334 files changed, 23555 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/26233-8.txt b/26233-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0bb2b9a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7130 @@
+Project Gutenberg's The Indifference of Juliet, by Grace S. Richmond
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Indifference of Juliet
+
+Author: Grace S. Richmond
+
+Illustrator: Henry Hutt
+
+Release Date: August 9, 2008 [EBook #26233]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INDIFFERENCE OF JULIET ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank, Bruce Albrecht and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "The rich voice of the bishop was as impressive as it
+had ever been." (See page 77)]
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE INDIFFERENCE OF JULIET
+
+By GRACE S. RICHMOND
+
+Author of
+"The Second Violin" "The Dixons"
+
+With Illustrations
+By HENRY HUTT
+
+A. L. BURT COMPANY,
+PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Copyright,
+1902, 1903, 1904,
+by The Curtis
+Publishing Company
+
+Copyright, 1905, by
+Doubleday, Page
+& Company
+
+Published,
+March, 1905
+
+All rights reserved, including that of
+translation--also right of translation
+into the Scandinavian languages
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+To
+Father and Mother
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                                           PAGE
+     I.  An Audacious Proposition                    3
+    II.  Measurements                               12
+   III.  Shopping with a Chaperon                   17
+    IV.  The Cost of Frocks                         23
+     V.  Muslins and Tackhammers                    30
+    VI.  A Question of Identity                     36
+   VII.  An Argument Without Logic                  46
+  VIII.  On Account of the Tea-Kettle               57
+    IX.  A Bishop and a Hay-Wagon                   69
+     X.  On a Threshold                             80
+   XII.  The Bachelor Begs a Dish-Towel            101
+  XIII.  Smoke and Talk                            114
+   XIV.  Strawberries                              120
+    XV.  Anthony Plays Maid                        136
+   XVI.  A House-Party--Outdoors                   144
+  XVII.  Rachel Causes Anxiety                     155
+ XVIII.  An Unknown Quantity                       164
+   XIX.  All the April Stars Are Out               175
+    XX.  A Prior Claim                             181
+   XXI.  Everybody Gives Advice                    191
+  XXII.  Roger Barnes Proves Invaluable            201
+ XXIII.  Two Not of a Kind                         215
+  XXIV.  The Careys Are at Home                    233
+   XXV.  The Robeson Will                          246
+  XXVI.  On Guard                                  266
+ XXVII.  Lockwood Pays a Call                      282
+XXVIII.  A High-Handed Affair                      294
+  XXIX.  Juliet Proves Herself Still Indifferent   303
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS
+
+HORATIO MARCY, an elderly New Englander of some wealth.
+
+ANTHONY ROBESON, the last young male representative of the Kentucky
+ROBESONS, now making his own way in Massachusetts.
+
+WAYNE CAREY, Robeson's former college chum, an office clerk on a salary.
+
+DR. ROGER WILLIAMS BARNES, a surgeon.
+
+LOUIS LOCKWOOD, an attorney-at-law.
+
+STEVENS CATHCART, an architect.
+
+MRS. DINGLEY, sister of Horatio Marcy.
+
+JULIET MARCY, daughter of Horatio Marcy.
+
+JUDITH DEARBORN, Juliet's friend since school-days.
+
+SUZANNE GERARD, MARIE DRESSER, other friends of Juliet.
+
+RACHEL REDDING, a poor country girl--of education.
+
+MARY MCKAIM--in the background, but valuable.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+THE INDIFFERENCE OF JULIET
+
+I.--AN AUDACIOUS PROPOSITION
+
+
+Anthony Robeson glanced about him in a satisfied way at the shaded nook
+under the low-hanging boughs into which he had guided the boat. Then he
+drew in his oars and let the little craft drift.
+
+"This is an ideal spot," said he, looking into his friend's face, "in
+which to tell you a rather interesting piece of news."
+
+"Oh, fine!" cried his friend, settling herself among the cushions in the
+stern and tilting back her parasol so that the light through its white
+expanse framed her health-tinted face in a sort of glory. "Tell me at
+once. I suspected you came with something on your mind. There couldn't be
+a lovelier place on the river than this for confidences. But I can guess
+yours. Tony, you've found 'her'!"
+
+"And you'll be my friend just the same?" questioned Anthony anxiously. "My
+chum--my confidante?"
+
+"Oh, well, Tony, that's absurd," declared Juliet Marcy severely. "As if
+_she_ would allow it!"
+
+"She's three thousand miles away."
+
+"I'm ashamed of you!"
+
+"Just in the interval, then," pleaded Anthony. "I need you now worse than
+ever. For I've a tremendous responsibility on my hands. The--the--you
+know--is to come off in September, and this is June--and I've a house to
+furnish. Will you help me do it, Juliet?"
+
+"_Anthony Robeson!_" she said explosively under her breath, with a laugh.
+Then she sat up and leaned forward with a commanding gesture. "Tell me all
+about it. What is her name and who is she? Where did you meet her? Are you
+very much----"
+
+"Would I marry a girl if I were not 'very much'?" demanded Anthony.
+"Well--I'll tell you--since you insist on these non-essentials before you
+really come down to business. Her name is Eleanor Langham, and she lives
+in San Francisco. Her family is old, aristocratic, wealthy--yet she
+condescends to me."
+
+He looked up keenly into her eyes, and her brown lashes fell for an
+instant before something in his glance, but she said quickly: "Go on."
+
+"When the--affair--is over I want to bring my bride straight home,"
+Anthony proceeded, with a tinge of colour in his smooth, clear cheek. "I
+shall have no vacation to speak of at that time of year, and no time to
+spend in furnishing a house. Yet I want it all ready for her. So you see I
+need a friend. I shall have two weeks to spare in July, and if you would
+help me--"
+
+"But, Tony," she interrupted, "how could I? If--if we were seen shopping
+together----"
+
+"No, we couldn't go shopping together in New York without being liable to
+run into a wondering crowd of friends, of course--not in the places where
+you would want to go. But here you are only a couple of hours from Boston;
+you will be here all summer; you and Mrs. Dingley and I could run into
+Boston for a day at a time without anybody's being the wiser. I know--that
+is--I'm confident Mrs. Dingley would do it for me----"
+
+"Oh, of course. Did Auntie ever deny you anything since the days when she
+used to give you jam as often as you came across to play with me?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Have you _her_ photograph?" inquired Miss Marcy with an emphasis which
+left no possible doubt as to whose photograph she meant.
+
+"I expected that," said Anthony gravely. "I expected it even sooner. But I
+am prepared."
+
+She sat watching him curiously as he slowly drew from his breast-pocket a
+tiny leather case, and gazed at it precisely as a lover might be expected
+to gaze at his lady's image before jealously surrendering it into other
+hands. She had never seen Anthony Robeson look at any photograph except
+her own with just that expression. She had often wondered if he ever
+would. She had recommended this course of procedure to him many times,
+usually after once more gently refusing to marry him. She had begun at
+last to doubt whether it would ever be possible to divert Tony's mind from
+its long-sought object. But that trip to San Francisco, and the months he
+had spent there in the interests of the firm he served, had evidently
+brought about the desired change. She had not seen him since his return
+until to-day, when he had run up into the country where was the Marcy
+summer home, to tell her, as she now understood, his news and to make his
+somewhat extraordinary request.
+
+She accepted the photograph with a smile, and studied it with attention.
+
+"Oh, but isn't she pretty?" she cried warmly--and generously, for she was
+thinking as she looked how much prettier was Miss Langham than Miss
+Marcy.
+
+"Isn't she?" agreed Anthony with enthusiasm.
+
+"Lovely. What eyes! And what a dear mouth!"
+
+"You're right."
+
+"She looks clever, too."
+
+"She is."
+
+"How tall is she?"
+
+"About up to my shoulder."
+
+"She's little, then."
+
+"Well, I don't know," objected Anthony, surveying his own stalwart length
+of limb. "A girl doesn't have to be a dwarf not to be on a level with me.
+I should say she must be somewhere near your height."
+
+"What a magnificent dresser!"
+
+"Is she? She never irritates one with the fact."
+
+"Oh, but I can see. And she's going to marry you. Tony, what can you give
+her?"
+
+"A little box of a house, one maidservant, an occasional trip into town,
+four new frocks a year--moderate ones, you know, in keeping with her
+circumstances--and my name," replied Anthony composedly.
+
+"You won't let her live in town, then?"
+
+"Let her! Good heavens, what sort of a place could I give her in town on
+my salary? Now, in the very rural suburb I've picked out she can live in
+the greatest comfort, and we can have a real home--something I haven't had
+since Dad died and the old home and the money and all the rest of it
+went."
+
+His face was grave now, and he was staring down into the water as if he
+saw there both what he had lost and what he hoped to gain.
+
+"Yes," said Juliet sympathetically, though she did not know how to imagine
+the girl whose photograph she held in the surroundings Anthony suggested.
+Presently she went on in her gentlest tone: "I'm not saying that the name
+isn't a proud one to offer her, Tony--and if she is willing to share your
+altered fortunes I've no doubt she will be happy. Along with your name
+you'll give her a heart worth having."
+
+"Thank you," said Anthony without looking up.
+
+Miss Marcy coloured slightly, and hastened to supplement this speech with
+another.
+
+"The question is--since the home is to be hers--why not let her furnish
+it? Her tastes and mine might not agree. Besides----"
+
+"Well----"
+
+"Why--you know, Tony," explained Juliet in some confusion, "I shouldn't
+know how to be economical."
+
+"I'm aware that you haven't been brought up on the most economical basis,"
+Anthony acknowledged frankly. "But I'll take care of my funds, no matter
+how extravagant you are inclined to be. If I should hand you five dollars
+and say, 'Buy a dining-table,' you could do it, couldn't you? You couldn't
+satisfy your ideals, of course, but you could give me the benefit of your
+discriminating choice within the five-dollar limit."
+
+Juliet laughed, but in her eyes there grew nevertheless a look of doubt.
+"Tony," she demanded, "how much have you to spend on the furnishing of
+that house?"
+
+"Just five hundred dollars," said Anthony concisely. "And that must cover
+the repairing and painting of the outside. Really, Juliet, haven't I done
+fairly well to save up that and the cost of the house and lot--for a
+fellow who till five years ago never did a thing for himself and never
+expected to need to? Yes, I know--the piano in your music-room cost twice
+that, and so did the horses you drive, and a very few of your pretty gowns
+would swallow another five. But Mrs. Anthony Robeson will have to chasten
+her ideas a trifle. Do you know, Juliet--I think she will--for love of
+me?"
+
+He was smiling at his own audacious confidence. Juliet attempted no reply
+to this very unanswerable statement. She studied the photograph in
+silence, and he lay watching her. In her blue-and-white boating suit she
+was a pleasant object to look at.
+
+"Will you help me?" he asked again at length. "I'm more anxious than I can
+tell you to have everything ready."
+
+"I shouldn't like to fail you, Tony, since you really wish it, though I'm
+very sure you'll find me a poor adviser. But you haven't been a brother to
+me since the mud-pie days for nothing, and if I can help you with
+suggestions as to colour and style I'll be glad to. Though I shall all the
+while be trying to live up to this photograph, and that will be a little
+hard on the five-dollar-dining-table scale."
+
+"You've only to look out that everything is in good taste," said Anthony
+quietly, "and that you can't help doing. My wife will thank you, and the
+new home will be sweet to her because of you. It surely will to me."
+
+
+
+
+II.--MEASUREMENTS
+
+
+It was on the first day of Robeson's two-weeks' July vacation that he came
+to take Juliet Marcy and her aunt, Mrs. Dingley, who had long stood to her
+in the place of the mother she had early lost, to see the home he had
+bought in a remote suburb of a great city. It was a three-hours' journey
+from the Marcy country place, but he had insisted that Juliet could not
+furnish the house intelligently until she had studied it in detail.
+
+So at eleven o'clock of a hot July morning Miss Marcy found herself
+surveying from the roadway a small, old-fashioned white house, with green
+blinds shading its odd, small-paned windows; a very "box of a house," as
+Anthony had said, set well back from the quiet street and surrounded by
+untrimmed trees and overgrown shrubbery. The whole place had a neglected
+appearance. Even the luxuriant climbing-rose, which did its best to hide
+the worn white paint of the house-front, served to intensify the look of
+decay.
+
+"Charming, isn't it?" asked Robeson with the air of the delighted
+proprietor. "Of course everything looks gone to seed, but paint and a
+lawn-mower and a few other things will make another place of it. It's good
+old colonial, that's sure, and only needs a bit of fixing up to be quite
+correct, architecturally, small as it is."
+
+He led the way up the weedy path, Mrs. Dingley and Juliet exchanging
+amused glances behind his back. He opened the doors with a flourish and
+waved the ladies in. They entered with close-held skirts and noses
+involuntarily sniffing at the musty air. Anthony ran around opening
+windows and explaining the "points" of the house. When they had been over
+it Mrs. Dingley, warm and weary, subsided upon the door-step, while Juliet
+and Anthony fell to discussing the possibilities of the place.
+
+"You see," said Anthony, mopping his heated brow, "it isn't like having
+big, high rooms to decorate. These little rooms,"--he put up his hand and
+succeeded, from his fine height, in touching the ceiling of the lower
+front room in which they stood--"won't stand anything but the most simple
+treatment, and expensive papers and upholsteries would be out of place. It
+will take only very small rugs to suit the floors. The main thing for you
+to think of will be colours and effects. You'll find five hundred dollars
+will go a long way, even after the repairs and outside painting are
+disposed of."
+
+He looked so appealing that Juliet could but answer heartily: "Yes, I'm
+sure of it. And now, Tony, don't you think you'd better draw a plan of the
+house, putting in all the measurements, so we shall know just how to go to
+work? And I will go around and dream a while in each room. Give me the
+photograph, you devoted lover, so I can plan things to suit _her_."
+
+Anthony laughed and put his hand into his breast-pocket. But he drew it
+out empty.
+
+"Why--I've left it behind," he admitted in some embarrassment. "I really
+thought I had it."
+
+"Oh, Tony! And on this very trip when we needed it most! How could you
+leave it behind? Don't you always carry it next your heart?"
+
+"Is that the prescribed place?"
+
+"Certainly. I should doubt a man's love if he did not constantly wear my
+likeness right where it could feel his heart beating for me."
+
+"Now I never supposed," remarked Anthony, considering her attentively,
+"that you had so much romance about you. Do you realise that for an
+extremely practical young person such as you have--mostly--appeared to be,
+that is a particularly sentimental suggestion? Er--should you wear his in
+the same way, may I inquire?"
+
+"Of course," returned Juliet with defiance in her eyes, whose lashes, when
+they fell at length before his steadily interested gaze, swept a daintily
+colouring cheek.
+
+"Have you ever worn one?" inquired this hardy young man, nothing daunted
+by these signs of righteous indignation. But all he got for answer was a
+vigorous:
+
+"You absurd boy! Now go to work at your measurements. I'm going upstairs.
+There's one room up there, the one with the gable corners and the little
+bits of windows, that's perfectly fascinating. It must be done in Delft
+blue and white. Since I haven't the photograph"--she turned on the
+threshold to smile roguishly back at him--"memory must serve. Beautiful
+dark hair; eyes like a Madonna's; a perfect nose; the dearest mouth in the
+world--oh, yes----"
+
+She vanished around the corner only to put her head in again with the air
+of one who fires a parting shot at a discomfited enemy: "But, Tony--do you
+honestly think the house is large enough for such a queen of a woman?
+Won't her throne take up the whole of the first floor?"
+
+Then she was gone up the diminutive staircase, and her light footsteps
+could be heard on the bare floors overhead. Left alone, Anthony Robeson
+stood still for a moment looking fixedly at the door by which she had
+gone. The smile with which he had answered her gay fling had faded; his
+eyes had grown dark with a singular fire; his hands were clenched.
+Suddenly he strode across the floor and stopped by the door. He was
+looking down at the quaint old latch which served instead of a knob. Then,
+with a glance at the unconscious back of Mrs. Dingley, sitting sleepily on
+the little porch outside, he stooped and pressed his lips upon the iron
+where Juliet's hand had lain.
+
+
+
+
+III.--SHOPPING WITH A CHAPERON
+
+
+"Five hundred dollars," mused Miss Marcy, on the Boston train next
+morning. "Six rooms--living-room, dining-room, kitchen, and three
+bedrooms. That's----"
+
+"You forget," warned Anthony Robeson from the seat where he faced Juliet
+and Mrs. Dingley. "That must cover the outside painting and repairs. You
+can't figure on having more than three hundred dollars left for the
+inside."
+
+"Dear me, yes," frowned Juliet. She held Anthony's plan in her hand, and
+her tablets and pencil lay in her lap. "Well, I can spend fifty dollars on
+each room--only some will need more than others. The living-room will take
+the most--no, the dining-room."
+
+"The kitchen will take the most," suggested Mrs. Dingley. "Your range will
+use up the most of your fifty. And kitchen utensils count up very
+rapidly."
+
+"It will be a very small range," Anthony said. "A little toy stove would
+be more practical for our--the kitchen. How big is it, Juliet?"
+
+"'Ten by fourteen,'" read Juliet. "From the centre of the room you can hit
+all the side walls with the broom. Speaking of walls, Tony--those must be
+our first consideration. If we get our colour scheme right everything else
+will follow. I have it all in my head."
+
+So it proved. But it also proved, when they had been hard at work for an
+hour at a well-known decorator's, that the tints and designs for which
+Miss Marcy asked were not readily to be found in the low-priced
+wall-papers to which Anthony rigidly held her.
+
+"I must have the softest, most restful greens for the living-room," she
+announced. "There--_that_----"
+
+"But that is a dollar a roll," whispered Anthony.
+
+"Then--_that_!"
+
+"Eighty-five cents."
+
+"But for that little room, Tony----"
+
+"Twenty-five cents a roll is all we can allow," insisted Anthony firmly.
+"And less than that everywhere else."
+
+The salesman was very obliging, and showed the best things possible for
+the money. It was impossible to resist the appeal in the eyes of this
+critical but restricted young buyer.
+
+"There, that will do, I think," said Juliet at length, with a long breath.
+"The green for the living-room and for the bit of a hall--No, no, Tony;
+I've just thought! You must take away that little partition and let the
+stairs go up out of the living-room. That will improve the apparent size
+of things wonderfully."
+
+"All right," agreed Anthony obediently.
+
+"Then we'll put that rich red in the dining-room. For upstairs there is
+the tiny rose pattern, and the Delft blue, and that little pale yellow and
+white stripe. In the kitchen we'll have the tile pattern. We won't have a
+border anywhere--the rooms are too low; just those simplest mouldings, and
+the ivory white on the ceilings. The woodwork must all be white. There
+now, that's settled. Next come the floors."
+
+There could be no doubt that Juliet was becoming interested in her task.
+Though the July heat was intense she led the way with rapid steps to the
+place where she meant to select her rugs. Here the three spent a trying
+two hours. It was hard to please Miss Marcy with Japanese jute rugs,
+satisfactory in colouring though many of them were, when she longed to buy
+Persian pieces of distinction. If Juliet had a special weakness it was for
+choice antique rugs.
+
+She cornered Anthony at last, while Mrs. Dingley and the salesman were
+politely but unequivocally disputing over the quality of a certain piece
+of Chinese weaving.
+
+"Tony," she begged, "please let me get that one dear Turkish square for
+the living-room. It will give character to the whole room, and the colours
+are perfectly exquisite. I simply can't get one of those cheap things to
+go in front of that beautiful old fireplace. Imagine the firelight on that
+square; it would make you want to spend your evenings at home. Please!"
+
+"Do you imagine that I shall ever want to spend them anywhere else?" asked
+Tony softly, looking down into her appealing face. "Why, chum, I'd like to
+get that Tabriz you admire so much, if it would please you, in spite of
+the fact that we should have to pull the whole house up forty notches to
+match it. But even the Turkish square is out of the question."
+
+"But, Tony"--Juliet was whispering now with her head a little bent and her
+eyes on the lapel of his coat--"won't you let me do it as my--my
+contribution? I'd like to put something of my own into your house."
+
+"You dear little girl," Anthony answered--and possibly for her own peace
+of mind it was fortunate that Miss Langham, of California, could not see
+the look with which he regarded Miss Marcy, of Massachusetts--"I'm sure
+you would. And you are putting into it just what is priceless to me--your
+individuality and your perfect taste. But I can't let even you help
+furnish that house. She--must take what I--and only I--can give her."
+
+"You're perfectly ridiculous," murmured Juliet, turning away with an
+expression of deep displeasure. "As if she wouldn't bring all sorts of
+elegant stuff with her, and make your cheap things look insignificant."
+
+"I don't think she will," returned Anthony with conviction. "She'll bring
+nothing out of keeping with the house."
+
+"I thought you told me she was of a wealthy family."
+
+"She is. But if she marries me she leaves all that behind. I'll have no
+wife on any other basis."
+
+"Well--for a son of the Robesons of Kentucky you are absolutely the most
+absurd boy anybody ever heard of," declared the girl hotly under her
+breath. Then she walked over and ordered a certain inexpensive rug for the
+living-room with the air of a princess and the cheeks of a poppy.
+
+
+
+
+IV.--THE COST OF FROCKS
+
+
+It may have been that Miss Marcy was piqued into trying to see how little
+she could spend, but certain it was that from the time she left the carpet
+shop she begged for no exceptions to Mr. Robeson's rule of strict economy.
+She selected simple, delicate muslins for the windows, one and all,
+without a glance at finer draperies; bought denims and printed stuffs as
+if she had never heard of costlier upholsteries; and turned away from
+seductive pieces of Turkish and Indian embroideries offered for her
+inspection with a demure, "No, I don't care to look at those now," which
+more than once brought a covert smile to Anthony's lips and a twinkle to
+the eyes of the salesman. It was so very evident that the fair buyer did
+not pass them by for lack of interest.
+
+Altogether, it was an interesting week these three people spent--for a
+week it took. Anthony began to protest after the first two days, and said
+he could not ask so much of his friends. But Juliet would not be hindered
+from taking infinite pains, and Mrs. Dingley good humouredly lent the two
+her chaperonage and her occasional counsel, such as only the gray-haired
+matron of long housewifely experience can furnish.
+
+The selection of the furniture took perhaps the most time, and was the
+hardest, because of the difficulty of finding good styles in keeping with
+the limited purse. Anthony possessed a number of good pieces of antique
+character, but beyond these everything was to be purchased. Juliet turned
+in despair from one shop after another, and when it came to the fitting of
+the dining-room she grew distinctly indignant.
+
+"It's a perfect shame," she said, "that they can't offer really good
+designs in the cheap things. Did you ever see anything so hideous? Tony,
+if I were you I'd rather eat my breakfast off one of those white kitchen
+tables--or----"
+
+She broke off suddenly, rushed away down the long room to a group of
+chastely elegant dining-room furniture and came back after a little with a
+face of great eagerness to drag her companions away with her. She took
+them to survey a set of the costliest of all.
+
+"Have you gone crazy?" Anthony inquired.
+
+"Not at all. Tony, just study that table. It's massive, but it's
+simple--simple as beauty always is. Look at those perfectly straight
+legs--what clever cabinet maker couldn't copy that in--in ash, Tony? Then
+there are stains--I've heard of them--that rub into wood and then finish
+in some way so it's smooth and satiny. You could do that--I'm sure you
+could. Then you'd get the lovely big top you want. And the chairs--do you
+see the plain, solid-looking things? I know they could be made this way.
+Then the dining-room would be simply dear!"
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Juliet, you're coming on," declared Anthony with satisfaction that
+evening as the two, back at the Marcy country place, strolled slowly over
+the lawn toward the river edge. "At this rate you'll do for a poor man's
+wife yourself some day. That frock you have on now--isn't that a sort of
+concession to the humble company you're in?"
+
+"In what way?" Juliet glanced down at the pale-green gown whose delicate
+skirts she was daintily lifting, and in which she looked like a flower in
+its calyx. She had rejoiced to exchange the dusty dress in which she had
+come home from town for this, which suggested coolness in each fresh
+fold.
+
+"Why, it strikes me as about the simplest dress I ever saw you wear. Isn't
+it really--well--the least expensive thing you have had in that line in
+some time?"
+
+The amused laugh with which this observation was greeted might have been
+disconcerting to anybody but Anthony Robeson, but he maintained his ground
+with calmness.
+
+"How many of these do you think you can furnish Mrs. Anthony with in a
+year?" Juliet inquired, her lips forcing themselves to soberness, but the
+laughter lingering in her eyes.
+
+"Several, as girlishly demure as that, I fancy," asserted the young man
+with confidence.
+
+But Juliet's momentary gravity broke down. "Oh, you clever boy!" she said.
+"I shall advise Mrs. Anthony to send you shopping for her when she needs a
+new frock. You will order home just what she wants without stopping to ask
+the price, you will be so confident that you know a cheap thing when you
+see it. Afterward you will pay the bill--and then the awful frown on your
+brow! You will have to live on bread and milk for a month to get your
+accounts straightened out. Oh, Tony!--No, I shouldn't do for a poor man's
+wife--not judging by this 'girlishly demure' gown, you poor lamb.--But,
+Tony," with a swift change of manner, "I do think the little house will be
+very charming indeed. I can hardly wait to know that the painting and
+papering are done, so that we can go down and get things in order. I long
+to arrange those fascinating new tin things in that bit of a cupboard.
+Tony"--turning to him solemnly--"does _she_ know how to cook?"
+
+"I think she is learning now," he assured her. "Seems to me she mentioned
+it in to-day's----" He fumbled in his breast-pocket and brought out a
+letter.
+
+Juliet stole an interested glance at it. She observed that there were
+three closely written sheets of the heavy linen paper, and that the
+handwriting was one suggestive of a pleasing individuality. Anthony, in
+the dim twilight, was scanning page after page in a lover's absorbed way.
+Juliet walked along by his side in silence. She was thinking of the face
+in the photograph, and wondering if Miss Eleanor Langham really loved
+Anthony Robeson as he deserved to be loved.
+
+"For he is a dear, dear fellow," she said to herself, "and if she could
+just see him planning so enthusiastically for her comfort, even if he does
+have to economise, she'd----"
+
+"No, it's not in this letter," observed Anthony, putting the sheets
+together with a lingering touch which did not escape his companion's quick
+eyes. "It must have been in yesterday's."
+
+"Does she write every day?"
+
+"Did you ever hear of an engaged pair who didn't write every day?"
+
+"It must take a good deal of your time," she remarked. "But, of course,
+she can cook. Every sane girl takes a cooking-school course nowadays. It's
+as essential as French."
+
+"You did, then?"
+
+"Of course. Don't you remember when I used to edify you with new and
+wonderful dishes every time you dropped in to luncheon?"
+
+"But did you learn the more important things?"
+
+"I paid especial attention to soups, sir," laughed Juliet. "Now, if Mrs.
+Anthony has done that you can live very economically."
+
+"I'll suggest it to her," said Anthony gravely.
+
+
+
+
+V.--MUSLINS AND TACKHAMMERS
+
+
+It took several trips to the small house, and a great deal of hemming and
+ruffling of muslin on the part of Juliet and the Marcy sewing-woman, to
+say nothing of many days of Anthony's hard labour, to get everything in
+place. But it was all done at length, and the hour arrived to close the
+new home and leave it to wait the oncoming day in September when it should
+be permanently opened.
+
+"I'll just go over it once more," said Juliet to Mrs. Dingley. The latter
+lady was lying in a hammock out under the apple trees, waiting for train
+time and her final release from duties which were becoming decidedly
+wearisome. It was the first day of August, and the evening was a warm one.
+Anthony had gone off upon a last errand of some sort. Mrs. Dingley was too
+exhausted to offer to accompany her niece, and Juliet ran back into the
+house alone. She wandered slowly through the rooms, looking about to see
+if there might be any perfecting touch which she could add.
+
+It was a charming place; even a daughter of the house of Marcy could but
+own to that. Under her skilful management the little rooms had blossomed
+into a fresh, satisfying beauty that needed only the addition of the
+personal adornment which Anthony's bride would be sure to bring, to become
+a home--the home not only of a poor man but of a refined and cultured one
+as well. Restricted though she had been to the most inexpensive means of
+bringing about this happy result, Juliet had made them all tell toward an
+effect of great harmony and beauty. Perhaps to nobody was this more of a
+revelation than to the girl herself.
+
+She was very proud of the living-room, as she looked about it. The
+partition between it and the tiny hall had been removed, according to her
+suggestion, and the straight staircase altered by means of a landing and
+an abrupt turn which transformed it into picturesqueness. With its low,
+broad steps, its slender spindles and odd posts, it added much to the
+character of the room.
+
+Like most old New England houses, this one's chief glory was its great
+central chimney, with big fireplaces opening both into the living-room and
+the dining-room. In the former, between the fireplace and the staircase,
+and forming a suggestion of an inglenook, Juliet had contrived a high,
+wide seat, cushioned in dull green, and boasting a number of pretty
+pillows. It must be confessed that she had surreptitiously added a little
+to these in the matter of certain modestly rich bits of material, and she
+contemplated the result with great satisfaction. It may be remarked, with
+no comment whatever, that in spite of their beauty there was not a pillow
+of all those scattered about the house which a weary man might not tuck
+under his head without fear of ruining a creation too delicate for any use
+but to be admired.
+
+Having seized upon the idea of staining cheap material, she had carried it
+out in a set of low bookcases across the end and one side of the room.
+These awaited the coming of the several hundreds of choice books which
+Anthony had saved from his father's library. Two fine old portraits, dear
+to the hearts of many generations of the "Robesons of Kentucky," lent
+distinction to the home of their young descendant. Altogether the room was
+both quaint and artistic, and with its few plain chairs and tables, mostly
+heirlooms, and all of good old colonial design, was a room in which one
+could readily imagine one's self sitting down to a winter evening of cosy
+comfort, such as is not always to be had in far finer abiding-places.
+
+The dining-room was a study in its reds and browns, and its home-made
+furniture was an astonishing success--if one were not too severely
+critical. As she surveyed it Juliet seemed to see the future master and
+mistress of this little home sitting down opposite each other in the
+fireglow, and smiling across.
+
+The coming Mrs. Robeson, if one might judge by her photograph, was a woman
+to lend grace and dignity to her surroundings, whatever they might be.
+Juliet could imagine her pretty, stately way of presiding at such small
+feasts as the room was destined to see, making her guests quite forget
+that she was not mistress of a mansion equal to any in the land. Would she
+be happy? Could she be happy here, after all that she had had of another
+and very different sort of life? For some reason, as Juliet stood and
+looked and thought, her face grew very sober, and a long-drawn breath
+escaped her lips.
+
+The little kitchen was an exceedingly alluring place, gay in the bravery
+of fresh paint and spotless, shining utensils. There were even crisp
+curtains--at eight cents a yard--tied back at the high, wide-silled,
+triple window with its diminutive panes. It needed only a pot or two of
+growing plants in the window, and a neat-handed Phyllis in a figured gown,
+to be the old-time kitchen of one's dreams.
+
+But it was upon the rooms on the upper floor that Juliet had exhausted her
+imagination and effort. Nothing could have been conceived of more dainty
+than they. Here her denims and muslins had run riot. Low dressing-tables
+clad in ruffled hangings, their padded tops delicate with the breath of
+orris; beds valanced with similar stuffs; high-backed chairs, their seats
+cushioned into comfort--everything was done in the cleverest imitation of
+the ancient styles in keeping with the old-fashioned house. It all made
+one think of the patter of high-heeled, buckled slippers, and stiff,
+rustling, brocaded gowns, and powdered hair, and the odours of long ago.
+Anthony would never know what his friendly home-maker had put into these
+rooms of sentiment and charm.
+
+
+
+
+VI.--A QUESTION OF IDENTITY
+
+
+At the door of the blue-and-white room, the one upon which the girl had
+lavished her most tender fancies, she stood at length, looking in. And as
+she looked something swam before her eyes. A sob rose in her throat. She
+choked it back; she brushed her hand across her face. Then she tried to
+laugh. "Oh, what a goose I am!" she said sternly to herself. And then she
+ran across the room, sank upon her knees before the window-seat with its
+blue and white cushions, and burying her face in one of them cried her
+wretched, jealous, longing heart out.
+
+Anthony, coming in hastily but softly through the small kitchen, heard the
+rush of footsteps overhead, and stopped. He waited a moment, listening
+eagerly; then he came noiselessly into the living-room and stood still.
+His face, always strong and somewhat stern in its repose, had in it
+to-night a certain unusual intensity. He looked at his watch and saw that
+there was an hour before train time. Then he sat down where he could see
+the top of the staircase and waited.
+
+By and by light footsteps crossed the floor above and came through the
+little hall. From where he sat Anthony caught the gleam of Juliet's crisp
+linen skirt. Presently she came slowly down. As she turned upon the
+landing she met Anthony's eyes looking up. In a fashion quite unusual to
+the straightforward gaze of his friend her eyes fell. He saw that her
+cheeks were pale. He rose to meet her.
+
+"Come and rest," he said. "You are tired. You have worked too hard. Such a
+helper a man never had before. And you have made a wonderful success.
+Juliet, I can't thank you. It's beyond that."
+
+But she would not be led to the cosy corner by the window. She found
+something needing her attention in the curtain of the bookcase in the
+dimmest corner of the room, and began solicitously to pull it in various
+ways, as if there were something wrong with it. He watched her, standing
+with his arm on the high chimney-piece.
+
+"I think you enjoyed it just a little bit yourself, though," he observed.
+"Didn't you, chum?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Juliet.
+
+Her back was toward him, her head bent down, but his quick ear detected a
+peculiar quality in her voice. He questioned her again hurriedly.
+
+"You're not sorry you did it?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Juliet.
+
+Now there is not much in two such simple replies as these to indicate the
+state of one's mind and heart; but when a girl has been crying stormily
+and uninterruptedly for a half-hour, and is only not crying still because
+she is holding back the torrent of her unhappiness by sheer force of will,
+it is radically impossible to say so much as four words in a perfectly
+natural way. Anthony understood in a breath that the unfamiliar note in
+his friend's voice was that of tears. And, strange to say, into his face
+there flashed a look of triumph. But he only said very gently:
+
+"Come here a minute--will you, Juliet?"
+
+She bent lower over the curtain. Then she stood up, without looking at
+him, and moved toward the door.
+
+"I believe I'm rather tired," she said in a low tone. "It has been so warm
+all day, and I--I have a headache."
+
+In three steps he came after her, stopping her with his hand grasping hers
+as she would have left the room.
+
+"Come back--please," he urged. "Your aunt is asleep out there, I think. I
+wanted to go over the house once more with you, if you would. But you're
+too tired for that. Just come back and sit down in this nook of yours, and
+let's talk a little."
+
+She could not well refuse, and he put her into a nest of cushions,
+arranging them carefully behind her back and head, and sat down facing
+her. He had placed her just where the waning light from the western sky
+fell full on her face; his own was in the shadow. He was watching her
+unmercifully--she felt that, and desperately turned her face aside,
+burying in a friendly pillow the cheek which was colouring under his
+gaze.
+
+"Is the headache so bad?" he asked softly. "I never knew Juliet Marcy to
+have a headache before. Poor little girl--dear little girl--who has worked
+so hard to please her old friend." He leaned forward and she felt his hand
+upon her hair. The tenderness in his voice and touch were carrying away
+all her defences. But he went on without giving her respite.
+
+"Do you think _she_ will be happy here, chum? Will it take the place of
+the old life for a few years, till I can give her more? She'll have
+nothing here, you know, outside of this little home, but my love. That
+wouldn't be enough for any ordinary woman, would it?"
+
+She was not looking at him, but she could see him as plainly as if she
+were. Always she had thought him the strongest, best fellow she knew. He
+had been her devoted friend so long; she had not realised in the least
+until lately how it was going to seem to get on without him. But she knew
+now.
+
+She felt a dreadful choking in her throat again. It seemed to be closely
+connected with another peculiar sensation, as if her heart had turned into
+a lump of lead. In another minute she knew that she should break down,
+which would be humiliating beyond words. She started up from her cushions
+with a fierce attempt to keep a grip upon herself.
+
+"I know you're very happy," she breathed, "and I'm very glad. But really
+I--I'm not at all sentimental to-night. I'm afraid a headache does not
+make one sympathetic."
+
+But she could not get past him; Anthony's stalwart figure barred the way.
+His strong hands put her gently back among the cushions. She turned her
+head away, fighting hard for that thing she could not keep--her
+self-control.
+
+"Is it really a headache?" asked the low voice in her ear. "Just a
+headache? Not by any chance--a heartache, Juliet?"
+
+"Anthony Robeson!" she cried, but guardedly, lest the open window betray
+her. "What do you mean? You say very strange things. Why should I have a
+heartache? Because you are marrying the girl you love? How often have I
+begged you to go and find her? Do you think I would have done all this for
+her--and you--if I had cared?"
+
+She tried to look defiantly into his eyes--those fine eyes of his which
+were watching her so intently--tried to meet them steadily with her own
+lovely, tear-stained ones--and failed. Swiftly an intense colour dyed her
+cheeks, and she dropped her head like a guilty child.
+
+"Of course I care--that is, in a way," she was somehow forced to admit
+before the bar of his silence. "Why shouldn't I hate to lose the friend
+who used to carry my books to school, and fought the other boys for my
+sake, and has been a brother to me all these years? Of course I do. And
+when I am tired I cry for nothing--just nothing. I----"
+
+It was certainly a brave attempt at eloquence, but perhaps it was not
+wonderfully convincing. At all events it did not keep Anthony from taking
+possession of one of her hands and interrupting her with a most irrelevant
+speech.
+
+"Juliet, do you remember telling me that you should expect a man who loved
+you to carry your likeness always with him? And you asked me for
+_hers_--and I had to own I had left it behind. Yet I had one with me
+then--it is always with me--and that was why I forgot the other. Look."
+
+He drew out a little silver case, and Juliet, reluctantly releasing one
+eye from the shelter of the friendly sofa pillow, saw with a start her own
+face look smiling back at her. It was a little picture of her girlish self
+which she had given him long ago when he went away to college.
+
+"No," he said quickly, as he recognised the indignant question which
+instantly showed in her eyes, "I'm not disloyal to Eleanor Langham.
+Because--dear--there is no such person."
+
+With a little cry she flung herself away from him among the pillows,
+hiding her face from sight. There was a moment's silence while Anthony
+Robeson, his own face growing pale with the immensity of the stakes for
+which he played, made his last venture.
+
+"The little home is only for you, Juliet. If you won't share it with me it
+shall be closed and sold. Perhaps it was an audacious thing to do--it has
+come over me a great many times that it was too audacious ever to be
+forgiven. But I couldn't help the hope that if you should make the home
+yourself you might come to feel that life with a man who had his way to
+make could be borne after all--if you loved him enough. It all depended on
+that. As I said, I didn't mean to be presumptuous, but it was a desperate
+chance with me, dear. I couldn't give you up, and I thought perhaps--just
+_perhaps_--you cared--more than you knew. Anyhow--I loved you so--I had to
+risk it."
+
+Juliet's charming brown head was buried so deep in the pillows that only
+its back with the masses of waving, half-rumpled hair was visible. But up
+from the depths came a smothered question:
+
+"The photograph?"
+
+Anthony's face lightened as if the sun had struck it, but he kept his
+voice quiet. "Borrowed--it's my old friend Dennison's. I never even saw
+the girl--though I ought to beg her pardon for the use I have made of her
+face. She's married now, and lives abroad somewhere. Will you forgive
+me?"
+
+He was standing over her, leaning down so that his cheek touched the
+rumpled hair. "How is it, Juliet? Could you live in the little home--with
+love--and me?"
+
+It was a long time before he got any answer. But at last a flushed, wet,
+radiant face came into view, an arm was reached out, and as with an
+inarticulate, deep note of joy he drew her up into his embrace, a voice,
+half tears, half laughter, cried:
+
+"Oh, Tony--you dear, bad, darling, insolent boy! I did think I could do
+without you--but I can't. And--oh, Tony"--she was sobbing in his arms now,
+while he regarded the top of her head with laughing, exultant eyes--"I'm
+so glad--so glad--_so glad_--there isn't any Eleanor Langham! Oh, _how_ I
+hated her!"
+
+"Did you, sweetheart?" he answered, laughing aloud now. Then bending, with
+his lips close to hers--"well, to tell the truth--to tell the honest
+truth, little girl--_so did I_!"
+
+
+
+
+VII.--AN ARGUMENT WITHOUT LOGIC
+
+
+"I don't like it," repeated Mr. Horatio Marcy, obstinately, and shook his
+head for the fifth time. "I've not a word to say against Anthony, my
+dear--not a word. He's a fine fellow and comes of a good family, and I
+respect him and the start he has made since things went to pieces,
+but----"
+
+Juliet waited, her eyes downcast, her cheeks very much flushed, her mouth
+in lines of mutiny.
+
+"But--" her father continued, settling back in his chair with an air of
+decision, "you will certainly make the mistake of your life if you think
+you can be happy in the sort of existence he offers you. You're not used
+to it. You've not been brought up to it. You can spend more money in a
+forenoon than he can earn in a twelve-month. You don't know how to adapt
+yourself to life on a basis of rigid economy. I----"
+
+"You don't forbid it, sir?"
+
+"Forbid it?--no. A man can't forbid a twenty-four year old woman to do as
+she pleases. But I advise you--I warn you--I ask you seriously to consider
+what it all means. You are used to very many habits of living which will
+be entirely beyond Anthony's means for many years to come. You are fond of
+travel--of dress--of social----"
+
+"Father dear," said his daughter, interrupting him gently by a change of
+tactics. She came to him and sat upon the arm of his chair, and rested her
+cheek lightly upon the top of his thick, iron-gray locks.--"Let's drop all
+this for the present. Let's not discuss it. I want you to do me a
+particular favour before we say another word about it. Come with me down
+to see the house. It's only three hours away. We can go after breakfast
+to-morrow and be back for dinner at seven. It's all I ask. My arguments
+are all there. Please!--_Please!_"
+
+So it came about that at eleven o'clock on a certain morning in August,
+Mr. Horatio Marcy discovered himself to be eyeing with critical, reluctant
+gaze a quaintly attractive, low-spreading white house among trees and
+vines. He became aware at the same time of a sudden close clasp on his
+arm.
+
+"Here it is," said a low voice in his ear. "Does it look habitable?"
+
+"Very pretty, very pretty, my dear," Mr. Marcy admitted. No sane man could
+do otherwise. The little house might have been placed very comfortably
+between the walls of the dining-room at the Marcy country house, but there
+was an indefinable, undeniable air of gracious hospitality and
+homelikeness about its aspect, and its surroundings gave it an appearance
+of being ample for the accommodation of any two people not anxious to get
+away from each other.
+
+Juliet produced an antique door-key of a clumsy pattern, and opened the
+door into the living-room. She ran across to the windows and threw them
+open, then turned to see what expression might be at the moment illumining
+Mr. Marcy's face. He was glancing about him with curious eyes, which
+rested finally upon the portrait of a courtly gentleman in ruffles and
+flowing hair, hanging above the fireplace. He adjusted a pair of
+eyeglasses and gave the portrait the honour of his serious attention.
+
+"That is an ancestor," Juliet explained. "Doesn't he give distinction to
+the room? And isn't the room--well--just a little bit distinguished-looking
+itself, in spite of its simplicity?--because of it, perhaps. The tables
+and most of the chairs are what Anthony found left in the old Kentucky
+homestead after the sale last year, and bought in with--the last of his
+money." Her eyes were very bright, but her voice was quiet.
+
+Mr. Marcy looked at the furniture in question, stared at the walls, then
+at the rug on the polished floor. The rug held his attention for two long
+minutes, then he glanced sharply at his daughter.
+
+"The colourings of that rug are very good, don't you think?" she asked
+with composure. "It will last until Anthony can afford a better one."
+
+Mr. Marcy turned significantly toward the door of the dining-room, and
+Juliet led him through. He surveyed the room in silence, laying a hand
+upon a chair back; then looked suddenly down at the chair and brought his
+eyeglasses to bear upon it.
+
+"The furniture was made by a country cabinet-maker who charged country
+prices for doing it. Tony rubbed in a very thin stain and rubbed the wood
+in oil afterward till it got this soft polish."
+
+The visitor looked incredulous, but he accepted the explanation with a
+polite though exceedingly slight smile. Then he was taken to inspect the
+kitchen. From here he was led through the pantry back to the living-room,
+and so upstairs. He looked, still silently, in at the door of each room,
+exquisite in its dainty readiness for occupancy. As he studied the
+blue-and-white room his daughter observed that he retained less of the air
+of the connoisseur than he had elsewhere exhibited. She had shown him this
+place last with artful intent. No room in his own homes of luxury could
+appeal to him with more of beauty than was visible here.
+
+When Mr. Marcy reached the living-room again he found himself placed
+gently but insistently in the easiest chair the room afforded, close by an
+open window through which floated all the soft odours of country air
+blowing lightly across apple orchards and gardens of old-fashioned
+flowers. His daughter, bringing from the ingle seat a plump cushion,
+dropped upon it at his feet. But instead of beginning any sort of argument
+she laid her arm upon his knee, and her head down upon her arm, and became
+as still as a kitten who has composed itself for sleep. Only through the
+contact of the warm young arm, her father could feel that she was alive
+and waiting for his speech.
+
+When he spoke at last it was with grave quiet, in a gentler tone than that
+which he had used the day before in his own library.
+
+"You helped Anthony furnish this house?"
+
+"Yes, father."
+
+"Do you mind telling me how much you had at your disposal?"
+
+"Five hundred dollars." Juliet maintained her position without moving, and
+her face was out of sight.
+
+"Did this include the repairs upon the place?"
+
+"Yes--but you know wages are low just now and lumber is cheap. Having no
+roof to the porch made it inexpensive. The painting Anthony helped at
+himself. He worked every minute of his two weeks' vacation on whatever
+would cost most to hire done."
+
+"Anthony worked at painting the house?" There was astonishment in Mr.
+Marcy's voice. He had known the Robesons of Kentucky all his life. He had
+never seen one of them lift his hand to do manual labour. There had been
+no need.
+
+"Yes," said Juliet, and the cheek which rested against her father's knee
+began to grow warm.
+
+"You have obtained a somewhat extraordinary effect of harmony and comfort
+inside the house," Mr. Marcy pursued. "It is difficult to understand just
+how you brought it about with so small an expenditure of money."
+
+It was quite impossible now for Juliet to keep her head down. She looked
+up eagerly, but she still managed to speak quietly.
+
+"It _is_ effect, father, and it is art--not money. The paper on the wall
+cost twenty-five cents a roll, but it is the right paper for the place,
+and the wrong paper at ten times that sum wouldn't give the room such a
+background of soft restfulness. Then, you see, the old white woodwork is
+in very good style, and the green walls bring it out. The old floor was
+easily dressed to give that beautiful waxed finish. They told me how to do
+that at the best decorator's in Boston. The rug fits the colourings very
+well. Anthony's old furniture would give any such room dignity. The
+portrait lends the finishing touch, I think. You see, when you analyse it
+all there's nothing in the least wonderful. But it looks like a
+home--doesn't it? And when the little things are in which grow in a
+home--the photographs, a bowl of sweet-williams from the garden, the
+lovely old copper lamp you gave me on my birthday--can't you think how
+dear it will all be?"
+
+Mr. Marcy glanced down keenly into his daughter's face.
+
+"There are a great many things of your own at home which would naturally
+come into your married home," he said.
+
+Juliet coloured richly. "Yes," she answered with steady eyes, "but except
+for the lamp, and the photographs, and a few such very little things, I
+should not bring them. Anthony is poor, but he is very proud. I couldn't
+hurt him by furnishing his home with the overflow of mine. Besides--I
+don't need those things. I don't want them. All I want out of the old home
+is--your love--your blessing, dear!"
+
+The sharp eyes meeting hers softened suddenly. Juliet drew herself to her
+knees, and leaning forward across her father's lap, reached both arms up
+and flung them about his neck. He held her close, her head upon his
+shoulder, and all at once he found the slender figure in his arms shaken
+with feeling. Juliet was not crying, but she was drawing long, deep
+breaths like a child who tries to control itself.
+
+"You need have no doubt of either of those things, my little girl," said
+her father in her ear. "Both are ready. It is only your happiness I want.
+I distrust the power of any poor man to give it to you. That is all. Since
+I have seen this house the question looks less doubtful to me--I admit
+that gladly. But I still am anxious for the future. Even in this
+attractive place there must be monotony, drudgery, lack of many things you
+have always had and felt you must have. You have never learned to do
+without them. I understand that Robeson will not accept them at my hand,
+nor at yours. I don't know that I think the less of him for that--but--you
+will have to learn self-denial. I want you to be very sure that you can do
+it, and that it will be worth while."
+
+There was a little silence, then Juliet gently drew herself away and rose
+to her feet. She stood looking down at the imposing figure of the elderly
+man in the chair, and there was something in her face he had never seen
+there before.
+
+"There's just one thing about it, sir," she said. "I can't possibly spare
+Anthony Robeson out of my life. I tried to do it, and I know. I would
+rather live it out in this little home--with him--than share the most
+promising future with any other man. But there's this you must remember: A
+man who was brought up to do nothing but ride fine horses, and shoot, and
+dance, must have something in him to go to work and advance, and earn
+enough to buy even such a home as this, in five years. He has a future of
+his own."
+
+Mr. Marcy looked thoughtful. "Yes, that may be true," he said. "I rather
+think it is."
+
+"And, father----" she bent to lay a roseleaf cheek against his own--"you
+began with mother in a poorer home than this, and were so happy! Don't I
+know that?"
+
+"Yes, yes, dear," he sighed. "That's true, too. But we were both poor--had
+always been so. It was an advance for us--not a coming down."
+
+"It's no coming down for me." There was spirit and fire in the girl's eyes
+now. "Just to wear less costly clothes--to walk instead of drive--to live
+on simpler food--what are those things? Look at these," she pointed to the
+rows of books in the bookcases which lined two walls of the room. "I'm
+marrying a man of refinement, of family, of the sort of blood that tells.
+He's an educated man--he loves the things those books stand for. He's good
+and strong and fine--and if I'm not safe with him I'll never be safe with
+anybody. But besides all that--I--I love him with all there is of me.
+Oh--_are_ you satisfied now?"
+
+Blushing furiously she turned away. Her father got to his feet, stood
+looking after her a moment with something very tender coming into his
+eyes, then took a step toward her and gathered her into his arms.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.--ON ACCOUNT OF THE TEA-KETTLE
+
+
+"This is the nineteenth day of August," observed Anthony Robeson. "We
+finished furnishing the house for my future bride on the third day of the
+month. Over two weeks have gone by since then. The place must need
+dusting."
+
+He glanced casually at the figure in white which sat just above him upon
+the step of the great porch at the back of the Marcy country house. It was
+past twilight, the moon was not yet up, and only the glow from a distant
+shaded lamp at the other end of the porch served to give him a hint as to
+the expression upon his companion's face.
+
+"I'm beginning to lie awake nights," he continued, "trying to remember
+just how my little home looks. I can't recall whether we set the
+tea-kettle on the stove or left it in the tin-closet. Can you think?"
+
+"You put it on the stove yourself," said Juliet. "You would have filled it
+if Auntie Dingley hadn't told you it would rust."
+
+Anthony swerved about upon the heavy oriental rug, which covered the
+steps, until his back rested against the column; he clasped his arms about
+one knee, and inclined his head at the precise angle which would enable
+him to study continuously the shadowy outlines of the face above him, shot
+across with a ruby ray from the lamp. "I wish I could recollect," he
+pursued, "whether I left the porch awning up or down. It has rained three
+times in the two weeks. It ought not to be down."
+
+"I'm sure it isn't," Juliet assured him. There was a hint of laughter in
+her voice.
+
+"It was rather absurd to put up that awning at all, I suppose. But when
+you can't afford a roof to your piazza, and compromise on an awning
+instead, you naturally want to see how it is going to look, and you rush
+it up. Besides, I think there was a strong impression on my mind that only
+a few days intervened before our occupancy of the place. It shows how
+misled one can be."
+
+There was no reply to this observation, made in a depressed tone. After a
+minute Anthony went on.
+
+"These cares of the householder--they absorb me. I'm always wondering if
+the lawn needs mowing, and if the new roof leaks. I get anxious about the
+blinds--do any of them work loose and swing around and bang their lives
+out in the night? Have the neighbours' chickens rooted up that row of
+hollyhock seeds? Then those books I placed on the shelves so hurriedly.
+Are any of them by chance upside down? Is Volume I. elbowed by Volume II.
+or by Volume VIII.? And I can't get away to see. Coming up here every
+Saturday night and tearing back every Sunday midnight takes all my time."
+
+"You might spend next Sunday in the new house."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Of course. You have so many cares they would keep you from getting
+lonely."
+
+Anthony made no immediate answer to this suggestion, beyond laughing up at
+his companion in the dim light for an instant, then growing immediately
+sober again. But presently he began upon a new aspect of the subject.
+
+"Juliet, are we to be married in church?"
+
+"Tony!--I don't know."
+
+"But what do you think?"
+
+"I--don't think."
+
+"What! Do you mean that?"
+
+"No-o."
+
+"Of course you don't. Well--what about it?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Are we to have a big wedding?"
+
+"Do you want one?"
+
+"I--but that's not the question. Do you want a big wedding?"
+
+She hesitated an instant. Then she answered softly, but with decision:
+"No."
+
+Anthony drew a long breath. "Thank the Lord!" he said devoutly.
+
+"Why?" she asked in some surprise.
+
+"I've never exactly understood why the boys I've been best man for were so
+miserable over the prospect of a show wedding--but I know now. A runaway
+marriage appeals to me now as it never did before. I want to be
+married--tremendously--but I want to get it over."
+
+A soft laugh answered him. "We'll get it over."
+
+Anthony sat up suddenly. "Will we?" he asked with eagerness. "When?"
+
+"I didn't say 'when'!"
+
+"Juliet--when are you going to say it?"
+
+"Why, Tony--dear----"
+
+"That's right--put in the 'dear,'" he murmured. "I've heard mighty few of
+'em yet, and they sound great to me----"
+
+"We've been engaged only two weeks--"
+
+"And two days----"
+
+"And the little house isn't spoiling, even though you're not sure about
+the tea-kettle and the awning. I--you don't want to hurry things----"
+
+"Don't I!"--rebelliously.
+
+"If I'm very good and say 'Christmas'----"
+
+"'Christmas!'--Great Cæsar!"
+
+"But, Tony----"
+
+"Now see here--" he leaned forward and stared up at her, without touching
+her--he was as yet allowed few of the lover's favours and prized them the
+more for that--"do you think our case is just like other people's? Here
+I've been waiting for you all my days--waiting and waiting, and tortured
+all the time by suspense. Then I lived that month of July with my heart in
+my mouth--you'll never know what you put me through those days, talking
+and jollying about 'Eleanor Langham,' and never for one instant, until
+just that last day, giving me the smallest pinch of hope that it was
+anything to you except just what it pretended to be. Then--I've been a
+long time without a home--and the little house--sweetheart--it looks like
+Heaven to me. Must I stay outside till Christmas--when everything's all
+ready? Confound it--I don't want to play the pathetic string, and the Lord
+knows I'm happy as a fellow can be who's got the desire of his life.
+But----"
+
+A warm hand came gently upon his hair, and for joy at the touch he fell
+silent. Once he turned his head and put his lips against the white sleeve
+as it fell near, and looked up an instant with eyes whose expression the
+person above him felt rather than saw through the subdued light. By and by
+she took up the conversation.
+
+"So you are rejoiced that I don't want a great wedding?"
+
+"Immensely relieved."
+
+"What would you like best?"
+
+"I don't dare tell you."
+
+"You may."
+
+"Tell me what you would like, Julie."
+
+"Of course father would say the town house, even if it were a small
+affair. Auntie Dingley would probably agree to having it here--if that
+were what you--we--wanted--that is----"
+
+Anthony looked up quickly. "Even at Christmas?"
+
+"Why--yes. We could come back. People do that sometimes."
+
+"Yes. Must we do what other people do?"
+
+"Would you rather not?"
+
+"Ten thousand times. It seems to me that the biggest mistake people make
+is the way they do this thing. Juliet--think of the little house. We made
+it--you made it. For years, without doubt, it's to hold us and our
+experiences. Do you know I'd like to give it this one to begin with?--I'm
+holding my breath!"
+
+Plainly she was holding hers. Her head was turned away--he could just see
+her profile outlined against the ruby light. And at the moment there were
+footsteps inside a long French window near at hand which lay open into the
+library. Mr. Horatio Marcy came out and stood still just behind them.
+
+Anthony sprang to his feet, and came forward up the steps. The older man
+greeted him cordially. Anthony pulled a big chair into position, and Mr.
+Marcy sat down. He was smoking and wore an air of relaxation. He and his
+guest fell to talking, the younger man entering into the conversation with
+as much ease and spirit as if he were not fresh from what was to him at
+this hour a much more interesting discussion. Juliet sat quietly and
+listened.
+
+It grew into an absorbing argument after a little, the two men taking
+opposite sides of a great governmental question just then claiming public
+interest. Mrs. Dingley came out and joined the group, and she and Juliet
+listened with increasing delight in a contest of brains such as was now
+offered them. Mr. Marcy himself, while he put forth his arguments with
+conviction and with skill, was evidently enjoying the keen wit and wisdom
+of his young opponent. The elder man met objection with objection, set up
+men of straw to be knocked down, and ended at last with a hearty laugh and
+a frankly appreciative:
+
+"Well, Anthony--you have convinced me of one thing, certainly. There are
+more sides to the question than I had understood. I will admit that you've
+made a strong argument. But when I come back I'll down you with fresh
+material. I shall have plenty of it."
+
+"Are you going away soon, sir?" Anthony asked with some surprise. Mr.
+Marcy was a frequent traveller, preferring to look after various business
+interests in faraway ports himself rather than entrust them to others.
+
+"Yes--I shall be off in a few weeks--and for a longer time than usual. I
+haven't told these ladies of my household yet--but this is as good a time
+as any. Juliet, little girl--I may be gone all winter this time."
+
+She came quickly to him without speaking, and gave him her regretful
+answer silently.
+
+"When do you go, Horatio?" Mrs. Dingley asked.
+
+"About the first of October. I hadn't fully decided till to-day. I had
+thought of inviting you two to go with me."
+
+He looked with a smile at his sister and his daughter, then somewhat
+quizzically at Anthony. The latter was regarding him with an alert face in
+which, as nearly as could be made out in the dim light, were no signs of
+discomfiture.
+
+"Horatio," said Mrs. Dingley, "I wish you would come into the library for
+a few minutes. This reminds me of a letter I had to-day from one of your
+old friends, asking when you were to be at home."
+
+The French window closed on the two older people. Juliet, left sitting on
+the arm of her father's chair, found Anthony behind her.
+
+"Do you want to go on a voyage to the Philippines?" he was asking over her
+shoulder.
+
+"I'm not sure just what I do want," she answered rather breathlessly.
+
+"The tea-kettle would rust while you were gone."
+
+He got no reply.
+
+"The dust would grow inches deep on the dining-table we polished so
+carefully."
+
+Juliet rose and walked slowly to the edge of the steps. Anthony followed.
+"Let's go and walk on the terrace," he proposed, and they ran down to the
+smooth sward below. It was a warm night, with no dew, and the short-shaven
+grass was dry. All the stars were out. Anthony walked beside the figure in
+white, his hands clasped behind his back.
+
+"Do white ruffled curtains like those at our windows ever grow musty from
+being shut up?" he insinuated gently.
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Will you write from every port you touch at? It will take a good many
+letters to satisfy me."
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"Suppose what? That you will write?"
+
+Juliet stood still. "You're the greatest wheedler I ever saw," she said.
+
+"Is that a compliment?"
+
+"It's not meant for one. What am I to do when I'm----"
+
+"Married to me?--I don't know, poor child. I can only pity you. What do
+you think the prospect is for me, never to be able to get the smallest
+concession from you except by every art of coaxing? Yet--if I can get this
+thing I want, by any means--I warn you I shall not give up until I've seen
+you sail."
+
+"You'll not see me sail."
+
+He wheeled upon her. He had her hand in his grasp. "And if you don't go?"
+
+"I'll stay."
+
+"With me?"
+
+She laughed irresistibly. "How could I stay without you?"
+
+"Will you marry me before your father goes?"
+
+"Oh, Tony, Tony----"
+
+"We can't be married without his blessing, can we?"
+
+"No--dear father."
+
+"Then----"
+
+"I'll tell you to-morrow," said she.
+
+
+
+
+IX.--A BISHOP AND A HAY-WAGON
+
+
+Juliet Marcy's prospective maid-of-honour found Anthony Robeson's best man
+at her elbow the moment she entered the waiting-room of the big railway
+station. Now, although she greeted him with a charming little conscious
+look, there was nothing either new or singular about the quiet rush he had
+made across the waiting-room the instant he saw her. The rest of the party
+of twenty people who were going down into the country to the Marcy-Robeson
+wedding understood it perfectly, although the engagement had not been
+announced and probably would not be until Wayne Carey should have an
+income decidedly larger than he had at present.
+
+Judith Dearborn joined the group at once, and Carey reluctantly followed
+her. Judith had a way of joining groups and of giving her betrothed many
+impatient half-hours thereby.
+
+"Just think of this," she said to the others. "When I knew Juliet had
+really given in to Anthony Robeson at last I thought I should be asked to
+assist at an impressive church wedding. But here we are going down to what
+Tony describes as 'a box of a house' in the most rural of suburbs. If it's
+really as small as he says even twenty people will be a tight fit."
+
+"How in the world did they come to be married there?" asked the sister of
+the best man. Everybody had been summoned to this wedding so hurriedly and
+so informally that nobody knew much about it.
+
+The son of the Bishop--whose father was going down to perform the
+ceremony--answered promptly:
+
+"Tony tells me its Juliet's own choice. You see they furnished the house
+together, with her aunt, Mrs. Dingley; and Juliet fell so in love with it
+that she must needs be married in it. What's occurred to that girl I don't
+know. After the Robesons of Kentucky lost their money and everything else
+but their social standing I thought it was all up with Anthony. But he's
+plucky. He's made a way for himself, and he's won Juliet somehow. He seems
+to be a late edition of that obstinate chap who remarked 'I will find a
+way or make one.' By Jove--he must have made one when he convinced Juliet
+Marcy that she could be happy in a house where twenty people are a tight
+fit."
+
+When the train stopped at the small station Judith Dearborn said in Wayne
+Carey's ear, as he glanced wonderingly from the train: "Is this it? Juliet
+Marcy must be perfectly crazy!"
+
+"She certainly must," admitted Robeson's best man. But he stifled a sigh.
+If Juliet Marcy could do so crazy a thing as to marry Anthony Robeson on
+the comparatively small salary that young man--brought up to do nothing at
+all--was now earning, why must Wayne Carey wait for several times that
+income before he could have Juliet's closest friend? Was there really such
+a difference in girls?
+
+But at the next instant he was shouting hilariously, and so was everybody
+else except the Bishop and the Bishop's wife, who only smiled indulgently.
+The rest of the party were young people, and their glee brooked no
+repression. The moment they reached the little platform they comprehended
+not only that they were coming to a most informal wedding--they were also
+in for a decidedly novel lark.
+
+Close to the edge of the platform stood a great hay-wagon, cushioned with
+fragrant hay and garlanded with goldenrod and purple asters. Standing
+erect on the front, one hand grasping the reins which reached out over a
+four-in-hand of big, well-groomed, flower-bedecked farm horses, the other
+waving a triumphant greeting to his friends, was Anthony Robeson, in white
+from head to foot, his face alight with happiness and fun. He looked like
+a young king; there could be no other comparison for his splendid outlines
+as he towered there. And better yet, he looked as he had ever looked,
+through prosperity and through poverty, like a "Robeson of Kentucky."
+
+Below him, prettier than she had ever been--and that was saying much--her
+eyes brilliant with the spirit of the day, laughing, dressed also in
+white, a big white hat drooping over her brown curls, stood Juliet Marcy.
+
+In a storm of salutations and congratulations the guests rushed toward
+this extraordinary equipage and the radiant pair who were its charioteers.
+All regrets over the probable commonplaceness of a small country wedding
+had vanished.
+
+[Illustration: "Standing erect ... one hand grasping the reins ... was
+Anthony Robeson."]
+
+"Might have known they would do things up in shape somehow," grunted the
+Bishop's son approvingly. "This is the stuff. Conventionality be tabooed.
+They're going to the other extreme, and that's the way to do. If you don't
+want an altar and candles, and a high-mucky-muck at the organ, have a
+hay-wagon. _Gee!_--Let me get up here next to Ben Hur and the lady!"
+
+Even the Bishop, sitting with clerical coat-tails carefully parted, his
+handsome face beaming benevolently from under his round hat, and Mrs.
+Bishop, granted by special dispensation a cushion upon the hay seat,
+enjoyed that drive. Anthony, plying a long, beribboned lash, aroused his
+heavy-footed steeds into an exhilarating trot, and the hay-wagon, carrying
+safely its crew of young society people in their gayest mood, swept over
+the half-mile from the station to the house like a royal barge.
+
+As they drew up a chorus of "Oh's!" not merely polite but sincerely
+surprised and admiring, recognised the quaint beauty of the little house.
+It was no commonplace country home now, though the changes wrought had
+been comparatively slight. It looked as if it might have stood for years
+in just this fashion, yet it was as far removed from its primitive
+characterless condition as may be an artist's drawing of a face upon which
+he has altered but a line.
+
+Mrs. Dingley and Mr. Horatio Marcy--a pair whose presence anywhere would
+have been a voucher for the decorum of the most unconventional
+proceedings--welcomed the party upon the wide, uncovered porch.
+
+"We're going to be married very soon, to have it over," called Anthony.
+"But you may explore the house first, so your minds shall be at rest
+during the crisis. Just don't wander too far away in examining this
+ancestral mansion. There are six rooms. I should advise your going in
+line, otherwise complications may occur in the upper hall. Please don't
+all try to get into the kitchen at once; it can't be done. It will hold
+Juliet and me at the same time--all the rooms have been stretched to do
+that--they had to be; but I'm not sure as to their capacity for more. Now
+make yourselves absolutely at home. The place is yours--for a few hours.
+After that it's mine--and Juliet's."
+
+He glanced, laughing, at his bride, as he spoke from where he stood in the
+doorway. She was on the little landing of the staircase, at the opposite
+end of the living-room. She looked down and across at him, and nearly
+everybody in the room--they were thronging through at the moment--caught
+that glance. She was smiling back at him, and her eyes lingered only an
+instant after they met his, but her friends all saw. There could be no
+question that the Juliet Marcy who, since she had laid aside her
+pinafores, had kept many men at bay, had at last surrendered. As for
+Anthony----
+
+"Why, he's always been in love with her," said the Bishop's son in the ear
+of the best man, as in accordance with their host's permission they peeped
+admiringly in at the little kitchen, "but any idiot can see that he's
+fairly off his feet now. Ideal condition--eh? Say, this dining-room's
+great--Jove, it is. I'm going to get asked out here to dinner as soon as
+they are back. Let's go upstairs. The girls are just coming down--hear 'em
+gurgling over what they saw?"
+
+Upstairs the best man looked in at the blue-and-white room with eyes which
+one with penetration might have said were envious. Indeed, he stared at
+everything with much the same expression. He was the soberest man present.
+Ordinarily he could be counted on to enliven such occasions, but to-day
+his fits of hilarity were only momentary, and during the intervals he was
+observed by the Bishop's son to be gazing somewhat yearningly into space
+with an abstraction new to him.
+
+Nobody knew just how the moment for the ceremony arrived. But when the
+survey of the house was over and everybody had instinctively come back to
+the living-room, the affair was brought about most naturally. The Bishop,
+at a word from the best man, took his place in the doorway opening upon
+the porch, which had been set in a great nodding border of goldenrod.
+Anthony, making his way among his guests, came with a quiet face up to
+Juliet and, bending, said softly, "Now, dear?" A hush followed instantly,
+and the guests fell back to places at the sides of the room. Anthony's
+best man was at his elbow, and the two went over to the Bishop, to stand
+by his side. Mr. Marcy moved quietly into his place. Juliet, with Judith,
+who had kept beside her, walked across the floor, and Anthony, meeting
+her, led her a step farther to face the Bishop. It was but a suggestion of
+the usual convention, and Anthony, in his white clothes, surrounded as he
+was by men in frock-coats, was assuredly the most unconventional
+bridegroom that had ever been seen. Juliet, too, wore the simplest of
+white gowns, with no other adornment than that of her own beauty. Yet,
+somehow, as the guests, grown sober in an instant, looked on and noted
+these things, there was not one who felt that either grace or dignity was
+lacking. The rich voice of the Bishop was as impressive as it had ever
+been in chancel or at altar; the look on Anthony's face was one which
+fitted the tone in which he spoke his vows; and Juliet, giving herself to
+the man whose altered fortunes she was agreeing to share, bore a
+loveliness which made her a bride one would remember long--and envy.
+
+"There, that's done," said the Bishop's son with a gusty sigh of relief,
+which brought the laugh so necessary to the relaxing of the tension which
+accompanies such scenes. "Jove, it's a good thing to see a fellow like
+Robeson safely tied up at last. You never can tell where these quixotic
+ideas about houses and hay-wagons and weddings may lead. It's a terrible
+strain, though, to see people married. I always tremble like a leaf--I
+weigh only a hundred and ninety-eight now, and these things affect me.
+It's so frightful to think what might happen if they should trip up on
+their specifications."
+
+There was a simple wedding breakfast served--by whom nobody could tell. It
+was eaten out in the orchard--a pleasant place, for the neglected grass
+had been close cut, and an old-fashioned garden at one side perfumed the
+air with late September flowers. The trim little country maids who brought
+the plates came from a willow-bordered path which led presumably to the
+next house, some distance down the road. There were several innovations in
+the various dishes, delicious to taste. Altogether it was a little feast
+which everybody enjoyed with unusual zest. And the life of the party was
+the bridegroom.
+
+"I never saw a fellow able to scintillate like that at his own wedding,"
+remarked the son of the Bishop to the best man's sister. "Usually they are
+so completely dashed by their own temerity in getting into such an
+irretrievable situation that they sit with their ears drooping and their
+eyes bleared. Do you suppose it's getting married in tennis clothes that's
+done it?"
+
+"Tennis clothes!" cried the best man's sister with a merry laugh. "If you
+realised how much handsomer he looks than you men in your frock-coats you
+would not make fun."
+
+"Make fun!" repeated the Bishop's son solemnly. "I joke only to keep my
+head above water. I never in my life was so completely submerged in the
+desire to get married instantly and live in a picturesque band-box.
+Nothing can keep me from it longer than it takes to find the girl and the
+band-box. If--if--" his voice dropped to a whisper, and a hint of redness
+crept into his face which belied his jesting words, "you knew of the
+girl--I--er--say--should you mind living in a band-box?"
+
+The best man's sister was the sort of girl who can discern when even an
+inveterate joker is daring to be somewhat more than half in earnest, and
+she flushed so prettily that the son of the Bishop caught her hand
+boyishly under the little table. He had hitherto been considered a
+hopeless old bachelor, so it may readily be seen that, now the contagion
+had caught him, his was quite a serious case.
+
+
+
+
+X.--ON A THRESHOLD
+
+
+When it was all over Judith Dearborn went upstairs with Juliet to help her
+dress for her going away. The maid-of-honour looked about the
+blue-and-white room with thoughtful eyes.
+
+"This is certainly the dearest room I ever saw," she said. "Oh, Juliet, do
+you think you really will be happy here?"
+
+"What do you think about it, dear?" asked Juliet.
+
+"Oh--I--well, really--I never imagined that a little old house like this
+could be made so awfully attractive. But, Juliet--you--you must be very,
+very fond of Anthony to give up so many things. How well he looked to-day.
+Seems to me he's grown gloriously in every way since he--since his family
+came into so many misfortunes."
+
+Juliet smiled, but answered nothing.
+
+"And you're so different, too. Never in my life would I have imagined you
+having a wedding like this--and yet it's been absolutely the prettiest one
+I ever saw. That's a sweet gown to go away in--but it's the simplest thing
+you ever wore, I'm sure. Juliet, where are you going?"
+
+"We are going to drive through the Berkshires in a cart."
+
+"Juliet Marcy!"
+
+"'Robeson,'" corrected Juliet with a little laugh, but in a tone which it
+was a pity Anthony could not hear. "Don't forget that. I'm so proud of the
+name. And I think a drive through the Berkshires will be a perfectly ideal
+trip."
+
+Judith Dearborn was not assisting the bride at all. Instead she was
+sitting in a chair, staring at Juliet with much the same abstraction of
+manner observable in the best man throughout the day.
+
+"Of course you didn't need to live this way," observed Miss Dearborn at
+length. "You could have afforded to live much more expensively."
+
+"No, I couldn't," said Juliet with a flash in her eyes, though she smiled;
+"I couldn't have afforded to do one thing that would hurt Tony's pride.
+Why, Judith--he's a 'Robeson of Kentucky.'"
+
+"Well, he looks it," admitted Judith. "And you're a Marcy of
+Massachusetts. The two go well together. Juliet, do you know--somehow--I
+thought it was a fearful sacrifice you were making, even for such a man as
+Anthony--but--this blue-and-white room----"
+
+"Ah, this blue-and-white room----" repeated Juliet. Then she came over and
+dropped on her knees by her friend in her impulsive way and put both arms
+around her. The plain little going-away gown touched folds with the one
+whose elegance was equalled only by its cost. Anthony Robeson's wife
+looked straight up into the eyes of her maid-of-honour and whispered:
+
+"Judith, don't put Wayne--and--your blue-and-white room off too long. You
+will not be any happier to wait--if you love him."
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+Drawn up close to the door stood the cart. Beside it waited Anthony.
+Around the cart crowded twenty people. When Juliet came through them to
+say good-bye the son of the Bishop murmured:
+
+"Er--Mrs. Robeson----"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Farnham----" said Juliet promptly, her delicate flush answering
+the name, as it had answered it many times that day.
+
+"When are you going to be at home to your friends?"
+
+"The fifteenth day of October," said Juliet. "And from then on, every day
+in the week, every week in the year. Come and see us--everybody. But don't
+expect any formal invitations."
+
+"I'll be down," declared the Bishop's son. "I'll be down once a week."
+
+"Please don't stay long after we are gone," requested Anthony, putting his
+bride into the cart and springing in beside her. He gathered up the reins.
+"Good-bye," he called. "Take this next train home. It goes in an hour.
+Lock the door, Carey, and hang the key up in plain sight by the window
+there. We live in the country now, and that's the way we do.
+Good-bye--good-bye!"
+
+Then he drove rapidly away down the road.
+
+"And that pair," said the son of the Bishop gravely, looking after them
+and speaking to the company in general, "married, so to speak, in a
+hay-wagon, and going for a wedding trip in a wheel-barrow through the
+Berkshires, is Juliet Marcy and Anthony Robeson."
+
+"No, my son," said the Bishop slowly--and everybody always listened when
+the Bishop spoke: "It is Anthony and Juliet Robeson--and that makes all
+the difference. I think two happier young people I never married. And may
+God be with them."
+
+The best man said that he and the maid-of-honour would walk the half-mile
+to the station. The son of the Bishop and the sister of the best man had
+already taken this course without saying anything about it. Nearly
+everybody murmured something about it being a lovely evening and a
+glorious sunset and a charming road, and, pairing off advisedly, adopted
+the same plan. The Bishop and Mrs. Bishop, Mrs. Dingley and Mr. Marcy
+decided on being driven over to the station in a light surrey provided for
+this anticipated emergency.
+
+The best man and the maid-of-honour succeeded in dropping behind the rest
+of the pedestrians. Their friends were used to that, and let them
+mercifully alone.
+
+"Mighty pretty affair," observed Carey in a melancholy tone.
+
+"Yes--in its way," admitted Judith Dearborn with apparent reluctance.
+
+"Cosy house."
+
+"Very."
+
+"Tony seemed happy."
+
+"Ecstatic." Judith's inflection was peculiar.
+
+"Nobody would have suspected Juliet of feeling blue about living off
+here."
+
+"She doesn't seem to."
+
+"What's made the difference?"
+
+"Anthony Robeson, probably."
+
+"Must seem pretty good to him to have her care like that."
+
+"I presume so."
+
+"It isn't everybody that could inspire such an--affection--in such a
+girl."
+
+"No, indeed."
+
+Carey looked intensely gloomy. The two walked on in silence, Miss Dearborn
+studying the sunset, Carey studying Miss Dearborn. Suddenly he spoke
+again.
+
+"Judith, do all our plans for the future seem as desirable to you as they
+did this morning?"
+
+"Which ones?"
+
+"Apartment in the locality we've picked out--life in the style the
+locality calls for--and _wait_ for it all until I'm _gray_----" with a
+burst of tremendous energy. "Good heavens, darling, what's the use?
+Why--if I could have you and a little home like that----"
+
+He bit his lip hard. The maid-of-honour walked on, her head turned still
+farther away than before. They were nearing the station. Just ahead lay a
+turn in the road--the last turn. The rest of the party, with a shout back
+at this dilatory pair, disappeared around it. From the distance came the
+long, shrill whistle of the approaching train.
+
+The maid-of-honour glanced behind: there was not a soul in sight; ahead:
+and saw nothing to alarm a girl with an impulse in her heart. At a point
+where great masses of reddening sumac hid a little dip in the road from
+everything earthly she stopped suddenly, and turning, put out both hands.
+She looked up into a face which warmed on the instant into a
+half-incredulous joy and said very gently: "You may."
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+The sun had been gone only two hours, and the soft early autumn darkness
+had but lately settled down upon the silent little house, waiting alone
+for its owners to come back some October day, when a cart, driven slowly,
+rolled along the road. In front of the house it stopped.
+
+"Where are we?" asked Juliet's voice. "This is a private house. I thought
+we--Why, Tony--do you see?--We've come around in a circle instead of going
+on to that little inn you spoke of. This is--_home_!"
+
+"Is it?" said Anthony's voice in a tone of great surprise. "So it is!" He
+leaped out and came around to Juliet's side. "What a fluke!" But the happy
+laugh in his voice betrayed him.
+
+"Anthony Robeson," cried Juliet softly, "you need not pretend to be
+surprised. You meant to do it."
+
+"Did I?" He reached out both arms to take her down. "Perhaps I did. Do you
+mind--Mrs. Robeson? Shall we go on?"
+
+Juliet looked down at him. "No, I don't think I mind," she said.
+
+He swung her down, and they went slowly up the walk. "Somehow," said
+Anthony Robeson, looking up at the house, lying as if asleep in the
+September night, "when I thought of taking you to that little public inn,
+and then remembered that we might have this instead--We can go on with our
+wedding journey to-morrow, dear-but--to-night----"
+
+He led her silently upon the porch. He found the key, where in jest he had
+bade his best man put it, and unlocked the door and threw it open.
+
+He stepped first upon the threshold, and, turning, held out his arms.
+
+"Come," he said, smiling in the darkness.
+
+XI.--A BACHELOR AT DINNER
+
+"Hallo there--Anthony Robeson--don't be in such a hurry you can't notice a
+fellow."
+
+The big figure rushing through the snow paused, wheeled, and thrust out a
+hand of hearty greeting. "That you, Carey? Hat over your eyes like a train
+robber--electric lights all behind you--and you expect me to smile at you
+as I go by! How are you? How's Judith?"
+
+"Infernally lonely--I mean I am--Judith's off on a visit to her mother.
+Say, Tony--take me home with you--will you? I want some decent things to
+eat, so I'm holding you up on purpose."
+
+"Good--come on. Train goes in a few minutes. Juliet will be delighted."
+
+The two hurried on together into the station from which the suburban
+trains were constantly leaving. As they entered they encountered a mutual
+friend, at whom both flung themselves enthusiastically with alternate
+greetings:
+
+"Roger Barnes----"
+
+"Roger--old fellow--glad to see you back!"
+
+"Patient safely landed?"
+
+"Get a big fee?"
+
+"Where you going?"
+
+"Let's take him home with us, Tony----" The third man looked smiling at
+Tony. "I'll challenge you to," said he.
+
+"That's easy--come on," responded Anthony Robeson with cordiality. "I'll
+just telephone Mrs. Robeson."
+
+"That's it," said Dr. Roger Barnes. "You don't dare not to. I understand.
+Go ahead. But if she's too much dashed let me know, will you?"
+
+Anthony turned, laughing, into a telephone closet, from which he emerged
+in time to catch his train with his guests.
+
+"It's all right," he assured them. "But it's only fair to let her know a
+few minutes ahead. You like to understand, Roger, before you start, don't
+you, whether your emergency case is a hip-fracture or a cut lip, so you
+can tell whether to take your glue or your sewing-silk?"
+
+"By all means," said the bachelor of the party. "And I suppose you think
+Mrs. Juliet Marcy Robeson is now smiling happily to herself over this
+little surprise. I'll lay you anything you please that if I can make her
+own up she'll admit that she said '_Merciful heavens!_' into the telephone
+when she got your message."
+
+Anthony shook his head. "Evidently you don't know what guests in the
+remote suburbs on a stormy February night mean to a poor girl whose
+nearest neighbour is five hundred feet away. Your ideas of married life
+need a little freshening, too. They're pretty antique."
+
+It was a half-mile from the station to the house--the "box of a
+house"--which had been Anthony's home for five months, and toward which he
+now led his friends with the air of a man about to show his most treasured
+possessions. He strode through the deepening snow as if he enjoyed the
+strenuous tramp, setting a pace which Wayne Carey, with his office life,
+if not the doctor, more vigorously built and bred, found difficult to
+maintain.
+
+"Here we are," called the leader, pointing toward windows glowing with a
+ruddy light. The doctor looked up with interest. Carey was a frequent
+visitor, but the busy surgeon, old school-and-college chum of Anthony's
+though he was, was about to have his first introduction to a place of
+which he had heard much, but of whose nearness to Paradise he doubted with
+the strong skepticism of a man who has seen many a fair beginning end in
+all unhappiness and desolation.
+
+As they stamped upon the little porch the door flew open, the brilliancy
+and comfort of a fire-and-lamplit room leaped out at them, a delicious
+faint odour of cookery assailed their hungry nostrils, and the welcome
+which makes all worth having met them on the threshold.
+
+"Wayne," said the rich young voice of the mistress of the house, "I'm so
+glad. Roger Barnes, this is just downright good of you; it's so long
+you've promised us this. Tony----"
+
+What she said to Tony must have been whispered in his ear if voiced at
+all, for the two guests, looking on with laughing, envious eyes, saw their
+hostess swept unceremoniously into a bearlike embrace, swung into the air
+as one thrusts up a child, poised there an instant, laughing and
+protesting, then slowly lowered to be kissed, and set down once more
+lightly upon the floor.
+
+"It's all right. I didn't tumble your hair a bit," said Anthony coolly.
+"Excuse me, gentlemen, but Wayne understands--and Roger will some day, I
+hope--that a man who has been thinking about it all the way home can't put
+it off on account of a couple of idiots who stand and stare instead of
+politely turning their backs. Oh, don't mention it--it doesn't disturb me
+at all; and Mrs. Robeson is becoming reconciled to my impetuosity by
+degrees. Make yourselves at home, boys. Juliet----"
+
+"Take them upstairs, Tony, please. Of course we can't let them go back
+to-night, now we have them. It's beginning to storm heavily, isn't it? I
+thought so. Take them to the guest-room, Tony--and dinner will be served
+as soon as you are down."
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+"By Jupiter, I believe she means it," declared the doctor, with approval,
+as the door of the bedroom closed on his host. "I think I can tell when a
+woman is shamming. She's improved, hasn't she, tremendously? Pretty girl
+always, but--well--bloomed now. Nice little house. Believe I'll have to
+stay, though I ought not--just to take observations on Tony. His
+enthusiasm has all the appearance of reality. In fact, it strikes me he
+has rather----"
+
+It was on his lips to say "rather more than you have," but it occurred to
+him in time that jokes on this ground are dangerous. Wayne Carey had been
+married in November, was living in a somewhat unpretentious way in a
+downtown boarding-house, and certainly had to-night so much of a lost-dog
+air that it made the doctor pause. So he substituted: "--rather more than
+I should have expected, even of a fellow who has got the girl he has
+wanted all his life," and fell to washing and brushing vigorously, eyeing
+meanwhile the little room with a critical bachelor's appreciation of
+beauty and comfort in the quarters he is to occupy. It was very simply
+furnished, certainly, but it struck him as a place where his dreams were
+likely to be pleasant for every reason in the world.
+
+Downstairs, Juliet, in the dining-room, was surveying her table with the
+hostess's satisfaction. Opposite her stood a tall and slender girl,
+black-haired, black-eyed, with a face of great attractiveness.
+
+"I wish, Mrs. Robeson," she was saying eagerly, "you would let me serve
+you as your maid, and not make a guest of me. Really, I should love to do
+it. I don't need to meet your friends, and I don't mind seeming what I
+really am--your----"
+
+"Rachel Redding," Juliet interrupted, lifting an affectionate glance
+across the table, "if you want to seem what you really are--my friend--you
+will let me do as I like."
+
+"My shabby clothes----" murmured the girl.
+
+"If I could look as much like a princess as you do in them----"
+
+"Mrs. Robeson, in that lovely dull red you're a queen----"
+
+"--dowager," finished Juliet gayly. "Well, I'll be proud of you, and you
+can be proud of me, if you like, and together we'll make those hungry men
+think there's nothing like us. The dinner's the thing. Isn't it the
+luckiest chance in the world I sent for those oysters this morning? Doctor
+Barnes is perfectly fine, but he never would believe in the happiness of
+married life if the coffee were poor or the beefsteak too much broiled.
+Doesn't the table look pretty? Those red geranium blossoms you brought me
+give it just the gay touch it needed this winter night."
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three men, standing about the wide fireplace, warming cold hands at its
+friendly blaze, turned expectantly as their youthful hostess came in,
+followed by a graceful girl in gray. Juliet presented her guests with the
+air of conferring upon them a favour, and they seemed quite ready to
+accept it as such.
+
+Anthony looked on with interest to see a person whom he had known hitherto
+only as a pretty but poor young neighbour whom Juliet had engaged to help
+her for a certain part of every day, introduced as his wife's friend, and
+greeted by Doctor Barnes and Wayne Carey with quite evident admiration and
+pleasure. He looked hard at her, as Carey seated her, noticing for the
+first time that she was really worth consideration, and remembering
+vaguely that Juliet had more than once tried to impress him with the fact.
+If it had not been for the other fellows, with whose eyes as their host he
+was now stimulated to observe her, he might have been still some time
+longer in coming to the realisation that Juliet had found somebody in whom
+her genuine interest was not misplaced. But Anthony Robeson had all his
+life been singularly blind to the fascinations of most other women than
+Juliet. As he turned his keen gaze from Rachel Redding to the charming
+figure that sat on the other side of the table the satisfaction in his
+eyes became so pronounced that it could mean, Dr. Roger Barnes admitted to
+himself, as he caught it, nothing less than a very real happiness.
+
+It was not an elaborate dinner. It was not by any means the sort of dinner
+Juliet might have prepared had she known that morning whom she was to
+entertain. It was merely a dinner planned with affectionate care to please
+and satisfy one hungry man who liked good things to eat--and amplified as
+much as possible in quantity after Anthony's message reached her. And by
+that admirable collusion between hostess and feminine friend which can
+sometimes be effected when the situation demands it, the dinner prepared
+for three seemed ample for five.
+
+[Illustration: "Three men, standing about the wide fireplace ... turned
+expectantly as their youthful hostess came in, followed by a
+graceful girl in gray."]
+
+Between them Juliet and Rachel Redding served the various dishes and
+changed the plates which Anthony handed from his place. It was gracefully
+done and so simply that the absence of a maid was a thing to be enjoyed
+rather than regretted. When Juliet, in the softly sweeping dull-red frock
+which made of her a warm picture for a winter's night, slipped from her
+chair and moved about the room, or brought in from the kitchen a steaming
+dish, she seemed the ideal hostess, herself bestowing what her own hands
+had prepared. And when Rachel Redding offered a man a cup of fragrant
+coffee, smiling down in the general direction of his uplifted face without
+meeting his eyes, there was certainly nothing lost from his enjoyment of
+the beverage.
+
+"Say, but this dinner has tasted just about right," was Wayne Carey's
+satisfied observation as he leaned back in his chair at last, after
+draining his third cup of coffee--and the pot itself, if he had but known
+it.
+
+"Went to the spot?" asked Anthony, leaning back also with the expression
+of the friendly host. He was young to cultivate that expression, but he
+appeared to find no difficulty about it.
+
+"It did--every last mouthful."
+
+"Good. Now, if you fellows will come back to the fire and have a pipeful
+of talk we shall not be missed. In this house on ordinary occasions we
+reverse the order of after-dinner privileges--the men retire to the
+atmosphere of the sofa-pillows, and the women--I'm not allowed to tell
+what they do. But after remaining discreetly out of sight for some little
+time, during which faint sounds as of the rattle of china penetrate
+through closed doors, they reappear, pleasantly flushed and full of a sort
+of relieved joy."
+
+"I know what I wish," said Roger Barnes, looking back from the dining-room
+doorway at young Mrs. Robeson; "I wish that when the dishes are all ready
+you would let me know. I should like nothing better than to have a
+dish-towel at them. I know all about it--my mother taught me how."
+
+He looked so precisely as if he meant it, and the glance he sent past
+Juliet at Rachel Redding was so suggestive of his dislike to be separated
+for the coming hour from the feminine portion of the household, that his
+hostess answered promptly: "Of course you may. We never refuse an offer
+like that. We will try you--on promise of good behaviour."
+
+
+
+
+XII.--THE BACHELOR BEGS A DISH-TOWEL
+
+
+When the door closed on the three Juliet produced from somewhere two
+aprons--attractive affairs on the pinafore order--one of which she slipped
+upon Rachel, the other donned herself.
+
+"These are my kitchen party-aprons," she said gayly, noting how the pretty
+garment became the girl, "calculated to impress the masculine mind with
+the charm of domesticity in women. The doctor needs a little illustrated
+lesson of the sort. Life in boarding-houses isn't adapted to encourage a
+man in the belief that real comfort is to be found anywhere outside of a
+bachelor's club."
+
+Before he was called the doctor forsook a half-smoked cigar and the
+seductive hollows of Anthony's easiest chair and marched briskly out to
+the kitchen.
+
+"You see I distrust you," he announced, putting in his head at the door.
+"I'm afraid you will get them all done without me."
+
+"Not a bit of it. Here you are," and Juliet tied a big white apron about a
+large-sized waist. "Here's your towel. No, don't touch the glass; a man is
+too unconscious of his strength."
+
+"A surgeon?" demurred Rachel softly, from over her steaming dishpan.
+
+"Thank you, Miss Redding," said the doctor, smiling.
+
+"Ah, how stupid of me," Juliet made amends swiftly. "Miss Redding
+remembers that when I got my telephone message to-night I told her that
+the most distinguished young specialist in the city was coming here to
+dinner. A hand trained to such delicate tasks as those of surgery--here,
+Dr. Roger Barnes, forgive me, and wipe my most precious goblets."
+
+"You'll have my nerves unsteady with such speeches as that," said he, but
+he accepted the trust. He held the goblets and the other daintily cut and
+engraved pieces of glass with evident pleasure in the task.
+
+Meanwhile Juliet and Rachel made rapid work of the greater part of the
+dishes, handling thin china with the dexterity of housewives who love
+their work--and their china. Talk and laughter flowed brightly through it
+all, and when the doctor had finished his glass he looked disappointed at
+seeing not much left to do. At the moment Rachel was scrubbing and
+scraping a big baking-dish, portions of whose surface strongly resisted
+her efforts, in spite of previous soaking. The assistant, looking about
+him for new worlds to conquer, fell upon this dish.
+
+"Here, here," said he, "let me have it. I'll use on it some of the
+unconscious strength Mrs. Robeson credits me with."
+
+But Rachel clung to the dish. "Proper housekeepers," she averred, "always
+say 'That's all, thank you,' as soon as the china is done, and finish the
+pots and kettles after the guest has gone back to pleasanter things."
+
+"I see. Did you ever have a man for dish-wiper before?"
+
+"Never a surgeon," admitted Miss Redding.
+
+"Then you don't appreciate the fact that a man likes to do big things
+which make the most show and get the credit for them."
+
+He took the dish away from her by a dexterous little twist in which
+conscious strength certainly asserted itself. Rachel, laughing, with a
+dash of colour in cheeks which were normally of dark ivory tints, accepted
+the dish-towel he handed her.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Hallo, there," cried Wayne Carey's voice from the door. "You're having
+more fun out here than we are in there, and that's not fair. The lord of
+the manor is getting so chesty over the delights of a country home in a
+February snowbank that he's becoming heavy company."
+
+"No room for you here," returned the doctor, removing with a flourish the
+last candied sugar lump from the bottom of the big dish, and beginning to
+swash about vigorously in the hot water. "We do something besides talk out
+here; we work. Our kitchen is so small we have to waste no time in steps;
+as we dry the things we chuck them straight into their places."
+
+Suiting the action to the word he caught up a shining cake-tin and cast it
+straight at Carey. That gentleman dodged, but Anthony caught it, performed
+upon it an imitation of the cymbals, then turned about and laid it in a
+nest of similar tins upon a shelf in an open closet.
+
+"Ah, but I'm well trained," he boasted.
+
+"If you were you wouldn't put it away wet," observed Rachel slyly.
+
+Anthony withdrew the tin, wiped it with much solicitude, and replaced it.
+
+"These little technicalities are beyond me," he apologised. "Your real
+athlete in kitchen work is your scientific man. See him dry that bean-pot
+with the glass-towel. Now, I know better than that."
+
+"Go away, all of you," commanded the mistress of the place. "Go back to
+the fire and we'll join you. If you are very good we'll bring you a
+special treat by-and-by."
+
+"That settles it," said the doctor, and led the retreat, but not without a
+backward glance at the little kitchen.
+
+Juliet had gone into the dining-room with a trayful of glass and silver.
+Rachel Redding was plunging half a dozen white towels into a pan of
+steaming water. Barnes stood an instant, staring hard at the slender
+figure in the white pinafore, the round young arms gleaming in the
+lamplight--then he turned to follow the others. There are some pictures
+which linger long in a man's memory; why, he can hardly tell. With all his
+varied experiences Dr. Roger Barnes had never before discovered how
+attractive a background a well-kept kitchen makes for a beautiful woman,
+so that she be there mistress of the situation. Long after he had gone
+back to the fire his absent eyes, while the others talked, were studying
+the--to him--unaccustomed and singularly charming scene he had just left
+in the kitchen.
+
+When Juliet and Rachel came in at length they found a plan afoot for their
+entertainment. Wayne Carey was standing at the window showing cause why
+the whole party should go out and coast upon the hill near by.
+
+"You admit," he argued with Anthony, "that you know where we can get a
+pair of bobs--and if you can't I'll bribe some of those youngsters out
+there to let us have theirs. The storm has stopped; the boys have swept
+off the whole hill, I should judge, by the way their track shines again
+under the moonlight. I haven't had a good coast since I left college."
+
+He turned to Juliet. "Will you go?" he asked coaxingly.
+
+"Of course we will," promised Juliet. "Tony wants to go--he's just
+enjoying making you tease. As for the doctor----"
+
+"If my right hand has not forgot her cunning," he agreed.
+
+In ten minutes the party was off. A young matron of five months' standing
+is not so materially changed from the girl she used to be that she can
+fail to be the gayest of company, perhaps with the more zest that the old
+good times seem a bit far away already and she is glad to bring them
+back.
+
+As for the real girl of the party, in this case it chanced to be a country
+lass who had been away to school and half-way through college, had been
+brought home by love and duty to some elderly people who needed her, and
+had known many hours of stifled longing for the sort of companionship with
+which she had grown happily familiar.
+
+Matron and maid--they were a pair for whose sakes the men who were with
+them gladly made slaves of themselves to give them an evening of glorious
+outdoor fun--and at small sacrifice.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+"What a night!" exulted the doctor, striding up the long hill beside
+Rachel Redding breathing deep. "I'm thanking all my lucky stars that they
+led my path across Anthony Robeson's to-night. I've been intending to come
+out here ever since he was married--and might not have done it for another
+six months if I hadn't got started. He'll have all he wants of me now.
+It's the most delightful spot I've been in for many moons."
+
+"It is a dear little home," agreed Rachel warmly. "Mrs. Robeson would make
+the most commonplace house in the world one where everybody would want to
+come."
+
+"That's evident. Yet, somehow, knowing her well as a girl, I never should
+have suspected just those home-making qualities. You didn't know her then,
+I suppose? She was a girl other girls liked heartily, and men
+enthusiastically--one of the 'I'll be a good friend, but don't come too
+near' sort, you know. But she was very fond of travel and change, ready
+for everything in the way of sport--and, well, I certainly never saw her
+before in anything resembling an apron of any description. What a
+delightful article of attire an apron is, anyhow. I think I never
+appreciated it before to-night."
+
+"That's because you never saw one of Mrs. Robeson's aprons. Hers are not
+like other people's."
+
+"She makes hers poetic, does she?"
+
+"She certainly does--even the ones for baking and sweeping. Not ruffled or
+beribboned, but cut with an eye to attractiveness, and always of becoming
+colour."
+
+"I see. She's an artist--that was noticeable in the oysters--if she made
+the dish."
+
+"Of course she did."
+
+"The coffee was the best I ever drank."
+
+"Was it?"
+
+"You made that, then," remarked the doctor astutely.
+
+"I'm glad it was good," said Rachel demurely.
+
+They had reached the top of the hill. Doctor Barnes insisted that Anthony
+had been the best steerer of coasting parties known to the juvenile world,
+and placed him at the helm. Next came Juliet, with both arms clasped as
+far about her husband's stalwart frame as they would go. Carey had wanted
+to be the end man, but Doctor Barnes would have none of it. "You have to
+take care of Mrs. Robeson," he said firmly, and placed him next. This
+brought Miss Redding last, and Dr. Roger Barnes, knowing man, as hanger-on
+behind upon bobs already fairly full. The last man, as every coaster
+understands, has to be alert to help out any possible bad steering, and so
+keeps a watchful head thrust half over the shoulder in front.
+
+The foregoing explanation will show how it came about that all down the
+long, swift descent, Rachel, breathless with the unaccustomed delight of
+the flight, felt upon her cheek a warm breath, and was conscious of a most
+extraordinary nearness of the lips which kept saying merry things into her
+ear. The ear itself grew warm before the bottom of the track was reached.
+
+"That was a great coast," cried the doctor as they reached the end of the
+long slide. "Now for another. I'm a boy again. This beats the best thing I
+could have had in town if I hadn't run across Anthony."
+
+So they had another--and another--and one more. Then Rachel Redding,
+stopping in front of a small house which lay at the foot of the hill, said
+good-night to them and slipped away before Barnes had realised what had
+happened.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Does she live there?" he questioned Juliet, as the four who were left
+moved on toward home. Anthony and Wayne were discussing a subject on which
+they had differed at the top of the hill. "Somehow, I got the impression
+she lived with you."
+
+"No--but she comes over a good deal. I couldn't get on without her."
+
+"As a friend?"
+
+Juliet looked up at him. "I think it would be better that you should know,
+Roger," she said, "and I'm sure Miss Redding herself would prefer it--that
+I pay her for several hours a day of regular work. You've only to see her
+to understand that she does this simply because it's the only thing open
+to her as long as her father and mother can't spare her to go away. She
+gave up her college course in the middle because she said they were pining
+to death for her. They are in very greatly reduced circumstances, after a
+lifetime of prosperity. She's a rare creature--I'm learning to appreciate
+her more every day. She's never said a word about her loneliness here, but
+it shows in her eyes. It's a perfect delight to me to have her with me,
+and I mean to give her all the fun I can. For all that demure manner and
+her Madonna face she's as full of mischief as a kitten when something
+starts her off."
+
+"Juliet," said the doctor soberly, turning to look searchingly down at her
+in the moonlight, "would you be willing to let me come often?"
+
+Juliet looked up quickly. "So that you may see her?" she asked
+straightforwardly.
+
+"Yes. I won't pretend it's anything else. I can tell you honestly that if
+there were no other reason I should want to come because of my old
+friendship for you and Anthony, and because this evening in your little
+home has given me a rare pleasure. I know of no place like it. But I'll
+tell you squarely that I want the chance to meet your friend often and at
+once. If I don't you will have other people coming out from town----"
+
+"Yes," said Juliet, and something in the way she said it made him ask
+quickly: "Has that already happened? Am I too late?"
+
+"I don't know whether you're too late, but I know that we've suddenly
+grown most attractive to another man from town. If you had gone into
+Rachel's home the odour of violets would have met you at the door. He
+sends them every few days."
+
+"_Ah!_" said the doctor. It was not much of a comment, but it spoke
+volumes. He had been keen before--he was determined now. Violets--well,
+there were rarer flowers than those.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.--SMOKE AND TALK
+
+
+At the house there remained for the guests an hour before the fire, where
+Juliet brought in something hot and sweet and sour and spicy, which tasted
+delicious and brought her a shower of compliments while they drank a
+friendly draught to her. When she had left them, standing in an admiring
+group on the hearth-rug and wishing her happy dreams, they settled into
+luxurious positions of ease before the fire--a fire in the last stages of
+red comfort before it dies into a smoulder of torrid ashes.
+
+"Anthony Robeson," said Wayne Carey, regarding the andirons fixedly over
+his bed-time pipe, "you're a happy man."
+
+Anthony laughed contentedly. He had thrown himself down upon the
+hearth-rug with his head on a pillow pulled from the settle, and lay flat
+on his back with his hands clasped behind his neck. It was an attitude
+deeply expressive of masculine comfort.
+
+"You're exactly right," said he. "And you would be the same if you would
+give up living in that infernal boarding-house. What do you want to fool
+with your first year of married life like that for? You told me that
+Judith was bowled over by our wedding, and was ready to go in for this
+sort of thing with a will."
+
+"I know it," admitted Carey, "but"--he spoke hesitatingly--"we couldn't
+seem to find this sort of thing. You had corralled all there was."
+
+"Nonsense."
+
+"You had. Everything we looked at was so old and mouldy, or so new and
+inartistic, or so high-priced, or so far away--well, we couldn't seem to
+get at it, so we said we'd board a while and wait until we could look
+around."
+
+"How does it work?"
+
+"Why, I suppose it works very well," said Carey cautiously. "Judith seems
+contented. We have as good meals as the average in such houses, and the
+people are rather a nice lot. We're invited around quite a good deal, and
+Judith likes that. I ought to like it better than I do, somehow. I'm so
+confoundedly tired when I get home nights I can't help thinking of you and
+Juliet here in this jolly room. There's an abominable blue and yellow
+wall-paper on our sitting-room--and it has a way of appearing to turn
+seasick in the evening under the electrics. Sometimes I think it's that
+that makes me feel----"
+
+"Seasick, too?" inquired the doctor with his professional air. He was
+standing with his arm on the chimney-piece, looking alternately down on
+his friends and around the long, low room. It _was_ a jolly room--the very
+essence of comfort and cosiness. It was a beautiful room, too, in a simple
+way; one which satisfied his sense of harmony in colours and fabrics--a
+keen sense with him, as it is apt to be with men of his profession.
+
+"Judith likes this, too, you know," Carey went on loyally. "She thinks
+it's great. But how to get it for ourselves--that's another matter.
+Somehow, you were lucky."
+
+"Did you ever happen to see," asked Anthony, "a photograph I took, just
+for fun, of this house as it was when Juliet saw it first? No? Well, just
+look in that box on the end of the farther bookcase, will you? It's near
+the top--there--that's it."
+
+He lay looking up through half-closed lashes at the two men as they
+studied the photograph, the doctor leaning over Carey's shoulder.
+
+"On your word, man, did it look like that?" cried Barnes.
+
+"Just like that."
+
+"Yes, I've heard it did," admitted Carey; "but I never quite believed it
+could have been as bad as that."
+
+"Who planned it all?" the doctor asked, getting possession of the
+photograph as Carey laid it down, and giving it careful scrutiny.
+
+"My little home-maker."
+
+"Jove--are there any more like her?"
+
+"They're pretty rare, I understand. Juliet has one in training--one with a
+good deal of native capacity, I should judge."
+
+"Let me know when her graduation day approaches," remarked the doctor.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+When he fell asleep that night in the dainty guest-room Barnes was
+wondering whether Mrs. Robeson got her own breakfasts, and hoping that she
+certainly did not, at least when guests were in the house. He was down
+half an hour earlier than necessary, and to his great satisfaction found a
+slender figure brushing up ashes and setting the fireplace in order for
+the morning fire. As he begged leave to help he noted the satin smoothness
+of Miss Redding's heavy black hair and the trim perfection of her attire.
+She reminded him of his hospital nurses in their immaculate blue and
+white. When he saw the mistress of the house and found her similarly
+dressed a certain skepticism grew in his mind.
+
+When he went out to breakfast he murmured in Anthony's ear: "Just tell me,
+old fellow--to satisfy the curiosity of a bachelor--do these girls of your
+household always look like this in the early morning? I know it's
+mean--but you will know how to evade me if I'm too impertinent----"
+
+Anthony glanced from Juliet, resembling a pink carnation in her wash
+frock--February though it was--to Rachel Redding in dark blue and white,
+and smiled mischievously. "Mrs. Robeson--and Miss Redding--you are
+challenged," he announced. "Here's a fine old chump who has an awful
+suspicion that maybe when there are no guests you come down in calico
+wrappers with day-before-yesterday's aprons on."
+
+Juliet gave the doctor a glance which made him pretend to shrink behind
+Carey for protection. "Will you please answer him, Tony?" she said.
+
+"On my word and honour, Roger Barnes, then," said Anthony proudly, "they
+always look like this."
+
+When the doctor left he was weighing carefully in his mind an urgent
+problem: After waiting six months before making his first visit at the
+Robesons, how soon could he decently come again?
+
+
+
+
+XIV.--STRAWBERRIES
+
+
+"Here are yer strawberries, ma'm."
+
+Juliet, alone in her little kitchen, ran to the door in dismay. She looked
+down at a freckle-faced boy carrying a big basket filled with
+strawberry-boxes.
+
+"But my order was for next Wednesday," she said.
+
+"Well, Pa said he cal'lated you'd ruther have 'em when they was at the
+best, an' that's now. This hot weather's a dryin' 'em up. May not be any
+good ones by Wednesday."
+
+Every housekeeper knows that if there is one thing particularly liable to
+happen it is the arrival of fruit for preserving at the most inopportune
+moment of the week. It matters little what the excuse of the sender may
+be--there is always a sufficient reason why the original date set by the
+buyer has been ignored. In this case the strawberries had been engaged
+from a neighbour, and Juliet understood at once that she must not refuse
+to take them.
+
+She stood looking at the rows of baskets upon the table, when the boy had
+placed them there and gone whistling away. She was in the midst of a
+flurry of work. It was Saturday, and she was cooking and baking, putting
+together various dishes to be used upon the morrow. Mr. Horatio Marcy had
+lately returned from abroad. He and Mrs. Dingley were to spend the coming
+Sabbath with Juliet and Anthony--the first occasion on which Juliet's
+father should be entertained in the house. It was an event of importance,
+and his daughter meant to show him several things concerning her fitness
+for her present position.
+
+Rachel Redding was not available upon this Saturday morning. Her mother
+had been taken seriously ill the night before, and Rachel had sent word
+that she could not leave her. Juliet had not minded much, although it was
+a day when Rachel's help would have been especially acceptable. As it was,
+she had reached a point where her housewifely marshalling of the day's
+work was at a critical stage. A cake had been put into the oven. A large
+bowl of soup stock had been brought from a cool retreat to have the smooth
+coating of fat removed from its surface. Various other dishes, in process
+of construction, awaited the skilled touch of the cook.
+
+"I shall have to do them, I suppose," said Mrs. Robeson to herself,
+regarding the strawberries with a disapproving eye. "But _why_ they had to
+come to-day----"
+
+She went at the strawberries, wishing she had ordered less. They were fine
+berries--on top; by degrees, as the boxes lowered, they became less fine.
+It seemed desirable to separate the superior from the inferior and treat
+them differently. Only the best would do for the delectable preserve which
+was to go into glasses and be served on special occasions; the others
+could be made into jam less attractive to the eye if hardly less
+acceptable to the palate. Juliet was obliged to put down her berry-boxes
+every fifth minute to attend to one or other of the various saucepans and
+double-boilers upon the little range. Her cheeks grew flushed, for the day
+was hot and the kitchen hotter. It must be admitted that her occasional
+glance out over the green fields and the woods beyond was a longing one.
+
+The better selection of the berries went into the clear syrup in the
+preserving-kettle. Juliet flew to get her glass pots ready. She stopped to
+stir something in a saucepan. She thrust some eggs into the small
+ice-chest to cool them for the salad dressing soon to be made. She kept
+one eye on the clock, for the strawberry preserve had to be timed to a
+minute--ten, no more, no less. It was a strenuous hour.
+
+As she dipped up the fourth ladleful of crimson richness--translucent as a
+church window--and filled the waiting jar, a peculiar pungent odour
+drifted across the fragrance of the strawberries. Juliet dropped her ladle
+and pulled open the oven door.
+
+The delicate cake which she had compounded with especial care because it
+was Mrs. Dingley's favourite, lay a blackened ruin. Some of it had run
+over upon the oven bottom and become a mass of cinders. Juliet jerked the
+cake-tin out into the daylight and shut the oven door with a slam.
+
+It was at this unpropitious moment that a figure appeared in the
+doorway--a tall, slim figure, in crisp, cool, white linen. A charming
+white hat surmounted Mrs. Wayne Carey's carefully ordered hair, a white
+parasol in her hands completed a particularly chaste and appropriate
+morning toilette for a young woman who had nothing to do with kitchens.
+
+She was regarding with interest the young person at the range. Juliet wore
+one of her characteristic working frocks, and the big pinafore which
+enveloped it from head to foot was of an attractive design. But the
+morning's flurry had set its signs upon her, and the pinafore was not as
+immaculate as it had been three hours earlier. Her hair, curling moistly
+about her flushed face, had been impatiently pushed back more than once,
+and its disorder, while not unpicturesque, was suggestive of a somewhat
+perturbed mind. Her hands were pink with strawberry juice. She looked
+warm, tired, and--if the truth must be told--at the moment not a little
+out of temper. The smile with which she welcomed her friend could hardly
+be said to be one of absolute pleasure.
+
+"I'm afraid I've come at the wrong time," said Judith, regretfully. "Did
+you just burn something? Too bad. I suppose all young housekeepers do
+that. Where's your--assistant?"
+
+"She's not here to-day," said Juliet, ladling up strawberry preserve with
+more haste than caution. Her fingers shook a little but she kept her voice
+tranquil. "It's all right. A number of things had to be done at once,
+that's all. Please don't stay in this hot place. Take off your hat and
+find a cool corner somewhere in the house. I'll be in presently."
+
+"I mustn't bother you. I was going to stay for lunch with you, it was so
+hot in town, but I mustn't think of it when you're so----"
+
+"Of course you'll stay," said Juliet with decision. "What you see before
+you is only the smoke of battle. It will soon clear away. Run off--and
+I'll be with you presently. You'll find the late magazines in the
+living-room."
+
+Her tone was intended to deceive and it was sufficiently successful.
+Judith was anxious to stay. She was also interested in the situation. She
+had heard much from Wayne in praise of Juliet's successful housekeeping,
+and had seen enough of it herself to be curious about its inner workings.
+For the first time she had happened upon a scene which would seem to
+indicate that there were phases in this sort of domestic life less ideal
+than she was asked to believe. She went back into the coolness and quiet
+of the living-room with a full appreciation of the fact that no hot
+kitchens ever threatened her own peace of mind.
+
+Juliet finished her strawberry preserve, saw that everything liable to
+burn was removed to safe quarters; then deliberately took off her apron
+and stole out of the kitchen door. She went swiftly down through the
+orchard to the willow-bordered path by the brook; then, out of sight of
+everything human, ran several rods down it with a sweep of skirts which
+put everything in the bird creation to flight. At a certain pleasant spot
+among the willows, sheltered from all possible observation, she paused and
+flung herself down upon the warm ground.
+
+But not in any attitude of despair. Neither did she cry tears of vexation
+and weariness. She was a healthy girl, with the perfect physical being
+whose poise is not upset by so small a matter as a fatiguing morning.
+Because a cake had burned, an extra amount of work had had to be conquered
+and an unexpected guest had arrived, her nerves were not worn to the
+rending point. But, having been reared in the belief that a breath of
+outdoors is the great antidote for all physical or mental discomforts born
+of confinement indoors, she had acquired a habit of running away from her
+cares at any and all times of day in precisely this fashion--and many were
+the advantages she had reaped from this somewhat unusual course of
+procedure.
+
+Mrs. Anthony Robeson lay upon one side, her arm outstretched, her cheek
+pillowed upon her arm. She was drawing long, deep breaths, and looking
+lazily off at a stretch of blue sky cleft in the exact centre by one great
+graceful elm tree. One would have thought she had forgotten every care in
+the world, not to mention the guest from the city waiting expectantly for
+her hostess to appear. After ten minutes of this sort of indolence the
+figure in the blue and white print dress sat up, clasped both arms about
+her knees and remained regarding with half closed eyes the softly
+fluttering leaves of the willows along the edge of the brook. The hot
+flush died out of her cheeks; the lips whose expression a few minutes
+since had indicated self-control under a combination of trying
+circumstances, relaxed into their natural sweetness with a tendency toward
+mirth; and her whole aspect became that merely of the young athlete
+resting from one encounter and preparing herself for another.
+
+At length she rose, shook out her skirts, and said aloud: "Now, Judith
+Dearborn Carey, I'm ready to upset your expectations. Since you looked in
+at me this morning you've been thinking I wished I hadn't--haven't you?
+Well, you may just understand that I don't wish anything of the sort." And
+in five minutes more she had walked in upon her guest by way of the front
+door, her pretty face serene, her hands full of pink June roses which she
+threw in a fragrant mass of beauty into her friend's lap.
+
+"Put those into bowls for me, will you?" she requested. "Arrange them to
+suit yourself. Aren't they lovely? I suppose you're getting hungry. In
+half an hour you shall be served with a very modest but, I trust, not
+insufficient lunch. Would you like hot chocolate or iced tea?"
+
+"Iced tea, by all means," chose Judith, who, being used to the privileges
+of selection from a variety of offered foods and beverages, was apt to
+want what was not set before her, when at a private table. Juliet
+understood this propensity of her friend and slyly took advantage of it.
+As it happened, she knew that at the moment she was quite out of
+chocolate, but she had counted advisedly upon Judith's choice on a hot
+June day, and she smiled to herself as she chopped ice and sliced lemon.
+
+At the end of the half hour, Judith, who found the coolness of the
+living-room too delightful to allow her to keep watch of her friend in the
+hot kitchen, much as she was tempted to do so, was summoned to an equally
+cool dining-room. Upon the bare table, daintily set out upon some of the
+embroidered white doilies of Juliet's wedding linen, was a simple lunch of
+a character which appealed to the guest's critical appetite in a way which
+made her draw a long breath of satisfaction.
+
+"You certainly do have a trick of serving things to make them taste better
+than other people's," she acknowledged, glancing from the little platter
+of broiled chicken with its bit of parsley to the crisp fruit salad made
+up of she knew not what, but presenting an appetising appearance--then
+regarding fondly a dish of spinach, pleasingly flanked by thin slices of
+boiled egg.
+
+"It's really too hot to eat anything very solid," agreed Juliet with
+guile. "Rachel and I have a way of planning our lunches a day or two
+ahead, so that the leftovers we use up are not yesterday's but the day
+before's, and we remember with surprise how good the original dish was far
+back in the past. I wish Anthony could have his midday meal at
+home--though perhaps if he did the dinners wouldn't strike him so happily.
+Don't you think it's great fun to see a big, hearty man sit down at a
+table and look at it with an expression of adoration? Women may deride the
+fact as they will, but a healthy body does demand good things to eat, and
+shouldn't be blamed for liking them."
+
+"Wayne hasn't much appetite," said Judith, eating away with relish. "He
+dislikes the people at our table--sometimes I think that's why he bolts
+his food and gets off in such a hurry. By the way, Juliet, are you and
+Tony coming in to the Reardons' to-night? Of course you are."
+
+"I suppose we must," admitted Juliet with reluctance. "We have refused a
+good many things since we've been here, but I did promise Mrs. Reardon we
+would try to come to-night."
+
+The little repast over, Judith offered, with well simulated warmth, to
+help her friend with the after work. But Juliet would have none of her.
+She sent her guest out into a hammock under the trees, and despatched the
+business of putting the little kitchen to rights with the celerity of one
+who means to have done with it.
+
+In the middle of the June afternoon Judith awoke from a nap in the hammock
+to find her hostess standing laughing beside her, fresh in a thin gown of
+flowered dimity.
+
+"Well," yawned Judith, heavily, "I must have gone off to sleep. I was
+tired--I am tireder. This is a fatiguing sort of weather--don't you think
+so? But you don't look it. And after all that work I found you in! Why
+aren't you used up? It _kills_ me to do things in the heat."
+
+Juliet dropped a big blue denim pillow on the ground and sat down upon it
+in a flutter of dimity. She lifted a smiling face and said with spirit:
+
+"Last summer I could walk miles over a golf course twice a day and not
+mind it in the least. The year before I was most of the time on the river,
+rowing till I was as strong as a girl could be. I've had gymnasium work
+and fencing lessons and have been brought up to keep myself in perfect
+trim by my baths and exercise. What frail thing am I that a little
+housework should use me up?"
+
+"Yes--I know--you always did go in for that sort of thing," reflected
+Judith, eyeing her companion's fresh colour and bright eyes. "I suppose I
+ought, but I never cared for it--I don't mean the baths and all that--of
+course any self-respecting woman adores warm baths. I don't like the cold
+plunges and showers you always add on."
+
+"Then don't expect the results."
+
+"It isn't everybody who has your energetic temperament. I hate golf,
+despise tennis, never rowed a stroke in my life, and could no more keep
+house as you are doing than I could fly."
+
+"Let me see," said Juliet demurely, pretending to consider. "What is it
+that you do like to do?"
+
+"You know well enough. And little enough of it I can get now with a
+husband who never cares to stir." There was a suspicion of bitterness in
+Judith's voice. But Juliet, ignoring it, went blithely on:
+
+"I've a strong conviction that one can't be happy without being busy. Now
+that I can't keep up my athletic sports I should become a pale
+hypochondriac without these housewifely affairs to employ me. I don't like
+to embroider. I can't paint china. I'm not a musician. I somehow don't
+care to begin to devote myself to clubs in town. I love my books and the
+great outdoors--and plenty of action."
+
+"You're a strange girl," was Judith's verdict, getting languidly out of
+the hammock, an hour later, after an animated discussion with her friend
+on various matters touching on the lives of both. "Either you're a
+remarkable actress or you're as contented as you seem to be. I wish I had
+your enthusiasm. Everything bores me--Look at this frock, after lying in a
+hammock! Isn't white linen the prettiest thing when you put it on and the
+most used up when you take it off, of any fabric known to the shops?"
+
+"It is, indeed. But if anybody can afford to wear it it's you, who never
+sit recklessly about on banks and fences, but keep cool and correct and
+stately and----"
+
+"--discontented. I admit I've talked like a fractious child all day. But
+I've had a good time and want to come oftener than I have. May I?"
+
+"Of course you may. Must you go? I'll keep you to dinner and send for
+Wayne."
+
+"You're an angel, but I've an engagement for five o'clock, and there's the
+Reardons' this evening. You won't forget that? You and Anthony will be
+sure to come?"
+
+"I'll not promise absolutely, but I'll see. Mrs. Reardon was so kind as to
+leave it open. It's an informal affair, I believe?"
+
+"Informal, but very gorgeous, just the same. She wouldn't give anybody but
+you such an elastic invitation as that, and you should appreciate her
+eagerness to get you," declared Judith, who cared very much from whom her
+invitations came and could never understand her friend's careless attitude
+toward the most impressive of them.
+
+Juliet watched her guest go down the street, and waved an affectionate
+hand at her as Judith looked back from her seat in the trolley car. "Poor
+old Judy," she said to herself. "How glad you are you're not I!--And how
+very, very glad I am I'm not you!"
+
+An observation, it must be admitted, essentially feminine. No man is ever
+heard to felicitate himself upon the fact that he is not some other man.
+
+
+
+
+XV.--ANTHONY PLAYS MAID
+
+
+After dinner that night, Juliet, having once more put things in order and
+slipped off the big pinafore which had kept her spotless, joined her
+husband in the garden up and down which he was comfortably pacing, hands
+in pockets, pipe in mouth.
+
+"Jolly spot, isn't it? Come and perambulate," he suggested.
+
+"Just for a minute. Tony, are we going to the Reardons?"
+
+He stood still and considered. "I don't know. Are we? Did you accept?"
+
+"On condition that you felt like it. I represented you as coming home
+decidedly fagged these hot nights and not always caring to stir."
+
+"Wise schemer! I don't mind the aspersion on my physical being. She urged,
+I suppose?"
+
+"She did. I don't know why."
+
+"I do." Anthony smiled down at his wife. "Everybody is a bit curious about
+us these days. Your position, you see, is considered very extraordinary."
+
+"Nonsense, Tony. Shall we go?"
+
+"Possibly we'd better, though it racks my soul to think of dressing. The
+less I wear my festive garments the less I want to. For that very reason,
+suppose we discipline ourselves and go. Do you mind?"
+
+"Not at all. We'll have to dress at once, for it's nearly eight now, and
+by the time we have caught a train and got to Hollyhurst----"
+
+"To be sure. Here goes, then."
+
+Half an hour later Anthony, wrestling with a refractory cuff button,
+looked up to see his wife at his elbow. She was very nearly a vision of
+elegance and beauty; the lacking essential was explained to him by a voice
+very much out of breath and a trifle petulant:
+
+"If you care anything for me, Tony, stop everything and hook me up. I'm
+all mixed up, and I can't reach, and I'm sure I've torn that little lace
+frill at the back."
+
+"All right. Where do I begin?"
+
+"Under my left arm, I think--I can't possibly see."
+
+"Neither can I." He was poking about under the lifted arm, among folds of
+filmy stuff. "Here we are--no, we aren't. Does this top hook go in this
+little pocket on the other side?"
+
+"I suppose so--can't you tell whether it does by the look?"
+
+"It seems a bit blind to me," murmured Anthony, struggling.
+
+"It's meant to be blind--it mustn't show when it's fastened."
+
+"It certainly doesn't now. Hold on--don't wriggle. I've got it now. I've
+found the combination. Three turns to the right, five to the left, clear
+around once, then--Hullo! I've come out wrong. The thing doesn't track at
+the bottom."
+
+"You've missed a hook."
+
+"Oh, no. I hung onto 'em all the way down."
+
+"Then you missed an eye. You'll have to unhook it all and begin again."
+
+Anthony obeyed. "I'm glad I don't have to get into my clothes around the
+corner this way," he commented. "Here you are. We stuck to the schedule
+this time."
+
+"Wait, dear. You haven't fastened the shoulder. There are ever so many
+little hooks along there and around the arm hole."
+
+"I should say there were. What's the good of so many?--Where do they
+begin? Look out--wait a minute--Juliet, if you don't stop twisting around
+so I never can do it. I can do great, heroic acts, it's the little trials
+that floor me--There--no!--that doesn't look right."
+
+Juliet ran to the mirror. "It isn't right," she cried. "Look--that corner
+shouldn't lap over like that. Oh, if I could only reach myself!"
+
+"You can't--I've often tried it. The human anatomy--Stand still,
+Julie--you're getting nervous."
+
+"If there's one thing that's trying----" murmured Juliet.
+
+"Why do you let your dressmakers build your frocks this way? Why not get
+into 'em all in front, where you can see what you're doing?--Now I've got
+it. Isn't that right?"
+
+"Yes. Wait, Tony--here's the girdle. It fastens behind."
+
+Anthony surveyed the incomprehensible affair of silk and velvet ribbon she
+put into his hands. "Looks like a head-stall to me," he said. Juliet
+laughed and fitted it about her own waist. Anthony attempted to make it
+join at the back of the points she held out to him.
+
+"It won't come together," he said.
+
+"Oh, yes, it will. Draw it tight."
+
+"I am drawing it tight. It's smaller than you are. You can't wear it."
+
+Juliet laughed again. Anthony tugged.
+
+"Wait till I hold my breath," she said.
+
+"_Great guns!_" he ejaculated, and by the exertion of much force fastened
+the girdle. Then he stood off a step or two and looked at his wife
+curiously. Flushed and laughing she returned his gaze.
+
+"Can you breathe?" he asked solicitously.
+
+"Of course I can."
+
+"What with?"
+
+"It is a little tight, of course," she admitted. "This is one of my
+trousseau dresses. I've grown a little stouter, I suppose. Never mind, I
+can stand it for to-night. Thank you very much. You must hurry now,
+Tony."
+
+"I haven't had my pay for playing maid," he said, and came close. He
+surveyed his wife's fair neck and shoulders, turned her around and
+deliberately kissed the soft hollow where the firm white flesh of her neck
+met the waving brown hair drawn lightly upwards.
+
+"That's the spot that tantalized me for about six years," he observed.
+
+Hunting hurriedly through various drawers and boxes in the blue-and-white
+room, in search of gloves and fan, Juliet heard her husband come in his
+turn to her open door.
+
+"Will you have the goodness to look at me?" he requested, in a melancholy
+voice. Juliet turned, gave him one glance, and broke into a merry peal.
+
+"Oh, Tony!--What's the matter? Have you been growing stouter, too?"
+
+"It must be," he said solemnly.
+
+His clawhammer coat was so tight across the shoulders that the strain was
+evident. He was holding his arms in the exaggerated position of the small
+boy who wears a last year's suit. Juliet revolved around her husband's
+well built figure with interest.
+
+"It does look tight," she said. "But have you grown heavier all at once?
+It can't be long since you wore that coat before."
+
+"Don't believe I have for months. It's been altogether frock-coats and
+informals. I haven't been to an evening affair with ladies for a good
+while."
+
+"It doesn't look as it feels, I'm sure. It's getting very late--we ought
+to be off," and Juliet gathered up her belongings and gave him a long
+loose coat to hold for her which covered her finery completely.
+
+"Now's the hour when I regret that I haven't a carriage for you," said
+Anthony, as they descended the stairs. He got into his outer coat
+reluctantly. "I shall split something around my back before the evening is
+over," he prophesied resignedly.
+
+"Never mind. Remember how tight my girdle is. It grows tighter every
+minute."
+
+They got out upon the porch and Anthony locked the door. "If I should show
+that door-key to any man I know except Carey he would howl," he remarked,
+holding up the queer old brass affair before he slipped it into his
+pocket. He looked down at Juliet in the gathering June twilight. "Don't
+you wish we didn't have to go?"
+
+"Yes, I do," she agreed frankly.
+
+"Let's not!"
+
+"My dear boy! At this hour?"
+
+"We could telephone."
+
+"Shouldn't you feel rather ashamed to, so late?"
+
+"Not a bit. But of course we'll go if you say so."
+
+She laughed, and he joined her boyishly. She hesitated.
+
+"If I see you looking faint in that girdle shall I throw a glass of cold
+water over you?"
+
+"Please do. If I hear a sound as of rending cloth shall I divert the
+attention of the company?"
+
+"By all means."
+
+They were laughing like two children. Anthony sat down in one of the porch
+chairs. He drew a long sigh. "I never hated to leave my dear home so since
+I came into it," he said gloomily.
+
+Juliet pulled off her coat. "If you'll do the telephoning I'll stay," she
+said.
+
+He jumped to his feet. "Let me loosen that girdle for you. I haven't been
+breathing below the fifth rib myself since you put it on, just in
+sympathy," he declared.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.--A HOUSE-PARTY--OUTDOORS
+
+
+"The trouble is," said Anthony Robeson, shifting his position on the step
+below Juliet so that he could rest his head against her knee, "the trouble
+is we're getting too popular."
+
+Juliet laughed and ran her fingers through his thick locks, gently
+tweaking them. The two were alone together in the warm darkness of a July
+evening, upon their own little porch.
+
+"It's the first evening we've had to ourselves since the big snowdrift
+under the front windows melted. That was about the date Roger Barnes met
+Louis Lockwood here the first time. Ye gods--but they've kept each other's
+footprints warm since then, haven't they? And now Cathcart is giving
+indications of having contracted the fatal malady. Can't Rachel Redding be
+incarcerated somewhere until the next moon is past? I notice they all have
+worse symptoms each third quarter. That girl looks innocent, but--by
+heaven, Julie, I think she has it down fine."
+
+"No, you don't," said Juliet persuasively. "I should catch her at it if
+she were deliberately trying to keep two such men as Roger and Louis
+pitted against each other. They're doing it all themselves. I've known her
+to run away when she saw one of them coming--so that she couldn't be
+found. But, Tony dear, I've a plan."
+
+"Good. I hope it's a duel between the two principals. If it is I'm going
+to tamper with the weapons and see that each injures himself past help.
+I'm getting a little weary of playing the hospitable host to a trio of
+would-bes."
+
+"Listen. We'll entertain them all at once for a week, with some extra
+girls, and Judith and Wayne, and then we'll announce that we're not at
+home for a month."
+
+"All at once--a house-party?" Anthony sat up and laughed uproariously.
+"I've tremendous faith in you, love, but where in the name of all the
+French sardines that ever were dovetailed would you put such a crowd?"
+
+"I've a practical plan. Louis Lockwood belongs to a fishing club that
+spends every August up in Canada. They have a big tent, twenty by
+twenty-five, for he told me so the other day. He would get it for us; we
+would put it out in the orchard, close to the river. You and Wayne, and
+Roger and Louis, and Stevens Cathcart could sleep down there, and I could
+easily take care of Judith and Suzanne Gerard and Marie Dresser, here in
+the house. Rachel should stay here, too. And Auntie Dingley would send
+down Mary McKaim to cook for us, I'm sure."
+
+"That's not so bad. But why Rachel--when you have so little room?"
+
+"Because I want her to have all the fun; because if I don't keep her here
+she will be running away half the time; and because----"
+
+"Now comes the real reason," observed Anthony sagely.
+
+"I don't want the other girls thinking she has the unfair advantage of
+taking a man away from the party every evening to walk down home with
+her."
+
+"Wise little chaperon. I can see Roger and Louis now, glaring at each
+other as the hour approaches for her departure."
+
+"What do you think of my plan? It's only a plan, you know, Tony--subject
+to your approval."
+
+"Diplomat!" murmured Anthony, reaching up one arm and drawing it about her
+shoulders. "You know you're safe to have my approval when you put it in
+that tone. Well, provided you can figure out the finances--and I know you
+wouldn't propose it if you hadn't done that already--I don't see any
+objection. On one condition, though, Julie, mind you--on one condition."
+
+"Name it."
+
+"Of course, I can only be here evenings during your house party. So my
+condition is that I have you and the home all to myself for my vacation
+afterward. Not a wooer nor a chum admitted. No overdressed women out from
+town, taking afternoon tea--no invitations to lonesome husbands out to
+dinner. Just you and I. Did you ever imagine life in the rural localities
+would be so gay, anyhow? I want to go fishing with you--tramping through
+the woods with you--sitting out here on the porch with you--in short, have
+you all to myself--and"--he turned completely about, kneeling below her on
+the step, crushing her in both arms so vigorously that he stopped her
+breath--"eat--you--up!"
+
+"What a prospect," she cried softly, when she found herself partially
+released. "Are you sure you need a vacation, just for that?"
+
+"Certain of it. I've had to share you with other people all the year--and
+now I've got to give you up to a jealous lovers' assemblage. So after
+that, mind you, I have my satisfaction."
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Doctor Barnes was told of the plan he looked gloomy. "Going to ask
+Lockwood?" he inquired at once.
+
+"Of course," assented Juliet promptly.
+
+"I don't see any 'of course' about it."
+
+"What would Marie Dresser do to me if I didn't invite him?"
+
+"He doesn't care for her----"
+
+"Oh, yes, he does. Why, last winter he seemed to be on the point of asking
+her to marry him. Everybody expected the announcement any day."
+
+"Last winter and this summer are two different propositions."
+
+"Marie doesn't think so."
+
+"She'll get mightily undeceived, then. Whom else are you asking?"
+
+"Stevens Cathcart."
+
+The doctor groaned. "Is this a dose you're fixing for me? I'm going to be
+too busy--I can't come."
+
+"Very well," said Juliet placidly. She was sewing, upon the porch, and the
+doctor sat on the step.
+
+He looked up with a grimace. "I suppose you think I'll be out on the next
+train after the rest arrive."
+
+"I certainly do, Dr. Roger Williams Barnes."
+
+"I presume you are inviting Suzanne?" he queried.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"No reason why not. Cathcart admires her immensely--or did, before he
+began to cultivate this place."
+
+Juliet laughed. "Suzanne would never forgive you if she heard that."
+
+"By-the-way," said the doctor slowly, "has she ever met--Miss Redding?"
+
+"No."
+
+He meditated for several minutes in silence, while Juliet sewed, glancing
+from time to time at one of the most attractive masculine profiles with
+which she was familiar. He was not as handsome a man as Louis Lockwood,
+but every line of his face stood for strength, not without some
+pretensions to good looks. He looked up at length and straight at her.
+
+"Would you mind telling me," he began, "just what you intend to effect
+with this combination? I never gave you credit, you know, Juliet, for
+wanting to manage Fate, and I don't believe it now."
+
+"No, I don't want to manage Fate," said Juliet, smiling over her work,
+"but I admit I want two things: I want you to see Rachel Redding beside
+Suzanne Gerard, and--I want Rachel to see you beside Louis Lockwood
+and--Suzanne."
+
+"I see," said the doctor grimly. "In other words, you want your protégée
+to have fair play."
+
+"Just that," Juliet answered, more gravely now. "I think lots of you,
+Roger, and well of you--you know I do--and yet----"
+
+"And yet----"
+
+"Let me guard my girl. She's not like the others, and you and Louis are
+making it tremendously hard for her between you."
+
+"You seem to be planning to make it infinitely harder."
+
+Juliet shook her head. "Trust me, Roger, please."
+
+"All right, I will," promised the doctor. "But just assure me that you're
+on my side."
+
+"I'm on nobody's side," was all the comfort he got.
+
+Juliet's invitations received delighted acceptances, though Wayne Carey
+and Doctor Barnes would be able to come out only for the nights--in time,
+however, for late and festive suppers outdoors. The tent in the orchard,
+with its comfortable bunks, was accepted by all the men with enthusiasm.
+
+"And to satisfy the men is the essential thing, you know, Tony," Juliet
+had observed sagely when she saw their pleasure in their quarters. "The
+girls will accept any crowding together if they have a mirror and room to
+tie a sash in, as long as devoted admirers are not wanting."
+
+The moment Miss Dresser and Miss Gerard saw Miss Rachel Redding--to quote
+Anthony--the fun began. Mrs. Wayne Carey had already met her, and had been
+carefully coached by Juliet as to the bearing she must assume toward
+Juliet's new friend. So when Marie and Suzanne began to inquire of Judith
+the latter was prepared to answer them.
+
+"She's a beauty in her way, isn't she?" Judith asserted. "Juliet's
+immensely fond of her, I should judge."
+
+"But who is she?" demanded Suzanne.
+
+"A neighbour, a country girl, a school and college girl, a comparatively
+poor girl--and a lucky girl, for Juliet likes her."
+
+"Have the men met her before?"
+
+"Goodness, yes. Haven't you heard how they beg invitations home to dinner
+of Anthony, just to see her?" Judith was enjoying the situation. This
+statement, however, was no part of Juliet's coaching.
+
+"I didn't see anything particularly attractive about her," said Marie
+promptly. "She's a demure thing. One wouldn't think she ever lifted those
+long lashes to look at a man--but that's just the kind. Awfully plainly
+dressed."
+
+"That's her style," said Suzanne. "These poor, pretty girls are once in a
+while just clever enough to make capital out of their poverty by wearing
+simply fetching things in pale gray dimity and dark blue lawn and
+sunbonnets. Stevens Cathcart would be just the kind to be carried away
+with her. Roger Barnes wouldn't look at her twice."
+
+"Louis might pretend to admire her, to please Juliet," admitted Marie. "He
+has a way of making every girl think he is in love with her--and he is, to
+a certain extent. But it's never serious."
+
+Whether it were serious in this instance Miss Dresser soon had opportunity
+to judge.
+
+After dinner that first night Anthony proposed taking all his guests out
+upon the river in a big flat-boat he had rented. But when he made up the
+party Rachel was not to be found.
+
+"I'm afraid she's gone home," said Juliet.
+
+"I'll run down and see," proposed Lockwood instantly, and was suiting the
+action to the word when Cathcart got off ahead of him.
+
+"I'll have her back presently," he called as he dashed down the road. "You
+people go on--we'll catch you."
+
+"We'll wait for you," Lockwood shouted after him.
+
+"Why should we wait?" demurred Marie, beginning to walk away toward the
+river.
+
+"If we don't he's liable not to find it convenient to catch up with us,"
+Lockwood retorted.
+
+"If they prefer their own company why not let them have it?" she said over
+her shoulder.
+
+"Run along, Louis," murmured Doctor Barnes. "One girl at a time."
+
+He turned to Juliet. "Shall we go?" he said.
+
+Anthony caught his glance, and, laughing, turned to Suzanne. "Will you
+console an old married man, Miss Gerard?" he inquired.
+
+But when Cathcart reappeared, which he did very soon, Rachel was not with
+him. "She said she had to stay with her mother," he explained in a tone
+which so closely resembled a growl that everybody laughed.
+
+"Bear up, Stevie, boy," chaffed Wayne Carey. "I'm confident she likes you,
+but she may not like you all the time, you know. They seldom do."
+
+
+
+
+XVII.--RACHEL CAUSES ANXIETY
+
+
+In spite of all Juliet's efforts to bring about Rachel's presence as one
+of her guests she found herself unable to accomplish it. Whenever she was
+needed for help Rachel was never absent, but the moment she was free the
+girl was off, and that quite without the appearance of running away. The
+men of the party followed her, but they were not allowed to remain. The
+girls, confident that her disappearances were part of a very deep game,
+begged her to stay; it was useless. Rachel's excuses were ready, her
+manner charmingly regretful in a quiet way, but stay she would not.
+
+Dr. Roger Barnes waylaid her one evening as she was vanishing down the
+willow-bordered path by the brook, leading to her own home.
+
+"Here you go again," he began discontentedly. "I wish I knew why."
+
+Rachel paused. It was difficult to do otherwise with a large and
+determined figure blocking a very narrow path.
+
+"I have ever so many things waiting at home for me to do."
+
+"At nine o'clock in the evening?"
+
+"At whatever hour I am through at Mrs. Robeson's."
+
+"I wish I could imagine something of what they are. It might relieve my
+mind a little."
+
+"Why, I will tell you," said Rachel with great appearance of frankness. "I
+have to do some mending for mother, read the evening paper for father, and
+set the bread. Then the clothes must be sprinkled for ironing in the
+morning."
+
+The doctor studied her face in the dimming light. "Who washed the
+clothes?" he asked bluntly.
+
+"Do you think you ought to ask?" said Rachel.
+
+"Yes. I'm in the habit of asking questions."
+
+"Of patients----"
+
+"Of everybody I care for. You don't have to answer, but if you don't I
+shall know who did the washing."
+
+"Yes, I did it," said Rachel steadily. "It is easily done."
+
+"And then you came over here and got breakfast?"
+
+"Not at all. I helped Mrs. Robeson and Mary McKaim get it. Doctor Barnes,
+do you know that you are standing directly in my path?"
+
+"Certainly," said the doctor. "It's what I'm here for."
+
+"Then I shall have to go back and take the road home."
+
+"If you do you will evade me only to encounter another man. Lockwood's
+keeping a ferret's eye on the Robeson house door; and I think Cathcart is
+already patrolling the road in front of your house."
+
+The girl turned. "You are making me feel very absurd," she said. "I want
+to go home, Doctor Barnes. Please let me pass you."
+
+"May I go with you?"
+
+"I would rather not."
+
+"Well, that's frank," he said, amusement and chagrin struggling for the
+uppermost. "I wonder I don't stalk angrily away----"
+
+"I wish you would."
+
+Roger Barnes threw back his head and laughed. "I wish you would give some
+other girls a leaf out of your book," he said. "The more you turn me down
+the more ardently I long to be with you; while the opposite sort of
+thing--I'll tell you, Miss Redding, if you want to be rid of me try these
+tactics: Say with a languishing smile, 'Oh, Doctor Barnes, won't you take
+me a little way down this lovely path?' Perhaps that will accomplish your
+ends. I've often felt an instant desire not to do the thing I'm begged
+to."
+
+"'Oh, Doctor Barnes,'" said Rachel Redding--and he caught the mischief in
+her tone--even Rachel could be mischievous, as Juliet had said--"'won't
+you take me a little way down this lovely path?'"
+
+"With the greatest pleasure in the world," replied the doctor promptly,
+and stood aside to let her pass him. Whereupon she slipped by him, and
+before he could realise that she had gone was running fleetly away in the
+twilight down the winding, willow-hung path. With an exclamation he was
+off after her, but though he dashed at the pace of a hunter through the
+intricacies of the way he presently discovered that he was following
+nothing but the summer breeze rustling the willow leaves and wafting into
+his face the breath of new-cut hay, the aftermath of late July. He stopped
+at length and stared about him, baffled and half angry.
+
+"There never was a girl like you," he muttered. "If you are deliberately
+trying to make men mad to get you you are succeeding infuriatingly well.
+If I catch you to-night it will be your fault if I tell you what I think
+of you. I'll tell you now, for I suppose you are hiding somewhere in this
+undergrowth till I give it up and you can get away home. You shall listen
+to me if you are here, for you can't help yourself."
+
+He was speaking in a low, even tone, walking slowly along the path and
+peering sharply into the bushes on both sides. Suddenly he stood still. He
+had detected a spot beside a low-hanging willow which showed nearly white
+in the deepening darkness. Rachel was wearing white to-night, he
+remembered. His heart quickened its paces and he paused an instant to get
+past a certain tightening in his throat.
+
+Then he bent forward and whispered: "If that's not you there I can say
+what I like, and there'll be some satisfaction in that. If you'll speak
+now you may save yourself, but if you don't I've no reason to think it's
+you, and so I can say----"
+
+There was a sharply perceptible noise farther down the path toward the
+Redding home. Barnes turned quickly and stood up straight, waiting.
+Footsteps came rapidly along the path--no footsteps of hers, evidently. A
+man's voice humming a tune grew momentarily plainer--then the voice
+stopped humming and began to sing in a subdued but clear and fine
+barytone:
+
+                       "Down through the lane
+                       Come I again
+                       Seeking, my love, for you;
+                       Run to me, dear,
+                       Losing all fear,
+                       Love and----"
+
+The voice stopped. Two men's figures confronted each other in an extremely
+narrow path. It was not too dark yet for each to be plainly recognisable
+to the other.
+
+"Hallo--that you, Lockwood?"
+
+"Hi there, Roger Barnes; what you doing here? Fishing?"
+
+"Looking for something I've lost."
+
+"Getting pretty dark to find it. Something valuable?"
+
+"Rather. Think I'll give it up for to-night."
+
+"Too bad. Nice night." Lockwood was hastening toward the end of the path
+which came out near Anthony's house. Barnes looked after him grimly.
+
+"That voice of yours, young man," he thought, "handicaps me from the
+start. Now, if I could just warble my emotions that way----"
+
+He turned and peered again at the white place by the tree. He moved
+stealthily toward it, and ascertained presently that it was not what it
+seemed. He rose to his feet and walked rapidly down the path to the
+Redding house. When he came in sight of it he saw that the kitchen windows
+were lighted and that a man stood with his arm on the sill of one of them.
+Silhouetted against the light were the familiar outlines of Stevens
+Cathcart. As Barnes stood staring amazedly at this, a slender figure in
+white came to the window, and in the stillness he could hear the quiet
+voice:
+
+"Please let me close the window, Mr. Cathcart. Thank you--no--and
+good-night."
+
+"'Three Men in a Boat,' by Rachel Redding," murmured the doctor to
+himself, and slipped back to the willow path, from which he at length
+emerged to join the group upon the porch--which then, it may be observed,
+held for the first time that night its full complement of men.
+
+Three big Chinese lanterns shed a softly pleasant light upon the porch and
+the lawn at its foot. Suzanne Gerard and Marie Dresser made a most
+attractive picture, one in a low chair, the other upon a pile of cushions
+on the step. Suzanne lightly picked a mandolin. Marie was singing softly:
+
+                     "Down through the lane
+                     Come I again
+                     Seeking, my love, for you;
+                     Run to me, dear,
+                     Losing all fear,
+                     Love and my life will be true."
+
+It was one of the songs of the summer--foolish words, seductive
+music--everybody hummed it half the time. Roger Barnes smiled to himself,
+remembering where he had heard it last.
+
+"Come here and give account," commanded Suzanne the instant he appeared.
+"Every unmarried man vanished the moment twilight fell. You are the last
+to show your face. I challenge you, one and all, to swear that you have
+not been within sight of a certain small brown house at the foot of the
+hill since supper."
+
+Her voice was music; in her eyes was laughter. Marie sang on, pointing her
+words with smiles at one and another of the culprits.
+
+From his seat on the threshold of the door, where his head rested against
+Juliet's knee as she sat behind him, Anthony laughed to himself. Then he
+turned his head and whispered to his wife: "Feel the claws through the
+velvet? Poor boys, they have my sympathy."
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.--AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY
+
+
+"Rachel," said Juliet decisively, next morning, "to-night is the last of
+my house party, and I refuse to let you off. I'm asking ten or twelve more
+people out from town. You must spend this evening with my guests, or
+forfeit my friendship."
+
+She was smiling as she said it, but her tone was not to be denied.
+
+"If that is the alternative," Rachel answered, returning the smile with an
+affectionate look of a sort which neither Louis Lockwood nor Stevens
+Cathcart nor Dr. Roger Barnes had ever seen on her face--though they had
+dreamed of it--"of course I shall stay. But I'll tell you frankly I would
+rather not."
+
+"Why not, Rachel?"
+
+"I think you know why not, Mrs. Robeson," Rachel answered.
+
+"Yes, I know why not," admitted Juliet. "Girls are queer things, Ray. They
+defeat their own ends all the time--lots of them. Suzanne and Marie are
+dear girls, with ever so many nice things about them, but they don't--they
+don't know enough not to pursue, chase, run down, the object of their
+desires. And, of course, the object, being run down panting, into a
+corner, dodges, evades, gets out and runs away. Rachel, dear, what are you
+going to wear to-night?"
+
+"My best frock," said Rachel, smiling.
+
+"Which is----"
+
+"White."
+
+"Cut out at the neck?"
+
+"A little."
+
+"Short in the sleeves?"
+
+"To the elbows. It was my sophomore evening dress."
+
+"It will be all right, I know. Rachel, wear a white rose in those low
+black braids of yours--will you?"
+
+"No, I think I won't," refused Rachel.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+Rachel did not answer. Into her cool cheek crept a tinge of rebellious,
+telltale colour.
+
+Juliet studied her a minute in silence, then came up to her and laying
+both hands on her shoulders looked up into her eyes.
+
+"You try to 'play fair,' don't you, dear?" she said heartily, "whatever
+the rest may do. And whatever they may do, Rachel Redding, don't you care.
+It's not your fault that they are as jealous of you as girls can be and
+keep sweet outside. I'd be jealous of you myself if----" She paused,
+laughing.
+
+"When you grow jealous," said Rachel, "it will be because you have grown
+blind. If anybody ever wore his heart on his sleeve--no, not there--but
+beating sturdily in the right place for one woman in the world it's----"
+
+"Right you are," said Anthony Robeson, coming up behind them, "and I hope
+you may convince her of it. She has no confidence in her own powers."
+
+Rachel stood looking at them a moment, her dark eyes very bright. "To see
+you two," she said slowly at length, "is to believe it all."
+
+The evening promised to be a gay one. The men of the party had sent to
+town for many lanterns, flags and decorations of the sort, and had made
+the porch and lawn the setting for a brilliant scene. A dozen young people
+had been asked out, and came enthusiastically.
+
+"We'll wind up with a flourish," said Anthony in his wife's ear as they
+descended the stairs together, "and then we'll send them all off to-morrow
+where they'll cease from troubling. I think it was the best plan in the
+world, but I'll be glad to prowl about my beloved home without observing
+Cathcart scowling at Lockwood, Roger Barnes evading Suzanne, or even my
+good boy Wayne with that eternal wonder on his face as to why his flat
+does not look like our Eden."
+
+"Hush--and don't look too happy to-morrow, Tony. Oh, here comes Rachel.
+Isn't she lovely?"
+
+"Now, watch," murmured Anthony, his face full of amusement. "It's as good
+as the best comedy I ever saw. See Suzanne. She never looked toward
+Rachel, but don't tell me she wasn't aware of the very instant Rachel came
+upon the porch. I believe she read it in Roger Barnes's face. I'll wager
+ten to one his pulse isn't countable at the present instant."
+
+"I don't blame him," Juliet answered, smiling at her guests. "She's my
+ideal of a girl who won't hold out a finger to the men."
+
+"Yes, she's your sort," admitted Anthony. "I know what it is--poor
+fellows--I've been through it. Your cold shoulder used to warm up my heart
+hotter than any other girl's kindness. Look at the boys now. They can't
+jump and run away from the other girls, but they'd like to. And they're
+all deadly anxious for fear the others will get the start. Say, Julie, you
+ought not to have asked those new youngsters down from town. They'll catch
+it, sure as fate; they're at the susceptible age. I see five of them now,
+all staring at Rachel."
+
+"You positively mustn't stay here with me any longer," whispered Juliet.
+"Go and devote yourself to her and keep them off for a little."
+
+"Not on your life," Anthony returned "She can take care of herself. If I
+mix up in this fray you're likely to be husbandless. Lockwood and Roger
+are getting dangerous, and I'm going to keep on the outskirts where it's
+safe."
+
+They were all upon the lawn--Rachel, unable to help herself, according to
+Anthony's intimation, the centre of a group of men who would not give each
+other a chance--when a stranger appeared upon the edge of the circle of
+light. He stood watching the scene for a moment--a tall, slender fellow,
+with a pale face and deep-set eyes. Then he asked somebody to tell Miss
+Redding that Mr. Huntington would like to speak with her. Rachel, thus
+summoned, rose, looked about her, caught sight of the stranger, and went
+swiftly down the lawn. A dozen people, among them all the men who had been
+the guests of the week, saw the meeting. They observed that the newcomer
+put out both hands, that his smile was very bright, and that he stood
+looking down into Miss Redding's face as if at sight of it he had
+instantly forgotten everything else in the world.
+
+Rachel, leaving him, came back up the lawn to find her hostess. As she
+passed it became evident to a good many pairs of sharp eyes that her
+beauty had received a keen accession from the sweeping over her cheeks of
+a burning blush--so unusual that they could not fail to take note of it.
+
+Juliet came back down the lawn with Rachel, who presented Mr. Huntington;
+and presently, without a word of leave-taking to any one else, the two
+went away down the road.
+
+"Now, who under the heavens was that?" grunted Louis Lockwood in Anthony's
+ear, catching his host around the corner of the house.
+
+"Don't know."
+
+"Brother, perhaps?"
+
+"Hasn't any."
+
+"Relative?"
+
+"Don't know."
+
+"Just a messenger, maybe?"
+
+"Give it up."
+
+"She blushed like anything."
+
+"Did she? Man she is going to marry, probably."
+
+"Oh, that can't be!"
+
+"The lady looks marriageable to me," observed Anthony, strolling away.
+
+He ran into Cathcart.
+
+"Say, who was that fellow, Tony?" began Stevens.
+
+"Don't ask me."
+
+"He looked confoundedly as if he meant to embrace her on the spot."
+
+"So he did," agreed Anthony soothingly. "Don't blame him, do you? He may
+not have seen her for a month. What condition do you suppose you'd be in
+if a week should get away from you out of her vicinity?"
+
+"Bother you, Tony--don't you know who he was?"
+
+"Intimate friend, I should judge."
+
+"She turned pink as a carnation."
+
+"Say hollyhock," suggested Anthony, "or peony. Only a vivid colour could
+do justice to it."
+
+"That's right," groaned Cathcart. "She never looked like that for any of
+us."
+
+"Never," said Anthony promptly, and got away, chuckling.
+
+"Hold on, there, Robeson, man," said the voice of Dr. Roger Barnes, and
+Anthony found himself again held up.
+
+"Come on, old Roger boy," said his host pleasantly. "We'll amble down the
+road a bit and give you a chance to get a grip on yourself. No, I don't
+know who he is. I'm all worn out assuring Louis and Steve of that. She did
+turn red, she did look upset--with joy, I infer. That girl has made more
+havoc in one short week--playing off all the while, too--than Suzanne and
+Marie have accomplished in the biggest season they ever knew. And I
+believe, Roger boy, you're about the hardest hit of any of them."
+
+The doctor did not answer. The two had walked away from the house and were
+marching arm in arm at a good pace down the road.
+
+"She's as poor as a church mouse," suggested Anthony.
+
+There was no reply.
+
+"She has a dead weight of a helpless father and mother."
+
+The doctor put match to a cigar.
+
+"Juliet says her brother died of dissipation in a gambling-house."
+
+Doctor Barnes began to chew hard on a cigar that he had failed to light.
+
+"But she's a mighty sweet girl," said Anthony softly.
+
+"See here, Tony," the doctor burst out.--"Oh, hang it all--"
+
+"I see," said his friend, with a hand on his shoulder. "Go ahead, Roger
+Barnes--there's nothing in life like it; and the good Lord have mercy on
+you, for the sort of girl worth caring for doesn't know the meaning of the
+word."
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+"All gone, little girl," said Anthony jubilantly, as he turned back into
+the house the next evening, after watching out of sight the big
+touring-car of Lockwood's which had carried all his house-party away at
+once. "They are mighty fine people and I like them all immensely--but--I
+have enjoyed to the full this speeding the parting guest. And now for my
+vacation. It begins to-morrow."
+
+"What shall we do?" asked Juliet, allowing him to draw her into his
+favourite settle corner.
+
+"Go fishing. If you'll put up a jolly little--I mean a jolly big--lunch,
+and array yourself in unspoilable attire, I'll give you a day's great
+sport, whether we catch any fish or not. There's one fish you're sure
+of--he's always on the end of your line: hooked fast, and resigned to his
+fate. Juliet, are they really all gone?"
+
+"I'm sure they are."
+
+"Good Mary McKaim--peace be to her ashes, for she never gets any on the
+toast--has she gone, too?"
+
+"She's packing."
+
+"Rachel safe at home with her presumable fiancé?"
+
+"He can't be her fiancé, Tony--"
+
+"That's what Lockwood said--but I suppose he can, just the same. Rachel
+away, do you say?"
+
+"Yes. She didn't come over to-day at all, you know."
+
+"I noticed it--by the gloom on three stalwart men's faces. Well, if
+everybody's safely out of the way I'm going to commit myself."
+
+"To what, Tony?"
+
+She was laughing, for he had risen, looked all about him with great
+anxiety, tiptoed to each door and listened at it, and was now come back to
+stand before her, smiling down at her and holding out his arms.
+
+"To the statement," he said, gathering her close and speaking into her
+upturned rosy face, "that without doubt this is the dearest home in the
+world, and that you are the sweetest woman who ever has stood or ever will
+stand here in it."
+
+
+
+
+XIX.--ALL THE APRIL STARS ARE OUT
+
+
+It was an April night--balmy with the breath of an exceptionally early
+spring. All the April stars were out as Anthony came to the door of the
+little house, and opening it flung himself out upon the porch, drawing
+great breaths. He looked up into the sky and clasped his arms tightly over
+his breast.
+
+"O God," he said aloud, "take care of her--"
+
+He went back into the house after a minute, and paced the floor back and
+forth, back and forth, stopping at each turn to listen at the foot of the
+stairs; then took up his stride again, his lips set, his eyes dark with
+anxiety. Over and over he went to the open door to look up at the stars,
+as if somehow he could bear his ordeal best outdoors.
+
+When half the night had gone Mrs. Dingley came downstairs. Anthony met her
+at the foot. She smiled reassuringly into his face.
+
+"This is hard for you, dear boy," she said. "But they think by
+morning----"
+
+"Morning!" he cried.
+
+"Everything is going well----"
+
+"It's only two o'clock. Morning!"
+
+"She says tell you she's going to be very happy soon."
+
+But at that Anthony turned away, where his face could not be seen, and
+stood by the open door. Mrs. Dingley laid an affectionate hand on his
+arm.
+
+"Don't worry, Tony," she said gently.
+
+"I can't help it."
+
+"This is new to you. Juliet is young and strong--and full of courage."
+
+"Bless her!"
+
+"In the morning you'll both be very happy."
+
+"I hope so."
+
+"Why, Anthony, dear," said the kindly little woman, "I never knew you to
+be so faint of heart."
+
+Anthony faced around again. "If my strength could do her any good I'd be a
+lion for her," he said. "But when all I can do is to wait--and think what
+I'd do if----"
+
+He was gone suddenly into the night. With a tender smile on her lips Mrs.
+Dingley went on upon the errand which had brought her downstairs. "It's
+worth something to a woman to be able to make a man's heart ache like
+that," she said to herself with a little sigh. Anthony would not have
+understood, but even in this hour the older woman, in her wisdom, was
+envying Juliet.
+
+Morning came at last, as mornings do. With the first streaks of the gray
+dawn Anthony heard a little, high-keyed, strange cry--new to his ears. He
+leaped up the stairs, four at a time, and paused, breathless, by the
+closed door of the blue-and-white room. After what seemed to him an
+interminable time Mrs. Dingley came out. At sight of Anthony her face
+broke into smiles, and at the same moment tears filled her eyes.
+
+"It's a splendid boy, Tony," she said. "I meant to come to you the first
+minute, but I waited to be perfectly sure. He didn't breathe well at
+first."
+
+But Anthony pushed this news aside impatiently. "Juliet?" he questioned
+eagerly.
+
+"She's all right, you poor man," Mrs. Dingley assured him. "You shall see
+her presently, just for a minute. The first thing she said was, 'Tell
+Tony.' Go down now--I'll call you soon."
+
+Anthony stole away downstairs to the outer door again. This time he ran
+out upon the porch and down the lawn and orchard, in the early half-light,
+to the willow path by the brook. He dashed along this path to its end and
+back again, as if he must in some way give expression to his relief from
+the tension of the night. But he was back and waiting impatiently long
+before he received his summons to his wife's room.
+
+On his way up he wrung the friendly hand of Dr. Joseph Wilberforce, the
+best man in the city at times like these, and thanked him in a few uneven
+words. Then he came to the door of the blue-and-white room.
+
+"Don't be afraid, Tony," said a very sweet, clear voice; "we're ever so
+well--Anthony Robeson, Junior, and I."
+
+Anthony Robeson, Senior, walked across the room in a dim, gray fog which
+obscured nearly everything except the sight of a pair of eyes which were
+shining upon him brightly enough to penetrate any fog. At the bedside he
+dropped upon his knees.
+
+"I suppose I'm an awful chump," he murmured, "but nothing ever broke me up
+so in all my life."
+
+Juliet laughed. It was not a sentimental greeting, but she understood all
+it meant. "But I'm so happy, dear," she said.
+
+"Are you? Somehow I can't seem to be--yet. I'm too badly scared."
+
+"He's such a beautiful big boy."
+
+"I suppose I shall be devoted to him some time, but all I can think of now
+is to make sure I've got you."
+
+The pleasant-faced nurse in her white cap came softly in and glanced at
+Tony meaningly.
+
+"If you'll come in here you may see your son, Mr. Robeson," she said, and
+went out again.
+
+Anthony bent over his wife. "_Little mother_," he whispered, with a kiss,
+and obediently went.
+
+Across the hall he stood looking dazedly down at the round, warm bundle
+the nurse laid in his arms.
+
+"My son," he said; "how odd that sounds."
+
+Then he hastily gave the bundle back to the nurse and got away downstairs,
+wiping the perspiration from his brow.
+
+"Never dreamed it was going to knock me over like this," he was saying to
+himself. "I can't look at her; I can't look at him; I feel like a big boy
+who has seen a little fellow take his thrashing for him."
+
+And in this humble--albeit most sincerely thankful--frame of mind he
+absently drank his breakfast coffee, and never realised that in her
+confusion of spirit good Mary McKaim, who was here again in time of need,
+had brewed him instead a powerful cup of tea.
+
+
+
+
+XX.--A PRIOR CLAIM
+
+
+"Come up, come up--you're just the people we want," cried Anthony heartily
+from his own porch. "Thought you'd be getting out to see us some of these
+fine August nights. Sit down--Juliet will be out in a minute."
+
+"Baby asleep?" asked Judith Carey, as she and Wayne settled comfortably
+into two of the deep bamboo chairs with which the porch was furnished.
+
+"To be sure he's asleep at this hour," Anthony assured her proudly; "been
+asleep for two hours. Regular as a clock, that youngster. Nurse trained
+him right at the beginning, and Juliet has kept it up. Four months old
+now, and sleeps from six at night till four in the morning without waking.
+How's that?"
+
+"I suppose it's remarkable," agreed Wayne meekly, "but I don't know
+anything about it. He might sleep twenty-three hours out of twenty-four--I
+shouldn't understand whether to call him a prodigy or an idiot."
+
+"Why, yes, you would," Judith interposed with spirit. "Think of that baby
+on the floor above us. They're walking the floor half the night with
+her."
+
+"Girl babies may be different," Carey suggested diffidently, at which
+Anthony shouted. "I don't care--all the girls I ever knew wanted to sit up
+nights," Carey insisted with a feeble grin.
+
+Juliet came out, welcoming her friends with the cordiality for which she
+was famous. "It's so hot in town," she condoled with them. "You should get
+out into our delicious air oftener. Somehow, with our breezes we don't
+mind the heat."
+
+"It's heaven here, anyhow," sighed Carey, stretching back in his chair
+with a long breath. Judith looked sober.
+
+"You say it's heaven," commented Anthony, staring hard at his friend, "and
+you profess to admire everything we do, and eat, and say, but you continue
+to pay good money every week for a lot of extremely dubious comforts--from
+my point of view."
+
+"It's one of the very best places in that part of the city," protested
+Judith.
+
+Anthony eyed her keenly. "Yes; if that's what you're paying for you've got
+it, I admit. If it's a consolation to you to know that the address you
+give when you go shopping is one that you're not ashamed of--why, you're
+all right. But I reckon Juliet here doesn't blush when she orders things
+sent home to the country."
+
+"Oh, Juliet--" began Judith; "she doesn't need an address to make all the
+salespeople pay her their most respectful attention. She----"
+
+"I understand," said Anthony. "That sweetly imperious way of hers when she
+shops--I remember it the first time I ever went shopping with her----"
+
+Juliet gave him a laughing glance. "If I remember," she said, "it wasn't I
+who did all the dictating on that historic expedition when we furnished
+this house."
+
+"We've got to go shopping again," Anthony informed them. "We're planning
+to put a little wing on the house, opening from under the stairs in the
+living-room, for a nursery and a den."
+
+"Going to put the two together?" asked a new voice from the dimness of the
+lawn.
+
+"Oh--hullo, Roger Barnes, M.D., F.R.C.S.--come up. No, I think we'll have
+a partition between. But I want a room below stairs for Tony, Junior, so
+his mother won't wear herself out carrying him up and down. That youngster
+weighs seventeen pounds and a fraction already."
+
+"I was confident I'd get some statistics if I came out," said the doctor,
+settling himself near Juliet--with a purpose, as she instantly recognised.
+"It seemed to me I couldn't wait longer to learn how much he had gained
+since I met Tony day before yesterday. It was seventeen without the
+fraction then."
+
+"That's right--guy me," returned Anthony comfortably. "I don't mind--I've
+the boy."
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I want a talk with you," said the doctor softly to Juliet, as the others
+fell to discussing the project of the enlarged house. "I've got to have
+it, too--or go off my head."
+
+Juliet nodded, understanding him. Presently she rose. "I have an errand to
+do," she said. "Will you walk over to the Evanstons' with me, Roger?"
+
+"Now, tell me," began the doctor the instant they were off, "is she going
+to persist in this awful sacrifice?"
+
+"Poor Rachel," breathed Juliet. "So many lovers--and so unhappy."
+
+"Is she unhappy?" begged the doctor. "Is she? If I only were sure of
+it----"
+
+"What girl wouldn't be unhappy--to be making even one man out of two as
+miserable as you?"
+
+"But you know what I mean. Is she going to marry Huntington out of love as
+well as pity--or only pity?"
+
+"Roger"--Juliet stood still in the road, regarding him in the dim light
+with kind eyes--"if I knew I wouldn't tell you. That's Rachel's secret.
+But I don't know. She's as loyal as a magnet, and as reserved as--you
+would want her to be if you were Mr. Huntington."
+
+"She's everything she ought to be. I'm a dastard for saying it, but I
+could forgive her for being disloyal enough to him to show me just a
+corner of her heart. Even if she loves him it's what I called it--an awful
+sacrifice--a man dying with consumption. If she doesn't--except as the
+friend of her early girlhood, when she didn't know men or her own
+heart--Juliet, it's impious."
+
+"Roger, dear, keep hold of yourself," Juliet replied. "You're too strong
+and fine to want to come between her and her own decision--if she has made
+it."
+
+"If you were a man," said he hotly, "would you let a woman marry
+you--dying?"
+
+"Yes," answered Juliet stoutly, "if she insisted."
+
+"Women are capable of saying anything in an argument," he growled. "I say
+it's outrageous to let her do it. She doesn't love him--she does love me,"
+he blurted.
+
+Juliet turned to him anxiously. "Roger, do you know what you are saying?"
+
+"Yes, I do. I've got to tell somebody, and there's nobody but you--you
+perfect woman. If ever a man knew a thing without its being put into words
+I know that. It was only a look, weeks ago, but I'm as sure of it as I am
+of myself. I've had nothing but coolness from her since, but that's in
+self-defense. And the thought that, loving me, she's going to give herself
+to him--a wreck--do you wonder it's driving me mad?"
+
+"You ought not to have told me this," said Juliet, tears in her voice. "If
+Rachel is doing this it's because she's sure she ought----"
+
+"Of course she is. And that's why I tell you. You have more influence with
+her than any one. Can't you show her that duty, the most urgent in the
+world, never requires a thing like that? Let her be his friend to the
+last--the sort of friend she knows how to be, with a warm hand in his cold
+one. But never his----"
+
+The doctor grew choky with his vehemence, and stopped short. Juliet was
+silent, full of distress. She thought of the two men--Huntington, a frail
+ghost, in the grip of a deadly illness, yet fighting it desperately, and
+desperately clinging to the girl he loved: a clever fellow, educated as a
+mining engineer, successful, even beginning to be distinguished in his
+work until his health gave out; Barnes, the embodiment of strength,
+standing high in his profession, life and the world before him, a fit mate
+for the girl who deserved the best there could be for her--Juliet thought
+of them both and found her heart aching for them--and for Rachel Redding.
+
+They were slowly approaching the brown house at the foot of the hill, the
+errand at the Evanstons' forgotten, when suddenly a familiar figure in
+white came toward them from the doorway. The doctor started at sight of
+it, and Juliet grew breathless all at once.
+
+"I thought it was you two," said Rachel. "This rising moon struck you full
+just now, and I could see you plainly. I've wanted to see you both--and
+this is my last chance. I am going away to-morrow."
+
+There was an instant's silence, while Roger Barnes tried to choose which
+of all the things he wanted to say to her should come first. Juliet broke
+the stillness.
+
+"Walk back up the road with us, dear," she said, "and tell us how and
+where you go."
+
+"I have but a minute to spare," said Rachel. "Let me say good-bye to you
+both here----"
+
+"No, by heaven, you shall not," burst out the doctor in a suppressed voice
+of fire which startled Juliet. "You owe me ten minutes, in place of the
+last letter you haven't answered. There are a score of them, you know--but
+the last has to be answered somehow."
+
+Rachel hesitated. "Very well," she said at length, "but only with Mrs.
+Robeson."
+
+"Can't you trust me?" He was angry now.
+
+"Yes--but not myself," she answered, so low he barely caught the words. He
+seized her hand.
+
+"Then trust me for us both," he said, so instantly gentle and tender that
+Juliet found it possible to say what a moment before she had thought
+unwise enough: "Go with him, Ray, dear. I think it is his right."
+
+So presently she found herself crossing her own lawn alone, while the two
+who had just left her went slowly on up the road together. Her heart was
+beating hard and painfully, for she loved them both, and foresaw for them
+only the hardest interview of their lives.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the end of half an hour Rachel Redding stood again upon her own porch,
+and Roger Barnes looked up at her from the walk below with heavy eyes.
+
+"At least," he said, "you have done what I never would have believed even
+you could do--convinced me against my will that you are right. You love
+him--he worships you. There is a promise of life for him in Arizona--with
+you. I can't forbid the bans. But I shall always believe, what you dare
+not dispute, that if I had come first--you----"
+
+She held out her hand. "That you must not say," she said. "But there is
+one thing you may say--that you are my best friend, whom I can count
+on----"
+
+"As long as there is life left in me," he answered fervently. He wrung her
+hand in both his, looked long and steadily up into her face as if his eyes
+could never leave the lovely outlines showing clear in the light from the
+windows, then turned away and strode off toward the station without a look
+behind.
+
+
+
+
+XXI.--EVERYBODY GIVES ADVICE
+
+
+"I should do it in brown leather," said Cathcart decidedly, looking about
+him.
+
+He stood in the centre of Anthony's den. The carpenters had gone, the
+plasterers had finished their work, and the floor had just been swept up.
+
+"You're all right as far as you go," observed Anthony, who stood at his
+elbow, "but you don't go far enough. If you want me to hang these walls
+with brown leather you'll have to put up the money. I may be sufficiently
+prosperous to afford the addition to my house, but I haven't reached the
+stage of covering the walls with cloth-of-gold."
+
+"Burlap would be the thing, Tony," Judith suggested.
+
+Anthony was surrounded by people--the room was half full of them, elbowing
+each other about.
+
+"Paint the walls," advised Lockwood.
+
+"There are imitation-leather papers," said Cathcart, with the air of one
+condescending to lower a high standard for the sake of those who could not
+live up to it.
+
+"I suppose so," admitted Anthony, "at four dollars a roll. I saw a simple
+thing on that order that struck me the other day at Heminways'. I thought
+it might be about forty cents a roll. It was a dollar a square yard. I
+told them I would think it over. I haven't got through thinking it over
+yet."
+
+"You want a plate-rail," said Wayne Carey.
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Why, to put plates, and steins, and things on."
+
+"Haven't a plate--or a stein. Baby has a silver mug. Would that do?"
+
+Cathcart smiled in a superior way. "You had a lot of mighty fine stuff in
+your Yale days," he remarked. "Pity you let it all go."
+
+"I shouldn't have cared for that truck now," Anthony declared easily,
+though he deceived nobody by it. Most of them remembered, if Cathcart had
+forgotten, how the college boy had sacrificed all his treasures at a blow
+when the news of his family's misfortunes had come. It had yielded little
+enough, after all, to throw into the abyss of their sudden poverty, but
+the act had proved the spirit of the elder son of the house.
+
+"You certainly will want plenty of rugs and hangings of the right sort,"
+Cathcart pursued.
+
+Anthony looked at him good-humouredly. "I can see that you have got to be
+suppressed," he said, with a hand on Stevens's collar. "I can tell you in
+a breath just what's going into this room at present. The floor is to have
+a matting, one of those heavy, cloth-like mattings. Auntie Dingley has
+presented me with one fine old Persian rug from the Marcy library, which
+she insists is out of key with the rest of the stuff. I'm glad it
+is--it'll furnish the key to my decorations. Then I've a splendid old desk
+I picked up in a place where they temporarily forgot themselves in setting
+a price on it. That's going by the window. I've a little Dürer engraving,
+and a few good foreign photographs Juliet has put under glass for me. For
+the rest I have--what I like best--clear space, pipe-and-hearth room, the
+bamboo chairs off the porch with some winter cushions in, my books--and
+that."
+
+He pointed to the windows, outside which lay a long country vista
+stretching away over fields and river to the woods in the distance,
+turning rich autumn tints now under the late October frosts.
+
+"It's enough," said Carey, with the suppressed sigh which usually
+accompanied any allusion of his to Anthony's environment. "Dens are too
+stuffy, as a rule. Fellows try to see how much useless lumber they can
+accumulate in altogether inadequate space."
+
+"But you ought to have a couch," said Judith.
+
+"Oh, yes, I'm going to have a couch," assented Anthony, laughing across
+her head at Juliet. "A gem of a couch--we're making it ourselves. You're
+not to see it till it's done. It'll be no brickbat couch, either--it'll be
+a flowery bed of ease--or, if not flowery, invitingly covered with some
+stunning stuff Juliet has fished out of a neighbour's attic."
+
+"Now, come and see the nursery," Juliet proposed, and the party crowded
+through the door into the living-room, around to the one by its side which
+opened into an attractive room behind the den, all air and sunshine.
+
+"I refuse to suggest," said Cathcart instantly, "the decorations for this
+place."
+
+"That's good," remarked Anthony cheerfully. "So much verbiage out of the
+way."
+
+"It'll be pink and white, I suppose," said Judith. "Pink is the colour for
+boys, I'm told."
+
+Behind all their backs Anthony glanced at his wife, affection and
+amusement in his face. She read the look and smiled back. It was no part
+of their plan to let the boy grow up alone. And as a mother she seemed to
+him far more beautiful than she had ever been.
+
+"We are going to have a little paper with nursery-rhyme pictures all over
+it," explained Juliet. "There are all sorts of softly harmonising colours
+in it. And just a matting on the floor with a rug to play on, his white
+crib, and some gay little curtains at the windows."
+
+"Have you made the partition double-thick, old man?" asked Lockwood. "This
+den-nursery combination strikes me as a little dubious."
+
+"It's no use explaining to a fiendish old bachelor," said Anthony, leading
+the way out of the place, "that I'd think I was missing a good deal if I
+should get so far away that I couldn't hear little Tony laugh--or cry.
+Julie, where's the boy? May I bring him down?"
+
+He disappeared upstairs, whence sounds of hilarity were at once heard.
+Presently he reappeared on the stairs, bearing aloft upon his shoulder a
+rosy cherub of a baby, smiling and waving a chubby fist at the company.
+The beauty in his face was an exquisite mixture of that belonging to both
+father and mother. Anthony and his son together made a picture worth
+seeing.
+
+Once more Wayne Carey smothered a sigh. But Judith hardened her heart.
+Since Baby Anthony had come Wayne had been difficult to manage.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+Lockwood stayed after the others had gone. Sitting smoking before the fire
+with Anthony after Juliet had left them alone he brought the conversation
+around to a point which Anthony had expected.
+
+"What do you hear of that man Huntington?" he asked, as indifferently as a
+man is ever able to ask a question which means much to him.
+
+"Huntington? Why, the last was that he was improving a little, I believe.
+Arizona is a great place for that sort of thing."
+
+"Good deal of a sacrifice for her people to go with her way out there."
+
+"She couldn't leave them behind. Father half-blind--mother a cripple. I
+understand that Arizona air is bracing them, too."
+
+"The fellow's own mother was one of the party, wasn't she?"
+
+"I believe so. He's all she has."
+
+"I don't see, with all those people to chaperon her, why she couldn't have
+gone along with him without marrying him," observed Lockwood in a gruff
+tone.
+
+Anthony smiled. "That would have been a Tantalus draught indeed," he
+remarked. "I imagine poor Huntington will need all the concessions he can
+get if he keeps on breathing even Arizona air."
+
+"Anthony," said Lockwood, after a silence of some minutes, during which he
+had puffed away with his eyes intent on the fire, "do you fancy Rachel
+Redding cared enough for that man to immolate herself like that?"
+
+"Looks very much like it."
+
+"I know it looks like it; but if I read that girl right she was the sort
+to stick to anything she'd said she'd do, if it took the breath out of her
+body. How long had she known him--any idea?"
+
+"A good while, I believe."
+
+"I thought so. Early engagement, you see--ought never to have stood."
+
+"If you'd been Huntington you'd probably have had the unreasonable notion
+that it should."
+
+"She's a magnificent girl," said Lockwood, blowing a great volume of smoke
+into the air with head elevated and half-shut eyes. "She made those two
+who were here with her last summer seem like thirty cents beside her. Nice
+girls, too--fine girls--elegant dressers; I don't know what the matter
+was. Neither did they." He chuckled a little. "They couldn't believe their
+own eyes when they saw three of us going daft over a girl they wouldn't
+have staked a copper on in a free-for-all with themselves. They took it
+gamely, I'll say that for them. Marie won't have me back."
+
+"I don't blame her."
+
+"Neither do I. Haven't got to the want-to-be-taken-back stage--sometimes
+think I never shall. One experience like that spoils a man for the
+average girl. The truth is, Tony, the most of them--er--overdo the
+meet-you-half-way act. I want a girl to keep me guessing till the last
+minute."
+
+"Tell that to the girl," advised Anthony.
+
+"I wish I could. Yet there were a good many times when I thought if Rachel
+Redding would just look my way I shouldn't take it ill of her. I wonder if
+she'd have been like that if she hadn't been engaged to another fellow."
+
+"Probably." Anthony got up and stretched himself. He was growing weary of
+other men's confidences.
+
+"You're right she would. She's built that way. Yet when you get to
+fancying what she'd be if she just let herself go and show she cared----"
+
+"Look here, my young friend," said Anthony, "I advise you to go home and
+go to bed. Sitting here dreaming over Mrs. Alexander Huntington isn't good
+for you. What you want to be doing is to forget her. Huntington's going to
+get well, and they're going to live happily ever after, and you fellows
+out here can look up other girls. Plenty of 'em. Only, for the love of
+heaven, see if you can avoid all setting your affections on the same girl
+next time. It's too rough on your friends!"
+
+
+
+
+XXII.--ROGER BARNES PROVES INVALUABLE
+
+
+Time went swinging on, and by and by it came to be Tony Robeson, Junior's,
+second Christmas day. He rode down to breakfast on his father's shoulder,
+crowing loudly on a gorgeous brown and scarlet rooster, which he had found
+on his Christmas tree the evening before. He had been put to bed
+immediately thereafter and had gone to sleep with the rooster in his arms.
+The fowl had a charmingly realistic crow, operated by a pneumatic device
+upon which the baby had promptly learned to blow. He performed upon it
+uninterruptedly throughout breakfast.
+
+"See here, my son," said Anthony, hurriedly finishing his coffee, "let's
+see if you can't appreciate some of your less voiceful toys. Here's a
+rabbit with fine soft ears for you to pull. There's a train of cars. Let
+me wind it for you. Your Grandfather Marcy must have expended several good
+dollars on that--you want to show up an interest in it when he comes out
+to see you to-day. And here's Auntie Dingley's pickaninny boy-doll--well,
+I don't blame you for failing to embrace that. Auntie Dingley was born in
+Massachusetts."
+
+[Illustration: "Toys which can be relied upon to please a twenty
+months old infant."]
+
+The boy cast an indifferently polite eye on these gifts as their charms
+were exhibited to him, and clasped the brown and scarlet rooster to his
+breast. There were moments, half hours even, when he became sufficiently
+diverted from his fowl to cease from making it crow, but at intervals
+throughout the day the family were given to understand once for all that
+it is not the most expensive and ornate toys which can be relied upon to
+please a twenty-months-old infant. Even the automobile presented by Dr.
+Roger Barnes, and warranted to go three times around the room without
+stopping, was a tame affair to the recipient compared with the rooster's
+shrill salute.
+
+"Remember, Tony," Juliet had said, a month before Christmas, "you are not
+to give me any expensive personal gift this year. I care for nothing half
+so much as for making the home complete. If--if--you cared to give me
+something toward the bathroom fund----"
+
+"All right," said Anthony promptly, for he had learned by this time to
+know his wife well. The bathroom fund was dear to her heart. The small
+room at the front of the house upstairs, which had been left unfurnished,
+had been temporarily fitted up as a bathroom by sundry ingenious devices
+in the way of a tin bath and a hot and cold water connection, but a full
+equipment of the best sort was to be put in as soon as practicable, and
+there was a growing fund therefor.
+
+On Christmas morning, nevertheless, in addition to a generous addition to
+the fund, Juliet found beside her plate an exceedingly "personal gift" in
+the shape of a little pearl-and-turquoise brooch of rare design, bearing
+the stamp of a superior maker.
+
+"Must I scold you?" she asked, smiling up at him as he stood beside her,
+watching her face flush with pleasure.
+
+"Kiss me, instead," he answered promptly. "And don't expect me to give up
+making you now and then a real present, even though it has to be a small
+one. It's too much fun."
+
+Beside his own plate he found her gift, a set of histories he had long
+wanted. It was a beautiful edition, and he would have looked reproachfully
+at the giver if she had not forestalled him by running around the table to
+say softly in his ear, both arms about his neck: "Just at Christmas time,
+dearest, let me have my way."
+
+The day was a happy one. Mr. Horatio Marcy and Mrs. Dingley arrived on the
+morning train and stayed until evening. At the Christmas dinner Judith and
+Wayne Carey and Dr. Roger Barnes were the additional guests, and Mary
+McKaim was in the kitchen. Dinner over, everybody sat about the fireplace
+talking, when Juliet came in to carry little Tony off to bed.
+
+"Five minutes more," begged Dr. Barnes, on whose knee the child sat, a
+willing captive to the arts of his entertainer. His eyes, bright with the
+excitement of this great day, were fixed upon the doctor's face.
+
+"And so"--Barnes continued the story he had begun--"the rooster climbed
+right up the man's leg"--the toy obeyed his command and scaled the
+eminence from the floor where it had been hiding behind a Noah's ark--"and
+perched on his knee, and cried"--the rooster crowed lustily and little
+Tony laughed ecstatically. "Then the rooster flew up on the man's shoulder
+and flapped his wings, and all at once he fell right over backwards and
+tumbled on his head on the floor.--Got to go to bed, Tony? Shall the
+rooster go too? All right. May I carry him up for you, Juliet? Anthony's
+deep in that discussion. Get on my back, old man--that's the way!"
+
+Everybody looked after the two as the doctor mounted the stairs.
+
+"That rooster has captivated the child more than all the mechanical toys
+he has had to-day," said Mrs. Dingley.
+
+"What a handsome fellow he is," said Carey, his eyes following little Tony
+till he disappeared. "I never saw a healthier, happier child. How sturdy
+he is on his legs--have you noticed? He's saying a good many words, too.
+It was as good as a play to see him imitate that rooster."
+
+Juliet's father and Mrs. Dingley left on an early evening train, and only
+the three younger guests remained when Juliet came downstairs after
+putting her boy to bed. She set about gathering up the toys scattered over
+the floor, and Barnes helped her. In the midst of this labour, during
+which they all made merry with some of the more elaborate mechanical
+affairs, Juliet suddenly said "What's that?" and went to the bottom of the
+stairs.
+
+"Let me go," offered Anthony. "He's probably too excited to get to sleep
+easily after all this dissipation.--Hullo!--he's crowing with the rooster
+yet."
+
+But Juliet went up, and he followed her, saying from the landing to his
+guests, "Excuse me for a little. I'll get the boy quiet, and let his
+mother come down. I've a fine talent for that sort of thing. That rooster
+will have to be given some soothing syrup--he's too lively a fowl."
+
+"I never saw a man fonder of his youngster than Tony," Carey observed.
+
+"The child is a particularly fine specimen," the doctor said. "I think I
+never saw a more ideal development than he shows."
+
+He began to tell an incident in which little Tony had been involved, when
+he was interrupted.
+
+"Barnes!"--called Anthony's voice from the top of the stairs. "Come up
+here, please."
+
+There was something in the imperative quality of this summons which made
+the doctor run up the stairs, two at a time. Judith and Wayne listened.
+The rooster could still be heard crowing, faintly but distinctly.
+
+"Perhaps he's grown too excited over it," Judith suggested. "They ought to
+take it away."
+
+Carey went to the bottom of the stairs and listened. There were rapid
+movements overhead. The doctor's voice could be heard giving directions
+through which sounded the steady crowing of the toy. "Hold him so--now
+move him that way as I thump--now the other----"
+
+Carey turned pale. "He's got that rooster in his throat," he said
+solemnly. The rooster was nearly life-size, but the incongruity of this
+suggestion did not strike him. Judith hastily rose from her chair and went
+to him.
+
+"Had we better go up?" he whispered.
+
+"Heavens--no!" Judith clutched his arm. "We couldn't do any good. The
+doctor's there. Such things make me ill. They ought not to have let him
+have the toy to take to bed with him. How could it get into his throat?
+Perhaps they are making it crow to divert him. Perhaps he's hurt himself
+somehow."
+
+"He's got the crow part of that thing in his throat," Carey persisted in
+an anxious whisper. "The manufacturers ought to be prosecuted for making a
+toy that will come apart like that."
+
+"Don't stand there," protested his wife. "Maybe it's nothing. Come here
+and sit down."
+
+But Carey stood still. Presently Anthony came to the head of the stairs.
+
+"Wayne," said he rapidly, "telephone Roger's office. Ask the trained
+nurse, Miss Hughes, to send a messenger with the doctor's emergency
+surgical case by the first train--he can catch the 9:40 if he's quick.
+Tell Miss Hughes to follow as soon as she can get ready, prepared to stay
+all night."
+
+Then he disappeared. His voice had been steady and quiet, but his eyes had
+showed his friend that the order was given under tension. Carey sprang to
+the telephone, and his hand shook as he took down the receiver.
+
+Upstairs Roger Barnes, in command, was giving cool, concise orders, his
+eyes on his little patient. When he had despatched Juliet for various
+things, including boiling water which she must get downstairs, he said to
+Anthony in a conversational tone:
+
+"It will probably not be safe to wait till my instruments get here, and
+there's no surgeon near enough to call. I'm not going to take any chances
+on this boy. If I see the necessity I'm going to get into that throat and
+give him air. I shall want you and Carey to hold him. Juliet must be
+downstairs."
+
+Anthony nodded. He did not quite understand; but a few minutes later, when
+Juliet had brought the boiling water, he suddenly perceived what his
+friend meant.
+
+"Alcohol, now, please," said the doctor. When Juliet had disappeared again
+Barnes drew from his pocket a pearl-handled pocket-knife and tried its
+blades. "It's a fortunate thing somebody made me a present of such a good
+one to-day," he observed, "but it needs sharpening a bit. Have you an
+oil-stone handy?"
+
+With tightly shut lips Anthony watched the doctor put a bright edge on his
+smallest blade, then, satisfied, drop the open knife into the water
+bubbling over a spirit-lamp. Anthony turned his head away for an instant
+from the struggling little figure on the bed. Barnes eyed him keenly.
+
+"You're game, of course?" he said.
+
+Anthony's eyes met his and flashed fire. "Don't you know me better than
+that?"
+
+"All right," and the young surgeon smiled. "But I've seen a medical man
+himself go to pieces over his own child. This is a simple matter," he went
+on lightly. "Luckily, boiling water is a more potent antiseptic than all
+the drugs on the market--and alcohol's another. I shall want a new hairpin
+or two--if Juliet has a wire one.--That the alcohol? Thank you. Now if
+you've the hairpins, Juliet--ah--a silver one--all the better."
+
+This also he dropped into the boiling water. Then he spoke very quietly to
+Tony's mother, as she bent over her child, fighting for his breath.
+
+"It's a bit tough to watch," he said, "but we'll have him all right
+presently. Suppose you go and get his crib ready for him. You might fill
+some hot-water bags and bottles and have things warm and comfortable."
+
+The telephone-bell rang below. After a minute Carey dashed upstairs. He
+looked into the room and spoke anxiously. "The messenger just missed the
+9:40. He and the nurse will come on the 10:15."
+
+"All right," said the doctor, as if the delay were of small consequence.
+"We're going to want your help presently, Carey, I think. Just ask Mrs.
+Carey to keep Mrs. Robeson with her for a few minutes, if she can."
+
+Carey went down and gave his wife the message, then he hurried back and
+stood waiting just outside the door. And all at once the summons came. In
+a breath the doctor had changed his rôle. He spoke sharply:
+
+"_Now, Robeson--now, Carey--we've waited up to the limit. Keep cool--hold
+him like a rock--_"
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+Wayne Carey came down to his wife, ten minutes later, smiled tremulously,
+sank into a chair, and fell to crying like a baby--softly, so that he
+could not be heard.
+
+"But Juliet says he'll be all right," murmured Judith unsteadily.
+
+"Yes, yes----" Carey wiped his eyes and blew his nose. "I'm just a little
+unnerved, that's all. Lord--and he's dropped off to sleep as quiet as a
+lamb--with Barnes holding the gash in his throat open with a hairpin to
+let the air in. When it comes to emergency surgery I tell you it's a lucky
+thing to have an expert in the house. Completely worn out--the little
+chap. When the nurse comes they'll get out the whistle and sew the place
+up. She ought to be here--I'll go meet that train."
+
+He sprang to his feet and hurried out of the house. Presently he was back,
+followed by an erect young woman who wore a long coat over the uniform she
+had not taken time to change. Carey carried the long black bag she had
+brought with her.
+
+By and by Anthony and Roger Barnes came down. The former was pale, but as
+quietly composed as ever; the latter nonchalant, yet wearing that gleam of
+satisfaction in his eye which is ever the badge of the successful
+surgeon.
+
+"Well, Mrs. Carey," said the doctor, smiling, "why not relax that tension
+a bit? The youngster is right as a trivet."
+
+"I suppose that's your idea of being right as a trivet," Judith retorted.
+"In bed, with a trained nurse watching you, and a doctor staying all night
+to make sure."
+
+"Bless you--what better would you have? If it were any other boy the
+doctor would have been home and in bed an hour ago, I assure you.
+Carey--if you don't stop acting like a great fool I'll put you to bed
+too."
+
+For Carey was wringing Barnes' hand, and the tears were running unashamed
+down his cheeks. "I gave him that rooster myself," he said, and choked.
+
+Upstairs all was quiet. The little life was safe, rescued at the crucial
+moment when interference became necessary, by the skill and daring which
+do not hesitate to use the means at hand when the authorized tools can not
+be had. Every precaution had been taken against harm from these same
+unconventional means, and the doctor, when he left his patient in the
+hands of his nurse, felt small anxiety for the ultimate outcome.
+
+He said this very positively to the boy's father and mother, holding a
+hand of each and bidding them go peacefully to sleep. He would have
+slipped away then, but they would not let him go. There were no tears, no
+fuss; but Juliet said, her eyes with their heavy shadows of past suspense
+meeting his steadily, "Roger, nothing can ever tell you what I feel about
+this," and Anthony, gripping his friend's hand with a grip of steel,
+added: "We shall never thank the Lord enough for having you on hand, Roger
+Barnes."
+
+But when the young surgeon had gone, warm with pleasure over the service
+he had done those he loved this night, the ones he had left behind found
+their self-control had reached the ragged edge. Turning to her husband
+Juliet flung herself into his arms, and met there the tenderest reception
+she had ever known. So does a common anxiety knit hearts which had thought
+they could be no tighter bound.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+Judith and Wayne Carey, walking along silent streets in the early dawn of
+the day after Christmas on their way to take their train home, had little
+to say. Only once Judith ventured an observation to her heavy-eyed
+companion:
+
+"Surely, such a scene as you went through last night must diminish a
+trifle that envy you are always possessed with, when you're at that
+house."
+
+But Wayne, staring up at the wintry sky, answered, more roughly than his
+wife had ever heard him speak: "_No_--God knows I envy them even at a time
+like this!"
+
+
+
+
+XXIII.--TWO NOT OF A KIND
+
+
+"Yes, they are very pleasant rooms," Juliet admitted, with the air of one
+endeavouring to be polite. She sat upon a many-hued divan, and glanced
+from the blue-and-yellow wall-paper to the green velvet chairs, the
+dull-red carpet and the stiff "lace" curtains. "You get the afternoon sun,
+and the view opposite isn't bad. The vestibule seemed to be well kept, and
+I rang only three times before I made you hear."
+
+"The janitor promised to fix that bell," said Judith hastily. "Oh, I know
+the colour combinations are dreadful, but one can't help that in rented
+rooms. Of course our things look badly with the ones that belong here. But
+as soon as we can we are going to move into a still better place."
+
+"Going to keep house?"
+
+"No-o, not just yet." Judith hesitated. "You seem to think there's nothing
+in the world to do but to keep house."
+
+"I'm sure of it."
+
+"I can't see why. A girl doesn't need to assume all the cares of life the
+minute she marries. Why can't she keep young and fresh for a while?"
+
+Juliet glanced toward a mirror opposite. "How old and haggard I must be
+looking," she observed, with--it must be confessed--a touch of
+complacency. The woman who could have seen that image reflected as her own
+without complacency must have been indifferent, indeed.
+
+"Of course, you manage it somehow--I suppose because Anthony takes such
+care of you. But you wait till five years more have gone over your head,
+and see if you're not tired of it."
+
+"If I'm as tired of it as you are--" began Juliet, and stopped. "But
+seriously, Judith, is it nothing to you to please Wayne?"
+
+"Why, of course." Judith flushed. "But Wayne is satisfied."
+
+"Are you sure of it?"
+
+"Certainly. Oh, sometimes, when we go to see you, and you make things so
+pleasant with your big fire and your good things to eat, he gets a spasm
+of wishing we were by ourselves, but----"
+
+Juliet shook her head. "Wayne doesn't say a word," she said, "and he's as
+devoted to you as a man can be. But, Judith, if I know the symptoms, that
+husband of yours is starving for a home, and--do I dare say it?"
+
+Judith was staring out of the window at the ugly walls opposite. It was
+her bedroom window, and the opposite walls were not six feet away.
+
+"I suppose you dare say anything," she answered, looking as if she were
+about to cry. "I'm sure I envy you, you're so supremely contented. I don't
+think I was made to care for children."
+
+"That might come," said Juliet softly. "I'm sure it would, Judith. As for
+Wayne, if you could see the look on his face I've surprised there more
+than once, when he had little Anthony, and he thought nobody noticed, it
+would make your heart ache, dear. Don't deny him--or yourself--the best
+thing that can happen to either of you. At least, don't deny it for lack
+of a home. I'm sure I can't imagine Tony, Junior, in these rooms of yours.
+They don't look," she explained, smiling, "exactly babyish."
+
+She rose to go. She looked so young and fair and sweet as she spoke her
+gentle homily that Judith, half doubting, half believing, admitted to
+herself that of one thing there could be no question: Mrs. Anthony Robeson
+envied nobody upon the face of the earth.
+
+The visits of the Robesons to the various apartments which were in
+rotation occupied by the Careys were few. Somehow it seemed much easier
+and simpler for the pair who had no children, and no housekeeping to
+hamper them, to run out into the suburbs than for their friends to get
+into town. So the Careys came with ever increasing frequency, always
+warmly welcomed, and enjoyed the hours within the little house so
+thoroughly that in time the influence of the content they saw so often
+began to have its inevitable effect.
+
+"I've great news for you," said Anthony, coming home one March day, when
+little Tony was nearing his second birthday. "It's about the Careys.
+Guess."
+
+"They are going to housekeeping."
+
+"How did you know?"
+
+"I didn't know, but Judith told me weeks ago she supposed she should have
+to come to it. Have they found a house?"
+
+"Carey thinks he has. Judith doesn't like the place, for about fifty good
+and sufficient reasons--to her. He's trying to persuade her. He has an
+option on it for ten days. He wants us to come out and look at it with
+them."
+
+"Where is it?"
+
+"About as far east of the city as we are north. If to-morrow is a good day
+I promised we would run out with them on the ten-fifteen. I suspect they
+need us badly. Wayne looks like a man distracted. The great trouble, I
+fancy, is going to be that Judith Dearborn Carey is still too much of a
+Dearborn to be able to make a home out of anything. And Carey can't do it
+alone."
+
+"Indeed he can't, poor fellow. I never saw a man in my life who wanted a
+home as badly as Wayne does. Let's do our best to help them."
+
+"We will. But the only way to do it thoroughly is to make Judith over.
+Even you can't accomplish that."
+
+"There's hope, if she has agreed at all to trying the experiment," Juliet
+declared, and thought about her friends all the rest of the day.
+
+It was but five minutes' walk, from the suburban station where the party
+got off next morning, to the house which Carey eagerly pointed out as the
+four approached.
+
+"There it is," he said. "Don't tell me what you think of it till you've
+seen the whole thing. I know it doesn't look promising as yet, but I keep
+remembering the photographs of your home, Robeson, before you went at it.
+I'm inclined to think this can be made right, too."
+
+Anthony and Juliet studied Carey's choice with interest. Judith looked on
+dubiously. It was plain that if she should consent it would be against her
+will.
+
+"It looks so commonplace and ugly," she said aside to Juliet, as the four
+completed the tour around the house and prepared to enter. "Your home is
+old-fashioned enough to be interesting, but this is just modern enough to
+be ugly. Look at that big window in front with the cheap coloured glass
+across the top. What could you do with that?"
+
+"Several things," said her friend promptly. "You might put in a row of
+narrow casement windows across the front, with diamond panes. No--the
+porch isn't attractive with all that gingerbread work, but you could take
+it away and have something plain and simple. The general lines of the
+house are not bad. It has been an old-fashioned house, Judith, but
+somebody who didn't know how has altered it and spoiled it. People are
+always doing that. There must have been a fanlight over this door. You
+could restore it. And do you see that quaint round window in the gable?
+Probably they looked at that and longed to do away with it, but happily
+for you didn't know how."
+
+Carey glanced curiously at his friend's wife, then anxiously at his own.
+Juliet's face was alight with interest; Judith's heavy with
+dissatisfaction. He wondered for the thousandth time what made the
+difference. He would have given a year's salary to see Judith look
+interested in this desire of his heart. It was hard to push a thing like
+this against the will of the only person whose help he could not do
+without. Carey was determined to have the home. Even Judith acknowledged
+that she had not been happy in any of the seven apartments they had tried
+during the less than four years of their married life. Carey believed with
+all his heart that their only chance for happiness lay in getting away
+from a manner of living which was using up every penny he could earn
+without giving them either satisfaction or comfort. His salary would not
+permit him to rent the sort of thing in the sort of neighbourhood which
+Judith longed for. And if it should, he did not believe his wife would
+find such environments any more congenial than the present one. Carey had
+a theory that a woman, like a man, must be busy to be contented. He meant
+to try it with his handsome, discontented wife.
+
+"Oh, what a pretty hall!" cried Mrs. Robeson, with enthusiasm. "How lucky
+that the vandals who made the house over didn't lay their desecrating
+hands on that staircase."
+
+"The hall looks gloomy to me," said Mrs. Carey, with a disapproving glance
+at the walls.
+
+"Of course--with that dingy brown paper and the woodwork stained that
+hideous imitation of oak. You can scrape all that off, paint it white, put
+on a warm, rich paper, restore your fanlight, and you'll have a
+particularly attractive hall."
+
+"I wish I could see things that are not visible, as you seem to be able
+to," sighed Judith, looking unconvinced. "I never did like a long,
+straight staircase like that. And there's not room to make a turn."
+
+"You don't want to, do you? It's so wide and low it doesn't need to turn,
+and the posts and rails are extremely good. How about this front room?"
+
+She stood in the center of the front room, and the two men, watching her
+vivid face as it glowed above her furs, noting the capable, womanly way
+she had of looking at the best side of everything and discerning in a
+flash of imagination and intuition what could be done with unpromising
+material, appreciated her with that full masculine appreciation which it
+is so well worth the trouble of any woman to win.
+
+Judith was not blind; she saw little by little as Juliet went from room to
+room--seizing in each upon its possibilities, ignoring its poorer features
+except to suggest their betterment, giving her whole-hearted, friendly
+counsel in a way which continually took the prospective homemakers into
+consideration--that she herself was losing something immeasurably valuable
+in not attempting to cultivate these same winning characteristics. And in
+the same breath Judith was forced to admit to herself that she did not
+know how to begin.
+
+"There is really a very pretty view from the dining-room," she said, as a
+first effort at seeing something to admire. Both Juliet and Anthony agreed
+to this statement with a cordiality which came very near suggesting that
+it was a relief to find Mrs. Carey on the optimistic side of the
+discussion even in this small detail. As for Carey, he looked so surprised
+and grateful that Judith's heart smote her with a vigour to which she was
+unaccustomed.
+
+"I suppose you could use this room as a sort of den?" she was prompted to
+suggest to her husband; and such a delighted smile illumined Carey's face
+that the sight of it was almost pathetic to his friends, who understood
+his situation rather better than he did himself. In his pleasure Carey put
+his arm about his wife's shoulders.
+
+"Couldn't I, though?" he agreed enthusiastically. "And you could use it
+for a retreat while I was away for the day."
+
+"A retreat from what? Too much excitement?" began Judith, the old habit of
+scorn of everything which was not of the city returning upon her
+irresistibly. But it chanced that she caught Juliet's eyes, unconsciously
+wearing such an expression of solicitude to see her friend complaisant in
+this matter which meant so much, that Judith hurriedly followed her ironic
+question with the more kindly supplement: "But doubtless I should have
+plenty, and be glad to get away."
+
+"You certainly would," asserted Anthony. "We never guessed how much there
+would be to occupy us in the country, but there seems hardly time to write
+letters. Nobody can believe, till he tries, how much pleasure there is in
+wheedling a garden into growing, nor how well the labour makes him sleep
+o' nights."
+
+"Yes--I think I could sleep here," said Carey, and passed a hand over a
+brow which was aching at that very moment. "I haven't done that
+satisfactorily for six months."
+
+"You'll do it here," Anthony prophesied confidently. "It's a fine air with
+a good breath of the salt sea in it, which we don't get. Your sleeping
+rooms are all well aired and lighted--a thing you don't always find in
+more pretentious houses. And when the paint and paper go on you'll own
+yourselves surprised at the transformation. I was never so astonished in
+my life as I was at the change in the little bedroom in our house which
+has that pale yellow-and-white stripe on the wall. It was a north room,
+and the old wall was a forlorn slate, like a thundercloud. My little
+artist here, with her eye for colours, instantly announced that she would
+get the sunshine into that room. And so she did--with no more potent a
+charm than that fifteen-cent paper and a fresh coat of white paint."
+
+Carey looked at Juliet with longing in his eye. He wanted to ask her to
+supervise the alterations in his purchase, if he should make it. But he
+remembered other occasions when he had held the sayings and doings of Mrs.
+Robeson before the eyes of Mrs. Carey with disastrous result, and he dared
+not make the suggestion. He hoped, however, that Judith might be inclined
+to ask the assistance of her friend, and himself hinted at it, cautiously.
+But Judith, beyond inquiring what Juliet thought of certain possible
+changes, seemed inclined to shoulder her own responsibilities.
+
+Anthony left his wife upon the home-bound train, to return to his work;
+the Careys accompanied him, so that he had no chance to talk things over
+until he came home to dinner at night. But when he saw Juliet again almost
+her first words showed him where her thoughts were.
+
+"Tony, I can't get those people off my mind. Do you suppose they will ever
+make a home out of anything?"
+
+"They haven't much genius for utilizing raw material, I'm very much
+afraid," Anthony responded thoughtfully. "Carey has the will, and he can
+furnish a moderate amount of funds, but whether Judith can furnish
+anything but objections and contrariety I don't dare to predict. If her
+heart were in it I should have more hope of her. There's one thing I can
+tell her. If she doesn't set her soul to the giving the old boy a taste of
+peace and rest she'll have him worn out before his time. A fellow who
+doesn't know how it feels to sleep soundly, and whose head bothers him
+half the time, needs looking after. He's a slave to his office desk, and
+needs far more than an active chap like me to get out of the city as much
+as he can."
+
+"Yes, he's worried and restless, Tony. He's so devoted to Judith and so
+anxious to make her happy, her dissatisfaction rests on him like a weight.
+Don't you see that every time you see them together?"
+
+"Every time--and more plainly. What's the matter with her anyhow, Julie?
+She seemed promising enough as a girl. You certainly found enough in her
+to make you two congenial. She's no more like you than--electric light is
+like sunshine," said Anthony, picking up the simile with a laugh and a
+glance of appreciation.
+
+"Judith shines in the surroundings she was born and brought up in, misses
+them, and doesn't know how to adapt herself to any others. She ought to
+have been the wife of some high official--she could entertain royally and
+have everybody at her feet."
+
+"Magnificent characteristics, but mighty unavailable in the present
+circumstances. It carries out my electric-light comparison. I prefer the
+sunlight--and I have it.--Poor Carey!"
+
+"We'll hope," said Juliet. "And if we have the smallest chance to help,
+we'll do it."
+
+But, as Anthony had anticipated, there was small chance to help. Meeting
+Carey a fortnight later, Anthony inquired after the new home, and Carey
+replied with apparent lack of enthusiasm that the house had been leased
+for a term of three years, with refusal of the purchase at the expiration
+of the time. He explained that Judith had been unwilling to burn her
+bridges by buying the place outright, and that he thought perhaps the
+present plan was the better one--under these conditions. But the fact that
+the house was not their own made it seem unwise to expend very much upon
+alterations beyond those of paint and paper. With the prospect of a sale
+the owner had unwillingly consented to replace the gingerbread porch with
+one in better style, but refused to do more. The big window, with its
+abominable topping of cheap coloured glass, was to remain for the
+present.
+
+"And I think this whole arrangement is bound to defeat my purpose," said
+Carey unhappily. "The very changes we can't afford to make in a rented
+house are the ones Judith needs to have made to reconcile her to the
+experiment. She says she feels ill every time she comes to the house and
+sees that window. She wants a porcelain sink in the kitchen. She would
+like speaking-tubes and a system of electric bells. We're to have a
+servant--if we can find her. We've put green paper on all the downstairs
+rooms, and it turns out the wrong green. I wanted a sort of corn-colour
+that looked more cheerful, but it seems green is the only thing. I don't
+know what's the matter with me. Perhaps I'm bilious. Green seems to be all
+right in your house, but in mine it makes me want to go outdoors."
+
+"That's precisely what you should do," Anthony advised cheerfully. "Get
+outdoors all you can. Start your garden. Mow your lawn yourself. Make over
+that gravel path to your front door."
+
+"I've only evenings," objected Carey. "And we're not settled yet. The
+paper's only just on. We haven't moved. We're buying furniture. We bought
+a sideboard yesterday. It cost so much we had to get a cheaper range for
+the kitchen than seemed desirable, but Judith liked the sideboard so well
+I was glad to buy it. I don't know when we shall get to living there
+permanently. This furnishing business knocks me out. We don't seem to know
+what we want. I'd like--" he hesitated--"I hoped Mrs. Robeson might be
+able to give us the advantage of her experience, but it turns out that
+Judith has a sort of pride in doing it herself, and of course--I presume
+you made some mistakes yourselves, eh?" He suggested this with eagerness.
+
+"Oh, of course," agreed Anthony readily, though he wondered what they
+were, and inwardly begged Juliet's pardon for this answer, given out of
+masculine sympathy with his friend's helplessness. "You'll come out all
+right," he hastily assured Carey. "Once you are living in the new place
+things will adjust themselves. Keep up your courage. Your daily walk to
+and from the train will do wonders. Lack of exercise will make a rainbow
+look gloomy to a fellow. I think you've great cause for rejoicing that
+Judith has agreed to try the experiment at all. And as with all
+experiments, you must be patient while it works itself out."
+
+"That's so," agreed Carey, a gleam of hope in his eyes; and Anthony got
+away. But by himself the happier man shook his head doubtfully. "Where
+everything depends on the woman," he said to himself, "and you've married
+one that her Maker never fashioned for domestic joys, you're certainly up
+against a mighty difficult proposition!"
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.--THE CAREYS ARE AT HOME
+
+
+Wayne and Judith Carey had been keeping house for two months before Judith
+was willing to accede to her husband's often repeated request that they
+entertain the Robesons.
+
+"We've been there, together and separately, till it's a wonder their
+hospitality doesn't freeze up," he urged. "Let's have them out to-morrow
+night, and keep them over till next day, at least. I'd like to have them
+sleep under this roof. They'd bring us good luck."
+
+"One would think the Robesons were the only people worth knowing," said
+Judith, with a petulance of which she had the grace, as her husband stared
+at her, to be ashamed.
+
+"They're the truest friends we have in the world," he said, with a dignity
+of manner unusual with him. "Sometimes I think they are the only people
+worth knowing--out of all those on your calling list."
+
+"We differ about that. Your ideas of who are worth knowing are very
+peculiar. Heaven knows I'm fond of Juliet, but I get decidedly tired of
+having her held up as a model. And I haven't been anxious to entertain her
+until we were in order."
+
+"We're certainly as much in order now as we shall be for some time. Let's
+have them out. You'll find they'll see everything there is to praise. It's
+their way."
+
+So Anthony and Juliet were asked, and came. Wayne's prophecy was proven a
+true one--even Judith grew complacent as her friends admired the result of
+her house-furnishing. And in truth there was much to admire. Judith was a
+young woman of taste and more or less discretion, and if she could have
+had full sway in her purchasing the result might have been admirable. As
+it was, the unspoken criticism in the minds of both the guests, as they
+followed their hosts about the house, was that Judith had struck a
+key-note in her construction of a home a little too ambitious to be wholly
+satisfactory.
+
+"I believe in buying the best of everything as far as you go," she said,
+indicating a particularly costly lounging chair in a corner of the
+living-room. "Of course that was very expensive, but it will always be
+right, and we can get others to go with it. The bookcases were another
+high-priced purchase, but they give an air to the room worth paying for."
+
+"I've only one objection to this room," said Wayne with some hesitation.
+"As Judith says, the things in it seem to be all right, and it certainly
+looks in good taste, if I'm any judge, but--I don't know just how to
+explain it----" he hesitated again, and smiled deprecatingly at his wife.
+
+"Speak out," said Judith. She was in a very good humour, for her guests
+had shown so fine a tact in their commendation that she was in quite a
+glow of satisfaction, and for the first time felt the pleasure of the
+hostess in an attractive home. "It can't be a serious objection, for
+you've liked every single thing we've put into it."
+
+"Indeed I have," agreed Carey, eagerly glancing about the brilliantly lit
+room. "I like it all awfully well--especially in the daylight. The corner
+by the window is a famous place for reading. But, you see, I'm so little
+here in the daytime, except on Sundays. Of course I know we lack the
+fireplace that makes your living-room jolly, but it seems as if we lack
+something besides that we might have, and for the life of me I can't tell
+what it is."
+
+Anthony knew by a certain curve in the corner of his wife's mouth that she
+longed to tell him what it was. For himself, he could not discover. He
+studied the room searchingly and was unable to determine why, attractive
+as it really was, it certainly did, upon this cool May evening, lack the
+look of warm comfort and hospitality of which his own home was so full.
+
+"Possibly it's because everything is so new," he ventured. "Rooms come to
+have a look of home, you know, just by living in them and leaving things
+about. It's a pretty room, all right, and I fancy it will take on the
+friendly expression you want when you get to strewing your books and
+magazines around a little more, and laying your pipe down on the corner of
+the mantel-piece, you know--and all that. I can upset things for you in
+half a minute if you'll give me leave."
+
+"You have my full permission," said Judith, laughing. "I fancy it's just
+as you say: Wayne isn't used to it yet. He always likes his old slippers
+better than the handsomest new ones I can buy him. Come--dinner has been
+served for five minutes. No more artistic suggestions till afterward."
+
+The dinner was perfect. It should have been so, for a caterer was in the
+kitchen, and a hired waitress served the viands without disaster. As a
+delectable meal it was a success; as an exhibition of Mrs. Carey's
+capacity for home making, it was something of a failure. It certainly did
+not for a moment deceive the guests. For the life of her, as Juliet tasted
+course after course of the elaborate meal, she could not help reckoning up
+what it had cost. Neither could she refrain from wondering what sort of a
+repast Judith would have produced without help.
+
+After dinner, as Wayne and Anthony smoked in front of the fireless
+mantel-piece in the den, each in a more luxurious chair than was to be
+found in Anthony's whole house, Judith took Juliet to task.
+
+"You may try to disguise it," she complained, "but I've known you too long
+not to be able to read you. You would rather have had me cook that dinner
+myself and bring it in, all red and blistered from being over the stove."
+
+"As long as the dinner wasn't red and blistered you wouldn't have been
+unhappy," Juliet returned lightly. "But you mustn't think that she who
+entertains may read my ingenuous face, my dear. It isn't necessary that I
+attempt to convert the world to my way of thinking. And I haven't told you
+that when Auntie Dingley goes abroad with father again this winter I'm to
+have Mary McKaim for eight whole months. I can assure you I know how to
+appreciate the comfort of having a competent cook in the kitchen."
+
+She got up and crossed the room. "Judith, what an exquisite lamp," she
+observed. "I'd forgotten that you had it. Was it one of your wedding
+presents?"
+
+Judith followed her to where she stood examining an imposing,
+foreign-looking lamp, with jeweled inlets in the hand-wrought metal shade.
+"Yes," she said carelessly, "it's pretty enough. I don't care much for
+lamps."
+
+"Not to read by?"
+
+"It's bright enough for anybody but a blind man to read, here." Judith
+glanced at the ornate chandelier of electric lights in the centre of the
+ceiling. "The rooms aren't so high that the lights are out of reach for
+reading."
+
+"But this is beautiful. Have you never used it?"
+
+"It might be used with an electric connection, I suppose. No, I've never
+used it as an oil lamp. I hate kerosene oil."
+
+"But you have some in the house?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I think so. Wayne insisted on getting some little hand-lamps.
+Something's always happening to the wires out here. That's one of the
+numerous joys of living in the suburbs."
+
+"Let's fill this and try it," Juliet suggested, turning a pair of very
+bright eyes upon her friend. "If you've never lit it I don't believe
+you've half appreciated it. You're neglecting one of the prettiest sources
+of decoration you have in the house. Out of sympathy for the giver,
+whoever he was, you ought to let his gift have a chance to show you its
+beauty."
+
+"Stevens Cathcart gave it to us, I believe," said Judith. "Here, let me
+have it. I'll fill it, since you insist. But I never thought very much of
+it. It was put away in a closet until we came here. It took up so much
+room I never found a place for it."
+
+"Mr. Cathcart gave it to you? That proves my point, that it's worth
+admiring. If there's a connoisseur in things of this sort, it's he. He
+probably picked it up in some out-of-the-ordinary European shop."
+
+Smiling to herself, as if something gave her satisfaction, Juliet awaited
+the return of her hostess. She understood, from the manner of Judith's
+exit with the lamp, that the free and easy familiarity with which guests
+invaded every portion of Anthony's little home, was not to be made a
+precedent for the same sort of thing in Judith's.
+
+The lamp reappeared, accompanied by a lamentation over the disagreeable
+qualities of kerosene oil for any use whatever.
+
+"You can put electricity into this and use it as a drop-light, if you
+prefer," said Juliet, as she lit it and adjusted the shade. "May I set it
+on the big table over here? Right in the center, please, if you don't mind
+moving that bowl of carnations. There!--Of course you can send it back to
+oblivion over there on the bookcase if you really don't like it.--But you
+do like it--don't you?"
+
+"It's handsomer than I thought it was," Judith admitted without
+enthusiasm. Juliet glanced up at the blazing chandelier overhead.
+
+"May I turn off some of this light?" she asked. "You won't get the full
+beauty of your lamp till you give it a chance by itself."
+
+Judith assented. Juliet snapped off three out of the four lights, and
+smiled mischievously at her friend. Then she extinguished the fourth, so
+that the only luminary left in the room was the lamp. Judith groaned.
+
+"Maybe you like a gloomy room like this. I don't. Look at it. I can hardly
+see anything in the corners."
+
+"Wait a little bit. You're so used to the glare your eyes are not good for
+seeing what I mean. Study the lamp itself a minute. Did you ever see
+anything so fascinating as the gleam through those jewels? An electric
+bulb inside would add to the brilliancy, though it's not so soft a light
+to read by, and the effect in the room isn't so warm. Observe those
+carnations under the lamplight, honey? Come over here to the doorway and
+look at your whole room under these new conditions. Isn't it
+charming?--enticing?--Let's draw that lovely Morris chair up close to the
+table, as if you were expecting Wayne to come in and read the evening
+paper by the lamp. _There!_"
+
+Juliet softly clapped her hands, her face shining with friendly
+enthusiasm. There could be no question that the whole room, as she had
+said, had taken on a new look of homelike comfort and cheer which it had
+lacked before. Even Judith was forced to see it.
+
+"It looks very well," she admitted. "But I should have more light from
+above. I like plenty of light."
+
+"So do I, if you manage it well." Whereupon the guest, having gained her
+point and made sufficient demonstration of it, turned the conversation
+into other channels. But the lamp was not yet through with its position of
+reformer. The two men, having finished their cigars, and hearing sounds of
+merriment from the adjoining room, came strolling in. Anthony,
+comprehending at a glance the change which had come over the aspect of the
+room and the cause thereof, advanced, smiling. But Carey came to a
+standstill upon the threshold, his lips drawn into an astonished whistle.
+
+"What's happened?" he ejaculated, and stood staring.
+
+"Do you like it?" asked his wife.
+
+"I should say I did. But what's done it? What makes the room look so
+different? It looks--why it looks like your rooms!" he cried, gazing at
+Anthony.
+
+"He can say nothing more flattering than that," said Judith, evidently not
+altogether pleased. "It's the highest compliment he knows."
+
+Carey stared at the lamp. "I didn't know we had that," he said. "Is it
+that that does it?"
+
+"I fancy it is," said Anthony. "I never understood it till I was taught,
+but it seems to be a fact that a low light in a room gives it a more
+homelike effect than a high one. I don't know why. It's one of my wife's
+pet theories."
+
+"Well, I must say this is a pretty convincing demonstration of it," Carey
+agreed, sitting down in a chair in a corner, his hands in his pockets,
+still studying this, to him, remarkable transformation. "It certainly does
+look like a happy home now. Before, it was a place to receive calls in."
+He turned, smiling contentedly, to his wife. Something about the glance
+which she returned warned him that further admiration was unnecessary. The
+contented smile faded a little. He got up and came over to the table.
+"Now, let's have a good four-handed talk," he proposed.
+
+Two hours later, in the seclusion of the guest-room upstairs, Anthony said
+under his breath:
+
+"They're coming on, aren't they? Don't you see glimmerings of hope that
+some day this will resemble a home, in a sort of far-off way? Isn't Judith
+becoming domesticated a trifle? She didn't get up that dinner?"
+
+Juliet turned upon him a smiling face, and laid her finger on her lip.
+"Don't tempt me to discuss it," she warned him. "My feelings might run
+away with me, and that would never do under their very roof."
+
+"Exemplary little guest! May I say as much as this, then? I'd give a good
+deal to see Wayne speak his mind once in a way, without a side glance to
+see if Her Royal Majesty approves."
+
+But Juliet shook her head. "Don't tempt me," she begged again. "There's
+something inside of me that boils and boils with rage, and if I should
+just take the cover off----"
+
+"Might I get scalded? All right--I'll leave the cover on. Just one
+observation more. When I get inside our own four walls again I'm going to
+give a tremendous whoop of joy and satisfaction that'll raise the roof
+right off the house!"
+
+
+
+
+XXV.--THE ROBESON WILL
+
+
+When people are busy and happy the years may go by like a dream. So the
+months rolled around and brought little Tony past the third anniversary of
+his birth, and into another summer of lusty development. Except to the
+growing child, however, time seemed to bring slight changes to the little
+home under whose roof he grew. The mistress thereof lost no charm either
+for her husband or her friends--Anthony indeed insisted that she grew
+younger; certainly, as time taught her new lessons without laying hands
+upon her beauty, she gained attractiveness in every way.
+
+"You look as much like a girl as ever," Anthony said to her one morning,
+as dressed for a trip into town she came out upon the porch where he and
+little Tony were frolicing together.
+
+"You had ever a sweetly blarneying tongue," said she, and bestowed a
+parting caress impartially upon both the persons before her. "I feel a bit
+guilty at making a nursemaid of you for even one morning of your vacation,
+but----"
+
+"That's all right. Do your errands with an easy conscience. I'll enjoy
+looking after the boy, and am rather glad your usual little maid is away.
+That's one thing my vacation is for--to get upon a basis of mutual
+understanding and confidence with my son. We see too little of each
+other."
+
+So Juliet caught the early car, and left the two male Robesons together,
+father and son, waving good-bye to her from the porch. When she was out of
+sight the elder Robeson turned to the younger.
+
+"Now, son," he said, "I'm going to mow the lawn. What are you going to
+do?"
+
+"I is going to mow lawn, too," announced Tony, Junior, with decision.
+
+"All right, sir. Here we are. Get in front of me and mind you push hard.
+That's the stuff!"
+
+All went joyously for ten minutes. Then little Tony wriggled out from
+between his father's arms and went over to the porch step. He sat down and
+crossed two fat legs. He leaned his head upon his hand, his elbow on his
+knee, and watched with serious eyes the progress of the lawn-mower three
+times across before he said wistfully:
+
+"Favver, I wis' you'd p'ay wiv me."
+
+"When I get this job done perhaps I will," said Anthony, and made the
+grass fly merrily. Presently he put away the lawn-mower, and stood looking
+down at the sturdy little figure in the blue Russian blouse. "What do you
+want to play?" he asked. Tony's face lit up.
+
+"Le's play fire-endjun," he proposed enthusiastically.
+
+"Where shall we play the fire is?"
+
+"Le's have weal fire," said Tony eagerly.
+
+"Real fire? Well, I don't know about that, son," his father responded
+doubtfully. "Young persons of three are not considered old enough to play
+with the real thing. Won't make believe do just as well?"
+
+"No, no--weal fire," repeated the child. "Le's put it out wiv sqi'yt
+watto. P'ease, favver--p'ease!"
+
+"Sqi'wt watto," repeated Anthony, laughing. "What do you mean by----? Oh,
+I see----" as Tony demonstrated his meaning by running to the garden hose
+which remained attached to a hydrant behind the house. "Well, son--if I
+let you have a real fire and put it out with real water, will you promise
+me never to try anything of that sort by yourself?"
+
+Tony walked over to his father and laid a little brown fist in Anthony's.
+"Aw wight," he said solemnly. Anthony looked down at the clasped hands and
+smiled at the serious uplifted face. "Is that the way mother teaches you
+to promise her?" he asked, with interest.
+
+Tony nodded. "Aw wight," he said. "Come on. Le's make fire!"
+
+The fire was made, out of a packing-box brought up from the cellar. It
+burned realistically down by the orchard, and was only discovered by
+chance when Anthony Robeson, Junior, happened to glance that way.
+
+"_Fire!--fire!_" he shouted, and alarmed the fire company, who, as fire
+companies should be, were ready to start on the instant. The hose-cart,
+propelled by a pair of stout legs, made a gallant dash down the edge of
+the garden, followed by the hook-and-ladder company, their equipment just
+three feet long. It took energetic and skilful work to quench the
+conflagration, which raged furiously and made plenty of good black smoke.
+The fire chief rushed dramatically about, ordering his men with ringing
+commands. Once he stubbed his bare toe and fell, and for a moment it
+looked as though he must cry, but like the brave fellow that he was he
+smothered his pain behind an uplifted elbow, and in a moment was again in
+the thick of the fray. His men obeyed him with admirable promptitude,
+although, contrary to the usual custom of fire chiefs, he himself took
+hold of the hose and poured its volume upon the blazing structure.
+
+When the fire was out the chief, breathless, his blue blouse bearing the
+marks of the encounter with flood and flame, sat down upon the overturned
+hose-cart and beamed upon his company.
+
+"Vat was awful nice fire," he said. "Le's have anuver."
+
+"Another? Oh, no," protested the company, hastily. "No more of that just
+now. Pick up your hook-and-ladder wagon and put it back where it belongs.
+I'll see to the hose."
+
+Anthony gently displaced the fire chief and rolled away the hose. Then he
+looked back down the garden and saw his son poking among the ruins of the
+fire. "Come here, Tony," he called, "and bring the hook-and-ladder."
+
+Tony came slowly, but without the toy wagon. Anthony stood still. When the
+boy reached him he said, "Why didn't you bring the hook-and-ladder cart?"
+
+"'Cause I'm ve chief," Tony responded gravely. "My mens'll bring ve
+cart."
+
+"Your men aren't there. You'll have to bring it yourself."
+
+Tony shook his head. "I'm ve chief," he repeated, and looked his father in
+the eye. Anthony understood. It was not the first time. There were moments
+in one's experience with Anthony Robeson, Junior, when one seemed to
+encounter a deadlock in the child's will. Reasoning and commands were apt
+at such times to be alike futile. The odd thing about it was that it was
+impossible to predict when these moments were at hand. They arose without
+warning, when the boy was apparently in the best of tempers, and they did
+not seem to be the result of any previous mismanagement on the part of
+those in authority over him.
+
+Of one point Anthony, Senior, was sure. The child, like all children, and
+possibly more than most, possessed a vivid imagination. When he announced
+himself to be a fire chief, there could be no question that he believed
+himself to be for the time that which he pretended to be. His father
+understood, therefore, that to make progress with the boy it was necessary
+to get back to the standpoint of reality before commands could be expected
+to take hold. So he sat down on a rustic seat near Juliet's roses and
+spoke in a pleasantly matter-of-fact way.
+
+"Yes, you've been a fire chief, son, and a good one. That was a great
+game. But the game is over now, and you're not a fire chief any more.
+You're Tony Robeson, and the little hook-and-ladder cart is your
+plaything. Father wants you to bring it here and put it in its place in
+the house. It looks a little bit like rain, and the cart mustn't be left
+out to get wet. See?"
+
+But Tony still shook his head. "My men'll put it in," he said, with
+calmness undisturbed.
+
+"You haven't any men. You played there were some, but the play is over and
+there aren't any men. If you don't put the cart in it may get wet."
+
+"I'm ve chief," said little Tony. "Chiefs don't draw carts."
+
+"When they've turned back to little boys they do. You've turned back to a
+little boy."
+
+"No, I hasn't," said Tony, and his eyes met his father's unflinchingly.
+"I's going to be a chief all ve time."
+
+The argument seemed unanswerable. Anthony considered swiftly what to do.
+He studied the grave brown eyes an instant in silence, their beauty and
+the inflexibility in their depths appealing to him with equal force. He
+loved the tough little will. He recognised it as his own--the same
+powerful quality which had brought him thus far on the road to fortune
+after being landed at the furthermost end from the goal. He would not for
+worlds deal with his son's will in any but the way which should seem to
+him wisest.
+
+He rose from his seat. He spoke quietly but with force. "Very well," he
+said. "If you're still a fire chief, of course you're too big to play. I'm
+much obliged to you for putting out my fire. But now that it's out I don't
+want your hook-and-ladder in my garden any longer. When your men take it
+away I shall be glad. But of course we can't play any more till you stop
+being a fire chief and the hook-and-ladder is back in its corner in the
+nursery. Good-bye. When you are ready to be Tony Robeson again, you'll
+find me in my den."
+
+He smiled at his son and walked away. Tony watched him go. Tony's hands
+were clasped behind his back, his legs planted wide apart.
+
+Anthony, Senior, found it difficult to remain in the den. He was obliged
+to keep track of a small figure in a blue blouse from whichever of the
+various windows commanded the doings of that young person. He perceived
+that the fire chief was still holding dominion over the scene.
+
+At the end of an hour small footsteps were heard approaching. Anthony
+looked up from the letter he was attempting to write. "Favver, may I have
+a bread and butter?" asked a pleasant voice. Anthony turned about in his
+chair.
+
+"Is the hook-and-ladder in the nursery?" he inquired gravely.
+
+Tony shook his head.
+
+"Oh, then you are still the fire chief. Fire chiefs go to the hotel for
+their bread and butter. I haven't any bread and butter for the fire
+chief."
+
+He turned back to his desk. The small figure in the doorway stood still a
+moment, then the footsteps were heard retreating. Five minutes later,
+Anthony, looking out, saw Tony careering about the garden on a
+hobby-horse.
+
+"Obstinate little duffer," he said affectionately to himself. "He's
+playing go to the hotel, I suppose. Perhaps when that imagination of his
+gets to work at hypothetical bread and butter he'll find the reality
+preferable to the fancy."
+
+In a short time Anthony again reconnoitred. The garden was empty. He
+looked out at the front of the house. No small figure in blue was to be
+seen. He went out and took a turn about the place. He called the boy;
+there was no response. From past experience and from the statements of
+Juliet and the young girls of the neighbourhood, whom, at various times,
+she was in the habit of engaging to assist her in the oversight of the
+child at his play, he knew that Tony had a trick of getting himself out of
+sight in an incredibly brief space of time.
+
+"As a fire chief he may consider himself free to do what he pleases," said
+Anthony to himself, and set about a thorough search of the place, having
+no doubt that at any moment he should come upon the boy carrying out the
+details of his imaginary vocation. After a time he went back into the
+house and scoured it from top to bottom. And when, even here, there was to
+be discovered no trace of the child, he began to feel a slight
+uneasiness.
+
+There was no source of immediate danger to a stray child in the
+neighbourhood, of which he was aware, except the electric line, and little
+Tony had never manifested the slightest inclination to approach this by
+himself. There were no open ponds, no traps of any kind for the incautious
+feet of a three-year-old. Everybody knew Tony, and everybody admired and
+loved him, so that, as Anthony took up his hat and started upon a more
+extended search, he had no doubt whatever of finding the runaway without
+delay.
+
+In a very short time it became a rousing of the neighbourhood. It was
+Saturday, and all the children who knew Tony were at hand. They were soon
+eagerly searching for him near and far, without finding the slightest
+trace of his passing. Anthony, now thoroughly alarmed, telephoned in every
+direction, warned every police station in the city, and took every
+possible step for the discovery of the child. It occurred to him with
+tremendous force that the boy might have been stolen. Such things did
+happen. It seemed almost the only way to account for such a sudden and
+mysterious disappearance.
+
+Before it seemed possible two hours had slipped past. And now, on every
+car which whirled by the corner, Anthony began to expect Juliet. He
+dreaded yet longed to see her. He turned cold at the thought of telling
+her the situation, yet at the same time he felt as if she might have some
+sort of a solution ready which nobody else had thought of. And while,
+still searching over and over the entire ground, he kept watch of the
+arriving cars, he saw his wife suddenly appear. He went to meet her.
+
+"What is it?" she said, the instant her eye met his.
+
+"I think it's all right, dear," he told her, as quietly as he could, "but
+somehow we can't find Tony. He disappeared during five minutes when I was
+in the house--too short a time for him to have got very far away, but--we
+can't find him. Do you think he may be hiding? Does he ever hide himself
+so effectually as that?"
+
+The bright colour in her face had slipped out of it on the instant, for he
+could not keep the anxiety out of his voice. But she said no word of
+reproach, nor did she lose command of herself in any way.
+
+"How long has he been gone?" she asked, going straight toward the house,
+Anthony close behind her.
+
+"I think--I am afraid--nearly two hours. I will tell you what happened. It
+is possible something I said is responsible for all this, though I don't
+know."
+
+She was going swiftly about the house, as he told her the story of his
+attempt to teach the boy a lesson, and she was listening closely to every
+word as she examined for herself each nook and corner. She disclosed
+several possible hiding places of which Anthony had not thought,
+explaining that Tony knew them all and sometimes betook himself to them in
+the course of various games. The two came out upon the porch, and Juliet
+stood still, thinking.
+
+"You have done everything to intercept him, if he should really have--got
+far away?"
+
+"Everything I can think of, except start out myself. I am ready to do
+that, if you think best."
+
+"Not until I have gone over the neighbourhood myself. I don't believe he
+is far away--I believe he is near. He may have heard every call you and
+the children have made, and wouldn't answer. If by any chance his pride
+has been a little hurt, he is very likely to do this sort of thing.
+Wait--have you looked--I wonder if the children know----"
+
+She was off without stopping to explain, through the garden and down the
+old willow-bordered path by the brook. Anthony followed. "I've been down
+here a dozen times," he called. "The brook is too shallow to hurt him, and
+he's certainly not anywhere on it within a mile. The children have been
+all over the ground."
+
+But Juliet did not pause. She ran along the path for some distance, then
+turned abruptly at a point where an abandoned lot filled with stumps
+joined the area by the brook. She made her swift way among these stumps,
+Anthony following, his hope rising as he noted the directness of his
+wife's aim. At the biggest stump she came to a standstill, carefully swung
+out-ward like a door a great slab of bark, and disclosed a hollow. The
+sunlight streamed in upon a little heap of blue, and a tangled brown mass
+of hair. Anthony Robeson, Junior, lay fast asleep in his cunningly devised
+retreat.
+
+Without a word his father stood looking down at the boy's flushed cheeks.
+Then he turned to Juliet, standing beside him, smiling through the tears
+which had not come until the anxiety was past. His own eyes were wet.
+
+"That was a bad scare," he said softly. "Thank God it's over."
+
+Then he stooped and gently lifted the fire chief and carried him home
+without waking him. Twenty children flocked joyfully from all about to
+see, and hushed their shouts of congratulation at Juliet's smiling
+warning.
+
+Anthony went alone down the garden to the place where the hook-and-ladder
+cart had stood. It was still there. He stood and looked at it, his eyes
+very tender but his lips firm. "The little chap didn't give in," he said
+to himself. "It's going to be hard to make him, but for the sake of the
+Robeson will I think we'll have to take up the job where we left it. I'd
+mightily like to flunk the whole business now, but I should be a pretty
+weak sort of a beggar if I did."
+
+When little Tony had wakened from his nap, and had been washed and brushed
+and fed, and made fresh in a clean frock, his mother brought him to his
+father.
+
+"Is this Tony Robeson?" Anthony asked soberly. Tony considered for a
+moment, then shook his head.
+
+"I's ve fire chief," he said, with polite stubbornness.
+
+"Have your men put away the hook-and-ladder cart?"
+
+"No, favver."
+
+"Are they going to do it?"
+
+"I didn't tell vem to."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Didn't want to."
+
+"Listen, son," said Anthony. "I could make the fire chief put away the
+cart. I'm stronger than he is, you know. I could make him walk out to
+where it lies in the garden, and I could make his hands pick it up and
+carry it into the house, and then it would be done.--Don't you think I
+could?"
+
+Tony considered. "Es, I fink 'ou could," he admitted. Evidently the
+question was one he could reflect upon from the standpoint of the
+outsider.
+
+"But I don't want to do that. I want Tony Robeson to put the cart away
+because his father asks him to do it. Don't you think he ought to do
+that?"
+
+"I isn't Tony Robeson, I'se ve fire chief."
+
+"Were you the fire chief when you woke up, and mother washed you and
+dressed you and gave you your lunch? I don't think she thought you were.
+If you had been the fire chief she would have left you to take care of
+yourself."
+
+Tony thought about it. "I dess I'se Tony wiv muvver," he said.
+
+"Then you aren't Tony with me?"
+
+The thick locks shook vehemently in the sir with the negative response. "I
+said I was ve fire chief, and I'se got to _be_ ve fire chief," he
+reiterated.
+
+Without question it was a battle of wills. But Anthony's mind was made up.
+For lack of time to deal with them previous similar issues had been dodged
+in various ways, compromises had been effected. It was plain that argument
+and reasoning, the wiles of the affectionately wise adversary who does not
+want to bring the matter to a direct conflict, had been tried. Anthony
+could see no way out except to dominate the child by the force of his own
+resolute character. It was not the way by which he wanted to obtain the
+mastery, but it was becoming plain to him that, in this case, at least, it
+was the only way left.
+
+His face grew stern all at once, his eyes, though still kind, met his
+son's with determination. "Tony," he said very gravely--and there was a
+new quality in his tone to which the child was not accustomed--"You are
+not the fire chief now. You are Tony Robeson. _I shall not let you be the
+fire chief any longer._ Do you understand?"
+
+There was no threat in the words, only a decisiveness of the sort before
+which men give way, because they see that there is no alternative. Tony
+stared into his father's eyes curiously. His own grew big with wonder,
+with something which was not alarm, but akin to it. He gazed and gazed, as
+if fascinated. Anthony's look held his; the man's powerful eyes did not
+flinch--neither did the boy's. It is possible that both pulses quickened a
+beat.
+
+Little Tony drew his eyes away at last, turned and started for the door.
+Silently Anthony watched him as he reached for the knob, turned again, and
+looked back at his father. On the very threshold the child stood still and
+stared back. His brown eyes filled, his red lips quivered. The stern face
+which watched his melted into a winning smile, and Anthony held out his
+arms. An instant longer, and his son had run across the floor and flung
+himself into them.
+
+When the childish storm of tears had quieted, and several big hugs had
+been exchanged, Anthony set the boy down upon the floor and took his hand.
+Silently the two walked out of the house and down the garden. The
+hook-and-ladder cart stood patiently waiting, just where it had waited all
+day. Little Tony ran to it and picked it up. Over his exquisite face broke
+the first smile that had been seen there since the earliest disregarded
+command of the morning.
+
+"Ve fire chief's gone," he said. "He was a bad fire chief."
+
+So together the man and the boy escorted the hook-and-ladder cart to the
+nursery, and backed it carefully into its stall, between the milk wagon
+and the automobile. Then the child went to his play. But the man drew a
+long breath.
+
+"I would rather manage a hundred striking workmen," he said to himself
+with emphasis.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI.--ON GUARD
+
+
+While little Tony had been growing, waxing strong and sturdy: while Juliet
+had been tending and training him, learning, as every mother does, more
+than she could impart: Anthony, in his place, had not stood still. The
+strength and determination he had from the first hour put into his daily
+work had begun to tell. His position in a great mercantile establishment
+had steadily advanced as he had made himself more and more indispensable
+to its heads.
+
+Cathcart, the successful architect, began to talk about a new home for the
+man into whose hands Henderson and Henderson were putting large interests
+to manage for them, and whose salary, he asserted, must now justify,
+indeed call for, life under more ideal surroundings than the little home
+in the unfashionable suburb which poverty had at first made necessary.
+
+"Let me draw some plans for you," urged Cathcart, one evening in June,
+when he had run out to see his friend. Juliet was by chance away, and
+Cathcart took advantage of this to call Anthony's attention, in a politely
+frank fashion, to the shortcomings of his present residence. "It's all
+right in its way," he said, standing upon a corner of the lawn with
+Anthony, and surveying the house critically. "Mrs. Robeson certainly
+deserves full credit for the admirable way in which she restored the old
+house and added just the changes in keeping with its possibilities. I've
+always said it couldn't have been better done, with the means you've told
+me you were able to put at her disposal. But the place is too small for
+you now."
+
+"I don't think we feel it so," said Anthony tentatively, strolling beside
+Cathcart along the edge of the lawn, his hands in his pockets, lifting
+friendly eyes at the little house. "Since we put in the bathroom--that
+small room off the upper hall, you know--and added the nursery and den,
+we're very comfortable. The furnace keeps us warm as toast, and we're soon
+to have the water system out here, so we won't have to depend upon our
+present expedients. I'm fond of the place, and I'm confident Mrs. Robeson
+is devoted to it."
+
+"I can understand that," agreed Cathcart. "Of course, the spot where you
+began life together will always have its charm for you both--in fact the
+sentiment of the matter may blind you to the real inadequacies of the
+place for a man in your position."
+
+"My position isn't so stable that I want to build a marble palace on it
+yet," said Anthony, a humorous twinkle in his eye. He enjoyed watching
+another man manoeuvre for his favourable hearing of a scheme. It was an
+art in which he was himself accomplished; it was one of the points of his
+value to Henderson and Henderson.
+
+"Everybody knows that you're in a fair way to become head man with the
+Hendersons," said Cathcart, "and everybody also knows that you might as
+well have struck a gold-mine. It's superb, the way you have come into the
+confidence of those old conservatives."
+
+"That's all well enough; but I don't see that it entails upon me the duty
+of laying out all I've saved on a new house. I know what you fellows
+are--when you begin to draw plans your love of the ideal runs away with
+the other man's pocketbook."
+
+"Not at all," declared Cathcart. "Particularly when he's a friend and you
+understand just what he can afford to do."
+
+"Why don't you talk about enlarging the old house? That's much more likely
+to appeal to my desires."
+
+The two had reached the back of the house and were close by the kitchen
+windows. Cathcart reached up and took hold of a sill. With a strong hand
+he wrenched and pounded about the window, until he succeeded in showing
+that it was old and uncertain.
+
+"That's why," he said, dusting his hand with his handkerchief. "The house
+is old--fairly rotten in places. The minute you began to enlarge it in any
+ambitious way you'd find it would be cheaper to tear it down and begin
+again. But the site, Robeson--the site isn't desirable. The place is
+respectable enough, but it has no future. The good building is all going
+south, not north, of the city. You don't want to spend a lot of money
+here--you couldn't sell out except at a loss."
+
+"Your arguments are good, very good," admitted Anthony; "so good that I'd
+like to put you on your mettle to draw me a set of plans for just the sort
+of thing you think I ought to have--or Mrs. Robeson ought to have, for
+she's the one to be considered. Anything will do for me. I'll let you do
+this--on one condition."
+
+"Name it."
+
+"That you also do your level best to demonstrate to me what a clever man
+and an artist of your proportions could make out of this house, provided
+he really wanted to show the extent of his ability. Now, that's fair. If
+you really care to convince me you won't fool with this proposition,
+you'll make a study of the one problem as thoroughly as you do of the
+other, and let me decide the case on its merits. If I thought you weren't
+giving the old house a fair chance I should take up its cause out of pure
+affection."
+
+He smiled at Cathcart's discontented face with so brilliant a good humour
+that the architect cleared up.
+
+"By Jove, Robeson," he said, "I think I see what endears you to the
+Hendersons. I wouldn't have said you could have induced me to try my hand
+at the old house, but I'll be hanged if I don't follow your instructions
+to the letter--and win out, too."
+
+"Good," said Anthony. "And don't mention it to my wife. We'll keep it for
+a surprise; and I promise you when the time comes I won't prejudice her in
+any way."
+
+Cathcart drew out a notebook and pencil and entered some memoranda on the
+spot, while Anthony, coming up on the piazza of the dining-room, laid upon
+the old Dutch house-door a hand which seemed to caress it. He was
+wondering if by any possible magic Cathcart could create, in the rarest
+abode in the world, a new door which he should ever care to enter as he
+now cared to enter this.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I think," said Juliet decidedly, "you're wrong about it."
+
+"And I know," returned Anthony with emphasis, "that you are."
+
+The two faced each other. They were walking through a short stretch of
+woodland, which lay as yet untouched by the hand of suburban property
+owners. It was a favourite ground for the diversions of the Robesons, when
+they had not time to spend in getting farther away. They had been
+strolling through it now, in the early June evening, discussing a matter
+relative to the investment of a certain moderate sum of money which had
+come into Anthony's hands. It developed that their ideas about it differed
+radically.
+
+"It's not safe to do as you propose," said Juliet.
+
+"To do what you propose would be only one better than tying it up in an
+old stocking--or putting it away in the coffee pot. It's essentially a
+woman's plan--no man would do it the honour of considering it a moment."
+
+Juliet flushed brilliantly. Even in Anthony's cheek the colour rose a
+little. Their eyes met with a challenge.
+
+"Very well," said Juliet proudly. "I'll offer no more woman's plans.
+Invest the money as you like. Then, when you've lost it----"
+
+Anthony's eyes flashed. "When I've lost it----" he began, and turned away
+with a gesture of impatience. Then he stopped short. "That isn't like
+you," he said.
+
+Juliet stared at him an instant. Then she shut her lips together and
+walked on in silence. Anthony shut his lips together also. It was not
+their habit to indulge in sharp altercation. While both had decided ideas
+about things, both were also much too well bred to be willing to allow
+differences of opinion--which must arise as inevitably as two human beings
+live under the same roof--to degenerate into the deplorable thing commonly
+referred to as a quarrel.
+
+When they had proceeded a few rods Juliet turned abruptly off from the
+path and picked up from the ground a slender straight stick, evidently cut
+and trimmed by some boy and then thrown aside. She looked about her and
+after some search found another, of similar size, untrimmed. She held out
+the latter to Anthony. He accepted it with a look of surprise. Then she
+walked into the path in front of him, stood stiff and straight, her small
+heels together, and made him the fencer's salute. "_On guard!_" she
+cried.
+
+His lips relaxing, Anthony grasped his stick and fell into position. A
+moment more and two accomplished fencers were engaged in close combat.
+
+Juliet happened to be wearing a trim linen skirt of short walking length,
+which impeded her movements as slightly as anything not strictly adapted
+to the exercise could do. Although her fencing lessons were some years
+past, the paraphernalia belonging both to herself and Anthony were in the
+house, and an occasional bout with the masks and foils was a means of
+exercise and diversion which both thoroughly enjoyed. Although Juliet was
+no match for the superior skill and endurance of her husband, she was
+nevertheless no mean antagonist, and her alertness of eye and hand usually
+gave him sufficient to do to make the encounter a stimulating one.
+
+On the present occasion Anthony, challenged to combat with his coat and
+cuffs on, and wielding the more awkward weapon of the two impromptu foils,
+found himself distinctly at a disadvantage. Moreover, he was at the moment
+not precisely in the mood for fun, and he began to defend himself with a
+somewhat lazy indifference. After a minute or two, however, he discovered
+that his adversary's slightly ruffled temper was inspiring her hand and
+wrist to distinctly effective work, and he found himself forced to look to
+his methods.
+
+Attack and parade, disengagement and thrust--the battle was waged over the
+uneven ground of the wood. And presently Anthony discovered that the
+richly glowing face opposite his was a smiling one. The absurdity of the
+match struck him irresistibly and he smiled in return. He tripped a little
+over an obtruding oak-root, and Juliet took advantage of her opportunity
+to press him hard. He fended off the attack and himself assumed the
+aggressive. An instant more and he had disarmed her and had thrown his own
+stick flying after hers. Both were laughing heartily enough.
+
+"Forgive the trick," cried Anthony. "A man must disarm his wife when she
+becomes his enemy."
+
+Breathless, Juliet sank upon a small knoll, her hand at her side. "If I'd
+been dressed for it--" she panted.
+
+"You need coaching on your time thrusts, but you gave me plenty to do as
+it was," Anthony admitted. "More than that, you've presented me with a
+chance to recover my equilibrium. I was hot inside before. Now it's all on
+the outside."
+
+He looked down at her affectionately. She smiled back. "I was crosser than
+sticks," she said. "I really can't imagine why, now. I apologise."
+
+"So do I." He threw himself down on the ground at her feet, lay flat on
+his back, his clasped hands behind his head, and gazed up into the
+tree-tops.
+
+"I'll take your advice into careful consideration," said he.
+
+"I know you won't do anything rash," said she, and they both laughed
+again.
+
+"How much more diplomatic that sort of talk is," he observed. "Why do we
+ever allow ourselves to use any other?"
+
+"Because we are human, I suppose." Juliet was putting a mass of waving
+brown hair, disordered by the fight, into shape again. "It isn't nice. We
+don't do it often. To-night you came home tired, and found a wife who had
+been entertaining people from town all the afternoon. But it's all right
+now, isn't it?"
+
+She bent forward, and Anthony took her outstretched hand in his own and
+gave it a grip which made it sting. He began to whistle cheerfully.
+
+"Should we be happier if we never disagreed?" she asked thoughtfully.
+
+The whistle stopped. "Jupiter, no! I want a thinking being to talk things
+over with, not a mental pincushion."
+
+"Thank you.--Isn't it lovely here?"
+
+"Delightful.--Julie, do you know we'll have been married five years next
+September?"
+
+"It doesn't seem possible."
+
+"I shouldn't know it, to look at you," he observed. He rolled upon his
+left side and regarded her from under intent brows. "You haven't grown a
+day older."
+
+"I'm not sure that's a compliment."
+
+"It's meant for one. Do you know you're a beauty?"
+
+"I never was one and never shall be," she answered laughing, but she could
+not object to the obvious sincerity of his opinion as he delivered it.
+
+"You're near enough to satisfy me. I'd rather have your good looks than
+all the--Well, I sat in front of a newly married pair on the way home
+to-night--that fellow Scrivener and his bride. _She's_ what people call a
+raving beauty, I suppose. I wouldn't have her in the house at a dollar an
+hour. She's a whiner. Had him doing something to satisfy her whim every
+minute. I heard him trying to tell her about something that interested
+him, but she couldn't take time from herself to listen. His voice had a
+note of fatigue in it, already, or I'm not Robeson. I tell you,
+Juliet--that's the sort of thing that makes a bachelor vow to stay single,
+and he can't be blamed."
+
+"Suppose a bachelor had overheard us half an hour ago?"
+
+"I'm glad none did--but if he had it wouldn't have disgusted him the way
+the other sort of thing did me to-day. A brisk little altercation is
+nothing, with unlimited hours of friendliness and understanding before and
+after. But a perpetual drizzle of fault finding and exactions--would make
+a fellow go hang himself. Mrs. Robeson, do you know, you're a very
+exceptional young person?"
+
+"In what way, sir?"
+
+"Whatever you do, you never nag. I've an awful suspicion that Judith Carey
+nags. You know how to let a man alone when he's in the mood for being
+alone. She never does. Carey had me out there not long ago, for what he
+called a quiet, confidential talk on some business matters. We went into
+what is supposed to be his private room and shut the door. Probably she
+came to that door not less than twelve times during that two hours. She
+called Carey away on every sort of pretext. Once she got him to do a
+stroke of work for her that took up at least ten minutes neither of us
+could spare. And she looked like a thundercloud every time I caught a
+glimpse of her face. Cæsar!--think of having to live with that sort of
+person. No wonder Carey looks old before his time."
+
+"It's certainly unfortunate. But I'm not an exception, Tony. There are
+plenty of women who know when to keep out of the way."
+
+"Well, then, they're erratic on some other line, that's all. You're
+absolutely the only thoroughly sweet and sane woman I know."
+
+"My dear boy! Remember how snappish I was just this evening."
+
+"I was grouchy enough to match it. I tell you, Julie--the women who don't
+talk you to death on every subject, important or trivial, bore you with
+idiotic questions or impertinence about your affairs. How do I know so
+much about 'em? My dear, dozens of them come into the office every day,
+and Mr. Henderson has acquired a habit lately of turning them all over to
+me. I earn a double salary every hour I spend that way--wish I could put
+in a demand for it. Speaking of salaries, dear"--Anthony suddenly sat
+up--"I've no right to be grouchy, for I'm promised another advance next
+month."
+
+"Splendid!" She put out her hand, and the two shook hands vigorously
+again, like the pair of comrades they were.
+
+"Juliet," said her husband, watching her face closely. "It's been a happy
+five years, hasn't it?"
+
+"A happy five years, Tony."
+
+"Do you mean it?" He smiled at her. "You've never been sorry?" Then he got
+to his feet and held out his hand again to help her up. "The mortal combat
+we engaged in gave you a magnificent colour," he commented, and passed
+affectionate fingers across the smooth cheek near his shoulder.
+"Sweetheart----" he drew her into his arms--"I may fence with you once in
+a while with sharp words for weapons, but--do you know how I love you?"
+
+"I wonder why?"
+
+"It's strange, isn't it?--after all these years. To be really up-to-date,
+we should long since have become interested each in some other----"
+
+A hand came gently but effectually upon his mouth. He kissed the hand.
+"No, I won't say it. It's a cynical philosophy, and I'll not take its
+language on my lips--not with my wife in my arms, giving the lie to that
+sort of thing. Julie, we're not sentimentalists because we still
+care----"
+
+"Who thinks we are?"
+
+"Plenty of envious skeptics, I'll wager. I see it in their green-eyed
+glances. They can't believe it's genuine. Dear--is it genuine? Look up,
+and tell me."
+
+She looked up, and seeing his heart in his eyes, met his deep caress with
+a tenderness which told him more than she could have put into the words
+she suddenly found it impossible to speak.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII.--LOCKWOOD PAYS A CALL
+
+
+"Did you know Roger Barnes was back?" asked Wayne Carey of Anthony
+Robeson, on the evening of the twenty-fifth of June, as the two met on the
+street corner from which Anthony was to take his car. Electrics ran within
+a few rods of his home now, but they ran only at fifteen-minute intervals
+and were difficult to catch.
+
+"No. To stay this time, I hope?"
+
+"Off again to-morrow. Never saw such a fellow--restless as a fish. Been
+working all winter in Vienna--off to-morrow on the Overland Limited to
+sail Saturday for Hongkong. Goes to do a special operation on the
+Emperor's brother or some swell of the sort. He's been doing some mighty
+slick operating, according to the medical review I ran across in a throat
+specialist's office."
+
+"I must see him. Where is he?"
+
+"At your house now, more than likely. Said he'd got to see you, and if you
+haven't seen him yet you're sure to before he goes to-morrow night. By the
+way, Anthony, do you know what we heard lately about Rachel
+Redding--Huntington? That she wasn't married to Huntington till the night
+he died, almost three years ago."
+
+Anthony stared.
+
+"Guess it's straight, too," pursued Carey. "Queer she should have kept it
+all this time. Didn't Juliet hear from her at all?"
+
+"Only once or twice, I believe."
+
+"Her father and mother both died last winter."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"The man who told me was a traveller. Said she and Huntington's mother
+were coming back to live East again. He was an Eastern man himself--knew
+Huntington, and got interested when he heard the name out in Arizona.
+'Alexander Huntington's' rather an uncommon name, you know. But what could
+have been her motive for keeping everything so still?"
+
+"I've no idea," said Anthony, and let Carey talk on by himself till the
+car came. He was unwilling to discuss Rachel Redding's affairs on a street
+corner even with Wayne Carey, because she was Juliet's friend. But he had
+an idea as to why Rachel had been so reserved about herself. There were
+three men in the East whose interest in Huntington's life or death had not
+been an altogether unbiased one. He could understand that the girl would
+not be eager to declare herself free to them, though the fact of
+Huntington's death had reached them soon after its occurrence. But this
+other fact--that she had married him only at the last moment--it was
+obvious that the sort of girl Rachel Redding was would never make capital
+out of that strange occurrence, whatever its explanation might be. That
+Roger Barnes knew nothing of it he was quite certain.
+
+He missed Juliet from the corner where she and the boy usually met him,
+and hurrying on to the house came upon his wife just as she was leaving.
+
+"Oh, I didn't realise I was late, dear," she said, while Anthony swung his
+little son up to his shoulder, eliciting triumphant shouts as a reward.
+"Tony, Rachel is here."
+
+"_Rachel?_"
+
+"Hush--yes; she's upstairs, and her window is open. Walk down the orchard
+with me and I'll tell you. Her coming, an hour ago, was what made me
+forget the time."
+
+"Carey was talking about her this afternoon," said Anthony, strolling by
+her side and carrying on a frolic with the boy at the same time. "He'd
+just heard a singular thing--that she wasn't married to Huntington till
+the very night he died."
+
+"She told me. She's going away to-night, she insists; but I shall not let
+her. No, Mr. Huntington wouldn't let her marry him. After they went away
+he said he wouldn't take her unless he got well. Tony, he was a fine
+character; in our sympathy for Roger Barnes we haven't appreciated him. It
+was only at the last that he let her do it. She found out how happy it
+would make him then, and she would have it so."
+
+"I'm glad she did--poor fellow. Juliet, Roger Barnes is in town."
+
+"Really?" Juliet stopped, her breath catching. "Oh, Tony----"
+
+"Came day before yesterday--leaves to-morrow night for Hongkong."
+
+"Tony!"
+
+Anthony looked down at her, smiling. "There's a situation for you. Can you
+be expected to keep your friendly hands off that possibility?"
+
+"He won't go away without coming to see us?"
+
+"Most certainly not."
+
+"Then he will naturally come to-night."
+
+"It's more than probable."
+
+"Tony, I won't be trying to manage fate--that's what the doctor calls
+it--if I keep Rachel here until after----"
+
+"Until after the Overland Limited leaves for San Francisco? Well, fate
+needs a little assistance once in a while. I think you may legitimately
+persuade Rachel to stay, if you can. What is her hurry, anyway?"
+
+"I can't find out, except that I imagine she's afraid of meeting one of
+the men she most assuredly would meet if they knew she had come. She
+thinks Roger Barnes is in Vienna still."
+
+"She does? Ye gods! I think my knees will begin to tremble if I see their
+meeting imminent. Come, son, let's try a race to the house. I'll give you
+to the big, crooked apple tree. One--two--three--go!"
+
+Juliet followed more slowly, thinking busily. Rachel had been very decided
+about going back into the city that night. Mrs. Huntington, Senior, was
+with friends, who had begged her daughter's acceptance of their
+hospitality, and for the elder woman's sake she had acquiesced. Rachel was
+a keeper of promises, Juliet knew. And to tell her of the probability of
+the doctor's appearance would be a doubtful means of securing her
+detention. But if, for any reason, the doctor should fail to
+appear--Juliet made up her mind that she would give fate her chance until
+nine o'clock that night. If by that time Barnes had not come----
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+Juliet looked on eagerly while Anthony greeted Rachel. Her friend had
+never seemed to her so lovely as now, in her simple black gown,
+accentuating, as it did, the deep tone of her hair and eyes. Her face had
+gained in colour and contour in the Arizona climate--its tints were
+richer. The delicacy of her features was not changed, but their beauty was
+greater.
+
+"You've lived much outdoors, I see," said Anthony, when dinner was over
+and the three had gone out upon the porch, "and it's been good for you."
+
+"I've even slept outdoors," Rachel told them, "fully half the year; and
+ridden horseback every day. I can't quite think how the electrics are
+going to seem in place of my gallop on Scot. The people on the ranch where
+we were have simply made me do the things they did. The owner was a dear
+old gentleman; he gave me Scot. He wanted to send him after me; but nurses
+have small use for horses, I believe," she ended, smiling.
+
+"That's the plan, is it?"
+
+"Yes. It's what I can do best, I think. I am to enter the training-school
+the first of July, at the Larchmont Memorial Hospital."
+
+"I'll wager tremendous odds you don't," thought Anthony, "in spite of that
+confident tone. If Roger Barnes looks in to-night it's all up with your
+plans--or make a bigger fight than even you can do. A man who can't stay
+in his own town because you are out of it----"
+
+He was sitting--purposely--where he faced the road. He had considerately
+offered Rachel a chair with her back to the highway. Juliet was swinging
+lightly in the hammock behind the vines. Anthony, talking on about Arizona
+and the Larchmont Memorial, kept an eye on the approach to the house from
+the corner where visitors always left the car. His watch was rewarded at
+length by the sight of a figure rapidly turning the corner and making
+straight for the house.
+
+"Now we're in for it," he thought. "From now on the question with Juliet
+and me will be how we can most gracefully efface ourselves without seeming
+to do it. If I remember this young person correctly she's a little
+difficult to leave unchaperoned against her will."
+
+Out of the corner of his eye he kept track of the approaching figure. It
+was coming on at a great pace, and in the twilight could be seen looming
+taller and taller as it crossed the road and turned in across the lawn,
+making a short cut according to Barnes's own fashion, so that the coming
+footsteps were noiseless, even to the moment when the figure reached the
+porch itself.
+
+"Now for it," thought Anthony, feeling as if the curtain were about to
+ascend on the fourth act of a play, when the third had ended amidst all
+possible excitement.
+
+"I found the roses blooming just as they used to do, at the side of the
+house"--Rachel's warm, contralto voice was answering a question from
+Juliet--"only so untended. I think I shall have to come out again before I
+begin my work, to look after them."
+
+Anthony did not turn as the step he had been watching for sounded upon the
+porch. To save his life he could not help keeping his eyes upon Rachel's
+face. Rachel herself looked up with the air of the visitor who does not
+know the guests of the house, and the expression Anthony saw upon her face
+showed only the slightest possible surprise--certainly no other feeling.
+
+Juliet rose. "Ah, Mr. Lockwood," she said, with a cordiality, sincere
+little person though she was, Anthony knew for once she did not feel. "In
+the dusk I couldn't be quite sure."
+
+Lockwood's eyes instantly turned to Rachel. That he had known in some way
+whom he was to see was evident from a most unusual agitation in his
+manner.
+
+"Mrs.--Huntington," he got out somehow, taking her hand, and staring
+eagerly down into her face, "I heard you were home, and I hoped to find
+you here. I--you are--I am extremely glad----"
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+Half an hour later Anthony came upon his wife in the darkness of the
+dining-room. "Oh, you shouldn't have left them when I was away," she said.
+"Little Tony cried out and I had to go. I know Rachel doesn't want to be
+left with him to-night."
+
+"Angels and chaperons defend us," muttered Anthony. "I can't stand it
+forever to feel a man wanting to kill me for staying by him through a
+meeting like this, after three years. I didn't know but Lockwood would
+attempt to throw me off my own porch. Give him a chance--he hasn't any,
+anyhow."
+
+"It's after nine," whispered Juliet.
+
+"I know it. Roger's taking a terrible risk."
+
+"He doesn't know she's here. But I thought he cared enough for us to----"
+
+"That's what I've been so sure of. He's probably been detained by some
+case. He's getting so distinguished, the minute he sets foot in town now
+the folks with things the matter with them begin to block his path. I hope
+she knows what she throws over her shoulder if she refuses him now."
+
+"I don't see that she's going to have a chance to refuse him," mourned
+Juliet. "Do you think he'd ever forgive us if we let him get away without
+knowing she was here?"
+
+"Lockwood found it out, somehow. Carey's safe to tell him if he sees
+him--and he's pretty sure to, at Roger's club."
+
+"You couldn't telephone?"
+
+"Where? If he can he'll come here, if only to get news of her. She's never
+let him write to her, has she?"
+
+"He told me she hadn't when he was here last fall. And she didn't know
+where he was."
+
+"Fellow-conspirator," whispered Anthony, "we'll give fate her chance
+to-night. If she bungles the game we'll take it into our own hands
+to-morrow. But I've a feeling I'd like to let it happen by itself, if it
+will."
+
+When Lockwood had gone--which was not until eleven o'clock, in spite of
+the way his hosts remained in his vicinity--Rachel stood still upon the
+porch smiling a little wearily at Juliet.
+
+"My staying all night has been settled for me," she said. "There was no
+way to go."
+
+"Luckily for us," Juliet answered. "Sit here a little longer, dear. It's
+such a perfect night, and I know we shall see little enough of you when
+you get at work."
+
+Rachel dropped into the hammock. "I should like to lie here all night,"
+she said, "and watch the stars until I go to sleep. I've done that so
+many, many nights from under a tent flap."
+
+All at once she looked up, her eyes widening. Upon the porch step stood a
+strong figure--as unlike Lockwood's gracefully slender one as possible. A
+man's eyes were gazing steadily down into hers--determined gray eyes, with
+a light in them. The two faces were plainly visible to each other in the
+radiance from the open door.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII.--A HIGH-HANDED AFFAIR
+
+
+If she had not been standing in the doorway Juliet would have run away,
+but she had to welcome Dr. Roger Barnes, a traveler whom she had not seen
+for almost a year. Her presence, however, after one glad greeting, seemed
+not to bother him much. He turned from her to Rachel, who had risen, and
+took her outstretched hand in both his.
+
+"It's been rather a long evening," he said, "wandering around and around
+this place, waiting for the other man to go. I explored the orchard and
+the willow path, and every familiar haunt. I had to refresh myself
+occasionally by stealing up for a glimpse of your face between the vines.
+But, somehow, that only made it harder to wait. I had to march myself off
+again with my fists gripped tight in my pockets to keep them off that
+fellow, eating you up with his eyes--confound him--you, who belong only to
+me."
+
+He did not smile as he said the last words, but stood looking eagerly at
+her with a gaze that never faltered. She tried to draw her hands away; it
+was useless. Juliet slipped off, knowing that neither of them would see
+her go.
+
+"Come down on the lawn with me," he said, but she resisted.
+
+"Please stay here, Doctor Barnes," she said, "and please let me have my
+hand. I can't talk so."
+
+"You needn't talk--for a while," he answered. He sat down facing her. "At
+six o'clock I found out you were here. At eight--as soon as I could get
+away--I came out. I told you how I spent the evening. If I had needed
+anything to sharpen my longing for you that would have done it--but I
+think I had reached about the limit of what I could bear in that line
+already. It has been one constant augmenting thirst for a draught that was
+out of my reach. I shouldn't have kept my promise not to write you another
+day after I had been here this time and heard--what I have heard,
+Rachel."
+
+She did not answer. Her face was turned away; she was very still. Only a
+slightly quickened breathing, of which he was barely conscious, betrayed
+to him that this was not listening of an ordinary sort.
+
+"I shouldn't have said anything could make any difference with my feeling,
+to strengthen it," he went on very quietly, after a while, "but I find it
+has. I don't try to explain it to myself, except by the one thing I am
+sure of--that Alexander Huntington was the noblest and most heroic of men,
+and deserved to the full those last few hours of knowledge that you had
+taken his name. And I can understand your loyalty to him in wishing to
+wear it these three years. But, Rachel, I can't let you wear it any
+longer."
+
+She turned her face a shade farther away.
+
+"I am leaving to-morrow night for another year's absence." He spoke as
+simply as if he were discussing the most ordinary of subjects. "So I can
+see but one thing to do, and that is----"
+
+He got up and came around behind her, standing in the shadow of the vines,
+where the light did not touch him--"and that is, to take you with me."
+
+He had not said it doubtfully, although his inflection was very gentle.
+She moved quickly, startled.
+
+"Doctor Barnes----"
+
+"Yes, I'm ready for them. You can't raise an objection that I'm not ready
+for, not one that I can't meet--except one. And that you can't raise,
+Rachel."
+
+She was silent, the words upon her lips held in check by this last bold
+declaration.
+
+"You see you can't, being truthful," he said, smiling a little. "If I seem
+too confident, forgive me; but I've carried with me all these years that
+one look, when you forgot to veil your eyes away from me as you always
+had--and always have since then. When I get that look from you again----"
+He paused, drawing a long breath. "I don't dare dream of it. Rachel, will
+you go?"
+
+She tried to glance at him, and managed it, but no higher than his
+shoulders.
+
+"I am engaged to take the training for nurses at the Larchmont
+Memorial----" she began.
+
+But he interrupted her joyfully. "You don't say, 'I don't love you'--it's
+only, 'I was intending to be a nurse.' I told you you couldn't say it,
+because it isn't true. You do love me, Rachel. Tell me so."
+
+Her hurried breathing was plainly perceptible now. She rose quickly, as if
+she could not bear the telltale lamplight upon her face any longer, and
+went hurriedly across the porch and down upon the lawn, into the
+starlight. He followed her, his pulses bounding.
+
+"Oh, give up to me," he said in her ear, his own breath coming fast.
+"You've been fighting it four years now--it's no use. We were made for
+each other, and we've known it from the first. You stood heroically by
+your first promise--you gave him all you could; but that's all over. You
+don't have to be true to anything or anybody now but me. Give up, dear,
+and let me know what it feels like to have you pull a man toward you
+instead of pushing him away."
+
+They had reached the edge of the orchard--in deep shadow; and she
+stopped.
+
+"I don't know what I came down here for," she said, in confusion.
+
+"I do; you were running away. It's your instinct to run away--I love you
+for it--it's what first made me want to follow. But I can't stand your
+running away much longer. Look, Rachel, can you see? I'm holding out my
+arms. Rachel--I can't wait----"
+
+For an instant longer she held out, while he stood silent, holding himself
+that he might have the long-dreamed-of joy of receiving her surrender.
+Then, all at once, he realised that it had been worth all his days of
+patient and impatient waiting, for turning to him at last she gave
+herself, with the abandon such natures are capable of showing when they
+yield after long resistance, into the arms which closed hungrily around
+her.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+If anybody could have told what happened during the next twenty-four hours
+it would have been Juliet, for it was she who took the helm of affairs.
+She lay awake half the night, or what there was left of it after the
+doctor had come back with Rachel and told his friends what had happened
+and what was yet to happen, planning to make the hasty wedding as ideal as
+might be. She was a wonderful planner, and a most energetic and
+enthusiastic young matron as well, so by five in the afternoon she had
+accomplished all that had seemed to her good. Rachel's part was only to
+see that her trunk was packed, her explanations offered and good-byes
+said, and her choice made of several exquisite white gowns which Juliet
+had had sent out from town.
+
+"But I can't be married in white, Mrs. Robeson," she had said protestingly
+when Juliet had opened the boxes.
+
+"Yes, you can--and must. This is your only bridal, dear. The other--you
+know that was only what the doctor said of it once--'your hand in his to
+the last'--the hand of a friend. But this--isn't this different?"
+
+Rachel had turned away her face. "Yes, this is different," she had owned.
+"But----"
+
+"He asked me to beg you for him to have it so," Juliet urged, and Rachel
+was silent. So the simplest of the white frocks it was, and in it Rachel
+looked as Juliet had meant she should.
+
+Only Judith and Wayne Carey were asked down to see them married. To humour
+the doctor the ceremony was performed in the orchard, near the entrance to
+the willow path. The time afterward was short, and before she knew it
+Juliet was bidding the two good-bye.
+
+"I've got her," said the doctor, looking from Juliet to Rachel, who stood
+at his side. "She's mine--all mine. I have to keep saying it over and over
+to make sure."
+
+"For your comfort," answered Juliet, smiling at them both, "I'll tell you
+that she looks as if she were yours."
+
+"Does she?" he cried, laughing happily. "How does she look?" He turned and
+surveyed her. "She looks very proud and sweet and still--she's always been
+those things--and very beautiful--more beautiful than ever before. But do
+you think she really looks as if she were mine? Tell me how."
+
+Juliet turned from him, big and eager like a boy, to his bride, "proud and
+sweet and still," as he had said. "I've never seen Rachel look absolutely
+happy before," she told him. "There's always been a bit of a shadow. But
+now--look down into her eyes, Roger; there's no shadow there now."
+
+But when he would have looked Rachel's lashes fell. "Not yet? By-and-by
+then, Rachel," he whispered. Then he turned to Juliet--and Anthony, who
+had come up to stand beside her.
+
+"If it hadn't been for you and your home-making this day would never have
+come for me," he said. "You have been good friends and true, to us both.
+Let us keep you so--and good-bye."
+
+
+
+
+XXIX.--JULIET PROVES HERSELF STILL INDIFFERENT
+
+
+On a July evening, a month later, Cathcart and a great roll of architects'
+paper arrived on the Robeson porch. For an hour Juliet looked and
+listened, while Anthony, as he had promised, said not a word to bias her
+decision. Cathcart laid before her plans for a new house which were--even
+Anthony could but admit to himself beyond praise. From every
+standpoint--the artistic, the domestic, the practical, even the
+economical, so far as the modern architect understands the meaning of the
+word--the plans were ideal. Juliet studied them absorbedly, showing
+plainly her appreciation of them.
+
+"It would be a beautiful home," she said at length. "I can think of
+nothing more perfect than such a house."
+
+Cathcart looked triumphant. Without glancing at Anthony he produced
+another set of plans.
+
+"Just to please myself, Mrs. Robeson," he announced, "I have spent some
+interesting hours in trying to show what could be done with this old
+house, should any one care to lay out a reasonable sum upon it. Frankly,
+old houses never repay much expenditure of money, yet there is a certain
+satisfaction in working out the details of restoration and improvement
+which makes interesting study. Purely as a matter of that sort I have
+fancied such extensions as these."
+
+He laid the plans before her. Juliet looked, bent over them, cried out
+with delight, and called upon Anthony to join her.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Cathcart," she said eagerly, "before you proved yourself an
+exceedingly fine architect; but now you show yourself a master. To make
+this of the old house--why, it's far the higher art."
+
+Anthony glanced, laughing, across at Cathcart, whose face had fallen so
+pronouncedly that Juliet would have seen it if she had been observing. But
+she was too absorbed in the new plans.
+
+"If we could do this," she was saying, "it would satisfy my best ideals of
+a permanent home."
+
+"But, my dear Mrs. Robeson," stammered the man of castles, "consider the
+location--the neighbourhood--the rural character of the surroundings."
+
+"I do," she answered, still studying the plans. "I love them all--and the
+old home most of all. Ever since I knew"--how had she known? they
+wondered--"that a change of houses was a possible thing for us I have been
+homesick in anticipation of a change I couldn't bear to think of. Yet I
+wondered if we ought to go. But if you can make this of the old home----"
+
+She lifted to her husband an enthusiastic face. His eyes met hers in a
+long look in which each read deep into the mind of the other. Then Anthony
+Robeson, like a man who hears precisely what he most wants to hear, turned
+smiling to Cathcart.
+
+"I think you've lost, Steve," he said.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Good Fiction Worth Reading.
+
+A series of romances containing several of the old favorites in the field
+of historical fiction, replete with powerful romances of love and
+diplomacy that excel in thrilling and absorbing interest.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+WINDSOR CASTLE. A Historical Romance of the Reign of Henry VIII, Catharine
+of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. By Wm. Harrison Ainsworth, Cloth. 12mo. with
+four illustrations by George Cruikshank. Price, $1.00.
+
+  "Windsor Castle" is the story of Henry VIII., Catharine, and Anne
+  Boleyn. "Bluff King Hal," although a well-loved monarch, was none too
+  good a one in many ways. Of all his selfishness and unwarrantable
+  acts, none was more discreditable than his divorce from Catharine, and
+  his marriage to the beautiful Anne Boleyn. The King's love was as
+  brief as it was vehement. Jane Seymour, waiting maid on the Queen,
+  attracted him, and Anne Boleyn was forced to the block to make room
+  for her successor. This romance is one of extreme interest to all
+  readers.
+
+HORSESHOE ROBINSON. A tale of the Tory Ascendency in South Carolina in
+1780. By John P. Kennedy. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by Watson
+Davis. Price, $1.00.
+
+  Among the old favorites in the field of what is known as historical
+  fiction, there are none which appeal to a larger number of Americans
+  than Horseshoe Robinson, and this because it is the only story which
+  depicts with fidelity to the facts the heroic efforts of the colonists
+  in South Carolina to defend their homes against the brutal oppression
+  of the British under such leaders as Cornwallis and Tarleton.
+
+  The reader is charmed with the story of love which forms the thread of
+  the tale, and then impressed with the wealth of detail concerning
+  those times. The picture of the manifold sufferings of the people, is
+  never overdrawn, but painted faithfully and honestly by one who spared
+  neither time nor labor in his efforts to present in this charming love
+  story all that price in blood and tears which the Carolinians paid as
+  their share in the winning of the republic.
+
+  Take it all in all, "Horseshoe Robinson" is a work which should be
+  found on every book-shelf, not only because it is a most entertaining
+  story, but because of the wealth of valuable information concerning
+  the colonists which it contains. That it has been brought out once
+  more, well illustrated, is something which will give pleasure to
+  thousands who have long desired an opportunity to read the story
+  again, and to the many who have tried vainly in these latter days to
+  procure a copy that they might read it for the first time.
+
+THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. A story of the Coast of Maine. By Harriet
+Beecher Stowe. Cloth, 12mo. Illustrated. Price, $1.00.
+
+  Written prior to 1862, the "Pearl of Orr's Island" is ever new: a book
+  filled with delicate fancies, such as seemingly array themselves anew
+  each time one reads them. One sees the "sea like an unbroken mirror
+  all around the pine-girt, lonely shores of Orr's Island" and
+  straightway comes "the heavy, hollow moan of the surf on the beach,
+  like the wild angry howl of some savage animal."
+
+  Who can read of the beginning of that sweet life, named Mara, which
+  came into this world under the very shadow of the Death angel's wings,
+  without having an intense desire to know how the premature bud
+  blossomed? Again and again one lingers over the descriptions of the
+  character of that baby boy Moses, who came through the tempest, amid
+  the angry billows, pillowed on his dead mother's breast.
+
+  There is no more faithful portrayal of New England life than that
+  which Mrs. Stowe gives in "The Pearl of Orr's Island."
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the
+publishers, A. L. BURT COMPANY, 52-58 Duane St., New York.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Good Fiction Worth Reading.
+
+A series of romances containing several of the old favorites in the field
+of historical fiction, replete with powerful romances of love and
+diplomacy that excel in thrilling and absorbing interest.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+GUY FAWKES. A Romance of the Gunpowder Treason. By Wm. Harrison Ainsworth.
+Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by George Cruikshank. Price, $1.00.
+
+  The "Gunpowder Plot" was a modest attempt to blow up Parliament, the
+  King and his Counsellors. James of Scotland, then King of England, was
+  weak-minded and extravagant. He hit upon the efficient scheme of
+  extorting money from the people by imposing taxes on the Catholics. In
+  their natural resentment to this extortion, a handful of bold spirits
+  concluded to overthrow the government. Finally the plotters were
+  arrested, and the King put to torture Guy Fawkes and the other
+  prisoners with royal vigor. A very intense love story runs through the
+  entire romance.
+
+THE SPIRIT OF THE BORDER. A Romance of the Early Settlers in the Ohio
+Valley. By Zane Grey. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson
+Davis. Price, $1.00.
+
+  A book rather out of the ordinary is this "Spirit of the Border." The
+  main thread of the story has to do with the work of the Moravian
+  missionaries in the Ohio Valley. Incidentally the reader is given
+  details of the frontier life of those hardy pioneers who broke the
+  wilderness for the planting of this great nation. Chief among these,
+  as a matter of course, is Lewis Wetzel, one of the most peculiar, and
+  at the same time the most admirable of all the brave men who spent
+  their lives battling with the savage foe, that others might dwell in
+  comparative security.
+
+  Details of the establishment and destruction of the Moravian "Village
+  of Peace" are given at some length, and with minute description. The
+  efforts to Christianize the Indians are described as they never have
+  been before, and the author has depicted the characters of the leaders
+  of the several Indian tribes with great care, which of itself will be
+  of interest to the student.
+
+  By no means least among the charms of the story are the vivid
+  word-pictures of the thrilling adventures, and the intense paintings
+  of the beauties of nature, as seen in the almost unbroken forests.
+
+  It is the spirit of the frontier which is described, and one can by
+  it, perhaps, the better understand why men, and women, too, willingly
+  braved every privation and danger that the westward progress of the
+  star of empire might be the more certain and rapid. A love story,
+  simple and tender, runs through the book.
+
+RICHELIEU. A tale of France in the reign of King Louis XIII. By G. P. R.
+James. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson Davis, Price,
+$1.00,
+
+  In 1829 Mr. James published his first romance, "Richelieu," and was
+  recognized at once as one of the masters of the craft.
+
+  In this book he laid the story during those later days of the great
+  cardinal's life, when his power was beginning to wane, but while it
+  was yet sufficiently strong to permit now and then of volcanic
+  outbursts which overwhelmed foes and carried friends to the topmost
+  wave of prosperity. One of the most striking portions of the story is
+  that of Cinq Mar's conspiracy; the method of conducting criminal
+  cases, and the political trickery resorted to by royal favorites,
+  affording a better insight into the statecraft of that day than can be
+  had even by an exhaustive study of history. It is a powerful romance
+  of love and diplomacy, and in point of thrilling and absorbing
+  interest has never been excelled.
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the
+publishers, A. L. BURT COMPANY, 52-58 Duane St., New York.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Indifference of Juliet, by Grace S. Richmond
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INDIFFERENCE OF JULIET ***
+
+***** This file should be named 26233-8.txt or 26233-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/2/3/26233/
+
+Produced by Roger Frank, Bruce Albrecht and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/26233-8.zip b/26233-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..69e859a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-8.zip
diff --git a/26233-h.zip b/26233-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..baf4bdd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-h.zip
diff --git a/26233-h/26233-h.htm b/26233-h/26233-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b3391bb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-h/26233-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,9279 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+<title>
+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Indifference of Juliet, by Grace S. Richmond.
+</title>
+
+<style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
+<!--
+    p                 {margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: 0.5em;}
+    body              {margin-left: 11%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    a                 {text-decoration: none;}
+    h3                {text-align:center; font-weight:normal; font-size: 1.2em}
+    hr.full           {width: 100%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; border:none; border-bottom:1px solid black; clear:both;}
+    .pncolor          {color: silver;}
+    div.ce p          {text-align: center; margin: auto 0;}
+    .figcenter        {margin: 2em auto 2em auto; text-align: center;}
+    .caption          {font-size:.8em}
+    table             {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;}
+    hr.tb             {width: 35%; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; border:none; border-bottom:1px solid black; clear:both;}
+    .blockquot        {margin-left:5%; margin-right:5%;}
+    .pagenum          {display: inline; font-size: x-small; text-align: right; position: absolute; right: 2%; padding: 1px 3px; font-style: normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; text-decoration: none; background-color: inherit; border:1px solid #eee;}
+    hr.major          {width: 65%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; border:none; border-bottom:1px solid black; clear:both;}
+    hr.silver         {width: 100%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver;}
+    h2                {text-align:center; font-weight:normal; font-size: 1.4em}
+// -->
+/* XML end  ]]>*/
+</style>
+
+</head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's The Indifference of Juliet, by Grace S. Richmond
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Indifference of Juliet
+
+Author: Grace S. Richmond
+
+Illustrator: Henry Hutt
+
+Release Date: August 9, 2008 [EBook #26233]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INDIFFERENCE OF JULIET ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank, Bruce Albrecht and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<img src='images/illus-fpc.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 330px; height: 441px;' /><br />
+<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center;width: 330px;'>
+&#8220;The rich voice of the bishop was as impressive as it had ever been.&#8221; (<i>See page 77</i>)<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:1.8em; margin-top:1em;'>The Indifference</p>
+<p style=' font-size:1.8em; margin-bottom:1em;'>of Juliet</p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p style=' font-size:1.2em;'>By GRACE S. RICHMOND</p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p>Author of</p>
+<p>&#8220;The Second Violin&#8221; &#8220;The Dixons&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<img src='images/illus-emb.png' alt='' title=''  /><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p>With Illustrations</p>
+<p>By HENRY HUTT</p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p>A. L. BURT COMPANY,</p>
+<p>PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<img src='images/illus-cpy.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 186px; height: 185px;' /><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='ce' style=' font-size:0.8em; font-style:italic;'>
+<p>All rights reserved, including that of</p>
+<p>translation&mdash;also right of translation</p>
+<p>into the Scandinavian languages</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<img src='images/illus-ded.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 158px; height: 179px;' /><br />
+</div>
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:1.4em; margin-bottom:1em;'>Contents</p>
+</div>
+
+<table border='0' width='500' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Contents' style='margin:1em auto;'>
+<tr>
+  <td align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'><span style='font-size:small;'>CHAPTER</span></td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align='right'><span style='font-size:small;'>PAGE</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>I.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>An Audacious Proposition&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#I_AN_AUDACIOUS_PROPOSITION'>3</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>II.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Measurements&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#II_MEASUREMENTS'>12</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>III.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Shopping with a Chaperon&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#III_SHOPPING_WITH_A_CHAPERON'>17</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>IV.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>The Cost of Frocks&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#IV_THE_COST_OF_FROCKS'>23</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>V.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Muslins and Tackhammers&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#V_MUSLINS_AND_TACKHAMMERS'>30</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>VI.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>A Question of Identity&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VI_A_QUESTION_OF_IDENTITY'>36</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>VII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>An Argument Without Logic&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VII_AN_ARGUMENT_WITHOUT_LOGIC'>46</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>VIII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>On Account of the Tea-Kettle&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VIII_ON_ACCOUNT_OF_THE_TEAKETTLE'>57</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>IX.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>A Bishop and a Hay-Wagon&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#IX_A_BISHOP_AND_A_HAYWAGON'>69</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>X.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>On a Threshold&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#X_ON_A_THRESHOLD'>80</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>The Bachelor Begs a Dish-Towel&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XII_THE_BACHELOR_BEGS_A_DISHTOWEL'>101</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XIII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Smoke and Talk&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XIII_SMOKE_AND_TALK'>114</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XIV.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Strawberries&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XIV_STRAWBERRIES'>120</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XV.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Anthony Plays Maid&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XV_ANTHONY_PLAYS_MAID'>136</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XVI.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>A House-Party&mdash;Outdoors&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XVI_A_HOUSEPARTY_OUTDOORS'>144</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XVII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Rachel Causes Anxiety&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XVII_RACHEL_CAUSES_ANXIETY'>155</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XVIII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>An Unknown Quantity&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XVIII_AN_UNKNOWN_QUANTITY'>164</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XIX.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>All the April Stars Are Out&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XIX_ALL_THE_APRIL_STARS_ARE_OUT'>175</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XX.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>A Prior Claim&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XX_A_PRIOR_CLAIM'>181</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXI.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Everybody Gives Advice&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXI_EVERYBODY_GIVES_ADVICE'>191</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Roger Barnes Proves Invaluable&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXII_ROGER_BARNES_PROVES_INVALUABLE'>201</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXIII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Two Not of a Kind&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXIII_TWO_NOT_OF_A_KIND'>215</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXIV.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>The Careys Are at Home&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXIV_THE_CAREYS_ARE_AT_HOME'>233</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXV.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>The Robeson Will&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXV_THE_ROBESON_WILL'>246</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXVI.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>On Guard&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXVI_ON_GUARD'>266</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXVII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Lockwood Pays a Call&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXVII_LOCKWOOD_PAYS_A_CALL'>282</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXVIII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>A High-Handed Affair&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXVIII_A_HIGHHANDED_AFFAIR'>294</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXIX.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Juliet Proves Herself Still Indifferent&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXIX_JULIET_PROVES_HERSELF_STILL_INDIFFERENT'>303</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:1.4em; margin-bottom:1em;'>PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Horatio Marcy</span>, an elderly New Englander of some wealth.</p>
+<p><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Anthony Robeson</span>, the last young male representative of
+the Kentucky <span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Robesons</span>, now making his own way in Massachusetts.</p>
+<p><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Wayne Carey</span>, Robeson&#8217;s former college chum, an office clerk
+on a salary.</p>
+<p><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Dr. Roger Williams Barnes</span>, a surgeon.</p>
+<p><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Louis Lockwood</span>, an attorney-at-law.</p>
+<p><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Stevens Cathcart</span>, an architect.</p>
+<p><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Mrs. Dingley</span>, sister of Horatio Marcy.</p>
+<p><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Juliet Marcy</span>, daughter of Horatio Marcy.</p>
+<p><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Judith Dearborn</span>, Juliet&#8217;s friend since school-days.</p>
+<p><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Suzanne Gerard</span>, <span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Marie Dresser</span>, other friends of Juliet.</p>
+<p><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Rachel Redding</span>, a poor country girl&mdash;of education.</p>
+<p><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Mary McKaim</span>&mdash;in the background, but valuable.</p>
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_3' name='page_3'></a>3</span></div>
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:1.4em; margin-top:2em;'>THE INDIFFERENCE OF JULIET</p>
+</div>
+
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 0em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='I_AN_AUDACIOUS_PROPOSITION' id='I_AN_AUDACIOUS_PROPOSITION'></a>
+<h2>I.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>An Audacious Proposition</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Anthony Robeson glanced about
+him in a satisfied way at the
+shaded nook under the low-hanging
+boughs into which he had guided the
+boat. Then he drew in his oars and let
+the little craft drift.</p>
+<p>&#8220;This is an ideal spot,&#8221; said he, looking
+into his friend&#8217;s face, &#8220;in which to
+tell you a rather interesting piece of
+news.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, fine!&#8221; cried his friend, settling herself
+among the cushions in the stern and
+tilting back her parasol so that the light
+through its white expanse framed her
+health-tinted face in a sort of glory. &#8220;Tell
+me at once. I suspected you came with
+something on your mind. There couldn&#8217;t
+be a lovelier place on the river than this for
+confidences. But I can guess yours. Tony,
+you&#8217;ve found &#8216;her&#8217;!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And you&#8217;ll be my friend just the same?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_4' name='page_4'></a>4</span>
+questioned Anthony anxiously. &#8220;My chum&mdash;my
+confidante?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, well, Tony, that&#8217;s absurd,&#8221; declared
+Juliet Marcy severely. &#8220;As if <i>she</i>
+would allow it!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s three thousand miles away.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m ashamed of you!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Just in the interval, then,&#8221; pleaded
+Anthony. &#8220;I need you now worse than
+ever. For I&#8217;ve a tremendous responsibility
+on my hands. The&mdash;the&mdash;you know&mdash;is to
+come off in September, and this is June&mdash;and
+I&#8217;ve a house to furnish. Will you help
+me do it, Juliet?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;<i>Anthony Robeson!</i>&#8221; she said explosively
+under her breath, with a laugh. Then she
+sat up and leaned forward with a commanding
+gesture. &#8220;Tell me all about it. What
+is her name and who is she? Where did
+you meet her? Are you very much&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Would I marry a girl if I were not &#8216;very
+much&#8217;?&#8221; demanded Anthony. &#8220;Well&mdash;I&#8217;ll
+tell you&mdash;since you insist on these non-essentials
+before you really come down to
+business. Her name is Eleanor Langham,
+and she lives in San Francisco. Her family
+is old, aristocratic, wealthy&mdash;yet she condescends
+to me.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_5' name='page_5'></a>5</span></p>
+<p>He looked up keenly into her eyes, and
+her brown lashes fell for an instant before
+something in his glance, but she said
+quickly: &#8220;Go on.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;When the&mdash;affair&mdash;is over I want to
+bring my bride straight home,&#8221; Anthony
+proceeded, with a tinge of colour in his
+smooth, clear cheek. &#8220;I shall have no
+vacation to speak of at that time of year,
+and no time to spend in furnishing a house.
+Yet I want it all ready for her. So you see
+I need a friend. I shall have two weeks to
+spare in July, and if you would help me&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But, Tony,&#8221; she interrupted, &#8220;how
+could I? If&mdash;if we were seen shopping
+together&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, we couldn&#8217;t go shopping together
+in New York without being liable to run
+into a wondering crowd of friends, of course&mdash;not
+in the places where you would want
+to go. But here you are only a couple of
+hours from Boston; you will be here all
+summer; you and Mrs. Dingley and I could
+run into Boston for a day at a time without
+anybody&#8217;s being the wiser. I know&mdash;that
+is&mdash;I&#8217;m confident Mrs. Dingley would do it
+for me&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, of course. Did Auntie ever deny
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_6' name='page_6'></a>6</span>
+you anything since the days when she used
+to give you jam as often as you came across
+to play with me?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Never.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Have you <i>her</i> photograph?&#8221; inquired
+Miss Marcy with an emphasis which left no
+possible doubt as to whose photograph she
+meant.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I expected that,&#8221; said Anthony gravely.
+&#8220;I expected it even sooner. But I am prepared.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She sat watching him curiously as he
+slowly drew from his breast-pocket a tiny
+leather case, and gazed at it precisely as a
+lover might be expected to gaze at his lady&#8217;s
+image before jealously surrendering it into
+other hands. She had never seen Anthony
+Robeson look at any photograph except her
+own with just that expression. She had
+often wondered if he ever would. She
+had recommended this course of procedure
+to him many times, usually after once more
+gently refusing to marry him. She had
+begun at last to doubt whether it would
+ever be possible to divert Tony&#8217;s mind
+from its long-sought object. But that trip
+to San Francisco, and the months he had
+spent there in the interests of the firm he
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_7' name='page_7'></a>7</span>
+served, had evidently brought about the
+desired change. She had not seen him
+since his return until to-day, when he had
+run up into the country where was the
+Marcy summer home, to tell her, as she
+now understood, his news and to make his
+somewhat extraordinary request.</p>
+<p>She accepted the photograph with a
+smile, and studied it with attention.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, but isn&#8217;t she pretty?&#8221; she cried
+warmly&mdash;and generously, for she was thinking
+as she looked how much prettier was
+Miss Langham than Miss Marcy.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Isn&#8217;t she?&#8221; agreed Anthony with enthusiasm.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Lovely. What eyes! And what a dear
+mouth!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re right.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;She looks clever, too.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;She is.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;How tall is she?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;About up to my shoulder.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s little, then.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; objected Anthony,
+surveying his own stalwart length of limb.
+&#8220;A girl doesn&#8217;t have to be a dwarf not to be
+on a level with me. I should say she must
+be somewhere near your height.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_8' name='page_8'></a>8</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;What a magnificent dresser!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Is she? She never irritates one with the
+fact.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, but I can see. And she&#8217;s going to
+marry you. Tony, what can you give her?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;A little box of a house, one maidservant,
+an occasional trip into town, four
+new frocks a year&mdash;moderate ones, you
+know, in keeping with her circumstances&mdash;and
+my name,&#8221; replied Anthony composedly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You won&#8217;t let her live in town, then?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let her! Good heavens, what sort of a
+place could I give her in town on my
+salary? Now, in the very rural suburb
+I&#8217;ve picked out she can live in the greatest
+comfort, and we can have a real home&mdash;something
+I haven&#8217;t had since Dad died
+and the old home and the money and all
+the rest of it went.&#8221;</p>
+<p>His face was grave now, and he was
+staring down into the water as if he saw
+there both what he had lost and what he
+hoped to gain.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; said Juliet sympathetically,
+though she did not know how to imagine
+the girl whose photograph she held in the
+surroundings Anthony suggested. Presently
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_9' name='page_9'></a>9</span>
+she went on in her gentlest tone: &#8220;I&#8217;m
+not saying that the name isn&#8217;t a proud one
+to offer her, Tony&mdash;and if she is willing to
+share your altered fortunes I&#8217;ve no doubt
+she will be happy. Along with your name
+you&#8217;ll give her a heart worth having.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Thank you,&#8221; said Anthony without
+looking up.</p>
+<p>Miss Marcy coloured slightly, and hastened
+to supplement this speech with
+another.</p>
+<p>&#8220;The question is&mdash;since the home is to
+be hers&mdash;why not let her furnish it? Her
+tastes and mine might not agree. Besides&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why&mdash;you know, Tony,&#8221; explained
+Juliet in some confusion, &#8220;I shouldn&#8217;t know
+how to be economical.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m aware that you haven&#8217;t been
+brought up on the most economical basis,&#8221;
+Anthony acknowledged frankly. &#8220;But I&#8217;ll
+take care of my funds, no matter how extravagant
+you are inclined to be. If I should
+hand you five dollars and say, &#8216;Buy a
+dining-table,&#8217; you could do it, couldn&#8217;t you?
+You couldn&#8217;t satisfy your ideals, of course,
+but you could give me the benefit of your
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_10' name='page_10'></a>10</span>
+discriminating choice within the five-dollar
+limit.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet laughed, but in her eyes there grew
+nevertheless a look of doubt. &#8220;Tony,&#8221; she
+demanded, &#8220;how much have you to spend
+on the furnishing of that house?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Just five hundred dollars,&#8221; said Anthony
+concisely. &#8220;And that must cover the repairing
+and painting of the outside. Really, Juliet,
+haven&#8217;t I done fairly well to save up that
+and the cost of the house and lot&mdash;for a
+fellow who till five years ago never did a
+thing for himself and never expected to
+need to? Yes, I know&mdash;the piano in your
+music-room cost twice that, and so did the
+horses you drive, and a very few of your
+pretty gowns would swallow another five.
+But Mrs. Anthony Robeson will have to
+chasten her ideas a trifle. Do you know,
+Juliet&mdash;I think she will&mdash;for love of me?&#8221;</p>
+<p>He was smiling at his own audacious
+confidence. Juliet attempted no reply
+to this very unanswerable statement. She
+studied the photograph in silence, and
+he lay watching her. In her blue-and-white
+boating suit she was a pleasant object to
+look at.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Will you help me?&#8221; he asked again at
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_11' name='page_11'></a>11</span>
+length. &#8220;I&#8217;m more anxious than I can tell
+you to have everything ready.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I shouldn&#8217;t like to fail you, Tony, since
+you really wish it, though I&#8217;m very sure
+you&#8217;ll find me a poor adviser. But you
+haven&#8217;t been a brother to me since the
+mud-pie days for nothing, and if I can help
+you with suggestions as to colour and style
+I&#8217;ll be glad to. Though I shall all the while
+be trying to live up to this photograph, and
+that will be a little hard on the five-dollar-dining-table
+scale.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve only to look out that everything
+is in good taste,&#8221; said Anthony quietly,
+&#8220;and that you can&#8217;t help doing. My wife
+will thank you, and the new home will be
+sweet to her because of you. It surely will
+to me.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='II_MEASUREMENTS' id='II_MEASUREMENTS'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_12' name='page_12'></a>12</span>
+<h2>II.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Measurements</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was on the first day of Robeson&#8217;s
+two-weeks&#8217; July vacation that he came
+to take Juliet Marcy and her aunt, Mrs.
+Dingley, who had long stood to her in
+the place of the mother she had early
+lost, to see the home he had bought
+in a remote suburb of a great city.
+It was a three-hours&#8217; journey from
+the Marcy country place, but he had
+insisted that Juliet could not furnish the
+house intelligently until she had studied
+it in detail.</p>
+<p>So at eleven o&#8217;clock of a hot July morning
+Miss Marcy found herself surveying from
+the roadway a small, old-fashioned white
+house, with green blinds shading its odd,
+small-paned windows; a very &#8220;box of a
+house,&#8221; as Anthony had said, set well back
+from the quiet street and surrounded by
+untrimmed trees and overgrown shrubbery.
+The whole place had a neglected appearance.
+Even the luxuriant climbing-rose, which
+did its best to hide the worn white paint of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_13' name='page_13'></a>13</span>
+the house-front, served to intensify the look
+of decay.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Charming, isn&#8217;t it?&#8221; asked Robeson
+with the air of the delighted proprietor.
+&#8220;Of course everything looks gone to seed,
+but paint and a lawn-mower and a few other
+things will make another place of it. It&#8217;s
+good old colonial, that&#8217;s sure, and only
+needs a bit of fixing up to be quite correct,
+architecturally, small as it is.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He led the way up the weedy path, Mrs.
+Dingley and Juliet exchanging amused
+glances behind his back. He opened the
+doors with a flourish and waved the ladies
+in. They entered with close-held skirts and
+noses involuntarily sniffing at the musty air.
+Anthony ran around opening windows and
+explaining the &#8220;points&#8221; of the house.
+When they had been over it Mrs. Dingley,
+warm and weary, subsided upon the door-step,
+while Juliet and Anthony fell to discussing
+the possibilities of the place.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You see,&#8221; said Anthony, mopping his
+heated brow, &#8220;it isn&#8217;t like having big, high
+rooms to decorate. These little rooms,&#8221;&mdash;he
+put up his hand and succeeded, from
+his fine height, in touching the ceiling of
+the lower front room in which they
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_14' name='page_14'></a>14</span>
+stood&mdash;&#8220;won&#8217;t stand anything but the most simple
+treatment, and expensive papers and upholsteries
+would be out of place. It will
+take only very small rugs to suit the floors.
+The main thing for you to think of will be
+colours and effects. You&#8217;ll find five hundred
+dollars will go a long way, even after
+the repairs and outside painting are disposed
+of.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He looked so appealing that Juliet could
+but answer heartily: &#8220;Yes, I&#8217;m sure of it.
+And now, Tony, don&#8217;t you think you&#8217;d
+better draw a plan of the house, putting in
+all the measurements, so we shall know just
+how to go to work? And I will go around
+and dream a while in each room. Give me
+the photograph, you devoted lover, so I
+can plan things to suit <i>her</i>.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony laughed and put his hand into
+his breast-pocket. But he drew it out
+empty.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why&mdash;I&#8217;ve left it behind,&#8221; he admitted
+in some embarrassment. &#8220;I really thought
+I had it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Tony! And on this very trip when
+we needed it most! How could you leave
+it behind? Don&#8217;t you always carry it next
+your heart?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15' name='page_15'></a>15</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Is that the prescribed place?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Certainly. I should doubt a man&#8217;s love
+if he did not constantly wear my likeness
+right where it could feel his heart beating
+for me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now I never supposed,&#8221; remarked Anthony,
+considering her attentively, &#8220;that
+you had so much romance about you. Do
+you realise that for an extremely practical
+young person such as you have&mdash;mostly&mdash;appeared
+to be, that is a particularly sentimental
+suggestion? Er&mdash;should you wear
+his in the same way, may I inquire?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course,&#8221; returned Juliet with defiance
+in her eyes, whose lashes, when they fell
+at length before his steadily interested gaze,
+swept a daintily colouring cheek.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Have you ever worn one?&#8221; inquired
+this hardy young man, nothing daunted
+by these signs of righteous indignation.
+But all he got for answer was a vigorous:</p>
+<p>&#8220;You absurd boy! Now go to work at
+your measurements. I&#8217;m going upstairs.
+There&#8217;s one room up there, the one with the
+gable corners and the little bits of windows,
+that&#8217;s perfectly fascinating. It must be
+done in Delft blue and white. Since I
+haven&#8217;t the photograph&#8221;&mdash;she turned on the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_16' name='page_16'></a>16</span>
+threshold to smile roguishly back at him&mdash;&#8220;memory
+must serve. Beautiful dark hair;
+eyes like a Madonna&#8217;s; a perfect nose; the
+dearest mouth in the world&mdash;oh, yes&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>She vanished around the corner only to
+put her head in again with the air of one who
+fires a parting shot at a discomfited enemy:
+&#8220;But, Tony&mdash;do you honestly think the
+house is large enough for such a queen of
+a woman? Won&#8217;t her throne take up the
+whole of the first floor?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Then she was gone up the diminutive
+staircase, and her light footsteps could be
+heard on the bare floors overhead. Left
+alone, Anthony Robeson stood still for a
+moment looking fixedly at the door by
+which she had gone. The smile with
+which he had answered her gay fling had
+faded; his eyes had grown dark with a
+singular fire; his hands were clenched. Suddenly
+he strode across the floor and stopped
+by the door. He was looking down at the
+quaint old latch which served instead of
+a knob. Then, with a glance at the unconscious
+back of Mrs. Dingley, sitting sleepily
+on the little porch outside, he stooped and
+pressed his lips upon the iron where Juliet&#8217;s
+hand had lain.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='III_SHOPPING_WITH_A_CHAPERON' id='III_SHOPPING_WITH_A_CHAPERON'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_17' name='page_17'></a>17</span>
+<h2>III.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Shopping with a Chaperon</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;Five hundred dollars,&#8221; mused Miss
+Marcy, on the Boston train next morning.
+&#8220;Six rooms&mdash;living-room, dining-room,
+kitchen, and three bedrooms. That&#8217;s&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You forget,&#8221; warned Anthony Robeson
+from the seat where he faced Juliet and
+Mrs. Dingley. &#8220;That must cover the outside
+painting and repairs. You can&#8217;t figure
+on having more than three hundred dollars
+left for the inside.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Dear me, yes,&#8221; frowned Juliet. She
+held Anthony&#8217;s plan in her hand, and her
+tablets and pencil lay in her lap. &#8220;Well,
+I can spend fifty dollars on each room&mdash;only
+some will need more than others. The
+living-room will take the most&mdash;no, the
+dining-room.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;The kitchen will take the most,&#8221; suggested
+Mrs. Dingley. &#8220;Your range will use
+up the most of your fifty. And kitchen
+utensils count up very rapidly.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It will be a very small range,&#8221; Anthony
+said. &#8220;A little toy stove would be more
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_18' name='page_18'></a>18</span>
+practical for our&mdash;the kitchen. How big is
+it, Juliet?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Ten by fourteen,&#8217;&#8221; read Juliet. &#8220;From
+the centre of the room you can hit all the
+side walls with the broom. Speaking of
+walls, Tony&mdash;those must be our first consideration.
+If we get our colour scheme
+right everything else will follow. I have
+it all in my head.&#8221;</p>
+<p>So it proved. But it also proved, when
+they had been hard at work for an hour at
+a well-known decorator&#8217;s, that the tints
+and designs for which Miss Marcy asked
+were not readily to be found in the low-priced
+wall-papers to which Anthony
+rigidly held her.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I must have the softest, most restful
+greens for the living-room,&#8221; she announced.
+&#8220;There&mdash;<i>that</i>&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But that is a dollar a roll,&#8221; whispered
+Anthony.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then&mdash;<i>that</i>!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Eighty-five cents.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But for that little room, Tony&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Twenty-five cents a roll is all we can
+allow,&#8221; insisted Anthony firmly. &#8220;And
+less than that everywhere else.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The salesman was very obliging, and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_19' name='page_19'></a>19</span>
+showed the best things possible for the
+money. It was impossible to resist the
+appeal in the eyes of this critical but restricted
+young buyer.</p>
+<p>&#8220;There, that will do, I think,&#8221; said Juliet
+at length, with a long breath. &#8220;The green
+for the living-room and for the bit of a hall&mdash;No,
+no, Tony; I&#8217;ve just thought! You
+must take away that little partition and let
+the stairs go up out of the living-room.
+That will improve the apparent size of
+things wonderfully.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;All right,&#8221; agreed Anthony obediently.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then we&#8217;ll put that rich red in the
+dining-room. For upstairs there is the
+tiny rose pattern, and the Delft blue, and
+that little pale yellow and white stripe.
+In the kitchen we&#8217;ll have the tile pattern.
+We won&#8217;t have a border anywhere&mdash;the
+rooms are too low; just those simplest
+mouldings, and the ivory white on the ceilings.
+The woodwork must all be white.
+There now, that&#8217;s settled. Next come the
+floors.&#8221;</p>
+<p>There could be no doubt that Juliet was
+becoming interested in her task. Though
+the July heat was intense she led the way
+with rapid steps to the place where she
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_20' name='page_20'></a>20</span>
+meant to select her rugs. Here the three
+spent a trying two hours. It was hard to
+please Miss Marcy with Japanese jute rugs,
+satisfactory in colouring though many of
+them were, when she longed to buy Persian
+pieces of distinction. If Juliet had a
+special weakness it was for choice antique
+rugs.</p>
+<p>She cornered Anthony at last, while Mrs.
+Dingley and the salesman were politely but
+unequivocally disputing over the quality
+of a certain piece of Chinese weaving.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Tony,&#8221; she begged, &#8220;please let me get
+that one dear Turkish square for the living-room.
+It will give character to the whole
+room, and the colours are perfectly exquisite.
+I simply can&#8217;t get one of those
+cheap things to go in front of that beautiful
+old fireplace. Imagine the firelight
+on that square; it would make you want to
+spend your evenings at home. Please!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you imagine that I shall ever want
+to spend them anywhere else?&#8221; asked
+Tony softly, looking down into her appealing
+face. &#8220;Why, chum, I&#8217;d like to get that
+Tabriz you admire so much, if it would
+please you, in spite of the fact that we
+should have to pull the whole house up
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_21' name='page_21'></a>21</span>
+forty notches to match it. But even the
+Turkish square is out of the question.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But, Tony&#8221;&mdash;Juliet was whispering now
+with her head a little bent and her eyes
+on the lapel of his coat&mdash;&#8220;won&#8217;t you let me
+do it as my&mdash;my contribution? I&#8217;d like to
+put something of my own into your house.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You dear little girl,&#8221; Anthony answered&mdash;and
+possibly for her own peace of mind
+it was fortunate that Miss Langham, of
+California, could not see the look with
+which he regarded Miss Marcy, of Massachusetts&mdash;&#8220;I&#8217;m
+sure you would. And you
+are putting into it just what is priceless to
+me&mdash;your individuality and your perfect
+taste. But I can&#8217;t let even you help furnish
+that house. She&mdash;must take what I&mdash;and
+only I&mdash;can give her.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re perfectly ridiculous,&#8221; murmured
+Juliet, turning away with an expression of
+deep displeasure. &#8220;As if she wouldn&#8217;t bring
+all sorts of elegant stuff with her, and make
+your cheap things look insignificant.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think she will,&#8221; returned Anthony
+with conviction. &#8220;She&#8217;ll bring nothing
+out of keeping with the house.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I thought you told me she was of a
+wealthy family.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22' name='page_22'></a>22</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;She is. But if she marries me she leaves
+all that behind. I&#8217;ll have no wife on any
+other basis.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well&mdash;for a son of the Robesons of
+Kentucky you are absolutely the most
+absurd boy anybody ever heard of,&#8221; declared
+the girl hotly under her breath. Then
+she walked over and ordered a certain inexpensive
+rug for the living-room with the
+air of a princess and the cheeks of a poppy.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='IV_THE_COST_OF_FROCKS' id='IV_THE_COST_OF_FROCKS'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_23' name='page_23'></a>23</span>
+<h2>IV.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The Cost of Frocks</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>It may have been that Miss Marcy was
+piqued into trying to see how little she
+could spend, but certain it was that from
+the time she left the carpet shop she begged
+for no exceptions to Mr. Robeson&#8217;s rule of
+strict economy. She selected simple, delicate
+muslins for the windows, one and all,
+without a glance at finer draperies; bought
+denims and printed stuffs as if she had never
+heard of costlier upholsteries; and turned
+away from seductive pieces of Turkish and
+Indian embroideries offered for her inspection
+with a demure, &#8220;No, I don&#8217;t care to
+look at those now,&#8221; which more than once
+brought a covert smile to Anthony&#8217;s lips
+and a twinkle to the eyes of the salesman.
+It was so very evident that the fair buyer
+did not pass them by for lack of interest.</p>
+<p>Altogether, it was an interesting week
+these three people spent&mdash;for a week it
+took. Anthony began to protest after the
+first two days, and said he could not ask so
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_24' name='page_24'></a>24</span>
+much of his friends. But Juliet would not
+be hindered from taking infinite pains, and
+Mrs. Dingley good humouredly lent the two
+her chaperonage and her occasional counsel,
+such as only the gray-haired matron of long
+housewifely experience can furnish.</p>
+<p>The selection of the furniture took perhaps
+the most time, and was the hardest,
+because of the difficulty of finding good
+styles in keeping with the limited purse.
+Anthony possessed a number of good pieces
+of antique character, but beyond these
+everything was to be purchased. Juliet
+turned in despair from one shop after
+another, and when it came to the fitting
+of the dining-room she grew distinctly
+indignant.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a perfect shame,&#8221; she said, &#8220;that
+they can&#8217;t offer really good designs in the
+cheap things. Did you ever see anything
+so hideous? Tony, if I were you I&#8217;d rather
+eat my breakfast off one of those white
+kitchen tables&mdash;or&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>She broke off suddenly, rushed away
+down the long room to a group of chastely
+elegant dining-room furniture and came
+back after a little with a face of great eagerness
+to drag her companions away with her.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_25' name='page_25'></a>25</span>
+She took them to survey a set of the costliest
+of all.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Have you gone crazy?&#8221; Anthony inquired.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not at all. Tony, just study that table.
+It&#8217;s massive, but it&#8217;s simple&mdash;simple as
+beauty always is. Look at those perfectly
+straight legs&mdash;what clever cabinet maker
+couldn&#8217;t copy that in&mdash;in ash, Tony? Then
+there are stains&mdash;I&#8217;ve heard of them&mdash;that
+rub into wood and then finish in some way
+so it&#8217;s smooth and satiny. You could do
+that&mdash;I&#8217;m sure you could. Then you&#8217;d get
+the lovely big top you want. And the
+chairs&mdash;do you see the plain, solid-looking
+things? I know they could be made this
+way. Then the dining-room would be
+simply dear!&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>&#8220;Juliet, you&#8217;re coming on,&#8221; declared
+Anthony with satisfaction that evening as
+the two, back at the Marcy country place,
+strolled slowly over the lawn toward the
+river edge. &#8220;At this rate you&#8217;ll do for a
+poor man&#8217;s wife yourself some day. That
+frock you have on now&mdash;isn&#8217;t that a sort of
+concession to the humble company you&#8217;re
+in?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_26' name='page_26'></a>26</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;In what way?&#8221; Juliet glanced down at
+the pale-green gown whose delicate skirts
+she was daintily lifting, and in which she
+looked like a flower in its calyx. She had
+rejoiced to exchange the dusty dress in
+which she had come home from town for
+this, which suggested coolness in each fresh
+fold.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, it strikes me as about the simplest
+dress I ever saw you wear. Isn&#8217;t it really&mdash;well&mdash;the
+least expensive thing you have
+had in that line in some time?&#8221;</p>
+<p>The amused laugh with which this observation
+was greeted might have been disconcerting
+to anybody but Anthony Robeson,
+but he maintained his ground with
+calmness.</p>
+<p>&#8220;How many of these do you think you
+can furnish Mrs. Anthony with in a year?&#8221;
+Juliet inquired, her lips forcing themselves
+to soberness, but the laughter lingering in
+her eyes.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Several, as girlishly demure as that, I
+fancy,&#8221; asserted the young man with confidence.</p>
+<p>But Juliet&#8217;s momentary gravity broke
+down. &#8220;Oh, you clever boy!&#8221; she said.
+&#8220;I shall advise Mrs. Anthony to send you
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_27' name='page_27'></a>27</span>
+shopping for her when she needs a new
+frock. You will order home just what she
+wants without stopping to ask the price,
+you will be so confident that you know a
+cheap thing when you see it. Afterward
+you will pay the bill&mdash;and then the awful
+frown on your brow! You will have to
+live on bread and milk for a month to get
+your accounts straightened out. Oh, Tony!&mdash;No,
+I shouldn&#8217;t do for a poor man&#8217;s
+wife&mdash;not judging by this &#8216;girlishly demure&#8217;
+gown, you poor lamb.&mdash;But, Tony,&#8221; with
+a swift change of manner, &#8220;I do think the
+little house will be very charming indeed.
+I can hardly wait to know that the painting
+and papering are done, so that we can go
+down and get things in order. I long to
+arrange those fascinating new tin things
+in that bit of a cupboard. Tony&#8221;&mdash;turning
+to him solemnly&mdash;&#8220;does <i>she</i> know how
+to cook?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I think she is learning now,&#8221; he assured
+her. &#8220;Seems to me she mentioned it in
+to-day&#8217;s&mdash;&mdash;&#8221; He fumbled in his breast-pocket
+and brought out a letter.</p>
+<p>Juliet stole an interested glance at it.
+She observed that there were three closely
+written sheets of the heavy linen paper,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_28' name='page_28'></a>28</span>
+and that the handwriting was one suggestive
+of a pleasing individuality. Anthony, in
+the dim twilight, was scanning page after
+page in a lover&#8217;s absorbed way. Juliet
+walked along by his side in silence. She
+was thinking of the face in the photograph,
+and wondering if Miss Eleanor Langham
+really loved Anthony Robeson as he deserved
+to be loved.</p>
+<p>&#8220;For he is a dear, dear fellow,&#8221; she said
+to herself, &#8220;and if she could just see him
+planning so enthusiastically for her comfort,
+even if he does have to economise,
+she&#8217;d&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, it&#8217;s not in this letter,&#8221; observed
+Anthony, putting the sheets together with
+a lingering touch which did not escape
+his companion&#8217;s quick eyes. &#8220;It must
+have been in yesterday&#8217;s.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Does she write every day?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Did you ever hear of an engaged pair
+who didn&#8217;t write every day?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It must take a good deal of your time,&#8221;
+she remarked. &#8220;But, of course, she can
+cook. Every sane girl takes a cooking-school
+course nowadays. It&#8217;s as essential
+as French.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You did, then?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_29' name='page_29'></a>29</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course. Don&#8217;t you remember when
+I used to edify you with new and wonderful
+dishes every time you dropped in to
+luncheon?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But did you learn the more important
+things?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I paid especial attention to soups, sir,&#8221;
+laughed Juliet. &#8220;Now, if Mrs. Anthony
+has done that you can live very economically.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll suggest it to her,&#8221; said Anthony
+gravely.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='V_MUSLINS_AND_TACKHAMMERS' id='V_MUSLINS_AND_TACKHAMMERS'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_30' name='page_30'></a>30</span>
+<h2>V.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Muslins and Tackhammers</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>It took several trips to the small house,
+and a great deal of hemming and ruffling of
+muslin on the part of Juliet and the Marcy
+sewing-woman, to say nothing of many
+days of Anthony&#8217;s hard labour, to get
+everything in place. But it was all done
+at length, and the hour arrived to close the
+new home and leave it to wait the oncoming
+day in September when it should be permanently
+opened.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll just go over it once more,&#8221; said
+Juliet to Mrs. Dingley. The latter lady
+was lying in a hammock out under the
+apple trees, waiting for train time and her
+final release from duties which were becoming
+decidedly wearisome. It was the first
+day of August, and the evening was a
+warm one. Anthony had gone off upon
+a last errand of some sort. Mrs. Dingley
+was too exhausted to offer to accompany
+her niece, and Juliet ran back into the
+house alone. She wandered slowly through
+the rooms, looking about to see if there
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31' name='page_31'></a>31</span>
+might be any perfecting touch which she
+could add.</p>
+<p>It was a charming place; even a daughter
+of the house of Marcy could but own to
+that. Under her skilful management the
+little rooms had blossomed into a fresh,
+satisfying beauty that needed only the
+addition of the personal adornment which
+Anthony&#8217;s bride would be sure to bring, to
+become a home&mdash;the home not only of a
+poor man but of a refined and cultured one
+as well. Restricted though she had been
+to the most inexpensive means of bringing
+about this happy result, Juliet had made
+them all tell toward an effect of great
+harmony and beauty. Perhaps to nobody
+was this more of a revelation than to the
+girl herself.</p>
+<p>She was very proud of the living-room, as
+she looked about it. The partition between
+it and the tiny hall had been removed, according
+to her suggestion, and the straight
+staircase altered by means of a landing and
+an abrupt turn which transformed it into
+picturesqueness. With its low, broad steps,
+its slender spindles and odd posts, it added
+much to the character of the room.</p>
+<p>Like most old New England houses, this
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_32' name='page_32'></a>32</span>
+one&#8217;s chief glory was its great central
+chimney, with big fireplaces opening both
+into the living-room and the dining-room.
+In the former, between the fireplace and the
+staircase, and forming a suggestion of an
+inglenook, Juliet had contrived a high, wide
+seat, cushioned in dull green, and boasting
+a number of pretty pillows. It must be
+confessed that she had surreptitiously added
+a little to these in the matter of certain
+modestly rich bits of material, and she
+contemplated the result with great satisfaction.
+It may be remarked, with no
+comment whatever, that in spite of their
+beauty there was not a pillow of all those
+scattered about the house which a weary
+man might not tuck under his head without
+fear of ruining a creation too delicate for
+any use but to be admired.</p>
+<p>Having seized upon the idea of staining
+cheap material, she had carried it out in a
+set of low bookcases across the end and
+one side of the room. These awaited the
+coming of the several hundreds of choice
+books which Anthony had saved from his
+father&#8217;s library. Two fine old portraits,
+dear to the hearts of many generations of
+the &#8220;Robesons of Kentucky,&#8221; lent distinction
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_33' name='page_33'></a>33</span>
+to the home of their young descendant.
+Altogether the room was both
+quaint and artistic, and with its few plain
+chairs and tables, mostly heirlooms, and all
+of good old colonial design, was a room in
+which one could readily imagine one&#8217;s self
+sitting down to a winter evening of cosy
+comfort, such as is not always to be had
+in far finer abiding-places.</p>
+<p>The dining-room was a study in its reds
+and browns, and its home-made furniture
+was an astonishing success&mdash;if one were
+not too severely critical. As she surveyed
+it Juliet seemed to see the future master
+and mistress of this little home sitting down
+opposite each other in the fireglow, and
+smiling across.</p>
+<p>The coming Mrs. Robeson, if one might
+judge by her photograph, was a woman
+to lend grace and dignity to her surroundings,
+whatever they might be. Juliet could
+imagine her pretty, stately way of presiding
+at such small feasts as the room was destined
+to see, making her guests quite forget
+that she was not mistress of a mansion
+equal to any in the land. Would she be
+happy? Could she be happy here, after
+all that she had had of another and very
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_34' name='page_34'></a>34</span>
+different sort of life? For some reason, as
+Juliet stood and looked and thought, her
+face grew very sober, and a long-drawn
+breath escaped her lips.</p>
+<p>The little kitchen was an exceedingly
+alluring place, gay in the bravery of fresh
+paint and spotless, shining utensils. There
+were even crisp curtains&mdash;at eight cents a
+yard&mdash;tied back at the high, wide-silled,
+triple window with its diminutive panes.
+It needed only a pot or two of growing
+plants in the window, and a neat-handed
+Phyllis in a figured gown, to be the old-time
+kitchen of one&#8217;s dreams.</p>
+<p>But it was upon the rooms on the upper
+floor that Juliet had exhausted her imagination
+and effort. Nothing could have been
+conceived of more dainty than they. Here
+her denims and muslins had run riot. Low
+dressing-tables clad in ruffled hangings,
+their padded tops delicate with the breath
+of orris; beds valanced with similar stuffs;
+high-backed chairs, their seats cushioned
+into comfort&mdash;everything was done in the
+cleverest imitation of the ancient styles in
+keeping with the old-fashioned house. It
+all made one think of the patter of high-heeled,
+buckled slippers, and stiff, rustling,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_35' name='page_35'></a>35</span>
+brocaded gowns, and powdered hair, and
+the odours of long ago. Anthony would
+never know what his friendly home-maker
+had put into these rooms of sentiment and
+charm.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='VI_A_QUESTION_OF_IDENTITY' id='VI_A_QUESTION_OF_IDENTITY'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_36' name='page_36'></a>36</span>
+<h2>VI.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>A Question of Identity</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>At the door of the blue-and-white room,
+the one upon which the girl had lavished her
+most tender fancies, she stood at length,
+looking in. And as she looked something
+swam before her eyes. A sob rose in her
+throat. She choked it back; she brushed
+her hand across her face. Then she tried
+to laugh. &#8220;Oh, what a goose I am!&#8221; she
+said sternly to herself. And then she ran
+across the room, sank upon her knees before
+the window-seat with its blue and white
+cushions, and burying her face in one of
+them cried her wretched, jealous, longing
+heart out.</p>
+<p>Anthony, coming in hastily but softly
+through the small kitchen, heard the rush
+of footsteps overhead, and stopped. He
+waited a moment, listening eagerly; then
+he came noiselessly into the living-room and
+stood still. His face, always strong and
+somewhat stern in its repose, had in it to-night
+a certain unusual intensity. He
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_37' name='page_37'></a>37</span>
+looked at his watch and saw that there was
+an hour before train time. Then he sat
+down where he could see the top of the
+staircase and waited.</p>
+<p>By and by light footsteps crossed the
+floor above and came through the little
+hall. From where he sat Anthony caught
+the gleam of Juliet&#8217;s crisp linen skirt.
+Presently she came slowly down. As she
+turned upon the landing she met Anthony&#8217;s
+eyes looking up. In a fashion quite unusual
+to the straightforward gaze of his
+friend her eyes fell. He saw that her
+cheeks were pale. He rose to meet her.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come and rest,&#8221; he said. &#8220;You are
+tired. You have worked too hard. Such
+a helper a man never had before. And
+you have made a wonderful success. Juliet,
+I can&#8217;t thank you. It&#8217;s beyond that.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But she would not be led to the cosy
+corner by the window. She found something
+needing her attention in the curtain
+of the bookcase in the dimmest corner of
+the room, and began solicitously to pull it in
+various ways, as if there were something
+wrong with it. He watched her, standing
+with his arm on the high chimney-piece.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I think you enjoyed it just a little bit
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_38' name='page_38'></a>38</span>
+yourself, though,&#8221; he observed. &#8220;Didn&#8217;t
+you, chum?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, indeed,&#8221; said Juliet.</p>
+<p>Her back was toward him, her head bent
+down, but his quick ear detected a peculiar
+quality in her voice. He questioned her
+again hurriedly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re not sorry you did it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, no,&#8221; said Juliet.</p>
+<p>Now there is not much in two such
+simple replies as these to indicate the state
+of one&#8217;s mind and heart; but when a girl
+has been crying stormily and uninterruptedly
+for a half-hour, and is only not
+crying still because she is holding back the
+torrent of her unhappiness by sheer force of
+will, it is radically impossible to say so
+much as four words in a perfectly natural
+way. Anthony understood in a breath
+that the unfamiliar note in his friend&#8217;s
+voice was that of tears. And, strange to
+say, into his face there flashed a look of
+triumph. But he only said very gently:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come here a minute&mdash;will you, Juliet?&#8221;</p>
+<p>She bent lower over the curtain. Then
+she stood up, without looking at him, and
+moved toward the door.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I believe I&#8217;m rather tired,&#8221; she said in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_39' name='page_39'></a>39</span>
+a low tone. &#8220;It has been so warm all day,
+and I&mdash;I have a headache.&#8221;</p>
+<p>In three steps he came after her, stopping
+her with his hand grasping hers as she would
+have left the room.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come back&mdash;please,&#8221; he urged. &#8220;Your
+aunt is asleep out there, I think. I wanted
+to go over the house once more with you, if
+you would. But you&#8217;re too tired for that.
+Just come back and sit down in this nook
+of yours, and let&#8217;s talk a little.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She could not well refuse, and he put her
+into a nest of cushions, arranging them
+carefully behind her back and head, and
+sat down facing her. He had placed her
+just where the waning light from the
+western sky fell full on her face; his own
+was in the shadow. He was watching her
+unmercifully&mdash;she felt that, and desperately
+turned her face aside, burying in a friendly
+pillow the cheek which was colouring under
+his gaze.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Is the headache so bad?&#8221; he asked
+softly. &#8220;I never knew Juliet Marcy to
+have a headache before. Poor little girl&mdash;dear
+little girl&mdash;who has worked so hard
+to please her old friend.&#8221; He leaned forward
+and she felt his hand upon her hair.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_40' name='page_40'></a>40</span>
+The tenderness in his voice and touch were
+carrying away all her defences. But he
+went on without giving her respite.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you think <i>she</i> will be happy here,
+chum? Will it take the place of the old
+life for a few years, till I can give her more?
+She&#8217;ll have nothing here, you know, outside
+of this little home, but my love. That
+wouldn&#8217;t be enough for any ordinary
+woman, would it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>She was not looking at him, but she could
+see him as plainly as if she were. Always
+she had thought him the strongest, best
+fellow she knew. He had been her devoted
+friend so long; she had not realised in the
+least until lately how it was going to seem
+to get on without him. But she knew now.</p>
+<p>She felt a dreadful choking in her throat
+again. It seemed to be closely connected
+with another peculiar sensation, as if her
+heart had turned into a lump of lead. In
+another minute she knew that she should
+break down, which would be humiliating
+beyond words. She started up from her
+cushions with a fierce attempt to keep a
+grip upon herself.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I know you&#8217;re very happy,&#8221; she
+breathed, &#8220;and I&#8217;m very glad. But really
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_41' name='page_41'></a>41</span>
+I&mdash;I&#8217;m not at all sentimental to-night.
+I&#8217;m afraid a headache does not make
+one sympathetic.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But she could not get past him; Anthony&#8217;s
+stalwart figure barred the way. His strong
+hands put her gently back among the
+cushions. She turned her head away, fighting
+hard for that thing she could not keep&mdash;her
+self-control.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Is it really a headache?&#8221; asked the low
+voice in her ear. &#8220;Just a headache? Not
+by any chance&mdash;a heartache, Juliet?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Anthony Robeson!&#8221; she cried, but
+guardedly, lest the open window betray
+her. &#8220;What do you mean? You say very
+strange things. Why should I have a
+heartache? Because you are marrying the
+girl you love? How often have I begged
+you to go and find her? Do you think I
+would have done all this for her&mdash;and you&mdash;if
+I had cared?&#8221;</p>
+<p>She tried to look defiantly into his eyes&mdash;those
+fine eyes of his which were watching
+her so intently&mdash;tried to meet them steadily
+with her own lovely, tear-stained ones&mdash;and
+failed. Swiftly an intense colour dyed her
+cheeks, and she dropped her head like a
+guilty child.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_42' name='page_42'></a>42</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course I care&mdash;that is, in a way,&#8221;
+she was somehow forced to admit before
+the bar of his silence. &#8220;Why shouldn&#8217;t I
+hate to lose the friend who used to carry my
+books to school, and fought the other boys
+for my sake, and has been a brother to me
+all these years? Of course I do. And
+when I am tired I cry for nothing&mdash;just
+nothing. I&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>It was certainly a brave attempt at
+eloquence, but perhaps it was not wonderfully
+convincing. At all events it did not
+keep Anthony from taking possession of
+one of her hands and interrupting her with
+a most irrelevant speech.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Juliet, do you remember telling me
+that you should expect a man who loved
+you to carry your likeness always with
+him? And you asked me for <i>hers</i>&mdash;and
+I had to own I had left it behind. Yet I
+had one with me then&mdash;it is always with
+me&mdash;and that was why I forgot the other.
+Look.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He drew out a little silver case, and
+Juliet, reluctantly releasing one eye from
+the shelter of the friendly sofa pillow, saw
+with a start her own face look smiling back
+at her. It was a little picture of her
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_43' name='page_43'></a>43</span>
+girlish self which she had given him long
+ago when he went away to college.</p>
+<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; he said quickly, as he recognised
+the indignant question which instantly
+showed in her eyes, &#8220;I&#8217;m not disloyal to
+Eleanor Langham. Because&mdash;dear&mdash;there
+is no such person.&#8221;</p>
+<p>With a little cry she flung herself away
+from him among the pillows, hiding her
+face from sight. There was a moment&#8217;s
+silence while Anthony Robeson, his own
+face growing pale with the immensity of the
+stakes for which he played, made his last
+venture.</p>
+<p>&#8220;The little home is only for you, Juliet.
+If you won&#8217;t share it with me it shall be
+closed and sold. Perhaps it was an audacious
+thing to do&mdash;it has come over me a
+great many times that it was too audacious
+ever to be forgiven. But I couldn&#8217;t help
+the hope that if you should make the home
+yourself you might come to feel that life
+with a man who had his way to make
+could be borne after all&mdash;if you loved him
+enough. It all depended on that. As I
+said, I didn&#8217;t mean to be presumptuous,
+but it was a desperate chance with me,
+dear. I couldn&#8217;t give you up, and I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_44' name='page_44'></a>44</span>
+thought perhaps&mdash;just <i>perhaps</i>&mdash;you cared&mdash;more
+than you knew. Anyhow&mdash;I loved
+you so&mdash;I had to risk it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet&#8217;s charming brown head was buried
+so deep in the pillows that only its back
+with the masses of waving, half-rumpled
+hair was visible. But up from the depths
+came a smothered question:</p>
+<p>&#8220;The photograph?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony&#8217;s face lightened as if the sun
+had struck it, but he kept his voice quiet.
+&#8220;Borrowed&mdash;it&#8217;s my old friend Dennison&#8217;s.
+I never even saw the girl&mdash;though I ought
+to beg her pardon for the use I have made
+of her face. She&#8217;s married now, and lives
+abroad somewhere. Will you forgive me?&#8221;</p>
+<p>He was standing over her, leaning down
+so that his cheek touched the rumpled hair.
+&#8220;How is it, Juliet? Could you live in the
+little home&mdash;with love&mdash;and me?&#8221;</p>
+<p>It was a long time before he got any
+answer. But at last a flushed, wet, radiant
+face came into view, an arm was reached
+out, and as with an inarticulate, deep note
+of joy he drew her up into his embrace, a
+voice, half tears, half laughter, cried:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Tony&mdash;you dear, bad, darling, insolent
+boy! I did think I could do without
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_45' name='page_45'></a>45</span>
+you&mdash;but I can&#8217;t. And&mdash;oh, Tony&#8221;&mdash;she
+was sobbing in his arms now, while he
+regarded the top of her head with laughing,
+exultant eyes&mdash;&#8220;I&#8217;m so glad&mdash;so glad&mdash;<i>so
+glad</i>&mdash;there isn&#8217;t any Eleanor Langham!
+Oh, <i>how</i> I hated her!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Did you, sweetheart?&#8221; he answered,
+laughing aloud now. Then bending, with
+his lips close to hers&mdash;&#8220;well, to tell the truth&mdash;to
+tell the honest truth, little girl&mdash;<i>so
+did I</i>!&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='VII_AN_ARGUMENT_WITHOUT_LOGIC' id='VII_AN_ARGUMENT_WITHOUT_LOGIC'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_46' name='page_46'></a>46</span>
+<h2>VII.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>An Argument Without Logic</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t like it,&#8221; repeated Mr. Horatio
+Marcy, obstinately, and shook his head for
+the fifth time. &#8220;I&#8217;ve not a word to say
+against Anthony, my dear&mdash;not a word.
+He&#8217;s a fine fellow and comes of a good
+family, and I respect him and the start he
+has made since things went to pieces,
+but&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet waited, her eyes downcast, her
+cheeks very much flushed, her mouth in
+lines of mutiny.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But&mdash;&#8221; her father continued, settling
+back in his chair with an air of decision,
+&#8220;you will certainly make the mistake of
+your life if you think you can be happy in
+the sort of existence he offers you. You&#8217;re
+not used to it. You&#8217;ve not been brought
+up to it. You can spend more money in a
+forenoon than he can earn in a twelve-month.
+You don&#8217;t know how to adapt
+yourself to life on a basis of rigid economy.
+I&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_47' name='page_47'></a>47</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t forbid it, sir?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Forbid it?&mdash;no. A man can&#8217;t forbid a
+twenty-four year old woman to do as she
+pleases. But I advise you&mdash;I warn you&mdash;I
+ask you seriously to consider what it all
+means. You are used to very many habits
+of living which will be entirely beyond
+Anthony&#8217;s means for many years to come.
+You are fond of travel&mdash;of dress&mdash;of social&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Father dear,&#8221; said his daughter, interrupting
+him gently by a change of tactics.
+She came to him and sat upon the arm of
+his chair, and rested her cheek lightly upon
+the top of his thick, iron-gray locks.&mdash;&#8220;Let&#8217;s
+drop all this for the present. Let&#8217;s not
+discuss it. I want you to do me a particular
+favour before we say another word
+about it. Come with me down to see the
+house. It&#8217;s only three hours away. We
+can go after breakfast to-morrow and be
+back for dinner at seven. It&#8217;s all I ask.
+My arguments are all there. Please!&mdash;<i>Please!</i>&#8221;</p>
+<p>So it came about that at eleven o&#8217;clock
+on a certain morning in August, Mr.
+Horatio Marcy discovered himself to be
+eyeing with critical, reluctant gaze a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_48' name='page_48'></a>48</span>
+quaintly attractive, low-spreading white
+house among trees and vines. He became
+aware at the same time of a sudden close
+clasp on his arm.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Here it is,&#8221; said a low voice in his ear.
+&#8220;Does it look habitable?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Very pretty, very pretty, my dear,&#8221;
+Mr. Marcy admitted. No sane man could
+do otherwise. The little house might have
+been placed very comfortably between the
+walls of the dining-room at the Marcy
+country house, but there was an indefinable,
+undeniable air of gracious hospitality and
+homelikeness about its aspect, and its surroundings
+gave it an appearance of being
+ample for the accommodation of any two
+people not anxious to get away from each
+other.</p>
+<p>Juliet produced an antique door-key of
+a clumsy pattern, and opened the door into
+the living-room. She ran across to the
+windows and threw them open, then turned
+to see what expression might be at the
+moment illumining Mr. Marcy&#8217;s face. He
+was glancing about him with curious eyes,
+which rested finally upon the portrait of a
+courtly gentleman in ruffles and flowing
+hair, hanging above the fireplace. He
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_49' name='page_49'></a>49</span>
+adjusted a pair of eyeglasses and gave the
+portrait the honour of his serious attention.</p>
+<p>&#8220;That is an ancestor,&#8221; Juliet explained.
+&#8220;Doesn&#8217;t he give distinction to the room?
+And isn&#8217;t the room&mdash;well&mdash;just a little bit
+distinguished-looking itself, in spite of its
+simplicity?&mdash;because of it, perhaps. The
+tables and most of the chairs are what
+Anthony found left in the old Kentucky
+homestead after the sale last year, and
+bought in with&mdash;the last of his money.&#8221;
+Her eyes were very bright, but her voice
+was quiet.</p>
+<p>Mr. Marcy looked at the furniture in
+question, stared at the walls, then at the
+rug on the polished floor. The rug held his
+attention for two long minutes, then he
+glanced sharply at his daughter.</p>
+<p>&#8220;The colourings of that rug are very
+good, don&#8217;t you think?&#8221; she asked with
+composure. &#8220;It will last until Anthony
+can afford a better one.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Mr. Marcy turned significantly toward
+the door of the dining-room, and Juliet led
+him through. He surveyed the room in
+silence, laying a hand upon a chair back;
+then looked suddenly down at the chair
+and brought his eyeglasses to bear upon it.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_50' name='page_50'></a>50</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;The furniture was made by a country
+cabinet-maker who charged country prices
+for doing it. Tony rubbed in a very thin
+stain and rubbed the wood in oil afterward
+till it got this soft polish.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The visitor looked incredulous, but he
+accepted the explanation with a polite
+though exceedingly slight smile. Then he
+was taken to inspect the kitchen. From
+here he was led through the pantry back
+to the living-room, and so upstairs. He
+looked, still silently, in at the door of each
+room, exquisite in its dainty readiness for
+occupancy. As he studied the blue-and-white
+room his daughter observed that he
+retained less of the air of the connoisseur
+than he had elsewhere exhibited. She had
+shown him this place last with artful intent.
+No room in his own homes of luxury could
+appeal to him with more of beauty than
+was visible here.</p>
+<p>When Mr. Marcy reached the living-room
+again he found himself placed gently but
+insistently in the easiest chair the room
+afforded, close by an open window through
+which floated all the soft odours of country
+air blowing lightly across apple orchards
+and gardens of old-fashioned flowers. His
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_51' name='page_51'></a>51</span>
+daughter, bringing from the ingle seat a
+plump cushion, dropped upon it at his feet.
+But instead of beginning any sort of argument
+she laid her arm upon his knee, and
+her head down upon her arm, and became
+as still as a kitten who has composed itself
+for sleep. Only through the contact of
+the warm young arm, her father could feel
+that she was alive and waiting for his
+speech.</p>
+<p>When he spoke at last it was with grave
+quiet, in a gentler tone than that which he
+had used the day before in his own library.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You helped Anthony furnish this
+house?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, father.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you mind telling me how much you
+had at your disposal?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Five hundred dollars.&#8221; Juliet maintained
+her position without moving, and
+her face was out of sight.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Did this include the repairs upon the
+place?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes&mdash;but you know wages are low just
+now and lumber is cheap. Having no roof
+to the porch made it inexpensive. The
+painting Anthony helped at himself. He
+worked every minute of his two weeks&#8217;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_52' name='page_52'></a>52</span>
+vacation on whatever would cost most to
+hire done.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Anthony worked at painting the house?&#8221;
+There was astonishment in Mr. Marcy&#8217;s
+voice. He had known the Robesons of
+Kentucky all his life. He had never seen
+one of them lift his hand to do manual
+labour. There had been no need.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; said Juliet, and the cheek which
+rested against her father&#8217;s knee began to
+grow warm.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You have obtained a somewhat extraordinary
+effect of harmony and comfort
+inside the house,&#8221; Mr. Marcy pursued. &#8220;It
+is difficult to understand just how you
+brought it about with so small an expenditure
+of money.&#8221;</p>
+<p>It was quite impossible now for Juliet
+to keep her head down. She looked up
+eagerly, but she still managed to speak
+quietly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It <i>is</i> effect, father, and it is art&mdash;not
+money. The paper on the wall cost twenty-five
+cents a roll, but it is the right paper for
+the place, and the wrong paper at ten
+times that sum wouldn&#8217;t give the room such
+a background of soft restfulness. Then,
+you see, the old white woodwork is in very
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_53' name='page_53'></a>53</span>
+good style, and the green walls bring it out.
+The old floor was easily dressed to give that
+beautiful waxed finish. They told me
+how to do that at the best decorator&#8217;s in
+Boston. The rug fits the colourings very
+well. Anthony&#8217;s old furniture would give
+any such room dignity. The portrait lends
+the finishing touch, I think. You see, when
+you analyse it all there&#8217;s nothing in the least
+wonderful. But it looks like a home&mdash;doesn&#8217;t
+it? And when the little things are
+in which grow in a home&mdash;the photographs,
+a bowl of sweet-williams from the garden,
+the lovely old copper lamp you gave me on
+my birthday&mdash;can&#8217;t you think how dear it
+will all be?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Mr. Marcy glanced down keenly into his
+daughter&#8217;s face.</p>
+<p>&#8220;There are a great many things of your
+own at home which would naturally come
+into your married home,&#8221; he said.</p>
+<p>Juliet coloured richly. &#8220;Yes,&#8221; she answered
+with steady eyes, &#8220;but except for
+the lamp, and the photographs, and a few
+such very little things, I should not bring
+them. Anthony is poor, but he is very
+proud. I couldn&#8217;t hurt him by furnishing
+his home with the overflow of mine.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_54' name='page_54'></a>54</span>
+Besides&mdash;I don&#8217;t need those things. I
+don&#8217;t want them. All I want out of the
+old home is&mdash;your love&mdash;your blessing,
+dear!&#8221;</p>
+<p>The sharp eyes meeting hers softened
+suddenly. Juliet drew herself to her knees,
+and leaning forward across her father&#8217;s lap,
+reached both arms up and flung them about
+his neck. He held her close, her head upon
+his shoulder, and all at once he found the
+slender figure in his arms shaken with
+feeling. Juliet was not crying, but she was
+drawing long, deep breaths like a child who
+tries to control itself.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You need have no doubt of either of
+those things, my little girl,&#8221; said her father
+in her ear. &#8220;Both are ready. It is only
+your happiness I want. I distrust the
+power of any poor man to give it to you.
+That is all. Since I have seen this house
+the question looks less doubtful to me&mdash;I
+admit that gladly. But I still am anxious
+for the future. Even in this attractive
+place there must be monotony, drudgery,
+lack of many things you have always had
+and felt you must have. You have never
+learned to do without them. I understand
+that Robeson will not accept them at my
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_55' name='page_55'></a>55</span>
+hand, nor at yours. I don&#8217;t know that I
+think the less of him for that&mdash;but&mdash;you
+will have to learn self-denial. I want you
+to be very sure that you can do it, and that
+it will be worth while.&#8221;</p>
+<p>There was a little silence, then Juliet
+gently drew herself away and rose to her
+feet. She stood looking down at the imposing
+figure of the elderly man in the chair,
+and there was something in her face he had
+never seen there before.</p>
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s just one thing about it, sir,&#8221;
+she said. &#8220;I can&#8217;t possibly spare Anthony
+Robeson out of my life. I tried to do it,
+and I know. I would rather live it out in
+this little home&mdash;with him&mdash;than share the
+most promising future with any other man.
+But there&#8217;s this you must remember: A
+man who was brought up to do nothing but
+ride fine horses, and shoot, and dance, must
+have something in him to go to work and
+advance, and earn enough to buy even such
+a home as this, in five years. He has a
+future of his own.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Mr. Marcy looked thoughtful. &#8220;Yes,
+that may be true,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I rather
+think it is.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And, father&mdash;&mdash;&#8221; she bent to lay a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_56' name='page_56'></a>56</span>
+roseleaf cheek against his own&mdash;&#8220;you began
+with mother in a poorer home than this,
+and were so happy! Don&#8217;t I know that?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, yes, dear,&#8221; he sighed. &#8220;That&#8217;s
+true, too. But we were both poor&mdash;had
+always been so. It was an advance for us&mdash;not
+a coming down.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s no coming down for me.&#8221; There
+was spirit and fire in the girl&#8217;s eyes now.
+&#8220;Just to wear less costly clothes&mdash;to walk
+instead of drive&mdash;to live on simpler food&mdash;what
+are those things? Look at these,&#8221;
+she pointed to the rows of books in the
+bookcases which lined two walls of the
+room. &#8220;I&#8217;m marrying a man of refinement,
+of family, of the sort of blood that
+tells. He&#8217;s an educated man&mdash;he loves the
+things those books stand for. He&#8217;s good
+and strong and fine&mdash;and if I&#8217;m not safe
+with him I&#8217;ll never be safe with anybody.
+But besides all that&mdash;I&mdash;I love him with
+all there is of me. Oh&mdash;<i>are</i> you satisfied
+now?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Blushing furiously she turned away. Her
+father got to his feet, stood looking after
+her a moment with something very tender
+coming into his eyes, then took a step
+toward her and gathered her into his arms.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='VIII_ON_ACCOUNT_OF_THE_TEAKETTLE' id='VIII_ON_ACCOUNT_OF_THE_TEAKETTLE'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_57' name='page_57'></a>57</span>
+<h2>VIII.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>On Account of the Tea-Kettle</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;This is the nineteenth day of August,&#8221;
+observed Anthony Robeson. &#8220;We finished
+furnishing the house for my future bride
+on the third day of the month. Over two
+weeks have gone by since then. The place
+must need dusting.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He glanced casually at the figure in white
+which sat just above him upon the step of
+the great porch at the back of the Marcy
+country house. It was past twilight, the
+moon was not yet up, and only the glow
+from a distant shaded lamp at the other end
+of the porch served to give him a hint as to
+the expression upon his companion&#8217;s face.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m beginning to lie awake nights,&#8221; he
+continued, &#8220;trying to remember just how
+my little home looks. I can&#8217;t recall whether
+we set the tea-kettle on the stove or left it
+in the tin-closet. Can you think?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You put it on the stove yourself,&#8221; said
+Juliet. &#8220;You would have filled it if Auntie
+Dingley hadn&#8217;t told you it would rust.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_58' name='page_58'></a>58</span></p>
+<p>Anthony swerved about upon the heavy
+oriental rug, which covered the steps, until
+his back rested against the column; he
+clasped his arms about one knee, and inclined
+his head at the precise angle which
+would enable him to study continuously
+the shadowy outlines of the face above him,
+shot across with a ruby ray from the lamp.
+&#8220;I wish I could recollect,&#8221; he pursued,
+&#8220;whether I left the porch awning up or
+down. It has rained three times in the
+two weeks. It ought not to be down.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m sure it isn&#8217;t,&#8221; Juliet assured him.
+There was a hint of laughter in her voice.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It was rather absurd to put up that
+awning at all, I suppose. But when you
+can&#8217;t afford a roof to your piazza, and
+compromise on an awning instead, you
+naturally want to see how it is going to
+look, and you rush it up. Besides, I think
+there was a strong impression on my mind
+that only a few days intervened before our
+occupancy of the place. It shows how
+misled one can be.&#8221;</p>
+<p>There was no reply to this observation,
+made in a depressed tone. After a minute
+Anthony went on.</p>
+<p>&#8220;These cares of the householder&mdash;they
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_59' name='page_59'></a>59</span>
+absorb me. I&#8217;m always wondering if the
+lawn needs mowing, and if the new roof
+leaks. I get anxious about the blinds&mdash;do
+any of them work loose and swing around
+and bang their lives out in the night? Have
+the neighbours&#8217; chickens rooted up that row
+of hollyhock seeds? Then those books I
+placed on the shelves so hurriedly. Are
+any of them by chance upside down? Is
+Volume I. elbowed by Volume II. or by
+Volume VIII.? And I can&#8217;t get away to
+see. Coming up here every Saturday night
+and tearing back every Sunday midnight
+takes all my time.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You might spend next Sunday in the
+new house.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Alone?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course. You have so many cares
+they would keep you from getting lonely.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony made no immediate answer to
+this suggestion, beyond laughing up at his
+companion in the dim light for an instant,
+then growing immediately sober again.
+But presently he began upon a new aspect
+of the subject.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Juliet, are we to be married in church?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Tony!&mdash;I don&#8217;t know.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But what do you think?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_60' name='page_60'></a>60</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;don&#8217;t think.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What! Do you mean that?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No-o.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course you don&#8217;t. Well&mdash;what
+about it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Are we to have a big wedding?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you want one?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;but that&#8217;s not the question. Do
+you want a big wedding?&#8221;</p>
+<p>She hesitated an instant. Then she
+answered softly, but with decision: &#8220;No.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony drew a long breath. &#8220;Thank
+the Lord!&#8221; he said devoutly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why?&#8221; she asked in some surprise.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve never exactly understood why the
+boys I&#8217;ve been best man for were so miserable
+over the prospect of a show wedding&mdash;but
+I know now. A runaway marriage
+appeals to me now as it never did before.
+I want to be married&mdash;tremendously&mdash;but
+I want to get it over.&#8221;</p>
+<p>A soft laugh answered him. &#8220;We&#8217;ll
+get it over.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony sat up suddenly. &#8220;Will we?&#8221;
+he asked with eagerness. &#8220;When?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t say &#8216;when&#8217;!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Juliet&mdash;when are you going to say it?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_61' name='page_61'></a>61</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, Tony&mdash;dear&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s right&mdash;put in the &#8216;dear,&#8217;&#8221; he
+murmured. &#8220;I&#8217;ve heard mighty few of
+&#8217;em yet, and they sound great to me&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve been engaged only two weeks&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And two days&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And the little house isn&#8217;t spoiling, even
+though you&#8217;re not sure about the tea-kettle
+and the awning. I&mdash;you don&#8217;t want
+to hurry things&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t I!&#8221;&mdash;rebelliously.</p>
+<p>&#8220;If I&#8217;m very good and say &#8216;Christmas&#8217;&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Christmas!&#8217;&mdash;Great Cæsar!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But, Tony&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now see here&mdash;&#8221; he leaned forward and
+stared up at her, without touching her&mdash;he
+was as yet allowed few of the lover&#8217;s favours
+and prized them the more for that&mdash;&#8220;do
+you think our case is just like other people&#8217;s?
+Here I&#8217;ve been waiting for you all my days&mdash;waiting
+and waiting, and tortured all the
+time by suspense. Then I lived that month
+of July with my heart in my mouth&mdash;you&#8217;ll
+never know what you put me through
+those days, talking and jollying about
+&#8216;Eleanor Langham,&#8217; and never for one instant,
+until just that last day, giving me
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_62' name='page_62'></a>62</span>
+the smallest pinch of hope that it was anything
+to you except just what it pretended
+to be. Then&mdash;I&#8217;ve been a long time without
+a home&mdash;and the little house&mdash;sweetheart&mdash;it
+looks like Heaven to me. Must I
+stay outside till Christmas&mdash;when everything&#8217;s
+all ready? Confound it&mdash;I don&#8217;t
+want to play the pathetic string, and the
+Lord knows I&#8217;m happy as a fellow can be
+who&#8217;s got the desire of his life. But&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>A warm hand came gently upon his hair,
+and for joy at the touch he fell silent. Once
+he turned his head and put his lips against
+the white sleeve as it fell near, and looked
+up an instant with eyes whose expression
+the person above him felt rather than saw
+through the subdued light. By and by she
+took up the conversation.</p>
+<p>&#8220;So you are rejoiced that I don&#8217;t want a
+great wedding?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Immensely relieved.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What would you like best?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t dare tell you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You may.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Tell me what you would like, Julie.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course father would say the town
+house, even if it were a small affair. Auntie
+Dingley would probably agree to having
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_63' name='page_63'></a>63</span>
+it here&mdash;if that were what you&mdash;we&mdash;wanted&mdash;that
+is&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony looked up quickly. &#8220;Even at
+Christmas?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why&mdash;yes. We could come back.
+People do that sometimes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. Must we do what other people
+do?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Would you rather not?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ten thousand times. It seems to me
+that the biggest mistake people make is
+the way they do this thing. Juliet&mdash;think
+of the little house. We made it&mdash;you made
+it. For years, without doubt, it&#8217;s to hold
+us and our experiences. Do you know I&#8217;d
+like to give it this one to begin with?&mdash;I&#8217;m
+holding my breath!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Plainly she was holding hers. Her head
+was turned away&mdash;he could just see her
+profile outlined against the ruby light.
+And at the moment there were footsteps
+inside a long French window near at hand
+which lay open into the library. Mr.
+Horatio Marcy came out and stood still
+just behind them.</p>
+<p>Anthony sprang to his feet, and came
+forward up the steps. The older man
+greeted him cordially. Anthony pulled a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_64' name='page_64'></a>64</span>
+big chair into position, and Mr. Marcy sat
+down. He was smoking and wore an air
+of relaxation. He and his guest fell to
+talking, the younger man entering into the
+conversation with as much ease and spirit
+as if he were not fresh from what was to
+him at this hour a much more interesting
+discussion. Juliet sat quietly and listened.</p>
+<p>It grew into an absorbing argument after
+a little, the two men taking opposite sides
+of a great governmental question just then
+claiming public interest. Mrs. Dingley
+came out and joined the group, and she and
+Juliet listened with increasing delight in
+a contest of brains such as was now offered
+them. Mr. Marcy himself, while he put
+forth his arguments with conviction and
+with skill, was evidently enjoying the keen
+wit and wisdom of his young opponent. The
+elder man met objection with objection, set
+up men of straw to be knocked down, and
+ended at last with a hearty laugh and a
+frankly appreciative:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, Anthony&mdash;you have convinced
+me of one thing, certainly. There are more
+sides to the question than I had understood.
+I will admit that you&#8217;ve made a strong
+argument. But when I come back I&#8217;ll
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_65' name='page_65'></a>65</span>
+down you with fresh material. I shall have
+plenty of it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Are you going away soon, sir?&#8221; Anthony
+asked with some surprise. Mr.
+Marcy was a frequent traveller, preferring to
+look after various business interests in faraway
+ports himself rather than entrust
+them to others.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes&mdash;I shall be off in a few weeks&mdash;and
+for a longer time than usual. I haven&#8217;t
+told these ladies of my household yet&mdash;but
+this is as good a time as any. Juliet, little
+girl&mdash;I may be gone all winter this time.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She came quickly to him without speaking,
+and gave him her regretful answer
+silently.</p>
+<p>&#8220;When do you go, Horatio?&#8221; Mrs. Dingley
+asked.</p>
+<p>&#8220;About the first of October. I hadn&#8217;t
+fully decided till to-day. I had thought of
+inviting you two to go with me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He looked with a smile at his sister and
+his daughter, then somewhat quizzically
+at Anthony. The latter was regarding him
+with an alert face in which, as nearly as
+could be made out in the dim light, were no
+signs of discomfiture.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Horatio,&#8221; said Mrs. Dingley, &#8220;I wish
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_66' name='page_66'></a>66</span>
+you would come into the library for a few
+minutes. This reminds me of a letter I had
+to-day from one of your old friends, asking
+when you were to be at home.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The French window closed on the two
+older people. Juliet, left sitting on the
+arm of her father&#8217;s chair, found Anthony
+behind her.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you want to go on a voyage to the
+Philippines?&#8221; he was asking over her
+shoulder.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not sure just what I do want,&#8221; she
+answered rather breathlessly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;The tea-kettle would rust while you
+were gone.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He got no reply.</p>
+<p>&#8220;The dust would grow inches deep on the
+dining-table we polished so carefully.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet rose and walked slowly to the edge
+of the steps. Anthony followed. &#8220;Let&#8217;s
+go and walk on the terrace,&#8221; he proposed,
+and they ran down to the smooth sward
+below. It was a warm night, with no dew,
+and the short-shaven grass was dry. All
+the stars were out. Anthony walked beside
+the figure in white, his hands clasped behind
+his back.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do white ruffled curtains like those at
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_67' name='page_67'></a>67</span>
+our windows ever grow musty from being
+shut up?&#8221; he insinuated gently.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Will you write from every port you
+touch at? It will take a good many letters
+to satisfy me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I suppose so.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Suppose what? That you will write?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet stood still. &#8220;You&#8217;re the greatest
+wheedler I ever saw,&#8221; she said.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Is that a compliment?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not meant for one. What am I
+to do when I&#8217;m&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Married to me?&mdash;I don&#8217;t know, poor
+child. I can only pity you. What do you
+think the prospect is for me, never to be
+able to get the smallest concession from
+you except by every art of coaxing? Yet&mdash;if
+I can get this thing I want, by any means&mdash;I
+warn you I shall not give up until I&#8217;ve
+seen you sail.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll not see me sail.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He wheeled upon her. He had her hand
+in his grasp. &#8220;And if you don&#8217;t go?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll stay.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;With me?&#8221;</p>
+<p>She laughed irresistibly. &#8220;How could I
+stay without you?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_68' name='page_68'></a>68</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Will you marry me before your father
+goes?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Tony, Tony&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;We can&#8217;t be married without his blessing,
+can we?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No&mdash;dear father.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll tell you to-morrow,&#8221; said she.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='IX_A_BISHOP_AND_A_HAYWAGON' id='IX_A_BISHOP_AND_A_HAYWAGON'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_69' name='page_69'></a>69</span>
+<h2>IX.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>A Bishop and a Hay-Wagon</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Juliet Marcy&#8217;s prospective maid-of-honour
+found Anthony Robeson&#8217;s best man
+at her elbow the moment she entered the
+waiting-room of the big railway station.
+Now, although she greeted him with a
+charming little conscious look, there was
+nothing either new or singular about the
+quiet rush he had made across the waiting-room
+the instant he saw her. The rest of
+the party of twenty people who were going
+down into the country to the Marcy-Robeson
+wedding understood it perfectly, although
+the engagement had not been
+announced and probably would not be until
+Wayne Carey should have an income
+decidedly larger than he had at present.</p>
+<p>Judith Dearborn joined the group at once,
+and Carey reluctantly followed her. Judith
+had a way of joining groups and of giving
+her betrothed many impatient half-hours
+thereby.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Just think of this,&#8221; she said to the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_70' name='page_70'></a>70</span>
+others. &#8220;When I knew Juliet had really
+given in to Anthony Robeson at last I
+thought I should be asked to assist at an
+impressive church wedding. But here we
+are going down to what Tony describes as
+&#8216;a box of a house&#8217; in the most rural of
+suburbs. If it&#8217;s really as small as he says
+even twenty people will be a tight fit.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;How in the world did they come to be
+married there?&#8221; asked the sister of the
+best man. Everybody had been summoned
+to this wedding so hurriedly and so
+informally that nobody knew much about it.</p>
+<p>The son of the Bishop&mdash;whose father
+was going down to perform the ceremony&mdash;answered
+promptly:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Tony tells me its Juliet&#8217;s own choice.
+You see they furnished the house together,
+with her aunt, Mrs. Dingley; and Juliet fell
+so in love with it that she must needs be
+married in it. What&#8217;s occurred to that
+girl I don&#8217;t know. After the Robesons
+of Kentucky lost their money and everything
+else but their social standing I
+thought it was all up with Anthony. But
+he&#8217;s plucky. He&#8217;s made a way for himself,
+and he&#8217;s won Juliet somehow. He seems to
+be a late edition of that obstinate chap
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_71' name='page_71'></a>71</span>
+who remarked &#8216;I will find a way or make
+one.&#8217; By Jove&mdash;he must have made one
+when he convinced Juliet Marcy that she
+could be happy in a house where twenty
+people are a tight fit.&#8221;</p>
+<p>When the train stopped at the small station
+Judith Dearborn said in Wayne Carey&#8217;s
+ear, as he glanced wonderingly from the
+train: &#8220;Is this it? Juliet Marcy must be
+perfectly crazy!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;She certainly must,&#8221; admitted Robeson&#8217;s
+best man. But he stifled a sigh. If
+Juliet Marcy could do so crazy a thing as
+to marry Anthony Robeson on the comparatively
+small salary that young man&mdash;brought
+up to do nothing at all&mdash;was now
+earning, why must Wayne Carey wait for
+several times that income before he could
+have Juliet&#8217;s closest friend? Was there
+really such a difference in girls?</p>
+<p>But at the next instant he was shouting
+hilariously, and so was everybody else except
+the Bishop and the Bishop&#8217;s wife, who only
+smiled indulgently. The rest of the party
+were young people, and their glee brooked
+no repression. The moment they reached
+the little platform they comprehended not
+only that they were coming to a most informal
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_72' name='page_72'></a>72</span>
+wedding&mdash;they were also in for a
+decidedly novel lark.</p>
+<p>Close to the edge of the platform stood a
+great hay-wagon, cushioned with fragrant
+hay and garlanded with goldenrod and
+purple asters. Standing erect on the front,
+one hand grasping the reins which reached
+out over a four-in-hand of big, well-groomed,
+flower-bedecked farm horses, the other waving
+a triumphant greeting to his friends, was
+Anthony Robeson, in white from head to
+foot, his face alight with happiness and
+fun. He looked like a young king; there
+could be no other comparison for his
+splendid outlines as he towered there. And
+better yet, he looked as he had ever looked,
+through prosperity and through poverty,
+like a &#8220;Robeson of Kentucky.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Below him, prettier than she had ever
+been&mdash;and that was saying much&mdash;her eyes
+brilliant with the spirit of the day, laughing,
+dressed also in white, a big white hat
+drooping over her brown curls, stood Juliet
+Marcy.</p>
+<p>In a storm of salutations and congratulations
+the guests rushed toward this extraordinary
+equipage and the radiant pair who
+were its charioteers. All regrets over the
+probable commonplaceness of a small country
+wedding had vanished.</p>
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<img src='images/illus-081.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 306px; height: 518px;' /><br />
+<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center;width: 306px;'>
+&#8220;Standing erect ... one hand grasping the reins ... was Anthony Robeson.&#8221;<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;Might have known they would do things
+up in shape somehow,&#8221; grunted the Bishop&#8217;s
+son approvingly. &#8220;This is the stuff. Conventionality
+be tabooed. They&#8217;re going to
+the other extreme, and that&#8217;s the way to
+do. If you don&#8217;t want an altar and candles,
+and a high-mucky-muck at the organ, have
+a hay-wagon. <i>Gee!</i>&mdash;Let me get up here
+next to Ben Hur and the lady!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Even the Bishop, sitting with clerical
+coat-tails carefully parted, his handsome
+face beaming benevolently from under his
+round hat, and Mrs. Bishop, granted by
+special dispensation a cushion upon the
+hay seat, enjoyed that drive. Anthony,
+plying a long, beribboned lash, aroused his
+heavy-footed steeds into an exhilarating
+trot, and the hay-wagon, carrying safely its
+crew of young society people in their
+gayest mood, swept over the half-mile
+from the station to the house like a
+royal barge.</p>
+<p>As they drew up a chorus of &#8220;Oh&#8217;s!&#8221; not
+merely polite but sincerely surprised and
+admiring, recognised the quaint beauty of
+the little house. It was no commonplace
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_73' name='page_73'></a>73</span>
+country home now, though the changes
+wrought had been comparatively slight. It
+looked as if it might have stood for years
+in just this fashion, yet it was as far removed
+from its primitive characterless condition
+as may be an artist&#8217;s drawing of a face upon
+which he has altered but a line.</p>
+<p>Mrs. Dingley and Mr. Horatio Marcy&mdash;a
+pair whose presence anywhere would have
+been a voucher for the decorum of the
+most unconventional proceedings&mdash;welcomed
+the party upon the wide, uncovered
+porch.</p>
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re going to be married very soon, to
+have it over,&#8221; called Anthony. &#8220;But you
+may explore the house first, so your minds
+shall be at rest during the crisis. Just
+don&#8217;t wander too far away in examining
+this ancestral mansion. There are six
+rooms. I should advise your going in line,
+otherwise complications may occur in the
+upper hall. Please don&#8217;t all try to get into
+the kitchen at once; it can&#8217;t be done. It
+will hold Juliet and me at the same time&mdash;all
+the rooms have been stretched to do
+that&mdash;they had to be; but I&#8217;m not sure as to
+their capacity for more. Now make yourselves
+absolutely at home. The place is
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_74' name='page_74'></a>74</span>
+yours&mdash;for a few hours. After that it&#8217;s
+mine&mdash;and Juliet&#8217;s.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He glanced, laughing, at his bride, as he
+spoke from where he stood in the doorway.
+She was on the little landing of the staircase,
+at the opposite end of the living-room. She
+looked down and across at him, and nearly
+everybody in the room&mdash;they were thronging
+through at the moment&mdash;caught that
+glance. She was smiling back at him, and
+her eyes lingered only an instant after they
+met his, but her friends all saw. There
+could be no question that the Juliet Marcy
+who, since she had laid aside her pinafores,
+had kept many men at bay, had at last
+surrendered. As for Anthony&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, he&#8217;s always been in love with
+her,&#8221; said the Bishop&#8217;s son in the ear of the
+best man, as in accordance with their
+host&#8217;s permission they peeped admiringly
+in at the little kitchen, &#8220;but any idiot can
+see that he&#8217;s fairly off his feet now. Ideal
+condition&mdash;eh? Say, this dining-room&#8217;s
+great&mdash;Jove, it is. I&#8217;m going to get asked
+out here to dinner as soon as they are back.
+Let&#8217;s go upstairs. The girls are just coming
+down&mdash;hear &#8217;em gurgling over what
+they saw?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_75' name='page_75'></a>75</span></p>
+<p>Upstairs the best man looked in at the
+blue-and-white room with eyes which one
+with penetration might have said were
+envious. Indeed, he stared at everything
+with much the same expression. He was
+the soberest man present. Ordinarily he
+could be counted on to enliven such occasions,
+but to-day his fits of hilarity were
+only momentary, and during the intervals
+he was observed by the Bishop&#8217;s son to be
+gazing somewhat yearningly into space with
+an abstraction new to him.</p>
+<p>Nobody knew just how the moment for
+the ceremony arrived. But when the survey
+of the house was over and everybody
+had instinctively come back to the living-room,
+the affair was brought about most
+naturally. The Bishop, at a word from the
+best man, took his place in the doorway
+opening upon the porch, which had been
+set in a great nodding border of goldenrod.
+Anthony, making his way among his guests,
+came with a quiet face up to Juliet and,
+bending, said softly, &#8220;Now, dear?&#8221; A hush
+followed instantly, and the guests fell back
+to places at the sides of the room. Anthony&#8217;s
+best man was at his elbow, and the two
+went over to the Bishop, to stand by his
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_76' name='page_76'></a>76</span>
+side. Mr. Marcy moved quietly into his
+place. Juliet, with Judith, who had kept
+beside her, walked across the floor, and
+Anthony, meeting her, led her a step
+farther to face the Bishop. It was but a
+suggestion of the usual convention, and
+Anthony, in his white clothes, surrounded
+as he was by men in frock-coats, was
+assuredly the most unconventional bridegroom
+that had ever been seen. Juliet,
+too, wore the simplest of white gowns, with
+no other adornment than that of her own
+beauty. Yet, somehow, as the guests,
+grown sober in an instant, looked on and
+noted these things, there was not one who
+felt that either grace or dignity was lacking.
+The rich voice of the Bishop was as impressive
+as it had ever been in chancel or
+at altar; the look on Anthony&#8217;s face was
+one which fitted the tone in which he spoke
+his vows; and Juliet, giving herself to the
+man whose altered fortunes she was agreeing
+to share, bore a loveliness which made
+her a bride one would remember long&mdash;and
+envy.</p>
+<p>&#8220;There, that&#8217;s done,&#8221; said the Bishop&#8217;s
+son with a gusty sigh of relief, which brought
+the laugh so necessary to the relaxing of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_77' name='page_77'></a>77</span>
+the tension which accompanies such scenes.
+&#8220;Jove, it&#8217;s a good thing to see a fellow like
+Robeson safely tied up at last. You never
+can tell where these quixotic ideas about
+houses and hay-wagons and weddings may
+lead. It&#8217;s a terrible strain, though, to see
+people married. I always tremble like a
+leaf&mdash;I weigh only a hundred and ninety-eight
+now, and these things affect me.
+It&#8217;s so frightful to think what might happen
+if they should trip up on their specifications.&#8221;</p>
+<p>There was a simple wedding breakfast
+served&mdash;by whom nobody could tell. It
+was eaten out in the orchard&mdash;a pleasant
+place, for the neglected grass had been close
+cut, and an old-fashioned garden at one
+side perfumed the air with late September
+flowers. The trim little country maids
+who brought the plates came from a willow-bordered
+path which led presumably to the
+next house, some distance down the road.
+There were several innovations in the
+various dishes, delicious to taste. Altogether
+it was a little feast which everybody
+enjoyed with unusual zest. And the life
+of the party was the bridegroom.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I never saw a fellow able to scintillate
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_78' name='page_78'></a>78</span>
+like that at his own wedding,&#8221; remarked
+the son of the Bishop to the best man&#8217;s
+sister. &#8220;Usually they are so completely
+dashed by their own temerity in getting
+into such an irretrievable situation that
+they sit with their ears drooping and their
+eyes bleared. Do you suppose it&#8217;s getting
+married in tennis clothes that&#8217;s done it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Tennis clothes!&#8221; cried the best man&#8217;s
+sister with a merry laugh. &#8220;If you realised
+how much handsomer he looks than you
+men in your frock-coats you would not
+make fun.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Make fun!&#8221; repeated the Bishop&#8217;s son
+solemnly. &#8220;I joke only to keep my head
+above water. I never in my life was so
+completely submerged in the desire to get
+married instantly and live in a picturesque
+band-box. Nothing can keep me from it
+longer than it takes to find the girl and the
+band-box. If&mdash;if&mdash;&#8221; his voice dropped to
+a whisper, and a hint of redness crept into
+his face which belied his jesting words,
+&#8220;you knew of the girl&mdash;I&mdash;er&mdash;say&mdash;should
+you mind living in a band-box?&#8221;</p>
+<p>The best man&#8217;s sister was the sort of girl
+who can discern when even an inveterate
+joker is daring to be somewhat more than
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_79' name='page_79'></a>79</span>
+half in earnest, and she flushed so prettily
+that the son of the Bishop caught her hand
+boyishly under the little table. He had
+hitherto been considered a hopeless old
+bachelor, so it may readily be seen that,
+now the contagion had caught him, his was
+quite a serious case.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='X_ON_A_THRESHOLD' id='X_ON_A_THRESHOLD'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_80' name='page_80'></a>80</span>
+<h2>X.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>On a Threshold</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>When it was all over Judith Dearborn
+went upstairs with Juliet to help her dress
+for her going away. The maid-of-honour
+looked about the blue-and-white room with
+thoughtful eyes.</p>
+<p>&#8220;This is certainly the dearest room I
+ever saw,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Oh, Juliet, do you
+think you really will be happy here?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What do you think about it, dear?&#8221;
+asked Juliet.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh&mdash;I&mdash;well, really&mdash;I never imagined
+that a little old house like this could be
+made so awfully attractive. But, Juliet&mdash;you&mdash;you
+must be very, very fond of Anthony
+to give up so many things. How
+well he looked to-day. Seems to me he&#8217;s
+grown gloriously in every way since he&mdash;since
+his family came into so many misfortunes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet smiled, but answered nothing.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And you&#8217;re so different, too. Never in
+my life would I have imagined you having
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_81' name='page_81'></a>81</span>
+a wedding like this&mdash;and yet it&#8217;s been
+absolutely the prettiest one I ever saw.
+That&#8217;s a sweet gown to go away in&mdash;but
+it&#8217;s the simplest thing you ever wore, I&#8217;m
+sure. Juliet, where are you going?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;We are going to drive through the
+Berkshires in a cart.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Juliet Marcy!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Robeson,&#8217;&#8221; corrected Juliet with a
+little laugh, but in a tone which it was a
+pity Anthony could not hear. &#8220;Don&#8217;t
+forget that. I&#8217;m so proud of the name.
+And I think a drive through the Berkshires
+will be a perfectly ideal trip.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Judith Dearborn was not assisting the
+bride at all. Instead she was sitting in a
+chair, staring at Juliet with much the same
+abstraction of manner observable in the
+best man throughout the day.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course you didn&#8217;t need to live this
+way,&#8221; observed Miss Dearborn at length.
+&#8220;You could have afforded to live much
+more expensively.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, I couldn&#8217;t,&#8221; said Juliet with a flash
+in her eyes, though she smiled; &#8220;I couldn&#8217;t
+have afforded to do one thing that would
+hurt Tony&#8217;s pride. Why, Judith&mdash;he&#8217;s a
+&#8216;Robeson of Kentucky.&#8217;&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_82' name='page_82'></a>82</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, he looks it,&#8221; admitted Judith.
+&#8220;And you&#8217;re a Marcy of Massachusetts.
+The two go well together. Juliet, do you
+know&mdash;somehow&mdash;I thought it was a fearful
+sacrifice you were making, even for such
+a man as Anthony&mdash;but&mdash;this blue-and-white
+room&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ah, this blue-and-white room&mdash;&mdash;&#8221; repeated
+Juliet. Then she came over and
+dropped on her knees by her friend in her
+impulsive way and put both arms around
+her. The plain little going-away gown
+touched folds with the one whose elegance
+was equalled only by its cost. Anthony
+Robeson&#8217;s wife looked straight up into the
+eyes of her maid-of-honour and whispered:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Judith, don&#8217;t put Wayne&mdash;and&mdash;your
+blue-and-white room off too long. You
+will not be any happier to wait&mdash;if you love
+him.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>Drawn up close to the door stood the
+cart. Beside it waited Anthony. Around
+the cart crowded twenty people. When
+Juliet came through them to say good-bye
+the son of the Bishop murmured:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Er&mdash;Mrs. Robeson&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, Mr. Farnham&mdash;&mdash;&#8221; said Juliet
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_83' name='page_83'></a>83</span>
+promptly, her delicate flush answering the
+name, as it had answered it many times
+that day.</p>
+<p>&#8220;When are you going to be at home to
+your friends?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;The fifteenth day of October,&#8221; said
+Juliet. &#8220;And from then on, every day in
+the week, every week in the year. Come
+and see us&mdash;everybody. But don&#8217;t expect
+any formal invitations.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll be down,&#8221; declared the Bishop&#8217;s
+son. &#8220;I&#8217;ll be down once a week.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Please don&#8217;t stay long after we are
+gone,&#8221; requested Anthony, putting his bride
+into the cart and springing in beside her.
+He gathered up the reins. &#8220;Good-bye,&#8221;
+he called. &#8220;Take this next train home.
+It goes in an hour. Lock the door, Carey,
+and hang the key up in plain sight by the
+window there. We live in the country now,
+and that&#8217;s the way we do. Good-bye&mdash;good-bye!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Then he drove rapidly away down the
+road.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And that pair,&#8221; said the son of the
+Bishop gravely, looking after them and
+speaking to the company in general, &#8220;married,
+so to speak, in a hay-wagon, and going
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_84' name='page_84'></a>84</span>
+for a wedding trip in a wheel-barrow
+through the Berkshires, is Juliet Marcy and
+Anthony Robeson.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, my son,&#8221; said the Bishop slowly&mdash;and
+everybody always listened when the
+Bishop spoke: &#8220;It is Anthony and Juliet
+Robeson&mdash;and that makes all the difference.
+I think two happier young people I never
+married. And may God be with them.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The best man said that he and the maid-of-honour
+would walk the half-mile to the
+station. The son of the Bishop and the
+sister of the best man had already taken
+this course without saying anything about
+it. Nearly everybody murmured something
+about it being a lovely evening and
+a glorious sunset and a charming road, and,
+pairing off advisedly, adopted the same
+plan. The Bishop and Mrs. Bishop, Mrs.
+Dingley and Mr. Marcy decided on being
+driven over to the station in a light surrey
+provided for this anticipated emergency.</p>
+<p>The best man and the maid-of-honour
+succeeded in dropping behind the rest of
+the pedestrians. Their friends were used
+to that, and let them mercifully alone.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Mighty pretty affair,&#8221; observed Carey
+in a melancholy tone.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_85' name='page_85'></a>85</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes&mdash;in its way,&#8221; admitted Judith
+Dearborn with apparent reluctance.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Cosy house.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Very.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Tony seemed happy.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ecstatic.&#8221; Judith&#8217;s inflection was peculiar.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Nobody would have suspected Juliet of
+feeling blue about living off here.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;She doesn&#8217;t seem to.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s made the difference?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Anthony Robeson, probably.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Must seem pretty good to him to have
+her care like that.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I presume so.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It isn&#8217;t everybody that could inspire
+such an&mdash;affection&mdash;in such a girl.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, indeed.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Carey looked intensely gloomy. The
+two walked on in silence, Miss Dearborn
+studying the sunset, Carey studying Miss
+Dearborn. Suddenly he spoke again.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Judith, do all our plans for the future
+seem as desirable to you as they did this
+morning?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Which ones?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Apartment in the locality we&#8217;ve picked
+out&mdash;life in the style the locality calls for&mdash;and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_86' name='page_86'></a>86</span>
+<i>wait</i> for it all until I&#8217;m <i>gray</i>&mdash;&mdash;&#8221; with
+a burst of tremendous energy. &#8220;Good
+heavens, darling, what&#8217;s the use? Why&mdash;if
+I could have you and a little home like
+that&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>He bit his lip hard. The maid-of-honour
+walked on, her head turned still farther
+away than before. They were nearing the
+station. Just ahead lay a turn in the road&mdash;the
+last turn. The rest of the party,
+with a shout back at this dilatory pair, disappeared
+around it. From the distance
+came the long, shrill whistle of the approaching
+train.</p>
+<p>The maid-of-honour glanced behind:
+there was not a soul in sight; ahead: and
+saw nothing to alarm a girl with an impulse
+in her heart. At a point where great
+masses of reddening sumac hid a little dip
+in the road from everything earthly she
+stopped suddenly, and turning, put out
+both hands. She looked up into a face
+which warmed on the instant into a half-incredulous
+joy and said very gently:
+&#8220;You may.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>The sun had been gone only two hours,
+and the soft early autumn darkness had but
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_87' name='page_87'></a>87</span>
+lately settled down upon the silent little
+house, waiting alone for its owners to come
+back some October day, when a cart, driven
+slowly, rolled along the road. In front of
+the house it stopped.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Where are we?&#8221; asked Juliet&#8217;s voice.
+&#8220;This is a private house. I thought we&mdash;Why,
+Tony&mdash;do you see?&mdash;We&#8217;ve come
+around in a circle instead of going on to that
+little inn you spoke of. This is&mdash;<i>home</i>!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Is it?&#8221; said Anthony&#8217;s voice in a tone
+of great surprise. &#8220;So it is!&#8221; He leaped
+out and came around to Juliet&#8217;s side.
+&#8220;What a fluke!&#8221; But the happy laugh in
+his voice betrayed him.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Anthony Robeson,&#8221; cried Juliet softly,
+&#8220;you need not pretend to be surprised.
+You meant to do it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Did I?&#8221; He reached out both arms to
+take her down. &#8220;Perhaps I did. Do you
+mind&mdash;Mrs. Robeson? Shall we go on?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet looked down at him. &#8220;No, I
+don&#8217;t think I mind,&#8221; she said.</p>
+<p>He swung her down, and they went
+slowly up the walk. &#8220;Somehow,&#8221; said
+Anthony Robeson, looking up at the house,
+lying as if asleep in the September night,
+&#8220;when I thought of taking you to that little
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_88' name='page_88'></a>88</span>
+public inn, and then remembered that we
+might have this instead&mdash;We can go on
+with our wedding journey to-morrow, dear-but&mdash;to-night&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>He led her silently upon the porch. He
+found the key, where in jest he had bade
+his best man put it, and unlocked the door
+and threw it open.</p>
+<p>He stepped first upon the threshold, and,
+turning, held out his arms.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come,&#8221; he said, smiling in the darkness.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_89' name='page_89'></a>89</span></p>
+<p>XI.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>A Bachelor at Dinner</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Hallo there&mdash;Anthony Robeson&mdash;don&#8217;t
+be in such a hurry you can&#8217;t notice a fellow.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The big figure rushing through the snow
+paused, wheeled, and thrust out a hand of
+hearty greeting. &#8220;That you, Carey? Hat
+over your eyes like a train robber&mdash;electric
+lights all behind you&mdash;and you expect me
+to smile at you as I go by! How are you?
+How&#8217;s Judith?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Infernally lonely&mdash;I mean I am&mdash;Judith&#8217;s
+off on a visit to her mother. Say,
+Tony&mdash;take me home with you&mdash;will you?
+I want some decent things to eat, so I&#8217;m
+holding you up on purpose.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Good&mdash;come on. Train goes in a few
+minutes. Juliet will be delighted.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The two hurried on together into the
+station from which the suburban trains
+were constantly leaving. As they entered
+they encountered a mutual friend, at
+whom both flung themselves enthusiastically
+with alternate greetings:
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_90' name='page_90'></a>90</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Roger Barnes&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Roger&mdash;old fellow&mdash;glad to see you
+back!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Patient safely landed?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Get a big fee?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Where you going?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s take him home with us, Tony&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+The third man looked smiling at Tony.
+&#8220;I&#8217;ll challenge you to,&#8221; said he.</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s easy&mdash;come on,&#8221; responded
+Anthony Robeson with cordiality. &#8220;I&#8217;ll
+just telephone Mrs. Robeson.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s it,&#8221; said Dr. Roger Barnes.
+&#8220;You don&#8217;t dare not to. I understand.
+Go ahead. But if she&#8217;s too much dashed
+let me know, will you?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony turned, laughing, into a telephone
+closet, from which he emerged in time
+to catch his train with his guests.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s all right,&#8221; he assured them. &#8220;But
+it&#8217;s only fair to let her know a few minutes
+ahead. You like to understand, Roger,
+before you start, don&#8217;t you, whether your
+emergency case is a hip-fracture or a cut
+lip, so you can tell whether to take your
+glue or your sewing-silk?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;By all means,&#8221; said the bachelor of the
+party. &#8220;And I suppose you think Mrs. Juliet
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_91' name='page_91'></a>91</span>
+Marcy Robeson is now smiling happily to
+herself over this little surprise. I&#8217;ll lay you
+anything you please that if I can make her
+own up she&#8217;ll admit that she said &#8216;<i>Merciful
+heavens!</i>&#8217; into the telephone when she got
+your message.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony shook his head. &#8220;Evidently
+you don&#8217;t know what guests in the remote
+suburbs on a stormy February night mean
+to a poor girl whose nearest neighbour is
+five hundred feet away. Your ideas of
+married life need a little freshening, too.
+They&#8217;re pretty antique.&#8221;</p>
+<p>It was a half-mile from the station to the
+house&mdash;the &#8220;box of a house&#8221;&mdash;which had
+been Anthony&#8217;s home for five months, and
+toward which he now led his friends with
+the air of a man about to show his most
+treasured possessions. He strode through
+the deepening snow as if he enjoyed the
+strenuous tramp, setting a pace which
+Wayne Carey, with his office life, if not the
+doctor, more vigorously built and bred,
+found difficult to maintain.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Here we are,&#8221; called the leader, pointing
+toward windows glowing with a ruddy light.
+The doctor looked up with interest. Carey
+was a frequent visitor, but the busy surgeon,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_92' name='page_92'></a>92</span>
+old school-and-college chum of
+Anthony&#8217;s though he was, was about to
+have his first introduction to a place of
+which he had heard much, but of whose
+nearness to Paradise he doubted with the
+strong skepticism of a man who has seen
+many a fair beginning end in all unhappiness
+and desolation.</p>
+<p>As they stamped upon the little porch
+the door flew open, the brilliancy and
+comfort of a fire-and-lamplit room leaped
+out at them, a delicious faint odour of
+cookery assailed their hungry nostrils, and
+the welcome which makes all worth having
+met them on the threshold.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wayne,&#8221; said the rich young voice of
+the mistress of the house, &#8220;I&#8217;m so glad.
+Roger Barnes, this is just downright good
+of you; it&#8217;s so long you&#8217;ve promised us this.
+Tony&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>What she said to Tony must have been
+whispered in his ear if voiced at all, for the
+two guests, looking on with laughing,
+envious eyes, saw their hostess swept
+unceremoniously into a bearlike embrace,
+swung into the air as one thrusts up a
+child, poised there an instant, laughing
+and protesting, then slowly lowered to be
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_93' name='page_93'></a>93</span>
+kissed, and set down once more lightly
+upon the floor.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s all right. I didn&#8217;t tumble your
+hair a bit,&#8221; said Anthony coolly. &#8220;Excuse
+me, gentlemen, but Wayne understands&mdash;and
+Roger will some day, I hope&mdash;that a
+man who has been thinking about it all the
+way home can&#8217;t put it off on account of a
+couple of idiots who stand and stare instead
+of politely turning their backs. Oh, don&#8217;t
+mention it&mdash;it doesn&#8217;t disturb me at all;
+and Mrs. Robeson is becoming reconciled to
+my impetuosity by degrees. Make yourselves
+at home, boys. Juliet&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Take them upstairs, Tony, please. Of
+course we can&#8217;t let them go back to-night,
+now we have them. It&#8217;s beginning to
+storm heavily, isn&#8217;t it? I thought so.
+Take them to the guest-room, Tony&mdash;and
+dinner will be served as soon as you are
+down.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>&#8220;By Jupiter, I believe she means it,&#8221; declared
+the doctor, with approval, as the
+door of the bedroom closed on his host.
+&#8220;I think I can tell when a woman is shamming.
+She&#8217;s improved, hasn&#8217;t she, tremendously?
+Pretty girl always, but&mdash;well&mdash;bloomed
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_94' name='page_94'></a>94</span>
+now. Nice little house. Believe
+I&#8217;ll have to stay, though I ought not&mdash;just
+to take observations on Tony. His
+enthusiasm has all the appearance of
+reality. In fact, it strikes me he has
+rather&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>It was on his lips to say &#8220;rather more than
+you have,&#8221; but it occurred to him in time
+that jokes on this ground are dangerous.
+Wayne Carey had been married in November,
+was living in a somewhat unpretentious
+way in a downtown boarding-house, and
+certainly had to-night so much of a lost-dog
+air that it made the doctor pause. So he
+substituted: &#8220;&mdash;rather more than I should
+have expected, even of a fellow who has got
+the girl he has wanted all his life,&#8221; and fell
+to washing and brushing vigorously, eyeing
+meanwhile the little room with a critical
+bachelor&#8217;s appreciation of beauty and comfort
+in the quarters he is to occupy. It was
+very simply furnished, certainly, but it
+struck him as a place where his dreams
+were likely to be pleasant for every reason
+in the world.</p>
+<p>Downstairs, Juliet, in the dining-room,
+was surveying her table with the hostess&#8217;s
+satisfaction. Opposite her stood a tall
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_95' name='page_95'></a>95</span>
+and slender girl, black-haired, black-eyed,
+with a face of great attractiveness.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I wish, Mrs. Robeson,&#8221; she was saying
+eagerly, &#8220;you would let me serve you
+as your maid, and not make a guest
+of me. Really, I should love to do it.
+I don&#8217;t need to meet your friends, and I
+don&#8217;t mind seeming what I really am&mdash;your&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Rachel Redding,&#8221; Juliet interrupted,
+lifting an affectionate glance across the
+table, &#8220;if you want to seem what you really
+are&mdash;my friend&mdash;you will let me do as I
+like.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;My shabby clothes&mdash;&mdash;&#8221; murmured the
+girl.</p>
+<p>&#8220;If I could look as much like a princess as
+you do in them&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Mrs. Robeson, in that lovely dull red
+you&#8217;re a queen&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;&mdash;dowager,&#8221; finished Juliet gayly.
+&#8220;Well, I&#8217;ll be proud of you, and you can be
+proud of me, if you like, and together we&#8217;ll
+make those hungry men think there&#8217;s
+nothing like us. The dinner&#8217;s the thing.
+Isn&#8217;t it the luckiest chance in the world I
+sent for those oysters this morning? Doctor
+Barnes is perfectly fine, but he never would
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_96' name='page_96'></a>96</span>
+believe in the happiness of married life if
+the coffee were poor or the beefsteak too
+much broiled. Doesn&#8217;t the table look
+pretty? Those red geranium blossoms you
+brought me give it just the gay touch it
+needed this winter night.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>Three men, standing about the wide fireplace,
+warming cold hands at its friendly
+blaze, turned expectantly as their youthful
+hostess came in, followed by a graceful girl
+in gray. Juliet presented her guests with
+the air of conferring upon them a favour,
+and they seemed quite ready to accept it as
+such.</p>
+<p>Anthony looked on with interest to see
+a person whom he had known hitherto only
+as a pretty but poor young neighbour
+whom Juliet had engaged to help her for a
+certain part of every day, introduced as his
+wife&#8217;s friend, and greeted by Doctor Barnes
+and Wayne Carey with quite evident admiration
+and pleasure. He looked hard at
+her, as Carey seated her, noticing for the
+first time that she was really worth consideration,
+and remembering vaguely that
+Juliet had more than once tried to impress
+him with the fact. If it had not been for
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_97' name='page_97'></a>97</span>
+the other fellows, with whose eyes as their
+host he was now stimulated to observe her,
+he might have been still some time longer
+in coming to the realisation that Juliet had
+found somebody in whom her genuine
+interest was not misplaced. But Anthony
+Robeson had all his life been singularly
+blind to the fascinations of most other
+women than Juliet. As he turned his keen
+gaze from Rachel Redding to the charming
+figure that sat on the other side of the
+table the satisfaction in his eyes became
+so pronounced that it could mean, Dr.
+Roger Barnes admitted to himself, as he
+caught it, nothing less than a very real
+happiness.</p>
+<p>It was not an elaborate dinner. It was
+not by any means the sort of dinner Juliet
+might have prepared had she known that
+morning whom she was to entertain. It
+was merely a dinner planned with affectionate
+care to please and satisfy one
+hungry man who liked good things to eat&mdash;and
+amplified as much as possible in
+quantity after Anthony&#8217;s message reached
+her. And by that admirable collusion
+between hostess and feminine friend which
+can sometimes be effected when the situation
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_98' name='page_98'></a>98</span>
+demands it, the dinner prepared for three
+seemed ample for five.</p>
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<img src='images/illus-109.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 512px; height: 329px;' /><br />
+<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center;width: 512px;'>
+&#8220;Three men, standing about the wide fireplace ... turned expectantly as their youthful hostess came in, followed by a graceful girl in gray.&#8221;<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Between them Juliet and Rachel Redding
+served the various dishes and changed the
+plates which Anthony handed from his
+place. It was gracefully done and so
+simply that the absence of a maid was a
+thing to be enjoyed rather than regretted.
+When Juliet, in the softly sweeping dull-red
+frock which made of her a warm picture for
+a winter&#8217;s night, slipped from her chair and
+moved about the room, or brought in from
+the kitchen a steaming dish, she seemed the
+ideal hostess, herself bestowing what her own
+hands had prepared. And when Rachel
+Redding offered a man a cup of fragrant
+coffee, smiling down in the general direction
+of his uplifted face without meeting his
+eyes, there was certainly nothing lost from
+his enjoyment of the beverage.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Say, but this dinner has tasted just
+about right,&#8221; was Wayne Carey&#8217;s satisfied
+observation as he leaned back in his chair
+at last, after draining his third cup of
+coffee&mdash;and the pot itself, if he had but
+known it.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Went to the spot?&#8221; asked Anthony,
+leaning back also with the expression of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_99' name='page_99'></a>99</span>
+the friendly host. He was young to cultivate
+that expression, but he appeared
+to find no difficulty about it.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It did&mdash;every last mouthful.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Good. Now, if you fellows will come
+back to the fire and have a pipeful of talk
+we shall not be missed. In this house on
+ordinary occasions we reverse the order of
+after-dinner privileges&mdash;the men retire to
+the atmosphere of the sofa-pillows, and the
+women&mdash;I&#8217;m not allowed to tell what they
+do. But after remaining discreetly out of
+sight for some little time, during which faint
+sounds as of the rattle of china penetrate
+through closed doors, they reappear, pleasantly
+flushed and full of a sort of relieved
+joy.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I know what I wish,&#8221; said Roger Barnes,
+looking back from the dining-room doorway
+at young Mrs. Robeson; &#8220;I wish that when
+the dishes are all ready you would let me
+know. I should like nothing better than
+to have a dish-towel at them. I know all
+about it&mdash;my mother taught me how.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He looked so precisely as if he meant it,
+and the glance he sent past Juliet at Rachel
+Redding was so suggestive of his dislike
+to be separated for the coming hour from
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_100' name='page_100'></a>100</span>
+the feminine portion of the household, that
+his hostess answered promptly: &#8220;Of course
+you may. We never refuse an offer like
+that. We will try you&mdash;on promise of good
+behaviour.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XII_THE_BACHELOR_BEGS_A_DISHTOWEL' id='XII_THE_BACHELOR_BEGS_A_DISHTOWEL'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_101' name='page_101'></a>101</span>
+<h2>XII.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The Bachelor Begs a Dish-Towel</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>When the door closed on the three Juliet
+produced from somewhere two aprons&mdash;attractive
+affairs on the pinafore order&mdash;one
+of which she slipped upon Rachel, the
+other donned herself.</p>
+<p>&#8220;These are my kitchen party-aprons,&#8221;
+she said gayly, noting how the pretty garment
+became the girl, &#8220;calculated to impress
+the masculine mind with the charm
+of domesticity in women. The doctor needs
+a little illustrated lesson of the sort. Life
+in boarding-houses isn&#8217;t adapted to encourage
+a man in the belief that real comfort is
+to be found anywhere outside of a bachelor&#8217;s
+club.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Before he was called the doctor forsook a
+half-smoked cigar and the seductive hollows
+of Anthony&#8217;s easiest chair and marched
+briskly out to the kitchen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You see I distrust you,&#8221; he announced,
+putting in his head at the door. &#8220;I&#8217;m
+afraid you will get them all done without
+me.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_102' name='page_102'></a>102</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Not a bit of it. Here you are,&#8221; and
+Juliet tied a big white apron about a large-sized
+waist. &#8220;Here&#8217;s your towel. No,
+don&#8217;t touch the glass; a man is too unconscious
+of his strength.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;A surgeon?&#8221; demurred Rachel softly,
+from over her steaming dishpan.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Thank you, Miss Redding,&#8221; said the
+doctor, smiling.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ah, how stupid of me,&#8221; Juliet made
+amends swiftly. &#8220;Miss Redding remembers
+that when I got my telephone message
+to-night I told her that the most distinguished
+young specialist in the city was
+coming here to dinner. A hand trained
+to such delicate tasks as those of surgery&mdash;here,
+Dr. Roger Barnes, forgive me, and
+wipe my most precious goblets.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll have my nerves unsteady with
+such speeches as that,&#8221; said he, but he
+accepted the trust. He held the goblets and
+the other daintily cut and engraved pieces
+of glass with evident pleasure in the task.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile Juliet and Rachel made rapid
+work of the greater part of the dishes,
+handling thin china with the dexterity of
+housewives who love their work&mdash;and their
+china. Talk and laughter flowed brightly
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_103' name='page_103'></a>103</span>
+through it all, and when the doctor had
+finished his glass he looked disappointed at
+seeing not much left to do. At the moment
+Rachel was scrubbing and scraping a big
+baking-dish, portions of whose surface
+strongly resisted her efforts, in spite of previous
+soaking. The assistant, looking about
+him for new worlds to conquer, fell upon this
+dish.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Here, here,&#8221; said he, &#8220;let me have it.
+I&#8217;ll use on it some of the unconscious
+strength Mrs. Robeson credits me with.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But Rachel clung to the dish. &#8220;Proper
+housekeepers,&#8221; she averred, &#8220;always say
+&#8216;That&#8217;s all, thank you,&#8217; as soon as the china
+is done, and finish the pots and kettles
+after the guest has gone back to pleasanter
+things.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I see. Did you ever have a man for
+dish-wiper before?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Never a surgeon,&#8221; admitted Miss Redding.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then you don&#8217;t appreciate the fact
+that a man likes to do big things which
+make the most show and get the credit for
+them.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He took the dish away from her by a
+dexterous little twist in which conscious
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_104' name='page_104'></a>104</span>
+strength certainly asserted itself. Rachel,
+laughing, with a dash of colour in cheeks
+which were normally of dark ivory tints,
+accepted the dish-towel he handed her.</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>&#8220;Hallo, there,&#8221; cried Wayne Carey&#8217;s voice
+from the door. &#8220;You&#8217;re having more fun
+out here than we are in there, and that&#8217;s
+not fair. The lord of the manor is getting
+so chesty over the delights of a country
+home in a February snowbank that he&#8217;s
+becoming heavy company.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No room for you here,&#8221; returned the
+doctor, removing with a flourish the last
+candied sugar lump from the bottom of the
+big dish, and beginning to swash about
+vigorously in the hot water. &#8220;We do something
+besides talk out here; we work. Our
+kitchen is so small we have to waste no
+time in steps; as we dry the things we chuck
+them straight into their places.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Suiting the action to the word he caught
+up a shining cake-tin and cast it straight at
+Carey. That gentleman dodged, but Anthony
+caught it, performed upon it an
+imitation of the cymbals, then turned about
+and laid it in a nest of similar tins upon a
+shelf in an open closet.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_105' name='page_105'></a>105</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Ah, but I&#8217;m well trained,&#8221; he boasted.</p>
+<p>&#8220;If you were you wouldn&#8217;t put it away
+wet,&#8221; observed Rachel slyly.</p>
+<p>Anthony withdrew the tin, wiped it with
+much solicitude, and replaced it.</p>
+<p>&#8220;These little technicalities are beyond
+me,&#8221; he apologised. &#8220;Your real athlete in
+kitchen work is your scientific man. See
+him dry that bean-pot with the glass-towel.
+Now, I know better than that.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Go away, all of you,&#8221; commanded the
+mistress of the place. &#8220;Go back to the
+fire and we&#8217;ll join you. If you are very
+good we&#8217;ll bring you a special treat by-and-by.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That settles it,&#8221; said the doctor, and
+led the retreat, but not without a backward
+glance at the little kitchen.</p>
+<p>Juliet had gone into the dining-room
+with a trayful of glass and silver. Rachel
+Redding was plunging half a dozen white
+towels into a pan of steaming water. Barnes
+stood an instant, staring hard at the slender
+figure in the white pinafore, the round young
+arms gleaming in the lamplight&mdash;then he
+turned to follow the others. There are
+some pictures which linger long in a man&#8217;s
+memory; why, he can hardly tell. With
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_106' name='page_106'></a>106</span>
+all his varied experiences Dr. Roger Barnes
+had never before discovered how attractive
+a background a well-kept kitchen makes
+for a beautiful woman, so that she be there
+mistress of the situation. Long after he
+had gone back to the fire his absent eyes,
+while the others talked, were studying the&mdash;to
+him&mdash;unaccustomed and singularly
+charming scene he had just left in the
+kitchen.</p>
+<p>When Juliet and Rachel came in at length
+they found a plan afoot for their entertainment.
+Wayne Carey was standing at the
+window showing cause why the whole party
+should go out and coast upon the hill near
+by.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You admit,&#8221; he argued with Anthony,
+&#8220;that you know where we can get a pair
+of bobs&mdash;and if you can&#8217;t I&#8217;ll bribe some of
+those youngsters out there to let us have
+theirs. The storm has stopped; the boys
+have swept off the whole hill, I should judge,
+by the way their track shines again under
+the moonlight. I haven&#8217;t had a good coast
+since I left college.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He turned to Juliet. &#8220;Will you go?&#8221; he
+asked coaxingly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course we will,&#8221; promised Juliet.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_107' name='page_107'></a>107</span>
+&#8220;Tony wants to go&mdash;he&#8217;s just enjoying making
+you tease. As for the doctor&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;If my right hand has not forgot her cunning,&#8221;
+he agreed.</p>
+<p>In ten minutes the party was off. A
+young matron of five months&#8217; standing is
+not so materially changed from the girl she
+used to be that she can fail to be the gayest
+of company, perhaps with the more zest
+that the old good times seem a bit far away
+already and she is glad to bring them back.</p>
+<p>As for the real girl of the party, in this
+case it chanced to be a country lass who had
+been away to school and half-way through
+college, had been brought home by love
+and duty to some elderly people who needed
+her, and had known many hours of stifled
+longing for the sort of companionship with
+which she had grown happily familiar.</p>
+<p>Matron and maid&mdash;they were a pair for
+whose sakes the men who were with them
+gladly made slaves of themselves to give
+them an evening of glorious outdoor fun&mdash;and
+at small sacrifice.</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>&#8220;What a night!&#8221; exulted the doctor,
+striding up the long hill beside Rachel
+Redding breathing deep. &#8220;I&#8217;m thanking
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_108' name='page_108'></a>108</span>
+all my lucky stars that they led my path
+across Anthony Robeson&#8217;s to-night. I&#8217;ve
+been intending to come out here ever since
+he was married&mdash;and might not have done
+it for another six months if I hadn&#8217;t got
+started. He&#8217;ll have all he wants of me now.
+It&#8217;s the most delightful spot I&#8217;ve been in for
+many moons.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is a dear little home,&#8221; agreed Rachel
+warmly. &#8220;Mrs. Robeson would make the
+most commonplace house in the world one
+where everybody would want to come.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s evident. Yet, somehow, knowing
+her well as a girl, I never should have
+suspected just those home-making qualities.
+You didn&#8217;t know her then, I suppose?
+She was a girl other girls liked heartily, and
+men enthusiastically&mdash;one of the &#8216;I&#8217;ll be a
+good friend, but don&#8217;t come too near&#8217; sort,
+you know. But she was very fond of
+travel and change, ready for everything in
+the way of sport&mdash;and, well, I certainly
+never saw her before in anything resembling
+an apron of any description. What a delightful
+article of attire an apron is, anyhow.
+I think I never appreciated it before
+to-night.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s because you never saw one of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_109' name='page_109'></a>109</span>
+Mrs. Robeson&#8217;s aprons. Hers are not like
+other people&#8217;s.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;She makes hers poetic, does she?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;She certainly does&mdash;even the ones for
+baking and sweeping. Not ruffled or beribboned,
+but cut with an eye to attractiveness,
+and always of becoming colour.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I see. She&#8217;s an artist&mdash;that was noticeable
+in the oysters&mdash;if she made the dish.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course she did.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;The coffee was the best I ever drank.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Was it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You made that, then,&#8221; remarked the
+doctor astutely.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m glad it was good,&#8221; said Rachel
+demurely.</p>
+<p>They had reached the top of the hill.
+Doctor Barnes insisted that Anthony had
+been the best steerer of coasting parties
+known to the juvenile world, and placed
+him at the helm. Next came Juliet, with
+both arms clasped as far about her husband&#8217;s
+stalwart frame as they would go.
+Carey had wanted to be the end man, but
+Doctor Barnes would have none of it.
+&#8220;You have to take care of Mrs. Robeson,&#8221;
+he said firmly, and placed him next. This
+brought Miss Redding last, and Dr. Roger
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_110' name='page_110'></a>110</span>
+Barnes, knowing man, as hanger-on behind
+upon bobs already fairly full. The last
+man, as every coaster understands, has to
+be alert to help out any possible bad steering,
+and so keeps a watchful head thrust
+half over the shoulder in front.</p>
+<p>The foregoing explanation will show how
+it came about that all down the long, swift
+descent, Rachel, breathless with the unaccustomed
+delight of the flight, felt upon
+her cheek a warm breath, and was conscious
+of a most extraordinary nearness
+of the lips which kept saying merry things
+into her ear. The ear itself grew warm
+before the bottom of the track was reached.</p>
+<p>&#8220;That was a great coast,&#8221; cried the doctor
+as they reached the end of the long slide.
+&#8220;Now for another. I&#8217;m a boy again. This
+beats the best thing I could have had in
+town if I hadn&#8217;t run across Anthony.&#8221;</p>
+<p>So they had another&mdash;and another&mdash;and
+one more. Then Rachel Redding, stopping
+in front of a small house which lay at the
+foot of the hill, said good-night to them
+and slipped away before Barnes had realised
+what had happened.</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>&#8220;Does she live there?&#8221; he questioned
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_111' name='page_111'></a>111</span>
+Juliet, as the four who were left moved on
+toward home. Anthony and Wayne were
+discussing a subject on which they had
+differed at the top of the hill. &#8220;Somehow,
+I got the impression she lived with you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No&mdash;but she comes over a good deal.
+I couldn&#8217;t get on without her.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;As a friend?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet looked up at him. &#8220;I think it
+would be better that you should know,
+Roger,&#8221; she said, &#8220;and I&#8217;m sure Miss Redding
+herself would prefer it&mdash;that I pay
+her for several hours a day of regular work.
+You&#8217;ve only to see her to understand that
+she does this simply because it&#8217;s the only
+thing open to her as long as her father and
+mother can&#8217;t spare her to go away. She
+gave up her college course in the middle
+because she said they were pining to death
+for her. They are in very greatly reduced
+circumstances, after a lifetime of prosperity.
+She&#8217;s a rare creature&mdash;I&#8217;m learning to
+appreciate her more every day. She&#8217;s never
+said a word about her loneliness here, but
+it shows in her eyes. It&#8217;s a perfect delight
+to me to have her with me, and I mean to
+give her all the fun I can. For all that
+demure manner and her Madonna face she&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_112' name='page_112'></a>112</span>
+as full of mischief as a kitten when something
+starts her off.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Juliet,&#8221; said the doctor soberly, turning
+to look searchingly down at her in the
+moonlight, &#8220;would you be willing to let
+me come often?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet looked up quickly. &#8220;So that you
+may see her?&#8221; she asked straightforwardly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. I won&#8217;t pretend it&#8217;s anything
+else. I can tell you honestly that if there
+were no other reason I should want to come
+because of my old friendship for you and
+Anthony, and because this evening in your
+little home has given me a rare pleasure.
+I know of no place like it. But I&#8217;ll tell you
+squarely that I want the chance to meet
+your friend often and at once. If I don&#8217;t
+you will have other people coming out from
+town&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; said Juliet, and something in the
+way she said it made him ask quickly: &#8220;Has
+that already happened? Am I too late?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know whether you&#8217;re too late,
+but I know that we&#8217;ve suddenly grown
+most attractive to another man from town.
+If you had gone into Rachel&#8217;s home the
+odour of violets would have met you at the
+door. He sends them every few days.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_113' name='page_113'></a>113</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;<i>Ah!</i>&#8221; said the doctor. It was not much
+of a comment, but it spoke volumes. He
+had been keen before&mdash;he was determined
+now. Violets&mdash;well, there were rarer flowers
+than those.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XIII_SMOKE_AND_TALK' id='XIII_SMOKE_AND_TALK'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_114' name='page_114'></a>114</span>
+<h2>XIII.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Smoke and Talk</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>At the house there remained for the
+guests an hour before the fire, where Juliet
+brought in something hot and sweet and
+sour and spicy, which tasted delicious and
+brought her a shower of compliments while
+they drank a friendly draught to her. When
+she had left them, standing in an admiring
+group on the hearth-rug and wishing her
+happy dreams, they settled into luxurious
+positions of ease before the fire&mdash;a fire in
+the last stages of red comfort before it dies
+into a smoulder of torrid ashes.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Anthony Robeson,&#8221; said Wayne Carey,
+regarding the andirons fixedly over his bed-time
+pipe, &#8220;you&#8217;re a happy man.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony laughed contentedly. He had
+thrown himself down upon the hearth-rug
+with his head on a pillow pulled from the
+settle, and lay flat on his back with his
+hands clasped behind his neck. It was an
+attitude deeply expressive of masculine
+comfort.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_115' name='page_115'></a>115</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re exactly right,&#8221; said he. &#8220;And
+you would be the same if you would give
+up living in that infernal boarding-house.
+What do you want to fool with your first
+year of married life like that for? You
+told me that Judith was bowled over by
+our wedding, and was ready to go in for this
+sort of thing with a will.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I know it,&#8221; admitted Carey, &#8220;but&#8221;&mdash;he
+spoke hesitatingly&mdash;&#8220;we couldn&#8217;t seem
+to find this sort of thing. You had corralled
+all there was.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Nonsense.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You had. Everything we looked at
+was so old and mouldy, or so new and inartistic,
+or so high-priced, or so far away&mdash;well,
+we couldn&#8217;t seem to get at it, so we
+said we&#8217;d board a while and wait until we
+could look around.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;How does it work?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, I suppose it works very well,&#8221;
+said Carey cautiously. &#8220;Judith seems contented.
+We have as good meals as the
+average in such houses, and the people are
+rather a nice lot. We&#8217;re invited around
+quite a good deal, and Judith likes that.
+I ought to like it better than I do, somehow.
+I&#8217;m so confoundedly tired when I get home
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_116' name='page_116'></a>116</span>
+nights I can&#8217;t help thinking of you and
+Juliet here in this jolly room. There&#8217;s an
+abominable blue and yellow wall-paper on
+our sitting-room&mdash;and it has a way of appearing
+to turn seasick in the evening under
+the electrics. Sometimes I think it&#8217;s that
+that makes me feel&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Seasick, too?&#8221; inquired the doctor with
+his professional air. He was standing with
+his arm on the chimney-piece, looking alternately
+down on his friends and around
+the long, low room. It <i>was</i> a jolly room&mdash;the
+very essence of comfort and cosiness.
+It was a beautiful room, too, in a simple
+way; one which satisfied his sense of harmony
+in colours and fabrics&mdash;a keen sense
+with him, as it is apt to be with men of his
+profession.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Judith likes this, too, you know,&#8221; Carey
+went on loyally. &#8220;She thinks it&#8217;s great.
+But how to get it for ourselves&mdash;that&#8217;s
+another matter. Somehow, you were
+lucky.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Did you ever happen to see,&#8221; asked
+Anthony, &#8220;a photograph I took, just for
+fun, of this house as it was when Juliet saw
+it first? No? Well, just look in that box
+on the end of the farther bookcase, will
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_117' name='page_117'></a>117</span>
+you? It&#8217;s near the top&mdash;there&mdash;that&#8217;s it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He lay looking up through half-closed
+lashes at the two men as they studied the
+photograph, the doctor leaning over Carey&#8217;s
+shoulder.</p>
+<p>&#8220;On your word, man, did it look like
+that?&#8221; cried Barnes.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Just like that.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, I&#8217;ve heard it did,&#8221; admitted Carey;
+&#8220;but I never quite believed it could have
+been as bad as that.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who planned it all?&#8221; the doctor asked,
+getting possession of the photograph as
+Carey laid it down, and giving it careful
+scrutiny.</p>
+<p>&#8220;My little home-maker.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Jove&mdash;are there any more like her?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re pretty rare, I understand.
+Juliet has one in training&mdash;one with a good
+deal of native capacity, I should judge.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let me know when her graduation day
+approaches,&#8221; remarked the doctor.</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>When he fell asleep that night in the
+dainty guest-room Barnes was wondering
+whether Mrs. Robeson got her own breakfasts,
+and hoping that she certainly did not,
+at least when guests were in the house. He
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_118' name='page_118'></a>118</span>
+was down half an hour earlier than necessary,
+and to his great satisfaction found a
+slender figure brushing up ashes and setting
+the fireplace in order for the morning fire.
+As he begged leave to help he noted the
+satin smoothness of Miss Redding&#8217;s heavy
+black hair and the trim perfection of her
+attire. She reminded him of his hospital
+nurses in their immaculate blue and white.
+When he saw the mistress of the house and
+found her similarly dressed a certain skepticism
+grew in his mind.</p>
+<p>When he went out to breakfast he murmured
+in Anthony&#8217;s ear: &#8220;Just tell me, old
+fellow&mdash;to satisfy the curiosity of a bachelor&mdash;do
+these girls of your household
+always look like this in the early morning?
+I know it&#8217;s mean&mdash;but you will
+know how to evade me if I&#8217;m too impertinent&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony glanced from Juliet, resembling
+a pink carnation in her wash frock&mdash;February
+though it was&mdash;to Rachel Redding in
+dark blue and white, and smiled mischievously.
+&#8220;Mrs. Robeson&mdash;and Miss Redding&mdash;you
+are challenged,&#8221; he announced.
+&#8220;Here&#8217;s a fine old chump who has an awful
+suspicion that maybe when there are no
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_119' name='page_119'></a>119</span>
+guests you come down in calico wrappers
+with day-before-yesterday&#8217;s aprons on.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet gave the doctor a glance which
+made him pretend to shrink behind Carey
+for protection. &#8220;Will you please answer
+him, Tony?&#8221; she said.</p>
+<p>&#8220;On my word and honour, Roger Barnes,
+then,&#8221; said Anthony proudly, &#8220;they always
+look like this.&#8221;</p>
+<p>When the doctor left he was weighing
+carefully in his mind an urgent problem:
+After waiting six months before making
+his first visit at the Robesons, how soon
+could he decently come again?</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XIV_STRAWBERRIES' id='XIV_STRAWBERRIES'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_120' name='page_120'></a>120</span>
+<h2>XIV.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Strawberries</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;Here are yer strawberries, ma&#8217;m.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet, alone in her little kitchen, ran to
+the door in dismay. She looked down at a
+freckle-faced boy carrying a big basket
+filled with strawberry-boxes.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But my order was for next Wednesday,&#8221;
+she said.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, Pa said he cal&#8217;lated you&#8217;d ruther
+have &#8217;em when they was at the best, an&#8217;
+that&#8217;s now. This hot weather&#8217;s a dryin&#8217;
+&#8217;em up. May not be any good ones by
+Wednesday.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Every housekeeper knows that if there
+is one thing particularly liable to happen it
+is the arrival of fruit for preserving at the
+most inopportune moment of the week.
+It matters little what the excuse of the
+sender may be&mdash;there is always a sufficient
+reason why the original date set by the
+buyer has been ignored. In this case the
+strawberries had been engaged from a
+neighbour, and Juliet understood at once
+that she must not refuse to take them.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_121' name='page_121'></a>121</span></p>
+<p>She stood looking at the rows of baskets
+upon the table, when the boy had placed
+them there and gone whistling away. She
+was in the midst of a flurry of work. It
+was Saturday, and she was cooking and
+baking, putting together various dishes to
+be used upon the morrow. Mr. Horatio
+Marcy had lately returned from abroad.
+He and Mrs. Dingley were to spend the
+coming Sabbath with Juliet and Anthony&mdash;the
+first occasion on which Juliet&#8217;s father
+should be entertained in the house. It was
+an event of importance, and his daughter
+meant to show him several things concerning
+her fitness for her present position.</p>
+<p>Rachel Redding was not available upon
+this Saturday morning. Her mother had
+been taken seriously ill the night before,
+and Rachel had sent word that she could
+not leave her. Juliet had not minded much,
+although it was a day when Rachel&#8217;s help
+would have been especially acceptable. As
+it was, she had reached a point where her
+housewifely marshalling of the day&#8217;s work
+was at a critical stage. A cake had been put
+into the oven. A large bowl of soup stock
+had been brought from a cool retreat to
+have the smooth coating of fat removed
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_122' name='page_122'></a>122</span>
+from its surface. Various other dishes, in
+process of construction, awaited the skilled
+touch of the cook.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I shall have to do them, I suppose,&#8221;
+said Mrs. Robeson to herself, regarding the
+strawberries with a disapproving eye. &#8220;But
+<i>why</i> they had to come to-day&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>She went at the strawberries, wishing
+she had ordered less. They were fine
+berries&mdash;on top; by degrees, as the boxes
+lowered, they became less fine. It seemed
+desirable to separate the superior from the
+inferior and treat them differently. Only
+the best would do for the delectable preserve
+which was to go into glasses and be
+served on special occasions; the others
+could be made into jam less attractive to
+the eye if hardly less acceptable to the
+palate. Juliet was obliged to put down
+her berry-boxes every fifth minute to attend
+to one or other of the various saucepans
+and double-boilers upon the little range.
+Her cheeks grew flushed, for the day was
+hot and the kitchen hotter. It must be
+admitted that her occasional glance out
+over the green fields and the woods beyond
+was a longing one.</p>
+<p>The better selection of the berries went
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_123' name='page_123'></a>123</span>
+into the clear syrup in the preserving-kettle.
+Juliet flew to get her glass pots
+ready. She stopped to stir something in a
+saucepan. She thrust some eggs into the
+small ice-chest to cool them for the salad
+dressing soon to be made. She kept one
+eye on the clock, for the strawberry preserve
+had to be timed to a minute&mdash;ten, no more,
+no less. It was a strenuous hour.</p>
+<p>As she dipped up the fourth ladleful of
+crimson richness&mdash;translucent as a church
+window&mdash;and filled the waiting jar, a peculiar
+pungent odour drifted across the
+fragrance of the strawberries. Juliet
+dropped her ladle and pulled open the oven
+door.</p>
+<p>The delicate cake which she had compounded
+with especial care because it was
+Mrs. Dingley&#8217;s favourite, lay a blackened
+ruin. Some of it had run over upon the
+oven bottom and become a mass of cinders.
+Juliet jerked the cake-tin out into the daylight
+and shut the oven door with a slam.</p>
+<p>It was at this unpropitious moment that
+a figure appeared in the doorway&mdash;a tall,
+slim figure, in crisp, cool, white linen. A
+charming white hat surmounted Mrs. Wayne
+Carey&#8217;s carefully ordered hair, a white
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_124' name='page_124'></a>124</span>
+parasol in her hands completed a particularly
+chaste and appropriate morning toilette
+for a young woman who had nothing
+to do with kitchens.</p>
+<p>She was regarding with interest the young
+person at the range. Juliet wore one of
+her characteristic working frocks, and the
+big pinafore which enveloped it from head
+to foot was of an attractive design. But
+the morning&#8217;s flurry had set its signs upon
+her, and the pinafore was not as immaculate
+as it had been three hours earlier. Her
+hair, curling moistly about her flushed face,
+had been impatiently pushed back more
+than once, and its disorder, while not unpicturesque,
+was suggestive of a somewhat
+perturbed mind. Her hands were pink
+with strawberry juice. She looked warm,
+tired, and&mdash;if the truth must be told&mdash;at
+the moment not a little out of temper.
+The smile with which she welcomed her
+friend could hardly be said to be one of
+absolute pleasure.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m afraid I&#8217;ve come at the wrong
+time,&#8221; said Judith, regretfully. &#8220;Did you
+just burn something? Too bad. I suppose
+all young housekeepers do that.
+Where&#8217;s your&mdash;assistant?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_125' name='page_125'></a>125</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s not here to-day,&#8221; said Juliet,
+ladling up strawberry preserve with more
+haste than caution. Her fingers shook a
+little but she kept her voice tranquil. &#8220;It&#8217;s
+all right. A number of things had to be
+done at once, that&#8217;s all. Please don&#8217;t stay
+in this hot place. Take off your hat and
+find a cool corner somewhere in the house.
+I&#8217;ll be in presently.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I mustn&#8217;t bother you. I was going to
+stay for lunch with you, it was so hot in
+town, but I mustn&#8217;t think of it when
+you&#8217;re so&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course you&#8217;ll stay,&#8221; said Juliet with
+decision. &#8220;What you see before you is only
+the smoke of battle. It will soon clear
+away. Run off&mdash;and I&#8217;ll be with you presently.
+You&#8217;ll find the late magazines in
+the living-room.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Her tone was intended to deceive and
+it was sufficiently successful. Judith was
+anxious to stay. She was also interested
+in the situation. She had heard much
+from Wayne in praise of Juliet&#8217;s successful
+housekeeping, and had seen enough of it
+herself to be curious about its inner workings.
+For the first time she had happened
+upon a scene which would seem to indicate
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_126' name='page_126'></a>126</span>
+that there were phases in this sort of
+domestic life less ideal than she was asked
+to believe. She went back into the coolness
+and quiet of the living-room with a
+full appreciation of the fact that no hot
+kitchens ever threatened her own peace of
+mind.</p>
+<p>Juliet finished her strawberry preserve,
+saw that everything liable to burn was
+removed to safe quarters; then deliberately
+took off her apron and stole out of the
+kitchen door. She went swiftly down
+through the orchard to the willow-bordered
+path by the brook; then, out of sight of
+everything human, ran several rods down
+it with a sweep of skirts which put everything
+in the bird creation to flight. At a
+certain pleasant spot among the willows,
+sheltered from all possible observation, she
+paused and flung herself down upon the
+warm ground.</p>
+<p>But not in any attitude of despair.
+Neither did she cry tears of vexation and
+weariness. She was a healthy girl, with
+the perfect physical being whose poise is
+not upset by so small a matter as a fatiguing
+morning. Because a cake had burned, an
+extra amount of work had had to be conquered
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_127' name='page_127'></a>127</span>
+and an unexpected guest had arrived,
+her nerves were not worn to the rending
+point. But, having been reared in the
+belief that a breath of outdoors is the great
+antidote for all physical or mental discomforts
+born of confinement indoors, she had
+acquired a habit of running away from her
+cares at any and all times of day in precisely
+this fashion&mdash;and many were the
+advantages she had reaped from this somewhat
+unusual course of procedure.</p>
+<p>Mrs. Anthony Robeson lay upon one side,
+her arm outstretched, her cheek pillowed
+upon her arm. She was drawing long,
+deep breaths, and looking lazily off at a
+stretch of blue sky cleft in the exact centre
+by one great graceful elm tree. One would
+have thought she had forgotten every care
+in the world, not to mention the guest from
+the city waiting expectantly for her hostess
+to appear. After ten minutes of this sort
+of indolence the figure in the blue and white
+print dress sat up, clasped both arms about
+her knees and remained regarding with half
+closed eyes the softly fluttering leaves of
+the willows along the edge of the brook.
+The hot flush died out of her cheeks; the
+lips whose expression a few minutes since
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_128' name='page_128'></a>128</span>
+had indicated self-control under a combination
+of trying circumstances, relaxed
+into their natural sweetness with a tendency
+toward mirth; and her whole aspect became
+that merely of the young athlete resting
+from one encounter and preparing herself
+for another.</p>
+<p>At length she rose, shook out her skirts,
+and said aloud: &#8220;Now, Judith Dearborn
+Carey, I&#8217;m ready to upset your expectations.
+Since you looked in at me this
+morning you&#8217;ve been thinking I wished I
+hadn&#8216;t&mdash;haven&#8217;t you? Well, you may just
+understand that I don&#8217;t wish anything of
+the sort.&#8221; And in five minutes more she
+had walked in upon her guest by way of the
+front door, her pretty face serene, her
+hands full of pink June roses which she
+threw in a fragrant mass of beauty into her
+friend&#8217;s lap.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Put those into bowls for me, will you?&#8221;
+she requested. &#8220;Arrange them to suit
+yourself. Aren&#8217;t they lovely? I suppose
+you&#8217;re getting hungry. In half an hour
+you shall be served with a very modest but,
+I trust, not insufficient lunch. Would you
+like hot chocolate or iced tea?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Iced tea, by all means,&#8221; chose Judith,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_129' name='page_129'></a>129</span>
+who, being used to the privileges of selection
+from a variety of offered foods and
+beverages, was apt to want what was not
+set before her, when at a private table.
+Juliet understood this propensity of her
+friend and slyly took advantage of it. As it
+happened, she knew that at the moment she
+was quite out of chocolate, but she had
+counted advisedly upon Judith&#8217;s choice on
+a hot June day, and she smiled to herself
+as she chopped ice and sliced lemon.</p>
+<p>At the end of the half hour, Judith, who
+found the coolness of the living-room too
+delightful to allow her to keep watch of
+her friend in the hot kitchen, much as she
+was tempted to do so, was summoned to
+an equally cool dining-room. Upon the
+bare table, daintily set out upon some of
+the embroidered white doilies of Juliet&#8217;s
+wedding linen, was a simple lunch of a character
+which appealed to the guest&#8217;s critical
+appetite in a way which made her draw a
+long breath of satisfaction.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You certainly do have a trick of serving
+things to make them taste better than
+other people&#8217;s,&#8221; she acknowledged, glancing
+from the little platter of broiled chicken
+with its bit of parsley to the crisp fruit
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_130' name='page_130'></a>130</span>
+salad made up of she knew not what, but
+presenting an appetising appearance&mdash;then
+regarding fondly a dish of spinach, pleasingly
+flanked by thin slices of boiled egg.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s really too hot to eat anything very
+solid,&#8221; agreed Juliet with guile. &#8220;Rachel
+and I have a way of planning our lunches a
+day or two ahead, so that the leftovers we
+use up are not yesterday&#8217;s but the day
+before&#8217;s, and we remember with surprise
+how good the original dish was far back in
+the past. I wish Anthony could have his
+midday meal at home&mdash;though perhaps if
+he did the dinners wouldn&#8217;t strike him so
+happily. Don&#8217;t you think it&#8217;s great fun
+to see a big, hearty man sit down at a table
+and look at it with an expression of adoration?
+Women may deride the fact as
+they will, but a healthy body does demand
+good things to eat, and shouldn&#8217;t be blamed
+for liking them.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wayne hasn&#8217;t much appetite,&#8221; said
+Judith, eating away with relish. &#8220;He dislikes
+the people at our table&mdash;sometimes
+I think that&#8217;s why he bolts his food and
+gets off in such a hurry. By the way,
+Juliet, are you and Tony coming in to the
+Reardons&#8217; to-night? Of course you are.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_131' name='page_131'></a>131</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I suppose we must,&#8221; admitted Juliet
+with reluctance. &#8220;We have refused a good
+many things since we&#8217;ve been here, but I
+did promise Mrs. Reardon we would try
+to come to-night.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The little repast over, Judith offered,
+with well simulated warmth, to help her
+friend with the after work. But Juliet
+would have none of her. She sent her
+guest out into a hammock under the trees,
+and despatched the business of putting the
+little kitchen to rights with the celerity
+of one who means to have done with it.</p>
+<p>In the middle of the June afternoon
+Judith awoke from a nap in the hammock
+to find her hostess standing laughing beside
+her, fresh in a thin gown of flowered dimity.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well,&#8221; yawned Judith, heavily, &#8220;I must
+have gone off to sleep. I was tired&mdash;I am
+tireder. This is a fatiguing sort of weather&mdash;don&#8217;t
+you think so? But you don&#8217;t look
+it. And after all that work I found you
+in! Why aren&#8217;t you used up? It <i>kills</i> me
+to do things in the heat.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet dropped a big blue denim pillow
+on the ground and sat down upon it in a
+flutter of dimity. She lifted a smiling face
+and said with spirit:
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_132' name='page_132'></a>132</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Last summer I could walk miles over
+a golf course twice a day and not mind it in
+the least. The year before I was most of
+the time on the river, rowing till I was as
+strong as a girl could be. I&#8217;ve had gymnasium
+work and fencing lessons and have
+been brought up to keep myself in perfect
+trim by my baths and exercise. What frail
+thing am I that a little housework should
+use me up?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes&mdash;I know&mdash;you always did go in
+for that sort of thing,&#8221; reflected Judith,
+eyeing her companion&#8217;s fresh colour and
+bright eyes. &#8220;I suppose I ought, but I
+never cared for it&mdash;I don&#8217;t mean the baths
+and all that&mdash;of course any self-respecting
+woman adores warm baths. I don&#8217;t like
+the cold plunges and showers you always
+add on.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then don&#8217;t expect the results.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It isn&#8217;t everybody who has your energetic
+temperament. I hate golf, despise
+tennis, never rowed a stroke in my life, and
+could no more keep house as you are doing
+than I could fly.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let me see,&#8221; said Juliet demurely, pretending
+to consider. &#8220;What is it that you
+do like to do?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_133' name='page_133'></a>133</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;You know well enough. And little
+enough of it I can get now with a husband
+who never cares to stir.&#8221; There was a
+suspicion of bitterness in Judith&#8217;s voice.
+But Juliet, ignoring it, went blithely on:</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve a strong conviction that one can&#8217;t
+be happy without being busy. Now that
+I can&#8217;t keep up my athletic sports I should
+become a pale hypochondriac without these
+housewifely affairs to employ me. I don&#8217;t
+like to embroider. I can&#8217;t paint china.
+I&#8217;m not a musician. I somehow don&#8217;t
+care to begin to devote myself to clubs in
+town. I love my books and the great outdoors&mdash;and
+plenty of action.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re a strange girl,&#8221; was Judith&#8217;s
+verdict, getting languidly out of the hammock,
+an hour later, after an animated discussion
+with her friend on various matters
+touching on the lives of both. &#8220;Either
+you&#8217;re a remarkable actress or you&#8217;re as
+contented as you seem to be. I wish I had
+your enthusiasm. Everything bores me&mdash;Look
+at this frock, after lying in a hammock!
+Isn&#8217;t white linen the prettiest thing when
+you put it on and the most used up when
+you take it off, of any fabric known to the
+shops?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_134' name='page_134'></a>134</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;It is, indeed. But if anybody can
+afford to wear it it&#8217;s you, who never sit
+recklessly about on banks and fences, but
+keep cool and correct and stately and&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;&mdash;discontented. I admit I&#8217;ve talked
+like a fractious child all day. But I&#8217;ve
+had a good time and want to come oftener
+than I have. May I?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course you may. Must you go?
+I&#8217;ll keep you to dinner and send for Wayne.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re an angel, but I&#8217;ve an engagement
+for five o&#8217;clock, and there&#8217;s the Reardons&#8217;
+this evening. You won&#8217;t forget that? You
+and Anthony will be sure to come?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll not promise absolutely, but I&#8217;ll see.
+Mrs. Reardon was so kind as to leave it
+open. It&#8217;s an informal affair, I believe?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Informal, but very gorgeous, just the
+same. She wouldn&#8217;t give anybody but you
+such an elastic invitation as that, and you
+should appreciate her eagerness to get
+you,&#8221; declared Judith, who cared very
+much from whom her invitations came and
+could never understand her friend&#8217;s careless
+attitude toward the most impressive
+of them.</p>
+<p>Juliet watched her guest go down the
+street, and waved an affectionate hand at
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_135' name='page_135'></a>135</span>
+her as Judith looked back from her seat in
+the trolley car. &#8220;Poor old Judy,&#8221; she
+said to herself. &#8220;How glad you are you&#8217;re
+not I!&mdash;And how very, very glad I am I&#8217;m
+not you!&#8221;</p>
+<p>An observation, it must be admitted,
+essentially feminine. No man is ever heard
+to felicitate himself upon the fact that he is
+not some other man.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XV_ANTHONY_PLAYS_MAID' id='XV_ANTHONY_PLAYS_MAID'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_136' name='page_136'></a>136</span>
+<h2>XV.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Anthony Plays Maid</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>After dinner that night, Juliet, having
+once more put things in order and slipped
+off the big pinafore which had kept her
+spotless, joined her husband in the garden
+up and down which he was comfortably
+pacing, hands in pockets, pipe in mouth.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Jolly spot, isn&#8217;t it? Come and perambulate,&#8221;
+he suggested.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Just for a minute. Tony, are we going
+to the Reardons?&#8221;</p>
+<p>He stood still and considered. &#8220;I don&#8217;t
+know. Are we? Did you accept?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;On condition that you felt like it. I
+represented you as coming home decidedly
+fagged these hot nights and not always
+caring to stir.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wise schemer! I don&#8217;t mind the aspersion
+on my physical being. She urged,
+I suppose?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;She did. I don&#8217;t know why.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I do.&#8221; Anthony smiled down at his
+wife. &#8220;Everybody is a bit curious about
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_137' name='page_137'></a>137</span>
+us these days. Your position, you see, is
+considered very extraordinary.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Nonsense, Tony. Shall we go?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Possibly we&#8217;d better, though it racks
+my soul to think of dressing. The less I
+wear my festive garments the less I want
+to. For that very reason, suppose we
+discipline ourselves and go. Do you mind?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not at all. We&#8217;ll have to dress at once,
+for it&#8217;s nearly eight now, and by the time
+we have caught a train and got to Hollyhurst&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;To be sure. Here goes, then.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Half an hour later Anthony, wrestling
+with a refractory cuff button, looked up
+to see his wife at his elbow. She was very
+nearly a vision of elegance and beauty;
+the lacking essential was explained to him
+by a voice very much out of breath and a
+trifle petulant:</p>
+<p>&#8220;If you care anything for me, Tony, stop
+everything and hook me up. I&#8217;m all
+mixed up, and I can&#8217;t reach, and I&#8217;m sure
+I&#8217;ve torn that little lace frill at the back.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;All right. Where do I begin?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Under my left arm, I think&mdash;I can&#8217;t
+possibly see.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Neither can I.&#8221; He was poking about
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_138' name='page_138'></a>138</span>
+under the lifted arm, among folds of filmy
+stuff. &#8220;Here we are&mdash;no, we aren&#8217;t. Does
+this top hook go in this little pocket on the
+other side?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I suppose so&mdash;can&#8217;t you tell whether it
+does by the look?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It seems a bit blind to me,&#8221; murmured
+Anthony, struggling.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s meant to be blind&mdash;it mustn&#8217;t show
+when it&#8217;s fastened.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It certainly doesn&#8217;t now. Hold on&mdash;don&#8217;t
+wriggle. I&#8217;ve got it now. I&#8217;ve found
+the combination. Three turns to the right,
+five to the left, clear around once, then&mdash;Hullo!
+I&#8217;ve come out wrong. The thing
+doesn&#8217;t track at the bottom.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve missed a hook.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, no. I hung onto &#8217;em all the way
+down.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then you missed an eye. You&#8217;ll have
+to unhook it all and begin again.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony obeyed. &#8220;I&#8217;m glad I don&#8217;t
+have to get into my clothes around the
+corner this way,&#8221; he commented. &#8220;Here
+you are. We stuck to the schedule this
+time.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wait, dear. You haven&#8217;t fastened the
+shoulder. There are ever so many little
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_139' name='page_139'></a>139</span>
+hooks along there and around the arm
+hole.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I should say there were. What&#8217;s the
+good of so many?&mdash;Where do they begin?
+Look out&mdash;wait a minute&mdash;Juliet, if you
+don&#8217;t stop twisting around so I never can
+do it. I can do great, heroic acts, it&#8217;s
+the little trials that floor me&mdash;There&mdash;no!&mdash;that
+doesn&#8217;t look right.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet ran to the mirror. &#8220;It isn&#8217;t
+right,&#8221; she cried. &#8220;Look&mdash;that corner
+shouldn&#8217;t lap over like that. Oh, if I could
+only reach myself!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You can&#8216;t&mdash;I&#8217;ve often tried it. The
+human anatomy&mdash;Stand still, Julie&mdash;you&#8217;re
+getting nervous.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;If there&#8217;s one thing that&#8217;s trying&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+murmured Juliet.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why do you let your dressmakers build
+your frocks this way? Why not get into
+&#8217;em all in front, where you can see what
+you&#8217;re doing?&mdash;Now I&#8217;ve got it. Isn&#8217;t that
+right?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. Wait, Tony&mdash;here&#8217;s the girdle.
+It fastens behind.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony surveyed the incomprehensible
+affair of silk and velvet ribbon she put into
+his hands. &#8220;Looks like a head-stall to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_140' name='page_140'></a>140</span>
+me,&#8221; he said. Juliet laughed and fitted it
+about her own waist. Anthony attempted
+to make it join at the back of the points
+she held out to him.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It won&#8217;t come together,&#8221; he said.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, yes, it will. Draw it tight.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am drawing it tight. It&#8217;s smaller
+than you are. You can&#8217;t wear it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet laughed again. Anthony tugged.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wait till I hold my breath,&#8221; she said.</p>
+<p>&#8220;<i>Great guns!</i>&#8221; he ejaculated, and by
+the exertion of much force fastened the
+girdle. Then he stood off a step or two
+and looked at his wife curiously. Flushed
+and laughing she returned his gaze.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Can you breathe?&#8221; he asked solicitously.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course I can.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What with?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is a little tight, of course,&#8221; she
+admitted. &#8220;This is one of my trousseau
+dresses. I&#8217;ve grown a little stouter, I suppose.
+Never mind, I can stand it for to-night.
+Thank you very much. You must
+hurry now, Tony.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I haven&#8217;t had my pay for playing
+maid,&#8221; he said, and came close. He surveyed
+his wife&#8217;s fair neck and shoulders,
+turned her around and deliberately kissed
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_141' name='page_141'></a>141</span>
+the soft hollow where the firm white flesh
+of her neck met the waving brown hair
+drawn lightly upwards.</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the spot that tantalized me for
+about six years,&#8221; he observed.</p>
+<p>Hunting hurriedly through various
+drawers and boxes in the blue-and-white
+room, in search of gloves and fan, Juliet
+heard her husband come in his turn to her
+open door.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Will you have the goodness to look at
+me?&#8221; he requested, in a melancholy voice.
+Juliet turned, gave him one glance, and
+broke into a merry peal.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Tony!&mdash;What&#8217;s the matter? Have
+you been growing stouter, too?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It must be,&#8221; he said solemnly.</p>
+<p>His clawhammer coat was so tight across
+the shoulders that the strain was evident.
+He was holding his arms in the exaggerated
+position of the small boy who wears a last
+year&#8217;s suit. Juliet revolved around her
+husband&#8217;s well built figure with interest.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It does look tight,&#8221; she said. &#8220;But
+have you grown heavier all at once? It
+can&#8217;t be long since you wore that coat
+before.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t believe I have for months. It&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_142' name='page_142'></a>142</span>
+been altogether frock-coats and informals.
+I haven&#8217;t been to an evening affair with
+ladies for a good while.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t look as it feels, I&#8217;m sure.
+It&#8217;s getting very late&mdash;we ought to be off,&#8221;
+and Juliet gathered up her belongings and
+gave him a long loose coat to hold for her
+which covered her finery completely.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now&#8217;s the hour when I regret that I
+haven&#8217;t a carriage for you,&#8221; said Anthony,
+as they descended the stairs. He got into
+his outer coat reluctantly. &#8220;I shall split
+something around my back before the
+evening is over,&#8221; he prophesied resignedly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Never mind. Remember how tight my
+girdle is. It grows tighter every minute.&#8221;</p>
+<p>They got out upon the porch and Anthony
+locked the door. &#8220;If I should show
+that door-key to any man I know except
+Carey he would howl,&#8221; he remarked, holding
+up the queer old brass affair before he
+slipped it into his pocket. He looked
+down at Juliet in the gathering June twilight.
+&#8220;Don&#8217;t you wish we didn&#8217;t have to
+go?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, I do,&#8221; she agreed frankly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s not!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;My dear boy! At this hour?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_143' name='page_143'></a>143</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;We could telephone.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Shouldn&#8217;t you feel rather ashamed to,
+so late?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not a bit. But of course we&#8217;ll go if you
+say so.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She laughed, and he joined her boyishly.
+She hesitated.</p>
+<p>&#8220;If I see you looking faint in that girdle
+shall I throw a glass of cold water over
+you?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Please do. If I hear a sound as of
+rending cloth shall I divert the attention of
+the company?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;By all means.&#8221;</p>
+<p>They were laughing like two children.
+Anthony sat down in one of the porch
+chairs. He drew a long sigh. &#8220;I never
+hated to leave my dear home so since I
+came into it,&#8221; he said gloomily.</p>
+<p>Juliet pulled off her coat. &#8220;If you&#8217;ll
+do the telephoning I&#8217;ll stay,&#8221; she said.</p>
+<p>He jumped to his feet. &#8220;Let me loosen
+that girdle for you. I haven&#8217;t been breathing
+below the fifth rib myself since you put
+it on, just in sympathy,&#8221; he declared.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XVI_A_HOUSEPARTY_OUTDOORS' id='XVI_A_HOUSEPARTY_OUTDOORS'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_144' name='page_144'></a>144</span>
+<h2>XVI.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>A House-Party&mdash;Outdoors</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;The trouble is,&#8221; said Anthony Robeson,
+shifting his position on the step below
+Juliet so that he could rest his head against
+her knee, &#8220;the trouble is we&#8217;re getting too
+popular.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet laughed and ran her fingers through
+his thick locks, gently tweaking them. The
+two were alone together in the warm darkness
+of a July evening, upon their own little
+porch.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s the first evening we&#8217;ve had to ourselves
+since the big snowdrift under the
+front windows melted. That was about
+the date Roger Barnes met Louis Lockwood
+here the first time. Ye gods&mdash;but
+they&#8217;ve kept each other&#8217;s footprints warm
+since then, haven&#8217;t they? And now Cathcart
+is giving indications of having contracted
+the fatal malady. Can&#8217;t Rachel
+Redding be incarcerated somewhere until
+the next moon is past? I notice they all
+have worse symptoms each third quarter.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_145' name='page_145'></a>145</span>
+That girl looks innocent, but&mdash;by heaven,
+Julie, I think she has it down fine.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, you don&#8217;t,&#8221; said Juliet persuasively.
+&#8220;I should catch her at it if she were deliberately
+trying to keep two such men as Roger
+and Louis pitted against each other. They&#8217;re
+doing it all themselves. I&#8217;ve known her to
+run away when she saw one of them coming&mdash;so
+that she couldn&#8217;t be found. But,
+Tony dear, I&#8217;ve a plan.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Good. I hope it&#8217;s a duel between the
+two principals. If it is I&#8217;m going to tamper
+with the weapons and see that each injures
+himself past help. I&#8217;m getting a little
+weary of playing the hospitable host to a
+trio of would-bes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Listen. We&#8217;ll entertain them all at
+once for a week, with some extra girls, and
+Judith and Wayne, and then we&#8217;ll announce
+that we&#8217;re not at home for a month.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;All at once&mdash;a house-party?&#8221; Anthony
+sat up and laughed uproariously. &#8220;I&#8217;ve
+tremendous faith in you, love, but where
+in the name of all the French sardines that
+ever were dovetailed would you put such
+a crowd?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve a practical plan. Louis Lockwood
+belongs to a fishing club that spends every
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_146' name='page_146'></a>146</span>
+August up in Canada. They have a big
+tent, twenty by twenty-five, for he told me
+so the other day. He would get it for us;
+we would put it out in the orchard, close
+to the river. You and Wayne, and Roger
+and Louis, and Stevens Cathcart could
+sleep down there, and I could easily take
+care of Judith and Suzanne Gerard and
+Marie Dresser, here in the house. Rachel
+should stay here, too. And Auntie Dingley
+would send down Mary McKaim to cook
+for us, I&#8217;m sure.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s not so bad. But why Rachel&mdash;when
+you have so little room?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Because I want her to have all the fun;
+because if I don&#8217;t keep her here she will
+be running away half the time; and because&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now comes the real reason,&#8221; observed
+Anthony sagely.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want the other girls thinking
+she has the unfair advantage of taking a
+man away from the party every evening to
+walk down home with her.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wise little chaperon. I can see Roger
+and Louis now, glaring at each other as the
+hour approaches for her departure.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What do you think of my plan? It&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_147' name='page_147'></a>147</span>
+only a plan, you know, Tony&mdash;subject to
+your approval.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Diplomat!&#8221; murmured Anthony, reaching
+up one arm and drawing it about her
+shoulders. &#8220;You know you&#8217;re safe to have
+my approval when you put it in that tone.
+Well, provided you can figure out the
+finances&mdash;and I know you wouldn&#8217;t propose
+it if you hadn&#8217;t done that already&mdash;I don&#8217;t
+see any objection. On one condition,
+though, Julie, mind you&mdash;on one condition.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Name it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course, I can only be here evenings
+during your house party. So my condition
+is that I have you and the home all to myself
+for my vacation afterward. Not a
+wooer nor a chum admitted. No overdressed
+women out from town, taking afternoon
+tea&mdash;no invitations to lonesome husbands
+out to dinner. Just you and I. Did
+you ever imagine life in the rural localities
+would be so gay, anyhow? I want to go
+fishing with you&mdash;tramping through the
+woods with you&mdash;sitting out here on the
+porch with you&mdash;in short, have you all
+to myself&mdash;and&#8221;&mdash;he turned completely
+about, kneeling below her on the step,
+crushing her in both arms so vigorously
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_148' name='page_148'></a>148</span>
+that he stopped her breath&mdash;&#8220;eat&mdash;you&mdash;up!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What a prospect,&#8221; she cried softly,
+when she found herself partially released.
+&#8220;Are you sure you need a vacation, just
+for that?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Certain of it. I&#8217;ve had to share you
+with other people all the year&mdash;and now
+I&#8217;ve got to give you up to a jealous lovers&#8217;
+assemblage. So after that, mind you, I
+have my satisfaction.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>When Doctor Barnes was told of the plan
+he looked gloomy. &#8220;Going to ask Lockwood?&#8221;
+he inquired at once.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course,&#8221; assented Juliet promptly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t see any &#8216;of course&#8217; about it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What would Marie Dresser do to me if
+I didn&#8217;t invite him?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;He doesn&#8217;t care for her&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, yes, he does. Why, last winter he
+seemed to be on the point of asking her to
+marry him. Everybody expected the announcement
+any day.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Last winter and this summer are two
+different propositions.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Marie doesn&#8217;t think so.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_149' name='page_149'></a>149</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;ll get mightily undeceived, then.
+Whom else are you asking?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Stevens Cathcart.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The doctor groaned. &#8220;Is this a dose
+you&#8217;re fixing for me? I&#8217;m going to be too
+busy&mdash;I can&#8217;t come.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Very well,&#8221; said Juliet placidly. She
+was sewing, upon the porch, and the doctor
+sat on the step.</p>
+<p>He looked up with a grimace. &#8220;I suppose
+you think I&#8217;ll be out on the next train
+after the rest arrive.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I certainly do, Dr. Roger Williams
+Barnes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I presume you are inviting Suzanne?&#8221;
+he queried.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why not?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No reason why not. Cathcart admires
+her immensely&mdash;or did, before he began to
+cultivate this place.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet laughed. &#8220;Suzanne would never
+forgive you if she heard that.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;By-the-way,&#8221; said the doctor slowly,
+&#8220;has she ever met&mdash;Miss Redding?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He meditated for several minutes in
+silence, while Juliet sewed, glancing from
+time to time at one of the most attractive
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_150' name='page_150'></a>150</span>
+masculine profiles with which she was
+familiar. He was not as handsome a man
+as Louis Lockwood, but every line of his
+face stood for strength, not without some
+pretensions to good looks. He looked up
+at length and straight at her.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Would you mind telling me,&#8221; he began,
+&#8220;just what you intend to effect with this
+combination? I never gave you credit,
+you know, Juliet, for wanting to manage
+Fate, and I don&#8217;t believe it now.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, I don&#8217;t want to manage Fate,&#8221; said
+Juliet, smiling over her work, &#8220;but I admit
+I want two things: I want you to see
+Rachel Redding beside Suzanne Gerard,
+and&mdash;I want Rachel to see you beside
+Louis Lockwood and&mdash;Suzanne.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I see,&#8221; said the doctor grimly. &#8220;In
+other words, you want your protégée to
+have fair play.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Just that,&#8221; Juliet answered, more
+gravely now. &#8220;I think lots of you, Roger,
+and well of you&mdash;you know I do&mdash;and
+yet&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And yet&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let me guard my girl. She&#8217;s not like
+the others, and you and Louis are making
+it tremendously hard for her between you.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_151' name='page_151'></a>151</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;You seem to be planning to make it
+infinitely harder.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet shook her head. &#8220;Trust me, Roger,
+please.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;All right, I will,&#8221; promised the doctor.
+&#8220;But just assure me that you&#8217;re on my
+side.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m on nobody&#8217;s side,&#8221; was all the
+comfort he got.</p>
+<p>Juliet&#8217;s invitations received delighted
+acceptances, though Wayne Carey and
+Doctor Barnes would be able to come out
+only for the nights&mdash;in time, however, for
+late and festive suppers outdoors. The
+tent in the orchard, with its comfortable
+bunks, was accepted by all the men with
+enthusiasm.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And to satisfy the men is the essential
+thing, you know, Tony,&#8221; Juliet had observed
+sagely when she saw their pleasure in
+their quarters. &#8220;The girls will accept any
+crowding together if they have a mirror
+and room to tie a sash in, as long as devoted
+admirers are not wanting.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The moment Miss Dresser and Miss
+Gerard saw Miss Rachel Redding&mdash;to quote
+Anthony&mdash;the fun began. Mrs. Wayne
+Carey had already met her, and had been
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_152' name='page_152'></a>152</span>
+carefully coached by Juliet as to the bearing
+she must assume toward Juliet&#8217;s new friend.
+So when Marie and Suzanne began to inquire
+of Judith the latter was prepared to answer
+them.</p>
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s a beauty in her way, isn&#8217;t she?&#8221;
+Judith asserted. &#8220;Juliet&#8217;s immensely fond
+of her, I should judge.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But who is she?&#8221; demanded Suzanne.</p>
+<p>&#8220;A neighbour, a country girl, a school
+and college girl, a comparatively poor girl&mdash;and
+a lucky girl, for Juliet likes her.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Have the men met her before?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Goodness, yes. Haven&#8217;t you heard how
+they beg invitations home to dinner of
+Anthony, just to see her?&#8221; Judith was
+enjoying the situation. This statement,
+however, was no part of Juliet&#8217;s coaching.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t see anything particularly attractive
+about her,&#8221; said Marie promptly.
+&#8220;She&#8217;s a demure thing. One wouldn&#8217;t
+think she ever lifted those long lashes to
+look at a man&mdash;but that&#8217;s just the kind.
+Awfully plainly dressed.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s her style,&#8221; said Suzanne. &#8220;These
+poor, pretty girls are once in a while just
+clever enough to make capital out of their
+poverty by wearing simply fetching things
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_153' name='page_153'></a>153</span>
+in pale gray dimity and dark blue lawn and
+sunbonnets. Stevens Cathcart would be
+just the kind to be carried away with her.
+Roger Barnes wouldn&#8217;t look at her twice.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Louis might pretend to admire her, to
+please Juliet,&#8221; admitted Marie. &#8220;He has
+a way of making every girl think he is in
+love with her&mdash;and he is, to a certain extent.
+But it&#8217;s never serious.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Whether it were serious in this instance
+Miss Dresser soon had opportunity to judge.</p>
+<p>After dinner that first night Anthony
+proposed taking all his guests out upon the
+river in a big flat-boat he had rented. But
+when he made up the party Rachel was not
+to be found.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m afraid she&#8217;s gone home,&#8221; said Juliet.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll run down and see,&#8221; proposed Lockwood
+instantly, and was suiting the action
+to the word when Cathcart got off ahead of
+him.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll have her back presently,&#8221; he called
+as he dashed down the road. &#8220;You people
+go on&mdash;we&#8217;ll catch you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll wait for you,&#8221; Lockwood shouted
+after him.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why should we wait?&#8221; demurred Marie,
+beginning to walk away toward the river.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_154' name='page_154'></a>154</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;If we don&#8217;t he&#8217;s liable not to find it convenient
+to catch up with us,&#8221; Lockwood
+retorted.</p>
+<p>&#8220;If they prefer their own company why
+not let them have it?&#8221; she said over her
+shoulder.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Run along, Louis,&#8221; murmured Doctor
+Barnes. &#8220;One girl at a time.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He turned to Juliet. &#8220;Shall we go?&#8221;
+he said.</p>
+<p>Anthony caught his glance, and, laughing,
+turned to Suzanne. &#8220;Will you console
+an old married man, Miss Gerard?&#8221; he
+inquired.</p>
+<p>But when Cathcart reappeared, which
+he did very soon, Rachel was not with him.
+&#8220;She said she had to stay with her mother,&#8221;
+he explained in a tone which so closely
+resembled a growl that everybody laughed.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Bear up, Stevie, boy,&#8221; chaffed Wayne
+Carey. &#8220;I&#8217;m confident she likes you, but
+she may not like you all the time, you know.
+They seldom do.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XVII_RACHEL_CAUSES_ANXIETY' id='XVII_RACHEL_CAUSES_ANXIETY'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_155' name='page_155'></a>155</span>
+<h2>XVII.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Rachel Causes Anxiety</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>In spite of all Juliet&#8217;s efforts to bring
+about Rachel&#8217;s presence as one of her guests
+she found herself unable to accomplish it.
+Whenever she was needed for help Rachel
+was never absent, but the moment she was
+free the girl was off, and that quite without
+the appearance of running away. The
+men of the party followed her, but they were
+not allowed to remain. The girls, confident
+that her disappearances were part of a very
+deep game, begged her to stay; it was useless.
+Rachel&#8217;s excuses were ready, her
+manner charmingly regretful in a quiet
+way, but stay she would not.</p>
+<p>Dr. Roger Barnes waylaid her one evening
+as she was vanishing down the willow-bordered
+path by the brook, leading to her
+own home.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Here you go again,&#8221; he began discontentedly.
+&#8220;I wish I knew why.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Rachel paused. It was difficult to do
+otherwise with a large and determined
+figure blocking a very narrow path.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_156' name='page_156'></a>156</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I have ever so many things waiting at
+home for me to do.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;At nine o&#8217;clock in the evening?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;At whatever hour I am through at
+Mrs. Robeson&#8217;s.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I wish I could imagine something of
+what they are. It might relieve my mind
+a little.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, I will tell you,&#8221; said Rachel with
+great appearance of frankness. &#8220;I have
+to do some mending for mother, read the
+evening paper for father, and set the bread.
+Then the clothes must be sprinkled for
+ironing in the morning.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The doctor studied her face in the dimming
+light. &#8220;Who washed the clothes?&#8221; he
+asked bluntly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you think you ought to ask?&#8221; said
+Rachel.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. I&#8217;m in the habit of asking questions.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of patients&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of everybody I care for. You don&#8217;t
+have to answer, but if you don&#8217;t I shall
+know who did the washing.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, I did it,&#8221; said Rachel steadily. &#8220;It
+is easily done.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_157' name='page_157'></a>157</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;And then you came over here and got
+breakfast?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not at all. I helped Mrs. Robeson and
+Mary McKaim get it. Doctor Barnes, do
+you know that you are standing directly
+in my path?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Certainly,&#8221; said the doctor. &#8220;It&#8217;s what
+I&#8217;m here for.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then I shall have to go back and take
+the road home.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;If you do you will evade me only to
+encounter another man. Lockwood&#8217;s keeping
+a ferret&#8217;s eye on the Robeson house
+door; and I think Cathcart is already patrolling
+the road in front of your house.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The girl turned. &#8220;You are making me
+feel very absurd,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I want to go
+home, Doctor Barnes. Please let me pass
+you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;May I go with you?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I would rather not.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, that&#8217;s frank,&#8221; he said, amusement
+and chagrin struggling for the uppermost.
+&#8220;I wonder I don&#8217;t stalk angrily away&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I wish you would.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Roger Barnes threw back his head and
+laughed. &#8220;I wish you would give some
+other girls a leaf out of your book,&#8221; he said.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_158' name='page_158'></a>158</span>
+&#8220;The more you turn me down the more
+ardently I long to be with you; while the
+opposite sort of thing&mdash;I&#8217;ll tell you, Miss
+Redding, if you want to be rid of me try
+these tactics: Say with a languishing smile,
+&#8216;Oh, Doctor Barnes, won&#8217;t you take me a
+little way down this lovely path?&#8217; Perhaps
+that will accomplish your ends. I&#8217;ve often
+felt an instant desire not to do the thing I&#8217;m
+begged to.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Oh, Doctor Barnes,&#8217;&#8221; said Rachel Redding&mdash;and
+he caught the mischief in her
+tone&mdash;even Rachel could be mischievous, as
+Juliet had said&mdash;&#8220;&#8216;won&#8217;t you take me a
+little way down this lovely path?&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;With the greatest pleasure in the
+world,&#8221; replied the doctor promptly, and
+stood aside to let her pass him. Whereupon
+she slipped by him, and before he
+could realise that she had gone was running
+fleetly away in the twilight down the winding,
+willow-hung path. With an exclamation
+he was off after her, but though he
+dashed at the pace of a hunter through the
+intricacies of the way he presently discovered
+that he was following nothing but
+the summer breeze rustling the willow
+leaves and wafting into his face the breath
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_159' name='page_159'></a>159</span>
+of new-cut hay, the aftermath of late July.
+He stopped at length and stared about him,
+baffled and half angry.</p>
+<p>&#8220;There never was a girl like you,&#8221; he
+muttered. &#8220;If you are deliberately trying
+to make men mad to get you you are succeeding
+infuriatingly well. If I catch you
+to-night it will be your fault if I tell you
+what I think of you. I&#8217;ll tell you now, for
+I suppose you are hiding somewhere in this
+undergrowth till I give it up and you
+can get away home. You shall listen to
+me if you are here, for you can&#8217;t help
+yourself.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He was speaking in a low, even tone,
+walking slowly along the path and peering
+sharply into the bushes on both sides. Suddenly
+he stood still. He had detected a
+spot beside a low-hanging willow which
+showed nearly white in the deepening
+darkness. Rachel was wearing white
+to-night, he remembered. His heart
+quickened its paces and he paused an
+instant to get past a certain tightening
+in his throat.</p>
+<p>Then he bent forward and whispered:
+&#8220;If that&#8217;s not you there I can say what I
+like, and there&#8217;ll be some satisfaction in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_160' name='page_160'></a>160</span>
+that. If you&#8217;ll speak now you may save
+yourself, but if you don&#8217;t I&#8217;ve no reason to
+think it&#8217;s you, and so I can say&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>There was a sharply perceptible noise
+farther down the path toward the Redding
+home. Barnes turned quickly and stood
+up straight, waiting. Footsteps came rapidly
+along the path&mdash;no footsteps of hers, evidently.
+A man&#8217;s voice humming a tune
+grew momentarily plainer&mdash;then the voice
+stopped humming and began to sing in a
+subdued but clear and fine barytone:</p>
+<table summary='poetry' style='margin:0 auto'><tr><td>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>&#8220;Down through the lane</p>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>Come I again</p>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>Seeking, my love, for you;</p>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>Run to me, dear,</p>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>Losing all fear,</p>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>Love and&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>The voice stopped. Two men&#8217;s figures
+confronted each other in an extremely narrow
+path. It was not too dark yet for each
+to be plainly recognisable to the other.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hallo&mdash;that you, Lockwood?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hi there, Roger Barnes; what you doing
+here? Fishing?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Looking for something I&#8217;ve lost.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Getting pretty dark to find it. Something
+valuable?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_161' name='page_161'></a>161</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Rather. Think I&#8217;ll give it up for to-night.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Too bad. Nice night.&#8221; Lockwood
+was hastening toward the end of the path
+which came out near Anthony&#8217;s house.
+Barnes looked after him grimly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;That voice of yours, young man,&#8221; he
+thought, &#8220;handicaps me from the start.
+Now, if I could just warble my emotions
+that way&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>He turned and peered again at the white
+place by the tree. He moved stealthily
+toward it, and ascertained presently that
+it was not what it seemed. He rose to his
+feet and walked rapidly down the path to
+the Redding house. When he came in sight
+of it he saw that the kitchen windows were
+lighted and that a man stood with his arm
+on the sill of one of them. Silhouetted
+against the light were the familiar outlines
+of Stevens Cathcart. As Barnes stood staring
+amazedly at this, a slender figure in
+white came to the window, and in the stillness
+he could hear the quiet voice:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Please let me close the window, Mr.
+Cathcart. Thank you&mdash;no&mdash;and good-night.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Three Men in a Boat,&#8217; by Rachel Redding,&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_162' name='page_162'></a>162</span>
+murmured the doctor to himself,
+and slipped back to the willow path, from
+which he at length emerged to join the
+group upon the porch&mdash;which then, it may
+be observed, held for the first time that
+night its full complement of men.</p>
+<p>Three big Chinese lanterns shed a softly
+pleasant light upon the porch and the lawn
+at its foot. Suzanne Gerard and Marie
+Dresser made a most attractive picture,
+one in a low chair, the other upon a pile of
+cushions on the step. Suzanne lightly
+picked a mandolin. Marie was singing
+softly:</p>
+<table summary='poetry' style='margin:0 auto'><tr><td>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>&#8220;Down through the lane</p>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>Come I again</p>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>Seeking, my love, for you;</p>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>Run to me, dear,</p>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>Losing all fear,</p>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>Love and my life will be true.&#8221;</p>
+</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>It was one of the songs of the summer&mdash;foolish
+words, seductive music&mdash;everybody
+hummed it half the time. Roger Barnes
+smiled to himself, remembering where he
+had heard it last.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come here and give account,&#8221; commanded
+Suzanne the instant he appeared.
+&#8220;Every unmarried man vanished the moment
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_163' name='page_163'></a>163</span>
+twilight fell. You are the last to
+show your face. I challenge you, one and
+all, to swear that you have not been within
+sight of a certain small brown house at
+the foot of the hill since supper.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Her voice was music; in her eyes was
+laughter. Marie sang on, pointing her
+words with smiles at one and another of
+the culprits.</p>
+<p>From his seat on the threshold of the
+door, where his head rested against Juliet&#8217;s
+knee as she sat behind him, Anthony
+laughed to himself. Then he turned his
+head and whispered to his wife: &#8220;Feel
+the claws through the velvet? Poor boys,
+they have my sympathy.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XVIII_AN_UNKNOWN_QUANTITY' id='XVIII_AN_UNKNOWN_QUANTITY'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_164' name='page_164'></a>164</span>
+<h2>XVIII.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>An Unknown Quantity</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rachel,&#8221; said Juliet decisively, next
+morning, &#8220;to-night is the last of my house
+party, and I refuse to let you off. I&#8217;m
+asking ten or twelve more people out
+from town. You must spend this evening
+with my guests, or forfeit my friendship.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She was smiling as she said it, but her
+tone was not to be denied.</p>
+<p>&#8220;If that is the alternative,&#8221; Rachel answered,
+returning the smile with an affectionate
+look of a sort which neither Louis
+Lockwood nor Stevens Cathcart nor Dr.
+Roger Barnes had ever seen on her face&mdash;though
+they had dreamed of it&mdash;&#8220;of course
+I shall stay. But I&#8217;ll tell you frankly I
+would rather not.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why not, Rachel?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I think you know why not, Mrs. Robeson,&#8221;
+Rachel answered.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, I know why not,&#8221; admitted Juliet.
+&#8220;Girls are queer things, Ray. They defeat
+their own ends all the time&mdash;lots of them.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_165' name='page_165'></a>165</span>
+Suzanne and Marie are dear girls, with ever
+so many nice things about them, but they
+don&#8217;t&mdash;they don&#8217;t know enough not to
+pursue, chase, run down, the object of their
+desires. And, of course, the object, being
+run down panting, into a corner, dodges,
+evades, gets out and runs away. Rachel,
+dear, what are you going to wear to-night?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;My best frock,&#8221; said Rachel, smiling.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Which is&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;White.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Cut out at the neck?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;A little.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Short in the sleeves?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;To the elbows. It was my sophomore
+evening dress.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It will be all right, I know. Rachel,
+wear a white rose in those low black braids
+of yours&mdash;will you?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, I think I won&#8217;t,&#8221; refused Rachel.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why not?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Rachel did not answer. Into her cool
+cheek crept a tinge of rebellious, telltale
+colour.</p>
+<p>Juliet studied her a minute in silence, then
+came up to her and laying both hands on
+her shoulders looked up into her eyes.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You try to &#8216;play fair,&#8217; don&#8217;t you, dear?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_166' name='page_166'></a>166</span>
+she said heartily, &#8220;whatever the rest may
+do. And whatever they may do, Rachel
+Redding, don&#8217;t you care. It&#8217;s not your
+fault that they are as jealous of you as girls
+can be and keep sweet outside. I&#8217;d be
+jealous of you myself if&mdash;&mdash;&#8221; She paused,
+laughing.</p>
+<p>&#8220;When you grow jealous,&#8221; said Rachel,
+&#8220;it will be because you have grown blind.
+If anybody ever wore his heart on his sleeve&mdash;no,
+not there&mdash;but beating sturdily in the
+right place for one woman in the world
+it&#8217;s&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Right you are,&#8221; said Anthony Robeson,
+coming up behind them, &#8220;and I hope you
+may convince her of it. She has no confidence
+in her own powers.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Rachel stood looking at them a moment,
+her dark eyes very bright. &#8220;To see you
+two,&#8221; she said slowly at length, &#8220;is to
+believe it all.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The evening promised to be a gay one.
+The men of the party had sent to town for
+many lanterns, flags and decorations of the
+sort, and had made the porch and lawn the
+setting for a brilliant scene. A dozen young
+people had been asked out, and came
+enthusiastically.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_167' name='page_167'></a>167</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll wind up with a flourish,&#8221; said
+Anthony in his wife&#8217;s ear as they descended
+the stairs together, &#8220;and then we&#8217;ll send
+them all off to-morrow where they&#8217;ll cease
+from troubling. I think it was the best plan
+in the world, but I&#8217;ll be glad to prowl about
+my beloved home without observing Cathcart
+scowling at Lockwood, Roger Barnes
+evading Suzanne, or even my good boy
+Wayne with that eternal wonder on his
+face as to why his flat does not look like our
+Eden.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush&mdash;and don&#8217;t look too happy to-morrow,
+Tony. Oh, here comes Rachel.
+Isn&#8217;t she lovely?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, watch,&#8221; murmured Anthony, his
+face full of amusement. &#8220;It&#8217;s as good as
+the best comedy I ever saw. See Suzanne.
+She never looked toward Rachel, but don&#8217;t
+tell me she wasn&#8217;t aware of the very instant
+Rachel came upon the porch. I
+believe she read it in Roger Barnes&#8217;s face.
+I&#8217;ll wager ten to one his pulse isn&#8217;t countable
+at the present instant.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t blame him,&#8221; Juliet answered,
+smiling at her guests. &#8220;She&#8217;s my ideal of a
+girl who won&#8217;t hold out a finger to the
+men.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_168' name='page_168'></a>168</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, she&#8217;s your sort,&#8221; admitted Anthony.
+&#8220;I know what it is&mdash;poor fellows&mdash;I&#8217;ve
+been through it. Your cold shoulder
+used to warm up my heart hotter than any
+other girl&#8217;s kindness. Look at the boys
+now. They can&#8217;t jump and run away from
+the other girls, but they&#8217;d like to. And
+they&#8217;re all deadly anxious for fear the
+others will get the start. Say, Julie, you
+ought not to have asked those new youngsters
+down from town. They&#8217;ll catch it,
+sure as fate; they&#8217;re at the susceptible
+age. I see five of them now, all staring at
+Rachel.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You positively mustn&#8217;t stay here with
+me any longer,&#8221; whispered Juliet. &#8220;Go
+and devote yourself to her and keep them
+off for a little.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not on your life,&#8221; Anthony returned
+&#8220;She can take care of herself. If I mix
+up in this fray you&#8217;re likely to be husbandless.
+Lockwood and Roger are getting
+dangerous, and I&#8217;m going to keep on the
+outskirts where it&#8217;s safe.&#8221;</p>
+<p>They were all upon the lawn&mdash;Rachel,
+unable to help herself, according to Anthony&#8217;s
+intimation, the centre of a group
+of men who would not give each other a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_169' name='page_169'></a>169</span>
+chance&mdash;when a stranger appeared upon
+the edge of the circle of light. He stood
+watching the scene for a moment&mdash;a tall,
+slender fellow, with a pale face and deep-set
+eyes. Then he asked somebody to tell
+Miss Redding that Mr. Huntington would
+like to speak with her. Rachel, thus
+summoned, rose, looked about her, caught
+sight of the stranger, and went swiftly
+down the lawn. A dozen people, among
+them all the men who had been the guests
+of the week, saw the meeting. They observed
+that the newcomer put out both
+hands, that his smile was very bright, and
+that he stood looking down into Miss Redding&#8217;s
+face as if at sight of it he had instantly
+forgotten everything else in the world.</p>
+<p>Rachel, leaving him, came back up the
+lawn to find her hostess. As she passed
+it became evident to a good many pairs
+of sharp eyes that her beauty had received
+a keen accession from the sweeping over
+her cheeks of a burning blush&mdash;so unusual
+that they could not fail to take note
+of it.</p>
+<p>Juliet came back down the lawn with
+Rachel, who presented Mr. Huntington;
+and presently, without a word of leave-taking
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_170' name='page_170'></a>170</span>
+to any one else, the two went away
+down the road.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, who under the heavens was that?&#8221;
+grunted Louis Lockwood in Anthony&#8217;s ear,
+catching his host around the corner of the
+house.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t know.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Brother, perhaps?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hasn&#8217;t any.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Relative?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t know.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Just a messenger, maybe?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Give it up.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;She blushed like anything.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Did she? Man she is going to marry,
+probably.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, that can&#8217;t be!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;The lady looks marriageable to me,&#8221;
+observed Anthony, strolling away.</p>
+<p>He ran into Cathcart.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Say, who was that fellow, Tony?&#8221; began
+Stevens.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t ask me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;He looked confoundedly as if he meant
+to embrace her on the spot.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;So he did,&#8221; agreed Anthony soothingly.
+&#8220;Don&#8217;t blame him, do you? He may not
+have seen her for a month. What condition
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_171' name='page_171'></a>171</span>
+do you suppose you&#8217;d be in if a week
+should get away from you out of her
+vicinity?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Bother you, Tony&mdash;don&#8217;t you know who
+he was?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Intimate friend, I should judge.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;She turned pink as a carnation.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Say hollyhock,&#8221; suggested Anthony,
+&#8220;or peony. Only a vivid colour could do
+justice to it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s right,&#8221; groaned Cathcart. &#8220;She
+never looked like that for any of us.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Never,&#8221; said Anthony promptly, and
+got away, chuckling.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hold on, there, Robeson, man,&#8221; said
+the voice of Dr. Roger Barnes, and Anthony
+found himself again held up.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come on, old Roger boy,&#8221; said his host
+pleasantly. &#8220;We&#8217;ll amble down the road
+a bit and give you a chance to get a grip on
+yourself. No, I don&#8217;t know who he is.
+I&#8217;m all worn out assuring Louis and Steve
+of that. She did turn red, she did look upset&mdash;with
+joy, I infer. That girl has made
+more havoc in one short week&mdash;playing off
+all the while, too&mdash;than Suzanne and Marie
+have accomplished in the biggest season
+they ever knew. And I believe, Roger
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_172' name='page_172'></a>172</span>
+boy, you&#8217;re about the hardest hit of any
+of them.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The doctor did not answer. The two
+had walked away from the house and were
+marching arm in arm at a good pace down
+the road.</p>
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s as poor as a church mouse,&#8221; suggested
+Anthony.</p>
+<p>There was no reply.</p>
+<p>&#8220;She has a dead weight of a helpless
+father and mother.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The doctor put match to a cigar.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Juliet says her brother died of dissipation
+in a gambling-house.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Doctor Barnes began to chew hard on a
+cigar that he had failed to light.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But she&#8217;s a mighty sweet girl,&#8221; said
+Anthony softly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;See here, Tony,&#8221; the doctor burst out.&mdash;&#8220;Oh,
+hang it all&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I see,&#8221; said his friend, with a hand on
+his shoulder. &#8220;Go ahead, Roger Barnes&mdash;there&#8217;s
+nothing in life like it; and the good
+Lord have mercy on you, for the sort of
+girl worth caring for doesn&#8217;t know the
+meaning of the word.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_173' name='page_173'></a>173</span></div>
+<p>&#8220;All gone, little girl,&#8221; said Anthony
+jubilantly, as he turned back into the
+house the next evening, after watching out
+of sight the big touring-car of Lockwood&#8217;s
+which had carried all his house-party away
+at once. &#8220;They are mighty fine people and
+I like them all immensely&mdash;but&mdash;I have
+enjoyed to the full this speeding the parting
+guest. And now for my vacation. It
+begins to-morrow.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What shall we do?&#8221; asked Juliet, allowing
+him to draw her into his favourite settle
+corner.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Go fishing. If you&#8217;ll put up a jolly
+little&mdash;I mean a jolly big&mdash;lunch, and array
+yourself in unspoilable attire, I&#8217;ll give you
+a day&#8217;s great sport, whether we catch any
+fish or not. There&#8217;s one fish you&#8217;re sure
+of&mdash;he&#8217;s always on the end of your line:
+hooked fast, and resigned to his fate. Juliet,
+are they really all gone?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m sure they are.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Good Mary McKaim&mdash;peace be to her
+ashes, for she never gets any on the toast&mdash;has
+she gone, too?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s packing.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Rachel safe at home with her presumable
+fiancé?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_174' name='page_174'></a>174</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;He can&#8217;t be her fiancé, Tony&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s what Lockwood said&mdash;but I suppose
+he can, just the same. Rachel away,
+do you say?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. She didn&#8217;t come over to-day at
+all, you know.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I noticed it&mdash;by the gloom on three
+stalwart men&#8217;s faces. Well, if everybody&#8217;s
+safely out of the way I&#8217;m going to commit
+myself.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;To what, Tony?&#8221;</p>
+<p>She was laughing, for he had risen, looked
+all about him with great anxiety, tiptoed
+to each door and listened at it, and was now
+come back to stand before her, smiling
+down at her and holding out his arms.</p>
+<p>&#8220;To the statement,&#8221; he said, gathering
+her close and speaking into her upturned
+rosy face, &#8220;that without doubt this is the
+dearest home in the world, and that you
+are the sweetest woman who ever has
+stood or ever will stand here in it.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XIX_ALL_THE_APRIL_STARS_ARE_OUT' id='XIX_ALL_THE_APRIL_STARS_ARE_OUT'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_175' name='page_175'></a>175</span>
+<h2>XIX.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>All the April Stars Are Out</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was an April night&mdash;balmy with the
+breath of an exceptionally early spring.
+All the April stars were out as Anthony
+came to the door of the little house, and
+opening it flung himself out upon the
+porch, drawing great breaths. He looked
+up into the sky and clasped his arms
+tightly over his breast.</p>
+<p>&#8220;O God,&#8221; he said aloud, &#8220;take care
+of her&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>He went back into the house after a
+minute, and paced the floor back and forth,
+back and forth, stopping at each turn to
+listen at the foot of the stairs; then took
+up his stride again, his lips set, his eyes
+dark with anxiety. Over and over he
+went to the open door to look up at the
+stars, as if somehow he could bear his ordeal
+best outdoors.</p>
+<p>When half the night had gone Mrs.
+Dingley came downstairs. Anthony met
+her at the foot. She smiled reassuringly
+into his face.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_176' name='page_176'></a>176</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;This is hard for you, dear boy,&#8221; she
+said. &#8220;But they think by morning&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Morning!&#8221; he cried.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Everything is going well&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s only two o&#8217;clock. Morning!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;She says tell you she&#8217;s going to be very
+happy soon.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But at that Anthony turned away, where
+his face could not be seen, and stood by the
+open door. Mrs. Dingley laid an affectionate
+hand on his arm.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t worry, Tony,&#8221; she said gently.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t help it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;This is new to you. Juliet is young
+and strong&mdash;and full of courage.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Bless her!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;In the morning you&#8217;ll both be very
+happy.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I hope so.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, Anthony, dear,&#8221; said the kindly
+little woman, &#8220;I never knew you to be so
+faint of heart.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony faced around again. &#8220;If my
+strength could do her any good I&#8217;d be a
+lion for her,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But when all I
+can do is to wait&mdash;and think what I&#8217;d do
+if&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>He was gone suddenly into the night.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_177' name='page_177'></a>177</span>
+With a tender smile on her lips Mrs.
+Dingley went on upon the errand which had
+brought her downstairs. &#8220;It&#8217;s worth something
+to a woman to be able to make a
+man&#8217;s heart ache like that,&#8221; she said to
+herself with a little sigh. Anthony would
+not have understood, but even in this
+hour the older woman, in her wisdom, was
+envying Juliet.</p>
+<p>Morning came at last, as mornings do.
+With the first streaks of the gray dawn
+Anthony heard a little, high-keyed, strange
+cry&mdash;new to his ears. He leaped up the
+stairs, four at a time, and paused, breathless,
+by the closed door of the blue-and-white
+room. After what seemed to him an interminable
+time Mrs. Dingley came out.
+At sight of Anthony her face broke into
+smiles, and at the same moment tears
+filled her eyes.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a splendid boy, Tony,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I
+meant to come to you the first minute, but
+I waited to be perfectly sure. He didn&#8217;t
+breathe well at first.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But Anthony pushed this news aside
+impatiently. &#8220;Juliet?&#8221; he questioned
+eagerly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s all right, you poor man,&#8221; Mrs.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_178' name='page_178'></a>178</span>
+Dingley assured him. &#8220;You shall see her
+presently, just for a minute. The first
+thing she said was, &#8216;Tell Tony.&#8217; Go down
+now&mdash;I&#8217;ll call you soon.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony stole away downstairs to the
+outer door again. This time he ran out
+upon the porch and down the lawn and
+orchard, in the early half-light, to the willow
+path by the brook. He dashed along this
+path to its end and back again, as if he
+must in some way give expression to his
+relief from the tension of the night. But
+he was back and waiting impatiently long
+before he received his summons to his wife&#8217;s
+room.</p>
+<p>On his way up he wrung the friendly
+hand of Dr. Joseph Wilberforce, the best
+man in the city at times like these, and
+thanked him in a few uneven words. Then
+he came to the door of the blue-and-white
+room.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t be afraid, Tony,&#8221; said a very
+sweet, clear voice; &#8220;we&#8217;re ever so well&mdash;Anthony
+Robeson, Junior, and I.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony Robeson, Senior, walked across
+the room in a dim, gray fog which obscured
+nearly everything except the sight of a pair
+of eyes which were shining upon him
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_179' name='page_179'></a>179</span>
+brightly enough to penetrate any fog. At
+the bedside he dropped upon his knees.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I suppose I&#8217;m an awful chump,&#8221; he
+murmured, &#8220;but nothing ever broke me
+up so in all my life.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet laughed. It was not a sentimental
+greeting, but she understood all it meant.
+&#8220;But I&#8217;m so happy, dear,&#8221; she said.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Are you? Somehow I can&#8217;t seem to
+be&mdash;yet. I&#8217;m too badly scared.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s such a beautiful big boy.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I suppose I shall be devoted to him some
+time, but all I can think of now is to make
+sure I&#8217;ve got you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The pleasant-faced nurse in her white
+cap came softly in and glanced at Tony
+meaningly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;If you&#8217;ll come in here you may see your
+son, Mr. Robeson,&#8221; she said, and went out
+again.</p>
+<p>Anthony bent over his wife. &#8220;<i>Little
+mother</i>,&#8221; he whispered, with a kiss, and
+obediently went.</p>
+<p>Across the hall he stood looking dazedly
+down at the round, warm bundle the nurse
+laid in his arms.</p>
+<p>&#8220;My son,&#8221; he said; &#8220;how odd that
+sounds.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_180' name='page_180'></a>180</span></p>
+<p>Then he hastily gave the bundle back to
+the nurse and got away downstairs, wiping
+the perspiration from his brow.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Never dreamed it was going to knock
+me over like this,&#8221; he was saying to himself.
+&#8220;I can&#8217;t look at her; I can&#8217;t look at him; I
+feel like a big boy who has seen a little
+fellow take his thrashing for him.&#8221;</p>
+<p>And in this humble&mdash;albeit most sincerely
+thankful&mdash;frame of mind he absently drank
+his breakfast coffee, and never realised that
+in her confusion of spirit good Mary McKaim,
+who was here again in time of need,
+had brewed him instead a powerful cup of
+tea.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XX_A_PRIOR_CLAIM' id='XX_A_PRIOR_CLAIM'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_181' name='page_181'></a>181</span>
+<h2>XX.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>A Prior Claim</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;Come up, come up&mdash;you&#8217;re just the
+people we want,&#8221; cried Anthony heartily
+from his own porch. &#8220;Thought you&#8217;d be
+getting out to see us some of these fine
+August nights. Sit down&mdash;Juliet will be
+out in a minute.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Baby asleep?&#8221; asked Judith Carey, as
+she and Wayne settled comfortably into
+two of the deep bamboo chairs with which
+the porch was furnished.</p>
+<p>&#8220;To be sure he&#8217;s asleep at this hour,&#8221;
+Anthony assured her proudly; &#8220;been asleep
+for two hours. Regular as a clock, that
+youngster. Nurse trained him right at the
+beginning, and Juliet has kept it up. Four
+months old now, and sleeps from six at night
+till four in the morning without waking.
+How&#8217;s that?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I suppose it&#8217;s remarkable,&#8221; agreed
+Wayne meekly, &#8220;but I don&#8217;t know anything
+about it. He might sleep twenty-three
+hours out of twenty-four&mdash;I shouldn&#8217;t
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_182' name='page_182'></a>182</span>
+understand whether to call him a prodigy
+or an idiot.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, yes, you would,&#8221; Judith interposed
+with spirit. &#8220;Think of that baby on
+the floor above us. They&#8217;re walking the
+floor half the night with her.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Girl babies may be different,&#8221; Carey
+suggested diffidently, at which Anthony
+shouted. &#8220;I don&#8217;t care&mdash;all the girls I
+ever knew wanted to sit up nights,&#8221; Carey
+insisted with a feeble grin.</p>
+<p>Juliet came out, welcoming her friends
+with the cordiality for which she was
+famous. &#8220;It&#8217;s so hot in town,&#8221; she condoled
+with them. &#8220;You should get out
+into our delicious air oftener. Somehow,
+with our breezes we don&#8217;t mind the heat.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s heaven here, anyhow,&#8221; sighed
+Carey, stretching back in his chair with a
+long breath. Judith looked sober.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You say it&#8217;s heaven,&#8221; commented
+Anthony, staring hard at his friend, &#8220;and
+you profess to admire everything we do, and
+eat, and say, but you continue to pay good
+money every week for a lot of extremely
+dubious comforts&mdash;from my point of view.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s one of the very best places in that
+part of the city,&#8221; protested Judith.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_183' name='page_183'></a>183</span></p>
+<p>Anthony eyed her keenly. &#8220;Yes; if
+that&#8217;s what you&#8217;re paying for you&#8217;ve got
+it, I admit. If it&#8217;s a consolation to you to
+know that the address you give when you
+go shopping is one that you&#8217;re not ashamed
+of&mdash;why, you&#8217;re all right. But I reckon
+Juliet here doesn&#8217;t blush when she orders
+things sent home to the country.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Juliet&mdash;&#8221; began Judith; &#8220;she doesn&#8217;t
+need an address to make all the salespeople
+pay her their most respectful attention.
+She&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I understand,&#8221; said Anthony. &#8220;That
+sweetly imperious way of hers when she
+shops&mdash;I remember it the first time I ever
+went shopping with her&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet gave him a laughing glance. &#8220;If
+I remember,&#8221; she said, &#8220;it wasn&#8217;t I who
+did all the dictating on that historic expedition
+when we furnished this house.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve got to go shopping again,&#8221;
+Anthony informed them. &#8220;We&#8217;re planning
+to put a little wing on the house, opening
+from under the stairs in the living-room,
+for a nursery and a den.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Going to put the two together?&#8221; asked
+a new voice from the dimness of the lawn.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh&mdash;hullo, Roger Barnes, M.D.,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_184' name='page_184'></a>184</span>
+F.R.C.S.&mdash;come up. No, I think we&#8217;ll
+have a partition between. But I want a
+room below stairs for Tony, Junior, so
+his mother won&#8217;t wear herself out carrying
+him up and down. That youngster
+weighs seventeen pounds and a fraction
+already.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I was confident I&#8217;d get some statistics
+if I came out,&#8221; said the doctor, settling
+himself near Juliet&mdash;with a purpose, as she
+instantly recognised. &#8220;It seemed to me
+I couldn&#8217;t wait longer to learn how much
+he had gained since I met Tony day before
+yesterday. It was seventeen without the
+fraction then.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s right&mdash;guy me,&#8221; returned Anthony
+comfortably. &#8220;I don&#8217;t mind&mdash;I&#8217;ve
+the boy.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>&#8220;I want a talk with you,&#8221; said the doctor
+softly to Juliet, as the others fell to discussing
+the project of the enlarged house.
+&#8220;I&#8217;ve got to have it, too&mdash;or go off my
+head.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet nodded, understanding him. Presently
+she rose. &#8220;I have an errand to do,&#8221;
+she said. &#8220;Will you walk over to the
+Evanstons&#8217; with me, Roger?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_185' name='page_185'></a>185</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, tell me,&#8221; began the doctor the
+instant they were off, &#8220;is she going to
+persist in this awful sacrifice?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Poor Rachel,&#8221; breathed Juliet. &#8220;So
+many lovers&mdash;and so unhappy.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Is she unhappy?&#8221; begged the doctor.
+&#8220;Is she? If I only were sure of it&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What girl wouldn&#8217;t be unhappy&mdash;to be
+making even one man out of two as miserable
+as you?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But you know what I mean. Is she
+going to marry Huntington out of love as
+well as pity&mdash;or only pity?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Roger&#8221;&mdash;Juliet stood still in the road,
+regarding him in the dim light with kind
+eyes&mdash;&#8220;if I knew I wouldn&#8217;t tell you. That&#8217;s
+Rachel&#8217;s secret. But I don&#8217;t know. She&#8217;s
+as loyal as a magnet, and as reserved as&mdash;you
+would want her to be if you were Mr.
+Huntington.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s everything she ought to be. I&#8217;m
+a dastard for saying it, but I could forgive
+her for being disloyal enough to him to
+show me just a corner of her heart. Even
+if she loves him it&#8217;s what I called it&mdash;an
+awful sacrifice&mdash;a man dying with consumption.
+If she doesn&#8217;t&mdash;except as the
+friend of her early girlhood, when she didn&#8217;t
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_186' name='page_186'></a>186</span>
+know men or her own heart&mdash;Juliet, it&#8217;s
+impious.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Roger, dear, keep hold of yourself,&#8221;
+Juliet replied. &#8220;You&#8217;re too strong and
+fine to want to come between her
+and her own decision&mdash;if she has
+made it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;If you were a man,&#8221; said he hotly,
+&#8220;would you let a woman marry you&mdash;dying?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; answered Juliet stoutly, &#8220;if she
+insisted.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Women are capable of saying anything
+in an argument,&#8221; he growled. &#8220;I
+say it&#8217;s outrageous to let her do it. She
+doesn&#8217;t love him&mdash;she does love me,&#8221; he
+blurted.</p>
+<p>Juliet turned to him anxiously. &#8220;Roger,
+do you know what you are saying?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, I do. I&#8217;ve got to tell somebody,
+and there&#8217;s nobody but you&mdash;you perfect
+woman. If ever a man knew a thing
+without its being put into words I know
+that. It was only a look, weeks ago, but
+I&#8217;m as sure of it as I am of myself. I&#8217;ve
+had nothing but coolness from her since,
+but that&#8217;s in self-defense. And the thought
+that, loving me, she&#8217;s going to give herself
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_187' name='page_187'></a>187</span>
+to him&mdash;a wreck&mdash;do you wonder it&#8217;s
+driving me mad?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You ought not to have told me this,&#8221;
+said Juliet, tears in her voice. &#8220;If Rachel
+is doing this it&#8217;s because she&#8217;s sure she
+ought&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course she is. And that&#8217;s why I tell
+you. You have more influence with her
+than any one. Can&#8217;t you show her that
+duty, the most urgent in the world, never
+requires a thing like that? Let her be his
+friend to the last&mdash;the sort of friend she
+knows how to be, with a warm hand in his
+cold one. But never his&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>The doctor grew choky with his vehemence,
+and stopped short. Juliet was
+silent, full of distress. She thought of the
+two men&mdash;Huntington, a frail ghost, in the
+grip of a deadly illness, yet fighting it desperately,
+and desperately clinging to the
+girl he loved: a clever fellow, educated as a
+mining engineer, successful, even beginning
+to be distinguished in his work until his
+health gave out; Barnes, the embodiment
+of strength, standing high in his profession,
+life and the world before him, a fit mate for
+the girl who deserved the best there could
+be for her&mdash;Juliet thought of them both and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_188' name='page_188'></a>188</span>
+found her heart aching for them&mdash;and for
+Rachel Redding.</p>
+<p>They were slowly approaching the brown
+house at the foot of the hill, the errand at
+the Evanstons&#8217; forgotten, when suddenly a
+familiar figure in white came toward them
+from the doorway. The doctor started at
+sight of it, and Juliet grew breathless all at
+once.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I thought it was you two,&#8221; said Rachel.
+&#8220;This rising moon struck you full just now,
+and I could see you plainly. I&#8217;ve wanted
+to see you both&mdash;and this is my last chance.
+I am going away to-morrow.&#8221;</p>
+<p>There was an instant&#8217;s silence, while
+Roger Barnes tried to choose which of all
+the things he wanted to say to her should
+come first. Juliet broke the stillness.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Walk back up the road with us, dear,&#8221;
+she said, &#8220;and tell us how and where you
+go.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I have but a minute to spare,&#8221; said
+Rachel. &#8220;Let me say good-bye to you
+both here&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, by heaven, you shall not,&#8221; burst
+out the doctor in a suppressed voice of
+fire which startled Juliet. &#8220;You owe me
+ten minutes, in place of the last letter you
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_189' name='page_189'></a>189</span>
+haven&#8217;t answered. There are a score of
+them, you know&mdash;but the last has to be
+answered somehow.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Rachel hesitated. &#8220;Very well,&#8221; she said
+at length, &#8220;but only with Mrs. Robeson.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Can&#8217;t you trust me?&#8221; He was angry
+now.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes&mdash;but not myself,&#8221; she answered,
+so low he barely caught the words. He
+seized her hand.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then trust me for us both,&#8221; he said, so
+instantly gentle and tender that Juliet
+found it possible to say what a moment
+before she had thought unwise enough:
+&#8220;Go with him, Ray, dear. I think it is his
+right.&#8221;</p>
+<p>So presently she found herself crossing her
+own lawn alone, while the two who had just
+left her went slowly on up the road together.
+Her heart was beating hard and painfully,
+for she loved them both, and foresaw for
+them only the hardest interview of their
+lives.</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>At the end of half an hour Rachel Redding
+stood again upon her own porch, and
+Roger Barnes looked up at her from the
+walk below with heavy eyes.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_190' name='page_190'></a>190</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;At least,&#8221; he said, &#8220;you have done what
+I never would have believed even you could
+do&mdash;convinced me against my will that you
+are right. You love him&mdash;he worships you.
+There is a promise of life for him in Arizona&mdash;with
+you. I can&#8217;t forbid the bans. But
+I shall always believe, what you dare not
+dispute, that if I had come first&mdash;you&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>She held out her hand. &#8220;That you must
+not say,&#8221; she said. &#8220;But there is one thing
+you may say&mdash;that you are my best friend,
+whom I can count on&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;As long as there is life left in me,&#8221; he
+answered fervently. He wrung her hand
+in both his, looked long and steadily up into
+her face as if his eyes could never leave
+the lovely outlines showing clear in the
+light from the windows, then turned away
+and strode off toward the station without
+a look behind.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXI_EVERYBODY_GIVES_ADVICE' id='XXI_EVERYBODY_GIVES_ADVICE'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_191' name='page_191'></a>191</span>
+<h2>XXI.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Everybody Gives Advice</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;I should do it in brown leather,&#8221; said
+Cathcart decidedly, looking about him.</p>
+<p>He stood in the centre of Anthony&#8217;s den.
+The carpenters had gone, the plasterers
+had finished their work, and the floor had
+just been swept up.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re all right as far as you go,&#8221; observed
+Anthony, who stood at his elbow,
+&#8220;but you don&#8217;t go far enough. If you
+want me to hang these walls with brown
+leather you&#8217;ll have to put up the money.
+I may be sufficiently prosperous to afford
+the addition to my house, but I haven&#8217;t
+reached the stage of covering the walls with
+cloth-of-gold.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Burlap would be the thing, Tony,&#8221;
+Judith suggested.</p>
+<p>Anthony was surrounded by people&mdash;the
+room was half full of them, elbowing
+each other about.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Paint the walls,&#8221; advised Lockwood.</p>
+<p>&#8220;There are imitation-leather papers,&#8221;
+said Cathcart, with the air of one condescending
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_192' name='page_192'></a>192</span>
+to lower a high standard for the
+sake of those who could not live up to it.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I suppose so,&#8221; admitted Anthony, &#8220;at
+four dollars a roll. I saw a simple thing
+on that order that struck me the other day
+at Heminways&#8217;. I thought it might be
+about forty cents a roll. It was a dollar a
+square yard. I told them I would think
+it over. I haven&#8217;t got through thinking it
+over yet.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You want a plate-rail,&#8221; said Wayne
+Carey.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What for?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, to put plates, and steins, and
+things on.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Haven&#8217;t a plate&mdash;or a stein. Baby has
+a silver mug. Would that do?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Cathcart smiled in a superior way.
+&#8220;You had a lot of mighty fine stuff in your
+Yale days,&#8221; he remarked. &#8220;Pity you let
+it all go.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I shouldn&#8217;t have cared for that truck
+now,&#8221; Anthony declared easily, though he
+deceived nobody by it. Most of them remembered,
+if Cathcart had forgotten, how
+the college boy had sacrificed all his treasures
+at a blow when the news of his family&#8217;s
+misfortunes had come. It had yielded
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_193' name='page_193'></a>193</span>
+little enough, after all, to throw into the
+abyss of their sudden poverty, but the act
+had proved the spirit of the elder son of the
+house.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You certainly will want plenty of rugs
+and hangings of the right sort,&#8221; Cathcart
+pursued.</p>
+<p>Anthony looked at him good-humouredly.
+&#8220;I can see that you have got to be suppressed,&#8221;
+he said, with a hand on Stevens&#8217;s
+collar. &#8220;I can tell you in a breath just
+what&#8217;s going into this room at present.
+The floor is to have a matting, one of those
+heavy, cloth-like mattings. Auntie Dingley
+has presented me with one fine old Persian
+rug from the Marcy library, which she insists
+is out of key with the rest of the stuff.
+I&#8217;m glad it is&mdash;it&#8217;ll furnish the key to my
+decorations. Then I&#8217;ve a splendid old desk
+I picked up in a place where they temporarily
+forgot themselves in setting a price on it.
+That&#8217;s going by the window. I&#8217;ve a little
+Dürer engraving, and a few good foreign
+photographs Juliet has put under glass for
+me. For the rest I have&mdash;what I like best&mdash;clear
+space, pipe-and-hearth room, the
+bamboo chairs off the porch with some
+winter cushions in, my books&mdash;and that.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_194' name='page_194'></a>194</span></p>
+<p>He pointed to the windows, outside
+which lay a long country vista stretching
+away over fields and river to the
+woods in the distance, turning rich autumn
+tints now under the late October
+frosts.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s enough,&#8221; said Carey, with the suppressed
+sigh which usually accompanied any
+allusion of his to Anthony&#8217;s environment.
+&#8220;Dens are too stuffy, as a rule. Fellows
+try to see how much useless lumber they
+can accumulate in altogether inadequate
+space.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But you ought to have a couch,&#8221; said
+Judith.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, yes, I&#8217;m going to have a couch,&#8221;
+assented Anthony, laughing across her head
+at Juliet. &#8220;A gem of a couch&mdash;we&#8217;re
+making it ourselves. You&#8217;re not to see it
+till it&#8217;s done. It&#8217;ll be no brickbat couch,
+either&mdash;it&#8217;ll be a flowery bed of ease&mdash;or,
+if not flowery, invitingly covered with some
+stunning stuff Juliet has fished out of a
+neighbour&#8217;s attic.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, come and see the nursery,&#8221; Juliet
+proposed, and the party crowded through
+the door into the living-room, around to
+the one by its side which opened into an
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_195' name='page_195'></a>195</span>
+attractive room behind the den, all air
+and sunshine.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I refuse to suggest,&#8221; said Cathcart instantly,
+&#8220;the decorations for this place.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s good,&#8221; remarked Anthony cheerfully.
+&#8220;So much verbiage out of the way.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;ll be pink and white, I suppose,&#8221; said
+Judith. &#8220;Pink is the colour for boys, I&#8217;m
+told.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Behind all their backs Anthony glanced
+at his wife, affection and amusement in
+his face. She read the look and smiled
+back. It was no part of their plan to let
+the boy grow up alone. And as a mother
+she seemed to him far more beautiful than
+she had ever been.</p>
+<p>&#8220;We are going to have a little paper with
+nursery-rhyme pictures all over it,&#8221; explained
+Juliet. &#8220;There are all sorts of
+softly harmonising colours in it. And just
+a matting on the floor with a rug to play on,
+his white crib, and some gay little curtains
+at the windows.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Have you made the partition double-thick,
+old man?&#8221; asked Lockwood. &#8220;This
+den-nursery combination strikes me as a
+little dubious.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s no use explaining to a fiendish old
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_196' name='page_196'></a>196</span>
+bachelor,&#8221; said Anthony, leading the way
+out of the place, &#8220;that I&#8217;d think I was
+missing a good deal if I should get so far
+away that I couldn&#8217;t hear little Tony laugh&mdash;or
+cry. Julie, where&#8217;s the boy? May I
+bring him down?&#8221;</p>
+<p>He disappeared upstairs, whence sounds
+of hilarity were at once heard. Presently
+he reappeared on the stairs, bearing aloft
+upon his shoulder a rosy cherub of a baby,
+smiling and waving a chubby fist at the
+company. The beauty in his face was
+an exquisite mixture of that belonging
+to both father and mother. Anthony and
+his son together made a picture worth
+seeing.</p>
+<p>Once more Wayne Carey smothered a
+sigh. But Judith hardened her heart.
+Since Baby Anthony had come Wayne had
+been difficult to manage.</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>Lockwood stayed after the others had
+gone. Sitting smoking before the fire with
+Anthony after Juliet had left them alone
+he brought the conversation around to a
+point which Anthony had expected.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What do you hear of that man Huntington?&#8221;
+he asked, as indifferently as a man
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_197' name='page_197'></a>197</span>
+is ever able to ask a question which means
+much to him.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Huntington? Why, the last was that
+he was improving a little, I believe. Arizona
+is a great place for that sort of thing.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Good deal of a sacrifice for her people
+to go with her way out there.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;She couldn&#8217;t leave them behind. Father
+half-blind&mdash;mother a cripple. I understand
+that Arizona air is bracing them, too.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;The fellow&#8217;s own mother was one of the
+party, wasn&#8217;t she?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I believe so. He&#8217;s all she has.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t see, with all those people to
+chaperon her, why she couldn&#8217;t have gone
+along with him without marrying him,&#8221;
+observed Lockwood in a gruff tone.</p>
+<p>Anthony smiled. &#8220;That would have
+been a Tantalus draught indeed,&#8221; he
+remarked. &#8220;I imagine poor Huntington
+will need all the concessions he can get if
+he keeps on breathing even Arizona air.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Anthony,&#8221; said Lockwood, after a
+silence of some minutes, during which he
+had puffed away with his eyes intent on the
+fire, &#8220;do you fancy Rachel Redding cared
+enough for that man to immolate herself
+like that?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_198' name='page_198'></a>198</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Looks very much like it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I know it looks like it; but if I read that
+girl right she was the sort to stick to anything
+she&#8217;d said she&#8217;d do, if it took the
+breath out of her body. How long had she
+known him&mdash;any idea?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;A good while, I believe.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I thought so. Early engagement, you
+see&mdash;ought never to have stood.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;If you&#8217;d been Huntington you&#8217;d probably
+have had the unreasonable notion that
+it should.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s a magnificent girl,&#8221; said Lockwood,
+blowing a great volume of smoke
+into the air with head elevated and half-shut
+eyes. &#8220;She made those two who were
+here with her last summer seem like thirty
+cents beside her. Nice girls, too&mdash;fine
+girls&mdash;elegant dressers; I don&#8217;t know what
+the matter was. Neither did they.&#8221; He
+chuckled a little. &#8220;They couldn&#8217;t believe
+their own eyes when they saw three of us
+going daft over a girl they wouldn&#8217;t have
+staked a copper on in a free-for-all with
+themselves. They took it gamely, I&#8217;ll say
+that for them. Marie won&#8217;t have me back.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t blame her.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Neither do I. Haven&#8217;t got to the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_199' name='page_199'></a>199</span>
+want-to-be-taken-back stage&mdash;sometimes
+think I never shall. One experience like
+that spoils a man for the average girl.
+The truth is, Tony, the most of them&mdash;er&mdash;overdo
+the meet-you-half-way act. I want
+a girl to keep me guessing till the last
+minute.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Tell that to the girl,&#8221; advised Anthony.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I wish I could. Yet there were a good
+many times when I thought if Rachel
+Redding would just look my way I shouldn&#8217;t
+take it ill of her. I wonder if she&#8217;d have
+been like that if she hadn&#8217;t been engaged to
+another fellow.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Probably.&#8221; Anthony got up and
+stretched himself. He was growing weary
+of other men&#8217;s confidences.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re right she would. She&#8217;s built
+that way. Yet when you get to fancying
+what she&#8217;d be if she just let herself go and
+show she cared&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Look here, my young friend,&#8221; said Anthony,
+&#8220;I advise you to go home and go to
+bed. Sitting here dreaming over Mrs. Alexander
+Huntington isn&#8217;t good for you. What
+you want to be doing is to forget her.
+Huntington&#8217;s going to get well, and they&#8217;re
+going to live happily ever after, and you
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_200' name='page_200'></a>200</span>
+fellows out here can look up other girls.
+Plenty of &#8217;em. Only, for the love of heaven,
+see if you can avoid all setting your affections
+on the same girl next time. It&#8217;s
+too rough on your friends!&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXII_ROGER_BARNES_PROVES_INVALUABLE' id='XXII_ROGER_BARNES_PROVES_INVALUABLE'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_201' name='page_201'></a>201</span>
+<h2>XXII.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Roger Barnes Proves Invaluable</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Time went swinging on, and by and by it
+came to be Tony Robeson, Junior&#8217;s, second
+Christmas day. He rode down to breakfast
+on his father&#8217;s shoulder, crowing loudly on
+a gorgeous brown and scarlet rooster, which
+he had found on his Christmas tree the
+evening before. He had been put to bed
+immediately thereafter and had gone to
+sleep with the rooster in his arms. The
+fowl had a charmingly realistic crow, operated
+by a pneumatic device upon which
+the baby had promptly learned to blow.
+He performed upon it uninterruptedly
+throughout breakfast.</p>
+<p>&#8220;See here, my son,&#8221; said Anthony, hurriedly
+finishing his coffee, &#8220;let&#8217;s see if you
+can&#8217;t appreciate some of your less voiceful
+toys. Here&#8217;s a rabbit with fine soft ears
+for you to pull. There&#8217;s a train of cars.
+Let me wind it for you. Your Grandfather
+Marcy must have expended several good
+dollars on that&mdash;you want to show up an
+interest in it when he comes out to see you
+to-day. And here&#8217;s Auntie Dingley&#8217;s pickaninny
+boy-doll&mdash;well, I don&#8217;t blame you
+for failing to embrace that. Auntie Dingley
+was born in Massachusetts.&#8221;</p>
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<img src='images/illus-215.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 324px; height: 524px;' /><br />
+<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center;width: 324px;'>
+&#8220;Toys which can be relied upon to please a twenty months old infant.&#8221;<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The boy cast an indifferently polite eye
+on these gifts as their charms were exhibited
+to him, and clasped the brown and scarlet
+rooster to his breast. There were moments,
+half hours even, when he became sufficiently
+diverted from his fowl to cease from making
+it crow, but at intervals throughout the
+day the family were given to understand
+once for all that it is not the most expensive
+and ornate toys which can be relied upon
+to please a twenty-months-old infant. Even
+the automobile presented by Dr. Roger
+Barnes, and warranted to go three times
+around the room without stopping, was a
+tame affair to the recipient compared with
+the rooster&#8217;s shrill salute.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Remember, Tony,&#8221; Juliet had said, a
+month before Christmas, &#8220;you are not to
+give me any expensive personal gift this
+year. I care for nothing half so much as for
+making the home complete. If&mdash;if&mdash;you
+cared to give me something toward the
+bathroom fund&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;All right,&#8221; said Anthony promptly, for he
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_202' name='page_202'></a>202</span>
+had learned by this time to know his wife well.
+The bathroom fund was dear to her heart.
+The small room at the front of the house
+upstairs, which had been left unfurnished,
+had been temporarily fitted up as a bathroom
+by sundry ingenious devices in the
+way of a tin bath and a hot and cold water
+connection, but a full equipment of the best
+sort was to be put in as soon as practicable,
+and there was a growing fund therefor.</p>
+<p>On Christmas morning, nevertheless, in
+addition to a generous addition to the fund,
+Juliet found beside her plate an exceedingly
+&#8220;personal gift&#8221; in the shape of a little
+pearl-and-turquoise brooch of rare design,
+bearing the stamp of a superior maker.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Must I scold you?&#8221; she asked, smiling
+up at him as he stood beside her, watching
+her face flush with pleasure.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Kiss me, instead,&#8221; he answered
+promptly. &#8220;And don&#8217;t expect me to give
+up making you now and then a real present,
+even though it has to be a small one. It&#8217;s
+too much fun.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Beside his own plate he found her gift,
+a set of histories he had long wanted. It
+was a beautiful edition, and he would have
+looked reproachfully at the giver if she
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_203' name='page_203'></a>203</span>
+had not forestalled him by running around
+the table to say softly in his ear, both arms
+about his neck: &#8220;Just at Christmas time,
+dearest, let me have my way.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The day was a happy one. Mr. Horatio
+Marcy and Mrs. Dingley arrived on the
+morning train and stayed until evening.
+At the Christmas dinner Judith and Wayne
+Carey and Dr. Roger Barnes were the additional
+guests, and Mary McKaim was in the
+kitchen. Dinner over, everybody sat about
+the fireplace talking, when Juliet came in
+to carry little Tony off to bed.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Five minutes more,&#8221; begged Dr. Barnes,
+on whose knee the child sat, a willing captive
+to the arts of his entertainer. His
+eyes, bright with the excitement of this
+great day, were fixed upon the doctor&#8217;s
+face.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And so&#8221;&mdash;Barnes continued the story
+he had begun&mdash;&#8220;the rooster climbed right
+up the man&#8217;s leg&#8221;&mdash;the toy obeyed his
+command and scaled the eminence from
+the floor where it had been hiding behind
+a Noah&#8217;s ark&mdash;&#8220;and perched on his knee,
+and cried&#8221;&mdash;the rooster crowed lustily
+and little Tony laughed ecstatically. &#8220;Then
+the rooster flew up on the man&#8217;s shoulder
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_204' name='page_204'></a>204</span>
+and flapped his wings, and all at once he
+fell right over backwards and tumbled on his
+head on the floor.&mdash;Got to go to bed,
+Tony? Shall the rooster go too? All right.
+May I carry him up for you, Juliet? Anthony&#8217;s
+deep in that discussion. Get on my
+back, old man&mdash;that&#8217;s the way!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Everybody looked after the two as the
+doctor mounted the stairs.</p>
+<p>&#8220;That rooster has captivated the child
+more than all the mechanical toys he has
+had to-day,&#8221; said Mrs. Dingley.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What a handsome fellow he is,&#8221; said
+Carey, his eyes following little Tony till he
+disappeared. &#8220;I never saw a healthier,
+happier child. How sturdy he is on his
+legs&mdash;have you noticed? He&#8217;s saying a
+good many words, too. It was as good as
+a play to see him imitate that rooster.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet&#8217;s father and Mrs. Dingley left on an
+early evening train, and only the three
+younger guests remained when Juliet came
+downstairs after putting her boy to bed.
+She set about gathering up the toys scattered
+over the floor, and Barnes helped her.
+In the midst of this labour, during which
+they all made merry with some of the more
+elaborate mechanical affairs, Juliet suddenly
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_205' name='page_205'></a>205</span>
+said &#8220;What&#8217;s that?&#8221; and went to the
+bottom of the stairs.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let me go,&#8221; offered Anthony. &#8220;He&#8217;s
+probably too excited to get to sleep easily
+after all this dissipation.&mdash;Hullo!&mdash;he&#8217;s
+crowing with the rooster yet.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But Juliet went up, and he followed her,
+saying from the landing to his guests,
+&#8220;Excuse me for a little. I&#8217;ll get the boy
+quiet, and let his mother come down. I&#8217;ve
+a fine talent for that sort of thing. That
+rooster will have to be given some soothing
+syrup&mdash;he&#8217;s too lively a fowl.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I never saw a man fonder of his youngster
+than Tony,&#8221; Carey observed.</p>
+<p>&#8220;The child is a particularly fine specimen,&#8221;
+the doctor said. &#8220;I think I never
+saw a more ideal development than he
+shows.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He began to tell an incident in which
+little Tony had been involved, when he
+was interrupted.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Barnes!&#8221;&mdash;called Anthony&#8217;s voice from
+the top of the stairs. &#8220;Come up here,
+please.&#8221;</p>
+<p>There was something in the imperative
+quality of this summons which made the
+doctor run up the stairs, two at a time.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_206' name='page_206'></a>206</span>
+Judith and Wayne listened. The rooster
+could still be heard crowing, faintly but
+distinctly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Perhaps he&#8217;s grown too excited over it,&#8221;
+Judith suggested. &#8220;They ought to take
+it away.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Carey went to the bottom of the stairs and
+listened. There were rapid movements overhead.
+The doctor&#8217;s voice could be heard
+giving directions through which sounded
+the steady crowing of the toy. &#8220;Hold him
+so&mdash;now move him that way as I thump&mdash;now
+the other&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>Carey turned pale. &#8220;He&#8217;s got that rooster
+in his throat,&#8221; he said solemnly. The
+rooster was nearly life-size, but the incongruity
+of this suggestion did not strike
+him. Judith hastily rose from her chair
+and went to him.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Had we better go up?&#8221; he whispered.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Heavens&mdash;no!&#8221; Judith clutched his
+arm. &#8220;We couldn&#8217;t do any good. The
+doctor&#8217;s there. Such things make me ill.
+They ought not to have let him have the
+toy to take to bed with him. How could it
+get into his throat? Perhaps they are
+making it crow to divert him. Perhaps
+he&#8217;s hurt himself somehow.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_207' name='page_207'></a>207</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s got the crow part of that thing in
+his throat,&#8221; Carey persisted in an anxious
+whisper. &#8220;The manufacturers ought to
+be prosecuted for making a toy that will
+come apart like that.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t stand there,&#8221; protested his wife.
+&#8220;Maybe it&#8217;s nothing. Come here and sit
+down.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But Carey stood still. Presently Anthony
+came to the head of the stairs.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wayne,&#8221; said he rapidly, &#8220;telephone
+Roger&#8217;s office. Ask the trained nurse,
+Miss Hughes, to send a messenger with the
+doctor&#8217;s emergency surgical case by the
+first train&mdash;he can catch the 9:40 if he&#8217;s
+quick. Tell Miss Hughes to follow as soon
+as she can get ready, prepared to stay all
+night.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Then he disappeared. His voice had
+been steady and quiet, but his eyes had
+showed his friend that the order was given
+under tension. Carey sprang to the telephone,
+and his hand shook as he took down
+the receiver.</p>
+<p>Upstairs Roger Barnes, in command, was
+giving cool, concise orders, his eyes on his
+little patient. When he had despatched
+Juliet for various things, including boiling
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_208' name='page_208'></a>208</span>
+water which she must get downstairs, he
+said to Anthony in a conversational tone:</p>
+<p>&#8220;It will probably not be safe to wait till
+my instruments get here, and there&#8217;s no
+surgeon near enough to call. I&#8217;m not
+going to take any chances on this boy.
+If I see the necessity I&#8217;m going to get into
+that throat and give him air. I shall want
+you and Carey to hold him. Juliet must be
+downstairs.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony nodded. He did not quite
+understand; but a few minutes later, when
+Juliet had brought the boiling water,
+he suddenly perceived what his friend
+meant.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Alcohol, now, please,&#8221; said the doctor.
+When Juliet had disappeared again Barnes
+drew from his pocket a pearl-handled
+pocket-knife and tried its blades. &#8220;It&#8217;s a
+fortunate thing somebody made me a
+present of such a good one to-day,&#8221; he observed,
+&#8220;but it needs sharpening a bit.
+Have you an oil-stone handy?&#8221;</p>
+<p>With tightly shut lips Anthony watched
+the doctor put a bright edge on his smallest
+blade, then, satisfied, drop the open knife
+into the water bubbling over a spirit-lamp.
+Anthony turned his head away for an instant
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_209' name='page_209'></a>209</span>
+from the struggling little figure on
+the bed. Barnes eyed him keenly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re game, of course?&#8221; he said.</p>
+<p>Anthony&#8217;s eyes met his and flashed fire.
+&#8220;Don&#8217;t you know me better than that?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;All right,&#8221; and the young surgeon
+smiled. &#8220;But I&#8217;ve seen a medical man
+himself go to pieces over his own child.
+This is a simple matter,&#8221; he went on lightly.
+&#8220;Luckily, boiling water is a more potent
+antiseptic than all the drugs on the market&mdash;and
+alcohol&#8217;s another. I shall want a
+new hairpin or two&mdash;if Juliet has a wire
+one.&mdash;That the alcohol? Thank you. Now
+if you&#8217;ve the hairpins, Juliet&mdash;ah&mdash;a silver
+one&mdash;all the better.&#8221;</p>
+<p>This also he dropped into the boiling
+water. Then he spoke very quietly to
+Tony&#8217;s mother, as she bent over her child,
+fighting for his breath.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a bit tough to watch,&#8221; he said,
+&#8220;but we&#8217;ll have him all right presently.
+Suppose you go and get his crib ready for
+him. You might fill some hot-water bags
+and bottles and have things warm and
+comfortable.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The telephone-bell rang below. After a
+minute Carey dashed upstairs. He looked
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_210' name='page_210'></a>210</span>
+into the room and spoke anxiously. &#8220;The
+messenger just missed the 9:40. He and
+the nurse will come on the 10:15.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;All right,&#8221; said the doctor, as if the
+delay were of small consequence. &#8220;We&#8217;re
+going to want your help presently, Carey,
+I think. Just ask Mrs. Carey to keep Mrs.
+Robeson with her for a few minutes, if she
+can.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Carey went down and gave his wife the
+message, then he hurried back and stood
+waiting just outside the door. And all at
+once the summons came. In a breath the
+doctor had changed his rôle. He spoke
+sharply:</p>
+<p>&#8220;<i>Now, Robeson&mdash;now, Carey&mdash;we&#8217;ve
+waited up to the limit. Keep cool&mdash;hold
+him like a rock&mdash;</i>&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>Wayne Carey came down to his wife, ten
+minutes later, smiled tremulously, sank into
+a chair, and fell to crying like a baby&mdash;softly,
+so that he could not be heard.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But Juliet says he&#8217;ll be all right,&#8221;
+murmured Judith unsteadily.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, yes&mdash;&mdash;&#8221; Carey wiped his eyes
+and blew his nose. &#8220;I&#8217;m just a little unnerved,
+that&#8217;s all. Lord&mdash;and he&#8217;s dropped
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_211' name='page_211'></a>211</span>
+off to sleep as quiet as a lamb&mdash;with Barnes
+holding the gash in his throat open with a
+hairpin to let the air in. When it comes
+to emergency surgery I tell you it&#8217;s a lucky
+thing to have an expert in the house.
+Completely worn out&mdash;the little chap.
+When the nurse comes they&#8217;ll get out the
+whistle and sew the place up. She ought
+to be here&mdash;I&#8217;ll go meet that train.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He sprang to his feet and hurried out of
+the house. Presently he was back, followed
+by an erect young woman who wore
+a long coat over the uniform she had not
+taken time to change. Carey carried the
+long black bag she had brought with
+her.</p>
+<p>By and by Anthony and Roger Barnes
+came down. The former was pale, but as
+quietly composed as ever; the latter nonchalant,
+yet wearing that gleam of satisfaction
+in his eye which is ever the badge
+of the successful surgeon.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, Mrs. Carey,&#8221; said the doctor,
+smiling, &#8220;why not relax that tension a
+bit? The youngster is right as a trivet.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I suppose that&#8217;s your idea of being
+right as a trivet,&#8221; Judith retorted. &#8220;In
+bed, with a trained nurse watching you,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_212' name='page_212'></a>212</span>
+and a doctor staying all night to make
+sure.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Bless you&mdash;what better would you
+have? If it were any other boy the doctor
+would have been home and in bed an hour
+ago, I assure you. Carey&mdash;if you don&#8217;t
+stop acting like a great fool I&#8217;ll put you to
+bed too.&#8221;</p>
+<p>For Carey was wringing Barnes&#8217; hand,
+and the tears were running unashamed
+down his cheeks. &#8220;I gave him that rooster
+myself,&#8221; he said, and choked.</p>
+<p>Upstairs all was quiet. The little life
+was safe, rescued at the crucial moment
+when interference became necessary, by the
+skill and daring which do not hesitate to
+use the means at hand when the authorized
+tools can not be had. Every precaution
+had been taken against harm from these
+same unconventional means, and the doctor,
+when he left his patient in the hands of
+his nurse, felt small anxiety for the ultimate
+outcome.</p>
+<p>He said this very positively to the boy&#8217;s
+father and mother, holding a hand of each
+and bidding them go peacefully to sleep.
+He would have slipped away then, but
+they would not let him go. There were no
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_213' name='page_213'></a>213</span>
+tears, no fuss; but Juliet said, her eyes with
+their heavy shadows of past suspense
+meeting his steadily, &#8220;Roger, nothing can
+ever tell you what I feel about this,&#8221; and
+Anthony, gripping his friend&#8217;s hand with
+a grip of steel, added: &#8220;We shall never
+thank the Lord enough for having you on
+hand, Roger Barnes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But when the young surgeon had gone,
+warm with pleasure over the service he
+had done those he loved this night, the
+ones he had left behind found their self-control
+had reached the ragged edge.
+Turning to her husband Juliet flung herself
+into his arms, and met there the
+tenderest reception she had ever known.
+So does a common anxiety knit hearts
+which had thought they could be no
+tighter bound.</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>Judith and Wayne Carey, walking along
+silent streets in the early dawn of the day
+after Christmas on their way to take their
+train home, had little to say. Only once
+Judith ventured an observation to her
+heavy-eyed companion:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Surely, such a scene as you went through
+last night must diminish a trifle that envy
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_214' name='page_214'></a>214</span>
+you are always possessed with, when you&#8217;re
+at that house.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But Wayne, staring up at the wintry
+sky, answered, more roughly than his wife
+had ever heard him speak: &#8220;<i>No</i>&mdash;God
+knows I envy them even at a time like
+this!&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXIII_TWO_NOT_OF_A_KIND' id='XXIII_TWO_NOT_OF_A_KIND'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_215' name='page_215'></a>215</span>
+<h2>XXIII.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Two Not of a Kind</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, they are very pleasant rooms,&#8221;
+Juliet admitted, with the air of one endeavouring
+to be polite. She sat upon a
+many-hued divan, and glanced from the
+blue-and-yellow wall-paper to the green
+velvet chairs, the dull-red carpet and the
+stiff &#8220;lace&#8221; curtains. &#8220;You get the afternoon
+sun, and the view opposite isn&#8217;t bad.
+The vestibule seemed to be well kept, and
+I rang only three times before I made you
+hear.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;The janitor promised to fix that bell,&#8221;
+said Judith hastily. &#8220;Oh, I know the
+colour combinations are dreadful, but one
+can&#8217;t help that in rented rooms. Of course
+our things look badly with the ones that
+belong here. But as soon as we can we
+are going to move into a still better place.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Going to keep house?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No-o, not just yet.&#8221; Judith hesitated.
+&#8220;You seem to think there&#8217;s nothing in the
+world to do but to keep house.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m sure of it.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_216' name='page_216'></a>216</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t see why. A girl doesn&#8217;t need
+to assume all the cares of life the minute
+she marries. Why can&#8217;t she keep young
+and fresh for a while?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet glanced toward a mirror opposite.
+&#8220;How old and haggard I must be looking,&#8221;
+she observed, with&mdash;it must be confessed&mdash;a
+touch of complacency. The woman who
+could have seen that image reflected as her
+own without complacency must have been
+indifferent, indeed.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course, you manage it somehow&mdash;I
+suppose because Anthony takes such care
+of you. But you wait till five years more
+have gone over your head, and see if
+you&#8217;re not tired of it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;If I&#8217;m as tired of it as you are&mdash;&#8221; began
+Juliet, and stopped. &#8220;But seriously, Judith,
+is it nothing to you to please Wayne?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, of course.&#8221; Judith flushed. &#8220;But
+Wayne is satisfied.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Are you sure of it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Certainly. Oh, sometimes, when we
+go to see you, and you make things so pleasant
+with your big fire and your good things
+to eat, he gets a spasm of wishing we were
+by ourselves, but&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet shook her head. &#8220;Wayne doesn&#8217;t
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_217' name='page_217'></a>217</span>
+say a word,&#8221; she said, &#8220;and he&#8217;s as devoted
+to you as a man can be. But, Judith, if
+I know the symptoms, that husband of
+yours is starving for a home, and&mdash;do I
+dare say it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Judith was staring out of the window at
+the ugly walls opposite. It was her bedroom
+window, and the opposite walls were
+not six feet away.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I suppose you dare say anything,&#8221; she
+answered, looking as if she were about to
+cry. &#8220;I&#8217;m sure I envy you, you&#8217;re so
+supremely contented. I don&#8217;t think I
+was made to care for children.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That might come,&#8221; said Juliet softly.
+&#8220;I&#8217;m sure it would, Judith. As for Wayne,
+if you could see the look on his face I&#8217;ve
+surprised there more than once, when he
+had little Anthony, and he thought nobody
+noticed, it would make your heart ache,
+dear. Don&#8217;t deny him&mdash;or yourself&mdash;the
+best thing that can happen to either of you.
+At least, don&#8217;t deny it for lack of a home.
+I&#8217;m sure I can&#8217;t imagine Tony, Junior, in
+these rooms of yours. They don&#8217;t look,&#8221;
+she explained, smiling, &#8220;exactly babyish.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She rose to go. She looked so young and
+fair and sweet as she spoke her gentle homily
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_218' name='page_218'></a>218</span>
+that Judith, half doubting, half believing,
+admitted to herself that of one thing there
+could be no question: Mrs. Anthony Robeson
+envied nobody upon the face of the
+earth.</p>
+<p>The visits of the Robesons to the various
+apartments which were in rotation occupied
+by the Careys were few. Somehow it
+seemed much easier and simpler for the
+pair who had no children, and no housekeeping
+to hamper them, to run out into
+the suburbs than for their friends to get
+into town. So the Careys came with
+ever increasing frequency, always warmly
+welcomed, and enjoyed the hours within
+the little house so thoroughly that in
+time the influence of the content they saw
+so often began to have its inevitable effect.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve great news for you,&#8221; said Anthony,
+coming home one March day, when little
+Tony was nearing his second birthday.
+&#8220;It&#8217;s about the Careys. Guess.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;They are going to housekeeping.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;How did you know?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t know, but Judith told me
+weeks ago she supposed she should have to
+come to it. Have they found a house?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Carey thinks he has. Judith doesn&#8217;t
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_219' name='page_219'></a>219</span>
+like the place, for about fifty good and
+sufficient reasons&mdash;to her. He&#8217;s trying to
+persuade her. He has an option on it for
+ten days. He wants us to come out and
+look at it with them.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Where is it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;About as far east of the city as we are
+north. If to-morrow is a good day I
+promised we would run out with them on
+the ten-fifteen. I suspect they need us
+badly. Wayne looks like a man distracted.
+The great trouble, I fancy, is going to be
+that Judith Dearborn Carey is still too
+much of a Dearborn to be able to make a
+home out of anything. And Carey can&#8217;t
+do it alone.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Indeed he can&#8217;t, poor fellow. I never
+saw a man in my life who wanted a home
+as badly as Wayne does. Let&#8217;s do our
+best to help them.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;We will. But the only way to do it
+thoroughly is to make Judith over. Even
+you can&#8217;t accomplish that.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s hope, if she has agreed at all to
+trying the experiment,&#8221; Juliet declared,
+and thought about her friends all the rest
+of the day.</p>
+<p>It was but five minutes&#8217; walk, from the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_220' name='page_220'></a>220</span>
+suburban station where the party got off
+next morning, to the house which Carey
+eagerly pointed out as the four approached.</p>
+<p>&#8220;There it is,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Don&#8217;t tell me
+what you think of it till you&#8217;ve seen the
+whole thing. I know it doesn&#8217;t look
+promising as yet, but I keep remembering
+the photographs of your home, Robeson,
+before you went at it. I&#8217;m inclined to
+think this can be made right, too.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony and Juliet studied Carey&#8217;s choice
+with interest. Judith looked on dubiously.
+It was plain that if she should consent it
+would be against her will.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It looks so commonplace and ugly,&#8221;
+she said aside to Juliet, as the four completed
+the tour around the house and prepared
+to enter. &#8220;Your home is old-fashioned
+enough to be interesting, but
+this is just modern enough to be ugly.
+Look at that big window in front with the
+cheap coloured glass across the top. What
+could you do with that?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Several things,&#8221; said her friend promptly.
+&#8220;You might put in a row of narrow
+casement windows across the front, with
+diamond panes. No&mdash;the porch isn&#8217;t attractive
+with all that gingerbread work,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_221' name='page_221'></a>221</span>
+but you could take it away and have
+something plain and simple. The general
+lines of the house are not bad. It has
+been an old-fashioned house, Judith, but
+somebody who didn&#8217;t know how has altered
+it and spoiled it. People are always doing
+that. There must have been a fanlight
+over this door. You could restore it.
+And do you see that quaint round window
+in the gable? Probably they looked at
+that and longed to do away with it, but
+happily for you didn&#8217;t know how.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Carey glanced curiously at his friend&#8217;s
+wife, then anxiously at his own. Juliet&#8217;s
+face was alight with interest; Judith&#8217;s
+heavy with dissatisfaction. He wondered
+for the thousandth time what made the
+difference. He would have given a year&#8217;s
+salary to see Judith look interested in this
+desire of his heart. It was hard to push
+a thing like this against the will of the only
+person whose help he could not do without.
+Carey was determined to have the home.
+Even Judith acknowledged that she had
+not been happy in any of the seven apartments
+they had tried during the less than
+four years of their married life. Carey
+believed with all his heart that their only
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_222' name='page_222'></a>222</span>
+chance for happiness lay in getting away
+from a manner of living which was using
+up every penny he could earn without
+giving them either satisfaction or comfort.
+His salary would not permit him to rent
+the sort of thing in the sort of neighbourhood
+which Judith longed for. And if it
+should, he did not believe his wife would
+find such environments any more congenial
+than the present one. Carey had a theory
+that a woman, like a man, must be busy to
+be contented. He meant to try it with his
+handsome, discontented wife.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, what a pretty hall!&#8221; cried Mrs.
+Robeson, with enthusiasm. &#8220;How lucky
+that the vandals who made the house
+over didn&#8217;t lay their desecrating hands on
+that staircase.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;The hall looks gloomy to me,&#8221; said
+Mrs. Carey, with a disapproving glance at
+the walls.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course&mdash;with that dingy brown
+paper and the woodwork stained that
+hideous imitation of oak. You can scrape
+all that off, paint it white, put on a warm,
+rich paper, restore your fanlight, and
+you&#8217;ll have a particularly attractive hall.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I wish I could see things that are not
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_223' name='page_223'></a>223</span>
+visible, as you seem to be able to,&#8221; sighed
+Judith, looking unconvinced. &#8220;I never
+did like a long, straight staircase like that.
+And there&#8217;s not room to make a turn.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t want to, do you? It&#8217;s so
+wide and low it doesn&#8217;t need to turn, and
+the posts and rails are extremely good.
+How about this front room?&#8221;</p>
+<p>She stood in the center of the front room,
+and the two men, watching her vivid face
+as it glowed above her furs, noting the
+capable, womanly way she had of looking
+at the best side of everything and discerning
+in a flash of imagination and intuition
+what could be done with unpromising
+material, appreciated her with that full
+masculine appreciation which it is so well
+worth the trouble of any woman to win.</p>
+<p>Judith was not blind; she saw little by
+little as Juliet went from room to room&mdash;seizing
+in each upon its possibilities, ignoring
+its poorer features except to suggest
+their betterment, giving her whole-hearted,
+friendly counsel in a way which continually
+took the prospective homemakers into consideration&mdash;that
+she herself was losing something
+immeasurably valuable in not attempting
+to cultivate these same winning
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_224' name='page_224'></a>224</span>
+characteristics. And in the same breath
+Judith was forced to admit to herself that
+she did not know how to begin.</p>
+<p>&#8220;There is really a very pretty view from
+the dining-room,&#8221; she said, as a first effort
+at seeing something to admire. Both
+Juliet and Anthony agreed to this statement
+with a cordiality which came very near
+suggesting that it was a relief to find Mrs.
+Carey on the optimistic side of the discussion
+even in this small detail. As for Carey, he
+looked so surprised and grateful that
+Judith&#8217;s heart smote her with a vigour to
+which she was unaccustomed.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I suppose you could use this room as a
+sort of den?&#8221; she was prompted to suggest
+to her husband; and such a delighted smile
+illumined Carey&#8217;s face that the sight of it
+was almost pathetic to his friends, who
+understood his situation rather better than
+he did himself. In his pleasure Carey put
+his arm about his wife&#8217;s shoulders.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Couldn&#8217;t I, though?&#8221; he agreed enthusiastically.
+&#8220;And you could use it for a
+retreat while I was away for the day.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;A retreat from what? Too much excitement?&#8221;
+began Judith, the old habit of
+scorn of everything which was not of the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_225' name='page_225'></a>225</span>
+city returning upon her irresistibly. But
+it chanced that she caught Juliet&#8217;s eyes,
+unconsciously wearing such an expression
+of solicitude to see her friend complaisant
+in this matter which meant so much, that
+Judith hurriedly followed her ironic question
+with the more kindly supplement: &#8220;But
+doubtless I should have plenty, and be glad
+to get away.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You certainly would,&#8221; asserted Anthony.
+&#8220;We never guessed how much
+there would be to occupy us in the country,
+but there seems hardly time to write letters.
+Nobody can believe, till he tries, how much
+pleasure there is in wheedling a garden into
+growing, nor how well the labour makes him
+sleep o&#8217; nights.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes&mdash;I think I could sleep here,&#8221; said
+Carey, and passed a hand over a brow
+which was aching at that very moment.
+&#8220;I haven&#8217;t done that satisfactorily for six
+months.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll do it here,&#8221; Anthony prophesied
+confidently. &#8220;It&#8217;s a fine air with a good
+breath of the salt sea in it, which we don&#8217;t
+get. Your sleeping rooms are all well
+aired and lighted&mdash;a thing you don&#8217;t always
+find in more pretentious houses. And
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_226' name='page_226'></a>226</span>
+when the paint and paper go on you&#8217;ll own
+yourselves surprised at the transformation.
+I was never so astonished in my life as I
+was at the change in the little bedroom in
+our house which has that pale yellow-and-white
+stripe on the wall. It was a north
+room, and the old wall was a forlorn slate,
+like a thundercloud. My little artist here,
+with her eye for colours, instantly announced
+that she would get the sunshine
+into that room. And so she did&mdash;with no
+more potent a charm than that fifteen-cent
+paper and a fresh coat of white paint.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Carey looked at Juliet with longing in
+his eye. He wanted to ask her to supervise
+the alterations in his purchase, if he should
+make it. But he remembered other occasions
+when he had held the sayings and
+doings of Mrs. Robeson before the eyes of
+Mrs. Carey with disastrous result, and he
+dared not make the suggestion. He hoped,
+however, that Judith might be inclined to
+ask the assistance of her friend, and himself
+hinted at it, cautiously. But Judith, beyond
+inquiring what Juliet thought of certain
+possible changes, seemed inclined to shoulder
+her own responsibilities.</p>
+<p>Anthony left his wife upon the home-bound
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_227' name='page_227'></a>227</span>
+train, to return to his work; the
+Careys accompanied him, so that he had
+no chance to talk things over until he came
+home to dinner at night. But when he saw
+Juliet again almost her first words showed
+him where her thoughts were.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Tony, I can&#8217;t get those people off my
+mind. Do you suppose they will ever make
+a home out of anything?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;They haven&#8217;t much genius for utilizing
+raw material, I&#8217;m very much afraid,&#8221;
+Anthony responded thoughtfully. &#8220;Carey
+has the will, and he can furnish a moderate
+amount of funds, but whether Judith can
+furnish anything but objections and contrariety
+I don&#8217;t dare to predict. If her
+heart were in it I should have more hope of
+her. There&#8217;s one thing I can tell her. If
+she doesn&#8217;t set her soul to the giving the
+old boy a taste of peace and rest she&#8217;ll have
+him worn out before his time. A fellow who
+doesn&#8217;t know how it feels to sleep soundly,
+and whose head bothers him half the time,
+needs looking after. He&#8217;s a slave to his
+office desk, and needs far more than an
+active chap like me to get out of the city as
+much as he can.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, he&#8217;s worried and restless, Tony.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_228' name='page_228'></a>228</span>
+He&#8217;s so devoted to Judith and so anxious to
+make her happy, her dissatisfaction rests
+on him like a weight. Don&#8217;t you see that
+every time you see them together?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Every time&mdash;and more plainly. What&#8217;s
+the matter with her anyhow, Julie? She
+seemed promising enough as a girl. You
+certainly found enough in her to make you
+two congenial. She&#8217;s no more like you
+than&mdash;electric light is like sunshine,&#8221; said
+Anthony, picking up the simile with a
+laugh and a glance of appreciation.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Judith shines in the surroundings she
+was born and brought up in, misses them,
+and doesn&#8217;t know how to adapt herself to
+any others. She ought to have been the
+wife of some high official&mdash;she could entertain
+royally and have everybody at her
+feet.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Magnificent characteristics, but mighty
+unavailable in the present circumstances.
+It carries out my electric-light comparison.
+I prefer the sunlight&mdash;and I have it.&mdash;Poor
+Carey!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll hope,&#8221; said Juliet. &#8220;And if we
+have the smallest chance to help, we&#8217;ll do it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But, as Anthony had anticipated, there
+was small chance to help. Meeting Carey
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_229' name='page_229'></a>229</span>
+a fortnight later, Anthony inquired after
+the new home, and Carey replied with apparent
+lack of enthusiasm that the house
+had been leased for a term of three years,
+with refusal of the purchase at the expiration
+of the time. He explained that Judith
+had been unwilling to burn her bridges by
+buying the place outright, and that he
+thought perhaps the present plan was the
+better one&mdash;under these conditions. But
+the fact that the house was not their own
+made it seem unwise to expend very much
+upon alterations beyond those of paint and
+paper. With the prospect of a sale the
+owner had unwillingly consented to replace
+the gingerbread porch with one in better
+style, but refused to do more. The big
+window, with its abominable topping of
+cheap coloured glass, was to remain for the
+present.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And I think this whole arrangement is
+bound to defeat my purpose,&#8221; said Carey
+unhappily. &#8220;The very changes we can&#8217;t
+afford to make in a rented house are the
+ones Judith needs to have made to reconcile
+her to the experiment. She says she
+feels ill every time she comes to the house
+and sees that window. She wants a porcelain
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_230' name='page_230'></a>230</span>
+sink in the kitchen. She would like
+speaking-tubes and a system of electric
+bells. We&#8217;re to have a servant&mdash;if we can
+find her. We&#8217;ve put green paper on all the
+downstairs rooms, and it turns out the
+wrong green. I wanted a sort of corn-colour
+that looked more cheerful, but it seems
+green is the only thing. I don&#8217;t know
+what&#8217;s the matter with me. Perhaps I&#8217;m
+bilious. Green seems to be all right in
+your house, but in mine it makes me want
+to go outdoors.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s precisely what you should do,&#8221;
+Anthony advised cheerfully. &#8220;Get outdoors
+all you can. Start your garden.
+Mow your lawn yourself. Make over that
+gravel path to your front door.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve only evenings,&#8221; objected Carey.
+&#8220;And we&#8217;re not settled yet. The paper&#8217;s
+only just on. We haven&#8217;t moved. We&#8217;re
+buying furniture. We bought a sideboard
+yesterday. It cost so much we had to get
+a cheaper range for the kitchen than
+seemed desirable, but Judith liked the sideboard
+so well I was glad to buy it. I don&#8217;t
+know when we shall get to living there
+permanently. This furnishing business
+knocks me out. We don&#8217;t seem to know
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_231' name='page_231'></a>231</span>
+what we want. I&#8217;d like&mdash;&#8221; he hesitated&mdash;&#8220;I
+hoped Mrs. Robeson might be able to
+give us the advantage of her experience,
+but it turns out that Judith has a sort of
+pride in doing it herself, and of course&mdash;I
+presume you made some mistakes yourselves,
+eh?&#8221; He suggested this with eagerness.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, of course,&#8221; agreed Anthony readily,
+though he wondered what they were, and
+inwardly begged Juliet&#8217;s pardon for this
+answer, given out of masculine sympathy
+with his friend&#8217;s helplessness. &#8220;You&#8217;ll
+come out all right,&#8221; he hastily assured
+Carey. &#8220;Once you are living in the new
+place things will adjust themselves. Keep
+up your courage. Your daily walk to and
+from the train will do wonders. Lack of
+exercise will make a rainbow look gloomy
+to a fellow. I think you&#8217;ve great cause for
+rejoicing that Judith has agreed to try
+the experiment at all. And as with all
+experiments, you must be patient while it
+works itself out.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s so,&#8221; agreed Carey, a gleam of hope
+in his eyes; and Anthony got away. But
+by himself the happier man shook his head
+doubtfully. &#8220;Where everything depends
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_232' name='page_232'></a>232</span>
+on the woman,&#8221; he said to himself, &#8220;and
+you&#8217;ve married one that her Maker never
+fashioned for domestic joys, you&#8217;re certainly
+up against a mighty difficult proposition!&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXIV_THE_CAREYS_ARE_AT_HOME' id='XXIV_THE_CAREYS_ARE_AT_HOME'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_233' name='page_233'></a>233</span>
+<h2>XXIV.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The Careys Are at Home</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Wayne and Judith Carey had been keeping
+house for two months before Judith was
+willing to accede to her husband&#8217;s often
+repeated request that they entertain the
+Robesons.</p>
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve been there, together and separately,
+till it&#8217;s a wonder their hospitality
+doesn&#8217;t freeze up,&#8221; he urged. &#8220;Let&#8217;s have
+them out to-morrow night, and keep them
+over till next day, at least. I&#8217;d like to
+have them sleep under this roof. They&#8217;d
+bring us good luck.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;One would think the Robesons were the
+only people worth knowing,&#8221; said Judith,
+with a petulance of which she had the grace,
+as her husband stared at her, to be ashamed.</p>
+<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re the truest friends we have in
+the world,&#8221; he said, with a dignity of
+manner unusual with him. &#8220;Sometimes I
+think they are the only people worth
+knowing&mdash;out of all those on your calling
+list.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;We differ about that. Your ideas of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_234' name='page_234'></a>234</span>
+who are worth knowing are very peculiar.
+Heaven knows I&#8217;m fond of Juliet, but I get
+decidedly tired of having her held up as a
+model. And I haven&#8217;t been anxious to
+entertain her until we were in order.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re certainly as much in order now
+as we shall be for some time. Let&#8217;s have
+them out. You&#8217;ll find they&#8217;ll see everything
+there is to praise. It&#8217;s their way.&#8221;</p>
+<p>So Anthony and Juliet were asked, and
+came. Wayne&#8217;s prophecy was proven a
+true one&mdash;even Judith grew complacent as
+her friends admired the result of her house-furnishing.
+And in truth there was much
+to admire. Judith was a young woman
+of taste and more or less discretion, and
+if she could have had full sway in her
+purchasing the result might have been
+admirable. As it was, the unspoken criticism
+in the minds of both the guests, as
+they followed their hosts about the house,
+was that Judith had struck a key-note in
+her construction of a home a little too ambitious
+to be wholly satisfactory.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I believe in buying the best of everything
+as far as you go,&#8221; she said, indicating
+a particularly costly lounging chair in a
+corner of the living-room. &#8220;Of course
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_235' name='page_235'></a>235</span>
+that was very expensive, but it will always
+be right, and we can get others to go with
+it. The bookcases were another high-priced
+purchase, but they give an air to
+the room worth paying for.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve only one objection to this room,&#8221;
+said Wayne with some hesitation. &#8220;As
+Judith says, the things in it seem to be all
+right, and it certainly looks in good taste,
+if I&#8217;m any judge, but&mdash;I don&#8217;t know just
+how to explain it&mdash;&mdash;&#8221; he hesitated again,
+and smiled deprecatingly at his wife.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Speak out,&#8221; said Judith. She was in a
+very good humour, for her guests had shown
+so fine a tact in their commendation that
+she was in quite a glow of satisfaction, and
+for the first time felt the pleasure of the
+hostess in an attractive home. &#8220;It can&#8217;t
+be a serious objection, for you&#8217;ve liked
+every single thing we&#8217;ve put into it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Indeed I have,&#8221; agreed Carey, eagerly
+glancing about the brilliantly lit room.
+&#8220;I like it all awfully well&mdash;especially in the
+daylight. The corner by the window is a
+famous place for reading. But, you see, I&#8217;m
+so little here in the daytime, except on
+Sundays. Of course I know we lack the
+fireplace that makes your living-room
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_236' name='page_236'></a>236</span>
+jolly, but it seems as if we lack something
+besides that we might have, and for the
+life of me I can&#8217;t tell what it is.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony knew by a certain curve in the
+corner of his wife&#8217;s mouth that she longed
+to tell him what it was. For himself, he
+could not discover. He studied the room
+searchingly and was unable to determine
+why, attractive as it really was, it certainly
+did, upon this cool May evening, lack the
+look of warm comfort and hospitality of
+which his own home was so full.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Possibly it&#8217;s because everything is so
+new,&#8221; he ventured. &#8220;Rooms come to
+have a look of home, you know, just by
+living in them and leaving things about.
+It&#8217;s a pretty room, all right, and I fancy it
+will take on the friendly expression you
+want when you get to strewing your books
+and magazines around a little more, and
+laying your pipe down on the corner of the
+mantel-piece, you know&mdash;and all that. I
+can upset things for you in half a minute if
+you&#8217;ll give me leave.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You have my full permission,&#8221; said
+Judith, laughing. &#8220;I fancy it&#8217;s just as you
+say: Wayne isn&#8217;t used to it yet. He always
+likes his old slippers better than the handsomest
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_237' name='page_237'></a>237</span>
+new ones I can buy him. Come&mdash;dinner
+has been served for five minutes.
+No more artistic suggestions till afterward.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The dinner was perfect. It should have
+been so, for a caterer was in the kitchen, and
+a hired waitress served the viands without
+disaster. As a delectable meal it was a
+success; as an exhibition of Mrs. Carey&#8217;s
+capacity for home making, it was something
+of a failure. It certainly did not for a
+moment deceive the guests. For the life
+of her, as Juliet tasted course after course
+of the elaborate meal, she could not help
+reckoning up what it had cost. Neither
+could she refrain from wondering what sort
+of a repast Judith would have produced
+without help.</p>
+<p>After dinner, as Wayne and Anthony
+smoked in front of the fireless mantel-piece
+in the den, each in a more luxurious
+chair than was to be found in Anthony&#8217;s
+whole house, Judith took Juliet to task.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You may try to disguise it,&#8221; she complained,
+&#8220;but I&#8217;ve known you too long not
+to be able to read you. You would rather
+have had me cook that dinner myself and
+bring it in, all red and blistered from being
+over the stove.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_238' name='page_238'></a>238</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;As long as the dinner wasn&#8217;t red and
+blistered you wouldn&#8217;t have been unhappy,&#8221;
+Juliet returned lightly. &#8220;But you mustn&#8217;t
+think that she who entertains may read my
+ingenuous face, my dear. It isn&#8217;t necessary
+that I attempt to convert the world to my
+way of thinking. And I haven&#8217;t told you
+that when Auntie Dingley goes abroad with
+father again this winter I&#8217;m to have Mary
+McKaim for eight whole months. I can
+assure you I know how to appreciate the
+comfort of having a competent cook in the
+kitchen.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She got up and crossed the room. &#8220;Judith,
+what an exquisite lamp,&#8221; she observed.
+&#8220;I&#8217;d forgotten that you had it. Was it
+one of your wedding presents?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Judith followed her to where she stood
+examining an imposing, foreign-looking
+lamp, with jeweled inlets in the hand-wrought
+metal shade. &#8220;Yes,&#8221; she said
+carelessly, &#8220;it&#8217;s pretty enough. I don&#8217;t
+care much for lamps.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not to read by?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s bright enough for anybody but a
+blind man to read, here.&#8221; Judith glanced
+at the ornate chandelier of electric lights
+in the centre of the ceiling. &#8220;The rooms
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_239' name='page_239'></a>239</span>
+aren&#8217;t so high that the lights are out of
+reach for reading.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But this is beautiful. Have you never
+used it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It might be used with an electric connection,
+I suppose. No, I&#8217;ve never used
+it as an oil lamp. I hate kerosene oil.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But you have some in the house?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, yes, I think so. Wayne insisted
+on getting some little hand-lamps. Something&#8217;s
+always happening to the wires out
+here. That&#8217;s one of the numerous joys of
+living in the suburbs.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s fill this and try it,&#8221; Juliet suggested,
+turning a pair of very bright eyes
+upon her friend. &#8220;If you&#8217;ve never lit it I
+don&#8217;t believe you&#8217;ve half appreciated it.
+You&#8217;re neglecting one of the prettiest
+sources of decoration you have in the house.
+Out of sympathy for the giver, whoever he
+was, you ought to let his gift have a chance
+to show you its beauty.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Stevens Cathcart gave it to us, I believe,&#8221;
+said Judith. &#8220;Here, let me have
+it. I&#8217;ll fill it, since you insist. But I never
+thought very much of it. It was put away
+in a closet until we came here. It took up
+so much room I never found a place for it.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_240' name='page_240'></a>240</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Cathcart gave it to you? That
+proves my point, that it&#8217;s worth admiring.
+If there&#8217;s a connoisseur in things of this
+sort, it&#8217;s he. He probably picked it up in
+some out-of-the-ordinary European shop.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Smiling to herself, as if something gave
+her satisfaction, Juliet awaited the return
+of her hostess. She understood, from the
+manner of Judith&#8217;s exit with the lamp, that
+the free and easy familiarity with which
+guests invaded every portion of Anthony&#8217;s
+little home, was not to be made a precedent
+for the same sort of thing in Judith&#8217;s.</p>
+<p>The lamp reappeared, accompanied by a
+lamentation over the disagreeable qualities
+of kerosene oil for any use whatever.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You can put electricity into this and
+use it as a drop-light, if you prefer,&#8221; said
+Juliet, as she lit it and adjusted the shade.
+&#8220;May I set it on the big table over here?
+Right in the center, please, if you don&#8217;t
+mind moving that bowl of carnations.
+There!&mdash;Of course you can send it back to
+oblivion over there on the bookcase if you
+really don&#8217;t like it.&mdash;But you do like it&mdash;don&#8217;t
+you?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s handsomer than I thought it was,&#8221;
+Judith admitted without enthusiasm. Juliet
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_241' name='page_241'></a>241</span>
+glanced up at the blazing chandelier overhead.</p>
+<p>&#8220;May I turn off some of this light?&#8221; she
+asked. &#8220;You won&#8217;t get the full beauty of
+your lamp till you give it a chance by itself.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Judith assented. Juliet snapped off three
+out of the four lights, and smiled mischievously
+at her friend. Then she extinguished
+the fourth, so that the only luminary
+left in the room was the lamp.
+Judith groaned.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Maybe you like a gloomy room like this.
+I don&#8217;t. Look at it. I can hardly see
+anything in the corners.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wait a little bit. You&#8217;re so used to the
+glare your eyes are not good for seeing what
+I mean. Study the lamp itself a minute.
+Did you ever see anything so fascinating as
+the gleam through those jewels? An electric
+bulb inside would add to the brilliancy,
+though it&#8217;s not so soft a light to read by,
+and the effect in the room isn&#8217;t so warm.
+Observe those carnations under the lamplight,
+honey? Come over here to the doorway
+and look at your whole room under
+these new conditions. Isn&#8217;t it charming?&mdash;enticing?&mdash;Let&#8217;s
+draw that lovely
+Morris chair up close to the table, as if
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_242' name='page_242'></a>242</span>
+you were expecting Wayne to come in
+and read the evening paper by the lamp.
+<i>There!</i>&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet softly clapped her hands, her face
+shining with friendly enthusiasm. There
+could be no question that the whole room,
+as she had said, had taken on a new look of
+homelike comfort and cheer which it had
+lacked before. Even Judith was forced to
+see it.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It looks very well,&#8221; she admitted.
+&#8220;But I should have more light from above.
+I like plenty of light.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;So do I, if you manage it well.&#8221; Whereupon
+the guest, having gained her point
+and made sufficient demonstration of it,
+turned the conversation into other channels.
+But the lamp was not yet through
+with its position of reformer. The two men,
+having finished their cigars, and hearing
+sounds of merriment from the adjoining
+room, came strolling in. Anthony, comprehending
+at a glance the change which had
+come over the aspect of the room and the
+cause thereof, advanced, smiling. But
+Carey came to a standstill upon the threshold,
+his lips drawn into an astonished
+whistle.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_243' name='page_243'></a>243</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s happened?&#8221; he ejaculated, and
+stood staring.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you like it?&#8221; asked his wife.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I should say I did. But what&#8217;s done
+it? What makes the room look so different?
+It looks&mdash;why it looks like your rooms!&#8221;
+he cried, gazing at Anthony.</p>
+<p>&#8220;He can say nothing more flattering than
+that,&#8221; said Judith, evidently not altogether
+pleased. &#8220;It&#8217;s the highest compliment he
+knows.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Carey stared at the lamp. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t
+know we had that,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Is it that
+that does it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I fancy it is,&#8221; said Anthony. &#8220;I never
+understood it till I was taught, but it seems
+to be a fact that a low light in a room gives
+it a more homelike effect than a high one.
+I don&#8217;t know why. It&#8217;s one of my wife&#8217;s
+pet theories.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, I must say this is a pretty convincing
+demonstration of it,&#8221; Carey agreed,
+sitting down in a chair in a corner, his hands
+in his pockets, still studying this, to him,
+remarkable transformation. &#8220;It certainly
+does look like a happy home now. Before,
+it was a place to receive calls in.&#8221; He
+turned, smiling contentedly, to his wife.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_244' name='page_244'></a>244</span>
+Something about the glance which she
+returned warned him that further admiration
+was unnecessary. The contented
+smile faded a little. He got up and
+came over to the table. &#8220;Now, let&#8217;s have
+a good four-handed talk,&#8221; he proposed.</p>
+<p>Two hours later, in the seclusion of the
+guest-room upstairs, Anthony said under
+his breath:</p>
+<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re coming on, aren&#8217;t they? Don&#8217;t
+you see glimmerings of hope that some day
+this will resemble a home, in a sort of far-off
+way? Isn&#8217;t Judith becoming domesticated
+a trifle? She didn&#8217;t get up that
+dinner?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet turned upon him a smiling face,
+and laid her finger on her lip. &#8220;Don&#8217;t
+tempt me to discuss it,&#8221; she warned him.
+&#8220;My feelings might run away with me, and
+that would never do under their very roof.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Exemplary little guest! May I say
+as much as this, then? I&#8217;d give a good deal
+to see Wayne speak his mind once in a way,
+without a side glance to see if Her Royal
+Majesty approves.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But Juliet shook her head. &#8220;Don&#8217;t
+tempt me,&#8221; she begged again. &#8220;There&#8217;s
+something inside of me that boils and boils
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_245' name='page_245'></a>245</span>
+with rage, and if I should just take the cover
+off&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Might I get scalded? All right&mdash;I&#8217;ll
+leave the cover on. Just one observation
+more. When I get inside our own four
+walls again I&#8217;m going to give a tremendous
+whoop of joy and satisfaction that&#8217;ll raise
+the roof right off the house!&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXV_THE_ROBESON_WILL' id='XXV_THE_ROBESON_WILL'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_246' name='page_246'></a>246</span>
+<h2>XXV.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The Robeson Will</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>When people are busy and happy the
+years may go by like a dream. So the
+months rolled around and brought little
+Tony past the third anniversary of his
+birth, and into another summer of lusty
+development. Except to the growing child,
+however, time seemed to bring slight
+changes to the little home under whose
+roof he grew. The mistress thereof lost no
+charm either for her husband or her friends&mdash;Anthony
+indeed insisted that she grew
+younger; certainly, as time taught her new
+lessons without laying hands upon her
+beauty, she gained attractiveness in every
+way.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You look as much like a girl as ever,&#8221;
+Anthony said to her one morning, as dressed
+for a trip into town she came out upon the
+porch where he and little Tony were frolicing
+together.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You had ever a sweetly blarneying
+tongue,&#8221; said she, and bestowed a parting
+caress impartially upon both the persons
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_247' name='page_247'></a>247</span>
+before her. &#8220;I feel a bit guilty at making
+a nursemaid of you for even one morning of
+your vacation, but&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s all right. Do your errands with
+an easy conscience. I&#8217;ll enjoy looking after
+the boy, and am rather glad your usual
+little maid is away. That&#8217;s one thing my
+vacation is for&mdash;to get upon a basis of
+mutual understanding and confidence with
+my son. We see too little of each other.&#8221;</p>
+<p>So Juliet caught the early car, and left
+the two male Robesons together, father and
+son, waving good-bye to her from the
+porch. When she was out of sight the
+elder Robeson turned to the younger.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, son,&#8221; he said, &#8220;I&#8217;m going to mow
+the lawn. What are you going to do?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I is going to mow lawn, too,&#8221; announced
+Tony, Junior, with decision.</p>
+<p>&#8220;All right, sir. Here we are. Get in
+front of me and mind you push hard.
+That&#8217;s the stuff!&#8221;</p>
+<p>All went joyously for ten minutes. Then
+little Tony wriggled out from between his
+father&#8217;s arms and went over to the porch
+step. He sat down and crossed two fat
+legs. He leaned his head upon his hand,
+his elbow on his knee, and watched with
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_248' name='page_248'></a>248</span>
+serious eyes the progress of the lawn-mower
+three times across before he said wistfully:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Favver, I wis&#8217; you&#8217;d p&#8217;ay wiv me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;When I get this job done perhaps I
+will,&#8221; said Anthony, and made the grass
+fly merrily. Presently he put away the
+lawn-mower, and stood looking down at
+the sturdy little figure in the blue Russian
+blouse. &#8220;What do you want to play?&#8221;
+he asked. Tony&#8217;s face lit up.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Le&#8217;s play fire-endjun,&#8221; he proposed
+enthusiastically.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Where shall we play the fire is?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Le&#8217;s have weal fire,&#8221; said Tony eagerly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Real fire? Well, I don&#8217;t know about
+that, son,&#8221; his father responded doubtfully.
+&#8220;Young persons of three are not considered
+old enough to play with the real thing.
+Won&#8217;t make believe do just as well?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, no&mdash;weal fire,&#8221; repeated the child.
+&#8220;Le&#8217;s put it out wiv sqi&#8217;yt watto. P&#8217;ease,
+favver&mdash;p&#8217;ease!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sqi&#8217;wt watto,&#8221; repeated Anthony,
+laughing. &#8220;What do you mean by&mdash;&mdash;?
+Oh, I see&mdash;&mdash;&#8221; as Tony demonstrated his
+meaning by running to the garden hose
+which remained attached to a hydrant
+behind the house. &#8220;Well, son&mdash;if I let
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_249' name='page_249'></a>249</span>
+you have a real fire and put it out with
+real water, will you promise me never to try
+anything of that sort by yourself?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Tony walked over to his father and laid
+a little brown fist in Anthony&#8217;s. &#8220;Aw
+wight,&#8221; he said solemnly. Anthony looked
+down at the clasped hands and smiled at
+the serious uplifted face. &#8220;Is that the
+way mother teaches you to promise her?&#8221;
+he asked, with interest.</p>
+<p>Tony nodded. &#8220;Aw wight,&#8221; he said.
+&#8220;Come on. Le&#8217;s make fire!&#8221;</p>
+<p>The fire was made, out of a packing-box
+brought up from the cellar. It burned
+realistically down by the orchard, and was
+only discovered by chance when Anthony
+Robeson, Junior, happened to glance that
+way.</p>
+<p>&#8220;<i>Fire!&mdash;fire!</i>&#8221; he shouted, and alarmed
+the fire company, who, as fire companies
+should be, were ready to start on the instant.
+The hose-cart, propelled by a pair of stout
+legs, made a gallant dash down the edge
+of the garden, followed by the hook-and-ladder
+company, their equipment just three
+feet long. It took energetic and skilful
+work to quench the conflagration, which
+raged furiously and made plenty of good
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_250' name='page_250'></a>250</span>
+black smoke. The fire chief rushed dramatically
+about, ordering his men with ringing
+commands. Once he stubbed his bare toe
+and fell, and for a moment it looked as
+though he must cry, but like the brave
+fellow that he was he smothered his pain
+behind an uplifted elbow, and in a moment
+was again in the thick of the fray. His
+men obeyed him with admirable promptitude,
+although, contrary to the usual
+custom of fire chiefs, he himself took hold
+of the hose and poured its volume upon the
+blazing structure.</p>
+<p>When the fire was out the chief, breathless,
+his blue blouse bearing the marks of
+the encounter with flood and flame, sat
+down upon the overturned hose-cart and
+beamed upon his company.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Vat was awful nice fire,&#8221; he said.
+&#8220;Le&#8217;s have anuver.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Another? Oh, no,&#8221; protested the company,
+hastily. &#8220;No more of that just now.
+Pick up your hook-and-ladder wagon and
+put it back where it belongs. I&#8217;ll see to the
+hose.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony gently displaced the fire chief
+and rolled away the hose. Then he looked
+back down the garden and saw his son
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_251' name='page_251'></a>251</span>
+poking among the ruins of the fire. &#8220;Come
+here, Tony,&#8221; he called, &#8220;and bring the
+hook-and-ladder.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Tony came slowly, but without the toy
+wagon. Anthony stood still. When the
+boy reached him he said, &#8220;Why didn&#8217;t
+you bring the hook-and-ladder cart?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8217;Cause I&#8217;m ve chief,&#8221; Tony responded
+gravely. &#8220;My mens&#8217;ll bring ve cart.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Your men aren&#8217;t there. You&#8217;ll have
+to bring it yourself.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Tony shook his head. &#8220;I&#8217;m ve chief,&#8221; he
+repeated, and looked his father in the eye.
+Anthony understood. It was not the first
+time. There were moments in one&#8217;s experience
+with Anthony Robeson, Junior,
+when one seemed to encounter a deadlock
+in the child&#8217;s will. Reasoning and commands
+were apt at such times to be alike
+futile. The odd thing about it was that it
+was impossible to predict when these
+moments were at hand. They arose without
+warning, when the boy was apparently
+in the best of tempers, and they did not
+seem to be the result of any previous
+mismanagement on the part of those in
+authority over him.</p>
+<p>Of one point Anthony, Senior, was sure.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_252' name='page_252'></a>252</span>
+The child, like all children, and possibly
+more than most, possessed a vivid imagination.
+When he announced himself to be
+a fire chief, there could be no question that
+he believed himself to be for the time that
+which he pretended to be. His father
+understood, therefore, that to make progress
+with the boy it was necessary to get back to
+the standpoint of reality before commands
+could be expected to take hold. So he sat
+down on a rustic seat near Juliet&#8217;s roses
+and spoke in a pleasantly matter-of-fact
+way.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, you&#8217;ve been a fire chief, son,
+and a good one. That was a great game.
+But the game is over now, and you&#8217;re not a
+fire chief any more. You&#8217;re Tony Robeson,
+and the little hook-and-ladder cart is your
+plaything. Father wants you to bring it
+here and put it in its place in the house.
+It looks a little bit like rain, and the
+cart mustn&#8217;t be left out to get wet.
+See?&#8221;</p>
+<p>But Tony still shook his head. &#8220;My
+men&#8217;ll put it in,&#8221; he said, with calmness
+undisturbed.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You haven&#8217;t any men. You played
+there were some, but the play is over and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_253' name='page_253'></a>253</span>
+there aren&#8217;t any men. If you don&#8217;t put
+the cart in it may get wet.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m ve chief,&#8221; said little Tony. &#8220;Chiefs
+don&#8217;t draw carts.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;When they&#8217;ve turned back to little boys
+they do. You&#8217;ve turned back to a little
+boy.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, I hasn&#8217;t,&#8221; said Tony, and his eyes
+met his father&#8217;s unflinchingly. &#8220;I&#8217;s going
+to be a chief all ve time.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The argument seemed unanswerable.
+Anthony considered swiftly what to do.
+He studied the grave brown eyes an instant
+in silence, their beauty and the inflexibility
+in their depths appealing to him with equal
+force. He loved the tough little will.
+He recognised it as his own&mdash;the same
+powerful quality which had brought him
+thus far on the road to fortune after being
+landed at the furthermost end from the
+goal. He would not for worlds deal with
+his son&#8217;s will in any but the way which
+should seem to him wisest.</p>
+<p>He rose from his seat. He spoke quietly
+but with force. &#8220;Very well,&#8221; he said.
+&#8220;If you&#8217;re still a fire chief, of course you&#8217;re
+too big to play. I&#8217;m much obliged to you
+for putting out my fire. But now that it&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_254' name='page_254'></a>254</span>
+out I don&#8217;t want your hook-and-ladder in
+my garden any longer. When your men
+take it away I shall be glad. But of course
+we can&#8217;t play any more till you stop being
+a fire chief and the hook-and-ladder is back
+in its corner in the nursery. Good-bye.
+When you are ready to be Tony Robeson
+again, you&#8217;ll find me in my den.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He smiled at his son and walked away.
+Tony watched him go. Tony&#8217;s hands were
+clasped behind his back, his legs planted
+wide apart.</p>
+<p>Anthony, Senior, found it difficult to remain
+in the den. He was obliged to keep
+track of a small figure in a blue blouse
+from whichever of the various windows
+commanded the doings of that young
+person. He perceived that the fire chief
+was still holding dominion over the scene.</p>
+<p>At the end of an hour small footsteps
+were heard approaching. Anthony looked
+up from the letter he was attempting to
+write. &#8220;Favver, may I have a bread and
+butter?&#8221; asked a pleasant voice. Anthony
+turned about in his chair.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Is the hook-and-ladder in the nursery?&#8221;
+he inquired gravely.</p>
+<p>Tony shook his head.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_255' name='page_255'></a>255</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, then you are still the fire chief.
+Fire chiefs go to the hotel for their bread
+and butter. I haven&#8217;t any bread and
+butter for the fire chief.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He turned back to his desk. The small
+figure in the doorway stood still a moment,
+then the footsteps were heard retreating.
+Five minutes later, Anthony, looking out,
+saw Tony careering about the garden on a
+hobby-horse.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Obstinate little duffer,&#8221; he said affectionately
+to himself. &#8220;He&#8217;s playing go to
+the hotel, I suppose. Perhaps when that
+imagination of his gets to work at hypothetical
+bread and butter he&#8217;ll find the
+reality preferable to the fancy.&#8221;</p>
+<p>In a short time Anthony again reconnoitred.
+The garden was empty. He
+looked out at the front of the house. No
+small figure in blue was to be seen. He
+went out and took a turn about the place.
+He called the boy; there was no response.
+From past experience and from the statements
+of Juliet and the young girls of the
+neighbourhood, whom, at various times,
+she was in the habit of engaging to assist
+her in the oversight of the child at his
+play, he knew that Tony had a trick of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_256' name='page_256'></a>256</span>
+getting himself out of sight in an incredibly
+brief space of time.</p>
+<p>&#8220;As a fire chief he may consider himself
+free to do what he pleases,&#8221; said Anthony
+to himself, and set about a thorough
+search of the place, having no doubt that
+at any moment he should come upon the
+boy carrying out the details of his imaginary
+vocation. After a time he went back into
+the house and scoured it from top to bottom.
+And when, even here, there was to be discovered
+no trace of the child, he began to
+feel a slight uneasiness.</p>
+<p>There was no source of immediate danger
+to a stray child in the neighbourhood, of
+which he was aware, except the electric
+line, and little Tony had never manifested
+the slightest inclination to approach this by
+himself. There were no open ponds, no
+traps of any kind for the incautious feet of
+a three-year-old. Everybody knew Tony,
+and everybody admired and loved him, so
+that, as Anthony took up his hat and
+started upon a more extended search, he
+had no doubt whatever of finding the runaway
+without delay.</p>
+<p>In a very short time it became a rousing
+of the neighbourhood. It was Saturday,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_257' name='page_257'></a>257</span>
+and all the children who knew Tony were
+at hand. They were soon eagerly searching
+for him near and far, without finding the
+slightest trace of his passing. Anthony, now
+thoroughly alarmed, telephoned in every
+direction, warned every police station in the
+city, and took every possible step for the
+discovery of the child. It occurred to him
+with tremendous force that the boy might
+have been stolen. Such things did happen.
+It seemed almost the only way to account
+for such a sudden and mysterious disappearance.</p>
+<p>Before it seemed possible two hours had
+slipped past. And now, on every car
+which whirled by the corner, Anthony
+began to expect Juliet. He dreaded yet
+longed to see her. He turned cold at the
+thought of telling her the situation, yet at
+the same time he felt as if she might have
+some sort of a solution ready which nobody
+else had thought of. And while, still
+searching over and over the entire ground,
+he kept watch of the arriving cars, he saw
+his wife suddenly appear. He went to
+meet her.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What is it?&#8221; she said, the instant her
+eye met his.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_258' name='page_258'></a>258</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s all right, dear,&#8221; he told her,
+as quietly as he could, &#8220;but somehow we
+can&#8217;t find Tony. He disappeared during
+five minutes when I was in the house&mdash;too
+short a time for him to have got very far
+away, but&mdash;we can&#8217;t find him. Do you
+think he may be hiding? Does he ever
+hide himself so effectually as that?&#8221;</p>
+<p>The bright colour in her face had slipped
+out of it on the instant, for he could not
+keep the anxiety out of his voice. But
+she said no word of reproach, nor did she
+lose command of herself in any way.</p>
+<p>&#8220;How long has he been gone?&#8221; she asked,
+going straight toward the house, Anthony
+close behind her.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I think&mdash;I am afraid&mdash;nearly two hours.
+I will tell you what happened. It is possible
+something I said is responsible for all
+this, though I don&#8217;t know.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She was going swiftly about the house,
+as he told her the story of his attempt to
+teach the boy a lesson, and she was listening
+closely to every word as she examined for
+herself each nook and corner. She disclosed
+several possible hiding places of which
+Anthony had not thought, explaining that
+Tony knew them all and sometimes betook
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_259' name='page_259'></a>259</span>
+himself to them in the course of various
+games. The two came out upon the porch,
+and Juliet stood still, thinking.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You have done everything to intercept
+him, if he should really have&mdash;got far
+away?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Everything I can think of, except start
+out myself. I am ready to do that, if you
+think best.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not until I have gone over the neighbourhood
+myself. I don&#8217;t believe he is far
+away&mdash;I believe he is near. He may have
+heard every call you and the children
+have made, and wouldn&#8217;t answer. If by
+any chance his pride has been a little hurt,
+he is very likely to do this sort of thing.
+Wait&mdash;have you looked&mdash;I wonder if the
+children know&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>She was off without stopping to explain,
+through the garden and down the old
+willow-bordered path by the brook. Anthony
+followed. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been down here a
+dozen times,&#8221; he called. &#8220;The brook is too
+shallow to hurt him, and he&#8217;s certainly not
+anywhere on it within a mile. The children
+have been all over the ground.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But Juliet did not pause. She ran along
+the path for some distance, then turned
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_260' name='page_260'></a>260</span>
+abruptly at a point where an abandoned lot
+filled with stumps joined the area by the
+brook. She made her swift way among
+these stumps, Anthony following, his hope
+rising as he noted the directness of his
+wife&#8217;s aim. At the biggest stump she
+came to a standstill, carefully swung out-ward
+like a door a great slab of bark, and
+disclosed a hollow. The sunlight streamed
+in upon a little heap of blue, and a tangled
+brown mass of hair. Anthony Robeson,
+Junior, lay fast asleep in his cunningly
+devised retreat.</p>
+<p>Without a word his father stood looking
+down at the boy&#8217;s flushed cheeks. Then
+he turned to Juliet, standing beside him,
+smiling through the tears which had not
+come until the anxiety was past. His own
+eyes were wet.</p>
+<p>&#8220;That was a bad scare,&#8221; he said softly.
+&#8220;Thank God it&#8217;s over.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Then he stooped and gently lifted the
+fire chief and carried him home without
+waking him. Twenty children flocked joyfully
+from all about to see, and hushed
+their shouts of congratulation at Juliet&#8217;s
+smiling warning.</p>
+<p>Anthony went alone down the garden
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_261' name='page_261'></a>261</span>
+to the place where the hook-and-ladder
+cart had stood. It was still there. He
+stood and looked at it, his eyes very tender
+but his lips firm. &#8220;The little chap didn&#8217;t
+give in,&#8221; he said to himself. &#8220;It&#8217;s going
+to be hard to make him, but for the sake
+of the Robeson will I think we&#8217;ll have to
+take up the job where we left it. I&#8217;d
+mightily like to flunk the whole business
+now, but I should be a pretty weak sort of
+a beggar if I did.&#8221;</p>
+<p>When little Tony had wakened from his
+nap, and had been washed and brushed
+and fed, and made fresh in a clean frock,
+his mother brought him to his father.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Is this Tony Robeson?&#8221; Anthony asked
+soberly. Tony considered for a moment,
+then shook his head.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;s ve fire chief,&#8221; he said, with polite
+stubbornness.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Have your men put away the hook-and-ladder
+cart?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, favver.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Are they going to do it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t tell vem to.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why not?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Didn&#8217;t want to.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Listen, son,&#8221; said Anthony. &#8220;I could
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_262' name='page_262'></a>262</span>
+make the fire chief put away the cart.
+I&#8217;m stronger than he is, you know. I
+could make him walk out to where it lies
+in the garden, and I could make his hands
+pick it up and carry it into the house, and
+then it would be done.&mdash;Don&#8217;t you think
+I could?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Tony considered. &#8220;Es, I fink &#8217;ou could,&#8221;
+he admitted. Evidently the question was
+one he could reflect upon from the standpoint
+of the outsider.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But I don&#8217;t want to do that. I want
+Tony Robeson to put the cart away
+because his father asks him to do it. Don&#8217;t
+you think he ought to do that?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I isn&#8217;t Tony Robeson, I&#8217;se ve fire
+chief.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Were you the fire chief when you woke
+up, and mother washed you and dressed
+you and gave you your lunch? I don&#8217;t
+think she thought you were. If you had
+been the fire chief she would have left you
+to take care of yourself.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Tony thought about it. &#8220;I dess I&#8217;se
+Tony wiv muvver,&#8221; he said.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then you aren&#8217;t Tony with me?&#8221;</p>
+<p>The thick locks shook vehemently in the
+sir with the negative response. &#8220;I said I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_263' name='page_263'></a>263</span>
+was ve fire chief, and I&#8217;se got to <i>be</i> ve
+fire chief,&#8221; he reiterated.</p>
+<p>Without question it was a battle of
+wills. But Anthony&#8217;s mind was made up.
+For lack of time to deal with them previous
+similar issues had been dodged in various
+ways, compromises had been effected. It
+was plain that argument and reasoning,
+the wiles of the affectionately wise adversary
+who does not want to bring the matter
+to a direct conflict, had been tried. Anthony
+could see no way out except to
+dominate the child by the force of his own
+resolute character. It was not the way
+by which he wanted to obtain the mastery,
+but it was becoming plain to him that, in
+this case, at least, it was the only way left.</p>
+<p>His face grew stern all at once, his eyes,
+though still kind, met his son&#8217;s with determination.
+&#8220;Tony,&#8221; he said very gravely&mdash;and
+there was a new quality in his tone to
+which the child was not accustomed&mdash;&#8220;You
+are not the fire chief now. You
+are Tony Robeson. <i>I shall not let you be
+the fire chief any longer.</i> Do you understand?&#8221;</p>
+<p>There was no threat in the words, only
+a decisiveness of the sort before which
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_264' name='page_264'></a>264</span>
+men give way, because they see that
+there is no alternative. Tony stared into
+his father&#8217;s eyes curiously. His own grew
+big with wonder, with something which
+was not alarm, but akin to it. He gazed
+and gazed, as if fascinated. Anthony&#8217;s
+look held his; the man&#8217;s powerful eyes
+did not flinch&mdash;neither did the boy&#8217;s. It
+is possible that both pulses quickened a
+beat.</p>
+<p>Little Tony drew his eyes away at last,
+turned and started for the door. Silently
+Anthony watched him as he reached for the
+knob, turned again, and looked back at his
+father. On the very threshold the child
+stood still and stared back. His brown
+eyes filled, his red lips quivered. The stern
+face which watched his melted into a winning
+smile, and Anthony held out his arms.
+An instant longer, and his son had run
+across the floor and flung himself into
+them.</p>
+<p>When the childish storm of tears had
+quieted, and several big hugs had been
+exchanged, Anthony set the boy down upon
+the floor and took his hand. Silently the
+two walked out of the house and down the
+garden. The hook-and-ladder cart stood
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_265' name='page_265'></a>265</span>
+patiently waiting, just where it had waited
+all day. Little Tony ran to it and picked
+it up. Over his exquisite face broke the
+first smile that had been seen there since
+the earliest disregarded command of the
+morning.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ve fire chief&#8217;s gone,&#8221; he said. &#8220;He
+was a bad fire chief.&#8221;</p>
+<p>So together the man and the boy escorted
+the hook-and-ladder cart to the nursery,
+and backed it carefully into its stall, between
+the milk wagon and the automobile.
+Then the child went to his play. But the
+man drew a long breath.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I would rather manage a hundred
+striking workmen,&#8221; he said to himself with
+emphasis.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXVI_ON_GUARD' id='XXVI_ON_GUARD'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_266' name='page_266'></a>266</span>
+<h2>XXVI.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>On Guard</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>While little Tony had been growing,
+waxing strong and sturdy: while Juliet had
+been tending and training him, learning,
+as every mother does, more than she could
+impart: Anthony, in his place, had not
+stood still. The strength and determination
+he had from the first hour put into
+his daily work had begun to tell. His
+position in a great mercantile establishment
+had steadily advanced as he had
+made himself more and more indispensable
+to its heads.</p>
+<p>Cathcart, the successful architect, began
+to talk about a new home for the man into
+whose hands Henderson and Henderson
+were putting large interests to manage
+for them, and whose salary, he asserted,
+must now justify, indeed call for, life under
+more ideal surroundings than the little home
+in the unfashionable suburb which poverty
+had at first made necessary.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let me draw some plans for you,&#8221;
+urged Cathcart, one evening in June, when
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_267' name='page_267'></a>267</span>
+he had run out to see his friend. Juliet
+was by chance away, and Cathcart took
+advantage of this to call Anthony&#8217;s attention,
+in a politely frank fashion, to
+the shortcomings of his present residence.
+&#8220;It&#8217;s all right in its way,&#8221; he said, standing
+upon a corner of the lawn with Anthony,
+and surveying the house critically.
+&#8220;Mrs. Robeson certainly deserves full
+credit for the admirable way in which
+she restored the old house and added
+just the changes in keeping with its possibilities.
+I&#8217;ve always said it couldn&#8217;t have
+been better done, with the means you&#8217;ve
+told me you were able to put at her disposal.
+But the place is too small for you
+now.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think we feel it so,&#8221; said Anthony
+tentatively, strolling beside Cathcart
+along the edge of the lawn, his hands in his
+pockets, lifting friendly eyes at the little
+house. &#8220;Since we put in the bathroom&mdash;that
+small room off the upper hall, you
+know&mdash;and added the nursery and den,
+we&#8217;re very comfortable. The furnace keeps
+us warm as toast, and we&#8217;re soon to have
+the water system out here, so we won&#8217;t
+have to depend upon our present expedients.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_268' name='page_268'></a>268</span>
+I&#8217;m fond of the place, and I&#8217;m confident
+Mrs. Robeson is devoted to it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I can understand that,&#8221; agreed Cathcart.
+&#8220;Of course, the spot where you
+began life together will always have its
+charm for you both&mdash;in fact the sentiment
+of the matter may blind you to the real
+inadequacies of the place for a man in your
+position.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;My position isn&#8217;t so stable that I want
+to build a marble palace on it yet,&#8221; said
+Anthony, a humorous twinkle in his eye.
+He enjoyed watching another man man&oelig;uvre
+for his favourable hearing of a
+scheme. It was an art in which he was
+himself accomplished; it was one of the
+points of his value to Henderson and
+Henderson.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Everybody knows that you&#8217;re in a fair
+way to become head man with the Hendersons,&#8221;
+said Cathcart, &#8220;and everybody also
+knows that you might as well have struck
+a gold-mine. It&#8217;s superb, the way you
+have come into the confidence of those
+old conservatives.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s all well enough; but I don&#8217;t see
+that it entails upon me the duty of laying
+out all I&#8217;ve saved on a new house. I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_269' name='page_269'></a>269</span>
+know what you fellows are&mdash;when you begin
+to draw plans your love of the ideal runs
+away with the other man&#8217;s pocketbook.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not at all,&#8221; declared Cathcart. &#8220;Particularly
+when he&#8217;s a friend and you understand
+just what he can afford to do.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why don&#8217;t you talk about enlarging the
+old house? That&#8217;s much more likely to
+appeal to my desires.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The two had reached the back of the
+house and were close by the kitchen windows.
+Cathcart reached up and took hold
+of a sill. With a strong hand he wrenched
+and pounded about the window, until he
+succeeded in showing that it was old and
+uncertain.</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s why,&#8221; he said, dusting his hand
+with his handkerchief. &#8220;The house is old&mdash;fairly
+rotten in places. The minute you
+began to enlarge it in any ambitious way
+you&#8217;d find it would be cheaper to tear
+it down and begin again. But the site,
+Robeson&mdash;the site isn&#8217;t desirable. The
+place is respectable enough, but it has no
+future. The good building is all going
+south, not north, of the city. You don&#8217;t
+want to spend a lot of money here&mdash;you
+couldn&#8217;t sell out except at a loss.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_270' name='page_270'></a>270</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Your arguments are good, very good,&#8221;
+admitted Anthony; &#8220;so good that I&#8217;d like
+to put you on your mettle to draw me a set
+of plans for just the sort of thing you think
+I ought to have&mdash;or Mrs. Robeson ought
+to have, for she&#8217;s the one to be considered.
+Anything will do for me. I&#8217;ll let you do
+this&mdash;on one condition.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Name it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That you also do your level best to
+demonstrate to me what a clever man and
+an artist of your proportions could make
+out of this house, provided he really wanted
+to show the extent of his ability. Now,
+that&#8217;s fair. If you really care to convince
+me you won&#8217;t fool with this proposition,
+you&#8217;ll make a study of the one problem as
+thoroughly as you do of the other, and let
+me decide the case on its merits. If I
+thought you weren&#8217;t giving the old house
+a fair chance I should take up its cause out
+of pure affection.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He smiled at Cathcart&#8217;s discontented face
+with so brilliant a good humour that the
+architect cleared up.</p>
+<p>&#8220;By Jove, Robeson,&#8221; he said, &#8220;I think
+I see what endears you to the Hendersons.
+I wouldn&#8217;t have said you could have induced
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_271' name='page_271'></a>271</span>
+me to try my hand at the old house,
+but I&#8217;ll be hanged if I don&#8217;t follow your
+instructions to the letter&mdash;and win out,
+too.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Good,&#8221; said Anthony. &#8220;And don&#8217;t
+mention it to my wife. We&#8217;ll keep it for
+a surprise; and I promise you when the
+time comes I won&#8217;t prejudice her in any
+way.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Cathcart drew out a notebook and pencil
+and entered some memoranda on the spot,
+while Anthony, coming up on the piazza of
+the dining-room, laid upon the old Dutch
+house-door a hand which seemed to caress
+it. He was wondering if by any possible
+magic Cathcart could create, in the rarest
+abode in the world, a new door which he
+should ever care to enter as he now cared
+to enter this.</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>&#8220;I think,&#8221; said Juliet decidedly, &#8220;you&#8217;re
+wrong about it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And I know,&#8221; returned Anthony with
+emphasis, &#8220;that you are.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The two faced each other. They were
+walking through a short stretch of woodland,
+which lay as yet untouched by the
+hand of suburban property owners. It
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_272' name='page_272'></a>272</span>
+was a favourite ground for the diversions
+of the Robesons, when they had not
+time to spend in getting farther away.
+They had been strolling through it now,
+in the early June evening, discussing a
+matter relative to the investment of a
+certain moderate sum of money which
+had come into Anthony&#8217;s hands. It developed
+that their ideas about it differed
+radically.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not safe to do as you propose,&#8221; said
+Juliet.</p>
+<p>&#8220;To do what you propose would be only
+one better than tying it up in an old stocking&mdash;or
+putting it away in the coffee pot.
+It&#8217;s essentially a woman&#8217;s plan&mdash;no man
+would do it the honour of considering it a
+moment.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet flushed brilliantly. Even in Anthony&#8217;s
+cheek the colour rose a little. Their
+eyes met with a challenge.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Very well,&#8221; said Juliet proudly. &#8220;I&#8217;ll
+offer no more woman&#8217;s plans. Invest the
+money as you like. Then, when you&#8217;ve
+lost it&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony&#8217;s eyes flashed. &#8220;When I&#8217;ve
+lost it&mdash;&mdash;&#8221; he began, and turned away
+with a gesture of impatience. Then he
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_273' name='page_273'></a>273</span>
+stopped short. &#8220;That isn&#8217;t like you,&#8221; he
+said.</p>
+<p>Juliet stared at him an instant. Then
+she shut her lips together and walked on in
+silence. Anthony shut his lips together
+also. It was not their habit to indulge in
+sharp altercation. While both had decided
+ideas about things, both were also much
+too well bred to be willing to allow differences
+of opinion&mdash;which must arise as
+inevitably as two human beings live under
+the same roof&mdash;to degenerate into the
+deplorable thing commonly referred to as
+a quarrel.</p>
+<p>When they had proceeded a few rods
+Juliet turned abruptly off from the path
+and picked up from the ground a slender
+straight stick, evidently cut and trimmed
+by some boy and then thrown aside. She
+looked about her and after some search
+found another, of similar size, untrimmed.
+She held out the latter to Anthony. He
+accepted it with a look of surprise. Then
+she walked into the path in front of him,
+stood stiff and straight, her small heels
+together, and made him the fencer&#8217;s salute.
+&#8220;<i>On guard!</i>&#8221; she cried.</p>
+<p>His lips relaxing, Anthony grasped his
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_274' name='page_274'></a>274</span>
+stick and fell into position. A moment
+more and two accomplished fencers were
+engaged in close combat.</p>
+<p>Juliet happened to be wearing a trim
+linen skirt of short walking length, which
+impeded her movements as slightly as anything
+not strictly adapted to the exercise
+could do. Although her fencing lessons
+were some years past, the paraphernalia
+belonging both to herself and Anthony
+were in the house, and an occasional bout
+with the masks and foils was a means of exercise
+and diversion which both thoroughly
+enjoyed. Although Juliet was no match
+for the superior skill and endurance of her
+husband, she was nevertheless no mean
+antagonist, and her alertness of eye and
+hand usually gave him sufficient to do to
+make the encounter a stimulating one.</p>
+<p>On the present occasion Anthony, challenged
+to combat with his coat and cuffs on,
+and wielding the more awkward weapon
+of the two impromptu foils, found himself
+distinctly at a disadvantage. Moreover,
+he was at the moment not precisely in the
+mood for fun, and he began to defend himself
+with a somewhat lazy indifference.
+After a minute or two, however, he discovered
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_275' name='page_275'></a>275</span>
+that his adversary&#8217;s slightly ruffled
+temper was inspiring her hand and wrist
+to distinctly effective work, and he found
+himself forced to look to his methods.</p>
+<p>Attack and parade, disengagement and
+thrust&mdash;the battle was waged over the uneven
+ground of the wood. And presently
+Anthony discovered that the richly glowing
+face opposite his was a smiling one. The
+absurdity of the match struck him irresistibly
+and he smiled in return. He
+tripped a little over an obtruding oak-root,
+and Juliet took advantage of her opportunity
+to press him hard. He fended off the
+attack and himself assumed the aggressive.
+An instant more and he had disarmed
+her and had thrown his own stick flying
+after hers. Both were laughing heartily
+enough.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Forgive the trick,&#8221; cried Anthony. &#8220;A
+man must disarm his wife when she becomes
+his enemy.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Breathless, Juliet sank upon a small
+knoll, her hand at her side. &#8220;If I&#8217;d been
+dressed for it&mdash;&#8221; she panted.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You need coaching on your time thrusts,
+but you gave me plenty to do as it was,&#8221;
+Anthony admitted. &#8220;More than that,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_276' name='page_276'></a>276</span>
+you&#8217;ve presented me with a chance to recover
+my equilibrium. I was hot inside
+before. Now it&#8217;s all on the outside.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He looked down at her affectionately.
+She smiled back. &#8220;I was crosser than
+sticks,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I really can&#8217;t imagine
+why, now. I apologise.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;So do I.&#8221; He threw himself down on
+the ground at her feet, lay flat on his back,
+his clasped hands behind his head, and
+gazed up into the tree-tops.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll take your advice into careful consideration,&#8221;
+said he.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I know you won&#8217;t do anything rash,&#8221;
+said she, and they both laughed again.</p>
+<p>&#8220;How much more diplomatic that sort
+of talk is,&#8221; he observed. &#8220;Why do we
+ever allow ourselves to use any other?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Because we are human, I suppose.&#8221;
+Juliet was putting a mass of waving brown
+hair, disordered by the fight, into shape
+again. &#8220;It isn&#8217;t nice. We don&#8217;t do it
+often. To-night you came home tired, and
+found a wife who had been entertaining
+people from town all the afternoon. But
+it&#8217;s all right now, isn&#8217;t it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>She bent forward, and Anthony took
+her outstretched hand in his own and gave
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_277' name='page_277'></a>277</span>
+it a grip which made it sting. He began
+to whistle cheerfully.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Should we be happier if we never disagreed?&#8221;
+she asked thoughtfully.</p>
+<p>The whistle stopped. &#8220;Jupiter, no! I
+want a thinking being to talk things over
+with, not a mental pincushion.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Thank you.&mdash;Isn&#8217;t it lovely here?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Delightful.&mdash;Julie, do you know we&#8217;ll
+have been married five years next September?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t seem possible.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I shouldn&#8217;t know it, to look at you,&#8221;
+he observed. He rolled upon his left side
+and regarded her from under intent brows.
+&#8220;You haven&#8217;t grown a day older.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not sure that&#8217;s a compliment.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s meant for one. Do you know you&#8217;re
+a beauty?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I never was one and never shall be,&#8221;
+she answered laughing, but she could not
+object to the obvious sincerity of his
+opinion as he delivered it.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re near enough to satisfy me.
+I&#8217;d rather have your good looks than all
+the&mdash;Well, I sat in front of a newly married
+pair on the way home to-night&mdash;that
+fellow Scrivener and his bride. <i>She&#8217;s</i> what
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_278' name='page_278'></a>278</span>
+people call a raving beauty, I suppose. I
+wouldn&#8217;t have her in the house at a dollar
+an hour. She&#8217;s a whiner. Had him doing
+something to satisfy her whim every
+minute. I heard him trying to tell her
+about something that interested him, but
+she couldn&#8217;t take time from herself to
+listen. His voice had a note of fatigue in
+it, already, or I&#8217;m not Robeson. I tell you,
+Juliet&mdash;that&#8217;s the sort of thing that makes
+a bachelor vow to stay single, and he can&#8217;t
+be blamed.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Suppose a bachelor had overheard us
+half an hour ago?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m glad none did&mdash;but if he had it
+wouldn&#8217;t have disgusted him the way the
+other sort of thing did me to-day. A
+brisk little altercation is nothing, with unlimited
+hours of friendliness and understanding
+before and after. But a perpetual
+drizzle of fault finding and exactions&mdash;would
+make a fellow go hang himself. Mrs.
+Robeson, do you know, you&#8217;re a very
+exceptional young person?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;In what way, sir?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Whatever you do, you never nag. I&#8217;ve
+an awful suspicion that Judith Carey
+nags. You know how to let a man alone
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_279' name='page_279'></a>279</span>
+when he&#8217;s in the mood for being alone. She
+never does. Carey had me out there not
+long ago, for what he called a quiet, confidential
+talk on some business matters.
+We went into what is supposed to be his
+private room and shut the door. Probably
+she came to that door not less than twelve
+times during that two hours. She called
+Carey away on every sort of pretext.
+Once she got him to do a stroke of work for
+her that took up at least ten minutes
+neither of us could spare. And she looked
+like a thundercloud every time I caught a
+glimpse of her face. Cæsar!&mdash;think of
+having to live with that sort of person. No
+wonder Carey looks old before his time.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s certainly unfortunate. But I&#8217;m
+not an exception, Tony. There are plenty
+of women who know when to keep out of
+the way.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, then, they&#8217;re erratic on some other
+line, that&#8217;s all. You&#8217;re absolutely the only
+thoroughly sweet and sane woman I know.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;My dear boy! Remember how snappish
+I was just this evening.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I was grouchy enough to match it. I
+tell you, Julie&mdash;the women who don&#8217;t talk
+you to death on every subject, important
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_280' name='page_280'></a>280</span>
+or trivial, bore you with idiotic questions or
+impertinence about your affairs. How do
+I know so much about &#8217;em? My dear,
+dozens of them come into the office every
+day, and Mr. Henderson has acquired a
+habit lately of turning them all over to me.
+I earn a double salary every hour I spend
+that way&mdash;wish I could put in a demand
+for it. Speaking of salaries, dear&#8221;&mdash;Anthony
+suddenly sat up&mdash;&#8220;I&#8217;ve no right to
+be grouchy, for I&#8217;m promised another
+advance next month.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Splendid!&#8221; She put out her hand, and
+the two shook hands vigorously again, like
+the pair of comrades they were.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Juliet,&#8221; said her husband, watching her
+face closely. &#8220;It&#8217;s been a happy five years,
+hasn&#8217;t it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;A happy five years, Tony.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you mean it?&#8221; He smiled at her.
+&#8220;You&#8217;ve never been sorry?&#8221; Then he got
+to his feet and held out his hand again to
+help her up. &#8220;The mortal combat we
+engaged in gave you a magnificent colour,&#8221;
+he commented, and passed affectionate fingers
+across the smooth cheek near his
+shoulder. &#8220;Sweetheart&mdash;&mdash;&#8221; he drew her
+into his arms&mdash;&#8220;I may fence with you once
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_281' name='page_281'></a>281</span>
+in a while with sharp words for weapons,
+but&mdash;do you know how I love you?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I wonder why?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s strange, isn&#8217;t it?&mdash;after all these
+years. To be really up-to-date, we should
+long since have become interested each in
+some other&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>A hand came gently but effectually upon
+his mouth. He kissed the hand. &#8220;No, I
+won&#8217;t say it. It&#8217;s a cynical philosophy,
+and I&#8217;ll not take its language on my lips&mdash;not
+with my wife in my arms, giving the
+lie to that sort of thing. Julie, we&#8217;re
+not sentimentalists because we still care&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who thinks we are?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Plenty of envious skeptics, I&#8217;ll wager.
+I see it in their green-eyed glances. They
+can&#8217;t believe it&#8217;s genuine. Dear&mdash;is it
+genuine? Look up, and tell me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She looked up, and seeing his heart in his
+eyes, met his deep caress with a tenderness
+which told him more than she could have
+put into the words she suddenly found it
+impossible to speak.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXVII_LOCKWOOD_PAYS_A_CALL' id='XXVII_LOCKWOOD_PAYS_A_CALL'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_282' name='page_282'></a>282</span>
+<h2>XXVII.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Lockwood Pays a Call</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;Did you know Roger Barnes was back?&#8221;
+asked Wayne Carey of Anthony Robeson,
+on the evening of the twenty-fifth of June,
+as the two met on the street corner from
+which Anthony was to take his car. Electrics
+ran within a few rods of his home now,
+but they ran only at fifteen-minute intervals
+and were difficult to catch.</p>
+<p>&#8220;No. To stay this time, I hope?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Off again to-morrow. Never saw such
+a fellow&mdash;restless as a fish. Been working
+all winter in Vienna&mdash;off to-morrow on the
+Overland Limited to sail Saturday for
+Hongkong. Goes to do a special operation
+on the Emperor&#8217;s brother or some swell of
+the sort. He&#8217;s been doing some mighty
+slick operating, according to the medical
+review I ran across in a throat specialist&#8217;s
+office.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I must see him. Where is he?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;At your house now, more than likely.
+Said he&#8217;d got to see you, and if you haven&#8217;t
+seen him yet you&#8217;re sure to before he goes
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_283' name='page_283'></a>283</span>
+to-morrow night. By the way, Anthony,
+do you know what we heard lately about
+Rachel Redding&mdash;Huntington? That she
+wasn&#8217;t married to Huntington till the night
+he died, almost three years ago.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony stared.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Guess it&#8217;s straight, too,&#8221; pursued Carey.
+&#8220;Queer she should have kept it all this time.
+Didn&#8217;t Juliet hear from her at all?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Only once or twice, I believe.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Her father and mother both died last
+winter.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Are you sure?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;The man who told me was a traveller.
+Said she and Huntington&#8217;s mother were
+coming back to live East again. He was
+an Eastern man himself&mdash;knew Huntington,
+and got interested when he heard the
+name out in Arizona. &#8216;Alexander Huntington&#8216;s&#8217;
+rather an uncommon name, you
+know. But what could have been her
+motive for keeping everything so still?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve no idea,&#8221; said Anthony, and let
+Carey talk on by himself till the car came.
+He was unwilling to discuss Rachel Redding&#8217;s
+affairs on a street corner even with
+Wayne Carey, because she was Juliet&#8217;s
+friend. But he had an idea as to why
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_284' name='page_284'></a>284</span>
+Rachel had been so reserved about herself.
+There were three men in the East whose
+interest in Huntington&#8217;s life or death had
+not been an altogether unbiased one. He
+could understand that the girl would not
+be eager to declare herself free to them,
+though the fact of Huntington&#8217;s death had
+reached them soon after its occurrence. But
+this other fact&mdash;that she had married him
+only at the last moment&mdash;it was obvious
+that the sort of girl Rachel Redding was
+would never make capital out of that
+strange occurrence, whatever its explanation
+might be. That Roger Barnes knew
+nothing of it he was quite certain.</p>
+<p>He missed Juliet from the corner where
+she and the boy usually met him, and
+hurrying on to the house came upon his
+wife just as she was leaving.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I didn&#8217;t realise I was late, dear,&#8221;
+she said, while Anthony swung his little
+son up to his shoulder, eliciting triumphant
+shouts as a reward. &#8220;Tony, Rachel is
+here.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;<i>Rachel?</i>&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush&mdash;yes; she&#8217;s upstairs, and her window
+is open. Walk down the orchard with
+me and I&#8217;ll tell you. Her coming, an
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_285' name='page_285'></a>285</span>
+hour ago, was what made me forget the
+time.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Carey was talking about her this afternoon,&#8221;
+said Anthony, strolling by her side
+and carrying on a frolic with the boy at the
+same time. &#8220;He&#8217;d just heard a singular
+thing&mdash;that she wasn&#8217;t married to Huntington
+till the very night he died.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;She told me. She&#8217;s going away to-night,
+she insists; but I shall not let her.
+No, Mr. Huntington wouldn&#8217;t let her marry
+him. After they went away he said he
+wouldn&#8217;t take her unless he got well. Tony,
+he was a fine character; in our sympathy
+for Roger Barnes we haven&#8217;t appreciated
+him. It was only at the last that he let
+her do it. She found out how happy it
+would make him then, and she would have
+it so.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m glad she did&mdash;poor fellow. Juliet,
+Roger Barnes is in town.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Really?&#8221; Juliet stopped, her breath
+catching. &#8220;Oh, Tony&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Came day before yesterday&mdash;leaves to-morrow
+night for Hongkong.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Tony!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony looked down at her, smiling.
+&#8220;There&#8217;s a situation for you. Can you be
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_286' name='page_286'></a>286</span>
+expected to keep your friendly hands off
+that possibility?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;He won&#8217;t go away without coming to
+see us?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Most certainly not.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then he will naturally come to-night.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s more than probable.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Tony, I won&#8217;t be trying to manage
+fate&mdash;that&#8217;s what the doctor calls it&mdash;if
+I keep Rachel here until after&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Until after the Overland Limited leaves
+for San Francisco? Well, fate needs a
+little assistance once in a while. I think
+you may legitimately persuade Rachel to
+stay, if you can. What is her hurry, anyway?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t find out, except that I imagine
+she&#8217;s afraid of meeting one of the men she
+most assuredly would meet if they knew
+she had come. She thinks Roger Barnes
+is in Vienna still.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;She does? Ye gods! I think my knees
+will begin to tremble if I see their meeting
+imminent. Come, son, let&#8217;s try a race to
+the house. I&#8217;ll give you to the big, crooked
+apple tree. One&mdash;two&mdash;three&mdash;go!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet followed more slowly, thinking
+busily. Rachel had been very decided about
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_287' name='page_287'></a>287</span>
+going back into the city that night. Mrs.
+Huntington, Senior, was with friends, who
+had begged her daughter&#8217;s acceptance of
+their hospitality, and for the elder woman&#8217;s
+sake she had acquiesced. Rachel was a
+keeper of promises, Juliet knew. And to
+tell her of the probability of the doctor&#8217;s
+appearance would be a doubtful means
+of securing her detention. But if, for any
+reason, the doctor should fail to appear&mdash;Juliet
+made up her mind that she would
+give fate her chance until nine o&#8217;clock that
+night. If by that time Barnes had not
+come&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>Juliet looked on eagerly while Anthony
+greeted Rachel. Her friend had never
+seemed to her so lovely as now, in her simple
+black gown, accentuating, as it did, the
+deep tone of her hair and eyes. Her face
+had gained in colour and contour in the
+Arizona climate&mdash;its tints were richer. The
+delicacy of her features was not changed,
+but their beauty was greater.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve lived much outdoors, I see,&#8221;
+said Anthony, when dinner was over and
+the three had gone out upon the porch,
+&#8220;and it&#8217;s been good for you.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_288' name='page_288'></a>288</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve even slept outdoors,&#8221; Rachel told
+them, &#8220;fully half the year; and ridden
+horseback every day. I can&#8217;t quite think
+how the electrics are going to seem in place
+of my gallop on Scot. The people on the
+ranch where we were have simply made
+me do the things they did. The owner was
+a dear old gentleman; he gave me Scot.
+He wanted to send him after me; but nurses
+have small use for horses, I believe,&#8221; she
+ended, smiling.</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the plan, is it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. It&#8217;s what I can do best, I think.
+I am to enter the training-school the first
+of July, at the Larchmont Memorial
+Hospital.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll wager tremendous odds you don&#8217;t,&#8221;
+thought Anthony, &#8220;in spite of that confident
+tone. If Roger Barnes looks in to-night
+it&#8217;s all up with your plans&mdash;or make
+a bigger fight than even you can do. A
+man who can&#8217;t stay in his own town because
+you are out of it&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>He was sitting&mdash;purposely&mdash;where he
+faced the road. He had considerately
+offered Rachel a chair with her back to the
+highway. Juliet was swinging lightly in
+the hammock behind the vines. Anthony,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_289' name='page_289'></a>289</span>
+talking on about Arizona and the Larchmont
+Memorial, kept an eye on the approach
+to the house from the corner where
+visitors always left the car. His watch was
+rewarded at length by the sight of a figure
+rapidly turning the corner and making
+straight for the house.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now we&#8217;re in for it,&#8221; he thought.
+&#8220;From now on the question with Juliet
+and me will be how we can most gracefully
+efface ourselves without seeming to do it.
+If I remember this young person correctly
+she&#8217;s a little difficult to leave unchaperoned
+against her will.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Out of the corner of his eye he kept track
+of the approaching figure. It was coming
+on at a great pace, and in the twilight could
+be seen looming taller and taller as it crossed
+the road and turned in across the lawn, making
+a short cut according to Barnes&#8217;s own
+fashion, so that the coming footsteps were
+noiseless, even to the moment when the
+figure reached the porch itself.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now for it,&#8221; thought Anthony, feeling
+as if the curtain were about to ascend on
+the fourth act of a play, when the third had
+ended amidst all possible excitement.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I found the roses blooming just as they
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_290' name='page_290'></a>290</span>
+used to do, at the side of the house&#8221;&mdash;Rachel&#8217;s
+warm, contralto voice was answering
+a question from Juliet&mdash;&#8220;only so untended.
+I think I shall have to come out
+again before I begin my work, to look after
+them.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony did not turn as the step
+he had been watching for sounded upon
+the porch. To save his life he could not
+help keeping his eyes upon Rachel&#8217;s face.
+Rachel herself looked up with the air of
+the visitor who does not know the guests
+of the house, and the expression Anthony
+saw upon her face showed only the
+slightest possible surprise&mdash;certainly no
+other feeling.</p>
+<p>Juliet rose. &#8220;Ah, Mr. Lockwood,&#8221; she
+said, with a cordiality, sincere little person
+though she was, Anthony knew for once
+she did not feel. &#8220;In the dusk I couldn&#8217;t
+be quite sure.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Lockwood&#8217;s eyes instantly turned to
+Rachel. That he had known in some way
+whom he was to see was evident from a
+most unusual agitation in his manner.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Mrs.&mdash;Huntington,&#8221; he got out somehow,
+taking her hand, and staring eagerly
+down into her face, &#8220;I heard you were
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_291' name='page_291'></a>291</span>
+home, and I hoped to find you here. I&mdash;you
+are&mdash;I am extremely glad&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>Half an hour later Anthony came upon
+his wife in the darkness of the dining-room.
+&#8220;Oh, you shouldn&#8217;t have left them
+when I was away,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Little
+Tony cried out and I had to go. I know
+Rachel doesn&#8217;t want to be left with him
+to-night.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Angels and chaperons defend us,&#8221; muttered
+Anthony. &#8220;I can&#8217;t stand it forever
+to feel a man wanting to kill me for staying
+by him through a meeting like this, after
+three years. I didn&#8217;t know but Lockwood
+would attempt to throw me off my own
+porch. Give him a chance&mdash;he hasn&#8217;t any,
+anyhow.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s after nine,&#8221; whispered Juliet.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I know it. Roger&#8217;s taking a terrible
+risk.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;He doesn&#8217;t know she&#8217;s here. But I
+thought he cared enough for us to&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s what I&#8217;ve been so sure of. He&#8217;s
+probably been detained by some case. He&#8217;s
+getting so distinguished, the minute he sets
+foot in town now the folks with things the
+matter with them begin to block his path.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_292' name='page_292'></a>292</span>
+I hope she knows what she throws over her
+shoulder if she refuses him now.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t see that she&#8217;s going to have a
+chance to refuse him,&#8221; mourned Juliet.
+&#8220;Do you think he&#8217;d ever forgive us if we let
+him get away without knowing she was
+here?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Lockwood found it out, somehow.
+Carey&#8217;s safe to tell him if he sees him&mdash;and
+he&#8217;s pretty sure to, at Roger&#8217;s club.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You couldn&#8217;t telephone?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Where? If he can he&#8217;ll come here, if
+only to get news of her. She&#8217;s never let
+him write to her, has she?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;He told me she hadn&#8217;t when he was
+here last fall. And she didn&#8217;t know where
+he was.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Fellow-conspirator,&#8221; whispered Anthony,
+&#8220;we&#8217;ll give fate her chance to-night.
+If she bungles the game we&#8217;ll take
+it into our own hands to-morrow. But
+I&#8217;ve a feeling I&#8217;d like to let it happen by
+itself, if it will.&#8221;</p>
+<p>When Lockwood had gone&mdash;which was
+not until eleven o&#8217;clock, in spite of the way
+his hosts remained in his vicinity&mdash;Rachel
+stood still upon the porch smiling a little
+wearily at Juliet.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_293' name='page_293'></a>293</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;My staying all night has been settled
+for me,&#8221; she said. &#8220;There was no way to go.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Luckily for us,&#8221; Juliet answered. &#8220;Sit
+here a little longer, dear. It&#8217;s such a
+perfect night, and I know we shall see little
+enough of you when you get at work.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Rachel dropped into the hammock. &#8220;I
+should like to lie here all night,&#8221; she said,
+&#8220;and watch the stars until I go to sleep.
+I&#8217;ve done that so many, many nights from
+under a tent flap.&#8221;</p>
+<p>All at once she looked up, her eyes
+widening. Upon the porch step stood a
+strong figure&mdash;as unlike Lockwood&#8217;s gracefully
+slender one as possible. A man&#8217;s
+eyes were gazing steadily down into hers&mdash;determined
+gray eyes, with a light in them.
+The two faces were plainly visible to each
+other in the radiance from the open door.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXVIII_A_HIGHHANDED_AFFAIR' id='XXVIII_A_HIGHHANDED_AFFAIR'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_294' name='page_294'></a>294</span>
+<h2>XXVIII.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>A High-Handed Affair</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>If she had not been standing in the doorway
+Juliet would have run away, but she
+had to welcome Dr. Roger Barnes, a traveler
+whom she had not seen for almost a year.
+Her presence, however, after one glad greeting,
+seemed not to bother him much. He
+turned from her to Rachel, who had
+risen, and took her outstretched hand in
+both his.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been rather a long evening,&#8221; he
+said, &#8220;wandering around and around this
+place, waiting for the other man to go. I
+explored the orchard and the willow path,
+and every familiar haunt. I had to refresh
+myself occasionally by stealing up for a
+glimpse of your face between the vines.
+But, somehow, that only made it harder to
+wait. I had to march myself off again
+with my fists gripped tight in my pockets
+to keep them off that fellow, eating you up
+with his eyes&mdash;confound him&mdash;you, who
+belong only to me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He did not smile as he said the last words,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_295' name='page_295'></a>295</span>
+but stood looking eagerly at her with a gaze
+that never faltered. She tried to draw her
+hands away; it was useless. Juliet slipped
+off, knowing that neither of them would
+see her go.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come down on the lawn with me,&#8221;
+he said, but she resisted.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Please stay here, Doctor Barnes,&#8221; she
+said, &#8220;and please let me have my hand. I
+can&#8217;t talk so.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You needn&#8217;t talk&mdash;for a while,&#8221; he answered.
+He sat down facing her. &#8220;At
+six o&#8217;clock I found out you were here.
+At eight&mdash;as soon as I could get away&mdash;I
+came out. I told you how I spent
+the evening. If I had needed anything to
+sharpen my longing for you that would
+have done it&mdash;but I think I had reached
+about the limit of what I could bear in that
+line already. It has been one constant
+augmenting thirst for a draught that was
+out of my reach. I shouldn&#8217;t have kept
+my promise not to write you another day
+after I had been here this time and heard&mdash;what
+I have heard, Rachel.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She did not answer. Her face was turned
+away; she was very still. Only a slightly
+quickened breathing, of which he was barely
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_296' name='page_296'></a>296</span>
+conscious, betrayed to him that this was not
+listening of an ordinary sort.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I shouldn&#8217;t have said anything could
+make any difference with my feeling, to
+strengthen it,&#8221; he went on very quietly,
+after a while, &#8220;but I find it has. I don&#8217;t
+try to explain it to myself, except by the
+one thing I am sure of&mdash;that Alexander
+Huntington was the noblest and most
+heroic of men, and deserved to the full
+those last few hours of knowledge that you
+had taken his name. And I can understand
+your loyalty to him in wishing to
+wear it these three years. But, Rachel, I
+can&#8217;t let you wear it any longer.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She turned her face a shade farther away.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am leaving to-morrow night for
+another year&#8217;s absence.&#8221; He spoke as
+simply as if he were discussing the most
+ordinary of subjects. &#8220;So I can see but one
+thing to do, and that is&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>He got up and came around behind her,
+standing in the shadow of the vines, where
+the light did not touch him&mdash;&#8220;and that is,
+to take you with me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He had not said it doubtfully, although
+his inflection was very gentle. She moved
+quickly, startled.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_297' name='page_297'></a>297</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Doctor Barnes&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, I&#8217;m ready for them. You can&#8217;t
+raise an objection that I&#8217;m not ready for,
+not one that I can&#8217;t meet&mdash;except one.
+And that you can&#8217;t raise, Rachel.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She was silent, the words upon her lips
+held in check by this last bold declaration.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You see you can&#8217;t, being truthful,&#8221;
+he said, smiling a little. &#8220;If I seem too
+confident, forgive me; but I&#8217;ve carried
+with me all these years that one look, when
+you forgot to veil your eyes away from
+me as you always had&mdash;and always have
+since then. When I get that look from
+you again&mdash;&mdash;&#8221; He paused, drawing a
+long breath. &#8220;I don&#8217;t dare dream of it.
+Rachel, will you go?&#8221;</p>
+<p>She tried to glance at him, and managed
+it, but no higher than his shoulders.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am engaged to take the training for
+nurses at the Larchmont Memorial&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+she began.</p>
+<p>But he interrupted her joyfully. &#8220;You
+don&#8217;t say, &#8216;I don&#8217;t love you&#8216;&mdash;it&#8217;s
+only, &#8216;I was intending to be a nurse.&#8217; I
+told you you couldn&#8217;t say it, because it
+isn&#8217;t true. You do love me, Rachel. Tell
+me so.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_298' name='page_298'></a>298</span></p>
+<p>Her hurried breathing was plainly perceptible
+now. She rose quickly, as if she
+could not bear the telltale lamplight upon
+her face any longer, and went hurriedly
+across the porch and down upon the lawn,
+into the starlight. He followed her, his
+pulses bounding.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, give up to me,&#8221; he said in her ear,
+his own breath coming fast. &#8220;You&#8217;ve
+been fighting it four years now&mdash;it&#8217;s no use.
+We were made for each other, and we&#8217;ve
+known it from the first. You stood heroically
+by your first promise&mdash;you gave him
+all you could; but that&#8217;s all over. You
+don&#8217;t have to be true to anything or anybody
+now but me. Give up, dear, and let
+me know what it feels like to have you pull
+a man toward you instead of pushing him
+away.&#8221;</p>
+<p>They had reached the edge of the orchard&mdash;in
+deep shadow; and she stopped.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know what I came down here
+for,&#8221; she said, in confusion.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I do; you were running away. It&#8217;s
+your instinct to run away&mdash;I love you for
+it&mdash;it&#8217;s what first made me want to follow.
+But I can&#8217;t stand your running away much
+longer. Look, Rachel, can you see? I&#8217;m
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_299' name='page_299'></a>299</span>
+holding out my arms. Rachel&mdash;I can&#8217;t
+wait&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>For an instant longer she held out, while
+he stood silent, holding himself that he
+might have the long-dreamed-of joy of receiving
+her surrender. Then, all at once,
+he realised that it had been worth all his
+days of patient and impatient waiting, for
+turning to him at last she gave herself,
+with the abandon such natures are capable
+of showing when they yield after long
+resistance, into the arms which closed
+hungrily around her.</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>If anybody could have told what happened
+during the next twenty-four hours it
+would have been Juliet, for it was she who
+took the helm of affairs. She lay awake
+half the night, or what there was left of it
+after the doctor had come back with Rachel
+and told his friends what had happened and
+what was yet to happen, planning to make
+the hasty wedding as ideal as might be.
+She was a wonderful planner, and a most
+energetic and enthusiastic young matron
+as well, so by five in the afternoon she had
+accomplished all that had seemed to her
+good. Rachel&#8217;s part was only to see that
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_300' name='page_300'></a>300</span>
+her trunk was packed, her explanations
+offered and good-byes said, and her choice
+made of several exquisite white gowns which
+Juliet had had sent out from town.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But I can&#8217;t be married in white, Mrs.
+Robeson,&#8221; she had said protestingly when
+Juliet had opened the boxes.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, you can&mdash;and must. This is your
+only bridal, dear. The other&mdash;you know
+that was only what the doctor said of it
+once&mdash;&#8216;your hand in his to the last&#8217;&mdash;the
+hand of a friend. But this&mdash;isn&#8217;t this
+different?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Rachel had turned away her face.
+&#8220;Yes, this is different,&#8221; she had owned.
+&#8220;But&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;He asked me to beg you for him to have
+it so,&#8221; Juliet urged, and Rachel was silent.
+So the simplest of the white frocks it was,
+and in it Rachel looked as Juliet had meant
+she should.</p>
+<p>Only Judith and Wayne Carey were
+asked down to see them married. To
+humour the doctor the ceremony was
+performed in the orchard, near the entrance
+to the willow path. The time afterward
+was short, and before she knew it Juliet was
+bidding the two good-bye.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_301' name='page_301'></a>301</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got her,&#8221; said the doctor, looking
+from Juliet to Rachel, who stood at his side.
+&#8220;She&#8217;s mine&mdash;all mine. I have to keep
+saying it over and over to make sure.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;For your comfort,&#8221; answered Juliet,
+smiling at them both, &#8220;I&#8217;ll tell you that she
+looks as if she were yours.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Does she?&#8221; he cried, laughing happily.
+&#8220;How does she look?&#8221; He turned and surveyed
+her. &#8220;She looks very proud and
+sweet and still&mdash;she&#8217;s always been those
+things&mdash;and very beautiful&mdash;more beautiful
+than ever before. But do you think she
+really looks as if she were mine? Tell me
+how.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Juliet turned from him, big and eager like
+a boy, to his bride, &#8220;proud and sweet and
+still,&#8221; as he had said. &#8220;I&#8217;ve never seen
+Rachel look absolutely happy before,&#8221; she
+told him. &#8220;There&#8217;s always been a bit of a
+shadow. But now&mdash;look down into her
+eyes, Roger; there&#8217;s no shadow there
+now.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But when he would have looked Rachel&#8217;s
+lashes fell. &#8220;Not yet? By-and-by then,
+Rachel,&#8221; he whispered. Then he turned to
+Juliet&mdash;and Anthony, who had come up to
+stand beside her.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_302' name='page_302'></a>302</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;If it hadn&#8217;t been for you and your
+home-making this day would never have
+come for me,&#8221; he said. &#8220;You have been
+good friends and true, to us both. Let us
+keep you so&mdash;and good-bye.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXIX_JULIET_PROVES_HERSELF_STILL_INDIFFERENT' id='XXIX_JULIET_PROVES_HERSELF_STILL_INDIFFERENT'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_303' name='page_303'></a>303</span>
+<h2>XXIX.&mdash;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Juliet Proves Herself Still Indifferent</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>On a July evening, a month later, Cathcart
+and a great roll of architects&#8217; paper
+arrived on the Robeson porch. For an
+hour Juliet looked and listened, while
+Anthony, as he had promised, said not a
+word to bias her decision. Cathcart laid
+before her plans for a new house which
+were&mdash;even Anthony could but admit to
+himself beyond praise. From every standpoint&mdash;the
+artistic, the domestic, the practical,
+even the economical, so far as the
+modern architect understands the meaning
+of the word&mdash;the plans were ideal. Juliet
+studied them absorbedly, showing plainly
+her appreciation of them.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It would be a beautiful home,&#8221; she said
+at length. &#8220;I can think of nothing more
+perfect than such a house.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Cathcart looked triumphant. Without
+glancing at Anthony he produced another
+set of plans.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Just to please myself, Mrs. Robeson,&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_304' name='page_304'></a>304</span>
+he announced, &#8220;I have spent some interesting
+hours in trying to show what could be
+done with this old house, should any one
+care to lay out a reasonable sum upon it.
+Frankly, old houses never repay much expenditure
+of money, yet there is a certain
+satisfaction in working out the details of
+restoration and improvement which makes
+interesting study. Purely as a matter of that
+sort I have fancied such extensions as these.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He laid the plans before her. Juliet
+looked, bent over them, cried out with delight,
+and called upon Anthony to join her.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Mr. Cathcart,&#8221; she said eagerly,
+&#8220;before you proved yourself an exceedingly
+fine architect; but now you show yourself
+a master. To make this of the old house&mdash;why,
+it&#8217;s far the higher art.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Anthony glanced, laughing, across at
+Cathcart, whose face had fallen so pronouncedly
+that Juliet would have seen it
+if she had been observing. But she was too
+absorbed in the new plans.</p>
+<p>&#8220;If we could do this,&#8221; she was saying,
+&#8220;it would satisfy my best ideals of a permanent
+home.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But, my dear Mrs. Robeson,&#8221; stammered
+the man of castles, &#8220;consider the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_305' name='page_305'></a>305</span>
+location&mdash;the neighbourhood&mdash;the rural
+character of the surroundings.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I do,&#8221; she answered, still studying the
+plans. &#8220;I love them all&mdash;and the old home
+most of all. Ever since I knew&#8221;&mdash;how
+had she known? they wondered&mdash;&#8220;that a
+change of houses was a possible thing for us
+I have been homesick in anticipation of a
+change I couldn&#8217;t bear to think of. Yet I
+wondered if we ought to go. But if you can
+make this of the old home&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>She lifted to her husband an enthusiastic
+face. His eyes met hers in a long look in
+which each read deep into the mind of the
+other. Then Anthony Robeson, like a man
+who hears precisely what he most wants to
+hear, turned smiling to Cathcart.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I think you&#8217;ve lost, Steve,&#8221; he said.</p>
+<hr class='full' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:1.2em;'>Good Fiction Worth Reading.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A series of romances containing several of the old favorites in the field
+of historical fiction, replete with powerful romances of love and diplomacy
+that excel in thrilling and absorbing interest.</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p><b>WINDSOR CASTLE.</b> A Historical Romance of the Reign of Henry VIII,
+Catharine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. By Wm. Harrison Ainsworth, Cloth.
+12mo. with four illustrations by George Cruikshank. Price, $1.00.</p>
+<div class='blockquot'>
+<p>&#8220;Windsor Castle&#8221; is the story of Henry VIII., Catharine, and Anne
+Boleyn. &#8220;Bluff King Hal,&#8221; although a well-loved monarch, was none too
+good a one in many ways. Of all his selfishness and unwarrantable acts,
+none was more discreditable than his divorce from Catharine, and his marriage
+to the beautiful Anne Boleyn. The King&#8217;s love was as brief as it
+was vehement. Jane Seymour, waiting maid on the Queen, attracted him,
+and Anne Boleyn was forced to the block to make room for her successor.
+This romance is one of extreme interest to all readers.</p>
+</div>
+<p><b>HORSESHOE ROBINSON.</b> A tale of the Tory Ascendency in South Carolina
+in 1780. By John P. Kennedy. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by
+Watson Davis. Price, $1.00.</p>
+<div class='blockquot'>
+<p>Among the old favorites in the field of what is known as historical fiction,
+there are none which appeal to a larger number of Americans than
+Horseshoe Robinson, and this because it is the only story which depicts
+with fidelity to the facts the heroic efforts of the colonists in South Carolina
+to defend their homes against the brutal oppression of the British
+under such leaders as Cornwallis and Tarleton.</p>
+<p>The reader is charmed with the story of love which forms the thread
+of the tale, and then impressed with the wealth of detail concerning those
+times. The picture of the manifold sufferings of the people, is never overdrawn,
+but painted faithfully and honestly by one who spared neither
+time nor labor in his efforts to present in this charming love story all that
+price in blood and tears which the Carolinians paid as their share in the
+winning of the republic.</p>
+<p>Take it all in all, &#8220;Horseshoe Robinson&#8221; is a work which should be
+found on every book-shelf, not only because it is a most entertaining
+story, but because of the wealth of valuable information concerning the
+colonists which it contains. That it has been brought out once more, well
+illustrated, is something which will give pleasure to thousands who have
+long desired an opportunity to read the story again, and to the many who
+have tried vainly in these latter days to procure a copy that they might
+read it for the first time.</p>
+</div>
+<p><b>THE PEARL OF ORR&#8217;S ISLAND.</b> A story of the Coast of Maine. By
+Harriet Beecher Stowe. Cloth, 12mo. Illustrated. Price, $1.00.</p>
+<div class='blockquot'>
+<p>Written prior to 1862, the &#8220;Pearl of Orr&#8217;s Island&#8221; is ever new: a book
+filled with delicate fancies, such as seemingly array themselves anew each
+time one reads them. One sees the &#8220;sea like an unbroken mirror all
+around the pine-girt, lonely shores of Orr&#8217;s Island&#8221; and straightway
+comes &#8220;the heavy, hollow moan of the surf on the beach, like the wild
+angry howl of some savage animal.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Who can read of the beginning of that sweet life, named Mara, which
+came into this world under the very shadow of the Death angel&#8217;s wings,
+without having an intense desire to know how the premature bud blossomed?
+Again and again one lingers over the descriptions of the character
+of that baby boy Moses, who came through the tempest, amid the
+angry billows, pillowed on his dead mother&#8217;s breast.</p>
+<p>There is no more faithful portrayal of New England life than that
+which Mrs. Stowe gives in &#8220;The Pearl of Orr&#8217;s Island.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers,
+<b>A. L. BURT COMPANY, 52-58 Duane St., New York</b>.</p>
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:1.2em;'>Good Fiction Worth Reading.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A series of romances containing several of the old favorites in the field
+of historical fiction, replete with powerful romances of love and diplomacy
+that excel in thrilling and absorbing interest.</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p><b>GUY FAWKES.</b> A Romance of the Gunpowder Treason. By Wm. Harrison
+Ainsworth. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by George Cruikshank.
+Price, $1.00.</p>
+<div class='blockquot'>
+<p>The &#8220;Gunpowder Plot&#8221; was a modest attempt to blow up Parliament,
+the King and his Counsellors. James of Scotland, then King of England,
+was weak-minded and extravagant. He hit upon the efficient scheme of
+extorting money from the people by imposing taxes on the Catholics. In
+their natural resentment to this extortion, a handful of bold spirits concluded
+to overthrow the government. Finally the plotters were arrested,
+and the King put to torture Guy Fawkes and the other prisoners with
+royal vigor. A very intense love story runs through the entire romance.</p>
+</div>
+<p><b>THE SPIRIT OF THE BORDER.</b> A Romance of the Early Settlers in the
+Ohio Valley. By Zane Grey. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson
+Davis. Price, $1.00.</p>
+<div class='blockquot'>
+<p>A book rather out of the ordinary is this &#8220;Spirit of the Border.&#8221; The
+main thread of the story has to do with the work of the Moravian missionaries
+in the Ohio Valley. Incidentally the reader is given details of the
+frontier life of those hardy pioneers who broke the wilderness for the planting
+of this great nation. Chief among these, as a matter of course, is
+Lewis Wetzel, one of the most peculiar, and at the same time the most
+admirable of all the brave men who spent their lives battling with the
+savage foe, that others might dwell in comparative security.</p>
+<p>Details of the establishment and destruction of the Moravian &#8220;Village
+of Peace&#8221; are given at some length, and with minute description. The
+efforts to Christianize the Indians are described as they never have been
+before, and the author has depicted the characters of the leaders of the
+several Indian tribes with great care, which of itself will be of interest to
+the student.</p>
+<p>By no means least among the charms of the story are the vivid word-pictures
+of the thrilling adventures, and the intense paintings of the beauties
+of nature, as seen in the almost unbroken forests.</p>
+<p>It is the spirit of the frontier which is described, and one can by it,
+perhaps, the better understand why men, and women, too, willingly braved
+every privation and danger that the westward progress of the star of empire
+might be the more certain and rapid. A love story, simple and tender,
+runs through the book.</p>
+</div>
+<p><b>RICHELIEU.</b> A tale of France in the reign of King Louis XIII. By G. P.
+R. James. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson Davis, Price, $1.00,</p>
+<div class='blockquot'>
+<p>In 1829 Mr. James published his first romance, &#8220;Richelieu,&#8221; and was
+recognized at once as one of the masters of the craft.</p>
+<p>In this book he laid the story during those later days of the great cardinal&#8217;s
+life, when his power was beginning to wane, but while it was
+yet sufficiently strong to permit now and then of volcanic outbursts which
+overwhelmed foes and carried friends to the topmost wave of prosperity.
+One of the most striking portions of the story is that of Cinq Mar&#8217;s conspiracy;
+the method of conducting criminal cases, and the political trickery
+resorted to by royal favorites, affording a better insight into the statecraft
+of that day than can be had even by an exhaustive study of history.
+It is a powerful romance of love and diplomacy, and in point of thrilling
+and absorbing interest has never been excelled.</p>
+</div>
+<p>For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers,
+<b>A. L. BURT COMPANY, 52-58 Duane St., New York.</b></p>
+<!-- generated by ppgen.rb version: 2.18 -->
+<!-- timestamp: Fri Aug 08 16:15:39 -0600 2008 -->
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Indifference of Juliet, by Grace S. Richmond
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INDIFFERENCE OF JULIET ***
+
+***** This file should be named 26233-h.htm or 26233-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/2/3/26233/
+
+Produced by Roger Frank, Bruce Albrecht and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/26233-h/images/illus-081.jpg b/26233-h/images/illus-081.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3fc92f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-h/images/illus-081.jpg
diff --git a/26233-h/images/illus-109.jpg b/26233-h/images/illus-109.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..093a855
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-h/images/illus-109.jpg
diff --git a/26233-h/images/illus-215.jpg b/26233-h/images/illus-215.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fe4dddd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-h/images/illus-215.jpg
diff --git a/26233-h/images/illus-cpy.jpg b/26233-h/images/illus-cpy.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..813cde9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-h/images/illus-cpy.jpg
diff --git a/26233-h/images/illus-ded.jpg b/26233-h/images/illus-ded.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a9c7192
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-h/images/illus-ded.jpg
diff --git a/26233-h/images/illus-emb.png b/26233-h/images/illus-emb.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..249ef27
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-h/images/illus-emb.png
diff --git a/26233-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg b/26233-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a41d897
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg
diff --git a/26233-page-images/f0000-image1.png b/26233-page-images/f0000-image1.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f8a09c9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/f0000-image1.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/f0001.png b/26233-page-images/f0001.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7ca0228
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/f0001.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/f0002.png b/26233-page-images/f0002.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b90e72
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/f0002.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/f0003.png b/26233-page-images/f0003.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9e89e57
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/f0003.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/f0005.png b/26233-page-images/f0005.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7e4fec2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/f0005.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/f0006.png b/26233-page-images/f0006.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4f35393
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/f0006.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p.png b/26233-page-images/p.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..46dd30b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0001.png b/26233-page-images/p0001.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..93b7369
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0001.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0003.png b/26233-page-images/p0003.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..84ed72f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0003.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0004.png b/26233-page-images/p0004.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d5348ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0004.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0005.png b/26233-page-images/p0005.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6b3042e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0005.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0006.png b/26233-page-images/p0006.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e747dc2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0006.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0007.png b/26233-page-images/p0007.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e666ddc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0007.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0008.png b/26233-page-images/p0008.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a5f9fcb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0008.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0009.png b/26233-page-images/p0009.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a37ee48
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0009.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0010.png b/26233-page-images/p0010.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8d653eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0010.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0011.png b/26233-page-images/p0011.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3b44e9a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0011.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0012.png b/26233-page-images/p0012.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..62a3ded
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0012.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0013.png b/26233-page-images/p0013.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a6890ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0013.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0014.png b/26233-page-images/p0014.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8e05a93
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0014.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0015.png b/26233-page-images/p0015.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f54a5d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0015.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0016.png b/26233-page-images/p0016.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..269d4c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0016.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0017.png b/26233-page-images/p0017.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c269570
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0017.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0018.png b/26233-page-images/p0018.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cf3d1d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0018.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0019.png b/26233-page-images/p0019.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a670d85
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0019.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0020.png b/26233-page-images/p0020.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..877692c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0020.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0021.png b/26233-page-images/p0021.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7b53bd9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0021.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0022.png b/26233-page-images/p0022.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e76632c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0022.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0023.png b/26233-page-images/p0023.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bc90c7e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0023.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0024.png b/26233-page-images/p0024.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d7a152d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0024.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0025.png b/26233-page-images/p0025.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..47dbdc7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0025.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0026.png b/26233-page-images/p0026.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..886889b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0026.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0027.png b/26233-page-images/p0027.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..251e36a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0027.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0028.png b/26233-page-images/p0028.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e4eaac1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0028.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0029.png b/26233-page-images/p0029.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f086358
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0029.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0030.png b/26233-page-images/p0030.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..35e5b0e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0030.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0031.png b/26233-page-images/p0031.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..050e0ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0031.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0032.png b/26233-page-images/p0032.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f1cc7df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0032.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0033.png b/26233-page-images/p0033.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..db2d5fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0033.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0034.png b/26233-page-images/p0034.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..720d3bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0034.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0035.png b/26233-page-images/p0035.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9c86527
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0035.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0036.png b/26233-page-images/p0036.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4ad6758
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0036.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0037.png b/26233-page-images/p0037.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e5432d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0037.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0038.png b/26233-page-images/p0038.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9239cb2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0038.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0039.png b/26233-page-images/p0039.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6e23a76
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0039.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0040.png b/26233-page-images/p0040.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f30d4a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0040.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0041.png b/26233-page-images/p0041.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..69837f6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0041.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0042.png b/26233-page-images/p0042.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a94dc5f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0042.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0043.png b/26233-page-images/p0043.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f91e7aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0043.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0044.png b/26233-page-images/p0044.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e40fd39
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0044.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0045.png b/26233-page-images/p0045.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b011f5b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0045.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0046.png b/26233-page-images/p0046.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5f9b10d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0046.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0047.png b/26233-page-images/p0047.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..99d54ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0047.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0048.png b/26233-page-images/p0048.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..18c4487
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0048.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0049.png b/26233-page-images/p0049.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8c5b554
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0049.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0050.png b/26233-page-images/p0050.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a840de3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0050.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0051.png b/26233-page-images/p0051.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e4c6ab6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0051.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0052.png b/26233-page-images/p0052.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c25f3da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0052.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0053.png b/26233-page-images/p0053.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..59f8d5d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0053.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0054.png b/26233-page-images/p0054.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bfed6d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0054.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0055.png b/26233-page-images/p0055.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dbb3e7a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0055.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0056.png b/26233-page-images/p0056.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7845685
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0056.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0057.png b/26233-page-images/p0057.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8d94c7d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0057.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0058.png b/26233-page-images/p0058.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c95bb7a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0058.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0059.png b/26233-page-images/p0059.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9863fd5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0059.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0060.png b/26233-page-images/p0060.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7211bce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0060.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0061.png b/26233-page-images/p0061.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cc2bc49
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0061.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0062.png b/26233-page-images/p0062.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0a1af7e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0062.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0063.png b/26233-page-images/p0063.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..136a2d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0063.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0064.png b/26233-page-images/p0064.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2d219d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0064.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0065.png b/26233-page-images/p0065.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a1367e5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0065.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0066.png b/26233-page-images/p0066.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9b9aceb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0066.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0067.png b/26233-page-images/p0067.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6b54f32
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0067.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0068.png b/26233-page-images/p0068.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..53144cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0068.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0069.png b/26233-page-images/p0069.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e2ce62b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0069.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0070.png b/26233-page-images/p0070.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0ee854c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0070.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0071.png b/26233-page-images/p0071.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b9d0161
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0071.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0072-insert1.png b/26233-page-images/p0072-insert1.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0bc75f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0072-insert1.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0072.png b/26233-page-images/p0072.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..544b44e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0072.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0073.png b/26233-page-images/p0073.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..63f0eb3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0073.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0074.png b/26233-page-images/p0074.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..78c811a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0074.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0075.png b/26233-page-images/p0075.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..653cea0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0075.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0076.png b/26233-page-images/p0076.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d3a619d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0076.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0077.png b/26233-page-images/p0077.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..87e8084
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0077.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0078.png b/26233-page-images/p0078.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3db43f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0078.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0079.png b/26233-page-images/p0079.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..61b7f6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0079.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0080.png b/26233-page-images/p0080.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..52f1d83
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0080.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0081.png b/26233-page-images/p0081.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..215e988
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0081.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0082.png b/26233-page-images/p0082.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..130b0db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0082.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0083.png b/26233-page-images/p0083.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8ba7006
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0083.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0084.png b/26233-page-images/p0084.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c3a0801
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0084.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0085.png b/26233-page-images/p0085.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c92cede
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0085.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0086.png b/26233-page-images/p0086.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fff0c84
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0086.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0087.png b/26233-page-images/p0087.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..059e9bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0087.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0088.png b/26233-page-images/p0088.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4dd50b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0088.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0089.png b/26233-page-images/p0089.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..91e3858
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0089.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0090.png b/26233-page-images/p0090.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..46ad18a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0090.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0091.png b/26233-page-images/p0091.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..072aef7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0091.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0092.png b/26233-page-images/p0092.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..25f2e36
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0092.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0093.png b/26233-page-images/p0093.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3fd7bb0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0093.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0094.png b/26233-page-images/p0094.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a00f39a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0094.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0095.png b/26233-page-images/p0095.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b9ee5d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0095.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0096.png b/26233-page-images/p0096.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4ae3423
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0096.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0097.png b/26233-page-images/p0097.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b0bc747
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0097.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0098-insert1.png b/26233-page-images/p0098-insert1.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..db70892
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0098-insert1.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0098.png b/26233-page-images/p0098.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..476eda6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0098.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0099.png b/26233-page-images/p0099.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..95be607
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0099.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0100.png b/26233-page-images/p0100.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fdafbc9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0100.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0101.png b/26233-page-images/p0101.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fadc744
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0101.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0102.png b/26233-page-images/p0102.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..207ef61
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0102.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0103.png b/26233-page-images/p0103.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f036025
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0103.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0104.png b/26233-page-images/p0104.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5952296
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0104.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0105.png b/26233-page-images/p0105.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1bd17e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0105.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0106.png b/26233-page-images/p0106.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..45d16fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0106.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0107.png b/26233-page-images/p0107.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9ed2dd8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0107.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0108.png b/26233-page-images/p0108.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..607b584
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0108.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0109.png b/26233-page-images/p0109.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2121747
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0109.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0110.png b/26233-page-images/p0110.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a4d4c07
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0110.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0111.png b/26233-page-images/p0111.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ba9692b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0111.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0112.png b/26233-page-images/p0112.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..59792d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0112.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0113.png b/26233-page-images/p0113.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3133606
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0113.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0114.png b/26233-page-images/p0114.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a04a570
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0114.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0115.png b/26233-page-images/p0115.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b5fa3b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0115.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0116.png b/26233-page-images/p0116.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e960471
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0116.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0117.png b/26233-page-images/p0117.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e6d025a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0117.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0118.png b/26233-page-images/p0118.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..932d577
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0118.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0119.png b/26233-page-images/p0119.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1dab69e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0119.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0120.png b/26233-page-images/p0120.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cadb76f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0120.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0121.png b/26233-page-images/p0121.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d9568b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0121.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0122.png b/26233-page-images/p0122.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a9aea35
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0122.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0123.png b/26233-page-images/p0123.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8bb553f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0123.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0124.png b/26233-page-images/p0124.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..59fa27e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0124.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0125.png b/26233-page-images/p0125.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5aff66f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0125.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0126.png b/26233-page-images/p0126.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..49fbe9f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0126.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0127.png b/26233-page-images/p0127.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0e3d160
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0127.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0128.png b/26233-page-images/p0128.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..43da82c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0128.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0129.png b/26233-page-images/p0129.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7c6b443
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0129.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0130.png b/26233-page-images/p0130.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3071f4c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0130.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0131.png b/26233-page-images/p0131.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1199a6c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0131.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0132.png b/26233-page-images/p0132.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2483f9b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0132.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0133.png b/26233-page-images/p0133.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cb99478
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0133.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0134.png b/26233-page-images/p0134.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ce007f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0134.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0135.png b/26233-page-images/p0135.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..24fa97b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0135.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0136.png b/26233-page-images/p0136.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..13bbbe7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0136.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0137.png b/26233-page-images/p0137.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6986712
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0137.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0138.png b/26233-page-images/p0138.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..89ebdb4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0138.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0139.png b/26233-page-images/p0139.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ccac7d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0139.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0140.png b/26233-page-images/p0140.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c6a9bda
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0140.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0141.png b/26233-page-images/p0141.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dda13f2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0141.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0142.png b/26233-page-images/p0142.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..63d782f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0142.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0143.png b/26233-page-images/p0143.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2739715
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0143.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0144.png b/26233-page-images/p0144.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ac132dc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0144.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0145.png b/26233-page-images/p0145.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6a8ba0a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0145.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0146.png b/26233-page-images/p0146.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5245102
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0146.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0147.png b/26233-page-images/p0147.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..96550b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0147.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0148.png b/26233-page-images/p0148.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2f971f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0148.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0149.png b/26233-page-images/p0149.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b2c7821
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0149.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0150.png b/26233-page-images/p0150.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d55daa5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0150.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0151.png b/26233-page-images/p0151.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..df7f495
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0151.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0152.png b/26233-page-images/p0152.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5790f3e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0152.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0153.png b/26233-page-images/p0153.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6328312
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0153.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0154.png b/26233-page-images/p0154.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9bb05bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0154.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0155.png b/26233-page-images/p0155.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b055c15
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0155.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0156.png b/26233-page-images/p0156.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4f4d5c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0156.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0157.png b/26233-page-images/p0157.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bbacdea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0157.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0158.png b/26233-page-images/p0158.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..263f0b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0158.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0159.png b/26233-page-images/p0159.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..845053c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0159.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0160.png b/26233-page-images/p0160.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3c086cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0160.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0161.png b/26233-page-images/p0161.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..449d190
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0161.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0162.png b/26233-page-images/p0162.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cacff36
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0162.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0163.png b/26233-page-images/p0163.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f706fea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0163.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0164.png b/26233-page-images/p0164.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2a3b190
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0164.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0165.png b/26233-page-images/p0165.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..53b0bab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0165.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0166.png b/26233-page-images/p0166.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..36662dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0166.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0167.png b/26233-page-images/p0167.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..44bd050
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0167.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0168.png b/26233-page-images/p0168.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0f59ba4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0168.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0169.png b/26233-page-images/p0169.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9c587e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0169.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0170.png b/26233-page-images/p0170.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d03eb77
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0170.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0171.png b/26233-page-images/p0171.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b22c295
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0171.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0172.png b/26233-page-images/p0172.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fe37089
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0172.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0173.png b/26233-page-images/p0173.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2d24362
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0173.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0174.png b/26233-page-images/p0174.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..28b83c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0174.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0175.png b/26233-page-images/p0175.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3d43043
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0175.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0176.png b/26233-page-images/p0176.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a7fff26
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0176.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0177.png b/26233-page-images/p0177.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0ce050d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0177.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0178.png b/26233-page-images/p0178.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cf45386
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0178.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0179.png b/26233-page-images/p0179.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..38e73bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0179.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0180.png b/26233-page-images/p0180.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9e11509
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0180.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0181.png b/26233-page-images/p0181.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1d6f37a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0181.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0182.png b/26233-page-images/p0182.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3bc9642
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0182.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0183.png b/26233-page-images/p0183.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5cfa631
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0183.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0184.png b/26233-page-images/p0184.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3265366
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0184.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0185.png b/26233-page-images/p0185.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..29c87eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0185.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0186.png b/26233-page-images/p0186.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f2665e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0186.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0187.png b/26233-page-images/p0187.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f51ed1b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0187.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0188.png b/26233-page-images/p0188.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3f2d0a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0188.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0189.png b/26233-page-images/p0189.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4e463b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0189.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0190.png b/26233-page-images/p0190.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..50f25a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0190.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0191.png b/26233-page-images/p0191.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bc452a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0191.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0192.png b/26233-page-images/p0192.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8e1bf4c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0192.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0193.png b/26233-page-images/p0193.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ee34e8d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0193.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0194.png b/26233-page-images/p0194.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4dd61ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0194.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0195.png b/26233-page-images/p0195.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4530039
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0195.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0196.png b/26233-page-images/p0196.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..05ff42c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0196.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0197.png b/26233-page-images/p0197.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1e47f9b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0197.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0198.png b/26233-page-images/p0198.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..44164ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0198.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0199.png b/26233-page-images/p0199.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..340acc0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0199.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0200.png b/26233-page-images/p0200.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..418fc30
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0200.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0201-insert1.png b/26233-page-images/p0201-insert1.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0840cbc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0201-insert1.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0201.png b/26233-page-images/p0201.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..846ed22
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0201.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0203.png b/26233-page-images/p0203.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f0e9fee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0203.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0204.png b/26233-page-images/p0204.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0ed7b98
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0204.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0205.png b/26233-page-images/p0205.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9e57ca2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0205.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0206.png b/26233-page-images/p0206.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ff34105
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0206.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0207.png b/26233-page-images/p0207.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cdcb4bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0207.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0208.png b/26233-page-images/p0208.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ff1ab57
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0208.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0209.png b/26233-page-images/p0209.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3c3d8d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0209.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0210.png b/26233-page-images/p0210.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..82907ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0210.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0211.png b/26233-page-images/p0211.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0b5e921
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0211.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0212.png b/26233-page-images/p0212.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7180fa0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0212.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0213.png b/26233-page-images/p0213.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f8d9e7a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0213.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0214.png b/26233-page-images/p0214.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..424f0c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0214.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0215.png b/26233-page-images/p0215.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a59ae1e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0215.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0216.png b/26233-page-images/p0216.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..392824a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0216.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0217.png b/26233-page-images/p0217.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d43f0ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0217.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0218.png b/26233-page-images/p0218.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..df894a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0218.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0219.png b/26233-page-images/p0219.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..181d409
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0219.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0220.png b/26233-page-images/p0220.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cf9f9ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0220.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0221.png b/26233-page-images/p0221.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..37623ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0221.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0222.png b/26233-page-images/p0222.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7c646b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0222.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0223.png b/26233-page-images/p0223.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a243c8e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0223.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0224.png b/26233-page-images/p0224.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a656bd5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0224.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0225.png b/26233-page-images/p0225.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b1ce64a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0225.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0226.png b/26233-page-images/p0226.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ad198c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0226.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0227.png b/26233-page-images/p0227.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7a57d2e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0227.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0228.png b/26233-page-images/p0228.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9f23b28
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0228.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0229.png b/26233-page-images/p0229.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e631541
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0229.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0230.png b/26233-page-images/p0230.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4a497b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0230.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0231.png b/26233-page-images/p0231.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7da42da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0231.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0232.png b/26233-page-images/p0232.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..43bff42
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0232.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0233.png b/26233-page-images/p0233.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f7db38b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0233.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0234.png b/26233-page-images/p0234.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..55b13b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0234.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0235.png b/26233-page-images/p0235.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..05da4eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0235.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0236.png b/26233-page-images/p0236.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..03c371c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0236.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0237.png b/26233-page-images/p0237.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f349219
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0237.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0238.png b/26233-page-images/p0238.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fdc4870
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0238.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0239.png b/26233-page-images/p0239.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..85fee62
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0239.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0240.png b/26233-page-images/p0240.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9e616ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0240.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0241.png b/26233-page-images/p0241.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..77f66be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0241.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0242.png b/26233-page-images/p0242.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1647d3f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0242.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0243.png b/26233-page-images/p0243.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ccdd43b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0243.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0244.png b/26233-page-images/p0244.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e561ae3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0244.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0245.png b/26233-page-images/p0245.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4624f89
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0245.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0246.png b/26233-page-images/p0246.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bc7078d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0246.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0247.png b/26233-page-images/p0247.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2126612
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0247.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0248.png b/26233-page-images/p0248.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..246fdfc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0248.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0249.png b/26233-page-images/p0249.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..910b054
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0249.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0250.png b/26233-page-images/p0250.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c1681b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0250.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0251.png b/26233-page-images/p0251.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..94d2f66
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0251.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0252.png b/26233-page-images/p0252.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ab2f9ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0252.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0253.png b/26233-page-images/p0253.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..37798f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0253.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0254.png b/26233-page-images/p0254.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d053994
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0254.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0255.png b/26233-page-images/p0255.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b9b32e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0255.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0256.png b/26233-page-images/p0256.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e0d1396
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0256.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0257.png b/26233-page-images/p0257.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1ab902f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0257.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0258.png b/26233-page-images/p0258.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..788c064
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0258.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0259.png b/26233-page-images/p0259.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..665ff29
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0259.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0260.png b/26233-page-images/p0260.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bdd49f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0260.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0261.png b/26233-page-images/p0261.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7ae53bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0261.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0262.png b/26233-page-images/p0262.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4672d1d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0262.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0263.png b/26233-page-images/p0263.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5da95c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0263.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0264.png b/26233-page-images/p0264.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..747a23a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0264.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0265.png b/26233-page-images/p0265.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bf30b53
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0265.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0266.png b/26233-page-images/p0266.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0cbe770
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0266.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0267.png b/26233-page-images/p0267.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c6de214
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0267.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0268.png b/26233-page-images/p0268.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b561093
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0268.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0269.png b/26233-page-images/p0269.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9c1c005
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0269.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0270.png b/26233-page-images/p0270.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b1bbe21
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0270.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0271.png b/26233-page-images/p0271.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..07cf728
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0271.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0272.png b/26233-page-images/p0272.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..237935f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0272.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0273.png b/26233-page-images/p0273.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d98fdc7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0273.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0274.png b/26233-page-images/p0274.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2b36cee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0274.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0275.png b/26233-page-images/p0275.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cfda64b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0275.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0276.png b/26233-page-images/p0276.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e7ed02b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0276.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0277.png b/26233-page-images/p0277.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6637f29
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0277.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0278.png b/26233-page-images/p0278.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d770740
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0278.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0279.png b/26233-page-images/p0279.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0d5f3d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0279.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0280.png b/26233-page-images/p0280.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..686b9aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0280.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0281.png b/26233-page-images/p0281.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..46ce077
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0281.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0282.png b/26233-page-images/p0282.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..df2b583
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0282.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0283.png b/26233-page-images/p0283.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c8f893b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0283.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0284.png b/26233-page-images/p0284.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4ea9c5f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0284.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0285.png b/26233-page-images/p0285.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..27d2410
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0285.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0286.png b/26233-page-images/p0286.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..63c9de5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0286.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0287.png b/26233-page-images/p0287.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5bc5024
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0287.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0288.png b/26233-page-images/p0288.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8cd52c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0288.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0289.png b/26233-page-images/p0289.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3cfb45b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0289.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0290.png b/26233-page-images/p0290.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..895fe61
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0290.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0291.png b/26233-page-images/p0291.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5103862
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0291.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0292.png b/26233-page-images/p0292.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d069a20
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0292.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0293.png b/26233-page-images/p0293.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b8a5987
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0293.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0294.png b/26233-page-images/p0294.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0ef7096
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0294.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0295.png b/26233-page-images/p0295.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..30de5ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0295.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0296.png b/26233-page-images/p0296.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1b9b0c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0296.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0297.png b/26233-page-images/p0297.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1382d91
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0297.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0298.png b/26233-page-images/p0298.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c8e9846
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0298.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0299.png b/26233-page-images/p0299.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..02f5ee8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0299.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0300.png b/26233-page-images/p0300.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0907487
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0300.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0301.png b/26233-page-images/p0301.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0d2f930
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0301.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0302.png b/26233-page-images/p0302.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4a50647
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0302.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0303.png b/26233-page-images/p0303.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..11c994a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0303.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0304.png b/26233-page-images/p0304.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..71b99a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0304.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0305.png b/26233-page-images/p0305.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e1f27ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0305.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0306.png b/26233-page-images/p0306.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dbdf0b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0306.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/p0307.png b/26233-page-images/p0307.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..76c947d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/p0307.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/q0001.png b/26233-page-images/q0001.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9697cad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/q0001.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/q0002.png b/26233-page-images/q0002.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2db0a44
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/q0002.png
diff --git a/26233-page-images/q0003.png b/26233-page-images/q0003.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0ee1192
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233-page-images/q0003.png
diff --git a/26233.txt b/26233.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7ef6e89
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7130 @@
+Project Gutenberg's The Indifference of Juliet, by Grace S. Richmond
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Indifference of Juliet
+
+Author: Grace S. Richmond
+
+Illustrator: Henry Hutt
+
+Release Date: August 9, 2008 [EBook #26233]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INDIFFERENCE OF JULIET ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank, Bruce Albrecht and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "The rich voice of the bishop was as impressive as it
+had ever been." (See page 77)]
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE INDIFFERENCE OF JULIET
+
+By GRACE S. RICHMOND
+
+Author of
+"The Second Violin" "The Dixons"
+
+With Illustrations
+By HENRY HUTT
+
+A. L. BURT COMPANY,
+PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Copyright,
+1902, 1903, 1904,
+by The Curtis
+Publishing Company
+
+Copyright, 1905, by
+Doubleday, Page
+& Company
+
+Published,
+March, 1905
+
+All rights reserved, including that of
+translation--also right of translation
+into the Scandinavian languages
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+To
+Father and Mother
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                                           PAGE
+     I.  An Audacious Proposition                    3
+    II.  Measurements                               12
+   III.  Shopping with a Chaperon                   17
+    IV.  The Cost of Frocks                         23
+     V.  Muslins and Tackhammers                    30
+    VI.  A Question of Identity                     36
+   VII.  An Argument Without Logic                  46
+  VIII.  On Account of the Tea-Kettle               57
+    IX.  A Bishop and a Hay-Wagon                   69
+     X.  On a Threshold                             80
+   XII.  The Bachelor Begs a Dish-Towel            101
+  XIII.  Smoke and Talk                            114
+   XIV.  Strawberries                              120
+    XV.  Anthony Plays Maid                        136
+   XVI.  A House-Party--Outdoors                   144
+  XVII.  Rachel Causes Anxiety                     155
+ XVIII.  An Unknown Quantity                       164
+   XIX.  All the April Stars Are Out               175
+    XX.  A Prior Claim                             181
+   XXI.  Everybody Gives Advice                    191
+  XXII.  Roger Barnes Proves Invaluable            201
+ XXIII.  Two Not of a Kind                         215
+  XXIV.  The Careys Are at Home                    233
+   XXV.  The Robeson Will                          246
+  XXVI.  On Guard                                  266
+ XXVII.  Lockwood Pays a Call                      282
+XXVIII.  A High-Handed Affair                      294
+  XXIX.  Juliet Proves Herself Still Indifferent   303
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS
+
+HORATIO MARCY, an elderly New Englander of some wealth.
+
+ANTHONY ROBESON, the last young male representative of the Kentucky
+ROBESONS, now making his own way in Massachusetts.
+
+WAYNE CAREY, Robeson's former college chum, an office clerk on a salary.
+
+DR. ROGER WILLIAMS BARNES, a surgeon.
+
+LOUIS LOCKWOOD, an attorney-at-law.
+
+STEVENS CATHCART, an architect.
+
+MRS. DINGLEY, sister of Horatio Marcy.
+
+JULIET MARCY, daughter of Horatio Marcy.
+
+JUDITH DEARBORN, Juliet's friend since school-days.
+
+SUZANNE GERARD, MARIE DRESSER, other friends of Juliet.
+
+RACHEL REDDING, a poor country girl--of education.
+
+MARY MCKAIM--in the background, but valuable.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+THE INDIFFERENCE OF JULIET
+
+I.--AN AUDACIOUS PROPOSITION
+
+
+Anthony Robeson glanced about him in a satisfied way at the shaded nook
+under the low-hanging boughs into which he had guided the boat. Then he
+drew in his oars and let the little craft drift.
+
+"This is an ideal spot," said he, looking into his friend's face, "in
+which to tell you a rather interesting piece of news."
+
+"Oh, fine!" cried his friend, settling herself among the cushions in the
+stern and tilting back her parasol so that the light through its white
+expanse framed her health-tinted face in a sort of glory. "Tell me at
+once. I suspected you came with something on your mind. There couldn't be
+a lovelier place on the river than this for confidences. But I can guess
+yours. Tony, you've found 'her'!"
+
+"And you'll be my friend just the same?" questioned Anthony anxiously. "My
+chum--my confidante?"
+
+"Oh, well, Tony, that's absurd," declared Juliet Marcy severely. "As if
+_she_ would allow it!"
+
+"She's three thousand miles away."
+
+"I'm ashamed of you!"
+
+"Just in the interval, then," pleaded Anthony. "I need you now worse than
+ever. For I've a tremendous responsibility on my hands. The--the--you
+know--is to come off in September, and this is June--and I've a house to
+furnish. Will you help me do it, Juliet?"
+
+"_Anthony Robeson!_" she said explosively under her breath, with a laugh.
+Then she sat up and leaned forward with a commanding gesture. "Tell me all
+about it. What is her name and who is she? Where did you meet her? Are you
+very much----"
+
+"Would I marry a girl if I were not 'very much'?" demanded Anthony.
+"Well--I'll tell you--since you insist on these non-essentials before you
+really come down to business. Her name is Eleanor Langham, and she lives
+in San Francisco. Her family is old, aristocratic, wealthy--yet she
+condescends to me."
+
+He looked up keenly into her eyes, and her brown lashes fell for an
+instant before something in his glance, but she said quickly: "Go on."
+
+"When the--affair--is over I want to bring my bride straight home,"
+Anthony proceeded, with a tinge of colour in his smooth, clear cheek. "I
+shall have no vacation to speak of at that time of year, and no time to
+spend in furnishing a house. Yet I want it all ready for her. So you see I
+need a friend. I shall have two weeks to spare in July, and if you would
+help me--"
+
+"But, Tony," she interrupted, "how could I? If--if we were seen shopping
+together----"
+
+"No, we couldn't go shopping together in New York without being liable to
+run into a wondering crowd of friends, of course--not in the places where
+you would want to go. But here you are only a couple of hours from Boston;
+you will be here all summer; you and Mrs. Dingley and I could run into
+Boston for a day at a time without anybody's being the wiser. I know--that
+is--I'm confident Mrs. Dingley would do it for me----"
+
+"Oh, of course. Did Auntie ever deny you anything since the days when she
+used to give you jam as often as you came across to play with me?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Have you _her_ photograph?" inquired Miss Marcy with an emphasis which
+left no possible doubt as to whose photograph she meant.
+
+"I expected that," said Anthony gravely. "I expected it even sooner. But I
+am prepared."
+
+She sat watching him curiously as he slowly drew from his breast-pocket a
+tiny leather case, and gazed at it precisely as a lover might be expected
+to gaze at his lady's image before jealously surrendering it into other
+hands. She had never seen Anthony Robeson look at any photograph except
+her own with just that expression. She had often wondered if he ever
+would. She had recommended this course of procedure to him many times,
+usually after once more gently refusing to marry him. She had begun at
+last to doubt whether it would ever be possible to divert Tony's mind from
+its long-sought object. But that trip to San Francisco, and the months he
+had spent there in the interests of the firm he served, had evidently
+brought about the desired change. She had not seen him since his return
+until to-day, when he had run up into the country where was the Marcy
+summer home, to tell her, as she now understood, his news and to make his
+somewhat extraordinary request.
+
+She accepted the photograph with a smile, and studied it with attention.
+
+"Oh, but isn't she pretty?" she cried warmly--and generously, for she was
+thinking as she looked how much prettier was Miss Langham than Miss
+Marcy.
+
+"Isn't she?" agreed Anthony with enthusiasm.
+
+"Lovely. What eyes! And what a dear mouth!"
+
+"You're right."
+
+"She looks clever, too."
+
+"She is."
+
+"How tall is she?"
+
+"About up to my shoulder."
+
+"She's little, then."
+
+"Well, I don't know," objected Anthony, surveying his own stalwart length
+of limb. "A girl doesn't have to be a dwarf not to be on a level with me.
+I should say she must be somewhere near your height."
+
+"What a magnificent dresser!"
+
+"Is she? She never irritates one with the fact."
+
+"Oh, but I can see. And she's going to marry you. Tony, what can you give
+her?"
+
+"A little box of a house, one maidservant, an occasional trip into town,
+four new frocks a year--moderate ones, you know, in keeping with her
+circumstances--and my name," replied Anthony composedly.
+
+"You won't let her live in town, then?"
+
+"Let her! Good heavens, what sort of a place could I give her in town on
+my salary? Now, in the very rural suburb I've picked out she can live in
+the greatest comfort, and we can have a real home--something I haven't had
+since Dad died and the old home and the money and all the rest of it
+went."
+
+His face was grave now, and he was staring down into the water as if he
+saw there both what he had lost and what he hoped to gain.
+
+"Yes," said Juliet sympathetically, though she did not know how to imagine
+the girl whose photograph she held in the surroundings Anthony suggested.
+Presently she went on in her gentlest tone: "I'm not saying that the name
+isn't a proud one to offer her, Tony--and if she is willing to share your
+altered fortunes I've no doubt she will be happy. Along with your name
+you'll give her a heart worth having."
+
+"Thank you," said Anthony without looking up.
+
+Miss Marcy coloured slightly, and hastened to supplement this speech with
+another.
+
+"The question is--since the home is to be hers--why not let her furnish
+it? Her tastes and mine might not agree. Besides----"
+
+"Well----"
+
+"Why--you know, Tony," explained Juliet in some confusion, "I shouldn't
+know how to be economical."
+
+"I'm aware that you haven't been brought up on the most economical basis,"
+Anthony acknowledged frankly. "But I'll take care of my funds, no matter
+how extravagant you are inclined to be. If I should hand you five dollars
+and say, 'Buy a dining-table,' you could do it, couldn't you? You couldn't
+satisfy your ideals, of course, but you could give me the benefit of your
+discriminating choice within the five-dollar limit."
+
+Juliet laughed, but in her eyes there grew nevertheless a look of doubt.
+"Tony," she demanded, "how much have you to spend on the furnishing of
+that house?"
+
+"Just five hundred dollars," said Anthony concisely. "And that must cover
+the repairing and painting of the outside. Really, Juliet, haven't I done
+fairly well to save up that and the cost of the house and lot--for a
+fellow who till five years ago never did a thing for himself and never
+expected to need to? Yes, I know--the piano in your music-room cost twice
+that, and so did the horses you drive, and a very few of your pretty gowns
+would swallow another five. But Mrs. Anthony Robeson will have to chasten
+her ideas a trifle. Do you know, Juliet--I think she will--for love of
+me?"
+
+He was smiling at his own audacious confidence. Juliet attempted no reply
+to this very unanswerable statement. She studied the photograph in
+silence, and he lay watching her. In her blue-and-white boating suit she
+was a pleasant object to look at.
+
+"Will you help me?" he asked again at length. "I'm more anxious than I can
+tell you to have everything ready."
+
+"I shouldn't like to fail you, Tony, since you really wish it, though I'm
+very sure you'll find me a poor adviser. But you haven't been a brother to
+me since the mud-pie days for nothing, and if I can help you with
+suggestions as to colour and style I'll be glad to. Though I shall all the
+while be trying to live up to this photograph, and that will be a little
+hard on the five-dollar-dining-table scale."
+
+"You've only to look out that everything is in good taste," said Anthony
+quietly, "and that you can't help doing. My wife will thank you, and the
+new home will be sweet to her because of you. It surely will to me."
+
+
+
+
+II.--MEASUREMENTS
+
+
+It was on the first day of Robeson's two-weeks' July vacation that he came
+to take Juliet Marcy and her aunt, Mrs. Dingley, who had long stood to her
+in the place of the mother she had early lost, to see the home he had
+bought in a remote suburb of a great city. It was a three-hours' journey
+from the Marcy country place, but he had insisted that Juliet could not
+furnish the house intelligently until she had studied it in detail.
+
+So at eleven o'clock of a hot July morning Miss Marcy found herself
+surveying from the roadway a small, old-fashioned white house, with green
+blinds shading its odd, small-paned windows; a very "box of a house," as
+Anthony had said, set well back from the quiet street and surrounded by
+untrimmed trees and overgrown shrubbery. The whole place had a neglected
+appearance. Even the luxuriant climbing-rose, which did its best to hide
+the worn white paint of the house-front, served to intensify the look of
+decay.
+
+"Charming, isn't it?" asked Robeson with the air of the delighted
+proprietor. "Of course everything looks gone to seed, but paint and a
+lawn-mower and a few other things will make another place of it. It's good
+old colonial, that's sure, and only needs a bit of fixing up to be quite
+correct, architecturally, small as it is."
+
+He led the way up the weedy path, Mrs. Dingley and Juliet exchanging
+amused glances behind his back. He opened the doors with a flourish and
+waved the ladies in. They entered with close-held skirts and noses
+involuntarily sniffing at the musty air. Anthony ran around opening
+windows and explaining the "points" of the house. When they had been over
+it Mrs. Dingley, warm and weary, subsided upon the door-step, while Juliet
+and Anthony fell to discussing the possibilities of the place.
+
+"You see," said Anthony, mopping his heated brow, "it isn't like having
+big, high rooms to decorate. These little rooms,"--he put up his hand and
+succeeded, from his fine height, in touching the ceiling of the lower
+front room in which they stood--"won't stand anything but the most simple
+treatment, and expensive papers and upholsteries would be out of place. It
+will take only very small rugs to suit the floors. The main thing for you
+to think of will be colours and effects. You'll find five hundred dollars
+will go a long way, even after the repairs and outside painting are
+disposed of."
+
+He looked so appealing that Juliet could but answer heartily: "Yes, I'm
+sure of it. And now, Tony, don't you think you'd better draw a plan of the
+house, putting in all the measurements, so we shall know just how to go to
+work? And I will go around and dream a while in each room. Give me the
+photograph, you devoted lover, so I can plan things to suit _her_."
+
+Anthony laughed and put his hand into his breast-pocket. But he drew it
+out empty.
+
+"Why--I've left it behind," he admitted in some embarrassment. "I really
+thought I had it."
+
+"Oh, Tony! And on this very trip when we needed it most! How could you
+leave it behind? Don't you always carry it next your heart?"
+
+"Is that the prescribed place?"
+
+"Certainly. I should doubt a man's love if he did not constantly wear my
+likeness right where it could feel his heart beating for me."
+
+"Now I never supposed," remarked Anthony, considering her attentively,
+"that you had so much romance about you. Do you realise that for an
+extremely practical young person such as you have--mostly--appeared to be,
+that is a particularly sentimental suggestion? Er--should you wear his in
+the same way, may I inquire?"
+
+"Of course," returned Juliet with defiance in her eyes, whose lashes, when
+they fell at length before his steadily interested gaze, swept a daintily
+colouring cheek.
+
+"Have you ever worn one?" inquired this hardy young man, nothing daunted
+by these signs of righteous indignation. But all he got for answer was a
+vigorous:
+
+"You absurd boy! Now go to work at your measurements. I'm going upstairs.
+There's one room up there, the one with the gable corners and the little
+bits of windows, that's perfectly fascinating. It must be done in Delft
+blue and white. Since I haven't the photograph"--she turned on the
+threshold to smile roguishly back at him--"memory must serve. Beautiful
+dark hair; eyes like a Madonna's; a perfect nose; the dearest mouth in the
+world--oh, yes----"
+
+She vanished around the corner only to put her head in again with the air
+of one who fires a parting shot at a discomfited enemy: "But, Tony--do you
+honestly think the house is large enough for such a queen of a woman?
+Won't her throne take up the whole of the first floor?"
+
+Then she was gone up the diminutive staircase, and her light footsteps
+could be heard on the bare floors overhead. Left alone, Anthony Robeson
+stood still for a moment looking fixedly at the door by which she had
+gone. The smile with which he had answered her gay fling had faded; his
+eyes had grown dark with a singular fire; his hands were clenched.
+Suddenly he strode across the floor and stopped by the door. He was
+looking down at the quaint old latch which served instead of a knob. Then,
+with a glance at the unconscious back of Mrs. Dingley, sitting sleepily on
+the little porch outside, he stooped and pressed his lips upon the iron
+where Juliet's hand had lain.
+
+
+
+
+III.--SHOPPING WITH A CHAPERON
+
+
+"Five hundred dollars," mused Miss Marcy, on the Boston train next
+morning. "Six rooms--living-room, dining-room, kitchen, and three
+bedrooms. That's----"
+
+"You forget," warned Anthony Robeson from the seat where he faced Juliet
+and Mrs. Dingley. "That must cover the outside painting and repairs. You
+can't figure on having more than three hundred dollars left for the
+inside."
+
+"Dear me, yes," frowned Juliet. She held Anthony's plan in her hand, and
+her tablets and pencil lay in her lap. "Well, I can spend fifty dollars on
+each room--only some will need more than others. The living-room will take
+the most--no, the dining-room."
+
+"The kitchen will take the most," suggested Mrs. Dingley. "Your range will
+use up the most of your fifty. And kitchen utensils count up very
+rapidly."
+
+"It will be a very small range," Anthony said. "A little toy stove would
+be more practical for our--the kitchen. How big is it, Juliet?"
+
+"'Ten by fourteen,'" read Juliet. "From the centre of the room you can hit
+all the side walls with the broom. Speaking of walls, Tony--those must be
+our first consideration. If we get our colour scheme right everything else
+will follow. I have it all in my head."
+
+So it proved. But it also proved, when they had been hard at work for an
+hour at a well-known decorator's, that the tints and designs for which
+Miss Marcy asked were not readily to be found in the low-priced
+wall-papers to which Anthony rigidly held her.
+
+"I must have the softest, most restful greens for the living-room," she
+announced. "There--_that_----"
+
+"But that is a dollar a roll," whispered Anthony.
+
+"Then--_that_!"
+
+"Eighty-five cents."
+
+"But for that little room, Tony----"
+
+"Twenty-five cents a roll is all we can allow," insisted Anthony firmly.
+"And less than that everywhere else."
+
+The salesman was very obliging, and showed the best things possible for
+the money. It was impossible to resist the appeal in the eyes of this
+critical but restricted young buyer.
+
+"There, that will do, I think," said Juliet at length, with a long breath.
+"The green for the living-room and for the bit of a hall--No, no, Tony;
+I've just thought! You must take away that little partition and let the
+stairs go up out of the living-room. That will improve the apparent size
+of things wonderfully."
+
+"All right," agreed Anthony obediently.
+
+"Then we'll put that rich red in the dining-room. For upstairs there is
+the tiny rose pattern, and the Delft blue, and that little pale yellow and
+white stripe. In the kitchen we'll have the tile pattern. We won't have a
+border anywhere--the rooms are too low; just those simplest mouldings, and
+the ivory white on the ceilings. The woodwork must all be white. There
+now, that's settled. Next come the floors."
+
+There could be no doubt that Juliet was becoming interested in her task.
+Though the July heat was intense she led the way with rapid steps to the
+place where she meant to select her rugs. Here the three spent a trying
+two hours. It was hard to please Miss Marcy with Japanese jute rugs,
+satisfactory in colouring though many of them were, when she longed to buy
+Persian pieces of distinction. If Juliet had a special weakness it was for
+choice antique rugs.
+
+She cornered Anthony at last, while Mrs. Dingley and the salesman were
+politely but unequivocally disputing over the quality of a certain piece
+of Chinese weaving.
+
+"Tony," she begged, "please let me get that one dear Turkish square for
+the living-room. It will give character to the whole room, and the colours
+are perfectly exquisite. I simply can't get one of those cheap things to
+go in front of that beautiful old fireplace. Imagine the firelight on that
+square; it would make you want to spend your evenings at home. Please!"
+
+"Do you imagine that I shall ever want to spend them anywhere else?" asked
+Tony softly, looking down into her appealing face. "Why, chum, I'd like to
+get that Tabriz you admire so much, if it would please you, in spite of
+the fact that we should have to pull the whole house up forty notches to
+match it. But even the Turkish square is out of the question."
+
+"But, Tony"--Juliet was whispering now with her head a little bent and her
+eyes on the lapel of his coat--"won't you let me do it as my--my
+contribution? I'd like to put something of my own into your house."
+
+"You dear little girl," Anthony answered--and possibly for her own peace
+of mind it was fortunate that Miss Langham, of California, could not see
+the look with which he regarded Miss Marcy, of Massachusetts--"I'm sure
+you would. And you are putting into it just what is priceless to me--your
+individuality and your perfect taste. But I can't let even you help
+furnish that house. She--must take what I--and only I--can give her."
+
+"You're perfectly ridiculous," murmured Juliet, turning away with an
+expression of deep displeasure. "As if she wouldn't bring all sorts of
+elegant stuff with her, and make your cheap things look insignificant."
+
+"I don't think she will," returned Anthony with conviction. "She'll bring
+nothing out of keeping with the house."
+
+"I thought you told me she was of a wealthy family."
+
+"She is. But if she marries me she leaves all that behind. I'll have no
+wife on any other basis."
+
+"Well--for a son of the Robesons of Kentucky you are absolutely the most
+absurd boy anybody ever heard of," declared the girl hotly under her
+breath. Then she walked over and ordered a certain inexpensive rug for the
+living-room with the air of a princess and the cheeks of a poppy.
+
+
+
+
+IV.--THE COST OF FROCKS
+
+
+It may have been that Miss Marcy was piqued into trying to see how little
+she could spend, but certain it was that from the time she left the carpet
+shop she begged for no exceptions to Mr. Robeson's rule of strict economy.
+She selected simple, delicate muslins for the windows, one and all,
+without a glance at finer draperies; bought denims and printed stuffs as
+if she had never heard of costlier upholsteries; and turned away from
+seductive pieces of Turkish and Indian embroideries offered for her
+inspection with a demure, "No, I don't care to look at those now," which
+more than once brought a covert smile to Anthony's lips and a twinkle to
+the eyes of the salesman. It was so very evident that the fair buyer did
+not pass them by for lack of interest.
+
+Altogether, it was an interesting week these three people spent--for a
+week it took. Anthony began to protest after the first two days, and said
+he could not ask so much of his friends. But Juliet would not be hindered
+from taking infinite pains, and Mrs. Dingley good humouredly lent the two
+her chaperonage and her occasional counsel, such as only the gray-haired
+matron of long housewifely experience can furnish.
+
+The selection of the furniture took perhaps the most time, and was the
+hardest, because of the difficulty of finding good styles in keeping with
+the limited purse. Anthony possessed a number of good pieces of antique
+character, but beyond these everything was to be purchased. Juliet turned
+in despair from one shop after another, and when it came to the fitting of
+the dining-room she grew distinctly indignant.
+
+"It's a perfect shame," she said, "that they can't offer really good
+designs in the cheap things. Did you ever see anything so hideous? Tony,
+if I were you I'd rather eat my breakfast off one of those white kitchen
+tables--or----"
+
+She broke off suddenly, rushed away down the long room to a group of
+chastely elegant dining-room furniture and came back after a little with a
+face of great eagerness to drag her companions away with her. She took
+them to survey a set of the costliest of all.
+
+"Have you gone crazy?" Anthony inquired.
+
+"Not at all. Tony, just study that table. It's massive, but it's
+simple--simple as beauty always is. Look at those perfectly straight
+legs--what clever cabinet maker couldn't copy that in--in ash, Tony? Then
+there are stains--I've heard of them--that rub into wood and then finish
+in some way so it's smooth and satiny. You could do that--I'm sure you
+could. Then you'd get the lovely big top you want. And the chairs--do you
+see the plain, solid-looking things? I know they could be made this way.
+Then the dining-room would be simply dear!"
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Juliet, you're coming on," declared Anthony with satisfaction that
+evening as the two, back at the Marcy country place, strolled slowly over
+the lawn toward the river edge. "At this rate you'll do for a poor man's
+wife yourself some day. That frock you have on now--isn't that a sort of
+concession to the humble company you're in?"
+
+"In what way?" Juliet glanced down at the pale-green gown whose delicate
+skirts she was daintily lifting, and in which she looked like a flower in
+its calyx. She had rejoiced to exchange the dusty dress in which she had
+come home from town for this, which suggested coolness in each fresh
+fold.
+
+"Why, it strikes me as about the simplest dress I ever saw you wear. Isn't
+it really--well--the least expensive thing you have had in that line in
+some time?"
+
+The amused laugh with which this observation was greeted might have been
+disconcerting to anybody but Anthony Robeson, but he maintained his ground
+with calmness.
+
+"How many of these do you think you can furnish Mrs. Anthony with in a
+year?" Juliet inquired, her lips forcing themselves to soberness, but the
+laughter lingering in her eyes.
+
+"Several, as girlishly demure as that, I fancy," asserted the young man
+with confidence.
+
+But Juliet's momentary gravity broke down. "Oh, you clever boy!" she said.
+"I shall advise Mrs. Anthony to send you shopping for her when she needs a
+new frock. You will order home just what she wants without stopping to ask
+the price, you will be so confident that you know a cheap thing when you
+see it. Afterward you will pay the bill--and then the awful frown on your
+brow! You will have to live on bread and milk for a month to get your
+accounts straightened out. Oh, Tony!--No, I shouldn't do for a poor man's
+wife--not judging by this 'girlishly demure' gown, you poor lamb.--But,
+Tony," with a swift change of manner, "I do think the little house will be
+very charming indeed. I can hardly wait to know that the painting and
+papering are done, so that we can go down and get things in order. I long
+to arrange those fascinating new tin things in that bit of a cupboard.
+Tony"--turning to him solemnly--"does _she_ know how to cook?"
+
+"I think she is learning now," he assured her. "Seems to me she mentioned
+it in to-day's----" He fumbled in his breast-pocket and brought out a
+letter.
+
+Juliet stole an interested glance at it. She observed that there were
+three closely written sheets of the heavy linen paper, and that the
+handwriting was one suggestive of a pleasing individuality. Anthony, in
+the dim twilight, was scanning page after page in a lover's absorbed way.
+Juliet walked along by his side in silence. She was thinking of the face
+in the photograph, and wondering if Miss Eleanor Langham really loved
+Anthony Robeson as he deserved to be loved.
+
+"For he is a dear, dear fellow," she said to herself, "and if she could
+just see him planning so enthusiastically for her comfort, even if he does
+have to economise, she'd----"
+
+"No, it's not in this letter," observed Anthony, putting the sheets
+together with a lingering touch which did not escape his companion's quick
+eyes. "It must have been in yesterday's."
+
+"Does she write every day?"
+
+"Did you ever hear of an engaged pair who didn't write every day?"
+
+"It must take a good deal of your time," she remarked. "But, of course,
+she can cook. Every sane girl takes a cooking-school course nowadays. It's
+as essential as French."
+
+"You did, then?"
+
+"Of course. Don't you remember when I used to edify you with new and
+wonderful dishes every time you dropped in to luncheon?"
+
+"But did you learn the more important things?"
+
+"I paid especial attention to soups, sir," laughed Juliet. "Now, if Mrs.
+Anthony has done that you can live very economically."
+
+"I'll suggest it to her," said Anthony gravely.
+
+
+
+
+V.--MUSLINS AND TACKHAMMERS
+
+
+It took several trips to the small house, and a great deal of hemming and
+ruffling of muslin on the part of Juliet and the Marcy sewing-woman, to
+say nothing of many days of Anthony's hard labour, to get everything in
+place. But it was all done at length, and the hour arrived to close the
+new home and leave it to wait the oncoming day in September when it should
+be permanently opened.
+
+"I'll just go over it once more," said Juliet to Mrs. Dingley. The latter
+lady was lying in a hammock out under the apple trees, waiting for train
+time and her final release from duties which were becoming decidedly
+wearisome. It was the first day of August, and the evening was a warm one.
+Anthony had gone off upon a last errand of some sort. Mrs. Dingley was too
+exhausted to offer to accompany her niece, and Juliet ran back into the
+house alone. She wandered slowly through the rooms, looking about to see
+if there might be any perfecting touch which she could add.
+
+It was a charming place; even a daughter of the house of Marcy could but
+own to that. Under her skilful management the little rooms had blossomed
+into a fresh, satisfying beauty that needed only the addition of the
+personal adornment which Anthony's bride would be sure to bring, to become
+a home--the home not only of a poor man but of a refined and cultured one
+as well. Restricted though she had been to the most inexpensive means of
+bringing about this happy result, Juliet had made them all tell toward an
+effect of great harmony and beauty. Perhaps to nobody was this more of a
+revelation than to the girl herself.
+
+She was very proud of the living-room, as she looked about it. The
+partition between it and the tiny hall had been removed, according to her
+suggestion, and the straight staircase altered by means of a landing and
+an abrupt turn which transformed it into picturesqueness. With its low,
+broad steps, its slender spindles and odd posts, it added much to the
+character of the room.
+
+Like most old New England houses, this one's chief glory was its great
+central chimney, with big fireplaces opening both into the living-room and
+the dining-room. In the former, between the fireplace and the staircase,
+and forming a suggestion of an inglenook, Juliet had contrived a high,
+wide seat, cushioned in dull green, and boasting a number of pretty
+pillows. It must be confessed that she had surreptitiously added a little
+to these in the matter of certain modestly rich bits of material, and she
+contemplated the result with great satisfaction. It may be remarked, with
+no comment whatever, that in spite of their beauty there was not a pillow
+of all those scattered about the house which a weary man might not tuck
+under his head without fear of ruining a creation too delicate for any use
+but to be admired.
+
+Having seized upon the idea of staining cheap material, she had carried it
+out in a set of low bookcases across the end and one side of the room.
+These awaited the coming of the several hundreds of choice books which
+Anthony had saved from his father's library. Two fine old portraits, dear
+to the hearts of many generations of the "Robesons of Kentucky," lent
+distinction to the home of their young descendant. Altogether the room was
+both quaint and artistic, and with its few plain chairs and tables, mostly
+heirlooms, and all of good old colonial design, was a room in which one
+could readily imagine one's self sitting down to a winter evening of cosy
+comfort, such as is not always to be had in far finer abiding-places.
+
+The dining-room was a study in its reds and browns, and its home-made
+furniture was an astonishing success--if one were not too severely
+critical. As she surveyed it Juliet seemed to see the future master and
+mistress of this little home sitting down opposite each other in the
+fireglow, and smiling across.
+
+The coming Mrs. Robeson, if one might judge by her photograph, was a woman
+to lend grace and dignity to her surroundings, whatever they might be.
+Juliet could imagine her pretty, stately way of presiding at such small
+feasts as the room was destined to see, making her guests quite forget
+that she was not mistress of a mansion equal to any in the land. Would she
+be happy? Could she be happy here, after all that she had had of another
+and very different sort of life? For some reason, as Juliet stood and
+looked and thought, her face grew very sober, and a long-drawn breath
+escaped her lips.
+
+The little kitchen was an exceedingly alluring place, gay in the bravery
+of fresh paint and spotless, shining utensils. There were even crisp
+curtains--at eight cents a yard--tied back at the high, wide-silled,
+triple window with its diminutive panes. It needed only a pot or two of
+growing plants in the window, and a neat-handed Phyllis in a figured gown,
+to be the old-time kitchen of one's dreams.
+
+But it was upon the rooms on the upper floor that Juliet had exhausted her
+imagination and effort. Nothing could have been conceived of more dainty
+than they. Here her denims and muslins had run riot. Low dressing-tables
+clad in ruffled hangings, their padded tops delicate with the breath of
+orris; beds valanced with similar stuffs; high-backed chairs, their seats
+cushioned into comfort--everything was done in the cleverest imitation of
+the ancient styles in keeping with the old-fashioned house. It all made
+one think of the patter of high-heeled, buckled slippers, and stiff,
+rustling, brocaded gowns, and powdered hair, and the odours of long ago.
+Anthony would never know what his friendly home-maker had put into these
+rooms of sentiment and charm.
+
+
+
+
+VI.--A QUESTION OF IDENTITY
+
+
+At the door of the blue-and-white room, the one upon which the girl had
+lavished her most tender fancies, she stood at length, looking in. And as
+she looked something swam before her eyes. A sob rose in her throat. She
+choked it back; she brushed her hand across her face. Then she tried to
+laugh. "Oh, what a goose I am!" she said sternly to herself. And then she
+ran across the room, sank upon her knees before the window-seat with its
+blue and white cushions, and burying her face in one of them cried her
+wretched, jealous, longing heart out.
+
+Anthony, coming in hastily but softly through the small kitchen, heard the
+rush of footsteps overhead, and stopped. He waited a moment, listening
+eagerly; then he came noiselessly into the living-room and stood still.
+His face, always strong and somewhat stern in its repose, had in it
+to-night a certain unusual intensity. He looked at his watch and saw that
+there was an hour before train time. Then he sat down where he could see
+the top of the staircase and waited.
+
+By and by light footsteps crossed the floor above and came through the
+little hall. From where he sat Anthony caught the gleam of Juliet's crisp
+linen skirt. Presently she came slowly down. As she turned upon the
+landing she met Anthony's eyes looking up. In a fashion quite unusual to
+the straightforward gaze of his friend her eyes fell. He saw that her
+cheeks were pale. He rose to meet her.
+
+"Come and rest," he said. "You are tired. You have worked too hard. Such a
+helper a man never had before. And you have made a wonderful success.
+Juliet, I can't thank you. It's beyond that."
+
+But she would not be led to the cosy corner by the window. She found
+something needing her attention in the curtain of the bookcase in the
+dimmest corner of the room, and began solicitously to pull it in various
+ways, as if there were something wrong with it. He watched her, standing
+with his arm on the high chimney-piece.
+
+"I think you enjoyed it just a little bit yourself, though," he observed.
+"Didn't you, chum?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Juliet.
+
+Her back was toward him, her head bent down, but his quick ear detected a
+peculiar quality in her voice. He questioned her again hurriedly.
+
+"You're not sorry you did it?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Juliet.
+
+Now there is not much in two such simple replies as these to indicate the
+state of one's mind and heart; but when a girl has been crying stormily
+and uninterruptedly for a half-hour, and is only not crying still because
+she is holding back the torrent of her unhappiness by sheer force of will,
+it is radically impossible to say so much as four words in a perfectly
+natural way. Anthony understood in a breath that the unfamiliar note in
+his friend's voice was that of tears. And, strange to say, into his face
+there flashed a look of triumph. But he only said very gently:
+
+"Come here a minute--will you, Juliet?"
+
+She bent lower over the curtain. Then she stood up, without looking at
+him, and moved toward the door.
+
+"I believe I'm rather tired," she said in a low tone. "It has been so warm
+all day, and I--I have a headache."
+
+In three steps he came after her, stopping her with his hand grasping hers
+as she would have left the room.
+
+"Come back--please," he urged. "Your aunt is asleep out there, I think. I
+wanted to go over the house once more with you, if you would. But you're
+too tired for that. Just come back and sit down in this nook of yours, and
+let's talk a little."
+
+She could not well refuse, and he put her into a nest of cushions,
+arranging them carefully behind her back and head, and sat down facing
+her. He had placed her just where the waning light from the western sky
+fell full on her face; his own was in the shadow. He was watching her
+unmercifully--she felt that, and desperately turned her face aside,
+burying in a friendly pillow the cheek which was colouring under his
+gaze.
+
+"Is the headache so bad?" he asked softly. "I never knew Juliet Marcy to
+have a headache before. Poor little girl--dear little girl--who has worked
+so hard to please her old friend." He leaned forward and she felt his hand
+upon her hair. The tenderness in his voice and touch were carrying away
+all her defences. But he went on without giving her respite.
+
+"Do you think _she_ will be happy here, chum? Will it take the place of
+the old life for a few years, till I can give her more? She'll have
+nothing here, you know, outside of this little home, but my love. That
+wouldn't be enough for any ordinary woman, would it?"
+
+She was not looking at him, but she could see him as plainly as if she
+were. Always she had thought him the strongest, best fellow she knew. He
+had been her devoted friend so long; she had not realised in the least
+until lately how it was going to seem to get on without him. But she knew
+now.
+
+She felt a dreadful choking in her throat again. It seemed to be closely
+connected with another peculiar sensation, as if her heart had turned into
+a lump of lead. In another minute she knew that she should break down,
+which would be humiliating beyond words. She started up from her cushions
+with a fierce attempt to keep a grip upon herself.
+
+"I know you're very happy," she breathed, "and I'm very glad. But really
+I--I'm not at all sentimental to-night. I'm afraid a headache does not
+make one sympathetic."
+
+But she could not get past him; Anthony's stalwart figure barred the way.
+His strong hands put her gently back among the cushions. She turned her
+head away, fighting hard for that thing she could not keep--her
+self-control.
+
+"Is it really a headache?" asked the low voice in her ear. "Just a
+headache? Not by any chance--a heartache, Juliet?"
+
+"Anthony Robeson!" she cried, but guardedly, lest the open window betray
+her. "What do you mean? You say very strange things. Why should I have a
+heartache? Because you are marrying the girl you love? How often have I
+begged you to go and find her? Do you think I would have done all this for
+her--and you--if I had cared?"
+
+She tried to look defiantly into his eyes--those fine eyes of his which
+were watching her so intently--tried to meet them steadily with her own
+lovely, tear-stained ones--and failed. Swiftly an intense colour dyed her
+cheeks, and she dropped her head like a guilty child.
+
+"Of course I care--that is, in a way," she was somehow forced to admit
+before the bar of his silence. "Why shouldn't I hate to lose the friend
+who used to carry my books to school, and fought the other boys for my
+sake, and has been a brother to me all these years? Of course I do. And
+when I am tired I cry for nothing--just nothing. I----"
+
+It was certainly a brave attempt at eloquence, but perhaps it was not
+wonderfully convincing. At all events it did not keep Anthony from taking
+possession of one of her hands and interrupting her with a most irrelevant
+speech.
+
+"Juliet, do you remember telling me that you should expect a man who loved
+you to carry your likeness always with him? And you asked me for
+_hers_--and I had to own I had left it behind. Yet I had one with me
+then--it is always with me--and that was why I forgot the other. Look."
+
+He drew out a little silver case, and Juliet, reluctantly releasing one
+eye from the shelter of the friendly sofa pillow, saw with a start her own
+face look smiling back at her. It was a little picture of her girlish self
+which she had given him long ago when he went away to college.
+
+"No," he said quickly, as he recognised the indignant question which
+instantly showed in her eyes, "I'm not disloyal to Eleanor Langham.
+Because--dear--there is no such person."
+
+With a little cry she flung herself away from him among the pillows,
+hiding her face from sight. There was a moment's silence while Anthony
+Robeson, his own face growing pale with the immensity of the stakes for
+which he played, made his last venture.
+
+"The little home is only for you, Juliet. If you won't share it with me it
+shall be closed and sold. Perhaps it was an audacious thing to do--it has
+come over me a great many times that it was too audacious ever to be
+forgiven. But I couldn't help the hope that if you should make the home
+yourself you might come to feel that life with a man who had his way to
+make could be borne after all--if you loved him enough. It all depended on
+that. As I said, I didn't mean to be presumptuous, but it was a desperate
+chance with me, dear. I couldn't give you up, and I thought perhaps--just
+_perhaps_--you cared--more than you knew. Anyhow--I loved you so--I had to
+risk it."
+
+Juliet's charming brown head was buried so deep in the pillows that only
+its back with the masses of waving, half-rumpled hair was visible. But up
+from the depths came a smothered question:
+
+"The photograph?"
+
+Anthony's face lightened as if the sun had struck it, but he kept his
+voice quiet. "Borrowed--it's my old friend Dennison's. I never even saw
+the girl--though I ought to beg her pardon for the use I have made of her
+face. She's married now, and lives abroad somewhere. Will you forgive
+me?"
+
+He was standing over her, leaning down so that his cheek touched the
+rumpled hair. "How is it, Juliet? Could you live in the little home--with
+love--and me?"
+
+It was a long time before he got any answer. But at last a flushed, wet,
+radiant face came into view, an arm was reached out, and as with an
+inarticulate, deep note of joy he drew her up into his embrace, a voice,
+half tears, half laughter, cried:
+
+"Oh, Tony--you dear, bad, darling, insolent boy! I did think I could do
+without you--but I can't. And--oh, Tony"--she was sobbing in his arms now,
+while he regarded the top of her head with laughing, exultant eyes--"I'm
+so glad--so glad--_so glad_--there isn't any Eleanor Langham! Oh, _how_ I
+hated her!"
+
+"Did you, sweetheart?" he answered, laughing aloud now. Then bending, with
+his lips close to hers--"well, to tell the truth--to tell the honest
+truth, little girl--_so did I_!"
+
+
+
+
+VII.--AN ARGUMENT WITHOUT LOGIC
+
+
+"I don't like it," repeated Mr. Horatio Marcy, obstinately, and shook his
+head for the fifth time. "I've not a word to say against Anthony, my
+dear--not a word. He's a fine fellow and comes of a good family, and I
+respect him and the start he has made since things went to pieces,
+but----"
+
+Juliet waited, her eyes downcast, her cheeks very much flushed, her mouth
+in lines of mutiny.
+
+"But--" her father continued, settling back in his chair with an air of
+decision, "you will certainly make the mistake of your life if you think
+you can be happy in the sort of existence he offers you. You're not used
+to it. You've not been brought up to it. You can spend more money in a
+forenoon than he can earn in a twelve-month. You don't know how to adapt
+yourself to life on a basis of rigid economy. I----"
+
+"You don't forbid it, sir?"
+
+"Forbid it?--no. A man can't forbid a twenty-four year old woman to do as
+she pleases. But I advise you--I warn you--I ask you seriously to consider
+what it all means. You are used to very many habits of living which will
+be entirely beyond Anthony's means for many years to come. You are fond of
+travel--of dress--of social----"
+
+"Father dear," said his daughter, interrupting him gently by a change of
+tactics. She came to him and sat upon the arm of his chair, and rested her
+cheek lightly upon the top of his thick, iron-gray locks.--"Let's drop all
+this for the present. Let's not discuss it. I want you to do me a
+particular favour before we say another word about it. Come with me down
+to see the house. It's only three hours away. We can go after breakfast
+to-morrow and be back for dinner at seven. It's all I ask. My arguments
+are all there. Please!--_Please!_"
+
+So it came about that at eleven o'clock on a certain morning in August,
+Mr. Horatio Marcy discovered himself to be eyeing with critical, reluctant
+gaze a quaintly attractive, low-spreading white house among trees and
+vines. He became aware at the same time of a sudden close clasp on his
+arm.
+
+"Here it is," said a low voice in his ear. "Does it look habitable?"
+
+"Very pretty, very pretty, my dear," Mr. Marcy admitted. No sane man could
+do otherwise. The little house might have been placed very comfortably
+between the walls of the dining-room at the Marcy country house, but there
+was an indefinable, undeniable air of gracious hospitality and
+homelikeness about its aspect, and its surroundings gave it an appearance
+of being ample for the accommodation of any two people not anxious to get
+away from each other.
+
+Juliet produced an antique door-key of a clumsy pattern, and opened the
+door into the living-room. She ran across to the windows and threw them
+open, then turned to see what expression might be at the moment illumining
+Mr. Marcy's face. He was glancing about him with curious eyes, which
+rested finally upon the portrait of a courtly gentleman in ruffles and
+flowing hair, hanging above the fireplace. He adjusted a pair of
+eyeglasses and gave the portrait the honour of his serious attention.
+
+"That is an ancestor," Juliet explained. "Doesn't he give distinction to
+the room? And isn't the room--well--just a little bit distinguished-looking
+itself, in spite of its simplicity?--because of it, perhaps. The tables
+and most of the chairs are what Anthony found left in the old Kentucky
+homestead after the sale last year, and bought in with--the last of his
+money." Her eyes were very bright, but her voice was quiet.
+
+Mr. Marcy looked at the furniture in question, stared at the walls, then
+at the rug on the polished floor. The rug held his attention for two long
+minutes, then he glanced sharply at his daughter.
+
+"The colourings of that rug are very good, don't you think?" she asked
+with composure. "It will last until Anthony can afford a better one."
+
+Mr. Marcy turned significantly toward the door of the dining-room, and
+Juliet led him through. He surveyed the room in silence, laying a hand
+upon a chair back; then looked suddenly down at the chair and brought his
+eyeglasses to bear upon it.
+
+"The furniture was made by a country cabinet-maker who charged country
+prices for doing it. Tony rubbed in a very thin stain and rubbed the wood
+in oil afterward till it got this soft polish."
+
+The visitor looked incredulous, but he accepted the explanation with a
+polite though exceedingly slight smile. Then he was taken to inspect the
+kitchen. From here he was led through the pantry back to the living-room,
+and so upstairs. He looked, still silently, in at the door of each room,
+exquisite in its dainty readiness for occupancy. As he studied the
+blue-and-white room his daughter observed that he retained less of the air
+of the connoisseur than he had elsewhere exhibited. She had shown him this
+place last with artful intent. No room in his own homes of luxury could
+appeal to him with more of beauty than was visible here.
+
+When Mr. Marcy reached the living-room again he found himself placed
+gently but insistently in the easiest chair the room afforded, close by an
+open window through which floated all the soft odours of country air
+blowing lightly across apple orchards and gardens of old-fashioned
+flowers. His daughter, bringing from the ingle seat a plump cushion,
+dropped upon it at his feet. But instead of beginning any sort of argument
+she laid her arm upon his knee, and her head down upon her arm, and became
+as still as a kitten who has composed itself for sleep. Only through the
+contact of the warm young arm, her father could feel that she was alive
+and waiting for his speech.
+
+When he spoke at last it was with grave quiet, in a gentler tone than that
+which he had used the day before in his own library.
+
+"You helped Anthony furnish this house?"
+
+"Yes, father."
+
+"Do you mind telling me how much you had at your disposal?"
+
+"Five hundred dollars." Juliet maintained her position without moving, and
+her face was out of sight.
+
+"Did this include the repairs upon the place?"
+
+"Yes--but you know wages are low just now and lumber is cheap. Having no
+roof to the porch made it inexpensive. The painting Anthony helped at
+himself. He worked every minute of his two weeks' vacation on whatever
+would cost most to hire done."
+
+"Anthony worked at painting the house?" There was astonishment in Mr.
+Marcy's voice. He had known the Robesons of Kentucky all his life. He had
+never seen one of them lift his hand to do manual labour. There had been
+no need.
+
+"Yes," said Juliet, and the cheek which rested against her father's knee
+began to grow warm.
+
+"You have obtained a somewhat extraordinary effect of harmony and comfort
+inside the house," Mr. Marcy pursued. "It is difficult to understand just
+how you brought it about with so small an expenditure of money."
+
+It was quite impossible now for Juliet to keep her head down. She looked
+up eagerly, but she still managed to speak quietly.
+
+"It _is_ effect, father, and it is art--not money. The paper on the wall
+cost twenty-five cents a roll, but it is the right paper for the place,
+and the wrong paper at ten times that sum wouldn't give the room such a
+background of soft restfulness. Then, you see, the old white woodwork is
+in very good style, and the green walls bring it out. The old floor was
+easily dressed to give that beautiful waxed finish. They told me how to do
+that at the best decorator's in Boston. The rug fits the colourings very
+well. Anthony's old furniture would give any such room dignity. The
+portrait lends the finishing touch, I think. You see, when you analyse it
+all there's nothing in the least wonderful. But it looks like a
+home--doesn't it? And when the little things are in which grow in a
+home--the photographs, a bowl of sweet-williams from the garden, the
+lovely old copper lamp you gave me on my birthday--can't you think how
+dear it will all be?"
+
+Mr. Marcy glanced down keenly into his daughter's face.
+
+"There are a great many things of your own at home which would naturally
+come into your married home," he said.
+
+Juliet coloured richly. "Yes," she answered with steady eyes, "but except
+for the lamp, and the photographs, and a few such very little things, I
+should not bring them. Anthony is poor, but he is very proud. I couldn't
+hurt him by furnishing his home with the overflow of mine. Besides--I
+don't need those things. I don't want them. All I want out of the old home
+is--your love--your blessing, dear!"
+
+The sharp eyes meeting hers softened suddenly. Juliet drew herself to her
+knees, and leaning forward across her father's lap, reached both arms up
+and flung them about his neck. He held her close, her head upon his
+shoulder, and all at once he found the slender figure in his arms shaken
+with feeling. Juliet was not crying, but she was drawing long, deep
+breaths like a child who tries to control itself.
+
+"You need have no doubt of either of those things, my little girl," said
+her father in her ear. "Both are ready. It is only your happiness I want.
+I distrust the power of any poor man to give it to you. That is all. Since
+I have seen this house the question looks less doubtful to me--I admit
+that gladly. But I still am anxious for the future. Even in this
+attractive place there must be monotony, drudgery, lack of many things you
+have always had and felt you must have. You have never learned to do
+without them. I understand that Robeson will not accept them at my hand,
+nor at yours. I don't know that I think the less of him for that--but--you
+will have to learn self-denial. I want you to be very sure that you can do
+it, and that it will be worth while."
+
+There was a little silence, then Juliet gently drew herself away and rose
+to her feet. She stood looking down at the imposing figure of the elderly
+man in the chair, and there was something in her face he had never seen
+there before.
+
+"There's just one thing about it, sir," she said. "I can't possibly spare
+Anthony Robeson out of my life. I tried to do it, and I know. I would
+rather live it out in this little home--with him--than share the most
+promising future with any other man. But there's this you must remember: A
+man who was brought up to do nothing but ride fine horses, and shoot, and
+dance, must have something in him to go to work and advance, and earn
+enough to buy even such a home as this, in five years. He has a future of
+his own."
+
+Mr. Marcy looked thoughtful. "Yes, that may be true," he said. "I rather
+think it is."
+
+"And, father----" she bent to lay a roseleaf cheek against his own--"you
+began with mother in a poorer home than this, and were so happy! Don't I
+know that?"
+
+"Yes, yes, dear," he sighed. "That's true, too. But we were both poor--had
+always been so. It was an advance for us--not a coming down."
+
+"It's no coming down for me." There was spirit and fire in the girl's eyes
+now. "Just to wear less costly clothes--to walk instead of drive--to live
+on simpler food--what are those things? Look at these," she pointed to the
+rows of books in the bookcases which lined two walls of the room. "I'm
+marrying a man of refinement, of family, of the sort of blood that tells.
+He's an educated man--he loves the things those books stand for. He's good
+and strong and fine--and if I'm not safe with him I'll never be safe with
+anybody. But besides all that--I--I love him with all there is of me.
+Oh--_are_ you satisfied now?"
+
+Blushing furiously she turned away. Her father got to his feet, stood
+looking after her a moment with something very tender coming into his
+eyes, then took a step toward her and gathered her into his arms.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.--ON ACCOUNT OF THE TEA-KETTLE
+
+
+"This is the nineteenth day of August," observed Anthony Robeson. "We
+finished furnishing the house for my future bride on the third day of the
+month. Over two weeks have gone by since then. The place must need
+dusting."
+
+He glanced casually at the figure in white which sat just above him upon
+the step of the great porch at the back of the Marcy country house. It was
+past twilight, the moon was not yet up, and only the glow from a distant
+shaded lamp at the other end of the porch served to give him a hint as to
+the expression upon his companion's face.
+
+"I'm beginning to lie awake nights," he continued, "trying to remember
+just how my little home looks. I can't recall whether we set the
+tea-kettle on the stove or left it in the tin-closet. Can you think?"
+
+"You put it on the stove yourself," said Juliet. "You would have filled it
+if Auntie Dingley hadn't told you it would rust."
+
+Anthony swerved about upon the heavy oriental rug, which covered the
+steps, until his back rested against the column; he clasped his arms about
+one knee, and inclined his head at the precise angle which would enable
+him to study continuously the shadowy outlines of the face above him, shot
+across with a ruby ray from the lamp. "I wish I could recollect," he
+pursued, "whether I left the porch awning up or down. It has rained three
+times in the two weeks. It ought not to be down."
+
+"I'm sure it isn't," Juliet assured him. There was a hint of laughter in
+her voice.
+
+"It was rather absurd to put up that awning at all, I suppose. But when
+you can't afford a roof to your piazza, and compromise on an awning
+instead, you naturally want to see how it is going to look, and you rush
+it up. Besides, I think there was a strong impression on my mind that only
+a few days intervened before our occupancy of the place. It shows how
+misled one can be."
+
+There was no reply to this observation, made in a depressed tone. After a
+minute Anthony went on.
+
+"These cares of the householder--they absorb me. I'm always wondering if
+the lawn needs mowing, and if the new roof leaks. I get anxious about the
+blinds--do any of them work loose and swing around and bang their lives
+out in the night? Have the neighbours' chickens rooted up that row of
+hollyhock seeds? Then those books I placed on the shelves so hurriedly.
+Are any of them by chance upside down? Is Volume I. elbowed by Volume II.
+or by Volume VIII.? And I can't get away to see. Coming up here every
+Saturday night and tearing back every Sunday midnight takes all my time."
+
+"You might spend next Sunday in the new house."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Of course. You have so many cares they would keep you from getting
+lonely."
+
+Anthony made no immediate answer to this suggestion, beyond laughing up at
+his companion in the dim light for an instant, then growing immediately
+sober again. But presently he began upon a new aspect of the subject.
+
+"Juliet, are we to be married in church?"
+
+"Tony!--I don't know."
+
+"But what do you think?"
+
+"I--don't think."
+
+"What! Do you mean that?"
+
+"No-o."
+
+"Of course you don't. Well--what about it?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Are we to have a big wedding?"
+
+"Do you want one?"
+
+"I--but that's not the question. Do you want a big wedding?"
+
+She hesitated an instant. Then she answered softly, but with decision:
+"No."
+
+Anthony drew a long breath. "Thank the Lord!" he said devoutly.
+
+"Why?" she asked in some surprise.
+
+"I've never exactly understood why the boys I've been best man for were so
+miserable over the prospect of a show wedding--but I know now. A runaway
+marriage appeals to me now as it never did before. I want to be
+married--tremendously--but I want to get it over."
+
+A soft laugh answered him. "We'll get it over."
+
+Anthony sat up suddenly. "Will we?" he asked with eagerness. "When?"
+
+"I didn't say 'when'!"
+
+"Juliet--when are you going to say it?"
+
+"Why, Tony--dear----"
+
+"That's right--put in the 'dear,'" he murmured. "I've heard mighty few of
+'em yet, and they sound great to me----"
+
+"We've been engaged only two weeks--"
+
+"And two days----"
+
+"And the little house isn't spoiling, even though you're not sure about
+the tea-kettle and the awning. I--you don't want to hurry things----"
+
+"Don't I!"--rebelliously.
+
+"If I'm very good and say 'Christmas'----"
+
+"'Christmas!'--Great Caesar!"
+
+"But, Tony----"
+
+"Now see here--" he leaned forward and stared up at her, without touching
+her--he was as yet allowed few of the lover's favours and prized them the
+more for that--"do you think our case is just like other people's? Here
+I've been waiting for you all my days--waiting and waiting, and tortured
+all the time by suspense. Then I lived that month of July with my heart in
+my mouth--you'll never know what you put me through those days, talking
+and jollying about 'Eleanor Langham,' and never for one instant, until
+just that last day, giving me the smallest pinch of hope that it was
+anything to you except just what it pretended to be. Then--I've been a
+long time without a home--and the little house--sweetheart--it looks like
+Heaven to me. Must I stay outside till Christmas--when everything's all
+ready? Confound it--I don't want to play the pathetic string, and the Lord
+knows I'm happy as a fellow can be who's got the desire of his life.
+But----"
+
+A warm hand came gently upon his hair, and for joy at the touch he fell
+silent. Once he turned his head and put his lips against the white sleeve
+as it fell near, and looked up an instant with eyes whose expression the
+person above him felt rather than saw through the subdued light. By and by
+she took up the conversation.
+
+"So you are rejoiced that I don't want a great wedding?"
+
+"Immensely relieved."
+
+"What would you like best?"
+
+"I don't dare tell you."
+
+"You may."
+
+"Tell me what you would like, Julie."
+
+"Of course father would say the town house, even if it were a small
+affair. Auntie Dingley would probably agree to having it here--if that
+were what you--we--wanted--that is----"
+
+Anthony looked up quickly. "Even at Christmas?"
+
+"Why--yes. We could come back. People do that sometimes."
+
+"Yes. Must we do what other people do?"
+
+"Would you rather not?"
+
+"Ten thousand times. It seems to me that the biggest mistake people make
+is the way they do this thing. Juliet--think of the little house. We made
+it--you made it. For years, without doubt, it's to hold us and our
+experiences. Do you know I'd like to give it this one to begin with?--I'm
+holding my breath!"
+
+Plainly she was holding hers. Her head was turned away--he could just see
+her profile outlined against the ruby light. And at the moment there were
+footsteps inside a long French window near at hand which lay open into the
+library. Mr. Horatio Marcy came out and stood still just behind them.
+
+Anthony sprang to his feet, and came forward up the steps. The older man
+greeted him cordially. Anthony pulled a big chair into position, and Mr.
+Marcy sat down. He was smoking and wore an air of relaxation. He and his
+guest fell to talking, the younger man entering into the conversation with
+as much ease and spirit as if he were not fresh from what was to him at
+this hour a much more interesting discussion. Juliet sat quietly and
+listened.
+
+It grew into an absorbing argument after a little, the two men taking
+opposite sides of a great governmental question just then claiming public
+interest. Mrs. Dingley came out and joined the group, and she and Juliet
+listened with increasing delight in a contest of brains such as was now
+offered them. Mr. Marcy himself, while he put forth his arguments with
+conviction and with skill, was evidently enjoying the keen wit and wisdom
+of his young opponent. The elder man met objection with objection, set up
+men of straw to be knocked down, and ended at last with a hearty laugh and
+a frankly appreciative:
+
+"Well, Anthony--you have convinced me of one thing, certainly. There are
+more sides to the question than I had understood. I will admit that you've
+made a strong argument. But when I come back I'll down you with fresh
+material. I shall have plenty of it."
+
+"Are you going away soon, sir?" Anthony asked with some surprise. Mr.
+Marcy was a frequent traveller, preferring to look after various business
+interests in faraway ports himself rather than entrust them to others.
+
+"Yes--I shall be off in a few weeks--and for a longer time than usual. I
+haven't told these ladies of my household yet--but this is as good a time
+as any. Juliet, little girl--I may be gone all winter this time."
+
+She came quickly to him without speaking, and gave him her regretful
+answer silently.
+
+"When do you go, Horatio?" Mrs. Dingley asked.
+
+"About the first of October. I hadn't fully decided till to-day. I had
+thought of inviting you two to go with me."
+
+He looked with a smile at his sister and his daughter, then somewhat
+quizzically at Anthony. The latter was regarding him with an alert face in
+which, as nearly as could be made out in the dim light, were no signs of
+discomfiture.
+
+"Horatio," said Mrs. Dingley, "I wish you would come into the library for
+a few minutes. This reminds me of a letter I had to-day from one of your
+old friends, asking when you were to be at home."
+
+The French window closed on the two older people. Juliet, left sitting on
+the arm of her father's chair, found Anthony behind her.
+
+"Do you want to go on a voyage to the Philippines?" he was asking over her
+shoulder.
+
+"I'm not sure just what I do want," she answered rather breathlessly.
+
+"The tea-kettle would rust while you were gone."
+
+He got no reply.
+
+"The dust would grow inches deep on the dining-table we polished so
+carefully."
+
+Juliet rose and walked slowly to the edge of the steps. Anthony followed.
+"Let's go and walk on the terrace," he proposed, and they ran down to the
+smooth sward below. It was a warm night, with no dew, and the short-shaven
+grass was dry. All the stars were out. Anthony walked beside the figure in
+white, his hands clasped behind his back.
+
+"Do white ruffled curtains like those at our windows ever grow musty from
+being shut up?" he insinuated gently.
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Will you write from every port you touch at? It will take a good many
+letters to satisfy me."
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"Suppose what? That you will write?"
+
+Juliet stood still. "You're the greatest wheedler I ever saw," she said.
+
+"Is that a compliment?"
+
+"It's not meant for one. What am I to do when I'm----"
+
+"Married to me?--I don't know, poor child. I can only pity you. What do
+you think the prospect is for me, never to be able to get the smallest
+concession from you except by every art of coaxing? Yet--if I can get this
+thing I want, by any means--I warn you I shall not give up until I've seen
+you sail."
+
+"You'll not see me sail."
+
+He wheeled upon her. He had her hand in his grasp. "And if you don't go?"
+
+"I'll stay."
+
+"With me?"
+
+She laughed irresistibly. "How could I stay without you?"
+
+"Will you marry me before your father goes?"
+
+"Oh, Tony, Tony----"
+
+"We can't be married without his blessing, can we?"
+
+"No--dear father."
+
+"Then----"
+
+"I'll tell you to-morrow," said she.
+
+
+
+
+IX.--A BISHOP AND A HAY-WAGON
+
+
+Juliet Marcy's prospective maid-of-honour found Anthony Robeson's best man
+at her elbow the moment she entered the waiting-room of the big railway
+station. Now, although she greeted him with a charming little conscious
+look, there was nothing either new or singular about the quiet rush he had
+made across the waiting-room the instant he saw her. The rest of the party
+of twenty people who were going down into the country to the Marcy-Robeson
+wedding understood it perfectly, although the engagement had not been
+announced and probably would not be until Wayne Carey should have an
+income decidedly larger than he had at present.
+
+Judith Dearborn joined the group at once, and Carey reluctantly followed
+her. Judith had a way of joining groups and of giving her betrothed many
+impatient half-hours thereby.
+
+"Just think of this," she said to the others. "When I knew Juliet had
+really given in to Anthony Robeson at last I thought I should be asked to
+assist at an impressive church wedding. But here we are going down to what
+Tony describes as 'a box of a house' in the most rural of suburbs. If it's
+really as small as he says even twenty people will be a tight fit."
+
+"How in the world did they come to be married there?" asked the sister of
+the best man. Everybody had been summoned to this wedding so hurriedly and
+so informally that nobody knew much about it.
+
+The son of the Bishop--whose father was going down to perform the
+ceremony--answered promptly:
+
+"Tony tells me its Juliet's own choice. You see they furnished the house
+together, with her aunt, Mrs. Dingley; and Juliet fell so in love with it
+that she must needs be married in it. What's occurred to that girl I don't
+know. After the Robesons of Kentucky lost their money and everything else
+but their social standing I thought it was all up with Anthony. But he's
+plucky. He's made a way for himself, and he's won Juliet somehow. He seems
+to be a late edition of that obstinate chap who remarked 'I will find a
+way or make one.' By Jove--he must have made one when he convinced Juliet
+Marcy that she could be happy in a house where twenty people are a tight
+fit."
+
+When the train stopped at the small station Judith Dearborn said in Wayne
+Carey's ear, as he glanced wonderingly from the train: "Is this it? Juliet
+Marcy must be perfectly crazy!"
+
+"She certainly must," admitted Robeson's best man. But he stifled a sigh.
+If Juliet Marcy could do so crazy a thing as to marry Anthony Robeson on
+the comparatively small salary that young man--brought up to do nothing at
+all--was now earning, why must Wayne Carey wait for several times that
+income before he could have Juliet's closest friend? Was there really such
+a difference in girls?
+
+But at the next instant he was shouting hilariously, and so was everybody
+else except the Bishop and the Bishop's wife, who only smiled indulgently.
+The rest of the party were young people, and their glee brooked no
+repression. The moment they reached the little platform they comprehended
+not only that they were coming to a most informal wedding--they were also
+in for a decidedly novel lark.
+
+Close to the edge of the platform stood a great hay-wagon, cushioned with
+fragrant hay and garlanded with goldenrod and purple asters. Standing
+erect on the front, one hand grasping the reins which reached out over a
+four-in-hand of big, well-groomed, flower-bedecked farm horses, the other
+waving a triumphant greeting to his friends, was Anthony Robeson, in white
+from head to foot, his face alight with happiness and fun. He looked like
+a young king; there could be no other comparison for his splendid outlines
+as he towered there. And better yet, he looked as he had ever looked,
+through prosperity and through poverty, like a "Robeson of Kentucky."
+
+Below him, prettier than she had ever been--and that was saying much--her
+eyes brilliant with the spirit of the day, laughing, dressed also in
+white, a big white hat drooping over her brown curls, stood Juliet Marcy.
+
+In a storm of salutations and congratulations the guests rushed toward
+this extraordinary equipage and the radiant pair who were its charioteers.
+All regrets over the probable commonplaceness of a small country wedding
+had vanished.
+
+[Illustration: "Standing erect ... one hand grasping the reins ... was
+Anthony Robeson."]
+
+"Might have known they would do things up in shape somehow," grunted the
+Bishop's son approvingly. "This is the stuff. Conventionality be tabooed.
+They're going to the other extreme, and that's the way to do. If you don't
+want an altar and candles, and a high-mucky-muck at the organ, have a
+hay-wagon. _Gee!_--Let me get up here next to Ben Hur and the lady!"
+
+Even the Bishop, sitting with clerical coat-tails carefully parted, his
+handsome face beaming benevolently from under his round hat, and Mrs.
+Bishop, granted by special dispensation a cushion upon the hay seat,
+enjoyed that drive. Anthony, plying a long, beribboned lash, aroused his
+heavy-footed steeds into an exhilarating trot, and the hay-wagon, carrying
+safely its crew of young society people in their gayest mood, swept over
+the half-mile from the station to the house like a royal barge.
+
+As they drew up a chorus of "Oh's!" not merely polite but sincerely
+surprised and admiring, recognised the quaint beauty of the little house.
+It was no commonplace country home now, though the changes wrought had
+been comparatively slight. It looked as if it might have stood for years
+in just this fashion, yet it was as far removed from its primitive
+characterless condition as may be an artist's drawing of a face upon which
+he has altered but a line.
+
+Mrs. Dingley and Mr. Horatio Marcy--a pair whose presence anywhere would
+have been a voucher for the decorum of the most unconventional
+proceedings--welcomed the party upon the wide, uncovered porch.
+
+"We're going to be married very soon, to have it over," called Anthony.
+"But you may explore the house first, so your minds shall be at rest
+during the crisis. Just don't wander too far away in examining this
+ancestral mansion. There are six rooms. I should advise your going in
+line, otherwise complications may occur in the upper hall. Please don't
+all try to get into the kitchen at once; it can't be done. It will hold
+Juliet and me at the same time--all the rooms have been stretched to do
+that--they had to be; but I'm not sure as to their capacity for more. Now
+make yourselves absolutely at home. The place is yours--for a few hours.
+After that it's mine--and Juliet's."
+
+He glanced, laughing, at his bride, as he spoke from where he stood in the
+doorway. She was on the little landing of the staircase, at the opposite
+end of the living-room. She looked down and across at him, and nearly
+everybody in the room--they were thronging through at the moment--caught
+that glance. She was smiling back at him, and her eyes lingered only an
+instant after they met his, but her friends all saw. There could be no
+question that the Juliet Marcy who, since she had laid aside her
+pinafores, had kept many men at bay, had at last surrendered. As for
+Anthony----
+
+"Why, he's always been in love with her," said the Bishop's son in the ear
+of the best man, as in accordance with their host's permission they peeped
+admiringly in at the little kitchen, "but any idiot can see that he's
+fairly off his feet now. Ideal condition--eh? Say, this dining-room's
+great--Jove, it is. I'm going to get asked out here to dinner as soon as
+they are back. Let's go upstairs. The girls are just coming down--hear 'em
+gurgling over what they saw?"
+
+Upstairs the best man looked in at the blue-and-white room with eyes which
+one with penetration might have said were envious. Indeed, he stared at
+everything with much the same expression. He was the soberest man present.
+Ordinarily he could be counted on to enliven such occasions, but to-day
+his fits of hilarity were only momentary, and during the intervals he was
+observed by the Bishop's son to be gazing somewhat yearningly into space
+with an abstraction new to him.
+
+Nobody knew just how the moment for the ceremony arrived. But when the
+survey of the house was over and everybody had instinctively come back to
+the living-room, the affair was brought about most naturally. The Bishop,
+at a word from the best man, took his place in the doorway opening upon
+the porch, which had been set in a great nodding border of goldenrod.
+Anthony, making his way among his guests, came with a quiet face up to
+Juliet and, bending, said softly, "Now, dear?" A hush followed instantly,
+and the guests fell back to places at the sides of the room. Anthony's
+best man was at his elbow, and the two went over to the Bishop, to stand
+by his side. Mr. Marcy moved quietly into his place. Juliet, with Judith,
+who had kept beside her, walked across the floor, and Anthony, meeting
+her, led her a step farther to face the Bishop. It was but a suggestion of
+the usual convention, and Anthony, in his white clothes, surrounded as he
+was by men in frock-coats, was assuredly the most unconventional
+bridegroom that had ever been seen. Juliet, too, wore the simplest of
+white gowns, with no other adornment than that of her own beauty. Yet,
+somehow, as the guests, grown sober in an instant, looked on and noted
+these things, there was not one who felt that either grace or dignity was
+lacking. The rich voice of the Bishop was as impressive as it had ever
+been in chancel or at altar; the look on Anthony's face was one which
+fitted the tone in which he spoke his vows; and Juliet, giving herself to
+the man whose altered fortunes she was agreeing to share, bore a
+loveliness which made her a bride one would remember long--and envy.
+
+"There, that's done," said the Bishop's son with a gusty sigh of relief,
+which brought the laugh so necessary to the relaxing of the tension which
+accompanies such scenes. "Jove, it's a good thing to see a fellow like
+Robeson safely tied up at last. You never can tell where these quixotic
+ideas about houses and hay-wagons and weddings may lead. It's a terrible
+strain, though, to see people married. I always tremble like a leaf--I
+weigh only a hundred and ninety-eight now, and these things affect me.
+It's so frightful to think what might happen if they should trip up on
+their specifications."
+
+There was a simple wedding breakfast served--by whom nobody could tell. It
+was eaten out in the orchard--a pleasant place, for the neglected grass
+had been close cut, and an old-fashioned garden at one side perfumed the
+air with late September flowers. The trim little country maids who brought
+the plates came from a willow-bordered path which led presumably to the
+next house, some distance down the road. There were several innovations in
+the various dishes, delicious to taste. Altogether it was a little feast
+which everybody enjoyed with unusual zest. And the life of the party was
+the bridegroom.
+
+"I never saw a fellow able to scintillate like that at his own wedding,"
+remarked the son of the Bishop to the best man's sister. "Usually they are
+so completely dashed by their own temerity in getting into such an
+irretrievable situation that they sit with their ears drooping and their
+eyes bleared. Do you suppose it's getting married in tennis clothes that's
+done it?"
+
+"Tennis clothes!" cried the best man's sister with a merry laugh. "If you
+realised how much handsomer he looks than you men in your frock-coats you
+would not make fun."
+
+"Make fun!" repeated the Bishop's son solemnly. "I joke only to keep my
+head above water. I never in my life was so completely submerged in the
+desire to get married instantly and live in a picturesque band-box.
+Nothing can keep me from it longer than it takes to find the girl and the
+band-box. If--if--" his voice dropped to a whisper, and a hint of redness
+crept into his face which belied his jesting words, "you knew of the
+girl--I--er--say--should you mind living in a band-box?"
+
+The best man's sister was the sort of girl who can discern when even an
+inveterate joker is daring to be somewhat more than half in earnest, and
+she flushed so prettily that the son of the Bishop caught her hand
+boyishly under the little table. He had hitherto been considered a
+hopeless old bachelor, so it may readily be seen that, now the contagion
+had caught him, his was quite a serious case.
+
+
+
+
+X.--ON A THRESHOLD
+
+
+When it was all over Judith Dearborn went upstairs with Juliet to help her
+dress for her going away. The maid-of-honour looked about the
+blue-and-white room with thoughtful eyes.
+
+"This is certainly the dearest room I ever saw," she said. "Oh, Juliet, do
+you think you really will be happy here?"
+
+"What do you think about it, dear?" asked Juliet.
+
+"Oh--I--well, really--I never imagined that a little old house like this
+could be made so awfully attractive. But, Juliet--you--you must be very,
+very fond of Anthony to give up so many things. How well he looked to-day.
+Seems to me he's grown gloriously in every way since he--since his family
+came into so many misfortunes."
+
+Juliet smiled, but answered nothing.
+
+"And you're so different, too. Never in my life would I have imagined you
+having a wedding like this--and yet it's been absolutely the prettiest one
+I ever saw. That's a sweet gown to go away in--but it's the simplest thing
+you ever wore, I'm sure. Juliet, where are you going?"
+
+"We are going to drive through the Berkshires in a cart."
+
+"Juliet Marcy!"
+
+"'Robeson,'" corrected Juliet with a little laugh, but in a tone which it
+was a pity Anthony could not hear. "Don't forget that. I'm so proud of the
+name. And I think a drive through the Berkshires will be a perfectly ideal
+trip."
+
+Judith Dearborn was not assisting the bride at all. Instead she was
+sitting in a chair, staring at Juliet with much the same abstraction of
+manner observable in the best man throughout the day.
+
+"Of course you didn't need to live this way," observed Miss Dearborn at
+length. "You could have afforded to live much more expensively."
+
+"No, I couldn't," said Juliet with a flash in her eyes, though she smiled;
+"I couldn't have afforded to do one thing that would hurt Tony's pride.
+Why, Judith--he's a 'Robeson of Kentucky.'"
+
+"Well, he looks it," admitted Judith. "And you're a Marcy of
+Massachusetts. The two go well together. Juliet, do you know--somehow--I
+thought it was a fearful sacrifice you were making, even for such a man as
+Anthony--but--this blue-and-white room----"
+
+"Ah, this blue-and-white room----" repeated Juliet. Then she came over and
+dropped on her knees by her friend in her impulsive way and put both arms
+around her. The plain little going-away gown touched folds with the one
+whose elegance was equalled only by its cost. Anthony Robeson's wife
+looked straight up into the eyes of her maid-of-honour and whispered:
+
+"Judith, don't put Wayne--and--your blue-and-white room off too long. You
+will not be any happier to wait--if you love him."
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+Drawn up close to the door stood the cart. Beside it waited Anthony.
+Around the cart crowded twenty people. When Juliet came through them to
+say good-bye the son of the Bishop murmured:
+
+"Er--Mrs. Robeson----"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Farnham----" said Juliet promptly, her delicate flush answering
+the name, as it had answered it many times that day.
+
+"When are you going to be at home to your friends?"
+
+"The fifteenth day of October," said Juliet. "And from then on, every day
+in the week, every week in the year. Come and see us--everybody. But don't
+expect any formal invitations."
+
+"I'll be down," declared the Bishop's son. "I'll be down once a week."
+
+"Please don't stay long after we are gone," requested Anthony, putting his
+bride into the cart and springing in beside her. He gathered up the reins.
+"Good-bye," he called. "Take this next train home. It goes in an hour.
+Lock the door, Carey, and hang the key up in plain sight by the window
+there. We live in the country now, and that's the way we do.
+Good-bye--good-bye!"
+
+Then he drove rapidly away down the road.
+
+"And that pair," said the son of the Bishop gravely, looking after them
+and speaking to the company in general, "married, so to speak, in a
+hay-wagon, and going for a wedding trip in a wheel-barrow through the
+Berkshires, is Juliet Marcy and Anthony Robeson."
+
+"No, my son," said the Bishop slowly--and everybody always listened when
+the Bishop spoke: "It is Anthony and Juliet Robeson--and that makes all
+the difference. I think two happier young people I never married. And may
+God be with them."
+
+The best man said that he and the maid-of-honour would walk the half-mile
+to the station. The son of the Bishop and the sister of the best man had
+already taken this course without saying anything about it. Nearly
+everybody murmured something about it being a lovely evening and a
+glorious sunset and a charming road, and, pairing off advisedly, adopted
+the same plan. The Bishop and Mrs. Bishop, Mrs. Dingley and Mr. Marcy
+decided on being driven over to the station in a light surrey provided for
+this anticipated emergency.
+
+The best man and the maid-of-honour succeeded in dropping behind the rest
+of the pedestrians. Their friends were used to that, and let them
+mercifully alone.
+
+"Mighty pretty affair," observed Carey in a melancholy tone.
+
+"Yes--in its way," admitted Judith Dearborn with apparent reluctance.
+
+"Cosy house."
+
+"Very."
+
+"Tony seemed happy."
+
+"Ecstatic." Judith's inflection was peculiar.
+
+"Nobody would have suspected Juliet of feeling blue about living off
+here."
+
+"She doesn't seem to."
+
+"What's made the difference?"
+
+"Anthony Robeson, probably."
+
+"Must seem pretty good to him to have her care like that."
+
+"I presume so."
+
+"It isn't everybody that could inspire such an--affection--in such a
+girl."
+
+"No, indeed."
+
+Carey looked intensely gloomy. The two walked on in silence, Miss Dearborn
+studying the sunset, Carey studying Miss Dearborn. Suddenly he spoke
+again.
+
+"Judith, do all our plans for the future seem as desirable to you as they
+did this morning?"
+
+"Which ones?"
+
+"Apartment in the locality we've picked out--life in the style the
+locality calls for--and _wait_ for it all until I'm _gray_----" with a
+burst of tremendous energy. "Good heavens, darling, what's the use?
+Why--if I could have you and a little home like that----"
+
+He bit his lip hard. The maid-of-honour walked on, her head turned still
+farther away than before. They were nearing the station. Just ahead lay a
+turn in the road--the last turn. The rest of the party, with a shout back
+at this dilatory pair, disappeared around it. From the distance came the
+long, shrill whistle of the approaching train.
+
+The maid-of-honour glanced behind: there was not a soul in sight; ahead:
+and saw nothing to alarm a girl with an impulse in her heart. At a point
+where great masses of reddening sumac hid a little dip in the road from
+everything earthly she stopped suddenly, and turning, put out both hands.
+She looked up into a face which warmed on the instant into a
+half-incredulous joy and said very gently: "You may."
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+The sun had been gone only two hours, and the soft early autumn darkness
+had but lately settled down upon the silent little house, waiting alone
+for its owners to come back some October day, when a cart, driven slowly,
+rolled along the road. In front of the house it stopped.
+
+"Where are we?" asked Juliet's voice. "This is a private house. I thought
+we--Why, Tony--do you see?--We've come around in a circle instead of going
+on to that little inn you spoke of. This is--_home_!"
+
+"Is it?" said Anthony's voice in a tone of great surprise. "So it is!" He
+leaped out and came around to Juliet's side. "What a fluke!" But the happy
+laugh in his voice betrayed him.
+
+"Anthony Robeson," cried Juliet softly, "you need not pretend to be
+surprised. You meant to do it."
+
+"Did I?" He reached out both arms to take her down. "Perhaps I did. Do you
+mind--Mrs. Robeson? Shall we go on?"
+
+Juliet looked down at him. "No, I don't think I mind," she said.
+
+He swung her down, and they went slowly up the walk. "Somehow," said
+Anthony Robeson, looking up at the house, lying as if asleep in the
+September night, "when I thought of taking you to that little public inn,
+and then remembered that we might have this instead--We can go on with our
+wedding journey to-morrow, dear-but--to-night----"
+
+He led her silently upon the porch. He found the key, where in jest he had
+bade his best man put it, and unlocked the door and threw it open.
+
+He stepped first upon the threshold, and, turning, held out his arms.
+
+"Come," he said, smiling in the darkness.
+
+XI.--A BACHELOR AT DINNER
+
+"Hallo there--Anthony Robeson--don't be in such a hurry you can't notice a
+fellow."
+
+The big figure rushing through the snow paused, wheeled, and thrust out a
+hand of hearty greeting. "That you, Carey? Hat over your eyes like a train
+robber--electric lights all behind you--and you expect me to smile at you
+as I go by! How are you? How's Judith?"
+
+"Infernally lonely--I mean I am--Judith's off on a visit to her mother.
+Say, Tony--take me home with you--will you? I want some decent things to
+eat, so I'm holding you up on purpose."
+
+"Good--come on. Train goes in a few minutes. Juliet will be delighted."
+
+The two hurried on together into the station from which the suburban
+trains were constantly leaving. As they entered they encountered a mutual
+friend, at whom both flung themselves enthusiastically with alternate
+greetings:
+
+"Roger Barnes----"
+
+"Roger--old fellow--glad to see you back!"
+
+"Patient safely landed?"
+
+"Get a big fee?"
+
+"Where you going?"
+
+"Let's take him home with us, Tony----" The third man looked smiling at
+Tony. "I'll challenge you to," said he.
+
+"That's easy--come on," responded Anthony Robeson with cordiality. "I'll
+just telephone Mrs. Robeson."
+
+"That's it," said Dr. Roger Barnes. "You don't dare not to. I understand.
+Go ahead. But if she's too much dashed let me know, will you?"
+
+Anthony turned, laughing, into a telephone closet, from which he emerged
+in time to catch his train with his guests.
+
+"It's all right," he assured them. "But it's only fair to let her know a
+few minutes ahead. You like to understand, Roger, before you start, don't
+you, whether your emergency case is a hip-fracture or a cut lip, so you
+can tell whether to take your glue or your sewing-silk?"
+
+"By all means," said the bachelor of the party. "And I suppose you think
+Mrs. Juliet Marcy Robeson is now smiling happily to herself over this
+little surprise. I'll lay you anything you please that if I can make her
+own up she'll admit that she said '_Merciful heavens!_' into the telephone
+when she got your message."
+
+Anthony shook his head. "Evidently you don't know what guests in the
+remote suburbs on a stormy February night mean to a poor girl whose
+nearest neighbour is five hundred feet away. Your ideas of married life
+need a little freshening, too. They're pretty antique."
+
+It was a half-mile from the station to the house--the "box of a
+house"--which had been Anthony's home for five months, and toward which he
+now led his friends with the air of a man about to show his most treasured
+possessions. He strode through the deepening snow as if he enjoyed the
+strenuous tramp, setting a pace which Wayne Carey, with his office life,
+if not the doctor, more vigorously built and bred, found difficult to
+maintain.
+
+"Here we are," called the leader, pointing toward windows glowing with a
+ruddy light. The doctor looked up with interest. Carey was a frequent
+visitor, but the busy surgeon, old school-and-college chum of Anthony's
+though he was, was about to have his first introduction to a place of
+which he had heard much, but of whose nearness to Paradise he doubted with
+the strong skepticism of a man who has seen many a fair beginning end in
+all unhappiness and desolation.
+
+As they stamped upon the little porch the door flew open, the brilliancy
+and comfort of a fire-and-lamplit room leaped out at them, a delicious
+faint odour of cookery assailed their hungry nostrils, and the welcome
+which makes all worth having met them on the threshold.
+
+"Wayne," said the rich young voice of the mistress of the house, "I'm so
+glad. Roger Barnes, this is just downright good of you; it's so long
+you've promised us this. Tony----"
+
+What she said to Tony must have been whispered in his ear if voiced at
+all, for the two guests, looking on with laughing, envious eyes, saw their
+hostess swept unceremoniously into a bearlike embrace, swung into the air
+as one thrusts up a child, poised there an instant, laughing and
+protesting, then slowly lowered to be kissed, and set down once more
+lightly upon the floor.
+
+"It's all right. I didn't tumble your hair a bit," said Anthony coolly.
+"Excuse me, gentlemen, but Wayne understands--and Roger will some day, I
+hope--that a man who has been thinking about it all the way home can't put
+it off on account of a couple of idiots who stand and stare instead of
+politely turning their backs. Oh, don't mention it--it doesn't disturb me
+at all; and Mrs. Robeson is becoming reconciled to my impetuosity by
+degrees. Make yourselves at home, boys. Juliet----"
+
+"Take them upstairs, Tony, please. Of course we can't let them go back
+to-night, now we have them. It's beginning to storm heavily, isn't it? I
+thought so. Take them to the guest-room, Tony--and dinner will be served
+as soon as you are down."
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+"By Jupiter, I believe she means it," declared the doctor, with approval,
+as the door of the bedroom closed on his host. "I think I can tell when a
+woman is shamming. She's improved, hasn't she, tremendously? Pretty girl
+always, but--well--bloomed now. Nice little house. Believe I'll have to
+stay, though I ought not--just to take observations on Tony. His
+enthusiasm has all the appearance of reality. In fact, it strikes me he
+has rather----"
+
+It was on his lips to say "rather more than you have," but it occurred to
+him in time that jokes on this ground are dangerous. Wayne Carey had been
+married in November, was living in a somewhat unpretentious way in a
+downtown boarding-house, and certainly had to-night so much of a lost-dog
+air that it made the doctor pause. So he substituted: "--rather more than
+I should have expected, even of a fellow who has got the girl he has
+wanted all his life," and fell to washing and brushing vigorously, eyeing
+meanwhile the little room with a critical bachelor's appreciation of
+beauty and comfort in the quarters he is to occupy. It was very simply
+furnished, certainly, but it struck him as a place where his dreams were
+likely to be pleasant for every reason in the world.
+
+Downstairs, Juliet, in the dining-room, was surveying her table with the
+hostess's satisfaction. Opposite her stood a tall and slender girl,
+black-haired, black-eyed, with a face of great attractiveness.
+
+"I wish, Mrs. Robeson," she was saying eagerly, "you would let me serve
+you as your maid, and not make a guest of me. Really, I should love to do
+it. I don't need to meet your friends, and I don't mind seeming what I
+really am--your----"
+
+"Rachel Redding," Juliet interrupted, lifting an affectionate glance
+across the table, "if you want to seem what you really are--my friend--you
+will let me do as I like."
+
+"My shabby clothes----" murmured the girl.
+
+"If I could look as much like a princess as you do in them----"
+
+"Mrs. Robeson, in that lovely dull red you're a queen----"
+
+"--dowager," finished Juliet gayly. "Well, I'll be proud of you, and you
+can be proud of me, if you like, and together we'll make those hungry men
+think there's nothing like us. The dinner's the thing. Isn't it the
+luckiest chance in the world I sent for those oysters this morning? Doctor
+Barnes is perfectly fine, but he never would believe in the happiness of
+married life if the coffee were poor or the beefsteak too much broiled.
+Doesn't the table look pretty? Those red geranium blossoms you brought me
+give it just the gay touch it needed this winter night."
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three men, standing about the wide fireplace, warming cold hands at its
+friendly blaze, turned expectantly as their youthful hostess came in,
+followed by a graceful girl in gray. Juliet presented her guests with the
+air of conferring upon them a favour, and they seemed quite ready to
+accept it as such.
+
+Anthony looked on with interest to see a person whom he had known hitherto
+only as a pretty but poor young neighbour whom Juliet had engaged to help
+her for a certain part of every day, introduced as his wife's friend, and
+greeted by Doctor Barnes and Wayne Carey with quite evident admiration and
+pleasure. He looked hard at her, as Carey seated her, noticing for the
+first time that she was really worth consideration, and remembering
+vaguely that Juliet had more than once tried to impress him with the fact.
+If it had not been for the other fellows, with whose eyes as their host he
+was now stimulated to observe her, he might have been still some time
+longer in coming to the realisation that Juliet had found somebody in whom
+her genuine interest was not misplaced. But Anthony Robeson had all his
+life been singularly blind to the fascinations of most other women than
+Juliet. As he turned his keen gaze from Rachel Redding to the charming
+figure that sat on the other side of the table the satisfaction in his
+eyes became so pronounced that it could mean, Dr. Roger Barnes admitted to
+himself, as he caught it, nothing less than a very real happiness.
+
+It was not an elaborate dinner. It was not by any means the sort of dinner
+Juliet might have prepared had she known that morning whom she was to
+entertain. It was merely a dinner planned with affectionate care to please
+and satisfy one hungry man who liked good things to eat--and amplified as
+much as possible in quantity after Anthony's message reached her. And by
+that admirable collusion between hostess and feminine friend which can
+sometimes be effected when the situation demands it, the dinner prepared
+for three seemed ample for five.
+
+[Illustration: "Three men, standing about the wide fireplace ... turned
+expectantly as their youthful hostess came in, followed by a
+graceful girl in gray."]
+
+Between them Juliet and Rachel Redding served the various dishes and
+changed the plates which Anthony handed from his place. It was gracefully
+done and so simply that the absence of a maid was a thing to be enjoyed
+rather than regretted. When Juliet, in the softly sweeping dull-red frock
+which made of her a warm picture for a winter's night, slipped from her
+chair and moved about the room, or brought in from the kitchen a steaming
+dish, she seemed the ideal hostess, herself bestowing what her own hands
+had prepared. And when Rachel Redding offered a man a cup of fragrant
+coffee, smiling down in the general direction of his uplifted face without
+meeting his eyes, there was certainly nothing lost from his enjoyment of
+the beverage.
+
+"Say, but this dinner has tasted just about right," was Wayne Carey's
+satisfied observation as he leaned back in his chair at last, after
+draining his third cup of coffee--and the pot itself, if he had but known
+it.
+
+"Went to the spot?" asked Anthony, leaning back also with the expression
+of the friendly host. He was young to cultivate that expression, but he
+appeared to find no difficulty about it.
+
+"It did--every last mouthful."
+
+"Good. Now, if you fellows will come back to the fire and have a pipeful
+of talk we shall not be missed. In this house on ordinary occasions we
+reverse the order of after-dinner privileges--the men retire to the
+atmosphere of the sofa-pillows, and the women--I'm not allowed to tell
+what they do. But after remaining discreetly out of sight for some little
+time, during which faint sounds as of the rattle of china penetrate
+through closed doors, they reappear, pleasantly flushed and full of a sort
+of relieved joy."
+
+"I know what I wish," said Roger Barnes, looking back from the dining-room
+doorway at young Mrs. Robeson; "I wish that when the dishes are all ready
+you would let me know. I should like nothing better than to have a
+dish-towel at them. I know all about it--my mother taught me how."
+
+He looked so precisely as if he meant it, and the glance he sent past
+Juliet at Rachel Redding was so suggestive of his dislike to be separated
+for the coming hour from the feminine portion of the household, that his
+hostess answered promptly: "Of course you may. We never refuse an offer
+like that. We will try you--on promise of good behaviour."
+
+
+
+
+XII.--THE BACHELOR BEGS A DISH-TOWEL
+
+
+When the door closed on the three Juliet produced from somewhere two
+aprons--attractive affairs on the pinafore order--one of which she slipped
+upon Rachel, the other donned herself.
+
+"These are my kitchen party-aprons," she said gayly, noting how the pretty
+garment became the girl, "calculated to impress the masculine mind with
+the charm of domesticity in women. The doctor needs a little illustrated
+lesson of the sort. Life in boarding-houses isn't adapted to encourage a
+man in the belief that real comfort is to be found anywhere outside of a
+bachelor's club."
+
+Before he was called the doctor forsook a half-smoked cigar and the
+seductive hollows of Anthony's easiest chair and marched briskly out to
+the kitchen.
+
+"You see I distrust you," he announced, putting in his head at the door.
+"I'm afraid you will get them all done without me."
+
+"Not a bit of it. Here you are," and Juliet tied a big white apron about a
+large-sized waist. "Here's your towel. No, don't touch the glass; a man is
+too unconscious of his strength."
+
+"A surgeon?" demurred Rachel softly, from over her steaming dishpan.
+
+"Thank you, Miss Redding," said the doctor, smiling.
+
+"Ah, how stupid of me," Juliet made amends swiftly. "Miss Redding
+remembers that when I got my telephone message to-night I told her that
+the most distinguished young specialist in the city was coming here to
+dinner. A hand trained to such delicate tasks as those of surgery--here,
+Dr. Roger Barnes, forgive me, and wipe my most precious goblets."
+
+"You'll have my nerves unsteady with such speeches as that," said he, but
+he accepted the trust. He held the goblets and the other daintily cut and
+engraved pieces of glass with evident pleasure in the task.
+
+Meanwhile Juliet and Rachel made rapid work of the greater part of the
+dishes, handling thin china with the dexterity of housewives who love
+their work--and their china. Talk and laughter flowed brightly through it
+all, and when the doctor had finished his glass he looked disappointed at
+seeing not much left to do. At the moment Rachel was scrubbing and
+scraping a big baking-dish, portions of whose surface strongly resisted
+her efforts, in spite of previous soaking. The assistant, looking about
+him for new worlds to conquer, fell upon this dish.
+
+"Here, here," said he, "let me have it. I'll use on it some of the
+unconscious strength Mrs. Robeson credits me with."
+
+But Rachel clung to the dish. "Proper housekeepers," she averred, "always
+say 'That's all, thank you,' as soon as the china is done, and finish the
+pots and kettles after the guest has gone back to pleasanter things."
+
+"I see. Did you ever have a man for dish-wiper before?"
+
+"Never a surgeon," admitted Miss Redding.
+
+"Then you don't appreciate the fact that a man likes to do big things
+which make the most show and get the credit for them."
+
+He took the dish away from her by a dexterous little twist in which
+conscious strength certainly asserted itself. Rachel, laughing, with a
+dash of colour in cheeks which were normally of dark ivory tints, accepted
+the dish-towel he handed her.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Hallo, there," cried Wayne Carey's voice from the door. "You're having
+more fun out here than we are in there, and that's not fair. The lord of
+the manor is getting so chesty over the delights of a country home in a
+February snowbank that he's becoming heavy company."
+
+"No room for you here," returned the doctor, removing with a flourish the
+last candied sugar lump from the bottom of the big dish, and beginning to
+swash about vigorously in the hot water. "We do something besides talk out
+here; we work. Our kitchen is so small we have to waste no time in steps;
+as we dry the things we chuck them straight into their places."
+
+Suiting the action to the word he caught up a shining cake-tin and cast it
+straight at Carey. That gentleman dodged, but Anthony caught it, performed
+upon it an imitation of the cymbals, then turned about and laid it in a
+nest of similar tins upon a shelf in an open closet.
+
+"Ah, but I'm well trained," he boasted.
+
+"If you were you wouldn't put it away wet," observed Rachel slyly.
+
+Anthony withdrew the tin, wiped it with much solicitude, and replaced it.
+
+"These little technicalities are beyond me," he apologised. "Your real
+athlete in kitchen work is your scientific man. See him dry that bean-pot
+with the glass-towel. Now, I know better than that."
+
+"Go away, all of you," commanded the mistress of the place. "Go back to
+the fire and we'll join you. If you are very good we'll bring you a
+special treat by-and-by."
+
+"That settles it," said the doctor, and led the retreat, but not without a
+backward glance at the little kitchen.
+
+Juliet had gone into the dining-room with a trayful of glass and silver.
+Rachel Redding was plunging half a dozen white towels into a pan of
+steaming water. Barnes stood an instant, staring hard at the slender
+figure in the white pinafore, the round young arms gleaming in the
+lamplight--then he turned to follow the others. There are some pictures
+which linger long in a man's memory; why, he can hardly tell. With all his
+varied experiences Dr. Roger Barnes had never before discovered how
+attractive a background a well-kept kitchen makes for a beautiful woman,
+so that she be there mistress of the situation. Long after he had gone
+back to the fire his absent eyes, while the others talked, were studying
+the--to him--unaccustomed and singularly charming scene he had just left
+in the kitchen.
+
+When Juliet and Rachel came in at length they found a plan afoot for their
+entertainment. Wayne Carey was standing at the window showing cause why
+the whole party should go out and coast upon the hill near by.
+
+"You admit," he argued with Anthony, "that you know where we can get a
+pair of bobs--and if you can't I'll bribe some of those youngsters out
+there to let us have theirs. The storm has stopped; the boys have swept
+off the whole hill, I should judge, by the way their track shines again
+under the moonlight. I haven't had a good coast since I left college."
+
+He turned to Juliet. "Will you go?" he asked coaxingly.
+
+"Of course we will," promised Juliet. "Tony wants to go--he's just
+enjoying making you tease. As for the doctor----"
+
+"If my right hand has not forgot her cunning," he agreed.
+
+In ten minutes the party was off. A young matron of five months' standing
+is not so materially changed from the girl she used to be that she can
+fail to be the gayest of company, perhaps with the more zest that the old
+good times seem a bit far away already and she is glad to bring them
+back.
+
+As for the real girl of the party, in this case it chanced to be a country
+lass who had been away to school and half-way through college, had been
+brought home by love and duty to some elderly people who needed her, and
+had known many hours of stifled longing for the sort of companionship with
+which she had grown happily familiar.
+
+Matron and maid--they were a pair for whose sakes the men who were with
+them gladly made slaves of themselves to give them an evening of glorious
+outdoor fun--and at small sacrifice.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+"What a night!" exulted the doctor, striding up the long hill beside
+Rachel Redding breathing deep. "I'm thanking all my lucky stars that they
+led my path across Anthony Robeson's to-night. I've been intending to come
+out here ever since he was married--and might not have done it for another
+six months if I hadn't got started. He'll have all he wants of me now.
+It's the most delightful spot I've been in for many moons."
+
+"It is a dear little home," agreed Rachel warmly. "Mrs. Robeson would make
+the most commonplace house in the world one where everybody would want to
+come."
+
+"That's evident. Yet, somehow, knowing her well as a girl, I never should
+have suspected just those home-making qualities. You didn't know her then,
+I suppose? She was a girl other girls liked heartily, and men
+enthusiastically--one of the 'I'll be a good friend, but don't come too
+near' sort, you know. But she was very fond of travel and change, ready
+for everything in the way of sport--and, well, I certainly never saw her
+before in anything resembling an apron of any description. What a
+delightful article of attire an apron is, anyhow. I think I never
+appreciated it before to-night."
+
+"That's because you never saw one of Mrs. Robeson's aprons. Hers are not
+like other people's."
+
+"She makes hers poetic, does she?"
+
+"She certainly does--even the ones for baking and sweeping. Not ruffled or
+beribboned, but cut with an eye to attractiveness, and always of becoming
+colour."
+
+"I see. She's an artist--that was noticeable in the oysters--if she made
+the dish."
+
+"Of course she did."
+
+"The coffee was the best I ever drank."
+
+"Was it?"
+
+"You made that, then," remarked the doctor astutely.
+
+"I'm glad it was good," said Rachel demurely.
+
+They had reached the top of the hill. Doctor Barnes insisted that Anthony
+had been the best steerer of coasting parties known to the juvenile world,
+and placed him at the helm. Next came Juliet, with both arms clasped as
+far about her husband's stalwart frame as they would go. Carey had wanted
+to be the end man, but Doctor Barnes would have none of it. "You have to
+take care of Mrs. Robeson," he said firmly, and placed him next. This
+brought Miss Redding last, and Dr. Roger Barnes, knowing man, as hanger-on
+behind upon bobs already fairly full. The last man, as every coaster
+understands, has to be alert to help out any possible bad steering, and so
+keeps a watchful head thrust half over the shoulder in front.
+
+The foregoing explanation will show how it came about that all down the
+long, swift descent, Rachel, breathless with the unaccustomed delight of
+the flight, felt upon her cheek a warm breath, and was conscious of a most
+extraordinary nearness of the lips which kept saying merry things into her
+ear. The ear itself grew warm before the bottom of the track was reached.
+
+"That was a great coast," cried the doctor as they reached the end of the
+long slide. "Now for another. I'm a boy again. This beats the best thing I
+could have had in town if I hadn't run across Anthony."
+
+So they had another--and another--and one more. Then Rachel Redding,
+stopping in front of a small house which lay at the foot of the hill, said
+good-night to them and slipped away before Barnes had realised what had
+happened.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Does she live there?" he questioned Juliet, as the four who were left
+moved on toward home. Anthony and Wayne were discussing a subject on which
+they had differed at the top of the hill. "Somehow, I got the impression
+she lived with you."
+
+"No--but she comes over a good deal. I couldn't get on without her."
+
+"As a friend?"
+
+Juliet looked up at him. "I think it would be better that you should know,
+Roger," she said, "and I'm sure Miss Redding herself would prefer it--that
+I pay her for several hours a day of regular work. You've only to see her
+to understand that she does this simply because it's the only thing open
+to her as long as her father and mother can't spare her to go away. She
+gave up her college course in the middle because she said they were pining
+to death for her. They are in very greatly reduced circumstances, after a
+lifetime of prosperity. She's a rare creature--I'm learning to appreciate
+her more every day. She's never said a word about her loneliness here, but
+it shows in her eyes. It's a perfect delight to me to have her with me,
+and I mean to give her all the fun I can. For all that demure manner and
+her Madonna face she's as full of mischief as a kitten when something
+starts her off."
+
+"Juliet," said the doctor soberly, turning to look searchingly down at her
+in the moonlight, "would you be willing to let me come often?"
+
+Juliet looked up quickly. "So that you may see her?" she asked
+straightforwardly.
+
+"Yes. I won't pretend it's anything else. I can tell you honestly that if
+there were no other reason I should want to come because of my old
+friendship for you and Anthony, and because this evening in your little
+home has given me a rare pleasure. I know of no place like it. But I'll
+tell you squarely that I want the chance to meet your friend often and at
+once. If I don't you will have other people coming out from town----"
+
+"Yes," said Juliet, and something in the way she said it made him ask
+quickly: "Has that already happened? Am I too late?"
+
+"I don't know whether you're too late, but I know that we've suddenly
+grown most attractive to another man from town. If you had gone into
+Rachel's home the odour of violets would have met you at the door. He
+sends them every few days."
+
+"_Ah!_" said the doctor. It was not much of a comment, but it spoke
+volumes. He had been keen before--he was determined now. Violets--well,
+there were rarer flowers than those.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.--SMOKE AND TALK
+
+
+At the house there remained for the guests an hour before the fire, where
+Juliet brought in something hot and sweet and sour and spicy, which tasted
+delicious and brought her a shower of compliments while they drank a
+friendly draught to her. When she had left them, standing in an admiring
+group on the hearth-rug and wishing her happy dreams, they settled into
+luxurious positions of ease before the fire--a fire in the last stages of
+red comfort before it dies into a smoulder of torrid ashes.
+
+"Anthony Robeson," said Wayne Carey, regarding the andirons fixedly over
+his bed-time pipe, "you're a happy man."
+
+Anthony laughed contentedly. He had thrown himself down upon the
+hearth-rug with his head on a pillow pulled from the settle, and lay flat
+on his back with his hands clasped behind his neck. It was an attitude
+deeply expressive of masculine comfort.
+
+"You're exactly right," said he. "And you would be the same if you would
+give up living in that infernal boarding-house. What do you want to fool
+with your first year of married life like that for? You told me that
+Judith was bowled over by our wedding, and was ready to go in for this
+sort of thing with a will."
+
+"I know it," admitted Carey, "but"--he spoke hesitatingly--"we couldn't
+seem to find this sort of thing. You had corralled all there was."
+
+"Nonsense."
+
+"You had. Everything we looked at was so old and mouldy, or so new and
+inartistic, or so high-priced, or so far away--well, we couldn't seem to
+get at it, so we said we'd board a while and wait until we could look
+around."
+
+"How does it work?"
+
+"Why, I suppose it works very well," said Carey cautiously. "Judith seems
+contented. We have as good meals as the average in such houses, and the
+people are rather a nice lot. We're invited around quite a good deal, and
+Judith likes that. I ought to like it better than I do, somehow. I'm so
+confoundedly tired when I get home nights I can't help thinking of you and
+Juliet here in this jolly room. There's an abominable blue and yellow
+wall-paper on our sitting-room--and it has a way of appearing to turn
+seasick in the evening under the electrics. Sometimes I think it's that
+that makes me feel----"
+
+"Seasick, too?" inquired the doctor with his professional air. He was
+standing with his arm on the chimney-piece, looking alternately down on
+his friends and around the long, low room. It _was_ a jolly room--the very
+essence of comfort and cosiness. It was a beautiful room, too, in a simple
+way; one which satisfied his sense of harmony in colours and fabrics--a
+keen sense with him, as it is apt to be with men of his profession.
+
+"Judith likes this, too, you know," Carey went on loyally. "She thinks
+it's great. But how to get it for ourselves--that's another matter.
+Somehow, you were lucky."
+
+"Did you ever happen to see," asked Anthony, "a photograph I took, just
+for fun, of this house as it was when Juliet saw it first? No? Well, just
+look in that box on the end of the farther bookcase, will you? It's near
+the top--there--that's it."
+
+He lay looking up through half-closed lashes at the two men as they
+studied the photograph, the doctor leaning over Carey's shoulder.
+
+"On your word, man, did it look like that?" cried Barnes.
+
+"Just like that."
+
+"Yes, I've heard it did," admitted Carey; "but I never quite believed it
+could have been as bad as that."
+
+"Who planned it all?" the doctor asked, getting possession of the
+photograph as Carey laid it down, and giving it careful scrutiny.
+
+"My little home-maker."
+
+"Jove--are there any more like her?"
+
+"They're pretty rare, I understand. Juliet has one in training--one with a
+good deal of native capacity, I should judge."
+
+"Let me know when her graduation day approaches," remarked the doctor.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+When he fell asleep that night in the dainty guest-room Barnes was
+wondering whether Mrs. Robeson got her own breakfasts, and hoping that she
+certainly did not, at least when guests were in the house. He was down
+half an hour earlier than necessary, and to his great satisfaction found a
+slender figure brushing up ashes and setting the fireplace in order for
+the morning fire. As he begged leave to help he noted the satin smoothness
+of Miss Redding's heavy black hair and the trim perfection of her attire.
+She reminded him of his hospital nurses in their immaculate blue and
+white. When he saw the mistress of the house and found her similarly
+dressed a certain skepticism grew in his mind.
+
+When he went out to breakfast he murmured in Anthony's ear: "Just tell me,
+old fellow--to satisfy the curiosity of a bachelor--do these girls of your
+household always look like this in the early morning? I know it's
+mean--but you will know how to evade me if I'm too impertinent----"
+
+Anthony glanced from Juliet, resembling a pink carnation in her wash
+frock--February though it was--to Rachel Redding in dark blue and white,
+and smiled mischievously. "Mrs. Robeson--and Miss Redding--you are
+challenged," he announced. "Here's a fine old chump who has an awful
+suspicion that maybe when there are no guests you come down in calico
+wrappers with day-before-yesterday's aprons on."
+
+Juliet gave the doctor a glance which made him pretend to shrink behind
+Carey for protection. "Will you please answer him, Tony?" she said.
+
+"On my word and honour, Roger Barnes, then," said Anthony proudly, "they
+always look like this."
+
+When the doctor left he was weighing carefully in his mind an urgent
+problem: After waiting six months before making his first visit at the
+Robesons, how soon could he decently come again?
+
+
+
+
+XIV.--STRAWBERRIES
+
+
+"Here are yer strawberries, ma'm."
+
+Juliet, alone in her little kitchen, ran to the door in dismay. She looked
+down at a freckle-faced boy carrying a big basket filled with
+strawberry-boxes.
+
+"But my order was for next Wednesday," she said.
+
+"Well, Pa said he cal'lated you'd ruther have 'em when they was at the
+best, an' that's now. This hot weather's a dryin' 'em up. May not be any
+good ones by Wednesday."
+
+Every housekeeper knows that if there is one thing particularly liable to
+happen it is the arrival of fruit for preserving at the most inopportune
+moment of the week. It matters little what the excuse of the sender may
+be--there is always a sufficient reason why the original date set by the
+buyer has been ignored. In this case the strawberries had been engaged
+from a neighbour, and Juliet understood at once that she must not refuse
+to take them.
+
+She stood looking at the rows of baskets upon the table, when the boy had
+placed them there and gone whistling away. She was in the midst of a
+flurry of work. It was Saturday, and she was cooking and baking, putting
+together various dishes to be used upon the morrow. Mr. Horatio Marcy had
+lately returned from abroad. He and Mrs. Dingley were to spend the coming
+Sabbath with Juliet and Anthony--the first occasion on which Juliet's
+father should be entertained in the house. It was an event of importance,
+and his daughter meant to show him several things concerning her fitness
+for her present position.
+
+Rachel Redding was not available upon this Saturday morning. Her mother
+had been taken seriously ill the night before, and Rachel had sent word
+that she could not leave her. Juliet had not minded much, although it was
+a day when Rachel's help would have been especially acceptable. As it was,
+she had reached a point where her housewifely marshalling of the day's
+work was at a critical stage. A cake had been put into the oven. A large
+bowl of soup stock had been brought from a cool retreat to have the smooth
+coating of fat removed from its surface. Various other dishes, in process
+of construction, awaited the skilled touch of the cook.
+
+"I shall have to do them, I suppose," said Mrs. Robeson to herself,
+regarding the strawberries with a disapproving eye. "But _why_ they had to
+come to-day----"
+
+She went at the strawberries, wishing she had ordered less. They were fine
+berries--on top; by degrees, as the boxes lowered, they became less fine.
+It seemed desirable to separate the superior from the inferior and treat
+them differently. Only the best would do for the delectable preserve which
+was to go into glasses and be served on special occasions; the others
+could be made into jam less attractive to the eye if hardly less
+acceptable to the palate. Juliet was obliged to put down her berry-boxes
+every fifth minute to attend to one or other of the various saucepans and
+double-boilers upon the little range. Her cheeks grew flushed, for the day
+was hot and the kitchen hotter. It must be admitted that her occasional
+glance out over the green fields and the woods beyond was a longing one.
+
+The better selection of the berries went into the clear syrup in the
+preserving-kettle. Juliet flew to get her glass pots ready. She stopped to
+stir something in a saucepan. She thrust some eggs into the small
+ice-chest to cool them for the salad dressing soon to be made. She kept
+one eye on the clock, for the strawberry preserve had to be timed to a
+minute--ten, no more, no less. It was a strenuous hour.
+
+As she dipped up the fourth ladleful of crimson richness--translucent as a
+church window--and filled the waiting jar, a peculiar pungent odour
+drifted across the fragrance of the strawberries. Juliet dropped her ladle
+and pulled open the oven door.
+
+The delicate cake which she had compounded with especial care because it
+was Mrs. Dingley's favourite, lay a blackened ruin. Some of it had run
+over upon the oven bottom and become a mass of cinders. Juliet jerked the
+cake-tin out into the daylight and shut the oven door with a slam.
+
+It was at this unpropitious moment that a figure appeared in the
+doorway--a tall, slim figure, in crisp, cool, white linen. A charming
+white hat surmounted Mrs. Wayne Carey's carefully ordered hair, a white
+parasol in her hands completed a particularly chaste and appropriate
+morning toilette for a young woman who had nothing to do with kitchens.
+
+She was regarding with interest the young person at the range. Juliet wore
+one of her characteristic working frocks, and the big pinafore which
+enveloped it from head to foot was of an attractive design. But the
+morning's flurry had set its signs upon her, and the pinafore was not as
+immaculate as it had been three hours earlier. Her hair, curling moistly
+about her flushed face, had been impatiently pushed back more than once,
+and its disorder, while not unpicturesque, was suggestive of a somewhat
+perturbed mind. Her hands were pink with strawberry juice. She looked
+warm, tired, and--if the truth must be told--at the moment not a little
+out of temper. The smile with which she welcomed her friend could hardly
+be said to be one of absolute pleasure.
+
+"I'm afraid I've come at the wrong time," said Judith, regretfully. "Did
+you just burn something? Too bad. I suppose all young housekeepers do
+that. Where's your--assistant?"
+
+"She's not here to-day," said Juliet, ladling up strawberry preserve with
+more haste than caution. Her fingers shook a little but she kept her voice
+tranquil. "It's all right. A number of things had to be done at once,
+that's all. Please don't stay in this hot place. Take off your hat and
+find a cool corner somewhere in the house. I'll be in presently."
+
+"I mustn't bother you. I was going to stay for lunch with you, it was so
+hot in town, but I mustn't think of it when you're so----"
+
+"Of course you'll stay," said Juliet with decision. "What you see before
+you is only the smoke of battle. It will soon clear away. Run off--and
+I'll be with you presently. You'll find the late magazines in the
+living-room."
+
+Her tone was intended to deceive and it was sufficiently successful.
+Judith was anxious to stay. She was also interested in the situation. She
+had heard much from Wayne in praise of Juliet's successful housekeeping,
+and had seen enough of it herself to be curious about its inner workings.
+For the first time she had happened upon a scene which would seem to
+indicate that there were phases in this sort of domestic life less ideal
+than she was asked to believe. She went back into the coolness and quiet
+of the living-room with a full appreciation of the fact that no hot
+kitchens ever threatened her own peace of mind.
+
+Juliet finished her strawberry preserve, saw that everything liable to
+burn was removed to safe quarters; then deliberately took off her apron
+and stole out of the kitchen door. She went swiftly down through the
+orchard to the willow-bordered path by the brook; then, out of sight of
+everything human, ran several rods down it with a sweep of skirts which
+put everything in the bird creation to flight. At a certain pleasant spot
+among the willows, sheltered from all possible observation, she paused and
+flung herself down upon the warm ground.
+
+But not in any attitude of despair. Neither did she cry tears of vexation
+and weariness. She was a healthy girl, with the perfect physical being
+whose poise is not upset by so small a matter as a fatiguing morning.
+Because a cake had burned, an extra amount of work had had to be conquered
+and an unexpected guest had arrived, her nerves were not worn to the
+rending point. But, having been reared in the belief that a breath of
+outdoors is the great antidote for all physical or mental discomforts born
+of confinement indoors, she had acquired a habit of running away from her
+cares at any and all times of day in precisely this fashion--and many were
+the advantages she had reaped from this somewhat unusual course of
+procedure.
+
+Mrs. Anthony Robeson lay upon one side, her arm outstretched, her cheek
+pillowed upon her arm. She was drawing long, deep breaths, and looking
+lazily off at a stretch of blue sky cleft in the exact centre by one great
+graceful elm tree. One would have thought she had forgotten every care in
+the world, not to mention the guest from the city waiting expectantly for
+her hostess to appear. After ten minutes of this sort of indolence the
+figure in the blue and white print dress sat up, clasped both arms about
+her knees and remained regarding with half closed eyes the softly
+fluttering leaves of the willows along the edge of the brook. The hot
+flush died out of her cheeks; the lips whose expression a few minutes
+since had indicated self-control under a combination of trying
+circumstances, relaxed into their natural sweetness with a tendency toward
+mirth; and her whole aspect became that merely of the young athlete
+resting from one encounter and preparing herself for another.
+
+At length she rose, shook out her skirts, and said aloud: "Now, Judith
+Dearborn Carey, I'm ready to upset your expectations. Since you looked in
+at me this morning you've been thinking I wished I hadn't--haven't you?
+Well, you may just understand that I don't wish anything of the sort." And
+in five minutes more she had walked in upon her guest by way of the front
+door, her pretty face serene, her hands full of pink June roses which she
+threw in a fragrant mass of beauty into her friend's lap.
+
+"Put those into bowls for me, will you?" she requested. "Arrange them to
+suit yourself. Aren't they lovely? I suppose you're getting hungry. In
+half an hour you shall be served with a very modest but, I trust, not
+insufficient lunch. Would you like hot chocolate or iced tea?"
+
+"Iced tea, by all means," chose Judith, who, being used to the privileges
+of selection from a variety of offered foods and beverages, was apt to
+want what was not set before her, when at a private table. Juliet
+understood this propensity of her friend and slyly took advantage of it.
+As it happened, she knew that at the moment she was quite out of
+chocolate, but she had counted advisedly upon Judith's choice on a hot
+June day, and she smiled to herself as she chopped ice and sliced lemon.
+
+At the end of the half hour, Judith, who found the coolness of the
+living-room too delightful to allow her to keep watch of her friend in the
+hot kitchen, much as she was tempted to do so, was summoned to an equally
+cool dining-room. Upon the bare table, daintily set out upon some of the
+embroidered white doilies of Juliet's wedding linen, was a simple lunch of
+a character which appealed to the guest's critical appetite in a way which
+made her draw a long breath of satisfaction.
+
+"You certainly do have a trick of serving things to make them taste better
+than other people's," she acknowledged, glancing from the little platter
+of broiled chicken with its bit of parsley to the crisp fruit salad made
+up of she knew not what, but presenting an appetising appearance--then
+regarding fondly a dish of spinach, pleasingly flanked by thin slices of
+boiled egg.
+
+"It's really too hot to eat anything very solid," agreed Juliet with
+guile. "Rachel and I have a way of planning our lunches a day or two
+ahead, so that the leftovers we use up are not yesterday's but the day
+before's, and we remember with surprise how good the original dish was far
+back in the past. I wish Anthony could have his midday meal at
+home--though perhaps if he did the dinners wouldn't strike him so happily.
+Don't you think it's great fun to see a big, hearty man sit down at a
+table and look at it with an expression of adoration? Women may deride the
+fact as they will, but a healthy body does demand good things to eat, and
+shouldn't be blamed for liking them."
+
+"Wayne hasn't much appetite," said Judith, eating away with relish. "He
+dislikes the people at our table--sometimes I think that's why he bolts
+his food and gets off in such a hurry. By the way, Juliet, are you and
+Tony coming in to the Reardons' to-night? Of course you are."
+
+"I suppose we must," admitted Juliet with reluctance. "We have refused a
+good many things since we've been here, but I did promise Mrs. Reardon we
+would try to come to-night."
+
+The little repast over, Judith offered, with well simulated warmth, to
+help her friend with the after work. But Juliet would have none of her.
+She sent her guest out into a hammock under the trees, and despatched the
+business of putting the little kitchen to rights with the celerity of one
+who means to have done with it.
+
+In the middle of the June afternoon Judith awoke from a nap in the hammock
+to find her hostess standing laughing beside her, fresh in a thin gown of
+flowered dimity.
+
+"Well," yawned Judith, heavily, "I must have gone off to sleep. I was
+tired--I am tireder. This is a fatiguing sort of weather--don't you think
+so? But you don't look it. And after all that work I found you in! Why
+aren't you used up? It _kills_ me to do things in the heat."
+
+Juliet dropped a big blue denim pillow on the ground and sat down upon it
+in a flutter of dimity. She lifted a smiling face and said with spirit:
+
+"Last summer I could walk miles over a golf course twice a day and not
+mind it in the least. The year before I was most of the time on the river,
+rowing till I was as strong as a girl could be. I've had gymnasium work
+and fencing lessons and have been brought up to keep myself in perfect
+trim by my baths and exercise. What frail thing am I that a little
+housework should use me up?"
+
+"Yes--I know--you always did go in for that sort of thing," reflected
+Judith, eyeing her companion's fresh colour and bright eyes. "I suppose I
+ought, but I never cared for it--I don't mean the baths and all that--of
+course any self-respecting woman adores warm baths. I don't like the cold
+plunges and showers you always add on."
+
+"Then don't expect the results."
+
+"It isn't everybody who has your energetic temperament. I hate golf,
+despise tennis, never rowed a stroke in my life, and could no more keep
+house as you are doing than I could fly."
+
+"Let me see," said Juliet demurely, pretending to consider. "What is it
+that you do like to do?"
+
+"You know well enough. And little enough of it I can get now with a
+husband who never cares to stir." There was a suspicion of bitterness in
+Judith's voice. But Juliet, ignoring it, went blithely on:
+
+"I've a strong conviction that one can't be happy without being busy. Now
+that I can't keep up my athletic sports I should become a pale
+hypochondriac without these housewifely affairs to employ me. I don't like
+to embroider. I can't paint china. I'm not a musician. I somehow don't
+care to begin to devote myself to clubs in town. I love my books and the
+great outdoors--and plenty of action."
+
+"You're a strange girl," was Judith's verdict, getting languidly out of
+the hammock, an hour later, after an animated discussion with her friend
+on various matters touching on the lives of both. "Either you're a
+remarkable actress or you're as contented as you seem to be. I wish I had
+your enthusiasm. Everything bores me--Look at this frock, after lying in a
+hammock! Isn't white linen the prettiest thing when you put it on and the
+most used up when you take it off, of any fabric known to the shops?"
+
+"It is, indeed. But if anybody can afford to wear it it's you, who never
+sit recklessly about on banks and fences, but keep cool and correct and
+stately and----"
+
+"--discontented. I admit I've talked like a fractious child all day. But
+I've had a good time and want to come oftener than I have. May I?"
+
+"Of course you may. Must you go? I'll keep you to dinner and send for
+Wayne."
+
+"You're an angel, but I've an engagement for five o'clock, and there's the
+Reardons' this evening. You won't forget that? You and Anthony will be
+sure to come?"
+
+"I'll not promise absolutely, but I'll see. Mrs. Reardon was so kind as to
+leave it open. It's an informal affair, I believe?"
+
+"Informal, but very gorgeous, just the same. She wouldn't give anybody but
+you such an elastic invitation as that, and you should appreciate her
+eagerness to get you," declared Judith, who cared very much from whom her
+invitations came and could never understand her friend's careless attitude
+toward the most impressive of them.
+
+Juliet watched her guest go down the street, and waved an affectionate
+hand at her as Judith looked back from her seat in the trolley car. "Poor
+old Judy," she said to herself. "How glad you are you're not I!--And how
+very, very glad I am I'm not you!"
+
+An observation, it must be admitted, essentially feminine. No man is ever
+heard to felicitate himself upon the fact that he is not some other man.
+
+
+
+
+XV.--ANTHONY PLAYS MAID
+
+
+After dinner that night, Juliet, having once more put things in order and
+slipped off the big pinafore which had kept her spotless, joined her
+husband in the garden up and down which he was comfortably pacing, hands
+in pockets, pipe in mouth.
+
+"Jolly spot, isn't it? Come and perambulate," he suggested.
+
+"Just for a minute. Tony, are we going to the Reardons?"
+
+He stood still and considered. "I don't know. Are we? Did you accept?"
+
+"On condition that you felt like it. I represented you as coming home
+decidedly fagged these hot nights and not always caring to stir."
+
+"Wise schemer! I don't mind the aspersion on my physical being. She urged,
+I suppose?"
+
+"She did. I don't know why."
+
+"I do." Anthony smiled down at his wife. "Everybody is a bit curious about
+us these days. Your position, you see, is considered very extraordinary."
+
+"Nonsense, Tony. Shall we go?"
+
+"Possibly we'd better, though it racks my soul to think of dressing. The
+less I wear my festive garments the less I want to. For that very reason,
+suppose we discipline ourselves and go. Do you mind?"
+
+"Not at all. We'll have to dress at once, for it's nearly eight now, and
+by the time we have caught a train and got to Hollyhurst----"
+
+"To be sure. Here goes, then."
+
+Half an hour later Anthony, wrestling with a refractory cuff button,
+looked up to see his wife at his elbow. She was very nearly a vision of
+elegance and beauty; the lacking essential was explained to him by a voice
+very much out of breath and a trifle petulant:
+
+"If you care anything for me, Tony, stop everything and hook me up. I'm
+all mixed up, and I can't reach, and I'm sure I've torn that little lace
+frill at the back."
+
+"All right. Where do I begin?"
+
+"Under my left arm, I think--I can't possibly see."
+
+"Neither can I." He was poking about under the lifted arm, among folds of
+filmy stuff. "Here we are--no, we aren't. Does this top hook go in this
+little pocket on the other side?"
+
+"I suppose so--can't you tell whether it does by the look?"
+
+"It seems a bit blind to me," murmured Anthony, struggling.
+
+"It's meant to be blind--it mustn't show when it's fastened."
+
+"It certainly doesn't now. Hold on--don't wriggle. I've got it now. I've
+found the combination. Three turns to the right, five to the left, clear
+around once, then--Hullo! I've come out wrong. The thing doesn't track at
+the bottom."
+
+"You've missed a hook."
+
+"Oh, no. I hung onto 'em all the way down."
+
+"Then you missed an eye. You'll have to unhook it all and begin again."
+
+Anthony obeyed. "I'm glad I don't have to get into my clothes around the
+corner this way," he commented. "Here you are. We stuck to the schedule
+this time."
+
+"Wait, dear. You haven't fastened the shoulder. There are ever so many
+little hooks along there and around the arm hole."
+
+"I should say there were. What's the good of so many?--Where do they
+begin? Look out--wait a minute--Juliet, if you don't stop twisting around
+so I never can do it. I can do great, heroic acts, it's the little trials
+that floor me--There--no!--that doesn't look right."
+
+Juliet ran to the mirror. "It isn't right," she cried. "Look--that corner
+shouldn't lap over like that. Oh, if I could only reach myself!"
+
+"You can't--I've often tried it. The human anatomy--Stand still,
+Julie--you're getting nervous."
+
+"If there's one thing that's trying----" murmured Juliet.
+
+"Why do you let your dressmakers build your frocks this way? Why not get
+into 'em all in front, where you can see what you're doing?--Now I've got
+it. Isn't that right?"
+
+"Yes. Wait, Tony--here's the girdle. It fastens behind."
+
+Anthony surveyed the incomprehensible affair of silk and velvet ribbon she
+put into his hands. "Looks like a head-stall to me," he said. Juliet
+laughed and fitted it about her own waist. Anthony attempted to make it
+join at the back of the points she held out to him.
+
+"It won't come together," he said.
+
+"Oh, yes, it will. Draw it tight."
+
+"I am drawing it tight. It's smaller than you are. You can't wear it."
+
+Juliet laughed again. Anthony tugged.
+
+"Wait till I hold my breath," she said.
+
+"_Great guns!_" he ejaculated, and by the exertion of much force fastened
+the girdle. Then he stood off a step or two and looked at his wife
+curiously. Flushed and laughing she returned his gaze.
+
+"Can you breathe?" he asked solicitously.
+
+"Of course I can."
+
+"What with?"
+
+"It is a little tight, of course," she admitted. "This is one of my
+trousseau dresses. I've grown a little stouter, I suppose. Never mind, I
+can stand it for to-night. Thank you very much. You must hurry now,
+Tony."
+
+"I haven't had my pay for playing maid," he said, and came close. He
+surveyed his wife's fair neck and shoulders, turned her around and
+deliberately kissed the soft hollow where the firm white flesh of her neck
+met the waving brown hair drawn lightly upwards.
+
+"That's the spot that tantalized me for about six years," he observed.
+
+Hunting hurriedly through various drawers and boxes in the blue-and-white
+room, in search of gloves and fan, Juliet heard her husband come in his
+turn to her open door.
+
+"Will you have the goodness to look at me?" he requested, in a melancholy
+voice. Juliet turned, gave him one glance, and broke into a merry peal.
+
+"Oh, Tony!--What's the matter? Have you been growing stouter, too?"
+
+"It must be," he said solemnly.
+
+His clawhammer coat was so tight across the shoulders that the strain was
+evident. He was holding his arms in the exaggerated position of the small
+boy who wears a last year's suit. Juliet revolved around her husband's
+well built figure with interest.
+
+"It does look tight," she said. "But have you grown heavier all at once?
+It can't be long since you wore that coat before."
+
+"Don't believe I have for months. It's been altogether frock-coats and
+informals. I haven't been to an evening affair with ladies for a good
+while."
+
+"It doesn't look as it feels, I'm sure. It's getting very late--we ought
+to be off," and Juliet gathered up her belongings and gave him a long
+loose coat to hold for her which covered her finery completely.
+
+"Now's the hour when I regret that I haven't a carriage for you," said
+Anthony, as they descended the stairs. He got into his outer coat
+reluctantly. "I shall split something around my back before the evening is
+over," he prophesied resignedly.
+
+"Never mind. Remember how tight my girdle is. It grows tighter every
+minute."
+
+They got out upon the porch and Anthony locked the door. "If I should show
+that door-key to any man I know except Carey he would howl," he remarked,
+holding up the queer old brass affair before he slipped it into his
+pocket. He looked down at Juliet in the gathering June twilight. "Don't
+you wish we didn't have to go?"
+
+"Yes, I do," she agreed frankly.
+
+"Let's not!"
+
+"My dear boy! At this hour?"
+
+"We could telephone."
+
+"Shouldn't you feel rather ashamed to, so late?"
+
+"Not a bit. But of course we'll go if you say so."
+
+She laughed, and he joined her boyishly. She hesitated.
+
+"If I see you looking faint in that girdle shall I throw a glass of cold
+water over you?"
+
+"Please do. If I hear a sound as of rending cloth shall I divert the
+attention of the company?"
+
+"By all means."
+
+They were laughing like two children. Anthony sat down in one of the porch
+chairs. He drew a long sigh. "I never hated to leave my dear home so since
+I came into it," he said gloomily.
+
+Juliet pulled off her coat. "If you'll do the telephoning I'll stay," she
+said.
+
+He jumped to his feet. "Let me loosen that girdle for you. I haven't been
+breathing below the fifth rib myself since you put it on, just in
+sympathy," he declared.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.--A HOUSE-PARTY--OUTDOORS
+
+
+"The trouble is," said Anthony Robeson, shifting his position on the step
+below Juliet so that he could rest his head against her knee, "the trouble
+is we're getting too popular."
+
+Juliet laughed and ran her fingers through his thick locks, gently
+tweaking them. The two were alone together in the warm darkness of a July
+evening, upon their own little porch.
+
+"It's the first evening we've had to ourselves since the big snowdrift
+under the front windows melted. That was about the date Roger Barnes met
+Louis Lockwood here the first time. Ye gods--but they've kept each other's
+footprints warm since then, haven't they? And now Cathcart is giving
+indications of having contracted the fatal malady. Can't Rachel Redding be
+incarcerated somewhere until the next moon is past? I notice they all have
+worse symptoms each third quarter. That girl looks innocent, but--by
+heaven, Julie, I think she has it down fine."
+
+"No, you don't," said Juliet persuasively. "I should catch her at it if
+she were deliberately trying to keep two such men as Roger and Louis
+pitted against each other. They're doing it all themselves. I've known her
+to run away when she saw one of them coming--so that she couldn't be
+found. But, Tony dear, I've a plan."
+
+"Good. I hope it's a duel between the two principals. If it is I'm going
+to tamper with the weapons and see that each injures himself past help.
+I'm getting a little weary of playing the hospitable host to a trio of
+would-bes."
+
+"Listen. We'll entertain them all at once for a week, with some extra
+girls, and Judith and Wayne, and then we'll announce that we're not at
+home for a month."
+
+"All at once--a house-party?" Anthony sat up and laughed uproariously.
+"I've tremendous faith in you, love, but where in the name of all the
+French sardines that ever were dovetailed would you put such a crowd?"
+
+"I've a practical plan. Louis Lockwood belongs to a fishing club that
+spends every August up in Canada. They have a big tent, twenty by
+twenty-five, for he told me so the other day. He would get it for us; we
+would put it out in the orchard, close to the river. You and Wayne, and
+Roger and Louis, and Stevens Cathcart could sleep down there, and I could
+easily take care of Judith and Suzanne Gerard and Marie Dresser, here in
+the house. Rachel should stay here, too. And Auntie Dingley would send
+down Mary McKaim to cook for us, I'm sure."
+
+"That's not so bad. But why Rachel--when you have so little room?"
+
+"Because I want her to have all the fun; because if I don't keep her here
+she will be running away half the time; and because----"
+
+"Now comes the real reason," observed Anthony sagely.
+
+"I don't want the other girls thinking she has the unfair advantage of
+taking a man away from the party every evening to walk down home with
+her."
+
+"Wise little chaperon. I can see Roger and Louis now, glaring at each
+other as the hour approaches for her departure."
+
+"What do you think of my plan? It's only a plan, you know, Tony--subject
+to your approval."
+
+"Diplomat!" murmured Anthony, reaching up one arm and drawing it about her
+shoulders. "You know you're safe to have my approval when you put it in
+that tone. Well, provided you can figure out the finances--and I know you
+wouldn't propose it if you hadn't done that already--I don't see any
+objection. On one condition, though, Julie, mind you--on one condition."
+
+"Name it."
+
+"Of course, I can only be here evenings during your house party. So my
+condition is that I have you and the home all to myself for my vacation
+afterward. Not a wooer nor a chum admitted. No overdressed women out from
+town, taking afternoon tea--no invitations to lonesome husbands out to
+dinner. Just you and I. Did you ever imagine life in the rural localities
+would be so gay, anyhow? I want to go fishing with you--tramping through
+the woods with you--sitting out here on the porch with you--in short, have
+you all to myself--and"--he turned completely about, kneeling below her on
+the step, crushing her in both arms so vigorously that he stopped her
+breath--"eat--you--up!"
+
+"What a prospect," she cried softly, when she found herself partially
+released. "Are you sure you need a vacation, just for that?"
+
+"Certain of it. I've had to share you with other people all the year--and
+now I've got to give you up to a jealous lovers' assemblage. So after
+that, mind you, I have my satisfaction."
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Doctor Barnes was told of the plan he looked gloomy. "Going to ask
+Lockwood?" he inquired at once.
+
+"Of course," assented Juliet promptly.
+
+"I don't see any 'of course' about it."
+
+"What would Marie Dresser do to me if I didn't invite him?"
+
+"He doesn't care for her----"
+
+"Oh, yes, he does. Why, last winter he seemed to be on the point of asking
+her to marry him. Everybody expected the announcement any day."
+
+"Last winter and this summer are two different propositions."
+
+"Marie doesn't think so."
+
+"She'll get mightily undeceived, then. Whom else are you asking?"
+
+"Stevens Cathcart."
+
+The doctor groaned. "Is this a dose you're fixing for me? I'm going to be
+too busy--I can't come."
+
+"Very well," said Juliet placidly. She was sewing, upon the porch, and the
+doctor sat on the step.
+
+He looked up with a grimace. "I suppose you think I'll be out on the next
+train after the rest arrive."
+
+"I certainly do, Dr. Roger Williams Barnes."
+
+"I presume you are inviting Suzanne?" he queried.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"No reason why not. Cathcart admires her immensely--or did, before he
+began to cultivate this place."
+
+Juliet laughed. "Suzanne would never forgive you if she heard that."
+
+"By-the-way," said the doctor slowly, "has she ever met--Miss Redding?"
+
+"No."
+
+He meditated for several minutes in silence, while Juliet sewed, glancing
+from time to time at one of the most attractive masculine profiles with
+which she was familiar. He was not as handsome a man as Louis Lockwood,
+but every line of his face stood for strength, not without some
+pretensions to good looks. He looked up at length and straight at her.
+
+"Would you mind telling me," he began, "just what you intend to effect
+with this combination? I never gave you credit, you know, Juliet, for
+wanting to manage Fate, and I don't believe it now."
+
+"No, I don't want to manage Fate," said Juliet, smiling over her work,
+"but I admit I want two things: I want you to see Rachel Redding beside
+Suzanne Gerard, and--I want Rachel to see you beside Louis Lockwood
+and--Suzanne."
+
+"I see," said the doctor grimly. "In other words, you want your protegee
+to have fair play."
+
+"Just that," Juliet answered, more gravely now. "I think lots of you,
+Roger, and well of you--you know I do--and yet----"
+
+"And yet----"
+
+"Let me guard my girl. She's not like the others, and you and Louis are
+making it tremendously hard for her between you."
+
+"You seem to be planning to make it infinitely harder."
+
+Juliet shook her head. "Trust me, Roger, please."
+
+"All right, I will," promised the doctor. "But just assure me that you're
+on my side."
+
+"I'm on nobody's side," was all the comfort he got.
+
+Juliet's invitations received delighted acceptances, though Wayne Carey
+and Doctor Barnes would be able to come out only for the nights--in time,
+however, for late and festive suppers outdoors. The tent in the orchard,
+with its comfortable bunks, was accepted by all the men with enthusiasm.
+
+"And to satisfy the men is the essential thing, you know, Tony," Juliet
+had observed sagely when she saw their pleasure in their quarters. "The
+girls will accept any crowding together if they have a mirror and room to
+tie a sash in, as long as devoted admirers are not wanting."
+
+The moment Miss Dresser and Miss Gerard saw Miss Rachel Redding--to quote
+Anthony--the fun began. Mrs. Wayne Carey had already met her, and had been
+carefully coached by Juliet as to the bearing she must assume toward
+Juliet's new friend. So when Marie and Suzanne began to inquire of Judith
+the latter was prepared to answer them.
+
+"She's a beauty in her way, isn't she?" Judith asserted. "Juliet's
+immensely fond of her, I should judge."
+
+"But who is she?" demanded Suzanne.
+
+"A neighbour, a country girl, a school and college girl, a comparatively
+poor girl--and a lucky girl, for Juliet likes her."
+
+"Have the men met her before?"
+
+"Goodness, yes. Haven't you heard how they beg invitations home to dinner
+of Anthony, just to see her?" Judith was enjoying the situation. This
+statement, however, was no part of Juliet's coaching.
+
+"I didn't see anything particularly attractive about her," said Marie
+promptly. "She's a demure thing. One wouldn't think she ever lifted those
+long lashes to look at a man--but that's just the kind. Awfully plainly
+dressed."
+
+"That's her style," said Suzanne. "These poor, pretty girls are once in a
+while just clever enough to make capital out of their poverty by wearing
+simply fetching things in pale gray dimity and dark blue lawn and
+sunbonnets. Stevens Cathcart would be just the kind to be carried away
+with her. Roger Barnes wouldn't look at her twice."
+
+"Louis might pretend to admire her, to please Juliet," admitted Marie. "He
+has a way of making every girl think he is in love with her--and he is, to
+a certain extent. But it's never serious."
+
+Whether it were serious in this instance Miss Dresser soon had opportunity
+to judge.
+
+After dinner that first night Anthony proposed taking all his guests out
+upon the river in a big flat-boat he had rented. But when he made up the
+party Rachel was not to be found.
+
+"I'm afraid she's gone home," said Juliet.
+
+"I'll run down and see," proposed Lockwood instantly, and was suiting the
+action to the word when Cathcart got off ahead of him.
+
+"I'll have her back presently," he called as he dashed down the road. "You
+people go on--we'll catch you."
+
+"We'll wait for you," Lockwood shouted after him.
+
+"Why should we wait?" demurred Marie, beginning to walk away toward the
+river.
+
+"If we don't he's liable not to find it convenient to catch up with us,"
+Lockwood retorted.
+
+"If they prefer their own company why not let them have it?" she said over
+her shoulder.
+
+"Run along, Louis," murmured Doctor Barnes. "One girl at a time."
+
+He turned to Juliet. "Shall we go?" he said.
+
+Anthony caught his glance, and, laughing, turned to Suzanne. "Will you
+console an old married man, Miss Gerard?" he inquired.
+
+But when Cathcart reappeared, which he did very soon, Rachel was not with
+him. "She said she had to stay with her mother," he explained in a tone
+which so closely resembled a growl that everybody laughed.
+
+"Bear up, Stevie, boy," chaffed Wayne Carey. "I'm confident she likes you,
+but she may not like you all the time, you know. They seldom do."
+
+
+
+
+XVII.--RACHEL CAUSES ANXIETY
+
+
+In spite of all Juliet's efforts to bring about Rachel's presence as one
+of her guests she found herself unable to accomplish it. Whenever she was
+needed for help Rachel was never absent, but the moment she was free the
+girl was off, and that quite without the appearance of running away. The
+men of the party followed her, but they were not allowed to remain. The
+girls, confident that her disappearances were part of a very deep game,
+begged her to stay; it was useless. Rachel's excuses were ready, her
+manner charmingly regretful in a quiet way, but stay she would not.
+
+Dr. Roger Barnes waylaid her one evening as she was vanishing down the
+willow-bordered path by the brook, leading to her own home.
+
+"Here you go again," he began discontentedly. "I wish I knew why."
+
+Rachel paused. It was difficult to do otherwise with a large and
+determined figure blocking a very narrow path.
+
+"I have ever so many things waiting at home for me to do."
+
+"At nine o'clock in the evening?"
+
+"At whatever hour I am through at Mrs. Robeson's."
+
+"I wish I could imagine something of what they are. It might relieve my
+mind a little."
+
+"Why, I will tell you," said Rachel with great appearance of frankness. "I
+have to do some mending for mother, read the evening paper for father, and
+set the bread. Then the clothes must be sprinkled for ironing in the
+morning."
+
+The doctor studied her face in the dimming light. "Who washed the
+clothes?" he asked bluntly.
+
+"Do you think you ought to ask?" said Rachel.
+
+"Yes. I'm in the habit of asking questions."
+
+"Of patients----"
+
+"Of everybody I care for. You don't have to answer, but if you don't I
+shall know who did the washing."
+
+"Yes, I did it," said Rachel steadily. "It is easily done."
+
+"And then you came over here and got breakfast?"
+
+"Not at all. I helped Mrs. Robeson and Mary McKaim get it. Doctor Barnes,
+do you know that you are standing directly in my path?"
+
+"Certainly," said the doctor. "It's what I'm here for."
+
+"Then I shall have to go back and take the road home."
+
+"If you do you will evade me only to encounter another man. Lockwood's
+keeping a ferret's eye on the Robeson house door; and I think Cathcart is
+already patrolling the road in front of your house."
+
+The girl turned. "You are making me feel very absurd," she said. "I want
+to go home, Doctor Barnes. Please let me pass you."
+
+"May I go with you?"
+
+"I would rather not."
+
+"Well, that's frank," he said, amusement and chagrin struggling for the
+uppermost. "I wonder I don't stalk angrily away----"
+
+"I wish you would."
+
+Roger Barnes threw back his head and laughed. "I wish you would give some
+other girls a leaf out of your book," he said. "The more you turn me down
+the more ardently I long to be with you; while the opposite sort of
+thing--I'll tell you, Miss Redding, if you want to be rid of me try these
+tactics: Say with a languishing smile, 'Oh, Doctor Barnes, won't you take
+me a little way down this lovely path?' Perhaps that will accomplish your
+ends. I've often felt an instant desire not to do the thing I'm begged
+to."
+
+"'Oh, Doctor Barnes,'" said Rachel Redding--and he caught the mischief in
+her tone--even Rachel could be mischievous, as Juliet had said--"'won't
+you take me a little way down this lovely path?'"
+
+"With the greatest pleasure in the world," replied the doctor promptly,
+and stood aside to let her pass him. Whereupon she slipped by him, and
+before he could realise that she had gone was running fleetly away in the
+twilight down the winding, willow-hung path. With an exclamation he was
+off after her, but though he dashed at the pace of a hunter through the
+intricacies of the way he presently discovered that he was following
+nothing but the summer breeze rustling the willow leaves and wafting into
+his face the breath of new-cut hay, the aftermath of late July. He stopped
+at length and stared about him, baffled and half angry.
+
+"There never was a girl like you," he muttered. "If you are deliberately
+trying to make men mad to get you you are succeeding infuriatingly well.
+If I catch you to-night it will be your fault if I tell you what I think
+of you. I'll tell you now, for I suppose you are hiding somewhere in this
+undergrowth till I give it up and you can get away home. You shall listen
+to me if you are here, for you can't help yourself."
+
+He was speaking in a low, even tone, walking slowly along the path and
+peering sharply into the bushes on both sides. Suddenly he stood still. He
+had detected a spot beside a low-hanging willow which showed nearly white
+in the deepening darkness. Rachel was wearing white to-night, he
+remembered. His heart quickened its paces and he paused an instant to get
+past a certain tightening in his throat.
+
+Then he bent forward and whispered: "If that's not you there I can say
+what I like, and there'll be some satisfaction in that. If you'll speak
+now you may save yourself, but if you don't I've no reason to think it's
+you, and so I can say----"
+
+There was a sharply perceptible noise farther down the path toward the
+Redding home. Barnes turned quickly and stood up straight, waiting.
+Footsteps came rapidly along the path--no footsteps of hers, evidently. A
+man's voice humming a tune grew momentarily plainer--then the voice
+stopped humming and began to sing in a subdued but clear and fine
+barytone:
+
+                       "Down through the lane
+                       Come I again
+                       Seeking, my love, for you;
+                       Run to me, dear,
+                       Losing all fear,
+                       Love and----"
+
+The voice stopped. Two men's figures confronted each other in an extremely
+narrow path. It was not too dark yet for each to be plainly recognisable
+to the other.
+
+"Hallo--that you, Lockwood?"
+
+"Hi there, Roger Barnes; what you doing here? Fishing?"
+
+"Looking for something I've lost."
+
+"Getting pretty dark to find it. Something valuable?"
+
+"Rather. Think I'll give it up for to-night."
+
+"Too bad. Nice night." Lockwood was hastening toward the end of the path
+which came out near Anthony's house. Barnes looked after him grimly.
+
+"That voice of yours, young man," he thought, "handicaps me from the
+start. Now, if I could just warble my emotions that way----"
+
+He turned and peered again at the white place by the tree. He moved
+stealthily toward it, and ascertained presently that it was not what it
+seemed. He rose to his feet and walked rapidly down the path to the
+Redding house. When he came in sight of it he saw that the kitchen windows
+were lighted and that a man stood with his arm on the sill of one of them.
+Silhouetted against the light were the familiar outlines of Stevens
+Cathcart. As Barnes stood staring amazedly at this, a slender figure in
+white came to the window, and in the stillness he could hear the quiet
+voice:
+
+"Please let me close the window, Mr. Cathcart. Thank you--no--and
+good-night."
+
+"'Three Men in a Boat,' by Rachel Redding," murmured the doctor to
+himself, and slipped back to the willow path, from which he at length
+emerged to join the group upon the porch--which then, it may be observed,
+held for the first time that night its full complement of men.
+
+Three big Chinese lanterns shed a softly pleasant light upon the porch and
+the lawn at its foot. Suzanne Gerard and Marie Dresser made a most
+attractive picture, one in a low chair, the other upon a pile of cushions
+on the step. Suzanne lightly picked a mandolin. Marie was singing softly:
+
+                     "Down through the lane
+                     Come I again
+                     Seeking, my love, for you;
+                     Run to me, dear,
+                     Losing all fear,
+                     Love and my life will be true."
+
+It was one of the songs of the summer--foolish words, seductive
+music--everybody hummed it half the time. Roger Barnes smiled to himself,
+remembering where he had heard it last.
+
+"Come here and give account," commanded Suzanne the instant he appeared.
+"Every unmarried man vanished the moment twilight fell. You are the last
+to show your face. I challenge you, one and all, to swear that you have
+not been within sight of a certain small brown house at the foot of the
+hill since supper."
+
+Her voice was music; in her eyes was laughter. Marie sang on, pointing her
+words with smiles at one and another of the culprits.
+
+From his seat on the threshold of the door, where his head rested against
+Juliet's knee as she sat behind him, Anthony laughed to himself. Then he
+turned his head and whispered to his wife: "Feel the claws through the
+velvet? Poor boys, they have my sympathy."
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.--AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY
+
+
+"Rachel," said Juliet decisively, next morning, "to-night is the last of
+my house party, and I refuse to let you off. I'm asking ten or twelve more
+people out from town. You must spend this evening with my guests, or
+forfeit my friendship."
+
+She was smiling as she said it, but her tone was not to be denied.
+
+"If that is the alternative," Rachel answered, returning the smile with an
+affectionate look of a sort which neither Louis Lockwood nor Stevens
+Cathcart nor Dr. Roger Barnes had ever seen on her face--though they had
+dreamed of it--"of course I shall stay. But I'll tell you frankly I would
+rather not."
+
+"Why not, Rachel?"
+
+"I think you know why not, Mrs. Robeson," Rachel answered.
+
+"Yes, I know why not," admitted Juliet. "Girls are queer things, Ray. They
+defeat their own ends all the time--lots of them. Suzanne and Marie are
+dear girls, with ever so many nice things about them, but they don't--they
+don't know enough not to pursue, chase, run down, the object of their
+desires. And, of course, the object, being run down panting, into a
+corner, dodges, evades, gets out and runs away. Rachel, dear, what are you
+going to wear to-night?"
+
+"My best frock," said Rachel, smiling.
+
+"Which is----"
+
+"White."
+
+"Cut out at the neck?"
+
+"A little."
+
+"Short in the sleeves?"
+
+"To the elbows. It was my sophomore evening dress."
+
+"It will be all right, I know. Rachel, wear a white rose in those low
+black braids of yours--will you?"
+
+"No, I think I won't," refused Rachel.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+Rachel did not answer. Into her cool cheek crept a tinge of rebellious,
+telltale colour.
+
+Juliet studied her a minute in silence, then came up to her and laying
+both hands on her shoulders looked up into her eyes.
+
+"You try to 'play fair,' don't you, dear?" she said heartily, "whatever
+the rest may do. And whatever they may do, Rachel Redding, don't you care.
+It's not your fault that they are as jealous of you as girls can be and
+keep sweet outside. I'd be jealous of you myself if----" She paused,
+laughing.
+
+"When you grow jealous," said Rachel, "it will be because you have grown
+blind. If anybody ever wore his heart on his sleeve--no, not there--but
+beating sturdily in the right place for one woman in the world it's----"
+
+"Right you are," said Anthony Robeson, coming up behind them, "and I hope
+you may convince her of it. She has no confidence in her own powers."
+
+Rachel stood looking at them a moment, her dark eyes very bright. "To see
+you two," she said slowly at length, "is to believe it all."
+
+The evening promised to be a gay one. The men of the party had sent to
+town for many lanterns, flags and decorations of the sort, and had made
+the porch and lawn the setting for a brilliant scene. A dozen young people
+had been asked out, and came enthusiastically.
+
+"We'll wind up with a flourish," said Anthony in his wife's ear as they
+descended the stairs together, "and then we'll send them all off to-morrow
+where they'll cease from troubling. I think it was the best plan in the
+world, but I'll be glad to prowl about my beloved home without observing
+Cathcart scowling at Lockwood, Roger Barnes evading Suzanne, or even my
+good boy Wayne with that eternal wonder on his face as to why his flat
+does not look like our Eden."
+
+"Hush--and don't look too happy to-morrow, Tony. Oh, here comes Rachel.
+Isn't she lovely?"
+
+"Now, watch," murmured Anthony, his face full of amusement. "It's as good
+as the best comedy I ever saw. See Suzanne. She never looked toward
+Rachel, but don't tell me she wasn't aware of the very instant Rachel came
+upon the porch. I believe she read it in Roger Barnes's face. I'll wager
+ten to one his pulse isn't countable at the present instant."
+
+"I don't blame him," Juliet answered, smiling at her guests. "She's my
+ideal of a girl who won't hold out a finger to the men."
+
+"Yes, she's your sort," admitted Anthony. "I know what it is--poor
+fellows--I've been through it. Your cold shoulder used to warm up my heart
+hotter than any other girl's kindness. Look at the boys now. They can't
+jump and run away from the other girls, but they'd like to. And they're
+all deadly anxious for fear the others will get the start. Say, Julie, you
+ought not to have asked those new youngsters down from town. They'll catch
+it, sure as fate; they're at the susceptible age. I see five of them now,
+all staring at Rachel."
+
+"You positively mustn't stay here with me any longer," whispered Juliet.
+"Go and devote yourself to her and keep them off for a little."
+
+"Not on your life," Anthony returned "She can take care of herself. If I
+mix up in this fray you're likely to be husbandless. Lockwood and Roger
+are getting dangerous, and I'm going to keep on the outskirts where it's
+safe."
+
+They were all upon the lawn--Rachel, unable to help herself, according to
+Anthony's intimation, the centre of a group of men who would not give each
+other a chance--when a stranger appeared upon the edge of the circle of
+light. He stood watching the scene for a moment--a tall, slender fellow,
+with a pale face and deep-set eyes. Then he asked somebody to tell Miss
+Redding that Mr. Huntington would like to speak with her. Rachel, thus
+summoned, rose, looked about her, caught sight of the stranger, and went
+swiftly down the lawn. A dozen people, among them all the men who had been
+the guests of the week, saw the meeting. They observed that the newcomer
+put out both hands, that his smile was very bright, and that he stood
+looking down into Miss Redding's face as if at sight of it he had
+instantly forgotten everything else in the world.
+
+Rachel, leaving him, came back up the lawn to find her hostess. As she
+passed it became evident to a good many pairs of sharp eyes that her
+beauty had received a keen accession from the sweeping over her cheeks of
+a burning blush--so unusual that they could not fail to take note of it.
+
+Juliet came back down the lawn with Rachel, who presented Mr. Huntington;
+and presently, without a word of leave-taking to any one else, the two
+went away down the road.
+
+"Now, who under the heavens was that?" grunted Louis Lockwood in Anthony's
+ear, catching his host around the corner of the house.
+
+"Don't know."
+
+"Brother, perhaps?"
+
+"Hasn't any."
+
+"Relative?"
+
+"Don't know."
+
+"Just a messenger, maybe?"
+
+"Give it up."
+
+"She blushed like anything."
+
+"Did she? Man she is going to marry, probably."
+
+"Oh, that can't be!"
+
+"The lady looks marriageable to me," observed Anthony, strolling away.
+
+He ran into Cathcart.
+
+"Say, who was that fellow, Tony?" began Stevens.
+
+"Don't ask me."
+
+"He looked confoundedly as if he meant to embrace her on the spot."
+
+"So he did," agreed Anthony soothingly. "Don't blame him, do you? He may
+not have seen her for a month. What condition do you suppose you'd be in
+if a week should get away from you out of her vicinity?"
+
+"Bother you, Tony--don't you know who he was?"
+
+"Intimate friend, I should judge."
+
+"She turned pink as a carnation."
+
+"Say hollyhock," suggested Anthony, "or peony. Only a vivid colour could
+do justice to it."
+
+"That's right," groaned Cathcart. "She never looked like that for any of
+us."
+
+"Never," said Anthony promptly, and got away, chuckling.
+
+"Hold on, there, Robeson, man," said the voice of Dr. Roger Barnes, and
+Anthony found himself again held up.
+
+"Come on, old Roger boy," said his host pleasantly. "We'll amble down the
+road a bit and give you a chance to get a grip on yourself. No, I don't
+know who he is. I'm all worn out assuring Louis and Steve of that. She did
+turn red, she did look upset--with joy, I infer. That girl has made more
+havoc in one short week--playing off all the while, too--than Suzanne and
+Marie have accomplished in the biggest season they ever knew. And I
+believe, Roger boy, you're about the hardest hit of any of them."
+
+The doctor did not answer. The two had walked away from the house and were
+marching arm in arm at a good pace down the road.
+
+"She's as poor as a church mouse," suggested Anthony.
+
+There was no reply.
+
+"She has a dead weight of a helpless father and mother."
+
+The doctor put match to a cigar.
+
+"Juliet says her brother died of dissipation in a gambling-house."
+
+Doctor Barnes began to chew hard on a cigar that he had failed to light.
+
+"But she's a mighty sweet girl," said Anthony softly.
+
+"See here, Tony," the doctor burst out.--"Oh, hang it all--"
+
+"I see," said his friend, with a hand on his shoulder. "Go ahead, Roger
+Barnes--there's nothing in life like it; and the good Lord have mercy on
+you, for the sort of girl worth caring for doesn't know the meaning of the
+word."
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+"All gone, little girl," said Anthony jubilantly, as he turned back into
+the house the next evening, after watching out of sight the big
+touring-car of Lockwood's which had carried all his house-party away at
+once. "They are mighty fine people and I like them all immensely--but--I
+have enjoyed to the full this speeding the parting guest. And now for my
+vacation. It begins to-morrow."
+
+"What shall we do?" asked Juliet, allowing him to draw her into his
+favourite settle corner.
+
+"Go fishing. If you'll put up a jolly little--I mean a jolly big--lunch,
+and array yourself in unspoilable attire, I'll give you a day's great
+sport, whether we catch any fish or not. There's one fish you're sure
+of--he's always on the end of your line: hooked fast, and resigned to his
+fate. Juliet, are they really all gone?"
+
+"I'm sure they are."
+
+"Good Mary McKaim--peace be to her ashes, for she never gets any on the
+toast--has she gone, too?"
+
+"She's packing."
+
+"Rachel safe at home with her presumable fiance?"
+
+"He can't be her fiance, Tony--"
+
+"That's what Lockwood said--but I suppose he can, just the same. Rachel
+away, do you say?"
+
+"Yes. She didn't come over to-day at all, you know."
+
+"I noticed it--by the gloom on three stalwart men's faces. Well, if
+everybody's safely out of the way I'm going to commit myself."
+
+"To what, Tony?"
+
+She was laughing, for he had risen, looked all about him with great
+anxiety, tiptoed to each door and listened at it, and was now come back to
+stand before her, smiling down at her and holding out his arms.
+
+"To the statement," he said, gathering her close and speaking into her
+upturned rosy face, "that without doubt this is the dearest home in the
+world, and that you are the sweetest woman who ever has stood or ever will
+stand here in it."
+
+
+
+
+XIX.--ALL THE APRIL STARS ARE OUT
+
+
+It was an April night--balmy with the breath of an exceptionally early
+spring. All the April stars were out as Anthony came to the door of the
+little house, and opening it flung himself out upon the porch, drawing
+great breaths. He looked up into the sky and clasped his arms tightly over
+his breast.
+
+"O God," he said aloud, "take care of her--"
+
+He went back into the house after a minute, and paced the floor back and
+forth, back and forth, stopping at each turn to listen at the foot of the
+stairs; then took up his stride again, his lips set, his eyes dark with
+anxiety. Over and over he went to the open door to look up at the stars,
+as if somehow he could bear his ordeal best outdoors.
+
+When half the night had gone Mrs. Dingley came downstairs. Anthony met her
+at the foot. She smiled reassuringly into his face.
+
+"This is hard for you, dear boy," she said. "But they think by
+morning----"
+
+"Morning!" he cried.
+
+"Everything is going well----"
+
+"It's only two o'clock. Morning!"
+
+"She says tell you she's going to be very happy soon."
+
+But at that Anthony turned away, where his face could not be seen, and
+stood by the open door. Mrs. Dingley laid an affectionate hand on his
+arm.
+
+"Don't worry, Tony," she said gently.
+
+"I can't help it."
+
+"This is new to you. Juliet is young and strong--and full of courage."
+
+"Bless her!"
+
+"In the morning you'll both be very happy."
+
+"I hope so."
+
+"Why, Anthony, dear," said the kindly little woman, "I never knew you to
+be so faint of heart."
+
+Anthony faced around again. "If my strength could do her any good I'd be a
+lion for her," he said. "But when all I can do is to wait--and think what
+I'd do if----"
+
+He was gone suddenly into the night. With a tender smile on her lips Mrs.
+Dingley went on upon the errand which had brought her downstairs. "It's
+worth something to a woman to be able to make a man's heart ache like
+that," she said to herself with a little sigh. Anthony would not have
+understood, but even in this hour the older woman, in her wisdom, was
+envying Juliet.
+
+Morning came at last, as mornings do. With the first streaks of the gray
+dawn Anthony heard a little, high-keyed, strange cry--new to his ears. He
+leaped up the stairs, four at a time, and paused, breathless, by the
+closed door of the blue-and-white room. After what seemed to him an
+interminable time Mrs. Dingley came out. At sight of Anthony her face
+broke into smiles, and at the same moment tears filled her eyes.
+
+"It's a splendid boy, Tony," she said. "I meant to come to you the first
+minute, but I waited to be perfectly sure. He didn't breathe well at
+first."
+
+But Anthony pushed this news aside impatiently. "Juliet?" he questioned
+eagerly.
+
+"She's all right, you poor man," Mrs. Dingley assured him. "You shall see
+her presently, just for a minute. The first thing she said was, 'Tell
+Tony.' Go down now--I'll call you soon."
+
+Anthony stole away downstairs to the outer door again. This time he ran
+out upon the porch and down the lawn and orchard, in the early half-light,
+to the willow path by the brook. He dashed along this path to its end and
+back again, as if he must in some way give expression to his relief from
+the tension of the night. But he was back and waiting impatiently long
+before he received his summons to his wife's room.
+
+On his way up he wrung the friendly hand of Dr. Joseph Wilberforce, the
+best man in the city at times like these, and thanked him in a few uneven
+words. Then he came to the door of the blue-and-white room.
+
+"Don't be afraid, Tony," said a very sweet, clear voice; "we're ever so
+well--Anthony Robeson, Junior, and I."
+
+Anthony Robeson, Senior, walked across the room in a dim, gray fog which
+obscured nearly everything except the sight of a pair of eyes which were
+shining upon him brightly enough to penetrate any fog. At the bedside he
+dropped upon his knees.
+
+"I suppose I'm an awful chump," he murmured, "but nothing ever broke me up
+so in all my life."
+
+Juliet laughed. It was not a sentimental greeting, but she understood all
+it meant. "But I'm so happy, dear," she said.
+
+"Are you? Somehow I can't seem to be--yet. I'm too badly scared."
+
+"He's such a beautiful big boy."
+
+"I suppose I shall be devoted to him some time, but all I can think of now
+is to make sure I've got you."
+
+The pleasant-faced nurse in her white cap came softly in and glanced at
+Tony meaningly.
+
+"If you'll come in here you may see your son, Mr. Robeson," she said, and
+went out again.
+
+Anthony bent over his wife. "_Little mother_," he whispered, with a kiss,
+and obediently went.
+
+Across the hall he stood looking dazedly down at the round, warm bundle
+the nurse laid in his arms.
+
+"My son," he said; "how odd that sounds."
+
+Then he hastily gave the bundle back to the nurse and got away downstairs,
+wiping the perspiration from his brow.
+
+"Never dreamed it was going to knock me over like this," he was saying to
+himself. "I can't look at her; I can't look at him; I feel like a big boy
+who has seen a little fellow take his thrashing for him."
+
+And in this humble--albeit most sincerely thankful--frame of mind he
+absently drank his breakfast coffee, and never realised that in her
+confusion of spirit good Mary McKaim, who was here again in time of need,
+had brewed him instead a powerful cup of tea.
+
+
+
+
+XX.--A PRIOR CLAIM
+
+
+"Come up, come up--you're just the people we want," cried Anthony heartily
+from his own porch. "Thought you'd be getting out to see us some of these
+fine August nights. Sit down--Juliet will be out in a minute."
+
+"Baby asleep?" asked Judith Carey, as she and Wayne settled comfortably
+into two of the deep bamboo chairs with which the porch was furnished.
+
+"To be sure he's asleep at this hour," Anthony assured her proudly; "been
+asleep for two hours. Regular as a clock, that youngster. Nurse trained
+him right at the beginning, and Juliet has kept it up. Four months old
+now, and sleeps from six at night till four in the morning without waking.
+How's that?"
+
+"I suppose it's remarkable," agreed Wayne meekly, "but I don't know
+anything about it. He might sleep twenty-three hours out of twenty-four--I
+shouldn't understand whether to call him a prodigy or an idiot."
+
+"Why, yes, you would," Judith interposed with spirit. "Think of that baby
+on the floor above us. They're walking the floor half the night with
+her."
+
+"Girl babies may be different," Carey suggested diffidently, at which
+Anthony shouted. "I don't care--all the girls I ever knew wanted to sit up
+nights," Carey insisted with a feeble grin.
+
+Juliet came out, welcoming her friends with the cordiality for which she
+was famous. "It's so hot in town," she condoled with them. "You should get
+out into our delicious air oftener. Somehow, with our breezes we don't
+mind the heat."
+
+"It's heaven here, anyhow," sighed Carey, stretching back in his chair
+with a long breath. Judith looked sober.
+
+"You say it's heaven," commented Anthony, staring hard at his friend, "and
+you profess to admire everything we do, and eat, and say, but you continue
+to pay good money every week for a lot of extremely dubious comforts--from
+my point of view."
+
+"It's one of the very best places in that part of the city," protested
+Judith.
+
+Anthony eyed her keenly. "Yes; if that's what you're paying for you've got
+it, I admit. If it's a consolation to you to know that the address you
+give when you go shopping is one that you're not ashamed of--why, you're
+all right. But I reckon Juliet here doesn't blush when she orders things
+sent home to the country."
+
+"Oh, Juliet--" began Judith; "she doesn't need an address to make all the
+salespeople pay her their most respectful attention. She----"
+
+"I understand," said Anthony. "That sweetly imperious way of hers when she
+shops--I remember it the first time I ever went shopping with her----"
+
+Juliet gave him a laughing glance. "If I remember," she said, "it wasn't I
+who did all the dictating on that historic expedition when we furnished
+this house."
+
+"We've got to go shopping again," Anthony informed them. "We're planning
+to put a little wing on the house, opening from under the stairs in the
+living-room, for a nursery and a den."
+
+"Going to put the two together?" asked a new voice from the dimness of the
+lawn.
+
+"Oh--hullo, Roger Barnes, M.D., F.R.C.S.--come up. No, I think we'll have
+a partition between. But I want a room below stairs for Tony, Junior, so
+his mother won't wear herself out carrying him up and down. That youngster
+weighs seventeen pounds and a fraction already."
+
+"I was confident I'd get some statistics if I came out," said the doctor,
+settling himself near Juliet--with a purpose, as she instantly recognised.
+"It seemed to me I couldn't wait longer to learn how much he had gained
+since I met Tony day before yesterday. It was seventeen without the
+fraction then."
+
+"That's right--guy me," returned Anthony comfortably. "I don't mind--I've
+the boy."
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I want a talk with you," said the doctor softly to Juliet, as the others
+fell to discussing the project of the enlarged house. "I've got to have
+it, too--or go off my head."
+
+Juliet nodded, understanding him. Presently she rose. "I have an errand to
+do," she said. "Will you walk over to the Evanstons' with me, Roger?"
+
+"Now, tell me," began the doctor the instant they were off, "is she going
+to persist in this awful sacrifice?"
+
+"Poor Rachel," breathed Juliet. "So many lovers--and so unhappy."
+
+"Is she unhappy?" begged the doctor. "Is she? If I only were sure of
+it----"
+
+"What girl wouldn't be unhappy--to be making even one man out of two as
+miserable as you?"
+
+"But you know what I mean. Is she going to marry Huntington out of love as
+well as pity--or only pity?"
+
+"Roger"--Juliet stood still in the road, regarding him in the dim light
+with kind eyes--"if I knew I wouldn't tell you. That's Rachel's secret.
+But I don't know. She's as loyal as a magnet, and as reserved as--you
+would want her to be if you were Mr. Huntington."
+
+"She's everything she ought to be. I'm a dastard for saying it, but I
+could forgive her for being disloyal enough to him to show me just a
+corner of her heart. Even if she loves him it's what I called it--an awful
+sacrifice--a man dying with consumption. If she doesn't--except as the
+friend of her early girlhood, when she didn't know men or her own
+heart--Juliet, it's impious."
+
+"Roger, dear, keep hold of yourself," Juliet replied. "You're too strong
+and fine to want to come between her and her own decision--if she has made
+it."
+
+"If you were a man," said he hotly, "would you let a woman marry
+you--dying?"
+
+"Yes," answered Juliet stoutly, "if she insisted."
+
+"Women are capable of saying anything in an argument," he growled. "I say
+it's outrageous to let her do it. She doesn't love him--she does love me,"
+he blurted.
+
+Juliet turned to him anxiously. "Roger, do you know what you are saying?"
+
+"Yes, I do. I've got to tell somebody, and there's nobody but you--you
+perfect woman. If ever a man knew a thing without its being put into words
+I know that. It was only a look, weeks ago, but I'm as sure of it as I am
+of myself. I've had nothing but coolness from her since, but that's in
+self-defense. And the thought that, loving me, she's going to give herself
+to him--a wreck--do you wonder it's driving me mad?"
+
+"You ought not to have told me this," said Juliet, tears in her voice. "If
+Rachel is doing this it's because she's sure she ought----"
+
+"Of course she is. And that's why I tell you. You have more influence with
+her than any one. Can't you show her that duty, the most urgent in the
+world, never requires a thing like that? Let her be his friend to the
+last--the sort of friend she knows how to be, with a warm hand in his cold
+one. But never his----"
+
+The doctor grew choky with his vehemence, and stopped short. Juliet was
+silent, full of distress. She thought of the two men--Huntington, a frail
+ghost, in the grip of a deadly illness, yet fighting it desperately, and
+desperately clinging to the girl he loved: a clever fellow, educated as a
+mining engineer, successful, even beginning to be distinguished in his
+work until his health gave out; Barnes, the embodiment of strength,
+standing high in his profession, life and the world before him, a fit mate
+for the girl who deserved the best there could be for her--Juliet thought
+of them both and found her heart aching for them--and for Rachel Redding.
+
+They were slowly approaching the brown house at the foot of the hill, the
+errand at the Evanstons' forgotten, when suddenly a familiar figure in
+white came toward them from the doorway. The doctor started at sight of
+it, and Juliet grew breathless all at once.
+
+"I thought it was you two," said Rachel. "This rising moon struck you full
+just now, and I could see you plainly. I've wanted to see you both--and
+this is my last chance. I am going away to-morrow."
+
+There was an instant's silence, while Roger Barnes tried to choose which
+of all the things he wanted to say to her should come first. Juliet broke
+the stillness.
+
+"Walk back up the road with us, dear," she said, "and tell us how and
+where you go."
+
+"I have but a minute to spare," said Rachel. "Let me say good-bye to you
+both here----"
+
+"No, by heaven, you shall not," burst out the doctor in a suppressed voice
+of fire which startled Juliet. "You owe me ten minutes, in place of the
+last letter you haven't answered. There are a score of them, you know--but
+the last has to be answered somehow."
+
+Rachel hesitated. "Very well," she said at length, "but only with Mrs.
+Robeson."
+
+"Can't you trust me?" He was angry now.
+
+"Yes--but not myself," she answered, so low he barely caught the words. He
+seized her hand.
+
+"Then trust me for us both," he said, so instantly gentle and tender that
+Juliet found it possible to say what a moment before she had thought
+unwise enough: "Go with him, Ray, dear. I think it is his right."
+
+So presently she found herself crossing her own lawn alone, while the two
+who had just left her went slowly on up the road together. Her heart was
+beating hard and painfully, for she loved them both, and foresaw for them
+only the hardest interview of their lives.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the end of half an hour Rachel Redding stood again upon her own porch,
+and Roger Barnes looked up at her from the walk below with heavy eyes.
+
+"At least," he said, "you have done what I never would have believed even
+you could do--convinced me against my will that you are right. You love
+him--he worships you. There is a promise of life for him in Arizona--with
+you. I can't forbid the bans. But I shall always believe, what you dare
+not dispute, that if I had come first--you----"
+
+She held out her hand. "That you must not say," she said. "But there is
+one thing you may say--that you are my best friend, whom I can count
+on----"
+
+"As long as there is life left in me," he answered fervently. He wrung her
+hand in both his, looked long and steadily up into her face as if his eyes
+could never leave the lovely outlines showing clear in the light from the
+windows, then turned away and strode off toward the station without a look
+behind.
+
+
+
+
+XXI.--EVERYBODY GIVES ADVICE
+
+
+"I should do it in brown leather," said Cathcart decidedly, looking about
+him.
+
+He stood in the centre of Anthony's den. The carpenters had gone, the
+plasterers had finished their work, and the floor had just been swept up.
+
+"You're all right as far as you go," observed Anthony, who stood at his
+elbow, "but you don't go far enough. If you want me to hang these walls
+with brown leather you'll have to put up the money. I may be sufficiently
+prosperous to afford the addition to my house, but I haven't reached the
+stage of covering the walls with cloth-of-gold."
+
+"Burlap would be the thing, Tony," Judith suggested.
+
+Anthony was surrounded by people--the room was half full of them, elbowing
+each other about.
+
+"Paint the walls," advised Lockwood.
+
+"There are imitation-leather papers," said Cathcart, with the air of one
+condescending to lower a high standard for the sake of those who could not
+live up to it.
+
+"I suppose so," admitted Anthony, "at four dollars a roll. I saw a simple
+thing on that order that struck me the other day at Heminways'. I thought
+it might be about forty cents a roll. It was a dollar a square yard. I
+told them I would think it over. I haven't got through thinking it over
+yet."
+
+"You want a plate-rail," said Wayne Carey.
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Why, to put plates, and steins, and things on."
+
+"Haven't a plate--or a stein. Baby has a silver mug. Would that do?"
+
+Cathcart smiled in a superior way. "You had a lot of mighty fine stuff in
+your Yale days," he remarked. "Pity you let it all go."
+
+"I shouldn't have cared for that truck now," Anthony declared easily,
+though he deceived nobody by it. Most of them remembered, if Cathcart had
+forgotten, how the college boy had sacrificed all his treasures at a blow
+when the news of his family's misfortunes had come. It had yielded little
+enough, after all, to throw into the abyss of their sudden poverty, but
+the act had proved the spirit of the elder son of the house.
+
+"You certainly will want plenty of rugs and hangings of the right sort,"
+Cathcart pursued.
+
+Anthony looked at him good-humouredly. "I can see that you have got to be
+suppressed," he said, with a hand on Stevens's collar. "I can tell you in
+a breath just what's going into this room at present. The floor is to have
+a matting, one of those heavy, cloth-like mattings. Auntie Dingley has
+presented me with one fine old Persian rug from the Marcy library, which
+she insists is out of key with the rest of the stuff. I'm glad it
+is--it'll furnish the key to my decorations. Then I've a splendid old desk
+I picked up in a place where they temporarily forgot themselves in setting
+a price on it. That's going by the window. I've a little Duerer engraving,
+and a few good foreign photographs Juliet has put under glass for me. For
+the rest I have--what I like best--clear space, pipe-and-hearth room, the
+bamboo chairs off the porch with some winter cushions in, my books--and
+that."
+
+He pointed to the windows, outside which lay a long country vista
+stretching away over fields and river to the woods in the distance,
+turning rich autumn tints now under the late October frosts.
+
+"It's enough," said Carey, with the suppressed sigh which usually
+accompanied any allusion of his to Anthony's environment. "Dens are too
+stuffy, as a rule. Fellows try to see how much useless lumber they can
+accumulate in altogether inadequate space."
+
+"But you ought to have a couch," said Judith.
+
+"Oh, yes, I'm going to have a couch," assented Anthony, laughing across
+her head at Juliet. "A gem of a couch--we're making it ourselves. You're
+not to see it till it's done. It'll be no brickbat couch, either--it'll be
+a flowery bed of ease--or, if not flowery, invitingly covered with some
+stunning stuff Juliet has fished out of a neighbour's attic."
+
+"Now, come and see the nursery," Juliet proposed, and the party crowded
+through the door into the living-room, around to the one by its side which
+opened into an attractive room behind the den, all air and sunshine.
+
+"I refuse to suggest," said Cathcart instantly, "the decorations for this
+place."
+
+"That's good," remarked Anthony cheerfully. "So much verbiage out of the
+way."
+
+"It'll be pink and white, I suppose," said Judith. "Pink is the colour for
+boys, I'm told."
+
+Behind all their backs Anthony glanced at his wife, affection and
+amusement in his face. She read the look and smiled back. It was no part
+of their plan to let the boy grow up alone. And as a mother she seemed to
+him far more beautiful than she had ever been.
+
+"We are going to have a little paper with nursery-rhyme pictures all over
+it," explained Juliet. "There are all sorts of softly harmonising colours
+in it. And just a matting on the floor with a rug to play on, his white
+crib, and some gay little curtains at the windows."
+
+"Have you made the partition double-thick, old man?" asked Lockwood. "This
+den-nursery combination strikes me as a little dubious."
+
+"It's no use explaining to a fiendish old bachelor," said Anthony, leading
+the way out of the place, "that I'd think I was missing a good deal if I
+should get so far away that I couldn't hear little Tony laugh--or cry.
+Julie, where's the boy? May I bring him down?"
+
+He disappeared upstairs, whence sounds of hilarity were at once heard.
+Presently he reappeared on the stairs, bearing aloft upon his shoulder a
+rosy cherub of a baby, smiling and waving a chubby fist at the company.
+The beauty in his face was an exquisite mixture of that belonging to both
+father and mother. Anthony and his son together made a picture worth
+seeing.
+
+Once more Wayne Carey smothered a sigh. But Judith hardened her heart.
+Since Baby Anthony had come Wayne had been difficult to manage.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+Lockwood stayed after the others had gone. Sitting smoking before the fire
+with Anthony after Juliet had left them alone he brought the conversation
+around to a point which Anthony had expected.
+
+"What do you hear of that man Huntington?" he asked, as indifferently as a
+man is ever able to ask a question which means much to him.
+
+"Huntington? Why, the last was that he was improving a little, I believe.
+Arizona is a great place for that sort of thing."
+
+"Good deal of a sacrifice for her people to go with her way out there."
+
+"She couldn't leave them behind. Father half-blind--mother a cripple. I
+understand that Arizona air is bracing them, too."
+
+"The fellow's own mother was one of the party, wasn't she?"
+
+"I believe so. He's all she has."
+
+"I don't see, with all those people to chaperon her, why she couldn't have
+gone along with him without marrying him," observed Lockwood in a gruff
+tone.
+
+Anthony smiled. "That would have been a Tantalus draught indeed," he
+remarked. "I imagine poor Huntington will need all the concessions he can
+get if he keeps on breathing even Arizona air."
+
+"Anthony," said Lockwood, after a silence of some minutes, during which he
+had puffed away with his eyes intent on the fire, "do you fancy Rachel
+Redding cared enough for that man to immolate herself like that?"
+
+"Looks very much like it."
+
+"I know it looks like it; but if I read that girl right she was the sort
+to stick to anything she'd said she'd do, if it took the breath out of her
+body. How long had she known him--any idea?"
+
+"A good while, I believe."
+
+"I thought so. Early engagement, you see--ought never to have stood."
+
+"If you'd been Huntington you'd probably have had the unreasonable notion
+that it should."
+
+"She's a magnificent girl," said Lockwood, blowing a great volume of smoke
+into the air with head elevated and half-shut eyes. "She made those two
+who were here with her last summer seem like thirty cents beside her. Nice
+girls, too--fine girls--elegant dressers; I don't know what the matter
+was. Neither did they." He chuckled a little. "They couldn't believe their
+own eyes when they saw three of us going daft over a girl they wouldn't
+have staked a copper on in a free-for-all with themselves. They took it
+gamely, I'll say that for them. Marie won't have me back."
+
+"I don't blame her."
+
+"Neither do I. Haven't got to the want-to-be-taken-back stage--sometimes
+think I never shall. One experience like that spoils a man for the
+average girl. The truth is, Tony, the most of them--er--overdo the
+meet-you-half-way act. I want a girl to keep me guessing till the last
+minute."
+
+"Tell that to the girl," advised Anthony.
+
+"I wish I could. Yet there were a good many times when I thought if Rachel
+Redding would just look my way I shouldn't take it ill of her. I wonder if
+she'd have been like that if she hadn't been engaged to another fellow."
+
+"Probably." Anthony got up and stretched himself. He was growing weary of
+other men's confidences.
+
+"You're right she would. She's built that way. Yet when you get to
+fancying what she'd be if she just let herself go and show she cared----"
+
+"Look here, my young friend," said Anthony, "I advise you to go home and
+go to bed. Sitting here dreaming over Mrs. Alexander Huntington isn't good
+for you. What you want to be doing is to forget her. Huntington's going to
+get well, and they're going to live happily ever after, and you fellows
+out here can look up other girls. Plenty of 'em. Only, for the love of
+heaven, see if you can avoid all setting your affections on the same girl
+next time. It's too rough on your friends!"
+
+
+
+
+XXII.--ROGER BARNES PROVES INVALUABLE
+
+
+Time went swinging on, and by and by it came to be Tony Robeson, Junior's,
+second Christmas day. He rode down to breakfast on his father's shoulder,
+crowing loudly on a gorgeous brown and scarlet rooster, which he had found
+on his Christmas tree the evening before. He had been put to bed
+immediately thereafter and had gone to sleep with the rooster in his arms.
+The fowl had a charmingly realistic crow, operated by a pneumatic device
+upon which the baby had promptly learned to blow. He performed upon it
+uninterruptedly throughout breakfast.
+
+"See here, my son," said Anthony, hurriedly finishing his coffee, "let's
+see if you can't appreciate some of your less voiceful toys. Here's a
+rabbit with fine soft ears for you to pull. There's a train of cars. Let
+me wind it for you. Your Grandfather Marcy must have expended several good
+dollars on that--you want to show up an interest in it when he comes out
+to see you to-day. And here's Auntie Dingley's pickaninny boy-doll--well,
+I don't blame you for failing to embrace that. Auntie Dingley was born in
+Massachusetts."
+
+[Illustration: "Toys which can be relied upon to please a twenty
+months old infant."]
+
+The boy cast an indifferently polite eye on these gifts as their charms
+were exhibited to him, and clasped the brown and scarlet rooster to his
+breast. There were moments, half hours even, when he became sufficiently
+diverted from his fowl to cease from making it crow, but at intervals
+throughout the day the family were given to understand once for all that
+it is not the most expensive and ornate toys which can be relied upon to
+please a twenty-months-old infant. Even the automobile presented by Dr.
+Roger Barnes, and warranted to go three times around the room without
+stopping, was a tame affair to the recipient compared with the rooster's
+shrill salute.
+
+"Remember, Tony," Juliet had said, a month before Christmas, "you are not
+to give me any expensive personal gift this year. I care for nothing half
+so much as for making the home complete. If--if--you cared to give me
+something toward the bathroom fund----"
+
+"All right," said Anthony promptly, for he had learned by this time to
+know his wife well. The bathroom fund was dear to her heart. The small
+room at the front of the house upstairs, which had been left unfurnished,
+had been temporarily fitted up as a bathroom by sundry ingenious devices
+in the way of a tin bath and a hot and cold water connection, but a full
+equipment of the best sort was to be put in as soon as practicable, and
+there was a growing fund therefor.
+
+On Christmas morning, nevertheless, in addition to a generous addition to
+the fund, Juliet found beside her plate an exceedingly "personal gift" in
+the shape of a little pearl-and-turquoise brooch of rare design, bearing
+the stamp of a superior maker.
+
+"Must I scold you?" she asked, smiling up at him as he stood beside her,
+watching her face flush with pleasure.
+
+"Kiss me, instead," he answered promptly. "And don't expect me to give up
+making you now and then a real present, even though it has to be a small
+one. It's too much fun."
+
+Beside his own plate he found her gift, a set of histories he had long
+wanted. It was a beautiful edition, and he would have looked reproachfully
+at the giver if she had not forestalled him by running around the table to
+say softly in his ear, both arms about his neck: "Just at Christmas time,
+dearest, let me have my way."
+
+The day was a happy one. Mr. Horatio Marcy and Mrs. Dingley arrived on the
+morning train and stayed until evening. At the Christmas dinner Judith and
+Wayne Carey and Dr. Roger Barnes were the additional guests, and Mary
+McKaim was in the kitchen. Dinner over, everybody sat about the fireplace
+talking, when Juliet came in to carry little Tony off to bed.
+
+"Five minutes more," begged Dr. Barnes, on whose knee the child sat, a
+willing captive to the arts of his entertainer. His eyes, bright with the
+excitement of this great day, were fixed upon the doctor's face.
+
+"And so"--Barnes continued the story he had begun--"the rooster climbed
+right up the man's leg"--the toy obeyed his command and scaled the
+eminence from the floor where it had been hiding behind a Noah's ark--"and
+perched on his knee, and cried"--the rooster crowed lustily and little
+Tony laughed ecstatically. "Then the rooster flew up on the man's shoulder
+and flapped his wings, and all at once he fell right over backwards and
+tumbled on his head on the floor.--Got to go to bed, Tony? Shall the
+rooster go too? All right. May I carry him up for you, Juliet? Anthony's
+deep in that discussion. Get on my back, old man--that's the way!"
+
+Everybody looked after the two as the doctor mounted the stairs.
+
+"That rooster has captivated the child more than all the mechanical toys
+he has had to-day," said Mrs. Dingley.
+
+"What a handsome fellow he is," said Carey, his eyes following little Tony
+till he disappeared. "I never saw a healthier, happier child. How sturdy
+he is on his legs--have you noticed? He's saying a good many words, too.
+It was as good as a play to see him imitate that rooster."
+
+Juliet's father and Mrs. Dingley left on an early evening train, and only
+the three younger guests remained when Juliet came downstairs after
+putting her boy to bed. She set about gathering up the toys scattered over
+the floor, and Barnes helped her. In the midst of this labour, during
+which they all made merry with some of the more elaborate mechanical
+affairs, Juliet suddenly said "What's that?" and went to the bottom of the
+stairs.
+
+"Let me go," offered Anthony. "He's probably too excited to get to sleep
+easily after all this dissipation.--Hullo!--he's crowing with the rooster
+yet."
+
+But Juliet went up, and he followed her, saying from the landing to his
+guests, "Excuse me for a little. I'll get the boy quiet, and let his
+mother come down. I've a fine talent for that sort of thing. That rooster
+will have to be given some soothing syrup--he's too lively a fowl."
+
+"I never saw a man fonder of his youngster than Tony," Carey observed.
+
+"The child is a particularly fine specimen," the doctor said. "I think I
+never saw a more ideal development than he shows."
+
+He began to tell an incident in which little Tony had been involved, when
+he was interrupted.
+
+"Barnes!"--called Anthony's voice from the top of the stairs. "Come up
+here, please."
+
+There was something in the imperative quality of this summons which made
+the doctor run up the stairs, two at a time. Judith and Wayne listened.
+The rooster could still be heard crowing, faintly but distinctly.
+
+"Perhaps he's grown too excited over it," Judith suggested. "They ought to
+take it away."
+
+Carey went to the bottom of the stairs and listened. There were rapid
+movements overhead. The doctor's voice could be heard giving directions
+through which sounded the steady crowing of the toy. "Hold him so--now
+move him that way as I thump--now the other----"
+
+Carey turned pale. "He's got that rooster in his throat," he said
+solemnly. The rooster was nearly life-size, but the incongruity of this
+suggestion did not strike him. Judith hastily rose from her chair and went
+to him.
+
+"Had we better go up?" he whispered.
+
+"Heavens--no!" Judith clutched his arm. "We couldn't do any good. The
+doctor's there. Such things make me ill. They ought not to have let him
+have the toy to take to bed with him. How could it get into his throat?
+Perhaps they are making it crow to divert him. Perhaps he's hurt himself
+somehow."
+
+"He's got the crow part of that thing in his throat," Carey persisted in
+an anxious whisper. "The manufacturers ought to be prosecuted for making a
+toy that will come apart like that."
+
+"Don't stand there," protested his wife. "Maybe it's nothing. Come here
+and sit down."
+
+But Carey stood still. Presently Anthony came to the head of the stairs.
+
+"Wayne," said he rapidly, "telephone Roger's office. Ask the trained
+nurse, Miss Hughes, to send a messenger with the doctor's emergency
+surgical case by the first train--he can catch the 9:40 if he's quick.
+Tell Miss Hughes to follow as soon as she can get ready, prepared to stay
+all night."
+
+Then he disappeared. His voice had been steady and quiet, but his eyes had
+showed his friend that the order was given under tension. Carey sprang to
+the telephone, and his hand shook as he took down the receiver.
+
+Upstairs Roger Barnes, in command, was giving cool, concise orders, his
+eyes on his little patient. When he had despatched Juliet for various
+things, including boiling water which she must get downstairs, he said to
+Anthony in a conversational tone:
+
+"It will probably not be safe to wait till my instruments get here, and
+there's no surgeon near enough to call. I'm not going to take any chances
+on this boy. If I see the necessity I'm going to get into that throat and
+give him air. I shall want you and Carey to hold him. Juliet must be
+downstairs."
+
+Anthony nodded. He did not quite understand; but a few minutes later, when
+Juliet had brought the boiling water, he suddenly perceived what his
+friend meant.
+
+"Alcohol, now, please," said the doctor. When Juliet had disappeared again
+Barnes drew from his pocket a pearl-handled pocket-knife and tried its
+blades. "It's a fortunate thing somebody made me a present of such a good
+one to-day," he observed, "but it needs sharpening a bit. Have you an
+oil-stone handy?"
+
+With tightly shut lips Anthony watched the doctor put a bright edge on his
+smallest blade, then, satisfied, drop the open knife into the water
+bubbling over a spirit-lamp. Anthony turned his head away for an instant
+from the struggling little figure on the bed. Barnes eyed him keenly.
+
+"You're game, of course?" he said.
+
+Anthony's eyes met his and flashed fire. "Don't you know me better than
+that?"
+
+"All right," and the young surgeon smiled. "But I've seen a medical man
+himself go to pieces over his own child. This is a simple matter," he went
+on lightly. "Luckily, boiling water is a more potent antiseptic than all
+the drugs on the market--and alcohol's another. I shall want a new hairpin
+or two--if Juliet has a wire one.--That the alcohol? Thank you. Now if
+you've the hairpins, Juliet--ah--a silver one--all the better."
+
+This also he dropped into the boiling water. Then he spoke very quietly to
+Tony's mother, as she bent over her child, fighting for his breath.
+
+"It's a bit tough to watch," he said, "but we'll have him all right
+presently. Suppose you go and get his crib ready for him. You might fill
+some hot-water bags and bottles and have things warm and comfortable."
+
+The telephone-bell rang below. After a minute Carey dashed upstairs. He
+looked into the room and spoke anxiously. "The messenger just missed the
+9:40. He and the nurse will come on the 10:15."
+
+"All right," said the doctor, as if the delay were of small consequence.
+"We're going to want your help presently, Carey, I think. Just ask Mrs.
+Carey to keep Mrs. Robeson with her for a few minutes, if she can."
+
+Carey went down and gave his wife the message, then he hurried back and
+stood waiting just outside the door. And all at once the summons came. In
+a breath the doctor had changed his role. He spoke sharply:
+
+"_Now, Robeson--now, Carey--we've waited up to the limit. Keep cool--hold
+him like a rock--_"
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+Wayne Carey came down to his wife, ten minutes later, smiled tremulously,
+sank into a chair, and fell to crying like a baby--softly, so that he
+could not be heard.
+
+"But Juliet says he'll be all right," murmured Judith unsteadily.
+
+"Yes, yes----" Carey wiped his eyes and blew his nose. "I'm just a little
+unnerved, that's all. Lord--and he's dropped off to sleep as quiet as a
+lamb--with Barnes holding the gash in his throat open with a hairpin to
+let the air in. When it comes to emergency surgery I tell you it's a lucky
+thing to have an expert in the house. Completely worn out--the little
+chap. When the nurse comes they'll get out the whistle and sew the place
+up. She ought to be here--I'll go meet that train."
+
+He sprang to his feet and hurried out of the house. Presently he was back,
+followed by an erect young woman who wore a long coat over the uniform she
+had not taken time to change. Carey carried the long black bag she had
+brought with her.
+
+By and by Anthony and Roger Barnes came down. The former was pale, but as
+quietly composed as ever; the latter nonchalant, yet wearing that gleam of
+satisfaction in his eye which is ever the badge of the successful
+surgeon.
+
+"Well, Mrs. Carey," said the doctor, smiling, "why not relax that tension
+a bit? The youngster is right as a trivet."
+
+"I suppose that's your idea of being right as a trivet," Judith retorted.
+"In bed, with a trained nurse watching you, and a doctor staying all night
+to make sure."
+
+"Bless you--what better would you have? If it were any other boy the
+doctor would have been home and in bed an hour ago, I assure you.
+Carey--if you don't stop acting like a great fool I'll put you to bed
+too."
+
+For Carey was wringing Barnes' hand, and the tears were running unashamed
+down his cheeks. "I gave him that rooster myself," he said, and choked.
+
+Upstairs all was quiet. The little life was safe, rescued at the crucial
+moment when interference became necessary, by the skill and daring which
+do not hesitate to use the means at hand when the authorized tools can not
+be had. Every precaution had been taken against harm from these same
+unconventional means, and the doctor, when he left his patient in the
+hands of his nurse, felt small anxiety for the ultimate outcome.
+
+He said this very positively to the boy's father and mother, holding a
+hand of each and bidding them go peacefully to sleep. He would have
+slipped away then, but they would not let him go. There were no tears, no
+fuss; but Juliet said, her eyes with their heavy shadows of past suspense
+meeting his steadily, "Roger, nothing can ever tell you what I feel about
+this," and Anthony, gripping his friend's hand with a grip of steel,
+added: "We shall never thank the Lord enough for having you on hand, Roger
+Barnes."
+
+But when the young surgeon had gone, warm with pleasure over the service
+he had done those he loved this night, the ones he had left behind found
+their self-control had reached the ragged edge. Turning to her husband
+Juliet flung herself into his arms, and met there the tenderest reception
+she had ever known. So does a common anxiety knit hearts which had thought
+they could be no tighter bound.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+Judith and Wayne Carey, walking along silent streets in the early dawn of
+the day after Christmas on their way to take their train home, had little
+to say. Only once Judith ventured an observation to her heavy-eyed
+companion:
+
+"Surely, such a scene as you went through last night must diminish a
+trifle that envy you are always possessed with, when you're at that
+house."
+
+But Wayne, staring up at the wintry sky, answered, more roughly than his
+wife had ever heard him speak: "_No_--God knows I envy them even at a time
+like this!"
+
+
+
+
+XXIII.--TWO NOT OF A KIND
+
+
+"Yes, they are very pleasant rooms," Juliet admitted, with the air of one
+endeavouring to be polite. She sat upon a many-hued divan, and glanced
+from the blue-and-yellow wall-paper to the green velvet chairs, the
+dull-red carpet and the stiff "lace" curtains. "You get the afternoon sun,
+and the view opposite isn't bad. The vestibule seemed to be well kept, and
+I rang only three times before I made you hear."
+
+"The janitor promised to fix that bell," said Judith hastily. "Oh, I know
+the colour combinations are dreadful, but one can't help that in rented
+rooms. Of course our things look badly with the ones that belong here. But
+as soon as we can we are going to move into a still better place."
+
+"Going to keep house?"
+
+"No-o, not just yet." Judith hesitated. "You seem to think there's nothing
+in the world to do but to keep house."
+
+"I'm sure of it."
+
+"I can't see why. A girl doesn't need to assume all the cares of life the
+minute she marries. Why can't she keep young and fresh for a while?"
+
+Juliet glanced toward a mirror opposite. "How old and haggard I must be
+looking," she observed, with--it must be confessed--a touch of
+complacency. The woman who could have seen that image reflected as her own
+without complacency must have been indifferent, indeed.
+
+"Of course, you manage it somehow--I suppose because Anthony takes such
+care of you. But you wait till five years more have gone over your head,
+and see if you're not tired of it."
+
+"If I'm as tired of it as you are--" began Juliet, and stopped. "But
+seriously, Judith, is it nothing to you to please Wayne?"
+
+"Why, of course." Judith flushed. "But Wayne is satisfied."
+
+"Are you sure of it?"
+
+"Certainly. Oh, sometimes, when we go to see you, and you make things so
+pleasant with your big fire and your good things to eat, he gets a spasm
+of wishing we were by ourselves, but----"
+
+Juliet shook her head. "Wayne doesn't say a word," she said, "and he's as
+devoted to you as a man can be. But, Judith, if I know the symptoms, that
+husband of yours is starving for a home, and--do I dare say it?"
+
+Judith was staring out of the window at the ugly walls opposite. It was
+her bedroom window, and the opposite walls were not six feet away.
+
+"I suppose you dare say anything," she answered, looking as if she were
+about to cry. "I'm sure I envy you, you're so supremely contented. I don't
+think I was made to care for children."
+
+"That might come," said Juliet softly. "I'm sure it would, Judith. As for
+Wayne, if you could see the look on his face I've surprised there more
+than once, when he had little Anthony, and he thought nobody noticed, it
+would make your heart ache, dear. Don't deny him--or yourself--the best
+thing that can happen to either of you. At least, don't deny it for lack
+of a home. I'm sure I can't imagine Tony, Junior, in these rooms of yours.
+They don't look," she explained, smiling, "exactly babyish."
+
+She rose to go. She looked so young and fair and sweet as she spoke her
+gentle homily that Judith, half doubting, half believing, admitted to
+herself that of one thing there could be no question: Mrs. Anthony Robeson
+envied nobody upon the face of the earth.
+
+The visits of the Robesons to the various apartments which were in
+rotation occupied by the Careys were few. Somehow it seemed much easier
+and simpler for the pair who had no children, and no housekeeping to
+hamper them, to run out into the suburbs than for their friends to get
+into town. So the Careys came with ever increasing frequency, always
+warmly welcomed, and enjoyed the hours within the little house so
+thoroughly that in time the influence of the content they saw so often
+began to have its inevitable effect.
+
+"I've great news for you," said Anthony, coming home one March day, when
+little Tony was nearing his second birthday. "It's about the Careys.
+Guess."
+
+"They are going to housekeeping."
+
+"How did you know?"
+
+"I didn't know, but Judith told me weeks ago she supposed she should have
+to come to it. Have they found a house?"
+
+"Carey thinks he has. Judith doesn't like the place, for about fifty good
+and sufficient reasons--to her. He's trying to persuade her. He has an
+option on it for ten days. He wants us to come out and look at it with
+them."
+
+"Where is it?"
+
+"About as far east of the city as we are north. If to-morrow is a good day
+I promised we would run out with them on the ten-fifteen. I suspect they
+need us badly. Wayne looks like a man distracted. The great trouble, I
+fancy, is going to be that Judith Dearborn Carey is still too much of a
+Dearborn to be able to make a home out of anything. And Carey can't do it
+alone."
+
+"Indeed he can't, poor fellow. I never saw a man in my life who wanted a
+home as badly as Wayne does. Let's do our best to help them."
+
+"We will. But the only way to do it thoroughly is to make Judith over.
+Even you can't accomplish that."
+
+"There's hope, if she has agreed at all to trying the experiment," Juliet
+declared, and thought about her friends all the rest of the day.
+
+It was but five minutes' walk, from the suburban station where the party
+got off next morning, to the house which Carey eagerly pointed out as the
+four approached.
+
+"There it is," he said. "Don't tell me what you think of it till you've
+seen the whole thing. I know it doesn't look promising as yet, but I keep
+remembering the photographs of your home, Robeson, before you went at it.
+I'm inclined to think this can be made right, too."
+
+Anthony and Juliet studied Carey's choice with interest. Judith looked on
+dubiously. It was plain that if she should consent it would be against her
+will.
+
+"It looks so commonplace and ugly," she said aside to Juliet, as the four
+completed the tour around the house and prepared to enter. "Your home is
+old-fashioned enough to be interesting, but this is just modern enough to
+be ugly. Look at that big window in front with the cheap coloured glass
+across the top. What could you do with that?"
+
+"Several things," said her friend promptly. "You might put in a row of
+narrow casement windows across the front, with diamond panes. No--the
+porch isn't attractive with all that gingerbread work, but you could take
+it away and have something plain and simple. The general lines of the
+house are not bad. It has been an old-fashioned house, Judith, but
+somebody who didn't know how has altered it and spoiled it. People are
+always doing that. There must have been a fanlight over this door. You
+could restore it. And do you see that quaint round window in the gable?
+Probably they looked at that and longed to do away with it, but happily
+for you didn't know how."
+
+Carey glanced curiously at his friend's wife, then anxiously at his own.
+Juliet's face was alight with interest; Judith's heavy with
+dissatisfaction. He wondered for the thousandth time what made the
+difference. He would have given a year's salary to see Judith look
+interested in this desire of his heart. It was hard to push a thing like
+this against the will of the only person whose help he could not do
+without. Carey was determined to have the home. Even Judith acknowledged
+that she had not been happy in any of the seven apartments they had tried
+during the less than four years of their married life. Carey believed with
+all his heart that their only chance for happiness lay in getting away
+from a manner of living which was using up every penny he could earn
+without giving them either satisfaction or comfort. His salary would not
+permit him to rent the sort of thing in the sort of neighbourhood which
+Judith longed for. And if it should, he did not believe his wife would
+find such environments any more congenial than the present one. Carey had
+a theory that a woman, like a man, must be busy to be contented. He meant
+to try it with his handsome, discontented wife.
+
+"Oh, what a pretty hall!" cried Mrs. Robeson, with enthusiasm. "How lucky
+that the vandals who made the house over didn't lay their desecrating
+hands on that staircase."
+
+"The hall looks gloomy to me," said Mrs. Carey, with a disapproving glance
+at the walls.
+
+"Of course--with that dingy brown paper and the woodwork stained that
+hideous imitation of oak. You can scrape all that off, paint it white, put
+on a warm, rich paper, restore your fanlight, and you'll have a
+particularly attractive hall."
+
+"I wish I could see things that are not visible, as you seem to be able
+to," sighed Judith, looking unconvinced. "I never did like a long,
+straight staircase like that. And there's not room to make a turn."
+
+"You don't want to, do you? It's so wide and low it doesn't need to turn,
+and the posts and rails are extremely good. How about this front room?"
+
+She stood in the center of the front room, and the two men, watching her
+vivid face as it glowed above her furs, noting the capable, womanly way
+she had of looking at the best side of everything and discerning in a
+flash of imagination and intuition what could be done with unpromising
+material, appreciated her with that full masculine appreciation which it
+is so well worth the trouble of any woman to win.
+
+Judith was not blind; she saw little by little as Juliet went from room to
+room--seizing in each upon its possibilities, ignoring its poorer features
+except to suggest their betterment, giving her whole-hearted, friendly
+counsel in a way which continually took the prospective homemakers into
+consideration--that she herself was losing something immeasurably valuable
+in not attempting to cultivate these same winning characteristics. And in
+the same breath Judith was forced to admit to herself that she did not
+know how to begin.
+
+"There is really a very pretty view from the dining-room," she said, as a
+first effort at seeing something to admire. Both Juliet and Anthony agreed
+to this statement with a cordiality which came very near suggesting that
+it was a relief to find Mrs. Carey on the optimistic side of the
+discussion even in this small detail. As for Carey, he looked so surprised
+and grateful that Judith's heart smote her with a vigour to which she was
+unaccustomed.
+
+"I suppose you could use this room as a sort of den?" she was prompted to
+suggest to her husband; and such a delighted smile illumined Carey's face
+that the sight of it was almost pathetic to his friends, who understood
+his situation rather better than he did himself. In his pleasure Carey put
+his arm about his wife's shoulders.
+
+"Couldn't I, though?" he agreed enthusiastically. "And you could use it
+for a retreat while I was away for the day."
+
+"A retreat from what? Too much excitement?" began Judith, the old habit of
+scorn of everything which was not of the city returning upon her
+irresistibly. But it chanced that she caught Juliet's eyes, unconsciously
+wearing such an expression of solicitude to see her friend complaisant in
+this matter which meant so much, that Judith hurriedly followed her ironic
+question with the more kindly supplement: "But doubtless I should have
+plenty, and be glad to get away."
+
+"You certainly would," asserted Anthony. "We never guessed how much there
+would be to occupy us in the country, but there seems hardly time to write
+letters. Nobody can believe, till he tries, how much pleasure there is in
+wheedling a garden into growing, nor how well the labour makes him sleep
+o' nights."
+
+"Yes--I think I could sleep here," said Carey, and passed a hand over a
+brow which was aching at that very moment. "I haven't done that
+satisfactorily for six months."
+
+"You'll do it here," Anthony prophesied confidently. "It's a fine air with
+a good breath of the salt sea in it, which we don't get. Your sleeping
+rooms are all well aired and lighted--a thing you don't always find in
+more pretentious houses. And when the paint and paper go on you'll own
+yourselves surprised at the transformation. I was never so astonished in
+my life as I was at the change in the little bedroom in our house which
+has that pale yellow-and-white stripe on the wall. It was a north room,
+and the old wall was a forlorn slate, like a thundercloud. My little
+artist here, with her eye for colours, instantly announced that she would
+get the sunshine into that room. And so she did--with no more potent a
+charm than that fifteen-cent paper and a fresh coat of white paint."
+
+Carey looked at Juliet with longing in his eye. He wanted to ask her to
+supervise the alterations in his purchase, if he should make it. But he
+remembered other occasions when he had held the sayings and doings of Mrs.
+Robeson before the eyes of Mrs. Carey with disastrous result, and he dared
+not make the suggestion. He hoped, however, that Judith might be inclined
+to ask the assistance of her friend, and himself hinted at it, cautiously.
+But Judith, beyond inquiring what Juliet thought of certain possible
+changes, seemed inclined to shoulder her own responsibilities.
+
+Anthony left his wife upon the home-bound train, to return to his work;
+the Careys accompanied him, so that he had no chance to talk things over
+until he came home to dinner at night. But when he saw Juliet again almost
+her first words showed him where her thoughts were.
+
+"Tony, I can't get those people off my mind. Do you suppose they will ever
+make a home out of anything?"
+
+"They haven't much genius for utilizing raw material, I'm very much
+afraid," Anthony responded thoughtfully. "Carey has the will, and he can
+furnish a moderate amount of funds, but whether Judith can furnish
+anything but objections and contrariety I don't dare to predict. If her
+heart were in it I should have more hope of her. There's one thing I can
+tell her. If she doesn't set her soul to the giving the old boy a taste of
+peace and rest she'll have him worn out before his time. A fellow who
+doesn't know how it feels to sleep soundly, and whose head bothers him
+half the time, needs looking after. He's a slave to his office desk, and
+needs far more than an active chap like me to get out of the city as much
+as he can."
+
+"Yes, he's worried and restless, Tony. He's so devoted to Judith and so
+anxious to make her happy, her dissatisfaction rests on him like a weight.
+Don't you see that every time you see them together?"
+
+"Every time--and more plainly. What's the matter with her anyhow, Julie?
+She seemed promising enough as a girl. You certainly found enough in her
+to make you two congenial. She's no more like you than--electric light is
+like sunshine," said Anthony, picking up the simile with a laugh and a
+glance of appreciation.
+
+"Judith shines in the surroundings she was born and brought up in, misses
+them, and doesn't know how to adapt herself to any others. She ought to
+have been the wife of some high official--she could entertain royally and
+have everybody at her feet."
+
+"Magnificent characteristics, but mighty unavailable in the present
+circumstances. It carries out my electric-light comparison. I prefer the
+sunlight--and I have it.--Poor Carey!"
+
+"We'll hope," said Juliet. "And if we have the smallest chance to help,
+we'll do it."
+
+But, as Anthony had anticipated, there was small chance to help. Meeting
+Carey a fortnight later, Anthony inquired after the new home, and Carey
+replied with apparent lack of enthusiasm that the house had been leased
+for a term of three years, with refusal of the purchase at the expiration
+of the time. He explained that Judith had been unwilling to burn her
+bridges by buying the place outright, and that he thought perhaps the
+present plan was the better one--under these conditions. But the fact that
+the house was not their own made it seem unwise to expend very much upon
+alterations beyond those of paint and paper. With the prospect of a sale
+the owner had unwillingly consented to replace the gingerbread porch with
+one in better style, but refused to do more. The big window, with its
+abominable topping of cheap coloured glass, was to remain for the
+present.
+
+"And I think this whole arrangement is bound to defeat my purpose," said
+Carey unhappily. "The very changes we can't afford to make in a rented
+house are the ones Judith needs to have made to reconcile her to the
+experiment. She says she feels ill every time she comes to the house and
+sees that window. She wants a porcelain sink in the kitchen. She would
+like speaking-tubes and a system of electric bells. We're to have a
+servant--if we can find her. We've put green paper on all the downstairs
+rooms, and it turns out the wrong green. I wanted a sort of corn-colour
+that looked more cheerful, but it seems green is the only thing. I don't
+know what's the matter with me. Perhaps I'm bilious. Green seems to be all
+right in your house, but in mine it makes me want to go outdoors."
+
+"That's precisely what you should do," Anthony advised cheerfully. "Get
+outdoors all you can. Start your garden. Mow your lawn yourself. Make over
+that gravel path to your front door."
+
+"I've only evenings," objected Carey. "And we're not settled yet. The
+paper's only just on. We haven't moved. We're buying furniture. We bought
+a sideboard yesterday. It cost so much we had to get a cheaper range for
+the kitchen than seemed desirable, but Judith liked the sideboard so well
+I was glad to buy it. I don't know when we shall get to living there
+permanently. This furnishing business knocks me out. We don't seem to know
+what we want. I'd like--" he hesitated--"I hoped Mrs. Robeson might be
+able to give us the advantage of her experience, but it turns out that
+Judith has a sort of pride in doing it herself, and of course--I presume
+you made some mistakes yourselves, eh?" He suggested this with eagerness.
+
+"Oh, of course," agreed Anthony readily, though he wondered what they
+were, and inwardly begged Juliet's pardon for this answer, given out of
+masculine sympathy with his friend's helplessness. "You'll come out all
+right," he hastily assured Carey. "Once you are living in the new place
+things will adjust themselves. Keep up your courage. Your daily walk to
+and from the train will do wonders. Lack of exercise will make a rainbow
+look gloomy to a fellow. I think you've great cause for rejoicing that
+Judith has agreed to try the experiment at all. And as with all
+experiments, you must be patient while it works itself out."
+
+"That's so," agreed Carey, a gleam of hope in his eyes; and Anthony got
+away. But by himself the happier man shook his head doubtfully. "Where
+everything depends on the woman," he said to himself, "and you've married
+one that her Maker never fashioned for domestic joys, you're certainly up
+against a mighty difficult proposition!"
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.--THE CAREYS ARE AT HOME
+
+
+Wayne and Judith Carey had been keeping house for two months before Judith
+was willing to accede to her husband's often repeated request that they
+entertain the Robesons.
+
+"We've been there, together and separately, till it's a wonder their
+hospitality doesn't freeze up," he urged. "Let's have them out to-morrow
+night, and keep them over till next day, at least. I'd like to have them
+sleep under this roof. They'd bring us good luck."
+
+"One would think the Robesons were the only people worth knowing," said
+Judith, with a petulance of which she had the grace, as her husband stared
+at her, to be ashamed.
+
+"They're the truest friends we have in the world," he said, with a dignity
+of manner unusual with him. "Sometimes I think they are the only people
+worth knowing--out of all those on your calling list."
+
+"We differ about that. Your ideas of who are worth knowing are very
+peculiar. Heaven knows I'm fond of Juliet, but I get decidedly tired of
+having her held up as a model. And I haven't been anxious to entertain her
+until we were in order."
+
+"We're certainly as much in order now as we shall be for some time. Let's
+have them out. You'll find they'll see everything there is to praise. It's
+their way."
+
+So Anthony and Juliet were asked, and came. Wayne's prophecy was proven a
+true one--even Judith grew complacent as her friends admired the result of
+her house-furnishing. And in truth there was much to admire. Judith was a
+young woman of taste and more or less discretion, and if she could have
+had full sway in her purchasing the result might have been admirable. As
+it was, the unspoken criticism in the minds of both the guests, as they
+followed their hosts about the house, was that Judith had struck a
+key-note in her construction of a home a little too ambitious to be wholly
+satisfactory.
+
+"I believe in buying the best of everything as far as you go," she said,
+indicating a particularly costly lounging chair in a corner of the
+living-room. "Of course that was very expensive, but it will always be
+right, and we can get others to go with it. The bookcases were another
+high-priced purchase, but they give an air to the room worth paying for."
+
+"I've only one objection to this room," said Wayne with some hesitation.
+"As Judith says, the things in it seem to be all right, and it certainly
+looks in good taste, if I'm any judge, but--I don't know just how to
+explain it----" he hesitated again, and smiled deprecatingly at his wife.
+
+"Speak out," said Judith. She was in a very good humour, for her guests
+had shown so fine a tact in their commendation that she was in quite a
+glow of satisfaction, and for the first time felt the pleasure of the
+hostess in an attractive home. "It can't be a serious objection, for
+you've liked every single thing we've put into it."
+
+"Indeed I have," agreed Carey, eagerly glancing about the brilliantly lit
+room. "I like it all awfully well--especially in the daylight. The corner
+by the window is a famous place for reading. But, you see, I'm so little
+here in the daytime, except on Sundays. Of course I know we lack the
+fireplace that makes your living-room jolly, but it seems as if we lack
+something besides that we might have, and for the life of me I can't tell
+what it is."
+
+Anthony knew by a certain curve in the corner of his wife's mouth that she
+longed to tell him what it was. For himself, he could not discover. He
+studied the room searchingly and was unable to determine why, attractive
+as it really was, it certainly did, upon this cool May evening, lack the
+look of warm comfort and hospitality of which his own home was so full.
+
+"Possibly it's because everything is so new," he ventured. "Rooms come to
+have a look of home, you know, just by living in them and leaving things
+about. It's a pretty room, all right, and I fancy it will take on the
+friendly expression you want when you get to strewing your books and
+magazines around a little more, and laying your pipe down on the corner of
+the mantel-piece, you know--and all that. I can upset things for you in
+half a minute if you'll give me leave."
+
+"You have my full permission," said Judith, laughing. "I fancy it's just
+as you say: Wayne isn't used to it yet. He always likes his old slippers
+better than the handsomest new ones I can buy him. Come--dinner has been
+served for five minutes. No more artistic suggestions till afterward."
+
+The dinner was perfect. It should have been so, for a caterer was in the
+kitchen, and a hired waitress served the viands without disaster. As a
+delectable meal it was a success; as an exhibition of Mrs. Carey's
+capacity for home making, it was something of a failure. It certainly did
+not for a moment deceive the guests. For the life of her, as Juliet tasted
+course after course of the elaborate meal, she could not help reckoning up
+what it had cost. Neither could she refrain from wondering what sort of a
+repast Judith would have produced without help.
+
+After dinner, as Wayne and Anthony smoked in front of the fireless
+mantel-piece in the den, each in a more luxurious chair than was to be
+found in Anthony's whole house, Judith took Juliet to task.
+
+"You may try to disguise it," she complained, "but I've known you too long
+not to be able to read you. You would rather have had me cook that dinner
+myself and bring it in, all red and blistered from being over the stove."
+
+"As long as the dinner wasn't red and blistered you wouldn't have been
+unhappy," Juliet returned lightly. "But you mustn't think that she who
+entertains may read my ingenuous face, my dear. It isn't necessary that I
+attempt to convert the world to my way of thinking. And I haven't told you
+that when Auntie Dingley goes abroad with father again this winter I'm to
+have Mary McKaim for eight whole months. I can assure you I know how to
+appreciate the comfort of having a competent cook in the kitchen."
+
+She got up and crossed the room. "Judith, what an exquisite lamp," she
+observed. "I'd forgotten that you had it. Was it one of your wedding
+presents?"
+
+Judith followed her to where she stood examining an imposing,
+foreign-looking lamp, with jeweled inlets in the hand-wrought metal shade.
+"Yes," she said carelessly, "it's pretty enough. I don't care much for
+lamps."
+
+"Not to read by?"
+
+"It's bright enough for anybody but a blind man to read, here." Judith
+glanced at the ornate chandelier of electric lights in the centre of the
+ceiling. "The rooms aren't so high that the lights are out of reach for
+reading."
+
+"But this is beautiful. Have you never used it?"
+
+"It might be used with an electric connection, I suppose. No, I've never
+used it as an oil lamp. I hate kerosene oil."
+
+"But you have some in the house?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I think so. Wayne insisted on getting some little hand-lamps.
+Something's always happening to the wires out here. That's one of the
+numerous joys of living in the suburbs."
+
+"Let's fill this and try it," Juliet suggested, turning a pair of very
+bright eyes upon her friend. "If you've never lit it I don't believe
+you've half appreciated it. You're neglecting one of the prettiest sources
+of decoration you have in the house. Out of sympathy for the giver,
+whoever he was, you ought to let his gift have a chance to show you its
+beauty."
+
+"Stevens Cathcart gave it to us, I believe," said Judith. "Here, let me
+have it. I'll fill it, since you insist. But I never thought very much of
+it. It was put away in a closet until we came here. It took up so much
+room I never found a place for it."
+
+"Mr. Cathcart gave it to you? That proves my point, that it's worth
+admiring. If there's a connoisseur in things of this sort, it's he. He
+probably picked it up in some out-of-the-ordinary European shop."
+
+Smiling to herself, as if something gave her satisfaction, Juliet awaited
+the return of her hostess. She understood, from the manner of Judith's
+exit with the lamp, that the free and easy familiarity with which guests
+invaded every portion of Anthony's little home, was not to be made a
+precedent for the same sort of thing in Judith's.
+
+The lamp reappeared, accompanied by a lamentation over the disagreeable
+qualities of kerosene oil for any use whatever.
+
+"You can put electricity into this and use it as a drop-light, if you
+prefer," said Juliet, as she lit it and adjusted the shade. "May I set it
+on the big table over here? Right in the center, please, if you don't mind
+moving that bowl of carnations. There!--Of course you can send it back to
+oblivion over there on the bookcase if you really don't like it.--But you
+do like it--don't you?"
+
+"It's handsomer than I thought it was," Judith admitted without
+enthusiasm. Juliet glanced up at the blazing chandelier overhead.
+
+"May I turn off some of this light?" she asked. "You won't get the full
+beauty of your lamp till you give it a chance by itself."
+
+Judith assented. Juliet snapped off three out of the four lights, and
+smiled mischievously at her friend. Then she extinguished the fourth, so
+that the only luminary left in the room was the lamp. Judith groaned.
+
+"Maybe you like a gloomy room like this. I don't. Look at it. I can hardly
+see anything in the corners."
+
+"Wait a little bit. You're so used to the glare your eyes are not good for
+seeing what I mean. Study the lamp itself a minute. Did you ever see
+anything so fascinating as the gleam through those jewels? An electric
+bulb inside would add to the brilliancy, though it's not so soft a light
+to read by, and the effect in the room isn't so warm. Observe those
+carnations under the lamplight, honey? Come over here to the doorway and
+look at your whole room under these new conditions. Isn't it
+charming?--enticing?--Let's draw that lovely Morris chair up close to the
+table, as if you were expecting Wayne to come in and read the evening
+paper by the lamp. _There!_"
+
+Juliet softly clapped her hands, her face shining with friendly
+enthusiasm. There could be no question that the whole room, as she had
+said, had taken on a new look of homelike comfort and cheer which it had
+lacked before. Even Judith was forced to see it.
+
+"It looks very well," she admitted. "But I should have more light from
+above. I like plenty of light."
+
+"So do I, if you manage it well." Whereupon the guest, having gained her
+point and made sufficient demonstration of it, turned the conversation
+into other channels. But the lamp was not yet through with its position of
+reformer. The two men, having finished their cigars, and hearing sounds of
+merriment from the adjoining room, came strolling in. Anthony,
+comprehending at a glance the change which had come over the aspect of the
+room and the cause thereof, advanced, smiling. But Carey came to a
+standstill upon the threshold, his lips drawn into an astonished whistle.
+
+"What's happened?" he ejaculated, and stood staring.
+
+"Do you like it?" asked his wife.
+
+"I should say I did. But what's done it? What makes the room look so
+different? It looks--why it looks like your rooms!" he cried, gazing at
+Anthony.
+
+"He can say nothing more flattering than that," said Judith, evidently not
+altogether pleased. "It's the highest compliment he knows."
+
+Carey stared at the lamp. "I didn't know we had that," he said. "Is it
+that that does it?"
+
+"I fancy it is," said Anthony. "I never understood it till I was taught,
+but it seems to be a fact that a low light in a room gives it a more
+homelike effect than a high one. I don't know why. It's one of my wife's
+pet theories."
+
+"Well, I must say this is a pretty convincing demonstration of it," Carey
+agreed, sitting down in a chair in a corner, his hands in his pockets,
+still studying this, to him, remarkable transformation. "It certainly does
+look like a happy home now. Before, it was a place to receive calls in."
+He turned, smiling contentedly, to his wife. Something about the glance
+which she returned warned him that further admiration was unnecessary. The
+contented smile faded a little. He got up and came over to the table.
+"Now, let's have a good four-handed talk," he proposed.
+
+Two hours later, in the seclusion of the guest-room upstairs, Anthony said
+under his breath:
+
+"They're coming on, aren't they? Don't you see glimmerings of hope that
+some day this will resemble a home, in a sort of far-off way? Isn't Judith
+becoming domesticated a trifle? She didn't get up that dinner?"
+
+Juliet turned upon him a smiling face, and laid her finger on her lip.
+"Don't tempt me to discuss it," she warned him. "My feelings might run
+away with me, and that would never do under their very roof."
+
+"Exemplary little guest! May I say as much as this, then? I'd give a good
+deal to see Wayne speak his mind once in a way, without a side glance to
+see if Her Royal Majesty approves."
+
+But Juliet shook her head. "Don't tempt me," she begged again. "There's
+something inside of me that boils and boils with rage, and if I should
+just take the cover off----"
+
+"Might I get scalded? All right--I'll leave the cover on. Just one
+observation more. When I get inside our own four walls again I'm going to
+give a tremendous whoop of joy and satisfaction that'll raise the roof
+right off the house!"
+
+
+
+
+XXV.--THE ROBESON WILL
+
+
+When people are busy and happy the years may go by like a dream. So the
+months rolled around and brought little Tony past the third anniversary of
+his birth, and into another summer of lusty development. Except to the
+growing child, however, time seemed to bring slight changes to the little
+home under whose roof he grew. The mistress thereof lost no charm either
+for her husband or her friends--Anthony indeed insisted that she grew
+younger; certainly, as time taught her new lessons without laying hands
+upon her beauty, she gained attractiveness in every way.
+
+"You look as much like a girl as ever," Anthony said to her one morning,
+as dressed for a trip into town she came out upon the porch where he and
+little Tony were frolicing together.
+
+"You had ever a sweetly blarneying tongue," said she, and bestowed a
+parting caress impartially upon both the persons before her. "I feel a bit
+guilty at making a nursemaid of you for even one morning of your vacation,
+but----"
+
+"That's all right. Do your errands with an easy conscience. I'll enjoy
+looking after the boy, and am rather glad your usual little maid is away.
+That's one thing my vacation is for--to get upon a basis of mutual
+understanding and confidence with my son. We see too little of each
+other."
+
+So Juliet caught the early car, and left the two male Robesons together,
+father and son, waving good-bye to her from the porch. When she was out of
+sight the elder Robeson turned to the younger.
+
+"Now, son," he said, "I'm going to mow the lawn. What are you going to
+do?"
+
+"I is going to mow lawn, too," announced Tony, Junior, with decision.
+
+"All right, sir. Here we are. Get in front of me and mind you push hard.
+That's the stuff!"
+
+All went joyously for ten minutes. Then little Tony wriggled out from
+between his father's arms and went over to the porch step. He sat down and
+crossed two fat legs. He leaned his head upon his hand, his elbow on his
+knee, and watched with serious eyes the progress of the lawn-mower three
+times across before he said wistfully:
+
+"Favver, I wis' you'd p'ay wiv me."
+
+"When I get this job done perhaps I will," said Anthony, and made the
+grass fly merrily. Presently he put away the lawn-mower, and stood looking
+down at the sturdy little figure in the blue Russian blouse. "What do you
+want to play?" he asked. Tony's face lit up.
+
+"Le's play fire-endjun," he proposed enthusiastically.
+
+"Where shall we play the fire is?"
+
+"Le's have weal fire," said Tony eagerly.
+
+"Real fire? Well, I don't know about that, son," his father responded
+doubtfully. "Young persons of three are not considered old enough to play
+with the real thing. Won't make believe do just as well?"
+
+"No, no--weal fire," repeated the child. "Le's put it out wiv sqi'yt
+watto. P'ease, favver--p'ease!"
+
+"Sqi'wt watto," repeated Anthony, laughing. "What do you mean by----? Oh,
+I see----" as Tony demonstrated his meaning by running to the garden hose
+which remained attached to a hydrant behind the house. "Well, son--if I
+let you have a real fire and put it out with real water, will you promise
+me never to try anything of that sort by yourself?"
+
+Tony walked over to his father and laid a little brown fist in Anthony's.
+"Aw wight," he said solemnly. Anthony looked down at the clasped hands and
+smiled at the serious uplifted face. "Is that the way mother teaches you
+to promise her?" he asked, with interest.
+
+Tony nodded. "Aw wight," he said. "Come on. Le's make fire!"
+
+The fire was made, out of a packing-box brought up from the cellar. It
+burned realistically down by the orchard, and was only discovered by
+chance when Anthony Robeson, Junior, happened to glance that way.
+
+"_Fire!--fire!_" he shouted, and alarmed the fire company, who, as fire
+companies should be, were ready to start on the instant. The hose-cart,
+propelled by a pair of stout legs, made a gallant dash down the edge of
+the garden, followed by the hook-and-ladder company, their equipment just
+three feet long. It took energetic and skilful work to quench the
+conflagration, which raged furiously and made plenty of good black smoke.
+The fire chief rushed dramatically about, ordering his men with ringing
+commands. Once he stubbed his bare toe and fell, and for a moment it
+looked as though he must cry, but like the brave fellow that he was he
+smothered his pain behind an uplifted elbow, and in a moment was again in
+the thick of the fray. His men obeyed him with admirable promptitude,
+although, contrary to the usual custom of fire chiefs, he himself took
+hold of the hose and poured its volume upon the blazing structure.
+
+When the fire was out the chief, breathless, his blue blouse bearing the
+marks of the encounter with flood and flame, sat down upon the overturned
+hose-cart and beamed upon his company.
+
+"Vat was awful nice fire," he said. "Le's have anuver."
+
+"Another? Oh, no," protested the company, hastily. "No more of that just
+now. Pick up your hook-and-ladder wagon and put it back where it belongs.
+I'll see to the hose."
+
+Anthony gently displaced the fire chief and rolled away the hose. Then he
+looked back down the garden and saw his son poking among the ruins of the
+fire. "Come here, Tony," he called, "and bring the hook-and-ladder."
+
+Tony came slowly, but without the toy wagon. Anthony stood still. When the
+boy reached him he said, "Why didn't you bring the hook-and-ladder cart?"
+
+"'Cause I'm ve chief," Tony responded gravely. "My mens'll bring ve
+cart."
+
+"Your men aren't there. You'll have to bring it yourself."
+
+Tony shook his head. "I'm ve chief," he repeated, and looked his father in
+the eye. Anthony understood. It was not the first time. There were moments
+in one's experience with Anthony Robeson, Junior, when one seemed to
+encounter a deadlock in the child's will. Reasoning and commands were apt
+at such times to be alike futile. The odd thing about it was that it was
+impossible to predict when these moments were at hand. They arose without
+warning, when the boy was apparently in the best of tempers, and they did
+not seem to be the result of any previous mismanagement on the part of
+those in authority over him.
+
+Of one point Anthony, Senior, was sure. The child, like all children, and
+possibly more than most, possessed a vivid imagination. When he announced
+himself to be a fire chief, there could be no question that he believed
+himself to be for the time that which he pretended to be. His father
+understood, therefore, that to make progress with the boy it was necessary
+to get back to the standpoint of reality before commands could be expected
+to take hold. So he sat down on a rustic seat near Juliet's roses and
+spoke in a pleasantly matter-of-fact way.
+
+"Yes, you've been a fire chief, son, and a good one. That was a great
+game. But the game is over now, and you're not a fire chief any more.
+You're Tony Robeson, and the little hook-and-ladder cart is your
+plaything. Father wants you to bring it here and put it in its place in
+the house. It looks a little bit like rain, and the cart mustn't be left
+out to get wet. See?"
+
+But Tony still shook his head. "My men'll put it in," he said, with
+calmness undisturbed.
+
+"You haven't any men. You played there were some, but the play is over and
+there aren't any men. If you don't put the cart in it may get wet."
+
+"I'm ve chief," said little Tony. "Chiefs don't draw carts."
+
+"When they've turned back to little boys they do. You've turned back to a
+little boy."
+
+"No, I hasn't," said Tony, and his eyes met his father's unflinchingly.
+"I's going to be a chief all ve time."
+
+The argument seemed unanswerable. Anthony considered swiftly what to do.
+He studied the grave brown eyes an instant in silence, their beauty and
+the inflexibility in their depths appealing to him with equal force. He
+loved the tough little will. He recognised it as his own--the same
+powerful quality which had brought him thus far on the road to fortune
+after being landed at the furthermost end from the goal. He would not for
+worlds deal with his son's will in any but the way which should seem to
+him wisest.
+
+He rose from his seat. He spoke quietly but with force. "Very well," he
+said. "If you're still a fire chief, of course you're too big to play. I'm
+much obliged to you for putting out my fire. But now that it's out I don't
+want your hook-and-ladder in my garden any longer. When your men take it
+away I shall be glad. But of course we can't play any more till you stop
+being a fire chief and the hook-and-ladder is back in its corner in the
+nursery. Good-bye. When you are ready to be Tony Robeson again, you'll
+find me in my den."
+
+He smiled at his son and walked away. Tony watched him go. Tony's hands
+were clasped behind his back, his legs planted wide apart.
+
+Anthony, Senior, found it difficult to remain in the den. He was obliged
+to keep track of a small figure in a blue blouse from whichever of the
+various windows commanded the doings of that young person. He perceived
+that the fire chief was still holding dominion over the scene.
+
+At the end of an hour small footsteps were heard approaching. Anthony
+looked up from the letter he was attempting to write. "Favver, may I have
+a bread and butter?" asked a pleasant voice. Anthony turned about in his
+chair.
+
+"Is the hook-and-ladder in the nursery?" he inquired gravely.
+
+Tony shook his head.
+
+"Oh, then you are still the fire chief. Fire chiefs go to the hotel for
+their bread and butter. I haven't any bread and butter for the fire
+chief."
+
+He turned back to his desk. The small figure in the doorway stood still a
+moment, then the footsteps were heard retreating. Five minutes later,
+Anthony, looking out, saw Tony careering about the garden on a
+hobby-horse.
+
+"Obstinate little duffer," he said affectionately to himself. "He's
+playing go to the hotel, I suppose. Perhaps when that imagination of his
+gets to work at hypothetical bread and butter he'll find the reality
+preferable to the fancy."
+
+In a short time Anthony again reconnoitred. The garden was empty. He
+looked out at the front of the house. No small figure in blue was to be
+seen. He went out and took a turn about the place. He called the boy;
+there was no response. From past experience and from the statements of
+Juliet and the young girls of the neighbourhood, whom, at various times,
+she was in the habit of engaging to assist her in the oversight of the
+child at his play, he knew that Tony had a trick of getting himself out of
+sight in an incredibly brief space of time.
+
+"As a fire chief he may consider himself free to do what he pleases," said
+Anthony to himself, and set about a thorough search of the place, having
+no doubt that at any moment he should come upon the boy carrying out the
+details of his imaginary vocation. After a time he went back into the
+house and scoured it from top to bottom. And when, even here, there was to
+be discovered no trace of the child, he began to feel a slight
+uneasiness.
+
+There was no source of immediate danger to a stray child in the
+neighbourhood, of which he was aware, except the electric line, and little
+Tony had never manifested the slightest inclination to approach this by
+himself. There were no open ponds, no traps of any kind for the incautious
+feet of a three-year-old. Everybody knew Tony, and everybody admired and
+loved him, so that, as Anthony took up his hat and started upon a more
+extended search, he had no doubt whatever of finding the runaway without
+delay.
+
+In a very short time it became a rousing of the neighbourhood. It was
+Saturday, and all the children who knew Tony were at hand. They were soon
+eagerly searching for him near and far, without finding the slightest
+trace of his passing. Anthony, now thoroughly alarmed, telephoned in every
+direction, warned every police station in the city, and took every
+possible step for the discovery of the child. It occurred to him with
+tremendous force that the boy might have been stolen. Such things did
+happen. It seemed almost the only way to account for such a sudden and
+mysterious disappearance.
+
+Before it seemed possible two hours had slipped past. And now, on every
+car which whirled by the corner, Anthony began to expect Juliet. He
+dreaded yet longed to see her. He turned cold at the thought of telling
+her the situation, yet at the same time he felt as if she might have some
+sort of a solution ready which nobody else had thought of. And while,
+still searching over and over the entire ground, he kept watch of the
+arriving cars, he saw his wife suddenly appear. He went to meet her.
+
+"What is it?" she said, the instant her eye met his.
+
+"I think it's all right, dear," he told her, as quietly as he could, "but
+somehow we can't find Tony. He disappeared during five minutes when I was
+in the house--too short a time for him to have got very far away, but--we
+can't find him. Do you think he may be hiding? Does he ever hide himself
+so effectually as that?"
+
+The bright colour in her face had slipped out of it on the instant, for he
+could not keep the anxiety out of his voice. But she said no word of
+reproach, nor did she lose command of herself in any way.
+
+"How long has he been gone?" she asked, going straight toward the house,
+Anthony close behind her.
+
+"I think--I am afraid--nearly two hours. I will tell you what happened. It
+is possible something I said is responsible for all this, though I don't
+know."
+
+She was going swiftly about the house, as he told her the story of his
+attempt to teach the boy a lesson, and she was listening closely to every
+word as she examined for herself each nook and corner. She disclosed
+several possible hiding places of which Anthony had not thought,
+explaining that Tony knew them all and sometimes betook himself to them in
+the course of various games. The two came out upon the porch, and Juliet
+stood still, thinking.
+
+"You have done everything to intercept him, if he should really have--got
+far away?"
+
+"Everything I can think of, except start out myself. I am ready to do
+that, if you think best."
+
+"Not until I have gone over the neighbourhood myself. I don't believe he
+is far away--I believe he is near. He may have heard every call you and
+the children have made, and wouldn't answer. If by any chance his pride
+has been a little hurt, he is very likely to do this sort of thing.
+Wait--have you looked--I wonder if the children know----"
+
+She was off without stopping to explain, through the garden and down the
+old willow-bordered path by the brook. Anthony followed. "I've been down
+here a dozen times," he called. "The brook is too shallow to hurt him, and
+he's certainly not anywhere on it within a mile. The children have been
+all over the ground."
+
+But Juliet did not pause. She ran along the path for some distance, then
+turned abruptly at a point where an abandoned lot filled with stumps
+joined the area by the brook. She made her swift way among these stumps,
+Anthony following, his hope rising as he noted the directness of his
+wife's aim. At the biggest stump she came to a standstill, carefully swung
+out-ward like a door a great slab of bark, and disclosed a hollow. The
+sunlight streamed in upon a little heap of blue, and a tangled brown mass
+of hair. Anthony Robeson, Junior, lay fast asleep in his cunningly devised
+retreat.
+
+Without a word his father stood looking down at the boy's flushed cheeks.
+Then he turned to Juliet, standing beside him, smiling through the tears
+which had not come until the anxiety was past. His own eyes were wet.
+
+"That was a bad scare," he said softly. "Thank God it's over."
+
+Then he stooped and gently lifted the fire chief and carried him home
+without waking him. Twenty children flocked joyfully from all about to
+see, and hushed their shouts of congratulation at Juliet's smiling
+warning.
+
+Anthony went alone down the garden to the place where the hook-and-ladder
+cart had stood. It was still there. He stood and looked at it, his eyes
+very tender but his lips firm. "The little chap didn't give in," he said
+to himself. "It's going to be hard to make him, but for the sake of the
+Robeson will I think we'll have to take up the job where we left it. I'd
+mightily like to flunk the whole business now, but I should be a pretty
+weak sort of a beggar if I did."
+
+When little Tony had wakened from his nap, and had been washed and brushed
+and fed, and made fresh in a clean frock, his mother brought him to his
+father.
+
+"Is this Tony Robeson?" Anthony asked soberly. Tony considered for a
+moment, then shook his head.
+
+"I's ve fire chief," he said, with polite stubbornness.
+
+"Have your men put away the hook-and-ladder cart?"
+
+"No, favver."
+
+"Are they going to do it?"
+
+"I didn't tell vem to."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Didn't want to."
+
+"Listen, son," said Anthony. "I could make the fire chief put away the
+cart. I'm stronger than he is, you know. I could make him walk out to
+where it lies in the garden, and I could make his hands pick it up and
+carry it into the house, and then it would be done.--Don't you think I
+could?"
+
+Tony considered. "Es, I fink 'ou could," he admitted. Evidently the
+question was one he could reflect upon from the standpoint of the
+outsider.
+
+"But I don't want to do that. I want Tony Robeson to put the cart away
+because his father asks him to do it. Don't you think he ought to do
+that?"
+
+"I isn't Tony Robeson, I'se ve fire chief."
+
+"Were you the fire chief when you woke up, and mother washed you and
+dressed you and gave you your lunch? I don't think she thought you were.
+If you had been the fire chief she would have left you to take care of
+yourself."
+
+Tony thought about it. "I dess I'se Tony wiv muvver," he said.
+
+"Then you aren't Tony with me?"
+
+The thick locks shook vehemently in the sir with the negative response. "I
+said I was ve fire chief, and I'se got to _be_ ve fire chief," he
+reiterated.
+
+Without question it was a battle of wills. But Anthony's mind was made up.
+For lack of time to deal with them previous similar issues had been dodged
+in various ways, compromises had been effected. It was plain that argument
+and reasoning, the wiles of the affectionately wise adversary who does not
+want to bring the matter to a direct conflict, had been tried. Anthony
+could see no way out except to dominate the child by the force of his own
+resolute character. It was not the way by which he wanted to obtain the
+mastery, but it was becoming plain to him that, in this case, at least, it
+was the only way left.
+
+His face grew stern all at once, his eyes, though still kind, met his
+son's with determination. "Tony," he said very gravely--and there was a
+new quality in his tone to which the child was not accustomed--"You are
+not the fire chief now. You are Tony Robeson. _I shall not let you be the
+fire chief any longer._ Do you understand?"
+
+There was no threat in the words, only a decisiveness of the sort before
+which men give way, because they see that there is no alternative. Tony
+stared into his father's eyes curiously. His own grew big with wonder,
+with something which was not alarm, but akin to it. He gazed and gazed, as
+if fascinated. Anthony's look held his; the man's powerful eyes did not
+flinch--neither did the boy's. It is possible that both pulses quickened a
+beat.
+
+Little Tony drew his eyes away at last, turned and started for the door.
+Silently Anthony watched him as he reached for the knob, turned again, and
+looked back at his father. On the very threshold the child stood still and
+stared back. His brown eyes filled, his red lips quivered. The stern face
+which watched his melted into a winning smile, and Anthony held out his
+arms. An instant longer, and his son had run across the floor and flung
+himself into them.
+
+When the childish storm of tears had quieted, and several big hugs had
+been exchanged, Anthony set the boy down upon the floor and took his hand.
+Silently the two walked out of the house and down the garden. The
+hook-and-ladder cart stood patiently waiting, just where it had waited all
+day. Little Tony ran to it and picked it up. Over his exquisite face broke
+the first smile that had been seen there since the earliest disregarded
+command of the morning.
+
+"Ve fire chief's gone," he said. "He was a bad fire chief."
+
+So together the man and the boy escorted the hook-and-ladder cart to the
+nursery, and backed it carefully into its stall, between the milk wagon
+and the automobile. Then the child went to his play. But the man drew a
+long breath.
+
+"I would rather manage a hundred striking workmen," he said to himself
+with emphasis.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI.--ON GUARD
+
+
+While little Tony had been growing, waxing strong and sturdy: while Juliet
+had been tending and training him, learning, as every mother does, more
+than she could impart: Anthony, in his place, had not stood still. The
+strength and determination he had from the first hour put into his daily
+work had begun to tell. His position in a great mercantile establishment
+had steadily advanced as he had made himself more and more indispensable
+to its heads.
+
+Cathcart, the successful architect, began to talk about a new home for the
+man into whose hands Henderson and Henderson were putting large interests
+to manage for them, and whose salary, he asserted, must now justify,
+indeed call for, life under more ideal surroundings than the little home
+in the unfashionable suburb which poverty had at first made necessary.
+
+"Let me draw some plans for you," urged Cathcart, one evening in June,
+when he had run out to see his friend. Juliet was by chance away, and
+Cathcart took advantage of this to call Anthony's attention, in a politely
+frank fashion, to the shortcomings of his present residence. "It's all
+right in its way," he said, standing upon a corner of the lawn with
+Anthony, and surveying the house critically. "Mrs. Robeson certainly
+deserves full credit for the admirable way in which she restored the old
+house and added just the changes in keeping with its possibilities. I've
+always said it couldn't have been better done, with the means you've told
+me you were able to put at her disposal. But the place is too small for
+you now."
+
+"I don't think we feel it so," said Anthony tentatively, strolling beside
+Cathcart along the edge of the lawn, his hands in his pockets, lifting
+friendly eyes at the little house. "Since we put in the bathroom--that
+small room off the upper hall, you know--and added the nursery and den,
+we're very comfortable. The furnace keeps us warm as toast, and we're soon
+to have the water system out here, so we won't have to depend upon our
+present expedients. I'm fond of the place, and I'm confident Mrs. Robeson
+is devoted to it."
+
+"I can understand that," agreed Cathcart. "Of course, the spot where you
+began life together will always have its charm for you both--in fact the
+sentiment of the matter may blind you to the real inadequacies of the
+place for a man in your position."
+
+"My position isn't so stable that I want to build a marble palace on it
+yet," said Anthony, a humorous twinkle in his eye. He enjoyed watching
+another man manoeuvre for his favourable hearing of a scheme. It was an
+art in which he was himself accomplished; it was one of the points of his
+value to Henderson and Henderson.
+
+"Everybody knows that you're in a fair way to become head man with the
+Hendersons," said Cathcart, "and everybody also knows that you might as
+well have struck a gold-mine. It's superb, the way you have come into the
+confidence of those old conservatives."
+
+"That's all well enough; but I don't see that it entails upon me the duty
+of laying out all I've saved on a new house. I know what you fellows
+are--when you begin to draw plans your love of the ideal runs away with
+the other man's pocketbook."
+
+"Not at all," declared Cathcart. "Particularly when he's a friend and you
+understand just what he can afford to do."
+
+"Why don't you talk about enlarging the old house? That's much more likely
+to appeal to my desires."
+
+The two had reached the back of the house and were close by the kitchen
+windows. Cathcart reached up and took hold of a sill. With a strong hand
+he wrenched and pounded about the window, until he succeeded in showing
+that it was old and uncertain.
+
+"That's why," he said, dusting his hand with his handkerchief. "The house
+is old--fairly rotten in places. The minute you began to enlarge it in any
+ambitious way you'd find it would be cheaper to tear it down and begin
+again. But the site, Robeson--the site isn't desirable. The place is
+respectable enough, but it has no future. The good building is all going
+south, not north, of the city. You don't want to spend a lot of money
+here--you couldn't sell out except at a loss."
+
+"Your arguments are good, very good," admitted Anthony; "so good that I'd
+like to put you on your mettle to draw me a set of plans for just the sort
+of thing you think I ought to have--or Mrs. Robeson ought to have, for
+she's the one to be considered. Anything will do for me. I'll let you do
+this--on one condition."
+
+"Name it."
+
+"That you also do your level best to demonstrate to me what a clever man
+and an artist of your proportions could make out of this house, provided
+he really wanted to show the extent of his ability. Now, that's fair. If
+you really care to convince me you won't fool with this proposition,
+you'll make a study of the one problem as thoroughly as you do of the
+other, and let me decide the case on its merits. If I thought you weren't
+giving the old house a fair chance I should take up its cause out of pure
+affection."
+
+He smiled at Cathcart's discontented face with so brilliant a good humour
+that the architect cleared up.
+
+"By Jove, Robeson," he said, "I think I see what endears you to the
+Hendersons. I wouldn't have said you could have induced me to try my hand
+at the old house, but I'll be hanged if I don't follow your instructions
+to the letter--and win out, too."
+
+"Good," said Anthony. "And don't mention it to my wife. We'll keep it for
+a surprise; and I promise you when the time comes I won't prejudice her in
+any way."
+
+Cathcart drew out a notebook and pencil and entered some memoranda on the
+spot, while Anthony, coming up on the piazza of the dining-room, laid upon
+the old Dutch house-door a hand which seemed to caress it. He was
+wondering if by any possible magic Cathcart could create, in the rarest
+abode in the world, a new door which he should ever care to enter as he
+now cared to enter this.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I think," said Juliet decidedly, "you're wrong about it."
+
+"And I know," returned Anthony with emphasis, "that you are."
+
+The two faced each other. They were walking through a short stretch of
+woodland, which lay as yet untouched by the hand of suburban property
+owners. It was a favourite ground for the diversions of the Robesons, when
+they had not time to spend in getting farther away. They had been
+strolling through it now, in the early June evening, discussing a matter
+relative to the investment of a certain moderate sum of money which had
+come into Anthony's hands. It developed that their ideas about it differed
+radically.
+
+"It's not safe to do as you propose," said Juliet.
+
+"To do what you propose would be only one better than tying it up in an
+old stocking--or putting it away in the coffee pot. It's essentially a
+woman's plan--no man would do it the honour of considering it a moment."
+
+Juliet flushed brilliantly. Even in Anthony's cheek the colour rose a
+little. Their eyes met with a challenge.
+
+"Very well," said Juliet proudly. "I'll offer no more woman's plans.
+Invest the money as you like. Then, when you've lost it----"
+
+Anthony's eyes flashed. "When I've lost it----" he began, and turned away
+with a gesture of impatience. Then he stopped short. "That isn't like
+you," he said.
+
+Juliet stared at him an instant. Then she shut her lips together and
+walked on in silence. Anthony shut his lips together also. It was not
+their habit to indulge in sharp altercation. While both had decided ideas
+about things, both were also much too well bred to be willing to allow
+differences of opinion--which must arise as inevitably as two human beings
+live under the same roof--to degenerate into the deplorable thing commonly
+referred to as a quarrel.
+
+When they had proceeded a few rods Juliet turned abruptly off from the
+path and picked up from the ground a slender straight stick, evidently cut
+and trimmed by some boy and then thrown aside. She looked about her and
+after some search found another, of similar size, untrimmed. She held out
+the latter to Anthony. He accepted it with a look of surprise. Then she
+walked into the path in front of him, stood stiff and straight, her small
+heels together, and made him the fencer's salute. "_On guard!_" she
+cried.
+
+His lips relaxing, Anthony grasped his stick and fell into position. A
+moment more and two accomplished fencers were engaged in close combat.
+
+Juliet happened to be wearing a trim linen skirt of short walking length,
+which impeded her movements as slightly as anything not strictly adapted
+to the exercise could do. Although her fencing lessons were some years
+past, the paraphernalia belonging both to herself and Anthony were in the
+house, and an occasional bout with the masks and foils was a means of
+exercise and diversion which both thoroughly enjoyed. Although Juliet was
+no match for the superior skill and endurance of her husband, she was
+nevertheless no mean antagonist, and her alertness of eye and hand usually
+gave him sufficient to do to make the encounter a stimulating one.
+
+On the present occasion Anthony, challenged to combat with his coat and
+cuffs on, and wielding the more awkward weapon of the two impromptu foils,
+found himself distinctly at a disadvantage. Moreover, he was at the moment
+not precisely in the mood for fun, and he began to defend himself with a
+somewhat lazy indifference. After a minute or two, however, he discovered
+that his adversary's slightly ruffled temper was inspiring her hand and
+wrist to distinctly effective work, and he found himself forced to look to
+his methods.
+
+Attack and parade, disengagement and thrust--the battle was waged over the
+uneven ground of the wood. And presently Anthony discovered that the
+richly glowing face opposite his was a smiling one. The absurdity of the
+match struck him irresistibly and he smiled in return. He tripped a little
+over an obtruding oak-root, and Juliet took advantage of her opportunity
+to press him hard. He fended off the attack and himself assumed the
+aggressive. An instant more and he had disarmed her and had thrown his own
+stick flying after hers. Both were laughing heartily enough.
+
+"Forgive the trick," cried Anthony. "A man must disarm his wife when she
+becomes his enemy."
+
+Breathless, Juliet sank upon a small knoll, her hand at her side. "If I'd
+been dressed for it--" she panted.
+
+"You need coaching on your time thrusts, but you gave me plenty to do as
+it was," Anthony admitted. "More than that, you've presented me with a
+chance to recover my equilibrium. I was hot inside before. Now it's all on
+the outside."
+
+He looked down at her affectionately. She smiled back. "I was crosser than
+sticks," she said. "I really can't imagine why, now. I apologise."
+
+"So do I." He threw himself down on the ground at her feet, lay flat on
+his back, his clasped hands behind his head, and gazed up into the
+tree-tops.
+
+"I'll take your advice into careful consideration," said he.
+
+"I know you won't do anything rash," said she, and they both laughed
+again.
+
+"How much more diplomatic that sort of talk is," he observed. "Why do we
+ever allow ourselves to use any other?"
+
+"Because we are human, I suppose." Juliet was putting a mass of waving
+brown hair, disordered by the fight, into shape again. "It isn't nice. We
+don't do it often. To-night you came home tired, and found a wife who had
+been entertaining people from town all the afternoon. But it's all right
+now, isn't it?"
+
+She bent forward, and Anthony took her outstretched hand in his own and
+gave it a grip which made it sting. He began to whistle cheerfully.
+
+"Should we be happier if we never disagreed?" she asked thoughtfully.
+
+The whistle stopped. "Jupiter, no! I want a thinking being to talk things
+over with, not a mental pincushion."
+
+"Thank you.--Isn't it lovely here?"
+
+"Delightful.--Julie, do you know we'll have been married five years next
+September?"
+
+"It doesn't seem possible."
+
+"I shouldn't know it, to look at you," he observed. He rolled upon his
+left side and regarded her from under intent brows. "You haven't grown a
+day older."
+
+"I'm not sure that's a compliment."
+
+"It's meant for one. Do you know you're a beauty?"
+
+"I never was one and never shall be," she answered laughing, but she could
+not object to the obvious sincerity of his opinion as he delivered it.
+
+"You're near enough to satisfy me. I'd rather have your good looks than
+all the--Well, I sat in front of a newly married pair on the way home
+to-night--that fellow Scrivener and his bride. _She's_ what people call a
+raving beauty, I suppose. I wouldn't have her in the house at a dollar an
+hour. She's a whiner. Had him doing something to satisfy her whim every
+minute. I heard him trying to tell her about something that interested
+him, but she couldn't take time from herself to listen. His voice had a
+note of fatigue in it, already, or I'm not Robeson. I tell you,
+Juliet--that's the sort of thing that makes a bachelor vow to stay single,
+and he can't be blamed."
+
+"Suppose a bachelor had overheard us half an hour ago?"
+
+"I'm glad none did--but if he had it wouldn't have disgusted him the way
+the other sort of thing did me to-day. A brisk little altercation is
+nothing, with unlimited hours of friendliness and understanding before and
+after. But a perpetual drizzle of fault finding and exactions--would make
+a fellow go hang himself. Mrs. Robeson, do you know, you're a very
+exceptional young person?"
+
+"In what way, sir?"
+
+"Whatever you do, you never nag. I've an awful suspicion that Judith Carey
+nags. You know how to let a man alone when he's in the mood for being
+alone. She never does. Carey had me out there not long ago, for what he
+called a quiet, confidential talk on some business matters. We went into
+what is supposed to be his private room and shut the door. Probably she
+came to that door not less than twelve times during that two hours. She
+called Carey away on every sort of pretext. Once she got him to do a
+stroke of work for her that took up at least ten minutes neither of us
+could spare. And she looked like a thundercloud every time I caught a
+glimpse of her face. Caesar!--think of having to live with that sort of
+person. No wonder Carey looks old before his time."
+
+"It's certainly unfortunate. But I'm not an exception, Tony. There are
+plenty of women who know when to keep out of the way."
+
+"Well, then, they're erratic on some other line, that's all. You're
+absolutely the only thoroughly sweet and sane woman I know."
+
+"My dear boy! Remember how snappish I was just this evening."
+
+"I was grouchy enough to match it. I tell you, Julie--the women who don't
+talk you to death on every subject, important or trivial, bore you with
+idiotic questions or impertinence about your affairs. How do I know so
+much about 'em? My dear, dozens of them come into the office every day,
+and Mr. Henderson has acquired a habit lately of turning them all over to
+me. I earn a double salary every hour I spend that way--wish I could put
+in a demand for it. Speaking of salaries, dear"--Anthony suddenly sat
+up--"I've no right to be grouchy, for I'm promised another advance next
+month."
+
+"Splendid!" She put out her hand, and the two shook hands vigorously
+again, like the pair of comrades they were.
+
+"Juliet," said her husband, watching her face closely. "It's been a happy
+five years, hasn't it?"
+
+"A happy five years, Tony."
+
+"Do you mean it?" He smiled at her. "You've never been sorry?" Then he got
+to his feet and held out his hand again to help her up. "The mortal combat
+we engaged in gave you a magnificent colour," he commented, and passed
+affectionate fingers across the smooth cheek near his shoulder.
+"Sweetheart----" he drew her into his arms--"I may fence with you once in
+a while with sharp words for weapons, but--do you know how I love you?"
+
+"I wonder why?"
+
+"It's strange, isn't it?--after all these years. To be really up-to-date,
+we should long since have become interested each in some other----"
+
+A hand came gently but effectually upon his mouth. He kissed the hand.
+"No, I won't say it. It's a cynical philosophy, and I'll not take its
+language on my lips--not with my wife in my arms, giving the lie to that
+sort of thing. Julie, we're not sentimentalists because we still
+care----"
+
+"Who thinks we are?"
+
+"Plenty of envious skeptics, I'll wager. I see it in their green-eyed
+glances. They can't believe it's genuine. Dear--is it genuine? Look up,
+and tell me."
+
+She looked up, and seeing his heart in his eyes, met his deep caress with
+a tenderness which told him more than she could have put into the words
+she suddenly found it impossible to speak.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII.--LOCKWOOD PAYS A CALL
+
+
+"Did you know Roger Barnes was back?" asked Wayne Carey of Anthony
+Robeson, on the evening of the twenty-fifth of June, as the two met on the
+street corner from which Anthony was to take his car. Electrics ran within
+a few rods of his home now, but they ran only at fifteen-minute intervals
+and were difficult to catch.
+
+"No. To stay this time, I hope?"
+
+"Off again to-morrow. Never saw such a fellow--restless as a fish. Been
+working all winter in Vienna--off to-morrow on the Overland Limited to
+sail Saturday for Hongkong. Goes to do a special operation on the
+Emperor's brother or some swell of the sort. He's been doing some mighty
+slick operating, according to the medical review I ran across in a throat
+specialist's office."
+
+"I must see him. Where is he?"
+
+"At your house now, more than likely. Said he'd got to see you, and if you
+haven't seen him yet you're sure to before he goes to-morrow night. By the
+way, Anthony, do you know what we heard lately about Rachel
+Redding--Huntington? That she wasn't married to Huntington till the night
+he died, almost three years ago."
+
+Anthony stared.
+
+"Guess it's straight, too," pursued Carey. "Queer she should have kept it
+all this time. Didn't Juliet hear from her at all?"
+
+"Only once or twice, I believe."
+
+"Her father and mother both died last winter."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"The man who told me was a traveller. Said she and Huntington's mother
+were coming back to live East again. He was an Eastern man himself--knew
+Huntington, and got interested when he heard the name out in Arizona.
+'Alexander Huntington's' rather an uncommon name, you know. But what could
+have been her motive for keeping everything so still?"
+
+"I've no idea," said Anthony, and let Carey talk on by himself till the
+car came. He was unwilling to discuss Rachel Redding's affairs on a street
+corner even with Wayne Carey, because she was Juliet's friend. But he had
+an idea as to why Rachel had been so reserved about herself. There were
+three men in the East whose interest in Huntington's life or death had not
+been an altogether unbiased one. He could understand that the girl would
+not be eager to declare herself free to them, though the fact of
+Huntington's death had reached them soon after its occurrence. But this
+other fact--that she had married him only at the last moment--it was
+obvious that the sort of girl Rachel Redding was would never make capital
+out of that strange occurrence, whatever its explanation might be. That
+Roger Barnes knew nothing of it he was quite certain.
+
+He missed Juliet from the corner where she and the boy usually met him,
+and hurrying on to the house came upon his wife just as she was leaving.
+
+"Oh, I didn't realise I was late, dear," she said, while Anthony swung his
+little son up to his shoulder, eliciting triumphant shouts as a reward.
+"Tony, Rachel is here."
+
+"_Rachel?_"
+
+"Hush--yes; she's upstairs, and her window is open. Walk down the orchard
+with me and I'll tell you. Her coming, an hour ago, was what made me
+forget the time."
+
+"Carey was talking about her this afternoon," said Anthony, strolling by
+her side and carrying on a frolic with the boy at the same time. "He'd
+just heard a singular thing--that she wasn't married to Huntington till
+the very night he died."
+
+"She told me. She's going away to-night, she insists; but I shall not let
+her. No, Mr. Huntington wouldn't let her marry him. After they went away
+he said he wouldn't take her unless he got well. Tony, he was a fine
+character; in our sympathy for Roger Barnes we haven't appreciated him. It
+was only at the last that he let her do it. She found out how happy it
+would make him then, and she would have it so."
+
+"I'm glad she did--poor fellow. Juliet, Roger Barnes is in town."
+
+"Really?" Juliet stopped, her breath catching. "Oh, Tony----"
+
+"Came day before yesterday--leaves to-morrow night for Hongkong."
+
+"Tony!"
+
+Anthony looked down at her, smiling. "There's a situation for you. Can you
+be expected to keep your friendly hands off that possibility?"
+
+"He won't go away without coming to see us?"
+
+"Most certainly not."
+
+"Then he will naturally come to-night."
+
+"It's more than probable."
+
+"Tony, I won't be trying to manage fate--that's what the doctor calls
+it--if I keep Rachel here until after----"
+
+"Until after the Overland Limited leaves for San Francisco? Well, fate
+needs a little assistance once in a while. I think you may legitimately
+persuade Rachel to stay, if you can. What is her hurry, anyway?"
+
+"I can't find out, except that I imagine she's afraid of meeting one of
+the men she most assuredly would meet if they knew she had come. She
+thinks Roger Barnes is in Vienna still."
+
+"She does? Ye gods! I think my knees will begin to tremble if I see their
+meeting imminent. Come, son, let's try a race to the house. I'll give you
+to the big, crooked apple tree. One--two--three--go!"
+
+Juliet followed more slowly, thinking busily. Rachel had been very decided
+about going back into the city that night. Mrs. Huntington, Senior, was
+with friends, who had begged her daughter's acceptance of their
+hospitality, and for the elder woman's sake she had acquiesced. Rachel was
+a keeper of promises, Juliet knew. And to tell her of the probability of
+the doctor's appearance would be a doubtful means of securing her
+detention. But if, for any reason, the doctor should fail to
+appear--Juliet made up her mind that she would give fate her chance until
+nine o'clock that night. If by that time Barnes had not come----
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+Juliet looked on eagerly while Anthony greeted Rachel. Her friend had
+never seemed to her so lovely as now, in her simple black gown,
+accentuating, as it did, the deep tone of her hair and eyes. Her face had
+gained in colour and contour in the Arizona climate--its tints were
+richer. The delicacy of her features was not changed, but their beauty was
+greater.
+
+"You've lived much outdoors, I see," said Anthony, when dinner was over
+and the three had gone out upon the porch, "and it's been good for you."
+
+"I've even slept outdoors," Rachel told them, "fully half the year; and
+ridden horseback every day. I can't quite think how the electrics are
+going to seem in place of my gallop on Scot. The people on the ranch where
+we were have simply made me do the things they did. The owner was a dear
+old gentleman; he gave me Scot. He wanted to send him after me; but nurses
+have small use for horses, I believe," she ended, smiling.
+
+"That's the plan, is it?"
+
+"Yes. It's what I can do best, I think. I am to enter the training-school
+the first of July, at the Larchmont Memorial Hospital."
+
+"I'll wager tremendous odds you don't," thought Anthony, "in spite of that
+confident tone. If Roger Barnes looks in to-night it's all up with your
+plans--or make a bigger fight than even you can do. A man who can't stay
+in his own town because you are out of it----"
+
+He was sitting--purposely--where he faced the road. He had considerately
+offered Rachel a chair with her back to the highway. Juliet was swinging
+lightly in the hammock behind the vines. Anthony, talking on about Arizona
+and the Larchmont Memorial, kept an eye on the approach to the house from
+the corner where visitors always left the car. His watch was rewarded at
+length by the sight of a figure rapidly turning the corner and making
+straight for the house.
+
+"Now we're in for it," he thought. "From now on the question with Juliet
+and me will be how we can most gracefully efface ourselves without seeming
+to do it. If I remember this young person correctly she's a little
+difficult to leave unchaperoned against her will."
+
+Out of the corner of his eye he kept track of the approaching figure. It
+was coming on at a great pace, and in the twilight could be seen looming
+taller and taller as it crossed the road and turned in across the lawn,
+making a short cut according to Barnes's own fashion, so that the coming
+footsteps were noiseless, even to the moment when the figure reached the
+porch itself.
+
+"Now for it," thought Anthony, feeling as if the curtain were about to
+ascend on the fourth act of a play, when the third had ended amidst all
+possible excitement.
+
+"I found the roses blooming just as they used to do, at the side of the
+house"--Rachel's warm, contralto voice was answering a question from
+Juliet--"only so untended. I think I shall have to come out again before I
+begin my work, to look after them."
+
+Anthony did not turn as the step he had been watching for sounded upon the
+porch. To save his life he could not help keeping his eyes upon Rachel's
+face. Rachel herself looked up with the air of the visitor who does not
+know the guests of the house, and the expression Anthony saw upon her face
+showed only the slightest possible surprise--certainly no other feeling.
+
+Juliet rose. "Ah, Mr. Lockwood," she said, with a cordiality, sincere
+little person though she was, Anthony knew for once she did not feel. "In
+the dusk I couldn't be quite sure."
+
+Lockwood's eyes instantly turned to Rachel. That he had known in some way
+whom he was to see was evident from a most unusual agitation in his
+manner.
+
+"Mrs.--Huntington," he got out somehow, taking her hand, and staring
+eagerly down into her face, "I heard you were home, and I hoped to find
+you here. I--you are--I am extremely glad----"
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+Half an hour later Anthony came upon his wife in the darkness of the
+dining-room. "Oh, you shouldn't have left them when I was away," she said.
+"Little Tony cried out and I had to go. I know Rachel doesn't want to be
+left with him to-night."
+
+"Angels and chaperons defend us," muttered Anthony. "I can't stand it
+forever to feel a man wanting to kill me for staying by him through a
+meeting like this, after three years. I didn't know but Lockwood would
+attempt to throw me off my own porch. Give him a chance--he hasn't any,
+anyhow."
+
+"It's after nine," whispered Juliet.
+
+"I know it. Roger's taking a terrible risk."
+
+"He doesn't know she's here. But I thought he cared enough for us to----"
+
+"That's what I've been so sure of. He's probably been detained by some
+case. He's getting so distinguished, the minute he sets foot in town now
+the folks with things the matter with them begin to block his path. I hope
+she knows what she throws over her shoulder if she refuses him now."
+
+"I don't see that she's going to have a chance to refuse him," mourned
+Juliet. "Do you think he'd ever forgive us if we let him get away without
+knowing she was here?"
+
+"Lockwood found it out, somehow. Carey's safe to tell him if he sees
+him--and he's pretty sure to, at Roger's club."
+
+"You couldn't telephone?"
+
+"Where? If he can he'll come here, if only to get news of her. She's never
+let him write to her, has she?"
+
+"He told me she hadn't when he was here last fall. And she didn't know
+where he was."
+
+"Fellow-conspirator," whispered Anthony, "we'll give fate her chance
+to-night. If she bungles the game we'll take it into our own hands
+to-morrow. But I've a feeling I'd like to let it happen by itself, if it
+will."
+
+When Lockwood had gone--which was not until eleven o'clock, in spite of
+the way his hosts remained in his vicinity--Rachel stood still upon the
+porch smiling a little wearily at Juliet.
+
+"My staying all night has been settled for me," she said. "There was no
+way to go."
+
+"Luckily for us," Juliet answered. "Sit here a little longer, dear. It's
+such a perfect night, and I know we shall see little enough of you when
+you get at work."
+
+Rachel dropped into the hammock. "I should like to lie here all night,"
+she said, "and watch the stars until I go to sleep. I've done that so
+many, many nights from under a tent flap."
+
+All at once she looked up, her eyes widening. Upon the porch step stood a
+strong figure--as unlike Lockwood's gracefully slender one as possible. A
+man's eyes were gazing steadily down into hers--determined gray eyes, with
+a light in them. The two faces were plainly visible to each other in the
+radiance from the open door.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII.--A HIGH-HANDED AFFAIR
+
+
+If she had not been standing in the doorway Juliet would have run away,
+but she had to welcome Dr. Roger Barnes, a traveler whom she had not seen
+for almost a year. Her presence, however, after one glad greeting, seemed
+not to bother him much. He turned from her to Rachel, who had risen, and
+took her outstretched hand in both his.
+
+"It's been rather a long evening," he said, "wandering around and around
+this place, waiting for the other man to go. I explored the orchard and
+the willow path, and every familiar haunt. I had to refresh myself
+occasionally by stealing up for a glimpse of your face between the vines.
+But, somehow, that only made it harder to wait. I had to march myself off
+again with my fists gripped tight in my pockets to keep them off that
+fellow, eating you up with his eyes--confound him--you, who belong only to
+me."
+
+He did not smile as he said the last words, but stood looking eagerly at
+her with a gaze that never faltered. She tried to draw her hands away; it
+was useless. Juliet slipped off, knowing that neither of them would see
+her go.
+
+"Come down on the lawn with me," he said, but she resisted.
+
+"Please stay here, Doctor Barnes," she said, "and please let me have my
+hand. I can't talk so."
+
+"You needn't talk--for a while," he answered. He sat down facing her. "At
+six o'clock I found out you were here. At eight--as soon as I could get
+away--I came out. I told you how I spent the evening. If I had needed
+anything to sharpen my longing for you that would have done it--but I
+think I had reached about the limit of what I could bear in that line
+already. It has been one constant augmenting thirst for a draught that was
+out of my reach. I shouldn't have kept my promise not to write you another
+day after I had been here this time and heard--what I have heard,
+Rachel."
+
+She did not answer. Her face was turned away; she was very still. Only a
+slightly quickened breathing, of which he was barely conscious, betrayed
+to him that this was not listening of an ordinary sort.
+
+"I shouldn't have said anything could make any difference with my feeling,
+to strengthen it," he went on very quietly, after a while, "but I find it
+has. I don't try to explain it to myself, except by the one thing I am
+sure of--that Alexander Huntington was the noblest and most heroic of men,
+and deserved to the full those last few hours of knowledge that you had
+taken his name. And I can understand your loyalty to him in wishing to
+wear it these three years. But, Rachel, I can't let you wear it any
+longer."
+
+She turned her face a shade farther away.
+
+"I am leaving to-morrow night for another year's absence." He spoke as
+simply as if he were discussing the most ordinary of subjects. "So I can
+see but one thing to do, and that is----"
+
+He got up and came around behind her, standing in the shadow of the vines,
+where the light did not touch him--"and that is, to take you with me."
+
+He had not said it doubtfully, although his inflection was very gentle.
+She moved quickly, startled.
+
+"Doctor Barnes----"
+
+"Yes, I'm ready for them. You can't raise an objection that I'm not ready
+for, not one that I can't meet--except one. And that you can't raise,
+Rachel."
+
+She was silent, the words upon her lips held in check by this last bold
+declaration.
+
+"You see you can't, being truthful," he said, smiling a little. "If I seem
+too confident, forgive me; but I've carried with me all these years that
+one look, when you forgot to veil your eyes away from me as you always
+had--and always have since then. When I get that look from you again----"
+He paused, drawing a long breath. "I don't dare dream of it. Rachel, will
+you go?"
+
+She tried to glance at him, and managed it, but no higher than his
+shoulders.
+
+"I am engaged to take the training for nurses at the Larchmont
+Memorial----" she began.
+
+But he interrupted her joyfully. "You don't say, 'I don't love you'--it's
+only, 'I was intending to be a nurse.' I told you you couldn't say it,
+because it isn't true. You do love me, Rachel. Tell me so."
+
+Her hurried breathing was plainly perceptible now. She rose quickly, as if
+she could not bear the telltale lamplight upon her face any longer, and
+went hurriedly across the porch and down upon the lawn, into the
+starlight. He followed her, his pulses bounding.
+
+"Oh, give up to me," he said in her ear, his own breath coming fast.
+"You've been fighting it four years now--it's no use. We were made for
+each other, and we've known it from the first. You stood heroically by
+your first promise--you gave him all you could; but that's all over. You
+don't have to be true to anything or anybody now but me. Give up, dear,
+and let me know what it feels like to have you pull a man toward you
+instead of pushing him away."
+
+They had reached the edge of the orchard--in deep shadow; and she
+stopped.
+
+"I don't know what I came down here for," she said, in confusion.
+
+"I do; you were running away. It's your instinct to run away--I love you
+for it--it's what first made me want to follow. But I can't stand your
+running away much longer. Look, Rachel, can you see? I'm holding out my
+arms. Rachel--I can't wait----"
+
+For an instant longer she held out, while he stood silent, holding himself
+that he might have the long-dreamed-of joy of receiving her surrender.
+Then, all at once, he realised that it had been worth all his days of
+patient and impatient waiting, for turning to him at last she gave
+herself, with the abandon such natures are capable of showing when they
+yield after long resistance, into the arms which closed hungrily around
+her.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+If anybody could have told what happened during the next twenty-four hours
+it would have been Juliet, for it was she who took the helm of affairs.
+She lay awake half the night, or what there was left of it after the
+doctor had come back with Rachel and told his friends what had happened
+and what was yet to happen, planning to make the hasty wedding as ideal as
+might be. She was a wonderful planner, and a most energetic and
+enthusiastic young matron as well, so by five in the afternoon she had
+accomplished all that had seemed to her good. Rachel's part was only to
+see that her trunk was packed, her explanations offered and good-byes
+said, and her choice made of several exquisite white gowns which Juliet
+had had sent out from town.
+
+"But I can't be married in white, Mrs. Robeson," she had said protestingly
+when Juliet had opened the boxes.
+
+"Yes, you can--and must. This is your only bridal, dear. The other--you
+know that was only what the doctor said of it once--'your hand in his to
+the last'--the hand of a friend. But this--isn't this different?"
+
+Rachel had turned away her face. "Yes, this is different," she had owned.
+"But----"
+
+"He asked me to beg you for him to have it so," Juliet urged, and Rachel
+was silent. So the simplest of the white frocks it was, and in it Rachel
+looked as Juliet had meant she should.
+
+Only Judith and Wayne Carey were asked down to see them married. To humour
+the doctor the ceremony was performed in the orchard, near the entrance to
+the willow path. The time afterward was short, and before she knew it
+Juliet was bidding the two good-bye.
+
+"I've got her," said the doctor, looking from Juliet to Rachel, who stood
+at his side. "She's mine--all mine. I have to keep saying it over and over
+to make sure."
+
+"For your comfort," answered Juliet, smiling at them both, "I'll tell you
+that she looks as if she were yours."
+
+"Does she?" he cried, laughing happily. "How does she look?" He turned and
+surveyed her. "She looks very proud and sweet and still--she's always been
+those things--and very beautiful--more beautiful than ever before. But do
+you think she really looks as if she were mine? Tell me how."
+
+Juliet turned from him, big and eager like a boy, to his bride, "proud and
+sweet and still," as he had said. "I've never seen Rachel look absolutely
+happy before," she told him. "There's always been a bit of a shadow. But
+now--look down into her eyes, Roger; there's no shadow there now."
+
+But when he would have looked Rachel's lashes fell. "Not yet? By-and-by
+then, Rachel," he whispered. Then he turned to Juliet--and Anthony, who
+had come up to stand beside her.
+
+"If it hadn't been for you and your home-making this day would never have
+come for me," he said. "You have been good friends and true, to us both.
+Let us keep you so--and good-bye."
+
+
+
+
+XXIX.--JULIET PROVES HERSELF STILL INDIFFERENT
+
+
+On a July evening, a month later, Cathcart and a great roll of architects'
+paper arrived on the Robeson porch. For an hour Juliet looked and
+listened, while Anthony, as he had promised, said not a word to bias her
+decision. Cathcart laid before her plans for a new house which were--even
+Anthony could but admit to himself beyond praise. From every
+standpoint--the artistic, the domestic, the practical, even the
+economical, so far as the modern architect understands the meaning of the
+word--the plans were ideal. Juliet studied them absorbedly, showing
+plainly her appreciation of them.
+
+"It would be a beautiful home," she said at length. "I can think of
+nothing more perfect than such a house."
+
+Cathcart looked triumphant. Without glancing at Anthony he produced
+another set of plans.
+
+"Just to please myself, Mrs. Robeson," he announced, "I have spent some
+interesting hours in trying to show what could be done with this old
+house, should any one care to lay out a reasonable sum upon it. Frankly,
+old houses never repay much expenditure of money, yet there is a certain
+satisfaction in working out the details of restoration and improvement
+which makes interesting study. Purely as a matter of that sort I have
+fancied such extensions as these."
+
+He laid the plans before her. Juliet looked, bent over them, cried out
+with delight, and called upon Anthony to join her.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Cathcart," she said eagerly, "before you proved yourself an
+exceedingly fine architect; but now you show yourself a master. To make
+this of the old house--why, it's far the higher art."
+
+Anthony glanced, laughing, across at Cathcart, whose face had fallen so
+pronouncedly that Juliet would have seen it if she had been observing. But
+she was too absorbed in the new plans.
+
+"If we could do this," she was saying, "it would satisfy my best ideals of
+a permanent home."
+
+"But, my dear Mrs. Robeson," stammered the man of castles, "consider the
+location--the neighbourhood--the rural character of the surroundings."
+
+"I do," she answered, still studying the plans. "I love them all--and the
+old home most of all. Ever since I knew"--how had she known? they
+wondered--"that a change of houses was a possible thing for us I have been
+homesick in anticipation of a change I couldn't bear to think of. Yet I
+wondered if we ought to go. But if you can make this of the old home----"
+
+She lifted to her husband an enthusiastic face. His eyes met hers in a
+long look in which each read deep into the mind of the other. Then Anthony
+Robeson, like a man who hears precisely what he most wants to hear, turned
+smiling to Cathcart.
+
+"I think you've lost, Steve," he said.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Good Fiction Worth Reading.
+
+A series of romances containing several of the old favorites in the field
+of historical fiction, replete with powerful romances of love and
+diplomacy that excel in thrilling and absorbing interest.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+WINDSOR CASTLE. A Historical Romance of the Reign of Henry VIII, Catharine
+of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. By Wm. Harrison Ainsworth, Cloth. 12mo. with
+four illustrations by George Cruikshank. Price, $1.00.
+
+  "Windsor Castle" is the story of Henry VIII., Catharine, and Anne
+  Boleyn. "Bluff King Hal," although a well-loved monarch, was none too
+  good a one in many ways. Of all his selfishness and unwarrantable
+  acts, none was more discreditable than his divorce from Catharine, and
+  his marriage to the beautiful Anne Boleyn. The King's love was as
+  brief as it was vehement. Jane Seymour, waiting maid on the Queen,
+  attracted him, and Anne Boleyn was forced to the block to make room
+  for her successor. This romance is one of extreme interest to all
+  readers.
+
+HORSESHOE ROBINSON. A tale of the Tory Ascendency in South Carolina in
+1780. By John P. Kennedy. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by Watson
+Davis. Price, $1.00.
+
+  Among the old favorites in the field of what is known as historical
+  fiction, there are none which appeal to a larger number of Americans
+  than Horseshoe Robinson, and this because it is the only story which
+  depicts with fidelity to the facts the heroic efforts of the colonists
+  in South Carolina to defend their homes against the brutal oppression
+  of the British under such leaders as Cornwallis and Tarleton.
+
+  The reader is charmed with the story of love which forms the thread of
+  the tale, and then impressed with the wealth of detail concerning
+  those times. The picture of the manifold sufferings of the people, is
+  never overdrawn, but painted faithfully and honestly by one who spared
+  neither time nor labor in his efforts to present in this charming love
+  story all that price in blood and tears which the Carolinians paid as
+  their share in the winning of the republic.
+
+  Take it all in all, "Horseshoe Robinson" is a work which should be
+  found on every book-shelf, not only because it is a most entertaining
+  story, but because of the wealth of valuable information concerning
+  the colonists which it contains. That it has been brought out once
+  more, well illustrated, is something which will give pleasure to
+  thousands who have long desired an opportunity to read the story
+  again, and to the many who have tried vainly in these latter days to
+  procure a copy that they might read it for the first time.
+
+THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND. A story of the Coast of Maine. By Harriet
+Beecher Stowe. Cloth, 12mo. Illustrated. Price, $1.00.
+
+  Written prior to 1862, the "Pearl of Orr's Island" is ever new: a book
+  filled with delicate fancies, such as seemingly array themselves anew
+  each time one reads them. One sees the "sea like an unbroken mirror
+  all around the pine-girt, lonely shores of Orr's Island" and
+  straightway comes "the heavy, hollow moan of the surf on the beach,
+  like the wild angry howl of some savage animal."
+
+  Who can read of the beginning of that sweet life, named Mara, which
+  came into this world under the very shadow of the Death angel's wings,
+  without having an intense desire to know how the premature bud
+  blossomed? Again and again one lingers over the descriptions of the
+  character of that baby boy Moses, who came through the tempest, amid
+  the angry billows, pillowed on his dead mother's breast.
+
+  There is no more faithful portrayal of New England life than that
+  which Mrs. Stowe gives in "The Pearl of Orr's Island."
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the
+publishers, A. L. BURT COMPANY, 52-58 Duane St., New York.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Good Fiction Worth Reading.
+
+A series of romances containing several of the old favorites in the field
+of historical fiction, replete with powerful romances of love and
+diplomacy that excel in thrilling and absorbing interest.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+GUY FAWKES. A Romance of the Gunpowder Treason. By Wm. Harrison Ainsworth.
+Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by George Cruikshank. Price, $1.00.
+
+  The "Gunpowder Plot" was a modest attempt to blow up Parliament, the
+  King and his Counsellors. James of Scotland, then King of England, was
+  weak-minded and extravagant. He hit upon the efficient scheme of
+  extorting money from the people by imposing taxes on the Catholics. In
+  their natural resentment to this extortion, a handful of bold spirits
+  concluded to overthrow the government. Finally the plotters were
+  arrested, and the King put to torture Guy Fawkes and the other
+  prisoners with royal vigor. A very intense love story runs through the
+  entire romance.
+
+THE SPIRIT OF THE BORDER. A Romance of the Early Settlers in the Ohio
+Valley. By Zane Grey. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson
+Davis. Price, $1.00.
+
+  A book rather out of the ordinary is this "Spirit of the Border." The
+  main thread of the story has to do with the work of the Moravian
+  missionaries in the Ohio Valley. Incidentally the reader is given
+  details of the frontier life of those hardy pioneers who broke the
+  wilderness for the planting of this great nation. Chief among these,
+  as a matter of course, is Lewis Wetzel, one of the most peculiar, and
+  at the same time the most admirable of all the brave men who spent
+  their lives battling with the savage foe, that others might dwell in
+  comparative security.
+
+  Details of the establishment and destruction of the Moravian "Village
+  of Peace" are given at some length, and with minute description. The
+  efforts to Christianize the Indians are described as they never have
+  been before, and the author has depicted the characters of the leaders
+  of the several Indian tribes with great care, which of itself will be
+  of interest to the student.
+
+  By no means least among the charms of the story are the vivid
+  word-pictures of the thrilling adventures, and the intense paintings
+  of the beauties of nature, as seen in the almost unbroken forests.
+
+  It is the spirit of the frontier which is described, and one can by
+  it, perhaps, the better understand why men, and women, too, willingly
+  braved every privation and danger that the westward progress of the
+  star of empire might be the more certain and rapid. A love story,
+  simple and tender, runs through the book.
+
+RICHELIEU. A tale of France in the reign of King Louis XIII. By G. P. R.
+James. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson Davis, Price,
+$1.00,
+
+  In 1829 Mr. James published his first romance, "Richelieu," and was
+  recognized at once as one of the masters of the craft.
+
+  In this book he laid the story during those later days of the great
+  cardinal's life, when his power was beginning to wane, but while it
+  was yet sufficiently strong to permit now and then of volcanic
+  outbursts which overwhelmed foes and carried friends to the topmost
+  wave of prosperity. One of the most striking portions of the story is
+  that of Cinq Mar's conspiracy; the method of conducting criminal
+  cases, and the political trickery resorted to by royal favorites,
+  affording a better insight into the statecraft of that day than can be
+  had even by an exhaustive study of history. It is a powerful romance
+  of love and diplomacy, and in point of thrilling and absorbing
+  interest has never been excelled.
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the
+publishers, A. L. BURT COMPANY, 52-58 Duane St., New York.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Indifference of Juliet, by Grace S. Richmond
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INDIFFERENCE OF JULIET ***
+
+***** This file should be named 26233.txt or 26233.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/2/3/26233/
+
+Produced by Roger Frank, Bruce Albrecht and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/26233.zip b/26233.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a154ff3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26233.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cfc907f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #26233 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26233)