shelf making
+flickering sparkles in her old eyes that always seemed young;
+and she would say: <span class="tei tei-q">“That’s just as David used to do.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then Marcia drew up the little mahogany stool covered
+with the worsted dog which Aunt Clarinda had worked when
+she was ten years old, and snuggling down at the old lady’s
+feet exclaimed delightedly: <span class="tei tei-q">“Tell me about it!�</span> and they
+settled down to solid comfort.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There came a letter from David after he had been gone
+a little over a week. Marcia had not expected to hear from
+him. He had said nothing about writing, and their relations
+were scarcely such as to make it necessary. Letters were an
+expensive luxury in those days. But when the letter was
+handed to her, Marcia’s heart went pounding against her
+breast, the color flew into her cheeks, and she sped away
+home on feet swift as the wings of a bird. The postmaster’s
+daughter looked after her, and remarked to her father:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“My, but don’t she think a lot of him!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Straight to the cold, lonely house she flew, and sitting
+down in his big chair read it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was a pleasant letter, beginning formally: <span class="tei tei-q">“My dear
+Marcia,�</span> and asking after her health. It brought back a
+little of the unacquaintedness she had felt when he was at
+home, and which had been swept away in part by her knowledge
+of his childhood. But it went on quite happily telling
+all about his journey and describing minutely the places he
+had passed through and the people he had met on the way;
+detailing every little incident as only a born writer and
+observer could do, until she felt as if he were talking to her.
+He told her of the men whom he had met who were interested
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page234"></span><a name="pg234" id="pg234" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+in the new project. He told of new plans and described
+minutely his visit to the foundry at West Point and
+the machinery he had seen. Marcia read it all breathlessly,
+in search of something, she knew not what, that was not there.
+When she had finished and found it not, there was a sense of
+aloofness, a sad little disappointment which welled up in her
+throat. She sat back to think about it. He was having a
+good time, and he was not lonely. He had no longing to be
+back in the house and everything running as before he had
+gone. He was out in the big glorious world having to do
+with progress, and coming in contact with men who were
+making history. Of course he did not dream how lonely
+she was here, and how she longed, if for nothing else,
+just to be back here alone and do as she pleased, and not to
+be watched over. If only she might steal Aunt Clarinda
+and bring her back to live here with her while David was
+away! But that was not to be thought of, of course. By and
+by she mustered courage to be glad of her letter, and to read
+it over once more.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">That night she read the letter to Aunt Clarinda and together
+they discussed the great inventions, and the changes
+that were coming to pass in the land. Aunt Clarinda was
+just a little beyond her depth in such a conversation, but
+Marcia did most of the talking, and the dear old lady made
+an excellent listener, with a pat here, and a <span class="tei tei-q">“Dearie me!
+Now you don’t say so!�</span> there, and a <span class="tei tei-q">“Bless the boy! What
+great things he does expect. And I hope he won’t be disappointed.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">That letter lasted them for many a day until another came,
+this time from Washington, with many descriptions of public
+men and public doings, and a word picture of the place which
+made it appear much like any other place after all if it was
+the capitol of the country. And once there was a sentence
+which Marcia treasured. It was, <span class="tei tei-q">“I wish you could be here
+and see everything. You would enjoy it I know.�</span></p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page235"></span><a name="pg235" id="pg235" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There came another letter later beginning, <span class="tei tei-q">“My dear little
+girl.�</span> There was nothing else in it to make Marcia’s heart
+throb, it was all about his work, but Marcia carried it many
+days in her bosom. It gave her a thrill of delight to think of
+those words at the beginning. Of course it meant no more
+than that he thought of her as a girl, his little sister that was
+to have been, but there was a kind of ownership in the words
+that was sweet to Marcia’s lonely heart. It had come to her
+that she was always looking for something that would make
+her feel that she belonged to David.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS21" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page236"></span><a name="pg236" id="pg236" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc42" id="toc42"></a>
+<a name="pdf43" id="pdf43"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XXI</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When David had been in New York about three weeks,
+he happened one day to pass the house where Kate Leavenworth
+was living.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate was standing listlessly by the window looking into
+the street. She was cross and felt a great depression settling
+over her. The flirtation with Harry Temple had begun to
+pall upon her. She wanted new worlds to conquer. She
+was restless and feverish. There was not excitement enough
+in the life she was living. She would like to meet more
+people, senators and statesmen—and to have plenty of money
+to dress as became her beauty, and be admired publicly. She
+half wished for the return of her husband, and meditated
+making up with him for the sake of going to Washington to
+have a good time in society there. What was the use of
+running away with a naval officer if one could not have the
+benefit of it? She had been a fool. Here she was almost to
+the last penny, and so many things she wanted. No word
+had come from her husband since he sent her the money at
+sailing. She felt a bitter resentment toward him for urging
+her to marry him. If she had only gone on and married
+David she would be living a life of ease now—plenty of
+money—nothing to do but what she pleased and no anxiety
+whatever, for David would have done just what she wanted.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then suddenly she looked up and David passed before her!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He was walking with a tall splendid-looking man, with
+whom he was engaged in most earnest conversation, and his
+look was grave and deeply absorbed. He did not know of
+Kate’s presence in New York, and passed the house in utter
+unconsciousness of the eyes watching him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate’s lips grew white, and her limbs seemed suddenly
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page237"></span><a name="pg237" id="pg237" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+weak, but she strained her face against the window to watch
+the retreating figure of the man who had almost been her
+husband. How well she knew the familiar outline. How
+fine and handsome he appeared now! Why had she not
+thought so before? Were her eyes blind, or had she been
+under some strange enchantment? Why had she not known
+that her happiness lay in the way that had been marked out
+for her? Well, at least she knew it now.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She sat all day by that window and watched. She professed
+to have no appetite when pressed to come to the table,
+though she permitted herself to languidly consume the bountiful
+tray of good things that was brought her, but her eyes
+were on the street. She was watching to see if David would
+pass that way again. But though she watched until the sun
+went down and dusk sifted through the streets, she saw no
+sign nor heard the sound of his footsteps. Then she hastened
+up to her room, which faced upon the street also, and there,
+wrapped in blankets she sat in the cold frosty air, waiting
+and listening. And while she watched she was thinking bitter
+feverish thoughts. She heard Harry Temple knock and
+knew that he was told that she was not feeling well and had
+retired early. She watched him pause on the stoop thoughtfully
+as if considering what to do with the time thus unexpectedly
+thrown upon his hands, then saw him saunter up
+the street unconcernedly, and she wondered idly where he
+would go, and what he would do.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It grew late, even for New York. One by one the lights
+in the houses along the street went out, and all was quiet.
+She drew back from the window at last, weary with excitement
+and thinking, and lay down on the bed, but she could
+not sleep. The window was open and her ears were on the
+alert, and by and by there came the distant echo of feet ringing
+on the pavement. Some one was coming. She sprang
+up. She felt sure he was coming. Yes, there were two men.
+They were coming back together. She could hear their voices.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page238"></span><a name="pg238" id="pg238" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+She fancied she heard David’s long before it was possible
+to distinguish any words. She leaned far out of her upper
+window till she could discern dim forms under the starlight,
+and then just as they were under the window she distinctly
+heard David say:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“There is no doubt but we shall win. The right is on our
+side, and it is the march of progress. Some of the best men
+in Congress are with us, and now that we are to have your
+influence I do not feel afraid of the issue.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They had passed by rapidly, like men who had been on a
+long day’s jaunt of some kind and were hastening home to
+rest. There was little in the sentence that Kate could understand.
+She had no more idea whether the subject of their
+discourse was railroads or the last hay crop. The sentence
+meant to her but one thing. It showed that David companioned
+with the great men of the land, and his position
+would have given her a standing that would have been above
+the one she now occupied. Tears of defeat ran down her
+cheeks. She had made a bad mistake and she saw no way
+to rectify it. If her husband should die,—and it might be,
+for the sea was often treacherous—of course there were all
+sorts of possibilities,—but even then there was Marcia! She
+set her sharp little teeth into her red lips till the blood came.
+She could not get over her anger at Marcia. It would not
+have been so bad if David had remained her lone lorn lover,
+ready to fly to her if others failed. Her self-love was wounded
+sorely, and she, poor silly soul, mistook it for love of David.
+She began to fancy that after all she had loved him, and
+that Fate had somehow played her a mad trick and tied her
+to a husband she had not wanted.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then out of the watchings of the day and the fancies of
+the night, there grew a thought—and the thought widened
+into a plan. She thought of her intimacy with Harry and
+her new found power. Might she perhaps exercise it over
+others as well as Harry Temple? Might she possibly lead
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page239"></span><a name="pg239" id="pg239" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+back this man who had once been her lover, to bow at her
+feet again and worship her? If that might be she could bear
+all the rest. She began to long with intense craving to see
+David grovel at her feet, to hear him plead for a kiss from
+her, and tell her once more how beautiful she was, and
+how she fulfilled all his soul’s ideals. She sat by the open
+window yet with the icy air of the night blowing upon her,
+but her cheeks burned red in the darkness, and her eyes
+glowed like coals of fire from the tawny framing of her fallen
+hair. The blankets slipped away from her throat and still
+she heeded not the cold, but sat with hot clenched hands
+planning with the devil’s own strategy her shameless scheme.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">By and by she lighted a candle and drew her writing materials
+toward her to write, but it was long she sat and thought
+before she finally wrote the hastily scrawled note, signed and
+sealed it, and blowing out her candle lay down to sleep.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The letter was addressed to David, and it ran thus:</p>
+
+<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-variant: small-caps">Dear David</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">:</span><span style="font-size: 90%">�</span></span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">I have just heard that you are in New York. I am in
+  great distress and do not know where to turn for help. For the sake of
+  what we have been to each other in the past will you come to me?</span></span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: right; margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Hastily, your loving </span><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-variant: small-caps">Kate</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">�</span></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She did not know where David was but she felt reasonably
+sure she could find out his address in the morning. There
+was a small boy living next door who was capable of ferreting
+out almost anything for money. Kate had employed him
+more than once as an amateur detective in cases of minor
+importance. So, with a bit of silver and her letter she made
+her way to his familiar haunts and explained most carefully
+that the letter was to be delivered to no one but the man
+to whom it was addressed, naming several stopping places
+where he might be likely to be found, and hinting that there
+was more silver to be forthcoming when he should bring her
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page240"></span><a name="pg240" id="pg240" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+an answer to the note. With a minute description of David
+the keen-eyed urchin set out, while Kate betook herself to
+her room to dress for David’s coming. She felt sure he would
+be found, and confident that he would come at once.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The icy wind of the night before blowing on her exposed
+throat and chest had given her a severe cold, but she paid no
+heed to that. Her eyes and cheeks were shining with fever.
+She knew she was entering upon a dangerous and unholy way.
+The excitement of it stimulated her. She felt she did not
+care for anything, right or wrong, sin or sorrow, only to win.
+She wanted to see David at her feet again. It was the only
+thing that would satisfy this insatiable longing in her, this
+wounded pride of self.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When she was dressed she stood before the mirror and surveyed
+herself. She knew she was beautiful, and she defied
+the glass to tell her anything else. She raised her chin in
+haughty challenge to the unseen David to resist her charms.
+She would bring him low before her. She would make him
+forget Marcia, and his home and his staid Puritan notions,
+and all else he held dear but herself. He should bend and
+kiss her hand as Harry had done, only more warmly, for
+instinctively she felt that his had been the purer life and
+therefore his surrender would mean more. He should do
+whatever she chose. And her eyes glowed with an unhallowed
+light.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She had chosen to array herself regally, in velvet, but in
+black, without a touch of color or of white. From her rich
+frock her slender throat rose daintily, like a stem upon which
+nodded the tempting flower of her face. No enameled complexion
+could have been more striking in its vivid reds and
+whites, and her mass of gold hair made her seem more lovely
+than she really was, for in her face was love of self, alluring,
+but heartless and cruel.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The boy found David, as Kate had thought he would, in
+one of the quieter hostelries where men of letters were wont
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page241"></span><a name="pg241" id="pg241" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+to stop when in New York, and David read the letter and
+came at once. She had known that he would do that, too.
+His heart beat wildly, to the exclusion of all other thoughts
+save that she was in trouble, his love, his dear one. He forgot
+Marcia, and the young naval officer, and everything but
+her trouble, and before he had reached her house the sorrow
+had grown in his imagination into some great danger to
+protect her from which he was hastening.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She received him alone in the room where Harry Temple
+had first called, and a moment later Harry himself came to
+knock and enquire for the health of Mistress Leavenworth,
+and was told she was very much engaged at present with a
+gentleman and could not see any one, whereupon Harry
+scowled, and set himself at a suitable distance from the house
+to watch who should come out.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David’s face was white as death as he entered, his eyes
+shining like dark jewels blazing at her as if he would
+<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E21" id="E21" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e21" class="tei tei-ref">absorb</a></span>
+the vision for the lonely future. She stood and posed,—not
+by any means the picture of broken sorrow he had expected
+to find from her note,—and let the sense of her beauty reach
+him. There she stood with the look on her face he had
+pictured to himself many a time when he had thought of
+her as his wife. It was a look of love unutterable, bewildering,
+alluring, compelling. It was so he had thought she
+would meet him when he came home to her from his daily
+business cares. And now she was there, looking that way, and
+he stood here, so near her, and yet a great gulf fixed! It
+was heaven and hell met together, and he had no power to
+change either.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He did not come over to her and bow low to kiss the white
+hand as Harry had done,—as she had thought she could
+compel him to do. He only stood and looked at her with the
+pain of an anguish beyond her comprehension, until the look
+would have burned through to her heart—if she had had a
+heart.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page242"></span><a name="pg242" id="pg242" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You are in trouble,�</span> he spoke hoarsely, as if murmuring
+an excuse for having come.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She melted at once into the loveliest sorrow, her mobile
+features taking on a wan cast only enlivened by the glow of
+her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Sit down,�</span> she said, <span class="tei tei-q">“you were so good to come to me,
+and so soon—�</span> and her voice was like lily-bells in a quiet
+church-yard among the head-stones. She placed him a chair.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Yes, I am in trouble. But that is a slight thing compared
+to my unhappiness. I think I am the most miserable
+creature that breathes upon this earth.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And with that she dropped into a low chair and hid her
+glowing face in a dainty, lace bordered kerchief that suppressed
+a well-timed sob.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate had wisely calculated how she could reach David’s
+heart. If she had looked up then and seen his white, drawn
+look, and the tense grasp of his hands that only the greatest
+self-control kept quiet on his knee, perhaps even her mercilessness
+would have been softened. But she did not look,
+and she felt her part was well taken. She sobbed quietly,
+and waited, and his hoarse voice asked once more, as gently
+as a woman’s through his pain:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Will you tell me what it is and how I can help you?�</span>
+He longed to take her in his arms like a little child and comfort
+her, but he might not. She was another’s. And perhaps
+that other had been cruel to her! His clenched fists
+showed how terrible was the thought. But still the bowed
+figure in its piteous black sobbed and did not reply anything
+except, <span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, I am so unhappy! I cannot bear it any longer.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Is—your—your—husband unkind to you?�</span> The words
+tore themselves from his tense lips as though they were beyond
+his control.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, no,—not exactly unkind—that is—he was not very
+nice before he went away,�</span> wailed out a sad voice from behind
+the linen cambric and lace, <span class="tei tei-q">“and he went away without a
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page243"></span><a name="pg243" id="pg243" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+kind word, and left me hardly any money—and he hasn’t
+sent me any word since—and fa-father won’t have anything
+to do with me any more—but—but—it’s not that I mind,
+David. I don’t think about those things at all. I’m so unhappy
+about you. I feel you do not forgive me, and I cannot
+stand it any longer. I have made a fearful mistake, and
+you are angry with me—I think about it at night�</span>—the
+voice was growing lower now, and the sentences broken by
+sobs that told better than words what distress the sufferer
+would convey.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I have been so wicked—and you were so good and kind—and
+now you will never forgive me—I think it will kill me to
+keep on thinking about it—�</span> her voice trailed off in tears
+again.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David white with anguish sprang to his feet.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, Kate,�</span> he cried, <span class="tei tei-q">“my darling! Don’t talk that way.
+You know I forgive you. Look up and tell me you know I
+forgive you.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Almost she smiled her triumph beneath her sobs in the
+little lace border, but she looked up with real tears on her face.
+Even her tears obeyed her will. She was a good actress, also
+she knew her power over David.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, David,�</span> she cried, standing up and clasping her hands
+beseechingly, <span class="tei tei-q">“can it be true? Do you really forgive me?
+Tell me again.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She came and stood temptingly near to the stern, suffering
+man wild with the tumult that raged within him. Her
+golden head was near his shoulder where it had rested more
+than once in time gone by. He looked down at her from
+his suffering height his arms folded tightly and said, as
+though taking oath before a court of justice:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I do.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She looked up with her pleading blue eyes, like two jewels
+of light now, questioning whether she might yet go one step
+further. Her breath came quick and soft, he fancied it
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page244"></span><a name="pg244" id="pg244" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+touched his cheek, though she was not tall enough for that.
+She lifted her tear-wet face like a flower after a storm, and
+pleaded with her eyes once more, saying in a whisper very
+soft and sweet:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“If you really forgive me, then kiss me, just once, so I may
+remember it always.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was more than he could bear. He caught her to himself
+and pressed his lips upon hers in one frenzied kiss of
+torture. It was as if wrung from him against his will. Then
+suddenly it came upon him what he had done, as he held her
+in his arms, and he put her from him gently, as a mother
+might put away the precious child she was sacrificing tenderly,
+agonizingly, but finally. He put her from him thus
+and stood a moment looking at her, while she almost sparkled
+her pleasure at him through the tears. She felt that she had
+won.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But gradually the silence grew ominous. She perceived he
+was not smiling. His mien was like one who looks into an
+open grave, and gazes for the last time at all that remains of
+one who is dear. He did not seem like one who had yielded
+a moral point and was ready now to serve her as she would.
+She grew uneasy under his gaze. She moved forward and
+put out her hands inviting, yielding, as only such a woman
+could do, and the spell which bound him seemed to be broken.
+He fumbled for a moment in his waistcoat pocket and
+brought out a large roll of bills which he laid upon the
+table, and taking up his hat turned toward the door. A cold
+wave of weakness seemed to pass over her, stung here and
+there by mortal pride that was in fear of being wounded
+beyond recovery.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Where are you going?�</span> she asked weakly, and her voice
+sounded to her from miles away, and strange.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He turned and looked at her again and she knew the look
+meant farewell. He did not speak. Her whole being rose
+for one more mighty effort.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page245"></span><a name="pg245" id="pg245" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You are not going to leave me—now?�</span> There was
+angelic sweetness in the voice, pleading, reproachful, piteous.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I must!�</span> he said, and his voice sounded harsh. <span class="tei tei-q">“I have
+just done that for which, were I your husband, I would feel
+like killing any other man. I must protect you against yourself,—against
+myself. You must be kept pure before God if
+it kills us both. I would gladly die if that could help you,
+but I am not even free to do that, for I belong to another.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then he turned and was gone.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate’s hands fell to her sides, and seemed stiff and lifeless.
+The bright color faded from her cheeks, and a cold frenzy
+of horror took possession of her. <span class="tei tei-q">“Pure before God!�</span> She
+shuddered at the name, and crimson shame rolled over forehead
+and cheek. She sank in a little heap on the floor with
+her face buried in the chair beside which she had been standing,
+and the waters of humiliation rolled wave on wave above
+her. She had failed, and for one brief moment she was
+seeing her own sinful heart as it was.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But the devil was there also. He whispered to her now
+the last sentence that David had spoken: <span class="tei tei-q">“I belong to another!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Up to that moment Marcia had been a very negative factor
+in the affair to Kate’s mind. She had been annoyed and
+angry at her as one whose ignorance and impertinence had
+brought her into an affair where she did not belong, but
+now she suddenly faced the fact that Marcia must be
+reckoned with. Marcia the child, who had for years been her
+slave and done her bidding, had arisen in her way, and she
+hated her with a sudden vindictive hate that would have killed
+without flinching if the opportunity had presented at that
+moment. Kate had no idea how utterly uncontrolled was
+her whole nature. She was at the mercy of any passing passion.
+Hate and revenge took possession of her now. With
+flashing eyes she rose to her feet, brushing her tumbled hair
+back and wiping away angry tears. She was too much agitated
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page246"></span><a name="pg246" id="pg246" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+to notice that some one had knocked at the front door
+and been admitted, and when Harry Temple walked into the
+room he found her standing so with hands clenched together,
+and tears flowing down her cheeks unchecked.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Now a woman in tears, when the tears were not caused by
+his own actions, was Harry’s opportunity. He had ways of
+comforting which were as unscrupulous as they generally
+proved effective, and so with affectionate tenderness he took
+Kate’s hand and held it impressively, calling her <span class="tei tei-q">“dear.�</span>
+He spoke soothing words, smoothed her hair, and kissed her
+flushed cheeks and eyes. It was all very pleasant to Kate’s
+hurt pride. She let Harry comfort her, and pet her a while,
+and at last he said:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Now tell me all about it, dear. I saw Lord Spafford
+trail dejectedly away from here looking like death, and I
+come here and find my lady in a fine fury. What has happened?
+If I mistake not the insufferable cad has got badly
+hurt, but it seems to have ruffled the lady also.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This helped. It was something to feel that David was suffering.
+She wanted him to suffer. He had brought shame
+and humiliation upon her. She never realized that the thing
+that shamed her was that he thought her better than she
+was.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“He is offensively good. I <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">hate</span></span> him!�</span> she remarked as a
+kitten might who had got hurt at playing with a mouse in a
+trap.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The man’s face grew bland with satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Not so good, my lady, but that he has been making love
+to you, if I mistake not, and he with a wife at home.�</span> The
+words were said quietly, but there was more of a question
+in them than the tone conveyed. The man wished to have
+evidence against his enemy.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate colored uneasily and drooped her lashes.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Harry studied her face keenly, and then went on cautiously:</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page247"></span><a name="pg247" id="pg247" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“If his wife were not your sister I should say that one
+might punish him well through her.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate cast him a hard, scrutinizing look.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You have some score against him yourself,�</span> she said
+with conviction.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Perhaps I have, my lady. Perhaps I too hate him. He
+is offensively good, you know.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was silence in the room for a full minute while the
+devil worked in both hearts.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“What did you mean by saying one might punish him
+through his wife? He does not love his wife.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Are you sure?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Quite sure.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Perhaps he loves some one else, my lady.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“He does.�</span> She said it proudly.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Perhaps he loves you, my lady.�</span> He said it softly like
+the suggestion from another world. The lady was silent, but
+he needed no other answer.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Then indeed, the way would be even clearer,—were not
+his wife your sister.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate looked at him, a half knowledge of his meaning beginning
+to dawn in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“How?�</span> she asked laconically.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“In case his wife should leave him do you think my lord
+would hold his head so high?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate still looked puzzled.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“If some one else should win her affection, and should
+persuade her to leave a husband who did not love her, and
+who was bestowing his heart�</span>—he hesitated an instant and
+his eye traveled significantly to the roll of bills still lying
+where David had left them—<span class="tei tei-q">“and his gifts,�</span> he hazarded,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“upon another woman&mdash;&mdash;�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate grasped the thought at once and an evil glint of
+eagerness showed in her eyes. She could see what an advantage
+it would be to herself to have Marcia removed from the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page248"></span><a name="pg248" id="pg248" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+situation. It would break one more cord of honor that
+bound David to a code which was hateful to her now, because
+its existence shamed her. Nevertheless, unscrupulous as she
+was she could not see how this was a possibility.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“But she is offensively good too,�</span> she said as if answering
+her own thoughts.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“All goodness has its weak spot,�</span> sneered the man. <span class="tei tei-q">“If I
+mistake not you have found my lord’s. It is possible I might
+find his wife’s.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The two pairs of eyes met then, filled with evil light. It
+was as if for an instant they were permitted to look into
+the pit, and see the possibilities of wickedness, and exult in
+it. The lurid glare of their thoughts played in their faces.
+All the passion of hate and revenge rushed upon Kate in a
+frenzy. With all her heart she wished this might be. She
+looked her co-operation in the plan even before her hard voice
+answered:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You need not stop because she is my sister.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He felt he had her permission, and he permitted himself a
+glance of admiration for the depths to which she could go
+without being daunted. Here was evil courage worthy of
+his teaching. She seemed to him beautiful enough and daring
+enough for Satan himself to admire.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“And may I have the pleasure of knowing that I would
+by so doing serve my lady in some wise?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She drooped her shameless eyes and murmured guardedly,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Perhaps.�</span> Then she swept him a coquettish glance that
+meant they understood one another.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Then I shall feel well rewarded,�</span> he said gallantly, and
+bowing with more than his ordinary flattery of look bade her
+good day and went out.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS22" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page249"></span><a name="pg249" id="pg249" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc44" id="toc44"></a>
+<a name="pdf45" id="pdf45"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XXII</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David stumbled blindly out the door and down the street.
+His one thought was to get to his room at the tavern and
+shut the door. He had an important appointment that morning,
+but it passed completely from his mind. He met one
+or two men whom he knew, but he did not see them, and
+passed them swiftly without a glance of recognition. They
+said one to another, <span class="tei tei-q">“How absorbed he is in the great
+themes of the world!�</span> but David passed on in his pain and
+misery and humiliation and never knew they were near him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He went to the room that had been his since he had reached
+New York, and fastening the door against all intrusion fell
+upon his knees beside the bed, and let the
+<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E22" id="E22" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e22" class="tei tei-ref">flood-tide</a></span>
+of his sorrow roll over him. Not even when Kate had played him
+false on his wedding morning had he felt the pain that now
+cut into his very soul. For now there was mingled with it
+the agony of consciousness of sin. He had sinned against
+heaven, against honor and love, and all that was pure and
+good. He was just like any bad man. He had yielded to
+sudden temptation and taken another man’s wife in his arms
+and kissed her! That the woman had been his by first right,
+and that he loved her: that she had invited the kiss, indeed
+pleaded for it, his sensitive conscience told him in no wise
+lessened the offense. He had also caused her whom he loved
+to sin. He was a man and knew the world. He should have
+shielded her against herself. And yet as he went over and
+over the whole painful scene through which he had just passed
+his soul cried out in agony and he felt his weakness more and
+more. He had failed, failed most miserably. Acted like
+any coward!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The humiliation of it was unspeakable. Could any sorrow
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page250"></span><a name="pg250" id="pg250" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+be like unto his? Like a knife flashing through the gloom
+of his own shame would come the echo of her words as she
+pleaded with him to kiss her. It was a kiss of forgiveness
+she had wanted, and she had put her heart into her eyes and
+begged as for her very life. How could he have refused?
+Then he would parley with himself for a long time trying
+to prove to himself that the kiss and the embrace were
+justified, that he had done no wrong in God’s sight. And
+ever after this round of confused arguing he would end with
+the terrible conviction that he had sinned.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Sometimes Marcia’s sweet face and troubled eyes would
+appear to him as he wrestled all alone, and seemed to be longing
+to help him, and again would come the piercing thought
+that he had harmed this gentle girl also. He had tangled
+her into his own spoiled web of life, and been disloyal to her.
+She was pure and true and good. She had given up every
+thing to help him and he had utterly forgotten her. He had
+promised to love, cherish, and protect her! That was another
+sin. He could not love and cherish her when his whole
+heart was another’s. Then he thought of Kate’s husband,
+that treacherous man who had stolen his bride and now gone
+away and left her sorrowing—left her without money, penniless
+in a strange city. Why had he not been more calm and
+questioned her before he came away. Perhaps she was in
+great need. It comforted him to think he had left her all the
+money he had with him. There was enough to keep her from
+want for a while. And yet, perhaps he had been wrong to
+give it to her. He had no right to give it!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He groaned aloud at the thought of his helplessness to help
+her helplessness. Was there not some way he could find out
+and help her without doing wrong?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Over and over he went through the whole dreadful day,
+until his brain was weary and his heart failed him. The
+heavens seemed brass and no answer came to his cry,—the
+appeal of a broken soul. It seemed that he could not get up
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page251"></span><a name="pg251" id="pg251" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+from his knees, could not go out into the world again and
+face life. He had been tried and had failed, and yet though
+he knew his sin he felt an intolerable longing to commit it
+over again. He was frightened at his own weakness, and
+with renewed vigor he began to pray for help. It was like
+the prayer of Jacob of old, the crying out of a soul that
+would not be denied. All day long the struggle continued,
+and far into the night. At last a great peace began to settle
+upon David’s soul. Things that had been confused by his
+passionate longings grew clear as day. Self dropped away,
+and sin, conquered, slunk out of sight. Right and Wrong were
+once more clearly defined in his mind. However wrong it
+might or might not be he was here in this situation. He had
+married Marcia and promised to be true to her. He was
+doubly cut off from Kate by her own act and by his. That
+was his punishment,—and hers. He must not seek to lessen
+it even for her, for it was God-sent. Henceforth his path
+and hers must be apart. If she were to be helped in any way
+from whatsoever trouble was hers, it was not permitted him
+to be the instrument. He had shown his unfitness for it in
+his interview that morning, even if in the eyes of the world
+it could have been at all. It was his duty to cut himself
+off from her forever. He must not even think of her any
+more. He must be as true and good to Marcia as was possible.
+He must do no more wrong. He must grow strong
+and suffer.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The peace that came with conviction brought sleep to his
+weary mind and body.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When he awoke it was almost noon. He remembered the
+missed appointment of the day before, and the journey to
+Washington which he had planned for that day. With a start
+of horror he looked at his watch and found he had but a few
+hours in which to try to make up for the remissness of yesterday
+before the evening coach left for Philadelphia. It
+was as if some guardian angel had met his first waking
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page252"></span><a name="pg252" id="pg252" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+thoughts with business that could not be delayed and so
+kept him from going over the painful events of the day
+before. He arose and hastened out into the world once
+more.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Late in the afternoon he found the man he was to have
+met the day before, and succeeded in convincing him that he
+ought to help the new enterprise. He was standing on the
+corner saying the last few words as the two separated, when
+Kate drove by in a friend’s carriage, surrounded by parcels.
+She had been on a shopping tour spending the money that
+David had given her, for silks and laces and jewelry, and
+now she was returning in high glee with her booty. The
+carriage passed quite near to David who stood with his back
+to the street, and she could see his animated face as he
+smiled at the other man, a fine looking man who looked as
+if he might be some one of note. The momentary glance did
+not show the haggard look of David’s face nor the lines that
+his vigil of the night before had traced under his eyes, and
+Kate was angered to see him so unconcerned and forgetful of
+his pain of yesterday. Her face darkened with spite, and she
+resolved to make him suffer yet, and to the utmost, for the
+sin of forgetting her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But David was in the way of duty, and he did not see her,
+for his guardian angel was hovering close at hand.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-tb"> </div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As the Fall wore on and the winter set in Harry’s letters
+became less frequent and less intimate. Hannah was
+troubled, and after consultation with her grandmother, to
+which Miranda listened at the latch hole, duly reporting quotations
+to her adored Mrs. Spafford, Hannah decided upon an
+immediate trip to the metropolis.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Hannah’s gone to New York to find out what’s become
+of that nimshi Harry Temple. She thought she had him
+fast, an’ she’s been holdin’ him over poor Lemuel Skinner’s
+head like thet there sword hangin’ by a hair I heard the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page253"></span><a name="pg253" id="pg253" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+minister tell about last Sunday, till Lemuel, he don’t know
+but every minute’s gone’ll be his last. You mark my words,
+she’ll hev to take poor Lem after all, an’ be glad she’s got
+him, too,—and she’s none too good for him neither. He’s
+ben faithful to her ever since she wore pantalets, an’ she’s
+ben keepin’ him off’n on an’ hopin’ an’
+<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E23" id="E23" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e23" class="tei tei-ref">tryin’</a></span>
+fer somebody bigger. It would jes’ serve her right ef she’d get
+that fool of a Harry Temple, but she won’t. He’s too sharp for
+that ef he <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">is</span></span> a fool. He don’t want
+to tie himself up to no woman’s aprun strings. He rather dandle about
+after ’em all an’ say pretty things, an’ keep his
+earnin’s fer himself.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah reached New York the week after David left for
+Washington. She wrote beforehand to Harry to let him
+know she was coming, and made plain that she expected his
+attentions exclusively while there, and he smiled blandly as
+he read the letter and read her intentions between the lines.
+He told Kate a good deal about her that evening when he
+went to call, told her how he had heard she was an old flame
+of David’s, and Kate’s jealousy was immediately aroused.
+She wished to meet Hannah Heath. There was a sort of
+triumph in the thought that she had scorned and flung aside
+the man whom this woman had <span class="tei tei-q">“set her cap�</span> for, even
+though another woman was now in the place that neither had.
+Hannah went to visit a cousin in New York who lived in a
+quiet part of the city and did not go out much, but for reasons
+best known to themselves, both Kate Leavenworth and
+Harry Temple elected to see a good deal of her while she was
+in the city. Harry was pleasant and attentive, but not more
+to one woman than to the other. Hannah, watching him
+jealously, decided that at least Kate was not her rival in his
+affections, and so Hannah and Kate became quite friendly.
+Kate had a way of making much of her women friends when
+she chose, and she happened to choose in this case, for it
+occurred to her it would be well to have a friend in the
+town where lived her sister and her former lover. There
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page254"></span><a name="pg254" id="pg254" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+might be reasons why, sometime. She opened her heart of
+hearts to Hannah, and Hannah, quite discreetly, and without
+wasting much of her scanty store of love, entered, and the
+friendship was sealed. They had not known each other many
+days before Kate had confided to Hannah the story of her
+own marriage and her sister’s, embellished of course as she
+chose. Hannah, astonished, puzzled, wondering, curious, at
+the tragedy that had been enacted at her very home door,
+became more friendly than ever and hated more cordially
+than ever the young and innocent wife who had stepped into
+the vacant place and so made her own hopes and ambitions
+impossible. She felt that she would like to put down the pert
+young thing for daring to be there, and to be pretty, and now
+she felt she had the secret which would help her to do so.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As the visit went on and it became apparent to Hannah
+Heath that she was not the one woman in all the world to
+Harry Temple, she hinted to Kate that it was likely she would
+be married soon. She even went so far as to say that she had
+come away from home to decide the matter, and that she had
+but to say the word and the ceremony would come off. Kate
+questioned eagerly, and seeing her opportunity asked if she
+might come to the wedding. Hannah, flattered, and seeing a
+grand opportunity for a wholesale triumph and revenge, assented
+with pleasure. Afterward as Hannah had hoped and
+intended, Kate carried the news of the impending decision
+and probable wedding to the ears of Harry Temple.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But Hannah’s hint had no further effect upon the redoubtable
+Harry. Two days later he appeared, smiling, congratulatory,
+deploring the fact that she would be lost in a certain
+sense to his friendship, although he hoped always to be looked
+upon as a little more than a friend.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah covered her mortification under a calm and condescending
+exterior. She blushed appropriately, said some
+sentimental things about hoping their friendship would not
+be affected by the change, told him how much she had enjoyed
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page255"></span><a name="pg255" id="pg255" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+their correspondence, but gave him to understand that it had
+been mere friendship of course from her point of view, and
+Harry indulgently allowed her to think that he had hoped for
+more and was grieved but consolable over the outcome.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They waxed a trifle sentimental at the parting, but when
+Harry was gone, Hannah wrote a most touching letter to
+Lemuel Skinner which raised him to the seventh heaven
+of delight, causing him to feel that he was treading upon air
+as he walked the prosaic streets of his native town where he
+had been going about during Hannah’s absence like a lost
+spirit without a guiding star.</p>
+
+<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-variant: small-caps">Dear Lemuel</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">:</span><span style="font-size: 90%">�</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> she
+  wrote:—</span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">I am coming home. I wonder if you will be
+  glad?</span></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">(Artful Hannah, as if she did not know!)</p>
+
+<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">It is very delightful in New York and I have been
+  having a gay time since I came, and everybody has been most pleasant,
+  but—</span></span></p>
+
+  <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-left: 1.80em; margin-top: 0.90em">
+    <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">“’Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,</span></div>
+    <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">Still, be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.</span></div>
+    <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">A charm from the skies seems to hallow it there,</span></div>
+    <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">Which, go through the world, you’ll not meet with elsewhere.</span></div>
+    <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 90%">Home, home, sweet home!</span></div>
+    <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 90%">There’s no place like
+    home.</span><span class="tei tei-corr" style="text-align: center"><a name="E24" id="E24" class="tei tei-anchor" style="text-align: center"></a><a href="#e24" class="tei tei-ref" style="text-align: center"> </a></span></div>
+  </div>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">That is a new song, Lemuel, that everybody
+  here is singing. It is written by a young American named John Howard Payne
+  who is in London now acting in a great playhouse. Everybody is wild over
+  this song. I’ll sing it for you when I come home.</span></span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">I shall be at home in time for singing school
+  next week, Lemuel. I wonder if you’ll come to see me at once and
+  welcome me. You cannot think how glad I shall be to get home again. It
+  seems as though I had been gone a year at least. Hoping to see you soon, I
+  remain</span></span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: right; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-right: 4.50em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Always
+  your sincere friend,</span></span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: right; margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-variant: small-caps">Hannah
+  Heath.</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">�</span></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page256"></span><a name="pg256" id="pg256" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And thus did Hannah make smooth her path before her,
+and very soon after inditing this epistle she bade good-bye
+to New York and took her way home resolved to waste no
+further time in chasing will-o-the-wisps.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When Lemuel received that letter he took a good look at
+himself in the glass. More than seven years had he served
+for Hannah, and little hope had he had of a final reward.
+He was older by ten years than she, and already his face
+began to show it. He examined himself critically, and was
+pleased to find with that light of hope in his eyes he was not
+so bad looking as he feared. He betook himself to the village
+tailor forthwith and ordered a new suit of clothes, though his
+Sunday best was by no means shiny yet. He realized that if
+he did not win now he never would, and he resolved to do
+his best.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">On the way home, during all the joltings of the coach over
+rough roads Hannah Heath was planning two campaigns,
+one of love with Lemuel, and one of hate with Marcia Spafford.
+She was possessed of knowledge which she felt would help
+her in the latter, and often she smiled vindictively as she
+laid her neat plans for the destruction of the bride’s complacency.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">That night the fire in the Heath parlor burned high and
+glowed, and the candles in their silver holders flickered across
+fair Hannah’s face as she dimpled and smiled and coquetted
+with poor Lemuel. But Lemuel needed no pity. He was not
+afraid of Hannah. Not for nothing had he served his seven
+years, and he understood every fancy and foible of her shallow
+nature. He knew his time had come at last, and he was getting
+what he had wanted long, for Lemuel had admired and
+loved Hannah in spite of the dance she had led him, and in
+spite of the other lovers she had allowed to come between
+them.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah had not been at home many days before she called
+upon Marcia.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page257"></span><a name="pg257" id="pg257" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia had just seated herself at the piano when Hannah
+appeared to her from the hall, coming in unannounced
+through the kitchen door according to old neighborly fashion.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia was vexed. She arose from the instrument and
+led the way to the little morning room which was sunny and
+cosy, and bare of music or books. She did not like to visit
+with Hannah in the parlor. Somehow her presence reminded
+her of the evil face of Harry Temple as he had stooped to
+kiss her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You know how to play, too, don’t you?�</span> said Hannah
+as they sat down. <span class="tei tei-q">“Your sister plays beautifully. Do you
+know the new song, ‘Home, Sweet Home?’ She plays it
+with so much feeling and sings it so that one would think
+her heart was breaking for her home. You must have been a
+united family.�</span> Hannah said it with sharp scrutiny in voice
+and eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Sit down, Miss Heath,�</span> said Marcia coolly, lowering the
+yellow shades that her visitor’s eyes might not be troubled
+by a broad sunbeam. <span class="tei tei-q">“Did you have a pleasant time in New
+York?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah could not be sure whether or not the question was
+an evasion. The utterly child-like manner of Marcia disarmed
+suspicion.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, delightful, of course. Could any one have anything
+else in New York?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah laughed disagreeably. She realized the limitations
+of life in a town.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I suppose,�</span> said Marcia, her eyes shining with the thought,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“that you saw all the wonderful things of the city. I should
+enjoy being in New York a little while. I have heard of so
+many new things. Were there any ships in the harbor? I
+have always wanted to go over a great ship. Did you have
+opportunity of seeing one?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, dear me. No!�</span> said Hannah. <span class="tei tei-q">“I shouldn’t have
+cared in the least for that. I’m sure I don’t know whether
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page258"></span><a name="pg258" id="pg258" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+there were any ships in or not. I suppose there were. I saw
+a lot of sails on the water, but I did not ask about them. I’m
+not interested in dirty boats. I liked visiting the shops best.
+Your sister took me about everywhere. She is a most charming
+creature. You must miss her greatly. You were a sly
+little thing to cut her out.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s face flamed crimson with anger and amazement.
+Hannah’s dart had hit the mark, and she was watching keenly
+to see her victim quiver.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I do not understand you,�</span> said Marcia with girlish
+dignity.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, now don’t pretend to misunderstand. I’ve heard all
+about it from headquarters,�</span> she said it archly, laughing.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“But then I don’t blame you. David was worth it.�</span> Hannah
+ended with a sigh. If she had ever cared for any one
+besides herself that one was David Spafford.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I do not understand you,�</span> said Marcia again, drawing
+herself up with all the Schuyler haughtiness she could master,
+till she quite resembled her father.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Now, Mrs. Spafford,�</span> said the visitor, looking straight into
+her face and watching every expression as a cat would watch
+a mouse, <span class="tei tei-q">“you don’t mean to tell me your sister was not at
+one time very intimate with your husband.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Mr. Spafford has been intimate in our family for a number
+of years,�</span> said Marcia proudly, her fighting fire up, <span class="tei tei-q">“but
+as for my having ‘cut my sister out’ as you call it, you have
+certainly been misinformed. Excuse me, I think I will close
+the kitchen door. It seems to blow in here and make a
+draft.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia left the room with her head up and her fine color
+well under control, and when she came back her head was still
+up and a distant expression was in her face. Somehow Hannah
+felt she had not gained much after all. But Marcia,
+after Hannah’s departure, went up to her cold room and wept
+bitter tears on her pillow alone.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+  </p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="width: 100%; text-align: center"><img src="images/image04.png" width="760" height="506" alt="Illustration: Copyright by C. KlacknerMarcia Passed From the Old Stone Church with the Two Aunts." title="Copyright by C. Klackner Marcia Passed From the Old Stone Church with the Two Aunts." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 50%">Copyright by C. Klackner</span></span><br />
+    <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 63%; font-variant: small-caps">Marcia Passed From
+    the Old Stone Church with the Two Aunts.</span></span></div></div>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page259"></span><a name="pg259" id="pg259" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">After that first visit Hannah never found the kitchen door
+unlocked when she came to make a morning call, but she
+improved every little opportunity to torment her gentle victim.
+She had had a letter from Kate and had Marcia heard? How
+often did Kate write her? Did Marcia know how fond Harry
+Temple was of Kate? And where was Kate’s husband?
+Would he likely be ordered home soon? These little annoyances
+were almost unbearable sometimes and Marcia had much
+ado to keep her sweetness of outward demeanor.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">People looked upon Lemuel with new respect. He had
+finally won where they had considered him a fool for years
+for hanging on. The added respect brought added self-respect.
+He took on new manliness. Grandmother Heath
+felt that he really was not so bad after all, and perhaps Hannah
+might as well have taken him at first. Altogether the
+Heath family were well pleased, and preparations began at
+once for a wedding in the near future.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And still David lingered, held here and there by a call
+from first one man and then another, and by important doings
+in Congress. He seemed to be rarely fitted for the work.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Once he was called back to New York for a day or two,
+and Harry Temple happened to see him as he arrived. That
+night he wrote to Hannah a friendly letter—Harry was by no
+means through with Hannah yet—and casually remarked that
+he saw David Spafford was in New York again. He supposed
+now that Mrs. Leavenworth’s evenings would be fully occupied
+and society would see little of her while he remained.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The day after Hannah received that letter was Sunday.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The weeks had gone by rapidly since David left his home,
+and now the spring was coming on. The grass was already
+green as summer and the willow tree by the graveyard gate
+was tender and green like a spring-plume. All the foliage
+was out and fluttering its new leaves in the sunshine as Marcia
+passed from the old stone church with the two aunts and
+opened her little green sunshade. Her motion made David’s
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page260"></span><a name="pg260" id="pg260" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+last letter rustle in her bosom. It thrilled her with pleasure
+that not even the presence of Hannah Heath behind her could
+cloud.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">However prim and fault-finding the two aunts might be in
+the seclusion of their own home, in public no two could have
+appeared more adoring than Amelia and Hortense Spafford.
+They hovered near Marcia and delighted to show how very
+close and intimate was the relationship between themselves
+and their new and beautiful niece, of whom in their secret
+hearts they were prouder than they would have cared to tell.
+In their best black silks and their fine lace shawls they walked
+beside her and talked almost eagerly, if those two stately
+beings could have anything to do with a quality so frivolous
+as eagerness. They wished it understood that David’s wife
+was worthy of appreciation and they were more conscious
+than she of the many glances of admiration in her direction.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah Heath encountered some of those admiring glances
+and saw jealously for whom they were meant. She hastened
+to lean forward and greet Marcia, her spiteful tongue all
+ready for a stab.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Good morning, Mrs. Spafford. Is that husband of yours
+not home yet? Really! Why, he’s quite deserted you. I
+call that hard for the first year, and your honeymoon scarcely
+over yet.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“He’s been called back to New York again,�</span> said Marcia
+annoyed over the spiteful little sentences. <span class="tei tei-q">“He says he may
+be at home soon, but he cannot be sure. His business is rather
+uncertain.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“New York!�</span> said Hannah, and her voice was annoyingly
+loud. <span class="tei tei-q">“What! Not again! There must be some great
+attraction there,�</span> and then with a meaning glance, <span class="tei tei-q">“I suppose
+your sister is still there!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia felt her face crimsoning, and the tears starting from
+angry eyes. She felt a sudden impulse to slap Hannah.
+What if she should! What would the aunts say? The
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page261"></span><a name="pg261" id="pg261" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+thought of the tumult she might make roused her sense of
+humor and a laugh bubbled up instead of the tears, and
+Hannah, watching, cat-like, could only see eyes dancing with
+fun though the cheeks were charmingly red. By Hannah’s
+expression Marcia knew she was baffled, but Marcia could not
+get away from the disagreeable suggestion that had been made.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Yes, David was in New York, and Kate was there. Not
+for an instant did she doubt her husband’s nobleness. She
+knew David would be good and true. She knew little of the
+world’s wickedness, and never thought of any blame, as other
+women might, in such a suggestion. But a great jealousy
+sprang into being that she never dreamed existed. Kate was
+there, and he would perhaps see her, and all his old love and
+disappointment would be brought to mind again. Had she,
+Marcia, been hoping he would forget it? Had she been
+claiming something of him in her heart for herself? She
+could not tell. She did not know what all this tumult of
+feeling meant. She longed to get away and think it over,
+but the solemn Sunday must be observed. She must fold
+away her church things, put on another frock and come down
+to the oppressive Sunday dinner, hear Deacon Brown’s
+rheumatism discussed, or listen to a long comparison of the
+morning’s sermon with one preached twenty years ago by the
+minister, now long dead upon the same text. It was all very
+hard to keep her mind upon, with these other thoughts rushing
+pell-mell through her brain; and when Aunt Amelia
+asked her to pass the butter, she handed the sugar-bowl
+instead. Miss Amelia looked as shocked as if she had broken
+the great-grandmother’s china teapot.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Aunt Clarinda claimed her after dinner and carried her
+off to her room to talk about David, so that Marcia had no
+chance to think even then. Miss Clarinda looked into the
+sweet shadowed eyes and wondered why the girl looked so
+sad. She thought it was because David stayed away so long,
+and so she kept her with her all the rest of the day.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page262"></span><a name="pg262" id="pg262" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When Marcia went to her room that night she threw herself
+on her knees beside the bed and tried to pray. She felt
+more lonely and heartsick than she ever felt before in her
+life. She did not know what the great hunger in her heart
+meant. It was terrible to think David had loved Kate. Kate
+never loved him in return in the right way. Marcia felt very
+sure of that. She wished she might have had the chance in
+Kate’s place, and then all of a sudden the revelation came
+to her. She loved David herself with a great overwhelming
+love. Not just a love that could come and keep house for
+him and save him from the criticisms and comments of others;
+but with a love that demanded to be loved in return; a love
+that was mindful of every dear lineament of his countenance.
+The knowledge thrilled through her with a great sweetness.
+She did not seem to care for anything else just now, only to
+know that she loved David. David could never love her of
+course, not in that way, but she would love him. She would
+try to shut out the thought of Kate from him forever.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And so, dreaming, hovering on the edge of all that was
+bitter and all that was sweet, she fell asleep with David’s
+letter clasped close over her heart.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS23" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page263"></span><a name="pg263" id="pg263" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc46" id="toc46"></a>
+<a name="pdf47" id="pdf47"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XXIII</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia had gone down to her own house the next morning
+very early. She had hoped for a letter but none had come.
+Her soul was in torment between her attempt to keep out of
+her mind the hateful things Hannah Heath had said, and
+reproaching herself for what seemed to her her unseemly
+feeling toward David, who loved another and could never love
+her. It was not a part of her life-dream to love one who
+belonged to another. Yet her heart was his and she was
+beginning to know that everything belonging to him was
+dear to her. She went and sat in his place at the table, she
+touched with tenderness the books upon his desk that he had
+used before he went away, she went up to his room and laid
+her lips for one precious daring instant upon his pillow, and
+then drew back with wildly beating heart ashamed of her
+emotion. She knelt beside his bed and prayed: <span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, God, I
+love him, I love him! I cannot help it!�</span> as if she would
+apologize for herself, and then she hugged the thought of her
+love to herself, feeling its sweet pain drift through her like
+some delicious agony. Her love had come through sorrow
+to her, and was not as she would have had it could she have
+chosen. It brought no ray of happy hope for the future,
+save just the happiness of loving in secret, and of doing for
+the object loved, with no thought of a returned affection.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then she went slowly down the stairs, trying to think how
+it would seem when David came back. He had been so long
+gone that it seemed as if perhaps he might never return. She
+felt that it had been no part of the spirit of her contract with
+David that she should render to him this wild sweet love that
+he had expected Kate to give. He had not wanted it. He
+had only wanted a wife in name.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page264"></span><a name="pg264" id="pg264" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then the color would sweep over her face in a crimson drift
+and leave it painfully white, and she would glide to the piano
+like a ghost of her former self and play some sad sweet strain,
+and sometimes sing.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She had no heart for her dear old woods in these days.
+She had tried it one day in spring; slipped over the back
+fence and away through the ploughed field where the sea of
+silver oats had surged, and up to the hillside and the woods;
+but she was so reminded of David that it only brought heart
+aches and tears. She wondered if it was because she was
+getting old that the hillside did not seem so joyous now, and
+she did not care to look up into the sky just for the pure joy
+of sky and air and clouds, nor to listen to the branches
+whisper to the robins nesting. She stooped and picked a
+great handful of spring beauties, but they did not seem to
+give her pleasure, and by and by she dropped them from
+listless fingers and walked sedately down to the house once
+more.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">On this morning she did not even care to play. She
+went into the parlor and touched a few notes, but her heart
+was heavy and sad. Life was growing too complex.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Last week there had come a letter from Harry Temple.
+It had startled her when it arrived. She feared it was some
+ill-news about David, coming as it did from New York and
+being written in a strange hand.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It had been a plea for forgiveness, representing that the
+writer had experienced nothing but deep repentance and sorrow
+since the time he had seen her last. He set forth his
+case in a masterly way, with little touching facts of his childhood,
+and lonely upbringing, with no mother to guide. He
+told her that her noble action toward him had but made him
+revere her the more, and that, in short, she had made a new
+creature of him by refusing to return his kiss that day, and
+leaving him alone with so severe a rebuke. He felt that if
+all women were so good and true men would be a different
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page265"></span><a name="pg265" id="pg265" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+race, and now he looked up to her as one might look up to an
+angel, and he felt he could never be happy again on this earth
+until he had her written word of forgiveness. With that he
+felt he could live a new life, and she must rest assured that
+he would never offer other than reverence to any woman again.
+He further added that his action had not intended any insult
+to her, that he was merely expressing his natural admiration
+for a spirit so good and true, and that his soul was innocent
+of any intention of evil. With sophistry in the use of which
+he was an adept, he closed his epistle, fully clearing himself,
+and assuring her that he could have made her understand it
+that day if she had not left so suddenly, and he had not been
+almost immediately called away to the dying bed of his dear
+cousin. This contradictory letter had troubled Marcia greatly.
+She was keen enough to see that his logic was at fault, and
+that the two pages of his letter did not hang together, but one
+thing was plain, that he wished her forgiveness. The Bible
+said that one must forgive, and surely it was right to let him
+know that she did, though when she thought of the fright he
+had given her it was hard to do. Still, it was right, and if
+he was so unhappy, perhaps she had better let him know.
+She would rather have waited until David returned to consult
+him in the matter, but the letter seemed so insistent that she
+had finally written a stiff little note, in formal language,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Mrs. Spafford sends herewith her full and free forgiveness
+to Mr. Harry Temple, and promises to think no more of the
+matter.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She would have liked to consult some one. She almost
+thought of taking Aunt Clarinda into her confidence, but
+decided that she might not understand. So she finally sent
+off the brief missive, and let her troubled thoughts wander
+after it more than once.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She was standing by the window looking out into the yard
+perplexing herself over this again when there came a loud
+knocking at the front door. She started, half frightened,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page266"></span><a name="pg266" id="pg266" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+for the knock sounded through the empty house so insistently.
+It seemed like trouble coming. She felt nervous as she went
+down the hall.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was only a little urchin, barefoot, and tow-headed. He
+had ridden an old mare to the door, and left her nosing at
+the dusty grass. He brought her a letter. Again her heart
+fluttered excitedly. Who could be writing to her? It was
+not David. Why did the handwriting look familiar? It
+could not be from any one at home. Father? Mother? No,
+it was no one she knew. She tore it open, and the boy jumped
+on his horse and was off down the street before she realized
+that he was gone.</p>
+
+<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-variant: small-caps">Dear Madam</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">:</span><span style="font-size: 90%">�</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> the letter
+  read,</span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">I bring you news of your husband, and having met
+  with an accident I am unable to come further. You will find me at the Green
+  Tavern two miles out on the corduroy road. As the business is private,
+  please come alone.</span></span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: right; margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-variant: small-caps">A
+  Messenger.</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">�</span></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia trembled so that she sat down on the stairs. A
+sudden weakness went over her like a wave, and the hall grew
+dark around her as though she were going to faint. But
+she did not. She was strong and well and had never fainted
+in her life. She rallied in a moment and tried to think.
+Something had happened to David. Something dreadful,
+perhaps, and she must go at once and find out. Still it must
+be something mysterious, for the man had said it was private.
+Of course that meant David would not want it known. David
+had intended that the man would come to her and tell her
+by herself. She must go. There was nothing else to be done.
+She must go at once and get rid of this awful suspense. It
+was a good day for the message to have come, for she had
+brought her lunch expecting to do some spring cleaning.
+David had been expected home soon, and she liked to make
+a bustle of preparation as if he might come in any day, for
+it kept up her good cheer.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page267"></span><a name="pg267" id="pg267" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Having resolved to go she got up at once, closed the doors
+and windows, put on her bonnet and went out down the street
+toward the old corduroy road. It frightened her to think
+what might be at the end of her journey. Possibly David
+himself, hurt or dying, and he had sent for her in this way
+that she might break the news gently to his aunts. As she
+walked along she conjured various forms of trouble that might
+have come to him. Now and then she would try to take a
+cheerful view, saying to herself that David might have needed
+more important papers, papers which he would not like everyone
+to know about, and had sent by special messenger to her
+to get them. Then her face would brighten and her step
+grow more brisk. But always would come the dull thud
+of possibility of something more serious. Her heart beat so
+fast sometimes that she was forced to lessen her speed to get
+her breath, for though she was going through town, and must
+necessarily walk somewhat soberly lest she call attention to
+herself, she found that her nerves and imagination were fairly
+running ahead, and waiting impatiently for her feet to catch
+up at every turning place.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At last she came to the corduroy road—a long stretch of
+winding way overlaid with logs which made an unpleasant
+path. Most of the way was swampy, and bordered in some
+places by thick, dark woods. Marcia sped on from log to
+log, with a nervous feeling that she must step on each one
+or her errand would not be successful. She was not afraid
+of the loneliness, only of what might be coming at the end
+of her journey.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But suddenly, in the densest part of the wood, she became
+conscious of footsteps echoing hers, and a chill laid hold
+upon her. She turned her head and there, wildly gesticulating
+and running after her, was Miranda!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Annoyed, and impatient to be on her way, and wondering
+what to do with Miranda, or what she could possibly want,
+Marcia stopped to wait for her.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page268"></span><a name="pg268" id="pg268" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I thought—as you was goin’ ’long my way�</span>—puffed
+Miranda, <span class="tei tei-q">“I’d jes’ step along beside you. You don’t mind,
+do you?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia looked troubled. If she should say she did then
+Miranda would think it queer and perhaps suspect something.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She tried to smile and ask how far Miranda was going.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, I’m goin’ to hunt fer wild strawberries,�</span> said the
+girl nonchalantly clattering a big tin pail.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Isn’t it early yet for strawberries?�</span> questioned Marcia.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Well, mebbe, an’ then ag’in mebbe ’tain’t. I know a place
+I’m goin’ to look anyway. Are you goin’ ’s fur ’s the Green
+Tavern?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miranda’s bright eyes looked her through and through,
+and Marcia’s truthful ones could not evade. Suddenly as she
+looked into the girl’s homely face, filled with a kind of
+blind adoration, her heart yearned for counsel in this trying
+situation. She was reminded of Miranda’s helpfulness the
+time she ran away to the woods, and the care with which she
+had guarded the whole matter so that no one ever heard of it.
+An impulse came to her to confide in Miranda. She was a
+girl of sharp common sense, and would perhaps be able to
+help with her advice. At least she could get comfort from
+merely telling her trouble and anxiety.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Miranda,�</span> she said, <span class="tei tei-q">“can you keep a secret?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The girl nodded.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Well, I’m going to tell you something, just because I
+am so troubled and I feel as if it would do me good to tell it.�</span>
+She smiled and Miranda answered the smile with much satisfaction
+and no surprise. Miranda had come for this, though
+she did not expect her way to be so easy.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I’ll be mum as an oyster,�</span> said Miranda. <span class="tei tei-q">“You jest tell
+me anything you please. You needn’t be afraid Hannah
+Heath’ll know a grain about it. She’n’ I are two people. I
+know when to shut up.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Well, Miranda, I’m in great perplexity and anxiety.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page269"></span><a name="pg269" id="pg269" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+I’ve just had a note from a messenger my husband has sent
+asking me to come out to that Green Tavern you were talking
+about. He was sent to me with some message and has had
+an accident so he couldn’t come. It kind of frightened me
+to think what might be the matter. I’m glad you are going
+this way because it keeps me from thinking about it. Are we
+nearly there? I never went out this road so far before.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“It ain’t fur,�</span> said Miranda as if that were a minor matter.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“I’ll go right along in with you, then you needn’t feel lonely.
+I guess likely it’s business. Don’t you worry.�</span> The tone
+was reassuring, but Marcia’s face looked troubled.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“No, I guess that won’t do, Miranda, for the note says it is
+a private matter and I must come alone. You know Mr.
+Spafford has matters to write about that are very important,
+railroads, and such things, and sometimes he doesn’t care to
+have any one get hold of his ideas before they appear in the
+paper. His enemies might use them to stop the plans of the
+great improvements he is writing about.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Let me see that note!�</span> demanded Miranda. <span class="tei tei-q">“Got it
+with you?�</span> Marcia hesitated. Perhaps she ought not to
+show it, and yet there was nothing in the note but what she
+had already told the girl, and she felt sure she would not
+breathe a word to a living soul after her promise. She
+handed Miranda the letter, and they stopped a moment while
+she slowly spelled it out. Miranda was no scholar. Marcia
+watched her face eagerly, as if to gather a ray of hope from it,
+but she was puzzled by Miranda’s look. A kind of satisfaction
+had overspread her homely countenance.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Should you think from that that David was hurt—or ill—or—or—killed—or
+anything?�</span> She asked the question as if
+Miranda were a wizard, and hung anxiously upon her answer.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Naw, I don’t reckon so!�</span> said Miranda. <span class="tei tei-q">“Don’t you
+worry. David’s all right somehow. I’ll take care o’ you.
+You go ’long up and see what’s the business, an’ I’ll wait here
+out o’ sight o’ the tavern. Likely’s not he might take a notion
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page270"></span><a name="pg270" id="pg270" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+not to tell you ef he see me come along with you. You jest
+go ahead, and I’ll be on hand when you get through. If you
+need me fer anything you jest holler out ‘Randy!’ good and
+loud an’ I’ll hear you. Guess I’ll set on this log. The
+tavern’s jest round that bend in the road. Naw, you needn’t
+thank me. This is a real pretty mornin’ to set an’ rest.
+Good-bye.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia hurried on, glancing back happily at her protector
+in a calico sunbonnet seated stolidly on a log with her tin pail
+beside her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Poor stupid Miranda! Of course she could not understand
+what a comfort it was to have confided her trouble. Marcia
+went up to the tavern with almost a smile on her face, though
+her heart began to beat wildly as a slatternly girl led her into
+a big room at the right of the hall.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As Marcia disappeared behind the bend in the road,
+Miranda stealthily stole along the edge of the woods, till
+she stood hidden behind a clump of alders where she could
+peer out and watch Marcia until she reached the tavern and
+passed safely by the row of lounging, smoking men, and on
+into the doorway. Then Miranda waited just an instant to
+look in all directions, and sped across the road, mounting the
+fence and on through two meadows, and the barnyard to the
+kitchen door of the tavern.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Mornin’! Mis’ Green,�</span> she said to the slovenly looking
+woman who sat by the table peeling potatoes. <span class="tei tei-q">“Mind givin’
+me a drink o’ water? I’m terrible thirsty, and seemed like I
+couldn’t find the spring. Didn’t thare used to be a spring
+’tween here’n town?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Goodness sakes! Randy! Where’d you come from?
+Water! Jes’ help yourself. There’s the bucket jes’ from the
+spring five minutes since, an’ there’s the gourd hanging up
+on the wall. I can’t get up, I’m that busy. Twelve to dinner
+to-day, an’ only me to do the cookin’. ’Melia she’s got to
+be upstairs helpin’ at the bar.�</span></p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page271"></span><a name="pg271" id="pg271" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Who all you got here?�</span> questioned Miranda as she took
+a draught from the old gourd.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Well, got a gentleman from New York fur one. He’s
+real pretty. Quite a beau. His clo’es are that nice you’d
+think he was goin’ to court. He’s that particular ’bout his
+eatin’ I feel flustered. Nothin’ would do but he hed to hev
+a downstairs room. He said he didn’t like goin’ upstairs.
+He don’t look sickly, neither.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Mebbe he’s had a accident an’ lamed himself,�</span> suggested
+Miranda cunningly. <span class="tei tei-q">“Heard o’ any accidents? How’d he
+come? Coach or horseback?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Coach,�</span> said Mrs. Green. <span class="tei tei-q">“Why do you ask? Got any
+friends in New York?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Not many,�</span> responded Miranda importantly, <span class="tei tei-q">“but my
+cousin Hannah Heath has. You know she’s ben up there for
+a spell visitin’ an’ they say there was lots of gentlemen in
+love with her. There’s one in particular used to come round
+a good deal. It might be him come round to see ef it’s true
+Hannah’s goin’ to get married to Lem Skinner. Know what
+this fellow’s name is?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You don’t say! Well now it might be. No, I don’t
+rightly remember his name. Seems though it was something
+like Church er Chapel. ’Melia could tell ye, but she’s busy.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Where’s he at? Mebbe I could get a glimpse o’ him.
+I’d jest like to know ef he was comin’ to bother our Hannah.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Well now. Mebbe you could get a sight o’ him. There’s
+a cupboard between his room an’ the room back. It has a door
+both sides. Mebbe ef you was to slip in there you might see
+him through the latch hole. I ain’t usin’ that back room fer
+anythin’ but a store-room this spring, so look out you don’t
+stumble over nothin’ when you go in fer it’s dark as a pocket.
+You go right ’long in. I reckon you’ll find the way. Yes, it’s
+on the right hand side o’ the hall. I’ve got to set here an’
+finish these potatoes er dinner’ll be late. I’d like to know real
+well ef he’s one o’ Hannah Heath’s beaux.�</span></p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page272"></span><a name="pg272" id="pg272" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miranda needed no second bidding. She slipped through
+the hall and store room, and in a moment stood before the
+door of the closet. Softly she opened it, and stepped in, lifting
+her feet cautiously, for the closet floor seemed full of old
+boots and shoes.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was dark in there, very dark, and only one slat of light
+stabbed the blackness coming through the irregular shape of
+the latch hole. She could hear voices in low tones speaking
+on the other side of the door. Gradually her eyes grew accustomed
+to the light and one by one objects came out of the
+shadows and looked at her. A white pitcher with a broken
+nose, a row of bottles, a bunch of seed corn with the husks
+braided together and hung on a nail, an old coat on another
+nail.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Down on her knees beside the crack of light went Miranda.
+First her eye and then her ear were applied to the small
+aperture. She could see nothing but a table directly in front
+of the door about a foot away on which were quills, paper, and
+a large horn inkstand filled with ink. Some one evidently
+had been writing, for a page was half done, and the pen was
+laid down beside a word.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The limits of the latch hole made it impossible for Miranda
+to make out any more. She applied her ear and could hear
+a man’s voice talking in low insinuating tones, but she could
+make little of what was said. It drove her fairly frantic to
+think that she was losing time. Miranda had no mind to be
+balked in her purpose. She meant to find out who was in
+that room and what was going on. She felt a righteous
+interest in it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Her eyes could see quite plainly now in the dark closet.
+There was a big button on the door. She no sooner discovered
+it than she put up her hand and tried to turn it. It
+was tight and made a slight squeak in turning. She stopped
+but the noise seemed to have no effect upon the evenly modulated
+tones inside. Cautiously she moved the button again,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page273"></span><a name="pg273" id="pg273" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+holding the latch firmly in her other hand lest the door
+should suddenly fly open. It was an exciting moment when
+at last the button was turned entirely away from the door
+frame and the lifted latch swung free in Miranda’s hand.
+The door opened outward. If it were allowed to go it would
+probably strike against the table. Miranda only allowed it
+to open a crack. She could hear words now, and the voice
+reminded her of something unpleasant. The least little bit
+more she dared open the door, and she could see, as she had
+expected, Marcia’s bonnet and shoulder cape as she sat at the
+other side of the room. This then was the room of the messenger
+who had sent for Mrs. Spafford so peremptorily. The
+next thing was to discover the identity of the messenger.
+Miranda had suspicions.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The night before she had seen a man lurking near the
+Spafford house when she went out in the garden to feed the
+chickens. She had watched him from behind the lilac bush,
+and when he had finally gone away she had followed him some
+distance until he turned into the old corduroy road and was
+lost in the gathering dusk. The man she had seen before,
+and had reason to suspect. It was not for nothing that she
+had braved her grandmother and gone hunting wild strawberries
+out of season.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">With the caution of a creature of the forest Miranda opened
+the door an inch further, and applied her eye to the latch
+hole again. The man’s head was in full range of her eye
+then, and her suspicion proved true.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When Marcia entered the big room and the heavy oak door
+closed behind her her heart seemed almost choking her, but
+she tried with all her might to be calm. She was to know
+the worst now.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">On the other side of the room in a large arm-chair, with his
+feet extended on another and covered by a travelling shawl,
+reclined a man. Marcia went toward him eagerly, and then
+stopped:</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page274"></span><a name="pg274" id="pg274" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Mr. Temple!�</span> There was horror, fear, reproach in the
+way she spoke it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I know you are astonished, Mrs. Spafford, that the
+messenger should be one so unworthy, and let me say
+at the beginning that I am more thankful than I can express
+that your letter of forgiveness reached me before I was obliged
+to start on my sorrowful commission. I beg you will sit down
+and be as comfortable as you can while I explain further.
+Pardon my not rising. I have met with a bad sprain caused
+by falling from my horse on the way, and was barely able to
+reach this stopping place. My ankle is swollen so badly that
+I cannot step upon my foot.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia, with white face, moved to the chair he indicated
+near him, and sat down. The one thought his speech had
+conveyed to her had come through those words <span class="tei tei-q">“my sorrowful
+commission.�</span> She felt the need of sitting down, for her
+limbs would no longer bear her up, and she felt she must
+immediately know what was the matter.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Mrs. Spafford, may I ask you once more to speak your
+forgiveness? Before I begin to tell you what I have come for,
+I long to hear you say the words ‘I forgive you.’ Will you
+give me your hand and say them?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Mr. Temple, I beg you will tell me what is the matter.
+Do not think any further about that other matter. I meant
+what I said in the note. Tell me quick! Is my husband—has
+anything happened to Mr. Spafford? Is he ill? Is he hurt?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“My poor child! How can I bear to tell you? It seems
+terrible to put your love and trust upon another human
+being and then suddenly find&mdash;&mdash; But wait. Let me tell
+the story in my own way. No, your husband is not hurt,
+physically. Illness, and death even, are not the worst things
+that can happen to a mortal soul. It seems to me cruel, as I
+see you sit there so young and tender and beautiful, that I
+should have to hurt you by what I have to say. I come from
+the purest of motives to tell you a sad truth about one who
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page275"></span><a name="pg275" id="pg275" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+should be nearest and dearest to you of all the earth. I beg
+you will look upon me kindly and believe that it hurts me to
+have to tell you these things. Before I begin I pray you will
+tell me that you forgive me for all I have to say. Put your
+hand in mine and say so.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia had listened to this torrent of words unable to stop
+them, a choking sensation in her throat, fear gripping her
+heart. Some terrible thing had happened. Her senses refused
+to name the possibility. Would he never tell? What
+ailed the man that he wanted her hand in forgiveness? Of
+course she forgave him. She could not speak, and he kept
+urging.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I cannot talk until I have your hand as a pledge that
+you will forgive me and think not unkindly of me for what
+I am about to tell you.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He must have seen how powerfully he wrought upon her, for
+he continued until wild with frantic fear she stumbled toward
+him and laid her hand in his. He grasped it and thanked
+her profusely. He looked at the little cold hand in his own,
+and his lying tongue went on:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Mrs. Spafford, you are good and true. You have saved
+me from a life of uselessness, and your example and high
+noble character have given me new inspiration. It seems a
+poor gratitude that would turn and stab you to the heart. Ah!
+I cannot do it, and yet I must.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This was torture indeed! Marcia drew her hand sharply
+away and held it to her heart. She felt her brain reeling with
+the strain. Harry Temple saw he must go on at once or he
+would lose what he had gained. He had meant to keep that
+little hand and touch it gently with a comforting pressure as
+his story went on, but it would not do to frighten her or she
+might take sudden alarm.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Sit down,�</span> he begged, reaching out and drawing a chair
+near to his own, but she stepped back and dropped into the
+one which she had first taken.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page276"></span><a name="pg276" id="pg276" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You know your husband has been in New York?�</span> he
+began. She nodded. She could not speak.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Did you never suspect why he is there and why he stays so
+long?�</span> A cold vise gripped Marcia’s heart, but though she
+turned white she said nothing, only looked steadily into the
+false eyes that glowed and burned at her like two hateful coals
+of fire that would scorch her soul and David’s to a horrid
+death.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Poor child, you cannot answer. You have trusted
+perfectly. You thought he was there on business connected with
+his writing, but did it never occur to you what a very long
+time he has been away and that—that there might be some
+other reason also which he has not told? But you must know
+it now, my child. I am sorry to say it, but he has been keeping
+it from you, and those who love you think you ought to
+know. Let me explain. Very soon after he reached New
+York he met a lady whom he used to know and admire. She
+is a very beautiful woman, and though she is married is still
+much sought after. Your husband, like the rest of her admirers,
+soon lost his heart completely, and his head. Strange
+that he could so easily forget the pearl of women he had left
+behind! He went to see her. He showed his affection for
+her in every possible way. He gave her large sums of money.
+In fact, to make a long story short, he is lingering in New
+York just to be near her. I hesitate to speak the whole
+truth, but he has surely done that which you cannot forgive.
+You with your lofty ideas—Mrs. Spafford—he has cut himself
+off from any right to your respect or love.</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“And now I am here to-day to offer to do all in my
+power to help you. From what I know of your husband’s movements,
+he is likely to return to you soon. You cannot meet
+him knowing that the lips that will salute you have been
+pressed upon the lips of another woman, and that woman <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">your own sister</span></span>, dear Mrs. Spafford!</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Ah! Now you understand, poor child. Your lips
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page277"></span><a name="pg277" id="pg277" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+quiver! You have reason to understand. I know, I know
+you cannot think what to do. Let me think for you.�</span> His
+eyes were glowing and his face animated. He was using all
+his persuasive power, and her gaze was fixed upon him as
+though he had mesmerized her. She could not resist the
+flood-tide of his eloquence. She could only look on and
+seem to be gradually turning to stone—frozen with horror.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He felt he had almost won, and with demoniacal skill he
+phrased his sentences.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I am here for that purpose. I am here to help you and
+for no other reason. In the stable are horses harnessed and a
+comfortable carriage. My advice to you is to fly from here
+as fast as these fleet horses can carry you. Where you go is
+for you to say. I should advise going to your father’s house.
+That I am sure is what will please him best. He is your
+natural refuge at such a time as this. If, however, you shrink
+from appearing before the eyes of the village gossips in your
+native town, I will take you to the home of a dear old friend
+of mine, hidden among the quiet hills, where you will be cared
+for most royally and tenderly for my sake, and where you
+can work out your life problem in the way that seems best to
+you. It is there that I am planning to take you to-night.
+We can easily reach there before evening if we start at once.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia started to her feet in horror.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“What do you mean?�</span> she stammered in a choking voice.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“I could never go anywhere with you Mr. Temple. You are
+a bad man! You have been telling me lies! I do not believe
+one word of what you have said. My husband is noble and
+good. If he did any of those things you say he did he had a
+reason for it. I shall never distrust him.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s head was up grandly now and her voice had come
+back. She looked the man in the eye until he quailed, but still
+he sought to hold his power over her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You poor child!�</span> and his voice was gentleness and forbearance
+itself. <span class="tei tei-q">“I do not wonder in your first horror and
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page278"></span><a name="pg278" id="pg278" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+surprise that you feel as you do. I anticipated this. Sit
+down and calm yourself and let me tell you more about it.
+I can prove everything that I have said. I have letters
+here&mdash;&mdash;�</span> and he swept his hand toward a pile of letters
+lying on the table; Miranda in the closet marked well the
+position of those letters. <span class="tei tei-q">“All that I have said is only too
+true, I am sorry to say, and you must listen to me&mdash;&mdash;�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia interrupted him, her eyes blazing, her face excited:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Mr. Temple, I shall not listen to another word you say.
+You are a wicked man and I was wrong to come here at all.
+You deceived me or I should not have come. I must go
+home at once.�</span> With that she started toward the door.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Harry Temple flung aside the shawl that covered his sometime
+sprained ankle and arose quickly, placing himself before
+her, forgetful of his invalid rôle:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Not so fast, my pretty lady,�</span> he said, grasping her wrists
+fiercely in both his hands. <span class="tei tei-q">“You need not think to escape
+so easily. You shall not leave this room except in my company.
+Do you not know that you are in my power? You
+have spent nearly an hour alone in my bedchamber, and what
+will your precious husband have to do with you after this is
+known?�</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS24" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page279"></span><a name="pg279" id="pg279" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc48" id="toc48"></a>
+<a name="pdf49" id="pdf49"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XXIV</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miranda’s time had come. She had seen it coming and
+was prepared.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">With a movement like a flash she pushed open the closet
+door, seized the pot of ink from the table, and before the two
+excited occupants of the room had time to even hear her or
+realize that she was near, she hurled the ink pot full into
+the insolent face of Harry Temple. The inkstand itself was
+a light affair of horn and inflicted only a slight wound, but
+the ink came into his eyes in a deluge blinding him completely,
+as Miranda had meant it should do. She had seen
+no other weapon of defense at hand.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Harry Temple dropped Marcia’s wrists and groaned in pain,
+staggering back against the wall and sinking to the floor.
+But Miranda would not stay to see the effect of her punishment.
+She seized the frightened Marcia, dragged her toward
+the cupboard door, sweeping as she passed the pile of letters,
+finished and unfinished, into her apron, and closed the cupboard
+doors carefully behind her. Then she guided Marcia
+through the dark mazes of the store room to the hall, and
+pushing her toward the front door, whispered: <span class="tei tei-q">“Go quick
+’fore he gets his eyes open. I’ve got to go this way. Run
+down the road fast as you can an’ I’ll be at the meetin’ place
+first. Hurry, quick!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia went with feet that shook so that every step seemed
+like to slip, but with beating heart she finally traversed the
+length of the piazza with a show of dignity, passed the loungers,
+and was out in the road. Then indeed she took courage
+and fairly flew.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miranda, breathless, but triumphant, went back into the
+kitchen: <span class="tei tei-q">“I guess ’tain’t him after all,�</span> she said to the interested
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page280"></span><a name="pg280" id="pg280" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+woman who was putting on the potatoes to boil. <span class="tei tei-q">“He’s
+real interesting to look at though. I’d like to stop and watch
+him longer but I must be goin’. I come out to hunt fer�</span>—Miranda
+hesitated for a suitable object before this country-bred
+woman who well knew that strawberries were not ripe
+yet—<span class="tei tei-q">“wintergreens fer Grandma,�</span> she added cheerfully, not
+quite sure whether they grew around these parts, <span class="tei tei-q">“and I
+must be in a hurry. Good-bye! Thank you fer the drink.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miranda whizzed out of the door breezily, calling a good
+morning to one of the hostlers as she passed the barnyard,
+and was off through the meadows and over the fence like a
+bird, the package of letters rustling loud in her bosom where
+she had tucked them before she entered the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Neither of the two girls spoke for some minutes after they
+met, but continued their rapid gait, until the end of the corduroy
+road was in sight and they felt comparatively safe.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Wal, that feller certainly ought to be strung up an’ walluped,
+now, fer sure,�</span> remarked Miranda, <span class="tei tei-q">“an I’d like to help
+at the wallupin’.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s overstrung nerves suddenly dissolved into hysterical
+laughter. The contrast from the tragic to the ridiculous
+was too much for her. She laughed until the tears rolled
+down her cheeks, and then she cried in earnest. Miranda
+stopped and put her arms about her as gently as a mother
+might have done, and smoothed her hair back from the hot
+cheek, speaking tenderly:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“There now, you poor pretty little flower. Jest you cry ’s
+hard ’s you want to. I know how good it makes you feel to cry.
+I’ve done it many a time up garret where nobody couldn’t
+hear me. That old Satan, he won’t trouble you fer a good
+long spell again. When he gets his evil eyes open, if he ever
+does, he’ll be glad to get out o’ these parts or I miss my guess.
+Now don’t you worry no more. He can’t hurt you one mite.
+An’ don’t you think a thing about what he said. He’s a
+great big liar, that’s what he is.�</span></p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page281"></span><a name="pg281" id="pg281" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Miranda, you saved me. Yes, you did. I never can thank
+you enough. If you hadn’t come and helped me something
+awful might have happened!�</span> Marcia shuddered and began
+to sob convulsively again.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Nonsense!�</span> said Miranda, pleased. <span class="tei tei-q">“I didn’t do a
+thing worth mentioning. Now you jest wipe your eyes and
+chirk up. We’ve got to go through town an’ you don’t want
+folks to wonder what’s up.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miranda led Marcia up to the spring whose location had
+been known to her all the time of course, and Marcia bathed
+her eyes and was soon looking more like herself, though there
+was a nervous tremor to her lips now and then. But her companion
+talked gaily, and tried to keep her mind from going
+over the events of the morning.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When they reached the village Miranda suggested they go
+home by the back street, slipping through a field of spring
+wheat and climbing the garden fence. She had a mind to
+keep out of her grandmother’s sight for a while longer.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I might’s well be hung for a sheep’s a lamb,�</span> she remarked,
+as she slid in at Marcia’s kitchen door in the shadow of
+the morning-glory vines. <span class="tei tei-q">“I’m goin’ to stay here a spell
+an’
+get you some dinner while you go upstairs an’ lie down. You
+don’t need to go back to your aunt’s till near night, an’ you
+can wait till dusk an’ I’ll go with you. Then you needn’t be
+out alone at all. I know how you feel, but I don’t believe
+you need worry. He’ll be done with you now forever, er I’ll
+miss my guess. Now you go lie down till I make a cup o’
+tea.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia was glad to be alone, and soon fell asleep, worn out
+with the excitement, her brain too weary to go over the awful
+occurrences of the morning. That would come later. Now
+her body demanded rest.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miranda, coming upstairs with the tea, tiptoed in and
+looked at her,—one round arm thrown over her head,
+and her smooth peachy cheek resting against it. Miranda,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page282"></span><a name="pg282" id="pg282" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+homely, and with no hope of ever attaining any of the
+beautiful things of life, loved unselfishly this girl who
+had what she had not, and longed with all her heart to comfort
+and protect the sweet young thing who seemed so ill-prepared
+to protect herself. She stooped over the sleeper for
+one yearning moment, and touched her hair lightly with her
+lips. She felt a great desire to kiss the soft round cheek,
+but was afraid of wakening her. Then she took the cup of
+tea and tiptoed out again, her eyes shining with satisfaction.
+She had a self-imposed task before her, and was well pleased
+that Marcia slept, for it gave her plenty of opportunity to carry
+out her plans.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She went quickly to David’s library, opened drawers and
+doors in the desk until she found writing materials, and sat
+down to work. She had a letter to write, and a letter, to
+Miranda, was the achievement of a lifetime. She did not
+much expect to ever have to write another. She plunged
+into her subject at once.</p>
+
+<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-variant: small-caps">Dear Mr. David</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">:</span><span style="font-size: 90%">�</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> (she was
+  afraid that sounded a little stiff, but she felt it was almost too familiar
+  to say </span><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">David</span><span style="font-size: 90%">�</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> as he was always called.)</span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">I ain’t much on letters, but this one has got
+  to be writ. Something happened and somebody’s got to tell you about
+  it. I’m most sure she wont, and nobody else knows cept me.</span></span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Last night ’bout dark I went out to feed the
+  chickens, an’ I see that nimshi Harry Temple skulkin round your
+  house. It was all dark there, an he walked in the side gate and tried to
+  peek in the winders, only the shades was down an he couldn’t see a
+  thing. I thought he was up to some mischief so I followed him down the
+  street a piece till he turned down the old corduroy road. It was dark by
+  then an I come home, but I was on the watchout this morning, and after
+  Mis’ Spafford come down to the house I heard a horse gallopin by an I
+  looked out an saw a boy get off an take a letter to the door an ride away,
+  an pretty soon all in a hurry your wife come out tyin her bonnet and
+  hurryin along lookin scared. I grabbed my sunbonnet an
+  </span><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page283"></span><a name="pg283" id="pg283" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span style="font-size: 90%">
+  clipped after her, but she went so fast I didn’t get up to her till
+  she got on the old corduroy road. She was awful scared lookin an she
+  didn’t want me much I see, but pretty soon she up an told me she had
+  a note sayin there was a messenger with news from you out to the old Green
+  Tavern. He had a accident an couldn’t come no further. He wanted her
+  to come alone cause the business was private, so I stayed down by the turn
+  of the road till she got in an then I went cross lots an round to the
+  kitchen an called on Mis’ Green a spell. She was tellin me about her
+  boarders an I told her I thought mebbe one of em was a friend o’
+  Hannah Heath’s so she said I might peek through the key hole of the
+  cubberd an see. She was busy so I went alone.</span></span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Well sir, I jest wish you’d been there. That
+  lying nimshi was jest goin on the sweetest, as respectful an nice a thankin
+  your wife fer comin, an excusin himself fer sendin fer her, and sayin he
+  couldn’t bear to tell her what he’d come fer, an pretty soon
+  when she was scared ’s death he up an told her a awful fib bout you
+  an a woman called Kate, whoever she is, an he jest poured the words out
+  fast so she couldn’t speak, an he said things about you he
+  shouldn’t uv, an you could see he was makin it up as he went along,
+  an he said he had proof. So he pointed at a pile of letters on the table an
+  I eyed em good through the hole in the door. Pretty soon he ups and
+  perposes that he carry her off in a carriage he has all ready, and takes
+  her to a friend of his, so she wont be here when you come home, cause
+  you’re so bad, and she gets up looking like she wanted to scream only
+  she didn’t dare, and she says he dont tell the truth, it wasn’t
+  so any of it, and if it was it was all right anyway, that you had some
+  reason, an she wouldn’t go a step with him anywhere. An then he
+  forgets all about the lame ankle he had kept covered up on a chair
+  pertendin it was hurt fallin off his horse when the coach brought him all
+  the way fer I asked Mis’ Green—and he ketches her by the
+  wrists, and he says she can’t go without him, and she needn’t
+  be in such a hurry fer you wouldn’t have no more to do with her
+  anyway after her being shut up there with him so long, an then she looked
+  jest like she was going to faint, an I bust out through the door an
+  ketched up the ink pot, it want heavy enough to
+  </span><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page284"></span><a name="pg284" id="pg284" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span style="font-size: 90%">
+  kill him, an I slung it at him, an the ink went square in his eyes, an we
+  slipped through the closet an got away quick fore anybody knew a
+  thing.</span></span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">I brought all the letters along so here they be. I
+  havn’t read a one, cause I thought mebbe you’d ruther not. She
+  aint seen em neither. She dont know I’ve got em. I hid em in my
+  dress. She’s all wore out with cryin and hurryin, and being scared,
+  so she’s upstairs now asleep, an she dont know I’m writing.
+  I’m goin to send this off fore she knows, fer I think she
+  wouldn’t tell you fear of worryin you. I’ll look after her es
+  well’s I can till you get back, but I think that feller ought to be
+  strung up. But you’ll know what to do, so no more at present from
+  your obedient servent,</span></span></p>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: right; margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: right"><span class="tei tei-corr" style="text-align: right"><a name="E25" id="E25" class="tei tei-anchor" style="text-align: right"></a><a href="#e25" class="tei tei-ref" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span></a></span><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-variant: small-caps">Miranda Griscom.</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">�</span></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Having at last succeeded in sealing her packet to her satisfaction
+and the diminishing of the stick of sealing wax she
+had found in the drawer, Miranda slid out the front door,
+and by a detour went to David Spafford’s office.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Good afternoon, Mr. Clark,�</span> she said to the clerk importantly.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Grandma sends her respecks and wants to know
+ef you’d be so kind as to back this letter fer her to Mr. David
+Spafford. She’s writin’ to him on business an’ she don’t
+rightly know his street an’ number in New York.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Mr. Clark willingly wrote the address, and Miranda took
+it to the post office, and sped back to Marcia, happy in the
+accomplishment of her purpose.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-tb"> </div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">In the same mail bag that brought Miranda’s package came
+a letter from Aunt Clarinda. David’s face lit up with a pleased
+smile. Her letters were so infrequent that they were a rare
+pleasure. He put aside the thick package written in his clerk’s
+hand. It was doubtless some business papers and could wait.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Aunt Clarinda wrote in a fine old script that in spite of
+her eighty years was clear and legible. She told about the
+beauty of the weather, and how Amelia and Hortense were
+almost done with the house cleaning, and how Marcia had been
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page285"></span><a name="pg285" id="pg285" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+going to their house every day putting it in order. Then she
+added a paragraph which David, knowing the old lady well,
+understood to be the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">raison d’être</span></span> of the whole letter:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I think your wife misses you very much, Davie, she looks
+sort of peeked and sad. It is hard on her being separated
+from you so long this first year. Men don’t think of those
+things, but it is lonely for a young thing like her here with
+three old women, and you know Hortense and Amelia never
+try to make it lively for anybody. I have been watching her,
+and I think if I were you I would let the business finish itself
+up as soon as possible and hurry back to put a bit of cheer
+into that child. She’s whiter than she ought to be.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David read it over three times in astonishment with growing,
+mingled feelings which he could not quite analyze.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Poor Aunt Clarinda! Of course she did not understand
+the situation, and equally of course she was mistaken. Marcia
+was not sighing for him, though it might be dull for her at
+the old house. He ought to have thought of that; and a
+great burden suddenly settled down upon him. He was not
+doing right by Marcia. It could not be himself of course that
+Marcia was missing, if indeed Aunt Clarinda was right and
+she was worried about anything. Perhaps something had
+occurred to trouble her. Could that snake of a Temple have
+turned up again? No, he felt reasonably sure he would have
+heard of that, besides he saw him not long ago on the street
+at a distance. Could it be some boy-lover at home whose
+memory came to trouble her? Or had she discovered what a
+sacrifice she had made of her young life? Whatever it was,
+it was careless and cruel in him to have left her alone with his
+aunts all this time. He was a selfish man, he told himself,
+to have accepted her quiet little sacrifice of all for him. He
+read the letter over again, and suddenly there came to him a
+wish that Marcia <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">was</span></span> missing him. It seemed a pleasant
+thought to have her care. He had been trying to train himself
+to the fact that no one would ever care for him again,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page286"></span><a name="pg286" id="pg286" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+but now it seemed dear and desirable that his sweet young
+companion should like to have him back. He had a vision
+of home as it had been, so pleasant and restful, always the
+food that he liked, always the thought for his wishes, and he
+felt condemned. He had not noticed or cared. Had she
+thought him ungrateful?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He read the letter over again, noting every mention of his
+wife in the account of the daily living at home. He was
+searching for some clue that would give him more information
+about her. And when he reached the last paragraph about
+missing him, a little tingle of pleasure shot through him at
+the thought. He did not understand it. After all she was
+his, and if it was possible he must help to make up to her
+for what she had lost in giving herself to him. If the thought
+of doing so brought a sense of satisfaction to him that was
+unexpected, he was not to blame in any wise.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Since his interview with Kate, and the terrible night of
+agony through which he had passed, David had plunged into
+his business with all his might. Whenever a thought of Kate
+came he banished it if possible, and if it would not go he got
+out his writing materials and went to work at an article, to
+absorb his mind. He had several times arisen in the night
+to write because he could not sleep, and must think.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When he was obliged to be in New York he had steadily
+kept away from the house where Kate lived, and never walked
+through the streets without occupying his mind as fully as
+possible so that he should not chance to see her. In this way
+his sorrow was growing old without having been worn out,
+and he was really regaining a large amount of his former
+happiness and interest in life. Not so often now did the
+vision of Kate come to trouble him. He thought she was still
+his one ideal of womanly beauty and grace and perfection of
+course, and always would be, but she was not for him to think
+upon any more. A strong true man he was growing, out of
+his sorrow. And now when the thought of Marcia came to
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page287"></span><a name="pg287" id="pg287" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+him with a certain sweetness he could be glad that it was so,
+and not resent it. Of course no one could ever take the place
+of Kate, that was impossible.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">So reflecting, with a pleasant smile upon his face, he opened
+Miranda’s epistle.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Puzzled and surprised he began to read the strange chirography,
+and as he read his face darkened and he drew his brows
+in a heavy frown. <span class="tei tei-q">“The scoundrel!�</span> he muttered as he
+turned the sheet. Then as he went on his look grew anxious.
+He scanned the page quickly as if he would gather the meaning
+from the crooked ill-spelled words without taking them one
+by one. But he had to go slowly, for Miranda had not written
+with as much plainness as haste. He fairly held his breath
+when he thought of the gentle girl in the hands of the unscrupulous
+man of the world. A terrible fear gripped his
+heart, Marcia, little Marcia, so sweet and pure and good. A
+vision of her face as she lay asleep in the woods came between
+him and the paper. Why had he left her unprotected all these
+months? Fool that he was! She was worth more than all
+the railroads put together. As if his own life was in the
+balance, he read on, growing sick with horror. Poor child!
+what had she thought? And how had his own sin and weakness
+been found out, or was it merely Harry Temple’s wicked
+heart that had evolved these stories? The letter smote him
+with terrible accusation, and all at once it was fearful to him
+to think that Marcia had heard such things about him. When
+he came to her trust in him he groaned aloud and buried his
+face in the letter, and then raised it quickly to read to the end.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When he had finished he rose with sudden determination
+to pack his carpet-bag and go home at once. Marcia needed
+him, and he felt a strong desire to be near her, to see her
+and know she was safe. It was overwhelming. He had not
+known he could ever feel strongly again. He must confess
+his own weakness of course, and he would. She should know
+all and know that she might trust his after all.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page288"></span><a name="pg288" id="pg288" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But the motion of rising had sent the other papers to the
+floor, and in falling the bundle of letters that Miranda had
+enclosed, scattered about him. He stooped to pick them up
+and saw his own name written in Kate’s handwriting. Old
+association held him, and wondering, fearful, not wholly glad
+to see it, he picked up the letter. It was an epistle of Kate’s,
+written in intimate style to Harry Temple and speaking of
+himself in terms of the utmost contempt. She even stooped to
+detail to Harry an account of her own triumph on that miserable
+morning when he had taken her in his arms and kissed
+her. There were expressions in the letter that showed her
+own wicked heart, as nothing else could ever have done, to
+David. As he read, his soul growing sick within him,—read
+one letter after another, and saw how she had plotted with this
+bad man to wreck the life of her young sister for her own
+triumph and revenge,—the beautiful woman whom he had
+loved, and whom he had thought beautiful within as well as
+without, crumbled into dust before him. When he looked
+up at last with white face and firmly set lips, he found that
+his soul was free forever from the fetters that had bound him
+to her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He went to the fireplace and laid the pile of letters among
+the embers, blowing them into a blaze, and watched them
+until they were eaten up by the fire and nothing remained but
+dead grey ashes. The thought came to him that that was
+like his old love. It was burnt out. There had not been the
+right kind of fuel to feed it. Kate was worthless, but his own
+self was alive, and please God he would yet see better days.
+He would go home at once to the child wife who needed him,
+and whom now he might love as she should be loved. The
+thought became wondrously sweet to him as he rapidly threw
+the things into his travelling bag and went about arrangements
+for his trip home. He determined that if he ever came
+to New York again Marcia should come with him.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS25" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page289"></span><a name="pg289" id="pg289" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc50" id="toc50"></a>
+<a name="pdf51" id="pdf51"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XXV</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia hurried down to her own house early one morning.
+The phantoms of her experiences in the old Green Tavern
+were pursuing her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Once there she could do nothing but go over and over the
+dreadful things that Harry Temple had said. In vain did
+she try to work. She went into the library and took up a
+book, but her mind would wander to David.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She sat down at the piano and played a few tender chords
+and sang an old Italian song which somebody had left at their
+house several years before:</p>
+
+<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-left: 17.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+  <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: -1.00em">“Dearest, believe,</div>
+  <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">When e’er we part:</div>
+  <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Lonely I grieve,</div>
+  <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">In my sad heart:—�</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">With a sob her head dropped upon her hands in one sad
+little crash of wailing tones, while the sound died away in
+reverberation after reverberation of the strings till Marcia
+felt as if a sea of sound were about her in soft ebbing, flowing
+waves.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The sound covered the lifting of the side door latch and the
+quiet step of a foot. Marcia was absorbed in her own
+thoughts. Her smothered sobs were mingling with the dying
+sounds of the music, still audible to her fine ear.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David had come by instinct to his own home first. He felt
+that Marcia would be there, and now that he was come and the
+morning sun flooded everything and made home look so good
+he felt that he must find her first of all before his relationship
+with home had been re-established. He passed through
+kitchen, dining room and hall, and by the closed parlor door.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page290"></span><a name="pg290" id="pg290" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+He never thought of her being in there with the door closed.
+He glanced into the library and saw the book lying in his
+chair as she had left it, and it gave a touch of her presence
+which pleased him. He went softly toward the stairs thinking
+to find her. He had stopped at a shop the last thing and
+bought a beautiful creamy shawl of China crêpe heavily embroidered,
+and finished with long silken fringe. He had taken
+it from his carpet-bag and was carrying it in its rice paper
+wrappings lest it should be crushed. He was pleased as a
+child at the present he had brought her, and felt strangely
+shy about giving it to her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Just then there came a sound from the parlor, sweet and
+tender and plaintive. Marcia had conquered her sobs and was
+singing again with her whole soul, singing as if she were singing
+to David. The words drew him strangely, wonderingly
+toward the parlor door, yet so softly that he heard every
+syllable.</p>
+
+<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-left: 17.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+  <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: -1.00em">“Dearest, believe,</div>
+  <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">When e’er we part:</div>
+  <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Lonely I grieve,</div>
+  <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">In my sad heart:—</div>
+  <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Thy faithful slave,</div>
+  <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">Languishing sighs,</div>
+  <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Haste then and save—�</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Here the words trailed away again into a half sob, and the
+melody continued in broken, halting chords that flickered out
+and faded into the shadows of the room.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David’s heart was pierced with a belief that Aunt Clarinda
+was right and something was the matter with Marcia. A
+great trouble and tenderness, and almost jealousy, leaped up
+in his heart which were incomprehensible to him. Who was
+Marcia singing this song for? That it was a true cry from
+a lonely soul he could but believe. Was she feeling her prison-bars
+here in the lonely old house with only a forlorn man
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page291"></span><a name="pg291" id="pg291" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+whose life and love had been thrown away upon another?
+Poor child! Poor child! If he might but save her from
+suffering, cover her with his own tenderness and make her
+content with that. Would it be possible if he devoted himself
+to it to make her forget the one for whom she was sighing;
+to bring peace and a certain sort of sweet forgetfulness and
+interest in other things into her life? He wanted to make
+a new life for her, his little girl whom he had so unthinkingly
+torn from the home nest and her future, and compelled to
+take up his barren way with him. He would make it up to
+her if such a thing were possible. Then he opened the door.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">In the soft green light of the noonday coming through the
+shades Marcia’s color did not show as it flew into her cheeks.
+Her hands grew weak and dropped upon the keys with a soft
+little tinkle of surprise and joy. She sprang up and came a
+step toward him, then clasped her hands against her breast
+and stopped shyly. David coming into the room, questioning,
+wondering, anxious, stopped midway too, and for an instant
+they looked upon one another. David saw a new look in the
+girl’s face. She seemed older, much older than when he had
+left her. The sweet round cheeks were thinner, her mouth
+drooped sadly, pathetically. For an instant he longed
+to take her in his arms and kiss her. The longing startled
+him. So many months he had thought of only Kate in that
+way, and then had tried to teach himself never to think of
+Kate or any woman as one to be caressed by him, that it
+shocked him. He felt that he had been disloyal to himself,
+to honor,—to Kate—no—not to Kate, he had no call to be
+loyal to her. She had not been loyal to him ever. Perhaps
+rather he would have put it loyalty to Love for Love’s sake,
+love that is worthy to be crowned by a woman’s love.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">With all these mingling feelings David was embarrassed.
+He came toward her slowly, trying to be natural, trying to
+get back his former way with her. He put out his hand
+stiffly to shake hands as he had done when he left, and timidly
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page292"></span><a name="pg292" id="pg292" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+she put hers into it, yet as their fingers closed there leaped
+from one to the other a thrill of sweetness, that neither guessed
+the other knew and each put by in memory for closer inspection
+as to what it could mean. Their hands clung together
+longer than either had meant, and there was something pleasant
+to each in the fact that they were together again. David
+thought it was just because it was home, rest, and peace, and
+a relief from his anxiety about Marcia now that he saw she
+was all right. Marcia knew it was better to have David standing
+there with his strong fingers about her trembling ones,
+than to have anything else in the world. But she would not
+have told him so.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“That was a sweet song you were singing,�</span> said David.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“I hope you were singing it for me, and that it was true! I
+am glad I am come home, and you must sing it again for me
+soon.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was not in the least what he intended to say, and the
+words tumbled themselves out so tumultuously that he was
+almost ashamed and wondered if Marcia would think he had
+lost his mind in New York. Marcia, dear child, treasured
+them every word and hugged them to her heart, and carried
+them in her prayers.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They went out together and got dinner as if they had been
+two children, with a wild excited kind of glee; and they tried
+to get back their natural ways of doing and saying things, but
+they could not.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Instead they were forever blundering and halting in what
+they said; coming face to face and almost running over one
+another as they tried to help each other; laughing and blushing
+and blundering again.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When they each tried to reach for the tea kettle to fill
+the coffee pot and their fingers touched, each drew back and
+pretended not to notice, but yet had felt the contact sweet.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They were lingering over the dinner when Hannah Heath
+came to the door. David had been telling of some of his
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page293"></span><a name="pg293" id="pg293" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+adventures in detail and was enjoying the play of expression
+on Marcia’s face as she listened eagerly to every word. They
+had pushed their chairs back a little and were sitting there
+talking,—or rather David was talking, Marcia listening.
+Hannah stood for one jealous instant and saw it all. This
+was what she had dreamed for her own long years back, she and
+David. She had questioned much just what feeling there
+might be between him and Marcia, and now more than ever
+she desired to bring him face to face with Kate and read for
+herself what the truth had been. She hated Marcia for that
+look of intense delight and sympathy upon her face; hated
+her that she had the right to sit there and hear what David
+had to say—some stupid stuff about railroads. She did not
+see that she herself would have made an ill companion for
+a man like David.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As yet neither Marcia nor David had touched upon the
+subjects which had troubled them. They did not realize it,
+but they were so suddenly happy in each other’s company they
+had forgotten for the moment. The pleasant converse was
+broken up at once. Marcia’s face hardened into something
+like alarm as she saw who stood in the doorway.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Why, David, have you got home at last?�</span> said Hannah.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“I did not know it.�</span> That was an untruth. She had
+watched him from behind Grandmother Heath’s rose bush.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Where did you come from last? New York? Oh, then
+you saw Mrs. Leavenworth. How is she? I fell in love with
+her when I was there.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Now David had never fully taken in Kate’s married name.
+He knew it of course, but in his present state of happiness at
+getting home, and his absorption in the work he had been
+doing, the name <span class="tei tei-q">“Mrs. Leavenworth�</span> conveyed nothing whatever
+to David’s mind. He looked blankly at Hannah and
+replied indifferently enough with a cool air. <span class="tei tei-q">“No, Miss Hannah,
+I had no time for social life. I was busy every minute
+I was away.�</span></p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page294"></span><a name="pg294" id="pg294" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David never expected Hannah to say anything worth listening
+to, and he was so full of his subject that he had not
+noticed that she made no reply.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah watched him curiously as he talked, his remarks
+after all were directed more to Marcia than to her, and when
+he paused she said with a contemptuous sneer in her voice,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“I never could understand, David, how you who seem to have
+so much sense in other things will take up with such fanciful,
+impractical dreams as this railroad. Lemuel says it’ll never
+run.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah quoted her lover with a proud bridling of her head
+as if the matter were settled once and for all. It was the
+first time she had allowed the world to see that she acknowledged
+her relation to Lemuel. She was not averse to having
+David understand that she felt there were other men in the
+world besides himself. But David turned merry eyes on her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Lemuel says?�</span> he repeated, and he made a sudden movement
+with his arm which sent a knife and spoon from the
+table in a clatter upon the floor.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“And how much does Lemuel know about the matter?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Lemuel has good practical common sense,�</span> said Hannah,
+vexed, <span class="tei tei-q">“and he knows what is possible and what is not. He
+does not need to travel all over the country on a wild goose
+chase to learn that.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Now that she had accepted him Hannah did not intend to
+allow Lemuel to be discounted.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“He has not long to wait to be convinced,�</span> said David
+thoughtfully and unaware of her tart tone. <span class="tei tei-q">“Before the
+year is out it will be a settled fact that every one can see.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Well, it’s beyond comprehension what you care, anyway,�</span>
+said Hannah contemptuously. <span class="tei tei-q">“Did you really spend all
+your time in New York on such things? It seems incredible.
+There certainly must have been other attractions?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was insinuation in Hannah’s voice though it was
+smooth as butter, but David had had long years of experience
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page295"></span><a name="pg295" id="pg295" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+in hearing Hannah Heath’s sharp tongue. He minded it no
+more than he would have minded the buzzing of a fly.
+Marcia’s color rose, however. She made a hasty errand to
+the pantry to put away the bread, and her eyes flashed at Hannah
+through the close drawn pantry door. But Hannah did
+not give up so easily.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“It is strange you did not stay with Mrs. Leavenworth,�</span>
+she said. <span class="tei tei-q">“She told me you were one of her dearest friends,
+and you used to be quite fond of one another.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then it suddenly dawned upon David who Mrs. Leavenworth
+was, and a sternness overspread his face.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Mrs. Leavenworth, did you say? Ah! I did not understand.
+I saw her but once and that for only a few minutes
+soon after I first arrived. I did not see her again.�</span> His
+voice was cool and steady. Marcia coming from the pantry
+with set face, ready for defence if there was any she could
+give, marvelled at his coolness. Her heart was gripped with
+fear, and yet leaping with joy at David’s words. He had not
+seen Kate but once. He had known she was there and yet
+had kept away. Hannah’s insinuations were false. Mr.
+Temple’s words were untrue. She had known it all the time,
+yet what sorrow they had given her!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“By the way, Marcia,�</span> said David, turning toward her
+with a smile that seemed to erase the sternness in his voice
+but a moment before. <span class="tei tei-q">“Did you not write me some news?
+Miss Hannah, you are to be congratulated I believe. Lemuel
+is a good man. I wish you much happiness.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And thus did David, with a pleasant speech, turn aside Hannah
+Heath’s dart. Yet while she went from the house with
+a smile and a sound of pleasant wishes in her ears, she carried
+with her a bitter heart and a revengeful one.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David was suddenly brought face to face with the thing
+he had to tell Marcia. He sat watching her as she went back
+and forth from pantry to kitchen, and at last he came and
+stood beside her and took her hands in his looking down earnestly
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page296"></span><a name="pg296" id="pg296" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+into her face. It seemed terrible to him to tell this
+thing to the innocent girl, now, just when he was growing
+anxious to win her confidence, but it must be told, and better
+now than later lest he might be tempted not to tell it at all.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Marcia!�</span> He said the name tenderly, with an inflection
+he had never used before. It was not lover-like, nor passionate,
+but it reached her heart and drew her eyes to his and the
+color to her cheeks. She thought how different his clasp
+was from Harry Temple’s hateful touch. She looked up at
+him trustingly, and waited.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You heard what I said to Hannah Heath just now,
+about—your&mdash;&mdash;�</span> He paused, dissatisfied—<span class="tei tei-q">“about Mrs.
+Leavenworth�</span>—it was as if he would set the subject of his
+words far from them. Marcia’s heart beat wildly, remembering
+all that she had been told, yet she looked bravely,
+trustingly into his eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“It was true what I told her. I met Mrs. Leavenworth
+but once while I was away. It was in her own home and she
+sent for me saying she was in trouble. She told me that she
+was in terrible anxiety lest I would not forgive her. She
+begged me to say that I forgave her, and when I told her I did
+she asked me to kiss her once to prove it. I was utterly overcome
+and did so, but the moment my lips touched hers I knew
+that I was doing wrong and I put her from me. She begged
+me to remain, and I now know that she was utterly false from
+the first. It was but a part she was playing when she touched
+my heart until I yielded and sinned. I have only learned that
+recently, within a few days, and from words written by her
+own hand to another. I will tell you about it all sometime.
+But I want to confess to you this wrong I have done, and to
+let you know that I went away from her that day and have
+never seen her since. She had said she was without money,
+and I left her all I had with me. I know now that that too
+was unwise,—perhaps wrong. I feel that all this was a sin
+against you. I would like you to forgive me if you can, and
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page297"></span><a name="pg297" id="pg297" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+I want you to know that this other woman who was the cause
+of our coming together, and yet has separated us ever since
+we have been together, is no longer anything to me. Even
+if she and I were both free as we were when we first met, we
+could never be anything but strangers. Can you forgive me
+now, Marcia, and can you ever trust me after what I have
+told you?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia looked into his eyes, and loved him but the more
+for his confession. She felt she could forgive him anything,
+and her whole soul in her countenance answered with her
+voice, as she said: <span class="tei tei-q">“I can.�</span> It made David think of their
+wedding day, and suddenly it came over him with a thrill
+that this sweet womanly woman belonged to him. He marvelled
+at her sweet forgiveness. The joy of it surprised him
+beyond measure.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You have had some sad experiences yourself. Will you
+tell me now all about it?�</span> He asked the question wistfully
+still holding her hands in a firm close grasp, and she let them
+lie nestling there feeling safe as birds in the nest.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Why, how did you know?�</span> questioned Marcia, her whole
+face flooded with rosy light for joy at his kind ways and relief
+that she did not have to open the story.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, a little bird, or a guardian angel whispered the tale,�</span>
+he said pleasantly. <span class="tei tei-q">“Come into the room where we can be sure
+no Hannah Heaths will trouble us,�</span> and he drew her into the
+library and seated her beside him on the sofa.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“But, indeed, Marcia,�</span> and his face sobered, <span class="tei tei-q">“it is no
+light matter to me, what has happened to you. I have been
+in an agony all the way home lest I might not find you safe
+and well after having escaped so terrible a danger.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He drew the whole story from her bit by bit, tenderly
+questioning her, his face blazing with righteous wrath, and
+darkening with his wider knowledge as she told on to the end,
+and showed him plainly the black heart of the villain who had
+dared so diabolical a conspiracy; and the inhumanity of the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page298"></span><a name="pg298" id="pg298" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+woman who had helped in the intrigue against her own sister,—nay
+even instigated it. His feelings were too deep for utterance.
+He was shaken to the depths. His new comprehension
+of Kate’s character was confirmed at the worst. Marcia could
+only guess his deep feelings from his shaken countenance and
+the earnest way in which he folded his hands over hers and
+said in low tones filled with emotion: <span class="tei tei-q">“We should be deeply
+thankful to God for saving you, and I must be very careful of
+you after this. That villain shall be searched out and punished
+if it takes a lifetime, and Miranda,—what shall we do
+for Miranda? Perhaps we can induce her grandmother to let
+us have her sometime to help take care of us. We seem to be
+unable to get on without her. We’ll see what we can do
+sometime in return for the great service she has rendered.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But the old clock striking in the hall suddenly reminded
+David that he should go at once to the office, so he hurried
+away and Marcia set about her work with energy, a happy
+song of praise in her heart.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was much to be done. David had said he would
+scarcely have time to go over to his aunts that night, so she
+had decided to invite them to tea. She would far rather have
+had David to herself this first evening, but it would please
+them to come, especially Aunt Clarinda. There was not much
+time to prepare supper to be sure, but she would stir up a
+gingerbread, make some puffy cream biscuits, and there was
+lovely white honey and fresh eggs and peach preserves.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">So she ran to Deacon Appleby’s to get some cream for her
+biscuits and to ask Tommy Appleby to harness David’s horse
+and drive over for Aunt Clarinda. Then she hurried down
+to the aunts to give her invitation.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Aunt Clarinda sat down in her calico-covered rocking chair,
+wiped her dear old eyes and her glasses, and said, over and
+over again: <span class="tei tei-q">“Dear child! Bless her! Bless her!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was a happy gathering that evening. David was as
+pleased as they could have desired, and looked about upon
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page299"></span><a name="pg299" id="pg299" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+the group in the dining-room with genuine boyish pleasure.
+It did his heart good to see Aunt Clarinda there. It had
+never occurred to him before that she could come. He turned
+to Marcia with a light in his eyes that fully repaid her for
+the little trouble she had had in carrying out her plan. He
+began to feel that home meant something even though he had
+lost the home of his long dreams and ideals.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He talked a great deal about his trip, and in between the
+sentences, he caught himself watching Marcia, noting the
+curve of her round chin, the dimple in her left cheek when
+she smiled, the way her hair waved off from her forehead,
+the pink curves of her well-shaped ears. He found a distinct
+pleasure in noting these things and he wondered at himself.
+It was as if he had suddenly been placed before some great
+painting and become possessed of the knowledge wherewith to
+appreciate art to its fullest. It was as if he had heard a
+marvellous piece of music and had the eyes and ears of his
+understanding opened to take in the gracious melodies and
+majestic harmonies.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Aunt Clarinda watched his eyes, and Aunt Clarinda was
+satisfied. Aunt Hortense watched his eyes, jealously and
+sighed. Aunt Amelia watched his eyes and set her lips and
+feared to herself. <span class="tei tei-q">“He will spoil her if he does like that.
+She will think she can walk right over him.�</span> But Aunt
+Clarinda knew better. She recognized the eternal right of
+love.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They took the three old ladies home in the rising of an early
+moon, Marcia walking demurely on the sidewalk with Aunt
+Amelia, while David drove the chaise with Aunt Clarinda
+and Aunt Hortense.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As he gently lifted Aunt Clarinda down and helped her to
+her room David felt her old hands tremble and press his arm,
+and when he had reached her door he stooped and kissed her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Davie,�</span> she said in the voice that used to comfort his
+little childish troubles, or tell him of some nice surprise she
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page300"></span><a name="pg300" id="pg300" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+had for him, <span class="tei tei-q">“Davie, she’s a dear child! She’s just as good
+as gold. She’s the princess I used to put in all your fairy-tales.
+David, she’s just the right one for you!�</span> and David
+answered earnestly, solemnly, as if he were discovering a
+truth which surprised him but yet was not unwelcome. <span class="tei tei-q">“I
+believe she is, Aunt Clarinda.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They drove to the barn and Marcia sat in the chaise in the
+sweet hay-scented darkness while David put up the horse by
+the cobwebby light of the lantern; then they walked quietly
+back to the house. David had drawn Marcia’s hand through
+his arm and it rested softly on his coat sleeve. She was
+silently happy, she knew not why, afraid to think of it lest
+to-morrow would show her there was nothing out of the ordinary
+monotony to be happy about.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David was silent, wondering at himself. What was this
+that had come to him? A new pleasure in life. A little
+trembling rill of joy bubbling up in his heart; a rift in the
+dark clouds of fate; a show of sunshine where he had expected
+never to see the light again. Why was it so pleasant to have
+that little hand resting upon his arm? Was it really pleasant
+or was it only a part of the restfulness of getting home again
+away from strange faces and uncomfortable beds, and poor
+tables?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They let themselves into the house as if they were walking
+into a new world together and both were glad to be there
+again. When she got up to her room Marcia went and stood
+before the glass and looked at herself by the flickering flame
+of the candle. Her eyes were bright and her cheeks burned
+red in the centre like two soft deep roses. She felt she hardly
+knew herself. She tried to be critical. Was this person she
+was examining a pretty person? Would she be called so in
+comparison with Kate and Hannah Heath? Would a man,—would
+David,—if his heart were not filled,—think so? She
+decided not. She felt she was too immature. There was too
+much shyness in her glance, too much babyishness about her
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page301"></span><a name="pg301" id="pg301" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+mouth. No, David could never have thought her beautiful,
+even if he had seen her before he knew Kate. But perhaps,
+if Kate had been married first and away and then he had
+come to their home, perhaps if he knew no one else well
+enough to love,—could he have cared for her?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Oh, it was a dreadful, beautiful thought. It thrilled
+through and through her till she hid her face from her own
+gaze. She suddenly kissed the hand that had rested on his
+sleeve, and then reproached herself for it. She loved him, but
+was it right to do so?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As for David, he was sitting on the side of his bed with his
+chin in his hands examining himself.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He had supposed that with the reading of those letters
+which had come to him but two short days before all possibility
+of love and happiness had died, but lo! he found himself
+thrilling with pleasure over the look in a girl’s soft eyes, and
+the touch of her hand. And that girl was his wife. It was
+enough to keep him awake to try to understand himself.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS26" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page302"></span><a name="pg302" id="pg302" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc52" id="toc52"></a>
+<a name="pdf53" id="pdf53"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XXVI</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah Heath’s wedding day dawned bright enough for
+a less calculating bride.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David did not get home until half past three. He had
+been obliged to drive out to the starting place of the new
+railroad, near Albany, where it was important that he get a
+few points correctly. On the morrow was to be the initial
+trip, by the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, of the first train
+drawn by a steam engine in the state of New York.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">His article about it, bargained for by a New York paper,
+must be on its way by special post as soon after the starting
+of the train as possible. He must have all items accurate<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E26" id="E26" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e26" class="tei tei-ref">;</a></span>
+technicalities of preparation; description of engine and
+coaches; details of arrangements, etc.; before he added the
+final paragraphs describing the actual start of the train. His
+article was practically done now, save for these few items.
+He had started early that morning on his long drive, and,
+being detained longer than he had expected, arrived at home
+with barely time to put himself into wedding garments, and
+hasten in at the last moment with Marcia who stood quietly
+waiting for him in the front hall. They were the last guests
+to arrive. It was time for the ceremony, but the bride,
+true to her nature to the last, still kept Lemuel waiting; and
+Lemuel, true to the end, stood smiling and patient awaiting
+her pleasure.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David and Marcia entered the wide parlor and shook hands
+here and there with those assembled, though for the most part
+a hushed air pervaded the room, as it always does when something
+is about to happen.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Soon after their arrival some one in purple silk came down
+the stairs and seated herself in a vacant chair close to where
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page303"></span><a name="pg303" id="pg303" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+the bride was to stand. She had gold hair and eyes like
+forget-me-nots. She was directly opposite to David and Marcia.
+David was engrossed in a whispered conversation with Mr.
+Brentwood about the events of the morrow, and did not notice
+her entrance, though she paused in the doorway and searched
+him directly from amongst the company before she took her
+seat. Marcia, who was talking with Rose Brentwood, caught
+the vision of purple and gold and turned to face for one brief
+instant the scornful, half-merry glance of her sister. The
+blood in her face fled back to her heart and left it white.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then Marcia summoned all her courage and braced herself
+to face what was to come. She forced herself to smile in
+answer to Rose Brentwood’s question. But all the while she
+was trying to understand what it was in her sister’s look that
+had hurt her so. It was not the anger,—for that she was
+prepared. It was not the scorn, for she had often faced that.
+Was it the almost merriment? Yes, there was the sting.
+She had felt it so keenly when as a little girl Kate had taken
+to making fun of some whim of hers. She could not see why
+Kate should find cause for fun just now. It was as if she
+by her look ignored Marcia’s relation to David in scornful
+laugh and appropriated him herself. Marcia’s inmost soul
+rebelled. The color came back as if by force of her will.
+She would show Kate,—or she would show David at least,—that
+she could bear all things for him. She would play well
+her part of wife this day. The happy two months that had
+passed since David came back from New York had made her
+almost feel as if she was really his and he hers. For this
+hour she would forget that it was otherwise. She would look
+at him and speak to him as if he had been her husband for
+years, as if there were the truest understanding between them,—as
+indeed, of a certain wistful, pleasant sort there was.
+She would not let the dreadful thought of Kate cloud her face
+for others to see. Bravely she faced the company, but her
+heart under Kate’s blue frock sent up a swift and pleading
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page304"></span><a name="pg304" id="pg304" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+prayer demanding of a higher Power something she knew she
+had not in herself, and must therefore find in Him who had
+created her. It was the most trustful, and needy prayer that
+Marcia ever uttered and yet there were no words, not even
+the closing of an eyelid. Only her heart took the attitude
+of prayer.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The door upstairs opened in a business-like way, and Hannah’s
+composed voice was heard giving a direction. Hannah’s
+silken tread began to be audible. Miranda told Marcia
+afterward that she kept her standing at the window for an
+hour beforehand to see when David arrived, and when they
+started over to the house. Hannah kept herself posted on
+what was going on in the room below as well as if she were
+down there. She knew where David and Marcia stood, and
+told Kate exactly where to go. It was like Hannah that in
+the moment of her sacrifice of the long cherished hopes of her
+life she should have planned a dramatic revenge to help carry
+her through.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The bride’s rustle became at last so audible that even
+David and Mr. Brentwood heard and turned from their
+absorbing conversation to the business in hand.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah was in the doorway when David looked up, very
+cold and beautiful in her bridal array despite the years she
+had waited, and almost at once David saw the vision in purple
+and gold like a saucy pansy, standing near her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate’s eyes were fixed upon him with their most bewitching,
+dancing smile of recognition, like a naughty little child who
+had been in hiding for a time and now peeps out laughing over
+the discomfiture of its elders. So Kate encountered the
+steadfast gaze of David’s astonished eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But there was no light of love in those eyes as she had expected
+to see. Instead there grew in his face such a blaze of
+righteous indignation as the lord of the wedding feast might
+have turned upon the person who came in without a wedding
+garment. In spite of herself Kate was disconcerted. She
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page305"></span><a name="pg305" id="pg305" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+was astonished. She felt that David was challenging her
+presence there. It seemed to her he was looking through her,
+searching her, judging her, sentencing her, and casting her
+out, and presently his eyes wandered beyond her through the
+open hall door and out into God’s green world; and when
+they came back and next rested upon her his look had frozen
+into the glance of a stranger.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Angry, ashamed, baffled, she bit her lips in vexation, but
+tried to keep the merry smile. In her heart she hated him,
+and vowed to make him bow before her smiles once more.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David did not see the bride at all to notice her, but the
+bride, unlike the one of the psalmist’s vision whose eyes were
+upon <span class="tei tei-q">“her dear bridegroom’s face,�</span> was looking straight
+across the room with evident intent to observe David.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The ceremony proceeded, and Hannah went through her
+part correctly and calmly, aware that she was giving herself
+to Lemuel Skinner irrevocably, yet perfectly aware also of
+the discomfiture of the sweet-faced girl-wife who sat across
+the room bravely watching the ceremony with white cheeks
+and eyes that shone like righteous lights.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia did not look at David. She was with him in heart,
+suffering with him, feeling for him, quivering in every nerve
+for what he might be enduring. She had no need to look.
+Her part was to ignore, and help to cover.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They went through it all well. Not once did Aunt Amelia
+or Aunt Hortense notice anything strange in the demeanor
+of their nephew or his wife. Aunt Clarinda was not there.
+She was not fond of Hannah.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As soon as the service was over and the relatives had
+broken the solemn hush by kissing the bride, David turned
+and spoke to Rose Brentwood, making some smiling remark
+about the occasion. Rose Brentwood was looking her very
+prettiest in a rose-sprigged delaine and her wavy dark hair
+in a beaded net tied round with a rose-colored lute-string
+ribbon.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page306"></span><a name="pg306" id="pg306" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate flushed angrily at this. If it had been Marcia to
+whom he had spoken she would have judged he did it out
+of pique, but a pretty stranger coming upon the scene at this
+critical moment was trying. And then, too, David’s manner
+was so indifferent, so utterly natural. He did not seem in the
+least troubled by the sight of herself.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David and Marcia did not go up to speak to the bride at
+once. David stepped back into the deep window seat to talk
+with Mr. Brentwood, and seemed to be in no hurry to follow
+the procession who were filing past the calm bride to congratulate
+her. Marcia remained quietly talking to Rose
+Brentwood.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At last David turned toward his wife with a smile as
+though he had known she was there all the time, and had
+felt her sympathy. Her heart leaped up with new strength
+at that look, and her husband’s firm touch as he drew her
+hand within his arm to lead her over to the bride gave her
+courage. She felt that she could face the battle, and with a
+bright smile that lit up her whole lovely face she marched
+bravely to the front to do or to die.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I had about given up expecting any congratulations from
+you,�</span> said Hannah sharply as they came near. It was quite
+evident she had been watching for them.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I wish you much joy, Mrs. Skinner,�</span> said David mechanically,
+scarcely feeling that she would have it for he knew
+her unhappy, dissatisfied nature.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Yes,�</span> said Marcia, <span class="tei tei-q">“I wish you may be happy,—as happy
+as I am!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was an impetuous, childish thing to say, and Marcia
+scarcely realized what words she meant to speak until they
+were out, and then she blushed rosy red. Was she happy?
+Why was she happy? Yes, even in the present trying circumstances
+she suddenly felt a great deep happiness bubbling
+up in her heart. Was it David’s look and his strong arm
+under her hand?</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page307"></span><a name="pg307" id="pg307" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah darted a look at her. She was stung by the words.
+But did the girl-bride before her mean to flaunt her own
+triumphs in her face? Did she fully understand? Or was
+she trying to act a part and make them believe she was happy?
+Hannah was baffled once more as she had been before with
+Marcia.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate turned upon Marcia for one piercing instant again,
+that look of understanding, mocking merriment, which cut
+through the soul of her sister.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But did Marcia imagine it, or was it true that at her words
+to Hannah, David’s arm had pressed hers closer as they stood
+there in the crowd? The thought thrilled through her and
+gave her greater strength.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah turned toward Kate.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“David,�</span> she said, as she had always called him, and it
+is possible that she enjoyed the triumph of this touch of
+intimacy before her guest, <span class="tei tei-q">“you knew my friend Mrs.
+Leavenworth!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David bowed gravely, but did not attempt to put out his
+hand to take the one which Kate offered in greeting. Instead
+he laid it over Marcia’s little trembling one on his arm as if
+to steady it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“We have met before,�</span> said David briefly in an impenetrable
+tone, and turning passed out of the room to make way
+for the Brentwoods who were behind him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah scarcely treated the Brentwoods with decency, so
+vexed was she with the way things were turning out. To
+think that David should so completely baffle her. She turned
+an annoyed look at Kate, who flashed her blue eyes contemptuously
+as if to blame Hannah.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Soon the whole little gathering were in the dining-room
+and wide hall being served with Grandmother Heath’s fried
+chicken and currant jelly, delicate soda biscuits, and fruit
+cake baked months before and left to ripen.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The ordeal through which they were passing made David
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page308"></span><a name="pg308" id="pg308" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+and Marcia feel, as they sat down, that they would not be able
+to swallow a mouthful, but strangely enough they found
+themselves eating with relish, each to encourage the other
+perhaps, but almost enjoying it, and feeling that they had not
+yet met more than they would be able to withstand.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate was seated on the other side of the dining-room, by
+Hannah, and she watched the two incessantly with that half
+merry contemptuous look, toying with her own food, and
+apparently waiting for their acting to cease and David
+to put on his true character. She never doubted for an
+instant that they were acting.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The wedding supper was over at last. The guests crowded
+out to the front stoop to bid good-bye to the happy bridegroom
+and cross-looking bride, who seemed as if she left the
+gala scene reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia, for the instant, was separated from David, who
+stepped down upon the grass and stood to one side to let the
+bridal party pass. The minister was at the other side.
+Marcia had slipped into the shelter of Aunt Amelia’s black
+silk presence and wished she might run out the back door
+and away home.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Suddenly a shimmer of gold with the sunlight through it
+caught her gaze, and a glimpse of sheeny purple. There,
+close behind David, standing upon the top step, quite unseen
+by him, stood her sister Kate.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s heart gave a quick thump and seemed to stop, then
+went painfully laboring on. She stood quite still watching
+for the moment to come when David would turn around and
+see Kate that she might look into his face and read there
+what was written.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hannah had been put carefully into the carriage by the
+adoring Lemuel, with many a pat, and a shaking of cushions,
+and an adjustment of curtains to suit her whim. It pleased
+Hannah, now in her last lingering moment of freedom, to be
+exacting and show others what a slave her husband was.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page309"></span><a name="pg309" id="pg309" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They all stood for an instant looking after the carriage,
+but Marcia watched David. Then, just as the carriage
+wound around the curve in the road and was lost from view,
+she saw him turn, and at once knew she must not see his face
+as he looked at Kate. Closing her eyes like a flash she turned
+and fled upstairs to get her shawl and bonnet. There she
+took refuge behind the great white curtains, and hid her face
+for several minutes, praying wildly, she hardly knew what,
+thankful she had been kept from the sight which yet she had
+longed to behold.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As David turned to go up the steps and search for Marcia
+he was confronted by Kate’s beautiful, smiling face, radiant
+as it used to be when it had first charmed him. He exulted,
+as he looked into it, that it did not any longer charm.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“David, you don’t seem a bit glad to see me,�</span> blamed Kate
+sweetly in her pretty, childish tones, looking into his face
+with those blue eyes so like to liquid skies. Almost there was
+a hint of tears in them. He had been wont to kiss them
+when she looked like that. Now he felt only disgust as some
+of the flippant sentences in her letters to Harry Temple
+came to his mind.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">His face was stern and unrecognizing.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“David, you are angry with me yet! You said you would
+forgive!�</span> The gentle reproach minimized the crime, and
+enlarged the punishment. It was Kate’s way. The pretty
+pout on the rosy lips was the same as it used to be when
+she chided him for some trifling forgetfulness of her wishes.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The other guests had all gone into the house now. David
+made no response, but, nothing daunted, Kate spoke again.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I have something very important to consult you about.
+I came here on purpose. Can you give me some time to-morrow
+morning?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She wrinkled her pretty face into a thousand dimples and
+looked her most bewitching like a naughty child who knew
+she was loved in spite of anything, and coquettishly putting
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page310"></span><a name="pg310" id="pg310" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+her head on one side, added, in the tone she used of old to
+cajole him:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You know you never could refuse me anything, David.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David did not smile. He did not answer the look. With a
+voice that recognized her only as a stranger he said gravely:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I have an important engagement to-morrow morning.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“But you will put off the engagement.�</span> She said it
+confidently.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“It is impossible!�</span> said David decidedly. <span class="tei tei-q">“I am starting
+quite early to drive over to Albany. I am under obligation
+to be present at the starting of the new steam railroad.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, how nice!�</span> said Kate, clapping her hands childishly,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“I have wanted to be there, and now you will take me. Then
+I—we—can talk on the way. How like old times that will
+be!�</span> She flashed him a smile of molten sunshine, alluring
+and transforming.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“That, too, is impossible, Mrs. Leavenworth. My wife
+accompanies me!�</span> he answered her promptly and clearly and
+with a curt bow left her and went into the house.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate Leavenworth was angry, and for Kate to be angry,
+meant to visit it upon some one, the offender if possible, if
+not the nearest to the offender. She had failed utterly in
+her attempt to win back the friendship of her former lover.
+She had hoped to enjoy his attention to a certain extent and
+bathe her sad (?) heart in the wistful glances of the man
+she had jilted; and incidentally perhaps be invited to spend
+a little time in his house, by which she would contrive to have
+a good many of her own ways. A rich brother-in-law who
+adored one was not a bad thing to have, especially when his
+wife was one’s own little sister whom one had always dominated.
+She was tired of New York and at this season of
+the year the country was much preferable. She could thus
+contrive to hoard her small income, and save for the next
+winter, as well as secure a possible entrance finally into her
+father’s good graces again through the forgiveness of David
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page311"></span><a name="pg311" id="pg311" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+and Marcia. But she had failed. Could it be that he cared
+for Marcia! That child! Scout the idea! She would
+discover at once.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Hurriedly she searched through the rooms downstairs and
+then went stealthily upstairs. Instinctively she went to the
+room where Marcia had hidden herself.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia, with that strong upward breath of prayer had
+grown steady again. She was standing with her back to the
+door looking out of the window toward her own home when
+Kate entered the room. Without turning about she felt
+Kate’s presence and knew that it was she. The moment
+had come. She turned around, her face calm and sweet, with
+two red spots upon her cheeks, and her bonnet,—Kate’s bonnet
+and shawl, Kate’s fine lace shawl sent from Paris—grasped
+in her hands.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They faced each other, the sisters, and much was understood
+between them in a flash without a word spoken. Marcia
+suddenly saw herself standing there in Kate’s rightful place,
+Kate’s things in her hands, Kate’s garments upon her body,
+Kate’s husband held by her. It was as if Kate charged her
+with all these things, as she looked her through and over,
+from her slipper tips to the ruffle around the neck. And oh,
+the scorn that flamed from Kate’s eyes playing over her, and
+scorching her cheeks into crimson, and burning her lips dry
+and stiff! And yet when Kate’s eyes reached her face and
+charged her with the supreme offense of taking David from
+her, Marcia’s eyes looked bravely back, and were not burned
+by the fire, and she felt that her soul was not even scorched
+by it. Something about the thought of David like an angelic
+presence seemed to save her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The silence between them was so intense that nothing else
+could be heard by the two. The voices below were drowned
+by it, the footstep on the stair was as if it were not.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At last Kate spoke, angered still more by her sister’s soft
+eyes which gazed steadily back and did not droop before her
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page312"></span><a name="pg312" id="pg312" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+own flashing onslaught. Her voice was cold and cruel.
+There was nothing sisterly in it, nothing to remind either that
+the other had ever been beloved.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Fool!�</span> hissed Kate. <span class="tei tei-q">“Silly fool! Did you think you
+could steal a husband as you stole your clothes? Did you
+suppose marrying David would make him yours, as putting
+on my clothes seemed to make them yours? Well I can tell
+you he will never be a husband to you. He doesn’t love you
+and he never can. He will always love me. He’s as much
+mine as if I had married him, in spite of all your attempts
+to take him. Oh, you needn’t put up your baby mouth and
+pucker it as if you were going to cry. Cry away. It won’t
+do any good. You can’t make a man yours, any more than
+you can make somebody’s clothes yours. They don’t fit you
+any more than he does. You look horrid in blue, and you
+know it, in spite of all your prinking around and pretending.
+I’d be ashamed to be tricked out that way and know that
+every dud I had was made for somebody else. As for going
+around and pretending you have a husband—it’s a lie. You
+know he’s nothing to you. You know he never told you he
+cared for you. I tell you he’s mine, and he always will be.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Kate, you’re married!�</span> cried Marcia in shocked tones.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“How can you talk like that?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Married! Nonsense! What difference does that make?
+It’s hearts that count, not marriages. Has your marriage
+made you a wife? Answer me that! Has it? Does David
+love you? Does he ever kiss you? Yet he came to see me
+in New York this winter, and took me in his arms and kissed
+me. He gave me money too. See this brooch?�</span>—she exhibited
+a jeweled pin—<span class="tei tei-q">“that was bought with his money. You
+see he loves me still. I could bring him to my feet with a
+word to-day. He would kiss me if I asked him. He is
+weak as water in my hands.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s cheeks burned with shame and anger. Almost
+she felt at the limit of her strength. For the first time in
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page313"></span><a name="pg313" id="pg313" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+her life she felt like striking,—striking her own sister. Horrified
+over her feelings, and the rage which was tearing her
+soul, she looked up, and there stood David in the doorway,
+like some tall avenging angel!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate had her back that way and did not see at once, but
+Marcia’s eyes rested on him hungrily, pleadingly, and his
+answered hers. From her sudden calmness Kate saw there
+was some one near, and turning, looked at David. But he
+did not glance her way. How much or how little he had heard
+of Kate’s tirade, which in her passion had been keyed in a
+high voice, he never let them know and neither dared to ask
+him, lest perhaps he had not heard anything. There was a
+light of steel in his eyes toward everything but Marcia, and
+his tone had in it kindness and a recognition of mutual
+understanding as he said:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“If you are ready we had better go now, dear, had we not?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Oh how gladly Marcia followed her husband down the stairs
+and out the door! She scarcely knew how she went through
+the formalities of getting away. It seemed as she looked
+back upon them that David had sheltered her from it all,
+and said everything needful for her, and all she had done
+was to smile an assent. He talked calmly to her all the way
+home; told her Mr. Brentwood’s opinion about the change
+in the commerce of the country the new railroad was going
+to make; told her though he must have known she could not
+listen. Perhaps both were conscious of the bedroom window
+over the way and a pair of blue eyes that might be watching
+them as they passed into the house. David took hold of her
+arm and helped her up the steps of their own home as if she
+had been some great lady. Marcia wondered if Kate saw that.
+In her heart she blessed David for this outward sign of their
+relationship. It gave her shame a little cover at least. She
+glanced up toward the next house as she passed in and felt
+sure she saw a glimmer of purple move away from the window.
+Then David shut the door behind them and led her gently in.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS27" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page314"></span><a name="pg314" id="pg314" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc54" id="toc54"></a>
+<a name="pdf55" id="pdf55"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XXVII</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He made her go into the parlor and sit down and she was
+all unnerved by his gentle ways. The tears would come in
+spite of her. He took his own fine wedding handkerchief
+and wiped them softly off her hot cheeks. He untied the
+bonnet that was not hers, and flung it far into a corner in the
+room. Marcia thought he put force into the fling. Then
+he unfolded the shawl from her shoulders and threw that into
+another corner. Kate’s beautiful thread lace shawl. Marcia
+felt a hysterical desire to laugh, but David’s voice was steady
+and quiet when he spoke as one might speak to a little child
+in trouble.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“There now, dear,�</span> he said. He had never called her
+dear before. <span class="tei tei-q">“There, that was an ordeal, and I’m glad, it’s
+over. It will never trouble us that way again. Let us put
+it aside and never think about it any more. We have our
+own lives to live. I want you to go with me to-morrow
+morning to see the train start if you feel able. We must
+start early and you must take a good rest. Would you like
+to go?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s face like a radiant rainbow answered for her as she
+smiled behind her tears, and all the while he talked David’s
+hand, as tender as a woman’s, was passing back and forth on
+Marcia’s hot forehead and smoothing the hair. He talked
+on quietly to soothe her, and give her a chance to regain her
+composure, speaking of a few necessary arrangements for the
+morning’s ride. Then he said, still in his quiet voice: <span class="tei tei-q">“Now
+dear, I want you to go to bed, for we must start rather early,
+but first do you think you could sing me that little song you
+were singing the day I came home? Don’t if you feel too
+tired, you know.�</span></p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page315"></span><a name="pg315" id="pg315" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then Marcia, an eager light in her eyes, sprang up and
+went to the piano, and began to play softly and sing the tender
+words she had sung once before when he was listening and
+she knew it not.</p>
+
+<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-left: 17.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+  <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: -1.00em">“Dearest, believe,</div>
+  <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">When e’er we part:</div>
+  <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Lonely I grieve,</div>
+  <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">In my sad heart:—�</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate, standing within the chintz curtains across the yard
+shedding angry tears upon her purple silk, heard presently the
+sweet tones of the piano, which might have been hers; heard
+her sister’s voice singing, and began to understand that she
+must bear the punishment of her own rash deeds.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The room had grown from a purple dusk into quiet darkness
+while Marcia was singing, for the sun was almost down when
+they walked home. When the song was finished David stood
+half wistfully looking at Marcia for a moment. Her eyes
+shone to his through the dusk like two bright stars. He hesitated
+as though he wanted to say something more, and then
+thought better of it. At last he stooped and lifted her hand
+from the keys and led her toward the door.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You must go to sleep at once,�</span> he said gently. <span class="tei tei-q">“You’ll need all the rest you can get.<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E27" id="E27" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e27" class="tei tei-ref">�</a></span></span> He lighted a candle for
+her and said good-night with his eyes as well as his lips. Marcia felt that
+she was moving up the stairs under a spell of some gentle loving power that
+surrounded her and would always guard her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And it was about this time that Miranda, having been
+sent over to take a forgotten piece of bride’s cake to Marcia,
+and having heard the piano, and stolen discreetly to the parlor
+window for a moment, returned and detailed for the delectation
+of that most unhappy guest Mrs. Leavenworth why she
+could not get in and would have to take it over in the
+morning:</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page316"></span><a name="pg316" id="pg316" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“The window was open in the parlor and they were in
+there, them two, but they was so plum took up with their
+two selves, as they always are, that there wasn’t no use
+knockin’ fer they’d never hev heard.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miranda enjoyed making those remarks to the guest.
+Some keen instinct always told her where best to strike her
+blows.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When Marcia had reached the top stair she looked down and
+there was David smiling up to her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Marcia,�</span> said he in a tone that seemed half ashamed and half amused,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“have you, any—that is—things—that you
+had before—all your own I mean?<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E28" id="E28" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e28" class="tei tei-ref">�</a></span></span> With quick intuition Marcia understood
+and her own sweet shame about her clothes that were not her own came back
+upon her with double force. She suddenly saw herself again standing before
+the censure of her sister. She wondered if David had heard. If not, how then
+did he know? Oh, the shame of it!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She sat down weakly upon the stair.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Yes,�</span> said she, trying to think. <span class="tei tei-q">“Some old things, and
+one frock.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Wear it then to-morrow, dear,�</span> said David, in a compelling
+voice and with the sweet smile that took the hurt out of
+his most severe words.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia smiled. <span class="tei tei-q">“It is very plain,�</span> she said, <span class="tei tei-q">“only chintz,
+pink and white. I made it myself.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Charming!�</span> said David. <span class="tei tei-q">“Wear it, dear. Marcia, one
+thing more. Don’t wear any more things that don’t belong to
+you. Not a Dud. Promise me? Can you get along without it?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Why, I guess so,�</span> said Marcia laughing joyfully. <span class="tei tei-q">“I’ll try to manage. But I haven’t any bonnet. Nothing but a
+pink sunbonnet.<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E29" id="E29" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e29" class="tei tei-ref">�</a></span></span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“All right, wear that,�</span> said David.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“It will look a little queer, won’t it?�</span> said Marcia doubtfully,
+and yet as if the idea expressed a certain freedom which
+was grateful to her.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page317"></span><a name="pg317" id="pg317" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Never mind,�</span> said David. <span class="tei tei-q">“Wear it. Don’t wear any
+more of those other things. Pack them all up and send them
+where they belong, just as quick as we get home.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was something masterful and delightful in David’s
+voice, and Marcia with a happy laugh took her candle and got
+up saying, with a ring of joy in her voice: <span class="tei tei-q">“All right!�</span> She
+went to her room with David’s second good-night ringing in
+her ears and her heart so light she wanted to sing.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Not at once did Marcia go to her bed. She set her candle
+upon the bureau and began to search wildly in a little old
+<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E30" id="E30" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e30" class="tei tei-ref">hair-cloth</a></span>
+trunk, her own special old trunk that had contained
+her treasures and which had been sent her after she left home.
+She had scarcely looked into it since she came to the new
+home. It seemed as if her girlhood were shut up in it. Now
+she pulled it out from the closet.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">What a flood of memories rushed over her as she opened it!
+There were relics of her school days, and of her little childhood.
+But she had no time for them now. She was in search
+of something. She touched them tenderly, but laid them all
+out one after another upon the floor until down in the lower
+corner she found a roll of soft white cloth. It contained a
+number of white garments, half a dozen perhaps in all, finished,
+and several others cut out barely begun. They were her
+own work, every stitch, the first begun when she was quite a
+little girl, and her stepmother started to teach her to sew.
+What pride she had taken in them! How pleased she had
+been when allowed to put real tucks in some of them! She
+had thought as she sewed upon them at different times that
+they were to be a part of her own wedding trousseau. And
+then her wedding had come upon her unawares, with the
+trousseau ready-made, and everything belonged to some one
+else. She had folded her own poor little garments away and
+thought never to take them out again, for they seemed to
+belong to her dead self.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But now that dead self had suddenly come to life again.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page318"></span><a name="pg318" id="pg318" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+These hated things that she had worn for a year that were not
+hers were to be put away, and, pretty as they were, many of
+them, she regretted not a thread of them.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She laid the white garments out upon a chair and decided
+that she would put on what she needed of them on the morrow,
+even though they were rumpled with long lying away. She
+even searched out an old pair of her own stockings and laid
+them on a chair with the other things. They were neatly
+darned as all things had always been under her stepmother’s
+supervision. Further search brought a pair of partly worn
+prunella slippers to light, with narrow ankle ribbons.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then Marcia took down the pink sprigged chintz that she
+had made a year ago and laid it near the other things, with a
+bit of black velvet and the quaint old brooch. She felt a little
+dubious about appearing on such a great occasion, almost in
+Albany, in a chintz dress and with no wrap. Stay! There
+was the white crêpe shawl, all her own, that David had brought
+her. She had not felt like wearing it to Hannah Heath’s
+wedding, it seemed too precious to take near an unloving
+person like Hannah. Before that she had never felt an
+occasion great enough. Now she drew it forth breathlessly.
+A white crêpe shawl and a pink calico sunbonnet! Marcia
+laughed softly. But then, what matter! David had said
+wear it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">All things were ready for the morrow now. There were
+even her white lace mitts that Aunt Polly in an unusual fit
+of benevolence had given her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then, as if to make the change complete, she searched out
+an old night robe, plain but smooth and clean and arrayed
+herself in it, and so, thankful, happy, she lay down as she
+had been bidden and fell asleep.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David in the room below pondered, strange to say, the subject
+of dress. There was some pride beneath it all, of course;
+there always is behind the great problem of dress. It was the
+rejected bonnet lying in the corner with its blue ribbons limp
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page319"></span><a name="pg319" id="pg319" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+and its blue flowers crushed that made that subject paramount
+among so many others he might have chosen for his night’s
+meditation.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He was going over to close the parlor window, when he saw
+the thing lying innocent and discarded in the corner. Though
+it bore an injured look, it yet held enough of its original
+aristocratic style to cause him to stop and think.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was all well enough to suggest that Marcia wear a pink
+sunbonnet. It sounded deliciously picturesque. She looked
+lovely in pink and a sunbonnet was pretty and sensible on
+any one; but the morrow was a great day. David would be
+seen of many and his wife would come under strict scrutiny.
+Moreover it was possible that Kate might be upon the scene
+to jeer at her sister in a sunbonnet. In fact, when he considered
+it he would not like to take his wife to Albany in a
+sunbonnet. It behoved him to consider. The outrageous
+words which he had heard Mistress Leavenworth speak to his
+wife still burned in his brain like needles of torture: revelation
+of the true character of the woman he had once longed to
+call his own.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But that bonnet! He stood and examined it. What
+was a bonnet like? The proper kind of a bonnet for a
+woman in his wife’s position to wear. He had never noticed
+a woman’s bonnet before except as he had absent-mindedly
+observed them in front of him in meeting. Now he brought
+his mind to bear upon that bonnet. It seemed to be made
+up of three component parts—a foundation: a girdle apparently
+to bind together and tie on the head; and a decoration.
+Straw, silk and some kind of unreal flowers. Was that all?
+He stooped down and picked the thing up with the tips of his
+fingers, held it at arms length as though it were contaminating,
+and examined the inside. Ah! There was another element
+in its construction, a sort of frill of something thin,—hardly
+lace,—more like the foam of a cloud. He touched the
+tulle clumsily with his thumb and finger and then he dropped
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page320"></span><a name="pg320" id="pg320" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+the bonnet back into the corner again. He thought he understood
+well enough to know one again. He stood pondering
+a moment, and looked at his watch.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Yes, it was still early enough to try at least, though of
+course the shop would be closed. But the village milliner
+lived behind her little store. It would be easy enough to
+rouse her, and he had known her all his life. He took his
+hat as eagerly as he had done when
+<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E31" id="E31" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e31" class="tei tei-ref">as</a></span>
+a boy Aunt Clarinda had
+given him a penny to buy a top and permission to go to the
+corner and buy it before Aunt Amelia woke up from her nap.
+He went quietly out of the door, fastening it behind him
+and walked rapidly down the street.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Yes, the milliner’s shop was closed, but a light in the side
+windows shining through the veiling hop-vines guided him,
+and he was presently tapping at Miss Mitchell’s side door.
+She opened the door cautiously and peeped over her glasses at
+him, and then a bright smile overspread her face. Who in
+the whole village did not welcome David whenever he chanced
+to come? Miss Mitchell was resting from her labors and
+reading the village paper. She had finished the column of
+gossip and was quite ready for a visitor.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Come right in, David,�</span> she said heartily, for she had
+known him all the years, <span class="tei tei-q">“it does a body good to see you
+though your visits are as few and far between as angels’ visits.
+I’m right glad to see you! Sit down.�</span> But David was too
+eager about his business.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I haven’t any time to sit down to-night, Miss Susan,�</span> he
+said eagerly, <span class="tei tei-q">“I’ve come to buy a bonnet. Have you got one?
+I hope it isn’t too late because I want it very early in the
+morning.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“A bonnet! Bless me! For yourself?�</span> said Miss Mitchell
+from mere force of commercial habit. But neither of
+them saw the joke, so intent upon business were they. <span class="tei tei-q">“For
+my wife, Miss Mitchell. You see she is going with me over
+to Albany to-morrow morning and we start quite early. We
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page321"></span><a name="pg321" id="pg321" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+are going to see the new railroad train start, you know, and she
+seems to think she hasn’t a bonnet that’s suitable.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Going to see a steam engine start, are you! Well, take
+care, David, you don’t get too near. They do say they’re terrible
+dangerous things, and fer my part I can’t see what good
+they’ll be, fer nobody’ll ever be willin’ to ride behind
+’em,
+but I’d like to see it start well enough. And that sweet little
+wife of yours thinks she ain’t got a good enough bonnet.
+Land sakes! What is the matter with her Dunstable straw,
+and what’s become of that one trimmed with blue lutestrings,
+and where’s the shirred silk one she wore last Sunday?
+They’re every one fine bonnets and ought to last her a good
+many years yet if she cares fer ’em. The mice haven’t got
+into the house and et them, hev they?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“No, Miss Susan, those bonnets are all whole yet I believe,
+but they don’t seem to be just the suitable thing. In fact, I
+don’t think they’re over-becoming to her, do you? You see
+they’re mostly blue&mdash;&mdash;�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“That’s so!�</span> said Miss Mitchell. <span class="tei tei-q">“I think myself she’d
+look better in pink. How’d you like white? I’ve got a pretty
+thing that I made fer Hannah Heath an’ when it was done
+Hannah thought it was too plain and wouldn’t have it. I
+sent for the flowers to New York and they cost a high price.
+Wait! I will show it to you.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She took a candle and he followed her to the dark front
+room ghostly with bonnets in various stages of perfection.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was a pretty thing. Its foundation was of fine Milan
+braid, creamy white and smooth and even. He knew at a
+glance it belonged to the higher order of things, and was
+superior to most of the bonnets produced in the village.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was trimmed with plain white taffeta ribbon, soft and
+silky. That was all on the outside. Around the face was
+a soft ruching of tulle, and clambering among it a vine of
+delicate green leaves that looked as if they were just plucked
+from a wild rose bank. David was delighted. Somehow the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page322"></span><a name="pg322" id="pg322" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+bonnet looked like Marcia. He paid the price at once, declining
+to look at anything else. It was enough that he liked
+it and that Hannah Heath had not. He had never admired
+Hannah’s taste. He carried it home in triumph, letting himself
+softly into the house, lighted three candles, took the
+bonnet out and hung it upon a chair. Then he walked around
+it surveying it critically, first from this side, then from that.
+It pleased him exceedingly. He half wished Marcia would
+hear him and come down. He wanted to see it on her, but
+concluded that he was growing boyish and had better get himself
+under control.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The bonnet approved, he walked back and forth through the
+kitchen and dining-room thinking. He compelled himself to
+go over the events of the afternoon and analyze most carefully
+his own innermost feelings. In fact, after doing that he began
+further back and tried to find out how he felt toward
+Marcia. What was this something that had been growing in
+him unaware through the months; that had made his homecoming
+so sweet, and had brightened every succeeding day;
+and had made this meeting with Kate a mere
+<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E32" id="E32" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e32" class="tei tei-ref">commonplace</a></span>?
+What was this precious thing that nestled in his heart?
+Might he, had he a right to call it love? Surely! Now all
+at once his pulses thrilled with gladness. He loved her! It
+was good to love her! She was the most precious being on
+earth to him. What was Kate in comparison with her? Kate
+who had shown herself cold and cruel and unloving in every
+way?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">His anger flamed anew as he thought of those cutting sentences
+he had overheard, taunting her own sister about the
+clothes she wore. Boasting that he still belonged to her!
+She, a married woman! A woman who had of her own free
+will left him at the last moment and gone away with another!
+His whole nature recoiled against her. She had sinned
+against her womanhood, and might no longer demand from
+man the homage that a true woman had a right to claim.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page323"></span><a name="pg323" id="pg323" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Poor little bruised flower! His heart went out to Marcia.
+He could not bear to think of her having to stand and listen
+to that heartless tirade. And he had been the cause of all
+this. He had allowed her to take a position which threw
+her open to Kate’s vile taunts.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Up and down he paced till the torrent of his anger spent
+itself, and he was able to think more calmly. Then he went
+back in his thoughts to the time when he had first met Kate
+and she had bewitched him. He could see now the heartlessness
+of her. He had met her first at the house of a friend
+where he was visiting, partly on pleasure, partly on business.
+She had devoted herself to him during the time of her stay
+in a most charming way, though now he recalled that she
+had also been equally devoted to the son of the house whom
+he was visiting. When she went home she had asked him
+to come and call, for her home was but seven miles away.
+He had been so charmed with her that he had accepted the
+invitation, and, rashly he now saw, had engaged himself to
+her, after having known her in all face to face but a few days.
+To be sure he had known of her father for years, and he took
+a good deal for granted on account of her fine family. They
+had corresponded after their engagement which had lasted
+for nearly a year, and in that time David had seen her but
+twice, for a day or two at a time, and each time he had
+thought her grown more lovely. Her letters had been marvels
+of modesty, and shy admiration. It was easy for Kate to
+maintain her character upon paper, though she had had little
+trouble in making people love her under any circumstances.
+Now as he looked back he could recall many instances when
+she had shown a cruel, heartless nature.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then, all at once, with a throb of joy, it came to him
+to be thankful to God for the experience through which he
+had passed. After all it had not been taken from him to
+love with a love enduring, for though Kate had been snatched
+from him just at the moment of his possession, Marcia had
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page324"></span><a name="pg324" id="pg324" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+been given him. Fool that he was! He had been blind to
+his own salvation. Suppose he had been allowed to go on
+and marry Kate! Suppose he had had her character revealed
+to him suddenly as those letters of hers to Harry
+Temple had revealed it—as it surely would have been revealed
+in time, for such things cannot be hid,—and she had been
+his <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">wife!</span></span> He shuddered. How he would have loathed her!
+How he loathed her now!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Strangely enough the realization of that fact gave him
+joy. He sprang up and waved his hands about in silent
+delight. He felt as if he must shout for gladness. Then
+he gravely knelt beside his chair and uttered an audible
+thanksgiving for his escape and the joy he had been given.
+Nothing else seemed fitting expression of his feelings.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was one other question to consider—Marcia’s feelings.
+She had always been kind and gentle and loving to
+him, just as a sister might have been. She was exceedingly
+young yet. Did she know, could she understand what it
+meant to be loved the way he was sure he could love a woman?
+And would she ever be able to love him in that way? She
+was so silent and shy he hardly knew whether she cared for
+him or not. But there was one thought that gave him unbounded
+joy and that was that she was his wife. At least
+no one else could take her from him. He had felt condemned
+that he had married her when his heart was heavy lest she
+would lose the joy of life, but all that was changed now.
+Unless she loved some one else surely such love as his could
+compel hers and finally make her as happy as a woman could
+be made.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A twinge of misgiving crossed his mind as he admitted the
+possibility that Marcia might love some one else. True, he
+knew of no one, and she was so young it was scarcely likely
+she had left any one back in her girlhood to whom her heart
+had turned when she was out of his sight. Still there were
+instances of strong union of hearts of those who had loved
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page325"></span><a name="pg325" id="pg325" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+from early childhood. It might be that Marcia’s sometime-sadness
+was over a companion of her girlhood.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A great longing took possession of him to rush up and
+waken her and find out if she could ever care for him. He
+scarcely knew himself. This was not his dignified contained
+self that he had lived with for twenty-seven years.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was very late before he finally went upstairs. He walked
+softly lest he disturb Marcia. He paused before her door
+listening to see if she was asleep, but there was only the sound
+of the katydids in the branches outside her window, and
+the distant tree-toads singing a fugue in an orchard not far
+away. He tiptoed to his room but he did not light his candle,
+therefore there was no light in the back room of the Spafford
+house that night for any watching eyes to ponder over. He
+threw himself upon the bed. He was weary in body yet his
+soul seemed buoyant as a bird in the morning air. The moon
+was casting long bars of silver across the rag carpet and white
+counterpane. It was almost full moon. Yes, to-morrow
+it would be entirely full. It was full moon the night he had
+met Marcia down by the gate, and kissed her. It was the first
+time he had thought of that kiss with anything but pain. It
+used to hurt him that he had made the mistake and taken
+her for Kate. It had seemed like an ill-omen of what was to
+come. But now, it thrilled him with a great new joy. After
+all he had given the kiss to the right one. It was Marcia
+to whom his soul bowed in the homage that a man may give
+to a woman. Did his good angel guide him to her that night?
+And how was it he had not seen the sweetness of Marcia
+sooner? How had he lived with her nearly a year, and
+watched her dainty ways, and loving ministry and not known
+that his heart was hers? How was it he had grieved so long
+over Kate, and now since he had seen her once more, not a
+regret was in his heart that she was not his; but a beautiful
+revelation of his own love to Marcia had been wrought in
+him? How came it?</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page326"></span><a name="pg326" id="pg326" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And the importunate little songsters in the night answered
+him a thousand times: <span class="tei tei-q">“Kate-did-it! Kate-she-did it! Yes
+she did! I say she did. Kate did it!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Had angel voices reached him through his dreams, and
+suddenly given him the revelation which the little insects
+had voiced in their ridiculous colloquy? It was Kate herself
+who had shown him how he loved Marcia.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS28" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page327"></span><a name="pg327" id="pg327" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc56" id="toc56"></a>
+<a name="pdf57" id="pdf57"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XXVIII</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Slowly the moon rode over the house, and down toward
+its way in the West, and after its vanishing chariot the night
+stretched wistful arms. Softly the grey in the East tinged
+into violet and glowed into rose and gold. The birds woke
+up and told one another that the first of August was come
+and life was good.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The breath that came in the early dawn savored of new-mown
+hay, and the bird songs thrilled Marcia as if it were
+the day of her dreams.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She forgot all her troubles; forgot even her wayward sister
+next door; and rose with the song of the birds in her heart.
+This was to be a great day. No matter what happened she
+had now this day to date from. David had asked her to go
+somewhere just because he wanted her to. She knew it from
+the look in his eyes when he told her, and she knew it because
+he might have asked a dozen men to go with him. There
+was no reason why he need have taken her to-day, for it was
+distinctly an affair for men, this great wonder of machinery.
+It was a privilege for a woman to go. She felt it. She
+understood the honor.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">With fingers trembling from joy she dressed. Not the
+sight of her pink calico sunbonnet lying on the chair, nor the
+thought of wearing it upon so grand an occasion, could spoil
+the pleasure of the day. Among so large a company her
+bonnet would hardly be noticed. If David was satisfied why
+what difference did it make? She was glad it would be early
+when they drove by the aunts, else they might be scandalized.
+But never mind! Trill! She hummed a merry little
+tune which melted into the melody of the song she had sung
+last night.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page328"></span><a name="pg328" id="pg328" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then she smiled at herself in the glass. She was fastening
+the brooch in the bit of velvet round her neck, and she
+thought of the day a year ago when she had fastened that
+brooch. She had wondered then how she would feel if the
+next day was to be her own wedding day. Now as she smiled
+back at herself in the glass all at once she thought it seemed
+as if this was her wedding day. Somehow last night had
+seemed to realize her dreams. A wonderful joy had descended
+upon her heart. Maybe she was foolish, but was she not
+going to ride with David? She did not long for the green
+fields and a chance to run wild through the wood now. This
+was better than those childish pleasures. This was real
+happiness. And to think it should have come through David!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She hurried with the arrangement of her hair until her
+fingers trembled with excitement. She wanted to get downstairs
+and see if it were all really true or if she were dreaming
+it. Would David look at her as he had done last night?
+Would he speak that precious word <span class="tei tei-q">“dear�</span> to her again to-day?
+Would he take her by the hand and lead her sometimes,
+or was that a special gentleness because he knew she had
+suffered from her sister’s words? She clasped her hands
+with a quick, convulsive gesture over her heart and looking
+back to the sweet face in the glass, said softly, <span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, I love
+him, love him! And it cannot be wrong, for Kate is
+married.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But though she was up early David had been down before
+her. The fire was ready lighted and the kettle singing over
+it on the crane. He had even pulled out the table and put
+up the leaf, and made some attempt to put the dishes upon it
+for breakfast. He was sitting by the hearth impatient for
+her coming, with a bandbox by his side.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was like another sunrise to watch their eyes light up as
+they saw one another. Their glances rushed together as
+though they had been a long time withholden from each other,
+and a rosy glow came over Marcia’s face that made her long
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page329"></span><a name="pg329" id="pg329" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+to hide it for a moment from view. Then she knew in her
+heart that her dream was not all a dream. David was the
+same. It had lasted, whatever this wonderful thing was that
+bound them together. She stood still in her happy bewilderment,
+looking at him, and he, enjoying the radiant
+morning vision of her, stood too.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David found that longing to take her in his arms overcoming
+him again. He had made strict account with himself
+and was resolved to be careful and not frighten her. He must
+be sure it would not be unpleasant to her before he let her
+know his great deep love. He must be careful. He must not
+take advantage of the fact that she was his and could not run
+away from him. If she dreaded his attentions, neither could
+she any more say no.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And so their two looks met, and longed to come closer,
+but were held back, and a lovely shyness crept over Marcia’s
+sweet face. Then David bethought himself of his bandbox.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He took up the box and untied it with unaccustomed fingers,
+fumbling among the tissue paper for the handle end of the
+thing. Where did they take hold of bonnets anyway? He
+had no trouble with it the night before, but then he was not
+thinking about it. Now he was half afraid she might not like
+it. He remembered that Hannah Heath had pronounced
+against it. It suddenly seemed impossible that he should
+have bought a bonnet that a pretty woman had said was not
+right. There must be something wrong with it after all.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia stood wondering.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“I thought maybe this would do instead of the sunbonnet,�</span>
+he said at last, getting out the bonnet by one string and
+holding it dangling before him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia caught it with deft careful hands and an exclamation
+of delight. He watched her anxiously. It had all the
+requisite number of materials,—one, two, three, four,—like
+the despised bonnet he threw on the floor—straw, silk, lace
+and flowers. Would she like it? Her face showed that she
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page330"></span><a name="pg330" id="pg330" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+did. Her cheeks flushed with pleasure, and her eyes danced
+with joy. Marcia’s face always showed it when she liked
+anything. There was nothing half-way about her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, it is beautiful!�</span> she said delightedly. <span class="tei tei-q">“It is so
+sweet and white and cool with that green vine. Oh, I am
+glad, glad, glad! I shall never wear that old blue bonnet
+again.�</span> She went over to the glass and put it on. The
+soft ruching settled about her brown hair, and made a lovely
+setting for her face. The green vine twined and peeped in
+and out under the round brim and the ribbon sat in a prim
+bow beneath her pretty chin.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She gave one comprehensive glance at herself in the glass
+and then turned to David. In that glance was revealed to
+her just how much she had dreaded wearing her pink sunbonnet,
+and just how relieved she was to have a substitute.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Her look was shy and sweet as she said with eyes that dared
+and then drooped timidly:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You—are—very—good to me!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Almost he forgot his vow of carefulness at that, but remembered
+when he had got half across the room toward her, and
+answered earnestly:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Dear, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">you</span></span> have been very good to <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">me</span></span>.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s eyes suddenly sobered and half the glow faded
+from her face. Was it then only gratitude? She took off the
+bonnet and touched the bows with wistful tenderness as she
+laid it by till after breakfast. He watched her and misinterpreted
+the look. Was she then disappointed in the bonnet?
+Was it not right after all? Had Hannah known better than
+he? He hesitated and then asked her:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Is there&mdash;&mdash; Is it&mdash;&mdash; That is—perhaps you would
+rather take it back and and choose another. You know how
+to choose one better than I. There were others I think.
+In fact, I forgot to look at any but this because I liked it,
+but I’m only a man&mdash;&mdash;�</span> he finished helplessly.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“No! No! No!�</span> said Marcia, her eyes sparkling emphatically
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page331"></span><a name="pg331" id="pg331" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+again. <span class="tei tei-q">“There couldn’t be a better one. This
+is just exactly what I like. I do not want anything else.
+And I—like it all the better because you selected it,�</span> she
+added daringly, suddenly lifting her face to his with a spice
+of her own childish freedom.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">His eyes admired her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“She told me Hannah Heath thought it too plain,�</span> he
+added honestly.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Then I’m sure I like it all the better for that,�</span> said
+Marcia so emphatically that they both laughed.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It all at once became necessary to hurry, for the old clock
+in the hall clanged out the hour and David became aware
+that haste was imperative.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Early as Marcia had come down, David had been up long
+before her, his heart too light to sleep. In a dream, or perchance
+on the borders of the morning, an idea had come to
+him. He told Marcia that he must go out now to see about
+the horse, but he also made a hurried visit to the home of his
+office clerk and another to the aunts, and when he returned
+with the horse he had left things in such train that if he
+did not return that evening he would not be greatly missed.
+But he said nothing to Marcia about it. He laughed to himself
+as he thought of the sleepy look on his clerk’s face, and
+the offended dignity expressed in the ruffle of Aunt Hortense’s
+night cap all awry as she had peered over the balusters to
+receive his unprecedentedly early visit. The aunts were early
+risers. They prided themselves upon it. It hurt their dignity
+and their pride to have anything short of sudden serious
+illness, or death, or a fire cause others to arise before them.
+Therefore they did not receive the message that David was
+meditating another trip away from the village for a few days
+with good grace. Aunt Hortense asked Aunt Amelia if she
+had ever feared that Marcia would have a bad effect upon
+David by making him frivolous. Perhaps he would lose interest
+in his business with all his careering around the country.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page332"></span><a name="pg332" id="pg332" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+Aunt Amelia agreed that Marcia must be to blame in some
+way, and then discovering they had a whole hour before their
+usual rising time, the two good ladies settled themselves with
+indignant composure to their interrupted repose.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Breakfast was ready when David returned. Marcia supposed
+he had only been to harness the horse. She glanced
+out happily through the window to where the horse stood tied
+to the post in front of the house. She felt like waving her
+hand to him, and he turned and seemed to see her; rolling
+the whites of his eyes around, and tossing his head as if in
+greeting.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia would scarcely have eaten anything in her excitement
+if David had not urged her to do so. She hurried with
+her clearing away, and then flew upstairs to arrange her
+bonnet before the glass and don the lovely folds of the creamy
+crêpe shawl, folding it demurely around her shoulders and
+knotting it in front. She put on her mitts, took her handkerchief
+folded primly, and came down ready.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But David no longer seemed in such haste. He made a
+great fuss fastening up everything. She wondered at his
+unusual care, for she thought everything quite safe for the
+day.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She raised one shade toward the Heath house. It was the
+first time she had permitted herself this morning to think
+of Kate. Was she there yet? Probably, for no coach had left
+since last night, and unless she had gone by private conveyance
+there would have been no way to go. She looked up to
+the front corner guest room where the windows were open
+and the white muslin curtains swayed in the morning breeze.
+No one seemed to be moving about in the room. Perhaps
+Kate was not awake. Just then she caught the flutter of a
+blue muslin down on the front stoop. Kate was up, early as
+it was, and was coming out. A sudden misgiving seized
+Marcia’s heart, as when a little child, she had seen her sister
+coming to eat up the piece of cake or sweetmeat that had been
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page333"></span><a name="pg333" id="pg333" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+given to her. Many a time had that happened. Now, she
+felt that in some mysterious way Kate would contrive to take
+from her her new-found joy.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She could not resist her,—David could not resist her,—no
+one could ever resist Kate. Her face turned white and her
+hand began to tremble so that she dropped the curtain she
+had been holding up.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Just then came David’s clear voice, louder than would have
+been necessary, and pitched as if he were calling to some one
+upstairs, though he knew she was just inside the parlor where
+she had gone to make sure of the window fastening.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Come, dear! Aren’t you ready? It is more than time
+we started.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was a glad ring in David’s voice that somehow belied
+the somewhat exacting words he had spoken, and Marcia’s
+heart leaped up to meet him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Yes, I’m all ready, dear!�</span> she called back with a hysterical
+little laugh. Of course Kate could not hear so far, but
+it gave her satisfaction to say it. The final word was unpremeditated.
+It bubbled up out of the depths of her heart
+and made the red rush back into her cheeks when she realized
+what she had said. It was the first time she had ever used a
+term of endearment toward David. She wondered if he
+noticed it and if he would think her very—bold,—queer,—immodest,
+to use it. She looked shyly up at him, enquiring
+with her eyes, as she came out to him on the front stoop, and
+he looked down with such a smile she felt as if it were a
+caress. And yet neither was quite conscious of this little real
+by-play they were enacting for the benefit of the audience of
+one in blue muslin over the way. How much she heard, or
+how little they could not tell, but it gave satisfaction to go
+through with it inasmuch as it was real, and not acting at all.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David fastened the door and then helped Marcia into the
+carriage. They were both laughing happily like two children
+starting upon a picnic. Marcia was serenely conscious of her
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page334"></span><a name="pg334" id="pg334" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+new bonnet, and it was pleasant to have David tuck the linen
+lap robe over her chintz frock so carefully. She was certain
+Kate could not identify it now at that distance, thanks to the
+lap robe and her crêpe shawl. At least Kate could not see
+any of her own trousseau on her sister now.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate was sitting on the little white seat in the shelter of
+the honeysuckle vine facing them on the stoop of the Heath
+house. It was impossible for them to know whether she was
+watching them or not. They did not look up to see. She
+was talking with Mr. Heath who, in his milking garb, was
+putting to rights some shrubs and plants near the walk that
+had been trampled upon during the wedding festivities. But
+Kate must have seen a good deal that went on.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David took up the reins, settled himself with a smile at
+Marcia, touched the horse with the tip of the whip, which
+caused him to spring forward in astonishment—that from
+David! No horse in town would have expected it of him.
+They had known him from babyhood, most of them, and he
+was gentleness itself. It must have been a mistake. But the
+impression lasted long enough to carry them a rod or two
+past the Heath house at a swift pace, with only time for a
+lifting of David’s hat, prolonged politely,—which might or
+might not have included Kate, and they were out upon their
+way together.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia could scarcely believe her senses that she was really
+here beside David, riding with him swiftly through the village
+and leaving Kate behind. She felt a passing pity for Kate.
+Then she looked shyly up at David. Would his gaiety pass
+when they were away, and would he grow grave and sad again
+so soon as he was out of Kate’s sight? She had learned
+enough of David’s principles to know that he would not think
+it right to let his thoughts stray to Kate now, but did his
+heart still turn that way in spite of him?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Through the town they sped, glad with every roll of the
+wheels that took them further away from Kate. Each was
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page335"></span><a name="pg335" id="pg335" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+conscious, as they rolled along, of that day one year ago when
+they rode together thus, out through the fields into the country.
+It was a day much as that other one, just as bright,
+just as warm, yet oh, so much more radiant to both! Then
+they were sad and fearful of the future. All their life seemed
+in the past. Now the darkness had been led through, and
+they had reached the brightness again. In fact, all the future
+stretched out before them that fair morning and looked bright
+as the day.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They were conscious of the blueness of the sky, of the soft
+clouds that hovered in haziness on the rim of the horizon, as
+holding off far enough to spoil no moment of that perfect
+day. They were conscious of the waving grains and of the
+perfume of the buckwheat drifting like snow in the fields
+beyond the wheat; conscious of the meadow-lark and the
+wood-robin’s note; of the whirr of a locust; and the thud
+of a frog in the cool green of a pool deep with brown shadows;
+conscious of the circling of mated butterflies in the simmering
+gold air; of the wild roses lifting fair pink petals from the
+brambly banks beside the road; conscious of the whispering
+pine needles in a wood they passed; the fluttering chatter of
+leaves and silver flash of the lining of poplar leaves, where
+tall trees stood like sentinels, apart and sad; conscious of a
+little brook that tinkled under a log bridge they crossed, then
+hurried on its way unmindful of their happy crossing; conscious
+of the dusty daisy beside the road, closing with a
+bumbling bee who wanted honey below the market price;
+conscious of all these things; but most conscious of each
+other, close, side by side.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was all so dear, that ride, and over so soon. Marcia was
+just trying to get used to looking up into the dazzling light of
+David’s eyes. She had to droop her own almost immediately
+for the truth she read in his was overpowering. Could it be?
+A fluttering thought came timidly to her heart and would not
+be denied.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page336"></span><a name="pg336" id="pg336" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Can it be, can it be that he cares for me? He loves me.
+He loves me!�</span> It sang its way in with thrill after thrill of
+joy and more and more David’s eyes told the story which his
+lips dared not risk yet. But eyes and hearts are not held by
+the conventions that bind lips. They rushed into their inheritance
+of each other and had that day ahead, a day so rare
+and sweet that it would do to set among the jewels of fair
+days for all time and for any one.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">All too soon they began to turn into roads where were
+other vehicles, many of them, and all going in the same direction.
+Men and women in gala day attire all laughing and
+talking expectantly and looking at one another as the carriages
+passed with a degree of familiar curiosity which betokens
+a common errand. Family coaches, farm wagons, with
+kitchen chairs for accommodation of the family; old one-horse
+chaises, carryalls, and even a stage coach or two
+wheeled into the old turnpike. David and Marcia settled
+into subdued quiet, their joy not expressing itself in the ripples
+of laughter that had rung out earlier in the morning when
+they were alone. They sought each other’s eyes often and
+often, and in one of these excursions that David’s eyes made
+to Marcia’s face he noticed how extremely becoming the new
+bonnet was. After thinking it over he decided to risk letting
+her know. He was not shy about it now.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Do you know, dear,�</span> he said,—there had been a good
+many <span class="tei tei-q">“dear’s�</span> slipping back and forth all unannounced during
+that ride, and not openly acknowledged either. <span class="tei tei-q">“Do
+you know how becoming your new bonnet is to you? You
+look prettier than I ever saw you look but once before.�</span> He
+kept his eyes upon her face and watched the sweet color steal
+up to her drooping eyelashes.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“When was that?�</span> she asked coyly, to hide her embarrassment,
+and sweeping him one laughing glance.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Why, that night, dear, at the gate, in the moonlight.
+Don’t you remember?�</span></p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page337"></span><a name="pg337" id="pg337" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh-h-h-h!�</span> Marcia caught her breath and a thrill of joy
+passed through her that made her close her eyes lest the glad
+tears should come. Then the little bird in her heart set up
+the song in earnest to the tune of Wonder: <span class="tei tei-q">“He loves me,
+He loves me, He loves me!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He leaned a little closer to her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“If there were not so many people looking I think I should
+have to kiss you now.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh-h-h-h!�</span> said Marcia drawing in her breath and looking
+around frightened on the number of people that were
+driving all about them, for they were come almost to the
+railroad now, and could see the black smoke of the engine a
+little beyond as it stood puffing and snorting upon its track
+like some sulky animal that had been caught and chained
+and harnessed and was longing to leap forward and upset its
+load.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But though Marcia looked about in her happy fright, and
+sat a trifle straighter in the chaise, she did not move her hand
+away that lay next David’s, underneath the linen lap robe,
+and he put his own hand over it and covered it close in his
+firm hold. Marcia trembled and was so happy she was almost
+faint with joy. She wondered if she were very foolish indeed
+to feel so, and if all love had this terrible element of
+solemn joy in it that made it seem too great to be real.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They had to stop a number of times to speak to people.
+Everybody knew David, it appeared. This man and that
+had a word to speak with him, some bit of news that he must
+not omit to notice in his article, some new development about
+the attitude of a man of influence that was important; the
+change of two or three of those who were to go in the coaches
+on this trial trip.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">To all of them David introduced his wife, with a ring of
+pride in his voice as he said the words <span class="tei tei-q">“My wife,�</span> and all
+of them stopped whatever business they had in hand and
+stepped back to bow most deferentially to the beautiful woman
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page338"></span><a name="pg338" id="pg338" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+who sat smiling by his side. They wondered why they had
+not heard of her before, and they looked curiously, enviously
+at David, and back in admiration at Marcia. It was quite
+a little court she held sitting there in the chaise by David’s
+side.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Men who have since won a mention in the pages of history
+were there that day, and nearly all of them had a word for
+David Spafford and his lovely wife. Many of them stood
+for some time and talked with her. Mr. Thurlow Weed was
+the last one to leave them before the train was actually ready
+for starting, and he laid an urging hand upon David’s arm as
+he went. <span class="tei tei-q">“Then you think you cannot go with us? Better
+come. Mrs. Spafford will let you I am sure. You’re not
+afraid are you, Mrs. Spafford? I am sure you are a brave
+woman. Better come, Spafford.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But David laughingly thanked him again as he had thanked
+others, and said that he would not be able to go, as he and
+his wife had other plans, and he must go on to Albany as soon
+as the train had started.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia looked up at him half worshipfully as he said this,
+wondering what it was, instinctively knowing that it was for
+her sake he was giving up this honor which they all wished
+to put upon him. It would naturally have been an interesting
+thing to him to have taken this first ride behind the
+new engine <span class="tei tei-q">“Dewitt Clinton.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then, suddenly, like a chill wind from a thunder cloud that
+has stolen up unannounced and clutched the little wild flowers
+before they have time to bind up their windy locks and duck
+their heads under cover, there happened a thing that clutched
+Marcia’s heart and froze all the joy in her veins.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="page" /><div id="MS29" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page339"></span><a name="pg339" id="pg339" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc58" id="toc58"></a>
+<a name="pdf59" id="pdf59"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+  <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">CHAPTER XXIX</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A coach was approaching filled with people, some of them
+Marcia knew; they were friends and neighbors from their
+own village, and behind it plodding along came a horse with
+a strangely familiar gait drawing four people. The driver
+was old Mr. Heath looking unbelievingly at the scene before
+him. He did not believe that an engine would be able to haul
+a train any appreciable distance whatever, and he believed
+that he had come out here to witness this entire company of
+fanatics circumvented by the ill-natured iron steed who stood
+on the track ahead surrounded by gaping boys and a flock
+of quacking ganders, living symbol of the people who had
+come to see the thing start; so thought Mr. Heath. He told
+himself he was as much of a goose as any of them to have let
+this chit of a woman fool him into coming off out here when
+he ought to have been in the hay field to-day.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">By his side in all the glory of shimmering blue with a wide
+white lace bertha and a bonnet with a steeple crown wreathed
+about heavily with roses sat Kate, a blue silk parasol shading
+her eyes from the sun, those eyes that looked to conquer, and
+seemed to pierce beyond and through her sister and ignore
+her. Old Mrs. Heath and Miranda were along, but they did
+not count, except to themselves. Miranda was all eyes, under
+an ugly bonnet. She desired above all things to see that
+wonderful engine in which David was so interested.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia shrunk and seemed to wither where she sat. All
+her bright bloom faded in an instant and a kind of frenzy
+seized her. She had a wild desire to get down out of the carriage
+and run with all her might away from this hateful scene.
+The sky seemed to have suddenly clouded over and the hum
+and buzz of voices about seemed a babel that would never
+cease.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page340"></span><a name="pg340" id="pg340" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David felt the arm beside his cringe, and shrink back, and
+looking down saw the look upon her sweet frightened face;
+following her glance his own face hardened into what might
+have been termed righteous wrath. But not a word did he say,
+and neither did he apparently notice the oncoming carriage.
+He busied himself at once talking with a man who happened
+to pass the carriage, and when Mr. Heath drove by to get a
+better view of the engine he was so absorbed in his conversation
+that he did not notice them, which seemed but natural.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But Kate was not to be thus easily foiled. She had
+much at stake and she must win if possible. She worked
+it about that Squire Heath should drive around to the end
+of the line of coaches, quite out of sight of the engine and
+where there was little chance of seeing the train and its
+passengers,—the only thing Squire Heath cared about. But
+there was an excellent view of David’s carriage and Kate
+would be within hailing distance if it should transpire that
+she had no further opportunity of speaking with David. It
+seemed strange to Squire Heath, as he sat there behind the
+last coach patiently, that he had done what she asked. She
+did not look like a woman who was timid about horses, yet
+she had professed a terrible fear that the screech of the engine
+would frighten the staid old Heath horse. Miranda, at that,
+had insisted upon changing seats, thereby getting herself
+nearer the horse, and the scene of action. Miranda did not
+like to miss seeing the engine start.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At last word to start was given. A man ran along by the
+train and mounted into his high seat with his horn in his
+hand ready to blow. The fireman ceased his raking of the
+glowing fire and every traveller sprang into his seat and
+looked toward the crowd of spectators importantly. This
+was a great moment for all interested. The little ones whose
+fathers were in the train began to call good-bye and wave their
+hands, and one old lady whose only son was going as one of the
+train assistants began to sob aloud.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page341"></span><a name="pg341" id="pg341" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A horse in the crowd began to act badly. Every snort of
+the engine as the steam was let off made him start and rear.
+He was directly behind Marcia, and she turned her head and
+looked straight into his fiery frightened eyes, red with fear and
+frenzy, and felt his hot breath upon her cheek. A man was
+trying most ineffectually to hold him, but it seemed as if in
+another minute he would come plunging into the seat with
+them. Marcia uttered a frightened cry and clutched at
+David’s arm. He turned, and seeing instantly what was the
+matter, placed his arm protectingly about her and at once
+guided his own horse out of the crowd, and around nearer to
+the engine. Somehow that protecting arm gave Marcia a
+steadiness once more and she was able to watch the wonderful
+wheels begin to turn and the whole train slowly move and
+start on its way. Her lips parted, her breath came quick, and
+for the instant she forgot her trouble. David’s arm was still
+about her, and there was a reassuring pressure in it. He
+seemed to have forgotten that the crowd might see him—if
+the crowd had not been too busy watching something more
+wonderful. It is probable that only one person in that whole
+company saw David sitting with his arm about his wife—for
+he soon remembered and put it quietly on the back of the
+seat, where it would call no one’s attention—and that person
+was Kate. She had not come to this hot dusty place to watch
+an engine creak along a track, she had come to watch
+David, and she was vexed and angry at what she saw. Here
+was Marcia flaunting her power over David directly in her
+face. Spiteful thing! She would pay her back yet and let
+her know that she could not touch the things that she, Kate,
+had put her own sign and seal upon. For this reason it was
+that at the last minute Kate allowed poor Squire Heath to
+drive around near the front of the train, saying that as David
+Spafford seemed to find it safe she supposed she ought not
+to hold them back for her fears. It needed but the word
+to send the vexed and curious Squire around through the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page342"></span><a name="pg342" id="pg342" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+crowd to a spot directly behind David’s carriage, and there
+Miranda could see quite well, and Kate could sit and watch
+David and frame her plans for immediate action so soon as
+the curtain should fall upon this ridiculous engine play over
+which everybody was wild.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And so, amid shouts and cheers, and squawking of the geese
+that attempted to precede the engine like a white frightened
+body-guard down the track; amid the waving of handkerchiefs,
+the shouts of excited little boys, and the neighing of
+frightened horses, the first steam engine that ever drew a
+train in New York state started upon its initial trip.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then there came a great hush upon the spectators assembled.
+The wheels were rolling, the carriages were moving,
+the train was actually going by them, and what had been
+so long talked about was an assured fact. They were seeing
+it with their own eyes, and might be witnesses of it to all
+their acquaintances. It was true. They dared not speak nor
+breathe lest something should happen and the great miracle
+should stop. They hushed simultaneously as though at the
+passing of some great soul. They watched in silence until the
+train went on between the meadows, grew smaller in the distance,
+slipped into the shadow of the wood, flashed out into
+the sunlight beyond again, and then was lost behind a hill.
+A low murmur growing rapidly into a shout of cheer arose
+as the crowd turned and faced one another and the fact of
+what they had seen.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“By gum! She kin do it!�</span> ejaculated Squire Heath, who
+had watched the melting of his skeptical opinions in speechless
+amazement.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The words were the first intimation the Spaffords had of
+the proximity of Kate. They made David smile, but Marcia
+turned white with sudden fear again. Not for nothing had
+she lived with her sister so many years. She knew that cruel
+nature and dreaded it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David looked at Marcia for sympathy in his smile at the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page343"></span><a name="pg343" id="pg343" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+old Squire, but when he saw her face he turned frowning
+toward those behind him.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate saw her opportunity. She leaned forward with
+honeyed smile, and wily as the serpent addressed her words
+to Marcia, loud and clear enough for all those about them
+to hear.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, Mrs. Spafford! I am going to ask a great favor
+of you. I am sure you will grant it when you know I have
+so little time. I am extremely anxious to get a word of advice
+from your husband upon business matters that are very pressing.
+Would you kindly change places with me during the
+ride home, and give me a chance to talk with him about it?
+I would not ask it but that I must leave for New York on the
+evening coach and shall have no other opportunity to see
+him.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Kate’s smile was roses and cream touched with frosty sunshine,
+and to onlookers nothing could have been sweeter.
+But her eyes were coldly cruel as sharpened steel, and they
+said to her sister as plainly as words could have spoken:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Do you obey my wish, my lady, or I will freeze the heart
+out of you.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia turned white and sick. She felt as if her lips had
+suddenly stiffened and refused to obey her when they ought
+to have smiled. What would all these people think of her,
+and how was she behaving? For David’s sake she ought to do
+something, say something, look something, but what—what
+should she do?</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">While she was thinking this, with the freezing in her heart
+creeping up into her throat, the great tears beating at the
+portals of her eyes, and time standing suddenly still waiting
+for her leaden tongue to speak, David answered:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">All gracefully ’twas done, with not so much as a second’s
+hesitation,—though it had seemed so long to Marcia,—nor
+the shadow of a sign that he was angry:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Mrs. Leavenworth,�</span> he said in his masterful voice, <span class="tei tei-q">“I
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page344"></span><a name="pg344" id="pg344" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+am sure my wife would not wish to seem ungracious, or unwilling
+to comply with your request, but as it happens it is
+impossible. We are not returning home for several days.
+My wife has some shopping to do in Albany, and in fact we
+are expecting to take a little trip. A sort of second honeymoon,
+you know,�</span>—he added, smiling toward Mrs. Heath
+and Miranda; <span class="tei tei-q">“it is the first time I have had leisure to
+plan for it since we were married. I am sorry I have to
+hurry away, but I am sure that my friend Squire Heath can
+give as much help in a business way as I could, and furthermore,
+Squire Schuyler is now in New York for a few days
+as I learned in a letter from him which arrived last evening.
+I am sure he can give you more and better advice than any
+I could give. I wish you good morning. Good morning,
+Mrs. Heath. Good morning, Miss Miranda!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Lifting his hat David drove away from them and straight
+over to the little wayside hostelry where he was to finish his
+article to send by the messenger who was even then ready
+mounted for the purpose.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“My! Don’t he think a lot of her though!�</span> said Miranda,
+rolling the words as a sweet morsel under her tongue. <span class="tei tei-q">“It
+must be nice to have a man so fond of you.�</span> This was one
+of the occasions when Miranda wished she had eyes in the
+back of her head. She was sharp and she had seen a thing
+or two, also she had heard scraps of her cousin Hannah’s talk.
+But she sat demurely in the recesses of her deep, ugly bonnet
+and tried to imagine how the guest behind her looked.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">All trembling sat Marcia in the rusty parlor of the little
+hostelry, while David at the table wrote with hurried hand,
+glancing up at her to smile now and then, and passing over
+the sheets as he finished them for her criticism. She thought
+she had seen the Heath wagon drive away in the home direction,
+but she was not sure. She half expected to see the
+door open and Kate walk in. Her heart was thumping
+so she could scarcely sit still and the brightness of the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page345"></span><a name="pg345" id="pg345" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+world outside seemed to make her dizzy. She was glad to
+have the sheets to look over, for it took her thoughts away
+from herself and her nameless fears. She was not quite sure
+what it was she feared, only that in some way Kate would have
+power over David to take him away from her. As he wrote she
+studied the dear lines of his face and knew, as well as human
+heart may ever know, how dear another soul had grown to hers.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">David had not much to write and it was soon signed,
+approved, and sealed. He sent his messenger on the way and
+then coming back closed the door and went and stood before
+Marcia.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As though she felt some critical moment had come she
+arose, trembling, and looked into his eyes questioningly.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Marcia,�</span> he said, and his tone was grave and earnest,
+putting her upon an equality with him, not as if she were
+a child any more. <span class="tei tei-q">“Marcia, I have come to ask your forgiveness
+for the terrible thing I did to you in allowing you,
+who scarcely knew what you were doing then, to give your
+life away to a man who loved another woman.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia’s heart stood still with horror. It had come then,
+the dreadful thing she had feared. The blow was going to
+fall. He did not love her! What a fool she had been!</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But the steady voice went on, though the blood in her neck
+and temples throbbed in such loud waves that she could
+scarcely hear the words to understand them.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“It was a crime, Marcia, and I have come to realize it
+more and more during all the days of this year that you have
+so uncomplainingly spent yourself for me. I know now,
+as I did not think then in my careless, selfish sorrow, that
+I was as cruel to you, with your sweet young life, as your
+sister was cruel to me. You might already have given your
+heart to some one else; I never stopped to inquire. You
+might have had plans and hopes for your own future; I
+never even thought of it. I was a brute. Can you forgive
+me? Sometimes the thought of the responsibility I took upon
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page346"></span><a name="pg346" id="pg346" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+myself has been so terrible to me that I felt I could not stand
+it. You did not realize what it was then that you were
+giving, perhaps, but somehow I think you have begun to
+realize now. Will you forgive me?�</span> He stopped and looked
+at her anxiously. She was drooped and white as if a blast
+had suddenly struck her and faded her sweet bloom. Her
+throat was hot and dry and she had to try three times before
+she could frame the words, <span class="tei tei-q">“Yes, I forgive.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was no hope, no joy in the words, and a sudden fear
+descended upon David’s heart. Had he then done more
+damage than he knew? Was the child’s heart broken by
+him, and did she just realize it? What could he do? Must
+he conceal his love from her? Perhaps this was no time to
+tell it. But he must. He could not bear the burden of
+having done her harm and not also tell her how he loved her.
+He would be very careful, very considerate, he would not
+press his love as a claim, but he must tell her.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“And Marcia, I must tell you the rest,�</span> he went on, his
+own words seeming to stay upon his lips, and then tumble over
+one another; <span class="tei tei-q">“I have learned to love you as I never loved
+your sister. I love you more and better than I ever could
+have loved her. I can see how God has led me away from her
+and brought me to you. I can look back to that night when
+I came to her and found you there waiting for me, and kissed
+you,—darling. Do you remember?�</span> He took her cold
+little trembling hands and held them firmly as he talked,
+his whole soul in his face, as if his life depended upon the next
+few moments. <span class="tei tei-q">“I was troubled at the time, dear, for having
+kissed you, and given you the greeting that I thought belonged
+to her. I have rebuked myself for thinking since how lovely
+you looked as you stood there in the moonlight. But afterward
+I knew that it was you after all that my love belonged
+to, and to you rightfully the kiss should have gone. I am
+glad it was so, glad that God overruled my foolish choosing.
+Lately I have been looking back to that night I met you at
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page347"></span><a name="pg347" id="pg347" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+the gate, and feeling jealous that that meeting was not all
+ours; that it should be shadowed for us by the heartlessness
+of another. It gives me much joy now to think how I took
+you in my arms and kissed you. I cannot bear to think it
+was a mistake. Yet glad as I am that God sent you down
+to that gate to meet me, and much as I love you, I would
+rather have died than feel that I have brought sorrow into
+your life, and bound you to one whom you cannot love.
+Marcia, tell me truly, never mind my feelings, tell me! Can
+you ever love me?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then did Marcia lift her
+<span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E33" id="E33" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e33" class="tei tei-ref">flower-like</a></span>
+face, all bright with
+tears of joy and a flood of rosy smiles, the light of seven
+stars in her eyes. But she could not speak, she could only
+look, and after a little whisper, <span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, David, I think I have
+always loved you! I think I was waiting for you that night,
+though I did not know it. And look!�</span>—with sudden
+thought&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She drew from the folds of her dress a little old-fashioned
+locket hung by a chain about her neck out of sight. She
+opened it and showed him a soft gold curl which she touched
+gently with her lips, as though it were something very sacred.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“What is it, darling?�</span> asked David perplexed, half happy,
+half afraid as he took the locket and touched the curl more
+thrilled with the thought that she had carried it next her
+heart than with the sight of it.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“It is yours,�</span> she said, disappointed that he did not understand.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Aunt Clarinda gave it to me while you were away.
+I’ve worn it ever since. And she gave me other things, and
+told me all about you. I know it all, about the tops and
+marbles, and the spelling book, and I’ve cried with you over
+your punishments, and—I—love it all!�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He had fastened the door before he began to talk, but he
+caught her in his arms now, regardless of the fact that the
+shades were not drawn down, and that they swayed in the
+summer breeze.</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page348"></span><a name="pg348" id="pg348" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, my darling! My wife!�</span> he cried, and kissed her
+lips for the third time.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The world was changed then for those two. They belonged
+to each other they believed, as no two that ever walked
+through Eden had ever belonged. When they thought of
+the precious bond that bound them together their hearts
+throbbed with a happiness that well-nigh overwhelmed them.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A dinner of stewed chickens and little white soda biscuits
+was served them, fit for a wedding breakfast, for the barmaid
+whispered to the cook that she was sure there was a
+bride and groom in the parlor they looked so happy and
+seemed to forget anybody else was by. But it might have
+been ham and eggs for all they knew what it was they ate,
+these two who were so happy they could but look into each
+other’s eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When the dinner was over and they started on their way
+again, with Albany shimmering in the hot sun in the distance,
+and David’s arm sliding from the top of the seat to circle
+Marcia’s waist, David whispered:</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“This is our real wedding journey, dearest, and this is
+our bridal day. We’ll go to Albany and buy you a trousseau,
+and then we will go wherever you wish. I can stay a whole
+week if you wish. Would you like to go home for a visit?�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Marcia, with shining eyes and glowing cheeks, looked her
+love into his face and answered: <span class="tei tei-q">“Yes, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">now</span></span> I would like to
+go home,—just for a few days—and then back to our home.�</span></p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And David looking into her eyes understood why she had not
+wanted to go before. She was taking her husband, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">her</span></span> husband,
+not Kate’s, with her now, and might be proud of his love.
+She could go among her old comrades and be happy, for
+he loved her. He looked a moment, comprehended, sympathized,
+and then pressing her hand close—for he might not
+kiss her, as there was a load of hay coming their way—he
+said: <span class="tei tei-q">“Darling!�</span> But their eyes said more.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="tei tei-back" style="margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 6.00em">
+  <hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+    <a name="toc60" id="toc60"></a>
+    <a name="pdf61" id="pdf61"></a>
+    <h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+      <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">AD PAGES</span></span>
+    </h1>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+    <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page349"></span><a name="Pg349" id="Pg349" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.50em"><span style="font-size: 150%">FAMOUS
+    COPYRIGHT BOOKS</span><br /><span style="font-size: 150%">IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS</span></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size.
+    Printed on excellent paper—most of them with illustrations of
+    marked beauty—and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a
+    volume, postpaid.</p>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">BEVERLY OF GRAUSTARK. By George Barr McCutcheon.
+    With Color Frontispiece and other illustrations by Harrison Fisher.
+    Beautiful inlay picture in colors of Beverly on the cover.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“The most fascinating, engrossing and picturesque of the
+    season’s novels.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Boston
+    Herald.</span></span> <span class="tei tei-q">“‘Beverly’ is altogether charming—almost
+    living flesh and blood.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Louisville Times.</span></span> <span class="tei tei-q">“Better than
+    ‘Graustark’.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Mail and
+    Express.</span></span> <span class="tei tei-q">“A sequel quite as impossible as ‘Graustark’
+    and quite as entertaining.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Bookman.</span></span> <span class="tei tei-q">“A charming love story well told.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Boston Transcript</span></span><span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E34" id="E34" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e34" class="tei tei-ref">.</a></span><br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">HALF A ROGUE. By Harold MacGrath. With
+    illustrations and inlay cover picture by Harrison Fisher.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Here are dexterity of plot, glancing play at witty talk, characters
+    really human and humanly real, spirit and gladness, freshness and quick
+    movement. ‘Half a Rogue’ is as brisk as a horseback ride on a
+    glorious morning. It is as varied as an April day. It is as charming as
+    two most charming girls can make it. Love and honor and success and all
+    the great things worth fighting for and living for the involved in
+    ‘Half a Rogue.’�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Phila. Press.</span></span><br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">THE GIRL FROM TIM’S PLACE. By Charles
+    Clark Munn. With illustrations by Frank T. Merrill.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Figuring in the pages of this story there are several strong
+    characters. Typical New England folk and an especially sturdy one, old Cy
+    Walker, through whose instrumentality Chip comes to happiness and
+    fortune. There is a chain of comedy, tragedy, pathos and love, which
+    makes a dramatic story.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Boston
+    Herald.</span></span><br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">THE LION AND THE MOUSE. A story of American
+    Life. By Charles Klein, and Arthur Hornblow. With illustrations by Stuart
+    Travis, and Scenes from the Play.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The novel duplicated the success of the play; in fact the book is
+    greater than the play. A portentous clash of dominant personalties that
+    form the essence of the play are necessarily touched upon but briefly in
+    the short space of four acts. All this is narrated in the novel with a
+    wealth of fascinating and absorbing detail, making it one of the most
+    powerfully written and exciting works of fiction given to the world in
+    years.</p>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP, -
+    NEW YORK</p>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+    <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page350"></span><a name="Pg350" id="Pg350" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.50em"><span style="font-size: 150%">FAMOUS
+    COPYRIGHT BOOKS</span><br /><span style="font-size: 150%">IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS</span></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size.
+    Printed on excellent paper—most of them with illustrations of
+    marked beauty—and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a
+    volume, postpaid.</p> 
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">BARBARA WINSLOW, REBEL. By Elizabeth Ellis. With
+    illustrations by John Rae, and colored inlay cover.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The following, taken from story, will best describe the heroine: A
+    TOAST: <span class="tei tei-q">“To the bravest comrade in misfortune, the sweetest companion in
+    peace and at all times the most courageous of women.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Barbara Winslow.</span></span> <span class="tei tei-q">“A romantic story,
+    buoyant, eventful, and in matters of love exactly what the heart could
+    desire.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">New York
+    Sun.</span></span><br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">SUSAN. By Ernest Oldmeadow. With a color
+    frontispiece by Frank Haviland. <span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E35" id="E35" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e35" class="tei tei-ref">Medallion</a></span> in color on front
+    cover.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Lord Ruddington falls helplessly in love with Miss Langley, whom he
+    sees in one of her walks accompanied by her maid, Susan. Through a
+    misapprehension of personalities his lordship addresses a love missive to
+    the maid. Susan accepts in perfect good faith, and an epistolary
+    love-making goes on till they are disillusioned. It naturally makes a
+    droll and delightful little comedy; and is a story that is particularly
+    clever in the telling.<br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">WHEN PATTY WENT TO COLLEGE. By Jean Webster.
+    With illustrations by C. D. Williams.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“The book is a treasure.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Chicago Daily News.</span></span> <span class="tei tei-q">“Bright, whimsical, and thoroughly
+    entertaining.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Buffalo
+    Express.</span></span> <span class="tei tei-q">“One of the best stories of life in a girl’s
+    college that has ever been written.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">N. Y. Press.</span></span> <span class="tei tei-q">“To any woman who has enjoyed the pleasures
+    of a college life this book cannot fail to bring back many sweet
+    recollections; and to those who have not been to college the wit,
+    lightness, and charm of Patty are sure to be no less
+    delightful.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Public
+    Opinion.</span></span><br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">THE MASQUERADER. By Katherine Cecil Thurston.
+    With illustrations by Clarence F. Underwood.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“You can’t drop it till you have turned the last
+    page.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Cleveland Leader.</span></span>
+    <span class="tei tei-q">“Its very audacity of motive, of execution, of solution, almost takes
+    one’s breath away. The boldness of its denouement is
+    sublime.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Boston Transcript.</span></span>
+    <span class="tei tei-q">“The literary hit of a generation. The best of it is the story deserves
+    all its success. A masterly story.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">St. Louis Dispatch.</span></span> <span class="tei tei-q">“The story is ingeniously told, and
+    cleverly constructed.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">The
+    Dial.</span></span><br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">THE GAMBLER. By Katherine Cecil Thurston. With
+    illustrations by John Campbell.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“Tells of a high strung young Irish woman who has a passion for
+    gambling, inherited from a long line of sporting ancestors. She has a
+    high sense of honor, too, and that causes complications. She is a very
+    human, lovable character, and love saves her.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">N. Y. Times.</span></span></p>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP, -
+    NEW YORK</p>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+    <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page351"></span><a name="Pg351" id="Pg351" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.50em"><span style="font-size: 150%">FAMOUS
+    COPYRIGHT BOOKS</span><br /><span style="font-size: 150%">IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS</span></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size.
+    Printed on excellent paper—most of them with illustrations of
+    marked beauty—and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a
+    volume, postpaid.</p> 
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">THE AFFAIR AT THE INN. By Kate Douglas Wiggin.
+    With illustrations by Martin Justice.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“As superlatively clever in the writing as it is entertaining in the
+    reading. It is actual comedy of the most artistic sort, and it is handled
+    with a freshness and originality that is unquestionably
+    novel.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Boston Transcript.</span></span>
+    <span class="tei tei-q">“A feast of humor and good cheer, yet subtly pervaded by special shades
+    of feeling, fancy, tenderness, or whimsicality. A merry thing in
+    prose.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">St. Louis
+    Democrat.</span></span><br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">ROSE O’ THE RIVER. By Kate Douglas Wiggin.
+    With illustrations by George Wright.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“‘Rose o’ the River,’ a charming bit of sentiment,
+    gracefully written and deftly touched with a gentle humor. It is a dainty
+    book—daintily illustrated.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">New York Tribune.</span></span> <span class="tei tei-q">“A wholesome, bright, refreshing story,
+    an ideal book to give a young girl.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Chicago Record-Herald.</span></span> <span class="tei tei-q">“An idyllic story, replete with
+    pathos and inimitable humor. As story-telling it is perfection, and as
+    portrait-painting it is true to the life.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">London Mail.</span></span><br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">TILLIE: A Mennonite Maid. By Helen R. Martin.
+    With illustrations by Florence Scovel Shinn.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The little <span class="tei tei-q">“Mennonite Maid�</span> who wanders through these pages is
+    something quite new in fiction. Tillie is hungry for books and beauty and
+    love; and she comes into her inheritance at the end. <span class="tei tei-q">“Tillie is faulty,
+    sensitive, big-hearted, eminently human, and first, last and always
+    lovable. Her charm glows warmly, the story is well handled, the
+    characters skilfully developed.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">The Book Buyer.</span></span><br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">LADY ROSE’S DAUGHTER. By Mrs. Humphry Ward.
+    With illustrations by Howard Chandler Christy.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“The most marvellous work of its wonderful author.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">New York World.</span></span> <span class="tei tei-q">“We touch regions and
+    attain altitudes which it is not given to the ordinary novelist even to
+    approach.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">London Times.</span></span>
+    <span class="tei tei-q">“In no other story has Mrs. Ward approached the brilliancy and vivacity
+    of Lady Rose’s Daughter.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">North American Review.</span></span><br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">THE BANKER AND THE BEAR. By Henry K. Webster.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-q">“An exciting and absorbing story.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">New York Times.</span></span> <span class="tei tei-q">“Intensely thrilling in parts, but an
+    unusually good story all through. There is a love affair of real charm
+    and most novel surroundings, there is a run on the bank which is almost
+    worth a year’s growth, and there is all manner of exhilarating men
+    and deeds which should bring the book into high and permanent
+    favor.�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Chicago Evening
+    Post.</span></span></p>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP, -
+    NEW YORK</p>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+    <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page352"></span><a name="Pg352" id="Pg352" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.75em"><span style="font-size: 175%">NATURE
+    BOOKS</span></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.25em"><span style="font-size: 125%">With
+    Colored Plates, and Photographs from Life.</span></p>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">BIRD NEIGHBORS. An Introductory Acquaintance with 150 Birds Commonly
+    Found in the Woods, Fields and Gardens About Our Homes. By Neltje
+    Blanchan. With an Introduction by John Burroughs, and many plates of
+    birds in natural colors. Large Quarto, size 7-3/4 x 10-3/8, Cloth.
+    Formerly published at $2.00. Our special price, $1.00.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As an aid to the elementary study of bird life nothing has ever been
+    published more satisfactory than this most successful of Nature Books.
+    This book makes the identification of our birds simple and positive, even
+    to the uninitiated, through certain unique features. I. All the birds are
+    grouped according to color, in the belief that a bird’s coloring is
+    the first and often the only characteristic noticed. II. By another
+    classification, the birds are grouped according to their season. III. All
+    the popular names by which a bird is known are given both in the
+    descriptions and the index. The colored plates are the most beautiful and
+    accurate ever given in a moderate-priced and popular book. The most
+    successful and widely sold Nature Book yet published.<br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">BIRDS THAT HUNT AND ARE HUNTED. Life Histories of 170 Birds of Prey,
+    Game Birds and Water-Fowls. By Neltje Blanchan. With Introduction by
+    G. O. Shields (Coquina). 24 photographic illustrations in color.
+    Large Quarto, size 7-3/4 x 10-3/8. Formerly published at $2.00. Our
+    special price, $1.00.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">No work of its class has ever been issued that contains so much
+    valuable information, presented with such felicity and charm. The colored
+    plates are true to nature. By their aid alone any bird illustrated may be
+    readily identified. Sportsmen will especially relish the twenty-four
+    color plates which show the more important birds in characteristic poses.
+    They are probably the most valuable and artistic pictures of the kind
+    available to-day.</p>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP, -
+    NEW YORK</p>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+    <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page353"></span><a name="Pg353" id="Pg353" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.75em"><span style="font-size: 175%">NATURE
+    BOOKS</span></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.25em"><span style="font-size: 125%">With
+    Colored Plates, and Photographs from Life.</span></p>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">NATURE’S GARDEN. An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and
+    Their Insect Visitors. 24 colored plates, and many other illustrations
+    photographed directly from nature. Text by Neltje Blanchan. Large Quarto,
+    size 7-3/4 x 10-3/8. Cloth. Formerly published at $3.00 net. Our special
+    price, $1.25.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E36" id="E36" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e36" class="tei tei-ref">Superb</a></span> color portraits of many familiar flowers
+    in their living tints, and no less beautiful pictures in black and white
+    of others—each blossom photographed directly from nature—form
+    an unrivaled series. By their aid alone the novice can name the flowers
+    met afield.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Intimate life-histories of over five hundred species of wild flowers,
+    written in untechnical, vivid language, emphasize the marvelously
+    interesting and vital relationship existing between these flowers and the
+    special insect to which each is adapted.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The flowers are divided into five color groups, because by this
+    arrangement any one with no knowledge of botany whatever can readily
+    identify the specimens met during a walk. The various popular names by
+    which each species is known, its preferred dwelling-place, months of
+    blooming and geographical distribution follow its description. Lists of
+    berry-bearing and other plants most conspicuous after the flowering
+    season, of such as grow together in different kinds of soil, and finally
+    of family groups arranged by that method of scientific classification
+    adopted by the International Botanical Congress which has now superseded
+    all others, combine to make <span class="tei tei-q">“Nature’s Garden�</span> an indispensable
+    guide.</p>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP, -
+    NEW YORK</p>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+    <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page354"></span><a name="Pg354" id="Pg354" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.50em"><span style="font-size: 150%">FAMOUS
+    COPYRIGHT BOOKS</span><br /><span style="font-size: 150%">IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS</span></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size.
+    Printed on excellent paper—most of them with illustrations of
+    marked beauty—and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a
+    volume, postpaid.</p> 
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE. By Edith Elmer Wood.
+    With illustrations by Rufus Zogbaum.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The standards and life of <span class="tei tei-q">“the new navy�</span> are breezily set forth
+    with a genuine ring impossible from the most gifted <span class="tei tei-q">“outsider.�</span>
+    <span class="tei tei-q">“The story of the destruction of the ‘Maine,’ and of the
+    Battle of Manila, are very dramatic. The author is the daughter of one
+    naval officer and the wife of another. Naval folks will find much to
+    interest them in ‘The Spirit of the Service.’�</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">The Book Buyer.</span></span><br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A SPECTRE OF POWER. By Charles Egbert
+    Craddock.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Miss Murfree has pictured Tennessee mountains and the mountain people
+    in striking colors and with dramatic vividness, but goes back to the time
+    of the struggles of the French and English in the early eighteenth
+    century for possession of the Cherokee territory. The story abounds in
+    adventure, mystery, peril and suspense.<br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">THE STORM CENTRE. By Charles Egbert Craddock.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A war story; but more of flirtation, love and courtship than of
+    fighting or history. The tale is thoroughly readable and takes its
+    readers again into golden Tennessee, into the atmosphere which has
+    distinguished all of Miss Murfree’s novels.<br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">THE ADVENTURESS. By Coralie Stanton. With color
+    frontispiece by Harrison Fisher, and attractive inlay cover in colors.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As a penalty for her crimes, her evil nature, her flint-like
+    callousness, her more than inhuman cruelty, her contempt for the laws of
+    God and man, she was condemned to bury her magnificent <span class="tei tei-corr"><a name="E37" id="E37" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a href="#e37" class="tei tei-ref">personality</a></span>, her transcendent beauty, her
+    superhuman charms, in gilded obscurity at a King’s left hand. A
+    powerful story powerfully told.<br /><br /></p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">THE GOLDEN GREYHOUND. A Novel by Dwight Tilton.
+    With illustrations by E. Pollak.</p>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A thoroughly good story that keeps you guessing to the very end, and
+    never attempts to instruct or reform you. It is a strictly up-to-date
+    story of love and mystery with wireless telegraphy and all the modern
+    improvements. The events nearly all take place on a big Atlantic liner
+    and the romance of the deep is skilfully made to serve as a setting for
+    the romance, old as mankind, yet always new, involving our hero.</p>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP, -
+    NEW YORK</p>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 100%" /></div>
+
+    
+
+    
+  </div>
+
+  <hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+    <a name="toc62" id="toc62"></a>
+    <a name="pdf63" id="pdf63"></a>
+    <h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+      <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 100%">ERRATA</span></span>
+    </h1>
+
+    <a name="e1" id="e1" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER I</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: girl in the <a href="#E1" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">fairy tale</span></span></a>
+      who left jewels</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: girl in the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">fairy-tale</span></span>
+      who left jewels</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e2" id="e2" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER I</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: ever walked in <a href="#E2" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">fairy tale</span></span></a>.
+      But she saw</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: ever walked in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">fairy-tale</span></span>.
+      But she saw</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e3" id="e3" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER III</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: before, but covered <a href="#E3" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">wth</span></span></a>
+      confusion and shame,</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: before, but covered <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">with</span></span>
+      confusion and shame,</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e4" id="e4" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER III</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: and she turned <a href="#E4" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">delberately</span></span></a>,
+      one dainty, slippered</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: and she turned <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">deliberately</span></span>,
+      one dainty, slippered</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e5" id="e5" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER V</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: her that this <a href="#E5" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">wholsale</span></span></a>
+      disposal of Marcia</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: her that this <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">wholesale</span></span>
+      disposal of Marcia</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e6" id="e6" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER V</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: Phoebe takes your place and then come back.<a href="#E6" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"> </span></a></td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: Phoebe takes your place and then come back.<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">�</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e7" id="e7" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER V</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: fine places, to <a href="#E7" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">tea drinkings</span></span></a>
+      and the like,</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: fine places, to <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">tea-drinkings</span></span>
+      and the like,</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e8" id="e8" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER VI</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: out radiant and <a href="#E8" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">childlike</span></span></a>
+      through her tears.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: out radiant and <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">child-like</span></span>
+      through her tears.</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e9" id="e9" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER X</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: was always something <a href="#E9" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">childlike</span></span></a>
+      about Marcia’s</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: was always something <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">child-like</span></span>
+      about Marcia’s</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e10" id="e10" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER X</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: her old home <a href="#E10" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">plentfully</span></span></a>
+      supplied with those</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: her old home <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">plentifully</span></span>
+      supplied with those</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e11" id="e11" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XII</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: got David that’s worth everything.<a href="#E11" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"> </span></a></td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: got David that’s worth everything.<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">�</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e12" id="e12" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XII</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: position on the <a href="#E12" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">haircloth</span></span></a>
+      sofa. But if</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: position on the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">hair-cloth</span></span>
+      sofa. But if</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e13" id="e13" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XIII</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: had Mary Ann’s <a href="#E13" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">hand-writing</span></span></a>
+      looked so pleasant</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: had Mary Ann’s <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">handwriting</span></span>
+      looked so pleasant</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e14" id="e14" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XIII</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: seemed half a <a href="#E14" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">life-time</span></span></a>
+      to the girl</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: seemed half a <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">lifetime</span></span>
+      to the girl</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e15" id="e15" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XIII</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: my old calico <a href="#E15" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">tomorrow</span></span></a>
+      morning again, and</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: my old calico <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">to-morrow</span></span>
+      morning again, and</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e16" id="e16" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XIII</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: house with big <a href="#E16" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">collums</span></span></a>
+      to the front</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: house with big <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">columns</span></span>
+      to the front</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e17" id="e17" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XV</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: table, and the <a href="#E17" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">tea-kettle</span></span></a>
+      was singing on</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: table, and the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">tea kettle</span></span>
+      was singing on</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e38" id="e38" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XV</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: The neighbor had <a href="#E38" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">staid</span></span></a>
+      longer than usual,</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: The neighbor had <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">stayed</span></span>
+      longer than usual,</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e18" id="e18" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XVI</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: thus melted into <a href="#E18" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">childlike</span></span></a>
+      enthusiasm, felt his</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: thus melted into <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">child-like</span></span>
+      enthusiasm, felt his</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e19" id="e19" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XVIII</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: with the flickering <a href="#E19" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">candle-light</span></span></a>
+      making grotesque</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: with the flickering <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">candle light</span></span>
+      making grotesque</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e20" id="e20" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XVIII</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: Bible where the <a href="#E20" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">candle-light</span></span></a>
+      played at glances</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: Bible where the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">candle light</span></span>
+      played at glances</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e21" id="e21" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XXI</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: if he would <a href="#E21" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">absord</span></span></a>
+      the vision for</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: if he would <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">absorb</span></span>
+      the vision for</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e22" id="e22" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XXII</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: and let the <a href="#E22" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">floodtide</span></span></a>
+      of his sorrow</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: and let the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">flood-tide</span></span>
+      of his sorrow</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e23" id="e23" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XXII</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: an’ hopin’ an’ <a href="#E23" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">tryin</span></span></a>
+      fer somebody bigger.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: an’ hopin’ an’ <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">tryin’</span></span>
+      fer somebody bigger.</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e24" id="e24" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XXII</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: There’s no place like home.<a href="#E24" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">’</span></span></a></td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: There’s no place like home.<span class="tei tei-hi"> </span></td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e25" id="e25" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XXIV</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: <a href="#E25" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"> </span></a><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">Miranda
+      Griscom.</span></span>�</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">“</span></span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">Miranda Griscom.</span></span>�</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e26" id="e26" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XXVI</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: all items accurate<a href="#E26" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"> </span></a>
+      technicalities of preparation;</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: all items accurate<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">;</span></span>
+      technicalities of preparation;</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e27" id="e27" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XXVII</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: need all the rest you can get.<a href="#E27" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"> </span></a></td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: need all the rest you can get.<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">�</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e28" id="e28" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XXVII</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: had before—all your own I mean?<a href="#E28" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"> </span></a>
+      </td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: had before—all your own I mean?<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">�</span></span>
+      </td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e29" id="e29" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XXVII</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: any bonnet. Nothing but a pink sunbonnet.<a href="#E29" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"> </span></a></td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: any bonnet. Nothing but a pink sunbonnet.<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">�</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e30" id="e30" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XXVII</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: a little old <a href="#E30" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">haircloth</span></span></a>
+      trunk, her own</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: a little old <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">hair-cloth</span></span>
+      trunk, her own</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e31" id="e31" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XXVII</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: had done when<a href="#E31" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"> </span></a>a boy Aunt Clarinda</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: had done when<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700"> as </span></span>a boy Aunt Clarinda</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e32" id="e32" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XXVII</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: Kate a mere <a href="#E32" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">common-place</span></span></a>?
+      What was this</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: Kate a mere <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">commonplace</span></span>?
+      What was this</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e33" id="e33" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">CHAPTER XXIX</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: Marcia lift her <a href="#E33" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">flowerlike</span></span></a>
+      face, all bright</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: Marcia lift her <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">flower-like</span></span>
+      face, all bright</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e34" id="e34" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">AD PAGES</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: love story well told.�—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Boston Transcript</span></span><a href="#E34" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">,</span></span></a></td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: love story well told.�—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Boston Transcript</span></span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">.</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e35" id="e35" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">AD PAGES</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: by Frank Haviland. <a href="#E35" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">Medalion</span></span></a>
+      in color on</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: by Frank Haviland. <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">Medallion</span></span>
+      in color on</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e36" id="e36" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">AD PAGES</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: <a href="#E36" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">Suberb</span></span></a>
+      color portraits of many familiar flowers</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">Superb</span></span>
+      color portraits of many familiar flowers</td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+    <a name="e37" id="e37" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">AD PAGES</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Changed: her magnificent <a href="#E37" class="tei tei-ref"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">personalty</span></span></a>,
+      her transcendent</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">To: her magnificent <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-weight: 700">personality</span></span>,
+      her transcendent</td></tr></tbody></table>
+  </div>
+
+  <div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+    <div id="pgfooter" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"><pre class="pre tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARCIA SCHUYLER***
+</pre><hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em"><a name="rightpageheader64" id="rightpageheader64"></a><a name="pgtoc65" id="pgtoc65"></a><a name="pdf66" id="pdf66"></a><h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Credits</span></h1><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr><th class="tei tei-label tei-label-gloss">October 20, 2007  </th></tr><tr><td class="tei tei-item"><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Project Gutenberg Edition</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item"><span class="tei tei-respStmt">
+        <span class="tei tei-name">Roland Schlenker and<br /></span>
+        <span class="tei tei-name">Online Distributed Proofreading Team</span>
+      </span></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></div><hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em"><a name="rightpageheader67" id="rightpageheader67"></a><a name="pgtoc68" id="pgtoc68"></a><a name="pdf69" id="pdf69"></a><h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">A Word from Project Gutenberg</span></h1><p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This file should be named 
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #23132 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23132)
diff --git a/old/23132-8.txt b/old/23132-8.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Marcia Schuyler by Grace Livingston Hill
+Lutz
+
+
+
+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 http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: Marcia Schuyler
+
+Author: Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+
+Release Date: August 2007 [Ebook #23132]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO 8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARCIA SCHUYLER***
+
+
+
+
+
+Marcia Schuyler
+
+
+by Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+
+
+
+
+Edition 1, (August 2007)
+
+
+
+
+
+                             MARCIA SCHUYLER
+
+
+                              SIXTH EDITION
+
+
+
+
+
+                 [Illustration: Copyright by C. Klackner
+     "OH, YOU NAUGHTY MAN!" SHE EXCLAIMED PRETTILY, "HOW DARE YOU!"]
+
+                        Copyright by C. Klackner
+      "OH, YOU NAUGHTY MAN!" SHE EXCLAIMED PRETTILY, "HOW DARE YOU!"
+
+
+
+
+
+                             Marcia Schuyler
+
+
+                                   by
+
+                       Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+           Author of "The Story of a Whim," "According to the
+                  Pattern," "An Unwilling Guest," etc.
+
+
+                           _Illustrations by_
+                            E. L. HENRY, N.A.
+
+
+                            GROSSET & DUNLAP
+                          PUBLISHERS · NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+                             Copyright, 1908
+                       By J. B. Lippincott Company
+
+
+                        Published February, 1908
+
+
+         _Electrotyped and printed by J. B. Lippincott Company_
+          _The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A._
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   TO
+                           THE DEAR MEMORY OF
+                                MY FATHER
+                 The Rev. CHARLES MONTGOMERY LIVINGSTON
+                  WHOSE COMPANIONSHIP AND ENCOURAGEMENT
+                        HAVE BEEN MY HELP THROUGH
+                                THE YEARS
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+CHAPTER II
+CHAPTER III
+CHAPTER IV
+CHAPTER V
+CHAPTER VI
+CHAPTER VII
+CHAPTER VIII
+CHAPTER IX
+CHAPTER X
+CHAPTER XI
+CHAPTER XII
+CHAPTER XIII
+CHAPTER XIV
+CHAPTER XV
+CHAPTER XVI
+CHAPTER XVII
+CHAPTER XVIII
+CHAPTER XIX
+CHAPTER XX
+CHAPTER XXI
+CHAPTER XXII
+CHAPTER XXIII
+CHAPTER XXIV
+CHAPTER XXV
+CHAPTER XXVI
+CHAPTER XXVII
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+CHAPTER XXIX
+AD PAGES
+ERRATA
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                             Marcia Schuyler
+
+
+                                CHAPTER I
+
+
+The sun was already up and the grass blades were twinkling with sparkles
+of dew, as Marcia stepped from the kitchen door.
+
+She wore a chocolate calico with little sprigs of red and white scattered
+over it, her hair was in smooth brown braids down her back, and there was
+a flush on her round cheeks that might have been but the reflection of the
+rosy light in the East. Her face was as untroubled as the summer morning,
+in its freshness, and her eyes as dreamy as the soft clouds that hovered
+upon the horizon uncertain where they were to be sent for the day.
+
+Marcia walked lightly through the grass, and the way behind her sparkled
+again like that of the girl in the fairy-tale who left jewels wherever she
+passed.
+
+A rail fence stopped her, which she mounted as though it had been a steed
+to carry her onward, and sat a moment looking at the beauty of the
+morning, her eyes taking on that far-away look that annoyed her stepmother
+when she wanted her to hurry with the dishes, or finish a long seam before
+it was time to get supper.
+
+She loitered but a moment, for her mind was full of business, and she
+wished to accomplish much before the day was done. Swinging easily down to
+the other side of the fence she moved on through the meadow, over another
+fence, and another meadow, skirting the edge of a cool little strip of
+woods which lured her with its green mysterious shadows, its whispering
+leaves, and twittering birds. One wistful glance she gave into the sweet
+silence, seeing a clump of maiden-hair ferns rippling their feathery locks
+in the breeze. Then resolutely turning away she sped on to the slope of
+Blackberry Hill.
+
+It was not a long climb to where the blackberries grew, and she was soon
+at work, the great luscious berries dropping into her pail almost with a
+touch. But while she worked the vision of the hills, the sheep meadow
+below, the river winding between the neighboring farms, melted away, and
+she did not even see the ripe fruit before her, because she was planning
+the new frock she was to buy with these berries she had come to pick.
+
+Pink and white it was to be; she had seen it in the store the last time
+she went for sugar and spice. There were dainty sprigs of pink over the
+white ground, and every berry that dropped into her bright pail was no
+longer a berry but a sprig of pink chintz. While she worked she went over
+her plans for the day.
+
+There had been busy times at the old house during the past weeks. Kate,
+her elder sister, was to be married. It was only a few days now to the
+wedding.
+
+There had been a whole year of preparation: spinning and weaving and fine
+sewing. The smooth white linen lay ready, packed between rose leaves and
+lavender. There had been yards and yards of tatting and embroidery made by
+the two girls for the trousseau, and the village dressmaker had spent days
+at the house, cutting, fitting, shirring, till now there was a goodly
+array of gorgeous apparel piled high upon bed, and chairs, and hanging in
+the closets of the great spare bedroom. The outfit was as fine as that
+made for Patience Hartrandt six months before, and Mr. Hartrandt had given
+his one daughter all she had asked for in the way of a "setting out." Kate
+had seen to it that her things were as fine as Patience's,--but, they were
+all for Kate!
+
+Of course, that was right! Kate was to be married, not Marcia, and
+everything must make way for that. Marcia was scarcely more than a child
+as yet, barely seventeen. No one thought of anything new for her just
+then, and she did not expect it. But into her heart there had stolen a
+longing for a new frock herself amid all this finery for Kate. She had her
+best one of course. That was good, and pretty, and quite nice enough to
+wear to the wedding, and her stepmother had taken much relief in the
+thought that Marcia would need nothing during the rush of getting Kate
+ready.
+
+But there were people coming to the house every day, especially in the
+afternoons, friends of Kate, and of her stepmother, to be shown Kate's
+wardrobe, and to talk things over curiously. Marcia could not wear her
+best dress all the time. And _he_ was coming! That was the way Marcia
+always denominated the prospective bridegroom in her mind.
+
+His name was David Spafford, and Kate often called him Dave, but Marcia,
+even to herself, could never bring herself to breathe the name so
+familiarly. She held him in great awe. He was so fine and strong and good,
+with a face like a young saint in some old picture, she thought. She often
+wondered how her wild, sparkling sister Kate dared to be so familiar with
+him. She had ventured the thought once when she watched Kate dressing to
+go out with some young people and preening herself like a bird of Paradise
+before the glass. It all came over her, the vanity and frivolousness of
+the life that Kate loved, and she spoke out with conviction:
+
+"Kate, you'll have to be very different when you're married." Kate had
+faced about amusedly and asked why.
+
+"Because _he_ is so good," Marcia had replied, unable to explain further.
+
+"Oh, is that all?" said the daring sister, wheeling back to the glass.
+"Don't you worry; I'll soon take that out of him."
+
+But Kate's indifference had never lessened her young sister's awe of her
+prospective brother-in-law. She had listened to his conversations with her
+father during the brief visits he had made, and she had watched his face
+at church while he and Kate sang together as the minister lined it out:
+"Rock of Ages cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee," a new song which
+had just been written. And she had mused upon the charmed life Kate would
+lead. It was wonderful to be a woman and be loved as Kate was loved,
+thought Marcia.
+
+So in all the hurry no one seemed to think much about Marcia, and she was
+not satisfied with her brown delaine afternoon dress. Truth to tell, it
+needed letting down, and there was no more left to let down. It made her
+feel like last year to go about in it with her slender ankles so plainly
+revealed. So she set her heart upon the new chintz.
+
+Now, with Marcia, to decide was to do. She did not speak to her stepmother
+about it, for she knew it would be useless; neither did she think it worth
+while to go to her father, for she knew that both his wife and Kate would
+find it out and charge her with useless expense just now when there were
+so many other uses for money, and they were anxious to have it all flow
+their way. She had an independent spirit, so she took the time that
+belonged to herself, and went to the blackberry patch which belonged to
+everybody.
+
+Marcia's fingers were nimble and accustomed, and the sun was not very high
+in the heavens when she had finished her task and turned happily toward
+the village. The pails would not hold another berry.
+
+Her cheeks were glowing with the sun and exercise, and little wisps of
+wavy curls had escaped about her brow, damp with perspiration. Her eyes
+were shining with her purpose, half fulfilled, as she hastened down the
+hill.
+
+Crossing a field she met Hanford Weston with a rake over his shoulder and
+a wide-brimmed straw hat like a small shed over him. He was on his way to
+the South meadow. He blushed and greeted her as she passed shyly by. When
+she had passed he paused and looked admiringly after her. They had been in
+the same classes at school all winter, the girl at the head, the boy at
+the foot. But Hanford Weston's father owned the largest farm in all the
+country round about, and he felt that did not so much matter. He would
+rather see Marcia at the head anyway, though there never had been the
+slightest danger that he would take her place. He felt a sudden desire now
+to follow her. It would be a pleasure to carry those pails that she bore
+as if they were mere featherweights.
+
+He watched her long, elastic step for a moment, considered the sun in the
+sky, and his father's command about the South meadow, and then strode
+after her.
+
+It did not take long to reach her side, swiftly as she had gone.
+
+As well as he could, with the sudden hotness in his face and the tremor in
+his throat, he made out to ask if he might carry her burden for her.
+Marcia stopped annoyed. She had forgotten all about him, though he was an
+attractive fellow, sometimes called by the girls "handsome Hanford."
+
+She had been planning exactly how that pink sprigged chintz was to be
+made, and which parts she would cut first in order to save time and
+material. She did not wish to be interrupted. The importance of the matter
+was too great to be marred by the appearance of just a schoolmate whom she
+might meet every day, and whom she could so easily "spell down." She
+summoned her thoughts from the details of mutton-leg sleeves and looked
+the boy over, to his great confusion. She did not want him along, and she
+was considering how best to get rid of him.
+
+"Weren't you going somewhere else?" she asked sweetly. "Wasn't there a
+rake over your shoulder? What have you done with it?"
+
+The culprit blushed deeper.
+
+"Where were you going?" she demanded.
+
+"To the South meadow," he stammered out.
+
+"Oh, well, then you must go back. I shall do quite well, thank you. Your
+father will not be pleased to have you neglect your work for me, though
+I'm much obliged I'm sure."
+
+Was there some foreshadowing of her womanhood in the decided way she
+spoke, and the quaint, prim set of her head as she bowed him good morning
+and went on her way once more? The boy did not understand. He only felt
+abashed, and half angry that she had ordered him back to work; and, too,
+in a tone that forbade him to take her memory with him as he went.
+Nevertheless her image lingered by the way, and haunted the South meadow
+all day long as he worked.
+
+Marcia, unconscious of the admiration she had stirred in the boyish heart,
+went her way on fleet feet, her spirit one with the sunny morning, her
+body light with anticipation, for a new frock of her own choice was yet an
+event in her life.
+
+She had thought many times, as she spent long hours putting delicate
+stitches into her sister's wedding garments, how it would seem if they
+were being made for her. She had whiled away many a dreary seam by
+thinking out, in a sort of dream-story, how she would put on this or that
+at will if it were her own, and go here or there, and have people love and
+admire her as they did Kate. It would never come true, of course. She
+never expected to be admired and loved like Kate. Kate was beautiful,
+bright and gay. Everybody loved her, no matter how she treated them. It
+was a matter of course for Kate to have everything she wanted. Marcia felt
+that she never could attain to such heights. In the first place she
+considered her own sweet serious face with its pure brown eyes as
+exceedingly plain. She could not catch the lights that played at hide and
+seek in her eyes when she talked with animation. Indeed few saw her at her
+best, because she seldom talked freely. It was only with certain people
+that she could forget herself.
+
+She did not envy Kate. She was proud of her sister, and loved her, though
+there was an element of anxiety in the love. But she never thought of her
+many faults. She felt that they were excusable because Kate was Kate. It
+was as if you should find fault with a wild rose because it carried a
+thorn. Kate was set about with many a thorn, but amid them all she
+bloomed, her fragrant pink self, as apparently unconscious of the many
+pricks she gave, and as unconcerned, as the flower itself.
+
+So Marcia never thought to be jealous that Kate had so many lovely things,
+and was going out into the world to do just as she pleased, and lead a
+charmed life with a man who was greater in the eyes of this girl than any
+prince that ever walked in fairy-tale. But she saw no harm in playing a
+delightful little dream-game of "pretend" now and then, and letting her
+imagination make herself the beautiful, admired, elder sister instead of
+the plain younger one.
+
+But this morning on her way to the village store with her berries she
+thought no more of her sister's things, for her mind was upon her own
+little frock which she would purchase with the price of the berries, and
+then go home and make.
+
+A whole long day she had to herself, for Kate and her stepmother were gone
+up to the neighboring town on the packet to make a few last purchases.
+
+She had told no one of her plans, and was awake betimes in the morning to
+see the travellers off, eager to have them gone that she might begin to
+carry out her plan.
+
+Just at the edge of the village Marcia put down the pails of berries by a
+large flat stone and sat down for a moment to tidy herself. The lacing of
+one shoe had come untied, and her hair was rumpled by exercise. But she
+could not sit long to rest, and taking up her burdens was soon upon the
+way again.
+
+Mary Ann Fothergill stepped from her own gate lingering till Marcia should
+come up, and the two girls walked along side by side. Mary Ann had stiff,
+straight, light hair, and high cheek bones. Her eyes were light and her
+eyelashes almost white. They did not show up well beneath her checked
+sunbonnet. Her complexion was dull and tanned. She was a contrast to
+Marcia with her clear red and white skin. She was tall and awkward and
+wore a linsey-woolsey frock as though it were a meal sack temporarily
+appropriated. She had the air of always trying to hide her feet and hands.
+Mary Ann had some fine qualities, but beauty was not one of them. Beside
+her Marcia's delicate features showed clear-cut like a cameo, and her
+every movement spoke of patrician blood.
+
+Mary Ann regarded Marcia's smooth brown braids enviously. Her own sparse
+hair barely reached to her shoulders, and straggled about her neck
+helplessly and hopelessly, in spite of her constant efforts.
+
+"It must be lots of fun at your house these days," said Mary Ann
+wistfully. "Are you most ready for the wedding?"
+
+Marcia nodded. Her eyes were bright. She could see the sign of the village
+store just ahead and knew the bolts of new chintz were displaying their
+charms in the window.
+
+"My, but your cheeks do look pretty," admired Mary Ann impulsively. "Say,
+how many of each has your sister got?"
+
+"Two dozens," said Marcia conscious of a little swelling of pride in her
+breast. It was not every girl that had such a setting out as her sister.
+
+"My!" sighed Mary Ann. "And outside things, too. I 'spose she's got one of
+every color. What are her frocks? Tell me about them. I've been up to
+Dutchess county and just got back last night, but Ma wrote Aunt Tilly that
+Mis' Hotchkiss said her frocks was the prettiest Miss Hancock's ever sewed
+on."
+
+"We think they are pretty," admitted Marcia modestly. "There's a sprigged
+chin--" here she caught herself, remembering, and laughed. "I mean
+muslin-de-laine, and a blue delaine, and a blue silk----"
+
+"My! silk!" breathed Mary Ann in an ecstasy of wonder. "And what's she
+going to be married in?"
+
+"White," answered Marcia, "white satin. And the veil was mother's--our own
+mother's, you know."
+
+Marcia spoke it reverently, her eyes shining with something far away that
+made Mary Ann think she looked like an angel.
+
+"Oh, my! Don't you just envy her?"
+
+"No," said Marcia slowly; "I think not. At least--I hope not. It wouldn't
+be right, you know. And then she's my sister and I love her dearly, and
+it's nearly as nice to have one's sister have nice things and a good time
+as to have them one's self."
+
+"You're good," said Mary Ann decidedly as if that were a foregone
+conclusion. "But I should envy her, I just should. Mis' Hotchkiss told Ma
+there wa'nt many lots in life so all honey-and-dew-prepared like your
+sister's. All the money she wanted to spend on clo'es, and a nice set out,
+and a man as handsome as you'll find anywhere, and he's well off too,
+ain't he? Ma said she heard he kept a horse and lived right in the village
+too, not as how he needed to keep one to get anywhere, either. That's what
+I call luxury--a horse to ride around with. And then Mr. What's-his-name? I
+can't remember. Oh, yes, Spafford. He's good, and everybody says he won't
+make a bit of fuss if Kate does go around and have a good time. He'll just
+let her do as she pleases. Only old Grandma Doolittle says she doesn't
+believe it. She thinks every man, no matter how good he is, wants to
+manage his wife, just for the name of it. She says your sister'll have to
+change her ways or else there'll be trouble. But that's Grandma! Everybody
+knows her. She croaks! Ma says Kate's got her nest feathered well if ever
+a girl had. My! I only wish I had the same chance!"
+
+Marcia held her head a trifle high when Mary Ann touched upon her sister's
+personal character, but they were nearing the store, and everybody knew
+Mary Ann was blunt. Poor Mary Ann! She meant no harm. She was but
+repeating the village gossip. Besides, Marcia must give her mind to
+sprigged chintz. There was no time for discussions if she would accomplish
+her purpose before the folks came home that night.
+
+"Mary Ann," she said in her sweet, prim way that always made the other
+girl stand a little in awe of her, "you mustn't listen to gossip. It isn't
+worth while. I'm sure my sister Kate will be very happy. I'm going in the
+store now, are you?" And the conversation was suddenly concluded.
+
+Mary Ann followed meekly watching with wonder and envy as Marcia made her
+bargain with the kindly merchant, and selected her chintz. What a
+delicious swish the scissors made as they went through the width of cloth,
+and how delightfully the paper crackled as the bundle was being wrapped!
+Mary Ann did not know whether Kate or Marcia was more to be envied.
+
+"Did you say you were going to make it up yourself?" asked Mary Ann.
+
+Marcia nodded.
+
+"Oh, my! Ain't you afraid? I would be. It's the prettiest I ever saw.
+Don't you go and cut both sleeves for one arm. That's what I did the only
+time Ma ever let me try." And Mary Ann touched the package under Marcia's
+arm with wistful fingers.
+
+They had reached the turn of the road and Mary Ann hoped that Marcia would
+ask her out to "help," but Marcia had no such purpose.
+
+"Well, good-bye! Will you wear it next Sunday?" she asked.
+
+"Perhaps," answered Marcia breathlessly, and sped on her homeward way, her
+cheeks bright with excitement.
+
+                 [Illustration: Copyright by C. Klackner
+   KATE AND HER STEPMOTHER WERE GONE UP TO THE NEIGHBORING TOWN ON THE
+                                 PACKET.]
+
+                        Copyright by C. Klackner
+   KATE AND HER STEPMOTHER WERE GONE UP TO THE NEIGHBORING TOWN ON THE
+                                 PACKET.
+
+
+In her own room she spread the chintz out upon the bed and with trembling
+fingers set about her task. The bright shears clipped the edge and tore
+off the lengths exultantly as if in league with the girl. The bees hummed
+outside in the clover, and now and again buzzed between the muslin
+curtains of the open window, looked in and grumbled out again. The birds
+sang across the meadows and the sun mounted to the zenith and began its
+downward march, but still the busy fingers worked on. Well for Marcia's
+scheme that the fashion of the day was simple, wherein were few puckers
+and plaits and tucks, and little trimming required, else her task would
+have been impossible.
+
+Her heart beat high as she tried it on at last, the new chintz that she
+had made. She went into the spare room and stood before the long mirror in
+its wide gilt frame that rested on two gilt knobs standing out from the
+wall like giant rosettes. She had dared to make the skirt a little longer
+than that of her best frock. It was almost as long as Kate's, and for a
+moment she lingered, sweeping backward and forward before the glass and
+admiring herself in the long graceful folds. She caught up her braids in
+the fashion that Kate wore her hair and smiled at the reflection of
+herself in the mirror. How funny it seemed to think she would soon be a
+woman like Kate. When Kate was gone they would begin to call her "Miss"
+sometimes. Somehow she did not care to look ahead. The present seemed
+enough. She had so wrapped her thoughts in her sister's new life that her
+own seemed flat and stale in comparison.
+
+The sound of a distant hay wagon on the road reminded her that the sun was
+near to setting. The family carryall would soon be coming up the lane from
+the evening packet. She must hurry and take off her frock and be dressed
+before they arrived.
+
+Marcia was so tired that night after supper that she was glad to slip away
+to bed, without waiting to hear Kate's voluble account of her day in town,
+the beauties she had seen and the friends she had met.
+
+She lay down and dreamed of the morrow, and of the next day, and the next.
+In strange bewilderment she awoke in the night and found the moonlight
+streaming full into her face. Then she laughed and rubbed her eyes and
+tried to go to sleep again; but she could not, for she had dreamed that
+she was the bride herself, and the words of Mary Ann kept going over and
+over in her mind. "Oh, don't you envy her?" _Did_ she envy her sister? But
+that was wicked. It troubled her to think of it, and she tried to banish
+the dream, but it would come again and again with a strange sweet
+pleasure.
+
+She lay wondering if such a time of joy would ever come to her as had come
+to Kate, and whether the spare bed would ever be piled high with clothes
+and fittings for her new life. What a wonderful thing it was anyway to be
+a woman and be loved!
+
+Then her dreams blended again with the soft perfume of the honeysuckle at
+the window, and the hooting of a young owl.
+
+The moon dropped lower, the bright stars paled, dawn stole up through the
+edges of the woods far away and awakened a day that was to bring a strange
+transformation over Marcia's life.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER II
+
+
+As a natural consequence of her hard work and her midnight awakening,
+Marcia overslept the next morning. Her stepmother called her sharply and
+she dressed in haste, not even taking time to glance toward the new folds
+of chintz that drew her thoughts closetward. She dared not say anything
+about it yet. There was much to be done, and not even Kate had time for an
+idle word with her. Marcia was called upon to run errands, to do odds and
+ends of things, to fill in vacant places, to sew on lost buttons, to do
+everything for which nobody else had time. The household had suddenly
+become aware that there was now but one more intervening day between them
+and the wedding.
+
+It was not until late in the afternoon that Marcia ventured to put on her
+frock. Even then she felt shy about appearing in it.
+
+Madam Schuyler was busy in the parlor with callers, and Kate was locked in
+her own room whither she had gone to rest. There was no one to notice if
+Marcia should "dress up," and it was not unlikely that she might escape
+much notice even at the supper table, as everybody was so absorbed in
+other things.
+
+She lingered before her own little glass looking wistfully at herself. She
+was pleased with the frock she had made and liked her appearance in it,
+but yet there was something disappointing about it. It had none of the
+style of her sister's garments, newly come from the hand of the village
+mantua-maker. It was girlish, and showed her slip of a form prettily in
+the fashion of the day, but she felt too young. She wanted to look older.
+She searched her drawer and found a bit of black velvet which she pinned
+about her throat with a pin containing the miniature of her mother, then
+with a second thought she drew the long braids up in loops and fastened
+them about her head in older fashion. It suited her well, and the change
+it made astonished her. She decided to wear them so and see if others
+would notice. Surely, some day she would be a young woman, and perhaps
+then she would be allowed to have a will of her own occasionally.
+
+She drew a quick breath as she descended the stairs and found her
+stepmother and the visitor just coming into the hall from the parlor.
+
+They both involuntarily ceased their talk and looked at her in surprise.
+Over Madam Schuyler's face there came a look as if she had received a
+revelation. Marcia was no longer a child, but had suddenly blossomed into
+young womanhood. It was not the time she would have chosen for such an
+event. There was enough going on, and Marcia was still in school. She had
+no desire to steer another young soul through the various dangers and
+follies that beset a pretty girl from the time she puts up her hair until
+she is safely married to the right man--or the wrong one. She had just
+begun to look forward with relief to having Kate well settled in life.
+Kate had been a hard one to manage. She had too much will of her own and a
+pretty way of always having it. She had no deep sense of reverence for
+old, staid manners and customs. Many a long lecture had Madam Schuyler
+delivered to Kate upon her unseemly ways. It did not please her to think
+of having to go through it all so soon again, therefore upon her usually
+complacent brow there came a look of dismay.
+
+"Why!" exclaimed the visitor, "is this the bride? How tall she looks! No!
+Bless me! it isn't, is it? Yes,--Well! I'll declare. It's just Marsh! What
+have you got on, child? How old you look!"
+
+Marcia flushed. It was not pleasant to have her young womanhood
+questioned, and in a tone so familiar and patronizing. She disliked the
+name of "Marsh" exceedingly, especially upon the lips of this woman, a
+sort of second cousin of her stepmother's. She would rather have chosen
+the new frock to pass under inspection of her stepmother without
+witnesses, but it was too late to turn back now. She must face it.
+
+Though Madam Schuyler's equilibrium was a trifle disturbed, she was not
+one to show it before a visitor. Instantly she recovered her balance, and
+perhaps Marcia's ordeal was less trying than if there had been no third
+person present.
+
+"That looks very well, child!" she said critically with a shade of
+complacence in her voice. It is true that Marcia had gone beyond orders in
+purchasing and making garments unknown to her, yet the neatness and fit
+could but reflect well upon her training. It did no harm for cousin Maria
+to see what a child of her training could do. It was, on the whole, a very
+creditable piece of work, and Madam Schuyler grew more reconciled to it as
+Marcia came down toward them.
+
+"Make it herself?" asked cousin Maria. "Why, Marsh, you did real well. My
+Matilda does all her own clothes now. It's time you were learning. It's a
+trifle longish to what you've been wearing them, isn't it? But you'll grow
+into it, I dare say. Got your hair a new way too. I thought you were Kate
+when you first started down stairs. You'll make a good-looking young lady
+when you grow up; only don't be in too much hurry. Take your girlhood
+while you've got it, is what I always tell Matilda."
+
+Matilda was well on to thirty and showed no signs of taking anything else.
+
+Madam Schuyler smoothed an imaginary pucker across the shoulders and again
+pronounced the work good.
+
+"I picked berries and got the cloth," confessed Marcia.
+
+Madam Schuyler smiled benevolently and patted Marcia's cheek.
+
+"You needn't have done that, child. Why didn't you come to me for money?
+You needed something new, and that is a very good purchase, a little
+light, perhaps, but very pretty. We've been so busy with Kate's things you
+have been neglected."
+
+Marcia smiled with pleasure and passed into the dining room wondering what
+power the visitor had over her stepmother to make her pass over this
+digression from her rules so sweetly,--nay, even with praise.
+
+At supper they all rallied Marcia upon her changed appearance. Her father
+jokingly said that when the bridegroom arrived he would hardly know which
+sister to choose, and he looked from one comely daughter to the other with
+fatherly pride. He praised Marcia for doing the work so neatly, and
+inwardly admired the courage and independence that prompted her to get the
+money by her own unaided efforts rather than to ask for it, and later, as
+he passed through the room where she was helping to remove the dishes from
+the table, he paused and handed her a crisp five-dollar note. It had
+occurred to him that one daughter was getting all the good things and the
+other was having nothing. There was a pleasant tenderness in his eyes, a
+recognition of her rights as a young woman, that made Marcia's heart
+exceedingly light. There was something strange about the influence this
+little new frock seemed to have upon people.
+
+Even Kate had taken a new tone with her. Much of the time at supper she
+had sat staring at her sister. Marcia wondered about it as she walked down
+toward the gate after her work was done. Kate had never seemed so quiet.
+Was she just beginning to realize that she was leaving home forever, and
+was she thinking how the home would be after she had left it? How she,
+Marcia, would take the place of elder sister, with only little Harriet and
+the boys, their stepsister and brothers, left? Was Kate sad over the
+thought of going so far away from them, or was she feeling suddenly the
+responsibility of the new position she was to occupy and the duties that
+would be hers? No, that could not be it, for surely that would bring a
+softening of expression, a sweetness of anticipation, and Kate's
+expression had been wondering, perplexed, almost troubled. If she had not
+been her own sister Marcia would have added, "hard," but she stopped short
+at that.
+
+It was a lovely evening. The twilight was not yet over as she stepped from
+the low piazza that ran the length of the house bearing another above it
+on great white pillars. A drapery of wistaria in full bloom festooned
+across one end and half over the front. Marcia stepped back across the
+stone flagging and driveway to look up the purple clusters of graceful
+fairy-like shape that embowered the house, and thought how beautiful it
+would look when the wedding guests should arrive the day after the morrow.
+Then she turned into the little gravel path, box-bordered, that led to the
+gate. Here and there on either side luxuriant blooms of dahlias, peonies
+and roses leaned over into the night and peered at her. The yard had never
+looked so pretty. The flowers truly had done their best for the occasion,
+and they seemed to be asking some word of commendation from her.
+
+They nodded their dewy heads sleepily as she went on.
+
+To-morrow the children would be coming back from Aunt Eliza's, where they
+had been sent safely out of the way for a few days, and the last things
+would arrive,--and _he_ would come. Not later than three in the afternoon
+he ought to arrive, Kate had said, though there was a possibility that he
+might come in the morning, but Kate was not counting upon it. He was to
+drive from his home to Schenectady and, leaving his own horse there to
+rest, come on by coach. Then he and Kate would go back in fine style to
+Schenectady in a coach and pair, with a colored coachman, and at
+Schenectady take their own horse and drive on to their home, a long
+beautiful ride, so thought Marcia half enviously. How beautiful it would
+be! What endless delightful talks they might have about the trees and
+birds and things they saw in passing only Kate did not love to talk about
+such things. But then she would be with David, and he talked beautifully
+about nature or anything else. Kate would learn to love it if she loved
+him. Did Kate love David? Of course she must or why should she marry him?
+Marcia resented the thought that Kate might have other objects in view,
+such as Mary Ann Fothergill had suggested for instance. Of course Kate
+would never marry any man unless she loved him. That would be a dreadful
+thing to do. Love was the greatest thing in the world. Marcia looked up to
+the stars, her young soul thrilling with awe and reverence for the great
+mysteries of life. She wondered again if life would open sometime for her
+in some such great way, and if she would ever know better than now what it
+meant. Would some one come and love her? Some one whom she could love in
+return with all the fervor of her nature?
+
+She had dreamed such dreams before many times, as girls will, while lovers
+and future are all in one dreamy, sweet blending of rosy tints and joyous
+mystery, but never had they come to her with such vividness as that night.
+Perhaps it was because the household had recognized the woman in her for
+the first time that evening. Perhaps because the vision she had seen
+reflected in her mirror before she left her room that afternoon had opened
+the door of the future a little wider than it had ever opened before.
+
+She stood by the gate where the syringa and lilac bushes leaned over and
+arched the way, and the honeysuckle climbed about the fence in a wild
+pretty way of its own and flung sweetness on the air in vivid, erratic
+whiffs.
+
+The sidewalk outside was brick, and whenever she heard footsteps coming
+she stepped back into the shadow of the syringa and was hidden from view.
+She was in no mood to talk with any one.
+
+She could look out into the dusty road and see dimly the horses and
+carryalls as they passed, and recognize an occasional laughing voice of
+some village maiden out with her best young man for a ride. Others
+strolled along the sidewalk, and fragments of talk floated back. Almost
+every one had a word to say about the wedding as they neared the gate, and
+if Marcia had been in another mood it would have been interesting and
+gratifying to her pride. Every one had a good word for Kate, though many
+disapproved of her in a general way for principle's sake.
+
+Hanford Weston passed, with long, slouching gait, hands in his trousers
+pockets, and a frightened, hasty, sideways glance toward the lights of the
+house beyond. He would have gone in boldly to call if he had dared, and
+told Marcia that he had done her bidding and now wanted a reward, but John
+Middleton had joined him at the corner and he dared not make the attempt.
+John would have done it in a minute if he had wished. He was brazen by
+nature, but Hanford knew that he would as readily laugh at another for
+doing it. Hanford shrank from a laugh more than from the cannon's mouth,
+so he slouched on, not knowing that his goddess held her breath behind a
+lilac bush not three feet away, her heart beating in annoyed taps to be
+again interrupted by him in her pleasant thoughts.
+
+Merry, laughing voices mingling with many footsteps came sounding down the
+street and paused beside the gate. Marcia knew the voices and again slid
+behind the shrubbery that bordered all the way to the house, and not even
+a gleam of her light frock was visible. They trooped in, three or four
+girl friends of Kate's and a couple of young men.
+
+Marcia watched them pass up the box-bordered path from her shadowy
+retreat, and thought how they would miss Kate, and wondered if the young
+men who had been coming there so constantly to see her had no pangs of
+heart that their friend and leader was about to leave them. Then she
+smiled at herself in the dark. She seemed to be doing the retrospect for
+Kate, taking leave of all the old friends, home, and life, in Kate's
+place. It was not her life anyway, and why should she bother herself and
+sigh and feel this sadness creeping over her for some one else? Was it
+that she was going to lose her sister? No, for Kate had never been much of
+a companion to her. She had always put her down as a little girl and made
+distinct and clear the difference in their ages. Marcia had been the
+little maid to fetch and carry, the errand girl, and unselfish, devoted
+slave in Kate's life. There had been nothing protective and elder-sisterly
+in her manner toward Marcia. At times Marcia had felt this keenly, but no
+expression of this lack had ever crossed her lips, and afterwards her
+devotion to her sister had been the greater, to in a measure compensate
+for this reproachful thought.
+
+But Marcia could not shake the sadness off. She stole in further among the
+trees to think about it till the callers should go away. She felt no
+desire to meet any of them.
+
+She began again to wonder how she would feel if day after to-morrow were
+her wedding day, and she were going away from home and friends and all the
+scenes with which she had been familiar since babyhood. Would she mind
+very much leaving them all? Father? Yes, father had been good to her, and
+loved her and was proud of her in a way. But one does not lose one's
+father no matter how far one goes. A father is a father always; and Mr.
+Schuyler was not a demonstrative man. Marcia felt that her father would
+not miss her deeply, and she was not sure she would miss him so very much.
+She had read to him a great deal and talked politics with him whenever he
+had no one better by, but aside from that her life had been lived much
+apart from him. Her stepmother? Yes, she would miss her as one misses a
+perfect mentor and guide. She had been used to looking to her for
+direction. She was thoroughly conscious that she had a will of her own and
+would like a chance to exercise it, still, she knew that in many cases
+without her stepmother she would be like a rudderless ship, a guideless
+traveller. And she loved her stepmother too, as a young girl can love a
+good woman who has been her guide and helper, even though there never has
+been great tenderness between them. Yes, she would miss her stepmother,
+but she would not feel so very sad over it. Harriet and the little
+brothers? Oh, yes, she would miss them, they were dear little things and
+devoted to her.
+
+Then there were the neighbors, and the schoolmates, and the people of the
+village. She would miss the minister,--the dear old minister and his wife.
+Many a time she had gone with her arms full of flowers to the parsonage
+down the street, and spent the afternoon with the minister's wife. Her
+smooth white hair under its muslin cap, and her soft wrinkled cheek were
+very dear to the young girl. She had talked to this friend more freely
+about her innermost thoughts than she had ever spoken to any living being.
+Oh, she would miss the minister's wife very much if she were to go away.
+
+The names of her schoolmates came to her. Harriet Woodgate, Eliza
+Buchanan, Margaret Fletcher, three girls who were her intimates. She would
+miss them, of course, but how much? She could scarcely tell. Margaret
+Fletcher more than the other two. Mary Ann Fothergill? She almost laughed
+at the thought of anybody missing Mary Ann. John Middleton? Hanford
+Weston? There was not a boy in the school she would miss for an instant,
+she told herself with conviction. Not one of them realized her ideal.
+There was much pairing off of boy and girl in school, but Marcia, like the
+heroine of "Comin' thro' the Rye," was good friends with all the boys and
+intimate with none. They all counted it an honor to wait upon her, and she
+cared not a farthing for any. She felt herself too young, of course, to
+think of such things, but when she dreamed her day dreams the lover and
+prince who figured in them bore no familiar form or feature. He was a
+prince and these were only schoolboys.
+
+The merry chatter of the young people in the house floated through the
+open windows, and Marcia could hear her sister's voice above them all.
+Chameleon-like she was all gaiety and laughter now, since her gravity at
+supper.
+
+They were coming out the front door and down the walk. Kate was with them.
+Marcia could catch glimpses of the girls' white frocks as they came
+nearer. She saw that her sister was walking with Captain Leavenworth. He
+was a handsome young man who made a fine appearance in his uniform. He and
+Kate had been intimate for two years, and it might have been more than
+friendship had not Kate's father interfered between them. He did not think
+so well of the handsome young captain as did either his daughter Kate or
+the United States Navy who had given him his position. Squire Schuyler
+required deep integrity and strength of moral character in the man who
+aspired to be his son-in-law. The captain did not number much of either
+among his virtues.
+
+There had been a short, sharp contest which had ended in the departure of
+young Leavenworth from the town some three years before, and the temporary
+plunging of Kate Schuyler into a season of tears and pouting. But it had
+not been long before her gay laughter was ringing again, and her father
+thought she had forgotten. About that time David Spafford had appeared and
+promptly fallen in love with the beautiful girl, and the Schuyler mind was
+relieved. So it came about that, upon the reappearance of the handsome
+young captain wearing the insignia of his first honors, the Squire
+received him graciously. He even felt that he might be more lenient about
+his moral character, and told himself that perhaps he was not so bad after
+all, he must have something in him or the United States government would
+not have seen fit to honor him. It was easier to think so, now Kate was
+safe.
+
+Marcia watched her sister and the captain go laughing down to the gate,
+and out into the street. She wondered that Kate could care to go out
+to-night when it was to be almost her last evening at home; wondered, too,
+that Kate would walk with Captain Leavenworth when she belonged to David
+now. She might have managed it to go with one of the girls. But that was
+Kate's way. Kate's ways were not Marcia's ways.
+
+Marcia wondered if she would miss Kate, and was obliged to acknowledge to
+herself that in many ways her sister's absence would be a relief to her.
+While she recognized the power of her sister's beauty and will over her,
+she felt oppressed sometimes by the strain she was under to please, and
+wearied of the constant, half-fretful, half playful fault-finding.
+
+The gay footsteps and voices died away down the village street, and Marcia
+ventured forth from her retreat. The moon was just rising and came up a
+glorious burnished disk, silhouetting her face as she stood a moment
+listening to the stirring of a bird among the branches. It was her will
+to-night to be alone and let her fancies wander where they would. The
+beauty and the mystery of a wedding was upon her, touching all her deeper
+feelings, and she wished to dream it out and wonder over it. Again it came
+to her what if the day after the morrow were her wedding day and she stood
+alone thinking about it. She would not have gone off down the street with
+a lot of giggling girls nor walked with another young man. She would have
+stood here, or down by the gate--and she moved on toward her favorite arch
+of lilac and syringa--yes, down by the gate in the darkness looking out and
+thinking how it would be when he should come. She felt sure if it had been
+herself who expected David she would have begun to watch for him a week
+before the time he had set for coming, heralding it again and again to her
+heart in joyous thrills of happiness, for who knew but he might come
+sooner and surprise her? She would have rejoiced that to-night she was
+alone, and would have excused herself from everything else to come down
+there in the stillness and watch for him, and think how it would be when
+he would really get there. She would hear his step echoing down the street
+and would recognize it as his. She would lean far over the gate to listen
+and watch, and it would come nearer and nearer, and her heart would beat
+faster and faster, and her breath come quicker, until he was at last by
+her side, his beautiful surprise for her in his eyes. But now, if David
+should really try to surprise Kate by coming that way to-night he would
+not find her waiting nor thinking of him at all, but off with Captain
+Leavenworth.
+
+With a passing pity for David she went back to her own dream. With one
+elbow on the gate and her cheek in her hand she thought it all over. The
+delayed evening coach rumbled up to the tavern not far away and halted.
+Real footsteps came up the street, but Marcia did not notice them only as
+they made more vivid her thoughts.
+
+Her dream went on and the steps drew nearer until suddenly they halted and
+some one appeared out of the shadow. Her heart stood still, for form and
+face in the darkness seemed unreal, and the dreams had been most vivid.
+Then with tender masterfulness two strong arms were flung about her and
+her face was drawn close to his across the vine-twined gate until her lips
+touched his. One long clinging kiss of tenderness he gave her and held her
+head close against his breast for just a moment while he murmured: "My
+darling! My precious, precious Kate, I have you at last!"
+
+The spell was broken! Marcia's dream was shattered. Her mind awoke. With a
+scream she sprang from him, horror and a wild but holy joy mingling with
+her perplexity. She put her hand upon her heart, marvelling over the
+sweetness that lingered upon her lips, trying to recover her senses as she
+faced the eager lover who opened the little gate and came quickly toward
+her, as yet unaware that it was not Kate to whom he had been talking.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER III
+
+
+Marcia stood quivering, trembling. She comprehended all in an instant.
+David Spafford had come a day earlier than he had been expected, to
+surprise Kate, and Kate was off having a good time with some one else. He
+had mistaken her for Kate. Her long dress and her put-up hair had deceived
+him in the moonlight. She tried to summon some womanly courage, and in her
+earnestness to make things right she forgot her natural timidity.
+
+"It is not Kate," she said gently; "it is only Marcia. Kate did not know
+you were coming to-night. She did not expect you till to-morrow. She had
+to go out,--that is--she has gone with--" the truthful, youthful, troubled
+sister paused. To her mind it was a calamity that Kate was not present to
+meet her lover. She should at least have been in the house ready for a
+surprise like this. Would David not feel the omission keenly? She must
+keep it from him if she could about Captain Leavenworth. There was no
+reason why he should feel badly about it, of course, and yet it might
+annoy him. But he stepped back laughing at his mistake.
+
+"Why! Marcia, is it you, child? How you have grown! I never should have
+known you!" said the young man pleasantly. He had always a grave
+tenderness for this little sister of his love. "Of course your sister did
+not know I was coming," he went on, "and doubtless she has many things to
+attend to. I did not expect her to be out here watching for me, though for
+a moment I did think she was at the gate. You say she is gone out? Then we
+will go up to the house and I will be there to surprise her when she
+comes."
+
+Marcia turned with relief. He had not asked where Kate was gone, nor with
+whom.
+
+The Squire and Madam Schuyler greeted the arrival with elaborate welcome.
+The Squire like Marcia seemed much annoyed that Kate had gone out. He kept
+fuming back and forth from the window to the door and asking: "What did
+she go out for to-night? She ought to have stayed at home!"
+
+But Madam Schuyler wore ample satisfaction upon her smooth brow. The
+bridegroom had arrived. There could be no further hitch in the ceremonies.
+He had arrived a day before the time, it is true; but he had not found
+_her_ unprepared. So far as she was concerned, with a few extra touches
+the wedding might proceed at once. She was always ready for everything in
+time. No one could find a screw loose in the machinery of her household.
+
+She bustled about, giving orders and laying a bountiful supper before the
+young man, while the Squire sat and talked with him, and Marcia hovered
+watchfully, waiting upon the table, noticing with admiring eyes the
+beautiful wave of his abundant hair, tossed back from his forehead. She
+took a kind of pride of possession in his handsome face,--the far-removed
+possession of a sister-in-law. There was his sunny smile, that seemed as
+though it could bring joy out of the gloom of a bleak December day, and
+there were the two dimples--not real dimples, of course, men never had
+dimples--but hints, suggestions of dimples, that caught themselves when he
+smiled, here and there like hidden mischief well kept under control, but
+still merrily ready to come to the surface. His hands were white and firm,
+the fingers long and shapely, the hands of a brain worker. The vision of
+Hanford Weston's hands, red and bony, came up to her in contrast. She had
+not known that she looked at them that day when he had stood awkwardly
+asking if he might walk with her. Poor Hanford! He would ill compare with
+this cultured scholarly man who was his senior by ten years, though it is
+possible that with the ten years added he would have been quite worthy of
+the admiration of any of the village girls.
+
+The fruit cake and raspberry preserves and doughnuts and all the various
+viands that Madam Schuyler had ordered set out for the delectation of her
+guest had been partaken of, and David and the Squire sat talking of the
+news of the day, touching on politics, with a bit of laughter from the
+Squire at the man who thought he had invented a machine to draw carriages
+by steam in place of horses.
+
+"There's a good deal in it, I believe," said the younger man. "His theory
+is all right if he can get some one to help him carry it out."
+
+"Well, maybe, maybe," said the Squire shaking his head dubiously, "but it
+seems to me a very fanciful scheme. Horses are good enough for me. I
+shouldn't like to trust myself to an unknown quantity like steam, but time
+will tell."
+
+"Yes, and the world is progressing. Something of the sort is sure to come.
+It has come in England. It would make a vast change in our country,
+binding city to city and practically eradicating space."
+
+"Visionary schemes, David, visionary schemes, that's what I call them. You
+and I'll never see them in our day, I'm sure of that. Remember this is a
+new country and must go slow." The Squire was half laughing, half in
+earnest.
+
+Amid the talk Marcia had quietly slipped out. It had occurred to her that
+perhaps the captain might return with her sister.
+
+She must watch for Kate and warn her. Like a shadow in the moonlight she
+stepped softly down the gravel path once more and waited at the gate. Did
+not that sacred kiss placed upon her lips all by mistake bind her to this
+solemn duty? Had it not been given to her to see as in a revelation, by
+that kiss, the love of one man for one woman, deep and tender and true?
+
+In the fragrant darkness her soul stood still and wondered over Love, the
+marvellous. With an insight such as few have who have not tasted years of
+wedded joy, Marcia comprehended the possibility and joy of sacrifice that
+made even sad things bright because of Love. She saw like a flash how Kate
+could give up her gay life, her home, her friends, everything that life
+had heretofore held dear for her, that she might be by the side of the man
+who loved her so. But with this knowledge of David's love for Kate came a
+troubled doubt. Did Kate love David that way? If Kate had been the one who
+received that kiss would she have returned it with the same tenderness and
+warmth with which it was given? Marcia dared not try to answer this. It
+was Kate's question, not hers, and she must never let it enter her mind
+again. Of course she must love him that way or she would never marry him.
+
+The night crept slowly for the anxious little watcher at the gate. Had she
+been sure where to look for her sister, and not afraid of the tongues of a
+few interested neighbors who had watched everything at the house for days
+that no item about the wedding should escape them, she would have started
+on a search at once. She knew if she just ran into old Miss Pemberton's,
+whose house stood out upon the street with two straight-backed little,
+high, white seats each side of the stoop, a most delightful post of
+observation, she could discover at once in which direction Kate had gone,
+and perhaps a good deal more of hints and suggestions besides. But Marcia
+had no mind to make gossip. She must wait as patiently as she could for
+Kate. Moreover Kate might be walking even now in some secluded, rose-lined
+lane arm in arm with the captain, saying a pleasant farewell. It was
+Kate's way and no one might gainsay her.
+
+Marcia's dreams came back once more, the thoughts that had been hers as
+she stood there an hour before. She thought how the kiss had fitted into
+the dream. Then all at once conscience told her it was Kate's lover, not
+her own, whose arms had encircled her. And now there was a strange
+unwillingness to go back to the dreams at all, a lingering longing for the
+joys into whose glory she had been for a moment permitted to look. She
+drew back from all thoughts and tried to close the door upon them. They
+seemed too sacred to enter. Her maidenhood was but just begun and she had
+much yet to learn of life. She was glad, glad for Kate that such
+wonderfulness was coming to her. Kate would be sweeter, softer in her ways
+now. She could not help it with a love like that enfolding her life.
+
+At last there were footsteps! Hark! Two people--only two! Just what Marcia
+had expected. The other girls and boys had dropped into other streets or
+gone home. Kate and her former lover were coming home alone. And,
+furthermore, Kate would not be glad to see her sister at the gate. This
+last thought came with sudden conviction, but Marcia did not falter.
+
+"Kate, David has come!" Marcia said it in low, almost accusing tones, at
+least so it sounded to Kate, before the two had hardly reached the gate.
+They had been loitering along talking in low tones, and the young
+captain's head was bent over his companion in an earnest, pleading
+attitude. Marcia could not bear to look, and did not wish to see more, so
+she had spoken.
+
+Kate, startled, sprang away from her companion, a white angry look in her
+face.
+
+"How you scared me, Marsh!" she exclaimed pettishly. "What if he has come?
+That's nothing. I guess he can wait a few minutes. He had no business to
+come to-night anyway. He knew we wouldn't be ready for him till
+to-morrow."
+
+Kate was recovering her self-possession in proportion as she realized the
+situation. That she was vexed over her bridegroom's arrival neither of the
+two witnesses could doubt. It stung her sister with a deep pity for David.
+He was not getting as much in Kate as he was giving. But there was no time
+for such thoughts, besides Marcia was trembling from head to foot, partly
+with her own daring, partly with wrath at her sister's words.
+
+"For shame, Kate!" she cried. "How can you talk so, even in fun! David
+came to surprise you, and I think he had a right to expect to find you
+here so near to the time of your marriage."
+
+There was a flash in the young eyes as she said it, and a delicate lifting
+of her chin with the conviction of the truth she was speaking, that gave
+her a new dignity even in the moonlight. Captain Leavenworth looked at her
+in lazy admiration and said:
+
+"Why, Marsh, you're developing into quite a spitfire. What have you got on
+to-night that makes you look so tall and handsome? Why didn't you stay in
+and talk to your fine gentleman? I'm sure he would have been just as well
+satisfied with you as your sister."
+
+Marcia gave one withering glance at the young man and then turned her back
+full upon him. He was not worth noticing. Besides he was to be pitied, for
+he evidently cared still for Kate.
+
+But Kate was fairly white with anger. Perhaps her own accusing conscience
+helped it on. Her voice was imperious and cold. She drew herself up
+haughtily and pointed toward the house.
+
+"Marcia Schuyler," she said coldly, facing her sister, "go into the house
+and attend to your own affairs. You'll find that you'll get into serious
+trouble if you attempt to meddle with mine. You're nothing but a child yet
+and ought to be punished for your impudence. Go! I tell you!" she stamped
+her foot, "I will come in when I get ready."
+
+Marcia went. Not proudly as she might have gone the moment before, but
+covered with confusion and shame, her head drooping like some crushed lily
+on a bleeding stalk. Through her soul rushed indignation, mighty and
+forceful; indignation and shame, for her sister, for David, for herself.
+She did not stop to analyze her various feelings, nor did she stop to
+speak further with those in the house. She fled to her own room, and
+burying her face in the pillow she wept until she fell asleep.
+
+The moon-shadows grew longer about the arbored gateway where the two she
+had left stood talking in low tones, looking furtively now and then toward
+the house, and withdrawing into the covert of the bushes by the walk. But
+Kate dared not linger long. She could see her father's profile by the
+candle light in the dining room. She did not wish to receive further
+rebuke, and so in a very few minutes the two parted and Kate ran up the
+box-edged path, beginning to hum a sweet old love song in a gay light
+voice, as she tripped by the dining-room windows, and thus announced her
+arrival. She guessed that Marcia would have gone straight to her room and
+told nothing. Kate intended to be fully surprised. She paused in the hall
+to hang up the light shawl she had worn, calling good-night to her
+stepmother and saying she was very tired and was going straight to bed to
+be ready for to-morrow. Then she ran lightly across the hall to the
+stairs.
+
+She knew they would call her back, and that they would all come into the
+hall with David to see the effect of his surprise upon her. She had
+planned to a nicety just which stair she could reach before they got
+there, and where she would pause and turn and poise, and what pose she
+would take with her round white arm stretched to the handrail, the sleeve
+turned carelessly back. She had ready her countenances, a sleepy
+indifference, then a pleased surprise, and a climax of delight. She
+carried it all out, this little bit of impromptu acting, as well as though
+she had rehearsed it for a month.
+
+They called her, and she turned deliberately, one dainty, slippered foot,
+with its crossed black ribbons about the slender ankle, just leaving the
+stair below, and showing the arch of the aristocratic instep. Her gown was
+blue and she held it back just enough for the stiff white frill of her
+petticoat to peep below. Well she read the admiration in the eyes below
+her. Admiration was Kate's life: she thrived upon it. She could not do
+without it.
+
+David stood still, his love in his eyes, looking upon the vision of his
+bride, and his heart swelled within him that so great a treasure should be
+his. Then straightway they all forgot to question where she had been or to
+rebuke her that she had been at all. She had known they would. She ever
+possessed the power to make others forget her wrong doings when it was
+worth her while to try.
+
+The next morning things were astir even earlier than usual. There was the
+sound of the beating of eggs, the stirring of cakes, the clatter of pots
+and pans from the wide, stone-flagged kitchen.
+
+Marcia, fresh as a flower from its morning dew in spite of her cry the
+night before, had arisen to new opportunities for service. She was glad
+with the joyous forgetfulness of youth when she looked at David's happy
+face, and she thought no more of Kate's treatment of herself.
+
+David followed Kate with a true lover's eyes and was never for more than a
+few moments out of her sight, though it seemed to Marcia that Kate did not
+try very hard to stay with him. When afternoon came she dismissed him for
+what she called her "beauty nap." Marcia was passing through the hall at
+the time and she caught the tender look upon his face as he touched her
+brow with reverent fingers and told her she had no need for that. Her eyes
+met Kate's as they were going up the stairs, and in spite of what Kate had
+said the night before Marcia could not refrain from saying: "Oh, Kate! how
+could you when he loves you so? You know you never take a nap in the
+daytime!"
+
+"You silly girl!" said Kate pleasantly enough, "don't you know the less a
+man sees of one the more he thinks of her?" With this remark she closed
+and fastened her door after her.
+
+Marcia pondered these words of wisdom for some time, wondering whether
+Kate had really done it for that reason, or whether she did not care for
+the company of her lover. And why should it be so that a man loved you
+less because he saw you more? In her straightforward code the more you
+loved persons the more you desired to be in their company.
+
+Kate had issued from her "beauty nap" with a feverish restlessness in her
+eyes, an averted face, and ink upon one finger. At supper she scarcely
+spoke, and when she did she laughed excitedly over little things. Her
+lover watched her with eyes of pride and ever increasing wonder over her
+beauty, and Marcia, seeing the light in his face, watched for its answer
+in her sister's, and finding it not was troubled.
+
+She watched them from her bedroom window as they walked down the path
+where she had gone the evening before, decorously side by side, Kate
+holding her light muslin frock back from the dew on the hedges. She
+wondered if it was because Kate had more respect for David than for
+Captain Leavenworth that she never seemed to treat him with as much
+familiarity. She did not take possession of him in the same sweet
+imperious way.
+
+Marcia had not lighted her candle. The moon gave light enough and she was
+very weary, so she undressed in the dim chamber and pondered upon the ways
+of the great world. Out there in the moonlight were those two who
+to-morrow would be one, and here was she, alone. The world seemed all
+circling about that white chamber of hers, and echoing with her own
+consciousness of self, and a loneliness she had never felt before. She
+wondered what it might be. Was it all sadness at parting with Kate, or was
+it the sadness over inevitable partings of all human relationships, and
+the all-aloneness of every living spirit?
+
+She stood for a moment, white-robed, beside her window, looking up into
+the full round moon, and wondering if God knew the ache of loneliness in
+His little human creatures' souls that He had made, and whether He had
+ready something wherewith to satisfy. Then her meek soul bowed before the
+faith that was in her and she knelt for her shy but reverent evening
+prayer.
+
+She heard the two lovers come in early and go upstairs, and she heard her
+father fastening up the doors and windows for the night. Then stillness
+gradually settled down and she fell asleep. Later, in her dreams, there
+echoed the sound of hastening hoofs far down the deserted street and over
+the old covered bridge, but she took no note of any sound, and the weary
+household slept on.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER IV
+
+
+The wedding was set for ten o'clock in the morning, after which there was
+to be a wedding breakfast and the married couple were to start immediately
+for their new home.
+
+David had driven the day before with his own horse and chaise to a town
+some twenty miles away, and there left his horse at a tavern to rest for
+the return trip, for Kate would have it that they must leave the house in
+high style. So the finest equipage the town afforded had been secured to
+bear them on the first stage of their journey, with a portly negro driver
+and everything according to the custom of the greatest of the land.
+Nothing that Kate desired about the arrangements had been left undone.
+
+The household was fully astir by half past four, for the family breakfast
+was to be at six promptly, that all might be cleared away and in readiness
+for the early arrival of the various aunts and uncles and cousins and
+friends who would "drive over" from the country round about. It would have
+been something Madam Schuyler would never have been able to get over if
+aught had been awry when a single uncle or aunt appeared upon the scene,
+or if there seemed to be the least evidence of fluster and nervousness.
+
+The rosy sunlight in the east was mixing the morning with fresher air, and
+new odors for the new day that was dawning, when Marcia awoke. The sharp
+click of spoons and dishes, the voices of the maids, the sizzle, sputter,
+odor of frying ham and eggs, mingled with the early chorus of the birds,
+and calling to life of all living creatures, like an intrusion upon
+nature. It seemed not right to steal the morning's "quiet hour" thus
+rudely. The thought flitted through the girl's mind, and in an instant
+more the whole panorama of the day's excitement was before her, and she
+sprang from her bed. As if it had been her own wedding day instead of her
+sister's, she performed her dainty toilet, for though there was need for
+haste, she knew she would have no further time beyond a moment to slip on
+her best gown and smooth her hair.
+
+Marcia hurried downstairs just as the bell rang for breakfast, and David,
+coming down smiling behind her, patted her cheek and greeted her with,
+"Well, little sister, you look as rested as if you had not done a thing
+all day yesterday."
+
+She smiled shyly back at him, and her heart filled with pleasure over his
+new name for her. It sounded pleasantly from his happy lips. She was
+conscious of a gladness that he was to be so nearly related to her. She
+fancied how it would seem to say to Mary Ann: "My brother-in-law says so
+and so." It would be grand to call such a man "brother."
+
+They were all seated at the table but Kate, and Squire Schuyler waited
+with pleasantly frowning brows to ask the blessing on the morning food.
+Kate was often late. She was the only member of the family who dared to be
+late to breakfast, and being the bride and the centre of the occasion more
+leniency was granted her this morning than ever before. Madam Schuyler
+waited until every one at the table was served to ham and eggs, coffee and
+bread-and-butter, and steaming griddle cakes, before she said, looking
+anxiously at the tall clock: "Marcia, perhaps you better go up and see if
+your sister needs any help. She ought to be down by now. Uncle Joab and
+Aunt Polly will be sure to be here by eight. She must have overslept, but
+we made so much noise she is surely awake by this time."
+
+Marcia left her half-eaten breakfast and went slowly upstairs. She knew
+her sister would not welcome her, for she had often been sent on like
+errands before, and the brunt of Kate's anger had fallen upon the hapless
+messenger, wearing itself out there so that she might descend all smiles
+to greet father and mother and smooth off the situation in a most
+harmonious manner.
+
+Marcia paused before the door to listen. Perhaps Kate was nearly ready and
+her distasteful errand need not be performed. But though she held her
+breath to listen, no sound came from the closed door. Very softly she
+tried to lift the latch and peep in. Kate must still be asleep. It was not
+the first time Marcia had found that to be the case when sent to bring her
+sister.
+
+But the latch would not lift. The catch was firmly down from the inside.
+Marcia applied her eye to the keyhole, but could get no vision save a dim
+outline of the window on the other side of the room. She tapped gently
+once or twice and waited again, then called softly: "Kate, Kate! Wake up.
+Breakfast is ready and everybody is eating. Aunt Polly and Uncle Joab will
+soon be here."
+
+She repeated her tapping and calling, growing louder as she received no
+answer. Kate would often keep still to tease her thus. Surely though she
+would not do so upon her wedding morning!
+
+She called and called and shook the door, not daring, however, to make
+much of an uproar lest David should hear. She could not bear he should
+know the shortcomings of his bride.
+
+But at last she grew alarmed. Perhaps Kate was ill. At any rate, whatever
+it was, it was time she was up. She worked for some minutes trying to
+loosen the catch that held the latch, but all to no purpose. She was
+forced to go down stairs and whisper to her stepmother the state of the
+case.
+
+Madam Schuyler, excusing herself from the table, went upstairs, purposeful
+decision in every line of her substantial body, determination in every
+sound of her footfall. Bride though she be, Kate would have meted out to
+her just dues this time. Company and a lover and the nearness of the
+wedding hour were things not to be trifled with even by a charming Kate.
+
+But Madam Schuyler returned in a short space of time, puffing and panting,
+somewhat short of breath, and color in her face. She looked troubled, and
+she interrupted the Squire without waiting for him to finish his sentence
+to David.
+
+"I cannot understand what is the matter with Kate," she said, looking at
+her husband. "She does not seem to be awake, and I cannot get her door
+open. She sleeps soundly, and I suppose the unusual excitement has made
+her very tired. But I should think she ought to hear my voice. Perhaps you
+better see if you can open the door."
+
+There was studied calm in her voice, but her face belied her words. She
+was anxious lest Kate was playing one of her pranks. She knew Kate's
+careless, fun-loving ways. It was more to her that all things should move
+decently and in order than that Kate should even be perfectly well. But
+Marcia's white face behind her stepmother's ample shoulder showed a dread
+of something worse than a mere indisposition. David Spafford took alarm at
+once. He put down the silver syrup jug from which he had been pouring
+golden maple syrup on his cakes, and pushed his chair back with a click.
+
+"Perhaps she has fainted!" he said, and Marcia saw how deeply he was
+concerned. Father and lover both started up stairs, the father angry, the
+lover alarmed. The Squire grumbled all the way up that Kate should sleep
+so late, but David said nothing. He waited anxiously behind while the
+Squire worked with the door. Madam Schuyler and Marcia had followed them,
+and halting curiously just behind came the two maids. They all loved Miss
+Kate and were deeply interested in the day's doings. They did not want
+anything to interfere with the well-planned pageant.
+
+The Squire fumbled nervously with the latch, all the time calling upon his
+daughter to open the door; then wrathfully placed his solid shoulder and
+knee in just the right place, and with a groan and wrench the latch gave
+way, and the solid oak door swung open, precipitating the anxious group
+somewhat suddenly into the room.
+
+Almost immediately they all became aware that there was no one there.
+David had stood with averted eyes at first, but that second sense which
+makes us aware without sight when others are near or absent, brought with
+it an unnamed anxiety. He looked wildly about.
+
+The bed had not been slept in; that they all saw at once. The room was in
+confusion, but perhaps not more than might have been expected when the
+occupant was about to leave on the morrow. There were pieces of paper and
+string upon the floor and one or two garments lying about as if carelessly
+cast off in a hurry. David recognized the purple muslin frock Kate had
+worn the night before, and put out his hand to touch it as it lay across
+the foot of the bed, vainly reaching after her who was not there.
+
+They stood in silence, father, mother, sister, and lover, and took in
+every detail of the deserted room, then looked blankly into one another's
+white faces, and in the eyes of each a terrible question began to dawn.
+Where was she?
+
+Madam Schuyler recovered her senses first. With her sharp practical system
+she endeavored to find out the exact situation.
+
+"Who saw her last?" she asked sharply looking from one to the other. "Who
+saw her last? Has she been down stairs this morning?" she looked straight
+at Marcia this time, but the girl shook her head.
+
+"I went to bed last night before they came in," she said, looking
+questioningly at David, but a sudden remembrance and fear seized her
+heart. She turned away to the window to face it where they could not look
+at her.
+
+"We came in early," said David, trying to keep the anxiety out of his
+voice, as he remembered his well-beloved's good-night. Surely, surely,
+nothing very dreadful could have happened just over night, and in her
+father's own house. He looked about again to see the natural, every-day,
+little things that would help him drive away the thoughts of possible
+tragedy.
+
+"Kate was tired. She said she was going to get up very early this morning
+and wash her face in the dew on the grass." He braved a smile and looked
+about on the troubled group. "She must be out somewhere upon the place,"
+he continued, gathering courage with the thought; "she told me it was an
+old superstition. She has maybe wandered further than she intended, and
+perhaps got into some trouble. I'd better go and search for her. Is there
+any place near here where she would be likely to be?" He turned to Marcia
+for help.
+
+"But Kate would never delay so long I'm sure," said the stepmother
+severely. "She's not such a fool as to go traipsing through the wet grass
+before daylight for any nonsense. If it were Marcia now, you might expect
+anything, but Kate would be satisfied with the dew on the grass by the
+kitchen pump. I know Kate."
+
+Marcia's face crimsoned at her stepmother's words, but she turned her
+troubled eyes to David and tried to answer him.
+
+"There are plenty of places, but Kate has never cared to go to them. I
+could go out and look everywhere." She started to go down, but as she
+passed the wide mahogany bureau she saw a bit of folded paper lying under
+the corner of the pincushion. With a smothered exclamation she went over
+and picked it up. It was addressed to David in Kate's handwriting, fine
+and even like copperplate. Without a word Marcia handed it to him, and
+then stood back where the wide draperies of the window would shadow her.
+
+Madam Schuyler, with sudden keen prescience, took alarm. Noticing the two
+maids standing wide-mouthed in the hallway, she summoned her most
+commandatory tone, stepped into the hall, half closing the door behind
+her, and cowed the two handmaidens under her glance.
+
+"It is all right!" she said calmly. "Miss Kate has left a note, and will
+soon return. Go down and keep her breakfast warm, and not a word to a
+soul! Dolly, Debby, do you understand? Not a word of this! Now hurry and
+do all that I told you before breakfast."
+
+They went with downcast eyes and disappointed droops to their mouths, but
+she knew that not a word would pass their lips. They knew that if they
+disobeyed that command they need never hope for favor more from madam.
+Madam's word was law. She would be obeyed. Therefore with remarkable
+discretion they masked their wondering looks and did as they were bidden.
+So while the family stood in solemn conclave in Kate's room the
+preparations for the wedding moved steadily forward below stairs, and only
+two solemn maids, of all the helpers that morning, knew that a tragedy was
+hovering in the air and might burst about them.
+
+David had grasped for the letter eagerly, and fumbled it open with
+trembling hand, but as he read, the smile of expectation froze upon his
+lips and his face grew ashen. He tottered and grasped for the mantel shelf
+to steady himself as he read further, but he did not seem to take in the
+meaning of what he read. The others waited breathless, a reasonable length
+of time, Madam Schuyler impatiently patient. She felt that long delay
+would be perilous to her arrangements. She ought to know the whole truth
+at once and be put in command of the situation. Marcia with sorrowful face
+and drooping eyelashes stood quiet behind the curtain, while over and over
+the echo of a horse's hoofs in a silent street and over a bridge sounded
+in her brain. She did not need to be told, she knew intuitively what had
+happened, and she dared not look at David.
+
+"Well, what has she done with herself?" said the Squire impatiently. He
+had not finished his plate of cakes, and now that there was word he wanted
+to know it at once and go back to his breakfast. The sight of his
+daughter's handwriting relieved and reassured him. Some crazy thing she
+had done of course, but then Kate had always done queer things, and
+probably would to the end of time. She was a hussy to frighten them so,
+and he meant to tell her so when she returned, if it was her wedding day.
+But then, Kate would be Kate, and his breakfast was getting cold. He had
+the horses to look after and orders to give to the hands before the early
+guests arrived.
+
+But David did not answer, and the sight of him was alarming. He stood as
+one stricken dumb all in a moment. He raised his eyes to the
+Squire's--pleading, pitiful. His face had grown strained and haggard.
+
+"Speak out, man, doesn't the letter tell?" said the Squire imperiously.
+"Where is the girl?"
+
+And this time David managed to say brokenly: "She's gone!" and then his
+head dropped forward on his cold hand that rested on the mantel. Great
+beads of perspiration stood out upon his white forehead, and the letter
+fluttered gayly, coquettishly to the floor, a reminder of the uncertain
+ways of its writer.
+
+The Squire reached for it impatiently, and wiping his spectacles
+laboriously put them on and drew near to the window to read, his heavy
+brows lowering in a frown. But his wife did not need to read the letter,
+for she, like Marcia, had divined its purport, and already her able
+faculties were marshalled to face the predicament.
+
+The Squire with deepening frown was studying his elder daughter's letter,
+scarce able to believe the evidence of his senses that a girl of his could
+be so heartless.
+
+
+    "DEAR DAVID," the letter ran,--written as though in a hurry, done
+    at the last moment,--which indeed it was:--
+
+    "I want you to forgive me for what I am doing. I know you will
+    feel bad about it, but really I never was the right one for you.
+    I'm sure you thought me all too good, and I never could have
+    stayed in a strait-jacket, it would have killed me. I shall always
+    consider you the best man in the world, and I like you better than
+    anyone else except Captain Leavenworth. I can't help it, you know,
+    that I care more for him than anyone else, though I've tried. So I
+    am going away to-night and when you read this we shall have been
+    married. You are so very good that I know you will forgive me, and
+    be glad I am happy. Don't think hardly of me for I always did care
+    a great deal for you.
+
+                                                     "Your loving
+
+                                                               "KATE."
+
+
+It was characteristic of Kate that she demanded the love and loyalty of
+her betrayed lover to the bitter end, false and heartless though she had
+been. The coquette in her played with him even now in the midst of the
+bitter pain she must have known she was inflicting. No word of contrition
+spoke she, but took her deed as one of her prerogatives, just as she had
+always taken everything she chose. She did not even spare him the loving
+salutation that had been her custom in her letters to him, but wrote
+herself down as she would have done the day before when all was fair and
+dear between them. She did not hint at any better day for David, or give
+him permission to forget her, but held him for all time as her own, as she
+had known she would by those words of hers, "I like you better than anyone
+else except!--" Ah! That fatal "except!" Could any knife cut deeper and
+more ways? They sank into the young man's heart as he stood there those
+first few minutes and faced his trouble, his head bowed upon the
+mantel-piece.
+
+Meantime Madam Schuyler's keen vision had spied another folded paper
+beside the pincushion. Smaller it was than the other, and evidently
+intended to be placed further out of sight. It was addressed to Kate's
+father, and her stepmother opened it and read with hard pressure of her
+thin lips, slanted down at the corners, and a steely look in her eyes. Was
+it possible that the girl, even in the midst of her treachery, had enjoyed
+with a sort of malicious glee the thought of her stepmother reading that
+note and facing the horror of a wedding party with no bride? Knowing her
+stepmother's vast resources did she not think that at last she had brought
+her to a situation to which she was unequal? There had always been this
+unseen, unspoken struggle for supremacy between them; though it had been a
+friendly one, a sort of testing on the girl's part of the powers and
+expedients of the woman, with a kind of vast admiration, mingled with
+amusement, but no fear for the stepmother who had been uniformly kind and
+loving toward her, and for whom she cared, perhaps as much as she could
+have cared for her own mother. The other note read:
+
+
+    "DEAR FATHER:--I am going away to-night to marry Captain
+    Leavenworth. You wouldn't let me have him in the right way, so I
+    had to take this. I tried very hard to forget him and get
+    interested in David, but it was no use. You couldn't stop it. So
+    now I hope you will see it the way we do and forgive us. We are
+    going to Washington and you can write us there and say you forgive
+    us, and then we will come home. I know you will forgive us, Daddy
+    dear. You know you always loved your little Kate and you couldn't
+    really want me to be unhappy. Please send my trunks to Washington.
+    I've tacked the card with the address on the ends.
+
+                                        "Your loving little girl,
+
+                                                               "KATE."
+
+
+There was a terrible stillness in the room, broken only by the crackling
+of paper as the notes were turned in the hands of their readers. Marcia
+felt as if centuries were passing. David's soul was pierced by one awful
+thought. He had no room for others. She was gone! Life was a blank for
+him! stretching out into interminable years. Of her treachery and
+false-heartedness in doing what she had done in the way she had done it,
+he had no time to take account. That would come later. Now he was trying
+to understand this one awful fact.
+
+Madam Schuyler handed the second note to her husband, and with set lips
+quickly skimmed through the other one. As she read, indignation rose
+within her, and a great desire to outwit everybody. If it had been
+possible to bring the erring girl back and make her face her disgraced
+wedding alone, Madam Schuyler would have been glad to do it. She knew that
+upon her would likely rest all the re-arrangements, and her ready brain
+was already taking account of her servants and the number of messages that
+would have to be sent out to stop the guests from arriving. She waited
+impatiently for her husband to finish reading that she might consult with
+him as to the best message to send, but she was scarcely prepared for the
+burst of anger that came with the finish of the letters. The old man
+crushed his daughter's note in his hand and flung it from him. He had
+great respect and love for David, and the sight of him broken in grief,
+the deed of his daughter, roused in him a mighty indignation. His voice
+shook, but there was a deep note of command in it that made Madam Schuyler
+step aside and wait. The Squire had arisen to the situation, and she
+recognized her lord and master.
+
+"She must be brought back at once at all costs!" he exclaimed. "That
+rascal shall not outwit us. Fool that I was to trust him in the house!
+Tell the men to saddle the horses. They cannot have gone far yet, and
+there are not so many roads to Washington. We may yet overtake them, and
+married or unmarried the hussy shall be here for her wedding!"
+
+But David raised his head from the mantel-shelf and steadied his voice:
+
+"No, no, you must not do that--father--" the appellative came from his lips
+almost tenderly, as if he had long considered the use of it with pleasure,
+and now he spoke it as a tender bond meant to comfort.
+
+The older man started and his face softened. A flash of understanding and
+love passed between the two men.
+
+"Remember, she has said she loves some one else. She could never be mine
+now."
+
+There was terrible sadness in the words as David spoke them, and his voice
+broke. Madam Schuyler turned away and took out her handkerchief, an
+article of apparel for which she seldom had use except as it belonged to
+every well ordered toilet.
+
+The father stood looking hopelessly at David and taking in the thought.
+Then he too bowed his head and groaned.
+
+"And my daughter, _my little Kate_ has done it!" Marcia covered her face
+with the curtains and her tears fell fast.
+
+David went and stood beside the Squire and touched his arm.
+
+"Don't!" he said pleadingly. "You could not help it. It was not your
+fault. Do not take it so to heart!"
+
+"But it is my disgrace. I have brought up a child who could do it. I
+cannot escape from that. It is the most dishonorable thing a woman can do.
+And look how she has done it, brought shame upon us all! Here we have a
+wedding on our hands, and little or no time to do anything! I have lived
+in honor all my life, and now to be disgraced by my own daughter!"
+
+Marcia shuddered at her father's agony. She could not bear it longer. With
+a soft cry she went to him, and nestled her head against his breast
+unnoticed.
+
+"Father, father, don't!" she cried.
+
+But her father went on without seeming to see her.
+
+"To be disgraced and deserted and dishonored by my own child! Something
+must be done. Send the servants! Let the wedding be stopped!"
+
+He looked at Madam and she started toward the door to carry out his
+bidding, but he recalled her immediately.
+
+"No, stay!" he cried. "It is too late to stop them all. Let them come. Let
+them be told! Let the disgrace rest upon the one to whom it belongs!"
+
+Madam stopped in consternation! A wedding without a bride! Yet she knew it
+was a serious thing to try to dispute with her husband in that mood. She
+paused to consider.
+
+"Oh, father!" exclaimed Marcia, "we couldn't! Think of David."
+
+Her words seemed to touch the right chord, for he turned toward the young
+man, intense, tender pity in his face.
+
+"Yes, David! We are forgetting David! We must do all we can to make it
+easier for you. You will be wanting to get away from us as quickly as
+possible. How can we manage it for you? And where will you go? You will
+not want to go home just yet?"
+
+He paused, a new agony of the knowledge of David's part coming to him.
+
+"No, I cannot go home," said David hopelessly, a look of keen pain darting
+across his face, "for the house will be all ready for her, and the table
+set. The friends will be coming in, and we are invited to dinner and tea
+everywhere. They will all be coming to the house, my friends, to welcome
+us. No, I cannot go home." Then he passed his hand over his forehead
+blindly, and added, in a stupefied tone, "and yet I must--sometime--I
+must--go--home!"
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER V
+
+
+The room was very still as he spoke. Madam Schuyler forgot the coming
+guests and the preparations, in consternation over the thought of David
+and his sorrow. Marcia sobbed softly upon her father's breast, and her
+father involuntarily placed his arm about her as he stood in painful
+thought.
+
+"It is terrible!" he murmured, "terrible! How could she bear to inflict
+such sorrow! She might have saved us the scorn of all of our friends.
+David, you must not go back alone. It must not be. You must not bear that.
+There are lovely girls in plenty elsewhere. Find another one and marry
+her. Take your bride home with you, and no one in your home need be the
+wiser. Don't sorrow for that cruel girl of mine. Give her not the
+satisfaction of feeling that your life is broken. Take another. Any girl
+might be proud to go with you for the asking. Had I a dozen other
+daughters you should have your pick of them, and one should go with you,
+if you would condescend to choose another from the home where you have
+been so treacherously dealt with. But I have only this one little girl.
+She is but a child as yet and cannot compare with what you thought you
+had. I blame you not if you do not wish to wed another Schuyler, but if
+you will she is yours. And she is a good girl. David, though she is but a
+child. Speak up, child, and say if you will make amends for the wrong your
+sister has done!"
+
+The room was so still one could almost hear the heartbeats. David had
+raised his head once more and was looking at Marcia. Sad and searching was
+his gaze, as if he fain would find the features of Kate in her face, yet
+it seemed to Marcia, as she raised wide tear-filled eyes from her father's
+breast where her head still lay, that he saw her not. He was looking
+beyond her and facing the home-going alone, and the empty life that would
+follow.
+
+Her thoughts the last few days had matured her wonderfully. She understood
+and pitied, and her woman-nature longed to give comfort, yet she shrunk
+from going unasked. It was all terrible, this sudden situation thrust upon
+her, yet she felt a willing sacrifice if she but felt sure it was his
+wish.
+
+But David did not seem to know that he must speak. He waited, looking
+earnestly at her, through her, beyond her, to see if Heaven would grant
+this small relief to his sufferings. At last Marcia summoned her voice:
+
+"If David wishes I will go."
+
+She spoke the words solemnly, her eyes lifted slightly above him as if she
+were speaking to Another One higher than he. It was like an answer to a
+call from God. It had come to Marcia this way. It seemed to leave her no
+room for drawing back, if indeed she had wished to do so. Other
+considerations were not present. There was just the one great desire in
+her heart to make amends in some measure for the wrong that had been done.
+She felt almost responsible for it, a family responsibility. She seemed to
+feel the shame and pain as her father was feeling it. She would step into
+the empty place that Kate had left and fill it as far as she could. Her
+only fear was that she was not acceptable, not worthy to fill so high a
+place. She trembled over it, yet she could not hold back from the high
+calling. It was so she stood in a kind of sorrowful exaltation waiting for
+David. Her eyes lowered again, looking at him through the lashes and
+pleading for recognition. She did not feel that she was pleading for
+anything for herself, only for the chance to help him.
+
+Her voice had broken the spell. David looked down upon her kindly, a
+pleasant light of gratitude flashing through the sternness and sorrow in
+his face. Here was comradeship in trouble, and his voice recognized it as
+he said:
+
+"Child, you are good to me, and I thank you. I will try to make you happy
+if you will go with me, and I am sure your going will be a comfort in many
+ways, but I would not have you go unwillingly."
+
+There was a dull ache in Marcia's heart, its cause she could not
+understand, but she was conscious of a gladness that she was not counted
+unworthy to be accepted, young though she was, and child though he called
+her. His tone had been kindness itself, the gentle kindliness that had won
+her childish sisterly love when first he began to visit her sister. She
+had that answer of his to remember for many a long day, and to live upon,
+when questionings and loneliness came upon her. But she raised her face to
+her father now, and said: "I will go, father!"
+
+The Squire stooped and kissed his little girl for the last time. Perhaps
+he realized that from this time forth she would be a little girl no
+longer, and that he would never look into those child-eyes of hers again,
+unclouded with the sorrows of life, and filled only with the
+wonder-pictures of a rosy future. She seemed to him and to herself to be
+renouncing her own life forever, and to be taking up one of sacrificial
+penitence for her sister's wrong doing.
+
+The father then took Marcia's hand and placed it in David's, and the
+betrothal was complete.
+
+Madam Schuyler, whose reign for the time was set aside, stood silent, half
+disapproving, yet not interfering. Her conscience told her that this
+wholesale disposal of Marcia was against nature. The new arrangement was a
+relief to her in many ways, and would make the solution of the day less
+trying for every one. But she was a woman and knew a woman's heart. Marcia
+was not having her chance in life as her sister had had, as every woman
+had a right to have. Then her face hardened. How had Kate used her
+chances? Perhaps it was better for Marcia to be well placed in life before
+she grew headstrong enough to make a fool of herself as Kate had done.
+David would be good to her, that was certain. One could not look at the
+strong, pleasant lines of his well cut mouth and chin and not be sure of
+that. Perhaps it was all for the best. At least it was not her doing. And
+it was only the night before that she had been looking at Marcia and
+worrying because she was growing into a woman so fast. Now she would be
+relieved of that care, and could take her ease and enjoy life until her
+own children were grown up. But the voice of her husband aroused her to
+the present.
+
+"Let the wedding go on as planned, Sarah, and no one need know until the
+ceremony is over except the minister. I myself will go and tell the
+minister. There will need to be but a change of names."
+
+"But," said the Madam, with housewifely alarm, as the suddenness of the
+whole thing flashed over her, "Marcia is not ready. She has no suitable
+clothes for her wedding."
+
+"Not ready! No clothes!" said the Squire, now thoroughly irritated over
+this trivial objection, as a fly will sometimes ruffle the temper of a man
+who has kept calm under fire of an enemy. "And where are all the clothes
+that have been making these weeks and months past? What more preparation
+does she need? Did the hussy take her wedding things with her? What's in
+this trunk?"
+
+"But those are Kate's things, father," said Marcia in gentle explanation.
+"Kate would be very angry if I took her things. They were made for her,
+you know."
+
+"And what if they were made for her?" answered the father, very angry now
+at Kate. "You are near of a size. What will do for one is good enough for
+the other, and Kate may be angry and get over it, for not one rag of it
+all will she get, nor a penny of my money will ever go to her again. She
+is no daughter of mine from henceforth. That rascal has beaten me and
+stolen my daughter, but he gets a dowerless lass. Not a penny will ever go
+from the Schuyler estate into his pocket, and no trunk will ever travel
+from here to Washington for that heartless girl. I forbid it. Let her feel
+some of the sorrow she has inflicted upon others more innocent. I forbid
+it, do you hear?" He brought his fist down upon the solid mahogany bureau
+until the prisms on a candle-stand in front of the mirror jangled
+discordantly.
+
+"Oh, father!" gasped Marcia, and turned with terror to her stepmother. But
+David stood with his back toward the rest looking out of the window. He
+had forgotten them all.
+
+Madam Schuyler was now in command again. For once the Squire had
+anticipated his wife, and the next move had been planned without her help,
+but it was as she would have it. Her face had lost its consternation and
+beamed with satisfaction beneath its mask of grave perplexity. She could
+not help it that she was glad to have the terrible ordeal of a wedding
+without a bride changed into something less formidable.
+
+At least the country round about could not pity, for who was to say but
+that David was as well suited with one sister as with the other? And
+Marcia was a good girl; doubtless she would grow into a good wife. Far
+more suitable for so good and steady a man as David than pretty, imperious
+Kate.
+
+Madam Schuyler took her place of command once more and began to issue her
+orders.
+
+"Come, then, Marcia, we have no time to waste. It is all right, as your
+father has said. Kate's things will fit you nicely and you must go at once
+and put everything in readiness. You will want all your time to dress, and
+pack a few things, and get calm. Go to your room right away and pick up
+anything you will want to take with you, and I'll go down and see that
+Phoebe takes your place and then come back."
+
+David and the Squire went out like two men who had suddenly grown old, and
+had not the strength to walk rapidly. No one thought any more of
+breakfast. It was half-past seven by the old tall clock that stood upon
+the stair-landing. It would not be long before Aunt Polly and Uncle Joab
+would be driving up to the door.
+
+Straight ahead went the preparations, just as if nothing had happened, and
+if Mistress Kate Leavenworth could have looked into her old room an hour
+after the discovery of her flight she would have been astonished beyond
+measure.
+
+Up in her own room stood poor bewildered Marcia. She looked about upon her
+little white bed, and thought she would never likely sleep in it again.
+She looked out of the small-paned window with its view of distant hill and
+river, and thought she was bidding it good-bye forever. She went toward
+her closet and put out her hand to choose what she would take with her,
+and her heart sank. There hung the faded old ginghams short and scant, and
+scorned but yesterday, yet her heart wildly clung to them. Almost would
+she have put one on and gone back to her happy care-free school life. The
+thought of the new life frightened her. She must give up her girlhood all
+at once. She might not keep a vestige of it, for that would betray David.
+She must be Kate from morning to evening. Like a sword thrust came the
+remembrance that she had envied Kate, and God had given her the punishment
+of being Kate in very truth. Only there was this great difference. She was
+not the chosen one, and Kate had been. She must bear about forever in her
+heart the thought of Kate's sin.
+
+The voice of her stepmother drew nearer and warned her that her time alone
+was almost over, and out on the lawn she could hear the voices of Uncle
+Joab and Aunt Polly who had just arrived.
+
+She dropped upon her knees for one brief moment and let her young soul
+pour itself out in one great cry of distress to God, a cry without words
+borne only on the breath of a sob. Then she arose, hastily dashed cold
+water in her face, and dried away the traces of tears. There was no more
+time to think. With hurried hand she began to gather a few trifles
+together from closet and drawer.
+
+One last lingering look she took about her room as she left it, her arms
+filled with the things she had hastily culled from among her own. Then she
+shut the door quickly and went down the hall to her sister's room to enter
+upon her new life. She was literally putting off herself and putting on a
+new being as far as it was possible to do so outwardly.
+
+There on the bed lay the bridal outfit. Madam Schuyler had just brought it
+from the spare room that there might be no more going back and forth
+through the halls to excite suspicion. She was determined that there
+should be no excitement or demonstration or opportunity for gossip among
+the guests at least until the ceremony was over. She had satisfied herself
+that not a soul outside the family save the two maids suspected that aught
+was the matter, and she felt sure of their silence.
+
+Kate had taken very little with her, evidently fearing to excite
+suspicion, and having no doubt that her father would relent and send all
+her trousseau as she had requested in her letter. For once Mistress Kate
+had forgotten her fineries and made good her escape with but two frocks
+and a few other necessaries in a small hand-bag.
+
+Madam Schuyler was relieved to the point of genuine cheerfulness, over
+this, despite the cloud of tragedy that hung over the day. She began to
+talk to Marcia as if she had been Kate, as she smoothed down this and that
+article and laid them back in the trunk, telling how the blue gown would
+be the best for church and the green silk for going out to very fine
+places, to tea-drinkings and the like, and how she must always be sure to
+wear the cream undersleeves with the Irish point lace with her silk gown
+as they set it off to perfection. She recalled, too, how little experience
+Marcia had had in the ways of the world, and all the while the girl was
+being dressed in the dainty bridal garments she gave her careful
+instructions in the art of being a success in society, until Marcia felt
+that the green fields and the fences and trees to climb and the excursions
+after blackberries, and all the joyful merry-makings of the boys and girls
+were receding far from her. She could even welcome Hanford Weston as a
+playfellow in her new future, if thereby a little fresh air and freedom of
+her girlhood might be left. Nevertheless there gradually came over her an
+elation of excitement. The feel of the dainty garments, the delicate
+embroidery, the excitement lest the white slippers would not fit her, the
+difficulty of making her hair stay up in just Kate's style--for her
+stepmother insisted that she must dress it exactly like Kate's and make
+herself look as nearly as possible as Kate would have looked,--all drove
+sadness from her mind and she began to taste a little delight in the
+pretty clothes, the great occasion, and her own importance. The vision in
+the looking-glass, too, told her that her own face was winsome, and the
+new array not unbecoming. Something of this she had seen the night before
+when she put on her new chintz; now the change was complete, as she stood
+in the white satin and lace with the string of seed pearls that had been
+her mother's tied about her soft white throat. She thought about the
+tradition of the pearls that Kate's girl friends had laughingly reminded
+her of a few days before when they were looking at the bridal garments.
+They had said that each pearl a bride wore meant a tear she would shed.
+She wondered if Kate had escaped the tears with the pearls, and left them
+for her.
+
+She was ready at last, even to the veil that had been her mother's, and
+her mother's mother's before her. It fell in its rich folds, yellowed by
+age, from her head to her feet, with its creamy frost-work of rarest
+handiwork, transforming the girl into a woman and a bride.
+
+Madam Schuyler arranged and rearranged the folds, and finally stood back
+to look with half-closed eyes at the effect, deciding that very few would
+notice that the bride was other than they had expected until the ceremony
+was over and the veil thrown back. The sisters had never looked alike, yet
+there was a general family resemblance that was now accentuated by the
+dress; perhaps only those nearest would notice that it was Marcia instead
+of Kate. At least the guests would have the good grace to keep their
+wonderment to themselves until the ceremony was over.
+
+Then Marcia was left to herself with trembling hands and wildly throbbing
+heart. What would Mary Ann think! What would all the girls and boys think?
+Some of them would be there, and others would be standing along the shady
+streets to watch the progress of the carriage as it drove away. And they
+would see her going away instead of Kate. Perhaps they would think it all
+a great joke and that she had been going to be married all the time and
+not Kate. But no; the truth would soon come out. People would not be
+astonished at anything Kate did. They would only say it was just what they
+had all along expected of her, and pity her father, and pity her perhaps.
+But they would look at her and admire her and for once she would be the
+centre of attraction. The pink of pride swelled up into her cheeks, and
+then realizing what she was thinking she crushed the feeling down. How
+could she think of such things when Kate had done such a dreadful thing,
+and David was suffering so terribly? Here was she actually enjoying, and
+delighting in the thought of being in Kate's place. Oh, she was wicked,
+wicked! She must not be happy for a moment in what was Kate's shame and
+David's sorrow. Of her future with David she did not now think. It was of
+the pageant of the day that her thoughts were full. If the days and weeks
+and months that were to follow came into her mind at all between the other
+things it was always that she was to care for David and to help him, and
+that she would have to grow up quickly; and remember all the hard
+housewifely things her stepmother had taught her; and try to order his
+house well. But that troubled her not at all at present. She was more
+concerned with the ceremony, and the many eyes that would be turned upon
+her. It was a relief when a tap came on the door and the dear old minister
+entered.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER VI
+
+
+He stood a moment by the door looking at her, half startled. Then he came
+over beside her, put his hands upon her shoulders, looking down into her
+upturned, veiled face.
+
+"My child!" he said tenderly, "my little Marcia, is this you? I did not
+know you in all this beautiful dress. You look as your own mother looked
+when she was married. I remember perfectly as if it were but yesterday,
+her face as she stood by your father's side. I was but a young man then,
+you know, and it was my first wedding in my new church, so you see I could
+not forget it. Your mother was a beautiful woman, Marcia, and you are like
+her both in face and life."
+
+The tears came into Marcia's eyes and her lips trembled.
+
+"Are you sure, child," went on the gentle voice of the old man, "that you
+understand what a solemn thing you are doing? It is not a light thing to
+give yourself in marriage to any man. You are so young yet! Are you doing
+this thing quite willingly, little girl? Are you sure? Your father is a
+good man, and a dear old friend of mine, but I know what has happened has
+been a terrible blow to him, and a great humiliation. It has perhaps
+unnerved his judgment for the time. No one should have brought pressure to
+bear upon a child like you to make you marry against your will. Are you
+sure it is all right, dear?"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir!" Marcia raised her tear-filled eyes. "I am doing it quite
+of myself. No one has made me. I was glad I might. It was so dreadful for
+David!"
+
+"But child, do you love him?" the old minister said, searching her face
+closely.
+
+Marcia's eyes shone out radiant and child-like through her tears.
+
+"Oh, yes, sir! I love him of course. No one could help loving David."
+
+There was a tap at the door and the Squire entered. With a sigh the
+minister turned away, but there was trouble in his heart. The love of the
+girl had been all too frankly confessed. It was not as he would have had
+things for a daughter of his, but it could not be helped of course, and he
+had no right to interfere. He would like to speak to David, but David had
+not come out of his room yet. When he did there was but a moment for them
+alone and all he had opportunity to say was:
+
+"Mr. Spafford, you will be good to the little girl, and remember she is
+but a child. She has been dear to us all."
+
+David looked at him wonderingly, earnestly, in reply:
+
+"I will do all in my power to make her happy," he said.
+
+The hour had come, and all things, just as Madam Schuyler had planned,
+were ready. The minister took his place, and the impatient bridesmaids
+were in a flutter, wondering why Kate did not call them in to see her.
+Slowly, with measured step, as if she had practised many times, Marcia,
+the maiden, walked down the hall on her father's arm. He was bowed with
+his trouble and his face bore marks of the sudden calamity that had
+befallen his house, but the watching guests thought it was for sorrow at
+giving up his lovely Kate, and they said one to another, "How much he
+loved her!"
+
+The girl's face drooped with gentle gravity. She scarcely felt the
+presence of the guests she had so much dreaded, for to her the ceremony
+was holy. She was giving herself as a sacrifice for the sin of her sister.
+She was too young and inexperienced to know all that would be thought and
+said as soon as the company understood. She also felt secure behind that
+film of lace. It seemed impossible that they could know her, so softly and
+so mistily it shut her in from the world. It was like a kind of moving
+house about her, a protection from all eyes. So sheltered she might go
+through the ceremony with composure. As yet she had not begun to dread the
+afterward. The hall was wide through which she passed, and the day was
+bright, but the windows were so shadowed by the waiting bridesmaids that
+the light did not fall in full glare upon her, and it was not strange they
+did not know her at once. She heard their smothered exclamations of wonder
+and admiration, and one, Kate's dearest friend, whispered softly behind
+her: "Oh, Kate, why did you keep us waiting, you sly girl! How lovely you
+are! You look like an angel straight from heaven."
+
+There were other whispered words which Marcia heard sadly. They gave her
+no pleasure. The words were for Kate, not her. What would they say when
+they knew all?
+
+There was David in the distance waiting for her. How fine he looked in his
+wedding clothes! How proud Kate might have been of him! How pitiful was
+his white face! He had summoned his courage and put on a mask of happiness
+for the eyes of those who saw him, but it could not deceive the heart of
+Marcia. Surely not since the days when Jacob served seven years for Rachel
+and then lifted the bridal veil to look upon the face of her sister Leah,
+walked there sadder bridegroom on this earth than David Spafford walked
+that day.
+
+Down the stairs and through the wide hall they came, Marcia not daring to
+look up, yet seeing familiar glimpses as she passed. That green plaid silk
+lap at one side of the parlor door, in which lay two nervous little hands
+and a neatly folded pocket handkerchief, belonged to Sabrina Bates, she
+knew; and the round lace collar a little farther on, fastened by the
+brooch with a colored daguerreotype encircled by a braid of faded brown
+hair under glass, must be about the neck of Aunt Polly. There was not
+another brooch like that in New York state, Marcia felt sure. Beyond were
+Uncle Joab's small meek Sunday boots, toeing in, and next were little feet
+covered by white stockings and slippers fastened with crossed black
+ribbons, some child's, not Harriet--Marcia dared not raise her eyes to
+identify them now. She must fix her mind upon the great things before her.
+She wondered at herself for noticing such trivial things when she was
+walking up to the presence of the great God, and there before her stood
+the minister with his open book!
+
+Now, at last, with the most of the audience behind her, shut in by the
+film of lace, she could raise her eyes to the minister's familiar face,
+take David's arm without letting her hand tremble much, and listen to the
+solemn words read out to her. For her alone they seemed to be read.
+David's heart she knew was crushed, and it was only a form for him. She
+must take double vows upon her for the sake of the wrong done to him. So
+she listened:
+
+"Dearly beloved, we are gathered together"--how the words thrilled her!--"in
+the sight of God and in the presence of this company to join together this
+man and woman in the bonds of holy matrimony;"--a deathly stillness rested
+upon the room and the painful throbbing of her heart was all the little
+bride could hear. She was glad she might look straight into the dear face
+of the old minister. Had her mother felt this way when she was being
+married? Did her stepmother understand it? Yes, she must, in part at
+least, for she had bent and kissed her most tenderly upon the brow just
+before leaving her, a most unusually sentimental thing for her to do. It
+touched Marcia deeply, though she was fond of her stepmother at all times.
+
+She waited breathless with drooped eyes while the minister demanded, "If
+any man can show just cause why they may not be lawfully joined together,
+let him now declare it, or else hereafter forever hold his peace." What if
+some one should recognize her and, thinking she had usurped Kate's place,
+speak out and stop the marriage! How would David feel? And she? She would
+sink to the floor. Oh, did they any of them know? How she wished she dared
+raise her eyes to look about and see. But she must not. She must listen.
+She must shake off these worldly thoughts. She was not hearing for idle
+thinking. It was a solemn, holy vow she was taking upon herself for life.
+She brought herself sharply back to the ceremony. It was to David the
+minister was talking now:
+
+"Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in
+health, and forsaking all other, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye
+both shall live?"
+
+It was hard to make David promise that when his heart belonged to Kate.
+She wondered that his voice could be so steady when it said, "I will," and
+the white glove of Kate's which was just a trifle large for her, trembled
+on David's arm as the minister next turned to her:
+
+"Wilt thou, Marcia"--Ah! It was out now! and the sharp rustle of silk and
+stiff linen showed that all the company were aware at last who was the
+bride; but the minister went steadily on. He cared not what the listening
+assembly thought. He was talking earnestly to his little friend,
+Marcia,--"have this man to be thy wedded husband, to live together after
+God's ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony? Wilt thou obey him, and
+serve him, love, honor, and keep him, in sickness and in health"--the words
+of the pledge went on. It was not hard. The girl felt she could do all
+that. She was relieved to find it no more terrible, and to know that she
+was no longer acting a lie. They all knew who she was now. She held up her
+flower-like head and answered in her clear voice, that made her few
+schoolmates present gasp with admiration:
+
+"I will!"
+
+And the dear old minister's wife, sitting sweet and dove-like in her soft
+grey poplin, fine white kerchief, and cap of book muslin, smiled to
+herself at the music in Marcia's voice and nodded approval. She felt that
+all was well with her little friend.
+
+They waited, those astonished people, till the ceremony was concluded and
+the prayer over, and then they broke forth. There had been lifted brows
+and looks passing from one to another, of question, of disclaiming any
+knowledge in the matter, and just as soon as the minister turned and took
+the bride's hand to congratulate her the heads bent together behind fans
+and the soft buzz of whispers began.
+
+What does it mean? Where is Kate? She isn't in the room! Did he change his
+mind at the last minute? How old is Marcia? Mercy me! Nothing but a child!
+Are you sure? Why, my Mary Ann is older than that by three months, and
+she's no more able to become mistress of a home than a nine-days-old
+kitten. Are you sure it's Marcia? Didn't the minister make a mistake in
+the name? It looked to me like Kate. Look again. She's put her veil back.
+No, it can't be! Yes, it is! No, it looks like Kate! Her hair's done the
+same, but, no, Kate never had such a sweet innocent look as that. Why,
+when she was a child her face always had a sharpness to it. Look at
+Marcia's eyes, poor lamb! I don't see how her father could bear it, and
+she so young. But Kate! Where can she be? What has happened? You don't
+say! Yes, I did see that captain about again last week or so. Do you
+believe it? Surely she never would. Who told you? Was he sure? But Maria
+and Janet are bridesmaids and they didn't see any signs of anything. They
+were over here yesterday. Yes, Kate showed them everything and planned how
+they would all walk in. No, she didn't do anything queer, for Janet would
+have mentioned it. Janet always sees everything. Well, they say he's a
+good man and Marcia'll be well provided for. Madam Schuyler'll be relieved
+about that. Marcia can't ever lead her the dance Kate has among the young
+men. How white he looks! Do you suppose he loves her? What on earth can it
+all mean? Do you s'pose Kate feels bad? Where is she anyway? Wouldn't she
+come down? Well, if 'twas his choosing it serves her right. She's too much
+of a flirt for a good man and maybe he found her out. She's probably got
+just what she deserves, and _I_ think Marcia'll make a good little wife.
+She always was a quiet, grown-up child and Madam Schuyler has trained her
+well! But what will Kate do now? Hush! They are coming this way. How do
+you suppose we can find out? Go ask Cousin Janet, perhaps they've told
+her, or Aunt Polly. Surely she knows.
+
+But Aunt Polly sat with pursed lips of disapproval. She had not been told,
+and it was her prerogative to know everything. She always made a point of
+being on hand early at all funerals and weddings, especially in the family
+circle, and learning the utmost details, which she dispensed at her
+discretion to late comers in fine sepulchral whispers.
+
+Now she sat silent, disgraced, unable to explain a thing. It was
+unhandsome of Sarah Schuyler, she felt, though no more than she might have
+expected of her, she told herself. She had never liked her. Well, wait
+until her opportunity came. If they did not wish her to say the truth she
+must say something. She could at least tell what she thought. And what
+more natural than to let it be known that Sarah Schuyler had always held a
+dislike for Marcia, and to suggest that it was likely she was glad to get
+her off her hands. Aunt Polly meant to find a trail somewhere, no matter
+how many times they threw her off the scent.
+
+Meantime for Marcia the sun seemed to have shined out once more with
+something of its old brightness. The terrible deed of self-renunciation
+was over, and familiar faces actually were smiling upon her and wishing
+her joy. She felt the flutter of her heart in her throat beneath the
+string of pearls, and wondered if after all she might hope for a little
+happiness of her own. She could climb no more fences nor wade in gurgling
+brooks, but might there not be other happy things as good? A little touch
+of the pride of life had settled upon her. The relatives were coming with
+pleasant words and kisses. The blushes upon her cheeks were growing
+deeper. She almost forgot David in the pretty excitement. A few of her
+girl friends ventured shyly near, as one might look at a mate suddenly and
+unexpectedly translated into eternal bliss. They put out cold fingers in
+salute with distant, stiff phrases belonging to a grown-up world. Not one
+of them save Mary Ann dared recognize their former bond of playmates. Mary
+Ann leaned down and whispered with a giggle: "Say, you didn't need to envy
+Kate, did you? My! Ain't you in clover! Say, Marsh," wistfully, "do invite
+me fer a visit sometime, won't you?"
+
+Now Mary Ann was not quite on a par with the Schuylers socially, and had
+it not been for a distant mutual relative she would not have been asked to
+the wedding. Marcia never liked her very much, but now, with the
+uncertain, dim future it seemed pleasant and home-like to think of a visit
+from Mary Ann and she nodded and said childishly: "Sometime, Mary Ann, if
+I can."
+
+Mary Ann squeezed her hand, kissed her, blushed and giggled herself out of
+the way of the next comer.
+
+They went out to the dining room and sat around the long table. It was
+Marcia's timid hand that cut the bridecake, and all the room full watched
+her. Seeing the pretty color come and go in her excited cheeks, they
+wondered that they had never noticed before how beautiful Marcia was
+growing. A handsome couple they would make! And they looked from Marcia to
+David and back again, wondering and trying to fathom the mystery.
+
+It was gradually stealing about the company, the truth about Kate and
+Captain Leavenworth. The minister had told it in his sad and gentle way.
+Just the facts. No gossip. Naturally every one was bristling with
+questions, but not much could be got from the minister.
+
+"I really do not know," he would say in his courteous, old-worldly way,
+and few dared ask further. Perhaps the minister, wise by reason of much
+experience, had taken care to ask as few questions as possible himself,
+and not to know too much before undertaking this task for his old friend
+the Squire.
+
+And so Kate's marriage went into the annals of the village, at least so
+far as that morning was concerned, quietly, and with little exclamation
+before the family. The Squire and his wife controlled their faces
+wonderfully. There was an austerity about the Squire as he talked with his
+friends that was new to his pleasant face, but Madam conversed with her
+usual placid self-poise, and never gave cause for conjecture as to her
+true feelings.
+
+There were some who dared to offer their surprised condolences. To such
+the stepmother replied that of course the outcome of events had been a
+sore trial to the Squire, and all of them, but they were delighted at the
+happy arrangement that had been made. She glanced contentedly toward the
+child-bride.
+
+It was a revelation to the whole village that Marcia had grown up and was
+so handsome.
+
+Dismay filled the breasts of the village gossips. They had been defrauded.
+Here was a fine scandal which they had failed to discover in time and
+spread abroad in its due course.
+
+Everybody was shy of speaking to the bride. She sat in her lovely finery
+like some wild rose caught as a sacrifice. Yet every one admitted that she
+might have done far worse. David was a good man, with prospects far beyond
+most young men of his time. Moreover he was known to have a brilliant
+mind, and the career he had chosen, that of journalism, in which he was
+already making his mark, was one that promised to be lucrative as well as
+influential.
+
+It was all very hurried at the last. Madam Schuyler and Dolly the maid
+helped her off with the satin and lace finery, and she was soon out of her
+bridal attire and struggling with the intricacies of Kate's travelling
+costume.
+
+Marcia was not Marcia any longer, but Mrs. David Spafford. She had been
+made to feel the new name almost at once, and it gave her a sense of
+masquerading pleasant enough for the time being, but with a dim foreboding
+of nameless dread and emptiness for the future, like all masquerading
+which must end sometime. And when the mask is taken off how sad if one is
+not to find one's real self again: or worse still if one may never remove
+the mask, but must grow to it and be it from the soul.
+
+All this Marcia felt but dimly of course, for she was young and light
+hearted naturally, and the excitement and pretty things about her could
+not but be pleasant.
+
+To have Kate's friends stand about her, half shyly trying to joke with her
+as they might have done with Kate, to feel their admiring glances, and
+half envious references to her handsome husband, almost intoxicated her
+for the moment. Her cheeks grew rosier as she tied on Kate's pretty poke
+bonnet whose nodding blue flowers had been brought over from Paris by a
+friend of Kate's. It seemed a shame that Kate should not have her things
+after all. The pleasure died out of Marcia's eyes as she carefully looped
+the soft blue ribbons under her round chin and drew on Kate's long gloves.
+There was no denying the fact that Kate's outfit was becoming to Marcia,
+for she had that complexion that looks well with any color under the sun,
+though in blue she was not at her best.
+
+When Marcia was ready she stood back from the little looking-glass, with a
+frightened, half-childish gaze about the room.
+
+Now that the last minute was come, there was no one to understand Marcia's
+feelings nor help her. Even the girls were merely standing there waiting
+to say the last formal farewell that they might be free to burst into an
+astonished chatter of exclamations over Kate's romantic disappearance.
+They were Kate's friends, not Marcia's, and they were bidding Kate's
+clothes good-bye for want of the original bride. Marcia's friends were too
+young and too shy to do more than stand back in awe and gaze at their mate
+so suddenly promoted to a life which but yesterday had seemed years away
+for any of them.
+
+                 [Illustration: Copyright by C. Klackner
+                 THE STEPMOTHER'S ARMS WERE AROUND HER.]
+
+                        Copyright by C. Klackner
+                  THE STEPMOTHER'S ARMS WERE AROUND HER.
+
+
+So Marcia walked alone down the hall--yet, no, not all the way alone. A
+little wrinkled hand was laid upon her gloved one, and a little old lady,
+her true friend, the minister's wife, walked down the stairs with the
+bride arm in arm. Marcia's heart fluttered back to warmth again and was
+glad for her friend, yet all she had said was: "My dear!" but there was
+that in her touch and the tone of her gentle voice that comforted Marcia.
+
+She stood at the edge of the steps, with her white hair shining in the
+morning, her kind-faced husband just behind her during all the farewell,
+and Marcia felt happier because of her motherly presence.
+
+The guests were all out on the piazza in the gorgeousness of the summer
+morning. David stood on the flagging below the step beside the open coach
+door, a carriage lap-robe over his arm and his hat on, ready. He was
+talking with the Squire. Every one was looking at them, and they were
+entirely conscious of the fact. They laughed and talked with studied
+pleasantness, though there seemed to be an undertone of sadness that the
+most obtuse guest could not fail to detect.
+
+Harriet, as a small flower-girl, stood upon the broad low step ready to
+fling posies before the bride as she stepped into the coach.
+
+The little boys, to whom a wedding merely meant a delightful increase of
+opportunities, stood behind a pillar munching cake, more of which
+protruded from their bulging pockets.
+
+Marcia, with a lump in her throat that threatened tears, slipped behind
+the people, caught the two little step-brothers in her arms and smothered
+them with kisses, amid their loud protestations and the laughter of those
+who stood about. But the little skirmish had served to hide the tears, and
+the bride came back most decorously to where her stepmother stood awaiting
+her with a smile of complacent--almost completed--duty upon her face. She
+wore the sense of having carried off a trying situation in a most
+creditable manner, and she knew she had won the respect and awe of every
+matron present thereby. That was a great deal to Madam Schuyler.
+
+The stepmother's arms were around her and Marcia remembered how kindly
+they had felt when they first clasped her little body years ago, and she
+had been kissed, and told to be a good little girl. She had always liked
+her stepmother. And now, as she came to say good-bye to the only mother
+she had ever known, who had been a true mother to her in many ways, her
+young heart almost gave way, and she longed to hide in that ample bosom
+and stay under the wing of one who had so ably led her thus far along the
+path of life.
+
+Perhaps Madam Schuyler felt the clinging of the girl's arms about her, and
+perchance her heart rebuked her that she had let so young and
+inexperienced a girl go out to the cares of life all of a sudden in this
+way. At least she stooped and kissed Marcia again and whispered: "You have
+been a good girl, Marcia."
+
+Afterwards, Marcia cherished that sentence among memory's dearest
+treasures. It seemed as though it meant that she had fulfilled her
+stepmother's first command, given on the night when her father brought
+home their new mother.
+
+Then the flowers were thrown upon the pavement, to make it bright for the
+bride. She was handed into the coach behind the white-haired negro
+coachman, and by his side Kate's fine new hair trunk. Ah! That was a
+bitter touch! Kate's trunk! Kate's things! Kate's husband! If it had only
+been her own little moth-eaten trunk that had belonged to her mother, and
+filled with her own things--and if he had only been her own husband! Yet
+she wanted no other than David--only if he could have been _her_ David!
+
+Then Madam Schuyler, her heart still troubled about Marcia, stepped down
+and whispered:
+
+"David, you will remember she is young. You will deal gently with her?"
+
+Gravely David bent his head and answered:
+
+"I will remember. She shall not be troubled. I will care for her as I
+would care for my own sister." And Madam Schuyler turned away half
+satisfied. After all, was that what woman wanted? Would she have been
+satisfied to have been cared for as a sister?
+
+Then gravely, with his eyes half unseeing her, the father kissed his
+daughter good-bye, David got into the coach, the door was slammed shut,
+and the white horses arched their necks and stepped away, amid a shower of
+rice and slippers.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VII
+
+
+For some distance the way was lined with people they knew, servants and
+negroes, standing about the driveway and outside the fence, people of the
+village grouped along the sidewalk, everybody out upon their doorsteps to
+watch the coach go by, and to all the face of the bride was a puzzle and a
+surprise. They half expected to see another coach coming with the other
+bride behind.
+
+Marcia nodded brightly to those she knew, and threw flowers from the great
+nosegay that had been put upon her lap by Harriet. She felt for a few
+minutes like a girl in a fairy-tale riding in this fine coach in grand
+attire. She stole a look at David. He certainly looked like a prince, but
+gravity was already settling about his mouth. Would he always look so now,
+she wondered, would he never laugh and joke again as he used to do? Could
+she manage to make him happy sometimes for a little while and help him to
+forget?
+
+Down through the village they passed, in front of the store and
+post-office where Marcia had bought her frock but three days before, and
+they turned up the road she had come with Mary Ann. How long ago that
+seemed! How light her heart was then, and how young! All life was before
+her with its delightful possibilities. Now it seemed to have closed for
+her and she was some one else. A great ache came upon her heart. For a
+moment she longed to jump down and run away from the coach and David and
+the new clothes that were not hers. Away from the new life that had been
+planned for some one else which she must live now. She must always be a
+woman, never a girl any more.
+
+Out past Granny McVane's they drove, the old lady sitting upon her front
+porch knitting endless stockings. She stared mildly, unrecognizingly at
+Marcia and paused in her rocking to crane her neck after the coach.
+
+The tall corn rustled and waved green arms to them as they passed, and the
+cows looked up munching from the pasture in mild surprise at the turnout.
+The little coach dog stepped aside from the road to give them a bark as he
+passed, and then pattered and pattered his tiny feet to catch up. The old
+school house came in sight with its worn playground and dejected summer
+air, and Marcia's eyes searched out the window where she used to sit to
+eat her lunch in winters, and the tree under which she used to sit in
+summers, and the path by which she and Mary Ann used to wander down to the
+brook, or go in search of butternuts, even the old door knob that her hand
+would probably never grasp again. She searched them all out and bade them
+good-bye with her eyes. Then once she turned a little to see if she could
+catch a glimpse of the old blackboard through the window where she and
+Susanna Brown and Miller Thompson used to do arithmetic examples. The dust
+of the coach, or the bees in the sunshine, or something in her eyes
+blurred her vision. She could only see a long slant ray of a sunbeam
+crossing the wall where she knew it must be. Then the road wound around
+through a maple grove and the school was lost to view.
+
+They passed the South meadow belonging to the Westons, and Hanford was
+plowing. Marcia could see him stop to wipe the perspiration from his brow,
+and her heart warmed even to this boy admirer now that she was going from
+him forever.
+
+Hanford had caught sight of the coach and he turned to watch it thinking
+to see Kate sitting in the bride's place. He wondered if the bride would
+notice him, and turned a deeper red under his heavy coat of tan.
+
+And the bride did notice him. She smiled the sweetest smile the boy had
+ever seen upon her face, the smile he had dreamed of as he thought of her,
+at night standing under the stars all alone by his father's gate post
+whittling the cross bar of the gate. For a moment he forgot that it was
+the bridal party passing, forgot the stern-faced bridegroom, and saw only
+Marcia--his girl love. His heart stood still, and a bright light of
+response filled his eyes. He took off his wide straw hat and bowed her
+reverence. He would have called to her, and tried three times, but his dry
+throat gave forth no utterance, and when he looked again the coach was
+passed and only the flutter of a white handkerchief came back to him and
+told him the beginning of the truth.
+
+Then the poor boy's face grew white, yes, white and stricken under the
+tan, and he tottered to the roadside and sat down with his face in his
+hands to try and comprehend what it might mean, while the old horse
+dragged the plow whither he would in search of a bite of tender grass.
+
+What could it mean? And why did Marcia occupy that place beside the
+stranger, obviously the bridegroom? Was she going on a visit? He had heard
+of no such plan. Where was her sister? Would there be another coach
+presently, and was this man then not the bridegroom but merely a friend of
+the family? Of course, that must be it. He got up and staggered to the
+fence to look down the road, but no one came by save the jogging old gray
+and carryall, with Aunt Polly grim and offended and Uncle Joab meek and
+depressed beside her. Could he have missed the bridal carriage when he was
+at the other end of the lot? Could they have gone another way? He had a
+half a mind to call to Uncle Joab to enquire only he was a timid boy and
+shrank back until it was too late.
+
+But why had Marcia as she rode away wafted that strange farewell that had
+in it the familiarity of the final? And why did he feel so strange and
+weak in his knees?
+
+Marcia was to help his mother next week at the quilting bee. She had not
+gone away to stay, of course. He got up and tried to whistle and turn the
+furrows evenly as before, but his heart was heavy, and, try as he would,
+he could not understand the feeling that kept telling him Marcia was gone
+out of his life forever.
+
+At last his day's work was done and he could hasten to the house. Without
+waiting for his supper, he "slicked up," as he called it, and went at once
+to the village, where he learned the bitter truth.
+
+It was Mary Ann who told him.
+
+Mary Ann, the plain, the awkward, who secretly admired Hanford Weston as
+she might have admired an angel, and who as little expected him to speak
+to her as if he had been one. Mary Ann stood by her front gate in the dusk
+of the summer evening, the halo of her unusual wedding finery upon her,
+for she had taken advantage of being dressed up to make two or three
+visits since the wedding, and so prolong the holiday. The light of the
+sunset softened her plain features, and gave her a gentler look than was
+her wont. Was it that, and an air of lonesomeness akin to his own, that
+made Hanford stop and speak to her?
+
+And then she told him. She could not keep it in long. It was the wonder of
+her life, and it filled her so that her thought had no room for anything
+else. To think of Marcia taken in a day, gone from their midst forever,
+gone to be a grown-up woman in a new world! It was as strange as sudden
+death, and almost as terrible and beautiful.
+
+There were tears in her eyes, and in the eyes of the boy as they spoke
+about the one who was gone, and the kind dusk hid the sight so that
+neither knew, but each felt a subtle sympathy with the other, and before
+Hanford started upon his desolate way home under the burden of his first
+sorrow he took Mary Ann's slim bony hand in his and said quite stiffly:
+"Well, good night, Miss Mary Ann. I'm glad you told me," and Mary Ann
+responded, with a deep blush under her freckles in the dark, "Good night,
+Mr. Weston, and--call again!"
+
+Something of the sympathy lingered with the boy as he went on his way and
+he was not without a certain sort of comfort, while Mary Ann climbed to
+her little chamber in the loft with a new wonder to dream over.
+
+Meanwhile the coach drove on, and Marcia passed from her childhood's home
+into the great world of men and women, changes, heartbreakings, sorrows
+and joys.
+
+David spoke to her kindly now and then; asked if she was comfortable; if
+she would prefer to change seats with him; if the cushions were right; and
+if she had forgotten anything. He seemed nervous, and anxious to have this
+part of the journey over and asked the coachman frequent questions about
+the horses and the speed they could make. Marcia thought she understood
+that he was longing to get away from the painful reminder of what he had
+expected to be a joyful trip, and her young heart pitied him, while yet it
+felt an undertone of hurt for herself. She found so much unadulterated joy
+in this charming ride with the beautiful horses, in this luxurious coach,
+that she could not bear to have it spoiled by the thought that only
+David's sadness and pain had made it possible for her.
+
+Constantly as the scene changed, and new sights came upon her view, she
+had to restrain herself from crying out with happiness over the beauty and
+calling David's attention. Once she did point out a bird just leaving a
+stalk of goldenrod, its light touch making the spray to bow and bend.
+David had looked with unseeing eyes, and smiled with uncomprehending
+assent. Marcia felt she might as well have been talking to herself. He was
+not even the old friend and brother he used to be. She drew a gentle
+little sigh and wished this might have been only a happy ride with the
+ending at home, and a longer girlhood uncrossed by this wall of trouble
+that Kate had put up in a night for them all.
+
+The coach came at last to the town where they were to stop for dinner and
+a change of horses.
+
+Marcia looked about with interest at the houses, streets, and people.
+There were two girls of about her own age with long hair braided down
+their backs. They were walking with arms about each other as she and Mary
+Ann had often done. She wondered if any such sudden changes might be
+coming to them as had come into her life. They turned and looked at her
+curiously, enviously it seemed, as the coach drew up to the tavern and she
+was helped out with ceremony. Doubtless they thought of her as she had
+thought of Kate but last week.
+
+She was shown into the dim parlor of the tavern and seated in a stiff
+hair-cloth chair. It was all new and strange and delightful.
+
+Before a high gilt mirror set on great glass knobs like rosettes, she
+smoothed her wind-blown hair, and looked back at the reflection of her
+strange self with startled eyes. Even her face seemed changed. She knew
+the bonnet and arrangement of hair were becoming, but she felt
+unacquainted with them, and wished for her own modest braids and plain
+bonnet. Even a sunbonnet would have been welcome and have made her feel
+more like herself.
+
+David did not see how pretty she looked when he came to take her to the
+dining room ten minutes later. His eyes were looking into the hard future,
+and he was steeling himself against the glances of others. He must be the
+model bridegroom in the sight of all who knew him. His pride bore him out
+in this. He had acquaintances all along the way home.
+
+They were expecting the bridal party, for David had arranged that a fine
+dinner should be ready for his bride. Fine it was, with the best cooking
+and table service the mistress of the tavern could command, and with many
+a little touch new and strange to Marcia, and therefore interesting. It
+was all a lovely play till she looked at David.
+
+David ate but little, and Marcia felt she must hurry through the meal for
+his sake. Then when the carryall was ready he put her in and they drove
+away.
+
+Marcia's keen intuition told her how many little things had been thought
+of and planned for, for the comfort of the one who was to have taken this
+journey with David. Gradually the thought of how terrible it was for him,
+and how dreadful of Kate to have brought this sorrow upon him, overcame
+all other thoughts.
+
+Sitting thus quietly, with her hands folded tight in the faded bunch of
+roses little Harriet had given her at parting, the last remaining of the
+flowers she had carried with her, Marcia let the tears come. Silently they
+flowed in gentle rain, and had not David been borne down with the thought
+of his own sorrow he must have noticed long before he did the sadness of
+the sweet young face beside him. But she turned away from him as much as
+possible that he might not see, and so they must have driven for half an
+hour through a dim sweet wood before he happened to catch a sight of the
+tear-wet face, and knew suddenly that there were other troubles in the
+world beside his own.
+
+"Why, child, what is the matter?" he said, turning to her with grave
+concern. "Are you so tired? I'm afraid I have been very dull company,"
+with a sigh. "You must forgive me--child, to-day."
+
+"Oh, David, don't," said Marcia putting her face down into her hands and
+crying now regardless of the roses. "I do not want you to think of me. It
+is dreadful, dreadful for you. I am so sorry for you. I wish I could do
+something."
+
+"Dear child!" he said, putting his hand upon hers. "Bless you for that.
+But do not let your heart be troubled about me. Try to forget me and be
+happy. It is not for you to bear, this trouble."
+
+"But I must bear it," said Marcia, sitting up and trying to stop crying.
+"She was my sister and she did an awful thing. I cannot forget it. How
+could she, how _could_ she do it? How could she leave a man like you
+that--" Marcia stopped, her brown eyes flashing fiercely as she thought of
+Captain Leavenworth's hateful look at her that night in the moonlight. She
+shuddered and hid her face in her hands once more and cried with all the
+fervor of her young and undisciplined soul.
+
+David did not know what to do with a young woman in tears. Had it been
+Kate his alarm would have vied with a delicious sense of his own power to
+comfort, but even the thought of comforting any one but Kate was now a
+bitter thing. Was it always going to be so? Would he always have to start
+and shrink with sudden remembrance of his pain at every turn of his way?
+He drew a deep sigh and looked helplessly at his companion. Then he did a
+hard thing. He tried to justify Kate, just as he had been trying all the
+morning to justify her to himself. The odd thing about it all was that the
+very deepest sting of his sorrow was that Kate could have done this thing!
+His peerless Kate!
+
+"She cared for him," he breathed the words as if they hurt him.
+
+"She should have told you so before then. She should not have let you
+think she cared for you--_ever!_" said Marcia fiercely. Strangely enough
+the plain truth was bitter to the man to hear, although he had been
+feeling it in his soul ever since they had discovered the flight of the
+bride.
+
+"Perhaps there was too much pressure brought to bear upon her," he said
+lamely. "Looking back I can see times when she did not second me with
+regard to hurrying the marriage, so warmly as I could have wished. I laid
+it to her shyness. Yet she seemed happy when we met. Did you--did she--have
+you any idea she had been planning this for long, or was it sudden?"
+
+The words were out now, the thing he longed to know. It had been writing
+its fiery way through his soul. Had she meant to torture him this way all
+along, or was it the yielding to a sudden impulse that perhaps she had
+already repented? He looked at Marcia with piteous, almost pleading eyes,
+and her tortured young soul would have given anything to have been able to
+tell him what he wanted to know. Yet she could not help him. She knew no
+more than he. She steadied her own nerves and tried to tell all she knew
+or surmised, tried her best to reveal Kate in her true character before
+him. Not that she wished to speak ill of her sister, only that she would
+be true and give this lover a chance to escape some of the pain if
+possible, by seeing the real Kate as she was at home without varnish or
+furbelows. Yet she reflected that those who knew Kate's shallowness well,
+still loved her in spite of it, and always bowed to her wishes.
+
+Gradually their talk subsided into deep silence once more, broken only by
+the jog-trot of the horse or the stray note of some bird.
+
+The road wound into the woods with its fragrant scents of hemlock, spruce
+and wintergreen, and out into a broad, hot, sunny way.
+
+The bees hummed in the flowers, and the grasshoppers sang hotly along the
+side of the dusty road. Over the whole earth there seemed to be the sound
+of a soft simmering, as if nature were boiling down her sweets, the better
+to keep them during the winter.
+
+The strain of the day's excitement and hurry and the weariness of sorrow
+were beginning to tell upon the two travellers. The road was heavy with
+dust and the horse plodded monotonously through it. With the drone of the
+insects and the glare of the afternoon sun, it was not strange that little
+by little a great drowsiness came over Marcia and her head began to droop
+like a poor wilted flower until she was fast asleep.
+
+David noticed that she slept, and drew her head against his shoulder that
+she might rest more comfortably. Then he settled back to his own pain, a
+deeper pang coming as he thought how different it would have been if the
+head resting against his shoulder had been golden instead of brown. Then
+soon he too fell asleep, and the old horse, going slow, and yet more
+slowly, finding no urging voice behind her and seeing no need to hurry
+herself, came at last on the way to the shade of an apple tree, and
+halted, finding it a pleasant place to remain and think until the heat of
+the afternoon was passed. Awhile she ate the tender grass that grew
+beneath the generous shade, and nipped daintily at an apple or two that
+hung within tempting reach. Then she too drooped her white lashes, and
+nodded and drooped, and took an afternoon nap.
+
+A farmer, trundling by in his empty hay wagon, found them so, looked
+curiously at them, then drew up his team and came and prodded David in the
+chest with his long hickory stick.
+
+"Wake up, there, stranger, and move on," he called, as he jumped back into
+his wagon and took up the reins. "We don't want no tipsy folks around
+these parts," and with a loud clatter he rode on.
+
+David, whose strong temperance principles had made him somewhat marked in
+his own neighborhood, roused and flushed over the insinuation, and started
+up the lazy horse, which flung out guiltily upon the way as if to make up
+for lost time. The driver, however, was soon lost in his own troubles,
+which returned upon him with redoubled sharpness as new sorrow always does
+after brief sleep.
+
+But Marcia slept on.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+Owing to the horse's nap by the roadside, it was quite late in the evening
+when they reached the town and David saw the lights of his own
+neighborhood gleaming in the distance. He was glad it was late, for now
+there would be no one to meet them that night. His friends would think,
+perhaps, that they had changed their plans and stopped over night on the
+way, or met with some detention.
+
+Marcia still slept.
+
+David as he drew near the house began to feel that perhaps he had made a
+mistake in carrying out his marriage just as if nothing had happened and
+everything was all right. It would be too great a strain upon him to live
+there in that house without Kate, and come home every night just as he had
+planned it, and not to find her there to greet him as he had hoped. Oh, if
+he might turn even now and flee from it, out into the wilderness somewhere
+and hide himself from human kind, where no one would know, and no one ever
+ask him about his wife!
+
+He groaned in spirit as the horse drew up to the door, and the heavy head
+of the sweet girl who was his wife reminded him that he could not go away,
+but must stay and face the responsibilities of life which he had taken
+upon himself, and bear the pain that was his. It was not the fault of the
+girl he had married. She sorrowed for him truly, and he felt deeply
+grateful for the great thing she had done to save his pride.
+
+He leaned over and touched her shoulder gently to rouse her, but her sleep
+was deep and healthy, the sleep of exhausted youth. She did not rouse nor
+even open her eyes, but murmured half audibly; "David has come, Kate,
+hurry!"
+
+Half guessing what had passed the night he arrived, David stooped and
+tenderly gathered her up in his arms. He felt a bond of kindliness far
+deeper than brotherly love. It was a bond of common suffering, and by her
+own choice she had made herself his comrade in his trouble. He would at
+least save her what suffering he could.
+
+She did not waken as he carried her into the house, nor when he took her
+upstairs and laid her gently upon the white bed that had been prepared for
+the bridal chamber.
+
+The moonlight stole in at the small-paned windows and fell across the
+floor, showing every object in the room plainly. David lighted a candle
+and set it upon the high mahogany chest of drawers. The light flickered
+and played over the sweet face and Marcia slept on.
+
+David went downstairs and put up the horse, and then returned, but Marcia
+had not stirred. He stood a moment looking at her helplessly. It did not
+seem right to leave her this way, and yet it was a pity to disturb her
+sleep, she seemed so weary. It had been a long ride and the day had been
+filled with unwonted excitement. He felt it himself, and what must it be
+for her? She was a woman.
+
+David had the old-fashioned gallant idea of woman.
+
+Clumsily he untied the gay blue ribbons and pulled the jaunty poke bonnet
+out of her way. The luxuriant hair, unused to the confinement of combs,
+fell rich about her sleep-flushed face. Contentedly she nestled down, the
+bonnet out of her way, her red lips parted the least bit with a half
+smile, the black lashes lying long upon her rosy cheek, one childish hand
+upon which gleamed the new wedding ring--that was not hers,--lying relaxed
+and appealing upon her breast, rising and falling with her breath. A
+lovely bride!
+
+David, stern, true, pained and appreciative, suddenly awakened to what a
+dreadful thing he had done.
+
+Here was this lovely woman, her womanhood not yet unfolded from the bud,
+but lovely in promise even as her sister had been in truth, her charms,
+her dreams, her woman's ways, her love, her very life, taken by him as
+ruthlessly and as thoughtlessly as though she had been but a wax doll, and
+put into a home where she could not possibly be what she ought to be,
+because the place belonged to another. Thrown away upon a man without a
+heart! That was what she was! A sacrifice to his pride! There was no other
+way to put it.
+
+It fairly frightened him to think of the promises he had made. "Love,
+honor, cherish," yes, all those he had promised, and in a way he could
+perform, but not in the sense that the wedding ceremony had meant, not in
+the way in which he would have performed them had the bride been Kate, the
+choice of his love. Oh, why, why had this awful thing come upon him!
+
+And now his conscience told him he had done wrong to take this girl away
+from the possibilities of joy in the life that might have been hers, and
+sacrifice her for the sake of saving his own sufferings, and to keep his
+friends from knowing that the girl he was to marry had jilted him.
+
+As he stood before the lovely, defenceless girl her very beauty and
+innocence arraigned him. He felt that God would hold him accountable for
+the act he had so thoughtlessly committed that day, and a burden of
+responsibility settled upon his weight of sorrow that made him groan
+aloud. For a moment his soul cried out against it in rebellion. Why could
+he not have loved this sweet self-sacrificing girl instead of her fickle
+sister? Why? Why? She might perhaps have loved him in return, but now
+nothing could ever be! Earth was filled with a black sorrow, and life
+henceforth meant renunciation and one long struggle to hide his trouble
+from the world.
+
+But the girl whom he had selfishly drawn into the darkness of his sorrow
+with him, she must not be made to suffer more than he could help. He must
+try to make her happy, and keep her as much as possible from knowing what
+she had missed by coming with him! His lips set in stern resolve, and a
+purpose, half prayer, went up on record before God, that he would save her
+as much as he knew how.
+
+Lying helpless so, she appealed to him. Asking nothing she yet demanded
+all from him in the name of true chivalry. How readily had she given up
+all for him! How sweetly she had said she would fill the place left vacant
+by her sister, just to save him pain and humiliation!
+
+A desire to stoop and kiss the fair face came to him, not for affection's
+sake, but reverently, as if to render to her before God some fitting sign
+that he knew and understood her act of self sacrifice, and would not
+presume upon it.
+
+Slowly, as though he were performing a religious ceremony, a sacred duty
+laid upon him on high, David stooped over her, bringing his face to the
+gentle sleeping one. Her sweet breath fanned his cheek like the almost
+imperceptible fragrance of a bud not fully opened yet to give forth its
+sweetness to the world. His soul, awake and keen through the thoughts that
+had just come to him, gave homage to her sweetness, sadly, wistfully, half
+wishing his spirit free to gather this sweetness for his own.
+
+And so he brought his lips to hers, and kissed her, his bride, yet not his
+bride. Kissed her for the second time. That thought came to him with the
+touch of the warm lips and startled him. Had there been something
+significant in the fact that he had met Marcia first and kissed her
+instead of Kate by mistake?
+
+It seemed as though the sleeping lips clung to his lingeringly, and half
+responded to the kiss, as Marcia in her dreams lived over again the kiss
+she had received by her father's gate in the moonlight. Only the dream
+lover was her own and not another's. David, as he lifted up his head and
+looked at her gravely, saw a half smile illuminating her lips as if the
+sleeping soul within had felt the touch and answered to the call.
+
+With a deep sigh he turned away, blew out the candle, and left her with
+the moonbeams in her chamber. He walked sadly to a rear room of the house
+and lay down upon the bed, his whole soul crying out in agony at his
+miserable state.
+
+
+
+Kate, the careless one, who had made all this heart-break and misery, had
+quarreled with her husband already because he did not further some
+expensive whim of hers. She had told him she was sorry she had not stayed
+where she was and carried on her marriage with David as she had planned to
+do. Now she sat sulkily in her room alone, too angry to sleep; while her
+husband smoked sullenly in the barroom below, and drank frequent glasses
+of brandy to fortify himself against Kate's moods.
+
+Kate was considering whether or not she had been a fool in marrying the
+captain instead of David, though she called herself by a much milder word
+than that. The romance was already worn away. She wished for her trunk and
+her pretty furbelows. Her father's word of reconciliation would doubtless
+come in a few days, also the trunks.
+
+After all there was intense satisfaction to Kate in having broken all
+bounds and done as she pleased. Of course it would have been a bit more
+comfortable if David had not been so absurdly in earnest, and believed in
+her so thoroughly. But it was nice to have some one believe in you no
+matter what you did, and David would always do that. It began to look
+doubtful if the captain would. But David would never marry, she was sure,
+and perhaps, by and by, when everything had been forgotten and forgiven,
+she might establish a pleasant relationship with him again. It would be
+charming to coquet with him. He made love so earnestly, and his great eyes
+were so handsome when he looked at one with his whole soul in them. Yes,
+she certainly must keep in with him, for it would be good to have a friend
+like that when her husband was off at sea with his ship. Now that she was
+a married woman she would be free from all such childish trammels as being
+guarded at home and never going anywhere alone. She could go to New York,
+and she would let David know where she was and he would come up on
+business and perhaps take her to the theatre. To be sure, she had heard
+David express views against theatre-going, and she knew he was as much of
+a church man, almost, as her father, but she was sure she could coax him
+to do anything for her, and she had always wanted to go to the theatre.
+His scruples might be strong, but she knew his love for her, and thought
+it was stronger. She had read in his eyes that it would never fail her.
+Yes, she thought, she would begin at once to make a friend of David. She
+would write him a letter asking forgiveness, and then she would keep him
+under her influence. There was no telling what might happen with her
+husband off at sea so much. It was well to be foresighted, besides, it
+would be wholesome for the captain to know she had another friend. He
+might be less stubborn. What a nuisance that the marriage vows had to be
+taken for life! It would be much nicer if they could be put off as easily
+as they were put on. Rather hard on some women perhaps, but she could keep
+any man as long as she chose, and then--she snapped her pretty thumb and
+finger in the air to express her utter disdain for the man whom she chose
+to cast off.
+
+It seemed that Kate, in running away from her father's house and her
+betrothed bridegroom, and breaking the laws of respectable society, had
+with that act given over all attempt at any principle.
+
+So she set herself down to write her letter, with a pout here and a dimple
+there, and as much pretty gentleness as if she had been talking with her
+own bewitching face and eyes quite near to his. She knew she could bewitch
+him if she chose, and she was in the mood just now to choose very much,
+for she was deeply angry with her husband.
+
+She had ever been utterly heartless when she pleased, knowing that it
+needed but her returning smile, sweet as a May morning, to bring her much
+abused subjects fondly to her feet once more. It did not strike her that
+this time she had sinned not only against her friends, but against heaven,
+and God-given love, and that a time of reckoning must come to her,--had
+come, indeed.
+
+She had never believed they would be angry with her, her father least of
+all. She had no thought they would do anything desperate. She had expected
+the wedding would be put off indefinitely, that the servants would be sent
+out hither and yon in hot haste to unbid the guests, upon some pretext of
+accident or illness, and that it would be left to rest until the village
+had ceased to wonder and her real marriage with Captain Leavenworth could
+be announced.
+
+She had counted upon David to stand up for her. She had not understood how
+her father's righteous soul would be stirred to the depths of shame and
+utter disgrace over her wanton action. Not that she would have been in the
+least deterred from doing as she pleased had she understood, only that she
+counted upon too great power with all of them.
+
+When the letter was written it sounded quite pathetic and penitent,
+putting all the blame of her action upon her husband, and making herself
+out a poor, helpless, sweet thing, bewildered by so much love put upon
+her, and suggesting, just in a hint, that perhaps after all she had made a
+mistake not to have kept David's love instead of the wilder, fiercer one.
+She ended by begging David to be her friend forever, and leaving an
+impression with him, though it was but slight, that already shadows had
+crossed her path that made her feel his friendship might be needed some
+day.
+
+It was a letter calculated to drive such a lover as David had been, half
+mad with anguish, even without the fact of his hasty marriage added to the
+situation.
+
+And in due time, by coach, the letter came to David.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER IX
+
+
+The morning sunbeams fell across the floor when Marcia awoke suddenly to a
+sense of her new surroundings. For a moment she could not think where she
+was nor how she came there. She looked about the unfamiliar walls, covered
+with paper decorated in landscapes--a hill in the distance with a tall
+castle among the trees, a blue lake in the foreground and two maidens
+sitting pensively upon a green bank with their arms about one another.
+Marcia liked it. She felt there was a story in it. She would like to
+imagine about the lives of those two girls when she had more time.
+
+There were no pictures in the room to mar those upon the paper, but the
+walls did not look bare. Everything was new and stiff and needed a woman's
+hand to bring the little homey touches, but the newness was a delight to
+the girl. It was as good as the time when she was a little girl and played
+house with Mary Ann down on the old flat stone in the pasture, with acorns
+for cups and saucers, and bits of broken china carefully treasured upon
+the mossy shelves in among the roots of the old elm tree that arched over
+the stone.
+
+She was stiff from the long ride, but her sleep had wonderfully refreshed
+her, and now she was ready to go to work. She wondered as she rose how she
+got upon that bed, how the blue bonnet got untied and laid upon the chair
+beside her. Surely she could not have done it herself and have no memory
+of it. Had she walked upstairs herself, or did some one carry her? Did
+David perhaps? Good kind David! A bird hopped upon the window seat and
+trilled a song, perked his head knowingly at her and flitted away. Marcia
+went to the window to look after him, and was held by the new sights that
+met her gaze. She could catch glimpses of houses through bowers of vines,
+and smoke rising from chimneys. She wondered who lived near, and if there
+were girls who would prove pleasant companions. Then she suddenly
+remembered that she was a girl no longer and must associate with married
+women hereafter.
+
+But suddenly the clock on the church steeple across the way warned her
+that it was late, and with a sense of deserving reprimand she hurried
+downstairs.
+
+The fire was already lighted and David had brought in fresh water. So much
+his intuition had told him was necessary. He had been brought up by three
+maiden aunts who thought that a man in the kitchen was out of his sphere,
+so the kitchen was an unknown quantity to him.
+
+Marcia entered the room as if she were not quite certain of her welcome.
+She was coming into a kingdom she only half understood.
+
+"Good morning," she said shyly, and a lovely color stole into her cheeks.
+Once more David's conscience smote him as her waking beauty intensified
+the impression made the night before.
+
+"Good morning," he said gravely, studying her face as he might have
+studied some poor waif whom he had unknowingly run over in the night and
+picked up to resuscitate. "Are you rested? You were very tired last
+night."
+
+"What a baby I was!" said Marcia deprecatingly, with a soft little gurgle
+of a laugh like a merry brook. David was amazed to find she had two
+dimples located about as Kate's were, only deeper, and more gentle in
+their expression.
+
+"Did I sleep all the afternoon after we left the canal? And did you have
+hard work to get me into the house and upstairs?"
+
+"You slept most soundly," said David, smiling in spite of his heavy heart.
+"It seemed a pity to waken you, so I did the next best thing and put you
+to bed as well as I knew how."
+
+"It was very good of you," said Marcia, coming over to him with her hands
+clasped earnestly, "and I don't know how to thank you."
+
+There was something quaint and old-fashioned in her way of speaking, and
+it struck David pitifully that she should be thanking her husband, the man
+who had pledged himself to care for her all his life. It seemed that
+everywhere he turned his conscience would be continually reproaching him.
+
+It was a dainty breakfast to which they presently sat down. There was
+plenty of bread and fresh butter just from the hands of the best
+butter-maker in the county; the eggs had been laid the day before, and the
+bacon was browned just right. Marcia well knew how to make coffee, there
+was cream rich and yellow as ever came from the cows at home and there
+were blackberries as large and fine every bit as those Marcia picked but a
+few days before for the purchase of her pink sprigged chintz.
+
+David watched her deft movements and all at once keen smiting conscience
+came to remind him that Marcia was defrauded of all the loving interchange
+of mirth that would have been if Kate had been here. Also, keener still
+the thought that Kate had not wanted it: that she had preferred the love
+of another man to his, and that these joys had not been held in dear
+anticipation with her as they had with him. He had been a fool. All these
+months of waiting for his marriage he had thought that he and Kate held
+feelings in common, joys and hopes and tender thoughts of one another;
+and, behold, he was having these feelings all to himself, fool and blind
+that he was! A bitter sigh came to his lips, and Marcia, eager in the
+excitement of getting her first breakfast upon her own responsibility,
+heard and forgot to smile over the completed work. She could hardly eat
+what she had prepared, her heart felt David's sadness so keenly.
+
+Shyly she poured the amber coffee and passed it to David. She was pleased
+that he drank it eagerly and passed his cup back for more. He ate but
+little, but seemed to approve of all she had done.
+
+After breakfast David went down to the office. He had told Marcia that he
+would step over and tell his aunts of their arrival, and they would
+probably come over in the course of the day to greet her. He would be back
+to dinner at twelve. He suggested that she spend her time in resting, as
+she must be weary yet. Then hesitating, he went out and closed the door
+behind him. He waited again on the door stone outside and opened the door
+to ask:
+
+"You won't be lonesome, will you, child?" He had the feeling of troubled
+responsibility upon him.
+
+"Oh, no!" said Marcia brightly, smiling back. She thought it so kind of
+him to take the trouble to think of her. She was quite anticipating a trip
+of investigation over her new domain, and the pleasure of feeling that she
+was mistress and might do as she pleased. Yet she stood by the window
+after he was gone and watched his easy strides down the street with a
+feeling of mingled pride and disappointment. It was a very nice play she
+was going through, and David was handsome, and her young heart swelled
+with pride to belong to him, but after all there was something left out. A
+great lack, a great unknown longing unsatisfied. What was it? What made
+it? Was it David's sorrow?
+
+She turned with a sigh as he disappeared around a curve in the sidewalk
+and was lost to view. Then casting aside the troubles which were trying to
+settle upon her, she gave herself up to a morning of pure delight.
+
+She flew about the kitchen putting things to rights, washing the delicate
+sprigged china with its lavendar sprays and buff bands, and putting it
+tenderly upon the shelves behind the glass doors; shoving the table back
+against the wall demurely with dropped leaves. It did not take long.
+
+There was no need to worry about the dinner. There was a leg of lamb
+beautifully cooked, half a dozen pies, their flaky crusts bearing witness
+to the culinary skill of the aunts, a fruit cake, a pound cake, a jar of
+delectable cookies and another of fat sugary doughnuts, three loaves of
+bread, and a sheet of puffy rusks with their shining tops dusted with
+sugar. Besides the preserve closet was rich in all kinds of preserves,
+jellies and pickles. No, it would not take long to get dinner.
+
+It was into the great parlor that Marcia peeped first. It had been toward
+that room that her hopes and fears had turned while she washed the dishes.
+
+The Schuylers were one of the few families in those days that possessed a
+musical instrument, and it had been the delight of Marcia's heart. She
+seemed to have a natural talent for music, and many an hour she spent at
+the old spinet drawing tender tones from the yellowed keys. The spinet had
+been in the family for a number of years and very proud had the Schuyler
+girls been of it. Kate could rattle off gay waltzes and merry, rollicking
+tunes that fairly made the feet of the sedate village maidens flutter in
+time to their melody, but Marcia's music had always been more tender and
+spiritual. Dear old hymns, she loved, and some of the old classics.
+"Stupid old things without any tune," Kate called them. But Marcia
+persevered in playing them until she could bring out the beautiful
+passages in a way that at least satisfied herself. Her one great desire
+had been to take lessons of a real musician and be able to play the
+wonderful things that the old masters had composed. It is true that very
+few of these had come in her way. One somewhat mutilated copy of Handel's
+"Creation," a copy of Haydn's "Messiah," and a few fragments of an old
+book of Bach's Fugues and Preludes. Many of these she could not play at
+all, but others she had managed to pick out. A visit from a cousin who
+lived in Boston and told of the concerts given there by the Handel and
+Haydn Society had served to strengthen her deeper interest in music. The
+one question that had been going over in her mind ever since she awoke had
+been whether there was a musical instrument in the house. She felt that if
+there was not she would miss the old spinet in her father's house more
+than any other thing about her childhood's home.
+
+So with fear and trepidation she entered the darkened room, where the
+careful aunts had drawn the thick green shades. The furniture stood about
+in shadowed corners, and every footfall seemed a fearsome thing.
+
+Marcia's bright eyes hurried furtively about, noting the great glass knobs
+that held the lace curtains with heavy silk cords, the round mahogany
+table, with its china vase of "everlastings," the high, stiff-backed
+chairs all decked in elaborate antimacassars of intricate pattern. Then,
+in the furthest corner, shrouded in dark coverings she found what she was
+searching for. With a cry she sprang to it, touched its polished wood with
+gentle fingers, and lovingly felt for the keyboard. It was closed. Marcia
+pushed up the shade to see better, and opened the instrument cautiously.
+
+It was a pianoforte of the latest pattern, and with exclamations of
+delight she sat down and began to strike chords, softly at first, as if
+half afraid, then more boldly. The tone was sweeter than the old spinet,
+or the harpsichord owned by Squire Hartrandt. Marcia marvelled at the
+volume of sound. It filled the room and seemed to echo through the empty
+halls.
+
+She played soft little airs from memory, and her soul was filled with joy.
+Now she knew she would never be lonely in the new life, for she would
+always have this wonderful instrument to flee to when she felt homesick.
+
+Across the hall were two square rooms, the front one furnished as a
+library. Here were rows of books behind glass doors. Marcia looked at them
+with awe. Might she read them all? She resolved to cultivate her mind that
+she might be a fit companion for David. She knew he was wise beyond his
+years for she had heard her father say so. She went nearer and scanned the
+titles, and at once there looked out to her from the rows of bindings a
+few familiar faces of books she had read and re-read. "Thaddeus of
+Warsaw," "The Scottish Chiefs," "Mysteries of Udolpho," "Romance of the
+Forest," "Baker's Livy," "Rollin's History," "Pilgrim's Progress," and a
+whole row of Sir Walter Scott's novels. She caught her breath with
+delight. What pleasure was opening before her! All of Scott! And she had
+read but one!
+
+It was with difficulty she tore herself away from the tempting shelves and
+went on to the rest of the house.
+
+Back of David's library was a sunny sitting room, or breakfast room,--or
+"dining room" as it would be called at the present time. In Marcia's time
+the family ate most of their meals in one end of the large bright kitchen,
+that end furnished with a comfortable lounge, a few bookshelves, a thick
+ingrain carpet, and a blooming geranium in the wide window seat. But there
+was always the other room for company, for "high days and holidays."
+
+Out of this morning room the pantry opened with its spicy odors of
+preserves and fruit cake.
+
+Marcia looked about her well pleased. The house itself was a part of
+David's inheritance, his mother's family homestead. Things were all on a
+grand scale for a bride. Most brides began in a very simple way and
+climbed up year by year. How Kate would have liked it all! David must have
+had in mind her fastidious tastes, and spent a great deal of money in
+trying to please her. That piano must have been very expensive. Once more
+Marcia felt how David had loved Kate and a pang went through her as she
+wondered however he was to live without her. Her young soul had not yet
+awakened to the question of how _she_ was to live _with_ him, while his
+heart went continually mourning for one who was lost to him forever.
+
+The rooms upstairs were all pleasant, spacious, and comfortably furnished.
+There was no suggestion of bareness or anything left unfinished. Much of
+the furniture was old, having belonged to David's mother, and was in a
+state of fine preservation, a possession of which to be justly proud.
+
+There were four rooms besides the one in which Marcia had slept: a front
+and back on the opposite side of the hall, a room just back of her own,
+and one at the end of the hall over the large kitchen.
+
+She entered them all and looked about. The three beside her own in the
+front part of the house were all large and airy, furnished with high
+four-posted bedsteads, and pretty chintz hangings. Each was immaculate in
+its appointments. Cautiously she lifted the latch of the back room. David
+had not slept in any of the others, for the bedcoverings and pillows were
+plump and undisturbed. Ah! It was here in the back room that he had
+carried his heavy heart, as far away from the rest of the house as
+possible!
+
+The bed was rumpled as if some one had thrown himself heavily down without
+stopping to undress. There was water in the washbowl and a towel lay
+carelessly across a chair as if it had been hastily used. There was a
+newspaper on the bureau and a handkerchief on the floor. Marcia looked
+sadly about at these signs of occupancy, her eyes dwelling upon each
+detail. It was here that David had suffered, and her loving heart longed
+to help him in his suffering.
+
+But there was nothing in the room to keep her, and remembering the fire
+she had left upon the hearth, which must be almost spent and need
+replenishing by this time, she turned to go downstairs.
+
+Just at the door something caught her eye under the edge of the chintz
+valence round the bed. It was but the very tip of the corner of an old
+daguerreotype, but for some reason Marcia was moved to stoop and draw it
+from its concealment. Then she saw it was her sister's saucy, pretty face
+that laughed back at her in defiance from the picture.
+
+As if she had touched something red hot Marcia dropped it, and pushed it
+with her foot far back under the bed. Then shutting the door quickly she
+went downstairs. Was it always to be thus? Would Kate ever blight all her
+joy from this time forth?
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER X
+
+
+Marcia's cheeks were flushed when David came home to dinner, for at the
+last she had to hurry.
+
+As he stood in the doorway of the wide kitchen and caught the odor of the
+steaming platter of green corn she was putting upon the table, David
+suddenly realized that he had eaten scarcely anything for breakfast.
+
+Also, he felt a certain comfort from the sweet steady look of wistful
+sympathy in Marcia's eyes. Did he fancy it, or was there a new look upon
+her face, a more reserved bearing, less childish, more touched by sad
+knowledge of life and its bitterness? It was mere fancy of course,
+something he had just not noticed. He had seen so little of her before.
+
+In the heart of the maiden there stirred a something which she did not
+quite understand, something brought to life by the sight of her sister's
+daguerreotype lying at the edge of the valence, where it must have fallen
+from David's pocket without his knowledge as he lay asleep. It had seemed
+to put into tangible form the solid wall of fact that hung between her and
+any hope of future happiness as a wife, and for the first time she too
+began to realize what she had sacrificed in thus impetuously throwing her
+young life into the breach that it might be healed. But she was not
+sorry,--not yet, anyway,--only frightened, and filled with dreary
+forebodings.
+
+The meal was a pleasant one, though constrained. David roused himself to
+be cheerful for Marcia's sake, as he would have done with any other
+stranger, and the girl, suddenly grown sensitive, felt it, and appreciated
+it, yet did not understand why it made her unhappy.
+
+She was anxious to please him, and kept asking if the potatoes were
+seasoned right and if his corn were tender, and if he wouldn't have
+another cup of coffee. Her cheeks were quite red with the effort at
+matronly dignity when David was finally through his dinner and gone back
+to the office, and two big tears came and sat in her eyes for a moment,
+but were persuaded with a determined effort to sink back again into those
+unfathomable wells that lie in the depths of a woman's eyes. She longed to
+get out of doors and run wild and free in the old south pasture for
+relief. She did not know how different it all was from the first dinner of
+the ordinary young married couple; so stiff and formal, with no gentle
+touches, no words of love, no glances that told more than words. And yet,
+child as she was, she felt it, a lack somewhere, she knew not what.
+
+But training is a great thing. Marcia had been trained to be on the alert
+for the next duty and to do it before she gave herself time for any of her
+own thoughts. The dinner table was awaiting her attention, and there was
+company coming.
+
+She glanced at the tall clock in the hall and found she had scarcely an
+hour before she might expect David's aunts, for David had brought her word
+that they would come and spend the afternoon and stay to tea.
+
+She shrank from the ordeal and wished David had seen fit to stay and
+introduce her. It would have been a relief to have had him for a shelter.
+Somehow she knew that he would have stayed if it had been Kate, and that
+thought pained her, with a quick sharpness like the sting of an insect.
+She wondered if she were growing selfish, that it should hurt to find
+herself of so little account. And, yet, it was to be expected, and she
+must stop thinking about it. Of course, Kate was the one he had chosen and
+Kate would always be the only one to him.
+
+It did not take her long to reduce the dinner table to order and put all
+things in readiness for tea time; and in doing her work Marcia's thoughts
+flew to pleasanter themes. She wondered what Dolly and Debby, the servants
+at home, would say if they could see her pretty china and the nice
+kitchen. They had always been fond of her, and naturally her new honors
+made her wish to have her old friends see her. What would Mary Ann say?
+What fun it would be to have Mary Ann there sometime. It would be almost
+like the days when they had played house under the old elm on the big flat
+stone, only this would be a real house with real sprigged china instead of
+bits of broken things. Then she fell into a song, one they sang in school,
+
+            "Sister, thou wast mild and lovely,
+               Gentle as the summer breeze,
+             Pleasant as the air of evening
+               When it floats among the trees."
+
+But the first words set her to thinking of her own sister, and how little
+the song applied to her, and she thought with a sigh how much better it
+would have been, how much less bitter, if Kate had been that way and had
+lain down to die and they could have laid her away in the little hilly
+graveyard under the weeping willows, and felt about her as they did about
+the girl for whom that song was written.
+
+The work was done, and Marcia arrayed in one of the simplest of Kate's
+afternoon frocks, when the brass knocker sounded through the house,
+startling her with its unfamiliar sound.
+
+Breathlessly she hurried downstairs. The crucial moment had come when she
+must stand to meet her new relatives alone. With her hand trembling she
+opened the door, but there was only one person standing on the stoop, a
+girl of about her own age, perhaps a few months younger. Her hair was red,
+her face was freckled, and her blue eyes under the red lashes danced with
+repressed mischief. Her dress was plain and she wore a calico sunbonnet of
+chocolate color.
+
+"Let me in quick before Grandma sees me," she demanded unceremoniously,
+entering at once before there was opportunity for invitation. "Grandma
+thinks I've gone to the store, so she won't expect me for a little while.
+I was jest crazy to see how you looked. I've ben watchin' out o' the
+window all the morning, but I couldn't ketch a glimpse of you. When David
+came out this morning I thought you'd sure be at the kitchen door to kiss
+him good-bye, but you wasn't, and I watched every chance I could get, but
+I couldn't see you till you run out in the garden fer corn. Then I saw you
+good, fer I was out hangin' up dish towels. You didn't have a sunbonnet
+on, so I could see real well. And when I saw how young you was I made up
+my mind I'd get acquainted in spite of Grandma. You don't mind my comin'
+over this way without bein' dressed up, do you? There wouldn't be any way
+to get here without Grandma seeing me, you know, if I put on my Sunday
+clo'es."
+
+"I'm glad you came!" said Marcia impulsively, feeling a rush of something
+like tears in her throat at the relief of delay from the aunts. "Come in
+and sit down. Who are you, and why wouldn't your Grandmother like you to
+come?"
+
+The strange girl laughed a mirthless laugh.
+
+"Me? Oh, I'm Mirandy. Nobody ever calls me anything but Mirandy. My pa
+left ma when I was a baby an' never come back, an' ma died, and I live
+with Grandma Heath. An' Grandma's mad 'cause David didn't marry Hannah
+Heath. She wanted him to an' she did everything she could to make him pay
+'tention to Hannah, give her fine silk frocks, two of 'em, and a real pink
+parasol, but David he never seemed to know the parasol was pink at all,
+fer he'd never offer to hold it over Hannah even when Grandma made him
+walk with her home from church ahead of us. So when it come out that David
+was really going to marry, and wouldn't take Hannah, Grandma got as mad as
+could be and said we never any of us should step over his door sill. But
+I've stepped, I have, and Grandma can't help herself."
+
+"And who is Hannah Heath?" questioned the dazed young bride. It appeared
+there was more than a sister to be taken into account.
+
+"Hannah? Oh, Hannah is my cousin, Uncle Jim's oldest daughter, and she's
+getting on toward thirty somewhere. She has whitey-yellow hair and light
+blue eyes and is tall and real pretty. She held her head high fer a good
+many years waitin' fer David, and I guess she feels she made a mistake
+now. I noticed she bowed real sweet to Hermon Worcester last Sunday and
+let him hold her parasol all the way to Grandma's gate. Hannah was mad as
+hops when she heard that you had gold hair and blue eyes, for it did seem
+hard to be beaten by a girl of the same kind? but you haven't, have you?
+Your hair is almost black and your eyes are brownie-brown. You're years
+younger than Hannah, too. My! Won't she be astonished when she sees you!
+But I don't understand how it got around about your having gold hair. It
+was a man that stopped at your father's house once told it----"
+
+"It was my sister!" said Marcia, and then blushed crimson to think how
+near she had come to revealing the truth which must not be known.
+
+"Your sister? Have you got a sister with gold hair?"
+
+"Yes, he must have seen her," said Marcia confusedly. She was not used to
+evasion.
+
+"How funny!" said Miranda. "Well, I'm glad he did, for it made Hannah so
+jealous it was funny. But I guess she'll get a set-back when she sees how
+young you are. You're not as pretty as I thought you would be, but I
+believe I like you better."
+
+Miranda's frank speech reminded Marcia of Mary Ann and made her feel quite
+at home with her curious visitor. She did not mind being told she was not
+up to the mark of beauty. From her point of view she was not nearly so
+pretty as Kate, and her only fear was that her lack of beauty might reveal
+the secret and bring confusion to David. But she need not have feared: no
+one watching the two girls, as they sat in the large sunny room and faced
+each other, but would have smiled to think the homely crude girl could
+suggest that the other calm, cool bud of womanhood was not as near
+perfection of beauty as a bud could be expected to come. There was always
+something child-like about Marcia's face, especially her profile,
+something deep and other-world-like in her eyes, that gave her an
+appearance so distinguished from other girls that the word "pretty" did
+not apply, and surface observers might have passed her by when searching
+for prettiness, but not so those who saw soul beauties.
+
+But Miranda's time was limited, and she wanted to make as much of it as
+possible.
+
+"Say, I heard you making music this morning. Won't you do it for me? I'd
+just love to hear you."
+
+Marcia's face lit up with responsive enthusiasm, and she led the way to
+the darkened parlor and folded back the covers of the precious piano. She
+played some tender little airs she loved as she would have played them for
+Mary Ann, and the two young things stood there together, children in
+thought and feeling, half a generation apart in position, and neither
+recognized the difference.
+
+"My land!" said the visitor, "'f I could play like that I wouldn't care ef
+I had freckles and no father and red hair," and looking up Marcia saw
+tears in the light blue eyes, and knew she had a kindred feeling in her
+heart for Miranda.
+
+They had been talking a minute or two when the knocker suddenly sounded
+through the long hall again making both girls start. Miranda boldly
+tiptoed over to the front window and peeped between the green slats of the
+Venetian blind to see who was at the door, while Marcia started guiltily
+and quickly closed the instrument.
+
+"It's David's aunts," announced Miranda in a stage whisper hurriedly. "I
+might 'a' known they would come this afternoon. Well, I had first try at
+you anyway, and I like you real well. May I come again and hear you play?
+You go quick to the door, and I'll slip into the kitchen till they get in,
+and then I'll go out the kitchen door and round the house out the little
+gate so Grandma won't see me. I must hurry for I ought to have been back
+ten minutes ago."
+
+"But you haven't been to the store," said Marcia in a dismayed whisper.
+
+"Oh, well, that don't matter! I'll tell her they didn't have what she sent
+me for. Good-bye. You better hurry." So saying, she disappeared into the
+kitchen; and Marcia, startled by such easy morality, stood dazed until the
+knocker sounded forth again, this time a little more peremptorily, as the
+elder aunt took her turn at it.
+
+And so at last Marcia was face to face with the Misses Spafford.
+
+They came in, each with her knitting in a black silk bag on her slim arm,
+and greeted the flushed, perturbed Marcia with gentle, righteous, rigid
+inspection. She felt with the first glance that she was being tried in the
+fire, and that it was to be no easy ordeal through which she was to pass.
+They had come determined to sift her to the depths and know at once the
+worst of what their beloved nephew had brought upon himself. If they found
+aught wrong with her they meant to be kindly and loving with her, but they
+meant to take it out of her. This had been the unspoken understanding
+between them as they wended their dignified, determined way to David's
+house that afternoon, and this was what Marcia faced as she opened the
+door for them.
+
+She gasped a little, as any girl overwhelmed thus might have done. She did
+not tilt her chin in defiance as Kate would have done. The thought of
+David came to support her, and she grasped for her own little part and
+tried to play it creditably. She did not know whether the aunts knew of
+her true identity or not, but she was not left long in doubt.
+
+"My dear, we have long desired to know you, of whom we have heard so
+much," recited Miss Amelia, with slightly agitated mien, as she bestowed a
+cool kiss of duty upon Marcia's warm cheek. It chilled the girl, like the
+breath from a funeral flower.
+
+"Yes, it is indeed a pleasure to us to at last look upon our dear nephew's
+wife," said Miss Hortense quite precisely, and laid the sister kiss upon
+the other cheek. In spite of her there flitted through Marcia's brain the
+verse, "Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the
+other also." Then she was shocked at her own irreverence and tried to put
+away a hysterical desire to laugh.
+
+The aunts, too, were somewhat taken aback. They had not looked for so
+girlish a wife. She was not at all what they had pictured. David had tried
+to describe Kate to them once, and this young, sweet, disarming thing did
+not in the least fit their preconceived ideas of her. What should they do?
+How could they carry on a campaign planned against a certain kind of
+enemy, when lo, as they came upon the field of action the supposed enemy
+had taken another and more bewildering form than the one for whom they had
+prepared. They were for the moment silent, gathering their thoughts, and
+trying to fit their intended tactics to the present situation.
+
+During this operation Marcia helped them to remove their bonnets and silk
+capes and to lay them neatly on the parlor sofa. She gave them chairs,
+suggested palm-leaf fans, and looked about, for the moment forgetting that
+this was not her old home plentifully supplied with those gracious breeze
+wafters.
+
+They watched her graceful movements, those two angular old ladies, and
+marvelled over her roundness and suppleness. They saw with appalled hearts
+what a power youth and beauty might have over a man. Perhaps she might be
+even worse than they had feared, though if you could have heard them talk
+about their nephew's coming bride to their neighbors for months
+beforehand, you would have supposed they knew her to be a model in every
+required direction. But their stately pride required that of them, an
+outward loyalty at least. Now that loyalty was to be tried, and Marcia had
+two old, narrow and well-fortified hearts to conquer ere her way would be
+entirely smooth.
+
+Well might Madam Schuyler have been proud of her pupil as alone and
+unaided she faced the trying situation and mastered it in a sweet and
+unassuming way.
+
+They began their inquisition at once, so soon as they were seated, and the
+preliminary sentences uttered. The gleaming knitting needles seemed to
+Marcia like so many swarming, vindictive bees, menacing her peace of mind.
+
+"You look young, child, to have the care of so large a house as this,"
+said Aunt Amelia, looking at Marcia over her spectacles as if she were
+expected to take the first bite out of her. "It's a great responsibility!"
+she shut her thin lips tightly and shook her head, as if she had said:
+"It's a great _impossibility_."
+
+"Have you ever had the care of a house?" asked Miss Hortense, going in a
+little deeper. "David likes everything nice, you know, he has always been
+used to it."
+
+There was something in the tone, and in the set of the bow on Aunt
+Hortense's purple-trimmed cap that roused the spirit in Marcia.
+
+"I think I rather enjoy housework," she responded coolly. This unexpected
+statement somewhat mollified the aunts. They had heard to the contrary
+from some one who had lived in the same town with the Schuylers. Kate's
+reputation was widely known, as that of a spoiled beauty, who did not care
+to work, and would do whatever she pleased. The aunts had entertained many
+forebodings from the few stray hints an old neighbor of Kate's had dared
+to utter in their hearing.
+
+The talk drifted at once into household matters, as though that were the
+first division of the examination the young bride was expected to undergo.
+Marcia took early opportunity to still further mollify her visitors by her
+warmest praise of the good things with which the pantry and store-closet
+had been filled. The expression that came upon the two old faces was that
+of receiving but what is due. If the praise had not been forthcoming they
+would have marked it down against her, but it counted for very little with
+them, warm as it was.
+
+"Can you make good bread?"
+
+The question was flung out by Aunt Hortense like a challenge, and the very
+set of her nostrils gave Marcia warning. But it was in a relieved voice
+that ended almost in a ripple of laugh that she answered quite assuredly:
+"Oh, yes, indeed. I can make beautiful bread. I just love to make it,
+too!"
+
+"But how do you make it?" quickly questioned Aunt Amelia, like a repeating
+rifle. If the first shot had not struck home, the second was likely to.
+"Do you use hop yeast? Potatoes? I thought so. Don't know how to make
+salt-rising, do you? It's just what might have been expected."
+
+"David has always been used to salt-rising bread," said Aunt Hortense with
+a grim set of her lips as though she were delivering a judgment. "He was
+raised on it."
+
+"If David does not like my bread," said Marcia with a rising color and a
+nervous little laugh, "then I shall try to make some that he does like."
+
+There was an assurance about the "if" that did not please the oracle.
+
+"David was raised on salt-rising bread," said Aunt Hortense again as if
+that settled it. "We can send you down a loaf or two every time we bake
+until you learn how."
+
+"I'm sure it's very kind of you," said Marcia, not at all pleased, "but I
+do not think that will be necessary. David has always seemed to like our
+bread when he visited at home. Indeed he often praised it."
+
+"David would not be impolite," said Aunt Amelia, after a suitable pause in
+which Marcia felt disapprobation in the air. "It would be best for us to
+send it. David's health might suffer if he was not suitably nourished."
+
+Marcia's cheeks grew redder. Bread had been one of her stepmother's strong
+points, well infused into her young pupil. Madam Schuyler had never been
+able to say enough to sufficiently express her scorn of people who made
+salt-rising bread.
+
+"My stepmother made beautiful bread," she said quite childishly; "she did
+not think salt-rising was so healthy as that made from hop yeast. She
+disliked the odor in the house from salt-rising bread."
+
+Now indeed the aunts exchanged glances of "On to the combat." Four red
+spots flamed giddily out in their four sallow cheeks, and eight shining
+knitting needles suddenly became idle. The moment was too momentous to
+work. It was as they feared, even the worst. For, be it known, salt-rising
+bread was one of their most tender points, and for it they would fight to
+the bitter end. They looked at her with four cold, forbidding, steely,
+spectacled eyes, and Marcia felt that their looks said volumes: "And she
+so young too! To be so out of the way!" was what they might have expressed
+to one another. Marcia felt she had been unwise in uttering her honest,
+indignant sentiments concerning salt-rising bread.
+
+The pause was long and impressive, and the bride felt like a naughty
+little four-year-old.
+
+At last Aunt Hortense took up her knitting again with the air that all was
+over and an unrevokable verdict was passed upon the culprit.
+
+"People have never seemed to stay away from our house on that account,"
+she said dryly. "I'm sure I hope it will not be so disagreeable that it
+will affect your coming to see us sometimes with David."
+
+There was an iciness in her manner that seemed to suggest a long line of
+offended family portraits of ancestors frowning down upon her.
+
+Marcia's cheeks flamed crimson and her heart fairly stopped beating.
+
+"I beg your pardon," she said quickly, "I did not mean to say anything
+disagreeable. I am sure I shall be glad to come as often as you will let
+me." As she said it Marcia wondered if that were quite true. Would she
+ever be glad to go to the home of those two severe-looking aunts? There
+were three of them. Perhaps the other one would be even more withered and
+severe than these two. A slight shudder passed over Marcia, and a sudden
+realization of a side of married life that had never come into her
+thoughts before. For a moment she longed with all the intensity of a child
+for her father's house and the shelter of his loving protection, amply
+supported by her stepmother's capable, self-sufficient, comforting
+countenance. Her heart sank with the fear that she would never be able to
+do justice to the position of David's wife, and David would be
+disappointed in her and sorry he had accepted her sacrifice. She roused
+herself to do better, and bit her tongue to remind it that it must make no
+more blunders. She praised the garden, the house and the furnishings, in
+voluble, eager, girlish language until the thin lines of lips relaxed and
+the drawn muscles of the aunts' cheeks took on a less severe aspect. They
+liked to be appreciated, and they certainly had taken a great deal of
+pains with the house--for David's sake--not for hers. They did not care to
+have her deluded by the idea that they had done it for her sake. David was
+to them a young god, and with this one supreme idea of his supremacy they
+wished to impress his young wife. It was a foregone conclusion in their
+minds that no mere pretty young girl was capable of appreciating David, as
+could they, who had watched him from babyhood, and pampered and petted and
+been severe with him by turns, until if he had not had the temper of an
+angel he would surely have been spoiled.
+
+"We did our best to make the house just as David would have wished to have
+it," said Aunt Amelia at last, a self-satisfied shadow of what answered
+for a smile with her, passing over her face for a moment.
+
+"We did not at all approve of this big house, nor indeed of David's
+setting up in a separate establishment for himself," said Aunt Hortense,
+taking up her knitting again. "We thought it utterly unnecessary and
+uneconomical, when he might have brought his wife home to us, but he
+seemed to think you would want a house to yourself, so we did the best we
+could."
+
+There was a martyr-like air in Aunt Hortense's words that made Marcia feel
+herself again a criminal, albeit she knew she was suffering vicariously.
+But in her heart she felt a sudden thankfulness that she was spared the
+trial of living daily under the scrutiny of these two, and she blest David
+for his thoughtfulness, even though it had not been meant for her. She
+went into pleased ecstasies once more over the house, and its furnishings,
+and ended by her pleasure over the piano.
+
+There was grim stillness when she touched upon that subject. The aunts did
+not approve of that musical instrument, that was plain. Marcia wondered if
+they always paused so long before speaking when they disapproved, in order
+to show their displeasure. In fact, did they always disapprove of
+everything?
+
+"You will want to be very careful of it," said Aunt Amelia, looking at the
+disputed article over her glasses, "it cost a good deal of money. It was
+the most foolish thing I ever knew David to do, buying that."
+
+"Yes," said Aunt Hortense, "you will not want to use it much, it might get
+scratched. It has a fine polish. I'd keep it closed up only when I had
+company. You ought to be very proud to have a husband who could buy a
+thing like that. There's not many has them. When I was a girl my
+grandfather had a spinet, the only one for miles around, and it was taken
+great care of. The case hadn't a scratch on it."
+
+Marcia had started toward the piano intending to open it and play for her
+new relatives, but she halted midway in the room and came back to her seat
+after that speech, feeling that she must just sit and hold her hands until
+it was time to get supper, while these dreadful aunts picked her to
+pieces, body, soul and spirit.
+
+It was with great relief at last that she heard David's step and knew she
+might leave the room and put the tea things upon the table.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER XI
+
+
+They got through the supper without any trouble, and the aunts went home
+in the early twilight, each with her bonnet strings tied precisely, her
+lace mitts drawn smoothly over her bony hands, and her little knitting bag
+over her right arm. They walked decorously up the shaded, elm-domed
+street, each mindful of her aristocratic instep, and trying to walk erect
+as in the days when they were gazed upon with admiration, knowing that
+still an air of former greatness hovered about them wherever they went.
+
+They had brightened considerably at the supper table, under the genial
+influence of David's presence. They came as near to worshiping David as
+one can possibly come to worshiping a human being. David, desirous above
+all things of blinding their keen, sure-to-say-"I-told-you-so" old eyes,
+roused to be his former gay self with them, and pleased them so that they
+did not notice how little lover-like reference he made to his bride, who
+was decidedly in the background for the time, the aunts, perhaps
+purposely, desiring to show her a wife's true place,--at least the true
+place of a wife of a David.
+
+They had allowed her to bring their things and help them on with capes and
+bonnets, and, when they were ready to leave, Aunt Amelia put out a
+lifeless hand, that felt in its silk mitt like a dead fish in a net, and
+said to Marcia:
+
+"Our sister Clarinda is desirous of seeing David's wife. She wished us
+most particularly to give you her love and say to you that she wishes you
+to come to her at the earliest possible moment. You know she is lame and
+cannot easily get about."
+
+"Young folks should always be ready to wait upon their elders," said Aunt
+Hortense, grimly. "Come as soon as you can,--that is, if you think you can
+stand the smell of salt-rising."
+
+Marcia's face flushed painfully, and she glanced quickly at David to see
+if he had noticed what his aunt had said, but David was already
+anticipating the moment when he would be free to lay aside his mask and
+bury his face in his hands and his thoughts in sadness.
+
+Marcia's heart sank as she went about clearing off the supper things. Was
+life always to be thus? Would she be forever under the espionage of those
+two grim spectres of women, who seemed, to her girlish imagination, to
+have nothing about them warm or loving or woman-like?
+
+She seemed to herself to be standing outside of a married life and looking
+on at it as one might gaze on a panorama. It was all new and painful, and
+she was one of the central figures expected to act on through all the
+pictures, taking another's place, yet doing it as if it were her own. She
+glanced over at David's pale, grave face, set in its sadness, and a sharp
+pain went through her heart. Would he ever get over it? Would life never
+be more cheerful than it now was?
+
+He spoke to her occasionally, in a pleasant abstracted way, as to one who
+understood him and was kind not to trouble his sadness, and he lighted a
+candle for her when the work was done and said he hoped she would rest
+well, that she must still be weary from the long journey. And so she went
+up to her room again.
+
+She did not go to bed at once, but sat down by the window looking out on
+the moonlit street. There had been some sort of a meeting at the church
+across the way, and the people were filing out and taking their various
+ways home, calling pleasant good nights, and speaking cheerily of the
+morrow. The moon, though beginning to wane, was bright and cast sharp
+shadows. Marcia longed to get out into the night. If she could have got
+downstairs without being heard she would have slipped out into the garden.
+But downstairs she could hear David pacing back and forth like some hurt,
+caged thing. Steadily, dully, he walked from the front hall back into the
+kitchen and back again. There was no possibility of escaping his notice.
+Marcia felt as if she might breathe freer in the open air, so she leaned
+far out of her window and looked up and down the street, and thought.
+Finally,--her heart swelled to bursting, as young hearts with their first
+little troubles will do,--she leaned down her dark head upon the window
+seat and wept and wept, alone.
+
+It was the next morning at breakfast that David told her of the
+festivities that were planned in honor of their home coming. He spoke as
+if they were a great trial through which they both must pass in order to
+have any peace, and expressed his gratitude once more that she had been
+willing to come here with him and pass through it. Marcia had the
+impression, after he was done speaking and had gone away to the office,
+that he felt that she had come here merely for these few days of ceremony
+and after they were passed she was dismissed, her duty done, and she might
+go home. A great lump arose in her throat and she suddenly wished very
+much indeed that it were so. For if it were, how much, how very much she
+would enjoy queening it for a few days--except for David's sadness. But
+already, there had begun to be an element to her in that sadness which in
+spite of herself she resented. It was a heavy burden which she began dimly
+to see would be harder and harder to bear as the days went by. She had not
+yet begun to think of the time before her in years.
+
+They were to go to the aunts' to tea that evening, and after tea a company
+of David's old friends--or rather the old friends of David's aunts--were
+coming in to meet them. This the aunts had planned: but it seemed they had
+not counted her worthy to be told of the plans, and had only divulged them
+to David. Marcia had not thought that a little thing could annoy her so
+much, but she found it vexed her more and more as she thought upon it
+going about her work.
+
+There was not so much to be done in the house that morning after the
+breakfast things were cleared away. Dinners and suppers would not be much
+of a problem for some days to come, for the house was well stocked with
+good things.
+
+The beds done and the rooms left in dainty order with the sweet summer
+breeze blowing the green tassels on the window shades, Marcia went softly
+down like some half guilty creature to the piano. She opened it and was
+forthwith lost in delight of the sounds her own fingers brought forth.
+
+She had been playing perhaps half an hour when she became conscious of
+another presence in the room. She looked up with a start, feeling that
+some one had been there for some time, she could not tell just how long.
+Peering into the shadowy room lighted only from the window behind her, she
+made out a head looking in at the door, the face almost hidden by a
+capacious sunbonnet. She was not long in recognizing her visitor of the
+day before. It was like a sudden dropping from a lofty mountain height
+down into a valley of annoyance to hear Miranda's sharp metallic voice:
+
+"Morning!" she courtesied, coming in as soon as she perceived that she was
+seen. "At it again? I ben listening sometime. It's as pretty as Silas
+Drew's harmonicker when he comes home evenings behind the cows."
+
+Marcia drew her hands sharply from the keys as if she had been struck.
+Somehow Miranda and music were inharmonious. She scarcely knew what to
+say. She felt as if her morning were spoiled. But Miranda was too full of
+her own errand to notice the clouded face and cool welcome. "Say, you
+can't guess how I got over here. I'll tell you. You're going over to the
+Spafford house to-night, ain't you? and there's going to be a lot of folks
+there. Of course we all know all about it. It's been planned for months.
+And my cousin Hannah Heath has an invite. You can't think how fond Miss
+Amelia and Miss Hortense are of her. They tried their level best to make
+David pay attention to her, but it didn't work. Well, she was talking
+about what she'd wear. She's had three new frocks made last week, all
+frilled and fancy. You see she don't want to let folks think she is down
+in the mouth the least bit about David. She'll likely make up to you, to
+your face, a whole lot, and pretend she's the best friend you've got in
+the world. But I've just got this to say, don't you be too sure of her
+friendship. She's smooth as butter, but she can give you a slap in the
+face if you don't serve her purpose. I don't mind telling you for she's
+given me many a one," and the pale eyes snapped in unison with the color
+of her hair. "Well, you see I heard her talking to Grandma, and she said
+she'd give anything to know what you were going to wear to-night."
+
+"How curious!" said Marcia surprised. "I'm sure I do not see why she
+should care!" There was the coolness born of utter indifference in her
+reply which filled the younger girl with admiration. Perhaps too there was
+the least mite of haughtiness in her manner, born of the knowledge that
+she belonged to an old and honored family, and that she had in her
+possession a trunk full of clothes that could vie with any that Hannah
+Heath could display. Miranda wished silently that she could convey that
+cool manner and that wide-eyed indifference to the sight of her cousin
+Hannah.
+
+"H'm!" giggled Miranda. "Well, she does! If you were going to wear blue
+you'd see she'd put on her green. She's got one that'll kill any blue
+that's in the same room with it, no matter if it's on the other side. Its
+just sick'ning to see them together. And she looks real well in it too. So
+when she said she wanted to know so bad, Grandma said she'd send me over
+to know if you'd accept a jar of her fresh pickle-lily, and mebbe I could
+find out about your clothes. The pickle-lily's on the kitchen table. I
+left it when I came through. It's good, but there ain't any love in it."
+And Miranda laughed a hard mirthless laugh, and then settled down to her
+subject again.
+
+"Now, you needn't be a mite afraid to tell me about it. I won't tell it
+straight, you know. I'd just like to see what you are going to wear so I
+could keep her out of her tricks for once. Is your frock blue?"
+
+Now it is true that the trunk upstairs contained a goodly amount of the
+color blue, for Kate Schuyler had been her bonniest in blue, and the
+particular frock which had been made with reference to this very first
+significant gathering was blue. Marcia had accepted the fact as
+unalterable. The garment was made for a purpose, and its mission must be
+fulfilled however much she might wish to wear something else, but suddenly
+as Miranda spoke there came to her mind the thought of rebellion. Why
+should she be bound down to do exactly as Kate would do in her place? If
+she had accepted the sacrifice of living Kate's life for her, she might at
+least have the privilege of living it in the pleasantest possible way, and
+surely the matter of dress was one she might be allowed to settle for
+herself if she was old enough at all to be trusted away from home. Among
+the pretty things that Kate had made was a sweet rose-pink silk tissue.
+Madam Schuyler had frowned upon it as frivolous, and besides she did not
+think it becoming to Kate. She had a fixed theory that people with blue
+eyes and gold hair should never wear pink or red, but Kate as usual had
+her own way, and with her wild rose complexion had succeeded in looking
+like the wild rose itself in spite of blue eyes and golden hair. Marcia
+knew in her heart, in fact she had known from the minute the lovely pink
+thing had come into the house, that it was the very thing to set her off.
+Her dark eyes and hair made a charming contrast with the rose, and her
+complexion was even fresher than Kate's. Her heart grew suddenly eager to
+don this dainty, frilley thing and outshine Hannah Heath beyond any chance
+of further trying. There were other frocks, too, in the trunk. Why should
+she be confined to the stately blue one that had been marked out for this
+occasion? Marcia, with sudden inspiration, answered calmly, just as though
+all these tumultuous possibilities of clothes had not been whirling
+through her brain in that half second's hesitation:
+
+"I have not quite decided what I shall wear. It is not an important
+matter, I'm sure. Let us go and see the piccalilli. I'm very much obliged
+to your grandmother, I'm sure. It was kind of her."
+
+Somewhat awed, Miranda followed her hostess into the kitchen. She could
+not reconcile this girl's face with the stately little airs that she wore,
+but she liked her and forthwith she told her so.
+
+"I like you," she said fervently. "You remind me of one of Grandma's
+sturtions, bright and independent and lively, with a spice and a color to
+'em, and Hannah makes you think of one of them tall spikes of gladiolus
+all fixed up without any smell."
+
+Marcia tried to smile over the doubtful compliment. Somehow there was
+something about Miranda that reminded her of Mary Ann. Poor Mary Ann!
+_Dear_ Mary Ann! For suddenly she realized that everything that reminded
+her of the precious life of her childhood, left behind forever, was dear.
+If she could see Mary Ann at this moment she would throw her arms about
+her neck and call her "Dear Mary Ann," and say, "I love you," to her.
+Perhaps this feeling made her more gentle with the annoying Miranda than
+she might have been.
+
+When Miranda was gone the precious play hour was gone too. Marcia had only
+time to steal hurriedly into the parlor, close the instrument, and then
+fly about getting her dinner ready. But as she worked she had other
+thoughts to occupy her mind. She was becoming adjusted to her new
+environment and she found many unexpected things to make it hard. Here,
+for instance, was Hannah Heath. Why did there have to be a Hannah Heath?
+And what was Hannah Heath to her? Kate might feel jealous, indeed, but not
+she, not the unloved, unreal, wife of David. She should rather pity Hannah
+that David had not loved her instead of Kate, or pity David that he had
+not. But somehow she did not, somehow she could not. Somehow Hannah Heath
+had become a living, breathing enemy to be met and conquered. Marcia felt
+her fighting blood rising, felt the Schuyler in her coming to the front.
+However little there was in her wifehood, its name at least was hers. The
+tale that Miranda had told was enough, if it were true, to put any woman,
+however young she might be, into battle array. Marcia was puzzling her
+mind over the question that has been more or less of a weary burden to
+every woman since the fatal day that Eve made her great mistake.
+
+David was silent and abstracted at the dinner table, and Marcia absorbed
+in her own problems did not feel cut by it. She was trying to determine
+whether to blossom out in pink, or to be crushed and set aside into
+insignificance in blue, or to choose a happy medium and wear neither. She
+ventured a timid little question before David went away again: Did he,
+would he,--that is, was there any thing,--any word he would like to say to
+her? Would she have to do anything to-night?
+
+David looked at her in surprise. Why, no! He knew of nothing. Just go and
+speak pleasantly to every one. He was sure she knew what to do. He had
+always thought her very well behaved. She had manners like any woman. She
+need not feel shy. No one knew of her peculiar position, and he felt
+reasonably sure that the story would not soon get around. Her position
+would be thoroughly established before it did, at least. She need not feel
+uncomfortable. He looked down at her thinking he had said all that could
+be expected of him, but somehow he felt the trouble in the girl's eyes and
+asked her gently if there was anything more.
+
+"No," she said slowly, "unless, perhaps--I don't suppose you know what it
+would be proper for me to wear."
+
+"Oh, that does not matter in the least," he replied promptly. "Anything.
+You always look nice. Why, I'll tell you, wear the frock you had on the
+night I came." Then he suddenly remembered the reason why that was a
+pleasant memory to him, and that it was not for her sake at all, but for
+the sake of one who was lost to him forever. His face contracted with
+sudden pain, and Marcia, cut to the heart, read the meaning, and felt sick
+and sore too.
+
+"Oh, I could not wear that," she said sadly, "it is only chintz. It would
+not be nice enough, but thank you. I shall be all right. Don't trouble
+about me," and she forced a weak smile to light him from the house, and
+shut from his pained eyes the knowledge of how he had hurt her, for with
+those words of his had come the vision of herself that happy night as she
+stood at the gate in the stillness and moonlight looking from the portal
+of her maidenhood into the vista of her womanhood, which had seemed then
+so far away and bright, and was now upon her in sad reality. Oh, if she
+could but have caught that sentence of his about her little chintz frock
+to her heart with the joy of possession, and known that he said it because
+he too had a happy memory about her in it, as she had always felt the
+coming, misty, dream-expected lover would do!
+
+She spread the available frocks out upon the bed after the other things
+were put neatly away in closet and drawer, and sat down to decide the
+matter. David's suggestion while impossible had given her an idea, and she
+proceeded to carry it out. There was a soft sheer white muslin, whereon
+Kate had expended her daintiest embroidering, edged with the finest of
+little lace frills. It was quaint and simple and girlish, the sweetest,
+most simple affair in all of Kate's elaborate wardrobe, and yet, perhaps,
+from an artistic point of view, the most elegant. Marcia soon made up her
+mind.
+
+She dressed herself early, for David had said he would be home by four
+o'clock and they would start as soon after as he could get ready. His
+aunts wished to show her the old garden before dark.
+
+When she came to the arrangement of her hair she paused. Somehow her soul
+rebelled at the style of Kate. It did not suit her face. It did not accord
+with her feeling. It made her seem unlike herself, or unlike the self she
+would ever wish to be. It suited Kate well, but not her. With sudden
+determination she pulled it all down again from the top of her head and
+loosened its rich waves about her face, then loosely twisted it behind,
+low on her neck, falling over her delicate ears, until her head looked
+like that of an old Greek statue. It was not fashion, it was pure instinct
+the child was following out, and there was enough conformity to one of the
+fashionable modes of the day to keep her from looking odd. It was lovely.
+Marcia could not help seeing herself that it was much more becoming than
+the way she had arranged it for her marriage, though then she had had the
+wedding veil to soften the tightly drawn outlines of her head. She put on
+the sheer white embroidered frock then, and as a last touch pinned the bit
+of black velvet about her throat with a single pearl that had been her
+mother's. It was the bit of black velvet she had worn the night David
+came. It gave her pleasure to think that in so far she was conforming to
+his suggestion.
+
+She had just completed her toilet when she heard David's step coming up
+the walk.
+
+David, coming in out of the sunshine and beholding this beautiful girl in
+the coolness and shadow of the hall awaiting him shyly, almost started
+back as he rubbed his eyes and looked at her again. She was beautiful. He
+had to admit it to himself, even in the midst of his sadness, and he
+smiled at her, and felt another pang of condemnation that he had taken
+this beauty from some other man's lot perhaps, and appropriated it to
+shield himself from the world's exclamation about his own lonely life.
+
+"You have done it admirably. I do not see that there is anything left to
+be desired," he said in his pleasant voice that used to make her
+girl-heart flutter with pride that her new brother-to-be was pleased with
+her. It fluttered now, but there was a wider sweep to its wings, and a
+longer flight ahead of the thought.
+
+Quite demurely the young wife accepted her compliment, and then she meekly
+folded her little white muslin cape with its dainty frills about her
+pretty shoulders, drew on the new lace mitts, and tied beneath her chin
+the white strings of a shirred gauze bonnet with tiny rosebuds nestling in
+the ruching of tulle about the face.
+
+Once more the bride walked down the world the observed of all observers,
+the gazed at of the town, only this time it was brick pavement not oaken
+stairs she trod, and most of the eyes that looked upon her were sheltered
+behind green jalousies. None the less, however, was she conscious of them
+as she made her way to the house of solemn feasting with David by her
+side. Her eyes rested upon the ground, or glanced quietly at things in the
+distance, when they were not lifted for a moment in wifely humility to her
+husband's face at some word of his. Just as she imagined a hundred times
+in her girlish thoughts that her sister Kate would do, so did she, and
+after what seemed to her an interminable walk, though in reality it was
+but four village blocks, they arrived at the house of Spafford.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XII
+
+
+"This is your Aunt Clarinda!"
+
+There was challenge in the severely spoken pronoun Aunt Hortense used. It
+seemed to Marcia that she wished to remind her that all her old life and
+relations were passed away, and she had nothing now but David's,
+especially David's relatives. She shrank from lifting her eyes, expecting
+to find the third aunt, who was older, as much sourer and sharper in
+proportion to the other two, but she controlled herself and lifted her
+flower face to meet a gentle, meek, old face set in soft white frills of a
+cap, with white ribbons flying, and though the old lady leaned upon a
+crutch she managed to give the impression that she had fairly flown in her
+gladness to welcome her new niece. There was the lighting of a repressed
+nature let free in her kind old face as she looked with true pleasure upon
+the lovely young one, and Marcia felt herself folded in truly loving arms
+in an embrace which her own passionate, much repressed, loving nature
+returned with heartiness. At last she had found a friend!
+
+She felt it every time she spoke, more and more. They walked out into the
+garden almost immediately, and Aunt Clarinda insisted upon hobbling along
+by Marcia's side, though her sisters both protested that it would be too
+hard for her that warm afternoon. Every time that Marcia spoke she felt
+the kind old eyes upon her, and she knew that at least one of the aunts
+was satisfied with her as a wife for David, for her eyes would travel from
+David to Marcia and back again to David, and when they met Marcia's there
+was not a shade of disparagement in them.
+
+It was rather a tiresome walk through a tiresome old garden, laid out in
+the ways of the past generation, and bordered with much funereal box. The
+sisters, Amelia and Hortense, took the new member of the family,
+conscientiously, through every path, and faithfully told how each spot was
+associated with some happening in the family history. Occasionally there
+was a solemn pause for the purpose of properly impressing the new member
+of the house, and Amelia wiped her eyes with her carefully folded
+handkerchief. Marcia felt extremely like laughing. She was sure that if
+Kate had been obliged to pass through this ordeal she would have giggled
+out at once and said some shockingly funny thing that would have horrified
+the aunts beyond forgiveness. The thought of this nerved her to keep a
+sober face. She wondered what David thought of it all, but when she looked
+at him she wondered no longer, for David stood as one waiting for a
+certain ceremony to be over, a ceremony which he knew to be inevitable,
+but which was wholly and familiarly uninteresting. He did not even see how
+it must strike the girl who was going through it all for him, for David's
+thoughts were out on the flood-tide of sorrow, drifting against the rocks
+of the might-have-been.
+
+They went in to tea presently, just when the garden was growing loveliest
+with a tinge of the setting sun, and Marcia longed to run up and down the
+little paths like a child and call to them all to catch her if they could.
+The house was dark and stately and gloomy.
+
+"You are coming up to my room for a few minutes after supper," whispered
+Aunt Clarinda encouragingly as they passed into the dark hall. The supper
+table was alight with a fine old silver candelabra whose many wavering
+lights cast a solemn, grotesque shadow on the different faces.
+
+Beside her plate the young bride saw an ostentatious plate of puffy soda
+biscuits, and involuntarily her eyes searched the table for the bread
+plate.
+
+Aunt Clarinda almost immediately pounced upon the bread plate and passed
+it with a smile to Marcia, and as Marcia with an answering smile took a
+generous slice she heard the other two aunts exclaim in chorus, "Oh, don't
+pass her the bread, Clarinda; take it away sister, quick! She does not
+like salt-rising! It is unpleasant to her!"
+
+Then with blazing cheeks the girl protested that she wished to keep the
+bread, that they were mistaken, she had not said it was obnoxious to her,
+but had merely given them her stepmother's opinion when they asked. They
+must excuse her for her seeming rudeness, for she had not intended to hurt
+them. She presumed salt-rising bread was very nice; it looked beautiful.
+This was a long speech for shy Marcia to make before so many strangers,
+but David's wondering, troubled eyes were upon her, questioning what it
+all might mean, and she felt she could do anything to save David from more
+suffering or annoyance of any kind.
+
+David said little. He seemed to perceive that there had been an unpleasant
+prelude to this, and perhaps knew from former experience that the best way
+to do was to change the subject. He launched into a detailed account of
+their wedding journey. Marcia on her part was grateful to him, for when
+she took the first brave bite into the very puffy, very white slice of
+bread she had taken, she perceived that it was much worse than that which
+had been baked for their homecoming, and not only justified all her
+stepmother's execrations, but in addition it was sour. For an instant,
+perceiving down the horoscope of time whole calendars full of such suppers
+with the aunts, and this bread, her soul shuddered and shrank. Could she
+ever learn to like it? Impossible! Could she ever tolerate it? Could she?
+She doubted. Then she swallowed bravely and perceived that the impossible
+had been accomplished once. It could be again, but she must go slowly else
+she might have to eat two slices instead of one. David was kind. He had
+roused himself to help his helper. Perhaps something in her girlish beauty
+and helplessness, helpless here for his sake, appealed to him. At least
+his eyes sought hers often with a tender interest to see if she were
+comfortable, and once, when Aunt Amelia asked if they stopped nowhere for
+rest on their journey, his eyes sought Marcia's with a twinkling reminder
+of their roadside nap, and he answered, "Once, Aunt Amelia. No, it was not
+a regular inn. It was quieter than that. Not many people stopping there."
+
+Marcia's merry laugh almost bubbled forth, but she suppressed it just in
+time, horrified to think what Aunt Hortense would say, but somehow after
+David had said that her heart felt a trifle lighter and she took a big
+bite from the salt-rising and smiled as she swallowed it. There were worse
+things in the world, after all, than salt-rising, and, when one could
+smother it in Aunt Amelia's peach preserves, it was quite bearable.
+
+Aunt Clarinda slipped her off to her own room after supper, and left the
+other two sisters with their beloved idol, David. In their stately parlor
+lighted with many candles in honor of the occasion, they sat and talked in
+low tones with him, their voices suggesting condolence with his misfortune
+of having married out of the family, and disapproval with the married
+state in general. Poor souls! How their hard, loving hearts would have
+been wrung could they but have known the true state of the case! And,
+strange anomaly, how much deeper would have been their antagonism toward
+poor, self-sacrificing, loving Marcia! Just because she had dared to think
+herself fit for David, belonging as she did to her renegade sister Kate.
+But they did not know, and for this fact David was profoundly thankful.
+Those were not the days of rapid transit, of telegraph and telephone, nor
+even of much letter writing, else the story would probably have reached
+the aunts even before the bride and bridegroom arrived at home. As it was,
+David had some hope of keeping the tragedy of his life from the ears of
+his aunts forever. Patiently he answered their questions concerning the
+wedding, questions that were intended to bring out facts showing whether
+David had received his due amount of respect, and whether the family he
+had so greatly honored felt the burden of that honor sufficiently.
+
+Upstairs in a quaint old-fashioned room Aunt Clarinda was taking Marcia's
+face in her two wrinkled hands and looking lovingly into her eyes; then
+she kissed her on each rosy cheek and said:
+
+"Dear child! You look just as I did when I was young. You wouldn't think
+it from me now, would you? But it's true. I might not have grown to be
+such a dried-up old thing if I had had somebody like David. I'm so glad
+you've got David. He'll take good care of you. He's a dear boy. He's
+always been good to me. But you mustn't let the others crush those roses
+out of your cheeks. They crushed mine out. They wouldn't let me have my
+life the way I wanted it, and the pink in my cheeks all went back into my
+heart and burst it a good many years ago. But they can't spoil your life,
+for you've got David and that's worth everything."
+
+Then she kissed her on the lips and cheeks and eyes and let her go. But
+that one moment had given Marcia a glimpse into another life-story and put
+her in touch forever with Aunt Clarinda, setting athrob the chord of
+loving sympathy.
+
+When they came into the parlor the other two aunts looked up with a quick,
+suspicious glance from one to the other and then fastened disapproving
+eyes upon Marcia. They rather resented it that she was so pretty. Hannah
+had been their favorite, and Hannah was beautiful in their eyes. They
+wanted no other to outshine her. Albeit they would be proud enough before
+their neighbors to have it said that their nephew's wife was beautiful.
+
+After a chilling pause in which David was wondering anew at Marcia's
+beauty, Aunt Hortense asked, as though it were an omission from the former
+examination, "Did you ever make a shirt?"
+
+"Oh, plenty of them!" said Marcia, with a merry laugh, so relieved that
+she fairly bubbled. "I think I could make a shirt with my eyes shut."
+
+Aunt Clarinda beamed on her with delight. A shirt was something she had
+never succeeded in making right. It was one of the things which her
+sisters had against her that she could not make good shirts. Any one who
+could not make a shirt was deficient. Clarinda was deficient. She could
+not make a shirt. Meekly had she tried year after year. Humbly had she
+ripped out gusset and seam and band, having put them on upside down or
+inside out. Never could she learn the ins and outs of a shirt. But her old
+heart trembled with delight that the new girl, who was going to take the
+place in her heart of her old dead self and live out all the beautiful
+things which had been lost to her, had mastered this one great
+accomplishment in which she had failed so supremely.
+
+But Aunt Hortense was not pleased. True, it was one of the seven virtues
+in her mind which a young wife should possess, and she had carefully
+instructed Hannah Heath for a number of years back, while Hannah bungled
+out a couple for her father occasionally, but Aunt Hortense had been sure
+that if Hannah ever became David's wife she might still have the honor of
+making most of David's shirts. That had been her happy task ever since
+David had worn a shirt, and she hoped to hold the position of shirt-maker
+to David until she left this mortal clay. Therefore Aunt Hortense was not
+pleased, even though David's wife was not lacking, and, too, even though
+she foreheard herself telling her neighbors next day how many shirts
+David's wife had made.
+
+"Well, David will not need any for some time," she said grimly. "I made
+him a dozen just before he was married."
+
+Marcia reflected that it seemed to be impossible to make any headway into
+the good graces of either Aunt Hortense or Aunt Amelia. Aunt Amelia then
+took her turn at a question.
+
+"Hortense," said she, and there was an ominous inflection in the word as
+if the question were portentous, "have you asked our new niece by what
+name she desires us to call her?"
+
+"I have not," said Miss Hortense solemnly, "but I intend to do so
+immediately," and then both pairs of steely eyes were leveled at the girl.
+Marcia suddenly was face to face with a question she had not considered,
+and David started upright from his position on the hair-cloth sofa. But if
+a thunderbolt had fallen from heaven and rendered him utterly unconscious
+David would not have been more helpless than he was for the time being.
+Marcia saw the mingled pain and perplexity in David's face, and her own
+courage gathered itself to brave it out in some way. The color flew to her
+cheeks, and rose slowly in David's, through heavy veins that swelled in
+his neck till he could feel their pulsation against his stock, but his
+smooth shaven lips were white. He felt that a moment had come which he
+could not bear to face.
+
+Then with a hesitation that was but pardonable, and with a shy sweet look,
+Marcia answered; and though her voice trembled just the least bit, her
+true, dear eyes looked into the battalion of steel ones bravely.
+
+"I would like you to call me Marcia, if you please."
+
+"Marcia!" Miss Hortense snipped the word out as if with scissors of
+surprise.
+
+But there was a distinct relaxation about Miss Amelia's mouth. She heaved
+a relieved sigh. Marcia was so much better than Kate, so much more
+classical, so much more to be compared with Hannah, for instance.
+
+"Well, I'm glad!" she allowed herself to remark. "David has been calling
+you 'Kate' till it made me sick, such a frivolous name and no sense in it
+either. Marcia sounds quite sensible. I suppose Katharine is your middle
+name. Do you spell it with a K or a C?"
+
+But the knocker sounded on the street door and Marcia was spared the
+torture of a reply. She dared not look at David's face, for she knew there
+must be pain and mortification mingling there, and she hoped that the
+trying subject would not come up again for discussion.
+
+The guests began to arrive. Old Mrs. Heath and her daughter-in-law and
+grand-daughter came first.
+
+Hannah's features were handsome and she knew exactly how to manage her
+shapely hands with their long white fingers. The soft delicate
+undersleeves fell away from arms white and well moulded, and she carried
+her height gracefully. Her hair was elaborately stowed upon the top of her
+head in many puffs, ending in little ringlets carelessly and coquettishly
+straying over temple, or ears, or gracefully curved neck. She wore a frock
+of green, and its color sent a pang through the bride's heart to realize
+that perhaps it had been worn with an unkindly purpose. Nevertheless
+Hannah Heath was beautiful and fascinated Marcia. She resolved to try to
+think the best of her, and to make her a friend if possible. Why, after
+all, should she be to blame for wanting David? Was he not a man to be
+admired and desired? It was unwomanly, of course, that she had let it be
+known, but perhaps her relatives were more to blame than herself. At least
+Marcia made up her mind to try and like her.
+
+Hannah's frock was of silk, not a common material in those days, soft and
+shimmery and green enough to take away the heart from anything blue that
+was ever made, but Hannah was stately and her skin as white as the lily
+she resembled, in her bright leaf green.
+
+Hannah chose to be effusive and condescending to the bride, giving the
+impression that she and David had been like brother and sister all their
+lives and that she might have been his choice if she had chosen, but as
+she had not chosen, she was glad that David had found some one wherewith
+to console himself. She did not say all this in so many words, but Marcia
+found that impression left after the evening was over.
+
+With sweet dignity Marcia received her introductions, given in Miss
+Amelia's most commanding tone, "Our niece, Marcia!"
+
+"Marshy! Marshy!" the bride heard old Mrs. Heath murmur to Miss Spafford.
+"Why, I thought 'twas to be Kate!"
+
+"Her name is Marcia," said Miss Amelia in a most satisfied tone; "you must
+have misunderstood."
+
+Marcia caught a look in Miss Heath's eyes, alert, keen, questioning, which
+flashed all over her like something searching and bright but not friendly.
+
+She felt a painful shyness stealing over her and wished that David were by
+her side. She looked across the room at him. His face had recovered its
+usual calmness, though he looked pale. He was talking on his favorite
+theme with old Mr. Heath: the newly invented steam engine and its
+possibilities. He had forgotten everything else for the time, and his face
+lighted with animation as he tried to answer William Heath's arguments
+against it.
+
+"Have you read what the Boston _Courier_ said, David? 'Long in June it was
+I think," Marcia heard Mr. Heath ask. Indeed his voice was so large that
+it filled the room, and for the moment Marcia had been left to herself
+while some new people were being ushered in. "It says, David, that 'the
+project of a railroad from Bawston to Albany is impracticable as everybody
+knows who knows the simplest rule of arithmetic, and the expense would be
+little less than the market value of the whole territory of Massachusetts;
+and which, if practicable, every person of common sense knows would be as
+useless as a railroad from Bawston to the moon.' There, David, what do ye
+think o' that?" and William Heath slapped David on the knee with his
+broad, fat fist and laughed heartily, as though he had him in a tight
+corner.
+
+Marcia would have given a good deal to slip in beside David on the sofa
+and listen to the discussion. She wanted with all her heart to know how he
+would answer this man who could be so insufferably wise, but there was
+other work for her, and her attention was brought back to her own
+uncomfortable part by Hannah Heath's voice:
+
+"Come right ovah heah, Mistah Skinnah, if you want to meet the bride. You
+must speak verra nice to me or I sha'n't introduce you at all."
+
+A tall lanky man with stiff sandy hair and a rubicund complexion was
+making his way around the room. He had a small mouth puckered a little as
+if he might be going to whistle, and his chin had the look of having been
+pushed back out of the way, a stiff fuzz of sandy whiskers made a hedge
+down either cheek, and but for that he was clean shaven. The skin over his
+high cheek bones was stretched smooth and tight as if it were a trifle too
+close a fit for the genial cushion beneath. He did not look brilliant, and
+he certainly was not handsome, but there was an inoffensive desire to
+please about him. He was introduced as Mr. Lemuel Skinner. He bowed low
+over Marcia's hand, said a few embarrassed, stiff sentences and turned to
+Hannah Heath with relief. It was evident that Hannah was in his eyes a
+great and shining light, to which he fluttered as naturally as does the
+moth to the candle. But Hannah did not scruple to singe his wings whenever
+she chose. Perhaps she knew, no matter how badly he was burned he would
+only flutter back again whenever she scintillated. She had turned her back
+upon him now, and left him to Marcia's tender mercies. Hannah was engaged
+in talking to a younger man. "Harry Temple, from New York," Lemuel
+explained to Marcia.
+
+The young man, Harry Temple, had large lazy eyes and heavy dark hair.
+There was a discontented look in his face, and a looseness about the set
+of his lips that Marcia did not like, although she had to admit that he
+was handsome. Something about him reminded her of Captain Leavenworth, and
+she instinctively shrank from him. But Harry Temple had no mind to talk to
+any one but Marcia that evening, and he presently so managed it that he
+and she were ensconced in a corner of the room away from others. Marcia
+felt perturbed. She did not feel flattered by the man's attentions, and
+she wanted to be at the other end of the room listening to the
+conversation.
+
+She listened as intently as she might between sentences, and her keen ears
+could catch a word or two of what David was saying. After all, it was not
+so much the new railroad project that she cared about, though that was
+strange and interesting enough, but she wanted to watch and listen to
+David.
+
+Harry Temple said a great many pretty things to Marcia. She did not half
+hear some of them at first, but after a time she began to realize that she
+must have made a good impression, and the pretty flush in her cheeks grew
+deeper. She did little talking. Mr. Temple did it all. He told her of New
+York. He asked if she were not dreadfully bored with this little town and
+its doings, and bewailed her lot when he learned that she had not had much
+experience there. Then he asked if she had ever been to New York and began
+to tell of some of its attractions. Among other things he mentioned some
+concerts, and immediately Marcia was all attention. Her dark eyes glowed
+and her speaking face gave eager response to his words. Seeing he had
+interested her at last, he kept on, for he was possessor of a glib tongue,
+and what he did not know he could fabricate without the slightest
+compunction. He had been about the world and gathered up superficial
+knowledge enough to help him do this admirably, therefore he was able to
+use a few musical terms, and to bring before Marcia's vivid imagination
+the scene of the performance of Handel's great "Creation" given in Boston,
+and of certain musical events that were to be attempted soon in New York.
+He admitted that he could play a little upon the harpsichord, and, when he
+learned that Marcia could play also and that she was the possessor of a
+piano, one of the latest improved makes, he managed to invite himself to
+play upon it. Marcia found to her dismay that she actually seemed to have
+invited him to come some afternoon when her husband was away. She had only
+said politely that she would like to hear him play sometime, and expressed
+her great delight in music, and he had done the rest, but in her
+inexperience somehow it had happened and she did not know what to do.
+
+It troubled her a good deal, and she turned again toward the other end of
+the room, where the attention of most of the company was riveted upon the
+group who were discussing the railroad, its pros and cons. David was the
+centre of that group.
+
+"Let us go over and hear what they are saying," she said, turning to her
+companion eagerly.
+
+"Oh, it is all stupid politics and arguments about that ridiculous
+fairy-tale of a railroad scheme. You would not enjoy it," answered the
+young man disappointedly. He saw in Marcia a beautiful young soul, the
+only one who had really attracted him since he had left New York, and he
+wished to become intimate enough with her to enjoy himself.
+
+It mattered not to him that she was married to another man. He felt secure
+in his own attractions. He had ever been able to while away the time with
+whom he chose, why should a simple village maiden resist him? And this was
+an unusual one, the contour of her head was like a Greek statue.
+
+Nevertheless he was obliged to stroll after her. Once she had spoken. She
+had suddenly become aware that they had been in their corner together a
+long time, and that Aunt Amelia's cold eyes were fastened upon her in
+disapproval.
+
+"The farmers would be ruined, man alive!" Mr. Heath was saying. "Why, all
+the horses would have to be killed, because they would be wholly useless
+if this new fandango came in, and then where would be a market for the
+wheat and oats?"
+
+"Yes, an' I've heard some say the hens wouldn't lay, on account of the
+noise," ventured Lemuel Skinner in his high voice. "And think of the fires
+from the sparks of the engine. I tell you it would be dangerous." He
+looked over at Hannah triumphantly, but Hannah was endeavoring to signal
+Harry Temple to her side and did not see nor hear.
+
+"I tell you," put in Mr. Heath's heavy voice again, "I tell you, Dave, it
+can't be done. It's impractical. Why, no car could advance against the
+wind."
+
+"They told Columbus he couldn't sail around the earth, but he did it!"
+
+There was sudden stillness in the room, for it was Marcia's clear, grave
+voice that had answered Mr. Heath's excited tones, and she had not known
+she was going to speak aloud. It came before she realized it. She had been
+used to speak her mind sometimes with her father, but seldom when there
+were others by, and now she was covered with confusion to think what she
+had done. The aunts, Amelia and Hortense, were shocked. It was so
+unladylike. A woman should not speak on such subjects. She should be
+silent and leave such topics to her husband.
+
+"Deah me, she's strong minded, isn't she?" giggled Hannah Heath to Lemuel,
+who had taken the signals to himself and come to her side.
+
+"Quite so, quite so!" murmured Lemuel, his lips looking puffier and more
+cherry-fied than ever and his chin flattened itself back till he looked
+like a frustrated old hen who did not understand the perplexities of life
+and was clucking to find out, after having been startled half out of its
+senses.
+
+But Marcia was not wholly without consolation, for David had flashed a
+look of approval at her and had made room for her to sit down by his side
+on the sofa. It was almost like belonging to him for a minute or two.
+Marcia felt her heart glow with something new and pleasant.
+
+Mr. William Heath drew his heavy grey brows together and looked at her
+grimly over his spectacles, poking his bristly under-lip out in
+astonishment, bewildered that he should have been answered by a gentle,
+pretty woman, all frills and sparkle like his own daughter. He had been
+wont to look upon a woman as something like a kitten,--that is, a young
+woman,--and suddenly the kitten had lifted a velvet paw and struck him
+squarely in the face. He had felt there were claws in the blow, too, for
+there had been a truth behind her words that set the room a mocking him.
+
+"Well, Dave, you've got your wife well trained already!" he laughed,
+concluding it was best to put a smiling front upon the defeat. "She knows
+just when to come in and help when your side's getting weak!"
+
+They served cake and raspberry vinegar then, and a little while after
+everybody went home. It was later than the hours usually kept in the
+village, and the lights in most of the houses were out, or burning dimly
+in upper stories. The voices of the guests sounded subdued in the misty
+waning moonlight air. Marcia could hear Hannah Heath's voice ahead
+giggling affectedly to Harry Temple and Lemuel Skinner, as they walked one
+on either side of her, while her father and mother and grandmother came
+more slowly.
+
+David drew Marcia's hand within his arm and walked with her quietly down
+the street, making their steps hushed instinctively that they might so
+seem more removed from the others. They were both tired with the unusual
+excitement and the strain they had been through, and each was glad of the
+silence of the other.
+
+But when they reached their own doorstep David said: "You spoke well,
+child. You must have thought about these things."
+
+Marcia felt a sob rising in a tide of joy into her throat. Then he was not
+angry with her, and he did not disapprove as the two aunts had done. Aunt
+Clarinda had kissed her good-night and murmured, "You are a bright little
+girl, Marcia, and you will make a good wife for David. You will come soon
+to see me, won't you?" and that had made her glad, but these words of
+David's were so good and so unexpected that Marcia could hardly hide her
+happy tears.
+
+"I was afraid I had been forward," murmured Marcia in the shadow of the
+front stoop.
+
+"Not at all, child, I like to hear a woman speak her mind,--that is,
+allowing she has any mind to speak. That can't be said of all women.
+There's Hannah Heath, for instance. I don't believe she would know a
+railroad project from an essay on ancient art."
+
+After that the house seemed a pleasant place aglow as they entered it, and
+Marcia went up to her rest with a lighter heart.
+
+But the child knew not that she had made a great impression that night
+upon all who saw her as being beautiful and wise.
+
+The aunts would not express it even to each other,--for they felt in duty
+bound to discountenance her boldness in speaking out before the men and
+making herself so prominent, joining in their discussions,--but each in
+spite of her convictions felt a deep satisfaction that their neighbors had
+seen what a beautiful and bright wife David had selected. They even felt
+triumphant over their favorite Hannah, and thought secretly that Marcia
+compared well with her in every way, but they would not have told this
+even to themselves, no, not for worlds.
+
+So the kindly gossipy town slept, and the young bride became a part of its
+daily life.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Life began to take on a more familiar and interesting aspect to Marcia
+after that. She had her daily round of pleasant household duties and she
+enjoyed them.
+
+There were many other gatherings in honor of the bride and groom,
+tea-drinkings and evening calls, and a few called in to a neighbor's house
+to meet them. It was very pleasant to Marcia as she became better
+acquainted with the people and grew to like some of them, only there was
+the constant drawback of feeling that it was all a pain and weariness to
+David.
+
+But Marcia was young, and it was only natural that she should enjoy her
+sudden promotion to the privileges of a matron, and the marked attention
+that was paid her. It was a mercy that her head was not turned, living as
+she did to herself, and with no one in whom she could confide. For David
+had shrunk within himself to such an extent that she did not like to
+trouble him with anything.
+
+It was only two days after the evening at the old Spafford house that
+David came home to tea with ashen face, haggard eyes and white lips. He
+scarcely tasted his supper and said he would go and lie down, that his
+head ached. Marcia heard him sigh deeply as he went upstairs. It was that
+afternoon that the post had brought him Kate's letter.
+
+Sadly Marcia put away the tea things, for she could not eat anything
+either, though it was an unusually inviting meal she had prepared. Slowly
+she went up to her room and sat looking out into the quiet, darkening
+summer night, wondering what additional sorrow had come to David.
+
+David's face looked like death the next morning when he came down. He
+drank a cup of coffee feverishly, then took his hat as if he would go to
+the office, but paused at the door and came back saying he would not go if
+Marcia would not mind taking a message for him. His head felt badly. She
+need only tell the man to go on with things as they had planned and say he
+was detained. Marcia was ready at once to do his bidding with quiet
+sympathy in her manner.
+
+She delivered her message with the frank straightforward look of a school
+girl, mingled with a touch of matronly dignity she was trying to assume,
+which added to her charm; and she smiled her open smile of comradeship,
+such as she would have dispensed about the old red school house at home,
+upon boys and girls alike, leaving the clerk and type-setters in a most
+subjected state, and ready to do anything in the service of their master's
+wife. It is to be feared that they almost envied David. They watched her
+as she moved gracefully down the street, and their eyes had a reverent
+look as they turned away from the window to their work, as though they had
+been looking upon something sacred.
+
+Harry Temple watched her come out of the office.
+
+She impressed him again as something fresh and different from the common
+run of maidens in the village. He lazily stepped from the store where he
+had been lounging and walked down the street to intercept her as she
+crossed and turned the corner.
+
+"Good morning, Mrs. Spafford," he said, with a courtly grace that was
+certainly captivating, "are you going to your home? Then our ways lie
+together. May I walk beside you?"
+
+Marcia smiled and tried to seem gracious, though she would rather have
+been alone just then, for she wanted to enjoy the day and not be bothered
+with talking.
+
+Harry Temple mentioned having a letter from a friend in Boston who had
+lately heard a great chorus rendered. He could not be quite sure of the
+name of the composer because he had read the letter hurriedly and his
+friend was a blind-writer, but that made no difference to Harry. He could
+fill in facts enough about the grandeur of the music from his own
+imagination to make up for the lack of a little matter like the name of a
+composer. He was keen enough to see that Marcia was more interested in
+music than in anything he said, therefore he racked his brains for all the
+music talk he had ever heard, and made up what he did not know, which was
+not hard to do, for Marcia was very ignorant on the subject.
+
+At the door they paused. Marcia was eager to get in. She began to wonder
+how David felt, and she longed to do something for him. Harry Temple
+looked at her admiringly, noted the dainty set of chin, the clear curve of
+cheek, the lovely sweep of eyelashes, and resolved to get better
+acquainted with this woman, so young and so lovely.
+
+"I have not forgotten my promise to play for you," he said lightly,
+watching to see if the flush of rose would steal into her cheek, and that
+deep light into her expressive eyes. "How about this afternoon? Shall you
+be at home and disengaged?"
+
+But welcome did not flash into Marcia's face as he had hoped. Instead a
+troubled look came into her eyes.
+
+"I am afraid it will not be possible this afternoon," said Marcia, the
+trouble in her eyes creeping into her voice. "That is--I expect to be at
+home, but--I am not sure of being disengaged."
+
+"Ah! I see!" he raised his eyebrows archly, looking her meanwhile straight
+in the eyes; "some one else more fortunate than I. Some one else coming?"
+
+Although Marcia did not in the least understand his insinuation, the color
+flowed into her cheeks in a hurry now, for she instinctively felt that
+there was something unpleasant in his tone, something below her standard
+of morals or culture, she did not quite know what. But she felt she must
+protect herself at any cost. She drew up a little mantle of dignity.
+
+"Oh, no," she said quickly, "I'm not expecting any one at all, but Mr.
+Spafford had a severe headache this morning, and I am not sure but the
+sound of the piano would make it worse. I think it would be better for you
+to come another time, although he may be better by that time."
+
+"Oh, I see! Your husband's at home!" said the young man with relief. His
+manner implied that he had a perfect understanding of something that
+Marcia did not mean nor comprehend.
+
+"I understand perfectly," he said, with another meaning smile as though he
+and she had a secret together; "I'll come some other time," and he took
+himself very quickly away, much to Marcia's relief. But the trouble did
+not go out of her eyes as she saw him turn the corner. Instead she went in
+and stood at the dining room window a long time looking out on the Heaths'
+hollyhocks beaming in the sun behind the picket fence, and wondered what
+he could have meant, and why he smiled in that hateful way. She decided
+she did not like him, and she hoped he would never come. She did not think
+she would care to hear him play. There was something about him that
+reminded her of Captain Leavenworth, and now that she saw it in him she
+would dislike to have him about.
+
+With a sigh she turned to the getting of a dinner which she feared would
+not be eaten. Nevertheless, she put more dainty thought in it than usual,
+and when it was done and steaming upon the table she went gently up and
+tapped on David's door. A voice hoarse with emotion and weariness
+answered. Marcia scarcely heard the first time.
+
+"Dinner is ready. Isn't your head any better,--David?" There was caressing
+in his name. It wrung David's heart. Oh, if it were but Kate, his Kate,
+his little bride that were calling him, how his heart would leap with joy!
+How his headache would disappear and he would be with her in an instant.
+
+For Kate's letter had had its desired effect. All her wrongdoings, her
+crowning outrage of his noble intentions, had been forgotten in the one
+little plaintive appeal she had managed to breathe in a minor wail
+throughout that treacherous letter, treacherous alike to her husband and
+to her lover. Just as Kate had always been able to do with every one about
+her, she had blinded him to her faults, and managed to put herself in the
+light of an abused, troubled maiden, who was in a predicament through no
+fault of her own, and sat in sorrow and a baby-innocence that was
+bewilderingly sweet.
+
+There had been times when David's anger had been hot enough to waft away
+this filmy mist of fancies that Kate had woven about herself and let him
+see the true Kate as she really was. At such times David would confess
+that she must be wholly heartless. That bright as she was it was
+impossible for her to have been so easily persuaded into running away with
+a man she did not love. He had never found it so easy to persuade her
+against her will. Did she love him? Had she truly loved him, and was she
+suffering now? His very soul writhed in agony to think of his bride the
+wife of another against her will. If he might but go and rescue her. If he
+might but kill that other man! Then his soul would be confronted with the
+thought of murder. Never before had he felt hate, such hate, for a human
+being. Then again his heart would soften toward him as he felt how the
+other must have loved her, Kate, his little wild rose! and there was a
+fellow feeling between them too, for had she not let him see that she did
+not half care aright for that other one? Then his mind would stop in a
+whirl of mingled feeling and he would pause, and pray for steadiness to
+think and know what was right.
+
+Around and around through this maze of arguing he had gone through the
+long hours of the morning, always coming sharp against the thought that
+there was nothing he could possibly do in the matter but bear it, and that
+Kate, after all, the Kate he loved with his whole soul, had done it and
+must therefore be to blame. Then he would read her letter over, burning
+every word of it upon his brain, until the piteous minor appeal would
+torture him once more and he would begin again to try to get hold of some
+thread of thought that would unravel this snarl and bring peace.
+
+Like a sound from another world came Marcia's sweet voice, its very
+sweetness reminding him of that other lost voice, whose tantalizing music
+floated about his imagination like a string of phantom silver bells that
+all but sounded and then vanished into silence.
+
+And while all this was going on, this spiritual torture, his living,
+suffering, physical self was able to summon its thoughts, to answer gently
+that he did not want any dinner; that his head was no better; that he
+thanked her for her thought of him; and that he would take the tea she
+offered if it was not too much trouble.
+
+Gladly, with hurried breath and fingers that almost trembled, Marcia
+hastened to the kitchen once more and prepared a dainty tray, not even
+glancing at the dinner table all so fine and ready for its guest, and back
+again she went to his door, an eager light in her eyes, as if she had
+obtained audience to a king.
+
+He opened the door this time and took the tray from her with a smile. It
+was a smile of ashen hue, and fell like a pall upon Marcia's soul. It was
+as if she had been permitted for a moment to gaze upon a martyred soul
+upon the rack. Marcia fled from it and went to her own room, where she
+flung herself on her knees beside her bed and buried her face in the
+pillows. There she knelt, unmindful of the dinner waiting downstairs,
+unmindful of the bright day that was droning on its hours. Whether she
+prayed she knew not, whether she was weeping she could not have told. Her
+heart was crying out in one great longing to have this cloud of sorrow
+that had settled upon David lifted.
+
+She might have knelt there until night had there not come the sound of a
+knock upon the front door. It startled her to her feet in an instant, and
+she hastily smoothed her rumpled hair, dashed some water on her eyes, and
+ran down.
+
+It was the clerk from the office with a letter for her. The post chaise
+had brought it that afternoon, and he had thought perhaps she would like
+to have it at once as it was postmarked from her home. Would she tell Mr.
+Spafford when he returned--he seemed to take it for granted that David was
+out of town for the day--that everything had been going on all right at the
+office during his absence and the paper was ready to send to press. He
+took his departure with a series of bows and smiles, and Marcia flew up to
+her room to read her letter. It was in the round unformed hand of Mary
+Ann. Marcia tore it open eagerly. Never had Mary Ann's handwriting looked
+so pleasant as at that moment. A letter in those days was a rarity at all
+times, and this one to Marcia in her distress of mind seemed little short
+of a miracle. It began in Mary Ann's abrupt way, and opened up to her the
+world of home since she had left it. But a few short days had passed,
+scarcely yet numbering into weeks, since she left, yet it seemed half a
+lifetime to the girl promoted so suddenly into womanhood without the
+accompanying joy of love and close companionship that usually makes
+desolation impossible.
+
+
+    "DEAR MARSH,"--the letter ran:--
+
+    "I expect you think queer of me to write you so soon. I ain't much
+    on writing you know, but something happened right after you
+    leaving and has kept right on happening that made me feel I kinder
+    like to tell you. Don't you mind the mistakes I make. I'm thankful
+    to goodness you ain't the school teacher or I'd never write 'slong
+    s' I'm living, but ennyhow I'm going to tell you all about it.
+
+    "The night you went away I was standing down by the gate under the
+    old elm. I had on my best things yet from the wedding, and I hated
+    to go in and have the day over and have to begin putting on my old
+    calico to-morrow morning again, and washing dishes just the same.
+    Seemed as if I couldn't bear to have the world just the same now
+    you was gone away. Well, I heard someone coming down the street,
+    and who do you think it was? Why, Hanford Weston. He came right up
+    to the gate and stopped. I don't know's he ever spoke two words to
+    me in my life except that time he stopped the big boys from
+    snow-balling me and told me to run along quick and git in the
+    school-house while he fit 'em. Well, he stopped and spoke, and he
+    looked so sad, seemed like I knew just what he was feeling sad
+    about, and I told him all about you getting married instead of
+    your sister. He looked at me like he couldn't move for a while and
+    his face was as white as that marble man in the cemetery over
+    Squire Hancock's grave. He grabbed the gate real hard and I
+    thought he was going to fall. He couldn't even move his lips for a
+    while. I felt just awful sorry for him. Something came in my
+    throat like a big stone and my eyes got all blurred with the
+    moonlight. He looked real handsome. I just couldn't help thinking
+    you ought to see him. Bimeby he got his voice back again, and we
+    talked a lot about you. He told me how he used to watch you when
+    you was a little girl wearing pantalettes. You used to sit in the
+    church pew across from his father's and he could just see your big
+    eyes over the top of the door. He says he always thought to
+    himself he would marry you when he grew up. Then when you began to
+    go to school and was so bright he tried hard to study and keep up
+    just to have you think him good enough for you. He owned up he was
+    a bad speller and he'd tried his level best to do better but it
+    didn't seem to come natural, and he thought maybe ef he was a good
+    farmer you wouldn't mind about the spelling. He hired out to his
+    father for the summer and he was trying with all his might to get
+    to be the kind of man t'would suit you, and then when he was
+    plowing and planning all what kind of a house with big columns to
+    the front he would build here comes the coach driving by and _you_
+    in it! He said he thought the sky and fields was all mixed up and
+    his heart was going out of him. He couldn't work any more and he
+    started out after supper to see what it all meant.
+
+    "That wasn't just the exact way he told it, Marsh, it was more
+    like poetry, that kind in our reader about "Lord Ullin's
+    daughter"--you know. We used to recite it on examination
+    exhibition. I didn't know Hanford could talk like that. His words
+    were real pretty, kind of sorrowful you know. And it all come over
+    me that you ought to know about it. You're married of course, and
+    can't help it now, but 'taint every girl that has a boy care for
+    her like that from the time she's a baby with a red hood on, and
+    you ought to know 'bout it, fer it wasn't Hanford's fault he
+    didn't have time to tell you. He's just been living fer you fer a
+    number of years, and its kind of hard on him. 'Course you may not
+    care, being you're married and have a fine house and lots of
+    clo'es of your own and a good time, but it does seem hard for him.
+    It seems as if somebody ought to comfort him. I'd like to try if
+    you don't mind. He does seem to like to talk about you to me, and
+    I feel so sorry for him I guess I could comfort him a little, for
+    it seems as if it would be the nicest thing in the world to have
+    some one like you that way for years, just as they do in books,
+    only every time I think about being a comfort to him I think he
+    belongs to you and it ain't right. So Marsh, you just speak out
+    and say if your willing I should try to comfort him a little and
+    make up to him fer what he lost in you, being as you're married
+    and fixed so nice yourself.
+
+    "Of course I know I aint pretty like you, nor can't hold my head
+    proud and step high as you always did, even when you was little,
+    but I can feel, and perhaps that's something. Anyhow Hanford's
+    been down three times to talk about you to me, and ef you don't
+    mind I'm going to let him come some more. But if you mind the
+    leastest little bit I want you should say so, for things are mixed
+    in this world and I don't want to get to trampling on any other
+    person's feelings, much less you who have always been my best
+    friend and always will be as long as I live I guess. 'Member how
+    we used to play house on the old flat stone in the orchard, and
+    you give me all the prettiest pieces of china with sprigs on 'em?
+    I aint forgot that, and never will. I shall always say you made
+    the prettiest bride I ever saw, no matter how many more I see, and
+    I hope you won't forget me. It's lonesome here without you. If it
+    wasn't for comforting Hanford I shouldn't care much for anything.
+    I can't think of you a grown up woman. Do you feel any different?
+    I spose you wouldn't climb a fence nor run through the pasture lot
+    for anything now. Have you got a lot of new friends? I wish I
+    could see you. And now Marsh, I want you to write right off and
+    tell me what to do about comforting Hanford, and if you've any
+    message to send to him I think it would be real nice. I hope
+    you've got a good husband and are happy.
+
+                       "From your devoted and loving school mate,
+
+                                                "MARY ANN FOTHERGILL."
+
+
+Marcia laid down the letter and buried her face in her hands. To her too
+had come a thrust which must search her life and change it. So while David
+wrestled with his sorrow Marcia entered upon the knowledge of her own
+heart.
+
+There was something in this revelation by Mary Ann of Hanford Weston's
+feelings toward her that touched her immeasurably. Had it all happened
+before she left home, had Hanford come to her and told her of his love,
+she would have turned from him in dismay, almost disgust, and have told
+him that they were both but children, how could they talk of love. She
+could never have loved him. She would have felt it instantly, and her
+mocking laugh might have done a good deal toward saving him from sorrow.
+But now, with miles between them, with the wall of the solemn marriage
+vows to separate them forever, with her own youth locked up as she
+supposed until the day of eternity should perhaps set it free, with no
+hope of any bright dream of life such as girls have, could she turn from
+even a school boy's love without a passing tenderness, such as she would
+never have felt if she had not come away from it all? Told in Mary Ann's
+blunt way, with her crude attempts at pathos, it reached her as it could
+not otherwise. With her own new view of life she could sympathize better
+with another's disappointments. Perhaps her own loneliness gave her pity
+for another. Whatever it was, Marcia's heart suddenly turned toward
+Hanford Weston with a great throb of gratitude. She felt that she had been
+loved, even though it had been impossible for that love to be returned,
+and that whatever happened she would not go unloved down to the end of her
+days. Suddenly, out of the midst of the perplexity of her thoughts, there
+formed a distinct knowledge of what was lacking in her life, a lack she
+had never felt before, and probably would not have felt now had she not
+thus suddenly stepped into a place much beyond her years. It seemed to the
+girl as she sat in the great chintz chair and read and re-read that
+letter, as if she lived years that afternoon, and all her life was to be
+changed henceforth. It was not that she was sorry that she could not go
+back, and live out her girlhood and have it crowned with Hanford Weston's
+love. Not at all. She knew, as well now as she ever had known, that he
+could never be anything to her, but she knew also, or thought she knew,
+that he could have given her something, in his clumsy way, that now she
+could never have from any man, seeing she was David's and David could not
+love her that way, of course.
+
+Having come to this conclusion, she arose and wrote a letter giving and
+bequeathing to Mary Ann Fothergill all right, title, and claim to the
+affections of Hanford Weston, past, present, and future--sending him a
+message calculated to smooth his ruffled feelings, with her pretty thanks
+for his youthful adoration; comfort his sorrow with the thought that it
+must have been a hallucination, that some day he would find his true ideal
+which he had only thought he had found in her; and send him on his way
+rejoicing with her blessings and good wishes for a happy life. As for Mary
+Ann, for once she received her meed of Marcia's love, for homesick Marcia
+felt more tenderness for her than she had ever been able to feel before;
+and Marcia's loving messages set Mary Ann in a flutter of delight, as she
+laid her plans for comforting Hanford Weston.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+David slowly recovered his poise. Faced by that terrible, impenetrable
+wall of impossibility he stood helpless, his misery eating in upon his
+soul, but there still remained the fact that there was nothing, absolutely
+nothing, which he could possibly do. At times the truth rose to the
+surface, the wretched truth, that Kate was at fault, that having done the
+deed she should abide by it, and not try to keep a hold upon him, but it
+was not often he was able to think in this way. Most of the time he
+mourned over and for the lovely girl he had lost.
+
+As for Marcia, she came and went unobtrusively, making quiet comfort for
+David which he scarcely noticed. At times he roused himself to be polite
+to her, and made a labored effort to do something to amuse her, just as if
+she had been visiting him as a favor and he felt in duty bound to make the
+time pass pleasantly, but she troubled him so little with herself, that
+nearly always he forgot her. Whenever there was any public function to
+which they were bidden he always told her apologetically, as though it
+must be as much of a bore to her as to him, and he regretted that it was
+necessary to go in order to carry out their mutual agreement. Marcia,
+hailing with delight every chance to go out in search of something which
+would keep her from thinking the new thoughts which had come to her,
+demurely covered her pleasure and dressed herself dutifully in the robes
+made for her sister, hating them secretly the while, and was always ready
+when he came for her. David had nothing to complain of in his wife, so far
+as outward duty was concerned, but he was too busy with his own heart's
+bitterness to even recognize it.
+
+One afternoon, of a day when David had gone out of town not expecting to
+return until late in the evening, there came a knock at the door.
+
+There was something womanish in the knock, Marcia thought, as she hastened
+to answer it, and she wondered, hurriedly smoothing her shining hair, if
+it could be the aunts come to make their fortnightly-afternoon penance
+visit. She gave a hasty glance into the parlor hoping all was right, and
+was relieved to make sure she had closed the piano. The aunts would
+consider it a great breach of housewifely decorum to allow a moment's dust
+to settle upon its sacred keys.
+
+But it was not the aunts who stood upon the stoop, smiling and bowing with
+a handsome assurance of his own welcome. It was Harry Temple.
+
+Marcia was not glad to see him. A sudden feeling of unreasoning alarm took
+possession of her.
+
+"You're all alone this time, sweet lady, aren't you?" he asked with easy
+nonchalance, as he lounged into the hall without waiting her bidding.
+
+"Sir!" said Marcia, half frightened, half wondering.
+
+But he smiled reassuringly down upon her and took the door knob in his own
+hands to close the door.
+
+"Your good man is out this time, isn't he?" he smiled again most
+delightfully. His face was very handsome when he smiled. He knew this fact
+well.
+
+Marcia did not smile. Why did he speak as if he knew where David was, and
+seemed to be pleased that he was away?
+
+"My husband is not in at present," she said guardedly, her innocent eyes
+searching his face, "did you wish to see him?"
+
+She was beautiful as she stood there in the wide hall, with only the light
+from the high transom over the door, shedding an afternoon glow through
+its pleated Swiss oval. She looked more sweet and little-girlish than
+ever, and he felt a strong desire to take her in his arms and tell her so,
+only he feared, from something he saw in those wide, sweet eyes, that she
+might take alarm and run away too soon, so he only smiled and said that
+his business with her husband could wait until another time, and meantime
+he had called to fulfil his promise to play for her.
+
+She took him into the darkened parlor, gave him the stiffest and
+stateliest hair-cloth chair; but he walked straight over to the
+instrument, and with not at all the reverence she liked to treat it, flung
+back the coverings, threw the lid open, and sat down.
+
+He had white fingers, and he ran them over the keys with an air of being
+at home among them, light little airs dripping from his touch like dew
+from a glistening grass blade. Marcia felt there were butterflies in the
+air, and buzzing bees, and fairy flowers dancing on the slightest of
+stems, with a sky so blue it seemed to be filled with the sound of lily
+bells. The music he played was of the nature of what would be styled
+to-day "popular," for this man was master of nothing but having a good
+time. Quick music with a jingle he played, that to the puritanic-bred girl
+suggested nothing but a heart bubbling over with gladness, but he meant it
+should make her heart flutter and her foot beat time to the tripping
+measure. In his world feet were attuned to gay music. But Marcia stood
+with quiet dignity a little away from the instrument, her lips parted, her
+eyes bright with the pleasure of the melody, her hands clasped, and her
+breath coming quickly. She was all absorbed with the music. All
+unknowingly Marcia had placed herself where the light from the window fell
+full across her face, and every flitting expression as she followed the
+undulant sounds was visible. The young man gazed, almost as much pleased
+with the lovely face as Marcia was with the music.
+
+At last he drew a chair quite near his own seat.
+
+"Come and sit down," he said, "and I will sing to you. You did not know I
+could sing, too, did you? Oh, I can. But you must sit down for I couldn't
+sing right when you are standing."
+
+He ended with his fascinating smile, and Marcia shyly sat down, though she
+drew the chair a bit back from where he had placed it and sat up quite
+straight and stiff with her shoulders erect and her head up. She had
+forgotten her distrust of the man in what seemed to her his wonderful
+music. It was all new and strange to her, and she could not know how
+little there really was to it. She had decided as he played that she liked
+the kind best that made her think of the birds and the sunny sky, rather
+than the wild whirlly kind that seemed all a mad scramble. She meant to
+ask him to play over again what he played at the beginning, but he struck
+into a Scotch love ballad. The melody intoxicated her fancy, and her face
+shone with pleasure. She had not noticed the words particularly, save that
+they were of love, and she thought with pain of David and Kate, and how
+the pleading tenderness might have been his heart calling to hers not to
+forget his love for her. But Harry Temple mistook her expression for one
+of interest in himself. With his eyes still upon hers, as a cat might
+mesmerize a bird, he changed into a minor wail of heart-broken love, whose
+sadness brought great tears to Marcia's eyes, and deep color to her
+already burning cheeks, while the music throbbed out her own half-realized
+loneliness and sorrow. It was as if the sounds painted for her a picture
+of what she had missed out of love, and set her sorrow flowing tangibly.
+
+The last note died away in an impressive diminuendo, and the young man
+turned toward her. His eyes were languishing, his voice gentle,
+persuasive, as though it had but been the song come a little nearer.
+
+"And that is the way I feel toward you, dear," he said, and reached out
+his white hands to where hers lay forgotten in her lap.
+
+But his hands had scarcely touched hers, before Marcia sprang back, in her
+haste knocking over the chair.
+
+Erect, her hands snatched behind her, frightened, alert, she stood a
+moment bewildered, all her fears to the front.
+
+Ah! but he was used to shy maidens. He was not to be baffled thus. A
+little coaxing, a little gentle persuasion, a little boldness--that was all
+he needed. He had conquered hearts before, why should he not this
+unsophisticated one?
+
+"Don't be afraid, dear; there is no one about. And surely there is no harm
+in telling you I love you, and letting you comfort my poor broken heart to
+think that I have found you too late--"
+
+He had arisen and with a passionate gesture put his arms about Marcia and
+before she could know what was coming had pressed a kiss upon her lips.
+
+But she was aroused now. Every angry force within her was fully awake.
+Every sense of right and justice inherited and taught came flocking
+forward. Horror unspeakable filled her, and wrath, that such a dreadful
+thing should come to her. There was no time to think. She brought her two
+strong supple hands up and beat him in the face, mouth, cheeks, and eyes,
+with all her might, until he turned blinded; and then she struggled away
+crying, "You are a wicked man!" and fled from the room.
+
+Out through the hall she sped to the kitchen, and flinging wide the door
+before her, the nearest one at hand, she fairly flew down the garden walk,
+past the nodding dahlias, past the basking pumpkins, past the whispering
+corn, down through the berry bushes, at the lower end of the lot, and
+behind the currant bushes. She crouched a moment looking back to see if
+she were pursued. Then imagining she heard a noise from the open door, she
+scrambled over the low back fence, the high comb with which her hair was
+fastened falling out unheeded behind her, and all her dark waves of hair
+coming about her shoulders in wild disarray.
+
+She was in a field of wheat now, and the tall shocks were like waves all
+about her, thick and close, kissing her as she passed with their bended
+stalks. Ahead of her it looked like an endless sea to cross before she
+could reach another fence, and a bare field, and then another fence and
+the woods. She knew not that in her wake she left a track as clear as if
+she had set up signals all along the way. She felt that the kind wheat
+would flow back like real waves and hide the way she had passed over. She
+only sped on, to the woods. In all the wide world there seemed no refuge
+but the woods. The woods were home to her. She loved the tall shadows, the
+whispering music in the upper branches, the quiet places underneath, the
+hushed silence like a city of refuge with cool wings whereunder to hide.
+And to it, as her only friend, she was hastening. She went to the woods as
+she would have flown to the minister's wife at home, if she only had been
+near, and buried her face in her lap and sobbed out her horror and shame.
+Breathless she sped, without looking once behind her, now over the next
+fence and still another. They were nothing to her. She forgot that she was
+wearing Kate's special sprigged muslin, and that it might tear on the
+rough fences. She forgot that she was a matron and must not run wild
+through strange fields. She forgot that some one might be watching her.
+She forgot everything save that she must get away and hide her poor shamed
+face.
+
+At last she reached the shelter of the woods, and, with one wild furtive
+look behind her to assure herself that she was not pursued, she flung
+herself into the lap of mother earth, and buried her face in the soft moss
+at the foot of a tree. There she sobbed out her horror and sorrow and
+loneliness, sobbed until it seemed to her that her heart had gone out with
+great shudders. Sobbed and sobbed and sobbed! For a time she could not
+even think clearly. Her brain was confused with the magnitude of what had
+come to her. She tried to go over the whole happening that afternoon and
+see if she might have prevented anything. She blamed herself most
+unmercifully for listening to the foolish music and, too, after her own
+suspicions had been aroused, though how could she dream any man in his
+senses would do a thing like that! Not even Captain Leavenworth would
+stoop to that, she thought. Poor child! She knew so little of the world,
+and her world had been kept so sweet and pure and free from contamination.
+She turned cold at the thought of her father's anger if he should hear
+about this strange young man. She felt sure he would blame her for
+allowing it. He had tried to teach his girls that they must exercise
+judgment and discretion, and surely, surely, she must have failed in both
+or this would not have happened. Oh, why had not the aunts come that
+afternoon! Why had they not arrived before this man came! And yet, oh,
+horror! if they had come after he was there! How disgusting he seemed to
+her with his smirky smile, and slim white fingers! How utterly unfit
+beside David did he seem to breathe the same air even. David, her
+David--no, Kate's David! Oh, pity! What a pain the world was!
+
+There was nowhere to turn that she might find a trace of comfort. For what
+would David say, and how could she ever tell him? Would he find it out if
+she did not? What would he think of her? Would he blame her? Oh, the agony
+of it all! What would the aunts think of her! Ah! that was worse than all,
+for even now she could see the tilt of Aunt Hortense's head, and the purse
+of Aunt Amelia's lips. How dreadful if they should have to know of it.
+They would not believe her, unless perhaps Aunt Clarinda might. She did
+not look wise, but she seemed kind and loving. If it had not been for the
+other two she might have fled to Aunt Clarinda. Oh, if she might but flee
+home to her father's house! How could she ever go back to David's house!
+How could she ever play on that dreadful piano again? She would always see
+that hateful, smiling face sitting there and think how he had looked at
+her. Then she shuddered and sobbed harder than ever. And mother earth,
+true to all her children, received the poor child with open arms. There
+she lay upon the resinous pine needles, at the foot of the tall trees, and
+the trees looked down tenderly upon her and consulted in whispers with
+their heads bent together. The winds blew sweetness from the buckwheat
+fields in the valley about her, murmuring delicious music in the air above
+her, and even the birds hushed their loud voices and peeped curiously at
+the tired, sorrowful creature of another kind that had come among them.
+
+Marcia's overwrought nerves were having their revenge. Tears had their way
+until she was worn out, and then the angel of sleep came down upon her.
+There upon the pine-needle bed, with tear-wet cheeks she lay, and slept
+like a tired child come home to its mother from the tumult of the world.
+
+Harry Temple, recovering from his rebuff, and left alone in the parlor,
+looked about him with surprise. Never before in all his short and
+brilliant career as a heart breaker had he met with the like, and this
+from a mere child! He could not believe his senses! She must have been in
+play. He would sit still and presently she would come back with eyes full
+of mischief and beg his pardon. But even as he sat down to wait her
+coming, something told him he was mistaken and that she would not come.
+There had been something beside mischief in the smart raps whose tingle
+even now his cheeks and lips felt. The house, too, had grown strangely
+hushed as though no one else besides himself were in it. She must have
+gone out. Perhaps she had been really frightened and would tell somebody!
+How awkward if she should presently return with one of those grim aunts,
+or that solemn puritan-like husband of hers. Perhaps he had better decamp
+while the coast was still clear. She did not seem to be returning and
+there was no telling what the little fool might do.
+
+With a deliberation which suddenly became feverish in his haste to be
+away, he compelled himself to walk slowly, nonchalantly out through the
+hall. Still as a thief he opened and closed the front door and got himself
+down the front steps, but not so still but that a quick ear caught the
+sound of the latch as it flew back into place, and the scrape of a boot on
+the path; and not so invisibly nor so quickly but that a pair of keen eyes
+saw him.
+
+When Harry Temple had made his way toward the Spafford house that
+afternoon, with his dauntless front and conceited smile, Miranda had been
+sent out to pick raspberries along the fence that separated the Heath
+garden from the Spafford garden.
+
+Harry Temple was too new in the town not to excite comment among the young
+girls wherever he might go, and Miranda was always having her eye out for
+anything new. Not for herself! Bless you! no! Miranda never expected
+anything from a young man for herself, but she was keenly interested in
+what befell other girls.
+
+So Miranda, crouched behind the berry bushes, watched Harry Temple saunter
+down the street and saw with surprise that he stopped at the house of her
+new admiration. Now, although Marcia was a married woman, Miranda felt
+pleased that she should have the attention of others, and a feeling of
+pride in her idol, and of triumph over her cousin Hannah that he had not
+stopped to see her, swelled in her brown calico breast.
+
+She managed to bring her picking as near to the region of the Spafford
+parlor windows as possible, and much did her ravished ear delight itself
+in the music that tinkled through the green shaded window, for Miranda had
+tastes that were greatly appealed to by the gay dance music. She fancied
+that her idol was the player. But then she heard a man's voice, and her
+picking stopped short insomuch that her grandmother's strident tones
+mingled with the liquid tenor of Mr. Temple, calling to Miranda to "be
+spry there or the sun'll catch you 'fore you get a quart." All at once the
+music ceased, and then in a minute or two Miranda heard the Spafford
+kitchen door thrown violently open and saw Marcia rush forth.
+
+She gazed in astonishment, too surprised to call out to her, or to
+remember to keep on picking for a moment. She watched her as she fairly
+flew down between the rows of currant bushes, saw the comb fly from her
+hair, saw the glow of excitement on her cheek, and the fire in her eye,
+saw her mount the first fence. Then suddenly a feeling of protection arose
+within her, and, with a hasty glance toward her grandmother's window to
+satisfy herself that no one else saw the flying figure, she fell to
+picking with all her might, but what went into her pail, whether
+raspberries or green leaves or briars, she did not know. Her eyes were on
+the flying figure through the wheat, and she progressed in her picking
+very fast toward the lower end of the lot where nothing but runty old sour
+berries ever grew, if any at all. Once hidden behind the tall corn that
+grew between her and her grandmother's vigilant gaze, she hastened to the
+end of the lot and watched Marcia; watched her as she climbed the fences,
+held her breath at the daring leaps from the top rails, expecting to see
+the delicate muslin catch on the rough fence and send the flying figure to
+the ground senseless perhaps. It was like a theatre to Miranda, this
+watching the beautiful girl in her flight, the long dark hair in the wind,
+the graceful untrammeled bounds. Miranda watched with unveiled admiration
+until the dark of the green-blue wood had swallowed her up, then slowly
+her eyes traveled back over the path which Marcia had taken, back through
+the meadow and the wheat, to the kitchen door left standing wide. Slowly,
+painfully, Miranda set herself to understand it. Something had happened!
+That was flight with fear behind it, fear that left everything else
+forgotten. What had happened?
+
+Miranda was wiser in her generation than Marcia. She began to put two and
+two together. Her brows darkened, and a look of cunning came into her
+honest blue eyes. Stealthily she crept with cat-like quickness along the
+fence near to the front, and there she stood like a red-haired Nemesis in
+a sunbonnet, with irate red face, confronting the unsuspecting man as he
+sauntered forth from the unwelcoming roof where he had whiled away a
+mistaken hour.
+
+"What you ben sayin' to her?"
+
+It was as if a serpent had stung him, so unexpected, so direct. He jumped
+aside and turned deadly pale. She knew her chance arrow had struck the
+truth. But he recovered himself almost immediately when he saw what a
+harmless looking creature had attacked him.
+
+"Why, my dear girl," he said patronizingly, "you quite startled me! I'm
+sure you must have made some mistake!"
+
+"I ain't your girl, thank goodness!" snapped Miranda, "and I guess by your
+looks there ain't anybody 'dear' to you but yourself. But I ain't made a
+mistake. It's you I was asking. _What you bin in there for?_" There was a
+blaze of defiance in Miranda's eyes, and her stubby forefinger pointed at
+him like a shotgun. Before her the bold black eyes quailed for an instant.
+The young man's hand sought his pocket, brought out a piece of money and
+extended it.
+
+"Look here, my friend," he said trying another line, "you take this and
+say nothing more about it. That's a good girl. No harm's been done."
+
+Miranda looked him in the face with noble scorn, and with a sudden motion
+of her brown hand sent the coin flying on the stone pavement.
+
+"I tell you I'm not your friend, and I don't want your money. I wouldn't
+trust its goodness any more than your face. As fer keepin' still I'll do
+as I see fit about it. I intend to know what this means, and if you've
+made _her_ any trouble you'd better leave this town, for I'll make it too
+unpleasant fer you to stay here!"
+
+With a stealthy glance about him, cautious, concerned, the young man
+suddenly hurried down the street. He wanted no more parley with this
+loud-voiced avenging maiden. His fear came back upon him in double force,
+and he was seen to glance at his watch and quicken his pace almost to a
+run as though a forgotten engagement had suddenly come to mind. Miranda,
+scowling, stood and watched him disappear around the corner, then she
+turned back and began to pick raspberries with a diligence that would have
+astonished her grandmother had she not been for the last hour engaged with
+a calling neighbor in the room at the other side of the house, where they
+were overhauling the character of a fellow church member.
+
+Miranda picked on, and thought on, and could not make up her mind what she
+ought to do. From time to time she glanced anxiously toward the woods, and
+then at the lowering sun in the West, and half meditated going after
+Marcia, but a wholesome fear of her grandmother held her hesitating.
+
+At length she heard a firm step coming down the street. Could it be? Yes,
+it was David Spafford. How was it he happened to come home so soon?
+Miranda had heard in a round-about-way, as neighbors hear and know these
+things, that David had taken the stage that morning, presumably on
+business to New York, and was hardly expected to return for several days.
+She had wondered if Marcia would stay all night alone in the house or if
+she would go to the aunts. But now here was David!
+
+Miranda looked again over the wheat, half expecting to see the flying
+figure returning in haste, but the parted wheat waved on and sang its song
+of the harvest, unmindful and alone, with only a fluttering butterfly to
+give life to the landscape. A little rusty-throated cricket piped a
+doleful sentence now and then between the silences.
+
+David Spafford let himself in at his own door, and went in search of
+Marcia.
+
+He wanted to find Marcia for a purpose. The business which had taken him
+away in the morning, and which he had hardly expected to accomplish before
+late that night, had been partly transacted at a little tavern where the
+coach horses had been changed that morning, and where he had met most
+unexpectedly the two men whom he had been going to see, who were coming
+straight to his town. So he turned him back with them and came home, and
+they were at this minute attending to some other business in the town,
+while he had come home to announce to Marcia that they would take supper
+with him and perhaps spend the night.
+
+Marcia was nowhere to be found. He went upstairs and timidly knocked at
+her door, but no answer came. Then he thought she might be asleep and
+knocked louder, but only the humming-bird in the honeysuckle outside her
+window sent back a little humming answer through the latch-hole. Finally
+he ventured to open the door and peep in, but he saw that quiet loneliness
+reigned there.
+
+He went downstairs again and searched in the pantry and kitchen and then
+stood still. The back door was stretched open as though it had been thrown
+back in haste. He followed its suggestion and went out, looking down the
+little brick path that led to the garden. Ah! what was that? Something
+gleamed in the sun with a spot of blue behind it. The bit of blue ribbon
+she had worn at her throat, with a tiny gold brooch unclasped sticking in.
+
+Miranda caught sight of him coming, and crouched behind the currants.
+
+David came on searching the path on every side. A bit of a branch had been
+torn from a succulent, tender plant that leaned over the path and was
+lying in the way. It seemed another blaze along the trail. Further down
+where the bushes almost met a single fragment of a thread waved on a thorn
+as though it had snatched for more in the passing and had caught only
+this. David hardly knew whether he was following these little things or
+not, but at any rate they were apparently not leading him anywhere for he
+stopped abruptly in front of the fence and looked both ways behind the
+bushes that grew along in front of it. Then he turned to go back again.
+Miranda held her breath. Something touched David's foot in turning, and,
+looking down, he saw Marcia's large shell comb lying there in the grass.
+Curiously he picked it up and examined it. It was like finding fragments
+of a wreck along the sand.
+
+All at once Miranda arose from her hiding place and confronted him
+timidly. She was not the same Miranda who came down upon Harry Temple,
+however.
+
+"She ain't in the house," she said hoarsely. "She's gone over there!"
+
+David Spafford turned surprised.
+
+"Is that you, Miranda? Oh, thank you! Where do you say she has gone?
+Where?"
+
+"Through there, don't you see?" and again the stubby forefinger pointed to
+the rift in the wheat.
+
+David gazed stupidly at the path in the wheat, but gradually it began to
+dawn upon him that there was a distinct line through it where some one
+must have gone.
+
+"Yes, I see," he said thinking aloud, "but why should she have gone there?
+There is nothing over there."
+
+"She went on further, she went to the woods," said Miranda, looking
+fearfully around lest even now her grandmother might be upon her, "and she
+was scared, I guess. She looked it. Her hair all come tumblin' down when
+she clum the fence, an' she just went flyin' over like some bird, didn't
+care a feather if she did fall, an' she never oncet looked behind her till
+she come to the woods."
+
+David's bewilderment was growing uncomfortable. There was a shade of alarm
+in his face and of the embarrassment one feels when a neighbor divulges
+news about a member of one's own household.
+
+"Why, surely, Miranda, you must be mistaken. Maybe it was some one else
+you saw. I do not think Mrs. Spafford would be likely to run over there
+that way, and what in the world would she have to be frightened at?"
+
+"No, I ain't mistaken," said Miranda half sullenly, nettled at his
+unbelief. "It was her all right. She came flyin' out the kitchen door when
+I was picking raspberries, and down that path to the fence, and never
+stopped fer fence ner wheat, ner medder lot, but went into them woods
+there, right up to the left of them tall pines, and she,--she looked plum
+scared to death 's if a whole circus menagerie was after her, lions and
+'nelefunts an' all. An' I guess she had plenty to be scared at ef I ain't
+mistaken. That dandy Temple feller went there to call on her, an' I heard
+him tinklin' that music box, and its my opinion he needs a wallupin'! You
+better go after her! It's gettin' late and you'll have hard times finding
+her in the dark. Just you foller her path in the wheat, and then make fer
+them pines. I'd a gone after her myself only grandma'd make sech a fuss,
+and hev to know it all. You needn't be afraid o' me. I'll keep still."
+
+By this time David was thoroughly alive to the situation and much alarmed.
+He mounted the fence with alacrity, gave one glance with "thank you" at
+Miranda, and disappeared through the wheat, Miranda watched him till she
+was sure he was making for the right spot, then with a sigh of relief she
+hastened into the house with her now brimming pail of berries.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER XV
+
+
+As David made his way with rapid strides through the rippling wheat, he
+experienced a series of sensations. For the first time since his wedding
+day he was aroused to entirely forget himself and his pain. What did it
+mean? Marcia frightened! What at? Harry Temple at their house! What did he
+know of Harry Temple? Nothing beyond the mere fact that Hannah Heath had
+introduced him and that he was doing business in the town. But why had Mr.
+Temple visited the house? He could have no possible business with himself,
+David was sure; moreover he now remembered having seen the young man
+standing near the stable that morning when he took his seat in the coach,
+and knew that he must have heard his remark that he would not return till
+the late coach that night, or possibly not till the next day. He
+remembered as he said it that he had unconsciously studied Mr. Temple's
+face and noted its weak points. Did the young man then have a purpose in
+coming to the house during his absence? A great anger rose within him at
+the thought.
+
+There was one strange thing about David's thoughts. For the first time he
+looked at himself in the light of Marcia's natural protector--her husband.
+He suddenly saw a duty from himself to her, aside from the mere feeding
+and clothing her. He felt a personal responsibility, and an actual
+interest in her. Out of the whole world, now, he was the only one she
+could look to for help.
+
+It gave him a feeling of possession that was new, and almost seemed
+pleasant. He forgot entirely the errand that had made him come to search
+for Marcia in the first place, and the two men who were probably at that
+moment preparing to go to his house according to their invitation. He
+forgot everything but Marcia, and strode into the purply-blue shadows of
+the wood and stopped to listen.
+
+The hush there seemed intense. There were no echoes lingering of flying
+feet down that pine-padded pathway of the aisle of the woods. It was long
+since he had had time to wander in the woods, and he wondered at their
+silence. So much whispering above, the sky so far away, the breeze so
+quiet, the bird notes so subdued, it seemed almost uncanny. He had not
+remembered that it was thus in the woods. It struck him in passing that
+here would be a good place to bring his pain some day when he had time to
+face it again, and wished to be alone with it.
+
+He took his hat in his hand and stepped firmly into the vast solemnity as
+if he had entered a great church when the service was going on, on an
+errand of life and death that gave excuse for profaning the holy silence.
+He went a few paces and stopped again, listening. Was that a long-drawn
+sighing breath he heard, or only the wind soughing through the waving
+tassels overhead? He summoned his voice to call. It seemed a great effort,
+and sounded weak and feeble under the grandeur of the vaulted green dome.
+"Marcia!" he called,--and "Marcia!" realizing as he did so that it was the
+first time he had called her by her name, or sought after her in any way.
+He had always said "you" to her, or "child," or spoken of her in company
+as "Mrs. Spafford," a strange and far-off mythical person whose very
+intangibility had separated her from himself immeasurably.
+
+He went further into the forest, called again, and yet again, and stood to
+listen. All was still about him, but in the far distance he heard the
+faint report of a gun. With a new thought of danger coming to mind he
+hurried further into the shadows. The gun sounded again more clearly. He
+shuddered involuntarily and looked about in all directions, hoping to see
+the gleam of her gown. It was not likely there were any wild beasts about
+these parts, so near the town and yet, they had been seen occasionally,--a
+stray fox, or even a bear,--and the sun was certainly very low. He glanced
+back, and the low line of the horizon gleamed the gold of intensified
+shining that is the sun's farewell for the night. The gun again! Stray
+shots had been known to kill people wandering in the forest. He was
+growing nervous as a woman now, and went this way and that calling, but
+still no answer came. He began to think he was not near the clump of pines
+of which Miranda spoke, and went a little to the right and then turned to
+look back to where he had entered the wood, and there, almost at his feet,
+she lay!
+
+She slept as soundly as if she had been lying on a couch of velvet, one
+round white arm under her cheek. Her face was flushed with weeping, and
+her lashes still wet. Her tender, sensitive mouth still quivered slightly
+as she gave a long-drawn breath with a catch in it that seemed like a sob,
+and all her lovely dark hair floated about her as if it were spread upon a
+wave that upheld her. She was beautiful indeed as she lay there sleeping,
+and the man, thus suddenly come upon her, anxious and troubled and every
+nerve quivering, stopped, awed with the beauty of her as if she had been
+some heavenly being suddenly confronting him. He stepped softly to her
+side and bending down observed her, first anxiously, to make sure she was
+alive and safe, then searchingly, as though he would know every detail of
+the picture there before him because it was his, and he not only had a
+right but a duty to possess it, and to care for it.
+
+She might have been a statue or a painting as he looked upon her and noted
+the lovely curve of her flushed cheek, but when his eyes reached the firm
+little brown hand and the slender finger on which gleamed the wedding ring
+that was not really hers, something pathetic in the tear-wet lashes, and
+the whole sorrowful, beautiful figure, touched him with a great
+tenderness, and he stooped down gently and put his arm about her.
+
+"Marcia,--child!" he said in a low, almost crooning voice, as one might
+wake a baby from its sleep, "Marcia, open your eyes, child, and tell me if
+you are all right."
+
+At first she only stirred uneasily and slept on, the sleep of utter
+exhaustion; but he raised her, and, sitting down beside her, put her head
+upon his shoulder, speaking gently. Then Marcia opened her eyes
+bewildered, and with a start, sprang back and looked at David, as though
+she would be sure it was he and not that other dreadful man from whom she
+had fled.
+
+"Why, child! What's the matter?" said David, brushing her hair back from
+her face. Bewildered still, Marcia scarcely knew him, his voice was so
+strangely sweet and sympathetic. The tears were coming back, but she could
+not stop them. She made one effort to control herself and speak, but her
+lips quivered a moment, and then the flood-gates opened again, and she
+covered her face with her hands and shook with sobs. How could she tell
+David what a dreadful thing had happened, now, when he was kinder to her
+than he had ever thought of being before! He would grow grave and stern
+when she had told him, and she could not bear that. He would likely blame
+her too, and how could she endure more?
+
+But he drew her to him again and laid her head against his coat, trying to
+smooth her hair with unaccustomed passes of his hand. By and by the tears
+subsided and she could control herself again. She hushed her sobs and drew
+back a little from the comforting rough coat where she had lain.
+
+"Indeed, indeed, I could not help it, David,"--she faltered, trying to
+smile like a bit of rainbow through the rain.
+
+"I know you couldn't, child." His answer was wonderfully kind and his eyes
+smiled at her as they had never done before. Her heart gave a leap of
+astonishment and fluttered with gladness over it. It was so good to have
+David care. She had not known how much she wanted him to speak to her as
+if he saw her and thought a little about her.
+
+"And now what was it? Remember I do not know. Tell me quick, for it is
+growing late and damp, and you will take cold out here in the woods with
+that thin frock on. You are chilly already."
+
+"I better go at once," she said reservedly, willing to put off the telling
+as long as possible, peradventure to avoid it altogether.
+
+"No, child," he said firmly drawing her back again beside him, "you must
+rest a minute yet before taking that long walk. You are weary and excited,
+and besides it will do you good to tell me. What made you run off up here?
+Are you homesick?"
+
+He scanned her face anxiously. He began to fear with sudden compunction
+that the sacrifice he had accepted so easily had been too much for the
+victim, and it suddenly began to be a great comfort to him to have Marcia
+with him, to help him hide his sorrow from the world. He did not know
+before that he cared.
+
+"I was frightened," she said, with drooping lashes. She was trying to keep
+her lips and fingers from trembling, for she feared greatly to tell him
+all. But though the woods were growing dusky he saw the fluttering little
+fingers and gathered them firmly in his own.
+
+"Now, child," he said in that tone that even his aunts obeyed, "tell me
+all. What frightened you, and why did you come up here away from everybody
+instead of calling for help?"
+
+Brought to bay she lifted her beautiful eyes to his face and told him
+briefly the story, beginning with the night when she had first met Harry
+Temple. She said as little about music as possible, because she feared
+that the mention of the piano might be painful to David, but she made the
+whole matter quite plain in a few words, so that David could readily fill
+in between the lines.
+
+"Scoundrel!" he murmured clenching his fists, "he ought to be strung up!"
+Then quite gently again, "Poor child! How frightened you must have been!
+You did right to run away, but it was a dangerous thing to run out here!
+Why, he might have followed you!"
+
+"Oh!" said Marcia, turning pale, "I never thought of that. I only wanted
+to get away from everybody. It seemed so dreadful I did not want anybody
+to know. I did not want you to know. I wanted to run away and hide, and
+never come back!" She covered her face with her hands and shuddered. David
+thought the tears were coming back again.
+
+"Child, child!" he said gently, "you must not talk that way. What would I
+do if you did that?" and he laid his hand softly upon the bowed head.
+
+It was the first time that anything like a personal talk had passed
+between them, and Marcia felt a thrill of delight at his words. It was
+like heavenly comfort to her wounded spirit.
+
+She stole a shy look at him under her lashes, and wished she dared say
+something, but no words came. They sat for a moment in silence, each
+feeling a sort of comforting sense of the other's presence, and each
+clasping the hand of the other with clinging pressure, yet neither fully
+aware of the fact.
+
+The last rays of the sun which had been lying for a while at their feet
+upon the pine needles suddenly slipped away unperceived, and behold! the
+world was in gloom, and the place where the two sat was almost utterly
+dark. David became aware of it first, and with sudden remembrance of his
+expected guests he started in dismay.
+
+"Child!" said he,--but he did not let go of her hand, nor forget to put the
+tenderness in his voice, "the sun has gone down, and here have I been
+forgetting what I came to tell you in the astonishment over what you had
+to tell me. We must hurry and get back. We have guests to-night to supper,
+two gentlemen, very distinguished in their lines of work. We have business
+together, and I must make haste. I doubt not they are at the house
+already, and what they think of me I cannot tell; let us hurry as fast as
+possible."
+
+"Oh, David!" she said in dismay. "And you had to come out here after me,
+and have stayed so long! What a foolish girl I have been and what a mess I
+have made! They will perhaps be angry and go away, and I will be to blame.
+I am afraid you can never forgive me."
+
+"Don't worry, child," he said pleasantly. "It couldn't be helped, you
+know, and is in no wise your fault. I am only sorry that these two
+gentlemen will delay me in the pleasure of hunting up that scoundrel of a
+Temple and suggesting that he leave town by the early morning stage. I
+should like to give him what Miranda suggested, a good 'wallupin',' but
+perhaps that would be undignified."
+
+He laughed as he said it, a hearty laugh with a ring to it like his old
+self. Marcia felt happy at the sound. How wonderful it would be if he
+would be like that to her all the time! Her heart swelled with the great
+thought of it.
+
+He helped her to her feet and taking her hand led her out to the open
+field where they could walk faster. As he walked he told her about Miranda
+waiting for him behind the currant bushes. They laughed together and made
+the way seem short.
+
+It was quite dark now, with the faded moon trembling feebly in the West as
+though it meant to retire early, and wished they would hurry home while
+she held her light for them. David had drawn Marcia's arm within his, and
+then, noticing that her dress was thin, he pulled off his coat and put it
+firmly about her despite her protest that she did not need it, and so,
+warmed, comforted, and cheered Marcia's feet hurried back over the path
+she had taken in such sorrow and fright a few hours before.
+
+When they could see the lights of the village twinkling close below them
+David began to tell her about the two men who were to be their guests, if
+they were still waiting, and so interesting was his brief story of each
+that Marcia hardly knew they were at home before David was helping her
+over their own back fence.
+
+"Oh, David! There seems to be a light in the kitchen! Do you suppose they
+have gone in and are getting their own supper? What shall I do with my
+hair? I cannot go in with it this way. How did that light get there?"
+
+"Here!" said David, fumbling in his pocket, "will this help you?" and he
+brought out the shell comb he had picked up in the garden.
+
+By the light of the feeble old moon David watched her coil the long wavy
+hair and stood to pass his criticism upon the effect before they should go
+in. They were just back of the tall sunflowers, and talked in whispers. It
+was all so cheery, and comradey, and merry, that Marcia hated to go in and
+have it over, for she could not feel that this sweet evening hour could
+last. Then they took hold of hands and swiftly, cautiously, stole up to
+the kitchen window and looked in. The door still stood open as both had
+left it that afternoon, and there seemed to be no one in the kitchen. A
+candle was burning on the high little shelf over the table, and the tea
+kettle was singing on the crane by the hearth, but the room was without
+occupant. Cautiously, looking questioningly at one another, they stole
+into the kitchen, each dreading lest the aunts had come by chance and
+discovered their lapse. There was a light in the front part of the house
+and they could hear voices, two men were earnestly discussing politics.
+They listened longer, but no other presence was revealed.
+
+David in pantomime outlined the course of action, and Marcia,
+understanding perfectly flew up the back stairs as noiselessly as a mouse,
+to make her toilet after her nap in the woods, while David with much show
+and to-do of opening and shutting the wide-open kitchen door walked
+obviously into the kitchen and hurried through to greet his guests
+wondering,--not suspecting in the least,--what good angel had been there to
+let them in.
+
+Good fortune had favored Miranda. The neighbor had stayed longer than
+usual, perhaps in hopes of an invitation to stay to tea and share in the
+gingerbread she could smell being taken from the oven by Hannah, who
+occasionally varied her occupations by a turn at the culinary art. Hannah
+could make delicious gingerbread. Her grandmother had taught her when she
+was but a child.
+
+Miranda stole into the kitchen when Hannah's back was turned and picked
+over her berries so fast that when Hannah came into the pantry to set her
+gingerbread to cool Miranda had nearly all her berries in the big yellow
+bowl ready to wash, and Hannah might conjecture if she pleased that
+Miranda had been some time picking them over. It is not stated just how
+thoroughly those berries were picked over. But Miranda cared little for
+that. Her mind was upon other things. The pantry window overlooked the
+hills and the woods. She could see if David and Marcia were coming back
+soon. She wanted to watch her play till the close, and had no fancy for
+having the curtain fall in the middle of the most exciting act, the rescue
+of the princess. But the talk in the sitting room went on and on. By and
+by Hannah Heath washed her hands, untied her apron, and taking her
+sunbonnet slipped over to Ann Bertram's for a pattern of her new sleeve.
+Miranda took the opportunity to be off again.
+
+Swiftly down behind the currants she ran, and standing on the fence behind
+the corn she looked off across the wheat, but no sign of anybody yet
+coming out of the woods was granted her. She stood so a long time. It was
+growing dusk. She wondered if Harry Temple had shut the front door when he
+went out. But then David went in that way, and he would have closed it, of
+course. Still, he went away in a hurry, maybe it would be as well to go
+and look. She did not wish to be caught by her grandmother, so she stole
+along like a cat close to the dark berry bushes, and the gathering dusk
+hid her well. She thought she could see from the front of the fence
+whether the door looked as if it were closed. But there were people coming
+up the street. She would wait till they had passed before she looked over
+the fence.
+
+They were two men coming, slowly, and in earnest conversation upon some
+deeply interesting theme. Each carried a heavy carpet-bag, and they walked
+wearily, as if their business were nearly over for the day and they were
+coming to a place of rest.
+
+"This must be the house, I think," said one. "He said it was exactly
+opposite the Seceder church. That's the church, I believe. I was here once
+before."
+
+"There doesn't seem to be a light in the house," said the other, looking
+up to the windows over the street. "Are you sure? Brother Spafford said he
+was coming directly home to let his wife know of our arrival."
+
+"A little strange there's no light yet, for it is quite dark now, but I'm
+sure this must be the house. Maybe they are all in the kitchen and not
+expecting us quite so soon. Let's try anyhow," said the other, setting
+down his carpet-bag on the stoop and lifting the big brass knocker.
+
+Miranda stood still debating but a moment. The situation was made plain to
+her in an instant. Not for nothing had she stood at Grandma Heath's elbow
+for years watching the movements of her neighbors and interpreting exactly
+what they meant. Miranda's wits were sharpened for situations of all
+kinds. Miranda was ready and loyal to those she adored. Without further
+ado she hastened to a sheltered spot she knew and climbed the picket fence
+which separated the Heath garden from the Spafford side yard. Before the
+brass knocker had sounded through the empty house the second time Miranda
+had crossed the side porch, thrown her sunbonnet upon a chair in the dark
+kitchen, and was hastening with noisy, encouraging steps to the front
+door.
+
+She flung it wide open, saying in a breezy voice, "Just wait till I get a
+light, won't you, the wind blew the candle out."
+
+There wasn't a particle of wind about that soft September night, but that
+made little difference to Miranda. She was part of a play and she was
+acting her best. If her impromptu part was a little irregular, it was at
+least well meant, boldly and bravely presented.
+
+Miranda found a candle on the shelf and, stooping to the smouldering fire
+upon the hearth, blew and coaxed it into flame enough to light it.
+
+"This is Mr. Spafford's home, is it not?" questioned the old gentleman
+whom Miranda had heard speak first on the sidewalk.
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed," said the girl glibly. "Jest come in and set down. Here,
+let me take your hats. Jest put your bags right there on the floor."
+
+"You are-- Are you--Mrs. Spafford?" hesitated the courtly old gentleman.
+
+"Oh, landy sakes, no, I ain't her," laughed Miranda well pleased. "Mis'
+Spafford had jest stepped out a bit when her husband come home, an' he's
+gone after her. You see she didn't expect her husband home till late
+to-night. But you set down. They'll be home real soon now. They'd oughter
+ben here before this. I 'spose she'd gone on further'n she thought she'd
+go when she stepped out."
+
+"It's all right," said the other gentleman, "no harm done, I'm sure. I
+hope we shan't inconvenience Mrs. Spafford any coming so unexpectedly."
+
+"No, indeedy!" said quick-witted Miranda. "You can't ketch Mis' Spafford
+unprepared if you come in the middle o' the night. She's allus ready fer
+comp'ny." Miranda's eyes shone. She felt she was getting on finely doing
+the honors.
+
+"Well, that's very nice. I'm sure it makes one feel at home. I wonder now
+if she would mind if we were to go right up to our room and wash our
+hands. I feel so travel-stained. I'd like to be more presentable before we
+meet her," said the first gentleman, who looked very weary.
+
+But Miranda was not dashed.
+
+"Why, that's all right. 'Course you ken go right up. Jest you set in the
+keepin' room a minnit while I run up'n be sure the water pitcher's filled.
+I ain't quite sure 'bout it. I won't be long."
+
+Miranda seated them in the parlor with great gusto and hastened up the
+back stairs to investigate. She was not at all sure which room would be
+called the guest room and whether the two strangers would have a room
+apiece or occupy the same together. At least it would be safe to show them
+one till the mistress of the house returned. She peeped into Marcia's
+room, and knew it instinctively before she caught sight of a cameo brooch
+on the pin cushion, and a rose colored ribbon neatly folded lying on the
+foot of the bed where it had been forgotten. That question settled, she
+thought any other room would do, and chose the large front room across the
+hall with its high four-poster and the little ball fringe on the valance
+and canopy. Having lighted the candle which stood in a tall glass
+candlestick on the high chest of drawers, she hurried down to bid her
+guests come up.
+
+Then she hastened back into the kitchen and went to work with swift
+skilful fingers. Her breath came quickly and her cheeks grew red with the
+excitement of it all. It was like playing fairy. She would get supper for
+them and have everything all ready when the mistress came, so that there
+would be no bad breaks. She raked the fire and filled the tea kettle,
+swinging it from the crane. Then she searched where she thought such
+things should be and found a table cloth and set the table. Her hands
+trembled as she put out the sprigged china that was kept in the corner
+cupboard. Perhaps this was wrong, and she would be blamed for it, but at
+least it was what she would have done, she thought, if she were mistress
+of this house and had two nice gentlemen come to stay to tea. It was not
+often that Grandmother Heath allowed her to handle her sprigged china, to
+be sure, so Miranda felt the joy and daring of it all the more. Once a
+delicate cup slipped and rolled over on the table and almost reached the
+edge. A little more and it would have rolled off to the floor and been
+shivered into a dozen fragments, but Miranda spread her apron in front and
+caught it fairly as it started and then hugged it in fear and delight for
+a moment as she might have done a baby that had been in danger. It was a
+great pleasure to her to set that table. In the first place she was not
+doing it to order but because she wanted to please and surprise some one
+whom she adored, and in the second place it was an adventure. Miranda had
+longed for an adventure all her life and now she thought it had come to
+her.
+
+When the table was set it looked very pretty. She slipped into the pantry
+and searched out the stores. It was not hard to find all that was needed;
+cold ham, cheese, pickles, seed cakes, gingerbread, fruit cake, preserves
+and jelly, bread and raised biscuit, then she went down cellar and found
+the milk and cream and butter. She had just finished the table and set out
+the tea pot and caddy of tea when she heard the two gentlemen coming down
+the stairs. They went into the parlor and sat down, remarking that their
+friend had a pleasant home, and then Miranda heard them plunge into a
+political discussion again and she felt that they were safe for a while.
+She stole out into the dewy dark to see if there were yet signs of the
+home-comers. A screech owl hooted across the night. She stood a while by
+the back fence looking out across the dark sea of whispering wheat. By and
+by she thought she heard subdued voices above the soft swish of the
+parting wheat, and by the light of the stars she saw them coming. Quick as
+a wink she slid over the fence into the Heath back-yard and crouched in
+her old place behind the currant bushes. So she saw them come up together,
+saw David help Marcia over the fence and watched them till they had passed
+up the walk to the light of the kitchen door. Then swiftly she turned and
+glided to her own home, well knowing the reckoning that would be in store
+for her for this daring bit of recreation. There was about her, however,
+an air of triumphant joy as she entered.
+
+"Where have you ben to, Miranda Griscom, and what on airth you ben up to
+now?" was the greeting she received as she lifted the latch of the old
+green kitchen door of her grandmother's house.
+
+Miranda knew that the worst was to come now, for her grandmother never
+mentioned the name of Griscom unless she meant business. It was a hated
+name to her because of the man who had broken the heart of her daughter.
+Grandma Heath always felt that Miranda was an out and out Griscom with not
+a streak of Heath about her. The Griscoms all had red hair. But Miranda
+lifted her chin high and felt like a princess in disguise.
+
+"Ben huntin' hen's eggs down in the grass," she said, taking the first
+excuse that came into her head. "Is it time to get supper?"
+
+"Hen's eggs! This time o' night an' dark as pitch. Miranda Griscom, you
+ken go up to your room an' not come down tell I call you!"
+
+It was a dire punishment, or would have been if Miranda had not had her
+head full of other things, for the neighbor had been asked to tea and
+there would have been much to hear at the table. Besides, it was apparent
+that her disgrace was to be made public. However, Miranda did not care.
+She hastened to her little attic window, which looked down, as good
+fortune would have it, upon the dining-room windows of the Spafford house.
+With joy Miranda observed that no one had thought to draw down the shades
+and she might sit and watch the supper served over the way,--the supper she
+had prepared,--and might think how delectable the doughnuts were, and let
+her mouth water over the currant jelly and the quince preserves and
+pretend she was a guest, and forget the supper downstairs she was missing.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+David made what apology he could for his absence on the arrival of his
+guests, and pondered in his heart who it could have been that they
+referred to as "the maid," until he suddenly remembered Miranda, and
+inwardly blessed her for her kindliness. It was more than he would have
+expected from any member of the Heath household. Miranda's honest face
+among the currant bushes when she had said, "You needn't be afraid of me,
+I'll keep still," came to mind. Miranda had evidently scented out the true
+state of the case and filled in the breach, taking care not to divulge a
+word. He blest her kindly heart and resolved to show his gratitude to her
+in some way. Could poor Miranda, sitting supperless in the dark, have but
+known his thought, her lonely heart would have fluttered happily. But she
+did not, and virtue had to bring its own reward in a sense of duty done.
+Then, too, there was a spice of adventure to Miranda's monotonous life in
+what she had done, and she was not altogether sad as she sat and let her
+imagination revel in what the Spaffords had said and thought, when they
+found the house lighted and supper ready. It was better than playing house
+down behind the barn when she was a little girl.
+
+Marcia was the most astonished when she slipped down from her hurried
+toilet and found the table decked out in all the house afforded, fairly
+groaning under its weight of pickles, preserves, doughnuts, and pie. In
+fact, everything that Miranda had found she had put upon that table, and
+it is safe to say that the result was not quite as it would have been had
+the preparation of the supper been left to Marcia.
+
+She stood before it and looked, and could not keep from laughing softly to
+herself at the array of little dishes of things. Marcia thought at first
+that one of the aunts must be here, in the parlor, probably entertaining
+the guests, and that the supper was a reproof to her for being away when
+she should have been at home attending to her duties, but still she was
+puzzled. It scarcely seemed like the aunts to set a table in such a
+peculiar manner. The best china was set out, it is true, but so many
+little bits of things were in separate dishes. There was half a mould of
+currant jelly in a large china plate, there was a fresh mould of quince
+jelly quivering on a common dish. All over the table in every available
+inch there was something. It would not do to call the guests out to a
+table like that. What would David say? And yet, if one of the aunts had
+set it and was going to stay to tea, would she be hurt? She tiptoed to the
+door and listened, but heard no sound save of men's voices. If an aunt had
+been here she was surely gone now and would be none the wiser if a few
+dishes were removed.
+
+With swift fingers Marcia weeded out the things, and set straight those
+that were to remain, and then made the tea. She was so quick about it
+David had scarcely time to begin to worry because supper was not announced
+before she stood in the parlor door, shy and sweet, with a brilliant color
+in her cheeks. His little comrade, David felt her to be, and again it
+struck him that she was beautiful as he arose to introduce her to the
+guests. He saw their open admiration as they greeted her, and he found
+himself wondering what they would have thought of Kate, wild-rose Kate
+with her graceful witching ways. A tinge of sadness came into his face,
+but something suggested to him the thought that Marcia was even more
+beautiful than Kate, more like a half-blown bud of a thing. He wondered
+that he had never noticed before how her eyes shone. He gave her a
+pleasant smile as they passed into the hall, which set the color flaming
+in her cheeks again. David seemed different somehow, and that lonely,
+set-apart feeling that she had had ever since she came here to live was
+gone. David was there and he understood, at least a little bit, and they
+had something,--just something, even though it was but a few minutes in a
+lonely woods and some gentle words of his,--to call their very own
+together. At least that experience did not belong to Kate, never had been
+hers, and could not have been borrowed from her. Marcia sighed a happy
+sigh as she took her seat at the table.
+
+The talk ran upon Andrew Jackson, and some utterances of his in his last
+message to Congress. The elder of the two gentlemen expressed grave fears
+that a mistake had been made in policy and that the country would suffer.
+
+Governor Clinton was mentioned and his policy discussed. But all this talk
+was familiar to Marcia. Her father had been interested in public affairs
+always, and she had been brought up to listen to discussions deep and
+long, and to think about such things for herself. When she was quite a
+little girl her father had made her read the paper aloud to him, from one
+end to the other, as he lay back in his big chair with his eyes closed and
+his shaggy brows drawn thoughtfully into a frown. Sometimes as she read he
+would burst forth with a tirade against this or that man or set of men who
+were in opposition to his own pronounced views, and he would pour out a
+lengthy reply to little Marcia as she sat patient, waiting for a chance to
+go on with her reading. As she grew older she became proud of the
+distinction of being her father's _confidante_ politically, and she was
+able to talk on such matters as intelligently and as well if not better
+than most of the men who came to the house. It was a position which no one
+disputed with her. Kate had been much too full of her own plans and Madam
+Schuyler too busy with household affairs to bother with politics and
+newspapers, so Marcia had always been the one called upon to read when her
+father's eyes were tired. As a consequence she was far beyond other girls
+of her age in knowledge on public affairs. Well she knew what Andrew
+Jackson thought about the tariff, and about the system of canals, and
+about improvements in general. She knew which men in Congress were opposed
+to and which in favor of certain bills. All through the struggle for
+improvements in New York state she had been an eager observer. The
+minutest detail of the Erie canal project had interested her, and she was
+never without her own little private opinion in the matter, which,
+however, seldom found voice except in her eager eyes, whose listening
+lights would have been an inspiration to the most eloquent speaker.
+
+Therefore, Marcia as she sat behind her sprigged china teacups and
+demurely poured tea, was taking in all that had been said, and she drew
+her breath quickly in a way she had when she was deeply excited, as at
+last the conversation neared the one great subject of interest which to
+her seemed of most importance in the country at the present day, the
+project of a railroad run by steam.
+
+Nothing was too great for Marcia to believe. Her father had been inclined
+to be conservative in great improvements. He had favored the Erie canal,
+though had feared it would be impossible to carry so great a project
+through, and Marcia in her girlish mind had rejoiced with a joy that to
+her was unspeakable when it had been completed and news had come that many
+packets were travelling day and night upon the wonderful new water way.
+There had been a kind of triumph in her heart to think that men who could
+study out these big schemes and plan it all, had been able against so
+great odds to carry out their project and prove to all unbelievers that it
+was not only possible but practicable.
+
+Marcia's brain was throbbing with the desire for progress. If she were a
+man with money and influence she felt she would so much like to go out
+into the world and make stupid people do the things for the country that
+ought to be done. Progress had been the keynote of her upbringing, and she
+was teeming with energy which she had no hope could ever be used to help
+along that for which she felt her ambitions rising. She wanted to see the
+world alive, and busy, the great cities connected with one another. She
+longed to have free access to cities, to great libraries, to pictures, to
+wonderful music. She longed to meet great men and women, the men and women
+who were making the history of the world, writing, speaking, and doing
+things that were moulding public opinion. Reforms of all sorts were what
+helped along and made possible her desires. Why did not the people want a
+steam railroad? Why were they so ready to say it could never succeed, that
+it would be an impossibility; that the roads could not be made strong
+enough to bear so great weights and so constant wear and tear? Why did
+they interpose objections to every suggestion made by inventors and
+thinking men? Why did even her dear father who was so far in advance of
+his times in many ways, why did even he too shake his head and say that he
+feared it would never be in this country, at least not in his day, that it
+was impracticable?
+
+The talk was very interesting to Marcia. She ate bits of her biscuit
+without knowing, and she left her tea untasted till it was cold. The
+younger of the two guests was talking. His name was Jervis. Marcia thought
+she had heard the name somewhere, but had not yet placed him in her mind:
+
+"Yes," said he, with an eager look on his face, "it is coming, it is
+coming sooner than they think. Oliver Evans said, you know, that good
+roads were all we could expect one generation to do. The next must make
+canals, the next might build a railroad which should run by horse power,
+and perhaps the next would run a railroad by steam. But we shall not have
+to wait so long. We shall have steam moving railway carriages before
+another year."
+
+"What!" said David, "you don't mean it! Have you really any foundation for
+such a statement?" He leaned forward, his eyes shining and his whole
+attitude one of deep interest. Marcia watched him, and a great pride began
+to glow within her that she belonged to him. She looked at the other men.
+Their eyes were fixed upon David with heightening pleasure and pride.
+
+The older man watched the little tableau a moment and then he explained:
+
+"The Mohawk and Hudson Company have just made an engagement with Mr.
+Jervis as chief engineer of their road. He expects to run that road by
+steam!"
+
+He finished his fruit cake and preserves under the spell of astonishment
+he had cast upon his host and hostess.
+
+David and Marcia turned simultaneously toward Mr. Jervis for a
+confirmation of this statement. Mr. Jervis smiled in affirmation.
+
+"But will it not be like all the rest, no funds?" asked David a trifle
+sadly. "It may be years even yet before it is really started."
+
+But Mr. Jervis' face was reassuring.
+
+"The contract is let for the grading. In fact work has already begun. I
+expect to begin laying the track by next Spring, perhaps sooner. As soon
+as the track is laid we shall show them."
+
+David's eyes shone and he reached out and grasped the hand of the man who
+had the will and apparently the means of accomplishing this great thing
+for the country.
+
+"It will make a wonderful change in the whole land," said David musingly.
+He had forgotten to eat. His face was aglow and a side of his nature which
+Marcia did not know was uppermost. Marcia saw the man, the thinker, the
+writer, the former of public opinion, the idealist. Heretofore David had
+been to her in the light of her sister's lover, a young man of promise,
+but that was all. Now she saw something more earnest, and at once it was
+revealed to her what a man he was, a man like her father. David's eyes
+were suddenly drawn to meet hers. He looked on Marcia and seemed to be
+sharing his thought with her, and smiled a smile of comradeship. He felt
+all at once that she could and would understand his feelings about this
+great new enterprise, and would be glad too. It pleased him to feel this.
+It took a little of his loneliness away. Kate would never have been
+interested in these things. He had never expected such sympathy from her.
+She had been something beautiful and apart from his world, and as such he
+had adored her. But it was pleasant to have some one who could understand
+and feel as he did. Just then he was not thinking of his lost Kate. So he
+smiled and Marcia felt the glow of warmth from his look and returned it,
+and the two visitors knew that they were among friends who understood and
+sympathized.
+
+"Yes, it will make a change," said the older man. "I hope I may live to
+see at least a part of it."
+
+"If you succeed there will be many others to follow. The land will soon be
+a network of railroads," went on David, still musing.
+
+"We shall succeed!" said Mr. Jervis, closing his lips firmly in a way that
+made one sure he knew whereof he spoke.
+
+"And now tell me about it," said David, with his most engaging smile, as a
+child will ask to have a story. David could be most fascinating when he
+felt he was in a sympathetic company. At other times he was wont to be
+grave, almost to severity. But those who knew him best and had seen him
+thus melted into child-like enthusiasm, felt his lovableness as the others
+never dreamed.
+
+The table talk launched into a description of the proposed road, the road
+bed, the manner of laying the rails, their thickness and width, and the
+way of bolting them down to the heavy timbers that lay underneath. It was
+all intensely fascinating to Marcia. Mr. Jervis took knives and forks to
+illustrate and then showed by plates and spoons how they were fastened
+down.
+
+David asked a question now and then, took out his note book and wrote down
+some things. The two guests were eager and plain in their answers. They
+wanted David to write it up. They wanted the information to be accurate
+and full.
+
+"The other day I saw a question in a Baltimore paper, sent in by a
+subscriber, 'What is a railroad?'" said the old gentleman, "and the
+editor's reply was, 'Can any of our readers answer this question and tell
+us what is a railroad?'"
+
+There was a hearty laugh over the unenlightened unbelievers who seemed to
+be only too willing to remain in ignorance of the march of improvement.
+
+David finally laid down his note book, feeling that he had gained all the
+information he needed at present. "I have much faith in you and your
+skill, but I do not quite see how you are going to overcome all the
+obstacles. How, for instance, are you going to overcome the inequalities
+in the road? Our country is not a flat even one like those abroad where
+the railroad has been tried. There are sharp grades, and many curves will
+be necessary," said he.
+
+Mr. Jervis had shoved his chair back from the table, but now he drew it up
+again sharply and began to move the dishes back from his place, a look of
+eagerness gleaming in his face.
+
+Once again the dishes and cups were brought into requisition as the
+engineer showed a crude model, in china and cutlery, of an engine he
+proposed to have constructed, illustrating his own idea about a truck for
+the forward wheels which should move separately from the back wheels and
+enable the engine to conform to curves more readily.
+
+Marcia sat with glowing cheeks watching the outline of history that was to
+be, not knowing that the little model before her, made from her own
+teacups and saucers, was to be the model for all the coming engines of the
+many railroads of the future.
+
+Finally the chairs were pushed back, and yet the talk went on. Marcia
+slipped silently about conveying the dishes away. And still the guests sat
+talking. She could hear all they said even when she was in the kitchen
+washing the china, for she did it very softly and never a clink hid a
+word. They talked of Governor Clinton again and of his attitude toward the
+railroad. They spoke of Thurlow Weed and a number of others whose names
+were familiar to Marcia in the papers she had read to her father. They
+told how lately on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad Peter Cooper had
+experimented with a little locomotive, and had beaten a gray horse
+attached to another car.
+
+Marcia smiled brightly as she listened, and laid the delicate china teapot
+down with care lest she should lose a word. But ever with her interest in
+the march of civilization, there were other thoughts mingling. Thoughts of
+David and of how he would be connected with it all. He would write it up
+and be identified with it. He was brave enough to face any new movement.
+
+David's paper was a temperance paper. There were not many temperance
+papers in those days. David was brave. He had already faced a number of
+unpleasant circumstances in consequence. He was not afraid of sneers or
+sarcasms, nor of being called a fanatic. He had taken such a stand that
+even those who were opposed had to respect him. Marcia felt the joy of a
+great pride in David to-night.
+
+She sang a happy little song at the bottom of her heart as she worked. The
+new railroad was an assured thing, and David was her comrade, that was the
+song, and the refrain was, "David, David, David!"
+
+Later, after the guests had talked themselves out and taken their candles
+to their rooms, David with another comrade's smile, and a look in his eyes
+that saw visions of the country's future, and for this one night at least
+promised not to dream of the past, bade her good night.
+
+She went up to her white chamber and lay down upon the pillow, whose case
+was fragrant of lavendar blossoms, dreaming with a smile of to-morrow. She
+thought she was riding in a strange new railroad train with David's arm
+about her and Harry Temple running along at his very best pace to try to
+catch them, but he could not.
+
+Miranda, at her supperless window, watched the evening hours and thought
+many thoughts. She wondered why they stayed in the dining room so late,
+and why they did not go into the parlor and make Marcia play the "music
+box" as she called it; and why there was a light so long in that back
+chamber over the kitchen. Could it be they had put one of the guests
+there? Surely not. Perhaps that was David's study. Perhaps he was writing.
+Ah! She had guessed aright. David was sitting up to write while the
+inspiration was upon him.
+
+But Miranda slept and ceased to wonder long before David's light was
+extinguished, and when he finally lay down it was with a body healthily
+weary, and a mind for the time free from any intruding thought of himself
+and his troubles.
+
+He had written a most captivating article that would appear in his paper
+in a few days, and which must convince many doubters that a railroad was
+at last an established fact among them.
+
+There were one or two points which he must ask the skilled engineer in the
+morning, but as he reviewed what he had written he felt a sense of deep
+satisfaction, and a true delight in his work. His soul thrilled with the
+power of his gift. He loved it, exulted in it. It was pleasant to feel
+that delight in his work once more. He had thought since his marriage that
+it was gone forever, but perhaps by and by it would return to console him,
+and he would be able to do greater things in the world because of his
+suffering.
+
+Just as he dropped to sleep there came a thought of Marcia, pleasantly, as
+one remembers a flower. He felt that there was a comfort about Marcia, a
+something helpful in her smile. There was more to her than he had
+supposed. She was not merely a child. How her face had glowed as the men
+talked of the projected railroad, and almost she seemed to understand as
+they described the proposed engine with its movable trucks. She would be a
+companion who would be interested in his pursuits. He had hoped to teach
+Kate to understand his life work and perhaps help him some, but Kate was
+by nature a butterfly, a bird of gay colors, always on the wing. He would
+not have wanted her to be troubled with deep thoughts. Marcia seemed to
+enjoy such things. What if he should take pains to teach her, read with
+her, help cultivate her mind? It would at least be an occupation for
+leisure hours, something to interest him and keep away the awful pall of
+sadness.
+
+How sweet she had looked as she lay asleep in the woods with the tears on
+her cheek like the dew-drops upon a rose petal! She was a dear little girl
+and he must take care of her and protect her. That scoundrel Temple! What
+were such men made for? He must settle him to-morrow.
+
+And so he fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Harry Temple sat in his office the next morning with his feet upon the
+table and his wooden armed chair tilted back against the wall.
+
+He had letters to write, a number of them, that should go out with the
+afternoon coach, to reach the night packet. There were at least three men
+he ought to go and see at once if he would do the best for his employers,
+and the office he sat in was by no means in the best of order. But his
+feet were elevated comfortably on the table and he was deep in the pages
+of a story of the French Court, its loves and hates and intrigues.
+
+It was therefore with annoyance that he looked up at the opening of the
+office door.
+
+But the frown changed to apprehension, as he saw who was his visitor. He
+brought the chair legs suddenly to the floor and his own legs followed
+them swiftly. David Spafford was not a man before whom another would sit
+with his feet on a table, even to transact business.
+
+There was a look of startled enquiry on Harry Temple's face. For an
+instant his self-complacency was shaken. He hesitated, wondering what tack
+to take. Perhaps after all his alarm was unnecessary. Marcia likely had
+been too frightened to tell of what had occurred. He noticed the broad
+shoulder, the lean, active body, the keen eye, and the grave poise of his
+visitor, and thought he would hardly care to fight a duel with that man.
+It was natural for him to think at once of a duel on account of the French
+court life from which his mind had just emerged. A flash of wonder passed
+through his mind whether it would be swords or pistols, and then he set
+himself to face the other man.
+
+David Spafford stood for a full minute and looked into the face of the man
+he had come to shame. He looked at him with a calm eye and brow, but with
+a growing contempt that did not need words to express it. Harry Temple
+felt the color rise in his cheek, and his soul quaked for an instant. Then
+his habitual conceit arose and he tried to parry with his eye that keen
+piercing gaze of the other. It must have lasted a full minute, though it
+seemed to Mr. Temple it was five at the least. He made an attempt to offer
+his visitor a chair, but it was not noticed. David Spafford looked his man
+through and through, and knew him for exactly what he was. At last he
+spoke, quietly, in a tone that was too courteous to be contemptuous, but
+it humiliated the listener more even than contempt:
+
+"It would be well for you to leave town at once."
+
+That was all. The listener felt that it was a command. His wrath arose
+hotly, and beat itself against the calm exterior of his visitor's gaze in
+a look that was brazen enough to have faced a whole town of accusers.
+Harry Temple could look innocent and handsome when he chose.
+
+"I do not understand you, sir!" he said. "That is a most extraordinary
+statement!"
+
+"It would be well for you to leave town at once."
+
+This time the command was imperative. Harry's eyes blazed.
+
+"Why?" He asked it with that impertinent tilt to his chin which usually
+angered his opponent in any argument. Once he could break that steady,
+iron, self-control he felt he would have the best of things. He could
+easily persuade David Spafford that everything was all right if he could
+get him off his guard and make him angry. An angry man could do little but
+bluster.
+
+"You understand very well," replied David, his voice still, steady and his
+gaze not swerving.
+
+"Indeed! Well, this is most extraordinary," said Harry, losing control of
+himself again. "Of what do you accuse me, may I enquire?"
+
+"Of nothing that your own heart does not accuse you," said David. And
+somehow there was more than human indignation in the gaze now: there was
+pity, a sense of shame for another soul who could lower himself to do
+unseemly things. Before that look the blood crept into Harry's cheek
+again. An uncomfortable sensation entirely new was stealing over him. A
+sense of sin--no, not that exactly,--a sense that he had made a mistake,
+perhaps. He never was very hard upon himself even when the evidence was
+clear against him. It angered him to feel humiliated. What a fuss to make
+about a little thing! What a tiresome old cad to care about a little
+flirtation with his wife! He wished he had let the pretty baby alone
+entirely. She was of no finer stuff than many another who had accepted his
+advances with pleasure. He stiffened his neck and replied with much
+haughtiness:
+
+"My heart accuses me of nothing, sir. I assure you I consider your words
+an insult! I demand satisfaction for your insulting language, sir!" Harry
+Temple had never fought a duel, and had never been present when others
+fought, but that was the language in which a challenge was usually
+delivered in French novels.
+
+"It is not a matter for discussion!" said David Spafford, utterly ignoring
+the other's blustering words. "I am fully informed as to all that occurred
+yesterday afternoon, and I tell you once more, it would be well for you to
+leave town at once. I have nothing further to say."
+
+David turned and walked toward the door, and Harry stood, ignored, angry,
+crestfallen, and watched him until he reached the door.
+
+"You would better ask your informant further of her part in the matter!"
+he hissed, suddenly, an open sneer in his voice and a covert implication
+of deep meaning.
+
+David turned, his face flashing with righteous indignation. The man who
+was withered by the scorn of that glance wished heartily that he had not
+uttered the false sentence. He felt the smallness of his own soul, during
+the instant of silence in which his visitor stood looking at him.
+
+Then David spoke deliberately:
+
+"I knew you were a knave," said he, "but I did not suppose you were also a
+coward. A man who is not a coward will not try to put the blame upon a
+woman, especially upon an innocent one. You, sir, will leave town this
+evening. Any business further than you can settle between this and that I
+will see properly attended to. I warn you, sir, it will be unwise for you
+to remain longer than till the evening coach."
+
+Perfectly courteous were David's tones, keen command was in his eye and
+determination in every line of his face. Harry could not recover himself
+to reply, could not master his frenzy of anger and humiliation to face the
+righteous look of his accuser. Before he realized it, David was gone.
+
+He stood by the window and watched him go down the street with rapid, firm
+tread and upright bearing. Every line in that erect form spoke of
+determination. The conviction grew within him that the last words of his
+visitor were true, and that it would be wise for him to leave town. He
+rebelled at the idea. He did not wish to leave, for business matters were
+in such shape, or rather in such chaos, that it would be extremely awkward
+for him to meet his employers and explain his desertion at that time.
+Moreover there were several homes in the town open to him whenever he
+chose, where were many attractions. It was a lazy pleasant life he had
+been leading here, fully trusted, and wholly disloyal to the trust,
+troubled by no uneasy overseers, not even his own conscience, dined and
+smiled upon with lovely languishing eyes. He did not care to go, even
+though he had decried the town as dull and monotonous.
+
+But, on the other hand, things had occurred--not the unfortunate little
+mistake of yesterday, of course, but others, more serious things--that he
+would hardly care to have brought to the light of day, especially through
+the keen sarcastic columns of David Spafford's paper. He had seen other
+sinners brought to a bloodless retribution in those columns by dauntless
+weapons of sarcasm and wit which in David Spafford's hands could be made
+to do valiant work. He did not care to be humiliated in that way. He could
+not brazen it out. He was convinced that the man meant what he said, and
+from what he knew of his influence he felt that he would leave no stone
+unturned till he had made the place too hot to hold him. Only Harry Temple
+himself knew how easy that would be to do, for no one else knew how many
+"mistakes" (?) Harry had made, and he, unfortunately for himself, did not
+know how many of them were not known, by any who could harm him.
+
+He stood a long time clinking some sixpences and shillings together in his
+pocket, and scowling down the street after David had disappeared from
+sight.
+
+"Blame that little pink-cheeked, baby-eyed fool!" he said at last, turning
+on his heel with a sigh. "I might have known she was too goody-goody. Such
+people ought to die young before they grow up to make fools of other
+people. Bah! Think of a wife like that with no spirit of her own. A baby!
+Merely a baby!"
+
+Nevertheless, in his secret heart, he knew he honored Marcia and felt a
+true shame that she had looked into his tarnished soul.
+
+Then he looked round about upon his papers that represented a whole week's
+hard work and maybe more before they were cleared away, and reflected how
+much easier after all it would be to get up a good excuse and go away,
+leaving all this to some poor drudge who should be sent here in his place.
+He looked around again and his eyes lighted upon his book. He remembered
+the exciting crisis in which he had left the heroine and down he sat to
+his story again. At least there was nothing demanding attention this
+moment. He need not decide what he would do. If he went there were few
+preparations to make. He would toss some things into his carpet-bag and
+pretend to have been summoned to see a sick and dying relative, a
+long-lost brother or something. It would be easy to invent one when the
+time came. Then he could leave directions for the rest of his things to be
+packed if he did not return, and get rid of the trouble of it all. As for
+the letters, if he was going what use to bother with them? Let them wait
+till his successor should come. It mattered little to him whether his
+employers suffered for his negligence or not so long as he finished his
+story. Besides, it would not do to let that cad think he had frightened
+him. He would pretend he was not going, at least during his hours of
+grace. So he picked up his book and went on reading.
+
+At noon he sauntered back to his boarding house as usual for his dinner,
+having professed an unusually busy morning to those who came in to the
+office on business and made appointments with them for the next day. This
+had brought him much satisfaction as the morning wore away and he was left
+free to his book, and so before dinner he had come to within a very few
+pages of the end.
+
+After a leisurely dinner he sauntered back to the office again, rejoicing
+in the fact that circumstances had so arranged themselves that he had
+passed David Spafford in front of the newspaper office and given him a
+most elaborate and friendly bow in the presence of four or five
+bystanders. David's look in return had meant volumes, and decided Harry
+Temple to do as he had been ordered, not, of course, because he had been
+ordered to do so, but because it would be an easier thing to do. In fact
+he made up his mind that he was weary of this part of the country. He went
+back to his book.
+
+About the middle of the afternoon he finished the last pages. He rose up
+with alacrity then and began to think what he should do. He glanced around
+the room, sought out a few papers, took some daguerreotypes of girls from
+a drawer of his desk, gave a farewell glance around the dismal little room
+that had seen so much shirking for the past few months, and then went out
+and locked the door.
+
+He paused at the corner. Which way should he go? He did not care to go
+back to the office, for his book was done, and he scarcely needed to go to
+his room at his boarding place yet either, for the afternoon was but half
+over and he wished his departure to appear to be entirely unpremeditated.
+A daring thought came into his head. He would walk past David Spafford's
+house. He would let Marcia see him if possible. He would show them that he
+was not afraid in the least. He even meditated going in and explaining to
+Marcia that she had made a great mistake, that he had been merely admiring
+her, and that there was no harm in anything he had said or done yesterday,
+that he was exceedingly grieved and mortified that she should have
+mistaken his meaning for an insult, and so on and so on. He knew well how
+to make such honeyed talk when he chose, but the audacity of the thing was
+a trifle too much for even his bold nature, so he satisfied himself by
+strolling in a leisurely manner by the house.
+
+When he was directly opposite to it he raised his eyes casually and bowed
+and smiled with his most graceful air. True, he did not see any one, for
+Marcia had caught sight of him as she was coming out upon the stoop and
+had fled into her own room with the door buttoned, she was watching unseen
+from behind the folds of her curtain, but he made the bow as complete as
+though a whole family had been greeting him from the windows. Marcia, poor
+child, thought he must see her, and she felt frozen to the spot, and
+stared wildly through the little fold of her curtain with trembling hands
+and weak knees till he was passed. Well pleased at himself the young man
+walked on, knowing that at least three prominent citizens had seen him bow
+and smile, and that they would be witnesses, against anything David might
+say to the contrary, that he was on friendly terms with Mrs. Spafford.
+
+Hannah Heath was sitting on the front stoop with her knitting. She often
+sat there dressed daintily of an afternoon. Her hands were white and
+looked well against the blue yarn she was knitting. Besides there was
+something domestic and sentimental in a stocking. It gave a cosy, homey,
+air to a woman, Hannah considered. So she sat and knitted and smiled at
+whomsoever passed by, luring many in to sit and talk with her, so that the
+stockings never grew rapidly, but always kept at about the same stage. If
+it had been Miranda, Grandmother Heath would have made some sharp remarks
+about the length of time it took to finish that blue stocking, but as it
+was Hannah it was all right.
+
+Hannah sat upon the stoop and knitted as Harry Temple came by. Now, Hannah
+was not so great a favorite with Harry as Harry was with Hannah. She was
+of the kind who was conquered too easily, and he did not consider it worth
+his while to waste time upon her simperings usually. But this afternoon
+was different. He had nowhere to go for a little while, and Hannah's
+appearance on the stoop was opportune and gave him an idea. He would
+lounge there with her. Perchance fortune would favor him again and David
+Spafford would pass by and see him. There would be one more opportunity to
+stare insolently at him and defy him, before he bent his neck to obey.
+David had given him the day in which to do what he would, and he would
+make no move until the time was over and the coach he had named departed,
+but he knew that then he would bring down retribution. In just what form
+that retribution would come he was not quite certain, but he knew it would
+be severe.
+
+So when Hannah smiled upon him, Harry Temple stepped daintily across the
+mud in the road, and came and sat down beside her. He toyed with her
+knitting, caught one of her plump white hands, the one on the side away
+from the street, and held it, while Hannah pretended not to notice, and
+drooped her long eyelashes in a telling way. Hannah knew how. She had been
+at it a good many years.
+
+So he sat, toward five o'clock, when David came by, and bowed gravely to
+Hannah, but seemed not to see Harry. Harry let his eyes follow the tall
+figure in an insolent stare.
+
+"What a dough-faced cad that man is!" he said lazily, "no wonder his
+little pink-cheeked wife seeks other society. Handsome baby, though, isn't
+she?"
+
+Hannah pricked up her ears. Her loss of David was too recent not to cause
+her extreme jealousy of his pretty young wife. Already she fairly hated
+her. Her upbringing in the atmosphere of Grandmother Heath's sarcastic,
+ill-natured gossip had prepared her to be quick to see meaning in any
+insinuation.
+
+She looked at him keenly, archly for a moment, then replied with drooping
+gaze and coquettish manner:
+
+"You should not blame any one for enjoying your company."
+
+Hannah stole sly glances to see how he took this, but Harry was an old
+hand and proof against such scrutiny. He only shrugged his shoulder
+carelessly, as though he dropped all blame like a garment that he had no
+need for.
+
+"And what's the matter with David?" asked Hannah, watching David as he
+mounted his own steps, and thinking how often she had watched that tall
+form go down the street, and thought of him as destined to belong to her.
+The mortification that he had chosen some one else was not yet forgotten.
+It amounted almost to a desire for revenge.
+
+Harry lingered longer than he intended. Hannah begged him to remain to
+supper, but he declined, and when she pressed him to do so he looked
+troubled and said he was expecting a letter and must hurry back to see if
+it came in the afternoon coach. He told her that a dear friend, a beloved
+cousin, was lying very ill, and he might be summoned at any moment to his
+bedside, and Hannah said some comforting little things in a caressing
+voice, and hoped he would find the letter saying the cousin was better.
+Then he hurried away.
+
+It was easy at his boarding house to say he had been called away, and he
+rushed up to his room and threw some necessaries into his carpet-bag,
+scattering things around the room and helping out the impression that he
+was called away in a great hurry. When he was ready he looked at his
+watch. It was growing late. The evening coach left in half an hour. He
+knew its route well. It started at the village inn, and went down the old
+turnpike, stopping here and there to pick up passengers. There was always
+a convocation when it started. Perhaps David Spafford would be there and
+witness his obedience to the command given him. He set his lips and made
+up his mind to escape that at least. He would cheat his adversary of that
+satisfaction.
+
+It would involve a sacrifice. He would have to go without his supper, and
+he could smell the frying bacon coming up the stairs. But it would help
+the illusion and he could perhaps get something on the way when the coach
+stopped to change horses.
+
+He rushed downstairs and told his landlady that he must start at once, as
+he must see a man before the coach went, and she, poor lady, had no chance
+to suggest that he leave her a little deposit on the sum of his board
+which he already owed her. There was perhaps some method in his hurry for
+that reason also. It always bothered him to pay his bills, he had so many
+other ways of spending his money.
+
+So he hurried away and caught a ride in a farm wagon going toward the
+Cross Roads. When it turned off he walked a little way until another wagon
+came along; finally crossed several fields at a breathless pace and caught
+the coach just as it was leaving the Cross Roads, which was the last
+stopping place anywhere near the village. He climbed up beside the driver,
+still in a breathless condition, and detailed to him how he had received
+word, just before the coach started, by a messenger who came
+across-country on horseback, that his cousin was dying.
+
+After he had answered the driver's minutest questions, he sat back and
+reflected upon his course with satisfaction. He was off, and he had not
+been seen nor questioned by a single citizen, and by to-morrow night his
+story as he had told it to the driver would be fully known and circulated
+through the place he had just left. The stage driver was one of the best
+means of advertisement. It was well to give him full particulars.
+
+The driver after he had satisfied his curiosity about the young man by his
+side, and his reasons for leaving town so hastily, began to wax eloquent
+upon the one theme which now occupied his spare moments and his fluent
+tongue, the subject of a projected railroad. Whether some of the
+sentiments he uttered were his own, or whether he had but borrowed from
+others, they were at least uttered with force and apparent conviction, and
+many a traveller sat and listened as they were retailed and viewed the
+subject from the standpoint of the loud-mouthed coachman.
+
+A little later Tony Weller, called by some one "the best beloved of all
+coachmen," uttered much the same sentiments in the following words:
+
+"I consider that the railroad is unconstitutional and an invader o'
+privileges. As to the comfort, as an old coachman I may say it,--vere's the
+comfort o' sittin' in a harm-chair a lookin' at brick walls, and heaps o'
+mud, never comin' to a public 'ouse, never seein' a glass o' ale, never
+goin' through a pike, never meetin' a change o' no kind (hosses or
+otherwise), but always comin' to a place, ven you comes to vun at all, the
+werry picter o' the last.
+
+"As to the honor an' dignity o' travellin' vere can that be without a
+coachman, and vat's the rail, to sich coachmen as is sometimes forced to
+go by it, but an outrage and an hinsult? As to the ingen, a nasty,
+wheezin', gaspin', puffin', bustin' monster always out o' breath, with a
+shiny green and gold back like an onpleasant beetle; as to the ingen as is
+always a pourin' out red 'ot coals at night an' black smoke in the day,
+the sensiblest thing it does, in my opinion, is ven there's somethin' in
+the vay, it sets up that 'ere frightful scream vich seems to say, 'Now
+'ere's two 'undred an' forty passengers in the werry greatest extremity o'
+danger, an' 'ere's their two 'undred an' forty screams in vun!'"
+
+But such sentiments as these troubled Harry Temple not one whit. He cared
+not whether the present century had a railroad or whether it travelled by
+foot. He would not lift a white finger to help it along or hinder. As the
+talk went on he was considering how and where he might get his supper.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+The weather turned suddenly cold and raw that Fall, and almost in one day,
+the trees that had been green, or yellowing in the sunshine, put on their
+autumn garments of defeat, flaunted them for a brief hour, and dropped
+them early in despair. The pleasant woods, to which Marcia had fled in her
+dismay, became a mass of finely penciled branches against a wintry sky,
+save for the one group of tall pines that hung out heavy above the rest,
+and seemed to defy even snowy blasts.
+
+Marcia could see those pines from her kitchen window, and sometimes as she
+worked, if her heart was heavy, she would look out and away to them, and
+think of the day she laid her head down beneath them to sob out her
+trouble, and awoke to find comfort. Somehow the memory of that little talk
+that she and David had then grew into vast proportions in her mind, and
+she loved to cherish it.
+
+There had come letters from home. Her stepmother had written, a stiff, not
+unloving letter, full of injunctions to be sure to remember this, and not
+do that, and on no account to let any relative or neighbor persuade her
+out of the ways in which she had been brought up. She was attempting to do
+as many mothers do, when they see the faults in the child they have
+brought up, try to bring them up over again. At some of the sentences a
+wild homesickness took possession of her. Some little homely phrase about
+one of the servants, or the mention of a pet hen or cow, would bring the
+longing tears to her eyes, and she would feel that she must throw away
+this new life and run back to the old one.
+
+School was begun at home. Mary Ann and Hanford would be taking the long
+walk back and forth together twice a day to the old school-house. She half
+envied them their happy, care-free life. She liked to think of the shy
+courting that she had often seen between scholars in the upper classes.
+Her imagination pleased itself sometimes when she was going to sleep,
+trying to picture out the school goings and home comings, and their sober
+talk. Not that she ever looked back to Hanford Weston with regret, not
+she. She knew always that he was not for her, and perhaps, even so early
+as that in her new life, if the choice had been given her whether she
+would go back to her girlhood again and be as she was before Kate had run
+away, or whether she would choose to stay here in the new life with David,
+it is likely she would have chosen to stay.
+
+There were occasional letters from Squire Schuyler. He wrote of politics,
+and sent many messages to his son-in-law which Marcia handed over to David
+at the tea table to read, and which always seemed to soften David and
+bring a sweet sadness into his eyes. He loved and respected his
+father-in-law. It was as if he were bound to him by the love of some one
+who had died. Marcia thought of that every time she handed David a letter,
+and sat and watched him read it.
+
+Sometimes little Harriet or the boys printed out a few words about the
+family cat, or the neighbors' children, and Marcia laughed and cried over
+the poor little attempts at letters and longed to have the eager childish
+faces of the writers to kiss.
+
+But in all of them there was never a mention of the bright, beautiful,
+selfish girl around whom the old home life used to centre and who seemed
+now, judging from the home letters, to be worse than dead to them all. But
+since the afternoon upon the hill a new and pleasant intercourse had
+sprung up between David and Marcia. True it was confined mainly to
+discussions of the new railroad, the possibilities of its success, and the
+construction of engines, tracks, etc. David was constantly writing up the
+subject for his paper, and he fell into the habit of reading his articles
+aloud to Marcia when they were finished. She would listen with breathless
+admiration, sometimes combating a point ably, with the old vim she had
+used in her discussion over the newspaper with her father, but mainly
+agreeing with every word he wrote, and always eager to understand it down
+to the minutest detail.
+
+He always seemed pleased at her praise, and wrote on while she put away
+the tea-things with a contented expression as though he had passed a high
+critic, and need not fear any other. Once he looked up with a quizzical
+expression and made a jocose remark about "our article," taking her into a
+sort of partnership with him in it, which set her heart to beating
+happily, until it seemed as if she were really in some part at least
+growing into his life.
+
+But after all their companionship was a shy, distant one, more like that
+of a brother and sister who had been separated all their lives and were
+just beginning to get acquainted, and ever there was a settled sadness
+about the lines of David's mouth and eyes. They sat around one table now,
+the evenings when they were at home, for there were still occasional
+tea-drinkings at their friends' houses; and there was one night a week
+held religiously for a formal supper with the aunts, which David kindly
+acquiesced in--more for the sake of his Aunt Clarinda than the
+others,--whenever he was not detained by actual business. Then, too, there
+was the weekly prayer meeting held at "early candle light" in the dim old
+shadowed church. They always walked down the twilighted streets together,
+and it seemed to Marcia there was a sweet solemnity about that walk. They
+never said much to each other on the way. David seemed preoccupied with
+holy thoughts, and Marcia walked softly beside him as if he had been the
+minister, looking at him proudly and reverently now and then. David was
+often called upon to pray in meeting and Marcia loved to listen to his
+words. He seemed to be more intimate with God than the others, who were
+mostly old men and prayed with long, rolling, solemn sentences that put
+the whole community down into the dust and ashes before their Creator.
+
+Marcia rather enjoyed the hour spent in the sombreness of the church, with
+the flickering candle light making grotesque forms of shadows on the wall
+and among the tall pews. The old minister reminded her of the one she had
+left at home, though he was more learned and scholarly, and when he had
+read the Scripture passages he would take his spectacles off and lay them
+across the great Bible where the candle light played at glances with the
+steel bows, and say: "Let us pray!" Then would come that soft stir and
+hush as the people took the attitude of prayer. Marcia sometimes joined in
+the prayer in her heart, uttering shy little petitions that were vague and
+indefinite, and had to do mostly with the days when she was troubled and
+homesick, and felt that David belonged wholly to Kate. Always her clear
+voice joined in the slow hymns that quavered out now and again, lined out
+to the worshippers.
+
+Marcia and David went out from that meeting down the street to their home
+with the hush upon them that must have been upon the Israelites of old
+after they had been to the solemn congregation.
+
+But once David had come in earlier than usual and had caught Marcia
+reading the Scottish Chiefs, and while she started guiltily to be found
+thus employed he smiled indulgently. After supper he said: "Get your book,
+child, and sit down. I have some writing to do, and after it is done I
+will read it to you." So after that, more and more often, it was a book
+that Marcia held in her hands in the long evenings when they sat together,
+instead of some useful employment, and so her education progressed. Thus
+she read Epictetus, Rasselas, The Deserted Village, The Vicar of
+Wakefield, Paradise Lost, the Mysteries of the Human Heart, Marshall's
+Life of Columbus, The Spy, The Pioneers, and The Last of the Mohicans.
+
+She had been asked to sing in the village choir. David sang a sweet high
+tenor there, and Marcia's voice was clear and strong as a blackbird's,
+with the plaintive sweetness of the wood-robin's.
+
+Hannah Heath was in the choir also, and jealously watched her every move,
+but of this Marcia was unaware until informed of it by Miranda. With her
+inherited sweetness of nature she scarcely credited it, until one Sunday,
+a few weeks after the departure of Harry Temple, Hannah leaned forward
+from her seat among the altos and whispered quite distinctly, so that
+those around could hear--it was just before the service--"I've just had a
+letter from your friend Mr. Temple. I thought you might like to know that
+his cousin got well and he has gone back to New York. He won't be
+returning here this year. On some accounts he thought it was better not."
+
+It was all said pointedly, with double emphasis upon the "your friend,"
+and "some accounts." Marcia felt her cheeks glow, much to her vexation,
+and tried to control her whisper to seem kindly as she answered
+indifferently enough.
+
+"Oh, indeed! But you must have made a mistake. Mr. Temple is a very slight
+acquaintance of mine. I have met him only a few times, and I know nothing
+about his cousin. I was not aware even that he had gone away."
+
+Hannah raised her speaking eyebrows and replied, quite loud now, for the
+choir leader had stood up already with his tuning-fork in hand, and one
+could hear it faintly twang:
+
+"Indeed!"--using Marcia's own word--and quite coldly, "I should have thought
+differently from what Harry himself told me," and there was that in her
+tone which deepened the color in Marcia's cheeks and caused it to stay
+there during the entire morning service as she sat puzzling over what
+Hannah could have meant. It rankled in her mind during the whole day. She
+longed to ask David about it, but could not get up the courage.
+
+She could not bear to revive the memory of what seemed to be her shame. It
+was at the minister's donation party that Hannah planted another thorn in
+her heart,--Hannah, in a green plaid silk with delicate undersleeves of
+lace, and a tiny black velvet jacket.
+
+She selected a time when Lemuel was near, and when Aunt Amelia and Aunt
+Hortense, who believed that all the young men in town were hovering about
+David's wife, sat one on either side of Marcia, as if to guard her for
+their beloved nephew--who was discussing politics with Mr. Heath--and who
+never seemed to notice, so blind he was in his trust of her.
+
+So Hannah paused and posed before the three ladies, and with Lemuel
+smiling just at her elbow, began in her affected way:
+
+"I've had another letter from New York, from your friend Mr. Temple," she
+said it with the slightest possible glance over her shoulder to get the
+effect of her words upon the faithful Lemuel, "and he tells me he has met
+a sister of yours. By the way, she told him that David used to be very
+fond of her before she was married. I suppose she'll be coming to visit
+you now she's so near as New York."
+
+Two pairs of suspicious steely eyes flew like stinging insects to gaze
+upon her, one on either side, and Marcia's heart stood still for just one
+instant, but she felt that here was her trying time, and if she would help
+David and do the work for which she had become his wife, she must protect
+him now from any suspicions or disagreeable tongues. By very force of will
+she controlled the trembling of her lips.
+
+"My sister will not likely visit us this winter, I think," she replied as
+coolly as if she had had a letter to that effect that morning, and then
+she deliberately looked at Lemuel Skinner and asked if he had heard of the
+offer of prizes of four thousand dollars in cash that the Baltimore and
+Ohio railroad had just made for the most approved engine delivered for
+trial before June first, 1831, not to exceed three and a half tons in
+weight and capable of drawing, day by day, fifteen tons inclusive of
+weight of wagons, fifteen miles per hour. Lemuel looked at her blankly and
+said he had not heard of it. He was engaged in thinking over what Hannah
+had said about a letter from Harry Temple. He cared nothing about
+railroads.
+
+"The second prize is thirty-five hundred dollars," stated Marcia eagerly,
+as though it were of the utmost importance to her.
+
+"Are you thinking of trying for one of the prizes?" sneered Hannah,
+piercing her with her eyes, and now indeed the ready color flowed into
+Marcia's face. Her ruse had been detected.
+
+"If I were a man and understood machinery I believe I would. What a grand
+thing it would be to be able to invent a thing like an engine that would
+be of so much use to the world," she answered bravely.
+
+"They are most dangerous machines," said Aunt Amelia disapprovingly. "No
+right-minded Christian who wishes to live out the life his Creator has
+given him would ever ride behind one. I have heard that boilers always
+explode."
+
+"They are most unnecessary!" said Aunt Hortense severely, as if that
+settled the question for all time and all railroad corporations.
+
+But Marcia was glad for once of their disapproval and entered most
+heartily into a discussion of the pros and cons of engines and steam,
+quoting largely from David's last article for the paper on the subject,
+until Hannah and Lemuel moved slowly away. The discussion served to keep
+the aunts from inquiring further that evening about the sister in New
+York.
+
+Marcia begged them to go with her into the kitchen and see the store of
+good things that had been brought to the minister's house by his loving
+parishioners. Bags of flour and meal, pumpkins, corn in the ear, eggs, and
+nice little pats of butter. A great wooden tub of doughnuts, baskets of
+apples and quinces, pounds of sugar and tea, barrels of potatoes, whole
+hams, a side of pork, a quarter of beef, hanks of yarn, and strings of
+onions. It was a goodly array. Marcia felt that the minister must be
+beloved by his people. She watched him and his wife as they greeted their
+people, and wished she knew them better, and might come and see them
+sometimes, and perhaps eventually feel as much at home with them as with
+her own dear minister.
+
+She avoided Hannah during the remainder of the evening. When the evening
+was over and she went upstairs to get her wraps from the high four-poster
+bedstead, she had almost forgotten Hannah and her ill-natured, prying
+remarks. But Hannah had not forgotten her. She came forth from behind the
+bed curtains where she had been searching for a lost glove, and remarked
+that she should think Marcia would be lonely this first winter away from
+home and want her sister with her a while.
+
+But the presence of Hannah always seemed a mental stimulus to the spirit
+of Marcia.
+
+"Oh, I'm not in the least lonely," she laughed merrily. "I have a great
+many interesting things to do, and I love music and books."
+
+"Oh, yes, I forgot you are very fond of music. Harry Temple told me about
+it," said Hannah. Again there was that disagreeable hint of something more
+behind her words, that aggravated Marcia almost beyond control. For an
+instant a cutting reply was upon her lips and her eyes flashed fire; then
+it came to her how futile it would be, and she caught the words in time
+and walked swiftly down the stairs. David watching her come down saw the
+admiring glances of all who stood in the hall below, and took her under
+his protection with a measure of pride in her youth and beauty that he did
+not himself at all realize. All the way home he talked with her about the
+new theory of railroad construction, quite contented in her companionship,
+while she, poor child, much perturbed in spirit, wondered how he would
+feel if he knew what Hannah had said.
+
+David fell into a deep study with a book and his papers about him, after
+they had reached home. Marcia went up to her quiet, lonely chamber, put
+her face in the pillow and thought and wept and prayed. When at last she
+lay down to rest she did not know anything she could do but just to go on
+living day by day and helping David all she could. At most there was
+nothing to fear for herself, save a kind of shame that she had not been
+the first sister chosen, and she found to her surprise that that was
+growing to be deeper than she had supposed.
+
+She wished as she fell asleep that her girl-dreams might have been left to
+develop and bloom like other girls', and that she might have had a real
+lover,--like David in every way, yet of course not David because he was
+Kate's. But a real lover who would meet her as David had done that night
+when he thought she was Kate, and speak to her tenderly.
+
+One afternoon David, being wearied with an unusual round of taxing cares,
+came home to rest and study up some question in his library.
+
+Finding the front door fastened, and remembering that he had left his key
+in his other pocket, he came around to the back door, and much preoccupied
+with thought went through the kitchen and nearly to the hall before the
+unusual sounds of melody penetrated to his ears. He stopped for an instant
+amazed, forgetting the piano, then comprehending he wondered who was
+playing. Perhaps some visitor was in the parlor. He would listen and find
+out. He was weary and dusty with the soil of the office upon his hands and
+clothes. He did not care to meet a visitor, so under cover of the music he
+slipped into the door of his library across the hall from the parlor and
+dropped into his great arm-chair.
+
+Softly and tenderly stole the music through the open door, all about him,
+like the gentle dropping of some tender psalms or comforting chapter in
+the Bible to an aching heart. It touched his brow like a soft soothing
+hand, and seemed to know and recognize all the agonies his heart had been
+passing through, and all the weariness his body felt.
+
+He put his head back and let it float over him and rest him. Tinkling
+brooks and gentle zephyrs, waving of forest trees, and twitterings of
+birds, calm lazy clouds floating by, a sweetness in the atmosphere, bells
+far away, lowing herds, music of the angels high in heaven, the soothing
+strain from each extracted and brought to heal his broken heart. It fell
+like dew upon his spirit. Then, like a fresh breeze with zest and life
+borne on, came a new strain, grand and fine and high, calling him to
+better things. He did not know it was a strain of Handel's music grown
+immortal, but his spirit recognized the higher call, commanding him to
+follow, and straightway he felt strengthened to go onward in the course he
+had been pursuing. Old troubles seemed to grow less, anguish fell away
+from him. He took new lease of life. Nothing seemed impossible.
+
+Then she played by ear one or two of the old tunes they sang in church,
+touching the notes tenderly and almost making them speak the words. It
+seemed a benediction. Suddenly the playing ceased and Marcia remembered it
+was nearly supper time.
+
+He met her in the doorway with a new look in his eyes, a look of high
+purpose and exultation. He smiled upon her and said: "That was good,
+child. I did not know you could do it. You must give it to us often."
+Marcia felt a glow of pleasure in his kindliness, albeit she felt that the
+look in his eyes set him apart and above her, and made her feel the child
+she was. She hurried out to get the supper between pleasure and a nameless
+unrest. She was glad of this much, but she wanted more, a something to
+meet her soul and satisfy.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+The world had not gone well with Mistress Kate Leavenworth, and she was
+ill-pleased. She had not succeeded in turning her father's heart toward
+herself as she had confidently expected to do when she ran away with her
+sea captain. She had written a gay letter home, taking for granted, in a
+pretty way, the forgiveness she did not think it necessary to ask, but
+there had come in return a brief harsh statement from her father that she
+was no longer his daughter and must cease from further communication with
+the family in any way; that she should never enter his house again and not
+a penny of his money should ever pass to her. He also informed her plainly
+that the trousseau made for her had been given to her sister who was now
+the wife of the man she had not seen fit to marry.
+
+Over this letter Mistress Kate at first stormed, then wept, and finally
+sat down to frame epistle after epistle in petulant, penitent language.
+These epistles following each other by daily mail coaches still brought
+nothing further from her irate parent, and my lady was at last forced to
+face the fact that she must bear the penalty of her own misdeeds; a lesson
+she should have learned much earlier in life.
+
+The young captain, who had always made it appear that he had plenty of
+money, had spent his salary, and most of his mother's fortune, which had
+been left in his keeping as administrator of his father's estate; so he
+had really very little to offer the spoiled and petted beauty, who simply
+would not settle down to the inevitable and accept the fate she had
+brought upon herself and others. Day after day she fretted and blamed her
+husband until he heartily wished her back from whence he had taken her;
+wished her back with her straitlaced lover from whom he had stolen her;
+wished her anywhere save where she was. Her brightness and beauty seemed
+all gone: she was a sulky child insisting upon the moon or nothing. She
+waited to go to New York and be established in a fine house with plenty of
+servants and a carriage and horses, and the young captain had not the
+wherewithal to furnish these accessories to an elegant and luxurious life.
+
+He had loved her so far as his shallow nature could love, and perhaps she
+had returned it in the beginning. He wanted to spend his furlough in quiet
+places where he might have a honeymoon of his ideal, bantering Kate's
+sparkling sentences, looking into her beautiful eyes, touching her rosy
+lips with his own as often as he chose. But Mistress Kate had lost her
+sparkle. She would not be kissed until she had gained her point, her
+lovely eyes were full of disfiguring tears and angry flashes, and her
+speech scintillated with cutting sarcasms, which were none the less hard
+to bear that they pressed home some disagreeable truths to the easy,
+careless spendthrift. The rose had lost its dew and was making its thorns
+felt.
+
+And so they quarreled through their honeymoon, and Captain Leavenworth was
+not sorry when a hasty and unexpected end came to his furlough and he was
+ordered off with his ship for an indefinite length of time.
+
+Even then Kate thought to get her will before he left, and held on her
+sullen ways and her angry, blameful talk until the last minute, so that he
+hurried away without even one good-bye kiss, and with her angry sentences
+sounding in his ears.
+
+True, he repented somewhat on board the ship and sent her back more money
+than she could reasonably have expected under the circumstances, but he
+sent it without one word of gentleness, and Kate's heart was hard toward
+her husband.
+
+Then with bitterness and anguish,--that was new and fairly astonishing that
+it had come to her who had always had her way,--she sat down to think of
+the man she had jilted. He would have been kind to her. He would have
+given her all she asked and more. He would even have moved his business to
+New York to please her, she felt sure. Why had she been so foolish! And
+then, like many another sinner who is made at last to see the error of his
+ways, she cast hard thoughts at a Fate which had allowed her to make so
+great a mistake, and pitied her poor little self out of all recognition of
+the character she had formed.
+
+But she took her money and went to New York, for she felt that there only
+could she be at all happy, and have some little taste of the delights of
+true living.
+
+She took up her abode with an ancient relative of her own mother's, who
+lived in a quiet respectable part of the city, and who was glad to piece
+out her small annuity with the modest sum that Kate agreed to pay for her
+board.
+
+It was not long before Mistress Kate, with her beautiful face, and the
+pretty clothes which she took care to provide at once for herself,
+spending lavishly out of the diminishing sum her husband had sent her, and
+thinking not of the morrow, nor the day when the board bills would be due,
+became well known. The musty little parlor of the ancient relative was
+daily filled with visitors, and every evening Kate held court, with the
+old aunt nodding in her chair by the fireside.
+
+Neither did the poor old lady have a very easy time of it, in spite of the
+promise of weekly pay. Kate laughed at the old furniture and the old ways.
+She demanded new things, and got them, too, until the old lady saw little
+hope of any help from the board money when Kate was constantly saying: "I
+saw this in a shop down town, auntie, and as I knew you needed it I just
+bought it. My board this week will just pay for it." As always, Kate
+ruled. The little parlor took on an air of brightness, and Kate became
+popular. A few women of fashion took her up, and Kate launched herself
+upon a gay life, her one object to have as good a time as possible,
+regardless of what her husband or any one else might think.
+
+When Kate had been in New York about two months it happened one day that
+she went out to drive with one of her new acquaintances, a young married
+woman of about her own age, who had been given all in a worldly way that
+had been denied to Kate.
+
+They made some calls in Brooklyn, and returned on the ferry-boat, carriage
+and all, just as the sun was setting.
+
+The view was marvellous. The water a flood of pink and green and gold; the
+sails of the vessels along the shore lit up resplendently; the buildings
+of the city beyond sent back occasional flashes of reflected light from
+window glass or church spire. It was a picture worth looking upon, and
+Kate's companion was absorbed in it.
+
+Not so Kate. She loved display above all things. She sat up statelily,
+aware that she looked well in her new frock with the fine lace collar she
+had extravagantly purchased the day before, and her leghorn bonnet with
+its real ostrich feather, which was becoming in the extreme. She enjoyed
+sitting back of the colored coachman, her elegant friend by her side, and
+being admired by the two ladies and the little girl who sat in the ladies'
+cabin and occasionally peeped curiously at her from the window. She drew
+herself up haughtily and let her soul "delight itself in fatness"--borrowed
+fatness, perhaps, but still, the long desired. She told herself she had a
+right to it, for was she not a Schuyler? That name was respected
+everywhere.
+
+She bore a grudge at a man and woman who stood by the railing absorbed in
+watching the sunset haze that lay over the river showing the white sails
+in gleams like flashes of white birds here and there.
+
+A young man well set up, and fashionably attired, sauntered up to the
+carriage. He spoke to Kate's friend, and was introduced. Kate felt in her
+heart it was because of her presence there he came. His bold black eyes
+told her as much and she was flattered.
+
+They fell to talking.
+
+"You say you spent the summer near Albany, Mr. Temple," said Kate
+presently, "I wonder if you happen to know any of my friends. Did you meet
+a Mr. Spafford? David Spafford?"
+
+"Of course I did, knew him well," said the young man with guarded tone.
+But a quick flash of dislike, and perhaps fear had crossed his face at the
+name. Kate was keen. She analyzed that look. She parted her charming red
+lips and showed her sharp little teeth like the treacherous pearls in a
+white kitten's pink mouth.
+
+"He was once a lover of mine," said Kate carelessly, wrinkling her piquant
+little nose as if the idea were comical, and laughing out a sweet ripple
+of mirth that would have cut David to the heart.
+
+"Indeed!" said the ever ready Harry, "and I do not wonder. Is not every
+one that at once they see you, Madam Leavenworth? How kind of your husband
+to stay away at sea for so long a time and give us other poor fellows a
+chance to say pleasant things."
+
+Then Kate pouted her pretty lips in a way she had and tapped the delighted
+Harry with her carriage parasol across the fingers of his hand that had
+taken familiar hold of the carriage beside her arm.
+
+"Oh, you naughty man!" she exclaimed prettily. "How dare you! Yes, David
+Spafford and I were quite good friends. I almost gave in at one time and
+became Mrs. Spafford, but he was too good for me!"
+
+She uttered this truth in a mocking tone, and Harry saw her lead and
+hastened to follow. Here was a possible chance for revenge. He was ready
+for any. He studied the lady before him keenly. Of what did that face
+remind him? Had he ever seen her before?
+
+"I should judge him a little straitlaced for your merry ways," he
+responded gallantly, "but he's like all the rest, fickle, you know. He's
+married. Have you heard?"
+
+Kate's face darkened with something hard and cruel, but her voice was soft
+as a cat's purr:
+
+"Yes," she sighed, "I know. He married my sister. Poor child! I am sorry
+for her. I think he did it out of revenge, and she was too young to know
+her own mind. But they, poor things, will have to bear the consequences of
+what they have done. Isn't it a pity that that has to be, Mr. Temple? It
+is dreadful to have the innocent suffer. I have been greatly anxious about
+my sister." She lifted her large eyes swimming in tears, and he did not
+perceive the insincerity in her purring voice just then. He was thanking
+his lucky stars that he had been saved from any remarks about young Mrs.
+Spafford, whom her sister seemed to love so deeply. It had been on the tip
+of his tongue to suggest that she might be able to lead her husband a gay
+little dance if she chose. How lucky he had not spoken! He tried to say
+some pleasant comforting nothings, and found it delightful to see her face
+clear into smiles and her blue eyes look into his so confidingly. By the
+time the boat touched the New York side the two felt well acquainted, and
+Harry Temple had promised to call soon, which promise he lost no time in
+keeping.
+
+Kate's heart had grown bitter against the young sister who had dared to
+take her place, and against the lover who had so easily solaced himself.
+She could not understand it.
+
+She resolved to learn all that Mr. Temple knew about David, and to find
+out if possible whether he were happy. It was Kate's nature not to be able
+to give up anything even though she did not want it. She desired the
+life-long devotion of every man who came near her, and have it she would
+or punish him.
+
+Harry Temple, meanwhile, was reflecting upon his chance meeting that
+afternoon and wondering if in some way he might not yet have revenge upon
+the man who had humbled him. Possibly this woman could help him.
+
+After some thought he sat down and penned a letter to Hannah Heath,
+begemming it here and there with devoted sentences which caused that young
+woman's eyes to sparkle and a smile of anticipation to wreathe her lips.
+When she heard of the handsome sister in New York, and of her former
+relations with David Spafford, her eyes narrowed speculatively, and her
+fair brow drew into puzzled frowns. Harry Temple had drawn a word picture
+of Mrs. Leavenworth. Harry should have been a novelist. If he had not been
+too lazy he would have been a success. Gold hair! Ah! Hannah had heard of
+gold hair before, and in connection with David's promised wife. Here was a
+mystery and Hannah resolved to look into it. It would at least be
+interesting to note the effect of her knowledge upon the young bride next
+door. She would try it.
+
+Meantime, the acquaintance of Harry Temple and Kate Leavenworth had
+progressed rapidly. The second sight of the lady proved more interesting
+than the first, for now her beautiful gold hair added to the charm of her
+handsome face. Harry ever delighted in beauty of whatever type, and a
+blonde was more fascinating to him than a brunette. Kate had dressed
+herself bewitchingly, and her manner was charming. She knew how to assume
+pretty child-like airs, but she was not afraid to look him boldly in the
+eyes, and the light in her own seemed to challenge him. Here was a
+delightful new study. A woman fresh from the country, having all the charm
+of innocence, almost as child-like as her sister, yet with none of her
+prudishness. Kate's eyes held latent wickedness in them, or he was much
+mistaken. She did not droop her lids and blush when he looked boldly and
+admiringly into her face, but stared him back, smilingly, merrily,
+daringly, as though she would go quite as far as he would. Moreover, with
+her he was sure he need feel none of the compunctions he might have felt
+with her younger sister who was so obviously innocent, for whether Kate's
+boldness was from lack of knowledge, or from lack of innocence, she was
+quite able to protect herself, that was plain.
+
+So Harry settled into his chair with a smile of pleasant anticipation upon
+his face. He not only had the prospect before him of a possible ally in
+revenge against David Spafford, but he had the promise of a most unusually
+delightful flirtation with a woman who was worthy of his best efforts in
+that line.
+
+Almost at once it began, with pleasant banter, adorned with personal
+compliments.
+
+"Lovelier than I thought, my lady," said Harry, bowing low over the hand
+she gave him, in a courtly manner he had acquired, perhaps from the
+old-world novels he had read, and he brushed her pink finger tips with his
+lips in a way that signified he was her abject slave.
+
+Kate blushed and smiled, greatly pleased, for though she had held her own
+little court in the village where she was brought up, and queened it over
+the young men who had flocked about her willingly, she had not been used
+to the fulsome flattery that breathed from Harry Temple in every word and
+glance.
+
+He looked at her keenly as he stood back a moment, to see if she were in
+any wise offended with his salutation, and saw as he expected that she was
+pleased and flattered. Her cheeks had grown rosier, and her eyes sparkled
+with pleasure as she responded with a pretty, gracious speech.
+
+Then they sat down and faced one another. A good woman would have called
+his look impudent--insulting. Kate returned it with a look that did not
+shrink, nor waver, but fearlessly, recklessly accepted the challenge.
+Playing with fire, were these two, and with no care for the fearful
+results which might follow. Both knew it was dangerous, and liked it the
+better for that. There was a long silence. The game was opening on a wider
+scale than either had ever played before.
+
+"Do you believe in affinities?" asked the devil, through the man's voice.
+
+The woman colored and showed she understood his deeper meaning. Her eyes
+drooped for just the shade of an instant, and then she looked up and faced
+him saucily, provokingly:
+
+"Why?"
+
+He admired her with his gaze, and waited, lazily watching the color play
+in her cheeks.
+
+"Do you need to ask why?" he said at last, looking at her significantly.
+"I knew that you were my affinity the moment I laid my eyes upon you, and
+I hoped you felt the same. But perhaps I was mistaken." He searched her
+face.
+
+She kept her eyes upon his, returning their full gaze, as if to hold it
+from going too deep into her soul.
+
+"I did not say you were mistaken, did I?" said the rosy lips coquettishly,
+and Kate drooped her long lashes till they fell in becoming sweeps over
+her burning cheeks.
+
+Something in the curve of cheek and chin, and sweep of dark lash over
+velvet skin, reminded him of her sister. It was so she had sat, though
+utterly unconscious, while he had been singing, when there had come over
+him that overwhelming desire to kiss her. If he should kiss this fair lady
+would she slap him in the face and run into the garden? He thought not.
+Still, she was brought up by the same father and mother in all likelihood,
+and it was well to go slow. He reached forward, drawing his chair a little
+nearer to her, and then boldly took one of her small unresisting hands,
+gently, that he might not frighten her, and smoothed it thoughtfully
+between his own. He held it in a close grasp and looked into her face
+again, she meanwhile watching her hand amusedly, as though it were
+something apart from herself, a sort of distant possession, for which she
+was in no wise responsible.
+
+"I feel that you belong to me," he said boldly looking into her eyes with
+a languishing gaze. "I have known it from the first moment."
+
+Kate let her hand lie in his as if she liked it, but she said:
+
+"And what makes you think that, most audacious sir? Did you not know that
+I am married?" Then she swept her gaze up provokingly at him again and
+smiled, showing her dainty, treacherous, little teeth. She was so
+bewitchingly pretty and tempting then that he had a mind to kiss her on
+the spot, but a thought came to him that he would rather lead her further
+first. He was succeeding well. She had no mind to be afraid. She did her
+part admirably.
+
+"That makes no difference," said he smiling. "That another man has secured
+you first, and has the right to provide for you, and be near you, is my
+misfortune of course, but it makes no difference, you are mine? By all the
+power of love you are mine. Can any other man keep my soul from yours, can
+he keep my eyes from looking into yours, or my thoughts from hovering over
+you, or--" he hesitated and looked at her keenly, while she furtively
+watched him, holding her breath and half inviting him--"or my lips from
+drinking life from yours?" He stooped quickly and pressed his lips upon
+hers.
+
+Kate gave a quick little gasp like a sob and drew back. The aunt nodding
+over her Bible in the next room had not heard,--she was very deaf,--but for
+an instant the young woman felt that all the shades of her worthy
+patriarchal ancestors were hurrying around and away from her in horror.
+She had come of too good Puritan stock not to know that she was treading
+in the path of unrighteousness. Nevertheless it was a broad path, and
+easy. It tempted her. It was exciting. It lured her with promise of
+satisfying some of her untamed longings and impulses.
+
+She did not look offended. She only drew back to get breath and consider.
+The wild beating of her heart, the tumult of her cheeks and eyes were all
+a part of a new emotion. Her vanity was excited, and she thrilled with a
+wild pleasure. As a duck will take to swimming so she took to the new
+game, with wonderful facility.
+
+"But I didn't say you might," she cried with a bewildering smile.
+
+"I beg your pardon, fair lady, may I have another?"
+
+His bold, bad face was near her own, so that she did not see the evil
+triumph that lurked there. She had come to the turning of another way in
+her life, and just here she might have drawn back if she would. Half she
+knew this, yet she toyed with the opportunity, and it was gone. The new
+way seemed so alluring.
+
+"You will first have to prove your right!" she said decidedly, with that
+pretty commanding air that had conquered so many times.
+
+And in like manner on they went through the evening, frittering the time
+away at playing with edged tools.
+
+A friendship so begun--if so unworthy an intimacy may be called by that
+sweet name--boded no good to either of the two, and that evening marked a
+decided turn for the worse in Kate Leavenworth's career.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER XX
+
+
+David had found it necessary to take a journey which might keep him away
+for several weeks.
+
+He told Marcia in the evening when he came home from the office. He told
+her as he would have told his clerk. It meant nothing to him but an
+annoyance that he had to start out in the early winter, leave his business
+in other's hands for an indefinite period, and go among strangers. He did
+not see the whitening of Marcia's lips, nor the quick little movement of
+her hand to her heart. Even Marcia herself did not realize all that it
+meant to her. She felt as if a sudden shock had almost knocked her off her
+feet. This quiet life in the big house, with only David at intervals to
+watch and speak to occasionally, and no one to open her true heart to, had
+been lonely; and many a time when she was alone at night she had wept
+bitter tears upon her pillow,--why she did not quite know. But now when she
+knew that it was to cease, and David was going away from her for a long
+time, perhaps weeks, her heart suddenly tightened and she knew how sweet
+it had been growing. Almost the tears came to her eyes, but she made a
+quick errand to the hearth for the teapot, busying herself there till they
+were under control again. When she returned to her place at the table she
+was able to ask David some commonplace question about the journey which
+kept her true feeling quite hidden from him.
+
+He was to start the next evening if possible. It appeared that there was
+something important about railroading coming up in Congress. It was
+necessary that he should be present to hear the debate, and also that he
+should see and interview influential men. It meant much to the success of
+the great new enterprises that were just in their infancy that he should
+go and find out all about them and write them up as only he whose heart
+was in it could do. He was pleased to have been selected for this; he was
+lifted for the time above himself and his life troubles, and given to feel
+that he had a work in the world that was worth while, a high calling, a
+chance to give a push to the unrolling of the secret possibilities of the
+universe and help them on their way.
+
+Marcia understood it all, and was proud and glad for him, but her own
+heart which beat in such perfect sympathy with the work felt lonely and
+left out. If only she could have helped too!
+
+There was no time for David to take Marcia to her home to stay during his
+absence. He spoke of it regretfully just as he was about to leave, and
+asked if she would like him to get some one to escort her by coach to her
+father's house until he could come for her; but she held back the tears by
+main force and shook her head. She had canvassed that question in the
+still hours of the night. She had met in imagination the home village with
+its kindly and unkindly curiosity, she had seen their hands lifted in
+suspicion; heard their covert whispers as to why her husband did not come
+with her; why he had left her so soon after the honeymoon; why--a hundred
+things. She had even thought of Aunt Polly and her acrid tongue and made
+up her mind that whatever happened she did not want to go home to stay.
+
+The only other alternative was to go to the aunts. David expected it, and
+the aunts spoke of it as if nothing else were possible. Marcia would have
+preferred to remain alone in her own house, with her beloved piano, but
+David would not consent, and the aunts were scandalized at the suggestion.
+So to the aunts went Marcia, and they took her in with a hope in their
+hearts that she might get the same good from the visit that the sluggard
+in the Bible is bidden to find.
+
+"We must do our duty by her for David's sake," said Aunt Hortense, with
+pursed lips and capable, folded hands that seemed fairly to ache to get at
+the work of reconstructing the new niece.
+
+"Yes, it is our opportunity," said Aunt Amelia with a snap as though she
+thoroughly enjoyed the prospect. "Poor David!" and so they sat and laid
+out their plans for their sweet young victim, who all unknowingly was
+coming to one of those tests in her life whereby we are tried for greater
+things and made perfect in patience and sweetness.
+
+It began with the first breakfast--the night before she had been company,
+at supper--but when the morning came they felt she must be counted one of
+the family. They examined her thoroughly on what she had been taught with
+regard to housekeeping. They made her tell her recipes for pickling and
+preserving. They put her through a catechism of culinary lore, and always
+after her most animated account of the careful way in which she had been
+trained in this or that housewifely art she looked up with wistful eyes
+that longed to please, only to be met by the hard set lips and steely
+glances of the two mentors who regretted that she should not have been
+taught their way which was so much better.
+
+Aunt Hortense even went so far once as to suggest that Marcia write to her
+stepmother and tell her how much better it was to salt the water in which
+potatoes were to be boiled before putting them in, and was much offended
+by the clear girlish laugh that bubbled up involuntarily at the thought of
+teaching her stepmother anything about cooking.
+
+"Excuse me," she said, instantly sobering as she saw the grim look of the
+aunt, and felt frightened at what she had done. "I did not mean to laugh,
+indeed I did not; but it seemed so funny to think of my telling mother how
+to do anything."
+
+"People are never too old to learn," remarked Aunt Hortense with offended
+mien, "and one ought never to be too proud when there is a better way."
+
+"But mother thinks there is no better way I am sure. She says that it
+makes potatoes soggy to boil them in salt. All that grows below the ground
+should be salted after it is cooked and all that grows above the ground
+should be cooked in salted water, is her rule."
+
+"I am surprised that your stepmother should uphold any such superstitious
+ideas," said Aunt Amelia with a self-satisfied expression.
+
+"One should never be too proud to learn something better," Aunt Hortense
+said grimly, and Marcia retreated in dire consternation at the thought of
+what might follow if these three notable housekeeping gentlewomen should
+come together. Somehow she felt a wicked little triumph in the thought
+that it would be hard to down her stepmother.
+
+Marcia was given a few light duties ostensibly to "make her feel at home,"
+but in reality, she knew, because the aunts felt she needed their
+instruction. She was asked if she would like to wash the china and glass;
+and regularly after each meal a small wooden tub and a mop were brought in
+with hot water and soap, and she was expected to handle the costly
+heirlooms under the careful scrutiny of their worshipping owners, who
+evidently watched each process with strained nerves lest any bit of
+treasured pottery should be cracked or broken. It was a trying ordeal.
+
+The girl would have been no girl if she had not chafed under this
+treatment. To hold her temper steady and sweet under it was almost more
+than she could bear.
+
+There were long afternoons when it was decreed that they should knit.
+
+Marcia had been used to take long walks at home, over the smooth crust of
+the snow, going to her beloved woods, where she delighted to wander among
+the bare and creaking trees; fancying them whispering sadly to one another
+of the summer that was gone and the leaves they had borne now dead. But it
+would be a dreadful thing in the aunts' opinion for a woman, and
+especially a young one, to take a long walk in the woods alone, in winter
+too, and with no object whatever in view but a walk! What a waste of time!
+
+There were two places of refuge for Marcia during the weeks that followed.
+There was home. How sweet that word sounded to her! How she longed to go
+back there, with David coming home to his quiet meals three times a day,
+and with her own time to herself to do as she pleased. With housewifely
+zeal that was commendable in the eyes of the aunts, Marcia insisted upon
+going down to her own house every morning to see that all was right,
+guiltily knowing that in her heart she meant to hurry to her beloved books
+and piano. To be sure it was cold and cheerless in the empty house. She
+dared not make up fires and leave them, and she dared not stay too long
+lest the aunts would feel hurt at her absence, but she longed with an
+inexpressible longing to be back there by herself, away from that terrible
+supervision and able to live her own glad little life and think her own
+thoughts untrammeled by primness.
+
+Sometimes she would curl up in David's big arm-chair and have a good cry,
+after which she would take a book and read until the creeping chills down
+her spine warned her she must stop. Even then she would run up and down
+the hall or take a broom and sweep vigorously to warm herself and then go
+to the cold keys and play a sad little tune. All her tunes seemed sad like
+a wail while David was gone.
+
+The other place of refuge was Aunt Clarinda's room. Thither she would
+betake herself after supper, to the delight of the old lady. Then the
+other two occupants of the house were left to themselves and might unbend
+from their rigid surveillance for a little while. Marcia often wondered if
+they ever did unbend.
+
+There was a large padded rocking chair in Aunt Clarinda's room and Marcia
+would laughingly take the little old lady in her arms and place her
+comfortably in it, after a pleasant struggle on Miss Clarinda's part to
+put her guest into it. They had this same little play every evening, and
+it seemed to please the old lady mightily. Then when she was conquered she
+always sat meekly laughing, a fine pink color in her soft peachy cheek,
+the candle light from the high shelf making flickering sparkles in her old
+eyes that always seemed young; and she would say: "That's just as David
+used to do."
+
+Then Marcia drew up the little mahogany stool covered with the worsted dog
+which Aunt Clarinda had worked when she was ten years old, and snuggling
+down at the old lady's feet exclaimed delightedly: "Tell me about it!" and
+they settled down to solid comfort.
+
+There came a letter from David after he had been gone a little over a
+week. Marcia had not expected to hear from him. He had said nothing about
+writing, and their relations were scarcely such as to make it necessary.
+Letters were an expensive luxury in those days. But when the letter was
+handed to her, Marcia's heart went pounding against her breast, the color
+flew into her cheeks, and she sped away home on feet swift as the wings of
+a bird. The postmaster's daughter looked after her, and remarked to her
+father: "My, but don't she think a lot of him!"
+
+Straight to the cold, lonely house she flew, and sitting down in his big
+chair read it.
+
+It was a pleasant letter, beginning formally: "My dear Marcia," and asking
+after her health. It brought back a little of the unacquaintedness she had
+felt when he was at home, and which had been swept away in part by her
+knowledge of his childhood. But it went on quite happily telling all about
+his journey and describing minutely the places he had passed through and
+the people he had met on the way; detailing every little incident as only
+a born writer and observer could do, until she felt as if he were talking
+to her. He told her of the men whom he had met who were interested in the
+new project. He told of new plans and described minutely his visit to the
+foundry at West Point and the machinery he had seen. Marcia read it all
+breathlessly, in search of something, she knew not what, that was not
+there. When she had finished and found it not, there was a sense of
+aloofness, a sad little disappointment which welled up in her throat. She
+sat back to think about it. He was having a good time, and he was not
+lonely. He had no longing to be back in the house and everything running
+as before he had gone. He was out in the big glorious world having to do
+with progress, and coming in contact with men who were making history. Of
+course he did not dream how lonely she was here, and how she longed, if
+for nothing else, just to be back here alone and do as she pleased, and
+not to be watched over. If only she might steal Aunt Clarinda and bring
+her back to live here with her while David was away! But that was not to
+be thought of, of course. By and by she mustered courage to be glad of her
+letter, and to read it over once more.
+
+That night she read the letter to Aunt Clarinda and together they
+discussed the great inventions, and the changes that were coming to pass
+in the land. Aunt Clarinda was just a little beyond her depth in such a
+conversation, but Marcia did most of the talking, and the dear old lady
+made an excellent listener, with a pat here, and a "Dearie me! Now you
+don't say so!" there, and a "Bless the boy! What great things he does
+expect. And I hope he won't be disappointed."
+
+That letter lasted them for many a day until another came, this time from
+Washington, with many descriptions of public men and public doings, and a
+word picture of the place which made it appear much like any other place
+after all if it was the capitol of the country. And once there was a
+sentence which Marcia treasured. It was, "I wish you could be here and see
+everything. You would enjoy it I know."
+
+There came another letter later beginning, "My dear little girl." There
+was nothing else in it to make Marcia's heart throb, it was all about his
+work, but Marcia carried it many days in her bosom. It gave her a thrill
+of delight to think of those words at the beginning. Of course it meant no
+more than that he thought of her as a girl, his little sister that was to
+have been, but there was a kind of ownership in the words that was sweet
+to Marcia's lonely heart. It had come to her that she was always looking
+for something that would make her feel that she belonged to David.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+When David had been in New York about three weeks, he happened one day to
+pass the house where Kate Leavenworth was living.
+
+Kate was standing listlessly by the window looking into the street. She
+was cross and felt a great depression settling over her. The flirtation
+with Harry Temple had begun to pall upon her. She wanted new worlds to
+conquer. She was restless and feverish. There was not excitement enough in
+the life she was living. She would like to meet more people, senators and
+statesmen--and to have plenty of money to dress as became her beauty, and
+be admired publicly. She half wished for the return of her husband, and
+meditated making up with him for the sake of going to Washington to have a
+good time in society there. What was the use of running away with a naval
+officer if one could not have the benefit of it? She had been a fool. Here
+she was almost to the last penny, and so many things she wanted. No word
+had come from her husband since he sent her the money at sailing. She felt
+a bitter resentment toward him for urging her to marry him. If she had
+only gone on and married David she would be living a life of ease
+now--plenty of money--nothing to do but what she pleased and no anxiety
+whatever, for David would have done just what she wanted.
+
+Then suddenly she looked up and David passed before her!
+
+He was walking with a tall splendid-looking man, with whom he was engaged
+in most earnest conversation, and his look was grave and deeply absorbed.
+He did not know of Kate's presence in New York, and passed the house in
+utter unconsciousness of the eyes watching him.
+
+Kate's lips grew white, and her limbs seemed suddenly weak, but she
+strained her face against the window to watch the retreating figure of the
+man who had almost been her husband. How well she knew the familiar
+outline. How fine and handsome he appeared now! Why had she not thought so
+before? Were her eyes blind, or had she been under some strange
+enchantment? Why had she not known that her happiness lay in the way that
+had been marked out for her? Well, at least she knew it now.
+
+She sat all day by that window and watched. She professed to have no
+appetite when pressed to come to the table, though she permitted herself
+to languidly consume the bountiful tray of good things that was brought
+her, but her eyes were on the street. She was watching to see if David
+would pass that way again. But though she watched until the sun went down
+and dusk sifted through the streets, she saw no sign nor heard the sound
+of his footsteps. Then she hastened up to her room, which faced upon the
+street also, and there, wrapped in blankets she sat in the cold frosty
+air, waiting and listening. And while she watched she was thinking bitter
+feverish thoughts. She heard Harry Temple knock and knew that he was told
+that she was not feeling well and had retired early. She watched him pause
+on the stoop thoughtfully as if considering what to do with the time thus
+unexpectedly thrown upon his hands, then saw him saunter up the street
+unconcernedly, and she wondered idly where he would go, and what he would
+do.
+
+It grew late, even for New York. One by one the lights in the houses along
+the street went out, and all was quiet. She drew back from the window at
+last, weary with excitement and thinking, and lay down on the bed, but she
+could not sleep. The window was open and her ears were on the alert, and
+by and by there came the distant echo of feet ringing on the pavement.
+Some one was coming. She sprang up. She felt sure he was coming. Yes,
+there were two men. They were coming back together. She could hear their
+voices. She fancied she heard David's long before it was possible to
+distinguish any words. She leaned far out of her upper window till she
+could discern dim forms under the starlight, and then just as they were
+under the window she distinctly heard David say:
+
+"There is no doubt but we shall win. The right is on our side, and it is
+the march of progress. Some of the best men in Congress are with us, and
+now that we are to have your influence I do not feel afraid of the issue."
+
+They had passed by rapidly, like men who had been on a long day's jaunt of
+some kind and were hastening home to rest. There was little in the
+sentence that Kate could understand. She had no more idea whether the
+subject of their discourse was railroads or the last hay crop. The
+sentence meant to her but one thing. It showed that David companioned with
+the great men of the land, and his position would have given her a
+standing that would have been above the one she now occupied. Tears of
+defeat ran down her cheeks. She had made a bad mistake and she saw no way
+to rectify it. If her husband should die,--and it might be, for the sea was
+often treacherous--of course there were all sorts of possibilities,--but
+even then there was Marcia! She set her sharp little teeth into her red
+lips till the blood came. She could not get over her anger at Marcia. It
+would not have been so bad if David had remained her lone lorn lover,
+ready to fly to her if others failed. Her self-love was wounded sorely,
+and she, poor silly soul, mistook it for love of David. She began to fancy
+that after all she had loved him, and that Fate had somehow played her a
+mad trick and tied her to a husband she had not wanted.
+
+Then out of the watchings of the day and the fancies of the night, there
+grew a thought--and the thought widened into a plan. She thought of her
+intimacy with Harry and her new found power. Might she perhaps exercise it
+over others as well as Harry Temple? Might she possibly lead back this man
+who had once been her lover, to bow at her feet again and worship her? If
+that might be she could bear all the rest. She began to long with intense
+craving to see David grovel at her feet, to hear him plead for a kiss from
+her, and tell her once more how beautiful she was, and how she fulfilled
+all his soul's ideals. She sat by the open window yet with the icy air of
+the night blowing upon her, but her cheeks burned red in the darkness, and
+her eyes glowed like coals of fire from the tawny framing of her fallen
+hair. The blankets slipped away from her throat and still she heeded not
+the cold, but sat with hot clenched hands planning with the devil's own
+strategy her shameless scheme.
+
+By and by she lighted a candle and drew her writing materials toward her
+to write, but it was long she sat and thought before she finally wrote the
+hastily scrawled note, signed and sealed it, and blowing out her candle
+lay down to sleep.
+
+The letter was addressed to David, and it ran thus:
+
+
+    "DEAR DAVID:"
+
+    "I have just heard that you are in New York. I am in great
+    distress and do not know where to turn for help. For the sake of
+    what we have been to each other in the past will you come to me?
+
+                                          "Hastily, your loving KATE."
+
+
+She did not know where David was but she felt reasonably sure she could
+find out his address in the morning. There was a small boy living next
+door who was capable of ferreting out almost anything for money. Kate had
+employed him more than once as an amateur detective in cases of minor
+importance. So, with a bit of silver and her letter she made her way to
+his familiar haunts and explained most carefully that the letter was to be
+delivered to no one but the man to whom it was addressed, naming several
+stopping places where he might be likely to be found, and hinting that
+there was more silver to be forthcoming when he should bring her an answer
+to the note. With a minute description of David the keen-eyed urchin set
+out, while Kate betook herself to her room to dress for David's coming.
+She felt sure he would be found, and confident that he would come at once.
+
+The icy wind of the night before blowing on her exposed throat and chest
+had given her a severe cold, but she paid no heed to that. Her eyes and
+cheeks were shining with fever. She knew she was entering upon a dangerous
+and unholy way. The excitement of it stimulated her. She felt she did not
+care for anything, right or wrong, sin or sorrow, only to win. She wanted
+to see David at her feet again. It was the only thing that would satisfy
+this insatiable longing in her, this wounded pride of self.
+
+When she was dressed she stood before the mirror and surveyed herself. She
+knew she was beautiful, and she defied the glass to tell her anything
+else. She raised her chin in haughty challenge to the unseen David to
+resist her charms. She would bring him low before her. She would make him
+forget Marcia, and his home and his staid Puritan notions, and all else he
+held dear but herself. He should bend and kiss her hand as Harry had done,
+only more warmly, for instinctively she felt that his had been the purer
+life and therefore his surrender would mean more. He should do whatever
+she chose. And her eyes glowed with an unhallowed light.
+
+She had chosen to array herself regally, in velvet, but in black, without
+a touch of color or of white. From her rich frock her slender throat rose
+daintily, like a stem upon which nodded the tempting flower of her face.
+No enameled complexion could have been more striking in its vivid reds and
+whites, and her mass of gold hair made her seem more lovely than she
+really was, for in her face was love of self, alluring, but heartless and
+cruel.
+
+The boy found David, as Kate had thought he would, in one of the quieter
+hostelries where men of letters were wont to stop when in New York, and
+David read the letter and came at once. She had known that he would do
+that, too. His heart beat wildly, to the exclusion of all other thoughts
+save that she was in trouble, his love, his dear one. He forgot Marcia,
+and the young naval officer, and everything but her trouble, and before he
+had reached her house the sorrow had grown in his imagination into some
+great danger to protect her from which he was hastening.
+
+She received him alone in the room where Harry Temple had first called,
+and a moment later Harry himself came to knock and enquire for the health
+of Mistress Leavenworth, and was told she was very much engaged at present
+with a gentleman and could not see any one, whereupon Harry scowled, and
+set himself at a suitable distance from the house to watch who should come
+out.
+
+David's face was white as death as he entered, his eyes shining like dark
+jewels blazing at her as if he would absorb the vision for the lonely
+future. She stood and posed,--not by any means the picture of broken sorrow
+he had expected to find from her note,--and let the sense of her beauty
+reach him. There she stood with the look on her face he had pictured to
+himself many a time when he had thought of her as his wife. It was a look
+of love unutterable, bewildering, alluring, compelling. It was so he had
+thought she would meet him when he came home to her from his daily
+business cares. And now she was there, looking that way, and he stood
+here, so near her, and yet a great gulf fixed! It was heaven and hell met
+together, and he had no power to change either.
+
+He did not come over to her and bow low to kiss the white hand as Harry
+had done,--as she had thought she could compel him to do. He only stood and
+looked at her with the pain of an anguish beyond her comprehension, until
+the look would have burned through to her heart--if she had had a heart.
+
+"You are in trouble," he spoke hoarsely, as if murmuring an excuse for
+having come.
+
+She melted at once into the loveliest sorrow, her mobile features taking
+on a wan cast only enlivened by the glow of her cheeks.
+
+"Sit down," she said, "you were so good to come to me, and so soon--" and
+her voice was like lily-bells in a quiet church-yard among the
+head-stones. She placed him a chair.
+
+"Yes, I am in trouble. But that is a slight thing compared to my
+unhappiness. I think I am the most miserable creature that breathes upon
+this earth."
+
+And with that she dropped into a low chair and hid her glowing face in a
+dainty, lace bordered kerchief that suppressed a well-timed sob.
+
+Kate had wisely calculated how she could reach David's heart. If she had
+looked up then and seen his white, drawn look, and the tense grasp of his
+hands that only the greatest self-control kept quiet on his knee, perhaps
+even her mercilessness would have been softened. But she did not look, and
+she felt her part was well taken. She sobbed quietly, and waited, and his
+hoarse voice asked once more, as gently as a woman's through his pain:
+
+"Will you tell me what it is and how I can help you?" He longed to take
+her in his arms like a little child and comfort her, but he might not. She
+was another's. And perhaps that other had been cruel to her! His clenched
+fists showed how terrible was the thought. But still the bowed figure in
+its piteous black sobbed and did not reply anything except, "Oh, I am so
+unhappy! I cannot bear it any longer."
+
+"Is--your--your--husband unkind to you?" The words tore themselves from his
+tense lips as though they were beyond his control.
+
+"Oh, no,--not exactly unkind--that is--he was not very nice before he went
+away," wailed out a sad voice from behind the linen cambric and lace, "and
+he went away without a kind word, and left me hardly any money--and he
+hasn't sent me any word since--and fa-father won't have anything to do with
+me any more--but--but--it's not that I mind, David. I don't think about those
+things at all. I'm so unhappy about you. I feel you do not forgive me, and
+I cannot stand it any longer. I have made a fearful mistake, and you are
+angry with me--I think about it at night"--the voice was growing lower now,
+and the sentences broken by sobs that told better than words what distress
+the sufferer would convey.
+
+"I have been so wicked--and you were so good and kind--and now you will
+never forgive me--I think it will kill me to keep on thinking about it--"
+her voice trailed off in tears again.
+
+David white with anguish sprang to his feet.
+
+"Oh, Kate," he cried, "my darling! Don't talk that way. You know I forgive
+you. Look up and tell me you know I forgive you."
+
+Almost she smiled her triumph beneath her sobs in the little lace border,
+but she looked up with real tears on her face. Even her tears obeyed her
+will. She was a good actress, also she knew her power over David.
+
+"Oh, David," she cried, standing up and clasping her hands beseechingly,
+"can it be true? Do you really forgive me? Tell me again."
+
+She came and stood temptingly near to the stern, suffering man wild with
+the tumult that raged within him. Her golden head was near his shoulder
+where it had rested more than once in time gone by. He looked down at her
+from his suffering height his arms folded tightly and said, as though
+taking oath before a court of justice:
+
+"I do."
+
+She looked up with her pleading blue eyes, like two jewels of light now,
+questioning whether she might yet go one step further. Her breath came
+quick and soft, he fancied it touched his cheek, though she was not tall
+enough for that. She lifted her tear-wet face like a flower after a storm,
+and pleaded with her eyes once more, saying in a whisper very soft and
+sweet:
+
+"If you really forgive me, then kiss me, just once, so I may remember it
+always."
+
+It was more than he could bear. He caught her to himself and pressed his
+lips upon hers in one frenzied kiss of torture. It was as if wrung from
+him against his will. Then suddenly it came upon him what he had done, as
+he held her in his arms, and he put her from him gently, as a mother might
+put away the precious child she was sacrificing tenderly, agonizingly, but
+finally. He put her from him thus and stood a moment looking at her, while
+she almost sparkled her pleasure at him through the tears. She felt that
+she had won.
+
+But gradually the silence grew ominous. She perceived he was not smiling.
+His mien was like one who looks into an open grave, and gazes for the last
+time at all that remains of one who is dear. He did not seem like one who
+had yielded a moral point and was ready now to serve her as she would. She
+grew uneasy under his gaze. She moved forward and put out her hands
+inviting, yielding, as only such a woman could do, and the spell which
+bound him seemed to be broken. He fumbled for a moment in his waistcoat
+pocket and brought out a large roll of bills which he laid upon the table,
+and taking up his hat turned toward the door. A cold wave of weakness
+seemed to pass over her, stung here and there by mortal pride that was in
+fear of being wounded beyond recovery.
+
+"Where are you going?" she asked weakly, and her voice sounded to her from
+miles away, and strange.
+
+He turned and looked at her again and she knew the look meant farewell. He
+did not speak. Her whole being rose for one more mighty effort.
+
+"You are not going to leave me--now?" There was angelic sweetness in the
+voice, pleading, reproachful, piteous.
+
+"I must!" he said, and his voice sounded harsh. "I have just done that for
+which, were I your husband, I would feel like killing any other man. I
+must protect you against yourself,--against myself. You must be kept pure
+before God if it kills us both. I would gladly die if that could help you,
+but I am not even free to do that, for I belong to another."
+
+Then he turned and was gone.
+
+Kate's hands fell to her sides, and seemed stiff and lifeless. The bright
+color faded from her cheeks, and a cold frenzy of horror took possession
+of her. "Pure before God!" She shuddered at the name, and crimson shame
+rolled over forehead and cheek. She sank in a little heap on the floor
+with her face buried in the chair beside which she had been standing, and
+the waters of humiliation rolled wave on wave above her. She had failed,
+and for one brief moment she was seeing her own sinful heart as it was.
+
+But the devil was there also. He whispered to her now the last sentence
+that David had spoken: "I belong to another!"
+
+Up to that moment Marcia had been a very negative factor in the affair to
+Kate's mind. She had been annoyed and angry at her as one whose ignorance
+and impertinence had brought her into an affair where she did not belong,
+but now she suddenly faced the fact that Marcia must be reckoned with.
+Marcia the child, who had for years been her slave and done her bidding,
+had arisen in her way, and she hated her with a sudden vindictive hate
+that would have killed without flinching if the opportunity had presented
+at that moment. Kate had no idea how utterly uncontrolled was her whole
+nature. She was at the mercy of any passing passion. Hate and revenge took
+possession of her now. With flashing eyes she rose to her feet, brushing
+her tumbled hair back and wiping away angry tears. She was too much
+agitated to notice that some one had knocked at the front door and been
+admitted, and when Harry Temple walked into the room he found her standing
+so with hands clenched together, and tears flowing down her cheeks
+unchecked.
+
+Now a woman in tears, when the tears were not caused by his own actions,
+was Harry's opportunity. He had ways of comforting which were as
+unscrupulous as they generally proved effective, and so with affectionate
+tenderness he took Kate's hand and held it impressively, calling her
+"dear." He spoke soothing words, smoothed her hair, and kissed her flushed
+cheeks and eyes. It was all very pleasant to Kate's hurt pride. She let
+Harry comfort her, and pet her a while, and at last he said:
+
+"Now tell me all about it, dear. I saw Lord Spafford trail dejectedly away
+from here looking like death, and I come here and find my lady in a fine
+fury. What has happened? If I mistake not the insufferable cad has got
+badly hurt, but it seems to have ruffled the lady also."
+
+This helped. It was something to feel that David was suffering. She wanted
+him to suffer. He had brought shame and humiliation upon her. She never
+realized that the thing that shamed her was that he thought her better
+than she was.
+
+"He is offensively good. I _hate_ him!" she remarked as a kitten might who
+had got hurt at playing with a mouse in a trap.
+
+The man's face grew bland with satisfaction.
+
+"Not so good, my lady, but that he has been making love to you, if I
+mistake not, and he with a wife at home." The words were said quietly, but
+there was more of a question in them than the tone conveyed. The man
+wished to have evidence against his enemy.
+
+Kate colored uneasily and drooped her lashes.
+
+Harry studied her face keenly, and then went on cautiously:
+
+"If his wife were not your sister I should say that one might punish him
+well through her."
+
+Kate cast him a hard, scrutinizing look.
+
+"You have some score against him yourself," she said with conviction.
+
+"Perhaps I have, my lady. Perhaps I too hate him. He is offensively good,
+you know."
+
+There was silence in the room for a full minute while the devil worked in
+both hearts.
+
+"What did you mean by saying one might punish him through his wife? He
+does not love his wife."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Quite sure."
+
+"Perhaps he loves some one else, my lady."
+
+"He does." She said it proudly.
+
+"Perhaps he loves you, my lady." He said it softly like the suggestion
+from another world. The lady was silent, but he needed no other answer.
+
+"Then indeed, the way would be even clearer,--were not his wife your
+sister."
+
+Kate looked at him, a half knowledge of his meaning beginning to dawn in
+her eyes.
+
+"How?" she asked laconically.
+
+"In case his wife should leave him do you think my lord would hold his
+head so high?"
+
+Kate still looked puzzled.
+
+"If some one else should win her affection, and should persuade her to
+leave a husband who did not love her, and who was bestowing his heart"--he
+hesitated an instant and his eye traveled significantly to the roll of
+bills still lying where David had left them--"and his gifts," he hazarded,
+"upon another woman----"
+
+Kate grasped the thought at once and an evil glint of eagerness showed in
+her eyes. She could see what an advantage it would be to herself to have
+Marcia removed from the situation. It would break one more cord of honor
+that bound David to a code which was hateful to her now, because its
+existence shamed her. Nevertheless, unscrupulous as she was she could not
+see how this was a possibility.
+
+"But she is offensively good too," she said as if answering her own
+thoughts.
+
+"All goodness has its weak spot," sneered the man. "If I mistake not you
+have found my lord's. It is possible I might find his wife's."
+
+The two pairs of eyes met then, filled with evil light. It was as if for
+an instant they were permitted to look into the pit, and see the
+possibilities of wickedness, and exult in it. The lurid glare of their
+thoughts played in their faces. All the passion of hate and revenge rushed
+upon Kate in a frenzy. With all her heart she wished this might be. She
+looked her co-operation in the plan even before her hard voice answered:
+
+"You need not stop because she is my sister."
+
+He felt he had her permission, and he permitted himself a glance of
+admiration for the depths to which she could go without being daunted.
+Here was evil courage worthy of his teaching. She seemed to him beautiful
+enough and daring enough for Satan himself to admire.
+
+"And may I have the pleasure of knowing that I would by so doing serve my
+lady in some wise?"
+
+She drooped her shameless eyes and murmured guardedly, "Perhaps." Then she
+swept him a coquettish glance that meant they understood one another.
+
+"Then I shall feel well rewarded," he said gallantly, and bowing with more
+than his ordinary flattery of look bade her good day and went out.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+David stumbled blindly out the door and down the street. His one thought
+was to get to his room at the tavern and shut the door. He had an
+important appointment that morning, but it passed completely from his
+mind. He met one or two men whom he knew, but he did not see them, and
+passed them swiftly without a glance of recognition. They said one to
+another, "How absorbed he is in the great themes of the world!" but David
+passed on in his pain and misery and humiliation and never knew they were
+near him.
+
+He went to the room that had been his since he had reached New York, and
+fastening the door against all intrusion fell upon his knees beside the
+bed, and let the flood-tide of his sorrow roll over him. Not even when
+Kate had played him false on his wedding morning had he felt the pain that
+now cut into his very soul. For now there was mingled with it the agony of
+consciousness of sin. He had sinned against heaven, against honor and
+love, and all that was pure and good. He was just like any bad man. He had
+yielded to sudden temptation and taken another man's wife in his arms and
+kissed her! That the woman had been his by first right, and that he loved
+her: that she had invited the kiss, indeed pleaded for it, his sensitive
+conscience told him in no wise lessened the offense. He had also caused
+her whom he loved to sin. He was a man and knew the world. He should have
+shielded her against herself. And yet as he went over and over the whole
+painful scene through which he had just passed his soul cried out in agony
+and he felt his weakness more and more. He had failed, failed most
+miserably. Acted like any coward!
+
+The humiliation of it was unspeakable. Could any sorrow be like unto his?
+Like a knife flashing through the gloom of his own shame would come the
+echo of her words as she pleaded with him to kiss her. It was a kiss of
+forgiveness she had wanted, and she had put her heart into her eyes and
+begged as for her very life. How could he have refused? Then he would
+parley with himself for a long time trying to prove to himself that the
+kiss and the embrace were justified, that he had done no wrong in God's
+sight. And ever after this round of confused arguing he would end with the
+terrible conviction that he had sinned.
+
+Sometimes Marcia's sweet face and troubled eyes would appear to him as he
+wrestled all alone, and seemed to be longing to help him, and again would
+come the piercing thought that he had harmed this gentle girl also. He had
+tangled her into his own spoiled web of life, and been disloyal to her.
+She was pure and true and good. She had given up every thing to help him
+and he had utterly forgotten her. He had promised to love, cherish, and
+protect her! That was another sin. He could not love and cherish her when
+his whole heart was another's. Then he thought of Kate's husband, that
+treacherous man who had stolen his bride and now gone away and left her
+sorrowing--left her without money, penniless in a strange city. Why had he
+not been more calm and questioned her before he came away. Perhaps she was
+in great need. It comforted him to think he had left her all the money he
+had with him. There was enough to keep her from want for a while. And yet,
+perhaps he had been wrong to give it to her. He had no right to give it!
+
+He groaned aloud at the thought of his helplessness to help her
+helplessness. Was there not some way he could find out and help her
+without doing wrong?
+
+Over and over he went through the whole dreadful day, until his brain was
+weary and his heart failed him. The heavens seemed brass and no answer
+came to his cry,--the appeal of a broken soul. It seemed that he could not
+get up from his knees, could not go out into the world again and face
+life. He had been tried and had failed, and yet though he knew his sin he
+felt an intolerable longing to commit it over again. He was frightened at
+his own weakness, and with renewed vigor he began to pray for help. It was
+like the prayer of Jacob of old, the crying out of a soul that would not
+be denied. All day long the struggle continued, and far into the night. At
+last a great peace began to settle upon David's soul. Things that had been
+confused by his passionate longings grew clear as day. Self dropped away,
+and sin, conquered, slunk out of sight. Right and Wrong were once more
+clearly defined in his mind. However wrong it might or might not be he was
+here in this situation. He had married Marcia and promised to be true to
+her. He was doubly cut off from Kate by her own act and by his. That was
+his punishment,--and hers. He must not seek to lessen it even for her, for
+it was God-sent. Henceforth his path and hers must be apart. If she were
+to be helped in any way from whatsoever trouble was hers, it was not
+permitted him to be the instrument. He had shown his unfitness for it in
+his interview that morning, even if in the eyes of the world it could have
+been at all. It was his duty to cut himself off from her forever. He must
+not even think of her any more. He must be as true and good to Marcia as
+was possible. He must do no more wrong. He must grow strong and suffer.
+
+The peace that came with conviction brought sleep to his weary mind and
+body.
+
+When he awoke it was almost noon. He remembered the missed appointment of
+the day before, and the journey to Washington which he had planned for
+that day. With a start of horror he looked at his watch and found he had
+but a few hours in which to try to make up for the remissness of yesterday
+before the evening coach left for Philadelphia. It was as if some guardian
+angel had met his first waking thoughts with business that could not be
+delayed and so kept him from going over the painful events of the day
+before. He arose and hastened out into the world once more.
+
+Late in the afternoon he found the man he was to have met the day before,
+and succeeded in convincing him that he ought to help the new enterprise.
+He was standing on the corner saying the last few words as the two
+separated, when Kate drove by in a friend's carriage, surrounded by
+parcels. She had been on a shopping tour spending the money that David had
+given her, for silks and laces and jewelry, and now she was returning in
+high glee with her booty. The carriage passed quite near to David who
+stood with his back to the street, and she could see his animated face as
+he smiled at the other man, a fine looking man who looked as if he might
+be some one of note. The momentary glance did not show the haggard look of
+David's face nor the lines that his vigil of the night before had traced
+under his eyes, and Kate was angered to see him so unconcerned and
+forgetful of his pain of yesterday. Her face darkened with spite, and she
+resolved to make him suffer yet, and to the utmost, for the sin of
+forgetting her.
+
+But David was in the way of duty, and he did not see her, for his guardian
+angel was hovering close at hand.
+
+
+
+As the Fall wore on and the winter set in Harry's letters became less
+frequent and less intimate. Hannah was troubled, and after consultation
+with her grandmother, to which Miranda listened at the latch hole, duly
+reporting quotations to her adored Mrs. Spafford, Hannah decided upon an
+immediate trip to the metropolis.
+
+"Hannah's gone to New York to find out what's become of that nimshi Harry
+Temple. She thought she had him fast, an' she's been holdin' him over poor
+Lemuel Skinner's head like thet there sword hangin' by a hair I heard the
+minister tell about last Sunday, till Lemuel, he don't know but every
+minute's gone'll be his last. You mark my words, she'll hev to take poor
+Lem after all, an' be glad she's got him, too,--and she's none too good for
+him neither. He's ben faithful to her ever since she wore pantalets, an'
+she's ben keepin' him off'n on an' hopin' an' tryin' fer somebody bigger.
+It would jes' serve her right ef she'd get that fool of a Harry Temple,
+but she won't. He's too sharp for that ef he _is_ a fool. He don't want to
+tie himself up to no woman's aprun strings. He rather dandle about after
+'em all an' say pretty things, an' keep his earnin's fer himself."
+
+Hannah reached New York the week after David left for Washington. She
+wrote beforehand to Harry to let him know she was coming, and made plain
+that she expected his attentions exclusively while there, and he smiled
+blandly as he read the letter and read her intentions between the lines.
+He told Kate a good deal about her that evening when he went to call, told
+her how he had heard she was an old flame of David's, and Kate's jealousy
+was immediately aroused. She wished to meet Hannah Heath. There was a sort
+of triumph in the thought that she had scorned and flung aside the man
+whom this woman had "set her cap" for, even though another woman was now
+in the place that neither had. Hannah went to visit a cousin in New York
+who lived in a quiet part of the city and did not go out much, but for
+reasons best known to themselves, both Kate Leavenworth and Harry Temple
+elected to see a good deal of her while she was in the city. Harry was
+pleasant and attentive, but not more to one woman than to the other.
+Hannah, watching him jealously, decided that at least Kate was not her
+rival in his affections, and so Hannah and Kate became quite friendly.
+Kate had a way of making much of her women friends when she chose, and she
+happened to choose in this case, for it occurred to her it would be well
+to have a friend in the town where lived her sister and her former lover.
+There might be reasons why, sometime. She opened her heart of hearts to
+Hannah, and Hannah, quite discreetly, and without wasting much of her
+scanty store of love, entered, and the friendship was sealed. They had not
+known each other many days before Kate had confided to Hannah the story of
+her own marriage and her sister's, embellished of course as she chose.
+Hannah, astonished, puzzled, wondering, curious, at the tragedy that had
+been enacted at her very home door, became more friendly than ever and
+hated more cordially than ever the young and innocent wife who had stepped
+into the vacant place and so made her own hopes and ambitions impossible.
+She felt that she would like to put down the pert young thing for daring
+to be there, and to be pretty, and now she felt she had the secret which
+would help her to do so.
+
+As the visit went on and it became apparent to Hannah Heath that she was
+not the one woman in all the world to Harry Temple, she hinted to Kate
+that it was likely she would be married soon. She even went so far as to
+say that she had come away from home to decide the matter, and that she
+had but to say the word and the ceremony would come off. Kate questioned
+eagerly, and seeing her opportunity asked if she might come to the
+wedding. Hannah, flattered, and seeing a grand opportunity for a wholesale
+triumph and revenge, assented with pleasure. Afterward as Hannah had hoped
+and intended, Kate carried the news of the impending decision and probable
+wedding to the ears of Harry Temple.
+
+But Hannah's hint had no further effect upon the redoubtable Harry. Two
+days later he appeared, smiling, congratulatory, deploring the fact that
+she would be lost in a certain sense to his friendship, although he hoped
+always to be looked upon as a little more than a friend.
+
+Hannah covered her mortification under a calm and condescending exterior.
+She blushed appropriately, said some sentimental things about hoping their
+friendship would not be affected by the change, told him how much she had
+enjoyed their correspondence, but gave him to understand that it had been
+mere friendship of course from her point of view, and Harry indulgently
+allowed her to think that he had hoped for more and was grieved but
+consolable over the outcome.
+
+They waxed a trifle sentimental at the parting, but when Harry was gone,
+Hannah wrote a most touching letter to Lemuel Skinner which raised him to
+the seventh heaven of delight, causing him to feel that he was treading
+upon air as he walked the prosaic streets of his native town where he had
+been going about during Hannah's absence like a lost spirit without a
+guiding star.
+
+
+    "DEAR LEMUEL:" she wrote:--
+
+    "I am coming home. I wonder if you will be glad?
+
+
+(Artful Hannah, as if she did not know!)
+
+
+    "It is very delightful in New York and I have been having a gay
+    time since I came, and everybody has been most pleasant, but--
+
+      "'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
+      Still, be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
+      A charm from the skies seems to hallow it there,
+      Which, go through the world, you'll not meet with elsewhere.
+                          Home, home, sweet home!
+                        There's no place like home.
+
+    "That is a new song, Lemuel, that everybody here is singing. It is
+    written by a young American named John Howard Payne who is in
+    London now acting in a great playhouse. Everybody is wild over
+    this song. I'll sing it for you when I come home.
+
+    "I shall be at home in time for singing school next week, Lemuel.
+    I wonder if you'll come to see me at once and welcome me. You
+    cannot think how glad I shall be to get home again. It seems as
+    though I had been gone a year at least. Hoping to see you soon, I
+    remain
+
+                                     "Always your sincere friend,
+
+                                                       "HANNAH HEATH."
+
+
+And thus did Hannah make smooth her path before her, and very soon after
+inditing this epistle she bade good-bye to New York and took her way home
+resolved to waste no further time in chasing will-o-the-wisps.
+
+When Lemuel received that letter he took a good look at himself in the
+glass. More than seven years had he served for Hannah, and little hope had
+he had of a final reward. He was older by ten years than she, and already
+his face began to show it. He examined himself critically, and was pleased
+to find with that light of hope in his eyes he was not so bad looking as
+he feared. He betook himself to the village tailor forthwith and ordered a
+new suit of clothes, though his Sunday best was by no means shiny yet. He
+realized that if he did not win now he never would, and he resolved to do
+his best.
+
+On the way home, during all the joltings of the coach over rough roads
+Hannah Heath was planning two campaigns, one of love with Lemuel, and one
+of hate with Marcia Spafford. She was possessed of knowledge which she
+felt would help her in the latter, and often she smiled vindictively as
+she laid her neat plans for the destruction of the bride's complacency.
+
+That night the fire in the Heath parlor burned high and glowed, and the
+candles in their silver holders flickered across fair Hannah's face as she
+dimpled and smiled and coquetted with poor Lemuel. But Lemuel needed no
+pity. He was not afraid of Hannah. Not for nothing had he served his seven
+years, and he understood every fancy and foible of her shallow nature. He
+knew his time had come at last, and he was getting what he had wanted
+long, for Lemuel had admired and loved Hannah in spite of the dance she
+had led him, and in spite of the other lovers she had allowed to come
+between them.
+
+Hannah had not been at home many days before she called upon Marcia.
+
+Marcia had just seated herself at the piano when Hannah appeared to her
+from the hall, coming in unannounced through the kitchen door according to
+old neighborly fashion.
+
+Marcia was vexed. She arose from the instrument and led the way to the
+little morning room which was sunny and cosy, and bare of music or books.
+She did not like to visit with Hannah in the parlor. Somehow her presence
+reminded her of the evil face of Harry Temple as he had stooped to kiss
+her.
+
+"You know how to play, too, don't you?" said Hannah as they sat down.
+"Your sister plays beautifully. Do you know the new song, 'Home, Sweet
+Home?' She plays it with so much feeling and sings it so that one would
+think her heart was breaking for her home. You must have been a united
+family." Hannah said it with sharp scrutiny in voice and eyes.
+
+"Sit down, Miss Heath," said Marcia coolly, lowering the yellow shades
+that her visitor's eyes might not be troubled by a broad sunbeam. "Did you
+have a pleasant time in New York?"
+
+Hannah could not be sure whether or not the question was an evasion. The
+utterly child-like manner of Marcia disarmed suspicion.
+
+"Oh, delightful, of course. Could any one have anything else in New York?"
+
+Hannah laughed disagreeably. She realized the limitations of life in a
+town.
+
+"I suppose," said Marcia, her eyes shining with the thought, "that you saw
+all the wonderful things of the city. I should enjoy being in New York a
+little while. I have heard of so many new things. Were there any ships in
+the harbor? I have always wanted to go over a great ship. Did you have
+opportunity of seeing one?"
+
+"Oh, dear me. No!" said Hannah. "I shouldn't have cared in the least for
+that. I'm sure I don't know whether there were any ships in or not. I
+suppose there were. I saw a lot of sails on the water, but I did not ask
+about them. I'm not interested in dirty boats. I liked visiting the shops
+best. Your sister took me about everywhere. She is a most charming
+creature. You must miss her greatly. You were a sly little thing to cut
+her out."
+
+Marcia's face flamed crimson with anger and amazement. Hannah's dart had
+hit the mark, and she was watching keenly to see her victim quiver.
+
+"I do not understand you," said Marcia with girlish dignity.
+
+"Oh, now don't pretend to misunderstand. I've heard all about it from
+headquarters," she said it archly, laughing. "But then I don't blame you.
+David was worth it." Hannah ended with a sigh. If she had ever cared for
+any one besides herself that one was David Spafford.
+
+"I do not understand you," said Marcia again, drawing herself up with all
+the Schuyler haughtiness she could master, till she quite resembled her
+father.
+
+"Now, Mrs. Spafford," said the visitor, looking straight into her face and
+watching every expression as a cat would watch a mouse, "you don't mean to
+tell me your sister was not at one time very intimate with your husband."
+
+"Mr. Spafford has been intimate in our family for a number of years," said
+Marcia proudly, her fighting fire up, "but as for my having 'cut my sister
+out' as you call it, you have certainly been misinformed. Excuse me, I
+think I will close the kitchen door. It seems to blow in here and make a
+draft."
+
+Marcia left the room with her head up and her fine color well under
+control, and when she came back her head was still up and a distant
+expression was in her face. Somehow Hannah felt she had not gained much
+after all. But Marcia, after Hannah's departure, went up to her cold room
+and wept bitter tears on her pillow alone.
+
+                 [Illustration: Copyright by C. Klackner
+       MARCIA PASSED FROM THE OLD STONE CHURCH WITH THE TWO AUNTS.]
+
+                        Copyright by C. Klackner
+       MARCIA PASSED FROM THE OLD STONE CHURCH WITH THE TWO AUNTS.
+
+
+After that first visit Hannah never found the kitchen door unlocked when
+she came to make a morning call, but she improved every little opportunity
+to torment her gentle victim. She had had a letter from Kate and had
+Marcia heard? How often did Kate write her? Did Marcia know how fond Harry
+Temple was of Kate? And where was Kate's husband? Would he likely be
+ordered home soon? These little annoyances were almost unbearable
+sometimes and Marcia had much ado to keep her sweetness of outward
+demeanor.
+
+People looked upon Lemuel with new respect. He had finally won where they
+had considered him a fool for years for hanging on. The added respect
+brought added self-respect. He took on new manliness. Grandmother Heath
+felt that he really was not so bad after all, and perhaps Hannah might as
+well have taken him at first. Altogether the Heath family were well
+pleased, and preparations began at once for a wedding in the near future.
+
+And still David lingered, held here and there by a call from first one man
+and then another, and by important doings in Congress. He seemed to be
+rarely fitted for the work.
+
+Once he was called back to New York for a day or two, and Harry Temple
+happened to see him as he arrived. That night he wrote to Hannah a
+friendly letter--Harry was by no means through with Hannah yet--and casually
+remarked that he saw David Spafford was in New York again. He supposed now
+that Mrs. Leavenworth's evenings would be fully occupied and society would
+see little of her while he remained.
+
+The day after Hannah received that letter was Sunday.
+
+The weeks had gone by rapidly since David left his home, and now the
+spring was coming on. The grass was already green as summer and the willow
+tree by the graveyard gate was tender and green like a spring-plume. All
+the foliage was out and fluttering its new leaves in the sunshine as
+Marcia passed from the old stone church with the two aunts and opened her
+little green sunshade. Her motion made David's last letter rustle in her
+bosom. It thrilled her with pleasure that not even the presence of Hannah
+Heath behind her could cloud.
+
+However prim and fault-finding the two aunts might be in the seclusion of
+their own home, in public no two could have appeared more adoring than
+Amelia and Hortense Spafford. They hovered near Marcia and delighted to
+show how very close and intimate was the relationship between themselves
+and their new and beautiful niece, of whom in their secret hearts they
+were prouder than they would have cared to tell. In their best black silks
+and their fine lace shawls they walked beside her and talked almost
+eagerly, if those two stately beings could have anything to do with a
+quality so frivolous as eagerness. They wished it understood that David's
+wife was worthy of appreciation and they were more conscious than she of
+the many glances of admiration in her direction.
+
+Hannah Heath encountered some of those admiring glances and saw jealously
+for whom they were meant. She hastened to lean forward and greet Marcia,
+her spiteful tongue all ready for a stab.
+
+"Good morning, Mrs. Spafford. Is that husband of yours not home yet?
+Really! Why, he's quite deserted you. I call that hard for the first year,
+and your honeymoon scarcely over yet."
+
+"He's been called back to New York again," said Marcia annoyed over the
+spiteful little sentences. "He says he may be at home soon, but he cannot
+be sure. His business is rather uncertain."
+
+"New York!" said Hannah, and her voice was annoyingly loud. "What! Not
+again! There must be some great attraction there," and then with a meaning
+glance, "I suppose your sister is still there!"
+
+Marcia felt her face crimsoning, and the tears starting from angry eyes.
+She felt a sudden impulse to slap Hannah. What if she should! What would
+the aunts say? The thought of the tumult she might make roused her sense
+of humor and a laugh bubbled up instead of the tears, and Hannah,
+watching, cat-like, could only see eyes dancing with fun though the cheeks
+were charmingly red. By Hannah's expression Marcia knew she was baffled,
+but Marcia could not get away from the disagreeable suggestion that had
+been made.
+
+Yes, David was in New York, and Kate was there. Not for an instant did she
+doubt her husband's nobleness. She knew David would be good and true. She
+knew little of the world's wickedness, and never thought of any blame, as
+other women might, in such a suggestion. But a great jealousy sprang into
+being that she never dreamed existed. Kate was there, and he would perhaps
+see her, and all his old love and disappointment would be brought to mind
+again. Had she, Marcia, been hoping he would forget it? Had she been
+claiming something of him in her heart for herself? She could not tell.
+She did not know what all this tumult of feeling meant. She longed to get
+away and think it over, but the solemn Sunday must be observed. She must
+fold away her church things, put on another frock and come down to the
+oppressive Sunday dinner, hear Deacon Brown's rheumatism discussed, or
+listen to a long comparison of the morning's sermon with one preached
+twenty years ago by the minister, now long dead upon the same text. It was
+all very hard to keep her mind upon, with these other thoughts rushing
+pell-mell through her brain; and when Aunt Amelia asked her to pass the
+butter, she handed the sugar-bowl instead. Miss Amelia looked as shocked
+as if she had broken the great-grandmother's china teapot.
+
+Aunt Clarinda claimed her after dinner and carried her off to her room to
+talk about David, so that Marcia had no chance to think even then. Miss
+Clarinda looked into the sweet shadowed eyes and wondered why the girl
+looked so sad. She thought it was because David stayed away so long, and
+so she kept her with her all the rest of the day.
+
+When Marcia went to her room that night she threw herself on her knees
+beside the bed and tried to pray. She felt more lonely and heartsick than
+she ever felt before in her life. She did not know what the great hunger
+in her heart meant. It was terrible to think David had loved Kate. Kate
+never loved him in return in the right way. Marcia felt very sure of that.
+She wished she might have had the chance in Kate's place, and then all of
+a sudden the revelation came to her. She loved David herself with a great
+overwhelming love. Not just a love that could come and keep house for him
+and save him from the criticisms and comments of others; but with a love
+that demanded to be loved in return; a love that was mindful of every dear
+lineament of his countenance. The knowledge thrilled through her with a
+great sweetness. She did not seem to care for anything else just now, only
+to know that she loved David. David could never love her of course, not in
+that way, but she would love him. She would try to shut out the thought of
+Kate from him forever.
+
+And so, dreaming, hovering on the edge of all that was bitter and all that
+was sweet, she fell asleep with David's letter clasped close over her
+heart.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+Marcia had gone down to her own house the next morning very early. She had
+hoped for a letter but none had come. Her soul was in torment between her
+attempt to keep out of her mind the hateful things Hannah Heath had said,
+and reproaching herself for what seemed to her her unseemly feeling toward
+David, who loved another and could never love her. It was not a part of
+her life-dream to love one who belonged to another. Yet her heart was his
+and she was beginning to know that everything belonging to him was dear to
+her. She went and sat in his place at the table, she touched with
+tenderness the books upon his desk that he had used before he went away,
+she went up to his room and laid her lips for one precious daring instant
+upon his pillow, and then drew back with wildly beating heart ashamed of
+her emotion. She knelt beside his bed and prayed: "Oh, God, I love him, I
+love him! I cannot help it!" as if she would apologize for herself, and
+then she hugged the thought of her love to herself, feeling its sweet pain
+drift through her like some delicious agony. Her love had come through
+sorrow to her, and was not as she would have had it could she have chosen.
+It brought no ray of happy hope for the future, save just the happiness of
+loving in secret, and of doing for the object loved, with no thought of a
+returned affection.
+
+Then she went slowly down the stairs, trying to think how it would seem
+when David came back. He had been so long gone that it seemed as if
+perhaps he might never return. She felt that it had been no part of the
+spirit of her contract with David that she should render to him this wild
+sweet love that he had expected Kate to give. He had not wanted it. He had
+only wanted a wife in name.
+
+Then the color would sweep over her face in a crimson drift and leave it
+painfully white, and she would glide to the piano like a ghost of her
+former self and play some sad sweet strain, and sometimes sing.
+
+She had no heart for her dear old woods in these days. She had tried it
+one day in spring; slipped over the back fence and away through the
+ploughed field where the sea of silver oats had surged, and up to the
+hillside and the woods; but she was so reminded of David that it only
+brought heart aches and tears. She wondered if it was because she was
+getting old that the hillside did not seem so joyous now, and she did not
+care to look up into the sky just for the pure joy of sky and air and
+clouds, nor to listen to the branches whisper to the robins nesting. She
+stooped and picked a great handful of spring beauties, but they did not
+seem to give her pleasure, and by and by she dropped them from listless
+fingers and walked sedately down to the house once more.
+
+On this morning she did not even care to play. She went into the parlor
+and touched a few notes, but her heart was heavy and sad. Life was growing
+too complex.
+
+Last week there had come a letter from Harry Temple. It had startled her
+when it arrived. She feared it was some ill-news about David, coming as it
+did from New York and being written in a strange hand.
+
+It had been a plea for forgiveness, representing that the writer had
+experienced nothing but deep repentance and sorrow since the time he had
+seen her last. He set forth his case in a masterly way, with little
+touching facts of his childhood, and lonely upbringing, with no mother to
+guide. He told her that her noble action toward him had but made him
+revere her the more, and that, in short, she had made a new creature of
+him by refusing to return his kiss that day, and leaving him alone with so
+severe a rebuke. He felt that if all women were so good and true men would
+be a different race, and now he looked up to her as one might look up to
+an angel, and he felt he could never be happy again on this earth until he
+had her written word of forgiveness. With that he felt he could live a new
+life, and she must rest assured that he would never offer other than
+reverence to any woman again. He further added that his action had not
+intended any insult to her, that he was merely expressing his natural
+admiration for a spirit so good and true, and that his soul was innocent
+of any intention of evil. With sophistry in the use of which he was an
+adept, he closed his epistle, fully clearing himself, and assuring her
+that he could have made her understand it that day if she had not left so
+suddenly, and he had not been almost immediately called away to the dying
+bed of his dear cousin. This contradictory letter had troubled Marcia
+greatly. She was keen enough to see that his logic was at fault, and that
+the two pages of his letter did not hang together, but one thing was
+plain, that he wished her forgiveness. The Bible said that one must
+forgive, and surely it was right to let him know that she did, though when
+she thought of the fright he had given her it was hard to do. Still, it
+was right, and if he was so unhappy, perhaps she had better let him know.
+She would rather have waited until David returned to consult him in the
+matter, but the letter seemed so insistent that she had finally written a
+stiff little note, in formal language, "Mrs. Spafford sends herewith her
+full and free forgiveness to Mr. Harry Temple, and promises to think no
+more of the matter."
+
+She would have liked to consult some one. She almost thought of taking
+Aunt Clarinda into her confidence, but decided that she might not
+understand. So she finally sent off the brief missive, and let her
+troubled thoughts wander after it more than once.
+
+She was standing by the window looking out into the yard perplexing
+herself over this again when there came a loud knocking at the front door.
+She started, half frightened, for the knock sounded through the empty
+house so insistently. It seemed like trouble coming. She felt nervous as
+she went down the hall.
+
+It was only a little urchin, barefoot, and tow-headed. He had ridden an
+old mare to the door, and left her nosing at the dusty grass. He brought
+her a letter. Again her heart fluttered excitedly. Who could be writing to
+her? It was not David. Why did the handwriting look familiar? It could not
+be from any one at home. Father? Mother? No, it was no one she knew. She
+tore it open, and the boy jumped on his horse and was off down the street
+before she realized that he was gone.
+
+
+    "DEAR MADAM:" the letter read,
+
+    "I bring you news of your husband, and having met with an accident
+    I am unable to come further. You will find me at the Green Tavern
+    two miles out on the corduroy road. As the business is private,
+    please come alone.
+
+                                                        "A MESSENGER."
+
+
+Marcia trembled so that she sat down on the stairs. A sudden weakness went
+over her like a wave, and the hall grew dark around her as though she were
+going to faint. But she did not. She was strong and well and had never
+fainted in her life. She rallied in a moment and tried to think. Something
+had happened to David. Something dreadful, perhaps, and she must go at
+once and find out. Still it must be something mysterious, for the man had
+said it was private. Of course that meant David would not want it known.
+David had intended that the man would come to her and tell her by herself.
+She must go. There was nothing else to be done. She must go at once and
+get rid of this awful suspense. It was a good day for the message to have
+come, for she had brought her lunch expecting to do some spring cleaning.
+David had been expected home soon, and she liked to make a bustle of
+preparation as if he might come in any day, for it kept up her good cheer.
+
+Having resolved to go she got up at once, closed the doors and windows,
+put on her bonnet and went out down the street toward the old corduroy
+road. It frightened her to think what might be at the end of her journey.
+Possibly David himself, hurt or dying, and he had sent for her in this way
+that she might break the news gently to his aunts. As she walked along she
+conjured various forms of trouble that might have come to him. Now and
+then she would try to take a cheerful view, saying to herself that David
+might have needed more important papers, papers which he would not like
+everyone to know about, and had sent by special messenger to her to get
+them. Then her face would brighten and her step grow more brisk. But
+always would come the dull thud of possibility of something more serious.
+Her heart beat so fast sometimes that she was forced to lessen her speed
+to get her breath, for though she was going through town, and must
+necessarily walk somewhat soberly lest she call attention to herself, she
+found that her nerves and imagination were fairly running ahead, and
+waiting impatiently for her feet to catch up at every turning place.
+
+At last she came to the corduroy road--a long stretch of winding way
+overlaid with logs which made an unpleasant path. Most of the way was
+swampy, and bordered in some places by thick, dark woods. Marcia sped on
+from log to log, with a nervous feeling that she must step on each one or
+her errand would not be successful. She was not afraid of the loneliness,
+only of what might be coming at the end of her journey.
+
+But suddenly, in the densest part of the wood, she became conscious of
+footsteps echoing hers, and a chill laid hold upon her. She turned her
+head and there, wildly gesticulating and running after her, was Miranda!
+
+Annoyed, and impatient to be on her way, and wondering what to do with
+Miranda, or what she could possibly want, Marcia stopped to wait for her.
+
+"I thought--as you was goin' 'long my way"--puffed Miranda, "I'd jes' step
+along beside you. You don't mind, do you?"
+
+Marcia looked troubled. If she should say she did then Miranda would think
+it queer and perhaps suspect something.
+
+She tried to smile and ask how far Miranda was going.
+
+"Oh, I'm goin' to hunt fer wild strawberries," said the girl nonchalantly
+clattering a big tin pail.
+
+"Isn't it early yet for strawberries?" questioned Marcia.
+
+"Well, mebbe, an' then ag'in mebbe 'tain't. I know a place I'm goin' to
+look anyway. Are you goin' 's fur 's the Green Tavern?"
+
+Miranda's bright eyes looked her through and through, and Marcia's
+truthful ones could not evade. Suddenly as she looked into the girl's
+homely face, filled with a kind of blind adoration, her heart yearned for
+counsel in this trying situation. She was reminded of Miranda's
+helpfulness the time she ran away to the woods, and the care with which
+she had guarded the whole matter so that no one ever heard of it. An
+impulse came to her to confide in Miranda. She was a girl of sharp common
+sense, and would perhaps be able to help with her advice. At least she
+could get comfort from merely telling her trouble and anxiety.
+
+"Miranda," she said, "can you keep a secret?"
+
+The girl nodded.
+
+"Well, I'm going to tell you something, just because I am so troubled and
+I feel as if it would do me good to tell it." She smiled and Miranda
+answered the smile with much satisfaction and no surprise. Miranda had
+come for this, though she did not expect her way to be so easy.
+
+"I'll be mum as an oyster," said Miranda. "You jest tell me anything you
+please. You needn't be afraid Hannah Heath'll know a grain about it.
+She'n' I are two people. I know when to shut up."
+
+"Well, Miranda, I'm in great perplexity and anxiety. I've just had a note
+from a messenger my husband has sent asking me to come out to that Green
+Tavern you were talking about. He was sent to me with some message and has
+had an accident so he couldn't come. It kind of frightened me to think
+what might be the matter. I'm glad you are going this way because it keeps
+me from thinking about it. Are we nearly there? I never went out this road
+so far before."
+
+"It ain't fur," said Miranda as if that were a minor matter. "I'll go
+right along in with you, then you needn't feel lonely. I guess likely it's
+business. Don't you worry." The tone was reassuring, but Marcia's face
+looked troubled.
+
+"No, I guess that won't do, Miranda, for the note says it is a private
+matter and I must come alone. You know Mr. Spafford has matters to write
+about that are very important, railroads, and such things, and sometimes
+he doesn't care to have any one get hold of his ideas before they appear
+in the paper. His enemies might use them to stop the plans of the great
+improvements he is writing about."
+
+"Let me see that note!" demanded Miranda. "Got it with you?" Marcia
+hesitated. Perhaps she ought not to show it, and yet there was nothing in
+the note but what she had already told the girl, and she felt sure she
+would not breathe a word to a living soul after her promise. She handed
+Miranda the letter, and they stopped a moment while she slowly spelled it
+out. Miranda was no scholar. Marcia watched her face eagerly, as if to
+gather a ray of hope from it, but she was puzzled by Miranda's look. A
+kind of satisfaction had overspread her homely countenance.
+
+"Should you think from that that David was hurt--or ill--or--or--killed--or
+anything?" She asked the question as if Miranda were a wizard, and hung
+anxiously upon her answer.
+
+"Naw, I don't reckon so!" said Miranda. "Don't you worry. David's all
+right somehow. I'll take care o' you. You go 'long up and see what's the
+business, an' I'll wait here out o' sight o' the tavern. Likely's not he
+might take a notion not to tell you ef he see me come along with you. You
+jest go ahead, and I'll be on hand when you get through. If you need me
+fer anything you jest holler out 'Randy!' good and loud an' I'll hear you.
+Guess I'll set on this log. The tavern's jest round that bend in the road.
+Naw, you needn't thank me. This is a real pretty mornin' to set an' rest.
+Good-bye."
+
+Marcia hurried on, glancing back happily at her protector in a calico
+sunbonnet seated stolidly on a log with her tin pail beside her.
+
+Poor stupid Miranda! Of course she could not understand what a comfort it
+was to have confided her trouble. Marcia went up to the tavern with almost
+a smile on her face, though her heart began to beat wildly as a slatternly
+girl led her into a big room at the right of the hall.
+
+As Marcia disappeared behind the bend in the road, Miranda stealthily
+stole along the edge of the woods, till she stood hidden behind a clump of
+alders where she could peer out and watch Marcia until she reached the
+tavern and passed safely by the row of lounging, smoking men, and on into
+the doorway. Then Miranda waited just an instant to look in all
+directions, and sped across the road, mounting the fence and on through
+two meadows, and the barnyard to the kitchen door of the tavern.
+
+"Mornin'! Mis' Green," she said to the slovenly looking woman who sat by
+the table peeling potatoes. "Mind givin' me a drink o' water? I'm terrible
+thirsty, and seemed like I couldn't find the spring. Didn't thare used to
+be a spring 'tween here'n town?"
+
+"Goodness sakes! Randy! Where'd you come from? Water! Jes' help yourself.
+There's the bucket jes' from the spring five minutes since, an' there's
+the gourd hanging up on the wall. I can't get up, I'm that busy. Twelve to
+dinner to-day, an' only me to do the cookin'. 'Melia she's got to be
+upstairs helpin' at the bar."
+
+"Who all you got here?" questioned Miranda as she took a draught from the
+old gourd.
+
+"Well, got a gentleman from New York fur one. He's real pretty. Quite a
+beau. His clo'es are that nice you'd think he was goin' to court. He's
+that particular 'bout his eatin' I feel flustered. Nothin' would do but he
+hed to hev a downstairs room. He said he didn't like goin' upstairs. He
+don't look sickly, neither."
+
+"Mebbe he's had a accident an' lamed himself," suggested Miranda
+cunningly. "Heard o' any accidents? How'd he come? Coach or horseback?"
+
+"Coach," said Mrs. Green. "Why do you ask? Got any friends in New York?"
+
+"Not many," responded Miranda importantly, "but my cousin Hannah Heath
+has. You know she's ben up there for a spell visitin' an' they say there
+was lots of gentlemen in love with her. There's one in particular used to
+come round a good deal. It might be him come round to see ef it's true
+Hannah's goin' to get married to Lem Skinner. Know what this fellow's name
+is?"
+
+"You don't say! Well now it might be. No, I don't rightly remember his
+name. Seems though it was something like Church er Chapel. 'Melia could
+tell ye, but she's busy."
+
+"Where's he at? Mebbe I could get a glimpse o' him. I'd jest like to know
+ef he was comin' to bother our Hannah."
+
+"Well now. Mebbe you could get a sight o' him. There's a cupboard between
+his room an' the room back. It has a door both sides. Mebbe ef you was to
+slip in there you might see him through the latch hole. I ain't usin' that
+back room fer anythin' but a store-room this spring, so look out you don't
+stumble over nothin' when you go in fer it's dark as a pocket. You go
+right 'long in. I reckon you'll find the way. Yes, it's on the right hand
+side o' the hall. I've got to set here an' finish these potatoes er
+dinner'll be late. I'd like to know real well ef he's one o' Hannah
+Heath's beaux."
+
+Miranda needed no second bidding. She slipped through the hall and store
+room, and in a moment stood before the door of the closet. Softly she
+opened it, and stepped in, lifting her feet cautiously, for the closet
+floor seemed full of old boots and shoes.
+
+It was dark in there, very dark, and only one slat of light stabbed the
+blackness coming through the irregular shape of the latch hole. She could
+hear voices in low tones speaking on the other side of the door. Gradually
+her eyes grew accustomed to the light and one by one objects came out of
+the shadows and looked at her. A white pitcher with a broken nose, a row
+of bottles, a bunch of seed corn with the husks braided together and hung
+on a nail, an old coat on another nail.
+
+Down on her knees beside the crack of light went Miranda. First her eye
+and then her ear were applied to the small aperture. She could see nothing
+but a table directly in front of the door about a foot away on which were
+quills, paper, and a large horn inkstand filled with ink. Some one
+evidently had been writing, for a page was half done, and the pen was laid
+down beside a word.
+
+The limits of the latch hole made it impossible for Miranda to make out
+any more. She applied her ear and could hear a man's voice talking in low
+insinuating tones, but she could make little of what was said. It drove
+her fairly frantic to think that she was losing time. Miranda had no mind
+to be balked in her purpose. She meant to find out who was in that room
+and what was going on. She felt a righteous interest in it.
+
+Her eyes could see quite plainly now in the dark closet. There was a big
+button on the door. She no sooner discovered it than she put up her hand
+and tried to turn it. It was tight and made a slight squeak in turning.
+She stopped but the noise seemed to have no effect upon the evenly
+modulated tones inside. Cautiously she moved the button again, holding the
+latch firmly in her other hand lest the door should suddenly fly open. It
+was an exciting moment when at last the button was turned entirely away
+from the door frame and the lifted latch swung free in Miranda's hand. The
+door opened outward. If it were allowed to go it would probably strike
+against the table. Miranda only allowed it to open a crack. She could hear
+words now, and the voice reminded her of something unpleasant. The least
+little bit more she dared open the door, and she could see, as she had
+expected, Marcia's bonnet and shoulder cape as she sat at the other side
+of the room. This then was the room of the messenger who had sent for Mrs.
+Spafford so peremptorily. The next thing was to discover the identity of
+the messenger. Miranda had suspicions.
+
+The night before she had seen a man lurking near the Spafford house when
+she went out in the garden to feed the chickens. She had watched him from
+behind the lilac bush, and when he had finally gone away she had followed
+him some distance until he turned into the old corduroy road and was lost
+in the gathering dusk. The man she had seen before, and had reason to
+suspect. It was not for nothing that she had braved her grandmother and
+gone hunting wild strawberries out of season.
+
+With the caution of a creature of the forest Miranda opened the door an
+inch further, and applied her eye to the latch hole again. The man's head
+was in full range of her eye then, and her suspicion proved true.
+
+When Marcia entered the big room and the heavy oak door closed behind her
+her heart seemed almost choking her, but she tried with all her might to
+be calm. She was to know the worst now.
+
+On the other side of the room in a large arm-chair, with his feet extended
+on another and covered by a travelling shawl, reclined a man. Marcia went
+toward him eagerly, and then stopped:
+
+"Mr. Temple!" There was horror, fear, reproach in the way she spoke it.
+
+"I know you are astonished, Mrs. Spafford, that the messenger should be
+one so unworthy, and let me say at the beginning that I am more thankful
+than I can express that your letter of forgiveness reached me before I was
+obliged to start on my sorrowful commission. I beg you will sit down and
+be as comfortable as you can while I explain further. Pardon my not
+rising. I have met with a bad sprain caused by falling from my horse on
+the way, and was barely able to reach this stopping place. My ankle is
+swollen so badly that I cannot step upon my foot."
+
+Marcia, with white face, moved to the chair he indicated near him, and sat
+down. The one thought his speech had conveyed to her had come through
+those words "my sorrowful commission." She felt the need of sitting down,
+for her limbs would no longer bear her up, and she felt she must
+immediately know what was the matter.
+
+"Mrs. Spafford, may I ask you once more to speak your forgiveness? Before
+I begin to tell you what I have come for, I long to hear you say the words
+'I forgive you.' Will you give me your hand and say them?"
+
+"Mr. Temple, I beg you will tell me what is the matter. Do not think any
+further about that other matter. I meant what I said in the note. Tell me
+quick! Is my husband--has anything happened to Mr. Spafford? Is he ill? Is
+he hurt?"
+
+"My poor child! How can I bear to tell you? It seems terrible to put your
+love and trust upon another human being and then suddenly find---- But wait.
+Let me tell the story in my own way. No, your husband is not hurt,
+physically. Illness, and death even, are not the worst things that can
+happen to a mortal soul. It seems to me cruel, as I see you sit there so
+young and tender and beautiful, that I should have to hurt you by what I
+have to say. I come from the purest of motives to tell you a sad truth
+about one who should be nearest and dearest to you of all the earth. I beg
+you will look upon me kindly and believe that it hurts me to have to tell
+you these things. Before I begin I pray you will tell me that you forgive
+me for all I have to say. Put your hand in mine and say so."
+
+Marcia had listened to this torrent of words unable to stop them, a
+choking sensation in her throat, fear gripping her heart. Some terrible
+thing had happened. Her senses refused to name the possibility. Would he
+never tell? What ailed the man that he wanted her hand in forgiveness? Of
+course she forgave him. She could not speak, and he kept urging.
+
+"I cannot talk until I have your hand as a pledge that you will forgive me
+and think not unkindly of me for what I am about to tell you."
+
+He must have seen how powerfully he wrought upon her, for he continued
+until wild with frantic fear she stumbled toward him and laid her hand in
+his. He grasped it and thanked her profusely. He looked at the little cold
+hand in his own, and his lying tongue went on:
+
+"Mrs. Spafford, you are good and true. You have saved me from a life of
+uselessness, and your example and high noble character have given me new
+inspiration. It seems a poor gratitude that would turn and stab you to the
+heart. Ah! I cannot do it, and yet I must."
+
+This was torture indeed! Marcia drew her hand sharply away and held it to
+her heart. She felt her brain reeling with the strain. Harry Temple saw he
+must go on at once or he would lose what he had gained. He had meant to
+keep that little hand and touch it gently with a comforting pressure as
+his story went on, but it would not do to frighten her or she might take
+sudden alarm.
+
+"Sit down," he begged, reaching out and drawing a chair near to his own,
+but she stepped back and dropped into the one which she had first taken.
+
+"You know your husband has been in New York?" he began. She nodded. She
+could not speak.
+
+"Did you never suspect why he is there and why he stays so long?" A cold
+vise gripped Marcia's heart, but though she turned white she said nothing,
+only looked steadily into the false eyes that glowed and burned at her
+like two hateful coals of fire that would scorch her soul and David's to a
+horrid death.
+
+"Poor child, you cannot answer. You have trusted perfectly. You thought he
+was there on business connected with his writing, but did it never occur
+to you what a very long time he has been away and that--that there might be
+some other reason also which he has not told? But you must know it now, my
+child. I am sorry to say it, but he has been keeping it from you, and
+those who love you think you ought to know. Let me explain. Very soon
+after he reached New York he met a lady whom he used to know and admire.
+She is a very beautiful woman, and though she is married is still much
+sought after. Your husband, like the rest of her admirers, soon lost his
+heart completely, and his head. Strange that he could so easily forget the
+pearl of women he had left behind! He went to see her. He showed his
+affection for her in every possible way. He gave her large sums of money.
+In fact, to make a long story short, he is lingering in New York just to
+be near her. I hesitate to speak the whole truth, but he has surely done
+that which you cannot forgive. You with your lofty ideas--Mrs. Spafford--he
+has cut himself off from any right to your respect or love.
+
+"And now I am here to-day to offer to do all in my power to help you. From
+what I know of your husband's movements, he is likely to return to you
+soon. You cannot meet him knowing that the lips that will salute you have
+been pressed upon the lips of another woman, and that woman _your own
+sister_, dear Mrs. Spafford!
+
+"Ah! Now you understand, poor child. Your lips quiver! You have reason to
+understand. I know, I know you cannot think what to do. Let me think for
+you." His eyes were glowing and his face animated. He was using all his
+persuasive power, and her gaze was fixed upon him as though he had
+mesmerized her. She could not resist the flood-tide of his eloquence. She
+could only look on and seem to be gradually turning to stone--frozen with
+horror.
+
+He felt he had almost won, and with demoniacal skill he phrased his
+sentences.
+
+"I am here for that purpose. I am here to help you and for no other
+reason. In the stable are horses harnessed and a comfortable carriage. My
+advice to you is to fly from here as fast as these fleet horses can carry
+you. Where you go is for you to say. I should advise going to your
+father's house. That I am sure is what will please him best. He is your
+natural refuge at such a time as this. If, however, you shrink from
+appearing before the eyes of the village gossips in your native town, I
+will take you to the home of a dear old friend of mine, hidden among the
+quiet hills, where you will be cared for most royally and tenderly for my
+sake, and where you can work out your life problem in the way that seems
+best to you. It is there that I am planning to take you to-night. We can
+easily reach there before evening if we start at once."
+
+Marcia started to her feet in horror.
+
+"What do you mean?" she stammered in a choking voice. "I could never go
+anywhere with you Mr. Temple. You are a bad man! You have been telling me
+lies! I do not believe one word of what you have said. My husband is noble
+and good. If he did any of those things you say he did he had a reason for
+it. I shall never distrust him."
+
+Marcia's head was up grandly now and her voice had come back. She looked
+the man in the eye until he quailed, but still he sought to hold his power
+over her.
+
+"You poor child!" and his voice was gentleness and forbearance itself. "I
+do not wonder in your first horror and surprise that you feel as you do. I
+anticipated this. Sit down and calm yourself and let me tell you more
+about it. I can prove everything that I have said. I have letters here----"
+and he swept his hand toward a pile of letters lying on the table; Miranda
+in the closet marked well the position of those letters. "All that I have
+said is only too true, I am sorry to say, and you must listen to me----"
+
+Marcia interrupted him, her eyes blazing, her face excited: "Mr. Temple, I
+shall not listen to another word you say. You are a wicked man and I was
+wrong to come here at all. You deceived me or I should not have come. I
+must go home at once." With that she started toward the door.
+
+Harry Temple flung aside the shawl that covered his sometime sprained
+ankle and arose quickly, placing himself before her, forgetful of his
+invalid rôle:
+
+"Not so fast, my pretty lady," he said, grasping her wrists fiercely in
+both his hands. "You need not think to escape so easily. You shall not
+leave this room except in my company. Do you not know that you are in my
+power? You have spent nearly an hour alone in my bedchamber, and what will
+your precious husband have to do with you after this is known?"
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+Miranda's time had come. She had seen it coming and was prepared.
+
+With a movement like a flash she pushed open the closet door, seized the
+pot of ink from the table, and before the two excited occupants of the
+room had time to even hear her or realize that she was near, she hurled
+the ink pot full into the insolent face of Harry Temple. The inkstand
+itself was a light affair of horn and inflicted only a slight wound, but
+the ink came into his eyes in a deluge blinding him completely, as Miranda
+had meant it should do. She had seen no other weapon of defense at hand.
+
+Harry Temple dropped Marcia's wrists and groaned in pain, staggering back
+against the wall and sinking to the floor. But Miranda would not stay to
+see the effect of her punishment. She seized the frightened Marcia,
+dragged her toward the cupboard door, sweeping as she passed the pile of
+letters, finished and unfinished, into her apron, and closed the cupboard
+doors carefully behind her. Then she guided Marcia through the dark mazes
+of the store room to the hall, and pushing her toward the front door,
+whispered: "Go quick 'fore he gets his eyes open. I've got to go this way.
+Run down the road fast as you can an' I'll be at the meetin' place first.
+Hurry, quick!"
+
+Marcia went with feet that shook so that every step seemed like to slip,
+but with beating heart she finally traversed the length of the piazza with
+a show of dignity, passed the loungers, and was out in the road. Then
+indeed she took courage and fairly flew.
+
+Miranda, breathless, but triumphant, went back into the kitchen: "I guess
+'tain't him after all," she said to the interested woman who was putting
+on the potatoes to boil. "He's real interesting to look at though. I'd
+like to stop and watch him longer but I must be goin'. I come out to hunt
+fer"--Miranda hesitated for a suitable object before this country-bred
+woman who well knew that strawberries were not ripe yet--"wintergreens fer
+Grandma," she added cheerfully, not quite sure whether they grew around
+these parts, "and I must be in a hurry. Good-bye! Thank you fer the
+drink."
+
+Miranda whizzed out of the door breezily, calling a good morning to one of
+the hostlers as she passed the barnyard, and was off through the meadows
+and over the fence like a bird, the package of letters rustling loud in
+her bosom where she had tucked them before she entered the kitchen.
+
+Neither of the two girls spoke for some minutes after they met, but
+continued their rapid gait, until the end of the corduroy road was in
+sight and they felt comparatively safe.
+
+"Wal, that feller certainly ought to be strung up an' walluped, now, fer
+sure," remarked Miranda, "an I'd like to help at the wallupin'."
+
+Marcia's overstrung nerves suddenly dissolved into hysterical laughter.
+The contrast from the tragic to the ridiculous was too much for her. She
+laughed until the tears rolled down her cheeks, and then she cried in
+earnest. Miranda stopped and put her arms about her as gently as a mother
+might have done, and smoothed her hair back from the hot cheek, speaking
+tenderly:
+
+"There now, you poor pretty little flower. Jest you cry 's hard 's you
+want to. I know how good it makes you feel to cry. I've done it many a
+time up garret where nobody couldn't hear me. That old Satan, he won't
+trouble you fer a good long spell again. When he gets his evil eyes open,
+if he ever does, he'll be glad to get out o' these parts or I miss my
+guess. Now don't you worry no more. He can't hurt you one mite. An' don't
+you think a thing about what he said. He's a great big liar, that's what
+he is."
+
+"Miranda, you saved me. Yes, you did. I never can thank you enough. If you
+hadn't come and helped me something awful might have happened!" Marcia
+shuddered and began to sob convulsively again.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Miranda, pleased. "I didn't do a thing worth mentioning.
+Now you jest wipe your eyes and chirk up. We've got to go through town an'
+you don't want folks to wonder what's up."
+
+Miranda led Marcia up to the spring whose location had been known to her
+all the time of course, and Marcia bathed her eyes and was soon looking
+more like herself, though there was a nervous tremor to her lips now and
+then. But her companion talked gaily, and tried to keep her mind from
+going over the events of the morning.
+
+When they reached the village Miranda suggested they go home by the back
+street, slipping through a field of spring wheat and climbing the garden
+fence. She had a mind to keep out of her grandmother's sight for a while
+longer.
+
+"I might's well be hung for a sheep's a lamb," she remarked, as she slid
+in at Marcia's kitchen door in the shadow of the morning-glory vines. "I'm
+goin' to stay here a spell an' get you some dinner while you go upstairs
+an' lie down. You don't need to go back to your aunt's till near night,
+an' you can wait till dusk an' I'll go with you. Then you needn't be out
+alone at all. I know how you feel, but I don't believe you need worry.
+He'll be done with you now forever, er I'll miss my guess. Now you go lie
+down till I make a cup o' tea."
+
+Marcia was glad to be alone, and soon fell asleep, worn out with the
+excitement, her brain too weary to go over the awful occurrences of the
+morning. That would come later. Now her body demanded rest.
+
+Miranda, coming upstairs with the tea, tiptoed in and looked at her,--one
+round arm thrown over her head, and her smooth peachy cheek resting
+against it. Miranda, homely, and with no hope of ever attaining any of the
+beautiful things of life, loved unselfishly this girl who had what she had
+not, and longed with all her heart to comfort and protect the sweet young
+thing who seemed so ill-prepared to protect herself. She stooped over the
+sleeper for one yearning moment, and touched her hair lightly with her
+lips. She felt a great desire to kiss the soft round cheek, but was afraid
+of wakening her. Then she took the cup of tea and tiptoed out again, her
+eyes shining with satisfaction. She had a self-imposed task before her,
+and was well pleased that Marcia slept, for it gave her plenty of
+opportunity to carry out her plans.
+
+She went quickly to David's library, opened drawers and doors in the desk
+until she found writing materials, and sat down to work. She had a letter
+to write, and a letter, to Miranda, was the achievement of a lifetime. She
+did not much expect to ever have to write another. She plunged into her
+subject at once.
+
+
+    "DEAR MR. DAVID:" (she was afraid that sounded a little stiff, but
+    she felt it was almost too familiar to say "David" as he was
+    always called.)
+
+    "I ain't much on letters, but this one has got to be writ.
+    Something happened and somebody's got to tell you about it. I'm
+    most sure she wont, and nobody else knows cept me.
+
+    "Last night 'bout dark I went out to feed the chickens, an' I see
+    that nimshi Harry Temple skulkin round your house. It was all dark
+    there, an he walked in the side gate and tried to peek in the
+    winders, only the shades was down an he couldn't see a thing. I
+    thought he was up to some mischief so I followed him down the
+    street a piece till he turned down the old corduroy road. It was
+    dark by then an I come home, but I was on the watchout this
+    morning, and after Mis' Spafford come down to the house I heard a
+    horse gallopin by an I looked out an saw a boy get off an take a
+    letter to the door an ride away, an pretty soon all in a hurry
+    your wife come out tyin her bonnet and hurryin along lookin
+    scared. I grabbed my sunbonnet an clipped after her, but she went
+    so fast I didn't get up to her till she got on the old corduroy
+    road. She was awful scared lookin an she didn't want me much I
+    see, but pretty soon she up an told me she had a note sayin there
+    was a messenger with news from you out to the old Green Tavern. He
+    had a accident an couldn't come no further. He wanted her to come
+    alone cause the business was private, so I stayed down by the turn
+    of the road till she got in an then I went cross lots an round to
+    the kitchen an called on Mis' Green a spell. She was tellin me
+    about her boarders an I told her I thought mebbe one of em was a
+    friend o' Hannah Heath's so she said I might peek through the key
+    hole of the cubberd an see. She was busy so I went alone.
+
+    "Well sir, I jest wish you'd been there. That lying nimshi was
+    jest goin on the sweetest, as respectful an nice a thankin your
+    wife fer comin, an excusin himself fer sendin fer her, and sayin
+    he couldn't bear to tell her what he'd come fer, an pretty soon
+    when she was scared 's death he up an told her a awful fib bout
+    you an a woman called Kate, whoever she is, an he jest poured the
+    words out fast so she couldn't speak, an he said things about you
+    he shouldn't uv, an you could see he was makin it up as he went
+    along, an he said he had proof. So he pointed at a pile of letters
+    on the table an I eyed em good through the hole in the door.
+    Pretty soon he ups and perposes that he carry her off in a
+    carriage he has all ready, and takes her to a friend of his, so
+    she wont be here when you come home, cause you're so bad, and she
+    gets up looking like she wanted to scream only she didn't dare,
+    and she says he dont tell the truth, it wasn't so any of it, and
+    if it was it was all right anyway, that you had some reason, an
+    she wouldn't go a step with him anywhere. An then he forgets all
+    about the lame ankle he had kept covered up on a chair pertendin
+    it was hurt fallin off his horse when the coach brought him all
+    the way fer I asked Mis' Green--and he ketches her by the wrists,
+    and he says she can't go without him, and she needn't be in such a
+    hurry fer you wouldn't have no more to do with her anyway after
+    her being shut up there with him so long, an then she looked jest
+    like she was going to faint, an I bust out through the door an
+    ketched up the ink pot, it want heavy enough to kill him, an I
+    slung it at him, an the ink went square in his eyes, an we slipped
+    through the closet an got away quick fore anybody knew a thing.
+
+    "I brought all the letters along so here they be. I havn't read a
+    one, cause I thought mebbe you'd ruther not. She aint seen em
+    neither. She dont know I've got em. I hid em in my dress. She's
+    all wore out with cryin and hurryin, and being scared, so she's
+    upstairs now asleep, an she dont know I'm writing. I'm goin to
+    send this off fore she knows, fer I think she wouldn't tell you
+    fear of worryin you. I'll look after her es well's I can till you
+    get back, but I think that feller ought to be strung up. But
+    you'll know what to do, so no more at present from your obedient
+    servent,
+
+                                                    "MIRANDA GRISCOM."
+
+
+Having at last succeeded in sealing her packet to her satisfaction and the
+diminishing of the stick of sealing wax she had found in the drawer,
+Miranda slid out the front door, and by a detour went to David Spafford's
+office.
+
+"Good afternoon, Mr. Clark," she said to the clerk importantly. "Grandma
+sends her respecks and wants to know ef you'd be so kind as to back this
+letter fer her to Mr. David Spafford. She's writin' to him on business an'
+she don't rightly know his street an' number in New York."
+
+Mr. Clark willingly wrote the address, and Miranda took it to the post
+office, and sped back to Marcia, happy in the accomplishment of her
+purpose.
+
+
+
+In the same mail bag that brought Miranda's package came a letter from
+Aunt Clarinda. David's face lit up with a pleased smile. Her letters were
+so infrequent that they were a rare pleasure. He put aside the thick
+package written in his clerk's hand. It was doubtless some business papers
+and could wait.
+
+Aunt Clarinda wrote in a fine old script that in spite of her eighty years
+was clear and legible. She told about the beauty of the weather, and how
+Amelia and Hortense were almost done with the house cleaning, and how
+Marcia had been going to their house every day putting it in order. Then
+she added a paragraph which David, knowing the old lady well, understood
+to be the _raison d'être_ of the whole letter:
+
+"I think your wife misses you very much, Davie, she looks sort of peeked
+and sad. It is hard on her being separated from you so long this first
+year. Men don't think of those things, but it is lonely for a young thing
+like her here with three old women, and you know Hortense and Amelia never
+try to make it lively for anybody. I have been watching her, and I think
+if I were you I would let the business finish itself up as soon as
+possible and hurry back to put a bit of cheer into that child. She's
+whiter than she ought to be."
+
+David read it over three times in astonishment with growing, mingled
+feelings which he could not quite analyze.
+
+Poor Aunt Clarinda! Of course she did not understand the situation, and
+equally of course she was mistaken. Marcia was not sighing for him, though
+it might be dull for her at the old house. He ought to have thought of
+that; and a great burden suddenly settled down upon him. He was not doing
+right by Marcia. It could not be himself of course that Marcia was
+missing, if indeed Aunt Clarinda was right and she was worried about
+anything. Perhaps something had occurred to trouble her. Could that snake
+of a Temple have turned up again? No, he felt reasonably sure he would
+have heard of that, besides he saw him not long ago on the street at a
+distance. Could it be some boy-lover at home whose memory came to trouble
+her? Or had she discovered what a sacrifice she had made of her young
+life? Whatever it was, it was careless and cruel in him to have left her
+alone with his aunts all this time. He was a selfish man, he told himself,
+to have accepted her quiet little sacrifice of all for him. He read the
+letter over again, and suddenly there came to him a wish that Marcia _was_
+missing him. It seemed a pleasant thought to have her care. He had been
+trying to train himself to the fact that no one would ever care for him
+again, but now it seemed dear and desirable that his sweet young companion
+should like to have him back. He had a vision of home as it had been, so
+pleasant and restful, always the food that he liked, always the thought
+for his wishes, and he felt condemned. He had not noticed or cared. Had
+she thought him ungrateful?
+
+He read the letter over again, noting every mention of his wife in the
+account of the daily living at home. He was searching for some clue that
+would give him more information about her. And when he reached the last
+paragraph about missing him, a little tingle of pleasure shot through him
+at the thought. He did not understand it. After all she was his, and if it
+was possible he must help to make up to her for what she had lost in
+giving herself to him. If the thought of doing so brought a sense of
+satisfaction to him that was unexpected, he was not to blame in any wise.
+
+Since his interview with Kate, and the terrible night of agony through
+which he had passed, David had plunged into his business with all his
+might. Whenever a thought of Kate came he banished it if possible, and if
+it would not go he got out his writing materials and went to work at an
+article, to absorb his mind. He had several times arisen in the night to
+write because he could not sleep, and must think.
+
+When he was obliged to be in New York he had steadily kept away from the
+house where Kate lived, and never walked through the streets without
+occupying his mind as fully as possible so that he should not chance to
+see her. In this way his sorrow was growing old without having been worn
+out, and he was really regaining a large amount of his former happiness
+and interest in life. Not so often now did the vision of Kate come to
+trouble him. He thought she was still his one ideal of womanly beauty and
+grace and perfection of course, and always would be, but she was not for
+him to think upon any more. A strong true man he was growing, out of his
+sorrow. And now when the thought of Marcia came to him with a certain
+sweetness he could be glad that it was so, and not resent it. Of course no
+one could ever take the place of Kate, that was impossible.
+
+So reflecting, with a pleasant smile upon his face, he opened Miranda's
+epistle.
+
+Puzzled and surprised he began to read the strange chirography, and as he
+read his face darkened and he drew his brows in a heavy frown. "The
+scoundrel!" he muttered as he turned the sheet. Then as he went on his
+look grew anxious. He scanned the page quickly as if he would gather the
+meaning from the crooked ill-spelled words without taking them one by one.
+But he had to go slowly, for Miranda had not written with as much
+plainness as haste. He fairly held his breath when he thought of the
+gentle girl in the hands of the unscrupulous man of the world. A terrible
+fear gripped his heart, Marcia, little Marcia, so sweet and pure and good.
+A vision of her face as she lay asleep in the woods came between him and
+the paper. Why had he left her unprotected all these months? Fool that he
+was! She was worth more than all the railroads put together. As if his own
+life was in the balance, he read on, growing sick with horror. Poor child!
+what had she thought? And how had his own sin and weakness been found out,
+or was it merely Harry Temple's wicked heart that had evolved these
+stories? The letter smote him with terrible accusation, and all at once it
+was fearful to him to think that Marcia had heard such things about him.
+When he came to her trust in him he groaned aloud and buried his face in
+the letter, and then raised it quickly to read to the end.
+
+When he had finished he rose with sudden determination to pack his
+carpet-bag and go home at once. Marcia needed him, and he felt a strong
+desire to be near her, to see her and know she was safe. It was
+overwhelming. He had not known he could ever feel strongly again. He must
+confess his own weakness of course, and he would. She should know all and
+know that she might trust his after all.
+
+But the motion of rising had sent the other papers to the floor, and in
+falling the bundle of letters that Miranda had enclosed, scattered about
+him. He stooped to pick them up and saw his own name written in Kate's
+handwriting. Old association held him, and wondering, fearful, not wholly
+glad to see it, he picked up the letter. It was an epistle of Kate's,
+written in intimate style to Harry Temple and speaking of himself in terms
+of the utmost contempt. She even stooped to detail to Harry an account of
+her own triumph on that miserable morning when he had taken her in his
+arms and kissed her. There were expressions in the letter that showed her
+own wicked heart, as nothing else could ever have done, to David. As he
+read, his soul growing sick within him,--read one letter after another, and
+saw how she had plotted with this bad man to wreck the life of her young
+sister for her own triumph and revenge,--the beautiful woman whom he had
+loved, and whom he had thought beautiful within as well as without,
+crumbled into dust before him. When he looked up at last with white face
+and firmly set lips, he found that his soul was free forever from the
+fetters that had bound him to her.
+
+He went to the fireplace and laid the pile of letters among the embers,
+blowing them into a blaze, and watched them until they were eaten up by
+the fire and nothing remained but dead grey ashes. The thought came to him
+that that was like his old love. It was burnt out. There had not been the
+right kind of fuel to feed it. Kate was worthless, but his own self was
+alive, and please God he would yet see better days. He would go home at
+once to the child wife who needed him, and whom now he might love as she
+should be loved. The thought became wondrously sweet to him as he rapidly
+threw the things into his travelling bag and went about arrangements for
+his trip home. He determined that if he ever came to New York again Marcia
+should come with him.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+Marcia hurried down to her own house early one morning. The phantoms of
+her experiences in the old Green Tavern were pursuing her.
+
+Once there she could do nothing but go over and over the dreadful things
+that Harry Temple had said. In vain did she try to work. She went into the
+library and took up a book, but her mind would wander to David.
+
+She sat down at the piano and played a few tender chords and sang an old
+Italian song which somebody had left at their house several years before:
+
+                "Dearest, believe,
+                   When e'er we part:
+                 Lonely I grieve,
+                   In my sad heart:--"
+
+With a sob her head dropped upon her hands in one sad little crash of
+wailing tones, while the sound died away in reverberation after
+reverberation of the strings till Marcia felt as if a sea of sound were
+about her in soft ebbing, flowing waves.
+
+The sound covered the lifting of the side door latch and the quiet step of
+a foot. Marcia was absorbed in her own thoughts. Her smothered sobs were
+mingling with the dying sounds of the music, still audible to her fine
+ear.
+
+David had come by instinct to his own home first. He felt that Marcia
+would be there, and now that he was come and the morning sun flooded
+everything and made home look so good he felt that he must find her first
+of all before his relationship with home had been re-established. He
+passed through kitchen, dining room and hall, and by the closed parlor
+door. He never thought of her being in there with the door closed. He
+glanced into the library and saw the book lying in his chair as she had
+left it, and it gave a touch of her presence which pleased him. He went
+softly toward the stairs thinking to find her. He had stopped at a shop
+the last thing and bought a beautiful creamy shawl of China crêpe heavily
+embroidered, and finished with long silken fringe. He had taken it from
+his carpet-bag and was carrying it in its rice paper wrappings lest it
+should be crushed. He was pleased as a child at the present he had brought
+her, and felt strangely shy about giving it to her.
+
+Just then there came a sound from the parlor, sweet and tender and
+plaintive. Marcia had conquered her sobs and was singing again with her
+whole soul, singing as if she were singing to David. The words drew him
+strangely, wonderingly toward the parlor door, yet so softly that he heard
+every syllable.
+
+                "Dearest, believe,
+                   When e'er we part:
+                 Lonely I grieve,
+                   In my sad heart:--
+                 Thy faithful slave,
+                   Languishing sighs,
+                 Haste then and save--"
+
+Here the words trailed away again into a half sob, and the melody
+continued in broken, halting chords that flickered out and faded into the
+shadows of the room.
+
+David's heart was pierced with a belief that Aunt Clarinda was right and
+something was the matter with Marcia. A great trouble and tenderness, and
+almost jealousy, leaped up in his heart which were incomprehensible to
+him. Who was Marcia singing this song for? That it was a true cry from a
+lonely soul he could but believe. Was she feeling her prison-bars here in
+the lonely old house with only a forlorn man whose life and love had been
+thrown away upon another? Poor child! Poor child! If he might but save her
+from suffering, cover her with his own tenderness and make her content
+with that. Would it be possible if he devoted himself to it to make her
+forget the one for whom she was sighing; to bring peace and a certain sort
+of sweet forgetfulness and interest in other things into her life? He
+wanted to make a new life for her, his little girl whom he had so
+unthinkingly torn from the home nest and her future, and compelled to take
+up his barren way with him. He would make it up to her if such a thing
+were possible. Then he opened the door.
+
+In the soft green light of the noonday coming through the shades Marcia's
+color did not show as it flew into her cheeks. Her hands grew weak and
+dropped upon the keys with a soft little tinkle of surprise and joy. She
+sprang up and came a step toward him, then clasped her hands against her
+breast and stopped shyly. David coming into the room, questioning,
+wondering, anxious, stopped midway too, and for an instant they looked
+upon one another. David saw a new look in the girl's face. She seemed
+older, much older than when he had left her. The sweet round cheeks were
+thinner, her mouth drooped sadly, pathetically. For an instant he longed
+to take her in his arms and kiss her. The longing startled him. So many
+months he had thought of only Kate in that way, and then had tried to
+teach himself never to think of Kate or any woman as one to be caressed by
+him, that it shocked him. He felt that he had been disloyal to himself, to
+honor,--to Kate--no--not to Kate, he had no call to be loyal to her. She had
+not been loyal to him ever. Perhaps rather he would have put it loyalty to
+Love for Love's sake, love that is worthy to be crowned by a woman's love.
+
+With all these mingling feelings David was embarrassed. He came toward her
+slowly, trying to be natural, trying to get back his former way with her.
+He put out his hand stiffly to shake hands as he had done when he left,
+and timidly she put hers into it, yet as their fingers closed there leaped
+from one to the other a thrill of sweetness, that neither guessed the
+other knew and each put by in memory for closer inspection as to what it
+could mean. Their hands clung together longer than either had meant, and
+there was something pleasant to each in the fact that they were together
+again. David thought it was just because it was home, rest, and peace, and
+a relief from his anxiety about Marcia now that he saw she was all right.
+Marcia knew it was better to have David standing there with his strong
+fingers about her trembling ones, than to have anything else in the world.
+But she would not have told him so.
+
+"That was a sweet song you were singing," said David. "I hope you were
+singing it for me, and that it was true! I am glad I am come home, and you
+must sing it again for me soon."
+
+It was not in the least what he intended to say, and the words tumbled
+themselves out so tumultuously that he was almost ashamed and wondered if
+Marcia would think he had lost his mind in New York. Marcia, dear child,
+treasured them every word and hugged them to her heart, and carried them
+in her prayers.
+
+They went out together and got dinner as if they had been two children,
+with a wild excited kind of glee; and they tried to get back their natural
+ways of doing and saying things, but they could not.
+
+Instead they were forever blundering and halting in what they said; coming
+face to face and almost running over one another as they tried to help
+each other; laughing and blushing and blundering again.
+
+When they each tried to reach for the tea kettle to fill the coffee pot
+and their fingers touched, each drew back and pretended not to notice, but
+yet had felt the contact sweet.
+
+They were lingering over the dinner when Hannah Heath came to the door.
+David had been telling of some of his adventures in detail and was
+enjoying the play of expression on Marcia's face as she listened eagerly
+to every word. They had pushed their chairs back a little and were sitting
+there talking,--or rather David was talking, Marcia listening. Hannah stood
+for one jealous instant and saw it all. This was what she had dreamed for
+her own long years back, she and David. She had questioned much just what
+feeling there might be between him and Marcia, and now more than ever she
+desired to bring him face to face with Kate and read for herself what the
+truth had been. She hated Marcia for that look of intense delight and
+sympathy upon her face; hated her that she had the right to sit there and
+hear what David had to say--some stupid stuff about railroads. She did not
+see that she herself would have made an ill companion for a man like
+David.
+
+As yet neither Marcia nor David had touched upon the subjects which had
+troubled them. They did not realize it, but they were so suddenly happy in
+each other's company they had forgotten for the moment. The pleasant
+converse was broken up at once. Marcia's face hardened into something like
+alarm as she saw who stood in the doorway.
+
+"Why, David, have you got home at last?" said Hannah. "I did not know it."
+That was an untruth. She had watched him from behind Grandmother Heath's
+rose bush. "Where did you come from last? New York? Oh, then you saw Mrs.
+Leavenworth. How is she? I fell in love with her when I was there."
+
+Now David had never fully taken in Kate's married name. He knew it of
+course, but in his present state of happiness at getting home, and his
+absorption in the work he had been doing, the name "Mrs. Leavenworth"
+conveyed nothing whatever to David's mind. He looked blankly at Hannah and
+replied indifferently enough with a cool air. "No, Miss Hannah, I had no
+time for social life. I was busy every minute I was away."
+
+David never expected Hannah to say anything worth listening to, and he was
+so full of his subject that he had not noticed that she made no reply.
+
+Hannah watched him curiously as he talked, his remarks after all were
+directed more to Marcia than to her, and when he paused she said with a
+contemptuous sneer in her voice, "I never could understand, David, how you
+who seem to have so much sense in other things will take up with such
+fanciful, impractical dreams as this railroad. Lemuel says it'll never
+run."
+
+Hannah quoted her lover with a proud bridling of her head as if the matter
+were settled once and for all. It was the first time she had allowed the
+world to see that she acknowledged her relation to Lemuel. She was not
+averse to having David understand that she felt there were other men in
+the world besides himself. But David turned merry eyes on her.
+
+"Lemuel says?" he repeated, and he made a sudden movement with his arm
+which sent a knife and spoon from the table in a clatter upon the floor.
+
+"And how much does Lemuel know about the matter?"
+
+"Lemuel has good practical common sense," said Hannah, vexed, "and he
+knows what is possible and what is not. He does not need to travel all
+over the country on a wild goose chase to learn that."
+
+Now that she had accepted him Hannah did not intend to allow Lemuel to be
+discounted.
+
+"He has not long to wait to be convinced," said David thoughtfully and
+unaware of her tart tone. "Before the year is out it will be a settled
+fact that every one can see."
+
+"Well, it's beyond comprehension what you care, anyway," said Hannah
+contemptuously. "Did you really spend all your time in New York on such
+things? It seems incredible. There certainly must have been other
+attractions?"
+
+There was insinuation in Hannah's voice though it was smooth as butter,
+but David had had long years of experience in hearing Hannah Heath's sharp
+tongue. He minded it no more than he would have minded the buzzing of a
+fly. Marcia's color rose, however. She made a hasty errand to the pantry
+to put away the bread, and her eyes flashed at Hannah through the close
+drawn pantry door. But Hannah did not give up so easily.
+
+"It is strange you did not stay with Mrs. Leavenworth," she said. "She
+told me you were one of her dearest friends, and you used to be quite fond
+of one another."
+
+Then it suddenly dawned upon David who Mrs. Leavenworth was, and a
+sternness overspread his face.
+
+"Mrs. Leavenworth, did you say? Ah! I did not understand. I saw her but
+once and that for only a few minutes soon after I first arrived. I did not
+see her again." His voice was cool and steady. Marcia coming from the
+pantry with set face, ready for defence if there was any she could give,
+marvelled at his coolness. Her heart was gripped with fear, and yet
+leaping with joy at David's words. He had not seen Kate but once. He had
+known she was there and yet had kept away. Hannah's insinuations were
+false. Mr. Temple's words were untrue. She had known it all the time, yet
+what sorrow they had given her!
+
+"By the way, Marcia," said David, turning toward her with a smile that
+seemed to erase the sternness in his voice but a moment before. "Did you
+not write me some news? Miss Hannah, you are to be congratulated I
+believe. Lemuel is a good man. I wish you much happiness."
+
+And thus did David, with a pleasant speech, turn aside Hannah Heath's
+dart. Yet while she went from the house with a smile and a sound of
+pleasant wishes in her ears, she carried with her a bitter heart and a
+revengeful one.
+
+David was suddenly brought face to face with the thing he had to tell
+Marcia. He sat watching her as she went back and forth from pantry to
+kitchen, and at last he came and stood beside her and took her hands in
+his looking down earnestly into her face. It seemed terrible to him to
+tell this thing to the innocent girl, now, just when he was growing
+anxious to win her confidence, but it must be told, and better now than
+later lest he might be tempted not to tell it at all.
+
+"Marcia!" He said the name tenderly, with an inflection he had never used
+before. It was not lover-like, nor passionate, but it reached her heart
+and drew her eyes to his and the color to her cheeks. She thought how
+different his clasp was from Harry Temple's hateful touch. She looked up
+at him trustingly, and waited.
+
+"You heard what I said to Hannah Heath just now, about--your----" He paused,
+dissatisfied--"about Mrs. Leavenworth"--it was as if he would set the
+subject of his words far from them. Marcia's heart beat wildly,
+remembering all that she had been told, yet she looked bravely, trustingly
+into his eyes.
+
+"It was true what I told her. I met Mrs. Leavenworth but once while I was
+away. It was in her own home and she sent for me saying she was in
+trouble. She told me that she was in terrible anxiety lest I would not
+forgive her. She begged me to say that I forgave her, and when I told her
+I did she asked me to kiss her once to prove it. I was utterly overcome
+and did so, but the moment my lips touched hers I knew that I was doing
+wrong and I put her from me. She begged me to remain, and I now know that
+she was utterly false from the first. It was but a part she was playing
+when she touched my heart until I yielded and sinned. I have only learned
+that recently, within a few days, and from words written by her own hand
+to another. I will tell you about it all sometime. But I want to confess
+to you this wrong I have done, and to let you know that I went away from
+her that day and have never seen her since. She had said she was without
+money, and I left her all I had with me. I know now that that too was
+unwise,--perhaps wrong. I feel that all this was a sin against you. I would
+like you to forgive me if you can, and I want you to know that this other
+woman who was the cause of our coming together, and yet has separated us
+ever since we have been together, is no longer anything to me. Even if she
+and I were both free as we were when we first met, we could never be
+anything but strangers. Can you forgive me now, Marcia, and can you ever
+trust me after what I have told you?"
+
+Marcia looked into his eyes, and loved him but the more for his
+confession. She felt she could forgive him anything, and her whole soul in
+her countenance answered with her voice, as she said: "I can." It made
+David think of their wedding day, and suddenly it came over him with a
+thrill that this sweet womanly woman belonged to him. He marvelled at her
+sweet forgiveness. The joy of it surprised him beyond measure.
+
+"You have had some sad experiences yourself. Will you tell me now all
+about it?" He asked the question wistfully still holding her hands in a
+firm close grasp, and she let them lie nestling there feeling safe as
+birds in the nest.
+
+"Why, how did you know?" questioned Marcia, her whole face flooded with
+rosy light for joy at his kind ways and relief that she did not have to
+open the story.
+
+"Oh, a little bird, or a guardian angel whispered the tale," he said
+pleasantly. "Come into the room where we can be sure no Hannah Heaths will
+trouble us," and he drew her into the library and seated her beside him on
+the sofa.
+
+"But, indeed, Marcia," and his face sobered, "it is no light matter to me,
+what has happened to you. I have been in an agony all the way home lest I
+might not find you safe and well after having escaped so terrible a
+danger."
+
+He drew the whole story from her bit by bit, tenderly questioning her, his
+face blazing with righteous wrath, and darkening with his wider knowledge
+as she told on to the end, and showed him plainly the black heart of the
+villain who had dared so diabolical a conspiracy; and the inhumanity of
+the woman who had helped in the intrigue against her own sister,--nay even
+instigated it. His feelings were too deep for utterance. He was shaken to
+the depths. His new comprehension of Kate's character was confirmed at the
+worst. Marcia could only guess his deep feelings from his shaken
+countenance and the earnest way in which he folded his hands over hers and
+said in low tones filled with emotion: "We should be deeply thankful to
+God for saving you, and I must be very careful of you after this. That
+villain shall be searched out and punished if it takes a lifetime, and
+Miranda,--what shall we do for Miranda? Perhaps we can induce her
+grandmother to let us have her sometime to help take care of us. We seem
+to be unable to get on without her. We'll see what we can do sometime in
+return for the great service she has rendered."
+
+But the old clock striking in the hall suddenly reminded David that he
+should go at once to the office, so he hurried away and Marcia set about
+her work with energy, a happy song of praise in her heart.
+
+There was much to be done. David had said he would scarcely have time to
+go over to his aunts that night, so she had decided to invite them to tea.
+She would far rather have had David to herself this first evening, but it
+would please them to come, especially Aunt Clarinda. There was not much
+time to prepare supper to be sure, but she would stir up a gingerbread,
+make some puffy cream biscuits, and there was lovely white honey and fresh
+eggs and peach preserves.
+
+So she ran to Deacon Appleby's to get some cream for her biscuits and to
+ask Tommy Appleby to harness David's horse and drive over for Aunt
+Clarinda. Then she hurried down to the aunts to give her invitation.
+
+Aunt Clarinda sat down in her calico-covered rocking chair, wiped her dear
+old eyes and her glasses, and said, over and over again: "Dear child!
+Bless her! Bless her!"
+
+It was a happy gathering that evening. David was as pleased as they could
+have desired, and looked about upon the group in the dining-room with
+genuine boyish pleasure. It did his heart good to see Aunt Clarinda there.
+It had never occurred to him before that she could come. He turned to
+Marcia with a light in his eyes that fully repaid her for the little
+trouble she had had in carrying out her plan. He began to feel that home
+meant something even though he had lost the home of his long dreams and
+ideals.
+
+He talked a great deal about his trip, and in between the sentences, he
+caught himself watching Marcia, noting the curve of her round chin, the
+dimple in her left cheek when she smiled, the way her hair waved off from
+her forehead, the pink curves of her well-shaped ears. He found a distinct
+pleasure in noting these things and he wondered at himself. It was as if
+he had suddenly been placed before some great painting and become
+possessed of the knowledge wherewith to appreciate art to its fullest. It
+was as if he had heard a marvellous piece of music and had the eyes and
+ears of his understanding opened to take in the gracious melodies and
+majestic harmonies.
+
+Aunt Clarinda watched his eyes, and Aunt Clarinda was satisfied. Aunt
+Hortense watched his eyes, jealously and sighed. Aunt Amelia watched his
+eyes and set her lips and feared to herself. "He will spoil her if he does
+like that. She will think she can walk right over him." But Aunt Clarinda
+knew better. She recognized the eternal right of love.
+
+They took the three old ladies home in the rising of an early moon, Marcia
+walking demurely on the sidewalk with Aunt Amelia, while David drove the
+chaise with Aunt Clarinda and Aunt Hortense.
+
+As he gently lifted Aunt Clarinda down and helped her to her room David
+felt her old hands tremble and press his arm, and when he had reached her
+door he stooped and kissed her.
+
+"Davie," she said in the voice that used to comfort his little childish
+troubles, or tell him of some nice surprise she had for him, "Davie, she's
+a dear child! She's just as good as gold. She's the princess I used to put
+in all your fairy-tales. David, she's just the right one for you!" and
+David answered earnestly, solemnly, as if he were discovering a truth
+which surprised him but yet was not unwelcome. "I believe she is, Aunt
+Clarinda."
+
+They drove to the barn and Marcia sat in the chaise in the sweet
+hay-scented darkness while David put up the horse by the cobwebby light of
+the lantern; then they walked quietly back to the house. David had drawn
+Marcia's hand through his arm and it rested softly on his coat sleeve. She
+was silently happy, she knew not why, afraid to think of it lest to-morrow
+would show her there was nothing out of the ordinary monotony to be happy
+about.
+
+David was silent, wondering at himself. What was this that had come to
+him? A new pleasure in life. A little trembling rill of joy bubbling up in
+his heart; a rift in the dark clouds of fate; a show of sunshine where he
+had expected never to see the light again. Why was it so pleasant to have
+that little hand resting upon his arm? Was it really pleasant or was it
+only a part of the restfulness of getting home again away from strange
+faces and uncomfortable beds, and poor tables?
+
+They let themselves into the house as if they were walking into a new
+world together and both were glad to be there again. When she got up to
+her room Marcia went and stood before the glass and looked at herself by
+the flickering flame of the candle. Her eyes were bright and her cheeks
+burned red in the centre like two soft deep roses. She felt she hardly
+knew herself. She tried to be critical. Was this person she was examining
+a pretty person? Would she be called so in comparison with Kate and Hannah
+Heath? Would a man,--would David,--if his heart were not filled,--think so?
+She decided not. She felt she was too immature. There was too much shyness
+in her glance, too much babyishness about her mouth. No, David could never
+have thought her beautiful, even if he had seen her before he knew Kate.
+But perhaps, if Kate had been married first and away and then he had come
+to their home, perhaps if he knew no one else well enough to love,--could
+he have cared for her?
+
+Oh, it was a dreadful, beautiful thought. It thrilled through and through
+her till she hid her face from her own gaze. She suddenly kissed the hand
+that had rested on his sleeve, and then reproached herself for it. She
+loved him, but was it right to do so?
+
+As for David, he was sitting on the side of his bed with his chin in his
+hands examining himself.
+
+He had supposed that with the reading of those letters which had come to
+him but two short days before all possibility of love and happiness had
+died, but lo! he found himself thrilling with pleasure over the look in a
+girl's soft eyes, and the touch of her hand. And that girl was his wife.
+It was enough to keep him awake to try to understand himself.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+Hannah Heath's wedding day dawned bright enough for a less calculating
+bride.
+
+David did not get home until half past three. He had been obliged to drive
+out to the starting place of the new railroad, near Albany, where it was
+important that he get a few points correctly. On the morrow was to be the
+initial trip, by the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, of the first train drawn
+by a steam engine in the state of New York.
+
+His article about it, bargained for by a New York paper, must be on its
+way by special post as soon after the starting of the train as possible.
+He must have all items accurate; technicalities of preparation;
+description of engine and coaches; details of arrangements, etc.; before
+he added the final paragraphs describing the actual start of the train.
+His article was practically done now, save for these few items. He had
+started early that morning on his long drive, and, being detained longer
+than he had expected, arrived at home with barely time to put himself into
+wedding garments, and hasten in at the last moment with Marcia who stood
+quietly waiting for him in the front hall. They were the last guests to
+arrive. It was time for the ceremony, but the bride, true to her nature to
+the last, still kept Lemuel waiting; and Lemuel, true to the end, stood
+smiling and patient awaiting her pleasure.
+
+David and Marcia entered the wide parlor and shook hands here and there
+with those assembled, though for the most part a hushed air pervaded the
+room, as it always does when something is about to happen.
+
+Soon after their arrival some one in purple silk came down the stairs and
+seated herself in a vacant chair close to where the bride was to stand.
+She had gold hair and eyes like forget-me-nots. She was directly opposite
+to David and Marcia. David was engrossed in a whispered conversation with
+Mr. Brentwood about the events of the morrow, and did not notice her
+entrance, though she paused in the doorway and searched him directly from
+amongst the company before she took her seat. Marcia, who was talking with
+Rose Brentwood, caught the vision of purple and gold and turned to face
+for one brief instant the scornful, half-merry glance of her sister. The
+blood in her face fled back to her heart and left it white.
+
+Then Marcia summoned all her courage and braced herself to face what was
+to come. She forced herself to smile in answer to Rose Brentwood's
+question. But all the while she was trying to understand what it was in
+her sister's look that had hurt her so. It was not the anger,--for that she
+was prepared. It was not the scorn, for she had often faced that. Was it
+the almost merriment? Yes, there was the sting. She had felt it so keenly
+when as a little girl Kate had taken to making fun of some whim of hers.
+She could not see why Kate should find cause for fun just now. It was as
+if she by her look ignored Marcia's relation to David in scornful laugh
+and appropriated him herself. Marcia's inmost soul rebelled. The color
+came back as if by force of her will. She would show Kate,--or she would
+show David at least,--that she could bear all things for him. She would
+play well her part of wife this day. The happy two months that had passed
+since David came back from New York had made her almost feel as if she was
+really his and he hers. For this hour she would forget that it was
+otherwise. She would look at him and speak to him as if he had been her
+husband for years, as if there were the truest understanding between
+them,--as indeed, of a certain wistful, pleasant sort there was. She would
+not let the dreadful thought of Kate cloud her face for others to see.
+Bravely she faced the company, but her heart under Kate's blue frock sent
+up a swift and pleading prayer demanding of a higher Power something she
+knew she had not in herself, and must therefore find in Him who had
+created her. It was the most trustful, and needy prayer that Marcia ever
+uttered and yet there were no words, not even the closing of an eyelid.
+Only her heart took the attitude of prayer.
+
+The door upstairs opened in a business-like way, and Hannah's composed
+voice was heard giving a direction. Hannah's silken tread began to be
+audible. Miranda told Marcia afterward that she kept her standing at the
+window for an hour beforehand to see when David arrived, and when they
+started over to the house. Hannah kept herself posted on what was going on
+in the room below as well as if she were down there. She knew where David
+and Marcia stood, and told Kate exactly where to go. It was like Hannah
+that in the moment of her sacrifice of the long cherished hopes of her
+life she should have planned a dramatic revenge to help carry her through.
+
+The bride's rustle became at last so audible that even David and Mr.
+Brentwood heard and turned from their absorbing conversation to the
+business in hand.
+
+Hannah was in the doorway when David looked up, very cold and beautiful in
+her bridal array despite the years she had waited, and almost at once
+David saw the vision in purple and gold like a saucy pansy, standing near
+her.
+
+Kate's eyes were fixed upon him with their most bewitching, dancing smile
+of recognition, like a naughty little child who had been in hiding for a
+time and now peeps out laughing over the discomfiture of its elders. So
+Kate encountered the steadfast gaze of David's astonished eyes.
+
+But there was no light of love in those eyes as she had expected to see.
+Instead there grew in his face such a blaze of righteous indignation as
+the lord of the wedding feast might have turned upon the person who came
+in without a wedding garment. In spite of herself Kate was disconcerted.
+She was astonished. She felt that David was challenging her presence
+there. It seemed to her he was looking through her, searching her, judging
+her, sentencing her, and casting her out, and presently his eyes wandered
+beyond her through the open hall door and out into God's green world; and
+when they came back and next rested upon her his look had frozen into the
+glance of a stranger.
+
+Angry, ashamed, baffled, she bit her lips in vexation, but tried to keep
+the merry smile. In her heart she hated him, and vowed to make him bow
+before her smiles once more.
+
+David did not see the bride at all to notice her, but the bride, unlike
+the one of the psalmist's vision whose eyes were upon "her dear
+bridegroom's face," was looking straight across the room with evident
+intent to observe David.
+
+The ceremony proceeded, and Hannah went through her part correctly and
+calmly, aware that she was giving herself to Lemuel Skinner irrevocably,
+yet perfectly aware also of the discomfiture of the sweet-faced girl-wife
+who sat across the room bravely watching the ceremony with white cheeks
+and eyes that shone like righteous lights.
+
+Marcia did not look at David. She was with him in heart, suffering with
+him, feeling for him, quivering in every nerve for what he might be
+enduring. She had no need to look. Her part was to ignore, and help to
+cover.
+
+They went through it all well. Not once did Aunt Amelia or Aunt Hortense
+notice anything strange in the demeanor of their nephew or his wife. Aunt
+Clarinda was not there. She was not fond of Hannah.
+
+As soon as the service was over and the relatives had broken the solemn
+hush by kissing the bride, David turned and spoke to Rose Brentwood,
+making some smiling remark about the occasion. Rose Brentwood was looking
+her very prettiest in a rose-sprigged delaine and her wavy dark hair in a
+beaded net tied round with a rose-colored lute-string ribbon.
+
+Kate flushed angrily at this. If it had been Marcia to whom he had spoken
+she would have judged he did it out of pique, but a pretty stranger coming
+upon the scene at this critical moment was trying. And then, too, David's
+manner was so indifferent, so utterly natural. He did not seem in the
+least troubled by the sight of herself.
+
+David and Marcia did not go up to speak to the bride at once. David
+stepped back into the deep window seat to talk with Mr. Brentwood, and
+seemed to be in no hurry to follow the procession who were filing past the
+calm bride to congratulate her. Marcia remained quietly talking to Rose
+Brentwood.
+
+At last David turned toward his wife with a smile as though he had known
+she was there all the time, and had felt her sympathy. Her heart leaped up
+with new strength at that look, and her husband's firm touch as he drew
+her hand within his arm to lead her over to the bride gave her courage.
+She felt that she could face the battle, and with a bright smile that lit
+up her whole lovely face she marched bravely to the front to do or to die.
+
+"I had about given up expecting any congratulations from you," said Hannah
+sharply as they came near. It was quite evident she had been watching for
+them.
+
+"I wish you much joy, Mrs. Skinner," said David mechanically, scarcely
+feeling that she would have it for he knew her unhappy, dissatisfied
+nature.
+
+"Yes," said Marcia, "I wish you may be happy,--as happy as I am!"
+
+It was an impetuous, childish thing to say, and Marcia scarcely realized
+what words she meant to speak until they were out, and then she blushed
+rosy red. Was she happy? Why was she happy? Yes, even in the present
+trying circumstances she suddenly felt a great deep happiness bubbling up
+in her heart. Was it David's look and his strong arm under her hand?
+
+Hannah darted a look at her. She was stung by the words. But did the
+girl-bride before her mean to flaunt her own triumphs in her face? Did she
+fully understand? Or was she trying to act a part and make them believe
+she was happy? Hannah was baffled once more as she had been before with
+Marcia.
+
+Kate turned upon Marcia for one piercing instant again, that look of
+understanding, mocking merriment, which cut through the soul of her
+sister.
+
+But did Marcia imagine it, or was it true that at her words to Hannah,
+David's arm had pressed hers closer as they stood there in the crowd? The
+thought thrilled through her and gave her greater strength.
+
+Hannah turned toward Kate.
+
+"David," she said, as she had always called him, and it is possible that
+she enjoyed the triumph of this touch of intimacy before her guest, "you
+knew my friend Mrs. Leavenworth!"
+
+David bowed gravely, but did not attempt to put out his hand to take the
+one which Kate offered in greeting. Instead he laid it over Marcia's
+little trembling one on his arm as if to steady it.
+
+"We have met before," said David briefly in an impenetrable tone, and
+turning passed out of the room to make way for the Brentwoods who were
+behind him.
+
+Hannah scarcely treated the Brentwoods with decency, so vexed was she with
+the way things were turning out. To think that David should so completely
+baffle her. She turned an annoyed look at Kate, who flashed her blue eyes
+contemptuously as if to blame Hannah.
+
+Soon the whole little gathering were in the dining-room and wide hall
+being served with Grandmother Heath's fried chicken and currant jelly,
+delicate soda biscuits, and fruit cake baked months before and left to
+ripen.
+
+The ordeal through which they were passing made David and Marcia feel, as
+they sat down, that they would not be able to swallow a mouthful, but
+strangely enough they found themselves eating with relish, each to
+encourage the other perhaps, but almost enjoying it, and feeling that they
+had not yet met more than they would be able to withstand.
+
+Kate was seated on the other side of the dining-room, by Hannah, and she
+watched the two incessantly with that half merry contemptuous look, toying
+with her own food, and apparently waiting for their acting to cease and
+David to put on his true character. She never doubted for an instant that
+they were acting.
+
+The wedding supper was over at last. The guests crowded out to the front
+stoop to bid good-bye to the happy bridegroom and cross-looking bride, who
+seemed as if she left the gala scene reluctantly.
+
+Marcia, for the instant, was separated from David, who stepped down upon
+the grass and stood to one side to let the bridal party pass. The minister
+was at the other side. Marcia had slipped into the shelter of Aunt
+Amelia's black silk presence and wished she might run out the back door
+and away home.
+
+Suddenly a shimmer of gold with the sunlight through it caught her gaze,
+and a glimpse of sheeny purple. There, close behind David, standing upon
+the top step, quite unseen by him, stood her sister Kate.
+
+Marcia's heart gave a quick thump and seemed to stop, then went painfully
+laboring on. She stood quite still watching for the moment to come when
+David would turn around and see Kate that she might look into his face and
+read there what was written.
+
+Hannah had been put carefully into the carriage by the adoring Lemuel,
+with many a pat, and a shaking of cushions, and an adjustment of curtains
+to suit her whim. It pleased Hannah, now in her last lingering moment of
+freedom, to be exacting and show others what a slave her husband was.
+
+They all stood for an instant looking after the carriage, but Marcia
+watched David. Then, just as the carriage wound around the curve in the
+road and was lost from view, she saw him turn, and at once knew she must
+not see his face as he looked at Kate. Closing her eyes like a flash she
+turned and fled upstairs to get her shawl and bonnet. There she took
+refuge behind the great white curtains, and hid her face for several
+minutes, praying wildly, she hardly knew what, thankful she had been kept
+from the sight which yet she had longed to behold.
+
+As David turned to go up the steps and search for Marcia he was confronted
+by Kate's beautiful, smiling face, radiant as it used to be when it had
+first charmed him. He exulted, as he looked into it, that it did not any
+longer charm.
+
+"David, you don't seem a bit glad to see me," blamed Kate sweetly in her
+pretty, childish tones, looking into his face with those blue eyes so like
+to liquid skies. Almost there was a hint of tears in them. He had been
+wont to kiss them when she looked like that. Now he felt only disgust as
+some of the flippant sentences in her letters to Harry Temple came to his
+mind.
+
+His face was stern and unrecognizing.
+
+"David, you are angry with me yet! You said you would forgive!" The gentle
+reproach minimized the crime, and enlarged the punishment. It was Kate's
+way. The pretty pout on the rosy lips was the same as it used to be when
+she chided him for some trifling forgetfulness of her wishes.
+
+The other guests had all gone into the house now. David made no response,
+but, nothing daunted, Kate spoke again.
+
+"I have something very important to consult you about. I came here on
+purpose. Can you give me some time to-morrow morning?"
+
+She wrinkled her pretty face into a thousand dimples and looked her most
+bewitching like a naughty child who knew she was loved in spite of
+anything, and coquettishly putting her head on one side, added, in the
+tone she used of old to cajole him:
+
+"You know you never could refuse me anything, David."
+
+David did not smile. He did not answer the look. With a voice that
+recognized her only as a stranger he said gravely:
+
+"I have an important engagement to-morrow morning."
+
+"But you will put off the engagement." She said it confidently.
+
+"It is impossible!" said David decidedly. "I am starting quite early to
+drive over to Albany. I am under obligation to be present at the starting
+of the new steam railroad."
+
+"Oh, how nice!" said Kate, clapping her hands childishly, "I have wanted
+to be there, and now you will take me. Then I--we--can talk on the way. How
+like old times that will be!" She flashed him a smile of molten sunshine,
+alluring and transforming.
+
+"That, too, is impossible, Mrs. Leavenworth. My wife accompanies me!" he
+answered her promptly and clearly and with a curt bow left her and went
+into the house.
+
+Kate Leavenworth was angry, and for Kate to be angry, meant to visit it
+upon some one, the offender if possible, if not the nearest to the
+offender. She had failed utterly in her attempt to win back the friendship
+of her former lover. She had hoped to enjoy his attention to a certain
+extent and bathe her sad (?) heart in the wistful glances of the man she
+had jilted; and incidentally perhaps be invited to spend a little time in
+his house, by which she would contrive to have a good many of her own
+ways. A rich brother-in-law who adored one was not a bad thing to have,
+especially when his wife was one's own little sister whom one had always
+dominated. She was tired of New York and at this season of the year the
+country was much preferable. She could thus contrive to hoard her small
+income, and save for the next winter, as well as secure a possible
+entrance finally into her father's good graces again through the
+forgiveness of David and Marcia. But she had failed. Could it be that he
+cared for Marcia! That child! Scout the idea! She would discover at once.
+
+Hurriedly she searched through the rooms downstairs and then went
+stealthily upstairs. Instinctively she went to the room where Marcia had
+hidden herself.
+
+Marcia, with that strong upward breath of prayer had grown steady again.
+She was standing with her back to the door looking out of the window
+toward her own home when Kate entered the room. Without turning about she
+felt Kate's presence and knew that it was she. The moment had come. She
+turned around, her face calm and sweet, with two red spots upon her
+cheeks, and her bonnet,--Kate's bonnet and shawl, Kate's fine lace shawl
+sent from Paris--grasped in her hands.
+
+They faced each other, the sisters, and much was understood between them
+in a flash without a word spoken. Marcia suddenly saw herself standing
+there in Kate's rightful place, Kate's things in her hands, Kate's
+garments upon her body, Kate's husband held by her. It was as if Kate
+charged her with all these things, as she looked her through and over,
+from her slipper tips to the ruffle around the neck. And oh, the scorn
+that flamed from Kate's eyes playing over her, and scorching her cheeks
+into crimson, and burning her lips dry and stiff! And yet when Kate's eyes
+reached her face and charged her with the supreme offense of taking David
+from her, Marcia's eyes looked bravely back, and were not burned by the
+fire, and she felt that her soul was not even scorched by it. Something
+about the thought of David like an angelic presence seemed to save her.
+
+The silence between them was so intense that nothing else could be heard
+by the two. The voices below were drowned by it, the footstep on the stair
+was as if it were not.
+
+At last Kate spoke, angered still more by her sister's soft eyes which
+gazed steadily back and did not droop before her own flashing onslaught.
+Her voice was cold and cruel. There was nothing sisterly in it, nothing to
+remind either that the other had ever been beloved.
+
+"Fool!" hissed Kate. "Silly fool! Did you think you could steal a husband
+as you stole your clothes? Did you suppose marrying David would make him
+yours, as putting on my clothes seemed to make them yours? Well I can tell
+you he will never be a husband to you. He doesn't love you and he never
+can. He will always love me. He's as much mine as if I had married him, in
+spite of all your attempts to take him. Oh, you needn't put up your baby
+mouth and pucker it as if you were going to cry. Cry away. It won't do any
+good. You can't make a man yours, any more than you can make somebody's
+clothes yours. They don't fit you any more than he does. You look horrid
+in blue, and you know it, in spite of all your prinking around and
+pretending. I'd be ashamed to be tricked out that way and know that every
+dud I had was made for somebody else. As for going around and pretending
+you have a husband--it's a lie. You know he's nothing to you. You know he
+never told you he cared for you. I tell you he's mine, and he always will
+be."
+
+"Kate, you're married!" cried Marcia in shocked tones. "How can you talk
+like that?"
+
+"Married! Nonsense! What difference does that make? It's hearts that
+count, not marriages. Has your marriage made you a wife? Answer me that!
+Has it? Does David love you? Does he ever kiss you? Yet he came to see me
+in New York this winter, and took me in his arms and kissed me. He gave me
+money too. See this brooch?"--she exhibited a jeweled pin--"that was bought
+with his money. You see he loves me still. I could bring him to my feet
+with a word to-day. He would kiss me if I asked him. He is weak as water
+in my hands."
+
+Marcia's cheeks burned with shame and anger. Almost she felt at the limit
+of her strength. For the first time in her life she felt like
+striking,--striking her own sister. Horrified over her feelings, and the
+rage which was tearing her soul, she looked up, and there stood David in
+the doorway, like some tall avenging angel!
+
+Kate had her back that way and did not see at once, but Marcia's eyes
+rested on him hungrily, pleadingly, and his answered hers. From her sudden
+calmness Kate saw there was some one near, and turning, looked at David.
+But he did not glance her way. How much or how little he had heard of
+Kate's tirade, which in her passion had been keyed in a high voice, he
+never let them know and neither dared to ask him, lest perhaps he had not
+heard anything. There was a light of steel in his eyes toward everything
+but Marcia, and his tone had in it kindness and a recognition of mutual
+understanding as he said:
+
+"If you are ready we had better go now, dear, had we not?"
+
+Oh how gladly Marcia followed her husband down the stairs and out the
+door! She scarcely knew how she went through the formalities of getting
+away. It seemed as she looked back upon them that David had sheltered her
+from it all, and said everything needful for her, and all she had done was
+to smile an assent. He talked calmly to her all the way home; told her Mr.
+Brentwood's opinion about the change in the commerce of the country the
+new railroad was going to make; told her though he must have known she
+could not listen. Perhaps both were conscious of the bedroom window over
+the way and a pair of blue eyes that might be watching them as they passed
+into the house. David took hold of her arm and helped her up the steps of
+their own home as if she had been some great lady. Marcia wondered if Kate
+saw that. In her heart she blessed David for this outward sign of their
+relationship. It gave her shame a little cover at least. She glanced up
+toward the next house as she passed in and felt sure she saw a glimmer of
+purple move away from the window. Then David shut the door behind them and
+led her gently in.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+He made her go into the parlor and sit down and she was all unnerved by
+his gentle ways. The tears would come in spite of her. He took his own
+fine wedding handkerchief and wiped them softly off her hot cheeks. He
+untied the bonnet that was not hers, and flung it far into a corner in the
+room. Marcia thought he put force into the fling. Then he unfolded the
+shawl from her shoulders and threw that into another corner. Kate's
+beautiful thread lace shawl. Marcia felt a hysterical desire to laugh, but
+David's voice was steady and quiet when he spoke as one might speak to a
+little child in trouble.
+
+"There now, dear," he said. He had never called her dear before. "There,
+that was an ordeal, and I'm glad, it's over. It will never trouble us that
+way again. Let us put it aside and never think about it any more. We have
+our own lives to live. I want you to go with me to-morrow morning to see
+the train start if you feel able. We must start early and you must take a
+good rest. Would you like to go?"
+
+Marcia's face like a radiant rainbow answered for her as she smiled behind
+her tears, and all the while he talked David's hand, as tender as a
+woman's, was passing back and forth on Marcia's hot forehead and smoothing
+the hair. He talked on quietly to soothe her, and give her a chance to
+regain her composure, speaking of a few necessary arrangements for the
+morning's ride. Then he said, still in his quiet voice: "Now dear, I want
+you to go to bed, for we must start rather early, but first do you think
+you could sing me that little song you were singing the day I came home?
+Don't if you feel too tired, you know."
+
+Then Marcia, an eager light in her eyes, sprang up and went to the piano,
+and began to play softly and sing the tender words she had sung once
+before when he was listening and she knew it not.
+
+                "Dearest, believe,
+                   When e'er we part:
+                 Lonely I grieve,
+                   In my sad heart:--"
+
+Kate, standing within the chintz curtains across the yard shedding angry
+tears upon her purple silk, heard presently the sweet tones of the piano,
+which might have been hers; heard her sister's voice singing, and began to
+understand that she must bear the punishment of her own rash deeds.
+
+The room had grown from a purple dusk into quiet darkness while Marcia was
+singing, for the sun was almost down when they walked home. When the song
+was finished David stood half wistfully looking at Marcia for a moment.
+Her eyes shone to his through the dusk like two bright stars. He hesitated
+as though he wanted to say something more, and then thought better of it.
+At last he stooped and lifted her hand from the keys and led her toward
+the door.
+
+"You must go to sleep at once," he said gently. "You'll need all the rest
+you can get." He lighted a candle for her and said good-night with his
+eyes as well as his lips. Marcia felt that she was moving up the stairs
+under a spell of some gentle loving power that surrounded her and would
+always guard her.
+
+And it was about this time that Miranda, having been sent over to take a
+forgotten piece of bride's cake to Marcia, and having heard the piano, and
+stolen discreetly to the parlor window for a moment, returned and detailed
+for the delectation of that most unhappy guest Mrs. Leavenworth why she
+could not get in and would have to take it over in the morning:
+
+"The window was open in the parlor and they were in there, them two, but
+they was so plum took up with their two selves, as they always are, that
+there wasn't no use knockin' fer they'd never hev heard."
+
+Miranda enjoyed making those remarks to the guest. Some keen instinct
+always told her where best to strike her blows.
+
+When Marcia had reached the top stair she looked down and there was David
+smiling up to her.
+
+"Marcia," said he in a tone that seemed half ashamed and half amused,
+"have you, any--that is--things--that you had before--all your own I mean?"
+With quick intuition Marcia understood and her own sweet shame about her
+clothes that were not her own came back upon her with double force. She
+suddenly saw herself again standing before the censure of her sister. She
+wondered if David had heard. If not, how then did he know? Oh, the shame
+of it!
+
+She sat down weakly upon the stair.
+
+"Yes," said she, trying to think. "Some old things, and one frock."
+
+"Wear it then to-morrow, dear," said David, in a compelling voice and with
+the sweet smile that took the hurt out of his most severe words.
+
+Marcia smiled. "It is very plain," she said, "only chintz, pink and white.
+I made it myself."
+
+"Charming!" said David. "Wear it, dear. Marcia, one thing more. Don't wear
+any more things that don't belong to you. Not a Dud. Promise me? Can you
+get along without it?"
+
+"Why, I guess so," said Marcia laughing joyfully. "I'll try to manage. But
+I haven't any bonnet. Nothing but a pink sunbonnet."
+
+"All right, wear that," said David.
+
+"It will look a little queer, won't it?" said Marcia doubtfully, and yet
+as if the idea expressed a certain freedom which was grateful to her.
+
+"Never mind," said David. "Wear it. Don't wear any more of those other
+things. Pack them all up and send them where they belong, just as quick as
+we get home."
+
+There was something masterful and delightful in David's voice, and Marcia
+with a happy laugh took her candle and got up saying, with a ring of joy
+in her voice: "All right!" She went to her room with David's second
+good-night ringing in her ears and her heart so light she wanted to sing.
+
+Not at once did Marcia go to her bed. She set her candle upon the bureau
+and began to search wildly in a little old hair-cloth trunk, her own
+special old trunk that had contained her treasures and which had been sent
+her after she left home. She had scarcely looked into it since she came to
+the new home. It seemed as if her girlhood were shut up in it. Now she
+pulled it out from the closet.
+
+What a flood of memories rushed over her as she opened it! There were
+relics of her school days, and of her little childhood. But she had no
+time for them now. She was in search of something. She touched them
+tenderly, but laid them all out one after another upon the floor until
+down in the lower corner she found a roll of soft white cloth. It
+contained a number of white garments, half a dozen perhaps in all,
+finished, and several others cut out barely begun. They were her own work,
+every stitch, the first begun when she was quite a little girl, and her
+stepmother started to teach her to sew. What pride she had taken in them!
+How pleased she had been when allowed to put real tucks in some of them!
+She had thought as she sewed upon them at different times that they were
+to be a part of her own wedding trousseau. And then her wedding had come
+upon her unawares, with the trousseau ready-made, and everything belonged
+to some one else. She had folded her own poor little garments away and
+thought never to take them out again, for they seemed to belong to her
+dead self.
+
+But now that dead self had suddenly come to life again. These hated things
+that she had worn for a year that were not hers were to be put away, and,
+pretty as they were, many of them, she regretted not a thread of them.
+
+She laid the white garments out upon a chair and decided that she would
+put on what she needed of them on the morrow, even though they were
+rumpled with long lying away. She even searched out an old pair of her own
+stockings and laid them on a chair with the other things. They were neatly
+darned as all things had always been under her stepmother's supervision.
+Further search brought a pair of partly worn prunella slippers to light,
+with narrow ankle ribbons.
+
+Then Marcia took down the pink sprigged chintz that she had made a year
+ago and laid it near the other things, with a bit of black velvet and the
+quaint old brooch. She felt a little dubious about appearing on such a
+great occasion, almost in Albany, in a chintz dress and with no wrap.
+Stay! There was the white crêpe shawl, all her own, that David had brought
+her. She had not felt like wearing it to Hannah Heath's wedding, it seemed
+too precious to take near an unloving person like Hannah. Before that she
+had never felt an occasion great enough. Now she drew it forth
+breathlessly. A white crêpe shawl and a pink calico sunbonnet! Marcia
+laughed softly. But then, what matter! David had said wear it.
+
+All things were ready for the morrow now. There were even her white lace
+mitts that Aunt Polly in an unusual fit of benevolence had given her.
+
+Then, as if to make the change complete, she searched out an old night
+robe, plain but smooth and clean and arrayed herself in it, and so,
+thankful, happy, she lay down as she had been bidden and fell asleep.
+
+David in the room below pondered, strange to say, the subject of dress.
+There was some pride beneath it all, of course; there always is behind the
+great problem of dress. It was the rejected bonnet lying in the corner
+with its blue ribbons limp and its blue flowers crushed that made that
+subject paramount among so many others he might have chosen for his
+night's meditation.
+
+He was going over to close the parlor window, when he saw the thing lying
+innocent and discarded in the corner. Though it bore an injured look, it
+yet held enough of its original aristocratic style to cause him to stop
+and think.
+
+It was all well enough to suggest that Marcia wear a pink sunbonnet. It
+sounded deliciously picturesque. She looked lovely in pink and a sunbonnet
+was pretty and sensible on any one; but the morrow was a great day. David
+would be seen of many and his wife would come under strict scrutiny.
+Moreover it was possible that Kate might be upon the scene to jeer at her
+sister in a sunbonnet. In fact, when he considered it he would not like to
+take his wife to Albany in a sunbonnet. It behoved him to consider. The
+outrageous words which he had heard Mistress Leavenworth speak to his wife
+still burned in his brain like needles of torture: revelation of the true
+character of the woman he had once longed to call his own.
+
+But that bonnet! He stood and examined it. What was a bonnet like? The
+proper kind of a bonnet for a woman in his wife's position to wear. He had
+never noticed a woman's bonnet before except as he had absent-mindedly
+observed them in front of him in meeting. Now he brought his mind to bear
+upon that bonnet. It seemed to be made up of three component parts--a
+foundation: a girdle apparently to bind together and tie on the head; and
+a decoration. Straw, silk and some kind of unreal flowers. Was that all?
+He stooped down and picked the thing up with the tips of his fingers, held
+it at arms length as though it were contaminating, and examined the
+inside. Ah! There was another element in its construction, a sort of frill
+of something thin,--hardly lace,--more like the foam of a cloud. He touched
+the tulle clumsily with his thumb and finger and then he dropped the
+bonnet back into the corner again. He thought he understood well enough to
+know one again. He stood pondering a moment, and looked at his watch.
+
+Yes, it was still early enough to try at least, though of course the shop
+would be closed. But the village milliner lived behind her little store.
+It would be easy enough to rouse her, and he had known her all his life.
+He took his hat as eagerly as he had done when as a boy Aunt Clarinda had
+given him a penny to buy a top and permission to go to the corner and buy
+it before Aunt Amelia woke up from her nap. He went quietly out of the
+door, fastening it behind him and walked rapidly down the street.
+
+Yes, the milliner's shop was closed, but a light in the side windows
+shining through the veiling hop-vines guided him, and he was presently
+tapping at Miss Mitchell's side door. She opened the door cautiously and
+peeped over her glasses at him, and then a bright smile overspread her
+face. Who in the whole village did not welcome David whenever he chanced
+to come? Miss Mitchell was resting from her labors and reading the village
+paper. She had finished the column of gossip and was quite ready for a
+visitor.
+
+"Come right in, David," she said heartily, for she had known him all the
+years, "it does a body good to see you though your visits are as few and
+far between as angels' visits. I'm right glad to see you! Sit down." But
+David was too eager about his business.
+
+"I haven't any time to sit down to-night, Miss Susan," he said eagerly,
+"I've come to buy a bonnet. Have you got one? I hope it isn't too late
+because I want it very early in the morning."
+
+"A bonnet! Bless me! For yourself?" said Miss Mitchell from mere force of
+commercial habit. But neither of them saw the joke, so intent upon
+business were they. "For my wife, Miss Mitchell. You see she is going with
+me over to Albany to-morrow morning and we start quite early. We are going
+to see the new railroad train start, you know, and she seems to think she
+hasn't a bonnet that's suitable."
+
+"Going to see a steam engine start, are you! Well, take care, David, you
+don't get too near. They do say they're terrible dangerous things, and fer
+my part I can't see what good they'll be, fer nobody'll ever be willin' to
+ride behind 'em, but I'd like to see it start well enough. And that sweet
+little wife of yours thinks she ain't got a good enough bonnet. Land
+sakes! What is the matter with her Dunstable straw, and what's become of
+that one trimmed with blue lutestrings, and where's the shirred silk one
+she wore last Sunday? They're every one fine bonnets and ought to last her
+a good many years yet if she cares fer 'em. The mice haven't got into the
+house and et them, hev they?"
+
+"No, Miss Susan, those bonnets are all whole yet I believe, but they don't
+seem to be just the suitable thing. In fact, I don't think they're
+over-becoming to her, do you? You see they're mostly blue----"
+
+"That's so!" said Miss Mitchell. "I think myself she'd look better in
+pink. How'd you like white? I've got a pretty thing that I made fer Hannah
+Heath an' when it was done Hannah thought it was too plain and wouldn't
+have it. I sent for the flowers to New York and they cost a high price.
+Wait! I will show it to you."
+
+She took a candle and he followed her to the dark front room ghostly with
+bonnets in various stages of perfection.
+
+It was a pretty thing. Its foundation was of fine Milan braid, creamy
+white and smooth and even. He knew at a glance it belonged to the higher
+order of things, and was superior to most of the bonnets produced in the
+village.
+
+It was trimmed with plain white taffeta ribbon, soft and silky. That was
+all on the outside. Around the face was a soft ruching of tulle, and
+clambering among it a vine of delicate green leaves that looked as if they
+were just plucked from a wild rose bank. David was delighted. Somehow the
+bonnet looked like Marcia. He paid the price at once, declining to look at
+anything else. It was enough that he liked it and that Hannah Heath had
+not. He had never admired Hannah's taste. He carried it home in triumph,
+letting himself softly into the house, lighted three candles, took the
+bonnet out and hung it upon a chair. Then he walked around it surveying it
+critically, first from this side, then from that. It pleased him
+exceedingly. He half wished Marcia would hear him and come down. He wanted
+to see it on her, but concluded that he was growing boyish and had better
+get himself under control.
+
+The bonnet approved, he walked back and forth through the kitchen and
+dining-room thinking. He compelled himself to go over the events of the
+afternoon and analyze most carefully his own innermost feelings. In fact,
+after doing that he began further back and tried to find out how he felt
+toward Marcia. What was this something that had been growing in him
+unaware through the months; that had made his homecoming so sweet, and had
+brightened every succeeding day; and had made this meeting with Kate a
+mere commonplace? What was this precious thing that nestled in his heart?
+Might he, had he a right to call it love? Surely! Now all at once his
+pulses thrilled with gladness. He loved her! It was good to love her! She
+was the most precious being on earth to him. What was Kate in comparison
+with her? Kate who had shown herself cold and cruel and unloving in every
+way?
+
+His anger flamed anew as he thought of those cutting sentences he had
+overheard, taunting her own sister about the clothes she wore. Boasting
+that he still belonged to her! She, a married woman! A woman who had of
+her own free will left him at the last moment and gone away with another!
+His whole nature recoiled against her. She had sinned against her
+womanhood, and might no longer demand from man the homage that a true
+woman had a right to claim.
+
+Poor little bruised flower! His heart went out to Marcia. He could not
+bear to think of her having to stand and listen to that heartless tirade.
+And he had been the cause of all this. He had allowed her to take a
+position which threw her open to Kate's vile taunts.
+
+Up and down he paced till the torrent of his anger spent itself, and he
+was able to think more calmly. Then he went back in his thoughts to the
+time when he had first met Kate and she had bewitched him. He could see
+now the heartlessness of her. He had met her first at the house of a
+friend where he was visiting, partly on pleasure, partly on business. She
+had devoted herself to him during the time of her stay in a most charming
+way, though now he recalled that she had also been equally devoted to the
+son of the house whom he was visiting. When she went home she had asked
+him to come and call, for her home was but seven miles away. He had been
+so charmed with her that he had accepted the invitation, and, rashly he
+now saw, had engaged himself to her, after having known her in all face to
+face but a few days. To be sure he had known of her father for years, and
+he took a good deal for granted on account of her fine family. They had
+corresponded after their engagement which had lasted for nearly a year,
+and in that time David had seen her but twice, for a day or two at a time,
+and each time he had thought her grown more lovely. Her letters had been
+marvels of modesty, and shy admiration. It was easy for Kate to maintain
+her character upon paper, though she had had little trouble in making
+people love her under any circumstances. Now as he looked back he could
+recall many instances when she had shown a cruel, heartless nature.
+
+Then, all at once, with a throb of joy, it came to him to be thankful to
+God for the experience through which he had passed. After all it had not
+been taken from him to love with a love enduring, for though Kate had been
+snatched from him just at the moment of his possession, Marcia had been
+given him. Fool that he was! He had been blind to his own salvation.
+Suppose he had been allowed to go on and marry Kate! Suppose he had had
+her character revealed to him suddenly as those letters of hers to Harry
+Temple had revealed it--as it surely would have been revealed in time, for
+such things cannot be hid,--and she had been his _wife!_ He shuddered. How
+he would have loathed her! How he loathed her now!
+
+Strangely enough the realization of that fact gave him joy. He sprang up
+and waved his hands about in silent delight. He felt as if he must shout
+for gladness. Then he gravely knelt beside his chair and uttered an
+audible thanksgiving for his escape and the joy he had been given. Nothing
+else seemed fitting expression of his feelings.
+
+There was one other question to consider--Marcia's feelings. She had always
+been kind and gentle and loving to him, just as a sister might have been.
+She was exceedingly young yet. Did she know, could she understand what it
+meant to be loved the way he was sure he could love a woman? And would she
+ever be able to love him in that way? She was so silent and shy he hardly
+knew whether she cared for him or not. But there was one thought that gave
+him unbounded joy and that was that she was his wife. At least no one else
+could take her from him. He had felt condemned that he had married her
+when his heart was heavy lest she would lose the joy of life, but all that
+was changed now. Unless she loved some one else surely such love as his
+could compel hers and finally make her as happy as a woman could be made.
+
+A twinge of misgiving crossed his mind as he admitted the possibility that
+Marcia might love some one else. True, he knew of no one, and she was so
+young it was scarcely likely she had left any one back in her girlhood to
+whom her heart had turned when she was out of his sight. Still there were
+instances of strong union of hearts of those who had loved from early
+childhood. It might be that Marcia's sometime-sadness was over a companion
+of her girlhood.
+
+A great longing took possession of him to rush up and waken her and find
+out if she could ever care for him. He scarcely knew himself. This was not
+his dignified contained self that he had lived with for twenty-seven
+years.
+
+It was very late before he finally went upstairs. He walked softly lest he
+disturb Marcia. He paused before her door listening to see if she was
+asleep, but there was only the sound of the katydids in the branches
+outside her window, and the distant tree-toads singing a fugue in an
+orchard not far away. He tiptoed to his room but he did not light his
+candle, therefore there was no light in the back room of the Spafford
+house that night for any watching eyes to ponder over. He threw himself
+upon the bed. He was weary in body yet his soul seemed buoyant as a bird
+in the morning air. The moon was casting long bars of silver across the
+rag carpet and white counterpane. It was almost full moon. Yes, to-morrow
+it would be entirely full. It was full moon the night he had met Marcia
+down by the gate, and kissed her. It was the first time he had thought of
+that kiss with anything but pain. It used to hurt him that he had made the
+mistake and taken her for Kate. It had seemed like an ill-omen of what was
+to come. But now, it thrilled him with a great new joy. After all he had
+given the kiss to the right one. It was Marcia to whom his soul bowed in
+the homage that a man may give to a woman. Did his good angel guide him to
+her that night? And how was it he had not seen the sweetness of Marcia
+sooner? How had he lived with her nearly a year, and watched her dainty
+ways, and loving ministry and not known that his heart was hers? How was
+it he had grieved so long over Kate, and now since he had seen her once
+more, not a regret was in his heart that she was not his; but a beautiful
+revelation of his own love to Marcia had been wrought in him? How came it?
+
+And the importunate little songsters in the night answered him a thousand
+times: "Kate-did-it! Kate-she-did it! Yes she did! I say she did. Kate did
+it!"
+
+Had angel voices reached him through his dreams, and suddenly given him
+the revelation which the little insects had voiced in their ridiculous
+colloquy? It was Kate herself who had shown him how he loved Marcia.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+Slowly the moon rode over the house, and down toward its way in the West,
+and after its vanishing chariot the night stretched wistful arms. Softly
+the grey in the East tinged into violet and glowed into rose and gold. The
+birds woke up and told one another that the first of August was come and
+life was good.
+
+The breath that came in the early dawn savored of new-mown hay, and the
+bird songs thrilled Marcia as if it were the day of her dreams.
+
+She forgot all her troubles; forgot even her wayward sister next door; and
+rose with the song of the birds in her heart. This was to be a great day.
+No matter what happened she had now this day to date from. David had asked
+her to go somewhere just because he wanted her to. She knew it from the
+look in his eyes when he told her, and she knew it because he might have
+asked a dozen men to go with him. There was no reason why he need have
+taken her to-day, for it was distinctly an affair for men, this great
+wonder of machinery. It was a privilege for a woman to go. She felt it.
+She understood the honor.
+
+With fingers trembling from joy she dressed. Not the sight of her pink
+calico sunbonnet lying on the chair, nor the thought of wearing it upon so
+grand an occasion, could spoil the pleasure of the day. Among so large a
+company her bonnet would hardly be noticed. If David was satisfied why
+what difference did it make? She was glad it would be early when they
+drove by the aunts, else they might be scandalized. But never mind! Trill!
+She hummed a merry little tune which melted into the melody of the song
+she had sung last night.
+
+Then she smiled at herself in the glass. She was fastening the brooch in
+the bit of velvet round her neck, and she thought of the day a year ago
+when she had fastened that brooch. She had wondered then how she would
+feel if the next day was to be her own wedding day. Now as she smiled back
+at herself in the glass all at once she thought it seemed as if this was
+her wedding day. Somehow last night had seemed to realize her dreams. A
+wonderful joy had descended upon her heart. Maybe she was foolish, but was
+she not going to ride with David? She did not long for the green fields
+and a chance to run wild through the wood now. This was better than those
+childish pleasures. This was real happiness. And to think it should have
+come through David!
+
+She hurried with the arrangement of her hair until her fingers trembled
+with excitement. She wanted to get downstairs and see if it were all
+really true or if she were dreaming it. Would David look at her as he had
+done last night? Would he speak that precious word "dear" to her again
+to-day? Would he take her by the hand and lead her sometimes, or was that
+a special gentleness because he knew she had suffered from her sister's
+words? She clasped her hands with a quick, convulsive gesture over her
+heart and looking back to the sweet face in the glass, said softly, "Oh, I
+love him, love him! And it cannot be wrong, for Kate is married."
+
+But though she was up early David had been down before her. The fire was
+ready lighted and the kettle singing over it on the crane. He had even
+pulled out the table and put up the leaf, and made some attempt to put the
+dishes upon it for breakfast. He was sitting by the hearth impatient for
+her coming, with a bandbox by his side.
+
+It was like another sunrise to watch their eyes light up as they saw one
+another. Their glances rushed together as though they had been a long time
+withholden from each other, and a rosy glow came over Marcia's face that
+made her long to hide it for a moment from view. Then she knew in her
+heart that her dream was not all a dream. David was the same. It had
+lasted, whatever this wonderful thing was that bound them together. She
+stood still in her happy bewilderment, looking at him, and he, enjoying
+the radiant morning vision of her, stood too.
+
+David found that longing to take her in his arms overcoming him again. He
+had made strict account with himself and was resolved to be careful and
+not frighten her. He must be sure it would not be unpleasant to her before
+he let her know his great deep love. He must be careful. He must not take
+advantage of the fact that she was his and could not run away from him. If
+she dreaded his attentions, neither could she any more say no.
+
+And so their two looks met, and longed to come closer, but were held back,
+and a lovely shyness crept over Marcia's sweet face. Then David bethought
+himself of his bandbox.
+
+He took up the box and untied it with unaccustomed fingers, fumbling among
+the tissue paper for the handle end of the thing. Where did they take hold
+of bonnets anyway? He had no trouble with it the night before, but then he
+was not thinking about it. Now he was half afraid she might not like it.
+He remembered that Hannah Heath had pronounced against it. It suddenly
+seemed impossible that he should have bought a bonnet that a pretty woman
+had said was not right. There must be something wrong with it after all.
+
+Marcia stood wondering.
+
+"I thought maybe this would do instead of the sunbonnet," he said at last,
+getting out the bonnet by one string and holding it dangling before him.
+
+Marcia caught it with deft careful hands and an exclamation of delight. He
+watched her anxiously. It had all the requisite number of materials,--one,
+two, three, four,--like the despised bonnet he threw on the floor--straw,
+silk, lace and flowers. Would she like it? Her face showed that she did.
+Her cheeks flushed with pleasure, and her eyes danced with joy. Marcia's
+face always showed it when she liked anything. There was nothing half-way
+about her.
+
+"Oh, it is beautiful!" she said delightedly. "It is so sweet and white and
+cool with that green vine. Oh, I am glad, glad, glad! I shall never wear
+that old blue bonnet again." She went over to the glass and put it on. The
+soft ruching settled about her brown hair, and made a lovely setting for
+her face. The green vine twined and peeped in and out under the round brim
+and the ribbon sat in a prim bow beneath her pretty chin.
+
+She gave one comprehensive glance at herself in the glass and then turned
+to David. In that glance was revealed to her just how much she had dreaded
+wearing her pink sunbonnet, and just how relieved she was to have a
+substitute.
+
+Her look was shy and sweet as she said with eyes that dared and then
+drooped timidly:
+
+"You--are--very--good to me!"
+
+Almost he forgot his vow of carefulness at that, but remembered when he
+had got half across the room toward her, and answered earnestly:
+
+"Dear, _you_ have been very good to _me_."
+
+Marcia's eyes suddenly sobered and half the glow faded from her face. Was
+it then only gratitude? She took off the bonnet and touched the bows with
+wistful tenderness as she laid it by till after breakfast. He watched her
+and misinterpreted the look. Was she then disappointed in the bonnet? Was
+it not right after all? Had Hannah known better than he? He hesitated and
+then asked her:
+
+"Is there---- Is it---- That is--perhaps you would rather take it back and and
+choose another. You know how to choose one better than I. There were
+others I think. In fact, I forgot to look at any but this because I liked
+it, but I'm only a man----" he finished helplessly.
+
+"No! No! No!" said Marcia, her eyes sparkling emphatically again. "There
+couldn't be a better one. This is just exactly what I like. I do not want
+anything else. And I--like it all the better because you selected it," she
+added daringly, suddenly lifting her face to his with a spice of her own
+childish freedom.
+
+His eyes admired her.
+
+"She told me Hannah Heath thought it too plain," he added honestly.
+
+"Then I'm sure I like it all the better for that," said Marcia so
+emphatically that they both laughed.
+
+It all at once became necessary to hurry, for the old clock in the hall
+clanged out the hour and David became aware that haste was imperative.
+
+Early as Marcia had come down, David had been up long before her, his
+heart too light to sleep. In a dream, or perchance on the borders of the
+morning, an idea had come to him. He told Marcia that he must go out now
+to see about the horse, but he also made a hurried visit to the home of
+his office clerk and another to the aunts, and when he returned with the
+horse he had left things in such train that if he did not return that
+evening he would not be greatly missed. But he said nothing to Marcia
+about it. He laughed to himself as he thought of the sleepy look on his
+clerk's face, and the offended dignity expressed in the ruffle of Aunt
+Hortense's night cap all awry as she had peered over the balusters to
+receive his unprecedentedly early visit. The aunts were early risers. They
+prided themselves upon it. It hurt their dignity and their pride to have
+anything short of sudden serious illness, or death, or a fire cause others
+to arise before them. Therefore they did not receive the message that
+David was meditating another trip away from the village for a few days
+with good grace. Aunt Hortense asked Aunt Amelia if she had ever feared
+that Marcia would have a bad effect upon David by making him frivolous.
+Perhaps he would lose interest in his business with all his careering
+around the country. Aunt Amelia agreed that Marcia must be to blame in
+some way, and then discovering they had a whole hour before their usual
+rising time, the two good ladies settled themselves with indignant
+composure to their interrupted repose.
+
+Breakfast was ready when David returned. Marcia supposed he had only been
+to harness the horse. She glanced out happily through the window to where
+the horse stood tied to the post in front of the house. She felt like
+waving her hand to him, and he turned and seemed to see her; rolling the
+whites of his eyes around, and tossing his head as if in greeting.
+
+Marcia would scarcely have eaten anything in her excitement if David had
+not urged her to do so. She hurried with her clearing away, and then flew
+upstairs to arrange her bonnet before the glass and don the lovely folds
+of the creamy crêpe shawl, folding it demurely around her shoulders and
+knotting it in front. She put on her mitts, took her handkerchief folded
+primly, and came down ready.
+
+But David no longer seemed in such haste. He made a great fuss fastening
+up everything. She wondered at his unusual care, for she thought
+everything quite safe for the day.
+
+She raised one shade toward the Heath house. It was the first time she had
+permitted herself this morning to think of Kate. Was she there yet?
+Probably, for no coach had left since last night, and unless she had gone
+by private conveyance there would have been no way to go. She looked up to
+the front corner guest room where the windows were open and the white
+muslin curtains swayed in the morning breeze. No one seemed to be moving
+about in the room. Perhaps Kate was not awake. Just then she caught the
+flutter of a blue muslin down on the front stoop. Kate was up, early as it
+was, and was coming out. A sudden misgiving seized Marcia's heart, as when
+a little child, she had seen her sister coming to eat up the piece of cake
+or sweetmeat that had been given to her. Many a time had that happened.
+Now, she felt that in some mysterious way Kate would contrive to take from
+her her new-found joy.
+
+She could not resist her,--David could not resist her,--no one could ever
+resist Kate. Her face turned white and her hand began to tremble so that
+she dropped the curtain she had been holding up.
+
+Just then came David's clear voice, louder than would have been necessary,
+and pitched as if he were calling to some one upstairs, though he knew she
+was just inside the parlor where she had gone to make sure of the window
+fastening.
+
+"Come, dear! Aren't you ready? It is more than time we started."
+
+There was a glad ring in David's voice that somehow belied the somewhat
+exacting words he had spoken, and Marcia's heart leaped up to meet him.
+
+"Yes, I'm all ready, dear!" she called back with a hysterical little
+laugh. Of course Kate could not hear so far, but it gave her satisfaction
+to say it. The final word was unpremeditated. It bubbled up out of the
+depths of her heart and made the red rush back into her cheeks when she
+realized what she had said. It was the first time she had ever used a term
+of endearment toward David. She wondered if he noticed it and if he would
+think her very--bold,--queer,--immodest, to use it. She looked shyly up at
+him, enquiring with her eyes, as she came out to him on the front stoop,
+and he looked down with such a smile she felt as if it were a caress. And
+yet neither was quite conscious of this little real by-play they were
+enacting for the benefit of the audience of one in blue muslin over the
+way. How much she heard, or how little they could not tell, but it gave
+satisfaction to go through with it inasmuch as it was real, and not acting
+at all.
+
+David fastened the door and then helped Marcia into the carriage. They
+were both laughing happily like two children starting upon a picnic.
+Marcia was serenely conscious of her new bonnet, and it was pleasant to
+have David tuck the linen lap robe over her chintz frock so carefully. She
+was certain Kate could not identify it now at that distance, thanks to the
+lap robe and her crêpe shawl. At least Kate could not see any of her own
+trousseau on her sister now.
+
+Kate was sitting on the little white seat in the shelter of the
+honeysuckle vine facing them on the stoop of the Heath house. It was
+impossible for them to know whether she was watching them or not. They did
+not look up to see. She was talking with Mr. Heath who, in his milking
+garb, was putting to rights some shrubs and plants near the walk that had
+been trampled upon during the wedding festivities. But Kate must have seen
+a good deal that went on.
+
+David took up the reins, settled himself with a smile at Marcia, touched
+the horse with the tip of the whip, which caused him to spring forward in
+astonishment--that from David! No horse in town would have expected it of
+him. They had known him from babyhood, most of them, and he was gentleness
+itself. It must have been a mistake. But the impression lasted long enough
+to carry them a rod or two past the Heath house at a swift pace, with only
+time for a lifting of David's hat, prolonged politely,--which might or
+might not have included Kate, and they were out upon their way together.
+
+Marcia could scarcely believe her senses that she was really here beside
+David, riding with him swiftly through the village and leaving Kate
+behind. She felt a passing pity for Kate. Then she looked shyly up at
+David. Would his gaiety pass when they were away, and would he grow grave
+and sad again so soon as he was out of Kate's sight? She had learned
+enough of David's principles to know that he would not think it right to
+let his thoughts stray to Kate now, but did his heart still turn that way
+in spite of him?
+
+Through the town they sped, glad with every roll of the wheels that took
+them further away from Kate. Each was conscious, as they rolled along, of
+that day one year ago when they rode together thus, out through the fields
+into the country. It was a day much as that other one, just as bright,
+just as warm, yet oh, so much more radiant to both! Then they were sad and
+fearful of the future. All their life seemed in the past. Now the darkness
+had been led through, and they had reached the brightness again. In fact,
+all the future stretched out before them that fair morning and looked
+bright as the day.
+
+They were conscious of the blueness of the sky, of the soft clouds that
+hovered in haziness on the rim of the horizon, as holding off far enough
+to spoil no moment of that perfect day. They were conscious of the waving
+grains and of the perfume of the buckwheat drifting like snow in the
+fields beyond the wheat; conscious of the meadow-lark and the wood-robin's
+note; of the whirr of a locust; and the thud of a frog in the cool green
+of a pool deep with brown shadows; conscious of the circling of mated
+butterflies in the simmering gold air; of the wild roses lifting fair pink
+petals from the brambly banks beside the road; conscious of the whispering
+pine needles in a wood they passed; the fluttering chatter of leaves and
+silver flash of the lining of poplar leaves, where tall trees stood like
+sentinels, apart and sad; conscious of a little brook that tinkled under a
+log bridge they crossed, then hurried on its way unmindful of their happy
+crossing; conscious of the dusty daisy beside the road, closing with a
+bumbling bee who wanted honey below the market price; conscious of all
+these things; but most conscious of each other, close, side by side.
+
+It was all so dear, that ride, and over so soon. Marcia was just trying to
+get used to looking up into the dazzling light of David's eyes. She had to
+droop her own almost immediately for the truth she read in his was
+overpowering. Could it be? A fluttering thought came timidly to her heart
+and would not be denied.
+
+"Can it be, can it be that he cares for me? He loves me. He loves me!" It
+sang its way in with thrill after thrill of joy and more and more David's
+eyes told the story which his lips dared not risk yet. But eyes and hearts
+are not held by the conventions that bind lips. They rushed into their
+inheritance of each other and had that day ahead, a day so rare and sweet
+that it would do to set among the jewels of fair days for all time and for
+any one.
+
+All too soon they began to turn into roads where were other vehicles, many
+of them, and all going in the same direction. Men and women in gala day
+attire all laughing and talking expectantly and looking at one another as
+the carriages passed with a degree of familiar curiosity which betokens a
+common errand. Family coaches, farm wagons, with kitchen chairs for
+accommodation of the family; old one-horse chaises, carryalls, and even a
+stage coach or two wheeled into the old turnpike. David and Marcia settled
+into subdued quiet, their joy not expressing itself in the ripples of
+laughter that had rung out earlier in the morning when they were alone.
+They sought each other's eyes often and often, and in one of these
+excursions that David's eyes made to Marcia's face he noticed how
+extremely becoming the new bonnet was. After thinking it over he decided
+to risk letting her know. He was not shy about it now.
+
+"Do you know, dear," he said,--there had been a good many "dear's" slipping
+back and forth all unannounced during that ride, and not openly
+acknowledged either. "Do you know how becoming your new bonnet is to you?
+You look prettier than I ever saw you look but once before." He kept his
+eyes upon her face and watched the sweet color steal up to her drooping
+eyelashes.
+
+"When was that?" she asked coyly, to hide her embarrassment, and sweeping
+him one laughing glance.
+
+"Why, that night, dear, at the gate, in the moonlight. Don't you
+remember?"
+
+"Oh-h-h-h!" Marcia caught her breath and a thrill of joy passed through
+her that made her close her eyes lest the glad tears should come. Then the
+little bird in her heart set up the song in earnest to the tune of Wonder:
+"He loves me, He loves me, He loves me!"
+
+He leaned a little closer to her.
+
+"If there were not so many people looking I think I should have to kiss
+you now."
+
+"Oh-h-h-h!" said Marcia drawing in her breath and looking around
+frightened on the number of people that were driving all about them, for
+they were come almost to the railroad now, and could see the black smoke
+of the engine a little beyond as it stood puffing and snorting upon its
+track like some sulky animal that had been caught and chained and
+harnessed and was longing to leap forward and upset its load.
+
+But though Marcia looked about in her happy fright, and sat a trifle
+straighter in the chaise, she did not move her hand away that lay next
+David's, underneath the linen lap robe, and he put his own hand over it
+and covered it close in his firm hold. Marcia trembled and was so happy
+she was almost faint with joy. She wondered if she were very foolish
+indeed to feel so, and if all love had this terrible element of solemn joy
+in it that made it seem too great to be real.
+
+They had to stop a number of times to speak to people. Everybody knew
+David, it appeared. This man and that had a word to speak with him, some
+bit of news that he must not omit to notice in his article, some new
+development about the attitude of a man of influence that was important;
+the change of two or three of those who were to go in the coaches on this
+trial trip.
+
+To all of them David introduced his wife, with a ring of pride in his
+voice as he said the words "My wife," and all of them stopped whatever
+business they had in hand and stepped back to bow most deferentially to
+the beautiful woman who sat smiling by his side. They wondered why they
+had not heard of her before, and they looked curiously, enviously at
+David, and back in admiration at Marcia. It was quite a little court she
+held sitting there in the chaise by David's side.
+
+Men who have since won a mention in the pages of history were there that
+day, and nearly all of them had a word for David Spafford and his lovely
+wife. Many of them stood for some time and talked with her. Mr. Thurlow
+Weed was the last one to leave them before the train was actually ready
+for starting, and he laid an urging hand upon David's arm as he went.
+"Then you think you cannot go with us? Better come. Mrs. Spafford will let
+you I am sure. You're not afraid are you, Mrs. Spafford? I am sure you are
+a brave woman. Better come, Spafford."
+
+But David laughingly thanked him again as he had thanked others, and said
+that he would not be able to go, as he and his wife had other plans, and
+he must go on to Albany as soon as the train had started.
+
+Marcia looked up at him half worshipfully as he said this, wondering what
+it was, instinctively knowing that it was for her sake he was giving up
+this honor which they all wished to put upon him. It would naturally have
+been an interesting thing to him to have taken this first ride behind the
+new engine "Dewitt Clinton."
+
+Then, suddenly, like a chill wind from a thunder cloud that has stolen up
+unannounced and clutched the little wild flowers before they have time to
+bind up their windy locks and duck their heads under cover, there happened
+a thing that clutched Marcia's heart and froze all the joy in her veins.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+A coach was approaching filled with people, some of them Marcia knew; they
+were friends and neighbors from their own village, and behind it plodding
+along came a horse with a strangely familiar gait drawing four people. The
+driver was old Mr. Heath looking unbelievingly at the scene before him. He
+did not believe that an engine would be able to haul a train any
+appreciable distance whatever, and he believed that he had come out here
+to witness this entire company of fanatics circumvented by the ill-natured
+iron steed who stood on the track ahead surrounded by gaping boys and a
+flock of quacking ganders, living symbol of the people who had come to see
+the thing start; so thought Mr. Heath. He told himself he was as much of a
+goose as any of them to have let this chit of a woman fool him into coming
+off out here when he ought to have been in the hay field to-day.
+
+By his side in all the glory of shimmering blue with a wide white lace
+bertha and a bonnet with a steeple crown wreathed about heavily with roses
+sat Kate, a blue silk parasol shading her eyes from the sun, those eyes
+that looked to conquer, and seemed to pierce beyond and through her sister
+and ignore her. Old Mrs. Heath and Miranda were along, but they did not
+count, except to themselves. Miranda was all eyes, under an ugly bonnet.
+She desired above all things to see that wonderful engine in which David
+was so interested.
+
+Marcia shrunk and seemed to wither where she sat. All her bright bloom
+faded in an instant and a kind of frenzy seized her. She had a wild desire
+to get down out of the carriage and run with all her might away from this
+hateful scene. The sky seemed to have suddenly clouded over and the hum
+and buzz of voices about seemed a babel that would never cease.
+
+David felt the arm beside his cringe, and shrink back, and looking down
+saw the look upon her sweet frightened face; following her glance his own
+face hardened into what might have been termed righteous wrath. But not a
+word did he say, and neither did he apparently notice the oncoming
+carriage. He busied himself at once talking with a man who happened to
+pass the carriage, and when Mr. Heath drove by to get a better view of the
+engine he was so absorbed in his conversation that he did not notice them,
+which seemed but natural.
+
+But Kate was not to be thus easily foiled. She had much at stake and she
+must win if possible. She worked it about that Squire Heath should drive
+around to the end of the line of coaches, quite out of sight of the engine
+and where there was little chance of seeing the train and its
+passengers,--the only thing Squire Heath cared about. But there was an
+excellent view of David's carriage and Kate would be within hailing
+distance if it should transpire that she had no further opportunity of
+speaking with David. It seemed strange to Squire Heath, as he sat there
+behind the last coach patiently, that he had done what she asked. She did
+not look like a woman who was timid about horses, yet she had professed a
+terrible fear that the screech of the engine would frighten the staid old
+Heath horse. Miranda, at that, had insisted upon changing seats, thereby
+getting herself nearer the horse, and the scene of action. Miranda did not
+like to miss seeing the engine start.
+
+At last word to start was given. A man ran along by the train and mounted
+into his high seat with his horn in his hand ready to blow. The fireman
+ceased his raking of the glowing fire and every traveller sprang into his
+seat and looked toward the crowd of spectators importantly. This was a
+great moment for all interested. The little ones whose fathers were in the
+train began to call good-bye and wave their hands, and one old lady whose
+only son was going as one of the train assistants began to sob aloud.
+
+A horse in the crowd began to act badly. Every snort of the engine as the
+steam was let off made him start and rear. He was directly behind Marcia,
+and she turned her head and looked straight into his fiery frightened
+eyes, red with fear and frenzy, and felt his hot breath upon her cheek. A
+man was trying most ineffectually to hold him, but it seemed as if in
+another minute he would come plunging into the seat with them. Marcia
+uttered a frightened cry and clutched at David's arm. He turned, and
+seeing instantly what was the matter, placed his arm protectingly about
+her and at once guided his own horse out of the crowd, and around nearer
+to the engine. Somehow that protecting arm gave Marcia a steadiness once
+more and she was able to watch the wonderful wheels begin to turn and the
+whole train slowly move and start on its way. Her lips parted, her breath
+came quick, and for the instant she forgot her trouble. David's arm was
+still about her, and there was a reassuring pressure in it. He seemed to
+have forgotten that the crowd might see him--if the crowd had not been too
+busy watching something more wonderful. It is probable that only one
+person in that whole company saw David sitting with his arm about his
+wife--for he soon remembered and put it quietly on the back of the seat,
+where it would call no one's attention--and that person was Kate. She had
+not come to this hot dusty place to watch an engine creak along a track,
+she had come to watch David, and she was vexed and angry at what she saw.
+Here was Marcia flaunting her power over David directly in her face.
+Spiteful thing! She would pay her back yet and let her know that she could
+not touch the things that she, Kate, had put her own sign and seal upon.
+For this reason it was that at the last minute Kate allowed poor Squire
+Heath to drive around near the front of the train, saying that as David
+Spafford seemed to find it safe she supposed she ought not to hold them
+back for her fears. It needed but the word to send the vexed and curious
+Squire around through the crowd to a spot directly behind David's
+carriage, and there Miranda could see quite well, and Kate could sit and
+watch David and frame her plans for immediate action so soon as the
+curtain should fall upon this ridiculous engine play over which everybody
+was wild.
+
+And so, amid shouts and cheers, and squawking of the geese that attempted
+to precede the engine like a white frightened body-guard down the track;
+amid the waving of handkerchiefs, the shouts of excited little boys, and
+the neighing of frightened horses, the first steam engine that ever drew a
+train in New York state started upon its initial trip.
+
+Then there came a great hush upon the spectators assembled. The wheels
+were rolling, the carriages were moving, the train was actually going by
+them, and what had been so long talked about was an assured fact. They
+were seeing it with their own eyes, and might be witnesses of it to all
+their acquaintances. It was true. They dared not speak nor breathe lest
+something should happen and the great miracle should stop. They hushed
+simultaneously as though at the passing of some great soul. They watched
+in silence until the train went on between the meadows, grew smaller in
+the distance, slipped into the shadow of the wood, flashed out into the
+sunlight beyond again, and then was lost behind a hill. A low murmur
+growing rapidly into a shout of cheer arose as the crowd turned and faced
+one another and the fact of what they had seen.
+
+"By gum! She kin do it!" ejaculated Squire Heath, who had watched the
+melting of his skeptical opinions in speechless amazement.
+
+The words were the first intimation the Spaffords had of the proximity of
+Kate. They made David smile, but Marcia turned white with sudden fear
+again. Not for nothing had she lived with her sister so many years. She
+knew that cruel nature and dreaded it.
+
+David looked at Marcia for sympathy in his smile at the old Squire, but
+when he saw her face he turned frowning toward those behind him.
+
+Kate saw her opportunity. She leaned forward with honeyed smile, and wily
+as the serpent addressed her words to Marcia, loud and clear enough for
+all those about them to hear.
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Spafford! I am going to ask a great favor of you. I am sure you
+will grant it when you know I have so little time. I am extremely anxious
+to get a word of advice from your husband upon business matters that are
+very pressing. Would you kindly change places with me during the ride
+home, and give me a chance to talk with him about it? I would not ask it
+but that I must leave for New York on the evening coach and shall have no
+other opportunity to see him."
+
+Kate's smile was roses and cream touched with frosty sunshine, and to
+onlookers nothing could have been sweeter. But her eyes were coldly cruel
+as sharpened steel, and they said to her sister as plainly as words could
+have spoken: "Do you obey my wish, my lady, or I will freeze the heart out
+of you."
+
+Marcia turned white and sick. She felt as if her lips had suddenly
+stiffened and refused to obey her when they ought to have smiled. What
+would all these people think of her, and how was she behaving? For David's
+sake she ought to do something, say something, look something, but
+what--what should she do?
+
+While she was thinking this, with the freezing in her heart creeping up
+into her throat, the great tears beating at the portals of her eyes, and
+time standing suddenly still waiting for her leaden tongue to speak, David
+answered:
+
+All gracefully 'twas done, with not so much as a second's
+hesitation,--though it had seemed so long to Marcia,--nor the shadow of a
+sign that he was angry:
+
+"Mrs. Leavenworth," he said in his masterful voice, "I am sure my wife
+would not wish to seem ungracious, or unwilling to comply with your
+request, but as it happens it is impossible. We are not returning home for
+several days. My wife has some shopping to do in Albany, and in fact we
+are expecting to take a little trip. A sort of second honeymoon, you
+know,"--he added, smiling toward Mrs. Heath and Miranda; "it is the first
+time I have had leisure to plan for it since we were married. I am sorry I
+have to hurry away, but I am sure that my friend Squire Heath can give as
+much help in a business way as I could, and furthermore, Squire Schuyler
+is now in New York for a few days as I learned in a letter from him which
+arrived last evening. I am sure he can give you more and better advice
+than any I could give. I wish you good morning. Good morning, Mrs. Heath.
+Good morning, Miss Miranda!"
+
+Lifting his hat David drove away from them and straight over to the little
+wayside hostelry where he was to finish his article to send by the
+messenger who was even then ready mounted for the purpose.
+
+"My! Don't he think a lot of her though!" said Miranda, rolling the words
+as a sweet morsel under her tongue. "It must be nice to have a man so fond
+of you." This was one of the occasions when Miranda wished she had eyes in
+the back of her head. She was sharp and she had seen a thing or two, also
+she had heard scraps of her cousin Hannah's talk. But she sat demurely in
+the recesses of her deep, ugly bonnet and tried to imagine how the guest
+behind her looked.
+
+All trembling sat Marcia in the rusty parlor of the little hostelry, while
+David at the table wrote with hurried hand, glancing up at her to smile
+now and then, and passing over the sheets as he finished them for her
+criticism. She thought she had seen the Heath wagon drive away in the home
+direction, but she was not sure. She half expected to see the door open
+and Kate walk in. Her heart was thumping so she could scarcely sit still
+and the brightness of the world outside seemed to make her dizzy. She was
+glad to have the sheets to look over, for it took her thoughts away from
+herself and her nameless fears. She was not quite sure what it was she
+feared, only that in some way Kate would have power over David to take him
+away from her. As he wrote she studied the dear lines of his face and
+knew, as well as human heart may ever know, how dear another soul had
+grown to hers.
+
+David had not much to write and it was soon signed, approved, and sealed.
+He sent his messenger on the way and then coming back closed the door and
+went and stood before Marcia.
+
+As though she felt some critical moment had come she arose, trembling, and
+looked into his eyes questioningly.
+
+"Marcia," he said, and his tone was grave and earnest, putting her upon an
+equality with him, not as if she were a child any more. "Marcia, I have
+come to ask your forgiveness for the terrible thing I did to you in
+allowing you, who scarcely knew what you were doing then, to give your
+life away to a man who loved another woman."
+
+Marcia's heart stood still with horror. It had come then, the dreadful
+thing she had feared. The blow was going to fall. He did not love her!
+What a fool she had been!
+
+But the steady voice went on, though the blood in her neck and temples
+throbbed in such loud waves that she could scarcely hear the words to
+understand them.
+
+"It was a crime, Marcia, and I have come to realize it more and more
+during all the days of this year that you have so uncomplainingly spent
+yourself for me. I know now, as I did not think then in my careless,
+selfish sorrow, that I was as cruel to you, with your sweet young life, as
+your sister was cruel to me. You might already have given your heart to
+some one else; I never stopped to inquire. You might have had plans and
+hopes for your own future; I never even thought of it. I was a brute. Can
+you forgive me? Sometimes the thought of the responsibility I took upon
+myself has been so terrible to me that I felt I could not stand it. You
+did not realize what it was then that you were giving, perhaps, but
+somehow I think you have begun to realize now. Will you forgive me?" He
+stopped and looked at her anxiously. She was drooped and white as if a
+blast had suddenly struck her and faded her sweet bloom. Her throat was
+hot and dry and she had to try three times before she could frame the
+words, "Yes, I forgive."
+
+There was no hope, no joy in the words, and a sudden fear descended upon
+David's heart. Had he then done more damage than he knew? Was the child's
+heart broken by him, and did she just realize it? What could he do? Must
+he conceal his love from her? Perhaps this was no time to tell it. But he
+must. He could not bear the burden of having done her harm and not also
+tell her how he loved her. He would be very careful, very considerate, he
+would not press his love as a claim, but he must tell her.
+
+"And Marcia, I must tell you the rest," he went on, his own words seeming
+to stay upon his lips, and then tumble over one another; "I have learned
+to love you as I never loved your sister. I love you more and better than
+I ever could have loved her. I can see how God has led me away from her
+and brought me to you. I can look back to that night when I came to her
+and found you there waiting for me, and kissed you,--darling. Do you
+remember?" He took her cold little trembling hands and held them firmly as
+he talked, his whole soul in his face, as if his life depended upon the
+next few moments. "I was troubled at the time, dear, for having kissed
+you, and given you the greeting that I thought belonged to her. I have
+rebuked myself for thinking since how lovely you looked as you stood there
+in the moonlight. But afterward I knew that it was you after all that my
+love belonged to, and to you rightfully the kiss should have gone. I am
+glad it was so, glad that God overruled my foolish choosing. Lately I have
+been looking back to that night I met you at the gate, and feeling jealous
+that that meeting was not all ours; that it should be shadowed for us by
+the heartlessness of another. It gives me much joy now to think how I took
+you in my arms and kissed you. I cannot bear to think it was a mistake.
+Yet glad as I am that God sent you down to that gate to meet me, and much
+as I love you, I would rather have died than feel that I have brought
+sorrow into your life, and bound you to one whom you cannot love. Marcia,
+tell me truly, never mind my feelings, tell me! Can you ever love me?"
+
+Then did Marcia lift her flower-like face, all bright with tears of joy
+and a flood of rosy smiles, the light of seven stars in her eyes. But she
+could not speak, she could only look, and after a little whisper, "Oh,
+David, I think I have always loved you! I think I was waiting for you that
+night, though I did not know it. And look!"--with sudden thought----
+
+She drew from the folds of her dress a little old-fashioned locket hung by
+a chain about her neck out of sight. She opened it and showed him a soft
+gold curl which she touched gently with her lips, as though it were
+something very sacred.
+
+"What is it, darling?" asked David perplexed, half happy, half afraid as
+he took the locket and touched the curl more thrilled with the thought
+that she had carried it next her heart than with the sight of it.
+
+"It is yours," she said, disappointed that he did not understand. "Aunt
+Clarinda gave it to me while you were away. I've worn it ever since. And
+she gave me other things, and told me all about you. I know it all, about
+the tops and marbles, and the spelling book, and I've cried with you over
+your punishments, and--I--love it all!"
+
+He had fastened the door before he began to talk, but he caught her in his
+arms now, regardless of the fact that the shades were not drawn down, and
+that they swayed in the summer breeze.
+
+"Oh, my darling! My wife!" he cried, and kissed her lips for the third
+time.
+
+The world was changed then for those two. They belonged to each other they
+believed, as no two that ever walked through Eden had ever belonged. When
+they thought of the precious bond that bound them together their hearts
+throbbed with a happiness that well-nigh overwhelmed them.
+
+A dinner of stewed chickens and little white soda biscuits was served
+them, fit for a wedding breakfast, for the barmaid whispered to the cook
+that she was sure there was a bride and groom in the parlor they looked so
+happy and seemed to forget anybody else was by. But it might have been ham
+and eggs for all they knew what it was they ate, these two who were so
+happy they could but look into each other's eyes.
+
+When the dinner was over and they started on their way again, with Albany
+shimmering in the hot sun in the distance, and David's arm sliding from
+the top of the seat to circle Marcia's waist, David whispered:
+
+"This is our real wedding journey, dearest, and this is our bridal day.
+We'll go to Albany and buy you a trousseau, and then we will go wherever
+you wish. I can stay a whole week if you wish. Would you like to go home
+for a visit?"
+
+Marcia, with shining eyes and glowing cheeks, looked her love into his
+face and answered: "Yes, _now_ I would like to go home,--just for a few
+days--and then back to our home."
+
+And David looking into her eyes understood why she had not wanted to go
+before. She was taking her husband, _her_ husband, not Kate's, with her
+now, and might be proud of his love. She could go among her old comrades
+and be happy, for he loved her. He looked a moment, comprehended,
+sympathized, and then pressing her hand close--for he might not kiss her,
+as there was a load of hay coming their way--he said: "Darling!" But their
+eyes said more.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 AD PAGES
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                         FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS
+                        IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS
+
+Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size.
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+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+BEVERLY OF GRAUSTARK. By George Barr McCutcheon. With Color Frontispiece
+and other illustrations by Harrison Fisher. Beautiful inlay picture in
+colors of Beverly on the cover.
+
+"The most fascinating, engrossing and picturesque of the season's
+novels."--_Boston Herald._ "'Beverly' is altogether charming--almost living
+flesh and blood."--_Louisville Times._ "Better than 'Graustark'."--_Mail and
+Express._ "A sequel quite as impossible as 'Graustark' and quite as
+entertaining."--_Bookman._ "A charming love story well told."--_Boston
+Transcript_.
+
+
+HALF A ROGUE. By Harold MacGrath. With illustrations and inlay cover
+picture by Harrison Fisher.
+
+"Here are dexterity of plot, glancing play at witty talk, characters
+really human and humanly real, spirit and gladness, freshness and quick
+movement. 'Half a Rogue' is as brisk as a horseback ride on a glorious
+morning. It is as varied as an April day. It is as charming as two most
+charming girls can make it. Love and honor and success and all the great
+things worth fighting for and living for the involved in 'Half a
+Rogue.'"--_Phila. Press._
+
+
+THE GIRL FROM TIM'S PLACE. By Charles Clark Munn. With illustrations by
+Frank T. Merrill.
+
+"Figuring in the pages of this story there are several strong characters.
+Typical New England folk and an especially sturdy one, old Cy Walker,
+through whose instrumentality Chip comes to happiness and fortune. There
+is a chain of comedy, tragedy, pathos and love, which makes a dramatic
+story."--_Boston Herald._
+
+
+THE LION AND THE MOUSE. A story of American Life. By Charles Klein, and
+Arthur Hornblow. With illustrations by Stuart Travis, and Scenes from the
+Play.
+
+The novel duplicated the success of the play; in fact the book is greater
+than the play. A portentous clash of dominant personalties that form the
+essence of the play are necessarily touched upon but briefly in the short
+space of four acts. All this is narrated in the novel with a wealth of
+fascinating and absorbing detail, making it one of the most powerfully
+written and exciting works of fiction given to the world in years.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                       GROSSET & DUNLAP, - NEW YORK
+
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+
+                         FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS
+                        IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS
+
+Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size.
+Printed on excellent paper--most of them with illustrations of marked
+beauty--and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+BARBARA WINSLOW, REBEL. By Elizabeth Ellis. With illustrations by John
+Rae, and colored inlay cover.
+
+The following, taken from story, will best describe the heroine: A TOAST:
+"To the bravest comrade in misfortune, the sweetest companion in peace and
+at all times the most courageous of women."--_Barbara Winslow._ "A romantic
+story, buoyant, eventful, and in matters of love exactly what the heart
+could desire."--_New York Sun._
+
+
+SUSAN. By Ernest Oldmeadow. With a color frontispiece by Frank Haviland.
+Medallion in color on front cover.
+
+Lord Ruddington falls helplessly in love with Miss Langley, whom he sees
+in one of her walks accompanied by her maid, Susan. Through a
+misapprehension of personalities his lordship addresses a love missive to
+the maid. Susan accepts in perfect good faith, and an epistolary
+love-making goes on till they are disillusioned. It naturally makes a
+droll and delightful little comedy; and is a story that is particularly
+clever in the telling.
+
+
+WHEN PATTY WENT TO COLLEGE. By Jean Webster. With illustrations by C. D.
+Williams.
+
+"The book is a treasure."--_Chicago Daily News._ "Bright, whimsical, and
+thoroughly entertaining."--_Buffalo Express._ "One of the best stories of
+life in a girl's college that has ever been written."--_N. Y. Press._ "To
+any woman who has enjoyed the pleasures of a college life this book cannot
+fail to bring back many sweet recollections; and to those who have not
+been to college the wit, lightness, and charm of Patty are sure to be no
+less delightful."--_Public Opinion._
+
+
+THE MASQUERADER. By Katherine Cecil Thurston. With illustrations by
+Clarence F. Underwood.
+
+"You can't drop it till you have turned the last page."--_Cleveland
+Leader._ "Its very audacity of motive, of execution, of solution, almost
+takes one's breath away. The boldness of its denouement is
+sublime."--_Boston Transcript._ "The literary hit of a generation. The best
+of it is the story deserves all its success. A masterly story."--_St. Louis
+Dispatch._ "The story is ingeniously told, and cleverly constructed."--_The
+Dial._
+
+
+THE GAMBLER. By Katherine Cecil Thurston. With illustrations by John
+Campbell.
+
+"Tells of a high strung young Irish woman who has a passion for gambling,
+inherited from a long line of sporting ancestors. She has a high sense of
+honor, too, and that causes complications. She is a very human, lovable
+character, and love saves her."--_N. Y. Times._
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                       GROSSET & DUNLAP, - NEW YORK
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                         FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS
+                        IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS
+
+Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size.
+Printed on excellent paper--most of them with illustrations of marked
+beauty--and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE AFFAIR AT THE INN. By Kate Douglas Wiggin. With illustrations by
+Martin Justice.
+
+"As superlatively clever in the writing as it is entertaining in the
+reading. It is actual comedy of the most artistic sort, and it is handled
+with a freshness and originality that is unquestionably novel."--_Boston
+Transcript._ "A feast of humor and good cheer, yet subtly pervaded by
+special shades of feeling, fancy, tenderness, or whimsicality. A merry
+thing in prose."--_St. Louis Democrat._
+
+
+ROSE O' THE RIVER. By Kate Douglas Wiggin. With illustrations by George
+Wright.
+
+"'Rose o' the River,' a charming bit of sentiment, gracefully written and
+deftly touched with a gentle humor. It is a dainty book--daintily
+illustrated."--_New York Tribune._ "A wholesome, bright, refreshing story,
+an ideal book to give a young girl."--_Chicago Record-Herald._ "An idyllic
+story, replete with pathos and inimitable humor. As story-telling it is
+perfection, and as portrait-painting it is true to the life."--_London
+Mail._
+
+
+TILLIE: A Mennonite Maid. By Helen R. Martin. With illustrations by
+Florence Scovel Shinn.
+
+The little "Mennonite Maid" who wanders through these pages is something
+quite new in fiction. Tillie is hungry for books and beauty and love; and
+she comes into her inheritance at the end. "Tillie is faulty, sensitive,
+big-hearted, eminently human, and first, last and always lovable. Her
+charm glows warmly, the story is well handled, the characters skilfully
+developed."--_The Book Buyer._
+
+
+LADY ROSE'S DAUGHTER. By Mrs. Humphry Ward. With illustrations by Howard
+Chandler Christy.
+
+"The most marvellous work of its wonderful author."--_New York World._ "We
+touch regions and attain altitudes which it is not given to the ordinary
+novelist even to approach."--_London Times._ "In no other story has Mrs.
+Ward approached the brilliancy and vivacity of Lady Rose's
+Daughter."--_North American Review._
+
+
+THE BANKER AND THE BEAR. By Henry K. Webster.
+
+"An exciting and absorbing story."--_New York Times._ "Intensely thrilling
+in parts, but an unusually good story all through. There is a love affair
+of real charm and most novel surroundings, there is a run on the bank
+which is almost worth a year's growth, and there is all manner of
+exhilarating men and deeds which should bring the book into high and
+permanent favor."--_Chicago Evening Post._
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                       GROSSET & DUNLAP, - NEW YORK
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                               NATURE BOOKS
+
+             With Colored Plates, and Photographs from Life.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+BIRD NEIGHBORS. An Introductory Acquaintance with 150 Birds Commonly Found
+in the Woods, Fields and Gardens About Our Homes. By Neltje Blanchan. With
+an Introduction by John Burroughs, and many plates of birds in natural
+colors. Large Quarto, size 7-3/4 x 10-3/8, Cloth. Formerly published at
+$2.00. Our special price, $1.00.
+
+As an aid to the elementary study of bird life nothing has ever been
+published more satisfactory than this most successful of Nature Books.
+This book makes the identification of our birds simple and positive, even
+to the uninitiated, through certain unique features. I. All the birds are
+grouped according to color, in the belief that a bird's coloring is the
+first and often the only characteristic noticed. II. By another
+classification, the birds are grouped according to their season. III. All
+the popular names by which a bird is known are given both in the
+descriptions and the index. The colored plates are the most beautiful and
+accurate ever given in a moderate-priced and popular book. The most
+successful and widely sold Nature Book yet published.
+
+
+BIRDS THAT HUNT AND ARE HUNTED. Life Histories of 170 Birds of Prey, Game
+Birds and Water-Fowls. By Neltje Blanchan. With Introduction by G. O.
+Shields (Coquina). 24 photographic illustrations in color. Large Quarto,
+size 7-3/4 x 10-3/8. Formerly published at $2.00. Our special price,
+$1.00.
+
+No work of its class has ever been issued that contains so much valuable
+information, presented with such felicity and charm. The colored plates
+are true to nature. By their aid alone any bird illustrated may be readily
+identified. Sportsmen will especially relish the twenty-four color plates
+which show the more important birds in characteristic poses. They are
+probably the most valuable and artistic pictures of the kind available
+to-day.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                       GROSSET & DUNLAP, - NEW YORK
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                               NATURE BOOKS
+
+             With Colored Plates, and Photographs from Life.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+NATURE'S GARDEN. An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and Their Insect
+Visitors. 24 colored plates, and many other illustrations photographed
+directly from nature. Text by Neltje Blanchan. Large Quarto, size 7-3/4 x
+10-3/8. Cloth. Formerly published at $3.00 net. Our special price, $1.25.
+
+Superb color portraits of many familiar flowers in their living tints, and
+no less beautiful pictures in black and white of others--each blossom
+photographed directly from nature--form an unrivaled series. By their aid
+alone the novice can name the flowers met afield.
+
+Intimate life-histories of over five hundred species of wild flowers,
+written in untechnical, vivid language, emphasize the marvelously
+interesting and vital relationship existing between these flowers and the
+special insect to which each is adapted.
+
+The flowers are divided into five color groups, because by this
+arrangement any one with no knowledge of botany whatever can readily
+identify the specimens met during a walk. The various popular names by
+which each species is known, its preferred dwelling-place, months of
+blooming and geographical distribution follow its description. Lists of
+berry-bearing and other plants most conspicuous after the flowering
+season, of such as grow together in different kinds of soil, and finally
+of family groups arranged by that method of scientific classification
+adopted by the International Botanical Congress which has now superseded
+all others, combine to make "Nature's Garden" an indispensable guide.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                       GROSSET & DUNLAP, - NEW YORK
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                         FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS
+                        IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS
+
+Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size.
+Printed on excellent paper--most of them with illustrations of marked
+beauty--and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE. By Edith Elmer Wood. With illustrations by
+Rufus Zogbaum.
+
+The standards and life of "the new navy" are breezily set forth with a
+genuine ring impossible from the most gifted "outsider." "The story of the
+destruction of the 'Maine,' and of the Battle of Manila, are very
+dramatic. The author is the daughter of one naval officer and the wife of
+another. Naval folks will find much to interest them in 'The Spirit of the
+Service.'"--_The Book Buyer._
+
+
+A SPECTRE OF POWER. By Charles Egbert Craddock.
+
+Miss Murfree has pictured Tennessee mountains and the mountain people in
+striking colors and with dramatic vividness, but goes back to the time of
+the struggles of the French and English in the early eighteenth century
+for possession of the Cherokee territory. The story abounds in adventure,
+mystery, peril and suspense.
+
+
+THE STORM CENTRE. By Charles Egbert Craddock.
+
+A war story; but more of flirtation, love and courtship than of fighting
+or history. The tale is thoroughly readable and takes its readers again
+into golden Tennessee, into the atmosphere which has distinguished all of
+Miss Murfree's novels.
+
+
+THE ADVENTURESS. By Coralie Stanton. With color frontispiece by Harrison
+Fisher, and attractive inlay cover in colors.
+
+As a penalty for her crimes, her evil nature, her flint-like callousness,
+her more than inhuman cruelty, her contempt for the laws of God and man,
+she was condemned to bury her magnificent personality, her transcendent
+beauty, her superhuman charms, in gilded obscurity at a King's left hand.
+A powerful story powerfully told.
+
+
+THE GOLDEN GREYHOUND. A Novel by Dwight Tilton. With illustrations by E.
+Pollak.
+
+A thoroughly good story that keeps you guessing to the very end, and never
+attempts to instruct or reform you. It is a strictly up-to-date story of
+love and mystery with wireless telegraphy and all the modern improvements.
+The events nearly all take place on a big Atlantic liner and the romance
+of the deep is skilfully made to serve as a setting for the romance, old
+as mankind, yet always new, involving our hero.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                       GROSSET & DUNLAP, - NEW YORK
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+
+                                  ERRATA
+
+
+      CHAPTER I
+      Changed: girl in the *fairy tale* who left jewels
+      To: girl in the *fairy-tale* who left jewels
+
+      CHAPTER I
+      Changed: ever walked in *fairy tale*. But she saw
+      To: ever walked in *fairy-tale*. But she saw
+
+      CHAPTER III
+      Changed: before, but covered *wth* confusion and shame,
+      To: before, but covered *with* confusion and shame,
+
+      CHAPTER III
+      Changed: and she turned *delberately*, one dainty, slippered
+      To: and she turned *deliberately*, one dainty, slippered
+
+      CHAPTER V
+      Changed: her that this *wholsale* disposal of Marcia
+      To: her that this *wholesale* disposal of Marcia
+
+      CHAPTER V
+      Changed: Phoebe takes your place and then come back.* *
+      To: Phoebe takes your place and then come back.*"*
+
+      CHAPTER V
+      Changed: fine places, to *tea drinkings* and the like,
+      To: fine places, to *tea-drinkings* and the like,
+
+      CHAPTER VI
+      Changed: out radiant and *childlike* through her tears.
+      To: out radiant and *child-like* through her tears.
+
+      CHAPTER X
+      Changed: was always something *childlike* about Marcia's
+      To: was always something *child-like* about Marcia's
+
+      CHAPTER X
+      Changed: her old home *plentfully* supplied with those
+      To: her old home *plentifully* supplied with those
+
+      CHAPTER XII
+      Changed: got David that's worth everything.* *
+      To: got David that's worth everything.*"*
+
+      CHAPTER XII
+      Changed: position on the *haircloth* sofa. But if
+      To: position on the *hair-cloth* sofa. But if
+
+      CHAPTER XIII
+      Changed: had Mary Ann's *hand-writing* looked so pleasant
+      To: had Mary Ann's *handwriting* looked so pleasant
+
+      CHAPTER XIII
+      Changed: seemed half a *life-time* to the girl
+      To: seemed half a *lifetime* to the girl
+
+      CHAPTER XIII
+      Changed: my old calico *tomorrow* morning again, and
+      To: my old calico *to-morrow* morning again, and
+
+      CHAPTER XIII
+      Changed: house with big *collums* to the front
+      To: house with big *columns* to the front
+
+      CHAPTER XV
+      Changed: table, and the *tea-kettle* was singing on
+      To: table, and the *tea kettle* was singing on
+
+      CHAPTER XV
+      Changed: The neighbor had *staid* longer than usual,
+      To: The neighbor had *stayed* longer than usual,
+
+      CHAPTER XVI
+      Changed: thus melted into *childlike* enthusiasm, felt his
+      To: thus melted into *child-like* enthusiasm, felt his
+
+      CHAPTER XVIII
+      Changed: with the flickering *candle-light* making grotesque
+      To: with the flickering *candle light* making grotesque
+
+      CHAPTER XVIII
+      Changed: Bible where the *candle-light* played at glances
+      To: Bible where the *candle light* played at glances
+
+      CHAPTER XXI
+      Changed: if he would *absord* the vision for
+      To: if he would *absorb* the vision for
+
+      CHAPTER XXII
+      Changed: and let the *floodtide* of his sorrow
+      To: and let the *flood-tide* of his sorrow
+
+      CHAPTER XXII
+      Changed: an' hopin' an' *tryin* fer somebody bigger.
+      To: an' hopin' an' *tryin'* fer somebody bigger.
+
+      CHAPTER XXII
+      Changed: There's no place like home.*'*
+      To: There's no place like home.* *
+
+      CHAPTER XXIV
+      Changed: * *MIRANDA GRISCOM."
+      To: *"*MIRANDA GRISCOM."
+
+      CHAPTER XXVI
+      Changed: all items accurate* * technicalities of preparation;
+      To: all items accurate*;* technicalities of preparation;
+
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+      Changed: need all the rest you can get.* *
+      To: need all the rest you can get.*"*
+
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+      Changed: had before--all your own I mean?* *
+      To: had before--all your own I mean?*"*
+
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+      Changed: any bonnet. Nothing but a pink sunbonnet.* *
+      To: any bonnet. Nothing but a pink sunbonnet.*"*
+
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+      Changed: a little old *haircloth* trunk, her own
+      To: a little old *hair-cloth* trunk, her own
+
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+      Changed: had done when* *a boy Aunt Clarinda
+      To: had done when* as *a boy Aunt Clarinda
+
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+      Changed: Kate a mere *common-place*? What was this
+      To: Kate a mere *commonplace*? What was this
+
+      CHAPTER XXIX
+      Changed: Marcia lift her *flowerlike* face, all bright
+      To: Marcia lift her *flower-like* face, all bright
+
+      AD PAGES
+      Changed: love story well told."--_Boston Transcript_*,*
+      To: love story well told."--_Boston Transcript_*.*
+
+      AD PAGES
+      Changed: by Frank Haviland. *Medalion* in color on
+      To: by Frank Haviland. *Medallion* in color on
+
+      AD PAGES
+      Changed: *Suberb* color portraits of many familiar flowers
+      To: *Superb* color portraits of many familiar flowers
+
+      AD PAGES
+      Changed: her magnificent *personalty*, her transcendent
+      To: her magnificent *personality*, her transcendent
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARCIA SCHUYLER***
+
+
+
+CREDITS
+
+
+October 20, 2007
+
+            Project Gutenberg Edition
+            Roland Schlenker and
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+
+
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+A WORD FROM PROJECT GUTENBERG
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@@ -0,0 +1,12426 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Marcia Schuyler by Grace Livingston Hill
+Lutz
+
+
+
+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 http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: Marcia Schuyler
+
+Author: Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+
+Release Date: August 2007 [Ebook #23132]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARCIA SCHUYLER***
+
+
+
+
+
+Marcia Schuyler
+
+
+by Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+
+
+
+
+Edition 1, (August 2007)
+
+
+
+
+
+                             MARCIA SCHUYLER
+
+
+                              SIXTH EDITION
+
+
+
+
+
+                 [Illustration: Copyright by C. Klackner
+     "OH, YOU NAUGHTY MAN!" SHE EXCLAIMED PRETTILY, "HOW DARE YOU!"]
+
+                        Copyright by C. Klackner
+      "OH, YOU NAUGHTY MAN!" SHE EXCLAIMED PRETTILY, "HOW DARE YOU!"
+
+
+
+
+
+                             Marcia Schuyler
+
+
+                                   by
+
+                       Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+           Author of "The Story of a Whim," "According to the
+                  Pattern," "An Unwilling Guest," etc.
+
+
+                           _Illustrations by_
+                            E. L. HENRY, N.A.
+
+
+                            GROSSET & DUNLAP
+                          PUBLISHERS . NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+                             Copyright, 1908
+                       By J. B. Lippincott Company
+
+
+                        Published February, 1908
+
+
+         _Electrotyped and printed by J. B. Lippincott Company_
+          _The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A._
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   TO
+                           THE DEAR MEMORY OF
+                                MY FATHER
+                 The Rev. CHARLES MONTGOMERY LIVINGSTON
+                  WHOSE COMPANIONSHIP AND ENCOURAGEMENT
+                        HAVE BEEN MY HELP THROUGH
+                                THE YEARS
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+CHAPTER II
+CHAPTER III
+CHAPTER IV
+CHAPTER V
+CHAPTER VI
+CHAPTER VII
+CHAPTER VIII
+CHAPTER IX
+CHAPTER X
+CHAPTER XI
+CHAPTER XII
+CHAPTER XIII
+CHAPTER XIV
+CHAPTER XV
+CHAPTER XVI
+CHAPTER XVII
+CHAPTER XVIII
+CHAPTER XIX
+CHAPTER XX
+CHAPTER XXI
+CHAPTER XXII
+CHAPTER XXIII
+CHAPTER XXIV
+CHAPTER XXV
+CHAPTER XXVI
+CHAPTER XXVII
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+CHAPTER XXIX
+AD PAGES
+ERRATA
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                             Marcia Schuyler
+
+
+                                CHAPTER I
+
+
+The sun was already up and the grass blades were twinkling with sparkles
+of dew, as Marcia stepped from the kitchen door.
+
+She wore a chocolate calico with little sprigs of red and white scattered
+over it, her hair was in smooth brown braids down her back, and there was
+a flush on her round cheeks that might have been but the reflection of the
+rosy light in the East. Her face was as untroubled as the summer morning,
+in its freshness, and her eyes as dreamy as the soft clouds that hovered
+upon the horizon uncertain where they were to be sent for the day.
+
+Marcia walked lightly through the grass, and the way behind her sparkled
+again like that of the girl in the fairy-tale who left jewels wherever she
+passed.
+
+A rail fence stopped her, which she mounted as though it had been a steed
+to carry her onward, and sat a moment looking at the beauty of the
+morning, her eyes taking on that far-away look that annoyed her stepmother
+when she wanted her to hurry with the dishes, or finish a long seam before
+it was time to get supper.
+
+She loitered but a moment, for her mind was full of business, and she
+wished to accomplish much before the day was done. Swinging easily down to
+the other side of the fence she moved on through the meadow, over another
+fence, and another meadow, skirting the edge of a cool little strip of
+woods which lured her with its green mysterious shadows, its whispering
+leaves, and twittering birds. One wistful glance she gave into the sweet
+silence, seeing a clump of maiden-hair ferns rippling their feathery locks
+in the breeze. Then resolutely turning away she sped on to the slope of
+Blackberry Hill.
+
+It was not a long climb to where the blackberries grew, and she was soon
+at work, the great luscious berries dropping into her pail almost with a
+touch. But while she worked the vision of the hills, the sheep meadow
+below, the river winding between the neighboring farms, melted away, and
+she did not even see the ripe fruit before her, because she was planning
+the new frock she was to buy with these berries she had come to pick.
+
+Pink and white it was to be; she had seen it in the store the last time
+she went for sugar and spice. There were dainty sprigs of pink over the
+white ground, and every berry that dropped into her bright pail was no
+longer a berry but a sprig of pink chintz. While she worked she went over
+her plans for the day.
+
+There had been busy times at the old house during the past weeks. Kate,
+her elder sister, was to be married. It was only a few days now to the
+wedding.
+
+There had been a whole year of preparation: spinning and weaving and fine
+sewing. The smooth white linen lay ready, packed between rose leaves and
+lavender. There had been yards and yards of tatting and embroidery made by
+the two girls for the trousseau, and the village dressmaker had spent days
+at the house, cutting, fitting, shirring, till now there was a goodly
+array of gorgeous apparel piled high upon bed, and chairs, and hanging in
+the closets of the great spare bedroom. The outfit was as fine as that
+made for Patience Hartrandt six months before, and Mr. Hartrandt had given
+his one daughter all she had asked for in the way of a "setting out." Kate
+had seen to it that her things were as fine as Patience's,--but, they were
+all for Kate!
+
+Of course, that was right! Kate was to be married, not Marcia, and
+everything must make way for that. Marcia was scarcely more than a child
+as yet, barely seventeen. No one thought of anything new for her just
+then, and she did not expect it. But into her heart there had stolen a
+longing for a new frock herself amid all this finery for Kate. She had her
+best one of course. That was good, and pretty, and quite nice enough to
+wear to the wedding, and her stepmother had taken much relief in the
+thought that Marcia would need nothing during the rush of getting Kate
+ready.
+
+But there were people coming to the house every day, especially in the
+afternoons, friends of Kate, and of her stepmother, to be shown Kate's
+wardrobe, and to talk things over curiously. Marcia could not wear her
+best dress all the time. And _he_ was coming! That was the way Marcia
+always denominated the prospective bridegroom in her mind.
+
+His name was David Spafford, and Kate often called him Dave, but Marcia,
+even to herself, could never bring herself to breathe the name so
+familiarly. She held him in great awe. He was so fine and strong and good,
+with a face like a young saint in some old picture, she thought. She often
+wondered how her wild, sparkling sister Kate dared to be so familiar with
+him. She had ventured the thought once when she watched Kate dressing to
+go out with some young people and preening herself like a bird of Paradise
+before the glass. It all came over her, the vanity and frivolousness of
+the life that Kate loved, and she spoke out with conviction:
+
+"Kate, you'll have to be very different when you're married." Kate had
+faced about amusedly and asked why.
+
+"Because _he_ is so good," Marcia had replied, unable to explain further.
+
+"Oh, is that all?" said the daring sister, wheeling back to the glass.
+"Don't you worry; I'll soon take that out of him."
+
+But Kate's indifference had never lessened her young sister's awe of her
+prospective brother-in-law. She had listened to his conversations with her
+father during the brief visits he had made, and she had watched his face
+at church while he and Kate sang together as the minister lined it out:
+"Rock of Ages cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee," a new song which
+had just been written. And she had mused upon the charmed life Kate would
+lead. It was wonderful to be a woman and be loved as Kate was loved,
+thought Marcia.
+
+So in all the hurry no one seemed to think much about Marcia, and she was
+not satisfied with her brown delaine afternoon dress. Truth to tell, it
+needed letting down, and there was no more left to let down. It made her
+feel like last year to go about in it with her slender ankles so plainly
+revealed. So she set her heart upon the new chintz.
+
+Now, with Marcia, to decide was to do. She did not speak to her stepmother
+about it, for she knew it would be useless; neither did she think it worth
+while to go to her father, for she knew that both his wife and Kate would
+find it out and charge her with useless expense just now when there were
+so many other uses for money, and they were anxious to have it all flow
+their way. She had an independent spirit, so she took the time that
+belonged to herself, and went to the blackberry patch which belonged to
+everybody.
+
+Marcia's fingers were nimble and accustomed, and the sun was not very high
+in the heavens when she had finished her task and turned happily toward
+the village. The pails would not hold another berry.
+
+Her cheeks were glowing with the sun and exercise, and little wisps of
+wavy curls had escaped about her brow, damp with perspiration. Her eyes
+were shining with her purpose, half fulfilled, as she hastened down the
+hill.
+
+Crossing a field she met Hanford Weston with a rake over his shoulder and
+a wide-brimmed straw hat like a small shed over him. He was on his way to
+the South meadow. He blushed and greeted her as she passed shyly by. When
+she had passed he paused and looked admiringly after her. They had been in
+the same classes at school all winter, the girl at the head, the boy at
+the foot. But Hanford Weston's father owned the largest farm in all the
+country round about, and he felt that did not so much matter. He would
+rather see Marcia at the head anyway, though there never had been the
+slightest danger that he would take her place. He felt a sudden desire now
+to follow her. It would be a pleasure to carry those pails that she bore
+as if they were mere featherweights.
+
+He watched her long, elastic step for a moment, considered the sun in the
+sky, and his father's command about the South meadow, and then strode
+after her.
+
+It did not take long to reach her side, swiftly as she had gone.
+
+As well as he could, with the sudden hotness in his face and the tremor in
+his throat, he made out to ask if he might carry her burden for her.
+Marcia stopped annoyed. She had forgotten all about him, though he was an
+attractive fellow, sometimes called by the girls "handsome Hanford."
+
+She had been planning exactly how that pink sprigged chintz was to be
+made, and which parts she would cut first in order to save time and
+material. She did not wish to be interrupted. The importance of the matter
+was too great to be marred by the appearance of just a schoolmate whom she
+might meet every day, and whom she could so easily "spell down." She
+summoned her thoughts from the details of mutton-leg sleeves and looked
+the boy over, to his great confusion. She did not want him along, and she
+was considering how best to get rid of him.
+
+"Weren't you going somewhere else?" she asked sweetly. "Wasn't there a
+rake over your shoulder? What have you done with it?"
+
+The culprit blushed deeper.
+
+"Where were you going?" she demanded.
+
+"To the South meadow," he stammered out.
+
+"Oh, well, then you must go back. I shall do quite well, thank you. Your
+father will not be pleased to have you neglect your work for me, though
+I'm much obliged I'm sure."
+
+Was there some foreshadowing of her womanhood in the decided way she
+spoke, and the quaint, prim set of her head as she bowed him good morning
+and went on her way once more? The boy did not understand. He only felt
+abashed, and half angry that she had ordered him back to work; and, too,
+in a tone that forbade him to take her memory with him as he went.
+Nevertheless her image lingered by the way, and haunted the South meadow
+all day long as he worked.
+
+Marcia, unconscious of the admiration she had stirred in the boyish heart,
+went her way on fleet feet, her spirit one with the sunny morning, her
+body light with anticipation, for a new frock of her own choice was yet an
+event in her life.
+
+She had thought many times, as she spent long hours putting delicate
+stitches into her sister's wedding garments, how it would seem if they
+were being made for her. She had whiled away many a dreary seam by
+thinking out, in a sort of dream-story, how she would put on this or that
+at will if it were her own, and go here or there, and have people love and
+admire her as they did Kate. It would never come true, of course. She
+never expected to be admired and loved like Kate. Kate was beautiful,
+bright and gay. Everybody loved her, no matter how she treated them. It
+was a matter of course for Kate to have everything she wanted. Marcia felt
+that she never could attain to such heights. In the first place she
+considered her own sweet serious face with its pure brown eyes as
+exceedingly plain. She could not catch the lights that played at hide and
+seek in her eyes when she talked with animation. Indeed few saw her at her
+best, because she seldom talked freely. It was only with certain people
+that she could forget herself.
+
+She did not envy Kate. She was proud of her sister, and loved her, though
+there was an element of anxiety in the love. But she never thought of her
+many faults. She felt that they were excusable because Kate was Kate. It
+was as if you should find fault with a wild rose because it carried a
+thorn. Kate was set about with many a thorn, but amid them all she
+bloomed, her fragrant pink self, as apparently unconscious of the many
+pricks she gave, and as unconcerned, as the flower itself.
+
+So Marcia never thought to be jealous that Kate had so many lovely things,
+and was going out into the world to do just as she pleased, and lead a
+charmed life with a man who was greater in the eyes of this girl than any
+prince that ever walked in fairy-tale. But she saw no harm in playing a
+delightful little dream-game of "pretend" now and then, and letting her
+imagination make herself the beautiful, admired, elder sister instead of
+the plain younger one.
+
+But this morning on her way to the village store with her berries she
+thought no more of her sister's things, for her mind was upon her own
+little frock which she would purchase with the price of the berries, and
+then go home and make.
+
+A whole long day she had to herself, for Kate and her stepmother were gone
+up to the neighboring town on the packet to make a few last purchases.
+
+She had told no one of her plans, and was awake betimes in the morning to
+see the travellers off, eager to have them gone that she might begin to
+carry out her plan.
+
+Just at the edge of the village Marcia put down the pails of berries by a
+large flat stone and sat down for a moment to tidy herself. The lacing of
+one shoe had come untied, and her hair was rumpled by exercise. But she
+could not sit long to rest, and taking up her burdens was soon upon the
+way again.
+
+Mary Ann Fothergill stepped from her own gate lingering till Marcia should
+come up, and the two girls walked along side by side. Mary Ann had stiff,
+straight, light hair, and high cheek bones. Her eyes were light and her
+eyelashes almost white. They did not show up well beneath her checked
+sunbonnet. Her complexion was dull and tanned. She was a contrast to
+Marcia with her clear red and white skin. She was tall and awkward and
+wore a linsey-woolsey frock as though it were a meal sack temporarily
+appropriated. She had the air of always trying to hide her feet and hands.
+Mary Ann had some fine qualities, but beauty was not one of them. Beside
+her Marcia's delicate features showed clear-cut like a cameo, and her
+every movement spoke of patrician blood.
+
+Mary Ann regarded Marcia's smooth brown braids enviously. Her own sparse
+hair barely reached to her shoulders, and straggled about her neck
+helplessly and hopelessly, in spite of her constant efforts.
+
+"It must be lots of fun at your house these days," said Mary Ann
+wistfully. "Are you most ready for the wedding?"
+
+Marcia nodded. Her eyes were bright. She could see the sign of the village
+store just ahead and knew the bolts of new chintz were displaying their
+charms in the window.
+
+"My, but your cheeks do look pretty," admired Mary Ann impulsively. "Say,
+how many of each has your sister got?"
+
+"Two dozens," said Marcia conscious of a little swelling of pride in her
+breast. It was not every girl that had such a setting out as her sister.
+
+"My!" sighed Mary Ann. "And outside things, too. I 'spose she's got one of
+every color. What are her frocks? Tell me about them. I've been up to
+Dutchess county and just got back last night, but Ma wrote Aunt Tilly that
+Mis' Hotchkiss said her frocks was the prettiest Miss Hancock's ever sewed
+on."
+
+"We think they are pretty," admitted Marcia modestly. "There's a sprigged
+chin--" here she caught herself, remembering, and laughed. "I mean
+muslin-de-laine, and a blue delaine, and a blue silk----"
+
+"My! silk!" breathed Mary Ann in an ecstasy of wonder. "And what's she
+going to be married in?"
+
+"White," answered Marcia, "white satin. And the veil was mother's--our own
+mother's, you know."
+
+Marcia spoke it reverently, her eyes shining with something far away that
+made Mary Ann think she looked like an angel.
+
+"Oh, my! Don't you just envy her?"
+
+"No," said Marcia slowly; "I think not. At least--I hope not. It wouldn't
+be right, you know. And then she's my sister and I love her dearly, and
+it's nearly as nice to have one's sister have nice things and a good time
+as to have them one's self."
+
+"You're good," said Mary Ann decidedly as if that were a foregone
+conclusion. "But I should envy her, I just should. Mis' Hotchkiss told Ma
+there wa'nt many lots in life so all honey-and-dew-prepared like your
+sister's. All the money she wanted to spend on clo'es, and a nice set out,
+and a man as handsome as you'll find anywhere, and he's well off too,
+ain't he? Ma said she heard he kept a horse and lived right in the village
+too, not as how he needed to keep one to get anywhere, either. That's what
+I call luxury--a horse to ride around with. And then Mr. What's-his-name? I
+can't remember. Oh, yes, Spafford. He's good, and everybody says he won't
+make a bit of fuss if Kate does go around and have a good time. He'll just
+let her do as she pleases. Only old Grandma Doolittle says she doesn't
+believe it. She thinks every man, no matter how good he is, wants to
+manage his wife, just for the name of it. She says your sister'll have to
+change her ways or else there'll be trouble. But that's Grandma! Everybody
+knows her. She croaks! Ma says Kate's got her nest feathered well if ever
+a girl had. My! I only wish I had the same chance!"
+
+Marcia held her head a trifle high when Mary Ann touched upon her sister's
+personal character, but they were nearing the store, and everybody knew
+Mary Ann was blunt. Poor Mary Ann! She meant no harm. She was but
+repeating the village gossip. Besides, Marcia must give her mind to
+sprigged chintz. There was no time for discussions if she would accomplish
+her purpose before the folks came home that night.
+
+"Mary Ann," she said in her sweet, prim way that always made the other
+girl stand a little in awe of her, "you mustn't listen to gossip. It isn't
+worth while. I'm sure my sister Kate will be very happy. I'm going in the
+store now, are you?" And the conversation was suddenly concluded.
+
+Mary Ann followed meekly watching with wonder and envy as Marcia made her
+bargain with the kindly merchant, and selected her chintz. What a
+delicious swish the scissors made as they went through the width of cloth,
+and how delightfully the paper crackled as the bundle was being wrapped!
+Mary Ann did not know whether Kate or Marcia was more to be envied.
+
+"Did you say you were going to make it up yourself?" asked Mary Ann.
+
+Marcia nodded.
+
+"Oh, my! Ain't you afraid? I would be. It's the prettiest I ever saw.
+Don't you go and cut both sleeves for one arm. That's what I did the only
+time Ma ever let me try." And Mary Ann touched the package under Marcia's
+arm with wistful fingers.
+
+They had reached the turn of the road and Mary Ann hoped that Marcia would
+ask her out to "help," but Marcia had no such purpose.
+
+"Well, good-bye! Will you wear it next Sunday?" she asked.
+
+"Perhaps," answered Marcia breathlessly, and sped on her homeward way, her
+cheeks bright with excitement.
+
+                 [Illustration: Copyright by C. Klackner
+   KATE AND HER STEPMOTHER WERE GONE UP TO THE NEIGHBORING TOWN ON THE
+                                 PACKET.]
+
+                        Copyright by C. Klackner
+   KATE AND HER STEPMOTHER WERE GONE UP TO THE NEIGHBORING TOWN ON THE
+                                 PACKET.
+
+
+In her own room she spread the chintz out upon the bed and with trembling
+fingers set about her task. The bright shears clipped the edge and tore
+off the lengths exultantly as if in league with the girl. The bees hummed
+outside in the clover, and now and again buzzed between the muslin
+curtains of the open window, looked in and grumbled out again. The birds
+sang across the meadows and the sun mounted to the zenith and began its
+downward march, but still the busy fingers worked on. Well for Marcia's
+scheme that the fashion of the day was simple, wherein were few puckers
+and plaits and tucks, and little trimming required, else her task would
+have been impossible.
+
+Her heart beat high as she tried it on at last, the new chintz that she
+had made. She went into the spare room and stood before the long mirror in
+its wide gilt frame that rested on two gilt knobs standing out from the
+wall like giant rosettes. She had dared to make the skirt a little longer
+than that of her best frock. It was almost as long as Kate's, and for a
+moment she lingered, sweeping backward and forward before the glass and
+admiring herself in the long graceful folds. She caught up her braids in
+the fashion that Kate wore her hair and smiled at the reflection of
+herself in the mirror. How funny it seemed to think she would soon be a
+woman like Kate. When Kate was gone they would begin to call her "Miss"
+sometimes. Somehow she did not care to look ahead. The present seemed
+enough. She had so wrapped her thoughts in her sister's new life that her
+own seemed flat and stale in comparison.
+
+The sound of a distant hay wagon on the road reminded her that the sun was
+near to setting. The family carryall would soon be coming up the lane from
+the evening packet. She must hurry and take off her frock and be dressed
+before they arrived.
+
+Marcia was so tired that night after supper that she was glad to slip away
+to bed, without waiting to hear Kate's voluble account of her day in town,
+the beauties she had seen and the friends she had met.
+
+She lay down and dreamed of the morrow, and of the next day, and the next.
+In strange bewilderment she awoke in the night and found the moonlight
+streaming full into her face. Then she laughed and rubbed her eyes and
+tried to go to sleep again; but she could not, for she had dreamed that
+she was the bride herself, and the words of Mary Ann kept going over and
+over in her mind. "Oh, don't you envy her?" _Did_ she envy her sister? But
+that was wicked. It troubled her to think of it, and she tried to banish
+the dream, but it would come again and again with a strange sweet
+pleasure.
+
+She lay wondering if such a time of joy would ever come to her as had come
+to Kate, and whether the spare bed would ever be piled high with clothes
+and fittings for her new life. What a wonderful thing it was anyway to be
+a woman and be loved!
+
+Then her dreams blended again with the soft perfume of the honeysuckle at
+the window, and the hooting of a young owl.
+
+The moon dropped lower, the bright stars paled, dawn stole up through the
+edges of the woods far away and awakened a day that was to bring a strange
+transformation over Marcia's life.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER II
+
+
+As a natural consequence of her hard work and her midnight awakening,
+Marcia overslept the next morning. Her stepmother called her sharply and
+she dressed in haste, not even taking time to glance toward the new folds
+of chintz that drew her thoughts closetward. She dared not say anything
+about it yet. There was much to be done, and not even Kate had time for an
+idle word with her. Marcia was called upon to run errands, to do odds and
+ends of things, to fill in vacant places, to sew on lost buttons, to do
+everything for which nobody else had time. The household had suddenly
+become aware that there was now but one more intervening day between them
+and the wedding.
+
+It was not until late in the afternoon that Marcia ventured to put on her
+frock. Even then she felt shy about appearing in it.
+
+Madam Schuyler was busy in the parlor with callers, and Kate was locked in
+her own room whither she had gone to rest. There was no one to notice if
+Marcia should "dress up," and it was not unlikely that she might escape
+much notice even at the supper table, as everybody was so absorbed in
+other things.
+
+She lingered before her own little glass looking wistfully at herself. She
+was pleased with the frock she had made and liked her appearance in it,
+but yet there was something disappointing about it. It had none of the
+style of her sister's garments, newly come from the hand of the village
+mantua-maker. It was girlish, and showed her slip of a form prettily in
+the fashion of the day, but she felt too young. She wanted to look older.
+She searched her drawer and found a bit of black velvet which she pinned
+about her throat with a pin containing the miniature of her mother, then
+with a second thought she drew the long braids up in loops and fastened
+them about her head in older fashion. It suited her well, and the change
+it made astonished her. She decided to wear them so and see if others
+would notice. Surely, some day she would be a young woman, and perhaps
+then she would be allowed to have a will of her own occasionally.
+
+She drew a quick breath as she descended the stairs and found her
+stepmother and the visitor just coming into the hall from the parlor.
+
+They both involuntarily ceased their talk and looked at her in surprise.
+Over Madam Schuyler's face there came a look as if she had received a
+revelation. Marcia was no longer a child, but had suddenly blossomed into
+young womanhood. It was not the time she would have chosen for such an
+event. There was enough going on, and Marcia was still in school. She had
+no desire to steer another young soul through the various dangers and
+follies that beset a pretty girl from the time she puts up her hair until
+she is safely married to the right man--or the wrong one. She had just
+begun to look forward with relief to having Kate well settled in life.
+Kate had been a hard one to manage. She had too much will of her own and a
+pretty way of always having it. She had no deep sense of reverence for
+old, staid manners and customs. Many a long lecture had Madam Schuyler
+delivered to Kate upon her unseemly ways. It did not please her to think
+of having to go through it all so soon again, therefore upon her usually
+complacent brow there came a look of dismay.
+
+"Why!" exclaimed the visitor, "is this the bride? How tall she looks! No!
+Bless me! it isn't, is it? Yes,--Well! I'll declare. It's just Marsh! What
+have you got on, child? How old you look!"
+
+Marcia flushed. It was not pleasant to have her young womanhood
+questioned, and in a tone so familiar and patronizing. She disliked the
+name of "Marsh" exceedingly, especially upon the lips of this woman, a
+sort of second cousin of her stepmother's. She would rather have chosen
+the new frock to pass under inspection of her stepmother without
+witnesses, but it was too late to turn back now. She must face it.
+
+Though Madam Schuyler's equilibrium was a trifle disturbed, she was not
+one to show it before a visitor. Instantly she recovered her balance, and
+perhaps Marcia's ordeal was less trying than if there had been no third
+person present.
+
+"That looks very well, child!" she said critically with a shade of
+complacence in her voice. It is true that Marcia had gone beyond orders in
+purchasing and making garments unknown to her, yet the neatness and fit
+could but reflect well upon her training. It did no harm for cousin Maria
+to see what a child of her training could do. It was, on the whole, a very
+creditable piece of work, and Madam Schuyler grew more reconciled to it as
+Marcia came down toward them.
+
+"Make it herself?" asked cousin Maria. "Why, Marsh, you did real well. My
+Matilda does all her own clothes now. It's time you were learning. It's a
+trifle longish to what you've been wearing them, isn't it? But you'll grow
+into it, I dare say. Got your hair a new way too. I thought you were Kate
+when you first started down stairs. You'll make a good-looking young lady
+when you grow up; only don't be in too much hurry. Take your girlhood
+while you've got it, is what I always tell Matilda."
+
+Matilda was well on to thirty and showed no signs of taking anything else.
+
+Madam Schuyler smoothed an imaginary pucker across the shoulders and again
+pronounced the work good.
+
+"I picked berries and got the cloth," confessed Marcia.
+
+Madam Schuyler smiled benevolently and patted Marcia's cheek.
+
+"You needn't have done that, child. Why didn't you come to me for money?
+You needed something new, and that is a very good purchase, a little
+light, perhaps, but very pretty. We've been so busy with Kate's things you
+have been neglected."
+
+Marcia smiled with pleasure and passed into the dining room wondering what
+power the visitor had over her stepmother to make her pass over this
+digression from her rules so sweetly,--nay, even with praise.
+
+At supper they all rallied Marcia upon her changed appearance. Her father
+jokingly said that when the bridegroom arrived he would hardly know which
+sister to choose, and he looked from one comely daughter to the other with
+fatherly pride. He praised Marcia for doing the work so neatly, and
+inwardly admired the courage and independence that prompted her to get the
+money by her own unaided efforts rather than to ask for it, and later, as
+he passed through the room where she was helping to remove the dishes from
+the table, he paused and handed her a crisp five-dollar note. It had
+occurred to him that one daughter was getting all the good things and the
+other was having nothing. There was a pleasant tenderness in his eyes, a
+recognition of her rights as a young woman, that made Marcia's heart
+exceedingly light. There was something strange about the influence this
+little new frock seemed to have upon people.
+
+Even Kate had taken a new tone with her. Much of the time at supper she
+had sat staring at her sister. Marcia wondered about it as she walked down
+toward the gate after her work was done. Kate had never seemed so quiet.
+Was she just beginning to realize that she was leaving home forever, and
+was she thinking how the home would be after she had left it? How she,
+Marcia, would take the place of elder sister, with only little Harriet and
+the boys, their stepsister and brothers, left? Was Kate sad over the
+thought of going so far away from them, or was she feeling suddenly the
+responsibility of the new position she was to occupy and the duties that
+would be hers? No, that could not be it, for surely that would bring a
+softening of expression, a sweetness of anticipation, and Kate's
+expression had been wondering, perplexed, almost troubled. If she had not
+been her own sister Marcia would have added, "hard," but she stopped short
+at that.
+
+It was a lovely evening. The twilight was not yet over as she stepped from
+the low piazza that ran the length of the house bearing another above it
+on great white pillars. A drapery of wistaria in full bloom festooned
+across one end and half over the front. Marcia stepped back across the
+stone flagging and driveway to look up the purple clusters of graceful
+fairy-like shape that embowered the house, and thought how beautiful it
+would look when the wedding guests should arrive the day after the morrow.
+Then she turned into the little gravel path, box-bordered, that led to the
+gate. Here and there on either side luxuriant blooms of dahlias, peonies
+and roses leaned over into the night and peered at her. The yard had never
+looked so pretty. The flowers truly had done their best for the occasion,
+and they seemed to be asking some word of commendation from her.
+
+They nodded their dewy heads sleepily as she went on.
+
+To-morrow the children would be coming back from Aunt Eliza's, where they
+had been sent safely out of the way for a few days, and the last things
+would arrive,--and _he_ would come. Not later than three in the afternoon
+he ought to arrive, Kate had said, though there was a possibility that he
+might come in the morning, but Kate was not counting upon it. He was to
+drive from his home to Schenectady and, leaving his own horse there to
+rest, come on by coach. Then he and Kate would go back in fine style to
+Schenectady in a coach and pair, with a colored coachman, and at
+Schenectady take their own horse and drive on to their home, a long
+beautiful ride, so thought Marcia half enviously. How beautiful it would
+be! What endless delightful talks they might have about the trees and
+birds and things they saw in passing only Kate did not love to talk about
+such things. But then she would be with David, and he talked beautifully
+about nature or anything else. Kate would learn to love it if she loved
+him. Did Kate love David? Of course she must or why should she marry him?
+Marcia resented the thought that Kate might have other objects in view,
+such as Mary Ann Fothergill had suggested for instance. Of course Kate
+would never marry any man unless she loved him. That would be a dreadful
+thing to do. Love was the greatest thing in the world. Marcia looked up to
+the stars, her young soul thrilling with awe and reverence for the great
+mysteries of life. She wondered again if life would open sometime for her
+in some such great way, and if she would ever know better than now what it
+meant. Would some one come and love her? Some one whom she could love in
+return with all the fervor of her nature?
+
+She had dreamed such dreams before many times, as girls will, while lovers
+and future are all in one dreamy, sweet blending of rosy tints and joyous
+mystery, but never had they come to her with such vividness as that night.
+Perhaps it was because the household had recognized the woman in her for
+the first time that evening. Perhaps because the vision she had seen
+reflected in her mirror before she left her room that afternoon had opened
+the door of the future a little wider than it had ever opened before.
+
+She stood by the gate where the syringa and lilac bushes leaned over and
+arched the way, and the honeysuckle climbed about the fence in a wild
+pretty way of its own and flung sweetness on the air in vivid, erratic
+whiffs.
+
+The sidewalk outside was brick, and whenever she heard footsteps coming
+she stepped back into the shadow of the syringa and was hidden from view.
+She was in no mood to talk with any one.
+
+She could look out into the dusty road and see dimly the horses and
+carryalls as they passed, and recognize an occasional laughing voice of
+some village maiden out with her best young man for a ride. Others
+strolled along the sidewalk, and fragments of talk floated back. Almost
+every one had a word to say about the wedding as they neared the gate, and
+if Marcia had been in another mood it would have been interesting and
+gratifying to her pride. Every one had a good word for Kate, though many
+disapproved of her in a general way for principle's sake.
+
+Hanford Weston passed, with long, slouching gait, hands in his trousers
+pockets, and a frightened, hasty, sideways glance toward the lights of the
+house beyond. He would have gone in boldly to call if he had dared, and
+told Marcia that he had done her bidding and now wanted a reward, but John
+Middleton had joined him at the corner and he dared not make the attempt.
+John would have done it in a minute if he had wished. He was brazen by
+nature, but Hanford knew that he would as readily laugh at another for
+doing it. Hanford shrank from a laugh more than from the cannon's mouth,
+so he slouched on, not knowing that his goddess held her breath behind a
+lilac bush not three feet away, her heart beating in annoyed taps to be
+again interrupted by him in her pleasant thoughts.
+
+Merry, laughing voices mingling with many footsteps came sounding down the
+street and paused beside the gate. Marcia knew the voices and again slid
+behind the shrubbery that bordered all the way to the house, and not even
+a gleam of her light frock was visible. They trooped in, three or four
+girl friends of Kate's and a couple of young men.
+
+Marcia watched them pass up the box-bordered path from her shadowy
+retreat, and thought how they would miss Kate, and wondered if the young
+men who had been coming there so constantly to see her had no pangs of
+heart that their friend and leader was about to leave them. Then she
+smiled at herself in the dark. She seemed to be doing the retrospect for
+Kate, taking leave of all the old friends, home, and life, in Kate's
+place. It was not her life anyway, and why should she bother herself and
+sigh and feel this sadness creeping over her for some one else? Was it
+that she was going to lose her sister? No, for Kate had never been much of
+a companion to her. She had always put her down as a little girl and made
+distinct and clear the difference in their ages. Marcia had been the
+little maid to fetch and carry, the errand girl, and unselfish, devoted
+slave in Kate's life. There had been nothing protective and elder-sisterly
+in her manner toward Marcia. At times Marcia had felt this keenly, but no
+expression of this lack had ever crossed her lips, and afterwards her
+devotion to her sister had been the greater, to in a measure compensate
+for this reproachful thought.
+
+But Marcia could not shake the sadness off. She stole in further among the
+trees to think about it till the callers should go away. She felt no
+desire to meet any of them.
+
+She began again to wonder how she would feel if day after to-morrow were
+her wedding day, and she were going away from home and friends and all the
+scenes with which she had been familiar since babyhood. Would she mind
+very much leaving them all? Father? Yes, father had been good to her, and
+loved her and was proud of her in a way. But one does not lose one's
+father no matter how far one goes. A father is a father always; and Mr.
+Schuyler was not a demonstrative man. Marcia felt that her father would
+not miss her deeply, and she was not sure she would miss him so very much.
+She had read to him a great deal and talked politics with him whenever he
+had no one better by, but aside from that her life had been lived much
+apart from him. Her stepmother? Yes, she would miss her as one misses a
+perfect mentor and guide. She had been used to looking to her for
+direction. She was thoroughly conscious that she had a will of her own and
+would like a chance to exercise it, still, she knew that in many cases
+without her stepmother she would be like a rudderless ship, a guideless
+traveller. And she loved her stepmother too, as a young girl can love a
+good woman who has been her guide and helper, even though there never has
+been great tenderness between them. Yes, she would miss her stepmother,
+but she would not feel so very sad over it. Harriet and the little
+brothers? Oh, yes, she would miss them, they were dear little things and
+devoted to her.
+
+Then there were the neighbors, and the schoolmates, and the people of the
+village. She would miss the minister,--the dear old minister and his wife.
+Many a time she had gone with her arms full of flowers to the parsonage
+down the street, and spent the afternoon with the minister's wife. Her
+smooth white hair under its muslin cap, and her soft wrinkled cheek were
+very dear to the young girl. She had talked to this friend more freely
+about her innermost thoughts than she had ever spoken to any living being.
+Oh, she would miss the minister's wife very much if she were to go away.
+
+The names of her schoolmates came to her. Harriet Woodgate, Eliza
+Buchanan, Margaret Fletcher, three girls who were her intimates. She would
+miss them, of course, but how much? She could scarcely tell. Margaret
+Fletcher more than the other two. Mary Ann Fothergill? She almost laughed
+at the thought of anybody missing Mary Ann. John Middleton? Hanford
+Weston? There was not a boy in the school she would miss for an instant,
+she told herself with conviction. Not one of them realized her ideal.
+There was much pairing off of boy and girl in school, but Marcia, like the
+heroine of "Comin' thro' the Rye," was good friends with all the boys and
+intimate with none. They all counted it an honor to wait upon her, and she
+cared not a farthing for any. She felt herself too young, of course, to
+think of such things, but when she dreamed her day dreams the lover and
+prince who figured in them bore no familiar form or feature. He was a
+prince and these were only schoolboys.
+
+The merry chatter of the young people in the house floated through the
+open windows, and Marcia could hear her sister's voice above them all.
+Chameleon-like she was all gaiety and laughter now, since her gravity at
+supper.
+
+They were coming out the front door and down the walk. Kate was with them.
+Marcia could catch glimpses of the girls' white frocks as they came
+nearer. She saw that her sister was walking with Captain Leavenworth. He
+was a handsome young man who made a fine appearance in his uniform. He and
+Kate had been intimate for two years, and it might have been more than
+friendship had not Kate's father interfered between them. He did not think
+so well of the handsome young captain as did either his daughter Kate or
+the United States Navy who had given him his position. Squire Schuyler
+required deep integrity and strength of moral character in the man who
+aspired to be his son-in-law. The captain did not number much of either
+among his virtues.
+
+There had been a short, sharp contest which had ended in the departure of
+young Leavenworth from the town some three years before, and the temporary
+plunging of Kate Schuyler into a season of tears and pouting. But it had
+not been long before her gay laughter was ringing again, and her father
+thought she had forgotten. About that time David Spafford had appeared and
+promptly fallen in love with the beautiful girl, and the Schuyler mind was
+relieved. So it came about that, upon the reappearance of the handsome
+young captain wearing the insignia of his first honors, the Squire
+received him graciously. He even felt that he might be more lenient about
+his moral character, and told himself that perhaps he was not so bad after
+all, he must have something in him or the United States government would
+not have seen fit to honor him. It was easier to think so, now Kate was
+safe.
+
+Marcia watched her sister and the captain go laughing down to the gate,
+and out into the street. She wondered that Kate could care to go out
+to-night when it was to be almost her last evening at home; wondered, too,
+that Kate would walk with Captain Leavenworth when she belonged to David
+now. She might have managed it to go with one of the girls. But that was
+Kate's way. Kate's ways were not Marcia's ways.
+
+Marcia wondered if she would miss Kate, and was obliged to acknowledge to
+herself that in many ways her sister's absence would be a relief to her.
+While she recognized the power of her sister's beauty and will over her,
+she felt oppressed sometimes by the strain she was under to please, and
+wearied of the constant, half-fretful, half playful fault-finding.
+
+The gay footsteps and voices died away down the village street, and Marcia
+ventured forth from her retreat. The moon was just rising and came up a
+glorious burnished disk, silhouetting her face as she stood a moment
+listening to the stirring of a bird among the branches. It was her will
+to-night to be alone and let her fancies wander where they would. The
+beauty and the mystery of a wedding was upon her, touching all her deeper
+feelings, and she wished to dream it out and wonder over it. Again it came
+to her what if the day after the morrow were her wedding day and she stood
+alone thinking about it. She would not have gone off down the street with
+a lot of giggling girls nor walked with another young man. She would have
+stood here, or down by the gate--and she moved on toward her favorite arch
+of lilac and syringa--yes, down by the gate in the darkness looking out and
+thinking how it would be when he should come. She felt sure if it had been
+herself who expected David she would have begun to watch for him a week
+before the time he had set for coming, heralding it again and again to her
+heart in joyous thrills of happiness, for who knew but he might come
+sooner and surprise her? She would have rejoiced that to-night she was
+alone, and would have excused herself from everything else to come down
+there in the stillness and watch for him, and think how it would be when
+he would really get there. She would hear his step echoing down the street
+and would recognize it as his. She would lean far over the gate to listen
+and watch, and it would come nearer and nearer, and her heart would beat
+faster and faster, and her breath come quicker, until he was at last by
+her side, his beautiful surprise for her in his eyes. But now, if David
+should really try to surprise Kate by coming that way to-night he would
+not find her waiting nor thinking of him at all, but off with Captain
+Leavenworth.
+
+With a passing pity for David she went back to her own dream. With one
+elbow on the gate and her cheek in her hand she thought it all over. The
+delayed evening coach rumbled up to the tavern not far away and halted.
+Real footsteps came up the street, but Marcia did not notice them only as
+they made more vivid her thoughts.
+
+Her dream went on and the steps drew nearer until suddenly they halted and
+some one appeared out of the shadow. Her heart stood still, for form and
+face in the darkness seemed unreal, and the dreams had been most vivid.
+Then with tender masterfulness two strong arms were flung about her and
+her face was drawn close to his across the vine-twined gate until her lips
+touched his. One long clinging kiss of tenderness he gave her and held her
+head close against his breast for just a moment while he murmured: "My
+darling! My precious, precious Kate, I have you at last!"
+
+The spell was broken! Marcia's dream was shattered. Her mind awoke. With a
+scream she sprang from him, horror and a wild but holy joy mingling with
+her perplexity. She put her hand upon her heart, marvelling over the
+sweetness that lingered upon her lips, trying to recover her senses as she
+faced the eager lover who opened the little gate and came quickly toward
+her, as yet unaware that it was not Kate to whom he had been talking.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER III
+
+
+Marcia stood quivering, trembling. She comprehended all in an instant.
+David Spafford had come a day earlier than he had been expected, to
+surprise Kate, and Kate was off having a good time with some one else. He
+had mistaken her for Kate. Her long dress and her put-up hair had deceived
+him in the moonlight. She tried to summon some womanly courage, and in her
+earnestness to make things right she forgot her natural timidity.
+
+"It is not Kate," she said gently; "it is only Marcia. Kate did not know
+you were coming to-night. She did not expect you till to-morrow. She had
+to go out,--that is--she has gone with--" the truthful, youthful, troubled
+sister paused. To her mind it was a calamity that Kate was not present to
+meet her lover. She should at least have been in the house ready for a
+surprise like this. Would David not feel the omission keenly? She must
+keep it from him if she could about Captain Leavenworth. There was no
+reason why he should feel badly about it, of course, and yet it might
+annoy him. But he stepped back laughing at his mistake.
+
+"Why! Marcia, is it you, child? How you have grown! I never should have
+known you!" said the young man pleasantly. He had always a grave
+tenderness for this little sister of his love. "Of course your sister did
+not know I was coming," he went on, "and doubtless she has many things to
+attend to. I did not expect her to be out here watching for me, though for
+a moment I did think she was at the gate. You say she is gone out? Then we
+will go up to the house and I will be there to surprise her when she
+comes."
+
+Marcia turned with relief. He had not asked where Kate was gone, nor with
+whom.
+
+The Squire and Madam Schuyler greeted the arrival with elaborate welcome.
+The Squire like Marcia seemed much annoyed that Kate had gone out. He kept
+fuming back and forth from the window to the door and asking: "What did
+she go out for to-night? She ought to have stayed at home!"
+
+But Madam Schuyler wore ample satisfaction upon her smooth brow. The
+bridegroom had arrived. There could be no further hitch in the ceremonies.
+He had arrived a day before the time, it is true; but he had not found
+_her_ unprepared. So far as she was concerned, with a few extra touches
+the wedding might proceed at once. She was always ready for everything in
+time. No one could find a screw loose in the machinery of her household.
+
+She bustled about, giving orders and laying a bountiful supper before the
+young man, while the Squire sat and talked with him, and Marcia hovered
+watchfully, waiting upon the table, noticing with admiring eyes the
+beautiful wave of his abundant hair, tossed back from his forehead. She
+took a kind of pride of possession in his handsome face,--the far-removed
+possession of a sister-in-law. There was his sunny smile, that seemed as
+though it could bring joy out of the gloom of a bleak December day, and
+there were the two dimples--not real dimples, of course, men never had
+dimples--but hints, suggestions of dimples, that caught themselves when he
+smiled, here and there like hidden mischief well kept under control, but
+still merrily ready to come to the surface. His hands were white and firm,
+the fingers long and shapely, the hands of a brain worker. The vision of
+Hanford Weston's hands, red and bony, came up to her in contrast. She had
+not known that she looked at them that day when he had stood awkwardly
+asking if he might walk with her. Poor Hanford! He would ill compare with
+this cultured scholarly man who was his senior by ten years, though it is
+possible that with the ten years added he would have been quite worthy of
+the admiration of any of the village girls.
+
+The fruit cake and raspberry preserves and doughnuts and all the various
+viands that Madam Schuyler had ordered set out for the delectation of her
+guest had been partaken of, and David and the Squire sat talking of the
+news of the day, touching on politics, with a bit of laughter from the
+Squire at the man who thought he had invented a machine to draw carriages
+by steam in place of horses.
+
+"There's a good deal in it, I believe," said the younger man. "His theory
+is all right if he can get some one to help him carry it out."
+
+"Well, maybe, maybe," said the Squire shaking his head dubiously, "but it
+seems to me a very fanciful scheme. Horses are good enough for me. I
+shouldn't like to trust myself to an unknown quantity like steam, but time
+will tell."
+
+"Yes, and the world is progressing. Something of the sort is sure to come.
+It has come in England. It would make a vast change in our country,
+binding city to city and practically eradicating space."
+
+"Visionary schemes, David, visionary schemes, that's what I call them. You
+and I'll never see them in our day, I'm sure of that. Remember this is a
+new country and must go slow." The Squire was half laughing, half in
+earnest.
+
+Amid the talk Marcia had quietly slipped out. It had occurred to her that
+perhaps the captain might return with her sister.
+
+She must watch for Kate and warn her. Like a shadow in the moonlight she
+stepped softly down the gravel path once more and waited at the gate. Did
+not that sacred kiss placed upon her lips all by mistake bind her to this
+solemn duty? Had it not been given to her to see as in a revelation, by
+that kiss, the love of one man for one woman, deep and tender and true?
+
+In the fragrant darkness her soul stood still and wondered over Love, the
+marvellous. With an insight such as few have who have not tasted years of
+wedded joy, Marcia comprehended the possibility and joy of sacrifice that
+made even sad things bright because of Love. She saw like a flash how Kate
+could give up her gay life, her home, her friends, everything that life
+had heretofore held dear for her, that she might be by the side of the man
+who loved her so. But with this knowledge of David's love for Kate came a
+troubled doubt. Did Kate love David that way? If Kate had been the one who
+received that kiss would she have returned it with the same tenderness and
+warmth with which it was given? Marcia dared not try to answer this. It
+was Kate's question, not hers, and she must never let it enter her mind
+again. Of course she must love him that way or she would never marry him.
+
+The night crept slowly for the anxious little watcher at the gate. Had she
+been sure where to look for her sister, and not afraid of the tongues of a
+few interested neighbors who had watched everything at the house for days
+that no item about the wedding should escape them, she would have started
+on a search at once. She knew if she just ran into old Miss Pemberton's,
+whose house stood out upon the street with two straight-backed little,
+high, white seats each side of the stoop, a most delightful post of
+observation, she could discover at once in which direction Kate had gone,
+and perhaps a good deal more of hints and suggestions besides. But Marcia
+had no mind to make gossip. She must wait as patiently as she could for
+Kate. Moreover Kate might be walking even now in some secluded, rose-lined
+lane arm in arm with the captain, saying a pleasant farewell. It was
+Kate's way and no one might gainsay her.
+
+Marcia's dreams came back once more, the thoughts that had been hers as
+she stood there an hour before. She thought how the kiss had fitted into
+the dream. Then all at once conscience told her it was Kate's lover, not
+her own, whose arms had encircled her. And now there was a strange
+unwillingness to go back to the dreams at all, a lingering longing for the
+joys into whose glory she had been for a moment permitted to look. She
+drew back from all thoughts and tried to close the door upon them. They
+seemed too sacred to enter. Her maidenhood was but just begun and she had
+much yet to learn of life. She was glad, glad for Kate that such
+wonderfulness was coming to her. Kate would be sweeter, softer in her ways
+now. She could not help it with a love like that enfolding her life.
+
+At last there were footsteps! Hark! Two people--only two! Just what Marcia
+had expected. The other girls and boys had dropped into other streets or
+gone home. Kate and her former lover were coming home alone. And,
+furthermore, Kate would not be glad to see her sister at the gate. This
+last thought came with sudden conviction, but Marcia did not falter.
+
+"Kate, David has come!" Marcia said it in low, almost accusing tones, at
+least so it sounded to Kate, before the two had hardly reached the gate.
+They had been loitering along talking in low tones, and the young
+captain's head was bent over his companion in an earnest, pleading
+attitude. Marcia could not bear to look, and did not wish to see more, so
+she had spoken.
+
+Kate, startled, sprang away from her companion, a white angry look in her
+face.
+
+"How you scared me, Marsh!" she exclaimed pettishly. "What if he has come?
+That's nothing. I guess he can wait a few minutes. He had no business to
+come to-night anyway. He knew we wouldn't be ready for him till
+to-morrow."
+
+Kate was recovering her self-possession in proportion as she realized the
+situation. That she was vexed over her bridegroom's arrival neither of the
+two witnesses could doubt. It stung her sister with a deep pity for David.
+He was not getting as much in Kate as he was giving. But there was no time
+for such thoughts, besides Marcia was trembling from head to foot, partly
+with her own daring, partly with wrath at her sister's words.
+
+"For shame, Kate!" she cried. "How can you talk so, even in fun! David
+came to surprise you, and I think he had a right to expect to find you
+here so near to the time of your marriage."
+
+There was a flash in the young eyes as she said it, and a delicate lifting
+of her chin with the conviction of the truth she was speaking, that gave
+her a new dignity even in the moonlight. Captain Leavenworth looked at her
+in lazy admiration and said:
+
+"Why, Marsh, you're developing into quite a spitfire. What have you got on
+to-night that makes you look so tall and handsome? Why didn't you stay in
+and talk to your fine gentleman? I'm sure he would have been just as well
+satisfied with you as your sister."
+
+Marcia gave one withering glance at the young man and then turned her back
+full upon him. He was not worth noticing. Besides he was to be pitied, for
+he evidently cared still for Kate.
+
+But Kate was fairly white with anger. Perhaps her own accusing conscience
+helped it on. Her voice was imperious and cold. She drew herself up
+haughtily and pointed toward the house.
+
+"Marcia Schuyler," she said coldly, facing her sister, "go into the house
+and attend to your own affairs. You'll find that you'll get into serious
+trouble if you attempt to meddle with mine. You're nothing but a child yet
+and ought to be punished for your impudence. Go! I tell you!" she stamped
+her foot, "I will come in when I get ready."
+
+Marcia went. Not proudly as she might have gone the moment before, but
+covered with confusion and shame, her head drooping like some crushed lily
+on a bleeding stalk. Through her soul rushed indignation, mighty and
+forceful; indignation and shame, for her sister, for David, for herself.
+She did not stop to analyze her various feelings, nor did she stop to
+speak further with those in the house. She fled to her own room, and
+burying her face in the pillow she wept until she fell asleep.
+
+The moon-shadows grew longer about the arbored gateway where the two she
+had left stood talking in low tones, looking furtively now and then toward
+the house, and withdrawing into the covert of the bushes by the walk. But
+Kate dared not linger long. She could see her father's profile by the
+candle light in the dining room. She did not wish to receive further
+rebuke, and so in a very few minutes the two parted and Kate ran up the
+box-edged path, beginning to hum a sweet old love song in a gay light
+voice, as she tripped by the dining-room windows, and thus announced her
+arrival. She guessed that Marcia would have gone straight to her room and
+told nothing. Kate intended to be fully surprised. She paused in the hall
+to hang up the light shawl she had worn, calling good-night to her
+stepmother and saying she was very tired and was going straight to bed to
+be ready for to-morrow. Then she ran lightly across the hall to the
+stairs.
+
+She knew they would call her back, and that they would all come into the
+hall with David to see the effect of his surprise upon her. She had
+planned to a nicety just which stair she could reach before they got
+there, and where she would pause and turn and poise, and what pose she
+would take with her round white arm stretched to the handrail, the sleeve
+turned carelessly back. She had ready her countenances, a sleepy
+indifference, then a pleased surprise, and a climax of delight. She
+carried it all out, this little bit of impromptu acting, as well as though
+she had rehearsed it for a month.
+
+They called her, and she turned deliberately, one dainty, slippered foot,
+with its crossed black ribbons about the slender ankle, just leaving the
+stair below, and showing the arch of the aristocratic instep. Her gown was
+blue and she held it back just enough for the stiff white frill of her
+petticoat to peep below. Well she read the admiration in the eyes below
+her. Admiration was Kate's life: she thrived upon it. She could not do
+without it.
+
+David stood still, his love in his eyes, looking upon the vision of his
+bride, and his heart swelled within him that so great a treasure should be
+his. Then straightway they all forgot to question where she had been or to
+rebuke her that she had been at all. She had known they would. She ever
+possessed the power to make others forget her wrong doings when it was
+worth her while to try.
+
+The next morning things were astir even earlier than usual. There was the
+sound of the beating of eggs, the stirring of cakes, the clatter of pots
+and pans from the wide, stone-flagged kitchen.
+
+Marcia, fresh as a flower from its morning dew in spite of her cry the
+night before, had arisen to new opportunities for service. She was glad
+with the joyous forgetfulness of youth when she looked at David's happy
+face, and she thought no more of Kate's treatment of herself.
+
+David followed Kate with a true lover's eyes and was never for more than a
+few moments out of her sight, though it seemed to Marcia that Kate did not
+try very hard to stay with him. When afternoon came she dismissed him for
+what she called her "beauty nap." Marcia was passing through the hall at
+the time and she caught the tender look upon his face as he touched her
+brow with reverent fingers and told her she had no need for that. Her eyes
+met Kate's as they were going up the stairs, and in spite of what Kate had
+said the night before Marcia could not refrain from saying: "Oh, Kate! how
+could you when he loves you so? You know you never take a nap in the
+daytime!"
+
+"You silly girl!" said Kate pleasantly enough, "don't you know the less a
+man sees of one the more he thinks of her?" With this remark she closed
+and fastened her door after her.
+
+Marcia pondered these words of wisdom for some time, wondering whether
+Kate had really done it for that reason, or whether she did not care for
+the company of her lover. And why should it be so that a man loved you
+less because he saw you more? In her straightforward code the more you
+loved persons the more you desired to be in their company.
+
+Kate had issued from her "beauty nap" with a feverish restlessness in her
+eyes, an averted face, and ink upon one finger. At supper she scarcely
+spoke, and when she did she laughed excitedly over little things. Her
+lover watched her with eyes of pride and ever increasing wonder over her
+beauty, and Marcia, seeing the light in his face, watched for its answer
+in her sister's, and finding it not was troubled.
+
+She watched them from her bedroom window as they walked down the path
+where she had gone the evening before, decorously side by side, Kate
+holding her light muslin frock back from the dew on the hedges. She
+wondered if it was because Kate had more respect for David than for
+Captain Leavenworth that she never seemed to treat him with as much
+familiarity. She did not take possession of him in the same sweet
+imperious way.
+
+Marcia had not lighted her candle. The moon gave light enough and she was
+very weary, so she undressed in the dim chamber and pondered upon the ways
+of the great world. Out there in the moonlight were those two who
+to-morrow would be one, and here was she, alone. The world seemed all
+circling about that white chamber of hers, and echoing with her own
+consciousness of self, and a loneliness she had never felt before. She
+wondered what it might be. Was it all sadness at parting with Kate, or was
+it the sadness over inevitable partings of all human relationships, and
+the all-aloneness of every living spirit?
+
+She stood for a moment, white-robed, beside her window, looking up into
+the full round moon, and wondering if God knew the ache of loneliness in
+His little human creatures' souls that He had made, and whether He had
+ready something wherewith to satisfy. Then her meek soul bowed before the
+faith that was in her and she knelt for her shy but reverent evening
+prayer.
+
+She heard the two lovers come in early and go upstairs, and she heard her
+father fastening up the doors and windows for the night. Then stillness
+gradually settled down and she fell asleep. Later, in her dreams, there
+echoed the sound of hastening hoofs far down the deserted street and over
+the old covered bridge, but she took no note of any sound, and the weary
+household slept on.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER IV
+
+
+The wedding was set for ten o'clock in the morning, after which there was
+to be a wedding breakfast and the married couple were to start immediately
+for their new home.
+
+David had driven the day before with his own horse and chaise to a town
+some twenty miles away, and there left his horse at a tavern to rest for
+the return trip, for Kate would have it that they must leave the house in
+high style. So the finest equipage the town afforded had been secured to
+bear them on the first stage of their journey, with a portly negro driver
+and everything according to the custom of the greatest of the land.
+Nothing that Kate desired about the arrangements had been left undone.
+
+The household was fully astir by half past four, for the family breakfast
+was to be at six promptly, that all might be cleared away and in readiness
+for the early arrival of the various aunts and uncles and cousins and
+friends who would "drive over" from the country round about. It would have
+been something Madam Schuyler would never have been able to get over if
+aught had been awry when a single uncle or aunt appeared upon the scene,
+or if there seemed to be the least evidence of fluster and nervousness.
+
+The rosy sunlight in the east was mixing the morning with fresher air, and
+new odors for the new day that was dawning, when Marcia awoke. The sharp
+click of spoons and dishes, the voices of the maids, the sizzle, sputter,
+odor of frying ham and eggs, mingled with the early chorus of the birds,
+and calling to life of all living creatures, like an intrusion upon
+nature. It seemed not right to steal the morning's "quiet hour" thus
+rudely. The thought flitted through the girl's mind, and in an instant
+more the whole panorama of the day's excitement was before her, and she
+sprang from her bed. As if it had been her own wedding day instead of her
+sister's, she performed her dainty toilet, for though there was need for
+haste, she knew she would have no further time beyond a moment to slip on
+her best gown and smooth her hair.
+
+Marcia hurried downstairs just as the bell rang for breakfast, and David,
+coming down smiling behind her, patted her cheek and greeted her with,
+"Well, little sister, you look as rested as if you had not done a thing
+all day yesterday."
+
+She smiled shyly back at him, and her heart filled with pleasure over his
+new name for her. It sounded pleasantly from his happy lips. She was
+conscious of a gladness that he was to be so nearly related to her. She
+fancied how it would seem to say to Mary Ann: "My brother-in-law says so
+and so." It would be grand to call such a man "brother."
+
+They were all seated at the table but Kate, and Squire Schuyler waited
+with pleasantly frowning brows to ask the blessing on the morning food.
+Kate was often late. She was the only member of the family who dared to be
+late to breakfast, and being the bride and the centre of the occasion more
+leniency was granted her this morning than ever before. Madam Schuyler
+waited until every one at the table was served to ham and eggs, coffee and
+bread-and-butter, and steaming griddle cakes, before she said, looking
+anxiously at the tall clock: "Marcia, perhaps you better go up and see if
+your sister needs any help. She ought to be down by now. Uncle Joab and
+Aunt Polly will be sure to be here by eight. She must have overslept, but
+we made so much noise she is surely awake by this time."
+
+Marcia left her half-eaten breakfast and went slowly upstairs. She knew
+her sister would not welcome her, for she had often been sent on like
+errands before, and the brunt of Kate's anger had fallen upon the hapless
+messenger, wearing itself out there so that she might descend all smiles
+to greet father and mother and smooth off the situation in a most
+harmonious manner.
+
+Marcia paused before the door to listen. Perhaps Kate was nearly ready and
+her distasteful errand need not be performed. But though she held her
+breath to listen, no sound came from the closed door. Very softly she
+tried to lift the latch and peep in. Kate must still be asleep. It was not
+the first time Marcia had found that to be the case when sent to bring her
+sister.
+
+But the latch would not lift. The catch was firmly down from the inside.
+Marcia applied her eye to the keyhole, but could get no vision save a dim
+outline of the window on the other side of the room. She tapped gently
+once or twice and waited again, then called softly: "Kate, Kate! Wake up.
+Breakfast is ready and everybody is eating. Aunt Polly and Uncle Joab will
+soon be here."
+
+She repeated her tapping and calling, growing louder as she received no
+answer. Kate would often keep still to tease her thus. Surely though she
+would not do so upon her wedding morning!
+
+She called and called and shook the door, not daring, however, to make
+much of an uproar lest David should hear. She could not bear he should
+know the shortcomings of his bride.
+
+But at last she grew alarmed. Perhaps Kate was ill. At any rate, whatever
+it was, it was time she was up. She worked for some minutes trying to
+loosen the catch that held the latch, but all to no purpose. She was
+forced to go down stairs and whisper to her stepmother the state of the
+case.
+
+Madam Schuyler, excusing herself from the table, went upstairs, purposeful
+decision in every line of her substantial body, determination in every
+sound of her footfall. Bride though she be, Kate would have meted out to
+her just dues this time. Company and a lover and the nearness of the
+wedding hour were things not to be trifled with even by a charming Kate.
+
+But Madam Schuyler returned in a short space of time, puffing and panting,
+somewhat short of breath, and color in her face. She looked troubled, and
+she interrupted the Squire without waiting for him to finish his sentence
+to David.
+
+"I cannot understand what is the matter with Kate," she said, looking at
+her husband. "She does not seem to be awake, and I cannot get her door
+open. She sleeps soundly, and I suppose the unusual excitement has made
+her very tired. But I should think she ought to hear my voice. Perhaps you
+better see if you can open the door."
+
+There was studied calm in her voice, but her face belied her words. She
+was anxious lest Kate was playing one of her pranks. She knew Kate's
+careless, fun-loving ways. It was more to her that all things should move
+decently and in order than that Kate should even be perfectly well. But
+Marcia's white face behind her stepmother's ample shoulder showed a dread
+of something worse than a mere indisposition. David Spafford took alarm at
+once. He put down the silver syrup jug from which he had been pouring
+golden maple syrup on his cakes, and pushed his chair back with a click.
+
+"Perhaps she has fainted!" he said, and Marcia saw how deeply he was
+concerned. Father and lover both started up stairs, the father angry, the
+lover alarmed. The Squire grumbled all the way up that Kate should sleep
+so late, but David said nothing. He waited anxiously behind while the
+Squire worked with the door. Madam Schuyler and Marcia had followed them,
+and halting curiously just behind came the two maids. They all loved Miss
+Kate and were deeply interested in the day's doings. They did not want
+anything to interfere with the well-planned pageant.
+
+The Squire fumbled nervously with the latch, all the time calling upon his
+daughter to open the door; then wrathfully placed his solid shoulder and
+knee in just the right place, and with a groan and wrench the latch gave
+way, and the solid oak door swung open, precipitating the anxious group
+somewhat suddenly into the room.
+
+Almost immediately they all became aware that there was no one there.
+David had stood with averted eyes at first, but that second sense which
+makes us aware without sight when others are near or absent, brought with
+it an unnamed anxiety. He looked wildly about.
+
+The bed had not been slept in; that they all saw at once. The room was in
+confusion, but perhaps not more than might have been expected when the
+occupant was about to leave on the morrow. There were pieces of paper and
+string upon the floor and one or two garments lying about as if carelessly
+cast off in a hurry. David recognized the purple muslin frock Kate had
+worn the night before, and put out his hand to touch it as it lay across
+the foot of the bed, vainly reaching after her who was not there.
+
+They stood in silence, father, mother, sister, and lover, and took in
+every detail of the deserted room, then looked blankly into one another's
+white faces, and in the eyes of each a terrible question began to dawn.
+Where was she?
+
+Madam Schuyler recovered her senses first. With her sharp practical system
+she endeavored to find out the exact situation.
+
+"Who saw her last?" she asked sharply looking from one to the other. "Who
+saw her last? Has she been down stairs this morning?" she looked straight
+at Marcia this time, but the girl shook her head.
+
+"I went to bed last night before they came in," she said, looking
+questioningly at David, but a sudden remembrance and fear seized her
+heart. She turned away to the window to face it where they could not look
+at her.
+
+"We came in early," said David, trying to keep the anxiety out of his
+voice, as he remembered his well-beloved's good-night. Surely, surely,
+nothing very dreadful could have happened just over night, and in her
+father's own house. He looked about again to see the natural, every-day,
+little things that would help him drive away the thoughts of possible
+tragedy.
+
+"Kate was tired. She said she was going to get up very early this morning
+and wash her face in the dew on the grass." He braved a smile and looked
+about on the troubled group. "She must be out somewhere upon the place,"
+he continued, gathering courage with the thought; "she told me it was an
+old superstition. She has maybe wandered further than she intended, and
+perhaps got into some trouble. I'd better go and search for her. Is there
+any place near here where she would be likely to be?" He turned to Marcia
+for help.
+
+"But Kate would never delay so long I'm sure," said the stepmother
+severely. "She's not such a fool as to go traipsing through the wet grass
+before daylight for any nonsense. If it were Marcia now, you might expect
+anything, but Kate would be satisfied with the dew on the grass by the
+kitchen pump. I know Kate."
+
+Marcia's face crimsoned at her stepmother's words, but she turned her
+troubled eyes to David and tried to answer him.
+
+"There are plenty of places, but Kate has never cared to go to them. I
+could go out and look everywhere." She started to go down, but as she
+passed the wide mahogany bureau she saw a bit of folded paper lying under
+the corner of the pincushion. With a smothered exclamation she went over
+and picked it up. It was addressed to David in Kate's handwriting, fine
+and even like copperplate. Without a word Marcia handed it to him, and
+then stood back where the wide draperies of the window would shadow her.
+
+Madam Schuyler, with sudden keen prescience, took alarm. Noticing the two
+maids standing wide-mouthed in the hallway, she summoned her most
+commandatory tone, stepped into the hall, half closing the door behind
+her, and cowed the two handmaidens under her glance.
+
+"It is all right!" she said calmly. "Miss Kate has left a note, and will
+soon return. Go down and keep her breakfast warm, and not a word to a
+soul! Dolly, Debby, do you understand? Not a word of this! Now hurry and
+do all that I told you before breakfast."
+
+They went with downcast eyes and disappointed droops to their mouths, but
+she knew that not a word would pass their lips. They knew that if they
+disobeyed that command they need never hope for favor more from madam.
+Madam's word was law. She would be obeyed. Therefore with remarkable
+discretion they masked their wondering looks and did as they were bidden.
+So while the family stood in solemn conclave in Kate's room the
+preparations for the wedding moved steadily forward below stairs, and only
+two solemn maids, of all the helpers that morning, knew that a tragedy was
+hovering in the air and might burst about them.
+
+David had grasped for the letter eagerly, and fumbled it open with
+trembling hand, but as he read, the smile of expectation froze upon his
+lips and his face grew ashen. He tottered and grasped for the mantel shelf
+to steady himself as he read further, but he did not seem to take in the
+meaning of what he read. The others waited breathless, a reasonable length
+of time, Madam Schuyler impatiently patient. She felt that long delay
+would be perilous to her arrangements. She ought to know the whole truth
+at once and be put in command of the situation. Marcia with sorrowful face
+and drooping eyelashes stood quiet behind the curtain, while over and over
+the echo of a horse's hoofs in a silent street and over a bridge sounded
+in her brain. She did not need to be told, she knew intuitively what had
+happened, and she dared not look at David.
+
+"Well, what has she done with herself?" said the Squire impatiently. He
+had not finished his plate of cakes, and now that there was word he wanted
+to know it at once and go back to his breakfast. The sight of his
+daughter's handwriting relieved and reassured him. Some crazy thing she
+had done of course, but then Kate had always done queer things, and
+probably would to the end of time. She was a hussy to frighten them so,
+and he meant to tell her so when she returned, if it was her wedding day.
+But then, Kate would be Kate, and his breakfast was getting cold. He had
+the horses to look after and orders to give to the hands before the early
+guests arrived.
+
+But David did not answer, and the sight of him was alarming. He stood as
+one stricken dumb all in a moment. He raised his eyes to the
+Squire's--pleading, pitiful. His face had grown strained and haggard.
+
+"Speak out, man, doesn't the letter tell?" said the Squire imperiously.
+"Where is the girl?"
+
+And this time David managed to say brokenly: "She's gone!" and then his
+head dropped forward on his cold hand that rested on the mantel. Great
+beads of perspiration stood out upon his white forehead, and the letter
+fluttered gayly, coquettishly to the floor, a reminder of the uncertain
+ways of its writer.
+
+The Squire reached for it impatiently, and wiping his spectacles
+laboriously put them on and drew near to the window to read, his heavy
+brows lowering in a frown. But his wife did not need to read the letter,
+for she, like Marcia, had divined its purport, and already her able
+faculties were marshalled to face the predicament.
+
+The Squire with deepening frown was studying his elder daughter's letter,
+scarce able to believe the evidence of his senses that a girl of his could
+be so heartless.
+
+
+    "DEAR DAVID," the letter ran,--written as though in a hurry, done
+    at the last moment,--which indeed it was:--
+
+    "I want you to forgive me for what I am doing. I know you will
+    feel bad about it, but really I never was the right one for you.
+    I'm sure you thought me all too good, and I never could have
+    stayed in a strait-jacket, it would have killed me. I shall always
+    consider you the best man in the world, and I like you better than
+    anyone else except Captain Leavenworth. I can't help it, you know,
+    that I care more for him than anyone else, though I've tried. So I
+    am going away to-night and when you read this we shall have been
+    married. You are so very good that I know you will forgive me, and
+    be glad I am happy. Don't think hardly of me for I always did care
+    a great deal for you.
+
+                                                     "Your loving
+
+                                                               "KATE."
+
+
+It was characteristic of Kate that she demanded the love and loyalty of
+her betrayed lover to the bitter end, false and heartless though she had
+been. The coquette in her played with him even now in the midst of the
+bitter pain she must have known she was inflicting. No word of contrition
+spoke she, but took her deed as one of her prerogatives, just as she had
+always taken everything she chose. She did not even spare him the loving
+salutation that had been her custom in her letters to him, but wrote
+herself down as she would have done the day before when all was fair and
+dear between them. She did not hint at any better day for David, or give
+him permission to forget her, but held him for all time as her own, as she
+had known she would by those words of hers, "I like you better than anyone
+else except!--" Ah! That fatal "except!" Could any knife cut deeper and
+more ways? They sank into the young man's heart as he stood there those
+first few minutes and faced his trouble, his head bowed upon the
+mantel-piece.
+
+Meantime Madam Schuyler's keen vision had spied another folded paper
+beside the pincushion. Smaller it was than the other, and evidently
+intended to be placed further out of sight. It was addressed to Kate's
+father, and her stepmother opened it and read with hard pressure of her
+thin lips, slanted down at the corners, and a steely look in her eyes. Was
+it possible that the girl, even in the midst of her treachery, had enjoyed
+with a sort of malicious glee the thought of her stepmother reading that
+note and facing the horror of a wedding party with no bride? Knowing her
+stepmother's vast resources did she not think that at last she had brought
+her to a situation to which she was unequal? There had always been this
+unseen, unspoken struggle for supremacy between them; though it had been a
+friendly one, a sort of testing on the girl's part of the powers and
+expedients of the woman, with a kind of vast admiration, mingled with
+amusement, but no fear for the stepmother who had been uniformly kind and
+loving toward her, and for whom she cared, perhaps as much as she could
+have cared for her own mother. The other note read:
+
+
+    "DEAR FATHER:--I am going away to-night to marry Captain
+    Leavenworth. You wouldn't let me have him in the right way, so I
+    had to take this. I tried very hard to forget him and get
+    interested in David, but it was no use. You couldn't stop it. So
+    now I hope you will see it the way we do and forgive us. We are
+    going to Washington and you can write us there and say you forgive
+    us, and then we will come home. I know you will forgive us, Daddy
+    dear. You know you always loved your little Kate and you couldn't
+    really want me to be unhappy. Please send my trunks to Washington.
+    I've tacked the card with the address on the ends.
+
+                                        "Your loving little girl,
+
+                                                               "KATE."
+
+
+There was a terrible stillness in the room, broken only by the crackling
+of paper as the notes were turned in the hands of their readers. Marcia
+felt as if centuries were passing. David's soul was pierced by one awful
+thought. He had no room for others. She was gone! Life was a blank for
+him! stretching out into interminable years. Of her treachery and
+false-heartedness in doing what she had done in the way she had done it,
+he had no time to take account. That would come later. Now he was trying
+to understand this one awful fact.
+
+Madam Schuyler handed the second note to her husband, and with set lips
+quickly skimmed through the other one. As she read, indignation rose
+within her, and a great desire to outwit everybody. If it had been
+possible to bring the erring girl back and make her face her disgraced
+wedding alone, Madam Schuyler would have been glad to do it. She knew that
+upon her would likely rest all the re-arrangements, and her ready brain
+was already taking account of her servants and the number of messages that
+would have to be sent out to stop the guests from arriving. She waited
+impatiently for her husband to finish reading that she might consult with
+him as to the best message to send, but she was scarcely prepared for the
+burst of anger that came with the finish of the letters. The old man
+crushed his daughter's note in his hand and flung it from him. He had
+great respect and love for David, and the sight of him broken in grief,
+the deed of his daughter, roused in him a mighty indignation. His voice
+shook, but there was a deep note of command in it that made Madam Schuyler
+step aside and wait. The Squire had arisen to the situation, and she
+recognized her lord and master.
+
+"She must be brought back at once at all costs!" he exclaimed. "That
+rascal shall not outwit us. Fool that I was to trust him in the house!
+Tell the men to saddle the horses. They cannot have gone far yet, and
+there are not so many roads to Washington. We may yet overtake them, and
+married or unmarried the hussy shall be here for her wedding!"
+
+But David raised his head from the mantel-shelf and steadied his voice:
+
+"No, no, you must not do that--father--" the appellative came from his lips
+almost tenderly, as if he had long considered the use of it with pleasure,
+and now he spoke it as a tender bond meant to comfort.
+
+The older man started and his face softened. A flash of understanding and
+love passed between the two men.
+
+"Remember, she has said she loves some one else. She could never be mine
+now."
+
+There was terrible sadness in the words as David spoke them, and his voice
+broke. Madam Schuyler turned away and took out her handkerchief, an
+article of apparel for which she seldom had use except as it belonged to
+every well ordered toilet.
+
+The father stood looking hopelessly at David and taking in the thought.
+Then he too bowed his head and groaned.
+
+"And my daughter, _my little Kate_ has done it!" Marcia covered her face
+with the curtains and her tears fell fast.
+
+David went and stood beside the Squire and touched his arm.
+
+"Don't!" he said pleadingly. "You could not help it. It was not your
+fault. Do not take it so to heart!"
+
+"But it is my disgrace. I have brought up a child who could do it. I
+cannot escape from that. It is the most dishonorable thing a woman can do.
+And look how she has done it, brought shame upon us all! Here we have a
+wedding on our hands, and little or no time to do anything! I have lived
+in honor all my life, and now to be disgraced by my own daughter!"
+
+Marcia shuddered at her father's agony. She could not bear it longer. With
+a soft cry she went to him, and nestled her head against his breast
+unnoticed.
+
+"Father, father, don't!" she cried.
+
+But her father went on without seeming to see her.
+
+"To be disgraced and deserted and dishonored by my own child! Something
+must be done. Send the servants! Let the wedding be stopped!"
+
+He looked at Madam and she started toward the door to carry out his
+bidding, but he recalled her immediately.
+
+"No, stay!" he cried. "It is too late to stop them all. Let them come. Let
+them be told! Let the disgrace rest upon the one to whom it belongs!"
+
+Madam stopped in consternation! A wedding without a bride! Yet she knew it
+was a serious thing to try to dispute with her husband in that mood. She
+paused to consider.
+
+"Oh, father!" exclaimed Marcia, "we couldn't! Think of David."
+
+Her words seemed to touch the right chord, for he turned toward the young
+man, intense, tender pity in his face.
+
+"Yes, David! We are forgetting David! We must do all we can to make it
+easier for you. You will be wanting to get away from us as quickly as
+possible. How can we manage it for you? And where will you go? You will
+not want to go home just yet?"
+
+He paused, a new agony of the knowledge of David's part coming to him.
+
+"No, I cannot go home," said David hopelessly, a look of keen pain darting
+across his face, "for the house will be all ready for her, and the table
+set. The friends will be coming in, and we are invited to dinner and tea
+everywhere. They will all be coming to the house, my friends, to welcome
+us. No, I cannot go home." Then he passed his hand over his forehead
+blindly, and added, in a stupefied tone, "and yet I must--sometime--I
+must--go--home!"
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER V
+
+
+The room was very still as he spoke. Madam Schuyler forgot the coming
+guests and the preparations, in consternation over the thought of David
+and his sorrow. Marcia sobbed softly upon her father's breast, and her
+father involuntarily placed his arm about her as he stood in painful
+thought.
+
+"It is terrible!" he murmured, "terrible! How could she bear to inflict
+such sorrow! She might have saved us the scorn of all of our friends.
+David, you must not go back alone. It must not be. You must not bear that.
+There are lovely girls in plenty elsewhere. Find another one and marry
+her. Take your bride home with you, and no one in your home need be the
+wiser. Don't sorrow for that cruel girl of mine. Give her not the
+satisfaction of feeling that your life is broken. Take another. Any girl
+might be proud to go with you for the asking. Had I a dozen other
+daughters you should have your pick of them, and one should go with you,
+if you would condescend to choose another from the home where you have
+been so treacherously dealt with. But I have only this one little girl.
+She is but a child as yet and cannot compare with what you thought you
+had. I blame you not if you do not wish to wed another Schuyler, but if
+you will she is yours. And she is a good girl. David, though she is but a
+child. Speak up, child, and say if you will make amends for the wrong your
+sister has done!"
+
+The room was so still one could almost hear the heartbeats. David had
+raised his head once more and was looking at Marcia. Sad and searching was
+his gaze, as if he fain would find the features of Kate in her face, yet
+it seemed to Marcia, as she raised wide tear-filled eyes from her father's
+breast where her head still lay, that he saw her not. He was looking
+beyond her and facing the home-going alone, and the empty life that would
+follow.
+
+Her thoughts the last few days had matured her wonderfully. She understood
+and pitied, and her woman-nature longed to give comfort, yet she shrunk
+from going unasked. It was all terrible, this sudden situation thrust upon
+her, yet she felt a willing sacrifice if she but felt sure it was his
+wish.
+
+But David did not seem to know that he must speak. He waited, looking
+earnestly at her, through her, beyond her, to see if Heaven would grant
+this small relief to his sufferings. At last Marcia summoned her voice:
+
+"If David wishes I will go."
+
+She spoke the words solemnly, her eyes lifted slightly above him as if she
+were speaking to Another One higher than he. It was like an answer to a
+call from God. It had come to Marcia this way. It seemed to leave her no
+room for drawing back, if indeed she had wished to do so. Other
+considerations were not present. There was just the one great desire in
+her heart to make amends in some measure for the wrong that had been done.
+She felt almost responsible for it, a family responsibility. She seemed to
+feel the shame and pain as her father was feeling it. She would step into
+the empty place that Kate had left and fill it as far as she could. Her
+only fear was that she was not acceptable, not worthy to fill so high a
+place. She trembled over it, yet she could not hold back from the high
+calling. It was so she stood in a kind of sorrowful exaltation waiting for
+David. Her eyes lowered again, looking at him through the lashes and
+pleading for recognition. She did not feel that she was pleading for
+anything for herself, only for the chance to help him.
+
+Her voice had broken the spell. David looked down upon her kindly, a
+pleasant light of gratitude flashing through the sternness and sorrow in
+his face. Here was comradeship in trouble, and his voice recognized it as
+he said:
+
+"Child, you are good to me, and I thank you. I will try to make you happy
+if you will go with me, and I am sure your going will be a comfort in many
+ways, but I would not have you go unwillingly."
+
+There was a dull ache in Marcia's heart, its cause she could not
+understand, but she was conscious of a gladness that she was not counted
+unworthy to be accepted, young though she was, and child though he called
+her. His tone had been kindness itself, the gentle kindliness that had won
+her childish sisterly love when first he began to visit her sister. She
+had that answer of his to remember for many a long day, and to live upon,
+when questionings and loneliness came upon her. But she raised her face to
+her father now, and said: "I will go, father!"
+
+The Squire stooped and kissed his little girl for the last time. Perhaps
+he realized that from this time forth she would be a little girl no
+longer, and that he would never look into those child-eyes of hers again,
+unclouded with the sorrows of life, and filled only with the
+wonder-pictures of a rosy future. She seemed to him and to herself to be
+renouncing her own life forever, and to be taking up one of sacrificial
+penitence for her sister's wrong doing.
+
+The father then took Marcia's hand and placed it in David's, and the
+betrothal was complete.
+
+Madam Schuyler, whose reign for the time was set aside, stood silent, half
+disapproving, yet not interfering. Her conscience told her that this
+wholesale disposal of Marcia was against nature. The new arrangement was a
+relief to her in many ways, and would make the solution of the day less
+trying for every one. But she was a woman and knew a woman's heart. Marcia
+was not having her chance in life as her sister had had, as every woman
+had a right to have. Then her face hardened. How had Kate used her
+chances? Perhaps it was better for Marcia to be well placed in life before
+she grew headstrong enough to make a fool of herself as Kate had done.
+David would be good to her, that was certain. One could not look at the
+strong, pleasant lines of his well cut mouth and chin and not be sure of
+that. Perhaps it was all for the best. At least it was not her doing. And
+it was only the night before that she had been looking at Marcia and
+worrying because she was growing into a woman so fast. Now she would be
+relieved of that care, and could take her ease and enjoy life until her
+own children were grown up. But the voice of her husband aroused her to
+the present.
+
+"Let the wedding go on as planned, Sarah, and no one need know until the
+ceremony is over except the minister. I myself will go and tell the
+minister. There will need to be but a change of names."
+
+"But," said the Madam, with housewifely alarm, as the suddenness of the
+whole thing flashed over her, "Marcia is not ready. She has no suitable
+clothes for her wedding."
+
+"Not ready! No clothes!" said the Squire, now thoroughly irritated over
+this trivial objection, as a fly will sometimes ruffle the temper of a man
+who has kept calm under fire of an enemy. "And where are all the clothes
+that have been making these weeks and months past? What more preparation
+does she need? Did the hussy take her wedding things with her? What's in
+this trunk?"
+
+"But those are Kate's things, father," said Marcia in gentle explanation.
+"Kate would be very angry if I took her things. They were made for her,
+you know."
+
+"And what if they were made for her?" answered the father, very angry now
+at Kate. "You are near of a size. What will do for one is good enough for
+the other, and Kate may be angry and get over it, for not one rag of it
+all will she get, nor a penny of my money will ever go to her again. She
+is no daughter of mine from henceforth. That rascal has beaten me and
+stolen my daughter, but he gets a dowerless lass. Not a penny will ever go
+from the Schuyler estate into his pocket, and no trunk will ever travel
+from here to Washington for that heartless girl. I forbid it. Let her feel
+some of the sorrow she has inflicted upon others more innocent. I forbid
+it, do you hear?" He brought his fist down upon the solid mahogany bureau
+until the prisms on a candle-stand in front of the mirror jangled
+discordantly.
+
+"Oh, father!" gasped Marcia, and turned with terror to her stepmother. But
+David stood with his back toward the rest looking out of the window. He
+had forgotten them all.
+
+Madam Schuyler was now in command again. For once the Squire had
+anticipated his wife, and the next move had been planned without her help,
+but it was as she would have it. Her face had lost its consternation and
+beamed with satisfaction beneath its mask of grave perplexity. She could
+not help it that she was glad to have the terrible ordeal of a wedding
+without a bride changed into something less formidable.
+
+At least the country round about could not pity, for who was to say but
+that David was as well suited with one sister as with the other? And
+Marcia was a good girl; doubtless she would grow into a good wife. Far
+more suitable for so good and steady a man as David than pretty, imperious
+Kate.
+
+Madam Schuyler took her place of command once more and began to issue her
+orders.
+
+"Come, then, Marcia, we have no time to waste. It is all right, as your
+father has said. Kate's things will fit you nicely and you must go at once
+and put everything in readiness. You will want all your time to dress, and
+pack a few things, and get calm. Go to your room right away and pick up
+anything you will want to take with you, and I'll go down and see that
+Phoebe takes your place and then come back."
+
+David and the Squire went out like two men who had suddenly grown old, and
+had not the strength to walk rapidly. No one thought any more of
+breakfast. It was half-past seven by the old tall clock that stood upon
+the stair-landing. It would not be long before Aunt Polly and Uncle Joab
+would be driving up to the door.
+
+Straight ahead went the preparations, just as if nothing had happened, and
+if Mistress Kate Leavenworth could have looked into her old room an hour
+after the discovery of her flight she would have been astonished beyond
+measure.
+
+Up in her own room stood poor bewildered Marcia. She looked about upon her
+little white bed, and thought she would never likely sleep in it again.
+She looked out of the small-paned window with its view of distant hill and
+river, and thought she was bidding it good-bye forever. She went toward
+her closet and put out her hand to choose what she would take with her,
+and her heart sank. There hung the faded old ginghams short and scant, and
+scorned but yesterday, yet her heart wildly clung to them. Almost would
+she have put one on and gone back to her happy care-free school life. The
+thought of the new life frightened her. She must give up her girlhood all
+at once. She might not keep a vestige of it, for that would betray David.
+She must be Kate from morning to evening. Like a sword thrust came the
+remembrance that she had envied Kate, and God had given her the punishment
+of being Kate in very truth. Only there was this great difference. She was
+not the chosen one, and Kate had been. She must bear about forever in her
+heart the thought of Kate's sin.
+
+The voice of her stepmother drew nearer and warned her that her time alone
+was almost over, and out on the lawn she could hear the voices of Uncle
+Joab and Aunt Polly who had just arrived.
+
+She dropped upon her knees for one brief moment and let her young soul
+pour itself out in one great cry of distress to God, a cry without words
+borne only on the breath of a sob. Then she arose, hastily dashed cold
+water in her face, and dried away the traces of tears. There was no more
+time to think. With hurried hand she began to gather a few trifles
+together from closet and drawer.
+
+One last lingering look she took about her room as she left it, her arms
+filled with the things she had hastily culled from among her own. Then she
+shut the door quickly and went down the hall to her sister's room to enter
+upon her new life. She was literally putting off herself and putting on a
+new being as far as it was possible to do so outwardly.
+
+There on the bed lay the bridal outfit. Madam Schuyler had just brought it
+from the spare room that there might be no more going back and forth
+through the halls to excite suspicion. She was determined that there
+should be no excitement or demonstration or opportunity for gossip among
+the guests at least until the ceremony was over. She had satisfied herself
+that not a soul outside the family save the two maids suspected that aught
+was the matter, and she felt sure of their silence.
+
+Kate had taken very little with her, evidently fearing to excite
+suspicion, and having no doubt that her father would relent and send all
+her trousseau as she had requested in her letter. For once Mistress Kate
+had forgotten her fineries and made good her escape with but two frocks
+and a few other necessaries in a small hand-bag.
+
+Madam Schuyler was relieved to the point of genuine cheerfulness, over
+this, despite the cloud of tragedy that hung over the day. She began to
+talk to Marcia as if she had been Kate, as she smoothed down this and that
+article and laid them back in the trunk, telling how the blue gown would
+be the best for church and the green silk for going out to very fine
+places, to tea-drinkings and the like, and how she must always be sure to
+wear the cream undersleeves with the Irish point lace with her silk gown
+as they set it off to perfection. She recalled, too, how little experience
+Marcia had had in the ways of the world, and all the while the girl was
+being dressed in the dainty bridal garments she gave her careful
+instructions in the art of being a success in society, until Marcia felt
+that the green fields and the fences and trees to climb and the excursions
+after blackberries, and all the joyful merry-makings of the boys and girls
+were receding far from her. She could even welcome Hanford Weston as a
+playfellow in her new future, if thereby a little fresh air and freedom of
+her girlhood might be left. Nevertheless there gradually came over her an
+elation of excitement. The feel of the dainty garments, the delicate
+embroidery, the excitement lest the white slippers would not fit her, the
+difficulty of making her hair stay up in just Kate's style--for her
+stepmother insisted that she must dress it exactly like Kate's and make
+herself look as nearly as possible as Kate would have looked,--all drove
+sadness from her mind and she began to taste a little delight in the
+pretty clothes, the great occasion, and her own importance. The vision in
+the looking-glass, too, told her that her own face was winsome, and the
+new array not unbecoming. Something of this she had seen the night before
+when she put on her new chintz; now the change was complete, as she stood
+in the white satin and lace with the string of seed pearls that had been
+her mother's tied about her soft white throat. She thought about the
+tradition of the pearls that Kate's girl friends had laughingly reminded
+her of a few days before when they were looking at the bridal garments.
+They had said that each pearl a bride wore meant a tear she would shed.
+She wondered if Kate had escaped the tears with the pearls, and left them
+for her.
+
+She was ready at last, even to the veil that had been her mother's, and
+her mother's mother's before her. It fell in its rich folds, yellowed by
+age, from her head to her feet, with its creamy frost-work of rarest
+handiwork, transforming the girl into a woman and a bride.
+
+Madam Schuyler arranged and rearranged the folds, and finally stood back
+to look with half-closed eyes at the effect, deciding that very few would
+notice that the bride was other than they had expected until the ceremony
+was over and the veil thrown back. The sisters had never looked alike, yet
+there was a general family resemblance that was now accentuated by the
+dress; perhaps only those nearest would notice that it was Marcia instead
+of Kate. At least the guests would have the good grace to keep their
+wonderment to themselves until the ceremony was over.
+
+Then Marcia was left to herself with trembling hands and wildly throbbing
+heart. What would Mary Ann think! What would all the girls and boys think?
+Some of them would be there, and others would be standing along the shady
+streets to watch the progress of the carriage as it drove away. And they
+would see her going away instead of Kate. Perhaps they would think it all
+a great joke and that she had been going to be married all the time and
+not Kate. But no; the truth would soon come out. People would not be
+astonished at anything Kate did. They would only say it was just what they
+had all along expected of her, and pity her father, and pity her perhaps.
+But they would look at her and admire her and for once she would be the
+centre of attraction. The pink of pride swelled up into her cheeks, and
+then realizing what she was thinking she crushed the feeling down. How
+could she think of such things when Kate had done such a dreadful thing,
+and David was suffering so terribly? Here was she actually enjoying, and
+delighting in the thought of being in Kate's place. Oh, she was wicked,
+wicked! She must not be happy for a moment in what was Kate's shame and
+David's sorrow. Of her future with David she did not now think. It was of
+the pageant of the day that her thoughts were full. If the days and weeks
+and months that were to follow came into her mind at all between the other
+things it was always that she was to care for David and to help him, and
+that she would have to grow up quickly; and remember all the hard
+housewifely things her stepmother had taught her; and try to order his
+house well. But that troubled her not at all at present. She was more
+concerned with the ceremony, and the many eyes that would be turned upon
+her. It was a relief when a tap came on the door and the dear old minister
+entered.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER VI
+
+
+He stood a moment by the door looking at her, half startled. Then he came
+over beside her, put his hands upon her shoulders, looking down into her
+upturned, veiled face.
+
+"My child!" he said tenderly, "my little Marcia, is this you? I did not
+know you in all this beautiful dress. You look as your own mother looked
+when she was married. I remember perfectly as if it were but yesterday,
+her face as she stood by your father's side. I was but a young man then,
+you know, and it was my first wedding in my new church, so you see I could
+not forget it. Your mother was a beautiful woman, Marcia, and you are like
+her both in face and life."
+
+The tears came into Marcia's eyes and her lips trembled.
+
+"Are you sure, child," went on the gentle voice of the old man, "that you
+understand what a solemn thing you are doing? It is not a light thing to
+give yourself in marriage to any man. You are so young yet! Are you doing
+this thing quite willingly, little girl? Are you sure? Your father is a
+good man, and a dear old friend of mine, but I know what has happened has
+been a terrible blow to him, and a great humiliation. It has perhaps
+unnerved his judgment for the time. No one should have brought pressure to
+bear upon a child like you to make you marry against your will. Are you
+sure it is all right, dear?"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir!" Marcia raised her tear-filled eyes. "I am doing it quite
+of myself. No one has made me. I was glad I might. It was so dreadful for
+David!"
+
+"But child, do you love him?" the old minister said, searching her face
+closely.
+
+Marcia's eyes shone out radiant and child-like through her tears.
+
+"Oh, yes, sir! I love him of course. No one could help loving David."
+
+There was a tap at the door and the Squire entered. With a sigh the
+minister turned away, but there was trouble in his heart. The love of the
+girl had been all too frankly confessed. It was not as he would have had
+things for a daughter of his, but it could not be helped of course, and he
+had no right to interfere. He would like to speak to David, but David had
+not come out of his room yet. When he did there was but a moment for them
+alone and all he had opportunity to say was:
+
+"Mr. Spafford, you will be good to the little girl, and remember she is
+but a child. She has been dear to us all."
+
+David looked at him wonderingly, earnestly, in reply:
+
+"I will do all in my power to make her happy," he said.
+
+The hour had come, and all things, just as Madam Schuyler had planned,
+were ready. The minister took his place, and the impatient bridesmaids
+were in a flutter, wondering why Kate did not call them in to see her.
+Slowly, with measured step, as if she had practised many times, Marcia,
+the maiden, walked down the hall on her father's arm. He was bowed with
+his trouble and his face bore marks of the sudden calamity that had
+befallen his house, but the watching guests thought it was for sorrow at
+giving up his lovely Kate, and they said one to another, "How much he
+loved her!"
+
+The girl's face drooped with gentle gravity. She scarcely felt the
+presence of the guests she had so much dreaded, for to her the ceremony
+was holy. She was giving herself as a sacrifice for the sin of her sister.
+She was too young and inexperienced to know all that would be thought and
+said as soon as the company understood. She also felt secure behind that
+film of lace. It seemed impossible that they could know her, so softly and
+so mistily it shut her in from the world. It was like a kind of moving
+house about her, a protection from all eyes. So sheltered she might go
+through the ceremony with composure. As yet she had not begun to dread the
+afterward. The hall was wide through which she passed, and the day was
+bright, but the windows were so shadowed by the waiting bridesmaids that
+the light did not fall in full glare upon her, and it was not strange they
+did not know her at once. She heard their smothered exclamations of wonder
+and admiration, and one, Kate's dearest friend, whispered softly behind
+her: "Oh, Kate, why did you keep us waiting, you sly girl! How lovely you
+are! You look like an angel straight from heaven."
+
+There were other whispered words which Marcia heard sadly. They gave her
+no pleasure. The words were for Kate, not her. What would they say when
+they knew all?
+
+There was David in the distance waiting for her. How fine he looked in his
+wedding clothes! How proud Kate might have been of him! How pitiful was
+his white face! He had summoned his courage and put on a mask of happiness
+for the eyes of those who saw him, but it could not deceive the heart of
+Marcia. Surely not since the days when Jacob served seven years for Rachel
+and then lifted the bridal veil to look upon the face of her sister Leah,
+walked there sadder bridegroom on this earth than David Spafford walked
+that day.
+
+Down the stairs and through the wide hall they came, Marcia not daring to
+look up, yet seeing familiar glimpses as she passed. That green plaid silk
+lap at one side of the parlor door, in which lay two nervous little hands
+and a neatly folded pocket handkerchief, belonged to Sabrina Bates, she
+knew; and the round lace collar a little farther on, fastened by the
+brooch with a colored daguerreotype encircled by a braid of faded brown
+hair under glass, must be about the neck of Aunt Polly. There was not
+another brooch like that in New York state, Marcia felt sure. Beyond were
+Uncle Joab's small meek Sunday boots, toeing in, and next were little feet
+covered by white stockings and slippers fastened with crossed black
+ribbons, some child's, not Harriet--Marcia dared not raise her eyes to
+identify them now. She must fix her mind upon the great things before her.
+She wondered at herself for noticing such trivial things when she was
+walking up to the presence of the great God, and there before her stood
+the minister with his open book!
+
+Now, at last, with the most of the audience behind her, shut in by the
+film of lace, she could raise her eyes to the minister's familiar face,
+take David's arm without letting her hand tremble much, and listen to the
+solemn words read out to her. For her alone they seemed to be read.
+David's heart she knew was crushed, and it was only a form for him. She
+must take double vows upon her for the sake of the wrong done to him. So
+she listened:
+
+"Dearly beloved, we are gathered together"--how the words thrilled her!--"in
+the sight of God and in the presence of this company to join together this
+man and woman in the bonds of holy matrimony;"--a deathly stillness rested
+upon the room and the painful throbbing of her heart was all the little
+bride could hear. She was glad she might look straight into the dear face
+of the old minister. Had her mother felt this way when she was being
+married? Did her stepmother understand it? Yes, she must, in part at
+least, for she had bent and kissed her most tenderly upon the brow just
+before leaving her, a most unusually sentimental thing for her to do. It
+touched Marcia deeply, though she was fond of her stepmother at all times.
+
+She waited breathless with drooped eyes while the minister demanded, "If
+any man can show just cause why they may not be lawfully joined together,
+let him now declare it, or else hereafter forever hold his peace." What if
+some one should recognize her and, thinking she had usurped Kate's place,
+speak out and stop the marriage! How would David feel? And she? She would
+sink to the floor. Oh, did they any of them know? How she wished she dared
+raise her eyes to look about and see. But she must not. She must listen.
+She must shake off these worldly thoughts. She was not hearing for idle
+thinking. It was a solemn, holy vow she was taking upon herself for life.
+She brought herself sharply back to the ceremony. It was to David the
+minister was talking now:
+
+"Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in
+health, and forsaking all other, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye
+both shall live?"
+
+It was hard to make David promise that when his heart belonged to Kate.
+She wondered that his voice could be so steady when it said, "I will," and
+the white glove of Kate's which was just a trifle large for her, trembled
+on David's arm as the minister next turned to her:
+
+"Wilt thou, Marcia"--Ah! It was out now! and the sharp rustle of silk and
+stiff linen showed that all the company were aware at last who was the
+bride; but the minister went steadily on. He cared not what the listening
+assembly thought. He was talking earnestly to his little friend,
+Marcia,--"have this man to be thy wedded husband, to live together after
+God's ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony? Wilt thou obey him, and
+serve him, love, honor, and keep him, in sickness and in health"--the words
+of the pledge went on. It was not hard. The girl felt she could do all
+that. She was relieved to find it no more terrible, and to know that she
+was no longer acting a lie. They all knew who she was now. She held up her
+flower-like head and answered in her clear voice, that made her few
+schoolmates present gasp with admiration:
+
+"I will!"
+
+And the dear old minister's wife, sitting sweet and dove-like in her soft
+grey poplin, fine white kerchief, and cap of book muslin, smiled to
+herself at the music in Marcia's voice and nodded approval. She felt that
+all was well with her little friend.
+
+They waited, those astonished people, till the ceremony was concluded and
+the prayer over, and then they broke forth. There had been lifted brows
+and looks passing from one to another, of question, of disclaiming any
+knowledge in the matter, and just as soon as the minister turned and took
+the bride's hand to congratulate her the heads bent together behind fans
+and the soft buzz of whispers began.
+
+What does it mean? Where is Kate? She isn't in the room! Did he change his
+mind at the last minute? How old is Marcia? Mercy me! Nothing but a child!
+Are you sure? Why, my Mary Ann is older than that by three months, and
+she's no more able to become mistress of a home than a nine-days-old
+kitten. Are you sure it's Marcia? Didn't the minister make a mistake in
+the name? It looked to me like Kate. Look again. She's put her veil back.
+No, it can't be! Yes, it is! No, it looks like Kate! Her hair's done the
+same, but, no, Kate never had such a sweet innocent look as that. Why,
+when she was a child her face always had a sharpness to it. Look at
+Marcia's eyes, poor lamb! I don't see how her father could bear it, and
+she so young. But Kate! Where can she be? What has happened? You don't
+say! Yes, I did see that captain about again last week or so. Do you
+believe it? Surely she never would. Who told you? Was he sure? But Maria
+and Janet are bridesmaids and they didn't see any signs of anything. They
+were over here yesterday. Yes, Kate showed them everything and planned how
+they would all walk in. No, she didn't do anything queer, for Janet would
+have mentioned it. Janet always sees everything. Well, they say he's a
+good man and Marcia'll be well provided for. Madam Schuyler'll be relieved
+about that. Marcia can't ever lead her the dance Kate has among the young
+men. How white he looks! Do you suppose he loves her? What on earth can it
+all mean? Do you s'pose Kate feels bad? Where is she anyway? Wouldn't she
+come down? Well, if 'twas his choosing it serves her right. She's too much
+of a flirt for a good man and maybe he found her out. She's probably got
+just what she deserves, and _I_ think Marcia'll make a good little wife.
+She always was a quiet, grown-up child and Madam Schuyler has trained her
+well! But what will Kate do now? Hush! They are coming this way. How do
+you suppose we can find out? Go ask Cousin Janet, perhaps they've told
+her, or Aunt Polly. Surely she knows.
+
+But Aunt Polly sat with pursed lips of disapproval. She had not been told,
+and it was her prerogative to know everything. She always made a point of
+being on hand early at all funerals and weddings, especially in the family
+circle, and learning the utmost details, which she dispensed at her
+discretion to late comers in fine sepulchral whispers.
+
+Now she sat silent, disgraced, unable to explain a thing. It was
+unhandsome of Sarah Schuyler, she felt, though no more than she might have
+expected of her, she told herself. She had never liked her. Well, wait
+until her opportunity came. If they did not wish her to say the truth she
+must say something. She could at least tell what she thought. And what
+more natural than to let it be known that Sarah Schuyler had always held a
+dislike for Marcia, and to suggest that it was likely she was glad to get
+her off her hands. Aunt Polly meant to find a trail somewhere, no matter
+how many times they threw her off the scent.
+
+Meantime for Marcia the sun seemed to have shined out once more with
+something of its old brightness. The terrible deed of self-renunciation
+was over, and familiar faces actually were smiling upon her and wishing
+her joy. She felt the flutter of her heart in her throat beneath the
+string of pearls, and wondered if after all she might hope for a little
+happiness of her own. She could climb no more fences nor wade in gurgling
+brooks, but might there not be other happy things as good? A little touch
+of the pride of life had settled upon her. The relatives were coming with
+pleasant words and kisses. The blushes upon her cheeks were growing
+deeper. She almost forgot David in the pretty excitement. A few of her
+girl friends ventured shyly near, as one might look at a mate suddenly and
+unexpectedly translated into eternal bliss. They put out cold fingers in
+salute with distant, stiff phrases belonging to a grown-up world. Not one
+of them save Mary Ann dared recognize their former bond of playmates. Mary
+Ann leaned down and whispered with a giggle: "Say, you didn't need to envy
+Kate, did you? My! Ain't you in clover! Say, Marsh," wistfully, "do invite
+me fer a visit sometime, won't you?"
+
+Now Mary Ann was not quite on a par with the Schuylers socially, and had
+it not been for a distant mutual relative she would not have been asked to
+the wedding. Marcia never liked her very much, but now, with the
+uncertain, dim future it seemed pleasant and home-like to think of a visit
+from Mary Ann and she nodded and said childishly: "Sometime, Mary Ann, if
+I can."
+
+Mary Ann squeezed her hand, kissed her, blushed and giggled herself out of
+the way of the next comer.
+
+They went out to the dining room and sat around the long table. It was
+Marcia's timid hand that cut the bridecake, and all the room full watched
+her. Seeing the pretty color come and go in her excited cheeks, they
+wondered that they had never noticed before how beautiful Marcia was
+growing. A handsome couple they would make! And they looked from Marcia to
+David and back again, wondering and trying to fathom the mystery.
+
+It was gradually stealing about the company, the truth about Kate and
+Captain Leavenworth. The minister had told it in his sad and gentle way.
+Just the facts. No gossip. Naturally every one was bristling with
+questions, but not much could be got from the minister.
+
+"I really do not know," he would say in his courteous, old-worldly way,
+and few dared ask further. Perhaps the minister, wise by reason of much
+experience, had taken care to ask as few questions as possible himself,
+and not to know too much before undertaking this task for his old friend
+the Squire.
+
+And so Kate's marriage went into the annals of the village, at least so
+far as that morning was concerned, quietly, and with little exclamation
+before the family. The Squire and his wife controlled their faces
+wonderfully. There was an austerity about the Squire as he talked with his
+friends that was new to his pleasant face, but Madam conversed with her
+usual placid self-poise, and never gave cause for conjecture as to her
+true feelings.
+
+There were some who dared to offer their surprised condolences. To such
+the stepmother replied that of course the outcome of events had been a
+sore trial to the Squire, and all of them, but they were delighted at the
+happy arrangement that had been made. She glanced contentedly toward the
+child-bride.
+
+It was a revelation to the whole village that Marcia had grown up and was
+so handsome.
+
+Dismay filled the breasts of the village gossips. They had been defrauded.
+Here was a fine scandal which they had failed to discover in time and
+spread abroad in its due course.
+
+Everybody was shy of speaking to the bride. She sat in her lovely finery
+like some wild rose caught as a sacrifice. Yet every one admitted that she
+might have done far worse. David was a good man, with prospects far beyond
+most young men of his time. Moreover he was known to have a brilliant
+mind, and the career he had chosen, that of journalism, in which he was
+already making his mark, was one that promised to be lucrative as well as
+influential.
+
+It was all very hurried at the last. Madam Schuyler and Dolly the maid
+helped her off with the satin and lace finery, and she was soon out of her
+bridal attire and struggling with the intricacies of Kate's travelling
+costume.
+
+Marcia was not Marcia any longer, but Mrs. David Spafford. She had been
+made to feel the new name almost at once, and it gave her a sense of
+masquerading pleasant enough for the time being, but with a dim foreboding
+of nameless dread and emptiness for the future, like all masquerading
+which must end sometime. And when the mask is taken off how sad if one is
+not to find one's real self again: or worse still if one may never remove
+the mask, but must grow to it and be it from the soul.
+
+All this Marcia felt but dimly of course, for she was young and light
+hearted naturally, and the excitement and pretty things about her could
+not but be pleasant.
+
+To have Kate's friends stand about her, half shyly trying to joke with her
+as they might have done with Kate, to feel their admiring glances, and
+half envious references to her handsome husband, almost intoxicated her
+for the moment. Her cheeks grew rosier as she tied on Kate's pretty poke
+bonnet whose nodding blue flowers had been brought over from Paris by a
+friend of Kate's. It seemed a shame that Kate should not have her things
+after all. The pleasure died out of Marcia's eyes as she carefully looped
+the soft blue ribbons under her round chin and drew on Kate's long gloves.
+There was no denying the fact that Kate's outfit was becoming to Marcia,
+for she had that complexion that looks well with any color under the sun,
+though in blue she was not at her best.
+
+When Marcia was ready she stood back from the little looking-glass, with a
+frightened, half-childish gaze about the room.
+
+Now that the last minute was come, there was no one to understand Marcia's
+feelings nor help her. Even the girls were merely standing there waiting
+to say the last formal farewell that they might be free to burst into an
+astonished chatter of exclamations over Kate's romantic disappearance.
+They were Kate's friends, not Marcia's, and they were bidding Kate's
+clothes good-bye for want of the original bride. Marcia's friends were too
+young and too shy to do more than stand back in awe and gaze at their mate
+so suddenly promoted to a life which but yesterday had seemed years away
+for any of them.
+
+                 [Illustration: Copyright by C. Klackner
+                 THE STEPMOTHER'S ARMS WERE AROUND HER.]
+
+                        Copyright by C. Klackner
+                  THE STEPMOTHER'S ARMS WERE AROUND HER.
+
+
+So Marcia walked alone down the hall--yet, no, not all the way alone. A
+little wrinkled hand was laid upon her gloved one, and a little old lady,
+her true friend, the minister's wife, walked down the stairs with the
+bride arm in arm. Marcia's heart fluttered back to warmth again and was
+glad for her friend, yet all she had said was: "My dear!" but there was
+that in her touch and the tone of her gentle voice that comforted Marcia.
+
+She stood at the edge of the steps, with her white hair shining in the
+morning, her kind-faced husband just behind her during all the farewell,
+and Marcia felt happier because of her motherly presence.
+
+The guests were all out on the piazza in the gorgeousness of the summer
+morning. David stood on the flagging below the step beside the open coach
+door, a carriage lap-robe over his arm and his hat on, ready. He was
+talking with the Squire. Every one was looking at them, and they were
+entirely conscious of the fact. They laughed and talked with studied
+pleasantness, though there seemed to be an undertone of sadness that the
+most obtuse guest could not fail to detect.
+
+Harriet, as a small flower-girl, stood upon the broad low step ready to
+fling posies before the bride as she stepped into the coach.
+
+The little boys, to whom a wedding merely meant a delightful increase of
+opportunities, stood behind a pillar munching cake, more of which
+protruded from their bulging pockets.
+
+Marcia, with a lump in her throat that threatened tears, slipped behind
+the people, caught the two little step-brothers in her arms and smothered
+them with kisses, amid their loud protestations and the laughter of those
+who stood about. But the little skirmish had served to hide the tears, and
+the bride came back most decorously to where her stepmother stood awaiting
+her with a smile of complacent--almost completed--duty upon her face. She
+wore the sense of having carried off a trying situation in a most
+creditable manner, and she knew she had won the respect and awe of every
+matron present thereby. That was a great deal to Madam Schuyler.
+
+The stepmother's arms were around her and Marcia remembered how kindly
+they had felt when they first clasped her little body years ago, and she
+had been kissed, and told to be a good little girl. She had always liked
+her stepmother. And now, as she came to say good-bye to the only mother
+she had ever known, who had been a true mother to her in many ways, her
+young heart almost gave way, and she longed to hide in that ample bosom
+and stay under the wing of one who had so ably led her thus far along the
+path of life.
+
+Perhaps Madam Schuyler felt the clinging of the girl's arms about her, and
+perchance her heart rebuked her that she had let so young and
+inexperienced a girl go out to the cares of life all of a sudden in this
+way. At least she stooped and kissed Marcia again and whispered: "You have
+been a good girl, Marcia."
+
+Afterwards, Marcia cherished that sentence among memory's dearest
+treasures. It seemed as though it meant that she had fulfilled her
+stepmother's first command, given on the night when her father brought
+home their new mother.
+
+Then the flowers were thrown upon the pavement, to make it bright for the
+bride. She was handed into the coach behind the white-haired negro
+coachman, and by his side Kate's fine new hair trunk. Ah! That was a
+bitter touch! Kate's trunk! Kate's things! Kate's husband! If it had only
+been her own little moth-eaten trunk that had belonged to her mother, and
+filled with her own things--and if he had only been her own husband! Yet
+she wanted no other than David--only if he could have been _her_ David!
+
+Then Madam Schuyler, her heart still troubled about Marcia, stepped down
+and whispered:
+
+"David, you will remember she is young. You will deal gently with her?"
+
+Gravely David bent his head and answered:
+
+"I will remember. She shall not be troubled. I will care for her as I
+would care for my own sister." And Madam Schuyler turned away half
+satisfied. After all, was that what woman wanted? Would she have been
+satisfied to have been cared for as a sister?
+
+Then gravely, with his eyes half unseeing her, the father kissed his
+daughter good-bye, David got into the coach, the door was slammed shut,
+and the white horses arched their necks and stepped away, amid a shower of
+rice and slippers.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VII
+
+
+For some distance the way was lined with people they knew, servants and
+negroes, standing about the driveway and outside the fence, people of the
+village grouped along the sidewalk, everybody out upon their doorsteps to
+watch the coach go by, and to all the face of the bride was a puzzle and a
+surprise. They half expected to see another coach coming with the other
+bride behind.
+
+Marcia nodded brightly to those she knew, and threw flowers from the great
+nosegay that had been put upon her lap by Harriet. She felt for a few
+minutes like a girl in a fairy-tale riding in this fine coach in grand
+attire. She stole a look at David. He certainly looked like a prince, but
+gravity was already settling about his mouth. Would he always look so now,
+she wondered, would he never laugh and joke again as he used to do? Could
+she manage to make him happy sometimes for a little while and help him to
+forget?
+
+Down through the village they passed, in front of the store and
+post-office where Marcia had bought her frock but three days before, and
+they turned up the road she had come with Mary Ann. How long ago that
+seemed! How light her heart was then, and how young! All life was before
+her with its delightful possibilities. Now it seemed to have closed for
+her and she was some one else. A great ache came upon her heart. For a
+moment she longed to jump down and run away from the coach and David and
+the new clothes that were not hers. Away from the new life that had been
+planned for some one else which she must live now. She must always be a
+woman, never a girl any more.
+
+Out past Granny McVane's they drove, the old lady sitting upon her front
+porch knitting endless stockings. She stared mildly, unrecognizingly at
+Marcia and paused in her rocking to crane her neck after the coach.
+
+The tall corn rustled and waved green arms to them as they passed, and the
+cows looked up munching from the pasture in mild surprise at the turnout.
+The little coach dog stepped aside from the road to give them a bark as he
+passed, and then pattered and pattered his tiny feet to catch up. The old
+school house came in sight with its worn playground and dejected summer
+air, and Marcia's eyes searched out the window where she used to sit to
+eat her lunch in winters, and the tree under which she used to sit in
+summers, and the path by which she and Mary Ann used to wander down to the
+brook, or go in search of butternuts, even the old door knob that her hand
+would probably never grasp again. She searched them all out and bade them
+good-bye with her eyes. Then once she turned a little to see if she could
+catch a glimpse of the old blackboard through the window where she and
+Susanna Brown and Miller Thompson used to do arithmetic examples. The dust
+of the coach, or the bees in the sunshine, or something in her eyes
+blurred her vision. She could only see a long slant ray of a sunbeam
+crossing the wall where she knew it must be. Then the road wound around
+through a maple grove and the school was lost to view.
+
+They passed the South meadow belonging to the Westons, and Hanford was
+plowing. Marcia could see him stop to wipe the perspiration from his brow,
+and her heart warmed even to this boy admirer now that she was going from
+him forever.
+
+Hanford had caught sight of the coach and he turned to watch it thinking
+to see Kate sitting in the bride's place. He wondered if the bride would
+notice him, and turned a deeper red under his heavy coat of tan.
+
+And the bride did notice him. She smiled the sweetest smile the boy had
+ever seen upon her face, the smile he had dreamed of as he thought of her,
+at night standing under the stars all alone by his father's gate post
+whittling the cross bar of the gate. For a moment he forgot that it was
+the bridal party passing, forgot the stern-faced bridegroom, and saw only
+Marcia--his girl love. His heart stood still, and a bright light of
+response filled his eyes. He took off his wide straw hat and bowed her
+reverence. He would have called to her, and tried three times, but his dry
+throat gave forth no utterance, and when he looked again the coach was
+passed and only the flutter of a white handkerchief came back to him and
+told him the beginning of the truth.
+
+Then the poor boy's face grew white, yes, white and stricken under the
+tan, and he tottered to the roadside and sat down with his face in his
+hands to try and comprehend what it might mean, while the old horse
+dragged the plow whither he would in search of a bite of tender grass.
+
+What could it mean? And why did Marcia occupy that place beside the
+stranger, obviously the bridegroom? Was she going on a visit? He had heard
+of no such plan. Where was her sister? Would there be another coach
+presently, and was this man then not the bridegroom but merely a friend of
+the family? Of course, that must be it. He got up and staggered to the
+fence to look down the road, but no one came by save the jogging old gray
+and carryall, with Aunt Polly grim and offended and Uncle Joab meek and
+depressed beside her. Could he have missed the bridal carriage when he was
+at the other end of the lot? Could they have gone another way? He had a
+half a mind to call to Uncle Joab to enquire only he was a timid boy and
+shrank back until it was too late.
+
+But why had Marcia as she rode away wafted that strange farewell that had
+in it the familiarity of the final? And why did he feel so strange and
+weak in his knees?
+
+Marcia was to help his mother next week at the quilting bee. She had not
+gone away to stay, of course. He got up and tried to whistle and turn the
+furrows evenly as before, but his heart was heavy, and, try as he would,
+he could not understand the feeling that kept telling him Marcia was gone
+out of his life forever.
+
+At last his day's work was done and he could hasten to the house. Without
+waiting for his supper, he "slicked up," as he called it, and went at once
+to the village, where he learned the bitter truth.
+
+It was Mary Ann who told him.
+
+Mary Ann, the plain, the awkward, who secretly admired Hanford Weston as
+she might have admired an angel, and who as little expected him to speak
+to her as if he had been one. Mary Ann stood by her front gate in the dusk
+of the summer evening, the halo of her unusual wedding finery upon her,
+for she had taken advantage of being dressed up to make two or three
+visits since the wedding, and so prolong the holiday. The light of the
+sunset softened her plain features, and gave her a gentler look than was
+her wont. Was it that, and an air of lonesomeness akin to his own, that
+made Hanford stop and speak to her?
+
+And then she told him. She could not keep it in long. It was the wonder of
+her life, and it filled her so that her thought had no room for anything
+else. To think of Marcia taken in a day, gone from their midst forever,
+gone to be a grown-up woman in a new world! It was as strange as sudden
+death, and almost as terrible and beautiful.
+
+There were tears in her eyes, and in the eyes of the boy as they spoke
+about the one who was gone, and the kind dusk hid the sight so that
+neither knew, but each felt a subtle sympathy with the other, and before
+Hanford started upon his desolate way home under the burden of his first
+sorrow he took Mary Ann's slim bony hand in his and said quite stiffly:
+"Well, good night, Miss Mary Ann. I'm glad you told me," and Mary Ann
+responded, with a deep blush under her freckles in the dark, "Good night,
+Mr. Weston, and--call again!"
+
+Something of the sympathy lingered with the boy as he went on his way and
+he was not without a certain sort of comfort, while Mary Ann climbed to
+her little chamber in the loft with a new wonder to dream over.
+
+Meanwhile the coach drove on, and Marcia passed from her childhood's home
+into the great world of men and women, changes, heartbreakings, sorrows
+and joys.
+
+David spoke to her kindly now and then; asked if she was comfortable; if
+she would prefer to change seats with him; if the cushions were right; and
+if she had forgotten anything. He seemed nervous, and anxious to have this
+part of the journey over and asked the coachman frequent questions about
+the horses and the speed they could make. Marcia thought she understood
+that he was longing to get away from the painful reminder of what he had
+expected to be a joyful trip, and her young heart pitied him, while yet it
+felt an undertone of hurt for herself. She found so much unadulterated joy
+in this charming ride with the beautiful horses, in this luxurious coach,
+that she could not bear to have it spoiled by the thought that only
+David's sadness and pain had made it possible for her.
+
+Constantly as the scene changed, and new sights came upon her view, she
+had to restrain herself from crying out with happiness over the beauty and
+calling David's attention. Once she did point out a bird just leaving a
+stalk of goldenrod, its light touch making the spray to bow and bend.
+David had looked with unseeing eyes, and smiled with uncomprehending
+assent. Marcia felt she might as well have been talking to herself. He was
+not even the old friend and brother he used to be. She drew a gentle
+little sigh and wished this might have been only a happy ride with the
+ending at home, and a longer girlhood uncrossed by this wall of trouble
+that Kate had put up in a night for them all.
+
+The coach came at last to the town where they were to stop for dinner and
+a change of horses.
+
+Marcia looked about with interest at the houses, streets, and people.
+There were two girls of about her own age with long hair braided down
+their backs. They were walking with arms about each other as she and Mary
+Ann had often done. She wondered if any such sudden changes might be
+coming to them as had come into her life. They turned and looked at her
+curiously, enviously it seemed, as the coach drew up to the tavern and she
+was helped out with ceremony. Doubtless they thought of her as she had
+thought of Kate but last week.
+
+She was shown into the dim parlor of the tavern and seated in a stiff
+hair-cloth chair. It was all new and strange and delightful.
+
+Before a high gilt mirror set on great glass knobs like rosettes, she
+smoothed her wind-blown hair, and looked back at the reflection of her
+strange self with startled eyes. Even her face seemed changed. She knew
+the bonnet and arrangement of hair were becoming, but she felt
+unacquainted with them, and wished for her own modest braids and plain
+bonnet. Even a sunbonnet would have been welcome and have made her feel
+more like herself.
+
+David did not see how pretty she looked when he came to take her to the
+dining room ten minutes later. His eyes were looking into the hard future,
+and he was steeling himself against the glances of others. He must be the
+model bridegroom in the sight of all who knew him. His pride bore him out
+in this. He had acquaintances all along the way home.
+
+They were expecting the bridal party, for David had arranged that a fine
+dinner should be ready for his bride. Fine it was, with the best cooking
+and table service the mistress of the tavern could command, and with many
+a little touch new and strange to Marcia, and therefore interesting. It
+was all a lovely play till she looked at David.
+
+David ate but little, and Marcia felt she must hurry through the meal for
+his sake. Then when the carryall was ready he put her in and they drove
+away.
+
+Marcia's keen intuition told her how many little things had been thought
+of and planned for, for the comfort of the one who was to have taken this
+journey with David. Gradually the thought of how terrible it was for him,
+and how dreadful of Kate to have brought this sorrow upon him, overcame
+all other thoughts.
+
+Sitting thus quietly, with her hands folded tight in the faded bunch of
+roses little Harriet had given her at parting, the last remaining of the
+flowers she had carried with her, Marcia let the tears come. Silently they
+flowed in gentle rain, and had not David been borne down with the thought
+of his own sorrow he must have noticed long before he did the sadness of
+the sweet young face beside him. But she turned away from him as much as
+possible that he might not see, and so they must have driven for half an
+hour through a dim sweet wood before he happened to catch a sight of the
+tear-wet face, and knew suddenly that there were other troubles in the
+world beside his own.
+
+"Why, child, what is the matter?" he said, turning to her with grave
+concern. "Are you so tired? I'm afraid I have been very dull company,"
+with a sigh. "You must forgive me--child, to-day."
+
+"Oh, David, don't," said Marcia putting her face down into her hands and
+crying now regardless of the roses. "I do not want you to think of me. It
+is dreadful, dreadful for you. I am so sorry for you. I wish I could do
+something."
+
+"Dear child!" he said, putting his hand upon hers. "Bless you for that.
+But do not let your heart be troubled about me. Try to forget me and be
+happy. It is not for you to bear, this trouble."
+
+"But I must bear it," said Marcia, sitting up and trying to stop crying.
+"She was my sister and she did an awful thing. I cannot forget it. How
+could she, how _could_ she do it? How could she leave a man like you
+that--" Marcia stopped, her brown eyes flashing fiercely as she thought of
+Captain Leavenworth's hateful look at her that night in the moonlight. She
+shuddered and hid her face in her hands once more and cried with all the
+fervor of her young and undisciplined soul.
+
+David did not know what to do with a young woman in tears. Had it been
+Kate his alarm would have vied with a delicious sense of his own power to
+comfort, but even the thought of comforting any one but Kate was now a
+bitter thing. Was it always going to be so? Would he always have to start
+and shrink with sudden remembrance of his pain at every turn of his way?
+He drew a deep sigh and looked helplessly at his companion. Then he did a
+hard thing. He tried to justify Kate, just as he had been trying all the
+morning to justify her to himself. The odd thing about it all was that the
+very deepest sting of his sorrow was that Kate could have done this thing!
+His peerless Kate!
+
+"She cared for him," he breathed the words as if they hurt him.
+
+"She should have told you so before then. She should not have let you
+think she cared for you--_ever!_" said Marcia fiercely. Strangely enough
+the plain truth was bitter to the man to hear, although he had been
+feeling it in his soul ever since they had discovered the flight of the
+bride.
+
+"Perhaps there was too much pressure brought to bear upon her," he said
+lamely. "Looking back I can see times when she did not second me with
+regard to hurrying the marriage, so warmly as I could have wished. I laid
+it to her shyness. Yet she seemed happy when we met. Did you--did she--have
+you any idea she had been planning this for long, or was it sudden?"
+
+The words were out now, the thing he longed to know. It had been writing
+its fiery way through his soul. Had she meant to torture him this way all
+along, or was it the yielding to a sudden impulse that perhaps she had
+already repented? He looked at Marcia with piteous, almost pleading eyes,
+and her tortured young soul would have given anything to have been able to
+tell him what he wanted to know. Yet she could not help him. She knew no
+more than he. She steadied her own nerves and tried to tell all she knew
+or surmised, tried her best to reveal Kate in her true character before
+him. Not that she wished to speak ill of her sister, only that she would
+be true and give this lover a chance to escape some of the pain if
+possible, by seeing the real Kate as she was at home without varnish or
+furbelows. Yet she reflected that those who knew Kate's shallowness well,
+still loved her in spite of it, and always bowed to her wishes.
+
+Gradually their talk subsided into deep silence once more, broken only by
+the jog-trot of the horse or the stray note of some bird.
+
+The road wound into the woods with its fragrant scents of hemlock, spruce
+and wintergreen, and out into a broad, hot, sunny way.
+
+The bees hummed in the flowers, and the grasshoppers sang hotly along the
+side of the dusty road. Over the whole earth there seemed to be the sound
+of a soft simmering, as if nature were boiling down her sweets, the better
+to keep them during the winter.
+
+The strain of the day's excitement and hurry and the weariness of sorrow
+were beginning to tell upon the two travellers. The road was heavy with
+dust and the horse plodded monotonously through it. With the drone of the
+insects and the glare of the afternoon sun, it was not strange that little
+by little a great drowsiness came over Marcia and her head began to droop
+like a poor wilted flower until she was fast asleep.
+
+David noticed that she slept, and drew her head against his shoulder that
+she might rest more comfortably. Then he settled back to his own pain, a
+deeper pang coming as he thought how different it would have been if the
+head resting against his shoulder had been golden instead of brown. Then
+soon he too fell asleep, and the old horse, going slow, and yet more
+slowly, finding no urging voice behind her and seeing no need to hurry
+herself, came at last on the way to the shade of an apple tree, and
+halted, finding it a pleasant place to remain and think until the heat of
+the afternoon was passed. Awhile she ate the tender grass that grew
+beneath the generous shade, and nipped daintily at an apple or two that
+hung within tempting reach. Then she too drooped her white lashes, and
+nodded and drooped, and took an afternoon nap.
+
+A farmer, trundling by in his empty hay wagon, found them so, looked
+curiously at them, then drew up his team and came and prodded David in the
+chest with his long hickory stick.
+
+"Wake up, there, stranger, and move on," he called, as he jumped back into
+his wagon and took up the reins. "We don't want no tipsy folks around
+these parts," and with a loud clatter he rode on.
+
+David, whose strong temperance principles had made him somewhat marked in
+his own neighborhood, roused and flushed over the insinuation, and started
+up the lazy horse, which flung out guiltily upon the way as if to make up
+for lost time. The driver, however, was soon lost in his own troubles,
+which returned upon him with redoubled sharpness as new sorrow always does
+after brief sleep.
+
+But Marcia slept on.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+Owing to the horse's nap by the roadside, it was quite late in the evening
+when they reached the town and David saw the lights of his own
+neighborhood gleaming in the distance. He was glad it was late, for now
+there would be no one to meet them that night. His friends would think,
+perhaps, that they had changed their plans and stopped over night on the
+way, or met with some detention.
+
+Marcia still slept.
+
+David as he drew near the house began to feel that perhaps he had made a
+mistake in carrying out his marriage just as if nothing had happened and
+everything was all right. It would be too great a strain upon him to live
+there in that house without Kate, and come home every night just as he had
+planned it, and not to find her there to greet him as he had hoped. Oh, if
+he might turn even now and flee from it, out into the wilderness somewhere
+and hide himself from human kind, where no one would know, and no one ever
+ask him about his wife!
+
+He groaned in spirit as the horse drew up to the door, and the heavy head
+of the sweet girl who was his wife reminded him that he could not go away,
+but must stay and face the responsibilities of life which he had taken
+upon himself, and bear the pain that was his. It was not the fault of the
+girl he had married. She sorrowed for him truly, and he felt deeply
+grateful for the great thing she had done to save his pride.
+
+He leaned over and touched her shoulder gently to rouse her, but her sleep
+was deep and healthy, the sleep of exhausted youth. She did not rouse nor
+even open her eyes, but murmured half audibly; "David has come, Kate,
+hurry!"
+
+Half guessing what had passed the night he arrived, David stooped and
+tenderly gathered her up in his arms. He felt a bond of kindliness far
+deeper than brotherly love. It was a bond of common suffering, and by her
+own choice she had made herself his comrade in his trouble. He would at
+least save her what suffering he could.
+
+She did not waken as he carried her into the house, nor when he took her
+upstairs and laid her gently upon the white bed that had been prepared for
+the bridal chamber.
+
+The moonlight stole in at the small-paned windows and fell across the
+floor, showing every object in the room plainly. David lighted a candle
+and set it upon the high mahogany chest of drawers. The light flickered
+and played over the sweet face and Marcia slept on.
+
+David went downstairs and put up the horse, and then returned, but Marcia
+had not stirred. He stood a moment looking at her helplessly. It did not
+seem right to leave her this way, and yet it was a pity to disturb her
+sleep, she seemed so weary. It had been a long ride and the day had been
+filled with unwonted excitement. He felt it himself, and what must it be
+for her? She was a woman.
+
+David had the old-fashioned gallant idea of woman.
+
+Clumsily he untied the gay blue ribbons and pulled the jaunty poke bonnet
+out of her way. The luxuriant hair, unused to the confinement of combs,
+fell rich about her sleep-flushed face. Contentedly she nestled down, the
+bonnet out of her way, her red lips parted the least bit with a half
+smile, the black lashes lying long upon her rosy cheek, one childish hand
+upon which gleamed the new wedding ring--that was not hers,--lying relaxed
+and appealing upon her breast, rising and falling with her breath. A
+lovely bride!
+
+David, stern, true, pained and appreciative, suddenly awakened to what a
+dreadful thing he had done.
+
+Here was this lovely woman, her womanhood not yet unfolded from the bud,
+but lovely in promise even as her sister had been in truth, her charms,
+her dreams, her woman's ways, her love, her very life, taken by him as
+ruthlessly and as thoughtlessly as though she had been but a wax doll, and
+put into a home where she could not possibly be what she ought to be,
+because the place belonged to another. Thrown away upon a man without a
+heart! That was what she was! A sacrifice to his pride! There was no other
+way to put it.
+
+It fairly frightened him to think of the promises he had made. "Love,
+honor, cherish," yes, all those he had promised, and in a way he could
+perform, but not in the sense that the wedding ceremony had meant, not in
+the way in which he would have performed them had the bride been Kate, the
+choice of his love. Oh, why, why had this awful thing come upon him!
+
+And now his conscience told him he had done wrong to take this girl away
+from the possibilities of joy in the life that might have been hers, and
+sacrifice her for the sake of saving his own sufferings, and to keep his
+friends from knowing that the girl he was to marry had jilted him.
+
+As he stood before the lovely, defenceless girl her very beauty and
+innocence arraigned him. He felt that God would hold him accountable for
+the act he had so thoughtlessly committed that day, and a burden of
+responsibility settled upon his weight of sorrow that made him groan
+aloud. For a moment his soul cried out against it in rebellion. Why could
+he not have loved this sweet self-sacrificing girl instead of her fickle
+sister? Why? Why? She might perhaps have loved him in return, but now
+nothing could ever be! Earth was filled with a black sorrow, and life
+henceforth meant renunciation and one long struggle to hide his trouble
+from the world.
+
+But the girl whom he had selfishly drawn into the darkness of his sorrow
+with him, she must not be made to suffer more than he could help. He must
+try to make her happy, and keep her as much as possible from knowing what
+she had missed by coming with him! His lips set in stern resolve, and a
+purpose, half prayer, went up on record before God, that he would save her
+as much as he knew how.
+
+Lying helpless so, she appealed to him. Asking nothing she yet demanded
+all from him in the name of true chivalry. How readily had she given up
+all for him! How sweetly she had said she would fill the place left vacant
+by her sister, just to save him pain and humiliation!
+
+A desire to stoop and kiss the fair face came to him, not for affection's
+sake, but reverently, as if to render to her before God some fitting sign
+that he knew and understood her act of self sacrifice, and would not
+presume upon it.
+
+Slowly, as though he were performing a religious ceremony, a sacred duty
+laid upon him on high, David stooped over her, bringing his face to the
+gentle sleeping one. Her sweet breath fanned his cheek like the almost
+imperceptible fragrance of a bud not fully opened yet to give forth its
+sweetness to the world. His soul, awake and keen through the thoughts that
+had just come to him, gave homage to her sweetness, sadly, wistfully, half
+wishing his spirit free to gather this sweetness for his own.
+
+And so he brought his lips to hers, and kissed her, his bride, yet not his
+bride. Kissed her for the second time. That thought came to him with the
+touch of the warm lips and startled him. Had there been something
+significant in the fact that he had met Marcia first and kissed her
+instead of Kate by mistake?
+
+It seemed as though the sleeping lips clung to his lingeringly, and half
+responded to the kiss, as Marcia in her dreams lived over again the kiss
+she had received by her father's gate in the moonlight. Only the dream
+lover was her own and not another's. David, as he lifted up his head and
+looked at her gravely, saw a half smile illuminating her lips as if the
+sleeping soul within had felt the touch and answered to the call.
+
+With a deep sigh he turned away, blew out the candle, and left her with
+the moonbeams in her chamber. He walked sadly to a rear room of the house
+and lay down upon the bed, his whole soul crying out in agony at his
+miserable state.
+
+
+
+Kate, the careless one, who had made all this heart-break and misery, had
+quarreled with her husband already because he did not further some
+expensive whim of hers. She had told him she was sorry she had not stayed
+where she was and carried on her marriage with David as she had planned to
+do. Now she sat sulkily in her room alone, too angry to sleep; while her
+husband smoked sullenly in the barroom below, and drank frequent glasses
+of brandy to fortify himself against Kate's moods.
+
+Kate was considering whether or not she had been a fool in marrying the
+captain instead of David, though she called herself by a much milder word
+than that. The romance was already worn away. She wished for her trunk and
+her pretty furbelows. Her father's word of reconciliation would doubtless
+come in a few days, also the trunks.
+
+After all there was intense satisfaction to Kate in having broken all
+bounds and done as she pleased. Of course it would have been a bit more
+comfortable if David had not been so absurdly in earnest, and believed in
+her so thoroughly. But it was nice to have some one believe in you no
+matter what you did, and David would always do that. It began to look
+doubtful if the captain would. But David would never marry, she was sure,
+and perhaps, by and by, when everything had been forgotten and forgiven,
+she might establish a pleasant relationship with him again. It would be
+charming to coquet with him. He made love so earnestly, and his great eyes
+were so handsome when he looked at one with his whole soul in them. Yes,
+she certainly must keep in with him, for it would be good to have a friend
+like that when her husband was off at sea with his ship. Now that she was
+a married woman she would be free from all such childish trammels as being
+guarded at home and never going anywhere alone. She could go to New York,
+and she would let David know where she was and he would come up on
+business and perhaps take her to the theatre. To be sure, she had heard
+David express views against theatre-going, and she knew he was as much of
+a church man, almost, as her father, but she was sure she could coax him
+to do anything for her, and she had always wanted to go to the theatre.
+His scruples might be strong, but she knew his love for her, and thought
+it was stronger. She had read in his eyes that it would never fail her.
+Yes, she thought, she would begin at once to make a friend of David. She
+would write him a letter asking forgiveness, and then she would keep him
+under her influence. There was no telling what might happen with her
+husband off at sea so much. It was well to be foresighted, besides, it
+would be wholesome for the captain to know she had another friend. He
+might be less stubborn. What a nuisance that the marriage vows had to be
+taken for life! It would be much nicer if they could be put off as easily
+as they were put on. Rather hard on some women perhaps, but she could keep
+any man as long as she chose, and then--she snapped her pretty thumb and
+finger in the air to express her utter disdain for the man whom she chose
+to cast off.
+
+It seemed that Kate, in running away from her father's house and her
+betrothed bridegroom, and breaking the laws of respectable society, had
+with that act given over all attempt at any principle.
+
+So she set herself down to write her letter, with a pout here and a dimple
+there, and as much pretty gentleness as if she had been talking with her
+own bewitching face and eyes quite near to his. She knew she could bewitch
+him if she chose, and she was in the mood just now to choose very much,
+for she was deeply angry with her husband.
+
+She had ever been utterly heartless when she pleased, knowing that it
+needed but her returning smile, sweet as a May morning, to bring her much
+abused subjects fondly to her feet once more. It did not strike her that
+this time she had sinned not only against her friends, but against heaven,
+and God-given love, and that a time of reckoning must come to her,--had
+come, indeed.
+
+She had never believed they would be angry with her, her father least of
+all. She had no thought they would do anything desperate. She had expected
+the wedding would be put off indefinitely, that the servants would be sent
+out hither and yon in hot haste to unbid the guests, upon some pretext of
+accident or illness, and that it would be left to rest until the village
+had ceased to wonder and her real marriage with Captain Leavenworth could
+be announced.
+
+She had counted upon David to stand up for her. She had not understood how
+her father's righteous soul would be stirred to the depths of shame and
+utter disgrace over her wanton action. Not that she would have been in the
+least deterred from doing as she pleased had she understood, only that she
+counted upon too great power with all of them.
+
+When the letter was written it sounded quite pathetic and penitent,
+putting all the blame of her action upon her husband, and making herself
+out a poor, helpless, sweet thing, bewildered by so much love put upon
+her, and suggesting, just in a hint, that perhaps after all she had made a
+mistake not to have kept David's love instead of the wilder, fiercer one.
+She ended by begging David to be her friend forever, and leaving an
+impression with him, though it was but slight, that already shadows had
+crossed her path that made her feel his friendship might be needed some
+day.
+
+It was a letter calculated to drive such a lover as David had been, half
+mad with anguish, even without the fact of his hasty marriage added to the
+situation.
+
+And in due time, by coach, the letter came to David.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER IX
+
+
+The morning sunbeams fell across the floor when Marcia awoke suddenly to a
+sense of her new surroundings. For a moment she could not think where she
+was nor how she came there. She looked about the unfamiliar walls, covered
+with paper decorated in landscapes--a hill in the distance with a tall
+castle among the trees, a blue lake in the foreground and two maidens
+sitting pensively upon a green bank with their arms about one another.
+Marcia liked it. She felt there was a story in it. She would like to
+imagine about the lives of those two girls when she had more time.
+
+There were no pictures in the room to mar those upon the paper, but the
+walls did not look bare. Everything was new and stiff and needed a woman's
+hand to bring the little homey touches, but the newness was a delight to
+the girl. It was as good as the time when she was a little girl and played
+house with Mary Ann down on the old flat stone in the pasture, with acorns
+for cups and saucers, and bits of broken china carefully treasured upon
+the mossy shelves in among the roots of the old elm tree that arched over
+the stone.
+
+She was stiff from the long ride, but her sleep had wonderfully refreshed
+her, and now she was ready to go to work. She wondered as she rose how she
+got upon that bed, how the blue bonnet got untied and laid upon the chair
+beside her. Surely she could not have done it herself and have no memory
+of it. Had she walked upstairs herself, or did some one carry her? Did
+David perhaps? Good kind David! A bird hopped upon the window seat and
+trilled a song, perked his head knowingly at her and flitted away. Marcia
+went to the window to look after him, and was held by the new sights that
+met her gaze. She could catch glimpses of houses through bowers of vines,
+and smoke rising from chimneys. She wondered who lived near, and if there
+were girls who would prove pleasant companions. Then she suddenly
+remembered that she was a girl no longer and must associate with married
+women hereafter.
+
+But suddenly the clock on the church steeple across the way warned her
+that it was late, and with a sense of deserving reprimand she hurried
+downstairs.
+
+The fire was already lighted and David had brought in fresh water. So much
+his intuition had told him was necessary. He had been brought up by three
+maiden aunts who thought that a man in the kitchen was out of his sphere,
+so the kitchen was an unknown quantity to him.
+
+Marcia entered the room as if she were not quite certain of her welcome.
+She was coming into a kingdom she only half understood.
+
+"Good morning," she said shyly, and a lovely color stole into her cheeks.
+Once more David's conscience smote him as her waking beauty intensified
+the impression made the night before.
+
+"Good morning," he said gravely, studying her face as he might have
+studied some poor waif whom he had unknowingly run over in the night and
+picked up to resuscitate. "Are you rested? You were very tired last
+night."
+
+"What a baby I was!" said Marcia deprecatingly, with a soft little gurgle
+of a laugh like a merry brook. David was amazed to find she had two
+dimples located about as Kate's were, only deeper, and more gentle in
+their expression.
+
+"Did I sleep all the afternoon after we left the canal? And did you have
+hard work to get me into the house and upstairs?"
+
+"You slept most soundly," said David, smiling in spite of his heavy heart.
+"It seemed a pity to waken you, so I did the next best thing and put you
+to bed as well as I knew how."
+
+"It was very good of you," said Marcia, coming over to him with her hands
+clasped earnestly, "and I don't know how to thank you."
+
+There was something quaint and old-fashioned in her way of speaking, and
+it struck David pitifully that she should be thanking her husband, the man
+who had pledged himself to care for her all his life. It seemed that
+everywhere he turned his conscience would be continually reproaching him.
+
+It was a dainty breakfast to which they presently sat down. There was
+plenty of bread and fresh butter just from the hands of the best
+butter-maker in the county; the eggs had been laid the day before, and the
+bacon was browned just right. Marcia well knew how to make coffee, there
+was cream rich and yellow as ever came from the cows at home and there
+were blackberries as large and fine every bit as those Marcia picked but a
+few days before for the purchase of her pink sprigged chintz.
+
+David watched her deft movements and all at once keen smiting conscience
+came to remind him that Marcia was defrauded of all the loving interchange
+of mirth that would have been if Kate had been here. Also, keener still
+the thought that Kate had not wanted it: that she had preferred the love
+of another man to his, and that these joys had not been held in dear
+anticipation with her as they had with him. He had been a fool. All these
+months of waiting for his marriage he had thought that he and Kate held
+feelings in common, joys and hopes and tender thoughts of one another;
+and, behold, he was having these feelings all to himself, fool and blind
+that he was! A bitter sigh came to his lips, and Marcia, eager in the
+excitement of getting her first breakfast upon her own responsibility,
+heard and forgot to smile over the completed work. She could hardly eat
+what she had prepared, her heart felt David's sadness so keenly.
+
+Shyly she poured the amber coffee and passed it to David. She was pleased
+that he drank it eagerly and passed his cup back for more. He ate but
+little, but seemed to approve of all she had done.
+
+After breakfast David went down to the office. He had told Marcia that he
+would step over and tell his aunts of their arrival, and they would
+probably come over in the course of the day to greet her. He would be back
+to dinner at twelve. He suggested that she spend her time in resting, as
+she must be weary yet. Then hesitating, he went out and closed the door
+behind him. He waited again on the door stone outside and opened the door
+to ask:
+
+"You won't be lonesome, will you, child?" He had the feeling of troubled
+responsibility upon him.
+
+"Oh, no!" said Marcia brightly, smiling back. She thought it so kind of
+him to take the trouble to think of her. She was quite anticipating a trip
+of investigation over her new domain, and the pleasure of feeling that she
+was mistress and might do as she pleased. Yet she stood by the window
+after he was gone and watched his easy strides down the street with a
+feeling of mingled pride and disappointment. It was a very nice play she
+was going through, and David was handsome, and her young heart swelled
+with pride to belong to him, but after all there was something left out. A
+great lack, a great unknown longing unsatisfied. What was it? What made
+it? Was it David's sorrow?
+
+She turned with a sigh as he disappeared around a curve in the sidewalk
+and was lost to view. Then casting aside the troubles which were trying to
+settle upon her, she gave herself up to a morning of pure delight.
+
+She flew about the kitchen putting things to rights, washing the delicate
+sprigged china with its lavendar sprays and buff bands, and putting it
+tenderly upon the shelves behind the glass doors; shoving the table back
+against the wall demurely with dropped leaves. It did not take long.
+
+There was no need to worry about the dinner. There was a leg of lamb
+beautifully cooked, half a dozen pies, their flaky crusts bearing witness
+to the culinary skill of the aunts, a fruit cake, a pound cake, a jar of
+delectable cookies and another of fat sugary doughnuts, three loaves of
+bread, and a sheet of puffy rusks with their shining tops dusted with
+sugar. Besides the preserve closet was rich in all kinds of preserves,
+jellies and pickles. No, it would not take long to get dinner.
+
+It was into the great parlor that Marcia peeped first. It had been toward
+that room that her hopes and fears had turned while she washed the dishes.
+
+The Schuylers were one of the few families in those days that possessed a
+musical instrument, and it had been the delight of Marcia's heart. She
+seemed to have a natural talent for music, and many an hour she spent at
+the old spinet drawing tender tones from the yellowed keys. The spinet had
+been in the family for a number of years and very proud had the Schuyler
+girls been of it. Kate could rattle off gay waltzes and merry, rollicking
+tunes that fairly made the feet of the sedate village maidens flutter in
+time to their melody, but Marcia's music had always been more tender and
+spiritual. Dear old hymns, she loved, and some of the old classics.
+"Stupid old things without any tune," Kate called them. But Marcia
+persevered in playing them until she could bring out the beautiful
+passages in a way that at least satisfied herself. Her one great desire
+had been to take lessons of a real musician and be able to play the
+wonderful things that the old masters had composed. It is true that very
+few of these had come in her way. One somewhat mutilated copy of Handel's
+"Creation," a copy of Haydn's "Messiah," and a few fragments of an old
+book of Bach's Fugues and Preludes. Many of these she could not play at
+all, but others she had managed to pick out. A visit from a cousin who
+lived in Boston and told of the concerts given there by the Handel and
+Haydn Society had served to strengthen her deeper interest in music. The
+one question that had been going over in her mind ever since she awoke had
+been whether there was a musical instrument in the house. She felt that if
+there was not she would miss the old spinet in her father's house more
+than any other thing about her childhood's home.
+
+So with fear and trepidation she entered the darkened room, where the
+careful aunts had drawn the thick green shades. The furniture stood about
+in shadowed corners, and every footfall seemed a fearsome thing.
+
+Marcia's bright eyes hurried furtively about, noting the great glass knobs
+that held the lace curtains with heavy silk cords, the round mahogany
+table, with its china vase of "everlastings," the high, stiff-backed
+chairs all decked in elaborate antimacassars of intricate pattern. Then,
+in the furthest corner, shrouded in dark coverings she found what she was
+searching for. With a cry she sprang to it, touched its polished wood with
+gentle fingers, and lovingly felt for the keyboard. It was closed. Marcia
+pushed up the shade to see better, and opened the instrument cautiously.
+
+It was a pianoforte of the latest pattern, and with exclamations of
+delight she sat down and began to strike chords, softly at first, as if
+half afraid, then more boldly. The tone was sweeter than the old spinet,
+or the harpsichord owned by Squire Hartrandt. Marcia marvelled at the
+volume of sound. It filled the room and seemed to echo through the empty
+halls.
+
+She played soft little airs from memory, and her soul was filled with joy.
+Now she knew she would never be lonely in the new life, for she would
+always have this wonderful instrument to flee to when she felt homesick.
+
+Across the hall were two square rooms, the front one furnished as a
+library. Here were rows of books behind glass doors. Marcia looked at them
+with awe. Might she read them all? She resolved to cultivate her mind that
+she might be a fit companion for David. She knew he was wise beyond his
+years for she had heard her father say so. She went nearer and scanned the
+titles, and at once there looked out to her from the rows of bindings a
+few familiar faces of books she had read and re-read. "Thaddeus of
+Warsaw," "The Scottish Chiefs," "Mysteries of Udolpho," "Romance of the
+Forest," "Baker's Livy," "Rollin's History," "Pilgrim's Progress," and a
+whole row of Sir Walter Scott's novels. She caught her breath with
+delight. What pleasure was opening before her! All of Scott! And she had
+read but one!
+
+It was with difficulty she tore herself away from the tempting shelves and
+went on to the rest of the house.
+
+Back of David's library was a sunny sitting room, or breakfast room,--or
+"dining room" as it would be called at the present time. In Marcia's time
+the family ate most of their meals in one end of the large bright kitchen,
+that end furnished with a comfortable lounge, a few bookshelves, a thick
+ingrain carpet, and a blooming geranium in the wide window seat. But there
+was always the other room for company, for "high days and holidays."
+
+Out of this morning room the pantry opened with its spicy odors of
+preserves and fruit cake.
+
+Marcia looked about her well pleased. The house itself was a part of
+David's inheritance, his mother's family homestead. Things were all on a
+grand scale for a bride. Most brides began in a very simple way and
+climbed up year by year. How Kate would have liked it all! David must have
+had in mind her fastidious tastes, and spent a great deal of money in
+trying to please her. That piano must have been very expensive. Once more
+Marcia felt how David had loved Kate and a pang went through her as she
+wondered however he was to live without her. Her young soul had not yet
+awakened to the question of how _she_ was to live _with_ him, while his
+heart went continually mourning for one who was lost to him forever.
+
+The rooms upstairs were all pleasant, spacious, and comfortably furnished.
+There was no suggestion of bareness or anything left unfinished. Much of
+the furniture was old, having belonged to David's mother, and was in a
+state of fine preservation, a possession of which to be justly proud.
+
+There were four rooms besides the one in which Marcia had slept: a front
+and back on the opposite side of the hall, a room just back of her own,
+and one at the end of the hall over the large kitchen.
+
+She entered them all and looked about. The three beside her own in the
+front part of the house were all large and airy, furnished with high
+four-posted bedsteads, and pretty chintz hangings. Each was immaculate in
+its appointments. Cautiously she lifted the latch of the back room. David
+had not slept in any of the others, for the bedcoverings and pillows were
+plump and undisturbed. Ah! It was here in the back room that he had
+carried his heavy heart, as far away from the rest of the house as
+possible!
+
+The bed was rumpled as if some one had thrown himself heavily down without
+stopping to undress. There was water in the washbowl and a towel lay
+carelessly across a chair as if it had been hastily used. There was a
+newspaper on the bureau and a handkerchief on the floor. Marcia looked
+sadly about at these signs of occupancy, her eyes dwelling upon each
+detail. It was here that David had suffered, and her loving heart longed
+to help him in his suffering.
+
+But there was nothing in the room to keep her, and remembering the fire
+she had left upon the hearth, which must be almost spent and need
+replenishing by this time, she turned to go downstairs.
+
+Just at the door something caught her eye under the edge of the chintz
+valence round the bed. It was but the very tip of the corner of an old
+daguerreotype, but for some reason Marcia was moved to stoop and draw it
+from its concealment. Then she saw it was her sister's saucy, pretty face
+that laughed back at her in defiance from the picture.
+
+As if she had touched something red hot Marcia dropped it, and pushed it
+with her foot far back under the bed. Then shutting the door quickly she
+went downstairs. Was it always to be thus? Would Kate ever blight all her
+joy from this time forth?
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER X
+
+
+Marcia's cheeks were flushed when David came home to dinner, for at the
+last she had to hurry.
+
+As he stood in the doorway of the wide kitchen and caught the odor of the
+steaming platter of green corn she was putting upon the table, David
+suddenly realized that he had eaten scarcely anything for breakfast.
+
+Also, he felt a certain comfort from the sweet steady look of wistful
+sympathy in Marcia's eyes. Did he fancy it, or was there a new look upon
+her face, a more reserved bearing, less childish, more touched by sad
+knowledge of life and its bitterness? It was mere fancy of course,
+something he had just not noticed. He had seen so little of her before.
+
+In the heart of the maiden there stirred a something which she did not
+quite understand, something brought to life by the sight of her sister's
+daguerreotype lying at the edge of the valence, where it must have fallen
+from David's pocket without his knowledge as he lay asleep. It had seemed
+to put into tangible form the solid wall of fact that hung between her and
+any hope of future happiness as a wife, and for the first time she too
+began to realize what she had sacrificed in thus impetuously throwing her
+young life into the breach that it might be healed. But she was not
+sorry,--not yet, anyway,--only frightened, and filled with dreary
+forebodings.
+
+The meal was a pleasant one, though constrained. David roused himself to
+be cheerful for Marcia's sake, as he would have done with any other
+stranger, and the girl, suddenly grown sensitive, felt it, and appreciated
+it, yet did not understand why it made her unhappy.
+
+She was anxious to please him, and kept asking if the potatoes were
+seasoned right and if his corn were tender, and if he wouldn't have
+another cup of coffee. Her cheeks were quite red with the effort at
+matronly dignity when David was finally through his dinner and gone back
+to the office, and two big tears came and sat in her eyes for a moment,
+but were persuaded with a determined effort to sink back again into those
+unfathomable wells that lie in the depths of a woman's eyes. She longed to
+get out of doors and run wild and free in the old south pasture for
+relief. She did not know how different it all was from the first dinner of
+the ordinary young married couple; so stiff and formal, with no gentle
+touches, no words of love, no glances that told more than words. And yet,
+child as she was, she felt it, a lack somewhere, she knew not what.
+
+But training is a great thing. Marcia had been trained to be on the alert
+for the next duty and to do it before she gave herself time for any of her
+own thoughts. The dinner table was awaiting her attention, and there was
+company coming.
+
+She glanced at the tall clock in the hall and found she had scarcely an
+hour before she might expect David's aunts, for David had brought her word
+that they would come and spend the afternoon and stay to tea.
+
+She shrank from the ordeal and wished David had seen fit to stay and
+introduce her. It would have been a relief to have had him for a shelter.
+Somehow she knew that he would have stayed if it had been Kate, and that
+thought pained her, with a quick sharpness like the sting of an insect.
+She wondered if she were growing selfish, that it should hurt to find
+herself of so little account. And, yet, it was to be expected, and she
+must stop thinking about it. Of course, Kate was the one he had chosen and
+Kate would always be the only one to him.
+
+It did not take her long to reduce the dinner table to order and put all
+things in readiness for tea time; and in doing her work Marcia's thoughts
+flew to pleasanter themes. She wondered what Dolly and Debby, the servants
+at home, would say if they could see her pretty china and the nice
+kitchen. They had always been fond of her, and naturally her new honors
+made her wish to have her old friends see her. What would Mary Ann say?
+What fun it would be to have Mary Ann there sometime. It would be almost
+like the days when they had played house under the old elm on the big flat
+stone, only this would be a real house with real sprigged china instead of
+bits of broken things. Then she fell into a song, one they sang in school,
+
+            "Sister, thou wast mild and lovely,
+               Gentle as the summer breeze,
+             Pleasant as the air of evening
+               When it floats among the trees."
+
+But the first words set her to thinking of her own sister, and how little
+the song applied to her, and she thought with a sigh how much better it
+would have been, how much less bitter, if Kate had been that way and had
+lain down to die and they could have laid her away in the little hilly
+graveyard under the weeping willows, and felt about her as they did about
+the girl for whom that song was written.
+
+The work was done, and Marcia arrayed in one of the simplest of Kate's
+afternoon frocks, when the brass knocker sounded through the house,
+startling her with its unfamiliar sound.
+
+Breathlessly she hurried downstairs. The crucial moment had come when she
+must stand to meet her new relatives alone. With her hand trembling she
+opened the door, but there was only one person standing on the stoop, a
+girl of about her own age, perhaps a few months younger. Her hair was red,
+her face was freckled, and her blue eyes under the red lashes danced with
+repressed mischief. Her dress was plain and she wore a calico sunbonnet of
+chocolate color.
+
+"Let me in quick before Grandma sees me," she demanded unceremoniously,
+entering at once before there was opportunity for invitation. "Grandma
+thinks I've gone to the store, so she won't expect me for a little while.
+I was jest crazy to see how you looked. I've ben watchin' out o' the
+window all the morning, but I couldn't ketch a glimpse of you. When David
+came out this morning I thought you'd sure be at the kitchen door to kiss
+him good-bye, but you wasn't, and I watched every chance I could get, but
+I couldn't see you till you run out in the garden fer corn. Then I saw you
+good, fer I was out hangin' up dish towels. You didn't have a sunbonnet
+on, so I could see real well. And when I saw how young you was I made up
+my mind I'd get acquainted in spite of Grandma. You don't mind my comin'
+over this way without bein' dressed up, do you? There wouldn't be any way
+to get here without Grandma seeing me, you know, if I put on my Sunday
+clo'es."
+
+"I'm glad you came!" said Marcia impulsively, feeling a rush of something
+like tears in her throat at the relief of delay from the aunts. "Come in
+and sit down. Who are you, and why wouldn't your Grandmother like you to
+come?"
+
+The strange girl laughed a mirthless laugh.
+
+"Me? Oh, I'm Mirandy. Nobody ever calls me anything but Mirandy. My pa
+left ma when I was a baby an' never come back, an' ma died, and I live
+with Grandma Heath. An' Grandma's mad 'cause David didn't marry Hannah
+Heath. She wanted him to an' she did everything she could to make him pay
+'tention to Hannah, give her fine silk frocks, two of 'em, and a real pink
+parasol, but David he never seemed to know the parasol was pink at all,
+fer he'd never offer to hold it over Hannah even when Grandma made him
+walk with her home from church ahead of us. So when it come out that David
+was really going to marry, and wouldn't take Hannah, Grandma got as mad as
+could be and said we never any of us should step over his door sill. But
+I've stepped, I have, and Grandma can't help herself."
+
+"And who is Hannah Heath?" questioned the dazed young bride. It appeared
+there was more than a sister to be taken into account.
+
+"Hannah? Oh, Hannah is my cousin, Uncle Jim's oldest daughter, and she's
+getting on toward thirty somewhere. She has whitey-yellow hair and light
+blue eyes and is tall and real pretty. She held her head high fer a good
+many years waitin' fer David, and I guess she feels she made a mistake
+now. I noticed she bowed real sweet to Hermon Worcester last Sunday and
+let him hold her parasol all the way to Grandma's gate. Hannah was mad as
+hops when she heard that you had gold hair and blue eyes, for it did seem
+hard to be beaten by a girl of the same kind? but you haven't, have you?
+Your hair is almost black and your eyes are brownie-brown. You're years
+younger than Hannah, too. My! Won't she be astonished when she sees you!
+But I don't understand how it got around about your having gold hair. It
+was a man that stopped at your father's house once told it----"
+
+"It was my sister!" said Marcia, and then blushed crimson to think how
+near she had come to revealing the truth which must not be known.
+
+"Your sister? Have you got a sister with gold hair?"
+
+"Yes, he must have seen her," said Marcia confusedly. She was not used to
+evasion.
+
+"How funny!" said Miranda. "Well, I'm glad he did, for it made Hannah so
+jealous it was funny. But I guess she'll get a set-back when she sees how
+young you are. You're not as pretty as I thought you would be, but I
+believe I like you better."
+
+Miranda's frank speech reminded Marcia of Mary Ann and made her feel quite
+at home with her curious visitor. She did not mind being told she was not
+up to the mark of beauty. From her point of view she was not nearly so
+pretty as Kate, and her only fear was that her lack of beauty might reveal
+the secret and bring confusion to David. But she need not have feared: no
+one watching the two girls, as they sat in the large sunny room and faced
+each other, but would have smiled to think the homely crude girl could
+suggest that the other calm, cool bud of womanhood was not as near
+perfection of beauty as a bud could be expected to come. There was always
+something child-like about Marcia's face, especially her profile,
+something deep and other-world-like in her eyes, that gave her an
+appearance so distinguished from other girls that the word "pretty" did
+not apply, and surface observers might have passed her by when searching
+for prettiness, but not so those who saw soul beauties.
+
+But Miranda's time was limited, and she wanted to make as much of it as
+possible.
+
+"Say, I heard you making music this morning. Won't you do it for me? I'd
+just love to hear you."
+
+Marcia's face lit up with responsive enthusiasm, and she led the way to
+the darkened parlor and folded back the covers of the precious piano. She
+played some tender little airs she loved as she would have played them for
+Mary Ann, and the two young things stood there together, children in
+thought and feeling, half a generation apart in position, and neither
+recognized the difference.
+
+"My land!" said the visitor, "'f I could play like that I wouldn't care ef
+I had freckles and no father and red hair," and looking up Marcia saw
+tears in the light blue eyes, and knew she had a kindred feeling in her
+heart for Miranda.
+
+They had been talking a minute or two when the knocker suddenly sounded
+through the long hall again making both girls start. Miranda boldly
+tiptoed over to the front window and peeped between the green slats of the
+Venetian blind to see who was at the door, while Marcia started guiltily
+and quickly closed the instrument.
+
+"It's David's aunts," announced Miranda in a stage whisper hurriedly. "I
+might 'a' known they would come this afternoon. Well, I had first try at
+you anyway, and I like you real well. May I come again and hear you play?
+You go quick to the door, and I'll slip into the kitchen till they get in,
+and then I'll go out the kitchen door and round the house out the little
+gate so Grandma won't see me. I must hurry for I ought to have been back
+ten minutes ago."
+
+"But you haven't been to the store," said Marcia in a dismayed whisper.
+
+"Oh, well, that don't matter! I'll tell her they didn't have what she sent
+me for. Good-bye. You better hurry." So saying, she disappeared into the
+kitchen; and Marcia, startled by such easy morality, stood dazed until the
+knocker sounded forth again, this time a little more peremptorily, as the
+elder aunt took her turn at it.
+
+And so at last Marcia was face to face with the Misses Spafford.
+
+They came in, each with her knitting in a black silk bag on her slim arm,
+and greeted the flushed, perturbed Marcia with gentle, righteous, rigid
+inspection. She felt with the first glance that she was being tried in the
+fire, and that it was to be no easy ordeal through which she was to pass.
+They had come determined to sift her to the depths and know at once the
+worst of what their beloved nephew had brought upon himself. If they found
+aught wrong with her they meant to be kindly and loving with her, but they
+meant to take it out of her. This had been the unspoken understanding
+between them as they wended their dignified, determined way to David's
+house that afternoon, and this was what Marcia faced as she opened the
+door for them.
+
+She gasped a little, as any girl overwhelmed thus might have done. She did
+not tilt her chin in defiance as Kate would have done. The thought of
+David came to support her, and she grasped for her own little part and
+tried to play it creditably. She did not know whether the aunts knew of
+her true identity or not, but she was not left long in doubt.
+
+"My dear, we have long desired to know you, of whom we have heard so
+much," recited Miss Amelia, with slightly agitated mien, as she bestowed a
+cool kiss of duty upon Marcia's warm cheek. It chilled the girl, like the
+breath from a funeral flower.
+
+"Yes, it is indeed a pleasure to us to at last look upon our dear nephew's
+wife," said Miss Hortense quite precisely, and laid the sister kiss upon
+the other cheek. In spite of her there flitted through Marcia's brain the
+verse, "Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the
+other also." Then she was shocked at her own irreverence and tried to put
+away a hysterical desire to laugh.
+
+The aunts, too, were somewhat taken aback. They had not looked for so
+girlish a wife. She was not at all what they had pictured. David had tried
+to describe Kate to them once, and this young, sweet, disarming thing did
+not in the least fit their preconceived ideas of her. What should they do?
+How could they carry on a campaign planned against a certain kind of
+enemy, when lo, as they came upon the field of action the supposed enemy
+had taken another and more bewildering form than the one for whom they had
+prepared. They were for the moment silent, gathering their thoughts, and
+trying to fit their intended tactics to the present situation.
+
+During this operation Marcia helped them to remove their bonnets and silk
+capes and to lay them neatly on the parlor sofa. She gave them chairs,
+suggested palm-leaf fans, and looked about, for the moment forgetting that
+this was not her old home plentifully supplied with those gracious breeze
+wafters.
+
+They watched her graceful movements, those two angular old ladies, and
+marvelled over her roundness and suppleness. They saw with appalled hearts
+what a power youth and beauty might have over a man. Perhaps she might be
+even worse than they had feared, though if you could have heard them talk
+about their nephew's coming bride to their neighbors for months
+beforehand, you would have supposed they knew her to be a model in every
+required direction. But their stately pride required that of them, an
+outward loyalty at least. Now that loyalty was to be tried, and Marcia had
+two old, narrow and well-fortified hearts to conquer ere her way would be
+entirely smooth.
+
+Well might Madam Schuyler have been proud of her pupil as alone and
+unaided she faced the trying situation and mastered it in a sweet and
+unassuming way.
+
+They began their inquisition at once, so soon as they were seated, and the
+preliminary sentences uttered. The gleaming knitting needles seemed to
+Marcia like so many swarming, vindictive bees, menacing her peace of mind.
+
+"You look young, child, to have the care of so large a house as this,"
+said Aunt Amelia, looking at Marcia over her spectacles as if she were
+expected to take the first bite out of her. "It's a great responsibility!"
+she shut her thin lips tightly and shook her head, as if she had said:
+"It's a great _impossibility_."
+
+"Have you ever had the care of a house?" asked Miss Hortense, going in a
+little deeper. "David likes everything nice, you know, he has always been
+used to it."
+
+There was something in the tone, and in the set of the bow on Aunt
+Hortense's purple-trimmed cap that roused the spirit in Marcia.
+
+"I think I rather enjoy housework," she responded coolly. This unexpected
+statement somewhat mollified the aunts. They had heard to the contrary
+from some one who had lived in the same town with the Schuylers. Kate's
+reputation was widely known, as that of a spoiled beauty, who did not care
+to work, and would do whatever she pleased. The aunts had entertained many
+forebodings from the few stray hints an old neighbor of Kate's had dared
+to utter in their hearing.
+
+The talk drifted at once into household matters, as though that were the
+first division of the examination the young bride was expected to undergo.
+Marcia took early opportunity to still further mollify her visitors by her
+warmest praise of the good things with which the pantry and store-closet
+had been filled. The expression that came upon the two old faces was that
+of receiving but what is due. If the praise had not been forthcoming they
+would have marked it down against her, but it counted for very little with
+them, warm as it was.
+
+"Can you make good bread?"
+
+The question was flung out by Aunt Hortense like a challenge, and the very
+set of her nostrils gave Marcia warning. But it was in a relieved voice
+that ended almost in a ripple of laugh that she answered quite assuredly:
+"Oh, yes, indeed. I can make beautiful bread. I just love to make it,
+too!"
+
+"But how do you make it?" quickly questioned Aunt Amelia, like a repeating
+rifle. If the first shot had not struck home, the second was likely to.
+"Do you use hop yeast? Potatoes? I thought so. Don't know how to make
+salt-rising, do you? It's just what might have been expected."
+
+"David has always been used to salt-rising bread," said Aunt Hortense with
+a grim set of her lips as though she were delivering a judgment. "He was
+raised on it."
+
+"If David does not like my bread," said Marcia with a rising color and a
+nervous little laugh, "then I shall try to make some that he does like."
+
+There was an assurance about the "if" that did not please the oracle.
+
+"David was raised on salt-rising bread," said Aunt Hortense again as if
+that settled it. "We can send you down a loaf or two every time we bake
+until you learn how."
+
+"I'm sure it's very kind of you," said Marcia, not at all pleased, "but I
+do not think that will be necessary. David has always seemed to like our
+bread when he visited at home. Indeed he often praised it."
+
+"David would not be impolite," said Aunt Amelia, after a suitable pause in
+which Marcia felt disapprobation in the air. "It would be best for us to
+send it. David's health might suffer if he was not suitably nourished."
+
+Marcia's cheeks grew redder. Bread had been one of her stepmother's strong
+points, well infused into her young pupil. Madam Schuyler had never been
+able to say enough to sufficiently express her scorn of people who made
+salt-rising bread.
+
+"My stepmother made beautiful bread," she said quite childishly; "she did
+not think salt-rising was so healthy as that made from hop yeast. She
+disliked the odor in the house from salt-rising bread."
+
+Now indeed the aunts exchanged glances of "On to the combat." Four red
+spots flamed giddily out in their four sallow cheeks, and eight shining
+knitting needles suddenly became idle. The moment was too momentous to
+work. It was as they feared, even the worst. For, be it known, salt-rising
+bread was one of their most tender points, and for it they would fight to
+the bitter end. They looked at her with four cold, forbidding, steely,
+spectacled eyes, and Marcia felt that their looks said volumes: "And she
+so young too! To be so out of the way!" was what they might have expressed
+to one another. Marcia felt she had been unwise in uttering her honest,
+indignant sentiments concerning salt-rising bread.
+
+The pause was long and impressive, and the bride felt like a naughty
+little four-year-old.
+
+At last Aunt Hortense took up her knitting again with the air that all was
+over and an unrevokable verdict was passed upon the culprit.
+
+"People have never seemed to stay away from our house on that account,"
+she said dryly. "I'm sure I hope it will not be so disagreeable that it
+will affect your coming to see us sometimes with David."
+
+There was an iciness in her manner that seemed to suggest a long line of
+offended family portraits of ancestors frowning down upon her.
+
+Marcia's cheeks flamed crimson and her heart fairly stopped beating.
+
+"I beg your pardon," she said quickly, "I did not mean to say anything
+disagreeable. I am sure I shall be glad to come as often as you will let
+me." As she said it Marcia wondered if that were quite true. Would she
+ever be glad to go to the home of those two severe-looking aunts? There
+were three of them. Perhaps the other one would be even more withered and
+severe than these two. A slight shudder passed over Marcia, and a sudden
+realization of a side of married life that had never come into her
+thoughts before. For a moment she longed with all the intensity of a child
+for her father's house and the shelter of his loving protection, amply
+supported by her stepmother's capable, self-sufficient, comforting
+countenance. Her heart sank with the fear that she would never be able to
+do justice to the position of David's wife, and David would be
+disappointed in her and sorry he had accepted her sacrifice. She roused
+herself to do better, and bit her tongue to remind it that it must make no
+more blunders. She praised the garden, the house and the furnishings, in
+voluble, eager, girlish language until the thin lines of lips relaxed and
+the drawn muscles of the aunts' cheeks took on a less severe aspect. They
+liked to be appreciated, and they certainly had taken a great deal of
+pains with the house--for David's sake--not for hers. They did not care to
+have her deluded by the idea that they had done it for her sake. David was
+to them a young god, and with this one supreme idea of his supremacy they
+wished to impress his young wife. It was a foregone conclusion in their
+minds that no mere pretty young girl was capable of appreciating David, as
+could they, who had watched him from babyhood, and pampered and petted and
+been severe with him by turns, until if he had not had the temper of an
+angel he would surely have been spoiled.
+
+"We did our best to make the house just as David would have wished to have
+it," said Aunt Amelia at last, a self-satisfied shadow of what answered
+for a smile with her, passing over her face for a moment.
+
+"We did not at all approve of this big house, nor indeed of David's
+setting up in a separate establishment for himself," said Aunt Hortense,
+taking up her knitting again. "We thought it utterly unnecessary and
+uneconomical, when he might have brought his wife home to us, but he
+seemed to think you would want a house to yourself, so we did the best we
+could."
+
+There was a martyr-like air in Aunt Hortense's words that made Marcia feel
+herself again a criminal, albeit she knew she was suffering vicariously.
+But in her heart she felt a sudden thankfulness that she was spared the
+trial of living daily under the scrutiny of these two, and she blest David
+for his thoughtfulness, even though it had not been meant for her. She
+went into pleased ecstasies once more over the house, and its furnishings,
+and ended by her pleasure over the piano.
+
+There was grim stillness when she touched upon that subject. The aunts did
+not approve of that musical instrument, that was plain. Marcia wondered if
+they always paused so long before speaking when they disapproved, in order
+to show their displeasure. In fact, did they always disapprove of
+everything?
+
+"You will want to be very careful of it," said Aunt Amelia, looking at the
+disputed article over her glasses, "it cost a good deal of money. It was
+the most foolish thing I ever knew David to do, buying that."
+
+"Yes," said Aunt Hortense, "you will not want to use it much, it might get
+scratched. It has a fine polish. I'd keep it closed up only when I had
+company. You ought to be very proud to have a husband who could buy a
+thing like that. There's not many has them. When I was a girl my
+grandfather had a spinet, the only one for miles around, and it was taken
+great care of. The case hadn't a scratch on it."
+
+Marcia had started toward the piano intending to open it and play for her
+new relatives, but she halted midway in the room and came back to her seat
+after that speech, feeling that she must just sit and hold her hands until
+it was time to get supper, while these dreadful aunts picked her to
+pieces, body, soul and spirit.
+
+It was with great relief at last that she heard David's step and knew she
+might leave the room and put the tea things upon the table.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER XI
+
+
+They got through the supper without any trouble, and the aunts went home
+in the early twilight, each with her bonnet strings tied precisely, her
+lace mitts drawn smoothly over her bony hands, and her little knitting bag
+over her right arm. They walked decorously up the shaded, elm-domed
+street, each mindful of her aristocratic instep, and trying to walk erect
+as in the days when they were gazed upon with admiration, knowing that
+still an air of former greatness hovered about them wherever they went.
+
+They had brightened considerably at the supper table, under the genial
+influence of David's presence. They came as near to worshiping David as
+one can possibly come to worshiping a human being. David, desirous above
+all things of blinding their keen, sure-to-say-"I-told-you-so" old eyes,
+roused to be his former gay self with them, and pleased them so that they
+did not notice how little lover-like reference he made to his bride, who
+was decidedly in the background for the time, the aunts, perhaps
+purposely, desiring to show her a wife's true place,--at least the true
+place of a wife of a David.
+
+They had allowed her to bring their things and help them on with capes and
+bonnets, and, when they were ready to leave, Aunt Amelia put out a
+lifeless hand, that felt in its silk mitt like a dead fish in a net, and
+said to Marcia:
+
+"Our sister Clarinda is desirous of seeing David's wife. She wished us
+most particularly to give you her love and say to you that she wishes you
+to come to her at the earliest possible moment. You know she is lame and
+cannot easily get about."
+
+"Young folks should always be ready to wait upon their elders," said Aunt
+Hortense, grimly. "Come as soon as you can,--that is, if you think you can
+stand the smell of salt-rising."
+
+Marcia's face flushed painfully, and she glanced quickly at David to see
+if he had noticed what his aunt had said, but David was already
+anticipating the moment when he would be free to lay aside his mask and
+bury his face in his hands and his thoughts in sadness.
+
+Marcia's heart sank as she went about clearing off the supper things. Was
+life always to be thus? Would she be forever under the espionage of those
+two grim spectres of women, who seemed, to her girlish imagination, to
+have nothing about them warm or loving or woman-like?
+
+She seemed to herself to be standing outside of a married life and looking
+on at it as one might gaze on a panorama. It was all new and painful, and
+she was one of the central figures expected to act on through all the
+pictures, taking another's place, yet doing it as if it were her own. She
+glanced over at David's pale, grave face, set in its sadness, and a sharp
+pain went through her heart. Would he ever get over it? Would life never
+be more cheerful than it now was?
+
+He spoke to her occasionally, in a pleasant abstracted way, as to one who
+understood him and was kind not to trouble his sadness, and he lighted a
+candle for her when the work was done and said he hoped she would rest
+well, that she must still be weary from the long journey. And so she went
+up to her room again.
+
+She did not go to bed at once, but sat down by the window looking out on
+the moonlit street. There had been some sort of a meeting at the church
+across the way, and the people were filing out and taking their various
+ways home, calling pleasant good nights, and speaking cheerily of the
+morrow. The moon, though beginning to wane, was bright and cast sharp
+shadows. Marcia longed to get out into the night. If she could have got
+downstairs without being heard she would have slipped out into the garden.
+But downstairs she could hear David pacing back and forth like some hurt,
+caged thing. Steadily, dully, he walked from the front hall back into the
+kitchen and back again. There was no possibility of escaping his notice.
+Marcia felt as if she might breathe freer in the open air, so she leaned
+far out of her window and looked up and down the street, and thought.
+Finally,--her heart swelled to bursting, as young hearts with their first
+little troubles will do,--she leaned down her dark head upon the window
+seat and wept and wept, alone.
+
+It was the next morning at breakfast that David told her of the
+festivities that were planned in honor of their home coming. He spoke as
+if they were a great trial through which they both must pass in order to
+have any peace, and expressed his gratitude once more that she had been
+willing to come here with him and pass through it. Marcia had the
+impression, after he was done speaking and had gone away to the office,
+that he felt that she had come here merely for these few days of ceremony
+and after they were passed she was dismissed, her duty done, and she might
+go home. A great lump arose in her throat and she suddenly wished very
+much indeed that it were so. For if it were, how much, how very much she
+would enjoy queening it for a few days--except for David's sadness. But
+already, there had begun to be an element to her in that sadness which in
+spite of herself she resented. It was a heavy burden which she began dimly
+to see would be harder and harder to bear as the days went by. She had not
+yet begun to think of the time before her in years.
+
+They were to go to the aunts' to tea that evening, and after tea a company
+of David's old friends--or rather the old friends of David's aunts--were
+coming in to meet them. This the aunts had planned: but it seemed they had
+not counted her worthy to be told of the plans, and had only divulged them
+to David. Marcia had not thought that a little thing could annoy her so
+much, but she found it vexed her more and more as she thought upon it
+going about her work.
+
+There was not so much to be done in the house that morning after the
+breakfast things were cleared away. Dinners and suppers would not be much
+of a problem for some days to come, for the house was well stocked with
+good things.
+
+The beds done and the rooms left in dainty order with the sweet summer
+breeze blowing the green tassels on the window shades, Marcia went softly
+down like some half guilty creature to the piano. She opened it and was
+forthwith lost in delight of the sounds her own fingers brought forth.
+
+She had been playing perhaps half an hour when she became conscious of
+another presence in the room. She looked up with a start, feeling that
+some one had been there for some time, she could not tell just how long.
+Peering into the shadowy room lighted only from the window behind her, she
+made out a head looking in at the door, the face almost hidden by a
+capacious sunbonnet. She was not long in recognizing her visitor of the
+day before. It was like a sudden dropping from a lofty mountain height
+down into a valley of annoyance to hear Miranda's sharp metallic voice:
+
+"Morning!" she courtesied, coming in as soon as she perceived that she was
+seen. "At it again? I ben listening sometime. It's as pretty as Silas
+Drew's harmonicker when he comes home evenings behind the cows."
+
+Marcia drew her hands sharply from the keys as if she had been struck.
+Somehow Miranda and music were inharmonious. She scarcely knew what to
+say. She felt as if her morning were spoiled. But Miranda was too full of
+her own errand to notice the clouded face and cool welcome. "Say, you
+can't guess how I got over here. I'll tell you. You're going over to the
+Spafford house to-night, ain't you? and there's going to be a lot of folks
+there. Of course we all know all about it. It's been planned for months.
+And my cousin Hannah Heath has an invite. You can't think how fond Miss
+Amelia and Miss Hortense are of her. They tried their level best to make
+David pay attention to her, but it didn't work. Well, she was talking
+about what she'd wear. She's had three new frocks made last week, all
+frilled and fancy. You see she don't want to let folks think she is down
+in the mouth the least bit about David. She'll likely make up to you, to
+your face, a whole lot, and pretend she's the best friend you've got in
+the world. But I've just got this to say, don't you be too sure of her
+friendship. She's smooth as butter, but she can give you a slap in the
+face if you don't serve her purpose. I don't mind telling you for she's
+given me many a one," and the pale eyes snapped in unison with the color
+of her hair. "Well, you see I heard her talking to Grandma, and she said
+she'd give anything to know what you were going to wear to-night."
+
+"How curious!" said Marcia surprised. "I'm sure I do not see why she
+should care!" There was the coolness born of utter indifference in her
+reply which filled the younger girl with admiration. Perhaps too there was
+the least mite of haughtiness in her manner, born of the knowledge that
+she belonged to an old and honored family, and that she had in her
+possession a trunk full of clothes that could vie with any that Hannah
+Heath could display. Miranda wished silently that she could convey that
+cool manner and that wide-eyed indifference to the sight of her cousin
+Hannah.
+
+"H'm!" giggled Miranda. "Well, she does! If you were going to wear blue
+you'd see she'd put on her green. She's got one that'll kill any blue
+that's in the same room with it, no matter if it's on the other side. Its
+just sick'ning to see them together. And she looks real well in it too. So
+when she said she wanted to know so bad, Grandma said she'd send me over
+to know if you'd accept a jar of her fresh pickle-lily, and mebbe I could
+find out about your clothes. The pickle-lily's on the kitchen table. I
+left it when I came through. It's good, but there ain't any love in it."
+And Miranda laughed a hard mirthless laugh, and then settled down to her
+subject again.
+
+"Now, you needn't be a mite afraid to tell me about it. I won't tell it
+straight, you know. I'd just like to see what you are going to wear so I
+could keep her out of her tricks for once. Is your frock blue?"
+
+Now it is true that the trunk upstairs contained a goodly amount of the
+color blue, for Kate Schuyler had been her bonniest in blue, and the
+particular frock which had been made with reference to this very first
+significant gathering was blue. Marcia had accepted the fact as
+unalterable. The garment was made for a purpose, and its mission must be
+fulfilled however much she might wish to wear something else, but suddenly
+as Miranda spoke there came to her mind the thought of rebellion. Why
+should she be bound down to do exactly as Kate would do in her place? If
+she had accepted the sacrifice of living Kate's life for her, she might at
+least have the privilege of living it in the pleasantest possible way, and
+surely the matter of dress was one she might be allowed to settle for
+herself if she was old enough at all to be trusted away from home. Among
+the pretty things that Kate had made was a sweet rose-pink silk tissue.
+Madam Schuyler had frowned upon it as frivolous, and besides she did not
+think it becoming to Kate. She had a fixed theory that people with blue
+eyes and gold hair should never wear pink or red, but Kate as usual had
+her own way, and with her wild rose complexion had succeeded in looking
+like the wild rose itself in spite of blue eyes and golden hair. Marcia
+knew in her heart, in fact she had known from the minute the lovely pink
+thing had come into the house, that it was the very thing to set her off.
+Her dark eyes and hair made a charming contrast with the rose, and her
+complexion was even fresher than Kate's. Her heart grew suddenly eager to
+don this dainty, frilley thing and outshine Hannah Heath beyond any chance
+of further trying. There were other frocks, too, in the trunk. Why should
+she be confined to the stately blue one that had been marked out for this
+occasion? Marcia, with sudden inspiration, answered calmly, just as though
+all these tumultuous possibilities of clothes had not been whirling
+through her brain in that half second's hesitation:
+
+"I have not quite decided what I shall wear. It is not an important
+matter, I'm sure. Let us go and see the piccalilli. I'm very much obliged
+to your grandmother, I'm sure. It was kind of her."
+
+Somewhat awed, Miranda followed her hostess into the kitchen. She could
+not reconcile this girl's face with the stately little airs that she wore,
+but she liked her and forthwith she told her so.
+
+"I like you," she said fervently. "You remind me of one of Grandma's
+sturtions, bright and independent and lively, with a spice and a color to
+'em, and Hannah makes you think of one of them tall spikes of gladiolus
+all fixed up without any smell."
+
+Marcia tried to smile over the doubtful compliment. Somehow there was
+something about Miranda that reminded her of Mary Ann. Poor Mary Ann!
+_Dear_ Mary Ann! For suddenly she realized that everything that reminded
+her of the precious life of her childhood, left behind forever, was dear.
+If she could see Mary Ann at this moment she would throw her arms about
+her neck and call her "Dear Mary Ann," and say, "I love you," to her.
+Perhaps this feeling made her more gentle with the annoying Miranda than
+she might have been.
+
+When Miranda was gone the precious play hour was gone too. Marcia had only
+time to steal hurriedly into the parlor, close the instrument, and then
+fly about getting her dinner ready. But as she worked she had other
+thoughts to occupy her mind. She was becoming adjusted to her new
+environment and she found many unexpected things to make it hard. Here,
+for instance, was Hannah Heath. Why did there have to be a Hannah Heath?
+And what was Hannah Heath to her? Kate might feel jealous, indeed, but not
+she, not the unloved, unreal, wife of David. She should rather pity Hannah
+that David had not loved her instead of Kate, or pity David that he had
+not. But somehow she did not, somehow she could not. Somehow Hannah Heath
+had become a living, breathing enemy to be met and conquered. Marcia felt
+her fighting blood rising, felt the Schuyler in her coming to the front.
+However little there was in her wifehood, its name at least was hers. The
+tale that Miranda had told was enough, if it were true, to put any woman,
+however young she might be, into battle array. Marcia was puzzling her
+mind over the question that has been more or less of a weary burden to
+every woman since the fatal day that Eve made her great mistake.
+
+David was silent and abstracted at the dinner table, and Marcia absorbed
+in her own problems did not feel cut by it. She was trying to determine
+whether to blossom out in pink, or to be crushed and set aside into
+insignificance in blue, or to choose a happy medium and wear neither. She
+ventured a timid little question before David went away again: Did he,
+would he,--that is, was there any thing,--any word he would like to say to
+her? Would she have to do anything to-night?
+
+David looked at her in surprise. Why, no! He knew of nothing. Just go and
+speak pleasantly to every one. He was sure she knew what to do. He had
+always thought her very well behaved. She had manners like any woman. She
+need not feel shy. No one knew of her peculiar position, and he felt
+reasonably sure that the story would not soon get around. Her position
+would be thoroughly established before it did, at least. She need not feel
+uncomfortable. He looked down at her thinking he had said all that could
+be expected of him, but somehow he felt the trouble in the girl's eyes and
+asked her gently if there was anything more.
+
+"No," she said slowly, "unless, perhaps--I don't suppose you know what it
+would be proper for me to wear."
+
+"Oh, that does not matter in the least," he replied promptly. "Anything.
+You always look nice. Why, I'll tell you, wear the frock you had on the
+night I came." Then he suddenly remembered the reason why that was a
+pleasant memory to him, and that it was not for her sake at all, but for
+the sake of one who was lost to him forever. His face contracted with
+sudden pain, and Marcia, cut to the heart, read the meaning, and felt sick
+and sore too.
+
+"Oh, I could not wear that," she said sadly, "it is only chintz. It would
+not be nice enough, but thank you. I shall be all right. Don't trouble
+about me," and she forced a weak smile to light him from the house, and
+shut from his pained eyes the knowledge of how he had hurt her, for with
+those words of his had come the vision of herself that happy night as she
+stood at the gate in the stillness and moonlight looking from the portal
+of her maidenhood into the vista of her womanhood, which had seemed then
+so far away and bright, and was now upon her in sad reality. Oh, if she
+could but have caught that sentence of his about her little chintz frock
+to her heart with the joy of possession, and known that he said it because
+he too had a happy memory about her in it, as she had always felt the
+coming, misty, dream-expected lover would do!
+
+She spread the available frocks out upon the bed after the other things
+were put neatly away in closet and drawer, and sat down to decide the
+matter. David's suggestion while impossible had given her an idea, and she
+proceeded to carry it out. There was a soft sheer white muslin, whereon
+Kate had expended her daintiest embroidering, edged with the finest of
+little lace frills. It was quaint and simple and girlish, the sweetest,
+most simple affair in all of Kate's elaborate wardrobe, and yet, perhaps,
+from an artistic point of view, the most elegant. Marcia soon made up her
+mind.
+
+She dressed herself early, for David had said he would be home by four
+o'clock and they would start as soon after as he could get ready. His
+aunts wished to show her the old garden before dark.
+
+When she came to the arrangement of her hair she paused. Somehow her soul
+rebelled at the style of Kate. It did not suit her face. It did not accord
+with her feeling. It made her seem unlike herself, or unlike the self she
+would ever wish to be. It suited Kate well, but not her. With sudden
+determination she pulled it all down again from the top of her head and
+loosened its rich waves about her face, then loosely twisted it behind,
+low on her neck, falling over her delicate ears, until her head looked
+like that of an old Greek statue. It was not fashion, it was pure instinct
+the child was following out, and there was enough conformity to one of the
+fashionable modes of the day to keep her from looking odd. It was lovely.
+Marcia could not help seeing herself that it was much more becoming than
+the way she had arranged it for her marriage, though then she had had the
+wedding veil to soften the tightly drawn outlines of her head. She put on
+the sheer white embroidered frock then, and as a last touch pinned the bit
+of black velvet about her throat with a single pearl that had been her
+mother's. It was the bit of black velvet she had worn the night David
+came. It gave her pleasure to think that in so far she was conforming to
+his suggestion.
+
+She had just completed her toilet when she heard David's step coming up
+the walk.
+
+David, coming in out of the sunshine and beholding this beautiful girl in
+the coolness and shadow of the hall awaiting him shyly, almost started
+back as he rubbed his eyes and looked at her again. She was beautiful. He
+had to admit it to himself, even in the midst of his sadness, and he
+smiled at her, and felt another pang of condemnation that he had taken
+this beauty from some other man's lot perhaps, and appropriated it to
+shield himself from the world's exclamation about his own lonely life.
+
+"You have done it admirably. I do not see that there is anything left to
+be desired," he said in his pleasant voice that used to make her
+girl-heart flutter with pride that her new brother-to-be was pleased with
+her. It fluttered now, but there was a wider sweep to its wings, and a
+longer flight ahead of the thought.
+
+Quite demurely the young wife accepted her compliment, and then she meekly
+folded her little white muslin cape with its dainty frills about her
+pretty shoulders, drew on the new lace mitts, and tied beneath her chin
+the white strings of a shirred gauze bonnet with tiny rosebuds nestling in
+the ruching of tulle about the face.
+
+Once more the bride walked down the world the observed of all observers,
+the gazed at of the town, only this time it was brick pavement not oaken
+stairs she trod, and most of the eyes that looked upon her were sheltered
+behind green jalousies. None the less, however, was she conscious of them
+as she made her way to the house of solemn feasting with David by her
+side. Her eyes rested upon the ground, or glanced quietly at things in the
+distance, when they were not lifted for a moment in wifely humility to her
+husband's face at some word of his. Just as she imagined a hundred times
+in her girlish thoughts that her sister Kate would do, so did she, and
+after what seemed to her an interminable walk, though in reality it was
+but four village blocks, they arrived at the house of Spafford.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XII
+
+
+"This is your Aunt Clarinda!"
+
+There was challenge in the severely spoken pronoun Aunt Hortense used. It
+seemed to Marcia that she wished to remind her that all her old life and
+relations were passed away, and she had nothing now but David's,
+especially David's relatives. She shrank from lifting her eyes, expecting
+to find the third aunt, who was older, as much sourer and sharper in
+proportion to the other two, but she controlled herself and lifted her
+flower face to meet a gentle, meek, old face set in soft white frills of a
+cap, with white ribbons flying, and though the old lady leaned upon a
+crutch she managed to give the impression that she had fairly flown in her
+gladness to welcome her new niece. There was the lighting of a repressed
+nature let free in her kind old face as she looked with true pleasure upon
+the lovely young one, and Marcia felt herself folded in truly loving arms
+in an embrace which her own passionate, much repressed, loving nature
+returned with heartiness. At last she had found a friend!
+
+She felt it every time she spoke, more and more. They walked out into the
+garden almost immediately, and Aunt Clarinda insisted upon hobbling along
+by Marcia's side, though her sisters both protested that it would be too
+hard for her that warm afternoon. Every time that Marcia spoke she felt
+the kind old eyes upon her, and she knew that at least one of the aunts
+was satisfied with her as a wife for David, for her eyes would travel from
+David to Marcia and back again to David, and when they met Marcia's there
+was not a shade of disparagement in them.
+
+It was rather a tiresome walk through a tiresome old garden, laid out in
+the ways of the past generation, and bordered with much funereal box. The
+sisters, Amelia and Hortense, took the new member of the family,
+conscientiously, through every path, and faithfully told how each spot was
+associated with some happening in the family history. Occasionally there
+was a solemn pause for the purpose of properly impressing the new member
+of the house, and Amelia wiped her eyes with her carefully folded
+handkerchief. Marcia felt extremely like laughing. She was sure that if
+Kate had been obliged to pass through this ordeal she would have giggled
+out at once and said some shockingly funny thing that would have horrified
+the aunts beyond forgiveness. The thought of this nerved her to keep a
+sober face. She wondered what David thought of it all, but when she looked
+at him she wondered no longer, for David stood as one waiting for a
+certain ceremony to be over, a ceremony which he knew to be inevitable,
+but which was wholly and familiarly uninteresting. He did not even see how
+it must strike the girl who was going through it all for him, for David's
+thoughts were out on the flood-tide of sorrow, drifting against the rocks
+of the might-have-been.
+
+They went in to tea presently, just when the garden was growing loveliest
+with a tinge of the setting sun, and Marcia longed to run up and down the
+little paths like a child and call to them all to catch her if they could.
+The house was dark and stately and gloomy.
+
+"You are coming up to my room for a few minutes after supper," whispered
+Aunt Clarinda encouragingly as they passed into the dark hall. The supper
+table was alight with a fine old silver candelabra whose many wavering
+lights cast a solemn, grotesque shadow on the different faces.
+
+Beside her plate the young bride saw an ostentatious plate of puffy soda
+biscuits, and involuntarily her eyes searched the table for the bread
+plate.
+
+Aunt Clarinda almost immediately pounced upon the bread plate and passed
+it with a smile to Marcia, and as Marcia with an answering smile took a
+generous slice she heard the other two aunts exclaim in chorus, "Oh, don't
+pass her the bread, Clarinda; take it away sister, quick! She does not
+like salt-rising! It is unpleasant to her!"
+
+Then with blazing cheeks the girl protested that she wished to keep the
+bread, that they were mistaken, she had not said it was obnoxious to her,
+but had merely given them her stepmother's opinion when they asked. They
+must excuse her for her seeming rudeness, for she had not intended to hurt
+them. She presumed salt-rising bread was very nice; it looked beautiful.
+This was a long speech for shy Marcia to make before so many strangers,
+but David's wondering, troubled eyes were upon her, questioning what it
+all might mean, and she felt she could do anything to save David from more
+suffering or annoyance of any kind.
+
+David said little. He seemed to perceive that there had been an unpleasant
+prelude to this, and perhaps knew from former experience that the best way
+to do was to change the subject. He launched into a detailed account of
+their wedding journey. Marcia on her part was grateful to him, for when
+she took the first brave bite into the very puffy, very white slice of
+bread she had taken, she perceived that it was much worse than that which
+had been baked for their homecoming, and not only justified all her
+stepmother's execrations, but in addition it was sour. For an instant,
+perceiving down the horoscope of time whole calendars full of such suppers
+with the aunts, and this bread, her soul shuddered and shrank. Could she
+ever learn to like it? Impossible! Could she ever tolerate it? Could she?
+She doubted. Then she swallowed bravely and perceived that the impossible
+had been accomplished once. It could be again, but she must go slowly else
+she might have to eat two slices instead of one. David was kind. He had
+roused himself to help his helper. Perhaps something in her girlish beauty
+and helplessness, helpless here for his sake, appealed to him. At least
+his eyes sought hers often with a tender interest to see if she were
+comfortable, and once, when Aunt Amelia asked if they stopped nowhere for
+rest on their journey, his eyes sought Marcia's with a twinkling reminder
+of their roadside nap, and he answered, "Once, Aunt Amelia. No, it was not
+a regular inn. It was quieter than that. Not many people stopping there."
+
+Marcia's merry laugh almost bubbled forth, but she suppressed it just in
+time, horrified to think what Aunt Hortense would say, but somehow after
+David had said that her heart felt a trifle lighter and she took a big
+bite from the salt-rising and smiled as she swallowed it. There were worse
+things in the world, after all, than salt-rising, and, when one could
+smother it in Aunt Amelia's peach preserves, it was quite bearable.
+
+Aunt Clarinda slipped her off to her own room after supper, and left the
+other two sisters with their beloved idol, David. In their stately parlor
+lighted with many candles in honor of the occasion, they sat and talked in
+low tones with him, their voices suggesting condolence with his misfortune
+of having married out of the family, and disapproval with the married
+state in general. Poor souls! How their hard, loving hearts would have
+been wrung could they but have known the true state of the case! And,
+strange anomaly, how much deeper would have been their antagonism toward
+poor, self-sacrificing, loving Marcia! Just because she had dared to think
+herself fit for David, belonging as she did to her renegade sister Kate.
+But they did not know, and for this fact David was profoundly thankful.
+Those were not the days of rapid transit, of telegraph and telephone, nor
+even of much letter writing, else the story would probably have reached
+the aunts even before the bride and bridegroom arrived at home. As it was,
+David had some hope of keeping the tragedy of his life from the ears of
+his aunts forever. Patiently he answered their questions concerning the
+wedding, questions that were intended to bring out facts showing whether
+David had received his due amount of respect, and whether the family he
+had so greatly honored felt the burden of that honor sufficiently.
+
+Upstairs in a quaint old-fashioned room Aunt Clarinda was taking Marcia's
+face in her two wrinkled hands and looking lovingly into her eyes; then
+she kissed her on each rosy cheek and said:
+
+"Dear child! You look just as I did when I was young. You wouldn't think
+it from me now, would you? But it's true. I might not have grown to be
+such a dried-up old thing if I had had somebody like David. I'm so glad
+you've got David. He'll take good care of you. He's a dear boy. He's
+always been good to me. But you mustn't let the others crush those roses
+out of your cheeks. They crushed mine out. They wouldn't let me have my
+life the way I wanted it, and the pink in my cheeks all went back into my
+heart and burst it a good many years ago. But they can't spoil your life,
+for you've got David and that's worth everything."
+
+Then she kissed her on the lips and cheeks and eyes and let her go. But
+that one moment had given Marcia a glimpse into another life-story and put
+her in touch forever with Aunt Clarinda, setting athrob the chord of
+loving sympathy.
+
+When they came into the parlor the other two aunts looked up with a quick,
+suspicious glance from one to the other and then fastened disapproving
+eyes upon Marcia. They rather resented it that she was so pretty. Hannah
+had been their favorite, and Hannah was beautiful in their eyes. They
+wanted no other to outshine her. Albeit they would be proud enough before
+their neighbors to have it said that their nephew's wife was beautiful.
+
+After a chilling pause in which David was wondering anew at Marcia's
+beauty, Aunt Hortense asked, as though it were an omission from the former
+examination, "Did you ever make a shirt?"
+
+"Oh, plenty of them!" said Marcia, with a merry laugh, so relieved that
+she fairly bubbled. "I think I could make a shirt with my eyes shut."
+
+Aunt Clarinda beamed on her with delight. A shirt was something she had
+never succeeded in making right. It was one of the things which her
+sisters had against her that she could not make good shirts. Any one who
+could not make a shirt was deficient. Clarinda was deficient. She could
+not make a shirt. Meekly had she tried year after year. Humbly had she
+ripped out gusset and seam and band, having put them on upside down or
+inside out. Never could she learn the ins and outs of a shirt. But her old
+heart trembled with delight that the new girl, who was going to take the
+place in her heart of her old dead self and live out all the beautiful
+things which had been lost to her, had mastered this one great
+accomplishment in which she had failed so supremely.
+
+But Aunt Hortense was not pleased. True, it was one of the seven virtues
+in her mind which a young wife should possess, and she had carefully
+instructed Hannah Heath for a number of years back, while Hannah bungled
+out a couple for her father occasionally, but Aunt Hortense had been sure
+that if Hannah ever became David's wife she might still have the honor of
+making most of David's shirts. That had been her happy task ever since
+David had worn a shirt, and she hoped to hold the position of shirt-maker
+to David until she left this mortal clay. Therefore Aunt Hortense was not
+pleased, even though David's wife was not lacking, and, too, even though
+she foreheard herself telling her neighbors next day how many shirts
+David's wife had made.
+
+"Well, David will not need any for some time," she said grimly. "I made
+him a dozen just before he was married."
+
+Marcia reflected that it seemed to be impossible to make any headway into
+the good graces of either Aunt Hortense or Aunt Amelia. Aunt Amelia then
+took her turn at a question.
+
+"Hortense," said she, and there was an ominous inflection in the word as
+if the question were portentous, "have you asked our new niece by what
+name she desires us to call her?"
+
+"I have not," said Miss Hortense solemnly, "but I intend to do so
+immediately," and then both pairs of steely eyes were leveled at the girl.
+Marcia suddenly was face to face with a question she had not considered,
+and David started upright from his position on the hair-cloth sofa. But if
+a thunderbolt had fallen from heaven and rendered him utterly unconscious
+David would not have been more helpless than he was for the time being.
+Marcia saw the mingled pain and perplexity in David's face, and her own
+courage gathered itself to brave it out in some way. The color flew to her
+cheeks, and rose slowly in David's, through heavy veins that swelled in
+his neck till he could feel their pulsation against his stock, but his
+smooth shaven lips were white. He felt that a moment had come which he
+could not bear to face.
+
+Then with a hesitation that was but pardonable, and with a shy sweet look,
+Marcia answered; and though her voice trembled just the least bit, her
+true, dear eyes looked into the battalion of steel ones bravely.
+
+"I would like you to call me Marcia, if you please."
+
+"Marcia!" Miss Hortense snipped the word out as if with scissors of
+surprise.
+
+But there was a distinct relaxation about Miss Amelia's mouth. She heaved
+a relieved sigh. Marcia was so much better than Kate, so much more
+classical, so much more to be compared with Hannah, for instance.
+
+"Well, I'm glad!" she allowed herself to remark. "David has been calling
+you 'Kate' till it made me sick, such a frivolous name and no sense in it
+either. Marcia sounds quite sensible. I suppose Katharine is your middle
+name. Do you spell it with a K or a C?"
+
+But the knocker sounded on the street door and Marcia was spared the
+torture of a reply. She dared not look at David's face, for she knew there
+must be pain and mortification mingling there, and she hoped that the
+trying subject would not come up again for discussion.
+
+The guests began to arrive. Old Mrs. Heath and her daughter-in-law and
+grand-daughter came first.
+
+Hannah's features were handsome and she knew exactly how to manage her
+shapely hands with their long white fingers. The soft delicate
+undersleeves fell away from arms white and well moulded, and she carried
+her height gracefully. Her hair was elaborately stowed upon the top of her
+head in many puffs, ending in little ringlets carelessly and coquettishly
+straying over temple, or ears, or gracefully curved neck. She wore a frock
+of green, and its color sent a pang through the bride's heart to realize
+that perhaps it had been worn with an unkindly purpose. Nevertheless
+Hannah Heath was beautiful and fascinated Marcia. She resolved to try to
+think the best of her, and to make her a friend if possible. Why, after
+all, should she be to blame for wanting David? Was he not a man to be
+admired and desired? It was unwomanly, of course, that she had let it be
+known, but perhaps her relatives were more to blame than herself. At least
+Marcia made up her mind to try and like her.
+
+Hannah's frock was of silk, not a common material in those days, soft and
+shimmery and green enough to take away the heart from anything blue that
+was ever made, but Hannah was stately and her skin as white as the lily
+she resembled, in her bright leaf green.
+
+Hannah chose to be effusive and condescending to the bride, giving the
+impression that she and David had been like brother and sister all their
+lives and that she might have been his choice if she had chosen, but as
+she had not chosen, she was glad that David had found some one wherewith
+to console himself. She did not say all this in so many words, but Marcia
+found that impression left after the evening was over.
+
+With sweet dignity Marcia received her introductions, given in Miss
+Amelia's most commanding tone, "Our niece, Marcia!"
+
+"Marshy! Marshy!" the bride heard old Mrs. Heath murmur to Miss Spafford.
+"Why, I thought 'twas to be Kate!"
+
+"Her name is Marcia," said Miss Amelia in a most satisfied tone; "you must
+have misunderstood."
+
+Marcia caught a look in Miss Heath's eyes, alert, keen, questioning, which
+flashed all over her like something searching and bright but not friendly.
+
+She felt a painful shyness stealing over her and wished that David were by
+her side. She looked across the room at him. His face had recovered its
+usual calmness, though he looked pale. He was talking on his favorite
+theme with old Mr. Heath: the newly invented steam engine and its
+possibilities. He had forgotten everything else for the time, and his face
+lighted with animation as he tried to answer William Heath's arguments
+against it.
+
+"Have you read what the Boston _Courier_ said, David? 'Long in June it was
+I think," Marcia heard Mr. Heath ask. Indeed his voice was so large that
+it filled the room, and for the moment Marcia had been left to herself
+while some new people were being ushered in. "It says, David, that 'the
+project of a railroad from Bawston to Albany is impracticable as everybody
+knows who knows the simplest rule of arithmetic, and the expense would be
+little less than the market value of the whole territory of Massachusetts;
+and which, if practicable, every person of common sense knows would be as
+useless as a railroad from Bawston to the moon.' There, David, what do ye
+think o' that?" and William Heath slapped David on the knee with his
+broad, fat fist and laughed heartily, as though he had him in a tight
+corner.
+
+Marcia would have given a good deal to slip in beside David on the sofa
+and listen to the discussion. She wanted with all her heart to know how he
+would answer this man who could be so insufferably wise, but there was
+other work for her, and her attention was brought back to her own
+uncomfortable part by Hannah Heath's voice:
+
+"Come right ovah heah, Mistah Skinnah, if you want to meet the bride. You
+must speak verra nice to me or I sha'n't introduce you at all."
+
+A tall lanky man with stiff sandy hair and a rubicund complexion was
+making his way around the room. He had a small mouth puckered a little as
+if he might be going to whistle, and his chin had the look of having been
+pushed back out of the way, a stiff fuzz of sandy whiskers made a hedge
+down either cheek, and but for that he was clean shaven. The skin over his
+high cheek bones was stretched smooth and tight as if it were a trifle too
+close a fit for the genial cushion beneath. He did not look brilliant, and
+he certainly was not handsome, but there was an inoffensive desire to
+please about him. He was introduced as Mr. Lemuel Skinner. He bowed low
+over Marcia's hand, said a few embarrassed, stiff sentences and turned to
+Hannah Heath with relief. It was evident that Hannah was in his eyes a
+great and shining light, to which he fluttered as naturally as does the
+moth to the candle. But Hannah did not scruple to singe his wings whenever
+she chose. Perhaps she knew, no matter how badly he was burned he would
+only flutter back again whenever she scintillated. She had turned her back
+upon him now, and left him to Marcia's tender mercies. Hannah was engaged
+in talking to a younger man. "Harry Temple, from New York," Lemuel
+explained to Marcia.
+
+The young man, Harry Temple, had large lazy eyes and heavy dark hair.
+There was a discontented look in his face, and a looseness about the set
+of his lips that Marcia did not like, although she had to admit that he
+was handsome. Something about him reminded her of Captain Leavenworth, and
+she instinctively shrank from him. But Harry Temple had no mind to talk to
+any one but Marcia that evening, and he presently so managed it that he
+and she were ensconced in a corner of the room away from others. Marcia
+felt perturbed. She did not feel flattered by the man's attentions, and
+she wanted to be at the other end of the room listening to the
+conversation.
+
+She listened as intently as she might between sentences, and her keen ears
+could catch a word or two of what David was saying. After all, it was not
+so much the new railroad project that she cared about, though that was
+strange and interesting enough, but she wanted to watch and listen to
+David.
+
+Harry Temple said a great many pretty things to Marcia. She did not half
+hear some of them at first, but after a time she began to realize that she
+must have made a good impression, and the pretty flush in her cheeks grew
+deeper. She did little talking. Mr. Temple did it all. He told her of New
+York. He asked if she were not dreadfully bored with this little town and
+its doings, and bewailed her lot when he learned that she had not had much
+experience there. Then he asked if she had ever been to New York and began
+to tell of some of its attractions. Among other things he mentioned some
+concerts, and immediately Marcia was all attention. Her dark eyes glowed
+and her speaking face gave eager response to his words. Seeing he had
+interested her at last, he kept on, for he was possessor of a glib tongue,
+and what he did not know he could fabricate without the slightest
+compunction. He had been about the world and gathered up superficial
+knowledge enough to help him do this admirably, therefore he was able to
+use a few musical terms, and to bring before Marcia's vivid imagination
+the scene of the performance of Handel's great "Creation" given in Boston,
+and of certain musical events that were to be attempted soon in New York.
+He admitted that he could play a little upon the harpsichord, and, when he
+learned that Marcia could play also and that she was the possessor of a
+piano, one of the latest improved makes, he managed to invite himself to
+play upon it. Marcia found to her dismay that she actually seemed to have
+invited him to come some afternoon when her husband was away. She had only
+said politely that she would like to hear him play sometime, and expressed
+her great delight in music, and he had done the rest, but in her
+inexperience somehow it had happened and she did not know what to do.
+
+It troubled her a good deal, and she turned again toward the other end of
+the room, where the attention of most of the company was riveted upon the
+group who were discussing the railroad, its pros and cons. David was the
+centre of that group.
+
+"Let us go over and hear what they are saying," she said, turning to her
+companion eagerly.
+
+"Oh, it is all stupid politics and arguments about that ridiculous
+fairy-tale of a railroad scheme. You would not enjoy it," answered the
+young man disappointedly. He saw in Marcia a beautiful young soul, the
+only one who had really attracted him since he had left New York, and he
+wished to become intimate enough with her to enjoy himself.
+
+It mattered not to him that she was married to another man. He felt secure
+in his own attractions. He had ever been able to while away the time with
+whom he chose, why should a simple village maiden resist him? And this was
+an unusual one, the contour of her head was like a Greek statue.
+
+Nevertheless he was obliged to stroll after her. Once she had spoken. She
+had suddenly become aware that they had been in their corner together a
+long time, and that Aunt Amelia's cold eyes were fastened upon her in
+disapproval.
+
+"The farmers would be ruined, man alive!" Mr. Heath was saying. "Why, all
+the horses would have to be killed, because they would be wholly useless
+if this new fandango came in, and then where would be a market for the
+wheat and oats?"
+
+"Yes, an' I've heard some say the hens wouldn't lay, on account of the
+noise," ventured Lemuel Skinner in his high voice. "And think of the fires
+from the sparks of the engine. I tell you it would be dangerous." He
+looked over at Hannah triumphantly, but Hannah was endeavoring to signal
+Harry Temple to her side and did not see nor hear.
+
+"I tell you," put in Mr. Heath's heavy voice again, "I tell you, Dave, it
+can't be done. It's impractical. Why, no car could advance against the
+wind."
+
+"They told Columbus he couldn't sail around the earth, but he did it!"
+
+There was sudden stillness in the room, for it was Marcia's clear, grave
+voice that had answered Mr. Heath's excited tones, and she had not known
+she was going to speak aloud. It came before she realized it. She had been
+used to speak her mind sometimes with her father, but seldom when there
+were others by, and now she was covered with confusion to think what she
+had done. The aunts, Amelia and Hortense, were shocked. It was so
+unladylike. A woman should not speak on such subjects. She should be
+silent and leave such topics to her husband.
+
+"Deah me, she's strong minded, isn't she?" giggled Hannah Heath to Lemuel,
+who had taken the signals to himself and come to her side.
+
+"Quite so, quite so!" murmured Lemuel, his lips looking puffier and more
+cherry-fied than ever and his chin flattened itself back till he looked
+like a frustrated old hen who did not understand the perplexities of life
+and was clucking to find out, after having been startled half out of its
+senses.
+
+But Marcia was not wholly without consolation, for David had flashed a
+look of approval at her and had made room for her to sit down by his side
+on the sofa. It was almost like belonging to him for a minute or two.
+Marcia felt her heart glow with something new and pleasant.
+
+Mr. William Heath drew his heavy grey brows together and looked at her
+grimly over his spectacles, poking his bristly under-lip out in
+astonishment, bewildered that he should have been answered by a gentle,
+pretty woman, all frills and sparkle like his own daughter. He had been
+wont to look upon a woman as something like a kitten,--that is, a young
+woman,--and suddenly the kitten had lifted a velvet paw and struck him
+squarely in the face. He had felt there were claws in the blow, too, for
+there had been a truth behind her words that set the room a mocking him.
+
+"Well, Dave, you've got your wife well trained already!" he laughed,
+concluding it was best to put a smiling front upon the defeat. "She knows
+just when to come in and help when your side's getting weak!"
+
+They served cake and raspberry vinegar then, and a little while after
+everybody went home. It was later than the hours usually kept in the
+village, and the lights in most of the houses were out, or burning dimly
+in upper stories. The voices of the guests sounded subdued in the misty
+waning moonlight air. Marcia could hear Hannah Heath's voice ahead
+giggling affectedly to Harry Temple and Lemuel Skinner, as they walked one
+on either side of her, while her father and mother and grandmother came
+more slowly.
+
+David drew Marcia's hand within his arm and walked with her quietly down
+the street, making their steps hushed instinctively that they might so
+seem more removed from the others. They were both tired with the unusual
+excitement and the strain they had been through, and each was glad of the
+silence of the other.
+
+But when they reached their own doorstep David said: "You spoke well,
+child. You must have thought about these things."
+
+Marcia felt a sob rising in a tide of joy into her throat. Then he was not
+angry with her, and he did not disapprove as the two aunts had done. Aunt
+Clarinda had kissed her good-night and murmured, "You are a bright little
+girl, Marcia, and you will make a good wife for David. You will come soon
+to see me, won't you?" and that had made her glad, but these words of
+David's were so good and so unexpected that Marcia could hardly hide her
+happy tears.
+
+"I was afraid I had been forward," murmured Marcia in the shadow of the
+front stoop.
+
+"Not at all, child, I like to hear a woman speak her mind,--that is,
+allowing she has any mind to speak. That can't be said of all women.
+There's Hannah Heath, for instance. I don't believe she would know a
+railroad project from an essay on ancient art."
+
+After that the house seemed a pleasant place aglow as they entered it, and
+Marcia went up to her rest with a lighter heart.
+
+But the child knew not that she had made a great impression that night
+upon all who saw her as being beautiful and wise.
+
+The aunts would not express it even to each other,--for they felt in duty
+bound to discountenance her boldness in speaking out before the men and
+making herself so prominent, joining in their discussions,--but each in
+spite of her convictions felt a deep satisfaction that their neighbors had
+seen what a beautiful and bright wife David had selected. They even felt
+triumphant over their favorite Hannah, and thought secretly that Marcia
+compared well with her in every way, but they would not have told this
+even to themselves, no, not for worlds.
+
+So the kindly gossipy town slept, and the young bride became a part of its
+daily life.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Life began to take on a more familiar and interesting aspect to Marcia
+after that. She had her daily round of pleasant household duties and she
+enjoyed them.
+
+There were many other gatherings in honor of the bride and groom,
+tea-drinkings and evening calls, and a few called in to a neighbor's house
+to meet them. It was very pleasant to Marcia as she became better
+acquainted with the people and grew to like some of them, only there was
+the constant drawback of feeling that it was all a pain and weariness to
+David.
+
+But Marcia was young, and it was only natural that she should enjoy her
+sudden promotion to the privileges of a matron, and the marked attention
+that was paid her. It was a mercy that her head was not turned, living as
+she did to herself, and with no one in whom she could confide. For David
+had shrunk within himself to such an extent that she did not like to
+trouble him with anything.
+
+It was only two days after the evening at the old Spafford house that
+David came home to tea with ashen face, haggard eyes and white lips. He
+scarcely tasted his supper and said he would go and lie down, that his
+head ached. Marcia heard him sigh deeply as he went upstairs. It was that
+afternoon that the post had brought him Kate's letter.
+
+Sadly Marcia put away the tea things, for she could not eat anything
+either, though it was an unusually inviting meal she had prepared. Slowly
+she went up to her room and sat looking out into the quiet, darkening
+summer night, wondering what additional sorrow had come to David.
+
+David's face looked like death the next morning when he came down. He
+drank a cup of coffee feverishly, then took his hat as if he would go to
+the office, but paused at the door and came back saying he would not go if
+Marcia would not mind taking a message for him. His head felt badly. She
+need only tell the man to go on with things as they had planned and say he
+was detained. Marcia was ready at once to do his bidding with quiet
+sympathy in her manner.
+
+She delivered her message with the frank straightforward look of a school
+girl, mingled with a touch of matronly dignity she was trying to assume,
+which added to her charm; and she smiled her open smile of comradeship,
+such as she would have dispensed about the old red school house at home,
+upon boys and girls alike, leaving the clerk and type-setters in a most
+subjected state, and ready to do anything in the service of their master's
+wife. It is to be feared that they almost envied David. They watched her
+as she moved gracefully down the street, and their eyes had a reverent
+look as they turned away from the window to their work, as though they had
+been looking upon something sacred.
+
+Harry Temple watched her come out of the office.
+
+She impressed him again as something fresh and different from the common
+run of maidens in the village. He lazily stepped from the store where he
+had been lounging and walked down the street to intercept her as she
+crossed and turned the corner.
+
+"Good morning, Mrs. Spafford," he said, with a courtly grace that was
+certainly captivating, "are you going to your home? Then our ways lie
+together. May I walk beside you?"
+
+Marcia smiled and tried to seem gracious, though she would rather have
+been alone just then, for she wanted to enjoy the day and not be bothered
+with talking.
+
+Harry Temple mentioned having a letter from a friend in Boston who had
+lately heard a great chorus rendered. He could not be quite sure of the
+name of the composer because he had read the letter hurriedly and his
+friend was a blind-writer, but that made no difference to Harry. He could
+fill in facts enough about the grandeur of the music from his own
+imagination to make up for the lack of a little matter like the name of a
+composer. He was keen enough to see that Marcia was more interested in
+music than in anything he said, therefore he racked his brains for all the
+music talk he had ever heard, and made up what he did not know, which was
+not hard to do, for Marcia was very ignorant on the subject.
+
+At the door they paused. Marcia was eager to get in. She began to wonder
+how David felt, and she longed to do something for him. Harry Temple
+looked at her admiringly, noted the dainty set of chin, the clear curve of
+cheek, the lovely sweep of eyelashes, and resolved to get better
+acquainted with this woman, so young and so lovely.
+
+"I have not forgotten my promise to play for you," he said lightly,
+watching to see if the flush of rose would steal into her cheek, and that
+deep light into her expressive eyes. "How about this afternoon? Shall you
+be at home and disengaged?"
+
+But welcome did not flash into Marcia's face as he had hoped. Instead a
+troubled look came into her eyes.
+
+"I am afraid it will not be possible this afternoon," said Marcia, the
+trouble in her eyes creeping into her voice. "That is--I expect to be at
+home, but--I am not sure of being disengaged."
+
+"Ah! I see!" he raised his eyebrows archly, looking her meanwhile straight
+in the eyes; "some one else more fortunate than I. Some one else coming?"
+
+Although Marcia did not in the least understand his insinuation, the color
+flowed into her cheeks in a hurry now, for she instinctively felt that
+there was something unpleasant in his tone, something below her standard
+of morals or culture, she did not quite know what. But she felt she must
+protect herself at any cost. She drew up a little mantle of dignity.
+
+"Oh, no," she said quickly, "I'm not expecting any one at all, but Mr.
+Spafford had a severe headache this morning, and I am not sure but the
+sound of the piano would make it worse. I think it would be better for you
+to come another time, although he may be better by that time."
+
+"Oh, I see! Your husband's at home!" said the young man with relief. His
+manner implied that he had a perfect understanding of something that
+Marcia did not mean nor comprehend.
+
+"I understand perfectly," he said, with another meaning smile as though he
+and she had a secret together; "I'll come some other time," and he took
+himself very quickly away, much to Marcia's relief. But the trouble did
+not go out of her eyes as she saw him turn the corner. Instead she went in
+and stood at the dining room window a long time looking out on the Heaths'
+hollyhocks beaming in the sun behind the picket fence, and wondered what
+he could have meant, and why he smiled in that hateful way. She decided
+she did not like him, and she hoped he would never come. She did not think
+she would care to hear him play. There was something about him that
+reminded her of Captain Leavenworth, and now that she saw it in him she
+would dislike to have him about.
+
+With a sigh she turned to the getting of a dinner which she feared would
+not be eaten. Nevertheless, she put more dainty thought in it than usual,
+and when it was done and steaming upon the table she went gently up and
+tapped on David's door. A voice hoarse with emotion and weariness
+answered. Marcia scarcely heard the first time.
+
+"Dinner is ready. Isn't your head any better,--David?" There was caressing
+in his name. It wrung David's heart. Oh, if it were but Kate, his Kate,
+his little bride that were calling him, how his heart would leap with joy!
+How his headache would disappear and he would be with her in an instant.
+
+For Kate's letter had had its desired effect. All her wrongdoings, her
+crowning outrage of his noble intentions, had been forgotten in the one
+little plaintive appeal she had managed to breathe in a minor wail
+throughout that treacherous letter, treacherous alike to her husband and
+to her lover. Just as Kate had always been able to do with every one about
+her, she had blinded him to her faults, and managed to put herself in the
+light of an abused, troubled maiden, who was in a predicament through no
+fault of her own, and sat in sorrow and a baby-innocence that was
+bewilderingly sweet.
+
+There had been times when David's anger had been hot enough to waft away
+this filmy mist of fancies that Kate had woven about herself and let him
+see the true Kate as she really was. At such times David would confess
+that she must be wholly heartless. That bright as she was it was
+impossible for her to have been so easily persuaded into running away with
+a man she did not love. He had never found it so easy to persuade her
+against her will. Did she love him? Had she truly loved him, and was she
+suffering now? His very soul writhed in agony to think of his bride the
+wife of another against her will. If he might but go and rescue her. If he
+might but kill that other man! Then his soul would be confronted with the
+thought of murder. Never before had he felt hate, such hate, for a human
+being. Then again his heart would soften toward him as he felt how the
+other must have loved her, Kate, his little wild rose! and there was a
+fellow feeling between them too, for had she not let him see that she did
+not half care aright for that other one? Then his mind would stop in a
+whirl of mingled feeling and he would pause, and pray for steadiness to
+think and know what was right.
+
+Around and around through this maze of arguing he had gone through the
+long hours of the morning, always coming sharp against the thought that
+there was nothing he could possibly do in the matter but bear it, and that
+Kate, after all, the Kate he loved with his whole soul, had done it and
+must therefore be to blame. Then he would read her letter over, burning
+every word of it upon his brain, until the piteous minor appeal would
+torture him once more and he would begin again to try to get hold of some
+thread of thought that would unravel this snarl and bring peace.
+
+Like a sound from another world came Marcia's sweet voice, its very
+sweetness reminding him of that other lost voice, whose tantalizing music
+floated about his imagination like a string of phantom silver bells that
+all but sounded and then vanished into silence.
+
+And while all this was going on, this spiritual torture, his living,
+suffering, physical self was able to summon its thoughts, to answer gently
+that he did not want any dinner; that his head was no better; that he
+thanked her for her thought of him; and that he would take the tea she
+offered if it was not too much trouble.
+
+Gladly, with hurried breath and fingers that almost trembled, Marcia
+hastened to the kitchen once more and prepared a dainty tray, not even
+glancing at the dinner table all so fine and ready for its guest, and back
+again she went to his door, an eager light in her eyes, as if she had
+obtained audience to a king.
+
+He opened the door this time and took the tray from her with a smile. It
+was a smile of ashen hue, and fell like a pall upon Marcia's soul. It was
+as if she had been permitted for a moment to gaze upon a martyred soul
+upon the rack. Marcia fled from it and went to her own room, where she
+flung herself on her knees beside her bed and buried her face in the
+pillows. There she knelt, unmindful of the dinner waiting downstairs,
+unmindful of the bright day that was droning on its hours. Whether she
+prayed she knew not, whether she was weeping she could not have told. Her
+heart was crying out in one great longing to have this cloud of sorrow
+that had settled upon David lifted.
+
+She might have knelt there until night had there not come the sound of a
+knock upon the front door. It startled her to her feet in an instant, and
+she hastily smoothed her rumpled hair, dashed some water on her eyes, and
+ran down.
+
+It was the clerk from the office with a letter for her. The post chaise
+had brought it that afternoon, and he had thought perhaps she would like
+to have it at once as it was postmarked from her home. Would she tell Mr.
+Spafford when he returned--he seemed to take it for granted that David was
+out of town for the day--that everything had been going on all right at the
+office during his absence and the paper was ready to send to press. He
+took his departure with a series of bows and smiles, and Marcia flew up to
+her room to read her letter. It was in the round unformed hand of Mary
+Ann. Marcia tore it open eagerly. Never had Mary Ann's handwriting looked
+so pleasant as at that moment. A letter in those days was a rarity at all
+times, and this one to Marcia in her distress of mind seemed little short
+of a miracle. It began in Mary Ann's abrupt way, and opened up to her the
+world of home since she had left it. But a few short days had passed,
+scarcely yet numbering into weeks, since she left, yet it seemed half a
+lifetime to the girl promoted so suddenly into womanhood without the
+accompanying joy of love and close companionship that usually makes
+desolation impossible.
+
+
+    "DEAR MARSH,"--the letter ran:--
+
+    "I expect you think queer of me to write you so soon. I ain't much
+    on writing you know, but something happened right after you
+    leaving and has kept right on happening that made me feel I kinder
+    like to tell you. Don't you mind the mistakes I make. I'm thankful
+    to goodness you ain't the school teacher or I'd never write 'slong
+    s' I'm living, but ennyhow I'm going to tell you all about it.
+
+    "The night you went away I was standing down by the gate under the
+    old elm. I had on my best things yet from the wedding, and I hated
+    to go in and have the day over and have to begin putting on my old
+    calico to-morrow morning again, and washing dishes just the same.
+    Seemed as if I couldn't bear to have the world just the same now
+    you was gone away. Well, I heard someone coming down the street,
+    and who do you think it was? Why, Hanford Weston. He came right up
+    to the gate and stopped. I don't know's he ever spoke two words to
+    me in my life except that time he stopped the big boys from
+    snow-balling me and told me to run along quick and git in the
+    school-house while he fit 'em. Well, he stopped and spoke, and he
+    looked so sad, seemed like I knew just what he was feeling sad
+    about, and I told him all about you getting married instead of
+    your sister. He looked at me like he couldn't move for a while and
+    his face was as white as that marble man in the cemetery over
+    Squire Hancock's grave. He grabbed the gate real hard and I
+    thought he was going to fall. He couldn't even move his lips for a
+    while. I felt just awful sorry for him. Something came in my
+    throat like a big stone and my eyes got all blurred with the
+    moonlight. He looked real handsome. I just couldn't help thinking
+    you ought to see him. Bimeby he got his voice back again, and we
+    talked a lot about you. He told me how he used to watch you when
+    you was a little girl wearing pantalettes. You used to sit in the
+    church pew across from his father's and he could just see your big
+    eyes over the top of the door. He says he always thought to
+    himself he would marry you when he grew up. Then when you began to
+    go to school and was so bright he tried hard to study and keep up
+    just to have you think him good enough for you. He owned up he was
+    a bad speller and he'd tried his level best to do better but it
+    didn't seem to come natural, and he thought maybe ef he was a good
+    farmer you wouldn't mind about the spelling. He hired out to his
+    father for the summer and he was trying with all his might to get
+    to be the kind of man t'would suit you, and then when he was
+    plowing and planning all what kind of a house with big columns to
+    the front he would build here comes the coach driving by and _you_
+    in it! He said he thought the sky and fields was all mixed up and
+    his heart was going out of him. He couldn't work any more and he
+    started out after supper to see what it all meant.
+
+    "That wasn't just the exact way he told it, Marsh, it was more
+    like poetry, that kind in our reader about "Lord Ullin's
+    daughter"--you know. We used to recite it on examination
+    exhibition. I didn't know Hanford could talk like that. His words
+    were real pretty, kind of sorrowful you know. And it all come over
+    me that you ought to know about it. You're married of course, and
+    can't help it now, but 'taint every girl that has a boy care for
+    her like that from the time she's a baby with a red hood on, and
+    you ought to know 'bout it, fer it wasn't Hanford's fault he
+    didn't have time to tell you. He's just been living fer you fer a
+    number of years, and its kind of hard on him. 'Course you may not
+    care, being you're married and have a fine house and lots of
+    clo'es of your own and a good time, but it does seem hard for him.
+    It seems as if somebody ought to comfort him. I'd like to try if
+    you don't mind. He does seem to like to talk about you to me, and
+    I feel so sorry for him I guess I could comfort him a little, for
+    it seems as if it would be the nicest thing in the world to have
+    some one like you that way for years, just as they do in books,
+    only every time I think about being a comfort to him I think he
+    belongs to you and it ain't right. So Marsh, you just speak out
+    and say if your willing I should try to comfort him a little and
+    make up to him fer what he lost in you, being as you're married
+    and fixed so nice yourself.
+
+    "Of course I know I aint pretty like you, nor can't hold my head
+    proud and step high as you always did, even when you was little,
+    but I can feel, and perhaps that's something. Anyhow Hanford's
+    been down three times to talk about you to me, and ef you don't
+    mind I'm going to let him come some more. But if you mind the
+    leastest little bit I want you should say so, for things are mixed
+    in this world and I don't want to get to trampling on any other
+    person's feelings, much less you who have always been my best
+    friend and always will be as long as I live I guess. 'Member how
+    we used to play house on the old flat stone in the orchard, and
+    you give me all the prettiest pieces of china with sprigs on 'em?
+    I aint forgot that, and never will. I shall always say you made
+    the prettiest bride I ever saw, no matter how many more I see, and
+    I hope you won't forget me. It's lonesome here without you. If it
+    wasn't for comforting Hanford I shouldn't care much for anything.
+    I can't think of you a grown up woman. Do you feel any different?
+    I spose you wouldn't climb a fence nor run through the pasture lot
+    for anything now. Have you got a lot of new friends? I wish I
+    could see you. And now Marsh, I want you to write right off and
+    tell me what to do about comforting Hanford, and if you've any
+    message to send to him I think it would be real nice. I hope
+    you've got a good husband and are happy.
+
+                       "From your devoted and loving school mate,
+
+                                                "MARY ANN FOTHERGILL."
+
+
+Marcia laid down the letter and buried her face in her hands. To her too
+had come a thrust which must search her life and change it. So while David
+wrestled with his sorrow Marcia entered upon the knowledge of her own
+heart.
+
+There was something in this revelation by Mary Ann of Hanford Weston's
+feelings toward her that touched her immeasurably. Had it all happened
+before she left home, had Hanford come to her and told her of his love,
+she would have turned from him in dismay, almost disgust, and have told
+him that they were both but children, how could they talk of love. She
+could never have loved him. She would have felt it instantly, and her
+mocking laugh might have done a good deal toward saving him from sorrow.
+But now, with miles between them, with the wall of the solemn marriage
+vows to separate them forever, with her own youth locked up as she
+supposed until the day of eternity should perhaps set it free, with no
+hope of any bright dream of life such as girls have, could she turn from
+even a school boy's love without a passing tenderness, such as she would
+never have felt if she had not come away from it all? Told in Mary Ann's
+blunt way, with her crude attempts at pathos, it reached her as it could
+not otherwise. With her own new view of life she could sympathize better
+with another's disappointments. Perhaps her own loneliness gave her pity
+for another. Whatever it was, Marcia's heart suddenly turned toward
+Hanford Weston with a great throb of gratitude. She felt that she had been
+loved, even though it had been impossible for that love to be returned,
+and that whatever happened she would not go unloved down to the end of her
+days. Suddenly, out of the midst of the perplexity of her thoughts, there
+formed a distinct knowledge of what was lacking in her life, a lack she
+had never felt before, and probably would not have felt now had she not
+thus suddenly stepped into a place much beyond her years. It seemed to the
+girl as she sat in the great chintz chair and read and re-read that
+letter, as if she lived years that afternoon, and all her life was to be
+changed henceforth. It was not that she was sorry that she could not go
+back, and live out her girlhood and have it crowned with Hanford Weston's
+love. Not at all. She knew, as well now as she ever had known, that he
+could never be anything to her, but she knew also, or thought she knew,
+that he could have given her something, in his clumsy way, that now she
+could never have from any man, seeing she was David's and David could not
+love her that way, of course.
+
+Having come to this conclusion, she arose and wrote a letter giving and
+bequeathing to Mary Ann Fothergill all right, title, and claim to the
+affections of Hanford Weston, past, present, and future--sending him a
+message calculated to smooth his ruffled feelings, with her pretty thanks
+for his youthful adoration; comfort his sorrow with the thought that it
+must have been a hallucination, that some day he would find his true ideal
+which he had only thought he had found in her; and send him on his way
+rejoicing with her blessings and good wishes for a happy life. As for Mary
+Ann, for once she received her meed of Marcia's love, for homesick Marcia
+felt more tenderness for her than she had ever been able to feel before;
+and Marcia's loving messages set Mary Ann in a flutter of delight, as she
+laid her plans for comforting Hanford Weston.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+David slowly recovered his poise. Faced by that terrible, impenetrable
+wall of impossibility he stood helpless, his misery eating in upon his
+soul, but there still remained the fact that there was nothing, absolutely
+nothing, which he could possibly do. At times the truth rose to the
+surface, the wretched truth, that Kate was at fault, that having done the
+deed she should abide by it, and not try to keep a hold upon him, but it
+was not often he was able to think in this way. Most of the time he
+mourned over and for the lovely girl he had lost.
+
+As for Marcia, she came and went unobtrusively, making quiet comfort for
+David which he scarcely noticed. At times he roused himself to be polite
+to her, and made a labored effort to do something to amuse her, just as if
+she had been visiting him as a favor and he felt in duty bound to make the
+time pass pleasantly, but she troubled him so little with herself, that
+nearly always he forgot her. Whenever there was any public function to
+which they were bidden he always told her apologetically, as though it
+must be as much of a bore to her as to him, and he regretted that it was
+necessary to go in order to carry out their mutual agreement. Marcia,
+hailing with delight every chance to go out in search of something which
+would keep her from thinking the new thoughts which had come to her,
+demurely covered her pleasure and dressed herself dutifully in the robes
+made for her sister, hating them secretly the while, and was always ready
+when he came for her. David had nothing to complain of in his wife, so far
+as outward duty was concerned, but he was too busy with his own heart's
+bitterness to even recognize it.
+
+One afternoon, of a day when David had gone out of town not expecting to
+return until late in the evening, there came a knock at the door.
+
+There was something womanish in the knock, Marcia thought, as she hastened
+to answer it, and she wondered, hurriedly smoothing her shining hair, if
+it could be the aunts come to make their fortnightly-afternoon penance
+visit. She gave a hasty glance into the parlor hoping all was right, and
+was relieved to make sure she had closed the piano. The aunts would
+consider it a great breach of housewifely decorum to allow a moment's dust
+to settle upon its sacred keys.
+
+But it was not the aunts who stood upon the stoop, smiling and bowing with
+a handsome assurance of his own welcome. It was Harry Temple.
+
+Marcia was not glad to see him. A sudden feeling of unreasoning alarm took
+possession of her.
+
+"You're all alone this time, sweet lady, aren't you?" he asked with easy
+nonchalance, as he lounged into the hall without waiting her bidding.
+
+"Sir!" said Marcia, half frightened, half wondering.
+
+But he smiled reassuringly down upon her and took the door knob in his own
+hands to close the door.
+
+"Your good man is out this time, isn't he?" he smiled again most
+delightfully. His face was very handsome when he smiled. He knew this fact
+well.
+
+Marcia did not smile. Why did he speak as if he knew where David was, and
+seemed to be pleased that he was away?
+
+"My husband is not in at present," she said guardedly, her innocent eyes
+searching his face, "did you wish to see him?"
+
+She was beautiful as she stood there in the wide hall, with only the light
+from the high transom over the door, shedding an afternoon glow through
+its pleated Swiss oval. She looked more sweet and little-girlish than
+ever, and he felt a strong desire to take her in his arms and tell her so,
+only he feared, from something he saw in those wide, sweet eyes, that she
+might take alarm and run away too soon, so he only smiled and said that
+his business with her husband could wait until another time, and meantime
+he had called to fulfil his promise to play for her.
+
+She took him into the darkened parlor, gave him the stiffest and
+stateliest hair-cloth chair; but he walked straight over to the
+instrument, and with not at all the reverence she liked to treat it, flung
+back the coverings, threw the lid open, and sat down.
+
+He had white fingers, and he ran them over the keys with an air of being
+at home among them, light little airs dripping from his touch like dew
+from a glistening grass blade. Marcia felt there were butterflies in the
+air, and buzzing bees, and fairy flowers dancing on the slightest of
+stems, with a sky so blue it seemed to be filled with the sound of lily
+bells. The music he played was of the nature of what would be styled
+to-day "popular," for this man was master of nothing but having a good
+time. Quick music with a jingle he played, that to the puritanic-bred girl
+suggested nothing but a heart bubbling over with gladness, but he meant it
+should make her heart flutter and her foot beat time to the tripping
+measure. In his world feet were attuned to gay music. But Marcia stood
+with quiet dignity a little away from the instrument, her lips parted, her
+eyes bright with the pleasure of the melody, her hands clasped, and her
+breath coming quickly. She was all absorbed with the music. All
+unknowingly Marcia had placed herself where the light from the window fell
+full across her face, and every flitting expression as she followed the
+undulant sounds was visible. The young man gazed, almost as much pleased
+with the lovely face as Marcia was with the music.
+
+At last he drew a chair quite near his own seat.
+
+"Come and sit down," he said, "and I will sing to you. You did not know I
+could sing, too, did you? Oh, I can. But you must sit down for I couldn't
+sing right when you are standing."
+
+He ended with his fascinating smile, and Marcia shyly sat down, though she
+drew the chair a bit back from where he had placed it and sat up quite
+straight and stiff with her shoulders erect and her head up. She had
+forgotten her distrust of the man in what seemed to her his wonderful
+music. It was all new and strange to her, and she could not know how
+little there really was to it. She had decided as he played that she liked
+the kind best that made her think of the birds and the sunny sky, rather
+than the wild whirlly kind that seemed all a mad scramble. She meant to
+ask him to play over again what he played at the beginning, but he struck
+into a Scotch love ballad. The melody intoxicated her fancy, and her face
+shone with pleasure. She had not noticed the words particularly, save that
+they were of love, and she thought with pain of David and Kate, and how
+the pleading tenderness might have been his heart calling to hers not to
+forget his love for her. But Harry Temple mistook her expression for one
+of interest in himself. With his eyes still upon hers, as a cat might
+mesmerize a bird, he changed into a minor wail of heart-broken love, whose
+sadness brought great tears to Marcia's eyes, and deep color to her
+already burning cheeks, while the music throbbed out her own half-realized
+loneliness and sorrow. It was as if the sounds painted for her a picture
+of what she had missed out of love, and set her sorrow flowing tangibly.
+
+The last note died away in an impressive diminuendo, and the young man
+turned toward her. His eyes were languishing, his voice gentle,
+persuasive, as though it had but been the song come a little nearer.
+
+"And that is the way I feel toward you, dear," he said, and reached out
+his white hands to where hers lay forgotten in her lap.
+
+But his hands had scarcely touched hers, before Marcia sprang back, in her
+haste knocking over the chair.
+
+Erect, her hands snatched behind her, frightened, alert, she stood a
+moment bewildered, all her fears to the front.
+
+Ah! but he was used to shy maidens. He was not to be baffled thus. A
+little coaxing, a little gentle persuasion, a little boldness--that was all
+he needed. He had conquered hearts before, why should he not this
+unsophisticated one?
+
+"Don't be afraid, dear; there is no one about. And surely there is no harm
+in telling you I love you, and letting you comfort my poor broken heart to
+think that I have found you too late--"
+
+He had arisen and with a passionate gesture put his arms about Marcia and
+before she could know what was coming had pressed a kiss upon her lips.
+
+But she was aroused now. Every angry force within her was fully awake.
+Every sense of right and justice inherited and taught came flocking
+forward. Horror unspeakable filled her, and wrath, that such a dreadful
+thing should come to her. There was no time to think. She brought her two
+strong supple hands up and beat him in the face, mouth, cheeks, and eyes,
+with all her might, until he turned blinded; and then she struggled away
+crying, "You are a wicked man!" and fled from the room.
+
+Out through the hall she sped to the kitchen, and flinging wide the door
+before her, the nearest one at hand, she fairly flew down the garden walk,
+past the nodding dahlias, past the basking pumpkins, past the whispering
+corn, down through the berry bushes, at the lower end of the lot, and
+behind the currant bushes. She crouched a moment looking back to see if
+she were pursued. Then imagining she heard a noise from the open door, she
+scrambled over the low back fence, the high comb with which her hair was
+fastened falling out unheeded behind her, and all her dark waves of hair
+coming about her shoulders in wild disarray.
+
+She was in a field of wheat now, and the tall shocks were like waves all
+about her, thick and close, kissing her as she passed with their bended
+stalks. Ahead of her it looked like an endless sea to cross before she
+could reach another fence, and a bare field, and then another fence and
+the woods. She knew not that in her wake she left a track as clear as if
+she had set up signals all along the way. She felt that the kind wheat
+would flow back like real waves and hide the way she had passed over. She
+only sped on, to the woods. In all the wide world there seemed no refuge
+but the woods. The woods were home to her. She loved the tall shadows, the
+whispering music in the upper branches, the quiet places underneath, the
+hushed silence like a city of refuge with cool wings whereunder to hide.
+And to it, as her only friend, she was hastening. She went to the woods as
+she would have flown to the minister's wife at home, if she only had been
+near, and buried her face in her lap and sobbed out her horror and shame.
+Breathless she sped, without looking once behind her, now over the next
+fence and still another. They were nothing to her. She forgot that she was
+wearing Kate's special sprigged muslin, and that it might tear on the
+rough fences. She forgot that she was a matron and must not run wild
+through strange fields. She forgot that some one might be watching her.
+She forgot everything save that she must get away and hide her poor shamed
+face.
+
+At last she reached the shelter of the woods, and, with one wild furtive
+look behind her to assure herself that she was not pursued, she flung
+herself into the lap of mother earth, and buried her face in the soft moss
+at the foot of a tree. There she sobbed out her horror and sorrow and
+loneliness, sobbed until it seemed to her that her heart had gone out with
+great shudders. Sobbed and sobbed and sobbed! For a time she could not
+even think clearly. Her brain was confused with the magnitude of what had
+come to her. She tried to go over the whole happening that afternoon and
+see if she might have prevented anything. She blamed herself most
+unmercifully for listening to the foolish music and, too, after her own
+suspicions had been aroused, though how could she dream any man in his
+senses would do a thing like that! Not even Captain Leavenworth would
+stoop to that, she thought. Poor child! She knew so little of the world,
+and her world had been kept so sweet and pure and free from contamination.
+She turned cold at the thought of her father's anger if he should hear
+about this strange young man. She felt sure he would blame her for
+allowing it. He had tried to teach his girls that they must exercise
+judgment and discretion, and surely, surely, she must have failed in both
+or this would not have happened. Oh, why had not the aunts come that
+afternoon! Why had they not arrived before this man came! And yet, oh,
+horror! if they had come after he was there! How disgusting he seemed to
+her with his smirky smile, and slim white fingers! How utterly unfit
+beside David did he seem to breathe the same air even. David, her
+David--no, Kate's David! Oh, pity! What a pain the world was!
+
+There was nowhere to turn that she might find a trace of comfort. For what
+would David say, and how could she ever tell him? Would he find it out if
+she did not? What would he think of her? Would he blame her? Oh, the agony
+of it all! What would the aunts think of her! Ah! that was worse than all,
+for even now she could see the tilt of Aunt Hortense's head, and the purse
+of Aunt Amelia's lips. How dreadful if they should have to know of it.
+They would not believe her, unless perhaps Aunt Clarinda might. She did
+not look wise, but she seemed kind and loving. If it had not been for the
+other two she might have fled to Aunt Clarinda. Oh, if she might but flee
+home to her father's house! How could she ever go back to David's house!
+How could she ever play on that dreadful piano again? She would always see
+that hateful, smiling face sitting there and think how he had looked at
+her. Then she shuddered and sobbed harder than ever. And mother earth,
+true to all her children, received the poor child with open arms. There
+she lay upon the resinous pine needles, at the foot of the tall trees, and
+the trees looked down tenderly upon her and consulted in whispers with
+their heads bent together. The winds blew sweetness from the buckwheat
+fields in the valley about her, murmuring delicious music in the air above
+her, and even the birds hushed their loud voices and peeped curiously at
+the tired, sorrowful creature of another kind that had come among them.
+
+Marcia's overwrought nerves were having their revenge. Tears had their way
+until she was worn out, and then the angel of sleep came down upon her.
+There upon the pine-needle bed, with tear-wet cheeks she lay, and slept
+like a tired child come home to its mother from the tumult of the world.
+
+Harry Temple, recovering from his rebuff, and left alone in the parlor,
+looked about him with surprise. Never before in all his short and
+brilliant career as a heart breaker had he met with the like, and this
+from a mere child! He could not believe his senses! She must have been in
+play. He would sit still and presently she would come back with eyes full
+of mischief and beg his pardon. But even as he sat down to wait her
+coming, something told him he was mistaken and that she would not come.
+There had been something beside mischief in the smart raps whose tingle
+even now his cheeks and lips felt. The house, too, had grown strangely
+hushed as though no one else besides himself were in it. She must have
+gone out. Perhaps she had been really frightened and would tell somebody!
+How awkward if she should presently return with one of those grim aunts,
+or that solemn puritan-like husband of hers. Perhaps he had better decamp
+while the coast was still clear. She did not seem to be returning and
+there was no telling what the little fool might do.
+
+With a deliberation which suddenly became feverish in his haste to be
+away, he compelled himself to walk slowly, nonchalantly out through the
+hall. Still as a thief he opened and closed the front door and got himself
+down the front steps, but not so still but that a quick ear caught the
+sound of the latch as it flew back into place, and the scrape of a boot on
+the path; and not so invisibly nor so quickly but that a pair of keen eyes
+saw him.
+
+When Harry Temple had made his way toward the Spafford house that
+afternoon, with his dauntless front and conceited smile, Miranda had been
+sent out to pick raspberries along the fence that separated the Heath
+garden from the Spafford garden.
+
+Harry Temple was too new in the town not to excite comment among the young
+girls wherever he might go, and Miranda was always having her eye out for
+anything new. Not for herself! Bless you! no! Miranda never expected
+anything from a young man for herself, but she was keenly interested in
+what befell other girls.
+
+So Miranda, crouched behind the berry bushes, watched Harry Temple saunter
+down the street and saw with surprise that he stopped at the house of her
+new admiration. Now, although Marcia was a married woman, Miranda felt
+pleased that she should have the attention of others, and a feeling of
+pride in her idol, and of triumph over her cousin Hannah that he had not
+stopped to see her, swelled in her brown calico breast.
+
+She managed to bring her picking as near to the region of the Spafford
+parlor windows as possible, and much did her ravished ear delight itself
+in the music that tinkled through the green shaded window, for Miranda had
+tastes that were greatly appealed to by the gay dance music. She fancied
+that her idol was the player. But then she heard a man's voice, and her
+picking stopped short insomuch that her grandmother's strident tones
+mingled with the liquid tenor of Mr. Temple, calling to Miranda to "be
+spry there or the sun'll catch you 'fore you get a quart." All at once the
+music ceased, and then in a minute or two Miranda heard the Spafford
+kitchen door thrown violently open and saw Marcia rush forth.
+
+She gazed in astonishment, too surprised to call out to her, or to
+remember to keep on picking for a moment. She watched her as she fairly
+flew down between the rows of currant bushes, saw the comb fly from her
+hair, saw the glow of excitement on her cheek, and the fire in her eye,
+saw her mount the first fence. Then suddenly a feeling of protection arose
+within her, and, with a hasty glance toward her grandmother's window to
+satisfy herself that no one else saw the flying figure, she fell to
+picking with all her might, but what went into her pail, whether
+raspberries or green leaves or briars, she did not know. Her eyes were on
+the flying figure through the wheat, and she progressed in her picking
+very fast toward the lower end of the lot where nothing but runty old sour
+berries ever grew, if any at all. Once hidden behind the tall corn that
+grew between her and her grandmother's vigilant gaze, she hastened to the
+end of the lot and watched Marcia; watched her as she climbed the fences,
+held her breath at the daring leaps from the top rails, expecting to see
+the delicate muslin catch on the rough fence and send the flying figure to
+the ground senseless perhaps. It was like a theatre to Miranda, this
+watching the beautiful girl in her flight, the long dark hair in the wind,
+the graceful untrammeled bounds. Miranda watched with unveiled admiration
+until the dark of the green-blue wood had swallowed her up, then slowly
+her eyes traveled back over the path which Marcia had taken, back through
+the meadow and the wheat, to the kitchen door left standing wide. Slowly,
+painfully, Miranda set herself to understand it. Something had happened!
+That was flight with fear behind it, fear that left everything else
+forgotten. What had happened?
+
+Miranda was wiser in her generation than Marcia. She began to put two and
+two together. Her brows darkened, and a look of cunning came into her
+honest blue eyes. Stealthily she crept with cat-like quickness along the
+fence near to the front, and there she stood like a red-haired Nemesis in
+a sunbonnet, with irate red face, confronting the unsuspecting man as he
+sauntered forth from the unwelcoming roof where he had whiled away a
+mistaken hour.
+
+"What you ben sayin' to her?"
+
+It was as if a serpent had stung him, so unexpected, so direct. He jumped
+aside and turned deadly pale. She knew her chance arrow had struck the
+truth. But he recovered himself almost immediately when he saw what a
+harmless looking creature had attacked him.
+
+"Why, my dear girl," he said patronizingly, "you quite startled me! I'm
+sure you must have made some mistake!"
+
+"I ain't your girl, thank goodness!" snapped Miranda, "and I guess by your
+looks there ain't anybody 'dear' to you but yourself. But I ain't made a
+mistake. It's you I was asking. _What you bin in there for?_" There was a
+blaze of defiance in Miranda's eyes, and her stubby forefinger pointed at
+him like a shotgun. Before her the bold black eyes quailed for an instant.
+The young man's hand sought his pocket, brought out a piece of money and
+extended it.
+
+"Look here, my friend," he said trying another line, "you take this and
+say nothing more about it. That's a good girl. No harm's been done."
+
+Miranda looked him in the face with noble scorn, and with a sudden motion
+of her brown hand sent the coin flying on the stone pavement.
+
+"I tell you I'm not your friend, and I don't want your money. I wouldn't
+trust its goodness any more than your face. As fer keepin' still I'll do
+as I see fit about it. I intend to know what this means, and if you've
+made _her_ any trouble you'd better leave this town, for I'll make it too
+unpleasant fer you to stay here!"
+
+With a stealthy glance about him, cautious, concerned, the young man
+suddenly hurried down the street. He wanted no more parley with this
+loud-voiced avenging maiden. His fear came back upon him in double force,
+and he was seen to glance at his watch and quicken his pace almost to a
+run as though a forgotten engagement had suddenly come to mind. Miranda,
+scowling, stood and watched him disappear around the corner, then she
+turned back and began to pick raspberries with a diligence that would have
+astonished her grandmother had she not been for the last hour engaged with
+a calling neighbor in the room at the other side of the house, where they
+were overhauling the character of a fellow church member.
+
+Miranda picked on, and thought on, and could not make up her mind what she
+ought to do. From time to time she glanced anxiously toward the woods, and
+then at the lowering sun in the West, and half meditated going after
+Marcia, but a wholesome fear of her grandmother held her hesitating.
+
+At length she heard a firm step coming down the street. Could it be? Yes,
+it was David Spafford. How was it he happened to come home so soon?
+Miranda had heard in a round-about-way, as neighbors hear and know these
+things, that David had taken the stage that morning, presumably on
+business to New York, and was hardly expected to return for several days.
+She had wondered if Marcia would stay all night alone in the house or if
+she would go to the aunts. But now here was David!
+
+Miranda looked again over the wheat, half expecting to see the flying
+figure returning in haste, but the parted wheat waved on and sang its song
+of the harvest, unmindful and alone, with only a fluttering butterfly to
+give life to the landscape. A little rusty-throated cricket piped a
+doleful sentence now and then between the silences.
+
+David Spafford let himself in at his own door, and went in search of
+Marcia.
+
+He wanted to find Marcia for a purpose. The business which had taken him
+away in the morning, and which he had hardly expected to accomplish before
+late that night, had been partly transacted at a little tavern where the
+coach horses had been changed that morning, and where he had met most
+unexpectedly the two men whom he had been going to see, who were coming
+straight to his town. So he turned him back with them and came home, and
+they were at this minute attending to some other business in the town,
+while he had come home to announce to Marcia that they would take supper
+with him and perhaps spend the night.
+
+Marcia was nowhere to be found. He went upstairs and timidly knocked at
+her door, but no answer came. Then he thought she might be asleep and
+knocked louder, but only the humming-bird in the honeysuckle outside her
+window sent back a little humming answer through the latch-hole. Finally
+he ventured to open the door and peep in, but he saw that quiet loneliness
+reigned there.
+
+He went downstairs again and searched in the pantry and kitchen and then
+stood still. The back door was stretched open as though it had been thrown
+back in haste. He followed its suggestion and went out, looking down the
+little brick path that led to the garden. Ah! what was that? Something
+gleamed in the sun with a spot of blue behind it. The bit of blue ribbon
+she had worn at her throat, with a tiny gold brooch unclasped sticking in.
+
+Miranda caught sight of him coming, and crouched behind the currants.
+
+David came on searching the path on every side. A bit of a branch had been
+torn from a succulent, tender plant that leaned over the path and was
+lying in the way. It seemed another blaze along the trail. Further down
+where the bushes almost met a single fragment of a thread waved on a thorn
+as though it had snatched for more in the passing and had caught only
+this. David hardly knew whether he was following these little things or
+not, but at any rate they were apparently not leading him anywhere for he
+stopped abruptly in front of the fence and looked both ways behind the
+bushes that grew along in front of it. Then he turned to go back again.
+Miranda held her breath. Something touched David's foot in turning, and,
+looking down, he saw Marcia's large shell comb lying there in the grass.
+Curiously he picked it up and examined it. It was like finding fragments
+of a wreck along the sand.
+
+All at once Miranda arose from her hiding place and confronted him
+timidly. She was not the same Miranda who came down upon Harry Temple,
+however.
+
+"She ain't in the house," she said hoarsely. "She's gone over there!"
+
+David Spafford turned surprised.
+
+"Is that you, Miranda? Oh, thank you! Where do you say she has gone?
+Where?"
+
+"Through there, don't you see?" and again the stubby forefinger pointed to
+the rift in the wheat.
+
+David gazed stupidly at the path in the wheat, but gradually it began to
+dawn upon him that there was a distinct line through it where some one
+must have gone.
+
+"Yes, I see," he said thinking aloud, "but why should she have gone there?
+There is nothing over there."
+
+"She went on further, she went to the woods," said Miranda, looking
+fearfully around lest even now her grandmother might be upon her, "and she
+was scared, I guess. She looked it. Her hair all come tumblin' down when
+she clum the fence, an' she just went flyin' over like some bird, didn't
+care a feather if she did fall, an' she never oncet looked behind her till
+she come to the woods."
+
+David's bewilderment was growing uncomfortable. There was a shade of alarm
+in his face and of the embarrassment one feels when a neighbor divulges
+news about a member of one's own household.
+
+"Why, surely, Miranda, you must be mistaken. Maybe it was some one else
+you saw. I do not think Mrs. Spafford would be likely to run over there
+that way, and what in the world would she have to be frightened at?"
+
+"No, I ain't mistaken," said Miranda half sullenly, nettled at his
+unbelief. "It was her all right. She came flyin' out the kitchen door when
+I was picking raspberries, and down that path to the fence, and never
+stopped fer fence ner wheat, ner medder lot, but went into them woods
+there, right up to the left of them tall pines, and she,--she looked plum
+scared to death 's if a whole circus menagerie was after her, lions and
+'nelefunts an' all. An' I guess she had plenty to be scared at ef I ain't
+mistaken. That dandy Temple feller went there to call on her, an' I heard
+him tinklin' that music box, and its my opinion he needs a wallupin'! You
+better go after her! It's gettin' late and you'll have hard times finding
+her in the dark. Just you foller her path in the wheat, and then make fer
+them pines. I'd a gone after her myself only grandma'd make sech a fuss,
+and hev to know it all. You needn't be afraid o' me. I'll keep still."
+
+By this time David was thoroughly alive to the situation and much alarmed.
+He mounted the fence with alacrity, gave one glance with "thank you" at
+Miranda, and disappeared through the wheat, Miranda watched him till she
+was sure he was making for the right spot, then with a sigh of relief she
+hastened into the house with her now brimming pail of berries.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER XV
+
+
+As David made his way with rapid strides through the rippling wheat, he
+experienced a series of sensations. For the first time since his wedding
+day he was aroused to entirely forget himself and his pain. What did it
+mean? Marcia frightened! What at? Harry Temple at their house! What did he
+know of Harry Temple? Nothing beyond the mere fact that Hannah Heath had
+introduced him and that he was doing business in the town. But why had Mr.
+Temple visited the house? He could have no possible business with himself,
+David was sure; moreover he now remembered having seen the young man
+standing near the stable that morning when he took his seat in the coach,
+and knew that he must have heard his remark that he would not return till
+the late coach that night, or possibly not till the next day. He
+remembered as he said it that he had unconsciously studied Mr. Temple's
+face and noted its weak points. Did the young man then have a purpose in
+coming to the house during his absence? A great anger rose within him at
+the thought.
+
+There was one strange thing about David's thoughts. For the first time he
+looked at himself in the light of Marcia's natural protector--her husband.
+He suddenly saw a duty from himself to her, aside from the mere feeding
+and clothing her. He felt a personal responsibility, and an actual
+interest in her. Out of the whole world, now, he was the only one she
+could look to for help.
+
+It gave him a feeling of possession that was new, and almost seemed
+pleasant. He forgot entirely the errand that had made him come to search
+for Marcia in the first place, and the two men who were probably at that
+moment preparing to go to his house according to their invitation. He
+forgot everything but Marcia, and strode into the purply-blue shadows of
+the wood and stopped to listen.
+
+The hush there seemed intense. There were no echoes lingering of flying
+feet down that pine-padded pathway of the aisle of the woods. It was long
+since he had had time to wander in the woods, and he wondered at their
+silence. So much whispering above, the sky so far away, the breeze so
+quiet, the bird notes so subdued, it seemed almost uncanny. He had not
+remembered that it was thus in the woods. It struck him in passing that
+here would be a good place to bring his pain some day when he had time to
+face it again, and wished to be alone with it.
+
+He took his hat in his hand and stepped firmly into the vast solemnity as
+if he had entered a great church when the service was going on, on an
+errand of life and death that gave excuse for profaning the holy silence.
+He went a few paces and stopped again, listening. Was that a long-drawn
+sighing breath he heard, or only the wind soughing through the waving
+tassels overhead? He summoned his voice to call. It seemed a great effort,
+and sounded weak and feeble under the grandeur of the vaulted green dome.
+"Marcia!" he called,--and "Marcia!" realizing as he did so that it was the
+first time he had called her by her name, or sought after her in any way.
+He had always said "you" to her, or "child," or spoken of her in company
+as "Mrs. Spafford," a strange and far-off mythical person whose very
+intangibility had separated her from himself immeasurably.
+
+He went further into the forest, called again, and yet again, and stood to
+listen. All was still about him, but in the far distance he heard the
+faint report of a gun. With a new thought of danger coming to mind he
+hurried further into the shadows. The gun sounded again more clearly. He
+shuddered involuntarily and looked about in all directions, hoping to see
+the gleam of her gown. It was not likely there were any wild beasts about
+these parts, so near the town and yet, they had been seen occasionally,--a
+stray fox, or even a bear,--and the sun was certainly very low. He glanced
+back, and the low line of the horizon gleamed the gold of intensified
+shining that is the sun's farewell for the night. The gun again! Stray
+shots had been known to kill people wandering in the forest. He was
+growing nervous as a woman now, and went this way and that calling, but
+still no answer came. He began to think he was not near the clump of pines
+of which Miranda spoke, and went a little to the right and then turned to
+look back to where he had entered the wood, and there, almost at his feet,
+she lay!
+
+She slept as soundly as if she had been lying on a couch of velvet, one
+round white arm under her cheek. Her face was flushed with weeping, and
+her lashes still wet. Her tender, sensitive mouth still quivered slightly
+as she gave a long-drawn breath with a catch in it that seemed like a sob,
+and all her lovely dark hair floated about her as if it were spread upon a
+wave that upheld her. She was beautiful indeed as she lay there sleeping,
+and the man, thus suddenly come upon her, anxious and troubled and every
+nerve quivering, stopped, awed with the beauty of her as if she had been
+some heavenly being suddenly confronting him. He stepped softly to her
+side and bending down observed her, first anxiously, to make sure she was
+alive and safe, then searchingly, as though he would know every detail of
+the picture there before him because it was his, and he not only had a
+right but a duty to possess it, and to care for it.
+
+She might have been a statue or a painting as he looked upon her and noted
+the lovely curve of her flushed cheek, but when his eyes reached the firm
+little brown hand and the slender finger on which gleamed the wedding ring
+that was not really hers, something pathetic in the tear-wet lashes, and
+the whole sorrowful, beautiful figure, touched him with a great
+tenderness, and he stooped down gently and put his arm about her.
+
+"Marcia,--child!" he said in a low, almost crooning voice, as one might
+wake a baby from its sleep, "Marcia, open your eyes, child, and tell me if
+you are all right."
+
+At first she only stirred uneasily and slept on, the sleep of utter
+exhaustion; but he raised her, and, sitting down beside her, put her head
+upon his shoulder, speaking gently. Then Marcia opened her eyes
+bewildered, and with a start, sprang back and looked at David, as though
+she would be sure it was he and not that other dreadful man from whom she
+had fled.
+
+"Why, child! What's the matter?" said David, brushing her hair back from
+her face. Bewildered still, Marcia scarcely knew him, his voice was so
+strangely sweet and sympathetic. The tears were coming back, but she could
+not stop them. She made one effort to control herself and speak, but her
+lips quivered a moment, and then the flood-gates opened again, and she
+covered her face with her hands and shook with sobs. How could she tell
+David what a dreadful thing had happened, now, when he was kinder to her
+than he had ever thought of being before! He would grow grave and stern
+when she had told him, and she could not bear that. He would likely blame
+her too, and how could she endure more?
+
+But he drew her to him again and laid her head against his coat, trying to
+smooth her hair with unaccustomed passes of his hand. By and by the tears
+subsided and she could control herself again. She hushed her sobs and drew
+back a little from the comforting rough coat where she had lain.
+
+"Indeed, indeed, I could not help it, David,"--she faltered, trying to
+smile like a bit of rainbow through the rain.
+
+"I know you couldn't, child." His answer was wonderfully kind and his eyes
+smiled at her as they had never done before. Her heart gave a leap of
+astonishment and fluttered with gladness over it. It was so good to have
+David care. She had not known how much she wanted him to speak to her as
+if he saw her and thought a little about her.
+
+"And now what was it? Remember I do not know. Tell me quick, for it is
+growing late and damp, and you will take cold out here in the woods with
+that thin frock on. You are chilly already."
+
+"I better go at once," she said reservedly, willing to put off the telling
+as long as possible, peradventure to avoid it altogether.
+
+"No, child," he said firmly drawing her back again beside him, "you must
+rest a minute yet before taking that long walk. You are weary and excited,
+and besides it will do you good to tell me. What made you run off up here?
+Are you homesick?"
+
+He scanned her face anxiously. He began to fear with sudden compunction
+that the sacrifice he had accepted so easily had been too much for the
+victim, and it suddenly began to be a great comfort to him to have Marcia
+with him, to help him hide his sorrow from the world. He did not know
+before that he cared.
+
+"I was frightened," she said, with drooping lashes. She was trying to keep
+her lips and fingers from trembling, for she feared greatly to tell him
+all. But though the woods were growing dusky he saw the fluttering little
+fingers and gathered them firmly in his own.
+
+"Now, child," he said in that tone that even his aunts obeyed, "tell me
+all. What frightened you, and why did you come up here away from everybody
+instead of calling for help?"
+
+Brought to bay she lifted her beautiful eyes to his face and told him
+briefly the story, beginning with the night when she had first met Harry
+Temple. She said as little about music as possible, because she feared
+that the mention of the piano might be painful to David, but she made the
+whole matter quite plain in a few words, so that David could readily fill
+in between the lines.
+
+"Scoundrel!" he murmured clenching his fists, "he ought to be strung up!"
+Then quite gently again, "Poor child! How frightened you must have been!
+You did right to run away, but it was a dangerous thing to run out here!
+Why, he might have followed you!"
+
+"Oh!" said Marcia, turning pale, "I never thought of that. I only wanted
+to get away from everybody. It seemed so dreadful I did not want anybody
+to know. I did not want you to know. I wanted to run away and hide, and
+never come back!" She covered her face with her hands and shuddered. David
+thought the tears were coming back again.
+
+"Child, child!" he said gently, "you must not talk that way. What would I
+do if you did that?" and he laid his hand softly upon the bowed head.
+
+It was the first time that anything like a personal talk had passed
+between them, and Marcia felt a thrill of delight at his words. It was
+like heavenly comfort to her wounded spirit.
+
+She stole a shy look at him under her lashes, and wished she dared say
+something, but no words came. They sat for a moment in silence, each
+feeling a sort of comforting sense of the other's presence, and each
+clasping the hand of the other with clinging pressure, yet neither fully
+aware of the fact.
+
+The last rays of the sun which had been lying for a while at their feet
+upon the pine needles suddenly slipped away unperceived, and behold! the
+world was in gloom, and the place where the two sat was almost utterly
+dark. David became aware of it first, and with sudden remembrance of his
+expected guests he started in dismay.
+
+"Child!" said he,--but he did not let go of her hand, nor forget to put the
+tenderness in his voice, "the sun has gone down, and here have I been
+forgetting what I came to tell you in the astonishment over what you had
+to tell me. We must hurry and get back. We have guests to-night to supper,
+two gentlemen, very distinguished in their lines of work. We have business
+together, and I must make haste. I doubt not they are at the house
+already, and what they think of me I cannot tell; let us hurry as fast as
+possible."
+
+"Oh, David!" she said in dismay. "And you had to come out here after me,
+and have stayed so long! What a foolish girl I have been and what a mess I
+have made! They will perhaps be angry and go away, and I will be to blame.
+I am afraid you can never forgive me."
+
+"Don't worry, child," he said pleasantly. "It couldn't be helped, you
+know, and is in no wise your fault. I am only sorry that these two
+gentlemen will delay me in the pleasure of hunting up that scoundrel of a
+Temple and suggesting that he leave town by the early morning stage. I
+should like to give him what Miranda suggested, a good 'wallupin',' but
+perhaps that would be undignified."
+
+He laughed as he said it, a hearty laugh with a ring to it like his old
+self. Marcia felt happy at the sound. How wonderful it would be if he
+would be like that to her all the time! Her heart swelled with the great
+thought of it.
+
+He helped her to her feet and taking her hand led her out to the open
+field where they could walk faster. As he walked he told her about Miranda
+waiting for him behind the currant bushes. They laughed together and made
+the way seem short.
+
+It was quite dark now, with the faded moon trembling feebly in the West as
+though it meant to retire early, and wished they would hurry home while
+she held her light for them. David had drawn Marcia's arm within his, and
+then, noticing that her dress was thin, he pulled off his coat and put it
+firmly about her despite her protest that she did not need it, and so,
+warmed, comforted, and cheered Marcia's feet hurried back over the path
+she had taken in such sorrow and fright a few hours before.
+
+When they could see the lights of the village twinkling close below them
+David began to tell her about the two men who were to be their guests, if
+they were still waiting, and so interesting was his brief story of each
+that Marcia hardly knew they were at home before David was helping her
+over their own back fence.
+
+"Oh, David! There seems to be a light in the kitchen! Do you suppose they
+have gone in and are getting their own supper? What shall I do with my
+hair? I cannot go in with it this way. How did that light get there?"
+
+"Here!" said David, fumbling in his pocket, "will this help you?" and he
+brought out the shell comb he had picked up in the garden.
+
+By the light of the feeble old moon David watched her coil the long wavy
+hair and stood to pass his criticism upon the effect before they should go
+in. They were just back of the tall sunflowers, and talked in whispers. It
+was all so cheery, and comradey, and merry, that Marcia hated to go in and
+have it over, for she could not feel that this sweet evening hour could
+last. Then they took hold of hands and swiftly, cautiously, stole up to
+the kitchen window and looked in. The door still stood open as both had
+left it that afternoon, and there seemed to be no one in the kitchen. A
+candle was burning on the high little shelf over the table, and the tea
+kettle was singing on the crane by the hearth, but the room was without
+occupant. Cautiously, looking questioningly at one another, they stole
+into the kitchen, each dreading lest the aunts had come by chance and
+discovered their lapse. There was a light in the front part of the house
+and they could hear voices, two men were earnestly discussing politics.
+They listened longer, but no other presence was revealed.
+
+David in pantomime outlined the course of action, and Marcia,
+understanding perfectly flew up the back stairs as noiselessly as a mouse,
+to make her toilet after her nap in the woods, while David with much show
+and to-do of opening and shutting the wide-open kitchen door walked
+obviously into the kitchen and hurried through to greet his guests
+wondering,--not suspecting in the least,--what good angel had been there to
+let them in.
+
+Good fortune had favored Miranda. The neighbor had stayed longer than
+usual, perhaps in hopes of an invitation to stay to tea and share in the
+gingerbread she could smell being taken from the oven by Hannah, who
+occasionally varied her occupations by a turn at the culinary art. Hannah
+could make delicious gingerbread. Her grandmother had taught her when she
+was but a child.
+
+Miranda stole into the kitchen when Hannah's back was turned and picked
+over her berries so fast that when Hannah came into the pantry to set her
+gingerbread to cool Miranda had nearly all her berries in the big yellow
+bowl ready to wash, and Hannah might conjecture if she pleased that
+Miranda had been some time picking them over. It is not stated just how
+thoroughly those berries were picked over. But Miranda cared little for
+that. Her mind was upon other things. The pantry window overlooked the
+hills and the woods. She could see if David and Marcia were coming back
+soon. She wanted to watch her play till the close, and had no fancy for
+having the curtain fall in the middle of the most exciting act, the rescue
+of the princess. But the talk in the sitting room went on and on. By and
+by Hannah Heath washed her hands, untied her apron, and taking her
+sunbonnet slipped over to Ann Bertram's for a pattern of her new sleeve.
+Miranda took the opportunity to be off again.
+
+Swiftly down behind the currants she ran, and standing on the fence behind
+the corn she looked off across the wheat, but no sign of anybody yet
+coming out of the woods was granted her. She stood so a long time. It was
+growing dusk. She wondered if Harry Temple had shut the front door when he
+went out. But then David went in that way, and he would have closed it, of
+course. Still, he went away in a hurry, maybe it would be as well to go
+and look. She did not wish to be caught by her grandmother, so she stole
+along like a cat close to the dark berry bushes, and the gathering dusk
+hid her well. She thought she could see from the front of the fence
+whether the door looked as if it were closed. But there were people coming
+up the street. She would wait till they had passed before she looked over
+the fence.
+
+They were two men coming, slowly, and in earnest conversation upon some
+deeply interesting theme. Each carried a heavy carpet-bag, and they walked
+wearily, as if their business were nearly over for the day and they were
+coming to a place of rest.
+
+"This must be the house, I think," said one. "He said it was exactly
+opposite the Seceder church. That's the church, I believe. I was here once
+before."
+
+"There doesn't seem to be a light in the house," said the other, looking
+up to the windows over the street. "Are you sure? Brother Spafford said he
+was coming directly home to let his wife know of our arrival."
+
+"A little strange there's no light yet, for it is quite dark now, but I'm
+sure this must be the house. Maybe they are all in the kitchen and not
+expecting us quite so soon. Let's try anyhow," said the other, setting
+down his carpet-bag on the stoop and lifting the big brass knocker.
+
+Miranda stood still debating but a moment. The situation was made plain to
+her in an instant. Not for nothing had she stood at Grandma Heath's elbow
+for years watching the movements of her neighbors and interpreting exactly
+what they meant. Miranda's wits were sharpened for situations of all
+kinds. Miranda was ready and loyal to those she adored. Without further
+ado she hastened to a sheltered spot she knew and climbed the picket fence
+which separated the Heath garden from the Spafford side yard. Before the
+brass knocker had sounded through the empty house the second time Miranda
+had crossed the side porch, thrown her sunbonnet upon a chair in the dark
+kitchen, and was hastening with noisy, encouraging steps to the front
+door.
+
+She flung it wide open, saying in a breezy voice, "Just wait till I get a
+light, won't you, the wind blew the candle out."
+
+There wasn't a particle of wind about that soft September night, but that
+made little difference to Miranda. She was part of a play and she was
+acting her best. If her impromptu part was a little irregular, it was at
+least well meant, boldly and bravely presented.
+
+Miranda found a candle on the shelf and, stooping to the smouldering fire
+upon the hearth, blew and coaxed it into flame enough to light it.
+
+"This is Mr. Spafford's home, is it not?" questioned the old gentleman
+whom Miranda had heard speak first on the sidewalk.
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed," said the girl glibly. "Jest come in and set down. Here,
+let me take your hats. Jest put your bags right there on the floor."
+
+"You are-- Are you--Mrs. Spafford?" hesitated the courtly old gentleman.
+
+"Oh, landy sakes, no, I ain't her," laughed Miranda well pleased. "Mis'
+Spafford had jest stepped out a bit when her husband come home, an' he's
+gone after her. You see she didn't expect her husband home till late
+to-night. But you set down. They'll be home real soon now. They'd oughter
+ben here before this. I 'spose she'd gone on further'n she thought she'd
+go when she stepped out."
+
+"It's all right," said the other gentleman, "no harm done, I'm sure. I
+hope we shan't inconvenience Mrs. Spafford any coming so unexpectedly."
+
+"No, indeedy!" said quick-witted Miranda. "You can't ketch Mis' Spafford
+unprepared if you come in the middle o' the night. She's allus ready fer
+comp'ny." Miranda's eyes shone. She felt she was getting on finely doing
+the honors.
+
+"Well, that's very nice. I'm sure it makes one feel at home. I wonder now
+if she would mind if we were to go right up to our room and wash our
+hands. I feel so travel-stained. I'd like to be more presentable before we
+meet her," said the first gentleman, who looked very weary.
+
+But Miranda was not dashed.
+
+"Why, that's all right. 'Course you ken go right up. Jest you set in the
+keepin' room a minnit while I run up'n be sure the water pitcher's filled.
+I ain't quite sure 'bout it. I won't be long."
+
+Miranda seated them in the parlor with great gusto and hastened up the
+back stairs to investigate. She was not at all sure which room would be
+called the guest room and whether the two strangers would have a room
+apiece or occupy the same together. At least it would be safe to show them
+one till the mistress of the house returned. She peeped into Marcia's
+room, and knew it instinctively before she caught sight of a cameo brooch
+on the pin cushion, and a rose colored ribbon neatly folded lying on the
+foot of the bed where it had been forgotten. That question settled, she
+thought any other room would do, and chose the large front room across the
+hall with its high four-poster and the little ball fringe on the valance
+and canopy. Having lighted the candle which stood in a tall glass
+candlestick on the high chest of drawers, she hurried down to bid her
+guests come up.
+
+Then she hastened back into the kitchen and went to work with swift
+skilful fingers. Her breath came quickly and her cheeks grew red with the
+excitement of it all. It was like playing fairy. She would get supper for
+them and have everything all ready when the mistress came, so that there
+would be no bad breaks. She raked the fire and filled the tea kettle,
+swinging it from the crane. Then she searched where she thought such
+things should be and found a table cloth and set the table. Her hands
+trembled as she put out the sprigged china that was kept in the corner
+cupboard. Perhaps this was wrong, and she would be blamed for it, but at
+least it was what she would have done, she thought, if she were mistress
+of this house and had two nice gentlemen come to stay to tea. It was not
+often that Grandmother Heath allowed her to handle her sprigged china, to
+be sure, so Miranda felt the joy and daring of it all the more. Once a
+delicate cup slipped and rolled over on the table and almost reached the
+edge. A little more and it would have rolled off to the floor and been
+shivered into a dozen fragments, but Miranda spread her apron in front and
+caught it fairly as it started and then hugged it in fear and delight for
+a moment as she might have done a baby that had been in danger. It was a
+great pleasure to her to set that table. In the first place she was not
+doing it to order but because she wanted to please and surprise some one
+whom she adored, and in the second place it was an adventure. Miranda had
+longed for an adventure all her life and now she thought it had come to
+her.
+
+When the table was set it looked very pretty. She slipped into the pantry
+and searched out the stores. It was not hard to find all that was needed;
+cold ham, cheese, pickles, seed cakes, gingerbread, fruit cake, preserves
+and jelly, bread and raised biscuit, then she went down cellar and found
+the milk and cream and butter. She had just finished the table and set out
+the tea pot and caddy of tea when she heard the two gentlemen coming down
+the stairs. They went into the parlor and sat down, remarking that their
+friend had a pleasant home, and then Miranda heard them plunge into a
+political discussion again and she felt that they were safe for a while.
+She stole out into the dewy dark to see if there were yet signs of the
+home-comers. A screech owl hooted across the night. She stood a while by
+the back fence looking out across the dark sea of whispering wheat. By and
+by she thought she heard subdued voices above the soft swish of the
+parting wheat, and by the light of the stars she saw them coming. Quick as
+a wink she slid over the fence into the Heath back-yard and crouched in
+her old place behind the currant bushes. So she saw them come up together,
+saw David help Marcia over the fence and watched them till they had passed
+up the walk to the light of the kitchen door. Then swiftly she turned and
+glided to her own home, well knowing the reckoning that would be in store
+for her for this daring bit of recreation. There was about her, however,
+an air of triumphant joy as she entered.
+
+"Where have you ben to, Miranda Griscom, and what on airth you ben up to
+now?" was the greeting she received as she lifted the latch of the old
+green kitchen door of her grandmother's house.
+
+Miranda knew that the worst was to come now, for her grandmother never
+mentioned the name of Griscom unless she meant business. It was a hated
+name to her because of the man who had broken the heart of her daughter.
+Grandma Heath always felt that Miranda was an out and out Griscom with not
+a streak of Heath about her. The Griscoms all had red hair. But Miranda
+lifted her chin high and felt like a princess in disguise.
+
+"Ben huntin' hen's eggs down in the grass," she said, taking the first
+excuse that came into her head. "Is it time to get supper?"
+
+"Hen's eggs! This time o' night an' dark as pitch. Miranda Griscom, you
+ken go up to your room an' not come down tell I call you!"
+
+It was a dire punishment, or would have been if Miranda had not had her
+head full of other things, for the neighbor had been asked to tea and
+there would have been much to hear at the table. Besides, it was apparent
+that her disgrace was to be made public. However, Miranda did not care.
+She hastened to her little attic window, which looked down, as good
+fortune would have it, upon the dining-room windows of the Spafford house.
+With joy Miranda observed that no one had thought to draw down the shades
+and she might sit and watch the supper served over the way,--the supper she
+had prepared,--and might think how delectable the doughnuts were, and let
+her mouth water over the currant jelly and the quince preserves and
+pretend she was a guest, and forget the supper downstairs she was missing.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+David made what apology he could for his absence on the arrival of his
+guests, and pondered in his heart who it could have been that they
+referred to as "the maid," until he suddenly remembered Miranda, and
+inwardly blessed her for her kindliness. It was more than he would have
+expected from any member of the Heath household. Miranda's honest face
+among the currant bushes when she had said, "You needn't be afraid of me,
+I'll keep still," came to mind. Miranda had evidently scented out the true
+state of the case and filled in the breach, taking care not to divulge a
+word. He blest her kindly heart and resolved to show his gratitude to her
+in some way. Could poor Miranda, sitting supperless in the dark, have but
+known his thought, her lonely heart would have fluttered happily. But she
+did not, and virtue had to bring its own reward in a sense of duty done.
+Then, too, there was a spice of adventure to Miranda's monotonous life in
+what she had done, and she was not altogether sad as she sat and let her
+imagination revel in what the Spaffords had said and thought, when they
+found the house lighted and supper ready. It was better than playing house
+down behind the barn when she was a little girl.
+
+Marcia was the most astonished when she slipped down from her hurried
+toilet and found the table decked out in all the house afforded, fairly
+groaning under its weight of pickles, preserves, doughnuts, and pie. In
+fact, everything that Miranda had found she had put upon that table, and
+it is safe to say that the result was not quite as it would have been had
+the preparation of the supper been left to Marcia.
+
+She stood before it and looked, and could not keep from laughing softly to
+herself at the array of little dishes of things. Marcia thought at first
+that one of the aunts must be here, in the parlor, probably entertaining
+the guests, and that the supper was a reproof to her for being away when
+she should have been at home attending to her duties, but still she was
+puzzled. It scarcely seemed like the aunts to set a table in such a
+peculiar manner. The best china was set out, it is true, but so many
+little bits of things were in separate dishes. There was half a mould of
+currant jelly in a large china plate, there was a fresh mould of quince
+jelly quivering on a common dish. All over the table in every available
+inch there was something. It would not do to call the guests out to a
+table like that. What would David say? And yet, if one of the aunts had
+set it and was going to stay to tea, would she be hurt? She tiptoed to the
+door and listened, but heard no sound save of men's voices. If an aunt had
+been here she was surely gone now and would be none the wiser if a few
+dishes were removed.
+
+With swift fingers Marcia weeded out the things, and set straight those
+that were to remain, and then made the tea. She was so quick about it
+David had scarcely time to begin to worry because supper was not announced
+before she stood in the parlor door, shy and sweet, with a brilliant color
+in her cheeks. His little comrade, David felt her to be, and again it
+struck him that she was beautiful as he arose to introduce her to the
+guests. He saw their open admiration as they greeted her, and he found
+himself wondering what they would have thought of Kate, wild-rose Kate
+with her graceful witching ways. A tinge of sadness came into his face,
+but something suggested to him the thought that Marcia was even more
+beautiful than Kate, more like a half-blown bud of a thing. He wondered
+that he had never noticed before how her eyes shone. He gave her a
+pleasant smile as they passed into the hall, which set the color flaming
+in her cheeks again. David seemed different somehow, and that lonely,
+set-apart feeling that she had had ever since she came here to live was
+gone. David was there and he understood, at least a little bit, and they
+had something,--just something, even though it was but a few minutes in a
+lonely woods and some gentle words of his,--to call their very own
+together. At least that experience did not belong to Kate, never had been
+hers, and could not have been borrowed from her. Marcia sighed a happy
+sigh as she took her seat at the table.
+
+The talk ran upon Andrew Jackson, and some utterances of his in his last
+message to Congress. The elder of the two gentlemen expressed grave fears
+that a mistake had been made in policy and that the country would suffer.
+
+Governor Clinton was mentioned and his policy discussed. But all this talk
+was familiar to Marcia. Her father had been interested in public affairs
+always, and she had been brought up to listen to discussions deep and
+long, and to think about such things for herself. When she was quite a
+little girl her father had made her read the paper aloud to him, from one
+end to the other, as he lay back in his big chair with his eyes closed and
+his shaggy brows drawn thoughtfully into a frown. Sometimes as she read he
+would burst forth with a tirade against this or that man or set of men who
+were in opposition to his own pronounced views, and he would pour out a
+lengthy reply to little Marcia as she sat patient, waiting for a chance to
+go on with her reading. As she grew older she became proud of the
+distinction of being her father's _confidante_ politically, and she was
+able to talk on such matters as intelligently and as well if not better
+than most of the men who came to the house. It was a position which no one
+disputed with her. Kate had been much too full of her own plans and Madam
+Schuyler too busy with household affairs to bother with politics and
+newspapers, so Marcia had always been the one called upon to read when her
+father's eyes were tired. As a consequence she was far beyond other girls
+of her age in knowledge on public affairs. Well she knew what Andrew
+Jackson thought about the tariff, and about the system of canals, and
+about improvements in general. She knew which men in Congress were opposed
+to and which in favor of certain bills. All through the struggle for
+improvements in New York state she had been an eager observer. The
+minutest detail of the Erie canal project had interested her, and she was
+never without her own little private opinion in the matter, which,
+however, seldom found voice except in her eager eyes, whose listening
+lights would have been an inspiration to the most eloquent speaker.
+
+Therefore, Marcia as she sat behind her sprigged china teacups and
+demurely poured tea, was taking in all that had been said, and she drew
+her breath quickly in a way she had when she was deeply excited, as at
+last the conversation neared the one great subject of interest which to
+her seemed of most importance in the country at the present day, the
+project of a railroad run by steam.
+
+Nothing was too great for Marcia to believe. Her father had been inclined
+to be conservative in great improvements. He had favored the Erie canal,
+though had feared it would be impossible to carry so great a project
+through, and Marcia in her girlish mind had rejoiced with a joy that to
+her was unspeakable when it had been completed and news had come that many
+packets were travelling day and night upon the wonderful new water way.
+There had been a kind of triumph in her heart to think that men who could
+study out these big schemes and plan it all, had been able against so
+great odds to carry out their project and prove to all unbelievers that it
+was not only possible but practicable.
+
+Marcia's brain was throbbing with the desire for progress. If she were a
+man with money and influence she felt she would so much like to go out
+into the world and make stupid people do the things for the country that
+ought to be done. Progress had been the keynote of her upbringing, and she
+was teeming with energy which she had no hope could ever be used to help
+along that for which she felt her ambitions rising. She wanted to see the
+world alive, and busy, the great cities connected with one another. She
+longed to have free access to cities, to great libraries, to pictures, to
+wonderful music. She longed to meet great men and women, the men and women
+who were making the history of the world, writing, speaking, and doing
+things that were moulding public opinion. Reforms of all sorts were what
+helped along and made possible her desires. Why did not the people want a
+steam railroad? Why were they so ready to say it could never succeed, that
+it would be an impossibility; that the roads could not be made strong
+enough to bear so great weights and so constant wear and tear? Why did
+they interpose objections to every suggestion made by inventors and
+thinking men? Why did even her dear father who was so far in advance of
+his times in many ways, why did even he too shake his head and say that he
+feared it would never be in this country, at least not in his day, that it
+was impracticable?
+
+The talk was very interesting to Marcia. She ate bits of her biscuit
+without knowing, and she left her tea untasted till it was cold. The
+younger of the two guests was talking. His name was Jervis. Marcia thought
+she had heard the name somewhere, but had not yet placed him in her mind:
+
+"Yes," said he, with an eager look on his face, "it is coming, it is
+coming sooner than they think. Oliver Evans said, you know, that good
+roads were all we could expect one generation to do. The next must make
+canals, the next might build a railroad which should run by horse power,
+and perhaps the next would run a railroad by steam. But we shall not have
+to wait so long. We shall have steam moving railway carriages before
+another year."
+
+"What!" said David, "you don't mean it! Have you really any foundation for
+such a statement?" He leaned forward, his eyes shining and his whole
+attitude one of deep interest. Marcia watched him, and a great pride began
+to glow within her that she belonged to him. She looked at the other men.
+Their eyes were fixed upon David with heightening pleasure and pride.
+
+The older man watched the little tableau a moment and then he explained:
+
+"The Mohawk and Hudson Company have just made an engagement with Mr.
+Jervis as chief engineer of their road. He expects to run that road by
+steam!"
+
+He finished his fruit cake and preserves under the spell of astonishment
+he had cast upon his host and hostess.
+
+David and Marcia turned simultaneously toward Mr. Jervis for a
+confirmation of this statement. Mr. Jervis smiled in affirmation.
+
+"But will it not be like all the rest, no funds?" asked David a trifle
+sadly. "It may be years even yet before it is really started."
+
+But Mr. Jervis' face was reassuring.
+
+"The contract is let for the grading. In fact work has already begun. I
+expect to begin laying the track by next Spring, perhaps sooner. As soon
+as the track is laid we shall show them."
+
+David's eyes shone and he reached out and grasped the hand of the man who
+had the will and apparently the means of accomplishing this great thing
+for the country.
+
+"It will make a wonderful change in the whole land," said David musingly.
+He had forgotten to eat. His face was aglow and a side of his nature which
+Marcia did not know was uppermost. Marcia saw the man, the thinker, the
+writer, the former of public opinion, the idealist. Heretofore David had
+been to her in the light of her sister's lover, a young man of promise,
+but that was all. Now she saw something more earnest, and at once it was
+revealed to her what a man he was, a man like her father. David's eyes
+were suddenly drawn to meet hers. He looked on Marcia and seemed to be
+sharing his thought with her, and smiled a smile of comradeship. He felt
+all at once that she could and would understand his feelings about this
+great new enterprise, and would be glad too. It pleased him to feel this.
+It took a little of his loneliness away. Kate would never have been
+interested in these things. He had never expected such sympathy from her.
+She had been something beautiful and apart from his world, and as such he
+had adored her. But it was pleasant to have some one who could understand
+and feel as he did. Just then he was not thinking of his lost Kate. So he
+smiled and Marcia felt the glow of warmth from his look and returned it,
+and the two visitors knew that they were among friends who understood and
+sympathized.
+
+"Yes, it will make a change," said the older man. "I hope I may live to
+see at least a part of it."
+
+"If you succeed there will be many others to follow. The land will soon be
+a network of railroads," went on David, still musing.
+
+"We shall succeed!" said Mr. Jervis, closing his lips firmly in a way that
+made one sure he knew whereof he spoke.
+
+"And now tell me about it," said David, with his most engaging smile, as a
+child will ask to have a story. David could be most fascinating when he
+felt he was in a sympathetic company. At other times he was wont to be
+grave, almost to severity. But those who knew him best and had seen him
+thus melted into child-like enthusiasm, felt his lovableness as the others
+never dreamed.
+
+The table talk launched into a description of the proposed road, the road
+bed, the manner of laying the rails, their thickness and width, and the
+way of bolting them down to the heavy timbers that lay underneath. It was
+all intensely fascinating to Marcia. Mr. Jervis took knives and forks to
+illustrate and then showed by plates and spoons how they were fastened
+down.
+
+David asked a question now and then, took out his note book and wrote down
+some things. The two guests were eager and plain in their answers. They
+wanted David to write it up. They wanted the information to be accurate
+and full.
+
+"The other day I saw a question in a Baltimore paper, sent in by a
+subscriber, 'What is a railroad?'" said the old gentleman, "and the
+editor's reply was, 'Can any of our readers answer this question and tell
+us what is a railroad?'"
+
+There was a hearty laugh over the unenlightened unbelievers who seemed to
+be only too willing to remain in ignorance of the march of improvement.
+
+David finally laid down his note book, feeling that he had gained all the
+information he needed at present. "I have much faith in you and your
+skill, but I do not quite see how you are going to overcome all the
+obstacles. How, for instance, are you going to overcome the inequalities
+in the road? Our country is not a flat even one like those abroad where
+the railroad has been tried. There are sharp grades, and many curves will
+be necessary," said he.
+
+Mr. Jervis had shoved his chair back from the table, but now he drew it up
+again sharply and began to move the dishes back from his place, a look of
+eagerness gleaming in his face.
+
+Once again the dishes and cups were brought into requisition as the
+engineer showed a crude model, in china and cutlery, of an engine he
+proposed to have constructed, illustrating his own idea about a truck for
+the forward wheels which should move separately from the back wheels and
+enable the engine to conform to curves more readily.
+
+Marcia sat with glowing cheeks watching the outline of history that was to
+be, not knowing that the little model before her, made from her own
+teacups and saucers, was to be the model for all the coming engines of the
+many railroads of the future.
+
+Finally the chairs were pushed back, and yet the talk went on. Marcia
+slipped silently about conveying the dishes away. And still the guests sat
+talking. She could hear all they said even when she was in the kitchen
+washing the china, for she did it very softly and never a clink hid a
+word. They talked of Governor Clinton again and of his attitude toward the
+railroad. They spoke of Thurlow Weed and a number of others whose names
+were familiar to Marcia in the papers she had read to her father. They
+told how lately on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad Peter Cooper had
+experimented with a little locomotive, and had beaten a gray horse
+attached to another car.
+
+Marcia smiled brightly as she listened, and laid the delicate china teapot
+down with care lest she should lose a word. But ever with her interest in
+the march of civilization, there were other thoughts mingling. Thoughts of
+David and of how he would be connected with it all. He would write it up
+and be identified with it. He was brave enough to face any new movement.
+
+David's paper was a temperance paper. There were not many temperance
+papers in those days. David was brave. He had already faced a number of
+unpleasant circumstances in consequence. He was not afraid of sneers or
+sarcasms, nor of being called a fanatic. He had taken such a stand that
+even those who were opposed had to respect him. Marcia felt the joy of a
+great pride in David to-night.
+
+She sang a happy little song at the bottom of her heart as she worked. The
+new railroad was an assured thing, and David was her comrade, that was the
+song, and the refrain was, "David, David, David!"
+
+Later, after the guests had talked themselves out and taken their candles
+to their rooms, David with another comrade's smile, and a look in his eyes
+that saw visions of the country's future, and for this one night at least
+promised not to dream of the past, bade her good night.
+
+She went up to her white chamber and lay down upon the pillow, whose case
+was fragrant of lavendar blossoms, dreaming with a smile of to-morrow. She
+thought she was riding in a strange new railroad train with David's arm
+about her and Harry Temple running along at his very best pace to try to
+catch them, but he could not.
+
+Miranda, at her supperless window, watched the evening hours and thought
+many thoughts. She wondered why they stayed in the dining room so late,
+and why they did not go into the parlor and make Marcia play the "music
+box" as she called it; and why there was a light so long in that back
+chamber over the kitchen. Could it be they had put one of the guests
+there? Surely not. Perhaps that was David's study. Perhaps he was writing.
+Ah! She had guessed aright. David was sitting up to write while the
+inspiration was upon him.
+
+But Miranda slept and ceased to wonder long before David's light was
+extinguished, and when he finally lay down it was with a body healthily
+weary, and a mind for the time free from any intruding thought of himself
+and his troubles.
+
+He had written a most captivating article that would appear in his paper
+in a few days, and which must convince many doubters that a railroad was
+at last an established fact among them.
+
+There were one or two points which he must ask the skilled engineer in the
+morning, but as he reviewed what he had written he felt a sense of deep
+satisfaction, and a true delight in his work. His soul thrilled with the
+power of his gift. He loved it, exulted in it. It was pleasant to feel
+that delight in his work once more. He had thought since his marriage that
+it was gone forever, but perhaps by and by it would return to console him,
+and he would be able to do greater things in the world because of his
+suffering.
+
+Just as he dropped to sleep there came a thought of Marcia, pleasantly, as
+one remembers a flower. He felt that there was a comfort about Marcia, a
+something helpful in her smile. There was more to her than he had
+supposed. She was not merely a child. How her face had glowed as the men
+talked of the projected railroad, and almost she seemed to understand as
+they described the proposed engine with its movable trucks. She would be a
+companion who would be interested in his pursuits. He had hoped to teach
+Kate to understand his life work and perhaps help him some, but Kate was
+by nature a butterfly, a bird of gay colors, always on the wing. He would
+not have wanted her to be troubled with deep thoughts. Marcia seemed to
+enjoy such things. What if he should take pains to teach her, read with
+her, help cultivate her mind? It would at least be an occupation for
+leisure hours, something to interest him and keep away the awful pall of
+sadness.
+
+How sweet she had looked as she lay asleep in the woods with the tears on
+her cheek like the dew-drops upon a rose petal! She was a dear little girl
+and he must take care of her and protect her. That scoundrel Temple! What
+were such men made for? He must settle him to-morrow.
+
+And so he fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Harry Temple sat in his office the next morning with his feet upon the
+table and his wooden armed chair tilted back against the wall.
+
+He had letters to write, a number of them, that should go out with the
+afternoon coach, to reach the night packet. There were at least three men
+he ought to go and see at once if he would do the best for his employers,
+and the office he sat in was by no means in the best of order. But his
+feet were elevated comfortably on the table and he was deep in the pages
+of a story of the French Court, its loves and hates and intrigues.
+
+It was therefore with annoyance that he looked up at the opening of the
+office door.
+
+But the frown changed to apprehension, as he saw who was his visitor. He
+brought the chair legs suddenly to the floor and his own legs followed
+them swiftly. David Spafford was not a man before whom another would sit
+with his feet on a table, even to transact business.
+
+There was a look of startled enquiry on Harry Temple's face. For an
+instant his self-complacency was shaken. He hesitated, wondering what tack
+to take. Perhaps after all his alarm was unnecessary. Marcia likely had
+been too frightened to tell of what had occurred. He noticed the broad
+shoulder, the lean, active body, the keen eye, and the grave poise of his
+visitor, and thought he would hardly care to fight a duel with that man.
+It was natural for him to think at once of a duel on account of the French
+court life from which his mind had just emerged. A flash of wonder passed
+through his mind whether it would be swords or pistols, and then he set
+himself to face the other man.
+
+David Spafford stood for a full minute and looked into the face of the man
+he had come to shame. He looked at him with a calm eye and brow, but with
+a growing contempt that did not need words to express it. Harry Temple
+felt the color rise in his cheek, and his soul quaked for an instant. Then
+his habitual conceit arose and he tried to parry with his eye that keen
+piercing gaze of the other. It must have lasted a full minute, though it
+seemed to Mr. Temple it was five at the least. He made an attempt to offer
+his visitor a chair, but it was not noticed. David Spafford looked his man
+through and through, and knew him for exactly what he was. At last he
+spoke, quietly, in a tone that was too courteous to be contemptuous, but
+it humiliated the listener more even than contempt:
+
+"It would be well for you to leave town at once."
+
+That was all. The listener felt that it was a command. His wrath arose
+hotly, and beat itself against the calm exterior of his visitor's gaze in
+a look that was brazen enough to have faced a whole town of accusers.
+Harry Temple could look innocent and handsome when he chose.
+
+"I do not understand you, sir!" he said. "That is a most extraordinary
+statement!"
+
+"It would be well for you to leave town at once."
+
+This time the command was imperative. Harry's eyes blazed.
+
+"Why?" He asked it with that impertinent tilt to his chin which usually
+angered his opponent in any argument. Once he could break that steady,
+iron, self-control he felt he would have the best of things. He could
+easily persuade David Spafford that everything was all right if he could
+get him off his guard and make him angry. An angry man could do little but
+bluster.
+
+"You understand very well," replied David, his voice still, steady and his
+gaze not swerving.
+
+"Indeed! Well, this is most extraordinary," said Harry, losing control of
+himself again. "Of what do you accuse me, may I enquire?"
+
+"Of nothing that your own heart does not accuse you," said David. And
+somehow there was more than human indignation in the gaze now: there was
+pity, a sense of shame for another soul who could lower himself to do
+unseemly things. Before that look the blood crept into Harry's cheek
+again. An uncomfortable sensation entirely new was stealing over him. A
+sense of sin--no, not that exactly,--a sense that he had made a mistake,
+perhaps. He never was very hard upon himself even when the evidence was
+clear against him. It angered him to feel humiliated. What a fuss to make
+about a little thing! What a tiresome old cad to care about a little
+flirtation with his wife! He wished he had let the pretty baby alone
+entirely. She was of no finer stuff than many another who had accepted his
+advances with pleasure. He stiffened his neck and replied with much
+haughtiness:
+
+"My heart accuses me of nothing, sir. I assure you I consider your words
+an insult! I demand satisfaction for your insulting language, sir!" Harry
+Temple had never fought a duel, and had never been present when others
+fought, but that was the language in which a challenge was usually
+delivered in French novels.
+
+"It is not a matter for discussion!" said David Spafford, utterly ignoring
+the other's blustering words. "I am fully informed as to all that occurred
+yesterday afternoon, and I tell you once more, it would be well for you to
+leave town at once. I have nothing further to say."
+
+David turned and walked toward the door, and Harry stood, ignored, angry,
+crestfallen, and watched him until he reached the door.
+
+"You would better ask your informant further of her part in the matter!"
+he hissed, suddenly, an open sneer in his voice and a covert implication
+of deep meaning.
+
+David turned, his face flashing with righteous indignation. The man who
+was withered by the scorn of that glance wished heartily that he had not
+uttered the false sentence. He felt the smallness of his own soul, during
+the instant of silence in which his visitor stood looking at him.
+
+Then David spoke deliberately:
+
+"I knew you were a knave," said he, "but I did not suppose you were also a
+coward. A man who is not a coward will not try to put the blame upon a
+woman, especially upon an innocent one. You, sir, will leave town this
+evening. Any business further than you can settle between this and that I
+will see properly attended to. I warn you, sir, it will be unwise for you
+to remain longer than till the evening coach."
+
+Perfectly courteous were David's tones, keen command was in his eye and
+determination in every line of his face. Harry could not recover himself
+to reply, could not master his frenzy of anger and humiliation to face the
+righteous look of his accuser. Before he realized it, David was gone.
+
+He stood by the window and watched him go down the street with rapid, firm
+tread and upright bearing. Every line in that erect form spoke of
+determination. The conviction grew within him that the last words of his
+visitor were true, and that it would be wise for him to leave town. He
+rebelled at the idea. He did not wish to leave, for business matters were
+in such shape, or rather in such chaos, that it would be extremely awkward
+for him to meet his employers and explain his desertion at that time.
+Moreover there were several homes in the town open to him whenever he
+chose, where were many attractions. It was a lazy pleasant life he had
+been leading here, fully trusted, and wholly disloyal to the trust,
+troubled by no uneasy overseers, not even his own conscience, dined and
+smiled upon with lovely languishing eyes. He did not care to go, even
+though he had decried the town as dull and monotonous.
+
+But, on the other hand, things had occurred--not the unfortunate little
+mistake of yesterday, of course, but others, more serious things--that he
+would hardly care to have brought to the light of day, especially through
+the keen sarcastic columns of David Spafford's paper. He had seen other
+sinners brought to a bloodless retribution in those columns by dauntless
+weapons of sarcasm and wit which in David Spafford's hands could be made
+to do valiant work. He did not care to be humiliated in that way. He could
+not brazen it out. He was convinced that the man meant what he said, and
+from what he knew of his influence he felt that he would leave no stone
+unturned till he had made the place too hot to hold him. Only Harry Temple
+himself knew how easy that would be to do, for no one else knew how many
+"mistakes" (?) Harry had made, and he, unfortunately for himself, did not
+know how many of them were not known, by any who could harm him.
+
+He stood a long time clinking some sixpences and shillings together in his
+pocket, and scowling down the street after David had disappeared from
+sight.
+
+"Blame that little pink-cheeked, baby-eyed fool!" he said at last, turning
+on his heel with a sigh. "I might have known she was too goody-goody. Such
+people ought to die young before they grow up to make fools of other
+people. Bah! Think of a wife like that with no spirit of her own. A baby!
+Merely a baby!"
+
+Nevertheless, in his secret heart, he knew he honored Marcia and felt a
+true shame that she had looked into his tarnished soul.
+
+Then he looked round about upon his papers that represented a whole week's
+hard work and maybe more before they were cleared away, and reflected how
+much easier after all it would be to get up a good excuse and go away,
+leaving all this to some poor drudge who should be sent here in his place.
+He looked around again and his eyes lighted upon his book. He remembered
+the exciting crisis in which he had left the heroine and down he sat to
+his story again. At least there was nothing demanding attention this
+moment. He need not decide what he would do. If he went there were few
+preparations to make. He would toss some things into his carpet-bag and
+pretend to have been summoned to see a sick and dying relative, a
+long-lost brother or something. It would be easy to invent one when the
+time came. Then he could leave directions for the rest of his things to be
+packed if he did not return, and get rid of the trouble of it all. As for
+the letters, if he was going what use to bother with them? Let them wait
+till his successor should come. It mattered little to him whether his
+employers suffered for his negligence or not so long as he finished his
+story. Besides, it would not do to let that cad think he had frightened
+him. He would pretend he was not going, at least during his hours of
+grace. So he picked up his book and went on reading.
+
+At noon he sauntered back to his boarding house as usual for his dinner,
+having professed an unusually busy morning to those who came in to the
+office on business and made appointments with them for the next day. This
+had brought him much satisfaction as the morning wore away and he was left
+free to his book, and so before dinner he had come to within a very few
+pages of the end.
+
+After a leisurely dinner he sauntered back to the office again, rejoicing
+in the fact that circumstances had so arranged themselves that he had
+passed David Spafford in front of the newspaper office and given him a
+most elaborate and friendly bow in the presence of four or five
+bystanders. David's look in return had meant volumes, and decided Harry
+Temple to do as he had been ordered, not, of course, because he had been
+ordered to do so, but because it would be an easier thing to do. In fact
+he made up his mind that he was weary of this part of the country. He went
+back to his book.
+
+About the middle of the afternoon he finished the last pages. He rose up
+with alacrity then and began to think what he should do. He glanced around
+the room, sought out a few papers, took some daguerreotypes of girls from
+a drawer of his desk, gave a farewell glance around the dismal little room
+that had seen so much shirking for the past few months, and then went out
+and locked the door.
+
+He paused at the corner. Which way should he go? He did not care to go
+back to the office, for his book was done, and he scarcely needed to go to
+his room at his boarding place yet either, for the afternoon was but half
+over and he wished his departure to appear to be entirely unpremeditated.
+A daring thought came into his head. He would walk past David Spafford's
+house. He would let Marcia see him if possible. He would show them that he
+was not afraid in the least. He even meditated going in and explaining to
+Marcia that she had made a great mistake, that he had been merely admiring
+her, and that there was no harm in anything he had said or done yesterday,
+that he was exceedingly grieved and mortified that she should have
+mistaken his meaning for an insult, and so on and so on. He knew well how
+to make such honeyed talk when he chose, but the audacity of the thing was
+a trifle too much for even his bold nature, so he satisfied himself by
+strolling in a leisurely manner by the house.
+
+When he was directly opposite to it he raised his eyes casually and bowed
+and smiled with his most graceful air. True, he did not see any one, for
+Marcia had caught sight of him as she was coming out upon the stoop and
+had fled into her own room with the door buttoned, she was watching unseen
+from behind the folds of her curtain, but he made the bow as complete as
+though a whole family had been greeting him from the windows. Marcia, poor
+child, thought he must see her, and she felt frozen to the spot, and
+stared wildly through the little fold of her curtain with trembling hands
+and weak knees till he was passed. Well pleased at himself the young man
+walked on, knowing that at least three prominent citizens had seen him bow
+and smile, and that they would be witnesses, against anything David might
+say to the contrary, that he was on friendly terms with Mrs. Spafford.
+
+Hannah Heath was sitting on the front stoop with her knitting. She often
+sat there dressed daintily of an afternoon. Her hands were white and
+looked well against the blue yarn she was knitting. Besides there was
+something domestic and sentimental in a stocking. It gave a cosy, homey,
+air to a woman, Hannah considered. So she sat and knitted and smiled at
+whomsoever passed by, luring many in to sit and talk with her, so that the
+stockings never grew rapidly, but always kept at about the same stage. If
+it had been Miranda, Grandmother Heath would have made some sharp remarks
+about the length of time it took to finish that blue stocking, but as it
+was Hannah it was all right.
+
+Hannah sat upon the stoop and knitted as Harry Temple came by. Now, Hannah
+was not so great a favorite with Harry as Harry was with Hannah. She was
+of the kind who was conquered too easily, and he did not consider it worth
+his while to waste time upon her simperings usually. But this afternoon
+was different. He had nowhere to go for a little while, and Hannah's
+appearance on the stoop was opportune and gave him an idea. He would
+lounge there with her. Perchance fortune would favor him again and David
+Spafford would pass by and see him. There would be one more opportunity to
+stare insolently at him and defy him, before he bent his neck to obey.
+David had given him the day in which to do what he would, and he would
+make no move until the time was over and the coach he had named departed,
+but he knew that then he would bring down retribution. In just what form
+that retribution would come he was not quite certain, but he knew it would
+be severe.
+
+So when Hannah smiled upon him, Harry Temple stepped daintily across the
+mud in the road, and came and sat down beside her. He toyed with her
+knitting, caught one of her plump white hands, the one on the side away
+from the street, and held it, while Hannah pretended not to notice, and
+drooped her long eyelashes in a telling way. Hannah knew how. She had been
+at it a good many years.
+
+So he sat, toward five o'clock, when David came by, and bowed gravely to
+Hannah, but seemed not to see Harry. Harry let his eyes follow the tall
+figure in an insolent stare.
+
+"What a dough-faced cad that man is!" he said lazily, "no wonder his
+little pink-cheeked wife seeks other society. Handsome baby, though, isn't
+she?"
+
+Hannah pricked up her ears. Her loss of David was too recent not to cause
+her extreme jealousy of his pretty young wife. Already she fairly hated
+her. Her upbringing in the atmosphere of Grandmother Heath's sarcastic,
+ill-natured gossip had prepared her to be quick to see meaning in any
+insinuation.
+
+She looked at him keenly, archly for a moment, then replied with drooping
+gaze and coquettish manner:
+
+"You should not blame any one for enjoying your company."
+
+Hannah stole sly glances to see how he took this, but Harry was an old
+hand and proof against such scrutiny. He only shrugged his shoulder
+carelessly, as though he dropped all blame like a garment that he had no
+need for.
+
+"And what's the matter with David?" asked Hannah, watching David as he
+mounted his own steps, and thinking how often she had watched that tall
+form go down the street, and thought of him as destined to belong to her.
+The mortification that he had chosen some one else was not yet forgotten.
+It amounted almost to a desire for revenge.
+
+Harry lingered longer than he intended. Hannah begged him to remain to
+supper, but he declined, and when she pressed him to do so he looked
+troubled and said he was expecting a letter and must hurry back to see if
+it came in the afternoon coach. He told her that a dear friend, a beloved
+cousin, was lying very ill, and he might be summoned at any moment to his
+bedside, and Hannah said some comforting little things in a caressing
+voice, and hoped he would find the letter saying the cousin was better.
+Then he hurried away.
+
+It was easy at his boarding house to say he had been called away, and he
+rushed up to his room and threw some necessaries into his carpet-bag,
+scattering things around the room and helping out the impression that he
+was called away in a great hurry. When he was ready he looked at his
+watch. It was growing late. The evening coach left in half an hour. He
+knew its route well. It started at the village inn, and went down the old
+turnpike, stopping here and there to pick up passengers. There was always
+a convocation when it started. Perhaps David Spafford would be there and
+witness his obedience to the command given him. He set his lips and made
+up his mind to escape that at least. He would cheat his adversary of that
+satisfaction.
+
+It would involve a sacrifice. He would have to go without his supper, and
+he could smell the frying bacon coming up the stairs. But it would help
+the illusion and he could perhaps get something on the way when the coach
+stopped to change horses.
+
+He rushed downstairs and told his landlady that he must start at once, as
+he must see a man before the coach went, and she, poor lady, had no chance
+to suggest that he leave her a little deposit on the sum of his board
+which he already owed her. There was perhaps some method in his hurry for
+that reason also. It always bothered him to pay his bills, he had so many
+other ways of spending his money.
+
+So he hurried away and caught a ride in a farm wagon going toward the
+Cross Roads. When it turned off he walked a little way until another wagon
+came along; finally crossed several fields at a breathless pace and caught
+the coach just as it was leaving the Cross Roads, which was the last
+stopping place anywhere near the village. He climbed up beside the driver,
+still in a breathless condition, and detailed to him how he had received
+word, just before the coach started, by a messenger who came
+across-country on horseback, that his cousin was dying.
+
+After he had answered the driver's minutest questions, he sat back and
+reflected upon his course with satisfaction. He was off, and he had not
+been seen nor questioned by a single citizen, and by to-morrow night his
+story as he had told it to the driver would be fully known and circulated
+through the place he had just left. The stage driver was one of the best
+means of advertisement. It was well to give him full particulars.
+
+The driver after he had satisfied his curiosity about the young man by his
+side, and his reasons for leaving town so hastily, began to wax eloquent
+upon the one theme which now occupied his spare moments and his fluent
+tongue, the subject of a projected railroad. Whether some of the
+sentiments he uttered were his own, or whether he had but borrowed from
+others, they were at least uttered with force and apparent conviction, and
+many a traveller sat and listened as they were retailed and viewed the
+subject from the standpoint of the loud-mouthed coachman.
+
+A little later Tony Weller, called by some one "the best beloved of all
+coachmen," uttered much the same sentiments in the following words:
+
+"I consider that the railroad is unconstitutional and an invader o'
+privileges. As to the comfort, as an old coachman I may say it,--vere's the
+comfort o' sittin' in a harm-chair a lookin' at brick walls, and heaps o'
+mud, never comin' to a public 'ouse, never seein' a glass o' ale, never
+goin' through a pike, never meetin' a change o' no kind (hosses or
+otherwise), but always comin' to a place, ven you comes to vun at all, the
+werry picter o' the last.
+
+"As to the honor an' dignity o' travellin' vere can that be without a
+coachman, and vat's the rail, to sich coachmen as is sometimes forced to
+go by it, but an outrage and an hinsult? As to the ingen, a nasty,
+wheezin', gaspin', puffin', bustin' monster always out o' breath, with a
+shiny green and gold back like an onpleasant beetle; as to the ingen as is
+always a pourin' out red 'ot coals at night an' black smoke in the day,
+the sensiblest thing it does, in my opinion, is ven there's somethin' in
+the vay, it sets up that 'ere frightful scream vich seems to say, 'Now
+'ere's two 'undred an' forty passengers in the werry greatest extremity o'
+danger, an' 'ere's their two 'undred an' forty screams in vun!'"
+
+But such sentiments as these troubled Harry Temple not one whit. He cared
+not whether the present century had a railroad or whether it travelled by
+foot. He would not lift a white finger to help it along or hinder. As the
+talk went on he was considering how and where he might get his supper.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+The weather turned suddenly cold and raw that Fall, and almost in one day,
+the trees that had been green, or yellowing in the sunshine, put on their
+autumn garments of defeat, flaunted them for a brief hour, and dropped
+them early in despair. The pleasant woods, to which Marcia had fled in her
+dismay, became a mass of finely penciled branches against a wintry sky,
+save for the one group of tall pines that hung out heavy above the rest,
+and seemed to defy even snowy blasts.
+
+Marcia could see those pines from her kitchen window, and sometimes as she
+worked, if her heart was heavy, she would look out and away to them, and
+think of the day she laid her head down beneath them to sob out her
+trouble, and awoke to find comfort. Somehow the memory of that little talk
+that she and David had then grew into vast proportions in her mind, and
+she loved to cherish it.
+
+There had come letters from home. Her stepmother had written, a stiff, not
+unloving letter, full of injunctions to be sure to remember this, and not
+do that, and on no account to let any relative or neighbor persuade her
+out of the ways in which she had been brought up. She was attempting to do
+as many mothers do, when they see the faults in the child they have
+brought up, try to bring them up over again. At some of the sentences a
+wild homesickness took possession of her. Some little homely phrase about
+one of the servants, or the mention of a pet hen or cow, would bring the
+longing tears to her eyes, and she would feel that she must throw away
+this new life and run back to the old one.
+
+School was begun at home. Mary Ann and Hanford would be taking the long
+walk back and forth together twice a day to the old school-house. She half
+envied them their happy, care-free life. She liked to think of the shy
+courting that she had often seen between scholars in the upper classes.
+Her imagination pleased itself sometimes when she was going to sleep,
+trying to picture out the school goings and home comings, and their sober
+talk. Not that she ever looked back to Hanford Weston with regret, not
+she. She knew always that he was not for her, and perhaps, even so early
+as that in her new life, if the choice had been given her whether she
+would go back to her girlhood again and be as she was before Kate had run
+away, or whether she would choose to stay here in the new life with David,
+it is likely she would have chosen to stay.
+
+There were occasional letters from Squire Schuyler. He wrote of politics,
+and sent many messages to his son-in-law which Marcia handed over to David
+at the tea table to read, and which always seemed to soften David and
+bring a sweet sadness into his eyes. He loved and respected his
+father-in-law. It was as if he were bound to him by the love of some one
+who had died. Marcia thought of that every time she handed David a letter,
+and sat and watched him read it.
+
+Sometimes little Harriet or the boys printed out a few words about the
+family cat, or the neighbors' children, and Marcia laughed and cried over
+the poor little attempts at letters and longed to have the eager childish
+faces of the writers to kiss.
+
+But in all of them there was never a mention of the bright, beautiful,
+selfish girl around whom the old home life used to centre and who seemed
+now, judging from the home letters, to be worse than dead to them all. But
+since the afternoon upon the hill a new and pleasant intercourse had
+sprung up between David and Marcia. True it was confined mainly to
+discussions of the new railroad, the possibilities of its success, and the
+construction of engines, tracks, etc. David was constantly writing up the
+subject for his paper, and he fell into the habit of reading his articles
+aloud to Marcia when they were finished. She would listen with breathless
+admiration, sometimes combating a point ably, with the old vim she had
+used in her discussion over the newspaper with her father, but mainly
+agreeing with every word he wrote, and always eager to understand it down
+to the minutest detail.
+
+He always seemed pleased at her praise, and wrote on while she put away
+the tea-things with a contented expression as though he had passed a high
+critic, and need not fear any other. Once he looked up with a quizzical
+expression and made a jocose remark about "our article," taking her into a
+sort of partnership with him in it, which set her heart to beating
+happily, until it seemed as if she were really in some part at least
+growing into his life.
+
+But after all their companionship was a shy, distant one, more like that
+of a brother and sister who had been separated all their lives and were
+just beginning to get acquainted, and ever there was a settled sadness
+about the lines of David's mouth and eyes. They sat around one table now,
+the evenings when they were at home, for there were still occasional
+tea-drinkings at their friends' houses; and there was one night a week
+held religiously for a formal supper with the aunts, which David kindly
+acquiesced in--more for the sake of his Aunt Clarinda than the
+others,--whenever he was not detained by actual business. Then, too, there
+was the weekly prayer meeting held at "early candle light" in the dim old
+shadowed church. They always walked down the twilighted streets together,
+and it seemed to Marcia there was a sweet solemnity about that walk. They
+never said much to each other on the way. David seemed preoccupied with
+holy thoughts, and Marcia walked softly beside him as if he had been the
+minister, looking at him proudly and reverently now and then. David was
+often called upon to pray in meeting and Marcia loved to listen to his
+words. He seemed to be more intimate with God than the others, who were
+mostly old men and prayed with long, rolling, solemn sentences that put
+the whole community down into the dust and ashes before their Creator.
+
+Marcia rather enjoyed the hour spent in the sombreness of the church, with
+the flickering candle light making grotesque forms of shadows on the wall
+and among the tall pews. The old minister reminded her of the one she had
+left at home, though he was more learned and scholarly, and when he had
+read the Scripture passages he would take his spectacles off and lay them
+across the great Bible where the candle light played at glances with the
+steel bows, and say: "Let us pray!" Then would come that soft stir and
+hush as the people took the attitude of prayer. Marcia sometimes joined in
+the prayer in her heart, uttering shy little petitions that were vague and
+indefinite, and had to do mostly with the days when she was troubled and
+homesick, and felt that David belonged wholly to Kate. Always her clear
+voice joined in the slow hymns that quavered out now and again, lined out
+to the worshippers.
+
+Marcia and David went out from that meeting down the street to their home
+with the hush upon them that must have been upon the Israelites of old
+after they had been to the solemn congregation.
+
+But once David had come in earlier than usual and had caught Marcia
+reading the Scottish Chiefs, and while she started guiltily to be found
+thus employed he smiled indulgently. After supper he said: "Get your book,
+child, and sit down. I have some writing to do, and after it is done I
+will read it to you." So after that, more and more often, it was a book
+that Marcia held in her hands in the long evenings when they sat together,
+instead of some useful employment, and so her education progressed. Thus
+she read Epictetus, Rasselas, The Deserted Village, The Vicar of
+Wakefield, Paradise Lost, the Mysteries of the Human Heart, Marshall's
+Life of Columbus, The Spy, The Pioneers, and The Last of the Mohicans.
+
+She had been asked to sing in the village choir. David sang a sweet high
+tenor there, and Marcia's voice was clear and strong as a blackbird's,
+with the plaintive sweetness of the wood-robin's.
+
+Hannah Heath was in the choir also, and jealously watched her every move,
+but of this Marcia was unaware until informed of it by Miranda. With her
+inherited sweetness of nature she scarcely credited it, until one Sunday,
+a few weeks after the departure of Harry Temple, Hannah leaned forward
+from her seat among the altos and whispered quite distinctly, so that
+those around could hear--it was just before the service--"I've just had a
+letter from your friend Mr. Temple. I thought you might like to know that
+his cousin got well and he has gone back to New York. He won't be
+returning here this year. On some accounts he thought it was better not."
+
+It was all said pointedly, with double emphasis upon the "your friend,"
+and "some accounts." Marcia felt her cheeks glow, much to her vexation,
+and tried to control her whisper to seem kindly as she answered
+indifferently enough.
+
+"Oh, indeed! But you must have made a mistake. Mr. Temple is a very slight
+acquaintance of mine. I have met him only a few times, and I know nothing
+about his cousin. I was not aware even that he had gone away."
+
+Hannah raised her speaking eyebrows and replied, quite loud now, for the
+choir leader had stood up already with his tuning-fork in hand, and one
+could hear it faintly twang:
+
+"Indeed!"--using Marcia's own word--and quite coldly, "I should have thought
+differently from what Harry himself told me," and there was that in her
+tone which deepened the color in Marcia's cheeks and caused it to stay
+there during the entire morning service as she sat puzzling over what
+Hannah could have meant. It rankled in her mind during the whole day. She
+longed to ask David about it, but could not get up the courage.
+
+She could not bear to revive the memory of what seemed to be her shame. It
+was at the minister's donation party that Hannah planted another thorn in
+her heart,--Hannah, in a green plaid silk with delicate undersleeves of
+lace, and a tiny black velvet jacket.
+
+She selected a time when Lemuel was near, and when Aunt Amelia and Aunt
+Hortense, who believed that all the young men in town were hovering about
+David's wife, sat one on either side of Marcia, as if to guard her for
+their beloved nephew--who was discussing politics with Mr. Heath--and who
+never seemed to notice, so blind he was in his trust of her.
+
+So Hannah paused and posed before the three ladies, and with Lemuel
+smiling just at her elbow, began in her affected way:
+
+"I've had another letter from New York, from your friend Mr. Temple," she
+said it with the slightest possible glance over her shoulder to get the
+effect of her words upon the faithful Lemuel, "and he tells me he has met
+a sister of yours. By the way, she told him that David used to be very
+fond of her before she was married. I suppose she'll be coming to visit
+you now she's so near as New York."
+
+Two pairs of suspicious steely eyes flew like stinging insects to gaze
+upon her, one on either side, and Marcia's heart stood still for just one
+instant, but she felt that here was her trying time, and if she would help
+David and do the work for which she had become his wife, she must protect
+him now from any suspicions or disagreeable tongues. By very force of will
+she controlled the trembling of her lips.
+
+"My sister will not likely visit us this winter, I think," she replied as
+coolly as if she had had a letter to that effect that morning, and then
+she deliberately looked at Lemuel Skinner and asked if he had heard of the
+offer of prizes of four thousand dollars in cash that the Baltimore and
+Ohio railroad had just made for the most approved engine delivered for
+trial before June first, 1831, not to exceed three and a half tons in
+weight and capable of drawing, day by day, fifteen tons inclusive of
+weight of wagons, fifteen miles per hour. Lemuel looked at her blankly and
+said he had not heard of it. He was engaged in thinking over what Hannah
+had said about a letter from Harry Temple. He cared nothing about
+railroads.
+
+"The second prize is thirty-five hundred dollars," stated Marcia eagerly,
+as though it were of the utmost importance to her.
+
+"Are you thinking of trying for one of the prizes?" sneered Hannah,
+piercing her with her eyes, and now indeed the ready color flowed into
+Marcia's face. Her ruse had been detected.
+
+"If I were a man and understood machinery I believe I would. What a grand
+thing it would be to be able to invent a thing like an engine that would
+be of so much use to the world," she answered bravely.
+
+"They are most dangerous machines," said Aunt Amelia disapprovingly. "No
+right-minded Christian who wishes to live out the life his Creator has
+given him would ever ride behind one. I have heard that boilers always
+explode."
+
+"They are most unnecessary!" said Aunt Hortense severely, as if that
+settled the question for all time and all railroad corporations.
+
+But Marcia was glad for once of their disapproval and entered most
+heartily into a discussion of the pros and cons of engines and steam,
+quoting largely from David's last article for the paper on the subject,
+until Hannah and Lemuel moved slowly away. The discussion served to keep
+the aunts from inquiring further that evening about the sister in New
+York.
+
+Marcia begged them to go with her into the kitchen and see the store of
+good things that had been brought to the minister's house by his loving
+parishioners. Bags of flour and meal, pumpkins, corn in the ear, eggs, and
+nice little pats of butter. A great wooden tub of doughnuts, baskets of
+apples and quinces, pounds of sugar and tea, barrels of potatoes, whole
+hams, a side of pork, a quarter of beef, hanks of yarn, and strings of
+onions. It was a goodly array. Marcia felt that the minister must be
+beloved by his people. She watched him and his wife as they greeted their
+people, and wished she knew them better, and might come and see them
+sometimes, and perhaps eventually feel as much at home with them as with
+her own dear minister.
+
+She avoided Hannah during the remainder of the evening. When the evening
+was over and she went upstairs to get her wraps from the high four-poster
+bedstead, she had almost forgotten Hannah and her ill-natured, prying
+remarks. But Hannah had not forgotten her. She came forth from behind the
+bed curtains where she had been searching for a lost glove, and remarked
+that she should think Marcia would be lonely this first winter away from
+home and want her sister with her a while.
+
+But the presence of Hannah always seemed a mental stimulus to the spirit
+of Marcia.
+
+"Oh, I'm not in the least lonely," she laughed merrily. "I have a great
+many interesting things to do, and I love music and books."
+
+"Oh, yes, I forgot you are very fond of music. Harry Temple told me about
+it," said Hannah. Again there was that disagreeable hint of something more
+behind her words, that aggravated Marcia almost beyond control. For an
+instant a cutting reply was upon her lips and her eyes flashed fire; then
+it came to her how futile it would be, and she caught the words in time
+and walked swiftly down the stairs. David watching her come down saw the
+admiring glances of all who stood in the hall below, and took her under
+his protection with a measure of pride in her youth and beauty that he did
+not himself at all realize. All the way home he talked with her about the
+new theory of railroad construction, quite contented in her companionship,
+while she, poor child, much perturbed in spirit, wondered how he would
+feel if he knew what Hannah had said.
+
+David fell into a deep study with a book and his papers about him, after
+they had reached home. Marcia went up to her quiet, lonely chamber, put
+her face in the pillow and thought and wept and prayed. When at last she
+lay down to rest she did not know anything she could do but just to go on
+living day by day and helping David all she could. At most there was
+nothing to fear for herself, save a kind of shame that she had not been
+the first sister chosen, and she found to her surprise that that was
+growing to be deeper than she had supposed.
+
+She wished as she fell asleep that her girl-dreams might have been left to
+develop and bloom like other girls', and that she might have had a real
+lover,--like David in every way, yet of course not David because he was
+Kate's. But a real lover who would meet her as David had done that night
+when he thought she was Kate, and speak to her tenderly.
+
+One afternoon David, being wearied with an unusual round of taxing cares,
+came home to rest and study up some question in his library.
+
+Finding the front door fastened, and remembering that he had left his key
+in his other pocket, he came around to the back door, and much preoccupied
+with thought went through the kitchen and nearly to the hall before the
+unusual sounds of melody penetrated to his ears. He stopped for an instant
+amazed, forgetting the piano, then comprehending he wondered who was
+playing. Perhaps some visitor was in the parlor. He would listen and find
+out. He was weary and dusty with the soil of the office upon his hands and
+clothes. He did not care to meet a visitor, so under cover of the music he
+slipped into the door of his library across the hall from the parlor and
+dropped into his great arm-chair.
+
+Softly and tenderly stole the music through the open door, all about him,
+like the gentle dropping of some tender psalms or comforting chapter in
+the Bible to an aching heart. It touched his brow like a soft soothing
+hand, and seemed to know and recognize all the agonies his heart had been
+passing through, and all the weariness his body felt.
+
+He put his head back and let it float over him and rest him. Tinkling
+brooks and gentle zephyrs, waving of forest trees, and twitterings of
+birds, calm lazy clouds floating by, a sweetness in the atmosphere, bells
+far away, lowing herds, music of the angels high in heaven, the soothing
+strain from each extracted and brought to heal his broken heart. It fell
+like dew upon his spirit. Then, like a fresh breeze with zest and life
+borne on, came a new strain, grand and fine and high, calling him to
+better things. He did not know it was a strain of Handel's music grown
+immortal, but his spirit recognized the higher call, commanding him to
+follow, and straightway he felt strengthened to go onward in the course he
+had been pursuing. Old troubles seemed to grow less, anguish fell away
+from him. He took new lease of life. Nothing seemed impossible.
+
+Then she played by ear one or two of the old tunes they sang in church,
+touching the notes tenderly and almost making them speak the words. It
+seemed a benediction. Suddenly the playing ceased and Marcia remembered it
+was nearly supper time.
+
+He met her in the doorway with a new look in his eyes, a look of high
+purpose and exultation. He smiled upon her and said: "That was good,
+child. I did not know you could do it. You must give it to us often."
+Marcia felt a glow of pleasure in his kindliness, albeit she felt that the
+look in his eyes set him apart and above her, and made her feel the child
+she was. She hurried out to get the supper between pleasure and a nameless
+unrest. She was glad of this much, but she wanted more, a something to
+meet her soul and satisfy.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+The world had not gone well with Mistress Kate Leavenworth, and she was
+ill-pleased. She had not succeeded in turning her father's heart toward
+herself as she had confidently expected to do when she ran away with her
+sea captain. She had written a gay letter home, taking for granted, in a
+pretty way, the forgiveness she did not think it necessary to ask, but
+there had come in return a brief harsh statement from her father that she
+was no longer his daughter and must cease from further communication with
+the family in any way; that she should never enter his house again and not
+a penny of his money should ever pass to her. He also informed her plainly
+that the trousseau made for her had been given to her sister who was now
+the wife of the man she had not seen fit to marry.
+
+Over this letter Mistress Kate at first stormed, then wept, and finally
+sat down to frame epistle after epistle in petulant, penitent language.
+These epistles following each other by daily mail coaches still brought
+nothing further from her irate parent, and my lady was at last forced to
+face the fact that she must bear the penalty of her own misdeeds; a lesson
+she should have learned much earlier in life.
+
+The young captain, who had always made it appear that he had plenty of
+money, had spent his salary, and most of his mother's fortune, which had
+been left in his keeping as administrator of his father's estate; so he
+had really very little to offer the spoiled and petted beauty, who simply
+would not settle down to the inevitable and accept the fate she had
+brought upon herself and others. Day after day she fretted and blamed her
+husband until he heartily wished her back from whence he had taken her;
+wished her back with her straitlaced lover from whom he had stolen her;
+wished her anywhere save where she was. Her brightness and beauty seemed
+all gone: she was a sulky child insisting upon the moon or nothing. She
+waited to go to New York and be established in a fine house with plenty of
+servants and a carriage and horses, and the young captain had not the
+wherewithal to furnish these accessories to an elegant and luxurious life.
+
+He had loved her so far as his shallow nature could love, and perhaps she
+had returned it in the beginning. He wanted to spend his furlough in quiet
+places where he might have a honeymoon of his ideal, bantering Kate's
+sparkling sentences, looking into her beautiful eyes, touching her rosy
+lips with his own as often as he chose. But Mistress Kate had lost her
+sparkle. She would not be kissed until she had gained her point, her
+lovely eyes were full of disfiguring tears and angry flashes, and her
+speech scintillated with cutting sarcasms, which were none the less hard
+to bear that they pressed home some disagreeable truths to the easy,
+careless spendthrift. The rose had lost its dew and was making its thorns
+felt.
+
+And so they quarreled through their honeymoon, and Captain Leavenworth was
+not sorry when a hasty and unexpected end came to his furlough and he was
+ordered off with his ship for an indefinite length of time.
+
+Even then Kate thought to get her will before he left, and held on her
+sullen ways and her angry, blameful talk until the last minute, so that he
+hurried away without even one good-bye kiss, and with her angry sentences
+sounding in his ears.
+
+True, he repented somewhat on board the ship and sent her back more money
+than she could reasonably have expected under the circumstances, but he
+sent it without one word of gentleness, and Kate's heart was hard toward
+her husband.
+
+Then with bitterness and anguish,--that was new and fairly astonishing that
+it had come to her who had always had her way,--she sat down to think of
+the man she had jilted. He would have been kind to her. He would have
+given her all she asked and more. He would even have moved his business to
+New York to please her, she felt sure. Why had she been so foolish! And
+then, like many another sinner who is made at last to see the error of his
+ways, she cast hard thoughts at a Fate which had allowed her to make so
+great a mistake, and pitied her poor little self out of all recognition of
+the character she had formed.
+
+But she took her money and went to New York, for she felt that there only
+could she be at all happy, and have some little taste of the delights of
+true living.
+
+She took up her abode with an ancient relative of her own mother's, who
+lived in a quiet respectable part of the city, and who was glad to piece
+out her small annuity with the modest sum that Kate agreed to pay for her
+board.
+
+It was not long before Mistress Kate, with her beautiful face, and the
+pretty clothes which she took care to provide at once for herself,
+spending lavishly out of the diminishing sum her husband had sent her, and
+thinking not of the morrow, nor the day when the board bills would be due,
+became well known. The musty little parlor of the ancient relative was
+daily filled with visitors, and every evening Kate held court, with the
+old aunt nodding in her chair by the fireside.
+
+Neither did the poor old lady have a very easy time of it, in spite of the
+promise of weekly pay. Kate laughed at the old furniture and the old ways.
+She demanded new things, and got them, too, until the old lady saw little
+hope of any help from the board money when Kate was constantly saying: "I
+saw this in a shop down town, auntie, and as I knew you needed it I just
+bought it. My board this week will just pay for it." As always, Kate
+ruled. The little parlor took on an air of brightness, and Kate became
+popular. A few women of fashion took her up, and Kate launched herself
+upon a gay life, her one object to have as good a time as possible,
+regardless of what her husband or any one else might think.
+
+When Kate had been in New York about two months it happened one day that
+she went out to drive with one of her new acquaintances, a young married
+woman of about her own age, who had been given all in a worldly way that
+had been denied to Kate.
+
+They made some calls in Brooklyn, and returned on the ferry-boat, carriage
+and all, just as the sun was setting.
+
+The view was marvellous. The water a flood of pink and green and gold; the
+sails of the vessels along the shore lit up resplendently; the buildings
+of the city beyond sent back occasional flashes of reflected light from
+window glass or church spire. It was a picture worth looking upon, and
+Kate's companion was absorbed in it.
+
+Not so Kate. She loved display above all things. She sat up statelily,
+aware that she looked well in her new frock with the fine lace collar she
+had extravagantly purchased the day before, and her leghorn bonnet with
+its real ostrich feather, which was becoming in the extreme. She enjoyed
+sitting back of the colored coachman, her elegant friend by her side, and
+being admired by the two ladies and the little girl who sat in the ladies'
+cabin and occasionally peeped curiously at her from the window. She drew
+herself up haughtily and let her soul "delight itself in fatness"--borrowed
+fatness, perhaps, but still, the long desired. She told herself she had a
+right to it, for was she not a Schuyler? That name was respected
+everywhere.
+
+She bore a grudge at a man and woman who stood by the railing absorbed in
+watching the sunset haze that lay over the river showing the white sails
+in gleams like flashes of white birds here and there.
+
+A young man well set up, and fashionably attired, sauntered up to the
+carriage. He spoke to Kate's friend, and was introduced. Kate felt in her
+heart it was because of her presence there he came. His bold black eyes
+told her as much and she was flattered.
+
+They fell to talking.
+
+"You say you spent the summer near Albany, Mr. Temple," said Kate
+presently, "I wonder if you happen to know any of my friends. Did you meet
+a Mr. Spafford? David Spafford?"
+
+"Of course I did, knew him well," said the young man with guarded tone.
+But a quick flash of dislike, and perhaps fear had crossed his face at the
+name. Kate was keen. She analyzed that look. She parted her charming red
+lips and showed her sharp little teeth like the treacherous pearls in a
+white kitten's pink mouth.
+
+"He was once a lover of mine," said Kate carelessly, wrinkling her piquant
+little nose as if the idea were comical, and laughing out a sweet ripple
+of mirth that would have cut David to the heart.
+
+"Indeed!" said the ever ready Harry, "and I do not wonder. Is not every
+one that at once they see you, Madam Leavenworth? How kind of your husband
+to stay away at sea for so long a time and give us other poor fellows a
+chance to say pleasant things."
+
+Then Kate pouted her pretty lips in a way she had and tapped the delighted
+Harry with her carriage parasol across the fingers of his hand that had
+taken familiar hold of the carriage beside her arm.
+
+"Oh, you naughty man!" she exclaimed prettily. "How dare you! Yes, David
+Spafford and I were quite good friends. I almost gave in at one time and
+became Mrs. Spafford, but he was too good for me!"
+
+She uttered this truth in a mocking tone, and Harry saw her lead and
+hastened to follow. Here was a possible chance for revenge. He was ready
+for any. He studied the lady before him keenly. Of what did that face
+remind him? Had he ever seen her before?
+
+"I should judge him a little straitlaced for your merry ways," he
+responded gallantly, "but he's like all the rest, fickle, you know. He's
+married. Have you heard?"
+
+Kate's face darkened with something hard and cruel, but her voice was soft
+as a cat's purr:
+
+"Yes," she sighed, "I know. He married my sister. Poor child! I am sorry
+for her. I think he did it out of revenge, and she was too young to know
+her own mind. But they, poor things, will have to bear the consequences of
+what they have done. Isn't it a pity that that has to be, Mr. Temple? It
+is dreadful to have the innocent suffer. I have been greatly anxious about
+my sister." She lifted her large eyes swimming in tears, and he did not
+perceive the insincerity in her purring voice just then. He was thanking
+his lucky stars that he had been saved from any remarks about young Mrs.
+Spafford, whom her sister seemed to love so deeply. It had been on the tip
+of his tongue to suggest that she might be able to lead her husband a gay
+little dance if she chose. How lucky he had not spoken! He tried to say
+some pleasant comforting nothings, and found it delightful to see her face
+clear into smiles and her blue eyes look into his so confidingly. By the
+time the boat touched the New York side the two felt well acquainted, and
+Harry Temple had promised to call soon, which promise he lost no time in
+keeping.
+
+Kate's heart had grown bitter against the young sister who had dared to
+take her place, and against the lover who had so easily solaced himself.
+She could not understand it.
+
+She resolved to learn all that Mr. Temple knew about David, and to find
+out if possible whether he were happy. It was Kate's nature not to be able
+to give up anything even though she did not want it. She desired the
+life-long devotion of every man who came near her, and have it she would
+or punish him.
+
+Harry Temple, meanwhile, was reflecting upon his chance meeting that
+afternoon and wondering if in some way he might not yet have revenge upon
+the man who had humbled him. Possibly this woman could help him.
+
+After some thought he sat down and penned a letter to Hannah Heath,
+begemming it here and there with devoted sentences which caused that young
+woman's eyes to sparkle and a smile of anticipation to wreathe her lips.
+When she heard of the handsome sister in New York, and of her former
+relations with David Spafford, her eyes narrowed speculatively, and her
+fair brow drew into puzzled frowns. Harry Temple had drawn a word picture
+of Mrs. Leavenworth. Harry should have been a novelist. If he had not been
+too lazy he would have been a success. Gold hair! Ah! Hannah had heard of
+gold hair before, and in connection with David's promised wife. Here was a
+mystery and Hannah resolved to look into it. It would at least be
+interesting to note the effect of her knowledge upon the young bride next
+door. She would try it.
+
+Meantime, the acquaintance of Harry Temple and Kate Leavenworth had
+progressed rapidly. The second sight of the lady proved more interesting
+than the first, for now her beautiful gold hair added to the charm of her
+handsome face. Harry ever delighted in beauty of whatever type, and a
+blonde was more fascinating to him than a brunette. Kate had dressed
+herself bewitchingly, and her manner was charming. She knew how to assume
+pretty child-like airs, but she was not afraid to look him boldly in the
+eyes, and the light in her own seemed to challenge him. Here was a
+delightful new study. A woman fresh from the country, having all the charm
+of innocence, almost as child-like as her sister, yet with none of her
+prudishness. Kate's eyes held latent wickedness in them, or he was much
+mistaken. She did not droop her lids and blush when he looked boldly and
+admiringly into her face, but stared him back, smilingly, merrily,
+daringly, as though she would go quite as far as he would. Moreover, with
+her he was sure he need feel none of the compunctions he might have felt
+with her younger sister who was so obviously innocent, for whether Kate's
+boldness was from lack of knowledge, or from lack of innocence, she was
+quite able to protect herself, that was plain.
+
+So Harry settled into his chair with a smile of pleasant anticipation upon
+his face. He not only had the prospect before him of a possible ally in
+revenge against David Spafford, but he had the promise of a most unusually
+delightful flirtation with a woman who was worthy of his best efforts in
+that line.
+
+Almost at once it began, with pleasant banter, adorned with personal
+compliments.
+
+"Lovelier than I thought, my lady," said Harry, bowing low over the hand
+she gave him, in a courtly manner he had acquired, perhaps from the
+old-world novels he had read, and he brushed her pink finger tips with his
+lips in a way that signified he was her abject slave.
+
+Kate blushed and smiled, greatly pleased, for though she had held her own
+little court in the village where she was brought up, and queened it over
+the young men who had flocked about her willingly, she had not been used
+to the fulsome flattery that breathed from Harry Temple in every word and
+glance.
+
+He looked at her keenly as he stood back a moment, to see if she were in
+any wise offended with his salutation, and saw as he expected that she was
+pleased and flattered. Her cheeks had grown rosier, and her eyes sparkled
+with pleasure as she responded with a pretty, gracious speech.
+
+Then they sat down and faced one another. A good woman would have called
+his look impudent--insulting. Kate returned it with a look that did not
+shrink, nor waver, but fearlessly, recklessly accepted the challenge.
+Playing with fire, were these two, and with no care for the fearful
+results which might follow. Both knew it was dangerous, and liked it the
+better for that. There was a long silence. The game was opening on a wider
+scale than either had ever played before.
+
+"Do you believe in affinities?" asked the devil, through the man's voice.
+
+The woman colored and showed she understood his deeper meaning. Her eyes
+drooped for just the shade of an instant, and then she looked up and faced
+him saucily, provokingly:
+
+"Why?"
+
+He admired her with his gaze, and waited, lazily watching the color play
+in her cheeks.
+
+"Do you need to ask why?" he said at last, looking at her significantly.
+"I knew that you were my affinity the moment I laid my eyes upon you, and
+I hoped you felt the same. But perhaps I was mistaken." He searched her
+face.
+
+She kept her eyes upon his, returning their full gaze, as if to hold it
+from going too deep into her soul.
+
+"I did not say you were mistaken, did I?" said the rosy lips coquettishly,
+and Kate drooped her long lashes till they fell in becoming sweeps over
+her burning cheeks.
+
+Something in the curve of cheek and chin, and sweep of dark lash over
+velvet skin, reminded him of her sister. It was so she had sat, though
+utterly unconscious, while he had been singing, when there had come over
+him that overwhelming desire to kiss her. If he should kiss this fair lady
+would she slap him in the face and run into the garden? He thought not.
+Still, she was brought up by the same father and mother in all likelihood,
+and it was well to go slow. He reached forward, drawing his chair a little
+nearer to her, and then boldly took one of her small unresisting hands,
+gently, that he might not frighten her, and smoothed it thoughtfully
+between his own. He held it in a close grasp and looked into her face
+again, she meanwhile watching her hand amusedly, as though it were
+something apart from herself, a sort of distant possession, for which she
+was in no wise responsible.
+
+"I feel that you belong to me," he said boldly looking into her eyes with
+a languishing gaze. "I have known it from the first moment."
+
+Kate let her hand lie in his as if she liked it, but she said:
+
+"And what makes you think that, most audacious sir? Did you not know that
+I am married?" Then she swept her gaze up provokingly at him again and
+smiled, showing her dainty, treacherous, little teeth. She was so
+bewitchingly pretty and tempting then that he had a mind to kiss her on
+the spot, but a thought came to him that he would rather lead her further
+first. He was succeeding well. She had no mind to be afraid. She did her
+part admirably.
+
+"That makes no difference," said he smiling. "That another man has secured
+you first, and has the right to provide for you, and be near you, is my
+misfortune of course, but it makes no difference, you are mine? By all the
+power of love you are mine. Can any other man keep my soul from yours, can
+he keep my eyes from looking into yours, or my thoughts from hovering over
+you, or--" he hesitated and looked at her keenly, while she furtively
+watched him, holding her breath and half inviting him--"or my lips from
+drinking life from yours?" He stooped quickly and pressed his lips upon
+hers.
+
+Kate gave a quick little gasp like a sob and drew back. The aunt nodding
+over her Bible in the next room had not heard,--she was very deaf,--but for
+an instant the young woman felt that all the shades of her worthy
+patriarchal ancestors were hurrying around and away from her in horror.
+She had come of too good Puritan stock not to know that she was treading
+in the path of unrighteousness. Nevertheless it was a broad path, and
+easy. It tempted her. It was exciting. It lured her with promise of
+satisfying some of her untamed longings and impulses.
+
+She did not look offended. She only drew back to get breath and consider.
+The wild beating of her heart, the tumult of her cheeks and eyes were all
+a part of a new emotion. Her vanity was excited, and she thrilled with a
+wild pleasure. As a duck will take to swimming so she took to the new
+game, with wonderful facility.
+
+"But I didn't say you might," she cried with a bewildering smile.
+
+"I beg your pardon, fair lady, may I have another?"
+
+His bold, bad face was near her own, so that she did not see the evil
+triumph that lurked there. She had come to the turning of another way in
+her life, and just here she might have drawn back if she would. Half she
+knew this, yet she toyed with the opportunity, and it was gone. The new
+way seemed so alluring.
+
+"You will first have to prove your right!" she said decidedly, with that
+pretty commanding air that had conquered so many times.
+
+And in like manner on they went through the evening, frittering the time
+away at playing with edged tools.
+
+A friendship so begun--if so unworthy an intimacy may be called by that
+sweet name--boded no good to either of the two, and that evening marked a
+decided turn for the worse in Kate Leavenworth's career.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER XX
+
+
+David had found it necessary to take a journey which might keep him away
+for several weeks.
+
+He told Marcia in the evening when he came home from the office. He told
+her as he would have told his clerk. It meant nothing to him but an
+annoyance that he had to start out in the early winter, leave his business
+in other's hands for an indefinite period, and go among strangers. He did
+not see the whitening of Marcia's lips, nor the quick little movement of
+her hand to her heart. Even Marcia herself did not realize all that it
+meant to her. She felt as if a sudden shock had almost knocked her off her
+feet. This quiet life in the big house, with only David at intervals to
+watch and speak to occasionally, and no one to open her true heart to, had
+been lonely; and many a time when she was alone at night she had wept
+bitter tears upon her pillow,--why she did not quite know. But now when she
+knew that it was to cease, and David was going away from her for a long
+time, perhaps weeks, her heart suddenly tightened and she knew how sweet
+it had been growing. Almost the tears came to her eyes, but she made a
+quick errand to the hearth for the teapot, busying herself there till they
+were under control again. When she returned to her place at the table she
+was able to ask David some commonplace question about the journey which
+kept her true feeling quite hidden from him.
+
+He was to start the next evening if possible. It appeared that there was
+something important about railroading coming up in Congress. It was
+necessary that he should be present to hear the debate, and also that he
+should see and interview influential men. It meant much to the success of
+the great new enterprises that were just in their infancy that he should
+go and find out all about them and write them up as only he whose heart
+was in it could do. He was pleased to have been selected for this; he was
+lifted for the time above himself and his life troubles, and given to feel
+that he had a work in the world that was worth while, a high calling, a
+chance to give a push to the unrolling of the secret possibilities of the
+universe and help them on their way.
+
+Marcia understood it all, and was proud and glad for him, but her own
+heart which beat in such perfect sympathy with the work felt lonely and
+left out. If only she could have helped too!
+
+There was no time for David to take Marcia to her home to stay during his
+absence. He spoke of it regretfully just as he was about to leave, and
+asked if she would like him to get some one to escort her by coach to her
+father's house until he could come for her; but she held back the tears by
+main force and shook her head. She had canvassed that question in the
+still hours of the night. She had met in imagination the home village with
+its kindly and unkindly curiosity, she had seen their hands lifted in
+suspicion; heard their covert whispers as to why her husband did not come
+with her; why he had left her so soon after the honeymoon; why--a hundred
+things. She had even thought of Aunt Polly and her acrid tongue and made
+up her mind that whatever happened she did not want to go home to stay.
+
+The only other alternative was to go to the aunts. David expected it, and
+the aunts spoke of it as if nothing else were possible. Marcia would have
+preferred to remain alone in her own house, with her beloved piano, but
+David would not consent, and the aunts were scandalized at the suggestion.
+So to the aunts went Marcia, and they took her in with a hope in their
+hearts that she might get the same good from the visit that the sluggard
+in the Bible is bidden to find.
+
+"We must do our duty by her for David's sake," said Aunt Hortense, with
+pursed lips and capable, folded hands that seemed fairly to ache to get at
+the work of reconstructing the new niece.
+
+"Yes, it is our opportunity," said Aunt Amelia with a snap as though she
+thoroughly enjoyed the prospect. "Poor David!" and so they sat and laid
+out their plans for their sweet young victim, who all unknowingly was
+coming to one of those tests in her life whereby we are tried for greater
+things and made perfect in patience and sweetness.
+
+It began with the first breakfast--the night before she had been company,
+at supper--but when the morning came they felt she must be counted one of
+the family. They examined her thoroughly on what she had been taught with
+regard to housekeeping. They made her tell her recipes for pickling and
+preserving. They put her through a catechism of culinary lore, and always
+after her most animated account of the careful way in which she had been
+trained in this or that housewifely art she looked up with wistful eyes
+that longed to please, only to be met by the hard set lips and steely
+glances of the two mentors who regretted that she should not have been
+taught their way which was so much better.
+
+Aunt Hortense even went so far once as to suggest that Marcia write to her
+stepmother and tell her how much better it was to salt the water in which
+potatoes were to be boiled before putting them in, and was much offended
+by the clear girlish laugh that bubbled up involuntarily at the thought of
+teaching her stepmother anything about cooking.
+
+"Excuse me," she said, instantly sobering as she saw the grim look of the
+aunt, and felt frightened at what she had done. "I did not mean to laugh,
+indeed I did not; but it seemed so funny to think of my telling mother how
+to do anything."
+
+"People are never too old to learn," remarked Aunt Hortense with offended
+mien, "and one ought never to be too proud when there is a better way."
+
+"But mother thinks there is no better way I am sure. She says that it
+makes potatoes soggy to boil them in salt. All that grows below the ground
+should be salted after it is cooked and all that grows above the ground
+should be cooked in salted water, is her rule."
+
+"I am surprised that your stepmother should uphold any such superstitious
+ideas," said Aunt Amelia with a self-satisfied expression.
+
+"One should never be too proud to learn something better," Aunt Hortense
+said grimly, and Marcia retreated in dire consternation at the thought of
+what might follow if these three notable housekeeping gentlewomen should
+come together. Somehow she felt a wicked little triumph in the thought
+that it would be hard to down her stepmother.
+
+Marcia was given a few light duties ostensibly to "make her feel at home,"
+but in reality, she knew, because the aunts felt she needed their
+instruction. She was asked if she would like to wash the china and glass;
+and regularly after each meal a small wooden tub and a mop were brought in
+with hot water and soap, and she was expected to handle the costly
+heirlooms under the careful scrutiny of their worshipping owners, who
+evidently watched each process with strained nerves lest any bit of
+treasured pottery should be cracked or broken. It was a trying ordeal.
+
+The girl would have been no girl if she had not chafed under this
+treatment. To hold her temper steady and sweet under it was almost more
+than she could bear.
+
+There were long afternoons when it was decreed that they should knit.
+
+Marcia had been used to take long walks at home, over the smooth crust of
+the snow, going to her beloved woods, where she delighted to wander among
+the bare and creaking trees; fancying them whispering sadly to one another
+of the summer that was gone and the leaves they had borne now dead. But it
+would be a dreadful thing in the aunts' opinion for a woman, and
+especially a young one, to take a long walk in the woods alone, in winter
+too, and with no object whatever in view but a walk! What a waste of time!
+
+There were two places of refuge for Marcia during the weeks that followed.
+There was home. How sweet that word sounded to her! How she longed to go
+back there, with David coming home to his quiet meals three times a day,
+and with her own time to herself to do as she pleased. With housewifely
+zeal that was commendable in the eyes of the aunts, Marcia insisted upon
+going down to her own house every morning to see that all was right,
+guiltily knowing that in her heart she meant to hurry to her beloved books
+and piano. To be sure it was cold and cheerless in the empty house. She
+dared not make up fires and leave them, and she dared not stay too long
+lest the aunts would feel hurt at her absence, but she longed with an
+inexpressible longing to be back there by herself, away from that terrible
+supervision and able to live her own glad little life and think her own
+thoughts untrammeled by primness.
+
+Sometimes she would curl up in David's big arm-chair and have a good cry,
+after which she would take a book and read until the creeping chills down
+her spine warned her she must stop. Even then she would run up and down
+the hall or take a broom and sweep vigorously to warm herself and then go
+to the cold keys and play a sad little tune. All her tunes seemed sad like
+a wail while David was gone.
+
+The other place of refuge was Aunt Clarinda's room. Thither she would
+betake herself after supper, to the delight of the old lady. Then the
+other two occupants of the house were left to themselves and might unbend
+from their rigid surveillance for a little while. Marcia often wondered if
+they ever did unbend.
+
+There was a large padded rocking chair in Aunt Clarinda's room and Marcia
+would laughingly take the little old lady in her arms and place her
+comfortably in it, after a pleasant struggle on Miss Clarinda's part to
+put her guest into it. They had this same little play every evening, and
+it seemed to please the old lady mightily. Then when she was conquered she
+always sat meekly laughing, a fine pink color in her soft peachy cheek,
+the candle light from the high shelf making flickering sparkles in her old
+eyes that always seemed young; and she would say: "That's just as David
+used to do."
+
+Then Marcia drew up the little mahogany stool covered with the worsted dog
+which Aunt Clarinda had worked when she was ten years old, and snuggling
+down at the old lady's feet exclaimed delightedly: "Tell me about it!" and
+they settled down to solid comfort.
+
+There came a letter from David after he had been gone a little over a
+week. Marcia had not expected to hear from him. He had said nothing about
+writing, and their relations were scarcely such as to make it necessary.
+Letters were an expensive luxury in those days. But when the letter was
+handed to her, Marcia's heart went pounding against her breast, the color
+flew into her cheeks, and she sped away home on feet swift as the wings of
+a bird. The postmaster's daughter looked after her, and remarked to her
+father: "My, but don't she think a lot of him!"
+
+Straight to the cold, lonely house she flew, and sitting down in his big
+chair read it.
+
+It was a pleasant letter, beginning formally: "My dear Marcia," and asking
+after her health. It brought back a little of the unacquaintedness she had
+felt when he was at home, and which had been swept away in part by her
+knowledge of his childhood. But it went on quite happily telling all about
+his journey and describing minutely the places he had passed through and
+the people he had met on the way; detailing every little incident as only
+a born writer and observer could do, until she felt as if he were talking
+to her. He told her of the men whom he had met who were interested in the
+new project. He told of new plans and described minutely his visit to the
+foundry at West Point and the machinery he had seen. Marcia read it all
+breathlessly, in search of something, she knew not what, that was not
+there. When she had finished and found it not, there was a sense of
+aloofness, a sad little disappointment which welled up in her throat. She
+sat back to think about it. He was having a good time, and he was not
+lonely. He had no longing to be back in the house and everything running
+as before he had gone. He was out in the big glorious world having to do
+with progress, and coming in contact with men who were making history. Of
+course he did not dream how lonely she was here, and how she longed, if
+for nothing else, just to be back here alone and do as she pleased, and
+not to be watched over. If only she might steal Aunt Clarinda and bring
+her back to live here with her while David was away! But that was not to
+be thought of, of course. By and by she mustered courage to be glad of her
+letter, and to read it over once more.
+
+That night she read the letter to Aunt Clarinda and together they
+discussed the great inventions, and the changes that were coming to pass
+in the land. Aunt Clarinda was just a little beyond her depth in such a
+conversation, but Marcia did most of the talking, and the dear old lady
+made an excellent listener, with a pat here, and a "Dearie me! Now you
+don't say so!" there, and a "Bless the boy! What great things he does
+expect. And I hope he won't be disappointed."
+
+That letter lasted them for many a day until another came, this time from
+Washington, with many descriptions of public men and public doings, and a
+word picture of the place which made it appear much like any other place
+after all if it was the capitol of the country. And once there was a
+sentence which Marcia treasured. It was, "I wish you could be here and see
+everything. You would enjoy it I know."
+
+There came another letter later beginning, "My dear little girl." There
+was nothing else in it to make Marcia's heart throb, it was all about his
+work, but Marcia carried it many days in her bosom. It gave her a thrill
+of delight to think of those words at the beginning. Of course it meant no
+more than that he thought of her as a girl, his little sister that was to
+have been, but there was a kind of ownership in the words that was sweet
+to Marcia's lonely heart. It had come to her that she was always looking
+for something that would make her feel that she belonged to David.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+When David had been in New York about three weeks, he happened one day to
+pass the house where Kate Leavenworth was living.
+
+Kate was standing listlessly by the window looking into the street. She
+was cross and felt a great depression settling over her. The flirtation
+with Harry Temple had begun to pall upon her. She wanted new worlds to
+conquer. She was restless and feverish. There was not excitement enough in
+the life she was living. She would like to meet more people, senators and
+statesmen--and to have plenty of money to dress as became her beauty, and
+be admired publicly. She half wished for the return of her husband, and
+meditated making up with him for the sake of going to Washington to have a
+good time in society there. What was the use of running away with a naval
+officer if one could not have the benefit of it? She had been a fool. Here
+she was almost to the last penny, and so many things she wanted. No word
+had come from her husband since he sent her the money at sailing. She felt
+a bitter resentment toward him for urging her to marry him. If she had
+only gone on and married David she would be living a life of ease
+now--plenty of money--nothing to do but what she pleased and no anxiety
+whatever, for David would have done just what she wanted.
+
+Then suddenly she looked up and David passed before her!
+
+He was walking with a tall splendid-looking man, with whom he was engaged
+in most earnest conversation, and his look was grave and deeply absorbed.
+He did not know of Kate's presence in New York, and passed the house in
+utter unconsciousness of the eyes watching him.
+
+Kate's lips grew white, and her limbs seemed suddenly weak, but she
+strained her face against the window to watch the retreating figure of the
+man who had almost been her husband. How well she knew the familiar
+outline. How fine and handsome he appeared now! Why had she not thought so
+before? Were her eyes blind, or had she been under some strange
+enchantment? Why had she not known that her happiness lay in the way that
+had been marked out for her? Well, at least she knew it now.
+
+She sat all day by that window and watched. She professed to have no
+appetite when pressed to come to the table, though she permitted herself
+to languidly consume the bountiful tray of good things that was brought
+her, but her eyes were on the street. She was watching to see if David
+would pass that way again. But though she watched until the sun went down
+and dusk sifted through the streets, she saw no sign nor heard the sound
+of his footsteps. Then she hastened up to her room, which faced upon the
+street also, and there, wrapped in blankets she sat in the cold frosty
+air, waiting and listening. And while she watched she was thinking bitter
+feverish thoughts. She heard Harry Temple knock and knew that he was told
+that she was not feeling well and had retired early. She watched him pause
+on the stoop thoughtfully as if considering what to do with the time thus
+unexpectedly thrown upon his hands, then saw him saunter up the street
+unconcernedly, and she wondered idly where he would go, and what he would
+do.
+
+It grew late, even for New York. One by one the lights in the houses along
+the street went out, and all was quiet. She drew back from the window at
+last, weary with excitement and thinking, and lay down on the bed, but she
+could not sleep. The window was open and her ears were on the alert, and
+by and by there came the distant echo of feet ringing on the pavement.
+Some one was coming. She sprang up. She felt sure he was coming. Yes,
+there were two men. They were coming back together. She could hear their
+voices. She fancied she heard David's long before it was possible to
+distinguish any words. She leaned far out of her upper window till she
+could discern dim forms under the starlight, and then just as they were
+under the window she distinctly heard David say:
+
+"There is no doubt but we shall win. The right is on our side, and it is
+the march of progress. Some of the best men in Congress are with us, and
+now that we are to have your influence I do not feel afraid of the issue."
+
+They had passed by rapidly, like men who had been on a long day's jaunt of
+some kind and were hastening home to rest. There was little in the
+sentence that Kate could understand. She had no more idea whether the
+subject of their discourse was railroads or the last hay crop. The
+sentence meant to her but one thing. It showed that David companioned with
+the great men of the land, and his position would have given her a
+standing that would have been above the one she now occupied. Tears of
+defeat ran down her cheeks. She had made a bad mistake and she saw no way
+to rectify it. If her husband should die,--and it might be, for the sea was
+often treacherous--of course there were all sorts of possibilities,--but
+even then there was Marcia! She set her sharp little teeth into her red
+lips till the blood came. She could not get over her anger at Marcia. It
+would not have been so bad if David had remained her lone lorn lover,
+ready to fly to her if others failed. Her self-love was wounded sorely,
+and she, poor silly soul, mistook it for love of David. She began to fancy
+that after all she had loved him, and that Fate had somehow played her a
+mad trick and tied her to a husband she had not wanted.
+
+Then out of the watchings of the day and the fancies of the night, there
+grew a thought--and the thought widened into a plan. She thought of her
+intimacy with Harry and her new found power. Might she perhaps exercise it
+over others as well as Harry Temple? Might she possibly lead back this man
+who had once been her lover, to bow at her feet again and worship her? If
+that might be she could bear all the rest. She began to long with intense
+craving to see David grovel at her feet, to hear him plead for a kiss from
+her, and tell her once more how beautiful she was, and how she fulfilled
+all his soul's ideals. She sat by the open window yet with the icy air of
+the night blowing upon her, but her cheeks burned red in the darkness, and
+her eyes glowed like coals of fire from the tawny framing of her fallen
+hair. The blankets slipped away from her throat and still she heeded not
+the cold, but sat with hot clenched hands planning with the devil's own
+strategy her shameless scheme.
+
+By and by she lighted a candle and drew her writing materials toward her
+to write, but it was long she sat and thought before she finally wrote the
+hastily scrawled note, signed and sealed it, and blowing out her candle
+lay down to sleep.
+
+The letter was addressed to David, and it ran thus:
+
+
+    "DEAR DAVID:"
+
+    "I have just heard that you are in New York. I am in great
+    distress and do not know where to turn for help. For the sake of
+    what we have been to each other in the past will you come to me?
+
+                                          "Hastily, your loving KATE."
+
+
+She did not know where David was but she felt reasonably sure she could
+find out his address in the morning. There was a small boy living next
+door who was capable of ferreting out almost anything for money. Kate had
+employed him more than once as an amateur detective in cases of minor
+importance. So, with a bit of silver and her letter she made her way to
+his familiar haunts and explained most carefully that the letter was to be
+delivered to no one but the man to whom it was addressed, naming several
+stopping places where he might be likely to be found, and hinting that
+there was more silver to be forthcoming when he should bring her an answer
+to the note. With a minute description of David the keen-eyed urchin set
+out, while Kate betook herself to her room to dress for David's coming.
+She felt sure he would be found, and confident that he would come at once.
+
+The icy wind of the night before blowing on her exposed throat and chest
+had given her a severe cold, but she paid no heed to that. Her eyes and
+cheeks were shining with fever. She knew she was entering upon a dangerous
+and unholy way. The excitement of it stimulated her. She felt she did not
+care for anything, right or wrong, sin or sorrow, only to win. She wanted
+to see David at her feet again. It was the only thing that would satisfy
+this insatiable longing in her, this wounded pride of self.
+
+When she was dressed she stood before the mirror and surveyed herself. She
+knew she was beautiful, and she defied the glass to tell her anything
+else. She raised her chin in haughty challenge to the unseen David to
+resist her charms. She would bring him low before her. She would make him
+forget Marcia, and his home and his staid Puritan notions, and all else he
+held dear but herself. He should bend and kiss her hand as Harry had done,
+only more warmly, for instinctively she felt that his had been the purer
+life and therefore his surrender would mean more. He should do whatever
+she chose. And her eyes glowed with an unhallowed light.
+
+She had chosen to array herself regally, in velvet, but in black, without
+a touch of color or of white. From her rich frock her slender throat rose
+daintily, like a stem upon which nodded the tempting flower of her face.
+No enameled complexion could have been more striking in its vivid reds and
+whites, and her mass of gold hair made her seem more lovely than she
+really was, for in her face was love of self, alluring, but heartless and
+cruel.
+
+The boy found David, as Kate had thought he would, in one of the quieter
+hostelries where men of letters were wont to stop when in New York, and
+David read the letter and came at once. She had known that he would do
+that, too. His heart beat wildly, to the exclusion of all other thoughts
+save that she was in trouble, his love, his dear one. He forgot Marcia,
+and the young naval officer, and everything but her trouble, and before he
+had reached her house the sorrow had grown in his imagination into some
+great danger to protect her from which he was hastening.
+
+She received him alone in the room where Harry Temple had first called,
+and a moment later Harry himself came to knock and enquire for the health
+of Mistress Leavenworth, and was told she was very much engaged at present
+with a gentleman and could not see any one, whereupon Harry scowled, and
+set himself at a suitable distance from the house to watch who should come
+out.
+
+David's face was white as death as he entered, his eyes shining like dark
+jewels blazing at her as if he would absorb the vision for the lonely
+future. She stood and posed,--not by any means the picture of broken sorrow
+he had expected to find from her note,--and let the sense of her beauty
+reach him. There she stood with the look on her face he had pictured to
+himself many a time when he had thought of her as his wife. It was a look
+of love unutterable, bewildering, alluring, compelling. It was so he had
+thought she would meet him when he came home to her from his daily
+business cares. And now she was there, looking that way, and he stood
+here, so near her, and yet a great gulf fixed! It was heaven and hell met
+together, and he had no power to change either.
+
+He did not come over to her and bow low to kiss the white hand as Harry
+had done,--as she had thought she could compel him to do. He only stood and
+looked at her with the pain of an anguish beyond her comprehension, until
+the look would have burned through to her heart--if she had had a heart.
+
+"You are in trouble," he spoke hoarsely, as if murmuring an excuse for
+having come.
+
+She melted at once into the loveliest sorrow, her mobile features taking
+on a wan cast only enlivened by the glow of her cheeks.
+
+"Sit down," she said, "you were so good to come to me, and so soon--" and
+her voice was like lily-bells in a quiet church-yard among the
+head-stones. She placed him a chair.
+
+"Yes, I am in trouble. But that is a slight thing compared to my
+unhappiness. I think I am the most miserable creature that breathes upon
+this earth."
+
+And with that she dropped into a low chair and hid her glowing face in a
+dainty, lace bordered kerchief that suppressed a well-timed sob.
+
+Kate had wisely calculated how she could reach David's heart. If she had
+looked up then and seen his white, drawn look, and the tense grasp of his
+hands that only the greatest self-control kept quiet on his knee, perhaps
+even her mercilessness would have been softened. But she did not look, and
+she felt her part was well taken. She sobbed quietly, and waited, and his
+hoarse voice asked once more, as gently as a woman's through his pain:
+
+"Will you tell me what it is and how I can help you?" He longed to take
+her in his arms like a little child and comfort her, but he might not. She
+was another's. And perhaps that other had been cruel to her! His clenched
+fists showed how terrible was the thought. But still the bowed figure in
+its piteous black sobbed and did not reply anything except, "Oh, I am so
+unhappy! I cannot bear it any longer."
+
+"Is--your--your--husband unkind to you?" The words tore themselves from his
+tense lips as though they were beyond his control.
+
+"Oh, no,--not exactly unkind--that is--he was not very nice before he went
+away," wailed out a sad voice from behind the linen cambric and lace, "and
+he went away without a kind word, and left me hardly any money--and he
+hasn't sent me any word since--and fa-father won't have anything to do with
+me any more--but--but--it's not that I mind, David. I don't think about those
+things at all. I'm so unhappy about you. I feel you do not forgive me, and
+I cannot stand it any longer. I have made a fearful mistake, and you are
+angry with me--I think about it at night"--the voice was growing lower now,
+and the sentences broken by sobs that told better than words what distress
+the sufferer would convey.
+
+"I have been so wicked--and you were so good and kind--and now you will
+never forgive me--I think it will kill me to keep on thinking about it--"
+her voice trailed off in tears again.
+
+David white with anguish sprang to his feet.
+
+"Oh, Kate," he cried, "my darling! Don't talk that way. You know I forgive
+you. Look up and tell me you know I forgive you."
+
+Almost she smiled her triumph beneath her sobs in the little lace border,
+but she looked up with real tears on her face. Even her tears obeyed her
+will. She was a good actress, also she knew her power over David.
+
+"Oh, David," she cried, standing up and clasping her hands beseechingly,
+"can it be true? Do you really forgive me? Tell me again."
+
+She came and stood temptingly near to the stern, suffering man wild with
+the tumult that raged within him. Her golden head was near his shoulder
+where it had rested more than once in time gone by. He looked down at her
+from his suffering height his arms folded tightly and said, as though
+taking oath before a court of justice:
+
+"I do."
+
+She looked up with her pleading blue eyes, like two jewels of light now,
+questioning whether she might yet go one step further. Her breath came
+quick and soft, he fancied it touched his cheek, though she was not tall
+enough for that. She lifted her tear-wet face like a flower after a storm,
+and pleaded with her eyes once more, saying in a whisper very soft and
+sweet:
+
+"If you really forgive me, then kiss me, just once, so I may remember it
+always."
+
+It was more than he could bear. He caught her to himself and pressed his
+lips upon hers in one frenzied kiss of torture. It was as if wrung from
+him against his will. Then suddenly it came upon him what he had done, as
+he held her in his arms, and he put her from him gently, as a mother might
+put away the precious child she was sacrificing tenderly, agonizingly, but
+finally. He put her from him thus and stood a moment looking at her, while
+she almost sparkled her pleasure at him through the tears. She felt that
+she had won.
+
+But gradually the silence grew ominous. She perceived he was not smiling.
+His mien was like one who looks into an open grave, and gazes for the last
+time at all that remains of one who is dear. He did not seem like one who
+had yielded a moral point and was ready now to serve her as she would. She
+grew uneasy under his gaze. She moved forward and put out her hands
+inviting, yielding, as only such a woman could do, and the spell which
+bound him seemed to be broken. He fumbled for a moment in his waistcoat
+pocket and brought out a large roll of bills which he laid upon the table,
+and taking up his hat turned toward the door. A cold wave of weakness
+seemed to pass over her, stung here and there by mortal pride that was in
+fear of being wounded beyond recovery.
+
+"Where are you going?" she asked weakly, and her voice sounded to her from
+miles away, and strange.
+
+He turned and looked at her again and she knew the look meant farewell. He
+did not speak. Her whole being rose for one more mighty effort.
+
+"You are not going to leave me--now?" There was angelic sweetness in the
+voice, pleading, reproachful, piteous.
+
+"I must!" he said, and his voice sounded harsh. "I have just done that for
+which, were I your husband, I would feel like killing any other man. I
+must protect you against yourself,--against myself. You must be kept pure
+before God if it kills us both. I would gladly die if that could help you,
+but I am not even free to do that, for I belong to another."
+
+Then he turned and was gone.
+
+Kate's hands fell to her sides, and seemed stiff and lifeless. The bright
+color faded from her cheeks, and a cold frenzy of horror took possession
+of her. "Pure before God!" She shuddered at the name, and crimson shame
+rolled over forehead and cheek. She sank in a little heap on the floor
+with her face buried in the chair beside which she had been standing, and
+the waters of humiliation rolled wave on wave above her. She had failed,
+and for one brief moment she was seeing her own sinful heart as it was.
+
+But the devil was there also. He whispered to her now the last sentence
+that David had spoken: "I belong to another!"
+
+Up to that moment Marcia had been a very negative factor in the affair to
+Kate's mind. She had been annoyed and angry at her as one whose ignorance
+and impertinence had brought her into an affair where she did not belong,
+but now she suddenly faced the fact that Marcia must be reckoned with.
+Marcia the child, who had for years been her slave and done her bidding,
+had arisen in her way, and she hated her with a sudden vindictive hate
+that would have killed without flinching if the opportunity had presented
+at that moment. Kate had no idea how utterly uncontrolled was her whole
+nature. She was at the mercy of any passing passion. Hate and revenge took
+possession of her now. With flashing eyes she rose to her feet, brushing
+her tumbled hair back and wiping away angry tears. She was too much
+agitated to notice that some one had knocked at the front door and been
+admitted, and when Harry Temple walked into the room he found her standing
+so with hands clenched together, and tears flowing down her cheeks
+unchecked.
+
+Now a woman in tears, when the tears were not caused by his own actions,
+was Harry's opportunity. He had ways of comforting which were as
+unscrupulous as they generally proved effective, and so with affectionate
+tenderness he took Kate's hand and held it impressively, calling her
+"dear." He spoke soothing words, smoothed her hair, and kissed her flushed
+cheeks and eyes. It was all very pleasant to Kate's hurt pride. She let
+Harry comfort her, and pet her a while, and at last he said:
+
+"Now tell me all about it, dear. I saw Lord Spafford trail dejectedly away
+from here looking like death, and I come here and find my lady in a fine
+fury. What has happened? If I mistake not the insufferable cad has got
+badly hurt, but it seems to have ruffled the lady also."
+
+This helped. It was something to feel that David was suffering. She wanted
+him to suffer. He had brought shame and humiliation upon her. She never
+realized that the thing that shamed her was that he thought her better
+than she was.
+
+"He is offensively good. I _hate_ him!" she remarked as a kitten might who
+had got hurt at playing with a mouse in a trap.
+
+The man's face grew bland with satisfaction.
+
+"Not so good, my lady, but that he has been making love to you, if I
+mistake not, and he with a wife at home." The words were said quietly, but
+there was more of a question in them than the tone conveyed. The man
+wished to have evidence against his enemy.
+
+Kate colored uneasily and drooped her lashes.
+
+Harry studied her face keenly, and then went on cautiously:
+
+"If his wife were not your sister I should say that one might punish him
+well through her."
+
+Kate cast him a hard, scrutinizing look.
+
+"You have some score against him yourself," she said with conviction.
+
+"Perhaps I have, my lady. Perhaps I too hate him. He is offensively good,
+you know."
+
+There was silence in the room for a full minute while the devil worked in
+both hearts.
+
+"What did you mean by saying one might punish him through his wife? He
+does not love his wife."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Quite sure."
+
+"Perhaps he loves some one else, my lady."
+
+"He does." She said it proudly.
+
+"Perhaps he loves you, my lady." He said it softly like the suggestion
+from another world. The lady was silent, but he needed no other answer.
+
+"Then indeed, the way would be even clearer,--were not his wife your
+sister."
+
+Kate looked at him, a half knowledge of his meaning beginning to dawn in
+her eyes.
+
+"How?" she asked laconically.
+
+"In case his wife should leave him do you think my lord would hold his
+head so high?"
+
+Kate still looked puzzled.
+
+"If some one else should win her affection, and should persuade her to
+leave a husband who did not love her, and who was bestowing his heart"--he
+hesitated an instant and his eye traveled significantly to the roll of
+bills still lying where David had left them--"and his gifts," he hazarded,
+"upon another woman----"
+
+Kate grasped the thought at once and an evil glint of eagerness showed in
+her eyes. She could see what an advantage it would be to herself to have
+Marcia removed from the situation. It would break one more cord of honor
+that bound David to a code which was hateful to her now, because its
+existence shamed her. Nevertheless, unscrupulous as she was she could not
+see how this was a possibility.
+
+"But she is offensively good too," she said as if answering her own
+thoughts.
+
+"All goodness has its weak spot," sneered the man. "If I mistake not you
+have found my lord's. It is possible I might find his wife's."
+
+The two pairs of eyes met then, filled with evil light. It was as if for
+an instant they were permitted to look into the pit, and see the
+possibilities of wickedness, and exult in it. The lurid glare of their
+thoughts played in their faces. All the passion of hate and revenge rushed
+upon Kate in a frenzy. With all her heart she wished this might be. She
+looked her co-operation in the plan even before her hard voice answered:
+
+"You need not stop because she is my sister."
+
+He felt he had her permission, and he permitted himself a glance of
+admiration for the depths to which she could go without being daunted.
+Here was evil courage worthy of his teaching. She seemed to him beautiful
+enough and daring enough for Satan himself to admire.
+
+"And may I have the pleasure of knowing that I would by so doing serve my
+lady in some wise?"
+
+She drooped her shameless eyes and murmured guardedly, "Perhaps." Then she
+swept him a coquettish glance that meant they understood one another.
+
+"Then I shall feel well rewarded," he said gallantly, and bowing with more
+than his ordinary flattery of look bade her good day and went out.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+David stumbled blindly out the door and down the street. His one thought
+was to get to his room at the tavern and shut the door. He had an
+important appointment that morning, but it passed completely from his
+mind. He met one or two men whom he knew, but he did not see them, and
+passed them swiftly without a glance of recognition. They said one to
+another, "How absorbed he is in the great themes of the world!" but David
+passed on in his pain and misery and humiliation and never knew they were
+near him.
+
+He went to the room that had been his since he had reached New York, and
+fastening the door against all intrusion fell upon his knees beside the
+bed, and let the flood-tide of his sorrow roll over him. Not even when
+Kate had played him false on his wedding morning had he felt the pain that
+now cut into his very soul. For now there was mingled with it the agony of
+consciousness of sin. He had sinned against heaven, against honor and
+love, and all that was pure and good. He was just like any bad man. He had
+yielded to sudden temptation and taken another man's wife in his arms and
+kissed her! That the woman had been his by first right, and that he loved
+her: that she had invited the kiss, indeed pleaded for it, his sensitive
+conscience told him in no wise lessened the offense. He had also caused
+her whom he loved to sin. He was a man and knew the world. He should have
+shielded her against herself. And yet as he went over and over the whole
+painful scene through which he had just passed his soul cried out in agony
+and he felt his weakness more and more. He had failed, failed most
+miserably. Acted like any coward!
+
+The humiliation of it was unspeakable. Could any sorrow be like unto his?
+Like a knife flashing through the gloom of his own shame would come the
+echo of her words as she pleaded with him to kiss her. It was a kiss of
+forgiveness she had wanted, and she had put her heart into her eyes and
+begged as for her very life. How could he have refused? Then he would
+parley with himself for a long time trying to prove to himself that the
+kiss and the embrace were justified, that he had done no wrong in God's
+sight. And ever after this round of confused arguing he would end with the
+terrible conviction that he had sinned.
+
+Sometimes Marcia's sweet face and troubled eyes would appear to him as he
+wrestled all alone, and seemed to be longing to help him, and again would
+come the piercing thought that he had harmed this gentle girl also. He had
+tangled her into his own spoiled web of life, and been disloyal to her.
+She was pure and true and good. She had given up every thing to help him
+and he had utterly forgotten her. He had promised to love, cherish, and
+protect her! That was another sin. He could not love and cherish her when
+his whole heart was another's. Then he thought of Kate's husband, that
+treacherous man who had stolen his bride and now gone away and left her
+sorrowing--left her without money, penniless in a strange city. Why had he
+not been more calm and questioned her before he came away. Perhaps she was
+in great need. It comforted him to think he had left her all the money he
+had with him. There was enough to keep her from want for a while. And yet,
+perhaps he had been wrong to give it to her. He had no right to give it!
+
+He groaned aloud at the thought of his helplessness to help her
+helplessness. Was there not some way he could find out and help her
+without doing wrong?
+
+Over and over he went through the whole dreadful day, until his brain was
+weary and his heart failed him. The heavens seemed brass and no answer
+came to his cry,--the appeal of a broken soul. It seemed that he could not
+get up from his knees, could not go out into the world again and face
+life. He had been tried and had failed, and yet though he knew his sin he
+felt an intolerable longing to commit it over again. He was frightened at
+his own weakness, and with renewed vigor he began to pray for help. It was
+like the prayer of Jacob of old, the crying out of a soul that would not
+be denied. All day long the struggle continued, and far into the night. At
+last a great peace began to settle upon David's soul. Things that had been
+confused by his passionate longings grew clear as day. Self dropped away,
+and sin, conquered, slunk out of sight. Right and Wrong were once more
+clearly defined in his mind. However wrong it might or might not be he was
+here in this situation. He had married Marcia and promised to be true to
+her. He was doubly cut off from Kate by her own act and by his. That was
+his punishment,--and hers. He must not seek to lessen it even for her, for
+it was God-sent. Henceforth his path and hers must be apart. If she were
+to be helped in any way from whatsoever trouble was hers, it was not
+permitted him to be the instrument. He had shown his unfitness for it in
+his interview that morning, even if in the eyes of the world it could have
+been at all. It was his duty to cut himself off from her forever. He must
+not even think of her any more. He must be as true and good to Marcia as
+was possible. He must do no more wrong. He must grow strong and suffer.
+
+The peace that came with conviction brought sleep to his weary mind and
+body.
+
+When he awoke it was almost noon. He remembered the missed appointment of
+the day before, and the journey to Washington which he had planned for
+that day. With a start of horror he looked at his watch and found he had
+but a few hours in which to try to make up for the remissness of yesterday
+before the evening coach left for Philadelphia. It was as if some guardian
+angel had met his first waking thoughts with business that could not be
+delayed and so kept him from going over the painful events of the day
+before. He arose and hastened out into the world once more.
+
+Late in the afternoon he found the man he was to have met the day before,
+and succeeded in convincing him that he ought to help the new enterprise.
+He was standing on the corner saying the last few words as the two
+separated, when Kate drove by in a friend's carriage, surrounded by
+parcels. She had been on a shopping tour spending the money that David had
+given her, for silks and laces and jewelry, and now she was returning in
+high glee with her booty. The carriage passed quite near to David who
+stood with his back to the street, and she could see his animated face as
+he smiled at the other man, a fine looking man who looked as if he might
+be some one of note. The momentary glance did not show the haggard look of
+David's face nor the lines that his vigil of the night before had traced
+under his eyes, and Kate was angered to see him so unconcerned and
+forgetful of his pain of yesterday. Her face darkened with spite, and she
+resolved to make him suffer yet, and to the utmost, for the sin of
+forgetting her.
+
+But David was in the way of duty, and he did not see her, for his guardian
+angel was hovering close at hand.
+
+
+
+As the Fall wore on and the winter set in Harry's letters became less
+frequent and less intimate. Hannah was troubled, and after consultation
+with her grandmother, to which Miranda listened at the latch hole, duly
+reporting quotations to her adored Mrs. Spafford, Hannah decided upon an
+immediate trip to the metropolis.
+
+"Hannah's gone to New York to find out what's become of that nimshi Harry
+Temple. She thought she had him fast, an' she's been holdin' him over poor
+Lemuel Skinner's head like thet there sword hangin' by a hair I heard the
+minister tell about last Sunday, till Lemuel, he don't know but every
+minute's gone'll be his last. You mark my words, she'll hev to take poor
+Lem after all, an' be glad she's got him, too,--and she's none too good for
+him neither. He's ben faithful to her ever since she wore pantalets, an'
+she's ben keepin' him off'n on an' hopin' an' tryin' fer somebody bigger.
+It would jes' serve her right ef she'd get that fool of a Harry Temple,
+but she won't. He's too sharp for that ef he _is_ a fool. He don't want to
+tie himself up to no woman's aprun strings. He rather dandle about after
+'em all an' say pretty things, an' keep his earnin's fer himself."
+
+Hannah reached New York the week after David left for Washington. She
+wrote beforehand to Harry to let him know she was coming, and made plain
+that she expected his attentions exclusively while there, and he smiled
+blandly as he read the letter and read her intentions between the lines.
+He told Kate a good deal about her that evening when he went to call, told
+her how he had heard she was an old flame of David's, and Kate's jealousy
+was immediately aroused. She wished to meet Hannah Heath. There was a sort
+of triumph in the thought that she had scorned and flung aside the man
+whom this woman had "set her cap" for, even though another woman was now
+in the place that neither had. Hannah went to visit a cousin in New York
+who lived in a quiet part of the city and did not go out much, but for
+reasons best known to themselves, both Kate Leavenworth and Harry Temple
+elected to see a good deal of her while she was in the city. Harry was
+pleasant and attentive, but not more to one woman than to the other.
+Hannah, watching him jealously, decided that at least Kate was not her
+rival in his affections, and so Hannah and Kate became quite friendly.
+Kate had a way of making much of her women friends when she chose, and she
+happened to choose in this case, for it occurred to her it would be well
+to have a friend in the town where lived her sister and her former lover.
+There might be reasons why, sometime. She opened her heart of hearts to
+Hannah, and Hannah, quite discreetly, and without wasting much of her
+scanty store of love, entered, and the friendship was sealed. They had not
+known each other many days before Kate had confided to Hannah the story of
+her own marriage and her sister's, embellished of course as she chose.
+Hannah, astonished, puzzled, wondering, curious, at the tragedy that had
+been enacted at her very home door, became more friendly than ever and
+hated more cordially than ever the young and innocent wife who had stepped
+into the vacant place and so made her own hopes and ambitions impossible.
+She felt that she would like to put down the pert young thing for daring
+to be there, and to be pretty, and now she felt she had the secret which
+would help her to do so.
+
+As the visit went on and it became apparent to Hannah Heath that she was
+not the one woman in all the world to Harry Temple, she hinted to Kate
+that it was likely she would be married soon. She even went so far as to
+say that she had come away from home to decide the matter, and that she
+had but to say the word and the ceremony would come off. Kate questioned
+eagerly, and seeing her opportunity asked if she might come to the
+wedding. Hannah, flattered, and seeing a grand opportunity for a wholesale
+triumph and revenge, assented with pleasure. Afterward as Hannah had hoped
+and intended, Kate carried the news of the impending decision and probable
+wedding to the ears of Harry Temple.
+
+But Hannah's hint had no further effect upon the redoubtable Harry. Two
+days later he appeared, smiling, congratulatory, deploring the fact that
+she would be lost in a certain sense to his friendship, although he hoped
+always to be looked upon as a little more than a friend.
+
+Hannah covered her mortification under a calm and condescending exterior.
+She blushed appropriately, said some sentimental things about hoping their
+friendship would not be affected by the change, told him how much she had
+enjoyed their correspondence, but gave him to understand that it had been
+mere friendship of course from her point of view, and Harry indulgently
+allowed her to think that he had hoped for more and was grieved but
+consolable over the outcome.
+
+They waxed a trifle sentimental at the parting, but when Harry was gone,
+Hannah wrote a most touching letter to Lemuel Skinner which raised him to
+the seventh heaven of delight, causing him to feel that he was treading
+upon air as he walked the prosaic streets of his native town where he had
+been going about during Hannah's absence like a lost spirit without a
+guiding star.
+
+
+    "DEAR LEMUEL:" she wrote:--
+
+    "I am coming home. I wonder if you will be glad?
+
+
+(Artful Hannah, as if she did not know!)
+
+
+    "It is very delightful in New York and I have been having a gay
+    time since I came, and everybody has been most pleasant, but--
+
+      "'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
+      Still, be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
+      A charm from the skies seems to hallow it there,
+      Which, go through the world, you'll not meet with elsewhere.
+                          Home, home, sweet home!
+                        There's no place like home.
+
+    "That is a new song, Lemuel, that everybody here is singing. It is
+    written by a young American named John Howard Payne who is in
+    London now acting in a great playhouse. Everybody is wild over
+    this song. I'll sing it for you when I come home.
+
+    "I shall be at home in time for singing school next week, Lemuel.
+    I wonder if you'll come to see me at once and welcome me. You
+    cannot think how glad I shall be to get home again. It seems as
+    though I had been gone a year at least. Hoping to see you soon, I
+    remain
+
+                                     "Always your sincere friend,
+
+                                                       "HANNAH HEATH."
+
+
+And thus did Hannah make smooth her path before her, and very soon after
+inditing this epistle she bade good-bye to New York and took her way home
+resolved to waste no further time in chasing will-o-the-wisps.
+
+When Lemuel received that letter he took a good look at himself in the
+glass. More than seven years had he served for Hannah, and little hope had
+he had of a final reward. He was older by ten years than she, and already
+his face began to show it. He examined himself critically, and was pleased
+to find with that light of hope in his eyes he was not so bad looking as
+he feared. He betook himself to the village tailor forthwith and ordered a
+new suit of clothes, though his Sunday best was by no means shiny yet. He
+realized that if he did not win now he never would, and he resolved to do
+his best.
+
+On the way home, during all the joltings of the coach over rough roads
+Hannah Heath was planning two campaigns, one of love with Lemuel, and one
+of hate with Marcia Spafford. She was possessed of knowledge which she
+felt would help her in the latter, and often she smiled vindictively as
+she laid her neat plans for the destruction of the bride's complacency.
+
+That night the fire in the Heath parlor burned high and glowed, and the
+candles in their silver holders flickered across fair Hannah's face as she
+dimpled and smiled and coquetted with poor Lemuel. But Lemuel needed no
+pity. He was not afraid of Hannah. Not for nothing had he served his seven
+years, and he understood every fancy and foible of her shallow nature. He
+knew his time had come at last, and he was getting what he had wanted
+long, for Lemuel had admired and loved Hannah in spite of the dance she
+had led him, and in spite of the other lovers she had allowed to come
+between them.
+
+Hannah had not been at home many days before she called upon Marcia.
+
+Marcia had just seated herself at the piano when Hannah appeared to her
+from the hall, coming in unannounced through the kitchen door according to
+old neighborly fashion.
+
+Marcia was vexed. She arose from the instrument and led the way to the
+little morning room which was sunny and cosy, and bare of music or books.
+She did not like to visit with Hannah in the parlor. Somehow her presence
+reminded her of the evil face of Harry Temple as he had stooped to kiss
+her.
+
+"You know how to play, too, don't you?" said Hannah as they sat down.
+"Your sister plays beautifully. Do you know the new song, 'Home, Sweet
+Home?' She plays it with so much feeling and sings it so that one would
+think her heart was breaking for her home. You must have been a united
+family." Hannah said it with sharp scrutiny in voice and eyes.
+
+"Sit down, Miss Heath," said Marcia coolly, lowering the yellow shades
+that her visitor's eyes might not be troubled by a broad sunbeam. "Did you
+have a pleasant time in New York?"
+
+Hannah could not be sure whether or not the question was an evasion. The
+utterly child-like manner of Marcia disarmed suspicion.
+
+"Oh, delightful, of course. Could any one have anything else in New York?"
+
+Hannah laughed disagreeably. She realized the limitations of life in a
+town.
+
+"I suppose," said Marcia, her eyes shining with the thought, "that you saw
+all the wonderful things of the city. I should enjoy being in New York a
+little while. I have heard of so many new things. Were there any ships in
+the harbor? I have always wanted to go over a great ship. Did you have
+opportunity of seeing one?"
+
+"Oh, dear me. No!" said Hannah. "I shouldn't have cared in the least for
+that. I'm sure I don't know whether there were any ships in or not. I
+suppose there were. I saw a lot of sails on the water, but I did not ask
+about them. I'm not interested in dirty boats. I liked visiting the shops
+best. Your sister took me about everywhere. She is a most charming
+creature. You must miss her greatly. You were a sly little thing to cut
+her out."
+
+Marcia's face flamed crimson with anger and amazement. Hannah's dart had
+hit the mark, and she was watching keenly to see her victim quiver.
+
+"I do not understand you," said Marcia with girlish dignity.
+
+"Oh, now don't pretend to misunderstand. I've heard all about it from
+headquarters," she said it archly, laughing. "But then I don't blame you.
+David was worth it." Hannah ended with a sigh. If she had ever cared for
+any one besides herself that one was David Spafford.
+
+"I do not understand you," said Marcia again, drawing herself up with all
+the Schuyler haughtiness she could master, till she quite resembled her
+father.
+
+"Now, Mrs. Spafford," said the visitor, looking straight into her face and
+watching every expression as a cat would watch a mouse, "you don't mean to
+tell me your sister was not at one time very intimate with your husband."
+
+"Mr. Spafford has been intimate in our family for a number of years," said
+Marcia proudly, her fighting fire up, "but as for my having 'cut my sister
+out' as you call it, you have certainly been misinformed. Excuse me, I
+think I will close the kitchen door. It seems to blow in here and make a
+draft."
+
+Marcia left the room with her head up and her fine color well under
+control, and when she came back her head was still up and a distant
+expression was in her face. Somehow Hannah felt she had not gained much
+after all. But Marcia, after Hannah's departure, went up to her cold room
+and wept bitter tears on her pillow alone.
+
+                 [Illustration: Copyright by C. Klackner
+       MARCIA PASSED FROM THE OLD STONE CHURCH WITH THE TWO AUNTS.]
+
+                        Copyright by C. Klackner
+       MARCIA PASSED FROM THE OLD STONE CHURCH WITH THE TWO AUNTS.
+
+
+After that first visit Hannah never found the kitchen door unlocked when
+she came to make a morning call, but she improved every little opportunity
+to torment her gentle victim. She had had a letter from Kate and had
+Marcia heard? How often did Kate write her? Did Marcia know how fond Harry
+Temple was of Kate? And where was Kate's husband? Would he likely be
+ordered home soon? These little annoyances were almost unbearable
+sometimes and Marcia had much ado to keep her sweetness of outward
+demeanor.
+
+People looked upon Lemuel with new respect. He had finally won where they
+had considered him a fool for years for hanging on. The added respect
+brought added self-respect. He took on new manliness. Grandmother Heath
+felt that he really was not so bad after all, and perhaps Hannah might as
+well have taken him at first. Altogether the Heath family were well
+pleased, and preparations began at once for a wedding in the near future.
+
+And still David lingered, held here and there by a call from first one man
+and then another, and by important doings in Congress. He seemed to be
+rarely fitted for the work.
+
+Once he was called back to New York for a day or two, and Harry Temple
+happened to see him as he arrived. That night he wrote to Hannah a
+friendly letter--Harry was by no means through with Hannah yet--and casually
+remarked that he saw David Spafford was in New York again. He supposed now
+that Mrs. Leavenworth's evenings would be fully occupied and society would
+see little of her while he remained.
+
+The day after Hannah received that letter was Sunday.
+
+The weeks had gone by rapidly since David left his home, and now the
+spring was coming on. The grass was already green as summer and the willow
+tree by the graveyard gate was tender and green like a spring-plume. All
+the foliage was out and fluttering its new leaves in the sunshine as
+Marcia passed from the old stone church with the two aunts and opened her
+little green sunshade. Her motion made David's last letter rustle in her
+bosom. It thrilled her with pleasure that not even the presence of Hannah
+Heath behind her could cloud.
+
+However prim and fault-finding the two aunts might be in the seclusion of
+their own home, in public no two could have appeared more adoring than
+Amelia and Hortense Spafford. They hovered near Marcia and delighted to
+show how very close and intimate was the relationship between themselves
+and their new and beautiful niece, of whom in their secret hearts they
+were prouder than they would have cared to tell. In their best black silks
+and their fine lace shawls they walked beside her and talked almost
+eagerly, if those two stately beings could have anything to do with a
+quality so frivolous as eagerness. They wished it understood that David's
+wife was worthy of appreciation and they were more conscious than she of
+the many glances of admiration in her direction.
+
+Hannah Heath encountered some of those admiring glances and saw jealously
+for whom they were meant. She hastened to lean forward and greet Marcia,
+her spiteful tongue all ready for a stab.
+
+"Good morning, Mrs. Spafford. Is that husband of yours not home yet?
+Really! Why, he's quite deserted you. I call that hard for the first year,
+and your honeymoon scarcely over yet."
+
+"He's been called back to New York again," said Marcia annoyed over the
+spiteful little sentences. "He says he may be at home soon, but he cannot
+be sure. His business is rather uncertain."
+
+"New York!" said Hannah, and her voice was annoyingly loud. "What! Not
+again! There must be some great attraction there," and then with a meaning
+glance, "I suppose your sister is still there!"
+
+Marcia felt her face crimsoning, and the tears starting from angry eyes.
+She felt a sudden impulse to slap Hannah. What if she should! What would
+the aunts say? The thought of the tumult she might make roused her sense
+of humor and a laugh bubbled up instead of the tears, and Hannah,
+watching, cat-like, could only see eyes dancing with fun though the cheeks
+were charmingly red. By Hannah's expression Marcia knew she was baffled,
+but Marcia could not get away from the disagreeable suggestion that had
+been made.
+
+Yes, David was in New York, and Kate was there. Not for an instant did she
+doubt her husband's nobleness. She knew David would be good and true. She
+knew little of the world's wickedness, and never thought of any blame, as
+other women might, in such a suggestion. But a great jealousy sprang into
+being that she never dreamed existed. Kate was there, and he would perhaps
+see her, and all his old love and disappointment would be brought to mind
+again. Had she, Marcia, been hoping he would forget it? Had she been
+claiming something of him in her heart for herself? She could not tell.
+She did not know what all this tumult of feeling meant. She longed to get
+away and think it over, but the solemn Sunday must be observed. She must
+fold away her church things, put on another frock and come down to the
+oppressive Sunday dinner, hear Deacon Brown's rheumatism discussed, or
+listen to a long comparison of the morning's sermon with one preached
+twenty years ago by the minister, now long dead upon the same text. It was
+all very hard to keep her mind upon, with these other thoughts rushing
+pell-mell through her brain; and when Aunt Amelia asked her to pass the
+butter, she handed the sugar-bowl instead. Miss Amelia looked as shocked
+as if she had broken the great-grandmother's china teapot.
+
+Aunt Clarinda claimed her after dinner and carried her off to her room to
+talk about David, so that Marcia had no chance to think even then. Miss
+Clarinda looked into the sweet shadowed eyes and wondered why the girl
+looked so sad. She thought it was because David stayed away so long, and
+so she kept her with her all the rest of the day.
+
+When Marcia went to her room that night she threw herself on her knees
+beside the bed and tried to pray. She felt more lonely and heartsick than
+she ever felt before in her life. She did not know what the great hunger
+in her heart meant. It was terrible to think David had loved Kate. Kate
+never loved him in return in the right way. Marcia felt very sure of that.
+She wished she might have had the chance in Kate's place, and then all of
+a sudden the revelation came to her. She loved David herself with a great
+overwhelming love. Not just a love that could come and keep house for him
+and save him from the criticisms and comments of others; but with a love
+that demanded to be loved in return; a love that was mindful of every dear
+lineament of his countenance. The knowledge thrilled through her with a
+great sweetness. She did not seem to care for anything else just now, only
+to know that she loved David. David could never love her of course, not in
+that way, but she would love him. She would try to shut out the thought of
+Kate from him forever.
+
+And so, dreaming, hovering on the edge of all that was bitter and all that
+was sweet, she fell asleep with David's letter clasped close over her
+heart.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+Marcia had gone down to her own house the next morning very early. She had
+hoped for a letter but none had come. Her soul was in torment between her
+attempt to keep out of her mind the hateful things Hannah Heath had said,
+and reproaching herself for what seemed to her her unseemly feeling toward
+David, who loved another and could never love her. It was not a part of
+her life-dream to love one who belonged to another. Yet her heart was his
+and she was beginning to know that everything belonging to him was dear to
+her. She went and sat in his place at the table, she touched with
+tenderness the books upon his desk that he had used before he went away,
+she went up to his room and laid her lips for one precious daring instant
+upon his pillow, and then drew back with wildly beating heart ashamed of
+her emotion. She knelt beside his bed and prayed: "Oh, God, I love him, I
+love him! I cannot help it!" as if she would apologize for herself, and
+then she hugged the thought of her love to herself, feeling its sweet pain
+drift through her like some delicious agony. Her love had come through
+sorrow to her, and was not as she would have had it could she have chosen.
+It brought no ray of happy hope for the future, save just the happiness of
+loving in secret, and of doing for the object loved, with no thought of a
+returned affection.
+
+Then she went slowly down the stairs, trying to think how it would seem
+when David came back. He had been so long gone that it seemed as if
+perhaps he might never return. She felt that it had been no part of the
+spirit of her contract with David that she should render to him this wild
+sweet love that he had expected Kate to give. He had not wanted it. He had
+only wanted a wife in name.
+
+Then the color would sweep over her face in a crimson drift and leave it
+painfully white, and she would glide to the piano like a ghost of her
+former self and play some sad sweet strain, and sometimes sing.
+
+She had no heart for her dear old woods in these days. She had tried it
+one day in spring; slipped over the back fence and away through the
+ploughed field where the sea of silver oats had surged, and up to the
+hillside and the woods; but she was so reminded of David that it only
+brought heart aches and tears. She wondered if it was because she was
+getting old that the hillside did not seem so joyous now, and she did not
+care to look up into the sky just for the pure joy of sky and air and
+clouds, nor to listen to the branches whisper to the robins nesting. She
+stooped and picked a great handful of spring beauties, but they did not
+seem to give her pleasure, and by and by she dropped them from listless
+fingers and walked sedately down to the house once more.
+
+On this morning she did not even care to play. She went into the parlor
+and touched a few notes, but her heart was heavy and sad. Life was growing
+too complex.
+
+Last week there had come a letter from Harry Temple. It had startled her
+when it arrived. She feared it was some ill-news about David, coming as it
+did from New York and being written in a strange hand.
+
+It had been a plea for forgiveness, representing that the writer had
+experienced nothing but deep repentance and sorrow since the time he had
+seen her last. He set forth his case in a masterly way, with little
+touching facts of his childhood, and lonely upbringing, with no mother to
+guide. He told her that her noble action toward him had but made him
+revere her the more, and that, in short, she had made a new creature of
+him by refusing to return his kiss that day, and leaving him alone with so
+severe a rebuke. He felt that if all women were so good and true men would
+be a different race, and now he looked up to her as one might look up to
+an angel, and he felt he could never be happy again on this earth until he
+had her written word of forgiveness. With that he felt he could live a new
+life, and she must rest assured that he would never offer other than
+reverence to any woman again. He further added that his action had not
+intended any insult to her, that he was merely expressing his natural
+admiration for a spirit so good and true, and that his soul was innocent
+of any intention of evil. With sophistry in the use of which he was an
+adept, he closed his epistle, fully clearing himself, and assuring her
+that he could have made her understand it that day if she had not left so
+suddenly, and he had not been almost immediately called away to the dying
+bed of his dear cousin. This contradictory letter had troubled Marcia
+greatly. She was keen enough to see that his logic was at fault, and that
+the two pages of his letter did not hang together, but one thing was
+plain, that he wished her forgiveness. The Bible said that one must
+forgive, and surely it was right to let him know that she did, though when
+she thought of the fright he had given her it was hard to do. Still, it
+was right, and if he was so unhappy, perhaps she had better let him know.
+She would rather have waited until David returned to consult him in the
+matter, but the letter seemed so insistent that she had finally written a
+stiff little note, in formal language, "Mrs. Spafford sends herewith her
+full and free forgiveness to Mr. Harry Temple, and promises to think no
+more of the matter."
+
+She would have liked to consult some one. She almost thought of taking
+Aunt Clarinda into her confidence, but decided that she might not
+understand. So she finally sent off the brief missive, and let her
+troubled thoughts wander after it more than once.
+
+She was standing by the window looking out into the yard perplexing
+herself over this again when there came a loud knocking at the front door.
+She started, half frightened, for the knock sounded through the empty
+house so insistently. It seemed like trouble coming. She felt nervous as
+she went down the hall.
+
+It was only a little urchin, barefoot, and tow-headed. He had ridden an
+old mare to the door, and left her nosing at the dusty grass. He brought
+her a letter. Again her heart fluttered excitedly. Who could be writing to
+her? It was not David. Why did the handwriting look familiar? It could not
+be from any one at home. Father? Mother? No, it was no one she knew. She
+tore it open, and the boy jumped on his horse and was off down the street
+before she realized that he was gone.
+
+
+    "DEAR MADAM:" the letter read,
+
+    "I bring you news of your husband, and having met with an accident
+    I am unable to come further. You will find me at the Green Tavern
+    two miles out on the corduroy road. As the business is private,
+    please come alone.
+
+                                                        "A MESSENGER."
+
+
+Marcia trembled so that she sat down on the stairs. A sudden weakness went
+over her like a wave, and the hall grew dark around her as though she were
+going to faint. But she did not. She was strong and well and had never
+fainted in her life. She rallied in a moment and tried to think. Something
+had happened to David. Something dreadful, perhaps, and she must go at
+once and find out. Still it must be something mysterious, for the man had
+said it was private. Of course that meant David would not want it known.
+David had intended that the man would come to her and tell her by herself.
+She must go. There was nothing else to be done. She must go at once and
+get rid of this awful suspense. It was a good day for the message to have
+come, for she had brought her lunch expecting to do some spring cleaning.
+David had been expected home soon, and she liked to make a bustle of
+preparation as if he might come in any day, for it kept up her good cheer.
+
+Having resolved to go she got up at once, closed the doors and windows,
+put on her bonnet and went out down the street toward the old corduroy
+road. It frightened her to think what might be at the end of her journey.
+Possibly David himself, hurt or dying, and he had sent for her in this way
+that she might break the news gently to his aunts. As she walked along she
+conjured various forms of trouble that might have come to him. Now and
+then she would try to take a cheerful view, saying to herself that David
+might have needed more important papers, papers which he would not like
+everyone to know about, and had sent by special messenger to her to get
+them. Then her face would brighten and her step grow more brisk. But
+always would come the dull thud of possibility of something more serious.
+Her heart beat so fast sometimes that she was forced to lessen her speed
+to get her breath, for though she was going through town, and must
+necessarily walk somewhat soberly lest she call attention to herself, she
+found that her nerves and imagination were fairly running ahead, and
+waiting impatiently for her feet to catch up at every turning place.
+
+At last she came to the corduroy road--a long stretch of winding way
+overlaid with logs which made an unpleasant path. Most of the way was
+swampy, and bordered in some places by thick, dark woods. Marcia sped on
+from log to log, with a nervous feeling that she must step on each one or
+her errand would not be successful. She was not afraid of the loneliness,
+only of what might be coming at the end of her journey.
+
+But suddenly, in the densest part of the wood, she became conscious of
+footsteps echoing hers, and a chill laid hold upon her. She turned her
+head and there, wildly gesticulating and running after her, was Miranda!
+
+Annoyed, and impatient to be on her way, and wondering what to do with
+Miranda, or what she could possibly want, Marcia stopped to wait for her.
+
+"I thought--as you was goin' 'long my way"--puffed Miranda, "I'd jes' step
+along beside you. You don't mind, do you?"
+
+Marcia looked troubled. If she should say she did then Miranda would think
+it queer and perhaps suspect something.
+
+She tried to smile and ask how far Miranda was going.
+
+"Oh, I'm goin' to hunt fer wild strawberries," said the girl nonchalantly
+clattering a big tin pail.
+
+"Isn't it early yet for strawberries?" questioned Marcia.
+
+"Well, mebbe, an' then ag'in mebbe 'tain't. I know a place I'm goin' to
+look anyway. Are you goin' 's fur 's the Green Tavern?"
+
+Miranda's bright eyes looked her through and through, and Marcia's
+truthful ones could not evade. Suddenly as she looked into the girl's
+homely face, filled with a kind of blind adoration, her heart yearned for
+counsel in this trying situation. She was reminded of Miranda's
+helpfulness the time she ran away to the woods, and the care with which
+she had guarded the whole matter so that no one ever heard of it. An
+impulse came to her to confide in Miranda. She was a girl of sharp common
+sense, and would perhaps be able to help with her advice. At least she
+could get comfort from merely telling her trouble and anxiety.
+
+"Miranda," she said, "can you keep a secret?"
+
+The girl nodded.
+
+"Well, I'm going to tell you something, just because I am so troubled and
+I feel as if it would do me good to tell it." She smiled and Miranda
+answered the smile with much satisfaction and no surprise. Miranda had
+come for this, though she did not expect her way to be so easy.
+
+"I'll be mum as an oyster," said Miranda. "You jest tell me anything you
+please. You needn't be afraid Hannah Heath'll know a grain about it.
+She'n' I are two people. I know when to shut up."
+
+"Well, Miranda, I'm in great perplexity and anxiety. I've just had a note
+from a messenger my husband has sent asking me to come out to that Green
+Tavern you were talking about. He was sent to me with some message and has
+had an accident so he couldn't come. It kind of frightened me to think
+what might be the matter. I'm glad you are going this way because it keeps
+me from thinking about it. Are we nearly there? I never went out this road
+so far before."
+
+"It ain't fur," said Miranda as if that were a minor matter. "I'll go
+right along in with you, then you needn't feel lonely. I guess likely it's
+business. Don't you worry." The tone was reassuring, but Marcia's face
+looked troubled.
+
+"No, I guess that won't do, Miranda, for the note says it is a private
+matter and I must come alone. You know Mr. Spafford has matters to write
+about that are very important, railroads, and such things, and sometimes
+he doesn't care to have any one get hold of his ideas before they appear
+in the paper. His enemies might use them to stop the plans of the great
+improvements he is writing about."
+
+"Let me see that note!" demanded Miranda. "Got it with you?" Marcia
+hesitated. Perhaps she ought not to show it, and yet there was nothing in
+the note but what she had already told the girl, and she felt sure she
+would not breathe a word to a living soul after her promise. She handed
+Miranda the letter, and they stopped a moment while she slowly spelled it
+out. Miranda was no scholar. Marcia watched her face eagerly, as if to
+gather a ray of hope from it, but she was puzzled by Miranda's look. A
+kind of satisfaction had overspread her homely countenance.
+
+"Should you think from that that David was hurt--or ill--or--or--killed--or
+anything?" She asked the question as if Miranda were a wizard, and hung
+anxiously upon her answer.
+
+"Naw, I don't reckon so!" said Miranda. "Don't you worry. David's all
+right somehow. I'll take care o' you. You go 'long up and see what's the
+business, an' I'll wait here out o' sight o' the tavern. Likely's not he
+might take a notion not to tell you ef he see me come along with you. You
+jest go ahead, and I'll be on hand when you get through. If you need me
+fer anything you jest holler out 'Randy!' good and loud an' I'll hear you.
+Guess I'll set on this log. The tavern's jest round that bend in the road.
+Naw, you needn't thank me. This is a real pretty mornin' to set an' rest.
+Good-bye."
+
+Marcia hurried on, glancing back happily at her protector in a calico
+sunbonnet seated stolidly on a log with her tin pail beside her.
+
+Poor stupid Miranda! Of course she could not understand what a comfort it
+was to have confided her trouble. Marcia went up to the tavern with almost
+a smile on her face, though her heart began to beat wildly as a slatternly
+girl led her into a big room at the right of the hall.
+
+As Marcia disappeared behind the bend in the road, Miranda stealthily
+stole along the edge of the woods, till she stood hidden behind a clump of
+alders where she could peer out and watch Marcia until she reached the
+tavern and passed safely by the row of lounging, smoking men, and on into
+the doorway. Then Miranda waited just an instant to look in all
+directions, and sped across the road, mounting the fence and on through
+two meadows, and the barnyard to the kitchen door of the tavern.
+
+"Mornin'! Mis' Green," she said to the slovenly looking woman who sat by
+the table peeling potatoes. "Mind givin' me a drink o' water? I'm terrible
+thirsty, and seemed like I couldn't find the spring. Didn't thare used to
+be a spring 'tween here'n town?"
+
+"Goodness sakes! Randy! Where'd you come from? Water! Jes' help yourself.
+There's the bucket jes' from the spring five minutes since, an' there's
+the gourd hanging up on the wall. I can't get up, I'm that busy. Twelve to
+dinner to-day, an' only me to do the cookin'. 'Melia she's got to be
+upstairs helpin' at the bar."
+
+"Who all you got here?" questioned Miranda as she took a draught from the
+old gourd.
+
+"Well, got a gentleman from New York fur one. He's real pretty. Quite a
+beau. His clo'es are that nice you'd think he was goin' to court. He's
+that particular 'bout his eatin' I feel flustered. Nothin' would do but he
+hed to hev a downstairs room. He said he didn't like goin' upstairs. He
+don't look sickly, neither."
+
+"Mebbe he's had a accident an' lamed himself," suggested Miranda
+cunningly. "Heard o' any accidents? How'd he come? Coach or horseback?"
+
+"Coach," said Mrs. Green. "Why do you ask? Got any friends in New York?"
+
+"Not many," responded Miranda importantly, "but my cousin Hannah Heath
+has. You know she's ben up there for a spell visitin' an' they say there
+was lots of gentlemen in love with her. There's one in particular used to
+come round a good deal. It might be him come round to see ef it's true
+Hannah's goin' to get married to Lem Skinner. Know what this fellow's name
+is?"
+
+"You don't say! Well now it might be. No, I don't rightly remember his
+name. Seems though it was something like Church er Chapel. 'Melia could
+tell ye, but she's busy."
+
+"Where's he at? Mebbe I could get a glimpse o' him. I'd jest like to know
+ef he was comin' to bother our Hannah."
+
+"Well now. Mebbe you could get a sight o' him. There's a cupboard between
+his room an' the room back. It has a door both sides. Mebbe ef you was to
+slip in there you might see him through the latch hole. I ain't usin' that
+back room fer anythin' but a store-room this spring, so look out you don't
+stumble over nothin' when you go in fer it's dark as a pocket. You go
+right 'long in. I reckon you'll find the way. Yes, it's on the right hand
+side o' the hall. I've got to set here an' finish these potatoes er
+dinner'll be late. I'd like to know real well ef he's one o' Hannah
+Heath's beaux."
+
+Miranda needed no second bidding. She slipped through the hall and store
+room, and in a moment stood before the door of the closet. Softly she
+opened it, and stepped in, lifting her feet cautiously, for the closet
+floor seemed full of old boots and shoes.
+
+It was dark in there, very dark, and only one slat of light stabbed the
+blackness coming through the irregular shape of the latch hole. She could
+hear voices in low tones speaking on the other side of the door. Gradually
+her eyes grew accustomed to the light and one by one objects came out of
+the shadows and looked at her. A white pitcher with a broken nose, a row
+of bottles, a bunch of seed corn with the husks braided together and hung
+on a nail, an old coat on another nail.
+
+Down on her knees beside the crack of light went Miranda. First her eye
+and then her ear were applied to the small aperture. She could see nothing
+but a table directly in front of the door about a foot away on which were
+quills, paper, and a large horn inkstand filled with ink. Some one
+evidently had been writing, for a page was half done, and the pen was laid
+down beside a word.
+
+The limits of the latch hole made it impossible for Miranda to make out
+any more. She applied her ear and could hear a man's voice talking in low
+insinuating tones, but she could make little of what was said. It drove
+her fairly frantic to think that she was losing time. Miranda had no mind
+to be balked in her purpose. She meant to find out who was in that room
+and what was going on. She felt a righteous interest in it.
+
+Her eyes could see quite plainly now in the dark closet. There was a big
+button on the door. She no sooner discovered it than she put up her hand
+and tried to turn it. It was tight and made a slight squeak in turning.
+She stopped but the noise seemed to have no effect upon the evenly
+modulated tones inside. Cautiously she moved the button again, holding the
+latch firmly in her other hand lest the door should suddenly fly open. It
+was an exciting moment when at last the button was turned entirely away
+from the door frame and the lifted latch swung free in Miranda's hand. The
+door opened outward. If it were allowed to go it would probably strike
+against the table. Miranda only allowed it to open a crack. She could hear
+words now, and the voice reminded her of something unpleasant. The least
+little bit more she dared open the door, and she could see, as she had
+expected, Marcia's bonnet and shoulder cape as she sat at the other side
+of the room. This then was the room of the messenger who had sent for Mrs.
+Spafford so peremptorily. The next thing was to discover the identity of
+the messenger. Miranda had suspicions.
+
+The night before she had seen a man lurking near the Spafford house when
+she went out in the garden to feed the chickens. She had watched him from
+behind the lilac bush, and when he had finally gone away she had followed
+him some distance until he turned into the old corduroy road and was lost
+in the gathering dusk. The man she had seen before, and had reason to
+suspect. It was not for nothing that she had braved her grandmother and
+gone hunting wild strawberries out of season.
+
+With the caution of a creature of the forest Miranda opened the door an
+inch further, and applied her eye to the latch hole again. The man's head
+was in full range of her eye then, and her suspicion proved true.
+
+When Marcia entered the big room and the heavy oak door closed behind her
+her heart seemed almost choking her, but she tried with all her might to
+be calm. She was to know the worst now.
+
+On the other side of the room in a large arm-chair, with his feet extended
+on another and covered by a travelling shawl, reclined a man. Marcia went
+toward him eagerly, and then stopped:
+
+"Mr. Temple!" There was horror, fear, reproach in the way she spoke it.
+
+"I know you are astonished, Mrs. Spafford, that the messenger should be
+one so unworthy, and let me say at the beginning that I am more thankful
+than I can express that your letter of forgiveness reached me before I was
+obliged to start on my sorrowful commission. I beg you will sit down and
+be as comfortable as you can while I explain further. Pardon my not
+rising. I have met with a bad sprain caused by falling from my horse on
+the way, and was barely able to reach this stopping place. My ankle is
+swollen so badly that I cannot step upon my foot."
+
+Marcia, with white face, moved to the chair he indicated near him, and sat
+down. The one thought his speech had conveyed to her had come through
+those words "my sorrowful commission." She felt the need of sitting down,
+for her limbs would no longer bear her up, and she felt she must
+immediately know what was the matter.
+
+"Mrs. Spafford, may I ask you once more to speak your forgiveness? Before
+I begin to tell you what I have come for, I long to hear you say the words
+'I forgive you.' Will you give me your hand and say them?"
+
+"Mr. Temple, I beg you will tell me what is the matter. Do not think any
+further about that other matter. I meant what I said in the note. Tell me
+quick! Is my husband--has anything happened to Mr. Spafford? Is he ill? Is
+he hurt?"
+
+"My poor child! How can I bear to tell you? It seems terrible to put your
+love and trust upon another human being and then suddenly find---- But wait.
+Let me tell the story in my own way. No, your husband is not hurt,
+physically. Illness, and death even, are not the worst things that can
+happen to a mortal soul. It seems to me cruel, as I see you sit there so
+young and tender and beautiful, that I should have to hurt you by what I
+have to say. I come from the purest of motives to tell you a sad truth
+about one who should be nearest and dearest to you of all the earth. I beg
+you will look upon me kindly and believe that it hurts me to have to tell
+you these things. Before I begin I pray you will tell me that you forgive
+me for all I have to say. Put your hand in mine and say so."
+
+Marcia had listened to this torrent of words unable to stop them, a
+choking sensation in her throat, fear gripping her heart. Some terrible
+thing had happened. Her senses refused to name the possibility. Would he
+never tell? What ailed the man that he wanted her hand in forgiveness? Of
+course she forgave him. She could not speak, and he kept urging.
+
+"I cannot talk until I have your hand as a pledge that you will forgive me
+and think not unkindly of me for what I am about to tell you."
+
+He must have seen how powerfully he wrought upon her, for he continued
+until wild with frantic fear she stumbled toward him and laid her hand in
+his. He grasped it and thanked her profusely. He looked at the little cold
+hand in his own, and his lying tongue went on:
+
+"Mrs. Spafford, you are good and true. You have saved me from a life of
+uselessness, and your example and high noble character have given me new
+inspiration. It seems a poor gratitude that would turn and stab you to the
+heart. Ah! I cannot do it, and yet I must."
+
+This was torture indeed! Marcia drew her hand sharply away and held it to
+her heart. She felt her brain reeling with the strain. Harry Temple saw he
+must go on at once or he would lose what he had gained. He had meant to
+keep that little hand and touch it gently with a comforting pressure as
+his story went on, but it would not do to frighten her or she might take
+sudden alarm.
+
+"Sit down," he begged, reaching out and drawing a chair near to his own,
+but she stepped back and dropped into the one which she had first taken.
+
+"You know your husband has been in New York?" he began. She nodded. She
+could not speak.
+
+"Did you never suspect why he is there and why he stays so long?" A cold
+vise gripped Marcia's heart, but though she turned white she said nothing,
+only looked steadily into the false eyes that glowed and burned at her
+like two hateful coals of fire that would scorch her soul and David's to a
+horrid death.
+
+"Poor child, you cannot answer. You have trusted perfectly. You thought he
+was there on business connected with his writing, but did it never occur
+to you what a very long time he has been away and that--that there might be
+some other reason also which he has not told? But you must know it now, my
+child. I am sorry to say it, but he has been keeping it from you, and
+those who love you think you ought to know. Let me explain. Very soon
+after he reached New York he met a lady whom he used to know and admire.
+She is a very beautiful woman, and though she is married is still much
+sought after. Your husband, like the rest of her admirers, soon lost his
+heart completely, and his head. Strange that he could so easily forget the
+pearl of women he had left behind! He went to see her. He showed his
+affection for her in every possible way. He gave her large sums of money.
+In fact, to make a long story short, he is lingering in New York just to
+be near her. I hesitate to speak the whole truth, but he has surely done
+that which you cannot forgive. You with your lofty ideas--Mrs. Spafford--he
+has cut himself off from any right to your respect or love.
+
+"And now I am here to-day to offer to do all in my power to help you. From
+what I know of your husband's movements, he is likely to return to you
+soon. You cannot meet him knowing that the lips that will salute you have
+been pressed upon the lips of another woman, and that woman _your own
+sister_, dear Mrs. Spafford!
+
+"Ah! Now you understand, poor child. Your lips quiver! You have reason to
+understand. I know, I know you cannot think what to do. Let me think for
+you." His eyes were glowing and his face animated. He was using all his
+persuasive power, and her gaze was fixed upon him as though he had
+mesmerized her. She could not resist the flood-tide of his eloquence. She
+could only look on and seem to be gradually turning to stone--frozen with
+horror.
+
+He felt he had almost won, and with demoniacal skill he phrased his
+sentences.
+
+"I am here for that purpose. I am here to help you and for no other
+reason. In the stable are horses harnessed and a comfortable carriage. My
+advice to you is to fly from here as fast as these fleet horses can carry
+you. Where you go is for you to say. I should advise going to your
+father's house. That I am sure is what will please him best. He is your
+natural refuge at such a time as this. If, however, you shrink from
+appearing before the eyes of the village gossips in your native town, I
+will take you to the home of a dear old friend of mine, hidden among the
+quiet hills, where you will be cared for most royally and tenderly for my
+sake, and where you can work out your life problem in the way that seems
+best to you. It is there that I am planning to take you to-night. We can
+easily reach there before evening if we start at once."
+
+Marcia started to her feet in horror.
+
+"What do you mean?" she stammered in a choking voice. "I could never go
+anywhere with you Mr. Temple. You are a bad man! You have been telling me
+lies! I do not believe one word of what you have said. My husband is noble
+and good. If he did any of those things you say he did he had a reason for
+it. I shall never distrust him."
+
+Marcia's head was up grandly now and her voice had come back. She looked
+the man in the eye until he quailed, but still he sought to hold his power
+over her.
+
+"You poor child!" and his voice was gentleness and forbearance itself. "I
+do not wonder in your first horror and surprise that you feel as you do. I
+anticipated this. Sit down and calm yourself and let me tell you more
+about it. I can prove everything that I have said. I have letters here----"
+and he swept his hand toward a pile of letters lying on the table; Miranda
+in the closet marked well the position of those letters. "All that I have
+said is only too true, I am sorry to say, and you must listen to me----"
+
+Marcia interrupted him, her eyes blazing, her face excited: "Mr. Temple, I
+shall not listen to another word you say. You are a wicked man and I was
+wrong to come here at all. You deceived me or I should not have come. I
+must go home at once." With that she started toward the door.
+
+Harry Temple flung aside the shawl that covered his sometime sprained
+ankle and arose quickly, placing himself before her, forgetful of his
+invalid role:
+
+"Not so fast, my pretty lady," he said, grasping her wrists fiercely in
+both his hands. "You need not think to escape so easily. You shall not
+leave this room except in my company. Do you not know that you are in my
+power? You have spent nearly an hour alone in my bedchamber, and what will
+your precious husband have to do with you after this is known?"
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+Miranda's time had come. She had seen it coming and was prepared.
+
+With a movement like a flash she pushed open the closet door, seized the
+pot of ink from the table, and before the two excited occupants of the
+room had time to even hear her or realize that she was near, she hurled
+the ink pot full into the insolent face of Harry Temple. The inkstand
+itself was a light affair of horn and inflicted only a slight wound, but
+the ink came into his eyes in a deluge blinding him completely, as Miranda
+had meant it should do. She had seen no other weapon of defense at hand.
+
+Harry Temple dropped Marcia's wrists and groaned in pain, staggering back
+against the wall and sinking to the floor. But Miranda would not stay to
+see the effect of her punishment. She seized the frightened Marcia,
+dragged her toward the cupboard door, sweeping as she passed the pile of
+letters, finished and unfinished, into her apron, and closed the cupboard
+doors carefully behind her. Then she guided Marcia through the dark mazes
+of the store room to the hall, and pushing her toward the front door,
+whispered: "Go quick 'fore he gets his eyes open. I've got to go this way.
+Run down the road fast as you can an' I'll be at the meetin' place first.
+Hurry, quick!"
+
+Marcia went with feet that shook so that every step seemed like to slip,
+but with beating heart she finally traversed the length of the piazza with
+a show of dignity, passed the loungers, and was out in the road. Then
+indeed she took courage and fairly flew.
+
+Miranda, breathless, but triumphant, went back into the kitchen: "I guess
+'tain't him after all," she said to the interested woman who was putting
+on the potatoes to boil. "He's real interesting to look at though. I'd
+like to stop and watch him longer but I must be goin'. I come out to hunt
+fer"--Miranda hesitated for a suitable object before this country-bred
+woman who well knew that strawberries were not ripe yet--"wintergreens fer
+Grandma," she added cheerfully, not quite sure whether they grew around
+these parts, "and I must be in a hurry. Good-bye! Thank you fer the
+drink."
+
+Miranda whizzed out of the door breezily, calling a good morning to one of
+the hostlers as she passed the barnyard, and was off through the meadows
+and over the fence like a bird, the package of letters rustling loud in
+her bosom where she had tucked them before she entered the kitchen.
+
+Neither of the two girls spoke for some minutes after they met, but
+continued their rapid gait, until the end of the corduroy road was in
+sight and they felt comparatively safe.
+
+"Wal, that feller certainly ought to be strung up an' walluped, now, fer
+sure," remarked Miranda, "an I'd like to help at the wallupin'."
+
+Marcia's overstrung nerves suddenly dissolved into hysterical laughter.
+The contrast from the tragic to the ridiculous was too much for her. She
+laughed until the tears rolled down her cheeks, and then she cried in
+earnest. Miranda stopped and put her arms about her as gently as a mother
+might have done, and smoothed her hair back from the hot cheek, speaking
+tenderly:
+
+"There now, you poor pretty little flower. Jest you cry 's hard 's you
+want to. I know how good it makes you feel to cry. I've done it many a
+time up garret where nobody couldn't hear me. That old Satan, he won't
+trouble you fer a good long spell again. When he gets his evil eyes open,
+if he ever does, he'll be glad to get out o' these parts or I miss my
+guess. Now don't you worry no more. He can't hurt you one mite. An' don't
+you think a thing about what he said. He's a great big liar, that's what
+he is."
+
+"Miranda, you saved me. Yes, you did. I never can thank you enough. If you
+hadn't come and helped me something awful might have happened!" Marcia
+shuddered and began to sob convulsively again.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Miranda, pleased. "I didn't do a thing worth mentioning.
+Now you jest wipe your eyes and chirk up. We've got to go through town an'
+you don't want folks to wonder what's up."
+
+Miranda led Marcia up to the spring whose location had been known to her
+all the time of course, and Marcia bathed her eyes and was soon looking
+more like herself, though there was a nervous tremor to her lips now and
+then. But her companion talked gaily, and tried to keep her mind from
+going over the events of the morning.
+
+When they reached the village Miranda suggested they go home by the back
+street, slipping through a field of spring wheat and climbing the garden
+fence. She had a mind to keep out of her grandmother's sight for a while
+longer.
+
+"I might's well be hung for a sheep's a lamb," she remarked, as she slid
+in at Marcia's kitchen door in the shadow of the morning-glory vines. "I'm
+goin' to stay here a spell an' get you some dinner while you go upstairs
+an' lie down. You don't need to go back to your aunt's till near night,
+an' you can wait till dusk an' I'll go with you. Then you needn't be out
+alone at all. I know how you feel, but I don't believe you need worry.
+He'll be done with you now forever, er I'll miss my guess. Now you go lie
+down till I make a cup o' tea."
+
+Marcia was glad to be alone, and soon fell asleep, worn out with the
+excitement, her brain too weary to go over the awful occurrences of the
+morning. That would come later. Now her body demanded rest.
+
+Miranda, coming upstairs with the tea, tiptoed in and looked at her,--one
+round arm thrown over her head, and her smooth peachy cheek resting
+against it. Miranda, homely, and with no hope of ever attaining any of the
+beautiful things of life, loved unselfishly this girl who had what she had
+not, and longed with all her heart to comfort and protect the sweet young
+thing who seemed so ill-prepared to protect herself. She stooped over the
+sleeper for one yearning moment, and touched her hair lightly with her
+lips. She felt a great desire to kiss the soft round cheek, but was afraid
+of wakening her. Then she took the cup of tea and tiptoed out again, her
+eyes shining with satisfaction. She had a self-imposed task before her,
+and was well pleased that Marcia slept, for it gave her plenty of
+opportunity to carry out her plans.
+
+She went quickly to David's library, opened drawers and doors in the desk
+until she found writing materials, and sat down to work. She had a letter
+to write, and a letter, to Miranda, was the achievement of a lifetime. She
+did not much expect to ever have to write another. She plunged into her
+subject at once.
+
+
+    "DEAR MR. DAVID:" (she was afraid that sounded a little stiff, but
+    she felt it was almost too familiar to say "David" as he was
+    always called.)
+
+    "I ain't much on letters, but this one has got to be writ.
+    Something happened and somebody's got to tell you about it. I'm
+    most sure she wont, and nobody else knows cept me.
+
+    "Last night 'bout dark I went out to feed the chickens, an' I see
+    that nimshi Harry Temple skulkin round your house. It was all dark
+    there, an he walked in the side gate and tried to peek in the
+    winders, only the shades was down an he couldn't see a thing. I
+    thought he was up to some mischief so I followed him down the
+    street a piece till he turned down the old corduroy road. It was
+    dark by then an I come home, but I was on the watchout this
+    morning, and after Mis' Spafford come down to the house I heard a
+    horse gallopin by an I looked out an saw a boy get off an take a
+    letter to the door an ride away, an pretty soon all in a hurry
+    your wife come out tyin her bonnet and hurryin along lookin
+    scared. I grabbed my sunbonnet an clipped after her, but she went
+    so fast I didn't get up to her till she got on the old corduroy
+    road. She was awful scared lookin an she didn't want me much I
+    see, but pretty soon she up an told me she had a note sayin there
+    was a messenger with news from you out to the old Green Tavern. He
+    had a accident an couldn't come no further. He wanted her to come
+    alone cause the business was private, so I stayed down by the turn
+    of the road till she got in an then I went cross lots an round to
+    the kitchen an called on Mis' Green a spell. She was tellin me
+    about her boarders an I told her I thought mebbe one of em was a
+    friend o' Hannah Heath's so she said I might peek through the key
+    hole of the cubberd an see. She was busy so I went alone.
+
+    "Well sir, I jest wish you'd been there. That lying nimshi was
+    jest goin on the sweetest, as respectful an nice a thankin your
+    wife fer comin, an excusin himself fer sendin fer her, and sayin
+    he couldn't bear to tell her what he'd come fer, an pretty soon
+    when she was scared 's death he up an told her a awful fib bout
+    you an a woman called Kate, whoever she is, an he jest poured the
+    words out fast so she couldn't speak, an he said things about you
+    he shouldn't uv, an you could see he was makin it up as he went
+    along, an he said he had proof. So he pointed at a pile of letters
+    on the table an I eyed em good through the hole in the door.
+    Pretty soon he ups and perposes that he carry her off in a
+    carriage he has all ready, and takes her to a friend of his, so
+    she wont be here when you come home, cause you're so bad, and she
+    gets up looking like she wanted to scream only she didn't dare,
+    and she says he dont tell the truth, it wasn't so any of it, and
+    if it was it was all right anyway, that you had some reason, an
+    she wouldn't go a step with him anywhere. An then he forgets all
+    about the lame ankle he had kept covered up on a chair pertendin
+    it was hurt fallin off his horse when the coach brought him all
+    the way fer I asked Mis' Green--and he ketches her by the wrists,
+    and he says she can't go without him, and she needn't be in such a
+    hurry fer you wouldn't have no more to do with her anyway after
+    her being shut up there with him so long, an then she looked jest
+    like she was going to faint, an I bust out through the door an
+    ketched up the ink pot, it want heavy enough to kill him, an I
+    slung it at him, an the ink went square in his eyes, an we slipped
+    through the closet an got away quick fore anybody knew a thing.
+
+    "I brought all the letters along so here they be. I havn't read a
+    one, cause I thought mebbe you'd ruther not. She aint seen em
+    neither. She dont know I've got em. I hid em in my dress. She's
+    all wore out with cryin and hurryin, and being scared, so she's
+    upstairs now asleep, an she dont know I'm writing. I'm goin to
+    send this off fore she knows, fer I think she wouldn't tell you
+    fear of worryin you. I'll look after her es well's I can till you
+    get back, but I think that feller ought to be strung up. But
+    you'll know what to do, so no more at present from your obedient
+    servent,
+
+                                                    "MIRANDA GRISCOM."
+
+
+Having at last succeeded in sealing her packet to her satisfaction and the
+diminishing of the stick of sealing wax she had found in the drawer,
+Miranda slid out the front door, and by a detour went to David Spafford's
+office.
+
+"Good afternoon, Mr. Clark," she said to the clerk importantly. "Grandma
+sends her respecks and wants to know ef you'd be so kind as to back this
+letter fer her to Mr. David Spafford. She's writin' to him on business an'
+she don't rightly know his street an' number in New York."
+
+Mr. Clark willingly wrote the address, and Miranda took it to the post
+office, and sped back to Marcia, happy in the accomplishment of her
+purpose.
+
+
+
+In the same mail bag that brought Miranda's package came a letter from
+Aunt Clarinda. David's face lit up with a pleased smile. Her letters were
+so infrequent that they were a rare pleasure. He put aside the thick
+package written in his clerk's hand. It was doubtless some business papers
+and could wait.
+
+Aunt Clarinda wrote in a fine old script that in spite of her eighty years
+was clear and legible. She told about the beauty of the weather, and how
+Amelia and Hortense were almost done with the house cleaning, and how
+Marcia had been going to their house every day putting it in order. Then
+she added a paragraph which David, knowing the old lady well, understood
+to be the _raison d'etre_ of the whole letter:
+
+"I think your wife misses you very much, Davie, she looks sort of peeked
+and sad. It is hard on her being separated from you so long this first
+year. Men don't think of those things, but it is lonely for a young thing
+like her here with three old women, and you know Hortense and Amelia never
+try to make it lively for anybody. I have been watching her, and I think
+if I were you I would let the business finish itself up as soon as
+possible and hurry back to put a bit of cheer into that child. She's
+whiter than she ought to be."
+
+David read it over three times in astonishment with growing, mingled
+feelings which he could not quite analyze.
+
+Poor Aunt Clarinda! Of course she did not understand the situation, and
+equally of course she was mistaken. Marcia was not sighing for him, though
+it might be dull for her at the old house. He ought to have thought of
+that; and a great burden suddenly settled down upon him. He was not doing
+right by Marcia. It could not be himself of course that Marcia was
+missing, if indeed Aunt Clarinda was right and she was worried about
+anything. Perhaps something had occurred to trouble her. Could that snake
+of a Temple have turned up again? No, he felt reasonably sure he would
+have heard of that, besides he saw him not long ago on the street at a
+distance. Could it be some boy-lover at home whose memory came to trouble
+her? Or had she discovered what a sacrifice she had made of her young
+life? Whatever it was, it was careless and cruel in him to have left her
+alone with his aunts all this time. He was a selfish man, he told himself,
+to have accepted her quiet little sacrifice of all for him. He read the
+letter over again, and suddenly there came to him a wish that Marcia _was_
+missing him. It seemed a pleasant thought to have her care. He had been
+trying to train himself to the fact that no one would ever care for him
+again, but now it seemed dear and desirable that his sweet young companion
+should like to have him back. He had a vision of home as it had been, so
+pleasant and restful, always the food that he liked, always the thought
+for his wishes, and he felt condemned. He had not noticed or cared. Had
+she thought him ungrateful?
+
+He read the letter over again, noting every mention of his wife in the
+account of the daily living at home. He was searching for some clue that
+would give him more information about her. And when he reached the last
+paragraph about missing him, a little tingle of pleasure shot through him
+at the thought. He did not understand it. After all she was his, and if it
+was possible he must help to make up to her for what she had lost in
+giving herself to him. If the thought of doing so brought a sense of
+satisfaction to him that was unexpected, he was not to blame in any wise.
+
+Since his interview with Kate, and the terrible night of agony through
+which he had passed, David had plunged into his business with all his
+might. Whenever a thought of Kate came he banished it if possible, and if
+it would not go he got out his writing materials and went to work at an
+article, to absorb his mind. He had several times arisen in the night to
+write because he could not sleep, and must think.
+
+When he was obliged to be in New York he had steadily kept away from the
+house where Kate lived, and never walked through the streets without
+occupying his mind as fully as possible so that he should not chance to
+see her. In this way his sorrow was growing old without having been worn
+out, and he was really regaining a large amount of his former happiness
+and interest in life. Not so often now did the vision of Kate come to
+trouble him. He thought she was still his one ideal of womanly beauty and
+grace and perfection of course, and always would be, but she was not for
+him to think upon any more. A strong true man he was growing, out of his
+sorrow. And now when the thought of Marcia came to him with a certain
+sweetness he could be glad that it was so, and not resent it. Of course no
+one could ever take the place of Kate, that was impossible.
+
+So reflecting, with a pleasant smile upon his face, he opened Miranda's
+epistle.
+
+Puzzled and surprised he began to read the strange chirography, and as he
+read his face darkened and he drew his brows in a heavy frown. "The
+scoundrel!" he muttered as he turned the sheet. Then as he went on his
+look grew anxious. He scanned the page quickly as if he would gather the
+meaning from the crooked ill-spelled words without taking them one by one.
+But he had to go slowly, for Miranda had not written with as much
+plainness as haste. He fairly held his breath when he thought of the
+gentle girl in the hands of the unscrupulous man of the world. A terrible
+fear gripped his heart, Marcia, little Marcia, so sweet and pure and good.
+A vision of her face as she lay asleep in the woods came between him and
+the paper. Why had he left her unprotected all these months? Fool that he
+was! She was worth more than all the railroads put together. As if his own
+life was in the balance, he read on, growing sick with horror. Poor child!
+what had she thought? And how had his own sin and weakness been found out,
+or was it merely Harry Temple's wicked heart that had evolved these
+stories? The letter smote him with terrible accusation, and all at once it
+was fearful to him to think that Marcia had heard such things about him.
+When he came to her trust in him he groaned aloud and buried his face in
+the letter, and then raised it quickly to read to the end.
+
+When he had finished he rose with sudden determination to pack his
+carpet-bag and go home at once. Marcia needed him, and he felt a strong
+desire to be near her, to see her and know she was safe. It was
+overwhelming. He had not known he could ever feel strongly again. He must
+confess his own weakness of course, and he would. She should know all and
+know that she might trust his after all.
+
+But the motion of rising had sent the other papers to the floor, and in
+falling the bundle of letters that Miranda had enclosed, scattered about
+him. He stooped to pick them up and saw his own name written in Kate's
+handwriting. Old association held him, and wondering, fearful, not wholly
+glad to see it, he picked up the letter. It was an epistle of Kate's,
+written in intimate style to Harry Temple and speaking of himself in terms
+of the utmost contempt. She even stooped to detail to Harry an account of
+her own triumph on that miserable morning when he had taken her in his
+arms and kissed her. There were expressions in the letter that showed her
+own wicked heart, as nothing else could ever have done, to David. As he
+read, his soul growing sick within him,--read one letter after another, and
+saw how she had plotted with this bad man to wreck the life of her young
+sister for her own triumph and revenge,--the beautiful woman whom he had
+loved, and whom he had thought beautiful within as well as without,
+crumbled into dust before him. When he looked up at last with white face
+and firmly set lips, he found that his soul was free forever from the
+fetters that had bound him to her.
+
+He went to the fireplace and laid the pile of letters among the embers,
+blowing them into a blaze, and watched them until they were eaten up by
+the fire and nothing remained but dead grey ashes. The thought came to him
+that that was like his old love. It was burnt out. There had not been the
+right kind of fuel to feed it. Kate was worthless, but his own self was
+alive, and please God he would yet see better days. He would go home at
+once to the child wife who needed him, and whom now he might love as she
+should be loved. The thought became wondrously sweet to him as he rapidly
+threw the things into his travelling bag and went about arrangements for
+his trip home. He determined that if he ever came to New York again Marcia
+should come with him.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+Marcia hurried down to her own house early one morning. The phantoms of
+her experiences in the old Green Tavern were pursuing her.
+
+Once there she could do nothing but go over and over the dreadful things
+that Harry Temple had said. In vain did she try to work. She went into the
+library and took up a book, but her mind would wander to David.
+
+She sat down at the piano and played a few tender chords and sang an old
+Italian song which somebody had left at their house several years before:
+
+                "Dearest, believe,
+                   When e'er we part:
+                 Lonely I grieve,
+                   In my sad heart:--"
+
+With a sob her head dropped upon her hands in one sad little crash of
+wailing tones, while the sound died away in reverberation after
+reverberation of the strings till Marcia felt as if a sea of sound were
+about her in soft ebbing, flowing waves.
+
+The sound covered the lifting of the side door latch and the quiet step of
+a foot. Marcia was absorbed in her own thoughts. Her smothered sobs were
+mingling with the dying sounds of the music, still audible to her fine
+ear.
+
+David had come by instinct to his own home first. He felt that Marcia
+would be there, and now that he was come and the morning sun flooded
+everything and made home look so good he felt that he must find her first
+of all before his relationship with home had been re-established. He
+passed through kitchen, dining room and hall, and by the closed parlor
+door. He never thought of her being in there with the door closed. He
+glanced into the library and saw the book lying in his chair as she had
+left it, and it gave a touch of her presence which pleased him. He went
+softly toward the stairs thinking to find her. He had stopped at a shop
+the last thing and bought a beautiful creamy shawl of China crepe heavily
+embroidered, and finished with long silken fringe. He had taken it from
+his carpet-bag and was carrying it in its rice paper wrappings lest it
+should be crushed. He was pleased as a child at the present he had brought
+her, and felt strangely shy about giving it to her.
+
+Just then there came a sound from the parlor, sweet and tender and
+plaintive. Marcia had conquered her sobs and was singing again with her
+whole soul, singing as if she were singing to David. The words drew him
+strangely, wonderingly toward the parlor door, yet so softly that he heard
+every syllable.
+
+                "Dearest, believe,
+                   When e'er we part:
+                 Lonely I grieve,
+                   In my sad heart:--
+                 Thy faithful slave,
+                   Languishing sighs,
+                 Haste then and save--"
+
+Here the words trailed away again into a half sob, and the melody
+continued in broken, halting chords that flickered out and faded into the
+shadows of the room.
+
+David's heart was pierced with a belief that Aunt Clarinda was right and
+something was the matter with Marcia. A great trouble and tenderness, and
+almost jealousy, leaped up in his heart which were incomprehensible to
+him. Who was Marcia singing this song for? That it was a true cry from a
+lonely soul he could but believe. Was she feeling her prison-bars here in
+the lonely old house with only a forlorn man whose life and love had been
+thrown away upon another? Poor child! Poor child! If he might but save her
+from suffering, cover her with his own tenderness and make her content
+with that. Would it be possible if he devoted himself to it to make her
+forget the one for whom she was sighing; to bring peace and a certain sort
+of sweet forgetfulness and interest in other things into her life? He
+wanted to make a new life for her, his little girl whom he had so
+unthinkingly torn from the home nest and her future, and compelled to take
+up his barren way with him. He would make it up to her if such a thing
+were possible. Then he opened the door.
+
+In the soft green light of the noonday coming through the shades Marcia's
+color did not show as it flew into her cheeks. Her hands grew weak and
+dropped upon the keys with a soft little tinkle of surprise and joy. She
+sprang up and came a step toward him, then clasped her hands against her
+breast and stopped shyly. David coming into the room, questioning,
+wondering, anxious, stopped midway too, and for an instant they looked
+upon one another. David saw a new look in the girl's face. She seemed
+older, much older than when he had left her. The sweet round cheeks were
+thinner, her mouth drooped sadly, pathetically. For an instant he longed
+to take her in his arms and kiss her. The longing startled him. So many
+months he had thought of only Kate in that way, and then had tried to
+teach himself never to think of Kate or any woman as one to be caressed by
+him, that it shocked him. He felt that he had been disloyal to himself, to
+honor,--to Kate--no--not to Kate, he had no call to be loyal to her. She had
+not been loyal to him ever. Perhaps rather he would have put it loyalty to
+Love for Love's sake, love that is worthy to be crowned by a woman's love.
+
+With all these mingling feelings David was embarrassed. He came toward her
+slowly, trying to be natural, trying to get back his former way with her.
+He put out his hand stiffly to shake hands as he had done when he left,
+and timidly she put hers into it, yet as their fingers closed there leaped
+from one to the other a thrill of sweetness, that neither guessed the
+other knew and each put by in memory for closer inspection as to what it
+could mean. Their hands clung together longer than either had meant, and
+there was something pleasant to each in the fact that they were together
+again. David thought it was just because it was home, rest, and peace, and
+a relief from his anxiety about Marcia now that he saw she was all right.
+Marcia knew it was better to have David standing there with his strong
+fingers about her trembling ones, than to have anything else in the world.
+But she would not have told him so.
+
+"That was a sweet song you were singing," said David. "I hope you were
+singing it for me, and that it was true! I am glad I am come home, and you
+must sing it again for me soon."
+
+It was not in the least what he intended to say, and the words tumbled
+themselves out so tumultuously that he was almost ashamed and wondered if
+Marcia would think he had lost his mind in New York. Marcia, dear child,
+treasured them every word and hugged them to her heart, and carried them
+in her prayers.
+
+They went out together and got dinner as if they had been two children,
+with a wild excited kind of glee; and they tried to get back their natural
+ways of doing and saying things, but they could not.
+
+Instead they were forever blundering and halting in what they said; coming
+face to face and almost running over one another as they tried to help
+each other; laughing and blushing and blundering again.
+
+When they each tried to reach for the tea kettle to fill the coffee pot
+and their fingers touched, each drew back and pretended not to notice, but
+yet had felt the contact sweet.
+
+They were lingering over the dinner when Hannah Heath came to the door.
+David had been telling of some of his adventures in detail and was
+enjoying the play of expression on Marcia's face as she listened eagerly
+to every word. They had pushed their chairs back a little and were sitting
+there talking,--or rather David was talking, Marcia listening. Hannah stood
+for one jealous instant and saw it all. This was what she had dreamed for
+her own long years back, she and David. She had questioned much just what
+feeling there might be between him and Marcia, and now more than ever she
+desired to bring him face to face with Kate and read for herself what the
+truth had been. She hated Marcia for that look of intense delight and
+sympathy upon her face; hated her that she had the right to sit there and
+hear what David had to say--some stupid stuff about railroads. She did not
+see that she herself would have made an ill companion for a man like
+David.
+
+As yet neither Marcia nor David had touched upon the subjects which had
+troubled them. They did not realize it, but they were so suddenly happy in
+each other's company they had forgotten for the moment. The pleasant
+converse was broken up at once. Marcia's face hardened into something like
+alarm as she saw who stood in the doorway.
+
+"Why, David, have you got home at last?" said Hannah. "I did not know it."
+That was an untruth. She had watched him from behind Grandmother Heath's
+rose bush. "Where did you come from last? New York? Oh, then you saw Mrs.
+Leavenworth. How is she? I fell in love with her when I was there."
+
+Now David had never fully taken in Kate's married name. He knew it of
+course, but in his present state of happiness at getting home, and his
+absorption in the work he had been doing, the name "Mrs. Leavenworth"
+conveyed nothing whatever to David's mind. He looked blankly at Hannah and
+replied indifferently enough with a cool air. "No, Miss Hannah, I had no
+time for social life. I was busy every minute I was away."
+
+David never expected Hannah to say anything worth listening to, and he was
+so full of his subject that he had not noticed that she made no reply.
+
+Hannah watched him curiously as he talked, his remarks after all were
+directed more to Marcia than to her, and when he paused she said with a
+contemptuous sneer in her voice, "I never could understand, David, how you
+who seem to have so much sense in other things will take up with such
+fanciful, impractical dreams as this railroad. Lemuel says it'll never
+run."
+
+Hannah quoted her lover with a proud bridling of her head as if the matter
+were settled once and for all. It was the first time she had allowed the
+world to see that she acknowledged her relation to Lemuel. She was not
+averse to having David understand that she felt there were other men in
+the world besides himself. But David turned merry eyes on her.
+
+"Lemuel says?" he repeated, and he made a sudden movement with his arm
+which sent a knife and spoon from the table in a clatter upon the floor.
+
+"And how much does Lemuel know about the matter?"
+
+"Lemuel has good practical common sense," said Hannah, vexed, "and he
+knows what is possible and what is not. He does not need to travel all
+over the country on a wild goose chase to learn that."
+
+Now that she had accepted him Hannah did not intend to allow Lemuel to be
+discounted.
+
+"He has not long to wait to be convinced," said David thoughtfully and
+unaware of her tart tone. "Before the year is out it will be a settled
+fact that every one can see."
+
+"Well, it's beyond comprehension what you care, anyway," said Hannah
+contemptuously. "Did you really spend all your time in New York on such
+things? It seems incredible. There certainly must have been other
+attractions?"
+
+There was insinuation in Hannah's voice though it was smooth as butter,
+but David had had long years of experience in hearing Hannah Heath's sharp
+tongue. He minded it no more than he would have minded the buzzing of a
+fly. Marcia's color rose, however. She made a hasty errand to the pantry
+to put away the bread, and her eyes flashed at Hannah through the close
+drawn pantry door. But Hannah did not give up so easily.
+
+"It is strange you did not stay with Mrs. Leavenworth," she said. "She
+told me you were one of her dearest friends, and you used to be quite fond
+of one another."
+
+Then it suddenly dawned upon David who Mrs. Leavenworth was, and a
+sternness overspread his face.
+
+"Mrs. Leavenworth, did you say? Ah! I did not understand. I saw her but
+once and that for only a few minutes soon after I first arrived. I did not
+see her again." His voice was cool and steady. Marcia coming from the
+pantry with set face, ready for defence if there was any she could give,
+marvelled at his coolness. Her heart was gripped with fear, and yet
+leaping with joy at David's words. He had not seen Kate but once. He had
+known she was there and yet had kept away. Hannah's insinuations were
+false. Mr. Temple's words were untrue. She had known it all the time, yet
+what sorrow they had given her!
+
+"By the way, Marcia," said David, turning toward her with a smile that
+seemed to erase the sternness in his voice but a moment before. "Did you
+not write me some news? Miss Hannah, you are to be congratulated I
+believe. Lemuel is a good man. I wish you much happiness."
+
+And thus did David, with a pleasant speech, turn aside Hannah Heath's
+dart. Yet while she went from the house with a smile and a sound of
+pleasant wishes in her ears, she carried with her a bitter heart and a
+revengeful one.
+
+David was suddenly brought face to face with the thing he had to tell
+Marcia. He sat watching her as she went back and forth from pantry to
+kitchen, and at last he came and stood beside her and took her hands in
+his looking down earnestly into her face. It seemed terrible to him to
+tell this thing to the innocent girl, now, just when he was growing
+anxious to win her confidence, but it must be told, and better now than
+later lest he might be tempted not to tell it at all.
+
+"Marcia!" He said the name tenderly, with an inflection he had never used
+before. It was not lover-like, nor passionate, but it reached her heart
+and drew her eyes to his and the color to her cheeks. She thought how
+different his clasp was from Harry Temple's hateful touch. She looked up
+at him trustingly, and waited.
+
+"You heard what I said to Hannah Heath just now, about--your----" He paused,
+dissatisfied--"about Mrs. Leavenworth"--it was as if he would set the
+subject of his words far from them. Marcia's heart beat wildly,
+remembering all that she had been told, yet she looked bravely, trustingly
+into his eyes.
+
+"It was true what I told her. I met Mrs. Leavenworth but once while I was
+away. It was in her own home and she sent for me saying she was in
+trouble. She told me that she was in terrible anxiety lest I would not
+forgive her. She begged me to say that I forgave her, and when I told her
+I did she asked me to kiss her once to prove it. I was utterly overcome
+and did so, but the moment my lips touched hers I knew that I was doing
+wrong and I put her from me. She begged me to remain, and I now know that
+she was utterly false from the first. It was but a part she was playing
+when she touched my heart until I yielded and sinned. I have only learned
+that recently, within a few days, and from words written by her own hand
+to another. I will tell you about it all sometime. But I want to confess
+to you this wrong I have done, and to let you know that I went away from
+her that day and have never seen her since. She had said she was without
+money, and I left her all I had with me. I know now that that too was
+unwise,--perhaps wrong. I feel that all this was a sin against you. I would
+like you to forgive me if you can, and I want you to know that this other
+woman who was the cause of our coming together, and yet has separated us
+ever since we have been together, is no longer anything to me. Even if she
+and I were both free as we were when we first met, we could never be
+anything but strangers. Can you forgive me now, Marcia, and can you ever
+trust me after what I have told you?"
+
+Marcia looked into his eyes, and loved him but the more for his
+confession. She felt she could forgive him anything, and her whole soul in
+her countenance answered with her voice, as she said: "I can." It made
+David think of their wedding day, and suddenly it came over him with a
+thrill that this sweet womanly woman belonged to him. He marvelled at her
+sweet forgiveness. The joy of it surprised him beyond measure.
+
+"You have had some sad experiences yourself. Will you tell me now all
+about it?" He asked the question wistfully still holding her hands in a
+firm close grasp, and she let them lie nestling there feeling safe as
+birds in the nest.
+
+"Why, how did you know?" questioned Marcia, her whole face flooded with
+rosy light for joy at his kind ways and relief that she did not have to
+open the story.
+
+"Oh, a little bird, or a guardian angel whispered the tale," he said
+pleasantly. "Come into the room where we can be sure no Hannah Heaths will
+trouble us," and he drew her into the library and seated her beside him on
+the sofa.
+
+"But, indeed, Marcia," and his face sobered, "it is no light matter to me,
+what has happened to you. I have been in an agony all the way home lest I
+might not find you safe and well after having escaped so terrible a
+danger."
+
+He drew the whole story from her bit by bit, tenderly questioning her, his
+face blazing with righteous wrath, and darkening with his wider knowledge
+as she told on to the end, and showed him plainly the black heart of the
+villain who had dared so diabolical a conspiracy; and the inhumanity of
+the woman who had helped in the intrigue against her own sister,--nay even
+instigated it. His feelings were too deep for utterance. He was shaken to
+the depths. His new comprehension of Kate's character was confirmed at the
+worst. Marcia could only guess his deep feelings from his shaken
+countenance and the earnest way in which he folded his hands over hers and
+said in low tones filled with emotion: "We should be deeply thankful to
+God for saving you, and I must be very careful of you after this. That
+villain shall be searched out and punished if it takes a lifetime, and
+Miranda,--what shall we do for Miranda? Perhaps we can induce her
+grandmother to let us have her sometime to help take care of us. We seem
+to be unable to get on without her. We'll see what we can do sometime in
+return for the great service she has rendered."
+
+But the old clock striking in the hall suddenly reminded David that he
+should go at once to the office, so he hurried away and Marcia set about
+her work with energy, a happy song of praise in her heart.
+
+There was much to be done. David had said he would scarcely have time to
+go over to his aunts that night, so she had decided to invite them to tea.
+She would far rather have had David to herself this first evening, but it
+would please them to come, especially Aunt Clarinda. There was not much
+time to prepare supper to be sure, but she would stir up a gingerbread,
+make some puffy cream biscuits, and there was lovely white honey and fresh
+eggs and peach preserves.
+
+So she ran to Deacon Appleby's to get some cream for her biscuits and to
+ask Tommy Appleby to harness David's horse and drive over for Aunt
+Clarinda. Then she hurried down to the aunts to give her invitation.
+
+Aunt Clarinda sat down in her calico-covered rocking chair, wiped her dear
+old eyes and her glasses, and said, over and over again: "Dear child!
+Bless her! Bless her!"
+
+It was a happy gathering that evening. David was as pleased as they could
+have desired, and looked about upon the group in the dining-room with
+genuine boyish pleasure. It did his heart good to see Aunt Clarinda there.
+It had never occurred to him before that she could come. He turned to
+Marcia with a light in his eyes that fully repaid her for the little
+trouble she had had in carrying out her plan. He began to feel that home
+meant something even though he had lost the home of his long dreams and
+ideals.
+
+He talked a great deal about his trip, and in between the sentences, he
+caught himself watching Marcia, noting the curve of her round chin, the
+dimple in her left cheek when she smiled, the way her hair waved off from
+her forehead, the pink curves of her well-shaped ears. He found a distinct
+pleasure in noting these things and he wondered at himself. It was as if
+he had suddenly been placed before some great painting and become
+possessed of the knowledge wherewith to appreciate art to its fullest. It
+was as if he had heard a marvellous piece of music and had the eyes and
+ears of his understanding opened to take in the gracious melodies and
+majestic harmonies.
+
+Aunt Clarinda watched his eyes, and Aunt Clarinda was satisfied. Aunt
+Hortense watched his eyes, jealously and sighed. Aunt Amelia watched his
+eyes and set her lips and feared to herself. "He will spoil her if he does
+like that. She will think she can walk right over him." But Aunt Clarinda
+knew better. She recognized the eternal right of love.
+
+They took the three old ladies home in the rising of an early moon, Marcia
+walking demurely on the sidewalk with Aunt Amelia, while David drove the
+chaise with Aunt Clarinda and Aunt Hortense.
+
+As he gently lifted Aunt Clarinda down and helped her to her room David
+felt her old hands tremble and press his arm, and when he had reached her
+door he stooped and kissed her.
+
+"Davie," she said in the voice that used to comfort his little childish
+troubles, or tell him of some nice surprise she had for him, "Davie, she's
+a dear child! She's just as good as gold. She's the princess I used to put
+in all your fairy-tales. David, she's just the right one for you!" and
+David answered earnestly, solemnly, as if he were discovering a truth
+which surprised him but yet was not unwelcome. "I believe she is, Aunt
+Clarinda."
+
+They drove to the barn and Marcia sat in the chaise in the sweet
+hay-scented darkness while David put up the horse by the cobwebby light of
+the lantern; then they walked quietly back to the house. David had drawn
+Marcia's hand through his arm and it rested softly on his coat sleeve. She
+was silently happy, she knew not why, afraid to think of it lest to-morrow
+would show her there was nothing out of the ordinary monotony to be happy
+about.
+
+David was silent, wondering at himself. What was this that had come to
+him? A new pleasure in life. A little trembling rill of joy bubbling up in
+his heart; a rift in the dark clouds of fate; a show of sunshine where he
+had expected never to see the light again. Why was it so pleasant to have
+that little hand resting upon his arm? Was it really pleasant or was it
+only a part of the restfulness of getting home again away from strange
+faces and uncomfortable beds, and poor tables?
+
+They let themselves into the house as if they were walking into a new
+world together and both were glad to be there again. When she got up to
+her room Marcia went and stood before the glass and looked at herself by
+the flickering flame of the candle. Her eyes were bright and her cheeks
+burned red in the centre like two soft deep roses. She felt she hardly
+knew herself. She tried to be critical. Was this person she was examining
+a pretty person? Would she be called so in comparison with Kate and Hannah
+Heath? Would a man,--would David,--if his heart were not filled,--think so?
+She decided not. She felt she was too immature. There was too much shyness
+in her glance, too much babyishness about her mouth. No, David could never
+have thought her beautiful, even if he had seen her before he knew Kate.
+But perhaps, if Kate had been married first and away and then he had come
+to their home, perhaps if he knew no one else well enough to love,--could
+he have cared for her?
+
+Oh, it was a dreadful, beautiful thought. It thrilled through and through
+her till she hid her face from her own gaze. She suddenly kissed the hand
+that had rested on his sleeve, and then reproached herself for it. She
+loved him, but was it right to do so?
+
+As for David, he was sitting on the side of his bed with his chin in his
+hands examining himself.
+
+He had supposed that with the reading of those letters which had come to
+him but two short days before all possibility of love and happiness had
+died, but lo! he found himself thrilling with pleasure over the look in a
+girl's soft eyes, and the touch of her hand. And that girl was his wife.
+It was enough to keep him awake to try to understand himself.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+Hannah Heath's wedding day dawned bright enough for a less calculating
+bride.
+
+David did not get home until half past three. He had been obliged to drive
+out to the starting place of the new railroad, near Albany, where it was
+important that he get a few points correctly. On the morrow was to be the
+initial trip, by the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, of the first train drawn
+by a steam engine in the state of New York.
+
+His article about it, bargained for by a New York paper, must be on its
+way by special post as soon after the starting of the train as possible.
+He must have all items accurate; technicalities of preparation;
+description of engine and coaches; details of arrangements, etc.; before
+he added the final paragraphs describing the actual start of the train.
+His article was practically done now, save for these few items. He had
+started early that morning on his long drive, and, being detained longer
+than he had expected, arrived at home with barely time to put himself into
+wedding garments, and hasten in at the last moment with Marcia who stood
+quietly waiting for him in the front hall. They were the last guests to
+arrive. It was time for the ceremony, but the bride, true to her nature to
+the last, still kept Lemuel waiting; and Lemuel, true to the end, stood
+smiling and patient awaiting her pleasure.
+
+David and Marcia entered the wide parlor and shook hands here and there
+with those assembled, though for the most part a hushed air pervaded the
+room, as it always does when something is about to happen.
+
+Soon after their arrival some one in purple silk came down the stairs and
+seated herself in a vacant chair close to where the bride was to stand.
+She had gold hair and eyes like forget-me-nots. She was directly opposite
+to David and Marcia. David was engrossed in a whispered conversation with
+Mr. Brentwood about the events of the morrow, and did not notice her
+entrance, though she paused in the doorway and searched him directly from
+amongst the company before she took her seat. Marcia, who was talking with
+Rose Brentwood, caught the vision of purple and gold and turned to face
+for one brief instant the scornful, half-merry glance of her sister. The
+blood in her face fled back to her heart and left it white.
+
+Then Marcia summoned all her courage and braced herself to face what was
+to come. She forced herself to smile in answer to Rose Brentwood's
+question. But all the while she was trying to understand what it was in
+her sister's look that had hurt her so. It was not the anger,--for that she
+was prepared. It was not the scorn, for she had often faced that. Was it
+the almost merriment? Yes, there was the sting. She had felt it so keenly
+when as a little girl Kate had taken to making fun of some whim of hers.
+She could not see why Kate should find cause for fun just now. It was as
+if she by her look ignored Marcia's relation to David in scornful laugh
+and appropriated him herself. Marcia's inmost soul rebelled. The color
+came back as if by force of her will. She would show Kate,--or she would
+show David at least,--that she could bear all things for him. She would
+play well her part of wife this day. The happy two months that had passed
+since David came back from New York had made her almost feel as if she was
+really his and he hers. For this hour she would forget that it was
+otherwise. She would look at him and speak to him as if he had been her
+husband for years, as if there were the truest understanding between
+them,--as indeed, of a certain wistful, pleasant sort there was. She would
+not let the dreadful thought of Kate cloud her face for others to see.
+Bravely she faced the company, but her heart under Kate's blue frock sent
+up a swift and pleading prayer demanding of a higher Power something she
+knew she had not in herself, and must therefore find in Him who had
+created her. It was the most trustful, and needy prayer that Marcia ever
+uttered and yet there were no words, not even the closing of an eyelid.
+Only her heart took the attitude of prayer.
+
+The door upstairs opened in a business-like way, and Hannah's composed
+voice was heard giving a direction. Hannah's silken tread began to be
+audible. Miranda told Marcia afterward that she kept her standing at the
+window for an hour beforehand to see when David arrived, and when they
+started over to the house. Hannah kept herself posted on what was going on
+in the room below as well as if she were down there. She knew where David
+and Marcia stood, and told Kate exactly where to go. It was like Hannah
+that in the moment of her sacrifice of the long cherished hopes of her
+life she should have planned a dramatic revenge to help carry her through.
+
+The bride's rustle became at last so audible that even David and Mr.
+Brentwood heard and turned from their absorbing conversation to the
+business in hand.
+
+Hannah was in the doorway when David looked up, very cold and beautiful in
+her bridal array despite the years she had waited, and almost at once
+David saw the vision in purple and gold like a saucy pansy, standing near
+her.
+
+Kate's eyes were fixed upon him with their most bewitching, dancing smile
+of recognition, like a naughty little child who had been in hiding for a
+time and now peeps out laughing over the discomfiture of its elders. So
+Kate encountered the steadfast gaze of David's astonished eyes.
+
+But there was no light of love in those eyes as she had expected to see.
+Instead there grew in his face such a blaze of righteous indignation as
+the lord of the wedding feast might have turned upon the person who came
+in without a wedding garment. In spite of herself Kate was disconcerted.
+She was astonished. She felt that David was challenging her presence
+there. It seemed to her he was looking through her, searching her, judging
+her, sentencing her, and casting her out, and presently his eyes wandered
+beyond her through the open hall door and out into God's green world; and
+when they came back and next rested upon her his look had frozen into the
+glance of a stranger.
+
+Angry, ashamed, baffled, she bit her lips in vexation, but tried to keep
+the merry smile. In her heart she hated him, and vowed to make him bow
+before her smiles once more.
+
+David did not see the bride at all to notice her, but the bride, unlike
+the one of the psalmist's vision whose eyes were upon "her dear
+bridegroom's face," was looking straight across the room with evident
+intent to observe David.
+
+The ceremony proceeded, and Hannah went through her part correctly and
+calmly, aware that she was giving herself to Lemuel Skinner irrevocably,
+yet perfectly aware also of the discomfiture of the sweet-faced girl-wife
+who sat across the room bravely watching the ceremony with white cheeks
+and eyes that shone like righteous lights.
+
+Marcia did not look at David. She was with him in heart, suffering with
+him, feeling for him, quivering in every nerve for what he might be
+enduring. She had no need to look. Her part was to ignore, and help to
+cover.
+
+They went through it all well. Not once did Aunt Amelia or Aunt Hortense
+notice anything strange in the demeanor of their nephew or his wife. Aunt
+Clarinda was not there. She was not fond of Hannah.
+
+As soon as the service was over and the relatives had broken the solemn
+hush by kissing the bride, David turned and spoke to Rose Brentwood,
+making some smiling remark about the occasion. Rose Brentwood was looking
+her very prettiest in a rose-sprigged delaine and her wavy dark hair in a
+beaded net tied round with a rose-colored lute-string ribbon.
+
+Kate flushed angrily at this. If it had been Marcia to whom he had spoken
+she would have judged he did it out of pique, but a pretty stranger coming
+upon the scene at this critical moment was trying. And then, too, David's
+manner was so indifferent, so utterly natural. He did not seem in the
+least troubled by the sight of herself.
+
+David and Marcia did not go up to speak to the bride at once. David
+stepped back into the deep window seat to talk with Mr. Brentwood, and
+seemed to be in no hurry to follow the procession who were filing past the
+calm bride to congratulate her. Marcia remained quietly talking to Rose
+Brentwood.
+
+At last David turned toward his wife with a smile as though he had known
+she was there all the time, and had felt her sympathy. Her heart leaped up
+with new strength at that look, and her husband's firm touch as he drew
+her hand within his arm to lead her over to the bride gave her courage.
+She felt that she could face the battle, and with a bright smile that lit
+up her whole lovely face she marched bravely to the front to do or to die.
+
+"I had about given up expecting any congratulations from you," said Hannah
+sharply as they came near. It was quite evident she had been watching for
+them.
+
+"I wish you much joy, Mrs. Skinner," said David mechanically, scarcely
+feeling that she would have it for he knew her unhappy, dissatisfied
+nature.
+
+"Yes," said Marcia, "I wish you may be happy,--as happy as I am!"
+
+It was an impetuous, childish thing to say, and Marcia scarcely realized
+what words she meant to speak until they were out, and then she blushed
+rosy red. Was she happy? Why was she happy? Yes, even in the present
+trying circumstances she suddenly felt a great deep happiness bubbling up
+in her heart. Was it David's look and his strong arm under her hand?
+
+Hannah darted a look at her. She was stung by the words. But did the
+girl-bride before her mean to flaunt her own triumphs in her face? Did she
+fully understand? Or was she trying to act a part and make them believe
+she was happy? Hannah was baffled once more as she had been before with
+Marcia.
+
+Kate turned upon Marcia for one piercing instant again, that look of
+understanding, mocking merriment, which cut through the soul of her
+sister.
+
+But did Marcia imagine it, or was it true that at her words to Hannah,
+David's arm had pressed hers closer as they stood there in the crowd? The
+thought thrilled through her and gave her greater strength.
+
+Hannah turned toward Kate.
+
+"David," she said, as she had always called him, and it is possible that
+she enjoyed the triumph of this touch of intimacy before her guest, "you
+knew my friend Mrs. Leavenworth!"
+
+David bowed gravely, but did not attempt to put out his hand to take the
+one which Kate offered in greeting. Instead he laid it over Marcia's
+little trembling one on his arm as if to steady it.
+
+"We have met before," said David briefly in an impenetrable tone, and
+turning passed out of the room to make way for the Brentwoods who were
+behind him.
+
+Hannah scarcely treated the Brentwoods with decency, so vexed was she with
+the way things were turning out. To think that David should so completely
+baffle her. She turned an annoyed look at Kate, who flashed her blue eyes
+contemptuously as if to blame Hannah.
+
+Soon the whole little gathering were in the dining-room and wide hall
+being served with Grandmother Heath's fried chicken and currant jelly,
+delicate soda biscuits, and fruit cake baked months before and left to
+ripen.
+
+The ordeal through which they were passing made David and Marcia feel, as
+they sat down, that they would not be able to swallow a mouthful, but
+strangely enough they found themselves eating with relish, each to
+encourage the other perhaps, but almost enjoying it, and feeling that they
+had not yet met more than they would be able to withstand.
+
+Kate was seated on the other side of the dining-room, by Hannah, and she
+watched the two incessantly with that half merry contemptuous look, toying
+with her own food, and apparently waiting for their acting to cease and
+David to put on his true character. She never doubted for an instant that
+they were acting.
+
+The wedding supper was over at last. The guests crowded out to the front
+stoop to bid good-bye to the happy bridegroom and cross-looking bride, who
+seemed as if she left the gala scene reluctantly.
+
+Marcia, for the instant, was separated from David, who stepped down upon
+the grass and stood to one side to let the bridal party pass. The minister
+was at the other side. Marcia had slipped into the shelter of Aunt
+Amelia's black silk presence and wished she might run out the back door
+and away home.
+
+Suddenly a shimmer of gold with the sunlight through it caught her gaze,
+and a glimpse of sheeny purple. There, close behind David, standing upon
+the top step, quite unseen by him, stood her sister Kate.
+
+Marcia's heart gave a quick thump and seemed to stop, then went painfully
+laboring on. She stood quite still watching for the moment to come when
+David would turn around and see Kate that she might look into his face and
+read there what was written.
+
+Hannah had been put carefully into the carriage by the adoring Lemuel,
+with many a pat, and a shaking of cushions, and an adjustment of curtains
+to suit her whim. It pleased Hannah, now in her last lingering moment of
+freedom, to be exacting and show others what a slave her husband was.
+
+They all stood for an instant looking after the carriage, but Marcia
+watched David. Then, just as the carriage wound around the curve in the
+road and was lost from view, she saw him turn, and at once knew she must
+not see his face as he looked at Kate. Closing her eyes like a flash she
+turned and fled upstairs to get her shawl and bonnet. There she took
+refuge behind the great white curtains, and hid her face for several
+minutes, praying wildly, she hardly knew what, thankful she had been kept
+from the sight which yet she had longed to behold.
+
+As David turned to go up the steps and search for Marcia he was confronted
+by Kate's beautiful, smiling face, radiant as it used to be when it had
+first charmed him. He exulted, as he looked into it, that it did not any
+longer charm.
+
+"David, you don't seem a bit glad to see me," blamed Kate sweetly in her
+pretty, childish tones, looking into his face with those blue eyes so like
+to liquid skies. Almost there was a hint of tears in them. He had been
+wont to kiss them when she looked like that. Now he felt only disgust as
+some of the flippant sentences in her letters to Harry Temple came to his
+mind.
+
+His face was stern and unrecognizing.
+
+"David, you are angry with me yet! You said you would forgive!" The gentle
+reproach minimized the crime, and enlarged the punishment. It was Kate's
+way. The pretty pout on the rosy lips was the same as it used to be when
+she chided him for some trifling forgetfulness of her wishes.
+
+The other guests had all gone into the house now. David made no response,
+but, nothing daunted, Kate spoke again.
+
+"I have something very important to consult you about. I came here on
+purpose. Can you give me some time to-morrow morning?"
+
+She wrinkled her pretty face into a thousand dimples and looked her most
+bewitching like a naughty child who knew she was loved in spite of
+anything, and coquettishly putting her head on one side, added, in the
+tone she used of old to cajole him:
+
+"You know you never could refuse me anything, David."
+
+David did not smile. He did not answer the look. With a voice that
+recognized her only as a stranger he said gravely:
+
+"I have an important engagement to-morrow morning."
+
+"But you will put off the engagement." She said it confidently.
+
+"It is impossible!" said David decidedly. "I am starting quite early to
+drive over to Albany. I am under obligation to be present at the starting
+of the new steam railroad."
+
+"Oh, how nice!" said Kate, clapping her hands childishly, "I have wanted
+to be there, and now you will take me. Then I--we--can talk on the way. How
+like old times that will be!" She flashed him a smile of molten sunshine,
+alluring and transforming.
+
+"That, too, is impossible, Mrs. Leavenworth. My wife accompanies me!" he
+answered her promptly and clearly and with a curt bow left her and went
+into the house.
+
+Kate Leavenworth was angry, and for Kate to be angry, meant to visit it
+upon some one, the offender if possible, if not the nearest to the
+offender. She had failed utterly in her attempt to win back the friendship
+of her former lover. She had hoped to enjoy his attention to a certain
+extent and bathe her sad (?) heart in the wistful glances of the man she
+had jilted; and incidentally perhaps be invited to spend a little time in
+his house, by which she would contrive to have a good many of her own
+ways. A rich brother-in-law who adored one was not a bad thing to have,
+especially when his wife was one's own little sister whom one had always
+dominated. She was tired of New York and at this season of the year the
+country was much preferable. She could thus contrive to hoard her small
+income, and save for the next winter, as well as secure a possible
+entrance finally into her father's good graces again through the
+forgiveness of David and Marcia. But she had failed. Could it be that he
+cared for Marcia! That child! Scout the idea! She would discover at once.
+
+Hurriedly she searched through the rooms downstairs and then went
+stealthily upstairs. Instinctively she went to the room where Marcia had
+hidden herself.
+
+Marcia, with that strong upward breath of prayer had grown steady again.
+She was standing with her back to the door looking out of the window
+toward her own home when Kate entered the room. Without turning about she
+felt Kate's presence and knew that it was she. The moment had come. She
+turned around, her face calm and sweet, with two red spots upon her
+cheeks, and her bonnet,--Kate's bonnet and shawl, Kate's fine lace shawl
+sent from Paris--grasped in her hands.
+
+They faced each other, the sisters, and much was understood between them
+in a flash without a word spoken. Marcia suddenly saw herself standing
+there in Kate's rightful place, Kate's things in her hands, Kate's
+garments upon her body, Kate's husband held by her. It was as if Kate
+charged her with all these things, as she looked her through and over,
+from her slipper tips to the ruffle around the neck. And oh, the scorn
+that flamed from Kate's eyes playing over her, and scorching her cheeks
+into crimson, and burning her lips dry and stiff! And yet when Kate's eyes
+reached her face and charged her with the supreme offense of taking David
+from her, Marcia's eyes looked bravely back, and were not burned by the
+fire, and she felt that her soul was not even scorched by it. Something
+about the thought of David like an angelic presence seemed to save her.
+
+The silence between them was so intense that nothing else could be heard
+by the two. The voices below were drowned by it, the footstep on the stair
+was as if it were not.
+
+At last Kate spoke, angered still more by her sister's soft eyes which
+gazed steadily back and did not droop before her own flashing onslaught.
+Her voice was cold and cruel. There was nothing sisterly in it, nothing to
+remind either that the other had ever been beloved.
+
+"Fool!" hissed Kate. "Silly fool! Did you think you could steal a husband
+as you stole your clothes? Did you suppose marrying David would make him
+yours, as putting on my clothes seemed to make them yours? Well I can tell
+you he will never be a husband to you. He doesn't love you and he never
+can. He will always love me. He's as much mine as if I had married him, in
+spite of all your attempts to take him. Oh, you needn't put up your baby
+mouth and pucker it as if you were going to cry. Cry away. It won't do any
+good. You can't make a man yours, any more than you can make somebody's
+clothes yours. They don't fit you any more than he does. You look horrid
+in blue, and you know it, in spite of all your prinking around and
+pretending. I'd be ashamed to be tricked out that way and know that every
+dud I had was made for somebody else. As for going around and pretending
+you have a husband--it's a lie. You know he's nothing to you. You know he
+never told you he cared for you. I tell you he's mine, and he always will
+be."
+
+"Kate, you're married!" cried Marcia in shocked tones. "How can you talk
+like that?"
+
+"Married! Nonsense! What difference does that make? It's hearts that
+count, not marriages. Has your marriage made you a wife? Answer me that!
+Has it? Does David love you? Does he ever kiss you? Yet he came to see me
+in New York this winter, and took me in his arms and kissed me. He gave me
+money too. See this brooch?"--she exhibited a jeweled pin--"that was bought
+with his money. You see he loves me still. I could bring him to my feet
+with a word to-day. He would kiss me if I asked him. He is weak as water
+in my hands."
+
+Marcia's cheeks burned with shame and anger. Almost she felt at the limit
+of her strength. For the first time in her life she felt like
+striking,--striking her own sister. Horrified over her feelings, and the
+rage which was tearing her soul, she looked up, and there stood David in
+the doorway, like some tall avenging angel!
+
+Kate had her back that way and did not see at once, but Marcia's eyes
+rested on him hungrily, pleadingly, and his answered hers. From her sudden
+calmness Kate saw there was some one near, and turning, looked at David.
+But he did not glance her way. How much or how little he had heard of
+Kate's tirade, which in her passion had been keyed in a high voice, he
+never let them know and neither dared to ask him, lest perhaps he had not
+heard anything. There was a light of steel in his eyes toward everything
+but Marcia, and his tone had in it kindness and a recognition of mutual
+understanding as he said:
+
+"If you are ready we had better go now, dear, had we not?"
+
+Oh how gladly Marcia followed her husband down the stairs and out the
+door! She scarcely knew how she went through the formalities of getting
+away. It seemed as she looked back upon them that David had sheltered her
+from it all, and said everything needful for her, and all she had done was
+to smile an assent. He talked calmly to her all the way home; told her Mr.
+Brentwood's opinion about the change in the commerce of the country the
+new railroad was going to make; told her though he must have known she
+could not listen. Perhaps both were conscious of the bedroom window over
+the way and a pair of blue eyes that might be watching them as they passed
+into the house. David took hold of her arm and helped her up the steps of
+their own home as if she had been some great lady. Marcia wondered if Kate
+saw that. In her heart she blessed David for this outward sign of their
+relationship. It gave her shame a little cover at least. She glanced up
+toward the next house as she passed in and felt sure she saw a glimmer of
+purple move away from the window. Then David shut the door behind them and
+led her gently in.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+He made her go into the parlor and sit down and she was all unnerved by
+his gentle ways. The tears would come in spite of her. He took his own
+fine wedding handkerchief and wiped them softly off her hot cheeks. He
+untied the bonnet that was not hers, and flung it far into a corner in the
+room. Marcia thought he put force into the fling. Then he unfolded the
+shawl from her shoulders and threw that into another corner. Kate's
+beautiful thread lace shawl. Marcia felt a hysterical desire to laugh, but
+David's voice was steady and quiet when he spoke as one might speak to a
+little child in trouble.
+
+"There now, dear," he said. He had never called her dear before. "There,
+that was an ordeal, and I'm glad, it's over. It will never trouble us that
+way again. Let us put it aside and never think about it any more. We have
+our own lives to live. I want you to go with me to-morrow morning to see
+the train start if you feel able. We must start early and you must take a
+good rest. Would you like to go?"
+
+Marcia's face like a radiant rainbow answered for her as she smiled behind
+her tears, and all the while he talked David's hand, as tender as a
+woman's, was passing back and forth on Marcia's hot forehead and smoothing
+the hair. He talked on quietly to soothe her, and give her a chance to
+regain her composure, speaking of a few necessary arrangements for the
+morning's ride. Then he said, still in his quiet voice: "Now dear, I want
+you to go to bed, for we must start rather early, but first do you think
+you could sing me that little song you were singing the day I came home?
+Don't if you feel too tired, you know."
+
+Then Marcia, an eager light in her eyes, sprang up and went to the piano,
+and began to play softly and sing the tender words she had sung once
+before when he was listening and she knew it not.
+
+                "Dearest, believe,
+                   When e'er we part:
+                 Lonely I grieve,
+                   In my sad heart:--"
+
+Kate, standing within the chintz curtains across the yard shedding angry
+tears upon her purple silk, heard presently the sweet tones of the piano,
+which might have been hers; heard her sister's voice singing, and began to
+understand that she must bear the punishment of her own rash deeds.
+
+The room had grown from a purple dusk into quiet darkness while Marcia was
+singing, for the sun was almost down when they walked home. When the song
+was finished David stood half wistfully looking at Marcia for a moment.
+Her eyes shone to his through the dusk like two bright stars. He hesitated
+as though he wanted to say something more, and then thought better of it.
+At last he stooped and lifted her hand from the keys and led her toward
+the door.
+
+"You must go to sleep at once," he said gently. "You'll need all the rest
+you can get." He lighted a candle for her and said good-night with his
+eyes as well as his lips. Marcia felt that she was moving up the stairs
+under a spell of some gentle loving power that surrounded her and would
+always guard her.
+
+And it was about this time that Miranda, having been sent over to take a
+forgotten piece of bride's cake to Marcia, and having heard the piano, and
+stolen discreetly to the parlor window for a moment, returned and detailed
+for the delectation of that most unhappy guest Mrs. Leavenworth why she
+could not get in and would have to take it over in the morning:
+
+"The window was open in the parlor and they were in there, them two, but
+they was so plum took up with their two selves, as they always are, that
+there wasn't no use knockin' fer they'd never hev heard."
+
+Miranda enjoyed making those remarks to the guest. Some keen instinct
+always told her where best to strike her blows.
+
+When Marcia had reached the top stair she looked down and there was David
+smiling up to her.
+
+"Marcia," said he in a tone that seemed half ashamed and half amused,
+"have you, any--that is--things--that you had before--all your own I mean?"
+With quick intuition Marcia understood and her own sweet shame about her
+clothes that were not her own came back upon her with double force. She
+suddenly saw herself again standing before the censure of her sister. She
+wondered if David had heard. If not, how then did he know? Oh, the shame
+of it!
+
+She sat down weakly upon the stair.
+
+"Yes," said she, trying to think. "Some old things, and one frock."
+
+"Wear it then to-morrow, dear," said David, in a compelling voice and with
+the sweet smile that took the hurt out of his most severe words.
+
+Marcia smiled. "It is very plain," she said, "only chintz, pink and white.
+I made it myself."
+
+"Charming!" said David. "Wear it, dear. Marcia, one thing more. Don't wear
+any more things that don't belong to you. Not a Dud. Promise me? Can you
+get along without it?"
+
+"Why, I guess so," said Marcia laughing joyfully. "I'll try to manage. But
+I haven't any bonnet. Nothing but a pink sunbonnet."
+
+"All right, wear that," said David.
+
+"It will look a little queer, won't it?" said Marcia doubtfully, and yet
+as if the idea expressed a certain freedom which was grateful to her.
+
+"Never mind," said David. "Wear it. Don't wear any more of those other
+things. Pack them all up and send them where they belong, just as quick as
+we get home."
+
+There was something masterful and delightful in David's voice, and Marcia
+with a happy laugh took her candle and got up saying, with a ring of joy
+in her voice: "All right!" She went to her room with David's second
+good-night ringing in her ears and her heart so light she wanted to sing.
+
+Not at once did Marcia go to her bed. She set her candle upon the bureau
+and began to search wildly in a little old hair-cloth trunk, her own
+special old trunk that had contained her treasures and which had been sent
+her after she left home. She had scarcely looked into it since she came to
+the new home. It seemed as if her girlhood were shut up in it. Now she
+pulled it out from the closet.
+
+What a flood of memories rushed over her as she opened it! There were
+relics of her school days, and of her little childhood. But she had no
+time for them now. She was in search of something. She touched them
+tenderly, but laid them all out one after another upon the floor until
+down in the lower corner she found a roll of soft white cloth. It
+contained a number of white garments, half a dozen perhaps in all,
+finished, and several others cut out barely begun. They were her own work,
+every stitch, the first begun when she was quite a little girl, and her
+stepmother started to teach her to sew. What pride she had taken in them!
+How pleased she had been when allowed to put real tucks in some of them!
+She had thought as she sewed upon them at different times that they were
+to be a part of her own wedding trousseau. And then her wedding had come
+upon her unawares, with the trousseau ready-made, and everything belonged
+to some one else. She had folded her own poor little garments away and
+thought never to take them out again, for they seemed to belong to her
+dead self.
+
+But now that dead self had suddenly come to life again. These hated things
+that she had worn for a year that were not hers were to be put away, and,
+pretty as they were, many of them, she regretted not a thread of them.
+
+She laid the white garments out upon a chair and decided that she would
+put on what she needed of them on the morrow, even though they were
+rumpled with long lying away. She even searched out an old pair of her own
+stockings and laid them on a chair with the other things. They were neatly
+darned as all things had always been under her stepmother's supervision.
+Further search brought a pair of partly worn prunella slippers to light,
+with narrow ankle ribbons.
+
+Then Marcia took down the pink sprigged chintz that she had made a year
+ago and laid it near the other things, with a bit of black velvet and the
+quaint old brooch. She felt a little dubious about appearing on such a
+great occasion, almost in Albany, in a chintz dress and with no wrap.
+Stay! There was the white crepe shawl, all her own, that David had brought
+her. She had not felt like wearing it to Hannah Heath's wedding, it seemed
+too precious to take near an unloving person like Hannah. Before that she
+had never felt an occasion great enough. Now she drew it forth
+breathlessly. A white crepe shawl and a pink calico sunbonnet! Marcia
+laughed softly. But then, what matter! David had said wear it.
+
+All things were ready for the morrow now. There were even her white lace
+mitts that Aunt Polly in an unusual fit of benevolence had given her.
+
+Then, as if to make the change complete, she searched out an old night
+robe, plain but smooth and clean and arrayed herself in it, and so,
+thankful, happy, she lay down as she had been bidden and fell asleep.
+
+David in the room below pondered, strange to say, the subject of dress.
+There was some pride beneath it all, of course; there always is behind the
+great problem of dress. It was the rejected bonnet lying in the corner
+with its blue ribbons limp and its blue flowers crushed that made that
+subject paramount among so many others he might have chosen for his
+night's meditation.
+
+He was going over to close the parlor window, when he saw the thing lying
+innocent and discarded in the corner. Though it bore an injured look, it
+yet held enough of its original aristocratic style to cause him to stop
+and think.
+
+It was all well enough to suggest that Marcia wear a pink sunbonnet. It
+sounded deliciously picturesque. She looked lovely in pink and a sunbonnet
+was pretty and sensible on any one; but the morrow was a great day. David
+would be seen of many and his wife would come under strict scrutiny.
+Moreover it was possible that Kate might be upon the scene to jeer at her
+sister in a sunbonnet. In fact, when he considered it he would not like to
+take his wife to Albany in a sunbonnet. It behoved him to consider. The
+outrageous words which he had heard Mistress Leavenworth speak to his wife
+still burned in his brain like needles of torture: revelation of the true
+character of the woman he had once longed to call his own.
+
+But that bonnet! He stood and examined it. What was a bonnet like? The
+proper kind of a bonnet for a woman in his wife's position to wear. He had
+never noticed a woman's bonnet before except as he had absent-mindedly
+observed them in front of him in meeting. Now he brought his mind to bear
+upon that bonnet. It seemed to be made up of three component parts--a
+foundation: a girdle apparently to bind together and tie on the head; and
+a decoration. Straw, silk and some kind of unreal flowers. Was that all?
+He stooped down and picked the thing up with the tips of his fingers, held
+it at arms length as though it were contaminating, and examined the
+inside. Ah! There was another element in its construction, a sort of frill
+of something thin,--hardly lace,--more like the foam of a cloud. He touched
+the tulle clumsily with his thumb and finger and then he dropped the
+bonnet back into the corner again. He thought he understood well enough to
+know one again. He stood pondering a moment, and looked at his watch.
+
+Yes, it was still early enough to try at least, though of course the shop
+would be closed. But the village milliner lived behind her little store.
+It would be easy enough to rouse her, and he had known her all his life.
+He took his hat as eagerly as he had done when as a boy Aunt Clarinda had
+given him a penny to buy a top and permission to go to the corner and buy
+it before Aunt Amelia woke up from her nap. He went quietly out of the
+door, fastening it behind him and walked rapidly down the street.
+
+Yes, the milliner's shop was closed, but a light in the side windows
+shining through the veiling hop-vines guided him, and he was presently
+tapping at Miss Mitchell's side door. She opened the door cautiously and
+peeped over her glasses at him, and then a bright smile overspread her
+face. Who in the whole village did not welcome David whenever he chanced
+to come? Miss Mitchell was resting from her labors and reading the village
+paper. She had finished the column of gossip and was quite ready for a
+visitor.
+
+"Come right in, David," she said heartily, for she had known him all the
+years, "it does a body good to see you though your visits are as few and
+far between as angels' visits. I'm right glad to see you! Sit down." But
+David was too eager about his business.
+
+"I haven't any time to sit down to-night, Miss Susan," he said eagerly,
+"I've come to buy a bonnet. Have you got one? I hope it isn't too late
+because I want it very early in the morning."
+
+"A bonnet! Bless me! For yourself?" said Miss Mitchell from mere force of
+commercial habit. But neither of them saw the joke, so intent upon
+business were they. "For my wife, Miss Mitchell. You see she is going with
+me over to Albany to-morrow morning and we start quite early. We are going
+to see the new railroad train start, you know, and she seems to think she
+hasn't a bonnet that's suitable."
+
+"Going to see a steam engine start, are you! Well, take care, David, you
+don't get too near. They do say they're terrible dangerous things, and fer
+my part I can't see what good they'll be, fer nobody'll ever be willin' to
+ride behind 'em, but I'd like to see it start well enough. And that sweet
+little wife of yours thinks she ain't got a good enough bonnet. Land
+sakes! What is the matter with her Dunstable straw, and what's become of
+that one trimmed with blue lutestrings, and where's the shirred silk one
+she wore last Sunday? They're every one fine bonnets and ought to last her
+a good many years yet if she cares fer 'em. The mice haven't got into the
+house and et them, hev they?"
+
+"No, Miss Susan, those bonnets are all whole yet I believe, but they don't
+seem to be just the suitable thing. In fact, I don't think they're
+over-becoming to her, do you? You see they're mostly blue----"
+
+"That's so!" said Miss Mitchell. "I think myself she'd look better in
+pink. How'd you like white? I've got a pretty thing that I made fer Hannah
+Heath an' when it was done Hannah thought it was too plain and wouldn't
+have it. I sent for the flowers to New York and they cost a high price.
+Wait! I will show it to you."
+
+She took a candle and he followed her to the dark front room ghostly with
+bonnets in various stages of perfection.
+
+It was a pretty thing. Its foundation was of fine Milan braid, creamy
+white and smooth and even. He knew at a glance it belonged to the higher
+order of things, and was superior to most of the bonnets produced in the
+village.
+
+It was trimmed with plain white taffeta ribbon, soft and silky. That was
+all on the outside. Around the face was a soft ruching of tulle, and
+clambering among it a vine of delicate green leaves that looked as if they
+were just plucked from a wild rose bank. David was delighted. Somehow the
+bonnet looked like Marcia. He paid the price at once, declining to look at
+anything else. It was enough that he liked it and that Hannah Heath had
+not. He had never admired Hannah's taste. He carried it home in triumph,
+letting himself softly into the house, lighted three candles, took the
+bonnet out and hung it upon a chair. Then he walked around it surveying it
+critically, first from this side, then from that. It pleased him
+exceedingly. He half wished Marcia would hear him and come down. He wanted
+to see it on her, but concluded that he was growing boyish and had better
+get himself under control.
+
+The bonnet approved, he walked back and forth through the kitchen and
+dining-room thinking. He compelled himself to go over the events of the
+afternoon and analyze most carefully his own innermost feelings. In fact,
+after doing that he began further back and tried to find out how he felt
+toward Marcia. What was this something that had been growing in him
+unaware through the months; that had made his homecoming so sweet, and had
+brightened every succeeding day; and had made this meeting with Kate a
+mere commonplace? What was this precious thing that nestled in his heart?
+Might he, had he a right to call it love? Surely! Now all at once his
+pulses thrilled with gladness. He loved her! It was good to love her! She
+was the most precious being on earth to him. What was Kate in comparison
+with her? Kate who had shown herself cold and cruel and unloving in every
+way?
+
+His anger flamed anew as he thought of those cutting sentences he had
+overheard, taunting her own sister about the clothes she wore. Boasting
+that he still belonged to her! She, a married woman! A woman who had of
+her own free will left him at the last moment and gone away with another!
+His whole nature recoiled against her. She had sinned against her
+womanhood, and might no longer demand from man the homage that a true
+woman had a right to claim.
+
+Poor little bruised flower! His heart went out to Marcia. He could not
+bear to think of her having to stand and listen to that heartless tirade.
+And he had been the cause of all this. He had allowed her to take a
+position which threw her open to Kate's vile taunts.
+
+Up and down he paced till the torrent of his anger spent itself, and he
+was able to think more calmly. Then he went back in his thoughts to the
+time when he had first met Kate and she had bewitched him. He could see
+now the heartlessness of her. He had met her first at the house of a
+friend where he was visiting, partly on pleasure, partly on business. She
+had devoted herself to him during the time of her stay in a most charming
+way, though now he recalled that she had also been equally devoted to the
+son of the house whom he was visiting. When she went home she had asked
+him to come and call, for her home was but seven miles away. He had been
+so charmed with her that he had accepted the invitation, and, rashly he
+now saw, had engaged himself to her, after having known her in all face to
+face but a few days. To be sure he had known of her father for years, and
+he took a good deal for granted on account of her fine family. They had
+corresponded after their engagement which had lasted for nearly a year,
+and in that time David had seen her but twice, for a day or two at a time,
+and each time he had thought her grown more lovely. Her letters had been
+marvels of modesty, and shy admiration. It was easy for Kate to maintain
+her character upon paper, though she had had little trouble in making
+people love her under any circumstances. Now as he looked back he could
+recall many instances when she had shown a cruel, heartless nature.
+
+Then, all at once, with a throb of joy, it came to him to be thankful to
+God for the experience through which he had passed. After all it had not
+been taken from him to love with a love enduring, for though Kate had been
+snatched from him just at the moment of his possession, Marcia had been
+given him. Fool that he was! He had been blind to his own salvation.
+Suppose he had been allowed to go on and marry Kate! Suppose he had had
+her character revealed to him suddenly as those letters of hers to Harry
+Temple had revealed it--as it surely would have been revealed in time, for
+such things cannot be hid,--and she had been his _wife!_ He shuddered. How
+he would have loathed her! How he loathed her now!
+
+Strangely enough the realization of that fact gave him joy. He sprang up
+and waved his hands about in silent delight. He felt as if he must shout
+for gladness. Then he gravely knelt beside his chair and uttered an
+audible thanksgiving for his escape and the joy he had been given. Nothing
+else seemed fitting expression of his feelings.
+
+There was one other question to consider--Marcia's feelings. She had always
+been kind and gentle and loving to him, just as a sister might have been.
+She was exceedingly young yet. Did she know, could she understand what it
+meant to be loved the way he was sure he could love a woman? And would she
+ever be able to love him in that way? She was so silent and shy he hardly
+knew whether she cared for him or not. But there was one thought that gave
+him unbounded joy and that was that she was his wife. At least no one else
+could take her from him. He had felt condemned that he had married her
+when his heart was heavy lest she would lose the joy of life, but all that
+was changed now. Unless she loved some one else surely such love as his
+could compel hers and finally make her as happy as a woman could be made.
+
+A twinge of misgiving crossed his mind as he admitted the possibility that
+Marcia might love some one else. True, he knew of no one, and she was so
+young it was scarcely likely she had left any one back in her girlhood to
+whom her heart had turned when she was out of his sight. Still there were
+instances of strong union of hearts of those who had loved from early
+childhood. It might be that Marcia's sometime-sadness was over a companion
+of her girlhood.
+
+A great longing took possession of him to rush up and waken her and find
+out if she could ever care for him. He scarcely knew himself. This was not
+his dignified contained self that he had lived with for twenty-seven
+years.
+
+It was very late before he finally went upstairs. He walked softly lest he
+disturb Marcia. He paused before her door listening to see if she was
+asleep, but there was only the sound of the katydids in the branches
+outside her window, and the distant tree-toads singing a fugue in an
+orchard not far away. He tiptoed to his room but he did not light his
+candle, therefore there was no light in the back room of the Spafford
+house that night for any watching eyes to ponder over. He threw himself
+upon the bed. He was weary in body yet his soul seemed buoyant as a bird
+in the morning air. The moon was casting long bars of silver across the
+rag carpet and white counterpane. It was almost full moon. Yes, to-morrow
+it would be entirely full. It was full moon the night he had met Marcia
+down by the gate, and kissed her. It was the first time he had thought of
+that kiss with anything but pain. It used to hurt him that he had made the
+mistake and taken her for Kate. It had seemed like an ill-omen of what was
+to come. But now, it thrilled him with a great new joy. After all he had
+given the kiss to the right one. It was Marcia to whom his soul bowed in
+the homage that a man may give to a woman. Did his good angel guide him to
+her that night? And how was it he had not seen the sweetness of Marcia
+sooner? How had he lived with her nearly a year, and watched her dainty
+ways, and loving ministry and not known that his heart was hers? How was
+it he had grieved so long over Kate, and now since he had seen her once
+more, not a regret was in his heart that she was not his; but a beautiful
+revelation of his own love to Marcia had been wrought in him? How came it?
+
+And the importunate little songsters in the night answered him a thousand
+times: "Kate-did-it! Kate-she-did it! Yes she did! I say she did. Kate did
+it!"
+
+Had angel voices reached him through his dreams, and suddenly given him
+the revelation which the little insects had voiced in their ridiculous
+colloquy? It was Kate herself who had shown him how he loved Marcia.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+Slowly the moon rode over the house, and down toward its way in the West,
+and after its vanishing chariot the night stretched wistful arms. Softly
+the grey in the East tinged into violet and glowed into rose and gold. The
+birds woke up and told one another that the first of August was come and
+life was good.
+
+The breath that came in the early dawn savored of new-mown hay, and the
+bird songs thrilled Marcia as if it were the day of her dreams.
+
+She forgot all her troubles; forgot even her wayward sister next door; and
+rose with the song of the birds in her heart. This was to be a great day.
+No matter what happened she had now this day to date from. David had asked
+her to go somewhere just because he wanted her to. She knew it from the
+look in his eyes when he told her, and she knew it because he might have
+asked a dozen men to go with him. There was no reason why he need have
+taken her to-day, for it was distinctly an affair for men, this great
+wonder of machinery. It was a privilege for a woman to go. She felt it.
+She understood the honor.
+
+With fingers trembling from joy she dressed. Not the sight of her pink
+calico sunbonnet lying on the chair, nor the thought of wearing it upon so
+grand an occasion, could spoil the pleasure of the day. Among so large a
+company her bonnet would hardly be noticed. If David was satisfied why
+what difference did it make? She was glad it would be early when they
+drove by the aunts, else they might be scandalized. But never mind! Trill!
+She hummed a merry little tune which melted into the melody of the song
+she had sung last night.
+
+Then she smiled at herself in the glass. She was fastening the brooch in
+the bit of velvet round her neck, and she thought of the day a year ago
+when she had fastened that brooch. She had wondered then how she would
+feel if the next day was to be her own wedding day. Now as she smiled back
+at herself in the glass all at once she thought it seemed as if this was
+her wedding day. Somehow last night had seemed to realize her dreams. A
+wonderful joy had descended upon her heart. Maybe she was foolish, but was
+she not going to ride with David? She did not long for the green fields
+and a chance to run wild through the wood now. This was better than those
+childish pleasures. This was real happiness. And to think it should have
+come through David!
+
+She hurried with the arrangement of her hair until her fingers trembled
+with excitement. She wanted to get downstairs and see if it were all
+really true or if she were dreaming it. Would David look at her as he had
+done last night? Would he speak that precious word "dear" to her again
+to-day? Would he take her by the hand and lead her sometimes, or was that
+a special gentleness because he knew she had suffered from her sister's
+words? She clasped her hands with a quick, convulsive gesture over her
+heart and looking back to the sweet face in the glass, said softly, "Oh, I
+love him, love him! And it cannot be wrong, for Kate is married."
+
+But though she was up early David had been down before her. The fire was
+ready lighted and the kettle singing over it on the crane. He had even
+pulled out the table and put up the leaf, and made some attempt to put the
+dishes upon it for breakfast. He was sitting by the hearth impatient for
+her coming, with a bandbox by his side.
+
+It was like another sunrise to watch their eyes light up as they saw one
+another. Their glances rushed together as though they had been a long time
+withholden from each other, and a rosy glow came over Marcia's face that
+made her long to hide it for a moment from view. Then she knew in her
+heart that her dream was not all a dream. David was the same. It had
+lasted, whatever this wonderful thing was that bound them together. She
+stood still in her happy bewilderment, looking at him, and he, enjoying
+the radiant morning vision of her, stood too.
+
+David found that longing to take her in his arms overcoming him again. He
+had made strict account with himself and was resolved to be careful and
+not frighten her. He must be sure it would not be unpleasant to her before
+he let her know his great deep love. He must be careful. He must not take
+advantage of the fact that she was his and could not run away from him. If
+she dreaded his attentions, neither could she any more say no.
+
+And so their two looks met, and longed to come closer, but were held back,
+and a lovely shyness crept over Marcia's sweet face. Then David bethought
+himself of his bandbox.
+
+He took up the box and untied it with unaccustomed fingers, fumbling among
+the tissue paper for the handle end of the thing. Where did they take hold
+of bonnets anyway? He had no trouble with it the night before, but then he
+was not thinking about it. Now he was half afraid she might not like it.
+He remembered that Hannah Heath had pronounced against it. It suddenly
+seemed impossible that he should have bought a bonnet that a pretty woman
+had said was not right. There must be something wrong with it after all.
+
+Marcia stood wondering.
+
+"I thought maybe this would do instead of the sunbonnet," he said at last,
+getting out the bonnet by one string and holding it dangling before him.
+
+Marcia caught it with deft careful hands and an exclamation of delight. He
+watched her anxiously. It had all the requisite number of materials,--one,
+two, three, four,--like the despised bonnet he threw on the floor--straw,
+silk, lace and flowers. Would she like it? Her face showed that she did.
+Her cheeks flushed with pleasure, and her eyes danced with joy. Marcia's
+face always showed it when she liked anything. There was nothing half-way
+about her.
+
+"Oh, it is beautiful!" she said delightedly. "It is so sweet and white and
+cool with that green vine. Oh, I am glad, glad, glad! I shall never wear
+that old blue bonnet again." She went over to the glass and put it on. The
+soft ruching settled about her brown hair, and made a lovely setting for
+her face. The green vine twined and peeped in and out under the round brim
+and the ribbon sat in a prim bow beneath her pretty chin.
+
+She gave one comprehensive glance at herself in the glass and then turned
+to David. In that glance was revealed to her just how much she had dreaded
+wearing her pink sunbonnet, and just how relieved she was to have a
+substitute.
+
+Her look was shy and sweet as she said with eyes that dared and then
+drooped timidly:
+
+"You--are--very--good to me!"
+
+Almost he forgot his vow of carefulness at that, but remembered when he
+had got half across the room toward her, and answered earnestly:
+
+"Dear, _you_ have been very good to _me_."
+
+Marcia's eyes suddenly sobered and half the glow faded from her face. Was
+it then only gratitude? She took off the bonnet and touched the bows with
+wistful tenderness as she laid it by till after breakfast. He watched her
+and misinterpreted the look. Was she then disappointed in the bonnet? Was
+it not right after all? Had Hannah known better than he? He hesitated and
+then asked her:
+
+"Is there---- Is it---- That is--perhaps you would rather take it back and and
+choose another. You know how to choose one better than I. There were
+others I think. In fact, I forgot to look at any but this because I liked
+it, but I'm only a man----" he finished helplessly.
+
+"No! No! No!" said Marcia, her eyes sparkling emphatically again. "There
+couldn't be a better one. This is just exactly what I like. I do not want
+anything else. And I--like it all the better because you selected it," she
+added daringly, suddenly lifting her face to his with a spice of her own
+childish freedom.
+
+His eyes admired her.
+
+"She told me Hannah Heath thought it too plain," he added honestly.
+
+"Then I'm sure I like it all the better for that," said Marcia so
+emphatically that they both laughed.
+
+It all at once became necessary to hurry, for the old clock in the hall
+clanged out the hour and David became aware that haste was imperative.
+
+Early as Marcia had come down, David had been up long before her, his
+heart too light to sleep. In a dream, or perchance on the borders of the
+morning, an idea had come to him. He told Marcia that he must go out now
+to see about the horse, but he also made a hurried visit to the home of
+his office clerk and another to the aunts, and when he returned with the
+horse he had left things in such train that if he did not return that
+evening he would not be greatly missed. But he said nothing to Marcia
+about it. He laughed to himself as he thought of the sleepy look on his
+clerk's face, and the offended dignity expressed in the ruffle of Aunt
+Hortense's night cap all awry as she had peered over the balusters to
+receive his unprecedentedly early visit. The aunts were early risers. They
+prided themselves upon it. It hurt their dignity and their pride to have
+anything short of sudden serious illness, or death, or a fire cause others
+to arise before them. Therefore they did not receive the message that
+David was meditating another trip away from the village for a few days
+with good grace. Aunt Hortense asked Aunt Amelia if she had ever feared
+that Marcia would have a bad effect upon David by making him frivolous.
+Perhaps he would lose interest in his business with all his careering
+around the country. Aunt Amelia agreed that Marcia must be to blame in
+some way, and then discovering they had a whole hour before their usual
+rising time, the two good ladies settled themselves with indignant
+composure to their interrupted repose.
+
+Breakfast was ready when David returned. Marcia supposed he had only been
+to harness the horse. She glanced out happily through the window to where
+the horse stood tied to the post in front of the house. She felt like
+waving her hand to him, and he turned and seemed to see her; rolling the
+whites of his eyes around, and tossing his head as if in greeting.
+
+Marcia would scarcely have eaten anything in her excitement if David had
+not urged her to do so. She hurried with her clearing away, and then flew
+upstairs to arrange her bonnet before the glass and don the lovely folds
+of the creamy crepe shawl, folding it demurely around her shoulders and
+knotting it in front. She put on her mitts, took her handkerchief folded
+primly, and came down ready.
+
+But David no longer seemed in such haste. He made a great fuss fastening
+up everything. She wondered at his unusual care, for she thought
+everything quite safe for the day.
+
+She raised one shade toward the Heath house. It was the first time she had
+permitted herself this morning to think of Kate. Was she there yet?
+Probably, for no coach had left since last night, and unless she had gone
+by private conveyance there would have been no way to go. She looked up to
+the front corner guest room where the windows were open and the white
+muslin curtains swayed in the morning breeze. No one seemed to be moving
+about in the room. Perhaps Kate was not awake. Just then she caught the
+flutter of a blue muslin down on the front stoop. Kate was up, early as it
+was, and was coming out. A sudden misgiving seized Marcia's heart, as when
+a little child, she had seen her sister coming to eat up the piece of cake
+or sweetmeat that had been given to her. Many a time had that happened.
+Now, she felt that in some mysterious way Kate would contrive to take from
+her her new-found joy.
+
+She could not resist her,--David could not resist her,--no one could ever
+resist Kate. Her face turned white and her hand began to tremble so that
+she dropped the curtain she had been holding up.
+
+Just then came David's clear voice, louder than would have been necessary,
+and pitched as if he were calling to some one upstairs, though he knew she
+was just inside the parlor where she had gone to make sure of the window
+fastening.
+
+"Come, dear! Aren't you ready? It is more than time we started."
+
+There was a glad ring in David's voice that somehow belied the somewhat
+exacting words he had spoken, and Marcia's heart leaped up to meet him.
+
+"Yes, I'm all ready, dear!" she called back with a hysterical little
+laugh. Of course Kate could not hear so far, but it gave her satisfaction
+to say it. The final word was unpremeditated. It bubbled up out of the
+depths of her heart and made the red rush back into her cheeks when she
+realized what she had said. It was the first time she had ever used a term
+of endearment toward David. She wondered if he noticed it and if he would
+think her very--bold,--queer,--immodest, to use it. She looked shyly up at
+him, enquiring with her eyes, as she came out to him on the front stoop,
+and he looked down with such a smile she felt as if it were a caress. And
+yet neither was quite conscious of this little real by-play they were
+enacting for the benefit of the audience of one in blue muslin over the
+way. How much she heard, or how little they could not tell, but it gave
+satisfaction to go through with it inasmuch as it was real, and not acting
+at all.
+
+David fastened the door and then helped Marcia into the carriage. They
+were both laughing happily like two children starting upon a picnic.
+Marcia was serenely conscious of her new bonnet, and it was pleasant to
+have David tuck the linen lap robe over her chintz frock so carefully. She
+was certain Kate could not identify it now at that distance, thanks to the
+lap robe and her crepe shawl. At least Kate could not see any of her own
+trousseau on her sister now.
+
+Kate was sitting on the little white seat in the shelter of the
+honeysuckle vine facing them on the stoop of the Heath house. It was
+impossible for them to know whether she was watching them or not. They did
+not look up to see. She was talking with Mr. Heath who, in his milking
+garb, was putting to rights some shrubs and plants near the walk that had
+been trampled upon during the wedding festivities. But Kate must have seen
+a good deal that went on.
+
+David took up the reins, settled himself with a smile at Marcia, touched
+the horse with the tip of the whip, which caused him to spring forward in
+astonishment--that from David! No horse in town would have expected it of
+him. They had known him from babyhood, most of them, and he was gentleness
+itself. It must have been a mistake. But the impression lasted long enough
+to carry them a rod or two past the Heath house at a swift pace, with only
+time for a lifting of David's hat, prolonged politely,--which might or
+might not have included Kate, and they were out upon their way together.
+
+Marcia could scarcely believe her senses that she was really here beside
+David, riding with him swiftly through the village and leaving Kate
+behind. She felt a passing pity for Kate. Then she looked shyly up at
+David. Would his gaiety pass when they were away, and would he grow grave
+and sad again so soon as he was out of Kate's sight? She had learned
+enough of David's principles to know that he would not think it right to
+let his thoughts stray to Kate now, but did his heart still turn that way
+in spite of him?
+
+Through the town they sped, glad with every roll of the wheels that took
+them further away from Kate. Each was conscious, as they rolled along, of
+that day one year ago when they rode together thus, out through the fields
+into the country. It was a day much as that other one, just as bright,
+just as warm, yet oh, so much more radiant to both! Then they were sad and
+fearful of the future. All their life seemed in the past. Now the darkness
+had been led through, and they had reached the brightness again. In fact,
+all the future stretched out before them that fair morning and looked
+bright as the day.
+
+They were conscious of the blueness of the sky, of the soft clouds that
+hovered in haziness on the rim of the horizon, as holding off far enough
+to spoil no moment of that perfect day. They were conscious of the waving
+grains and of the perfume of the buckwheat drifting like snow in the
+fields beyond the wheat; conscious of the meadow-lark and the wood-robin's
+note; of the whirr of a locust; and the thud of a frog in the cool green
+of a pool deep with brown shadows; conscious of the circling of mated
+butterflies in the simmering gold air; of the wild roses lifting fair pink
+petals from the brambly banks beside the road; conscious of the whispering
+pine needles in a wood they passed; the fluttering chatter of leaves and
+silver flash of the lining of poplar leaves, where tall trees stood like
+sentinels, apart and sad; conscious of a little brook that tinkled under a
+log bridge they crossed, then hurried on its way unmindful of their happy
+crossing; conscious of the dusty daisy beside the road, closing with a
+bumbling bee who wanted honey below the market price; conscious of all
+these things; but most conscious of each other, close, side by side.
+
+It was all so dear, that ride, and over so soon. Marcia was just trying to
+get used to looking up into the dazzling light of David's eyes. She had to
+droop her own almost immediately for the truth she read in his was
+overpowering. Could it be? A fluttering thought came timidly to her heart
+and would not be denied.
+
+"Can it be, can it be that he cares for me? He loves me. He loves me!" It
+sang its way in with thrill after thrill of joy and more and more David's
+eyes told the story which his lips dared not risk yet. But eyes and hearts
+are not held by the conventions that bind lips. They rushed into their
+inheritance of each other and had that day ahead, a day so rare and sweet
+that it would do to set among the jewels of fair days for all time and for
+any one.
+
+All too soon they began to turn into roads where were other vehicles, many
+of them, and all going in the same direction. Men and women in gala day
+attire all laughing and talking expectantly and looking at one another as
+the carriages passed with a degree of familiar curiosity which betokens a
+common errand. Family coaches, farm wagons, with kitchen chairs for
+accommodation of the family; old one-horse chaises, carryalls, and even a
+stage coach or two wheeled into the old turnpike. David and Marcia settled
+into subdued quiet, their joy not expressing itself in the ripples of
+laughter that had rung out earlier in the morning when they were alone.
+They sought each other's eyes often and often, and in one of these
+excursions that David's eyes made to Marcia's face he noticed how
+extremely becoming the new bonnet was. After thinking it over he decided
+to risk letting her know. He was not shy about it now.
+
+"Do you know, dear," he said,--there had been a good many "dear's" slipping
+back and forth all unannounced during that ride, and not openly
+acknowledged either. "Do you know how becoming your new bonnet is to you?
+You look prettier than I ever saw you look but once before." He kept his
+eyes upon her face and watched the sweet color steal up to her drooping
+eyelashes.
+
+"When was that?" she asked coyly, to hide her embarrassment, and sweeping
+him one laughing glance.
+
+"Why, that night, dear, at the gate, in the moonlight. Don't you
+remember?"
+
+"Oh-h-h-h!" Marcia caught her breath and a thrill of joy passed through
+her that made her close her eyes lest the glad tears should come. Then the
+little bird in her heart set up the song in earnest to the tune of Wonder:
+"He loves me, He loves me, He loves me!"
+
+He leaned a little closer to her.
+
+"If there were not so many people looking I think I should have to kiss
+you now."
+
+"Oh-h-h-h!" said Marcia drawing in her breath and looking around
+frightened on the number of people that were driving all about them, for
+they were come almost to the railroad now, and could see the black smoke
+of the engine a little beyond as it stood puffing and snorting upon its
+track like some sulky animal that had been caught and chained and
+harnessed and was longing to leap forward and upset its load.
+
+But though Marcia looked about in her happy fright, and sat a trifle
+straighter in the chaise, she did not move her hand away that lay next
+David's, underneath the linen lap robe, and he put his own hand over it
+and covered it close in his firm hold. Marcia trembled and was so happy
+she was almost faint with joy. She wondered if she were very foolish
+indeed to feel so, and if all love had this terrible element of solemn joy
+in it that made it seem too great to be real.
+
+They had to stop a number of times to speak to people. Everybody knew
+David, it appeared. This man and that had a word to speak with him, some
+bit of news that he must not omit to notice in his article, some new
+development about the attitude of a man of influence that was important;
+the change of two or three of those who were to go in the coaches on this
+trial trip.
+
+To all of them David introduced his wife, with a ring of pride in his
+voice as he said the words "My wife," and all of them stopped whatever
+business they had in hand and stepped back to bow most deferentially to
+the beautiful woman who sat smiling by his side. They wondered why they
+had not heard of her before, and they looked curiously, enviously at
+David, and back in admiration at Marcia. It was quite a little court she
+held sitting there in the chaise by David's side.
+
+Men who have since won a mention in the pages of history were there that
+day, and nearly all of them had a word for David Spafford and his lovely
+wife. Many of them stood for some time and talked with her. Mr. Thurlow
+Weed was the last one to leave them before the train was actually ready
+for starting, and he laid an urging hand upon David's arm as he went.
+"Then you think you cannot go with us? Better come. Mrs. Spafford will let
+you I am sure. You're not afraid are you, Mrs. Spafford? I am sure you are
+a brave woman. Better come, Spafford."
+
+But David laughingly thanked him again as he had thanked others, and said
+that he would not be able to go, as he and his wife had other plans, and
+he must go on to Albany as soon as the train had started.
+
+Marcia looked up at him half worshipfully as he said this, wondering what
+it was, instinctively knowing that it was for her sake he was giving up
+this honor which they all wished to put upon him. It would naturally have
+been an interesting thing to him to have taken this first ride behind the
+new engine "Dewitt Clinton."
+
+Then, suddenly, like a chill wind from a thunder cloud that has stolen up
+unannounced and clutched the little wild flowers before they have time to
+bind up their windy locks and duck their heads under cover, there happened
+a thing that clutched Marcia's heart and froze all the joy in her veins.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+A coach was approaching filled with people, some of them Marcia knew; they
+were friends and neighbors from their own village, and behind it plodding
+along came a horse with a strangely familiar gait drawing four people. The
+driver was old Mr. Heath looking unbelievingly at the scene before him. He
+did not believe that an engine would be able to haul a train any
+appreciable distance whatever, and he believed that he had come out here
+to witness this entire company of fanatics circumvented by the ill-natured
+iron steed who stood on the track ahead surrounded by gaping boys and a
+flock of quacking ganders, living symbol of the people who had come to see
+the thing start; so thought Mr. Heath. He told himself he was as much of a
+goose as any of them to have let this chit of a woman fool him into coming
+off out here when he ought to have been in the hay field to-day.
+
+By his side in all the glory of shimmering blue with a wide white lace
+bertha and a bonnet with a steeple crown wreathed about heavily with roses
+sat Kate, a blue silk parasol shading her eyes from the sun, those eyes
+that looked to conquer, and seemed to pierce beyond and through her sister
+and ignore her. Old Mrs. Heath and Miranda were along, but they did not
+count, except to themselves. Miranda was all eyes, under an ugly bonnet.
+She desired above all things to see that wonderful engine in which David
+was so interested.
+
+Marcia shrunk and seemed to wither where she sat. All her bright bloom
+faded in an instant and a kind of frenzy seized her. She had a wild desire
+to get down out of the carriage and run with all her might away from this
+hateful scene. The sky seemed to have suddenly clouded over and the hum
+and buzz of voices about seemed a babel that would never cease.
+
+David felt the arm beside his cringe, and shrink back, and looking down
+saw the look upon her sweet frightened face; following her glance his own
+face hardened into what might have been termed righteous wrath. But not a
+word did he say, and neither did he apparently notice the oncoming
+carriage. He busied himself at once talking with a man who happened to
+pass the carriage, and when Mr. Heath drove by to get a better view of the
+engine he was so absorbed in his conversation that he did not notice them,
+which seemed but natural.
+
+But Kate was not to be thus easily foiled. She had much at stake and she
+must win if possible. She worked it about that Squire Heath should drive
+around to the end of the line of coaches, quite out of sight of the engine
+and where there was little chance of seeing the train and its
+passengers,--the only thing Squire Heath cared about. But there was an
+excellent view of David's carriage and Kate would be within hailing
+distance if it should transpire that she had no further opportunity of
+speaking with David. It seemed strange to Squire Heath, as he sat there
+behind the last coach patiently, that he had done what she asked. She did
+not look like a woman who was timid about horses, yet she had professed a
+terrible fear that the screech of the engine would frighten the staid old
+Heath horse. Miranda, at that, had insisted upon changing seats, thereby
+getting herself nearer the horse, and the scene of action. Miranda did not
+like to miss seeing the engine start.
+
+At last word to start was given. A man ran along by the train and mounted
+into his high seat with his horn in his hand ready to blow. The fireman
+ceased his raking of the glowing fire and every traveller sprang into his
+seat and looked toward the crowd of spectators importantly. This was a
+great moment for all interested. The little ones whose fathers were in the
+train began to call good-bye and wave their hands, and one old lady whose
+only son was going as one of the train assistants began to sob aloud.
+
+A horse in the crowd began to act badly. Every snort of the engine as the
+steam was let off made him start and rear. He was directly behind Marcia,
+and she turned her head and looked straight into his fiery frightened
+eyes, red with fear and frenzy, and felt his hot breath upon her cheek. A
+man was trying most ineffectually to hold him, but it seemed as if in
+another minute he would come plunging into the seat with them. Marcia
+uttered a frightened cry and clutched at David's arm. He turned, and
+seeing instantly what was the matter, placed his arm protectingly about
+her and at once guided his own horse out of the crowd, and around nearer
+to the engine. Somehow that protecting arm gave Marcia a steadiness once
+more and she was able to watch the wonderful wheels begin to turn and the
+whole train slowly move and start on its way. Her lips parted, her breath
+came quick, and for the instant she forgot her trouble. David's arm was
+still about her, and there was a reassuring pressure in it. He seemed to
+have forgotten that the crowd might see him--if the crowd had not been too
+busy watching something more wonderful. It is probable that only one
+person in that whole company saw David sitting with his arm about his
+wife--for he soon remembered and put it quietly on the back of the seat,
+where it would call no one's attention--and that person was Kate. She had
+not come to this hot dusty place to watch an engine creak along a track,
+she had come to watch David, and she was vexed and angry at what she saw.
+Here was Marcia flaunting her power over David directly in her face.
+Spiteful thing! She would pay her back yet and let her know that she could
+not touch the things that she, Kate, had put her own sign and seal upon.
+For this reason it was that at the last minute Kate allowed poor Squire
+Heath to drive around near the front of the train, saying that as David
+Spafford seemed to find it safe she supposed she ought not to hold them
+back for her fears. It needed but the word to send the vexed and curious
+Squire around through the crowd to a spot directly behind David's
+carriage, and there Miranda could see quite well, and Kate could sit and
+watch David and frame her plans for immediate action so soon as the
+curtain should fall upon this ridiculous engine play over which everybody
+was wild.
+
+And so, amid shouts and cheers, and squawking of the geese that attempted
+to precede the engine like a white frightened body-guard down the track;
+amid the waving of handkerchiefs, the shouts of excited little boys, and
+the neighing of frightened horses, the first steam engine that ever drew a
+train in New York state started upon its initial trip.
+
+Then there came a great hush upon the spectators assembled. The wheels
+were rolling, the carriages were moving, the train was actually going by
+them, and what had been so long talked about was an assured fact. They
+were seeing it with their own eyes, and might be witnesses of it to all
+their acquaintances. It was true. They dared not speak nor breathe lest
+something should happen and the great miracle should stop. They hushed
+simultaneously as though at the passing of some great soul. They watched
+in silence until the train went on between the meadows, grew smaller in
+the distance, slipped into the shadow of the wood, flashed out into the
+sunlight beyond again, and then was lost behind a hill. A low murmur
+growing rapidly into a shout of cheer arose as the crowd turned and faced
+one another and the fact of what they had seen.
+
+"By gum! She kin do it!" ejaculated Squire Heath, who had watched the
+melting of his skeptical opinions in speechless amazement.
+
+The words were the first intimation the Spaffords had of the proximity of
+Kate. They made David smile, but Marcia turned white with sudden fear
+again. Not for nothing had she lived with her sister so many years. She
+knew that cruel nature and dreaded it.
+
+David looked at Marcia for sympathy in his smile at the old Squire, but
+when he saw her face he turned frowning toward those behind him.
+
+Kate saw her opportunity. She leaned forward with honeyed smile, and wily
+as the serpent addressed her words to Marcia, loud and clear enough for
+all those about them to hear.
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Spafford! I am going to ask a great favor of you. I am sure you
+will grant it when you know I have so little time. I am extremely anxious
+to get a word of advice from your husband upon business matters that are
+very pressing. Would you kindly change places with me during the ride
+home, and give me a chance to talk with him about it? I would not ask it
+but that I must leave for New York on the evening coach and shall have no
+other opportunity to see him."
+
+Kate's smile was roses and cream touched with frosty sunshine, and to
+onlookers nothing could have been sweeter. But her eyes were coldly cruel
+as sharpened steel, and they said to her sister as plainly as words could
+have spoken: "Do you obey my wish, my lady, or I will freeze the heart out
+of you."
+
+Marcia turned white and sick. She felt as if her lips had suddenly
+stiffened and refused to obey her when they ought to have smiled. What
+would all these people think of her, and how was she behaving? For David's
+sake she ought to do something, say something, look something, but
+what--what should she do?
+
+While she was thinking this, with the freezing in her heart creeping up
+into her throat, the great tears beating at the portals of her eyes, and
+time standing suddenly still waiting for her leaden tongue to speak, David
+answered:
+
+All gracefully 'twas done, with not so much as a second's
+hesitation,--though it had seemed so long to Marcia,--nor the shadow of a
+sign that he was angry:
+
+"Mrs. Leavenworth," he said in his masterful voice, "I am sure my wife
+would not wish to seem ungracious, or unwilling to comply with your
+request, but as it happens it is impossible. We are not returning home for
+several days. My wife has some shopping to do in Albany, and in fact we
+are expecting to take a little trip. A sort of second honeymoon, you
+know,"--he added, smiling toward Mrs. Heath and Miranda; "it is the first
+time I have had leisure to plan for it since we were married. I am sorry I
+have to hurry away, but I am sure that my friend Squire Heath can give as
+much help in a business way as I could, and furthermore, Squire Schuyler
+is now in New York for a few days as I learned in a letter from him which
+arrived last evening. I am sure he can give you more and better advice
+than any I could give. I wish you good morning. Good morning, Mrs. Heath.
+Good morning, Miss Miranda!"
+
+Lifting his hat David drove away from them and straight over to the little
+wayside hostelry where he was to finish his article to send by the
+messenger who was even then ready mounted for the purpose.
+
+"My! Don't he think a lot of her though!" said Miranda, rolling the words
+as a sweet morsel under her tongue. "It must be nice to have a man so fond
+of you." This was one of the occasions when Miranda wished she had eyes in
+the back of her head. She was sharp and she had seen a thing or two, also
+she had heard scraps of her cousin Hannah's talk. But she sat demurely in
+the recesses of her deep, ugly bonnet and tried to imagine how the guest
+behind her looked.
+
+All trembling sat Marcia in the rusty parlor of the little hostelry, while
+David at the table wrote with hurried hand, glancing up at her to smile
+now and then, and passing over the sheets as he finished them for her
+criticism. She thought she had seen the Heath wagon drive away in the home
+direction, but she was not sure. She half expected to see the door open
+and Kate walk in. Her heart was thumping so she could scarcely sit still
+and the brightness of the world outside seemed to make her dizzy. She was
+glad to have the sheets to look over, for it took her thoughts away from
+herself and her nameless fears. She was not quite sure what it was she
+feared, only that in some way Kate would have power over David to take him
+away from her. As he wrote she studied the dear lines of his face and
+knew, as well as human heart may ever know, how dear another soul had
+grown to hers.
+
+David had not much to write and it was soon signed, approved, and sealed.
+He sent his messenger on the way and then coming back closed the door and
+went and stood before Marcia.
+
+As though she felt some critical moment had come she arose, trembling, and
+looked into his eyes questioningly.
+
+"Marcia," he said, and his tone was grave and earnest, putting her upon an
+equality with him, not as if she were a child any more. "Marcia, I have
+come to ask your forgiveness for the terrible thing I did to you in
+allowing you, who scarcely knew what you were doing then, to give your
+life away to a man who loved another woman."
+
+Marcia's heart stood still with horror. It had come then, the dreadful
+thing she had feared. The blow was going to fall. He did not love her!
+What a fool she had been!
+
+But the steady voice went on, though the blood in her neck and temples
+throbbed in such loud waves that she could scarcely hear the words to
+understand them.
+
+"It was a crime, Marcia, and I have come to realize it more and more
+during all the days of this year that you have so uncomplainingly spent
+yourself for me. I know now, as I did not think then in my careless,
+selfish sorrow, that I was as cruel to you, with your sweet young life, as
+your sister was cruel to me. You might already have given your heart to
+some one else; I never stopped to inquire. You might have had plans and
+hopes for your own future; I never even thought of it. I was a brute. Can
+you forgive me? Sometimes the thought of the responsibility I took upon
+myself has been so terrible to me that I felt I could not stand it. You
+did not realize what it was then that you were giving, perhaps, but
+somehow I think you have begun to realize now. Will you forgive me?" He
+stopped and looked at her anxiously. She was drooped and white as if a
+blast had suddenly struck her and faded her sweet bloom. Her throat was
+hot and dry and she had to try three times before she could frame the
+words, "Yes, I forgive."
+
+There was no hope, no joy in the words, and a sudden fear descended upon
+David's heart. Had he then done more damage than he knew? Was the child's
+heart broken by him, and did she just realize it? What could he do? Must
+he conceal his love from her? Perhaps this was no time to tell it. But he
+must. He could not bear the burden of having done her harm and not also
+tell her how he loved her. He would be very careful, very considerate, he
+would not press his love as a claim, but he must tell her.
+
+"And Marcia, I must tell you the rest," he went on, his own words seeming
+to stay upon his lips, and then tumble over one another; "I have learned
+to love you as I never loved your sister. I love you more and better than
+I ever could have loved her. I can see how God has led me away from her
+and brought me to you. I can look back to that night when I came to her
+and found you there waiting for me, and kissed you,--darling. Do you
+remember?" He took her cold little trembling hands and held them firmly as
+he talked, his whole soul in his face, as if his life depended upon the
+next few moments. "I was troubled at the time, dear, for having kissed
+you, and given you the greeting that I thought belonged to her. I have
+rebuked myself for thinking since how lovely you looked as you stood there
+in the moonlight. But afterward I knew that it was you after all that my
+love belonged to, and to you rightfully the kiss should have gone. I am
+glad it was so, glad that God overruled my foolish choosing. Lately I have
+been looking back to that night I met you at the gate, and feeling jealous
+that that meeting was not all ours; that it should be shadowed for us by
+the heartlessness of another. It gives me much joy now to think how I took
+you in my arms and kissed you. I cannot bear to think it was a mistake.
+Yet glad as I am that God sent you down to that gate to meet me, and much
+as I love you, I would rather have died than feel that I have brought
+sorrow into your life, and bound you to one whom you cannot love. Marcia,
+tell me truly, never mind my feelings, tell me! Can you ever love me?"
+
+Then did Marcia lift her flower-like face, all bright with tears of joy
+and a flood of rosy smiles, the light of seven stars in her eyes. But she
+could not speak, she could only look, and after a little whisper, "Oh,
+David, I think I have always loved you! I think I was waiting for you that
+night, though I did not know it. And look!"--with sudden thought----
+
+She drew from the folds of her dress a little old-fashioned locket hung by
+a chain about her neck out of sight. She opened it and showed him a soft
+gold curl which she touched gently with her lips, as though it were
+something very sacred.
+
+"What is it, darling?" asked David perplexed, half happy, half afraid as
+he took the locket and touched the curl more thrilled with the thought
+that she had carried it next her heart than with the sight of it.
+
+"It is yours," she said, disappointed that he did not understand. "Aunt
+Clarinda gave it to me while you were away. I've worn it ever since. And
+she gave me other things, and told me all about you. I know it all, about
+the tops and marbles, and the spelling book, and I've cried with you over
+your punishments, and--I--love it all!"
+
+He had fastened the door before he began to talk, but he caught her in his
+arms now, regardless of the fact that the shades were not drawn down, and
+that they swayed in the summer breeze.
+
+"Oh, my darling! My wife!" he cried, and kissed her lips for the third
+time.
+
+The world was changed then for those two. They belonged to each other they
+believed, as no two that ever walked through Eden had ever belonged. When
+they thought of the precious bond that bound them together their hearts
+throbbed with a happiness that well-nigh overwhelmed them.
+
+A dinner of stewed chickens and little white soda biscuits was served
+them, fit for a wedding breakfast, for the barmaid whispered to the cook
+that she was sure there was a bride and groom in the parlor they looked so
+happy and seemed to forget anybody else was by. But it might have been ham
+and eggs for all they knew what it was they ate, these two who were so
+happy they could but look into each other's eyes.
+
+When the dinner was over and they started on their way again, with Albany
+shimmering in the hot sun in the distance, and David's arm sliding from
+the top of the seat to circle Marcia's waist, David whispered:
+
+"This is our real wedding journey, dearest, and this is our bridal day.
+We'll go to Albany and buy you a trousseau, and then we will go wherever
+you wish. I can stay a whole week if you wish. Would you like to go home
+for a visit?"
+
+Marcia, with shining eyes and glowing cheeks, looked her love into his
+face and answered: "Yes, _now_ I would like to go home,--just for a few
+days--and then back to our home."
+
+And David looking into her eyes understood why she had not wanted to go
+before. She was taking her husband, _her_ husband, not Kate's, with her
+now, and might be proud of his love. She could go among her old comrades
+and be happy, for he loved her. He looked a moment, comprehended,
+sympathized, and then pressing her hand close--for he might not kiss her,
+as there was a load of hay coming their way--he said: "Darling!" But their
+eyes said more.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 AD PAGES
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                         FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS
+                        IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS
+
+Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size.
+Printed on excellent paper--most of them with illustrations of marked
+beauty--and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+BEVERLY OF GRAUSTARK. By George Barr McCutcheon. With Color Frontispiece
+and other illustrations by Harrison Fisher. Beautiful inlay picture in
+colors of Beverly on the cover.
+
+"The most fascinating, engrossing and picturesque of the season's
+novels."--_Boston Herald._ "'Beverly' is altogether charming--almost living
+flesh and blood."--_Louisville Times._ "Better than 'Graustark'."--_Mail and
+Express._ "A sequel quite as impossible as 'Graustark' and quite as
+entertaining."--_Bookman._ "A charming love story well told."--_Boston
+Transcript_.
+
+
+HALF A ROGUE. By Harold MacGrath. With illustrations and inlay cover
+picture by Harrison Fisher.
+
+"Here are dexterity of plot, glancing play at witty talk, characters
+really human and humanly real, spirit and gladness, freshness and quick
+movement. 'Half a Rogue' is as brisk as a horseback ride on a glorious
+morning. It is as varied as an April day. It is as charming as two most
+charming girls can make it. Love and honor and success and all the great
+things worth fighting for and living for the involved in 'Half a
+Rogue.'"--_Phila. Press._
+
+
+THE GIRL FROM TIM'S PLACE. By Charles Clark Munn. With illustrations by
+Frank T. Merrill.
+
+"Figuring in the pages of this story there are several strong characters.
+Typical New England folk and an especially sturdy one, old Cy Walker,
+through whose instrumentality Chip comes to happiness and fortune. There
+is a chain of comedy, tragedy, pathos and love, which makes a dramatic
+story."--_Boston Herald._
+
+
+THE LION AND THE MOUSE. A story of American Life. By Charles Klein, and
+Arthur Hornblow. With illustrations by Stuart Travis, and Scenes from the
+Play.
+
+The novel duplicated the success of the play; in fact the book is greater
+than the play. A portentous clash of dominant personalties that form the
+essence of the play are necessarily touched upon but briefly in the short
+space of four acts. All this is narrated in the novel with a wealth of
+fascinating and absorbing detail, making it one of the most powerfully
+written and exciting works of fiction given to the world in years.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                       GROSSET & DUNLAP, - NEW YORK
+
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+
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+
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+                        IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS
+
+Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size.
+Printed on excellent paper--most of them with illustrations of marked
+beauty--and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+BARBARA WINSLOW, REBEL. By Elizabeth Ellis. With illustrations by John
+Rae, and colored inlay cover.
+
+The following, taken from story, will best describe the heroine: A TOAST:
+"To the bravest comrade in misfortune, the sweetest companion in peace and
+at all times the most courageous of women."--_Barbara Winslow._ "A romantic
+story, buoyant, eventful, and in matters of love exactly what the heart
+could desire."--_New York Sun._
+
+
+SUSAN. By Ernest Oldmeadow. With a color frontispiece by Frank Haviland.
+Medallion in color on front cover.
+
+Lord Ruddington falls helplessly in love with Miss Langley, whom he sees
+in one of her walks accompanied by her maid, Susan. Through a
+misapprehension of personalities his lordship addresses a love missive to
+the maid. Susan accepts in perfect good faith, and an epistolary
+love-making goes on till they are disillusioned. It naturally makes a
+droll and delightful little comedy; and is a story that is particularly
+clever in the telling.
+
+
+WHEN PATTY WENT TO COLLEGE. By Jean Webster. With illustrations by C. D.
+Williams.
+
+"The book is a treasure."--_Chicago Daily News._ "Bright, whimsical, and
+thoroughly entertaining."--_Buffalo Express._ "One of the best stories of
+life in a girl's college that has ever been written."--_N. Y. Press._ "To
+any woman who has enjoyed the pleasures of a college life this book cannot
+fail to bring back many sweet recollections; and to those who have not
+been to college the wit, lightness, and charm of Patty are sure to be no
+less delightful."--_Public Opinion._
+
+
+THE MASQUERADER. By Katherine Cecil Thurston. With illustrations by
+Clarence F. Underwood.
+
+"You can't drop it till you have turned the last page."--_Cleveland
+Leader._ "Its very audacity of motive, of execution, of solution, almost
+takes one's breath away. The boldness of its denouement is
+sublime."--_Boston Transcript._ "The literary hit of a generation. The best
+of it is the story deserves all its success. A masterly story."--_St. Louis
+Dispatch._ "The story is ingeniously told, and cleverly constructed."--_The
+Dial._
+
+
+THE GAMBLER. By Katherine Cecil Thurston. With illustrations by John
+Campbell.
+
+"Tells of a high strung young Irish woman who has a passion for gambling,
+inherited from a long line of sporting ancestors. She has a high sense of
+honor, too, and that causes complications. She is a very human, lovable
+character, and love saves her."--_N. Y. Times._
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                       GROSSET & DUNLAP, - NEW YORK
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
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+
+                         FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS
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+
+Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size.
+Printed on excellent paper--most of them with illustrations of marked
+beauty--and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE AFFAIR AT THE INN. By Kate Douglas Wiggin. With illustrations by
+Martin Justice.
+
+"As superlatively clever in the writing as it is entertaining in the
+reading. It is actual comedy of the most artistic sort, and it is handled
+with a freshness and originality that is unquestionably novel."--_Boston
+Transcript._ "A feast of humor and good cheer, yet subtly pervaded by
+special shades of feeling, fancy, tenderness, or whimsicality. A merry
+thing in prose."--_St. Louis Democrat._
+
+
+ROSE O' THE RIVER. By Kate Douglas Wiggin. With illustrations by George
+Wright.
+
+"'Rose o' the River,' a charming bit of sentiment, gracefully written and
+deftly touched with a gentle humor. It is a dainty book--daintily
+illustrated."--_New York Tribune._ "A wholesome, bright, refreshing story,
+an ideal book to give a young girl."--_Chicago Record-Herald._ "An idyllic
+story, replete with pathos and inimitable humor. As story-telling it is
+perfection, and as portrait-painting it is true to the life."--_London
+Mail._
+
+
+TILLIE: A Mennonite Maid. By Helen R. Martin. With illustrations by
+Florence Scovel Shinn.
+
+The little "Mennonite Maid" who wanders through these pages is something
+quite new in fiction. Tillie is hungry for books and beauty and love; and
+she comes into her inheritance at the end. "Tillie is faulty, sensitive,
+big-hearted, eminently human, and first, last and always lovable. Her
+charm glows warmly, the story is well handled, the characters skilfully
+developed."--_The Book Buyer._
+
+
+LADY ROSE'S DAUGHTER. By Mrs. Humphry Ward. With illustrations by Howard
+Chandler Christy.
+
+"The most marvellous work of its wonderful author."--_New York World._ "We
+touch regions and attain altitudes which it is not given to the ordinary
+novelist even to approach."--_London Times._ "In no other story has Mrs.
+Ward approached the brilliancy and vivacity of Lady Rose's
+Daughter."--_North American Review._
+
+
+THE BANKER AND THE BEAR. By Henry K. Webster.
+
+"An exciting and absorbing story."--_New York Times._ "Intensely thrilling
+in parts, but an unusually good story all through. There is a love affair
+of real charm and most novel surroundings, there is a run on the bank
+which is almost worth a year's growth, and there is all manner of
+exhilarating men and deeds which should bring the book into high and
+permanent favor."--_Chicago Evening Post._
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                       GROSSET & DUNLAP, - NEW YORK
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                               NATURE BOOKS
+
+             With Colored Plates, and Photographs from Life.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+BIRD NEIGHBORS. An Introductory Acquaintance with 150 Birds Commonly Found
+in the Woods, Fields and Gardens About Our Homes. By Neltje Blanchan. With
+an Introduction by John Burroughs, and many plates of birds in natural
+colors. Large Quarto, size 7-3/4 x 10-3/8, Cloth. Formerly published at
+$2.00. Our special price, $1.00.
+
+As an aid to the elementary study of bird life nothing has ever been
+published more satisfactory than this most successful of Nature Books.
+This book makes the identification of our birds simple and positive, even
+to the uninitiated, through certain unique features. I. All the birds are
+grouped according to color, in the belief that a bird's coloring is the
+first and often the only characteristic noticed. II. By another
+classification, the birds are grouped according to their season. III. All
+the popular names by which a bird is known are given both in the
+descriptions and the index. The colored plates are the most beautiful and
+accurate ever given in a moderate-priced and popular book. The most
+successful and widely sold Nature Book yet published.
+
+
+BIRDS THAT HUNT AND ARE HUNTED. Life Histories of 170 Birds of Prey, Game
+Birds and Water-Fowls. By Neltje Blanchan. With Introduction by G. O.
+Shields (Coquina). 24 photographic illustrations in color. Large Quarto,
+size 7-3/4 x 10-3/8. Formerly published at $2.00. Our special price,
+$1.00.
+
+No work of its class has ever been issued that contains so much valuable
+information, presented with such felicity and charm. The colored plates
+are true to nature. By their aid alone any bird illustrated may be readily
+identified. Sportsmen will especially relish the twenty-four color plates
+which show the more important birds in characteristic poses. They are
+probably the most valuable and artistic pictures of the kind available
+to-day.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                       GROSSET & DUNLAP, - NEW YORK
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                               NATURE BOOKS
+
+             With Colored Plates, and Photographs from Life.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+NATURE'S GARDEN. An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and Their Insect
+Visitors. 24 colored plates, and many other illustrations photographed
+directly from nature. Text by Neltje Blanchan. Large Quarto, size 7-3/4 x
+10-3/8. Cloth. Formerly published at $3.00 net. Our special price, $1.25.
+
+Superb color portraits of many familiar flowers in their living tints, and
+no less beautiful pictures in black and white of others--each blossom
+photographed directly from nature--form an unrivaled series. By their aid
+alone the novice can name the flowers met afield.
+
+Intimate life-histories of over five hundred species of wild flowers,
+written in untechnical, vivid language, emphasize the marvelously
+interesting and vital relationship existing between these flowers and the
+special insect to which each is adapted.
+
+The flowers are divided into five color groups, because by this
+arrangement any one with no knowledge of botany whatever can readily
+identify the specimens met during a walk. The various popular names by
+which each species is known, its preferred dwelling-place, months of
+blooming and geographical distribution follow its description. Lists of
+berry-bearing and other plants most conspicuous after the flowering
+season, of such as grow together in different kinds of soil, and finally
+of family groups arranged by that method of scientific classification
+adopted by the International Botanical Congress which has now superseded
+all others, combine to make "Nature's Garden" an indispensable guide.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                       GROSSET & DUNLAP, - NEW YORK
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                         FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS
+                        IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS
+
+Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size.
+Printed on excellent paper--most of them with illustrations of marked
+beauty--and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE. By Edith Elmer Wood. With illustrations by
+Rufus Zogbaum.
+
+The standards and life of "the new navy" are breezily set forth with a
+genuine ring impossible from the most gifted "outsider." "The story of the
+destruction of the 'Maine,' and of the Battle of Manila, are very
+dramatic. The author is the daughter of one naval officer and the wife of
+another. Naval folks will find much to interest them in 'The Spirit of the
+Service.'"--_The Book Buyer._
+
+
+A SPECTRE OF POWER. By Charles Egbert Craddock.
+
+Miss Murfree has pictured Tennessee mountains and the mountain people in
+striking colors and with dramatic vividness, but goes back to the time of
+the struggles of the French and English in the early eighteenth century
+for possession of the Cherokee territory. The story abounds in adventure,
+mystery, peril and suspense.
+
+
+THE STORM CENTRE. By Charles Egbert Craddock.
+
+A war story; but more of flirtation, love and courtship than of fighting
+or history. The tale is thoroughly readable and takes its readers again
+into golden Tennessee, into the atmosphere which has distinguished all of
+Miss Murfree's novels.
+
+
+THE ADVENTURESS. By Coralie Stanton. With color frontispiece by Harrison
+Fisher, and attractive inlay cover in colors.
+
+As a penalty for her crimes, her evil nature, her flint-like callousness,
+her more than inhuman cruelty, her contempt for the laws of God and man,
+she was condemned to bury her magnificent personality, her transcendent
+beauty, her superhuman charms, in gilded obscurity at a King's left hand.
+A powerful story powerfully told.
+
+
+THE GOLDEN GREYHOUND. A Novel by Dwight Tilton. With illustrations by E.
+Pollak.
+
+A thoroughly good story that keeps you guessing to the very end, and never
+attempts to instruct or reform you. It is a strictly up-to-date story of
+love and mystery with wireless telegraphy and all the modern improvements.
+The events nearly all take place on a big Atlantic liner and the romance
+of the deep is skilfully made to serve as a setting for the romance, old
+as mankind, yet always new, involving our hero.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                       GROSSET & DUNLAP, - NEW YORK
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+
+                                  ERRATA
+
+
+      CHAPTER I
+      Changed: girl in the *fairy tale* who left jewels
+      To: girl in the *fairy-tale* who left jewels
+
+      CHAPTER I
+      Changed: ever walked in *fairy tale*. But she saw
+      To: ever walked in *fairy-tale*. But she saw
+
+      CHAPTER III
+      Changed: before, but covered *wth* confusion and shame,
+      To: before, but covered *with* confusion and shame,
+
+      CHAPTER III
+      Changed: and she turned *delberately*, one dainty, slippered
+      To: and she turned *deliberately*, one dainty, slippered
+
+      CHAPTER V
+      Changed: her that this *wholsale* disposal of Marcia
+      To: her that this *wholesale* disposal of Marcia
+
+      CHAPTER V
+      Changed: Phoebe takes your place and then come back.* *
+      To: Phoebe takes your place and then come back.*"*
+
+      CHAPTER V
+      Changed: fine places, to *tea drinkings* and the like,
+      To: fine places, to *tea-drinkings* and the like,
+
+      CHAPTER VI
+      Changed: out radiant and *childlike* through her tears.
+      To: out radiant and *child-like* through her tears.
+
+      CHAPTER X
+      Changed: was always something *childlike* about Marcia's
+      To: was always something *child-like* about Marcia's
+
+      CHAPTER X
+      Changed: her old home *plentfully* supplied with those
+      To: her old home *plentifully* supplied with those
+
+      CHAPTER XII
+      Changed: got David that's worth everything.* *
+      To: got David that's worth everything.*"*
+
+      CHAPTER XII
+      Changed: position on the *haircloth* sofa. But if
+      To: position on the *hair-cloth* sofa. But if
+
+      CHAPTER XIII
+      Changed: had Mary Ann's *hand-writing* looked so pleasant
+      To: had Mary Ann's *handwriting* looked so pleasant
+
+      CHAPTER XIII
+      Changed: seemed half a *life-time* to the girl
+      To: seemed half a *lifetime* to the girl
+
+      CHAPTER XIII
+      Changed: my old calico *tomorrow* morning again, and
+      To: my old calico *to-morrow* morning again, and
+
+      CHAPTER XIII
+      Changed: house with big *collums* to the front
+      To: house with big *columns* to the front
+
+      CHAPTER XV
+      Changed: table, and the *tea-kettle* was singing on
+      To: table, and the *tea kettle* was singing on
+
+      CHAPTER XV
+      Changed: The neighbor had *staid* longer than usual,
+      To: The neighbor had *stayed* longer than usual,
+
+      CHAPTER XVI
+      Changed: thus melted into *childlike* enthusiasm, felt his
+      To: thus melted into *child-like* enthusiasm, felt his
+
+      CHAPTER XVIII
+      Changed: with the flickering *candle-light* making grotesque
+      To: with the flickering *candle light* making grotesque
+
+      CHAPTER XVIII
+      Changed: Bible where the *candle-light* played at glances
+      To: Bible where the *candle light* played at glances
+
+      CHAPTER XXI
+      Changed: if he would *absord* the vision for
+      To: if he would *absorb* the vision for
+
+      CHAPTER XXII
+      Changed: and let the *floodtide* of his sorrow
+      To: and let the *flood-tide* of his sorrow
+
+      CHAPTER XXII
+      Changed: an' hopin' an' *tryin* fer somebody bigger.
+      To: an' hopin' an' *tryin'* fer somebody bigger.
+
+      CHAPTER XXII
+      Changed: There's no place like home.*'*
+      To: There's no place like home.* *
+
+      CHAPTER XXIV
+      Changed: * *MIRANDA GRISCOM."
+      To: *"*MIRANDA GRISCOM."
+
+      CHAPTER XXVI
+      Changed: all items accurate* * technicalities of preparation;
+      To: all items accurate*;* technicalities of preparation;
+
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+      Changed: need all the rest you can get.* *
+      To: need all the rest you can get.*"*
+
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+      Changed: had before--all your own I mean?* *
+      To: had before--all your own I mean?*"*
+
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+      Changed: any bonnet. Nothing but a pink sunbonnet.* *
+      To: any bonnet. Nothing but a pink sunbonnet.*"*
+
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+      Changed: a little old *haircloth* trunk, her own
+      To: a little old *hair-cloth* trunk, her own
+
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+      Changed: had done when* *a boy Aunt Clarinda
+      To: had done when* as *a boy Aunt Clarinda
+
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+      Changed: Kate a mere *common-place*? What was this
+      To: Kate a mere *commonplace*? What was this
+
+      CHAPTER XXIX
+      Changed: Marcia lift her *flowerlike* face, all bright
+      To: Marcia lift her *flower-like* face, all bright
+
+      AD PAGES
+      Changed: love story well told."--_Boston Transcript_*,*
+      To: love story well told."--_Boston Transcript_*.*
+
+      AD PAGES
+      Changed: by Frank Haviland. *Medalion* in color on
+      To: by Frank Haviland. *Medallion* in color on
+
+      AD PAGES
+      Changed: *Suberb* color portraits of many familiar flowers
+      To: *Superb* color portraits of many familiar flowers
+
+      AD PAGES
+      Changed: her magnificent *personalty*, her transcendent
+      To: her magnificent *personality*, her transcendent
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARCIA SCHUYLER***
+
+
+
+CREDITS
+
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+October 20, 2007
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+            Roland Schlenker and
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