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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Courtship of Susan Bell, by Anthony
+Trollope, Illustrated by Marcus Stone
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world 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.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Courtship of Susan Bell
+
+
+Author: Anthony Trollope
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 16, 2015  [eBook #3700]
+[This file was first posted on July 25, 2001]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COURTSHIP OF SUSAN BELL***
+
+
+Transcribed from the 1864 Chapman & Hall, “Tales of All Countries,”
+edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
+
+  [Picture: The Courtship of Susan Bell, a frontispiece by Marcus Stone]
+
+
+
+
+
+                       THE COURTSHIP OF SUSAN BELL.
+
+
+JOHN MUNROE BELL had been a lawyer in Albany, State of New York, and as
+such had thriven well.  He had thriven well as long as thrift and
+thriving on this earth had been allowed to him.  But the Almighty had
+seen fit to shorten his span.
+
+Early in life he had married a timid, anxious, pretty, good little wife,
+whose whole heart and mind had been given up to do his bidding and
+deserve his love.  She had not only deserved it but had possessed it, and
+as long as John Munroe Bell had lived, Henrietta Bell—Hetta as he called
+her—had been a woman rich in blessings.  After twelve years of such
+blessings he had left her, and had left with her two daughters, a second
+Hetta, and the heroine of our little story, Susan Bell.
+
+A lawyer in Albany may thrive passing well for eight or ten years, and
+yet not leave behind him any very large sum of money if he dies at the
+end of that time.  Some small modicum, some few thousand dollars, John
+Bell had amassed, so that his widow and daughters were not absolutely
+driven to look for work or bread.
+
+In those happy days when cash had begun to flow in plenteously to the
+young father of the family, he had taken it into his head to build for
+himself, or rather for his young female brood, a small neat house in the
+outskirts of Saratoga Springs.  In doing so he was instigated as much by
+the excellence of the investment for his pocket as by the salubrity of
+the place for his girls.  He furnished the house well, and then during
+some summer weeks his wife lived there, and sometimes he let it.
+
+How the widow grieved when the lord of her heart and master of her mind
+was laid in the grave, I need not tell.  She had already counted ten
+years of widowhood, and her children had grown to be young women beside
+her at the time of which I am now about to speak.  Since that sad day on
+which they had left Albany they had lived together at the cottage at the
+Springs.  In winter their life had been lonely enough; but as soon as the
+hot weather began to drive the fainting citizens out from New York, they
+had always received two or three boarders—old ladies generally, and
+occasionally an old gentleman—persons of very steady habits, with whose
+pockets the widow’s moderate demands agreed better than the hotel
+charges.  And so the Bells lived for ten years.
+
+That Saratoga is a gay place in July, August, and September, the world
+knows well enough.  To girls who go there with trunks full of muslin and
+crinoline, for whom a carriage and pair of horses is always waiting
+immediately after dinner, whose fathers’ pockets are bursting with
+dollars, it is a very gay place.  Dancing and flirtations come as a
+matter of course, and matrimony follows after with only too great
+rapidity.  But the place was not very gay for Hetta or Susan Bell.
+
+In the first place the widow was a timid woman, and among other fears
+feared greatly that she should be thought guilty of setting traps for
+husbands.  Poor mothers! how often are they charged with this sin when
+their honest desires go no further than that their bairns may be
+“respectit like the lave.”  And then she feared flirtations; flirtations
+that should be that and nothing more, flirtations that are so destructive
+of the heart’s sweetest essence.  She feared love also, though she longed
+for that as well as feared it;—for her girls, I mean; all such feelings
+for herself were long laid under ground;—and then, like a timid creature
+as she was, she had other indefinite fears, and among them a great fear
+that those girls of hers would be left husbandless,—a phase of life which
+after her twelve years of bliss she regarded as anything but desirable.
+But the upshot was,—the upshot of so many fears and such small
+means,—that Hetta and Susan Bell had but a dull life of it.
+
+Were it not that I am somewhat closely restricted in the number of my
+pages, I would describe at full the merits and beauties of Hetta and
+Susan Bell.  As it is I can but say a few words.  At our period of their
+lives Hetta was nearly one-and-twenty, and Susan was just nineteen.
+Hetta was a short, plump, demure young woman, with the softest smoothed
+hair, and the brownest brightest eyes.  She was very useful in the house,
+good at corn cakes, and thought much, particularly in these latter
+months, of her religious duties.  Her sister in the privacy of their own
+little room would sometimes twit her with the admiring patience with
+which she would listen to the lengthened eloquence of Mr. Phineas
+Beckard, the Baptist minister.  Now Mr. Phineas Beckard was a bachelor.
+
+Susan was not so good a girl in the kitchen or about the house as was her
+sister; but she was bright in the parlour, and if that motherly heart
+could have been made to give out its inmost secret—which however, it
+could not have been made to give out in any way painful to dear
+Hetta—perhaps it might have been found that Susan was loved with the
+closest love.  She was taller than her sister, and lighter; her eyes were
+blue as were her mother’s; her hair was brighter than Hetta’s, but not
+always so singularly neat.  She had a dimple on her chin, whereas Hetta
+had none; dimples on her cheeks too, when she smiled; and, oh, such a
+mouth!  There; my allowance of pages permits no more.
+
+One piercing cold winter’s day there came knocking at the widow’s door—a
+young man.  Winter days, when the ice of January is refrozen by the wind
+of February, are very cold at Saratoga Springs.  In these days there was
+not often much to disturb the serenity of Mrs. Bell’s house; but on the
+day in question there came knocking at the door—a young man.
+
+Mrs. Bell kept an old domestic, who had lived with them in those happy
+Albany days.  Her name was Kate O’Brien, but though picturesque in name
+she was hardly so in person.  She was a thick-set, noisy, good-natured
+old Irishwoman, who had joined her lot to that of Mrs. Bell when the
+latter first began housekeeping, and knowing when she was well off; had
+remained in the same place from that day forth.  She had known Hetta as a
+baby, and, so to say, had seen Susan’s birth.
+
+“And what might you be wanting, sir?” said Kate O’Brien, apparently not
+quite pleased as she opened the door and let in all the cold air.
+
+“I wish to see Mrs. Bell.  Is not this Mrs. Bell’s house?” said the young
+man, shaking the snow from out of the breast of his coat.
+
+He did see Mrs. Bell, and we will now tell who he was, and why he had
+come, and how it came to pass that his carpet-bag was brought down to the
+widow’s house and one of the front bedrooms was prepared for him, and
+that he drank tea that night in the widow’s parlour.
+
+His name was Aaron Dunn, and by profession he was an engineer.  What
+peculiar misfortune in those days of frost and snow had befallen the line
+of rails which runs from Schenectady to Lake Champlain, I never quite
+understood.  Banks and bridges had in some way come to grief, and on
+Aaron Dunn’s shoulders was thrown the burden of seeing that they were
+duly repaired.  Saratoga Springs was the centre of these mishaps, and
+therefore at Saratoga Springs it was necessary that he should take up his
+temporary abode.
+
+Now there was at that time in New York city a Mr. Bell, great in railway
+matters—an uncle of the once thriving but now departed Albany lawyer.  He
+was a rich man, but he liked his riches himself; or at any rate had not
+found himself called upon to share them with the widow and daughters of
+his nephew.  But when it chanced to come to pass that he had a hand in
+despatching Aaron Dunn to Saratoga, he took the young man aside and
+recommended him to lodge with the widow.  “There,” said he, “show her my
+card.”  So much the rich uncle thought he might vouchsafe to do for the
+nephew’s widow.
+
+Mrs. Bell and both her daughters were in the parlour when Aaron Dunn was
+shown in, snow and all.  He told his story in a rough, shaky voice, for
+his teeth chattered; and he gave the card, almost wishing that he had
+gone to the empty big hotel, for the widow’s welcome was not at first
+quite warm.
+
+The widow listened to him as he gave his message, and then she took the
+card and looked at it.  Hetta, who was sitting on the side of the
+fireplace facing the door, went on demurely with her work.  Susan gave
+one glance round—her back was to the stranger—and then another; and then
+she moved her chair a little nearer to the wall, so as to give the young
+man room to come to the fire, if he would.  He did not come, but his eyes
+glanced upon Susan Bell; and he thought that the old man in New York was
+right, and that the big hotel would be cold and dull.  It was a pretty
+face to look on that cold evening as she turned it up from the stocking
+she was mending.
+
+“Perhaps you don’t wish to take winter boarders, ma’am?” said Aaron Dunn.
+
+“We never have done so yet, sir,” said Mrs. Bell timidly.  Could she let
+this young wolf in among her lamb-fold?  He might be a wolf;—who could
+tell?
+
+“Mr. Bell seemed to think it would suit,” said Aaron.
+
+Had he acquiesced in her timidity and not pressed the point, it would
+have been all up with him.  But the widow did not like to go against the
+big uncle; and so she said, “Perhaps it may, sir.”
+
+“I guess it will, finely,” said Aaron.  And then the widow seeing that
+the matter was so far settled, put down her work and came round into the
+passage.  Hetta followed her, for there would be housework to do.  Aaron
+gave himself another shake, settled the weekly number of dollars—with
+very little difficulty on his part, for he had caught another glance at
+Susan’s face; and then went after his bag.  ’Twas thus that Aaron Dunn
+obtained an entrance into Mrs. Bell’s house.  “But what if he be a wolf?”
+she said to herself over and over again that night, though not exactly in
+those words.  Ay, but there is another side to that question.  What if he
+be a stalwart man, honest-minded, with clever eye, cunning hand, ready
+brain, broad back, and warm heart; in want of a wife mayhap; a man that
+can earn his own bread and another’s;—half a dozen others’ when the half
+dozen come?  Would not that be a good sort of lodger?  Such a question as
+that too did flit, just flit, across the widow’s sleepless mind.  But
+then she thought so much more of the wolf!  Wolves, she had taught
+herself to think, were more common than stalwart, honest-minded,
+wife-desirous men.
+
+“I wonder mother consented to take him,” said Hetta, when they were in
+the little room together.
+
+“And why shouldn’t she?” said Susan.  “It will be a help.”
+
+“Yes, it will be a little help,” said Hetta.  “But we have done very well
+hitherto without winter lodgers.”
+
+“But uncle Bell said she was to.”
+
+“What is uncle Bell to us?” said Hetta, who had a spirit of her own.  And
+she began to surmise within herself whether Aaron Dunn would join the
+Baptist congregation, and whether Phineas Beckard would approve of this
+new move.
+
+“He is a very well-behaved young man at any rate,” said Susan, “and he
+draws beautifully.  Did you see those things he was doing?”
+
+“He draws very well, I dare say,” said Hetta, who regarded this as but a
+poor warranty for good behaviour.  Hetta also had some fear of wolves—not
+for herself perhaps; but for her sister.
+
+Aaron Dunn’s work—the commencement of his work—lay at some distance from
+the Springs, and he left every morning with a lot of workmen by an early
+train—almost before daylight.  And every morning, cold and wintry as the
+mornings were, the widow got him his breakfast with her own hands.  She
+took his dollars and would not leave him altogether to the awkward
+mercies of Kate O’Brien; nor would she trust her girls to attend upon the
+young man.  Hetta she might have trusted; but then Susan would have asked
+why she was spared her share of such hardship.
+
+In the evening, leaving his work when it was dark, Aaron always returned,
+and then the evening was passed together.  But they were passed with the
+most demure propriety.  These women would make the tea, cut the bread and
+butter, and then sew; while Aaron Dunn, when the cups were removed, would
+always go to his plans and drawings.
+
+On Sundays they were more together; but even on this day there was cause
+of separation, for Aaron went to the Episcopalian church, rather to the
+disgust of Hetta.  In the afternoon, however, they were together; and
+then Phineas Beckard came in to tea on Sundays, and he and Aaron got to
+talking on religion; and though they disagreed pretty much, and would not
+give an inch either one or the other, nevertheless the minister told the
+widow, and Hetta too probably, that the lad had good stuff in him, though
+he was so stiff-necked.
+
+“But he should be more modest in talking on such matters with a
+minister,” said Hetta.
+
+The Rev. Phineas acknowledged that perhaps he should; but he was honest
+enough to repeat that the lad had stuff in him.  “Perhaps after all he is
+not a wolf,” said the widow to herself.
+
+Things went on in this way for above a month.  Aaron had declared to
+himself over and over again that that face was sweet to look upon, and
+had unconsciously promised to himself certain delights in talking and
+perhaps walking with the owner of it.  But the walkings had not been
+achieved—nor even the talkings as yet.  The truth was that Dunn was
+bashful with young women, though he could be so stiff-necked with the
+minister.
+
+And then he felt angry with himself, inasmuch as he had advanced no
+further; and as he lay in his bed—which perhaps those pretty hands had
+helped to make—he resolved that he would be a thought bolder in his
+bearing.  He had no idea of making love to Susan Bell; of course not.
+But why should he not amuse himself by talking to a pretty girl when she
+sat so near him, evening after evening?
+
+“What a very quiet young man he is,” said Susan to her sister.
+
+“He has his bread to earn, and sticks to his work,” said Hetta.  “No
+doubt he has his amusement when he is in the city,” added the elder
+sister, not wishing to leave too strong an impression of the young man’s
+virtue.
+
+They had all now their settled places in the parlour.  Hetta sat on one
+side of the fire, close to the table, having that side to herself.  There
+she sat always busy.  She must have made every dress and bit of linen
+worn in the house, and hemmed every sheet and towel, so busy was she
+always.  Sometimes, once in a week or so, Phineas Beckard would come in,
+and then place was made for him between Hetta’s usual seat and the table.
+For when there he would read out loud.  On the other side, close also to
+the table, sat the widow, busy, but not savagely busy as her elder
+daughter.  Between Mrs. Bell and the wall, with her feet ever on the
+fender, Susan used to sit; not absolutely idle, but doing work of some
+slender pretty sort, and talking ever and anon to her mother.  Opposite
+to them all, at the other side of the table, far away from the fire,
+would Aaron Dunn place himself with his plans and drawings before him.
+
+“Are you a judge of bridges, ma’am?” said Aaron, the evening after he had
+made his resolution.  ’Twas thus he began his courtship.
+
+“Of bridges?” said Mrs. Bell—“oh dear no, sir.”  But she put out her hand
+to take the little drawing which Aaron handed to her.
+
+“Because that’s one I’ve planned for our bit of a new branch from Moreau
+up to Lake George.  I guess Miss Susan knows something about bridges.”
+
+“I guess I don’t,” said Susan—“only that they oughtn’t to tumble down
+when the frost comes.”
+
+“Ha, ha, ha; no more they ought.  I’ll tell McEvoy that.”  McEvoy had
+been a former engineer on the line.  “Well, that won’t burst with any
+frost, I guess.”
+
+“Oh my! how pretty!” said the widow, and then Susan of course jumped up
+to look over her mother’s shoulder.
+
+The artful dodger! he had drawn and coloured a beautiful little sketch of
+a bridge; not an engineer’s plan with sections and measurements,
+vexatious to a woman’s eye, but a graceful little bridge with a string of
+cars running under it.  You could almost hear the bell going.
+
+“Well; that is a pretty bridge,” said Susan.  “Isn’t it, Hetta?”
+
+“I don’t know anything about bridges,” said Hetta, to whose clever eyes
+the dodge was quite apparent.  But in spite of her cleverness Mrs. Bell
+and Susan had soon moved their chairs round to the table, and were
+looking through the contents of Aaron’s portfolio.  “But yet he may be a
+wolf,” thought the poor widow, just as she was kneeling down to say her
+prayers.
+
+That evening certainly made a commencement.  Though Hetta went on
+pertinaciously with the body of a new dress, the other two ladies did not
+put in another stitch that night.  From his drawings Aaron got to his
+instruments, and before bedtime was teaching Susan how to draw parallel
+lines.  Susan found that she had quite an aptitude for parallel lines,
+and altogether had a good time of it that evening.  It is dull to go on
+week after week, and month after month, talking only to one’s mother and
+sister.  It is dull though one does not oneself recognise it to be so.  A
+little change in such matters is so very pleasant.  Susan had not the
+slightest idea of regarding Aaron as even a possible lover.  But young
+ladies do like the conversation of young gentlemen.  Oh, my exceedingly
+proper prim old lady, you who are so shocked at this as a general
+doctrine, has it never occurred to you that the Creator has so intended
+it?
+
+Susan understanding little of the how and why, knew that she had had a
+good time, and was rather in spirits as she went to bed.  But Hetta had
+been frightened by the dodge.
+
+“Oh, Hetta, you should have looked at those drawings.  He is so clever!”
+said Susan.
+
+“I don’t know that they would have done me much good,” replied Hetta.
+
+“Good!  Well, they’d do me more good than a long sermon, I know,” said
+Susan; “except on a Sunday, of course,” she added apologetically.  This
+was an ill-tempered attack both on Hetta and Hetta’s admirer.  But then
+why had Hetta been so snappish?
+
+“I’m sure he’s a wolf;” thought Hetta as she went to bed.
+
+“What a very clever young man he is!” thought Susan to herself as she
+pulled the warm clothes round about her shoulders and ears.
+
+“Well that certainly was an improvement,” thought Aaron as he went
+through the same operation, with a stronger feeling of self-approbation
+than he had enjoyed for some time past.
+
+In the course of the next fortnight the family arrangements all altered
+themselves.  Unless when Beckard was there Aaron would sit in the widow’s
+place, the widow would take Susan’s chair, and the two girls would be
+opposite.  And then Dunn would read to them; not sermons, but passages
+from Shakspeare, and Byron, and Longfellow.  “He reads much better than
+Mr. Beckard,” Susan had said one night.  “Of course you’re a competent
+judge!” had been Hetta’s retort.  “I mean that I like it better,” said
+Susan.  “It’s well that all people don’t think alike,” replied Hetta.
+
+And then there was a deal of talking.  The widow herself, as unconscious
+in this respect as her youngest daughter, certainly did find that a
+little variety was agreeable on those long winter nights; and talked
+herself with unaccustomed freedom.  And Beckard came there oftener and
+talked very much.  When he was there the two young men did all the
+talking, and they pounded each other immensely.  But still there grew up
+a sort of friendship between them.
+
+“Mr. Beckard seems quite to take to him,” said Mrs. Bell to her eldest
+daughter.
+
+“It is his great good nature, mother,” replied Hetta.
+
+It was at the end of the second month when Aaron took another step in
+advance—a perilous step.  Sometimes on evenings he still went on with his
+drawing for an hour or so; but during three or four evenings he never
+asked any one to look at what he was doing.  On one Friday he sat over
+his work till late, without any reading or talking at all; so late that
+at last Mrs. Bell said, “If you’re going to sit much longer, Mr. Dunn,
+I’ll get you to put out the candles.”  Thereby showing, had he known it
+or had she, that the mother’s confidence in the young man was growing
+fast.  Hetta knew all about it, and dreaded that the growth was too
+quick.
+
+“I’ve finished now,” said Aaron; and he looked carefully at the cardboard
+on which he had been washing in his water-colours.  “I’ve finished now.”
+He then hesitated a moment; but ultimately he put the card into his
+portfolio and carried it up to his bedroom.  Who does not perceive that
+it was intended as a present to Susan Bell?
+
+The question which Aaron asked himself that night, and which he hardly
+knew how to answer, was this.  Should he offer the drawing to Susan in
+the presence of her mother and sister, or on some occasion when they two
+might be alone together?  No such occasion had ever yet occurred, but
+Aaron thought that it might probably be brought about.  But then he
+wanted to make no fuss about it.  His first intention had been to chuck
+the drawing lightly across the table when it was completed, and so make
+nothing of it.  But he had finished it with more care than he had at
+first intended; and then he had hesitated when he had finished it.  It
+was too late now for that plan of chucking it over the table.
+
+On the Saturday evening when he came down from his room, Mr. Beckard was
+there, and there was no opportunity that night.  On the Sunday, in
+conformity with a previous engagement, he went to hear Mr. Beckard
+preach, and walked to and from meeting with the family.  This pleased
+Mrs. Bell, and they were all very gracious that afternoon.  But Sunday
+was no day for the picture.
+
+On Monday the thing had become of importance to him.  Things always do
+when they are kept over.  Before tea that evening when he came down Mrs.
+Bell and Susan only were in the room.  He knew Hetta for his foe, and
+therefore determined to use this occasion.
+
+“Miss Susan,” he said, stammering somewhat, and blushing too, poor fool!
+“I have done a little drawing which I want you to accept,” and he put his
+portfolio down on the table.
+
+“Oh!  I don’t know,” said Susan, who had seen the blush.
+
+Mrs. Bell had seen the blush also, and pursed her mouth up, and looked
+grave.  Had there been no stammering and no blush, she might have thought
+nothing of it.
+
+Aaron saw at once that his little gift was not to go down smoothly.  He
+was, however, in for it now, so he picked it out from among the other
+papers in the case and brought it over to Susan.  He endeavoured to hand
+it to her with an air of indifference, but I cannot say that he
+succeeded.
+
+It was a very pretty, well-finished, water-coloured drawing, representing
+still the same bridge, but with more adjuncts.  In Susan’s eyes it was a
+work of high art.  Of pictures probably she had seen but little, and her
+liking for the artist no doubt added to her admiration.  But the more she
+admired it and wished for it, the stronger was her feeling that she ought
+not to take it.
+
+Poor Susan! she stood for a minute looking at the drawing, but she said
+nothing; not even a word of praise.  She felt that she was red in the
+face, and uncourteous to their lodger; but her mother was looking at her
+and she did not know how to behave herself.
+
+Mrs. Bell put out her hand for the sketch, trying to bethink herself as
+she did so in what least uncivil way she could refuse the present.  She
+took a moment to look at it collecting her thoughts, and as she did so
+her woman’s wit came to her aid.
+
+“Oh dear, Mr. Dunn, it is very pretty; quite a beautiful picture.  I
+cannot let Susan rob you of that.  You must keep that for some of your
+own particular friends.”
+
+“But I did it for her,” said Aaron innocently.
+
+Susan looked down at the ground, half pleased at the declaration.  The
+drawing would look very pretty in a small gilt frame put over her
+dressing-table.  But the matter now was altogether in her mother’s hands.
+
+“I am afraid it is too valuable, sir, for Susan to accept.”
+
+“It is not valuable at all,” said Aaron, declining to take it back from
+the widow’s hand.
+
+“Oh, I am quite sure it is.  It is worth ten dollars at least—or twenty,”
+said poor Mrs. Bell, not in the very best taste.  But she was perplexed,
+and did not know how to get out of the scrape.  The article in question
+now lay upon the table-cloth, appropriated by no one, and at this moment
+Hetta came into the room.
+
+“It is not worth ten cents,” said Aaron, with something like a frown on
+his brow.  “But as we had been talking about the bridge, I thought Miss
+Susan would accept it.”
+
+“Accept what?” said Hetta.  And then her eye fell upon the drawing and
+she took it up.
+
+“It is beautifully done,” said Mrs. Bell, wishing much to soften the
+matter; perhaps the more so that Hetta the demure was now present.  “I am
+telling Mr. Dunn that we can’t take a present of anything so valuable.”
+
+“Oh dear no,” said Hetta.  “It wouldn’t be right.”
+
+It was a cold frosty evening in March, and the fire was burning brightly
+on the hearth.  Aaron Dunn took up the drawing quietly—very quietly—and
+rolling it up, as such drawings are rolled, put it between the blazing
+logs.  It was the work of four evenings, and his chef-d’œuvre in the way
+of art.
+
+Susan, when she saw what he had done, burst out into tears.  The widow
+could very readily have done so also, but she was able to refrain
+herself, and merely exclaimed—“Oh, Mr. Dunn!”
+
+“If Mr. Dunn chooses to burn his own picture, he has certainly a right to
+do so,” said Hetta.
+
+Aaron immediately felt ashamed of what he had done; and he also could
+have cried, but for his manliness.  He walked away to one of the
+parlour-windows, and looked out upon the frosty night.  It was dark, but
+the stars were bright, and he thought that he should like to be walking
+fast by himself along the line of rails towards Balston.  There he stood,
+perhaps for three minutes.  He thought it would be proper to give Susan
+time to recover from her tears.
+
+“Will you please to come to your tea, sir?” said the soft voice of Mrs.
+Bell.
+
+He turned round to do so, and found that Susan was gone.  It was not
+quite in her power to recover from her tears in three minutes.  And then
+the drawing had been so beautiful!  It had been done expressly for her
+too!  And there had been something, she knew not what, in his eye as he
+had so declared.  She had watched him intently over those four evenings’
+work, wondering why he did not show it, till her feminine curiosity had
+become rather strong.  It was something very particular, she was sure,
+and she had learned that all that precious work had been for her.  Now
+all that precious work was destroyed.  How was it possible that she
+should not cry for more than three minutes?
+
+The others took their meal in perfect silence, and when it was over the
+two women sat down to their work.  Aaron had a book which he pretended to
+read, but instead of reading he was bethinking himself that he had
+behaved badly.  What right had he to throw them all into such confusion
+by indulging in his passion?  He was ashamed of what he had done, and
+fancied that Susan would hate him.  Fancying that, he began to find at
+the same time that he by no means hated her.
+
+At last Hetta got up and left the room.  She knew that her sister was
+sitting alone in the cold, and Hetta was affectionate.  Susan had not
+been in fault, and therefore Hetta went up to console her.
+
+“Mrs. Bell,” said Aaron, as soon as the door was closed, “I beg your
+pardon for what I did just now.”
+
+“Oh, sir, I’m so sorry that the picture is burnt,” said poor Mrs. Bell.
+
+“The picture does not matter a straw,” said Aaron.  “But I see that I
+have disturbed you all,—and I am afraid I have made Miss Susan unhappy.”
+
+“She was grieved because your picture was burnt,” said Mrs. Bell, putting
+some emphasis on the “your,” intending to show that her daughter had not
+regarded the drawing as her own.  But the emphasis bore another meaning;
+and so the widow perceived as soon as she had spoken.
+
+“Oh, I can do twenty more of the same if anybody wanted them,” said
+Aaron.  “If I do another like it, will you let her take it, Mrs.
+Bell?—just to show that you have forgiven me, and that we are friends as
+we were before?”
+
+Was he, or was he not a wolf?  That was the question which Mrs. Bell
+scarcely knew how to answer.  Hetta had given her voice, saying he was
+lupine.  Mr. Beckard’s opinion she had not liked to ask directly.  Mr.
+Beckard she thought would probably propose to Hetta; but as yet he had
+not done so.  And, as he was still a stranger in the family, she did not
+like in any way to compromise Susan’s name.  Indirectly she had asked the
+question, and, indirectly also, Mr. Beckard’s answer had been favourable.
+
+“But it mustn’t mean anything, sir,” was the widow’s weak answer, when
+she had paused on the question for a moment.
+
+“Oh no, of course not,” said Aaron, joyously, and his face became radiant
+and happy.  “And I do beg your pardon for burning it; and the young
+ladies’ pardon too.”  And then he rapidly got out his cardboard, and set
+himself to work about another bridge.  The widow, meditating many things
+in her heart, commenced the hemming of a handkerchief.
+
+In about an hour the two girls came back to the room and silently took
+their accustomed places.  Aaron hardly looked up, but went on diligently
+with his drawing.  This bridge should be a better bridge than that other.
+Its acceptance was now assured.  Of course it was to mean nothing.  That
+was a matter of course.  So he worked away diligently, and said nothing
+to anybody.
+
+When they went off to bed the two girls went into the mother’s room.
+“Oh, mother, I hope he is not very angry,” said Susan.
+
+“Angry!” said Hetta, “if anybody should be angry, it is mother.  He ought
+to have known that Susan could not accept it.  He should never have
+offered it.”
+
+“But he’s doing another,” said Mrs. Bell.
+
+“Not for her,” said Hetta.
+
+“Yes he is,” said Mrs. Bell, “and I have promised that she shall take
+it.”  Susan as she heard this sank gently into the chair behind her, and
+her eyes became full of tears.  The intimation was almost too much for
+her.
+
+“Oh, mother!” said Hetta.
+
+“But I particularly said that it was to mean nothing.”
+
+“Oh, mother, that makes it worse.”
+
+Why should Hetta interfere in this way, thought Susan to herself.  Had
+she interfered when Mr. Beckard gave Hetta a testament bound in Morocco?
+had not she smiled, and looked gratified, and kissed her sister, and
+declared that Phineas Beckard was a nice dear man, and by far the most
+elegant preacher at the Springs?  Why should Hetta be so cruel?
+
+“I don’t see that, my dear,” said the mother.  Hetta would not explain
+before her sister, so they all went to bed.
+
+On the Thursday evening the drawing was finished.  Not a word had been
+said about it, at any rate in his presence, and he had gone on working in
+silence.  “There,” said he, late on the Thursday evening, “I don’t know
+that it will be any better if I go on daubing for another hour.  There,
+Miss Susan; there’s another bridge.  I hope that will neither burst with
+the frost, nor yet be destroyed by fire,” and he gave it a light flip
+with his fingers and sent it skimming over the table.
+
+Susan blushed and smiled, and took it up.  “Oh, it is beautiful,” she
+said.  “Isn’t it beautifully done, mother?” and then all the three got up
+to look at it, and all confessed that it was excellently done.
+
+“And I am sure we are very much obliged to you,” said Susan after a
+pause, remembering that she had not yet thanked him.
+
+“Oh, it’s nothing,” said he, not quite liking the word “we.”  On the
+following day he returned from his work to Saratoga about noon.  This he
+had never done before, and therefore no one expected that he would be
+seen in the house before the evening.  On this occasion, however, he went
+straight thither, and as chance would have it, both the widow and her
+elder daughter were out.  Susan was there alone in charge of the house.
+
+He walked in and opened the parlour door.  There she sat, with her feet
+on the fender, with her work unheeded on the table behind her, and the
+picture, Aaron’s drawing, lying on her knees.  She was gazing at it
+intently as he entered, thinking in her young heart that it possessed all
+the beauties which a picture could possess.
+
+“Oh, Mr. Dunn,” she said, getting up and holding the telltale sketch
+behind the skirt of her dress.
+
+“Miss Susan, I have come here to tell your mother that I must start for
+New York this afternoon and be there for six weeks, or perhaps longer.”
+
+“Mother is out,” said she; “I’m so sorry.”
+
+“Is she?” said Aaron.
+
+“And Hetta too.  Dear me.  And you’ll be wanting dinner.  I’ll go and see
+about it.”
+
+Aaron began to swear that he could not possibly eat any dinner.  He had
+dined once, and was going to dine again;—anything to keep her from going.
+
+“But you must have something, Mr. Dunn,” and she walked towards the door.
+
+But he put his back to it.  “Miss Susan,” said he, “I guess I’ve been
+here nearly two months.”
+
+“Yes, sir, I believe you have,” she replied, shaking in her shoes, and
+not knowing which way to look.
+
+“And I hope we have been good friends.”
+
+“Yes, sir,” said Susan, almost beside herself as to what she was saying.
+
+“I’m going away now, and it seems to be such a time before I’ll be back.”
+
+“Will it, Sir?”
+
+“Six weeks, Miss Susan!” and then he paused, looking into her eyes, to
+see what he could read there.  She leant against the table, pulling to
+pieces a morsel of half-ravelled muslin which she held in her hand; but
+her eyes were turned to the ground, and he could hardly see them.
+
+“Miss Susan,” he continued, “I may as well speak out now as at another
+time.”  He too was looking towards the ground, and clearly did not know
+what to do with his hands.  “The truth is just this.  I—I love you
+dearly, with all my heart.  I never saw any one I ever thought so
+beautiful, so nice, and so good;—and what’s more, I never shall.  I’m not
+very good at this sort of thing, I know; but I couldn’t go away from
+Saratoga for six weeks and not tell you.”  And then he ceased.  He did
+not ask for any love in return.  His presumption had not got so far as
+that yet.  He merely declared his passion, leaning against the door, and
+there he stood twiddling his thumbs.
+
+Susan had not the slightest conception of the way in which she ought to
+receive such a declaration.  She had never had a lover before; nor had
+she ever thought of Aaron absolutely as a lover, though something very
+like love for him had been crossing over her spirit.  Now, at this
+moment, she felt that he was the beau-idéal of manhood, though his boots
+were covered with the railway mud, and though his pantaloons were tucked
+up in rolls round his ankles.  He was a fine, well-grown, open-faced
+fellow, whose eye was bold and yet tender, whose brow was full and broad,
+and all his bearing manly.  Love him!  Of course she loved him.  Why else
+had her heart melted with pleasure when her mother said that that second
+picture was to be accepted?
+
+But what was she to say?  Anything but the open truth; she well knew
+that.  The open truth would not do at all.  What would her mother say and
+Hetta if she were rashly to say that?  Hetta, she knew, would be dead
+against such a lover, and of her mother’s approbation she had hardly more
+hope.  Why they should disapprove of Aaron as a lover she had never asked
+herself.  There are many nice things that seem to be wrong only because
+they are so nice.  Maybe that Susan regarded a lover as one of them.
+“Oh, Mr. Dunn, you shouldn’t.”  That in fact was all that she could say.
+
+“Should not I?” said he.  “Well, perhaps not; but there’s the truth, and
+no harm ever comes of that.  Perhaps I’d better not ask you for an answer
+now, but I thought it better you should know it all.  And remember this—I
+only care for one thing now in the world, and that is for your love.”
+And then he paused, thinking possibly that in spite of what he had said
+he might perhaps get some sort of an answer, some inkling of the state of
+her heart’s disposition towards him.
+
+But Susan had at once resolved to take him at his word when he suggested
+that an immediate reply was not necessary.  To say that she loved him was
+of course impossible, and to say that she did not was equally so.  She
+determined therefore to close at once with the offer of silence.
+
+When he ceased speaking there was a moment’s pause, during which he
+strove hard to read what might be written on her down-turned face.  But
+he was not good at such reading.  “Well, I guess I’ll go and get my
+things ready now,” he said, and then turned round to open the door.
+
+“Mother will be in before you are gone, I suppose,” said Susan.
+
+“I have only got twenty minutes,” said he, looking at his watch.  “But,
+Susan, tell her what I have said to you.  Goodbye.”  And he put out his
+hand.  He knew he should see her again, but this had been his plan to get
+her hand in his.
+
+“Good-bye, Mr. Dunn,” and she gave him her hand.
+
+He held it tight for a moment, so that she could not draw it away,—could
+not if she would.  “Will you tell your mother?” he asked.
+
+“Yes,” she answered, quite in a whisper.  “I guess I’d better tell her.”
+And then she gave a long sigh.  He pressed her hand again and got it up
+to his lips.
+
+“Mr. Dunn, don’t,” she said.  But he did kiss it.  “God bless you, my own
+dearest, dearest girl!  I’ll just open the door as I come down.  Perhaps
+Mrs. Bell will be here.”  And then he rushed up stairs.
+
+But Mrs. Bell did not come in.  She and Hetta were at a weekly service at
+Mr. Beckard’s meeting-house, and Mr. Beckard it seemed had much to say.
+Susan, when left alone, sat down and tried to think.  But she could not
+think; she could only love.  She could use her mind only in recounting to
+herself the perfections of that demigod whose heavy steps were so audible
+overhead, as he walked to and fro collecting his things and putting them
+into his bag.
+
+And then, just when he had finished, she bethought herself that he must
+be hungry.  She flew to the kitchen, but she was too late.  Before she
+could even reach at the loaf of bread he descended the stairs, with a
+clattering noise, and heard her voice as she spoke quickly to Kate
+O’Brien.
+
+“Miss Susan,” he said, “don’t get anything for me, for I’m off.”
+
+“Oh, Mr. Dunn, I am so sorry.  You’ll be so hungry on your journey,” and
+she came out to him in the passage.
+
+“I shall want nothing on the journey, dearest, if you’ll say one kind
+word to me.”
+
+Again her eyes went to the ground.  “What do you want me to say, Mr.
+Dunn?”
+
+“Say, God bless you, Aaron.”
+
+“God bless you, Aaron,” said she; and yet she was sure that she had not
+declared her love.  He however thought otherwise, and went up to New York
+with a happy heart.
+
+Things happened in the next fortnight rather quickly.  Susan at once
+resolved to tell her mother, but she resolved also not to tell Hetta.
+That afternoon she got her mother to herself in Mrs. Bell’s own room, and
+then she made a clean breast of it.
+
+“And what did you say to him, Susan?”
+
+“I said nothing, mother.”
+
+“Nothing, dear!”
+
+“No, mother; not a word.  He told me he didn’t want it.”  She forgot how
+she had used his Christian name in bidding God bless him.
+
+“Oh dear!” said the widow.
+
+“Was it very wrong?” asked Susan.
+
+“But what do you think yourself, my child?” asked Mrs. Bell after a
+while.  “What are your own feelings.”
+
+Mrs. Bell was sitting on a chair and Susan was standing opposite to her
+against the post of the bed.  She made no answer, but moving from her
+place, she threw herself into her mother’s arms, and hid her face on her
+mother’s shoulder.  It was easy enough to guess what were her feelings.
+
+“But, my darling,” said her mother, “you must not think that it is an
+engagement.”
+
+“No,” said Susan, sorrowfully.
+
+“Young men say those things to amuse themselves.”  Wolves, she would have
+said, had she spoken out her mind freely.
+
+“Oh, mother, he is not like that.”
+
+The daughter contrived to extract a promise from the mother that Hetta
+should not be told just at present.  Mrs. Bell calculated that she had
+six weeks before her; as yet Mr. Beckard had not spoken out, but there
+was reason to suppose that he would do so before those six weeks would be
+over, and then she would be able to seek counsel from him.
+
+Mr. Beckard spoke out at the end of six days, and Hetta frankly accepted
+him.  “I hope you’ll love your brother-in-law,” said she to Susan.
+
+“Oh, I will indeed,” said Susan; and in the softness of her heart at the
+moment she almost made up her mind to tell; but Hetta was full of her own
+affairs, and thus it passed off.
+
+It was then arranged that Hetta should go and spend a week with Mr.
+Beckard’s parents.  Old Mr. Beckard was a farmer living near Utica, and
+now that the match was declared and approved, it was thought well that
+Hetta should know her future husband’s family.  So she went for a week,
+and Mr. Beckard went with her.  “He will be back in plenty of time for me
+to speak to him before Aaron Dunn’s six weeks are over,” said Mrs. Bell
+to herself.
+
+But things did not go exactly as she expected.  On the very morning after
+the departure of the engaged couple, there came a letter from Aaron,
+saying that he would be at Saratoga that very evening.  The railway
+people had ordered him down again for some days’ special work; then he
+was to go elsewhere, and not to return to Saratoga till June.  “But he
+hoped,” so said the letter, “that Mrs. Bell would not turn him into the
+street even then, though the summer might have come, and her regular
+lodgers might be expected.”
+
+“Oh dear, oh dear!” said Mrs. Bell to herself, reflecting that she had no
+one of whom she could ask advice, and that she must decide that very day.
+Why had she let Mr. Beckard go without telling him?  Then she told Susan,
+and Susan spent the day trembling.  Perhaps, thought Mrs. Bell, he will
+say nothing about it.  In such case, however, would it not be her duty to
+say something?  Poor mother!  She trembled nearly as much as Susan.
+
+It was dark when the fatal knock came at the door.  The tea-things were
+already laid, and the tea-cake was already baked; for it would at any
+rate be necessary to give Mr. Dunn his tea.  Susan, when she heard the
+knock, rushed from her chair and took refuge up stairs.  The widow gave a
+long sigh and settled her dress.  Kate O’Brien with willing step opened
+the door, and bade her old friend welcome.
+
+“How are the ladies?” asked Aaron, trying to gather something from the
+face and voice of the domestic.
+
+“Miss Hetta and Mr. Beckard be gone off to Utica, just man-and-wife like!
+and so they are, more power to them.”
+
+“Oh indeed; I’m very glad,” said Aaron—and so he was; very glad to have
+Hetta the demure out of the way.  And then he made his way into the
+parlour, doubting much, and hoping much.
+
+Mrs. Bell rose from her chair, and tried to look grave.  Aaron glancing
+round the room saw that Susan was not there.  He walked straight up to
+the widow, and offered her his hand, which she took.  It might be that
+Susan had not thought fit to tell, and in such case it would not be right
+for him to compromise her; so he said never a word.
+
+But the subject was too important to the mother to allow of her being
+silent when the young man stood before her.  “Oh, Mr. Dunn,” said she,
+“what is this you have been saying to Susan?”
+
+“I have asked her to be my wife,” said he, drawing himself up and looking
+her full in the face.  Mrs. Bell’s heart was almost as soft as her
+daughter’s, and it was nearly gone; but at the moment she had nothing to
+say but, “Oh dear, oh dear!”
+
+“May I not call you mother?” said he, taking both her hands in his.
+
+“Oh dear—oh dear!  But will you be good to her?  Oh, Aaron Dunn, if you
+deceive my child!”
+
+In another quarter of an hour, Susan was kneeling at her mother’s knee,
+with her face on her mother’s lap; the mother was wiping tears out of her
+eyes; and Aaron was standing by holding one of the widow’s hands.
+
+“You are my mother too, now,” said he.  What would Hetta and Mr. Beckard
+say, when they came back?  But then he surely was not a wolf!
+
+There were four or five days left for courtship before Hetta and Mr.
+Beckard would return; four or five days during which Susan might be
+happy, Aaron triumphant, and Mrs. Bell nervous.  Days I have said, but
+after all it was only the evenings that were so left.  Every morning
+Susan got up to give Aaron his breakfast, but Mrs. Bell got up also.
+Susan boldly declared her right to do so, and Mrs. Bell found no
+objection which she could urge.
+
+But after that Aaron was always absent till seven or eight in the
+evening, when he would return to his tea.  Then came the hour or two of
+lovers’ intercourse.
+
+But they were very tame, those hours.  The widow still felt an undefined
+fear that she was wrong, and though her heart yearned to know that her
+daughter was happy in the sweet happiness of accepted love, yet she
+dreaded to be too confident.  Not a word had been said about money
+matters; not a word of Aaron Dunn’s relatives.  So she did not leave them
+by themselves, but waited with what patience she could for the return of
+her wise counsellors.
+
+And then Susan hardly knew how to behave herself with her accepted
+suitor.  She felt that she was very happy; but perhaps she was most happy
+when she was thinking about him through the long day, assisting in fixing
+little things for his comfort, and waiting for his evening return.  And
+as he sat there in the parlour, she could be happy then too, if she were
+but allowed to sit still and look at him,—not stare at him, but raise her
+eyes every now and again to his face for the shortest possible glance, as
+she had been used to do ever since he came there.
+
+But he, unconscionable lover, wanted to hear her speak, was desirous of
+being talked to, and perhaps thought that he should by rights be allowed
+to sit by her, and hold her hand.  No such privileges were accorded to
+him.  If they had been alone together, walking side by side on the green
+turf, as lovers should walk, she would soon have found the use of her
+tongue,—have talked fast enough no doubt.  Under such circumstances, when
+a girl’s shyness has given way to real intimacy, there is in general no
+end to her power of chatting.  But though there was much love between
+Aaron and Susan, there was as yet but little intimacy.  And then, let a
+mother be ever so motherly—and no mother could have more of a mother’s
+tenderness than Mrs. Bell—still her presence must be a restraint.  Aaron
+was very fond of Mrs. Bell; but nevertheless he did sometimes wish that
+some domestic duty would take her out of the parlour for a few happy
+minutes.  Susan went out very often, but Mrs. Bell seemed to be a
+fixture.
+
+Once for a moment he did find his love alone, immediately as he came into
+the house.  “My own Susan, you do love me? do say so to me once.”  And he
+contrived to slip his arm round her waist.  “Yes,” she whispered; but she
+slipped like an eel from his hands, and left him only preparing himself
+for a kiss.  And then when she got to her room, half frightened, she
+clasped her hands together, and bethought herself that she did really
+love him with a strength and depth of love which filled her whole
+existence.  Why could she not have told him something of all this?
+
+And so the few days of his second sojourn at Saratoga passed away, not
+altogether satisfactorily.  It was settled that he should return to New
+York on Saturday night, leaving Saratoga on that evening; and as the
+Beckards—Hetta was already regarded quite as a Beckard—were to be back to
+dinner on that day, Mrs. Bell would have an opportunity of telling her
+wondrous tale.  It might be well that Mr. Beckard should see Aaron before
+his departure.
+
+On that Saturday the Beckards did arrive just in time for dinner.  It may
+be imagined that Susan’s appetite was not very keen, nor her manner very
+collected.  But all this passed by unobserved in the importance attached
+to the various Beckard arrangements which came under discussion.  Ladies
+and gentlemen circumstanced as were Hetta and Mr. Beckard are perhaps a
+little too apt to think that their own affairs are paramount.  But after
+dinner Susan vanished at once, and when Hetta prepared to follow her,
+desirous of further talk about matrimonial arrangements, her mother
+stopped her, and the disclosure was made.
+
+“Proposed to her!” said Hetta, who perhaps thought that one marriage in a
+family was enough at a time.
+
+“Yes, my love—and he did it, I must say, in a very honourable way,
+telling her not to make any answer till she had spoken to me;—now that
+was very nice; was it not, Phineas?”  Mrs. Bell had become very anxious
+that Aaron should not be voted a wolf.
+
+“And what has been said to him since?” asked the discreet Phineas.
+
+“Why—nothing absolutely decisive.”  Oh, Mrs. Bell!  “You see I know
+nothing as to his means.”
+
+“Nothing at all,” said Hetta.
+
+“He is a man that will always earn his bread,” said Mr. Beckard; and Mrs.
+Bell blessed him in her heart for saying it.
+
+“But has he been encouraged?” asked Hetta.
+
+“Well; yes, he has,” said the widow.
+
+“Then Susan I suppose likes him?” asked Phineas.
+
+“Well; yes, she does,” said the widow.  And the conference ended in a
+resolution that Phineas Beckard should have a conversation with Aaron
+Dunn, as to his worldly means and position; and that he, Phineas, should
+decide whether Aaron might, or might not be at once accepted as a lover,
+according to the tenor of that conversation.  Poor Susan was not told
+anything of all this.  “Better not,” said Hetta the demure.  “It will
+only flurry her the more.”  How would she have liked it, if without
+consulting her, they had left it to Aaron to decide whether or no she
+might marry Phineas?
+
+They knew where on the works Aaron was to be found, and thither Mr.
+Beckard rode after dinner.  We need not narrate at length the conference
+between the young men.  Aaron at once declared that he had nothing but
+what he made as an engineer, and explained that he held no permanent
+situation on the line.  He was well paid at that present moment, but at
+the end of summer he would have to look for employment.
+
+“Then you can hardly marry quite at present,” said the discreet minister.
+
+“Perhaps not quite immediately.”
+
+“And long engagements are never wise,” said the other.
+
+“Three or four months,” suggested Aaron.  But Mr. Beckard shook his head.
+
+The afternoon at Mrs. Bell’s house was melancholy.  The final decision of
+the three judges was as follows.  There was to be no engagement; of
+course no correspondence.  Aaron was to be told that it would be better
+that he should get lodgings elsewhere when he returned; but that he would
+be allowed to visit at Mrs. Bell’s house,—and at Mrs. Beckard’s, which
+was very considerate.  If he should succeed in getting a permanent
+appointment, and if he and Susan still held the same mind, why then—&c.
+&c.  Such was Susan’s fate, as communicated to her by Mrs. Bell and
+Hetta.  She sat still and wept when she heard it; but she did not
+complain.  She had always felt that Hetta would be against her.
+
+“Mayn’t I see him, then?” she said through her tears.
+
+Hetta thought she had better not.  Mrs. Bell thought she might.  Phineas
+decided that they might shake hands, but only in full conclave.  There
+was to be no lovers’ farewell.  Aaron was to leave the house at half-past
+five; but before he went Susan should be called down.  Poor Susan!  She
+sat down and bemoaned herself; uncomplaining, but very sad.
+
+Susan was soft, feminine, and manageable.  But Aaron Dunn was not very
+soft, was especially masculine, and in some matters not easily
+manageable.  When Mr. Beckard in the widow’s presence—Hetta had retired
+in obedience to her lover—informed him of the court’s decision, there
+came over his face the look which he had worn when he burned the picture.
+“Mrs. Bell,” he said, “had encouraged his engagement; and he did not
+understand why other people should now come and disturb it.”
+
+“Not an engagement, Aaron,” said Mrs. Bell piteously.
+
+“He was able and willing to work,” he said, “and knew his profession.
+What young man of his age had done better than he had?” and he glanced
+round at them with perhaps more pride than was quite becoming.
+
+Then Mr. Beckard spoke out, very wisely no doubt, but perhaps a little
+too much at length.  Sons and daughters, as well as fathers and mothers,
+will know very well what he said; so I need not repeat his words.  I
+cannot say that Aaron listened with much attention, but he understood
+perfectly what the upshot of it was.  Many a man understands the purport
+of many a sermon without listening to one word in ten.  Mr. Beckard meant
+to be kind in his manner; indeed was so, only that Aaron could not accept
+as kindness any interference on his part.
+
+“I’ll tell you what, Mrs. Bell,” said he.  “I look upon myself as engaged
+to her.  And I look on her as engaged to me.  I tell you so fairly; and I
+believe that’s her mind as well as mine.”
+
+“But, Aaron, you won’t try to see her—or to write to her,—not in secret;
+will you?”
+
+“When I try to see her, I’ll come and knock at this door; and if I write
+to her, I’ll write to her full address by the post.  I never did and
+never will do anything in secret.”
+
+“I know you’re good and honest,” said the widow with her handkerchief to
+her eyes.
+
+“Then why do you separate us?” asked he, almost roughly.  “I suppose I
+may see her at any rate before I go.  My time’s nearly up now, I guess.”
+
+And then Susan was called for, and she and Hetta came down together.
+Susan crept in behind her sister.  Her eyes were red with weeping, and
+her appearance was altogether disconsolate.  She had had a lover for a
+week, and now she was to be robbed of him.
+
+“Good-bye, Susan,” said Aaron, and he walked up to her without
+bashfulness or embarrassment.  Had they all been compliant and gracious
+to him he would have been as bashful as his love; but now his temper was
+hot.  “Good-bye, Susan,” and she took his hand, and he held hers till he
+had finished.  “And remember this, I look upon you as my promised wife,
+and I don’t fear that you’ll deceive me.  At any rate I shan’t deceive
+you.”
+
+“Good-bye, Aaron,” she sobbed.
+
+“Good-bye, and God bless you, my own darling!”  And then without saying a
+word to any one else, he turned his back upon them and went his way.
+
+There had been something very consolatory, very sweet, to the poor girl
+in her lover’s last words.  And yet they had almost made her tremble.  He
+had been so bold, and stern, and confident.  He had seemed so utterly to
+defy the impregnable discretion of Mr. Beckard, so to despise the demure
+propriety of Hetta.  But of this she felt sure, when she came to question
+her heart, that she could never, never, never cease to love him better
+than all the world beside.  She would wait—patiently if she could find
+patience—and then, if he deserted her, she would die.
+
+In another month Hetta became Mrs. Beckard.  Susan brisked up a little
+for the occasion, and looked very pretty as bridesmaid.  She was
+serviceable too in arranging household matters, hemming linen and sewing
+table-cloths; though of course in these matters she did not do a tenth of
+what Hetta did.
+
+Then the summer came, the Saratoga summer of July, August, and September,
+during which the widow’s house was full; and Susan’s hands saved the pain
+of her heart, for she was forced into occupation.  Now that Hetta was
+gone to her own duties, it was necessary that Susan’s part in the
+household should be more prominent.
+
+Aaron did not come back to his work at Saratoga.  Why he did not they
+could not then learn.  During the whole long summer they heard not a word
+of him nor from him; and then when the cold winter months came and their
+boarders had left them, Mrs. Beckard congratulated her sister in that she
+had given no further encouragement to a lover who cared so little for
+her.  This was very hard to bear.  But Susan did bear it.
+
+That winter was very sad.  They learned nothing of Aaron Dunn till about
+January; and then they heard that he was doing very well.  He was engaged
+on the Erie trunk line, was paid highly, and was much esteemed.  And yet
+he neither came nor sent!  “He has an excellent situation,” their
+informant told them.  “And a permanent one?” asked the widow.  “Oh, yes,
+no doubt,” said the gentleman, “for I happen to know that they count
+greatly on him.”  And yet he sent no word of love.
+
+After that the winter became very sad indeed.  Mrs. Bell thought it to be
+her duty now to teach her daughter that in all probability she would see
+Aaron Dunn no more.  It was open to him to leave her without being
+absolutely a wolf.  He had been driven from the house when he was poor,
+and they had no right to expect that he would return, now that he had
+made some rise in the world.  “Men do amuse themselves in that way,” the
+widow tried to teach her.
+
+“He is not like that, mother,” she said again.
+
+“But they do not think so much of these things as we do,” urged the
+mother.
+
+“Don’t they?” said Susan, oh, so sorrowfully; and so through the whole
+long winter months she became paler and paler, and thinner and thinner.
+
+And then Hetta tried to console her with religion, and that perhaps did
+not make things any better.  Religious consolation is the best cure for
+all griefs; but it must not be looked for specially with regard to any
+individual sorrow.  A religious man, should he become bankrupt through
+the misfortunes of the world, will find true consolation in his religion
+even for that sorrow.  But a bankrupt, who has not thought much of such
+things, will hardly find solace by taking up religion for that special
+occasion.
+
+And Hetta perhaps was hardly prudent in her attempts.  She thought that
+it was wicked in Susan to grow thin and pale for love of Aaron Dunn, and
+she hardly hid her thoughts.  Susan was not sure but that it might be
+wicked, but this doubt in no way tended to make her plump or rosy.  So
+that in those days she found no comfort in her sister.
+
+But her mother’s pity and soft love did ease her sufferings, though it
+could not make them cease.  Her mother did not tell her that she was
+wicked, or bid her read long sermons, or force her to go oftener to the
+meeting-house.
+
+“He will never come again, I think,” she said one day, as with a shawl
+wrapped around her shoulders, she leant with her head upon her mother’s
+bosom.
+
+“My own darling,” said the mother, pressing her child closely to her
+side.
+
+“You think he never will, eh, mother?”  What could Mrs. Bell say?  In her
+heart of hearts she did not think he ever would come again.
+
+“No, my child.  I do not think he will.”  And then the hot tears ran
+down, and the sobs came thick and frequent.
+
+“My darling, my darling!” exclaimed the mother; and they wept together.
+
+“Was I wicked to love him at the first,” she asked that night.
+
+“No, my child; you were not wicked at all.  At least I think not.”
+
+“Then why—”  Why was he sent away?  It was on her tongue to ask that
+question; but she paused and spared her mother.  This was as they were
+going to bed.  The next morning Susan did not get up.  She was not ill,
+she said; but weak and weary.  Would her mother let her lie that day?
+And then Mrs. Bell went down alone to her room, and sorrowed with all her
+heart for the sorrow of her child.  Why, oh why, had she driven away from
+her door-sill the love of an honest man?
+
+On the next morning Susan again did not get up;—nor did she hear, or if
+she heard she did not recognise, the step of the postman who brought a
+letter to the door.  Early, before the widow’s breakfast, the postman
+came, and the letter which he brought was as follows:—
+
+    “MY DEAR MRS. BELL,
+
+    “I have now got a permanent situation on the Erie line, and the
+    salary is enough for myself and a wife.  At least I think so, and I
+    hope you will too.  I shall be down at Saratoga to-morrow evening,
+    and I hope neither Susan nor you will refuse to receive me.
+
+                                                    “Yours affectionately,
+                                                             “AARON DUNN.”
+
+That was all.  It was very short, and did not contain one word of love;
+but it made the widow’s heart leap for joy.  She was rather afraid that
+Aaron was angry, he wrote so curtly and with such a brusque business-like
+attention to mere facts; but surely he could have but one object in
+coming there.  And then he alluded specially to a wife.  So the widow’s
+heart leapt with joy.
+
+But how was she to tell Susan?  She ran up stairs almost breathless with
+haste, to the bedroom door; but then she stopped; too much joy she had
+heard was as dangerous as too much sorrow; she must think it over for a
+while, and so she crept back again.
+
+But after breakfast—that is, when she had sat for a while over her
+teacup—she returned to the room, and this time she entered it.  The
+letter was in her hand, but held so as to be hidden;—in her left hand as
+she sat down with her right arm towards the invalid.
+
+“Susan dear,” she said, and smiled at her child, “you’ll be able to get
+up this morning? eh, dear?”
+
+“Yes, mother,” said Susan, thinking that her mother objected to this
+idleness of her lying in bed.  And so she began to bestir herself.
+
+“I don’t mean this very moment, love.  Indeed, I want to sit with you for
+a little while,” and she put her right arm affectionately round her
+daughter’s waist.
+
+“Dearest mother,” said Susan.
+
+“Ah! there’s one dearer than me, I guess,” and Mrs. Bell smiled sweetly,
+as she made the maternal charge against her daughter.
+
+Susan raised herself quickly in the bed, and looked straight into her
+mother’s face.  “Mother, mother,” she said, “what is it?  You’ve
+something to tell.  Oh, mother!”  And stretching herself over, she struck
+her hand against the corner of Aaron’s letter.  “Mother, you’ve a letter.
+Is he coming, mother?” and with eager eyes and open lips, she sat up,
+holding tight to her mother’s arm.
+
+“Yes, love.  I have got a letter.”
+
+“Is he—is he coming?”
+
+How the mother answered, I can hardly tell; but she did answer, and they
+were soon lying in each other’s arms, warm with each other’s tears.  It
+was almost hard to say which was the happier.
+
+Aaron was to be there that evening—that very evening.  “Oh, mother, let
+me get up,” said Susan.
+
+But Mrs. Bell said no, not yet; her darling was pale and thin, and she
+almost wished that Aaron was not coming for another week.  What if he
+should come and look at her, and finding her beauty gone, vanish again
+and seek a wife elsewhere!
+
+So Susan lay in bed, thinking of her happiness, dozing now and again, and
+fearing as she waked that it was a dream, looking constantly at that
+drawing of his, which she kept outside upon the bed, nursing her love and
+thinking of it, and endeavouring, vainly endeavouring, to arrange what
+she would say to him.
+
+“Mother,” she said, when Mrs. Bell once went up to her, “you won’t tell
+Hetta and Phineas, will you?  Not to-day, I mean?”  Mrs. Bell agreed that
+it would be better not to tell them.  Perhaps she thought that she had
+already depended too much on Hetta and Phineas in the matter.
+
+Susan’s finery in the way of dress had never been extensive, and now
+lately, in these last sad winter days, she had thought but little of the
+fashion of her clothes.  But when she began to dress herself for the
+evening, she did ask her mother with some anxiety what she had better
+wear.  “If he loves you he will hardly see what you have on,” said the
+mother.  But not the less was she careful to smooth her daughter’s hair,
+and make the most that might be made of those faded roses.
+
+How Susan’s heart beat,—how both their hearts beat as the hands of the
+clock came round to seven!  And then, sharp at seven, came the knock;
+that same short bold ringing knock which Susan had so soon learned to
+know as belonging to Aaron Dunn.  “Oh mother, I had better go up stairs,”
+she cried, starting from her chair.
+
+“No dear; you would only be more nervous.”
+
+“I will, mother.”
+
+“No, no, dear; you have not time;” and then Aaron Dunn was in the room.
+
+She had thought much what she would say to him, but had not yet quite
+made up her mind.  It mattered however but very little.  On whatever she
+might have resolved, her resolution would have vanished to the wind.
+Aaron Dunn came into the room, and in one second she found herself in the
+centre of a whirlwind, and his arms were the storms that enveloped her on
+every side.
+
+“My own, own darling girl,” he said over and over again, as he pressed
+her to his heart, quite regardless of Mrs. Bell, who stood by, sobbing
+with joy.  “My own Susan.”
+
+“Aaron, dear Aaron,” she whispered.  But she had already recognised the
+fact that for the present meeting a passive part would become her well,
+and save her a deal of trouble.  She had her lover there quite safe, safe
+beyond anything that Mr. or Mrs. Beckard might have to say to the
+contrary.  She was quite happy; only that there were symptoms now and
+again that the whirlwind was about to engulf her yet once more.
+
+“Dear Aaron, I am so glad you are come,” said the innocent-minded widow,
+as she went up stairs with him, to show him his room; and then he
+embraced her also.  “Dear, dear mother,” he said.
+
+On the next day there was, as a matter of course, a family conclave.
+Hetta and Phineas came down, and discussed the whole subject of the
+coming marriage with Mrs. Bell.  Hetta at first was not quite
+certain;—ought they not to inquire whether the situation was permanent?
+
+“I won’t inquire at all,” said Mrs. Bell, with an energy that startled
+both the daughter and son-in-law.  “I would not part them now; no, not
+if—” and the widow shuddered as she thought of her daughter’s sunken
+eyes, and pale cheeks.
+
+“He is a good lad,” said Phineas, “and I trust she will make him a sober
+steady wife;” and so the matter was settled.
+
+During this time, Susan and Aaron were walking along the Balston road;
+and they also had settled the matter—quite as satisfactorily.
+
+Such was the courtship of Susan Dunn.
+
+
+
+
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+
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Courtship of Susan Bell, by Anthony
+Trollope, Illustrated by Marcus Stone
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions 
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
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+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Courtship of Susan Bell
+
+
+Author: Anthony Trollope
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 16, 2015  [eBook #3700]
+[This file was first posted on July 25, 2001]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COURTSHIP OF SUSAN BELL***
+</pre>
+<p>Transcribed from the 1864 Chapman &amp; Hall, &ldquo;Tales of
+All Countries,&rdquo; edition by David Price, email
+ccx074@pglaf.org</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/fpb.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"The Courtship of Susan Bell, a frontispiece by Marcus Stone"
+title=
+"The Courtship of Susan Bell, a frontispiece by Marcus Stone"
+ src="images/fps.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h1>THE COURTSHIP OF SUSAN BELL.</h1>
+<p><span class="smcap">John Munroe Bell</span> had been a lawyer
+in Albany, State of New York, and as such had thriven well.&nbsp;
+He had thriven well as long as thrift and thriving on this earth
+had been allowed to him.&nbsp; But the Almighty had seen fit to
+shorten his span.</p>
+<p>Early in life he had married a timid, anxious, pretty, good
+little wife, whose whole heart and mind had been given up to do
+his bidding and deserve his love.&nbsp; She had not only deserved
+it but had possessed it, and as long as John Munroe Bell had
+lived, Henrietta Bell&mdash;Hetta as he called her&mdash;had been
+a woman rich in blessings.&nbsp; After twelve years of such
+blessings he had left her, and had left with her two daughters, a
+second Hetta, and the heroine of our little story, Susan
+Bell.</p>
+<p>A lawyer in Albany may thrive passing well for eight or ten
+years, and yet not leave behind him any very large sum of money
+if he dies at the end of that time.&nbsp; Some small modicum,
+some few thousand dollars, John Bell had amassed, so that his
+widow and daughters were not absolutely driven to look for work
+or bread.</p>
+<p>In those happy days when cash had begun to flow in plenteously
+to the young father of the family, he had taken it into his head
+to build for himself, or rather for his young female brood, a
+small neat house in the outskirts of Saratoga Springs.&nbsp; In
+doing so he was instigated as much by the excellence of the
+investment for his pocket as by the salubrity of the place for
+his girls.&nbsp; He furnished the house well, and then during
+some summer weeks his wife lived there, and sometimes he let
+it.</p>
+<p>How the widow grieved when the lord of her heart and master of
+her mind was laid in the grave, I need not tell.&nbsp; She had
+already counted ten years of widowhood, and her children had
+grown to be young women beside her at the time of which I am now
+about to speak.&nbsp; Since that sad day on which they had left
+Albany they had lived together at the cottage at the
+Springs.&nbsp; In winter their life had been lonely enough; but
+as soon as the hot weather began to drive the fainting citizens
+out from New York, they had always received two or three
+boarders&mdash;old ladies generally, and occasionally an old
+gentleman&mdash;persons of very steady habits, with whose pockets
+the widow&rsquo;s moderate demands agreed better than the hotel
+charges.&nbsp; And so the Bells lived for ten years.</p>
+<p>That Saratoga is a gay place in July, August, and September,
+the world knows well enough.&nbsp; To girls who go there with
+trunks full of muslin and crinoline, for whom a carriage and pair
+of horses is always waiting immediately after dinner, whose
+fathers&rsquo; pockets are bursting with dollars, it is a very
+gay place.&nbsp; Dancing and flirtations come as a matter of
+course, and matrimony follows after with only too great
+rapidity.&nbsp; But the place was not very gay for Hetta or Susan
+Bell.</p>
+<p>In the first place the widow was a timid woman, and among
+other fears feared greatly that she should be thought guilty of
+setting traps for husbands.&nbsp; Poor mothers! how often are
+they charged with this sin when their honest desires go no
+further than that their bairns may be &ldquo;respectit like the
+lave.&rdquo;&nbsp; And then she feared flirtations; flirtations
+that should be that and nothing more, flirtations that are so
+destructive of the heart&rsquo;s sweetest essence.&nbsp; She
+feared love also, though she longed for that as well as feared
+it;&mdash;for her girls, I mean; all such feelings for herself
+were long laid under ground;&mdash;and then, like a timid
+creature as she was, she had other indefinite fears, and among
+them a great fear that those girls of hers would be left
+husbandless,&mdash;a phase of life which after her twelve years
+of bliss she regarded as anything but desirable.&nbsp; But the
+upshot was,&mdash;the upshot of so many fears and such small
+means,&mdash;that Hetta and Susan Bell had but a dull life of
+it.</p>
+<p>Were it not that I am somewhat closely restricted in the
+number of my pages, I would describe at full the merits and
+beauties of Hetta and Susan Bell.&nbsp; As it is I can but say a
+few words.&nbsp; At our period of their lives Hetta was nearly
+one-and-twenty, and Susan was just nineteen.&nbsp; Hetta was a
+short, plump, demure young woman, with the softest smoothed hair,
+and the brownest brightest eyes.&nbsp; She was very useful in the
+house, good at corn cakes, and thought much, particularly in
+these latter months, of her religious duties.&nbsp; Her sister in
+the privacy of their own little room would sometimes twit her
+with the admiring patience with which she would listen to the
+lengthened eloquence of Mr. Phineas Beckard, the Baptist
+minister.&nbsp; Now Mr. Phineas Beckard was a bachelor.</p>
+<p>Susan was not so good a girl in the kitchen or about the house
+as was her sister; but she was bright in the parlour, and if that
+motherly heart could have been made to give out its inmost
+secret&mdash;which however, it could not have been made to give
+out in any way painful to dear Hetta&mdash;perhaps it might have
+been found that Susan was loved with the closest love.&nbsp; She
+was taller than her sister, and lighter; her eyes were blue as
+were her mother&rsquo;s; her hair was brighter than
+Hetta&rsquo;s, but not always so singularly neat.&nbsp; She had a
+dimple on her chin, whereas Hetta had none; dimples on her cheeks
+too, when she smiled; and, oh, such a mouth!&nbsp; There; my
+allowance of pages permits no more.</p>
+<p>One piercing cold winter&rsquo;s day there came knocking at
+the widow&rsquo;s door&mdash;a young man.&nbsp; Winter days, when
+the ice of January is refrozen by the wind of February, are very
+cold at Saratoga Springs.&nbsp; In these days there was not often
+much to disturb the serenity of Mrs. Bell&rsquo;s house; but on
+the day in question there came knocking at the door&mdash;a young
+man.</p>
+<p>Mrs. Bell kept an old domestic, who had lived with them in
+those happy Albany days.&nbsp; Her name was Kate O&rsquo;Brien,
+but though picturesque in name she was hardly so in person.&nbsp;
+She was a thick-set, noisy, good-natured old Irishwoman, who had
+joined her lot to that of Mrs. Bell when the latter first began
+housekeeping, and knowing when she was well off; had remained in
+the same place from that day forth.&nbsp; She had known Hetta as
+a baby, and, so to say, had seen Susan&rsquo;s birth.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And what might you be wanting, sir?&rdquo; said Kate
+O&rsquo;Brien, apparently not quite pleased as she opened the
+door and let in all the cold air.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I wish to see Mrs. Bell.&nbsp; Is not this Mrs.
+Bell&rsquo;s house?&rdquo; said the young man, shaking the snow
+from out of the breast of his coat.</p>
+<p>He did see Mrs. Bell, and we will now tell who he was, and why
+he had come, and how it came to pass that his carpet-bag was
+brought down to the widow&rsquo;s house and one of the front
+bedrooms was prepared for him, and that he drank tea that night
+in the widow&rsquo;s parlour.</p>
+<p>His name was Aaron Dunn, and by profession he was an
+engineer.&nbsp; What peculiar misfortune in those days of frost
+and snow had befallen the line of rails which runs from
+Schenectady to Lake Champlain, I never quite understood.&nbsp;
+Banks and bridges had in some way come to grief, and on Aaron
+Dunn&rsquo;s shoulders was thrown the burden of seeing that they
+were duly repaired.&nbsp; Saratoga Springs was the centre of
+these mishaps, and therefore at Saratoga Springs it was necessary
+that he should take up his temporary abode.</p>
+<p>Now there was at that time in New York city a Mr. Bell, great
+in railway matters&mdash;an uncle of the once thriving but now
+departed Albany lawyer.&nbsp; He was a rich man, but he liked his
+riches himself; or at any rate had not found himself called upon
+to share them with the widow and daughters of his nephew.&nbsp;
+But when it chanced to come to pass that he had a hand in
+despatching Aaron Dunn to Saratoga, he took the young man aside
+and recommended him to lodge with the widow.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;There,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;show her my
+card.&rdquo;&nbsp; So much the rich uncle thought he might
+vouchsafe to do for the nephew&rsquo;s widow.</p>
+<p>Mrs. Bell and both her daughters were in the parlour when
+Aaron Dunn was shown in, snow and all.&nbsp; He told his story in
+a rough, shaky voice, for his teeth chattered; and he gave the
+card, almost wishing that he had gone to the empty big hotel, for
+the widow&rsquo;s welcome was not at first quite warm.</p>
+<p>The widow listened to him as he gave his message, and then she
+took the card and looked at it.&nbsp; Hetta, who was sitting on
+the side of the fireplace facing the door, went on demurely with
+her work.&nbsp; Susan gave one glance round&mdash;her back was to
+the stranger&mdash;and then another; and then she moved her chair
+a little nearer to the wall, so as to give the young man room to
+come to the fire, if he would.&nbsp; He did not come, but his
+eyes glanced upon Susan Bell; and he thought that the old man in
+New York was right, and that the big hotel would be cold and
+dull.&nbsp; It was a pretty face to look on that cold evening as
+she turned it up from the stocking she was mending.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Perhaps you don&rsquo;t wish to take winter boarders,
+ma&rsquo;am?&rdquo; said Aaron Dunn.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We never have done so yet, sir,&rdquo; said Mrs. Bell
+timidly.&nbsp; Could she let this young wolf in among her
+lamb-fold?&nbsp; He might be a wolf;&mdash;who could tell?</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Mr. Bell seemed to think it would suit,&rdquo; said
+Aaron.</p>
+<p>Had he acquiesced in her timidity and not pressed the point,
+it would have been all up with him.&nbsp; But the widow did not
+like to go against the big uncle; and so she said, &ldquo;Perhaps
+it may, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I guess it will, finely,&rdquo; said Aaron.&nbsp; And
+then the widow seeing that the matter was so far settled, put
+down her work and came round into the passage.&nbsp; Hetta
+followed her, for there would be housework to do.&nbsp; Aaron
+gave himself another shake, settled the weekly number of
+dollars&mdash;with very little difficulty on his part, for he had
+caught another glance at Susan&rsquo;s face; and then went after
+his bag.&nbsp; &rsquo;Twas thus that Aaron Dunn obtained an
+entrance into Mrs. Bell&rsquo;s house.&nbsp; &ldquo;But what if
+he be a wolf?&rdquo; she said to herself over and over again that
+night, though not exactly in those words.&nbsp; Ay, but there is
+another side to that question.&nbsp; What if he be a stalwart
+man, honest-minded, with clever eye, cunning hand, ready brain,
+broad back, and warm heart; in want of a wife mayhap; a man that
+can earn his own bread and another&rsquo;s;&mdash;half a dozen
+others&rsquo; when the half dozen come?&nbsp; Would not that be a
+good sort of lodger?&nbsp; Such a question as that too did flit,
+just flit, across the widow&rsquo;s sleepless mind.&nbsp; But
+then she thought so much more of the wolf!&nbsp; Wolves, she had
+taught herself to think, were more common than stalwart,
+honest-minded, wife-desirous men.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I wonder mother consented to take him,&rdquo; said
+Hetta, when they were in the little room together.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And why shouldn&rsquo;t she?&rdquo; said Susan.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;It will be a help.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, it will be a little help,&rdquo; said Hetta.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;But we have done very well hitherto without winter
+lodgers.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But uncle Bell said she was to.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What is uncle Bell to us?&rdquo; said Hetta, who had a
+spirit of her own.&nbsp; And she began to surmise within herself
+whether Aaron Dunn would join the Baptist congregation, and
+whether Phineas Beckard would approve of this new move.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He is a very well-behaved young man at any rate,&rdquo;
+said Susan, &ldquo;and he draws beautifully.&nbsp; Did you see
+those things he was doing?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He draws very well, I dare say,&rdquo; said Hetta, who
+regarded this as but a poor warranty for good behaviour.&nbsp;
+Hetta also had some fear of wolves&mdash;not for herself perhaps;
+but for her sister.</p>
+<p>Aaron Dunn&rsquo;s work&mdash;the commencement of his
+work&mdash;lay at some distance from the Springs, and he left
+every morning with a lot of workmen by an early
+train&mdash;almost before daylight.&nbsp; And every morning, cold
+and wintry as the mornings were, the widow got him his breakfast
+with her own hands.&nbsp; She took his dollars and would not
+leave him altogether to the awkward mercies of Kate
+O&rsquo;Brien; nor would she trust her girls to attend upon the
+young man.&nbsp; Hetta she might have trusted; but then Susan
+would have asked why she was spared her share of such
+hardship.</p>
+<p>In the evening, leaving his work when it was dark, Aaron
+always returned, and then the evening was passed together.&nbsp;
+But they were passed with the most demure propriety.&nbsp; These
+women would make the tea, cut the bread and butter, and then sew;
+while Aaron Dunn, when the cups were removed, would always go to
+his plans and drawings.</p>
+<p>On Sundays they were more together; but even on this day there
+was cause of separation, for Aaron went to the Episcopalian
+church, rather to the disgust of Hetta.&nbsp; In the afternoon,
+however, they were together; and then Phineas Beckard came in to
+tea on Sundays, and he and Aaron got to talking on religion; and
+though they disagreed pretty much, and would not give an inch
+either one or the other, nevertheless the minister told the
+widow, and Hetta too probably, that the lad had good stuff in
+him, though he was so stiff-necked.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But he should be more modest in talking on such matters
+with a minister,&rdquo; said Hetta.</p>
+<p>The Rev. Phineas acknowledged that perhaps he should; but he
+was honest enough to repeat that the lad had stuff in him.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Perhaps after all he is not a wolf,&rdquo; said the widow
+to herself.</p>
+<p>Things went on in this way for above a month.&nbsp; Aaron had
+declared to himself over and over again that that face was sweet
+to look upon, and had unconsciously promised to himself certain
+delights in talking and perhaps walking with the owner of
+it.&nbsp; But the walkings had not been achieved&mdash;nor even
+the talkings as yet.&nbsp; The truth was that Dunn was bashful
+with young women, though he could be so stiff-necked with the
+minister.</p>
+<p>And then he felt angry with himself, inasmuch as he had
+advanced no further; and as he lay in his bed&mdash;which perhaps
+those pretty hands had helped to make&mdash;he resolved that he
+would be a thought bolder in his bearing.&nbsp; He had no idea of
+making love to Susan Bell; of course not.&nbsp; But why should he
+not amuse himself by talking to a pretty girl when she sat so
+near him, evening after evening?</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What a very quiet young man he is,&rdquo; said Susan to
+her sister.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He has his bread to earn, and sticks to his
+work,&rdquo; said Hetta.&nbsp; &ldquo;No doubt he has his
+amusement when he is in the city,&rdquo; added the elder sister,
+not wishing to leave too strong an impression of the young
+man&rsquo;s virtue.</p>
+<p>They had all now their settled places in the parlour.&nbsp;
+Hetta sat on one side of the fire, close to the table, having
+that side to herself.&nbsp; There she sat always busy.&nbsp; She
+must have made every dress and bit of linen worn in the house,
+and hemmed every sheet and towel, so busy was she always.&nbsp;
+Sometimes, once in a week or so, Phineas Beckard would come in,
+and then place was made for him between Hetta&rsquo;s usual seat
+and the table.&nbsp; For when there he would read out loud.&nbsp;
+On the other side, close also to the table, sat the widow, busy,
+but not savagely busy as her elder daughter.&nbsp; Between Mrs.
+Bell and the wall, with her feet ever on the fender, Susan used
+to sit; not absolutely idle, but doing work of some slender
+pretty sort, and talking ever and anon to her mother.&nbsp;
+Opposite to them all, at the other side of the table, far away
+from the fire, would Aaron Dunn place himself with his plans and
+drawings before him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Are you a judge of bridges, ma&rsquo;am?&rdquo; said
+Aaron, the evening after he had made his resolution.&nbsp;
+&rsquo;Twas thus he began his courtship.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Of bridges?&rdquo; said Mrs. Bell&mdash;&ldquo;oh dear
+no, sir.&rdquo;&nbsp; But she put out her hand to take the little
+drawing which Aaron handed to her.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Because that&rsquo;s one I&rsquo;ve planned for our bit
+of a new branch from Moreau up to Lake George.&nbsp; I guess Miss
+Susan knows something about bridges.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I guess I don&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said
+Susan&mdash;&ldquo;only that they oughtn&rsquo;t to tumble down
+when the frost comes.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ha, ha, ha; no more they ought.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll tell
+McEvoy that.&rdquo;&nbsp; McEvoy had been a former engineer on
+the line.&nbsp; &ldquo;Well, that won&rsquo;t burst with any
+frost, I guess.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh my! how pretty!&rdquo; said the widow, and then
+Susan of course jumped up to look over her mother&rsquo;s
+shoulder.</p>
+<p>The artful dodger! he had drawn and coloured a beautiful
+little sketch of a bridge; not an engineer&rsquo;s plan with
+sections and measurements, vexatious to a woman&rsquo;s eye, but
+a graceful little bridge with a string of cars running under
+it.&nbsp; You could almost hear the bell going.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well; that is a pretty bridge,&rdquo; said Susan.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t it, Hetta?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know anything about bridges,&rdquo; said
+Hetta, to whose clever eyes the dodge was quite apparent.&nbsp;
+But in spite of her cleverness Mrs. Bell and Susan had soon moved
+their chairs round to the table, and were looking through the
+contents of Aaron&rsquo;s portfolio.&nbsp; &ldquo;But yet he may
+be a wolf,&rdquo; thought the poor widow, just as she was
+kneeling down to say her prayers.</p>
+<p>That evening certainly made a commencement.&nbsp; Though Hetta
+went on pertinaciously with the body of a new dress, the other
+two ladies did not put in another stitch that night.&nbsp; From
+his drawings Aaron got to his instruments, and before bedtime was
+teaching Susan how to draw parallel lines.&nbsp; Susan found that
+she had quite an aptitude for parallel lines, and altogether had
+a good time of it that evening.&nbsp; It is dull to go on week
+after week, and month after month, talking only to one&rsquo;s
+mother and sister.&nbsp; It is dull though one does not oneself
+recognise it to be so.&nbsp; A little change in such matters is
+so very pleasant.&nbsp; Susan had not the slightest idea of
+regarding Aaron as even a possible lover.&nbsp; But young ladies
+do like the conversation of young gentlemen.&nbsp; Oh, my
+exceedingly proper prim old lady, you who are so shocked at this
+as a general doctrine, has it never occurred to you that the
+Creator has so intended it?</p>
+<p>Susan understanding little of the how and why, knew that she
+had had a good time, and was rather in spirits as she went to
+bed.&nbsp; But Hetta had been frightened by the dodge.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, Hetta, you should have looked at those
+drawings.&nbsp; He is so clever!&rdquo; said Susan.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know that they would have done me much
+good,&rdquo; replied Hetta.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Good!&nbsp; Well, they&rsquo;d do me more good than a
+long sermon, I know,&rdquo; said Susan; &ldquo;except on a
+Sunday, of course,&rdquo; she added apologetically.&nbsp; This
+was an ill-tempered attack both on Hetta and Hetta&rsquo;s
+admirer.&nbsp; But then why had Hetta been so snappish?</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure he&rsquo;s a wolf;&rdquo; thought Hetta
+as she went to bed.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What a very clever young man he is!&rdquo; thought
+Susan to herself as she pulled the warm clothes round about her
+shoulders and ears.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well that certainly was an improvement,&rdquo; thought
+Aaron as he went through the same operation, with a stronger
+feeling of self-approbation than he had enjoyed for some time
+past.</p>
+<p>In the course of the next fortnight the family arrangements
+all altered themselves.&nbsp; Unless when Beckard was there Aaron
+would sit in the widow&rsquo;s place, the widow would take
+Susan&rsquo;s chair, and the two girls would be opposite.&nbsp;
+And then Dunn would read to them; not sermons, but passages from
+Shakspeare, and Byron, and Longfellow.&nbsp; &ldquo;He reads much
+better than Mr. Beckard,&rdquo; Susan had said one night.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Of course you&rsquo;re a competent judge!&rdquo; had been
+Hetta&rsquo;s retort.&nbsp; &ldquo;I mean that I like it
+better,&rdquo; said Susan.&nbsp; &ldquo;It&rsquo;s well that all
+people don&rsquo;t think alike,&rdquo; replied Hetta.</p>
+<p>And then there was a deal of talking.&nbsp; The widow herself,
+as unconscious in this respect as her youngest daughter,
+certainly did find that a little variety was agreeable on those
+long winter nights; and talked herself with unaccustomed
+freedom.&nbsp; And Beckard came there oftener and talked very
+much.&nbsp; When he was there the two young men did all the
+talking, and they pounded each other immensely.&nbsp; But still
+there grew up a sort of friendship between them.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Mr. Beckard seems quite to take to him,&rdquo; said
+Mrs. Bell to her eldest daughter.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It is his great good nature, mother,&rdquo; replied
+Hetta.</p>
+<p>It was at the end of the second month when Aaron took another
+step in advance&mdash;a perilous step.&nbsp; Sometimes on
+evenings he still went on with his drawing for an hour or so; but
+during three or four evenings he never asked any one to look at
+what he was doing.&nbsp; On one Friday he sat over his work till
+late, without any reading or talking at all; so late that at last
+Mrs. Bell said, &ldquo;If you&rsquo;re going to sit much longer,
+Mr. Dunn, I&rsquo;ll get you to put out the candles.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+Thereby showing, had he known it or had she, that the
+mother&rsquo;s confidence in the young man was growing
+fast.&nbsp; Hetta knew all about it, and dreaded that the growth
+was too quick.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve finished now,&rdquo; said Aaron; and he
+looked carefully at the cardboard on which he had been washing in
+his water-colours.&nbsp; &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve finished
+now.&rdquo;&nbsp; He then hesitated a moment; but ultimately he
+put the card into his portfolio and carried it up to his
+bedroom.&nbsp; Who does not perceive that it was intended as a
+present to Susan Bell?</p>
+<p>The question which Aaron asked himself that night, and which
+he hardly knew how to answer, was this.&nbsp; Should he offer the
+drawing to Susan in the presence of her mother and sister, or on
+some occasion when they two might be alone together?&nbsp; No
+such occasion had ever yet occurred, but Aaron thought that it
+might probably be brought about.&nbsp; But then he wanted to make
+no fuss about it.&nbsp; His first intention had been to chuck the
+drawing lightly across the table when it was completed, and so
+make nothing of it.&nbsp; But he had finished it with more care
+than he had at first intended; and then he had hesitated when he
+had finished it.&nbsp; It was too late now for that plan of
+chucking it over the table.</p>
+<p>On the Saturday evening when he came down from his room, Mr.
+Beckard was there, and there was no opportunity that night.&nbsp;
+On the Sunday, in conformity with a previous engagement, he went
+to hear Mr. Beckard preach, and walked to and from meeting with
+the family.&nbsp; This pleased Mrs. Bell, and they were all very
+gracious that afternoon.&nbsp; But Sunday was no day for the
+picture.</p>
+<p>On Monday the thing had become of importance to him.&nbsp;
+Things always do when they are kept over.&nbsp; Before tea that
+evening when he came down Mrs. Bell and Susan only were in the
+room.&nbsp; He knew Hetta for his foe, and therefore determined
+to use this occasion.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Miss Susan,&rdquo; he said, stammering somewhat, and
+blushing too, poor fool!&nbsp; &ldquo;I have done a little
+drawing which I want you to accept,&rdquo; and he put his
+portfolio down on the table.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh!&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; said Susan, who
+had seen the blush.</p>
+<p>Mrs. Bell had seen the blush also, and pursed her mouth up,
+and looked grave.&nbsp; Had there been no stammering and no
+blush, she might have thought nothing of it.</p>
+<p>Aaron saw at once that his little gift was not to go down
+smoothly.&nbsp; He was, however, in for it now, so he picked it
+out from among the other papers in the case and brought it over
+to Susan.&nbsp; He endeavoured to hand it to her with an air of
+indifference, but I cannot say that he succeeded.</p>
+<p>It was a very pretty, well-finished, water-coloured drawing,
+representing still the same bridge, but with more adjuncts.&nbsp;
+In Susan&rsquo;s eyes it was a work of high art.&nbsp; Of
+pictures probably she had seen but little, and her liking for the
+artist no doubt added to her admiration.&nbsp; But the more she
+admired it and wished for it, the stronger was her feeling that
+she ought not to take it.</p>
+<p>Poor Susan! she stood for a minute looking at the drawing, but
+she said nothing; not even a word of praise.&nbsp; She felt that
+she was red in the face, and uncourteous to their lodger; but her
+mother was looking at her and she did not know how to behave
+herself.</p>
+<p>Mrs. Bell put out her hand for the sketch, trying to bethink
+herself as she did so in what least uncivil way she could refuse
+the present.&nbsp; She took a moment to look at it collecting her
+thoughts, and as she did so her woman&rsquo;s wit came to her
+aid.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh dear, Mr. Dunn, it is very pretty; quite a beautiful
+picture.&nbsp; I cannot let Susan rob you of that.&nbsp; You must
+keep that for some of your own particular friends.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But I did it for her,&rdquo; said Aaron innocently.</p>
+<p>Susan looked down at the ground, half pleased at the
+declaration.&nbsp; The drawing would look very pretty in a small
+gilt frame put over her dressing-table.&nbsp; But the matter now
+was altogether in her mother&rsquo;s hands.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am afraid it is too valuable, sir, for Susan to
+accept.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It is not valuable at all,&rdquo; said Aaron, declining
+to take it back from the widow&rsquo;s hand.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, I am quite sure it is.&nbsp; It is worth ten
+dollars at least&mdash;or twenty,&rdquo; said poor Mrs. Bell, not
+in the very best taste.&nbsp; But she was perplexed, and did not
+know how to get out of the scrape.&nbsp; The article in question
+now lay upon the table-cloth, appropriated by no one, and at this
+moment Hetta came into the room.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It is not worth ten cents,&rdquo; said Aaron, with
+something like a frown on his brow.&nbsp; &ldquo;But as we had
+been talking about the bridge, I thought Miss Susan would accept
+it.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Accept what?&rdquo; said Hetta.&nbsp; And then her eye
+fell upon the drawing and she took it up.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It is beautifully done,&rdquo; said Mrs. Bell, wishing
+much to soften the matter; perhaps the more so that Hetta the
+demure was now present.&nbsp; &ldquo;I am telling Mr. Dunn that
+we can&rsquo;t take a present of anything so valuable.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh dear no,&rdquo; said Hetta.&nbsp; &ldquo;It
+wouldn&rsquo;t be right.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was a cold frosty evening in March, and the fire was
+burning brightly on the hearth.&nbsp; Aaron Dunn took up the
+drawing quietly&mdash;very quietly&mdash;and rolling it up, as
+such drawings are rolled, put it between the blazing logs.&nbsp;
+It was the work of four evenings, and his
+chef-d&rsquo;&oelig;uvre in the way of art.</p>
+<p>Susan, when she saw what he had done, burst out into
+tears.&nbsp; The widow could very readily have done so also, but
+she was able to refrain herself, and merely
+exclaimed&mdash;&ldquo;Oh, Mr. Dunn!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;If Mr. Dunn chooses to burn his own picture, he has
+certainly a right to do so,&rdquo; said Hetta.</p>
+<p>Aaron immediately felt ashamed of what he had done; and he
+also could have cried, but for his manliness.&nbsp; He walked
+away to one of the parlour-windows, and looked out upon the
+frosty night.&nbsp; It was dark, but the stars were bright, and
+he thought that he should like to be walking fast by himself
+along the line of rails towards Balston.&nbsp; There he stood,
+perhaps for three minutes.&nbsp; He thought it would be proper to
+give Susan time to recover from her tears.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Will you please to come to your tea, sir?&rdquo; said
+the soft voice of Mrs. Bell.</p>
+<p>He turned round to do so, and found that Susan was gone.&nbsp;
+It was not quite in her power to recover from her tears in three
+minutes.&nbsp; And then the drawing had been so beautiful!&nbsp;
+It had been done expressly for her too!&nbsp; And there had been
+something, she knew not what, in his eye as he had so
+declared.&nbsp; She had watched him intently over those four
+evenings&rsquo; work, wondering why he did not show it, till her
+feminine curiosity had become rather strong.&nbsp; It was
+something very particular, she was sure, and she had learned that
+all that precious work had been for her.&nbsp; Now all that
+precious work was destroyed.&nbsp; How was it possible that she
+should not cry for more than three minutes?</p>
+<p>The others took their meal in perfect silence, and when it was
+over the two women sat down to their work.&nbsp; Aaron had a book
+which he pretended to read, but instead of reading he was
+bethinking himself that he had behaved badly.&nbsp; What right
+had he to throw them all into such confusion by indulging in his
+passion?&nbsp; He was ashamed of what he had done, and fancied
+that Susan would hate him.&nbsp; Fancying that, he began to find
+at the same time that he by no means hated her.</p>
+<p>At last Hetta got up and left the room.&nbsp; She knew that
+her sister was sitting alone in the cold, and Hetta was
+affectionate.&nbsp; Susan had not been in fault, and therefore
+Hetta went up to console her.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Mrs. Bell,&rdquo; said Aaron, as soon as the door was
+closed, &ldquo;I beg your pardon for what I did just
+now.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, sir, I&rsquo;m so sorry that the picture is
+burnt,&rdquo; said poor Mrs. Bell.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The picture does not matter a straw,&rdquo; said
+Aaron.&nbsp; &ldquo;But I see that I have disturbed you
+all,&mdash;and I am afraid I have made Miss Susan
+unhappy.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;She was grieved because your picture was burnt,&rdquo;
+said Mrs. Bell, putting some emphasis on the &ldquo;your,&rdquo;
+intending to show that her daughter had not regarded the drawing
+as her own.&nbsp; But the emphasis bore another meaning; and so
+the widow perceived as soon as she had spoken.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, I can do twenty more of the same if anybody wanted
+them,&rdquo; said Aaron.&nbsp; &ldquo;If I do another like it,
+will you let her take it, Mrs. Bell?&mdash;just to show that you
+have forgiven me, and that we are friends as we were
+before?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Was he, or was he not a wolf?&nbsp; That was the question
+which Mrs. Bell scarcely knew how to answer.&nbsp; Hetta had
+given her voice, saying he was lupine.&nbsp; Mr. Beckard&rsquo;s
+opinion she had not liked to ask directly.&nbsp; Mr. Beckard she
+thought would probably propose to Hetta; but as yet he had not
+done so.&nbsp; And, as he was still a stranger in the family, she
+did not like in any way to compromise Susan&rsquo;s name.&nbsp;
+Indirectly she had asked the question, and, indirectly also, Mr.
+Beckard&rsquo;s answer had been favourable.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But it mustn&rsquo;t mean anything, sir,&rdquo; was the
+widow&rsquo;s weak answer, when she had paused on the question
+for a moment.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh no, of course not,&rdquo; said Aaron, joyously, and
+his face became radiant and happy.&nbsp; &ldquo;And I do beg your
+pardon for burning it; and the young ladies&rsquo; pardon
+too.&rdquo;&nbsp; And then he rapidly got out his cardboard, and
+set himself to work about another bridge.&nbsp; The widow,
+meditating many things in her heart, commenced the hemming of a
+handkerchief.</p>
+<p>In about an hour the two girls came back to the room and
+silently took their accustomed places.&nbsp; Aaron hardly looked
+up, but went on diligently with his drawing.&nbsp; This bridge
+should be a better bridge than that other.&nbsp; Its acceptance
+was now assured.&nbsp; Of course it was to mean nothing.&nbsp;
+That was a matter of course.&nbsp; So he worked away diligently,
+and said nothing to anybody.</p>
+<p>When they went off to bed the two girls went into the
+mother&rsquo;s room.&nbsp; &ldquo;Oh, mother, I hope he is not
+very angry,&rdquo; said Susan.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Angry!&rdquo; said Hetta, &ldquo;if anybody should be
+angry, it is mother.&nbsp; He ought to have known that Susan
+could not accept it.&nbsp; He should never have offered
+it.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But he&rsquo;s doing another,&rdquo; said Mrs.
+Bell.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not for her,&rdquo; said Hetta.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes he is,&rdquo; said Mrs. Bell, &ldquo;and I have
+promised that she shall take it.&rdquo;&nbsp; Susan as she heard
+this sank gently into the chair behind her, and her eyes became
+full of tears.&nbsp; The intimation was almost too much for
+her.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, mother!&rdquo; said Hetta.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But I particularly said that it was to mean
+nothing.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, mother, that makes it worse.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Why should Hetta interfere in this way, thought Susan to
+herself.&nbsp; Had she interfered when Mr. Beckard gave Hetta a
+testament bound in Morocco? had not she smiled, and looked
+gratified, and kissed her sister, and declared that Phineas
+Beckard was a nice dear man, and by far the most elegant preacher
+at the Springs?&nbsp; Why should Hetta be so cruel?</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see that, my dear,&rdquo; said the
+mother.&nbsp; Hetta would not explain before her sister, so they
+all went to bed.</p>
+<p>On the Thursday evening the drawing was finished.&nbsp; Not a
+word had been said about it, at any rate in his presence, and he
+had gone on working in silence.&nbsp; &ldquo;There,&rdquo; said
+he, late on the Thursday evening, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know that
+it will be any better if I go on daubing for another hour.&nbsp;
+There, Miss Susan; there&rsquo;s another bridge.&nbsp; I hope
+that will neither burst with the frost, nor yet be destroyed by
+fire,&rdquo; and he gave it a light flip with his fingers and
+sent it skimming over the table.</p>
+<p>Susan blushed and smiled, and took it up.&nbsp; &ldquo;Oh, it
+is beautiful,&rdquo; she said.&nbsp; &ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t it
+beautifully done, mother?&rdquo; and then all the three got up to
+look at it, and all confessed that it was excellently done.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And I am sure we are very much obliged to you,&rdquo;
+said Susan after a pause, remembering that she had not yet
+thanked him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, it&rsquo;s nothing,&rdquo; said he, not quite
+liking the word &ldquo;we.&rdquo;&nbsp; On the following day he
+returned from his work to Saratoga about noon.&nbsp; This he had
+never done before, and therefore no one expected that he would be
+seen in the house before the evening.&nbsp; On this occasion,
+however, he went straight thither, and as chance would have it,
+both the widow and her elder daughter were out.&nbsp; Susan was
+there alone in charge of the house.</p>
+<p>He walked in and opened the parlour door.&nbsp; There she sat,
+with her feet on the fender, with her work unheeded on the table
+behind her, and the picture, Aaron&rsquo;s drawing, lying on her
+knees.&nbsp; She was gazing at it intently as he entered,
+thinking in her young heart that it possessed all the beauties
+which a picture could possess.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, Mr. Dunn,&rdquo; she said, getting up and holding
+the telltale sketch behind the skirt of her dress.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Miss Susan, I have come here to tell your mother that I
+must start for New York this afternoon and be there for six
+weeks, or perhaps longer.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Mother is out,&rdquo; said she; &ldquo;I&rsquo;m so
+sorry.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Is she?&rdquo; said Aaron.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And Hetta too.&nbsp; Dear me.&nbsp; And you&rsquo;ll be
+wanting dinner.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll go and see about it.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Aaron began to swear that he could not possibly eat any
+dinner.&nbsp; He had dined once, and was going to dine
+again;&mdash;anything to keep her from going.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But you must have something, Mr. Dunn,&rdquo; and she
+walked towards the door.</p>
+<p>But he put his back to it.&nbsp; &ldquo;Miss Susan,&rdquo;
+said he, &ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;ve been here nearly two
+months.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir, I believe you have,&rdquo; she replied,
+shaking in her shoes, and not knowing which way to look.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And I hope we have been good friends.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir,&rdquo; said Susan, almost beside herself as
+to what she was saying.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going away now, and it seems to be such a
+time before I&rsquo;ll be back.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Will it, Sir?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Six weeks, Miss Susan!&rdquo; and then he paused,
+looking into her eyes, to see what he could read there.&nbsp; She
+leant against the table, pulling to pieces a morsel of
+half-ravelled muslin which she held in her hand; but her eyes
+were turned to the ground, and he could hardly see them.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Miss Susan,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;I may as well
+speak out now as at another time.&rdquo;&nbsp; He too was looking
+towards the ground, and clearly did not know what to do with his
+hands.&nbsp; &ldquo;The truth is just this.&nbsp; I&mdash;I love
+you dearly, with all my heart.&nbsp; I never saw any one I ever
+thought so beautiful, so nice, and so good;&mdash;and
+what&rsquo;s more, I never shall.&nbsp; I&rsquo;m not very good
+at this sort of thing, I know; but I couldn&rsquo;t go away from
+Saratoga for six weeks and not tell you.&rdquo;&nbsp; And then he
+ceased.&nbsp; He did not ask for any love in return.&nbsp; His
+presumption had not got so far as that yet.&nbsp; He merely
+declared his passion, leaning against the door, and there he
+stood twiddling his thumbs.</p>
+<p>Susan had not the slightest conception of the way in which she
+ought to receive such a declaration.&nbsp; She had never had a
+lover before; nor had she ever thought of Aaron absolutely as a
+lover, though something very like love for him had been crossing
+over her spirit.&nbsp; Now, at this moment, she felt that he was
+the beau-id&eacute;al of manhood, though his boots were covered
+with the railway mud, and though his pantaloons were tucked up in
+rolls round his ankles.&nbsp; He was a fine, well-grown,
+open-faced fellow, whose eye was bold and yet tender, whose brow
+was full and broad, and all his bearing manly.&nbsp; Love
+him!&nbsp; Of course she loved him.&nbsp; Why else had her heart
+melted with pleasure when her mother said that that second
+picture was to be accepted?</p>
+<p>But what was she to say?&nbsp; Anything but the open truth;
+she well knew that.&nbsp; The open truth would not do at
+all.&nbsp; What would her mother say and Hetta if she were rashly
+to say that?&nbsp; Hetta, she knew, would be dead against such a
+lover, and of her mother&rsquo;s approbation she had hardly more
+hope.&nbsp; Why they should disapprove of Aaron as a lover she
+had never asked herself.&nbsp; There are many nice things that
+seem to be wrong only because they are so nice.&nbsp; Maybe that
+Susan regarded a lover as one of them.&nbsp; &ldquo;Oh, Mr. Dunn,
+you shouldn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;&nbsp; That in fact was all that she
+could say.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Should not I?&rdquo; said he.&nbsp; &ldquo;Well,
+perhaps not; but there&rsquo;s the truth, and no harm ever comes
+of that.&nbsp; Perhaps I&rsquo;d better not ask you for an answer
+now, but I thought it better you should know it all.&nbsp; And
+remember this&mdash;I only care for one thing now in the world,
+and that is for your love.&rdquo;&nbsp; And then he paused,
+thinking possibly that in spite of what he had said he might
+perhaps get some sort of an answer, some inkling of the state of
+her heart&rsquo;s disposition towards him.</p>
+<p>But Susan had at once resolved to take him at his word when he
+suggested that an immediate reply was not necessary.&nbsp; To say
+that she loved him was of course impossible, and to say that she
+did not was equally so.&nbsp; She determined therefore to close
+at once with the offer of silence.</p>
+<p>When he ceased speaking there was a moment&rsquo;s pause,
+during which he strove hard to read what might be written on her
+down-turned face.&nbsp; But he was not good at such
+reading.&nbsp; &ldquo;Well, I guess I&rsquo;ll go and get my
+things ready now,&rdquo; he said, and then turned round to open
+the door.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Mother will be in before you are gone, I
+suppose,&rdquo; said Susan.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I have only got twenty minutes,&rdquo; said he, looking
+at his watch.&nbsp; &ldquo;But, Susan, tell her what I have said
+to you.&nbsp; Goodbye.&rdquo;&nbsp; And he put out his
+hand.&nbsp; He knew he should see her again, but this had been
+his plan to get her hand in his.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Good-bye, Mr. Dunn,&rdquo; and she gave him her
+hand.</p>
+<p>He held it tight for a moment, so that she could not draw it
+away,&mdash;could not if she would.&nbsp; &ldquo;Will you tell
+your mother?&rdquo; he asked.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she answered, quite in a whisper.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;d better tell her.&rdquo;&nbsp; And then
+she gave a long sigh.&nbsp; He pressed her hand again and got it
+up to his lips.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Mr. Dunn, don&rsquo;t,&rdquo; she said.&nbsp; But he
+did kiss it.&nbsp; &ldquo;God bless you, my own dearest, dearest
+girl!&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll just open the door as I come down.&nbsp;
+Perhaps Mrs. Bell will be here.&rdquo;&nbsp; And then he rushed
+up stairs.</p>
+<p>But Mrs. Bell did not come in.&nbsp; She and Hetta were at a
+weekly service at Mr. Beckard&rsquo;s meeting-house, and Mr.
+Beckard it seemed had much to say.&nbsp; Susan, when left alone,
+sat down and tried to think.&nbsp; But she could not think; she
+could only love.&nbsp; She could use her mind only in recounting
+to herself the perfections of that demigod whose heavy steps were
+so audible overhead, as he walked to and fro collecting his
+things and putting them into his bag.</p>
+<p>And then, just when he had finished, she bethought herself
+that he must be hungry.&nbsp; She flew to the kitchen, but she
+was too late.&nbsp; Before she could even reach at the loaf of
+bread he descended the stairs, with a clattering noise, and heard
+her voice as she spoke quickly to Kate O&rsquo;Brien.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Miss Susan,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;don&rsquo;t get
+anything for me, for I&rsquo;m off.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, Mr. Dunn, I am so sorry.&nbsp; You&rsquo;ll be so
+hungry on your journey,&rdquo; and she came out to him in the
+passage.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I shall want nothing on the journey, dearest, if
+you&rsquo;ll say one kind word to me.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Again her eyes went to the ground.&nbsp; &ldquo;What do you
+want me to say, Mr. Dunn?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Say, God bless you, Aaron.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;God bless you, Aaron,&rdquo; said she; and yet she was
+sure that she had not declared her love.&nbsp; He however thought
+otherwise, and went up to New York with a happy heart.</p>
+<p>Things happened in the next fortnight rather quickly.&nbsp;
+Susan at once resolved to tell her mother, but she resolved also
+not to tell Hetta.&nbsp; That afternoon she got her mother to
+herself in Mrs. Bell&rsquo;s own room, and then she made a clean
+breast of it.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And what did you say to him, Susan?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I said nothing, mother.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nothing, dear!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No, mother; not a word.&nbsp; He told me he
+didn&rsquo;t want it.&rdquo;&nbsp; She forgot how she had used
+his Christian name in bidding God bless him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh dear!&rdquo; said the widow.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Was it very wrong?&rdquo; asked Susan.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But what do you think yourself, my child?&rdquo; asked
+Mrs. Bell after a while.&nbsp; &ldquo;What are your own
+feelings.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Mrs. Bell was sitting on a chair and Susan was standing
+opposite to her against the post of the bed.&nbsp; She made no
+answer, but moving from her place, she threw herself into her
+mother&rsquo;s arms, and hid her face on her mother&rsquo;s
+shoulder.&nbsp; It was easy enough to guess what were her
+feelings.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But, my darling,&rdquo; said her mother, &ldquo;you
+must not think that it is an engagement.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Susan, sorrowfully.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Young men say those things to amuse
+themselves.&rdquo;&nbsp; Wolves, she would have said, had she
+spoken out her mind freely.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, mother, he is not like that.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The daughter contrived to extract a promise from the mother
+that Hetta should not be told just at present.&nbsp; Mrs. Bell
+calculated that she had six weeks before her; as yet Mr. Beckard
+had not spoken out, but there was reason to suppose that he would
+do so before those six weeks would be over, and then she would be
+able to seek counsel from him.</p>
+<p>Mr. Beckard spoke out at the end of six days, and Hetta
+frankly accepted him.&nbsp; &ldquo;I hope you&rsquo;ll love your
+brother-in-law,&rdquo; said she to Susan.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, I will indeed,&rdquo; said Susan; and in the
+softness of her heart at the moment she almost made up her mind
+to tell; but Hetta was full of her own affairs, and thus it
+passed off.</p>
+<p>It was then arranged that Hetta should go and spend a week
+with Mr. Beckard&rsquo;s parents.&nbsp; Old Mr. Beckard was a
+farmer living near Utica, and now that the match was declared and
+approved, it was thought well that Hetta should know her future
+husband&rsquo;s family.&nbsp; So she went for a week, and Mr.
+Beckard went with her.&nbsp; &ldquo;He will be back in plenty of
+time for me to speak to him before Aaron Dunn&rsquo;s six weeks
+are over,&rdquo; said Mrs. Bell to herself.</p>
+<p>But things did not go exactly as she expected.&nbsp; On the
+very morning after the departure of the engaged couple, there
+came a letter from Aaron, saying that he would be at Saratoga
+that very evening.&nbsp; The railway people had ordered him down
+again for some days&rsquo; special work; then he was to go
+elsewhere, and not to return to Saratoga till June.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;But he hoped,&rdquo; so said the letter, &ldquo;that Mrs.
+Bell would not turn him into the street even then, though the
+summer might have come, and her regular lodgers might be
+expected.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh dear, oh dear!&rdquo; said Mrs. Bell to herself,
+reflecting that she had no one of whom she could ask advice, and
+that she must decide that very day.&nbsp; Why had she let Mr.
+Beckard go without telling him?&nbsp; Then she told Susan, and
+Susan spent the day trembling.&nbsp; Perhaps, thought Mrs. Bell,
+he will say nothing about it.&nbsp; In such case, however, would
+it not be her duty to say something?&nbsp; Poor mother!&nbsp; She
+trembled nearly as much as Susan.</p>
+<p>It was dark when the fatal knock came at the door.&nbsp; The
+tea-things were already laid, and the tea-cake was already baked;
+for it would at any rate be necessary to give Mr. Dunn his
+tea.&nbsp; Susan, when she heard the knock, rushed from her chair
+and took refuge up stairs.&nbsp; The widow gave a long sigh and
+settled her dress.&nbsp; Kate O&rsquo;Brien with willing step
+opened the door, and bade her old friend welcome.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;How are the ladies?&rdquo; asked Aaron, trying to
+gather something from the face and voice of the domestic.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Miss Hetta and Mr. Beckard be gone off to Utica, just
+man-and-wife like! and so they are, more power to
+them.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh indeed; I&rsquo;m very glad,&rdquo; said
+Aaron&mdash;and so he was; very glad to have Hetta the demure out
+of the way.&nbsp; And then he made his way into the parlour,
+doubting much, and hoping much.</p>
+<p>Mrs. Bell rose from her chair, and tried to look grave.&nbsp;
+Aaron glancing round the room saw that Susan was not there.&nbsp;
+He walked straight up to the widow, and offered her his hand,
+which she took.&nbsp; It might be that Susan had not thought fit
+to tell, and in such case it would not be right for him to
+compromise her; so he said never a word.</p>
+<p>But the subject was too important to the mother to allow of
+her being silent when the young man stood before her.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Oh, Mr. Dunn,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;what is this you
+have been saying to Susan?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I have asked her to be my wife,&rdquo; said he, drawing
+himself up and looking her full in the face.&nbsp; Mrs.
+Bell&rsquo;s heart was almost as soft as her daughter&rsquo;s,
+and it was nearly gone; but at the moment she had nothing to say
+but, &ldquo;Oh dear, oh dear!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;May I not call you mother?&rdquo; said he, taking both
+her hands in his.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh dear&mdash;oh dear!&nbsp; But will you be good to
+her?&nbsp; Oh, Aaron Dunn, if you deceive my child!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>In another quarter of an hour, Susan was kneeling at her
+mother&rsquo;s knee, with her face on her mother&rsquo;s lap; the
+mother was wiping tears out of her eyes; and Aaron was standing
+by holding one of the widow&rsquo;s hands.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You are my mother too, now,&rdquo; said he.&nbsp; What
+would Hetta and Mr. Beckard say, when they came back?&nbsp; But
+then he surely was not a wolf!</p>
+<p>There were four or five days left for courtship before Hetta
+and Mr. Beckard would return; four or five days during which
+Susan might be happy, Aaron triumphant, and Mrs. Bell
+nervous.&nbsp; Days I have said, but after all it was only the
+evenings that were so left.&nbsp; Every morning Susan got up to
+give Aaron his breakfast, but Mrs. Bell got up also.&nbsp; Susan
+boldly declared her right to do so, and Mrs. Bell found no
+objection which she could urge.</p>
+<p>But after that Aaron was always absent till seven or eight in
+the evening, when he would return to his tea.&nbsp; Then came the
+hour or two of lovers&rsquo; intercourse.</p>
+<p>But they were very tame, those hours.&nbsp; The widow still
+felt an undefined fear that she was wrong, and though her heart
+yearned to know that her daughter was happy in the sweet
+happiness of accepted love, yet she dreaded to be too
+confident.&nbsp; Not a word had been said about money matters;
+not a word of Aaron Dunn&rsquo;s relatives.&nbsp; So she did not
+leave them by themselves, but waited with what patience she could
+for the return of her wise counsellors.</p>
+<p>And then Susan hardly knew how to behave herself with her
+accepted suitor.&nbsp; She felt that she was very happy; but
+perhaps she was most happy when she was thinking about him
+through the long day, assisting in fixing little things for his
+comfort, and waiting for his evening return.&nbsp; And as he sat
+there in the parlour, she could be happy then too, if she were
+but allowed to sit still and look at him,&mdash;not stare at him,
+but raise her eyes every now and again to his face for the
+shortest possible glance, as she had been used to do ever since
+he came there.</p>
+<p>But he, unconscionable lover, wanted to hear her speak, was
+desirous of being talked to, and perhaps thought that he should
+by rights be allowed to sit by her, and hold her hand.&nbsp; No
+such privileges were accorded to him.&nbsp; If they had been
+alone together, walking side by side on the green turf, as lovers
+should walk, she would soon have found the use of her
+tongue,&mdash;have talked fast enough no doubt.&nbsp; Under such
+circumstances, when a girl&rsquo;s shyness has given way to real
+intimacy, there is in general no end to her power of
+chatting.&nbsp; But though there was much love between Aaron and
+Susan, there was as yet but little intimacy.&nbsp; And then, let
+a mother be ever so motherly&mdash;and no mother could have more
+of a mother&rsquo;s tenderness than Mrs. Bell&mdash;still her
+presence must be a restraint.&nbsp; Aaron was very fond of Mrs.
+Bell; but nevertheless he did sometimes wish that some domestic
+duty would take her out of the parlour for a few happy
+minutes.&nbsp; Susan went out very often, but Mrs. Bell seemed to
+be a fixture.</p>
+<p>Once for a moment he did find his love alone, immediately as
+he came into the house.&nbsp; &ldquo;My own Susan, you do love
+me? do say so to me once.&rdquo;&nbsp; And he contrived to slip
+his arm round her waist.&nbsp; &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she whispered;
+but she slipped like an eel from his hands, and left him only
+preparing himself for a kiss.&nbsp; And then when she got to her
+room, half frightened, she clasped her hands together, and
+bethought herself that she did really love him with a strength
+and depth of love which filled her whole existence.&nbsp; Why
+could she not have told him something of all this?</p>
+<p>And so the few days of his second sojourn at Saratoga passed
+away, not altogether satisfactorily.&nbsp; It was settled that he
+should return to New York on Saturday night, leaving Saratoga on
+that evening; and as the Beckards&mdash;Hetta was already
+regarded quite as a Beckard&mdash;were to be back to dinner on
+that day, Mrs. Bell would have an opportunity of telling her
+wondrous tale.&nbsp; It might be well that Mr. Beckard should see
+Aaron before his departure.</p>
+<p>On that Saturday the Beckards did arrive just in time for
+dinner.&nbsp; It may be imagined that Susan&rsquo;s appetite was
+not very keen, nor her manner very collected.&nbsp; But all this
+passed by unobserved in the importance attached to the various
+Beckard arrangements which came under discussion.&nbsp; Ladies
+and gentlemen circumstanced as were Hetta and Mr. Beckard are
+perhaps a little too apt to think that their own affairs are
+paramount.&nbsp; But after dinner Susan vanished at once, and
+when Hetta prepared to follow her, desirous of further talk about
+matrimonial arrangements, her mother stopped her, and the
+disclosure was made.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Proposed to her!&rdquo; said Hetta, who perhaps thought
+that one marriage in a family was enough at a time.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, my love&mdash;and he did it, I must say, in a very
+honourable way, telling her not to make any answer till she had
+spoken to me;&mdash;now that was very nice; was it not,
+Phineas?&rdquo;&nbsp; Mrs. Bell had become very anxious that
+Aaron should not be voted a wolf.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And what has been said to him since?&rdquo; asked the
+discreet Phineas.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Why&mdash;nothing absolutely decisive.&rdquo;&nbsp; Oh,
+Mrs. Bell!&nbsp; &ldquo;You see I know nothing as to his
+means.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nothing at all,&rdquo; said Hetta.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He is a man that will always earn his bread,&rdquo;
+said Mr. Beckard; and Mrs. Bell blessed him in her heart for
+saying it.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But has he been encouraged?&rdquo; asked Hetta.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well; yes, he has,&rdquo; said the widow.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then Susan I suppose likes him?&rdquo; asked
+Phineas.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well; yes, she does,&rdquo; said the widow.&nbsp; And
+the conference ended in a resolution that Phineas Beckard should
+have a conversation with Aaron Dunn, as to his worldly means and
+position; and that he, Phineas, should decide whether Aaron
+might, or might not be at once accepted as a lover, according to
+the tenor of that conversation.&nbsp; Poor Susan was not told
+anything of all this.&nbsp; &ldquo;Better not,&rdquo; said Hetta
+the demure.&nbsp; &ldquo;It will only flurry her the
+more.&rdquo;&nbsp; How would she have liked it, if without
+consulting her, they had left it to Aaron to decide whether or no
+she might marry Phineas?</p>
+<p>They knew where on the works Aaron was to be found, and
+thither Mr. Beckard rode after dinner.&nbsp; We need not narrate
+at length the conference between the young men.&nbsp; Aaron at
+once declared that he had nothing but what he made as an
+engineer, and explained that he held no permanent situation on
+the line.&nbsp; He was well paid at that present moment, but at
+the end of summer he would have to look for employment.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then you can hardly marry quite at present,&rdquo; said
+the discreet minister.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Perhaps not quite immediately.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And long engagements are never wise,&rdquo; said the
+other.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Three or four months,&rdquo; suggested Aaron.&nbsp; But
+Mr. Beckard shook his head.</p>
+<p>The afternoon at Mrs. Bell&rsquo;s house was melancholy.&nbsp;
+The final decision of the three judges was as follows.&nbsp;
+There was to be no engagement; of course no correspondence.&nbsp;
+Aaron was to be told that it would be better that he should get
+lodgings elsewhere when he returned; but that he would be allowed
+to visit at Mrs. Bell&rsquo;s house,&mdash;and at Mrs.
+Beckard&rsquo;s, which was very considerate.&nbsp; If he should
+succeed in getting a permanent appointment, and if he and Susan
+still held the same mind, why then&mdash;&amp;c. &amp;c.&nbsp;
+Such was Susan&rsquo;s fate, as communicated to her by Mrs. Bell
+and Hetta.&nbsp; She sat still and wept when she heard it; but
+she did not complain.&nbsp; She had always felt that Hetta would
+be against her.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Mayn&rsquo;t I see him, then?&rdquo; she said through
+her tears.</p>
+<p>Hetta thought she had better not.&nbsp; Mrs. Bell thought she
+might.&nbsp; Phineas decided that they might shake hands, but
+only in full conclave.&nbsp; There was to be no lovers&rsquo;
+farewell.&nbsp; Aaron was to leave the house at half-past five;
+but before he went Susan should be called down.&nbsp; Poor
+Susan!&nbsp; She sat down and bemoaned herself; uncomplaining,
+but very sad.</p>
+<p>Susan was soft, feminine, and manageable.&nbsp; But Aaron Dunn
+was not very soft, was especially masculine, and in some matters
+not easily manageable.&nbsp; When Mr. Beckard in the
+widow&rsquo;s presence&mdash;Hetta had retired in obedience to
+her lover&mdash;informed him of the court&rsquo;s decision, there
+came over his face the look which he had worn when he burned the
+picture.&nbsp; &ldquo;Mrs. Bell,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;had
+encouraged his engagement; and he did not understand why other
+people should now come and disturb it.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not an engagement, Aaron,&rdquo; said Mrs. Bell
+piteously.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He was able and willing to work,&rdquo; he said,
+&ldquo;and knew his profession.&nbsp; What young man of his age
+had done better than he had?&rdquo; and he glanced round at them
+with perhaps more pride than was quite becoming.</p>
+<p>Then Mr. Beckard spoke out, very wisely no doubt, but perhaps
+a little too much at length.&nbsp; Sons and daughters, as well as
+fathers and mothers, will know very well what he said; so I need
+not repeat his words.&nbsp; I cannot say that Aaron listened with
+much attention, but he understood perfectly what the upshot of it
+was.&nbsp; Many a man understands the purport of many a sermon
+without listening to one word in ten.&nbsp; Mr. Beckard meant to
+be kind in his manner; indeed was so, only that Aaron could not
+accept as kindness any interference on his part.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell you what, Mrs. Bell,&rdquo; said
+he.&nbsp; &ldquo;I look upon myself as engaged to her.&nbsp; And
+I look on her as engaged to me.&nbsp; I tell you so fairly; and I
+believe that&rsquo;s her mind as well as mine.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But, Aaron, you won&rsquo;t try to see her&mdash;or to
+write to her,&mdash;not in secret; will you?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;When I try to see her, I&rsquo;ll come and knock at
+this door; and if I write to her, I&rsquo;ll write to her full
+address by the post.&nbsp; I never did and never will do anything
+in secret.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I know you&rsquo;re good and honest,&rdquo; said the
+widow with her handkerchief to her eyes.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then why do you separate us?&rdquo; asked he, almost
+roughly.&nbsp; &ldquo;I suppose I may see her at any rate before
+I go.&nbsp; My time&rsquo;s nearly up now, I guess.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And then Susan was called for, and she and Hetta came down
+together.&nbsp; Susan crept in behind her sister.&nbsp; Her eyes
+were red with weeping, and her appearance was altogether
+disconsolate.&nbsp; She had had a lover for a week, and now she
+was to be robbed of him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Good-bye, Susan,&rdquo; said Aaron, and he walked up to
+her without bashfulness or embarrassment.&nbsp; Had they all been
+compliant and gracious to him he would have been as bashful as
+his love; but now his temper was hot.&nbsp; &ldquo;Good-bye,
+Susan,&rdquo; and she took his hand, and he held hers till he had
+finished.&nbsp; &ldquo;And remember this, I look upon you as my
+promised wife, and I don&rsquo;t fear that you&rsquo;ll deceive
+me.&nbsp; At any rate I shan&rsquo;t deceive you.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Good-bye, Aaron,&rdquo; she sobbed.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Good-bye, and God bless you, my own
+darling!&rdquo;&nbsp; And then without saying a word to any one
+else, he turned his back upon them and went his way.</p>
+<p>There had been something very consolatory, very sweet, to the
+poor girl in her lover&rsquo;s last words.&nbsp; And yet they had
+almost made her tremble.&nbsp; He had been so bold, and stern,
+and confident.&nbsp; He had seemed so utterly to defy the
+impregnable discretion of Mr. Beckard, so to despise the demure
+propriety of Hetta.&nbsp; But of this she felt sure, when she
+came to question her heart, that she could never, never, never
+cease to love him better than all the world beside.&nbsp; She
+would wait&mdash;patiently if she could find patience&mdash;and
+then, if he deserted her, she would die.</p>
+<p>In another month Hetta became Mrs. Beckard.&nbsp; Susan
+brisked up a little for the occasion, and looked very pretty as
+bridesmaid.&nbsp; She was serviceable too in arranging household
+matters, hemming linen and sewing table-cloths; though of course
+in these matters she did not do a tenth of what Hetta did.</p>
+<p>Then the summer came, the Saratoga summer of July, August, and
+September, during which the widow&rsquo;s house was full; and
+Susan&rsquo;s hands saved the pain of her heart, for she was
+forced into occupation.&nbsp; Now that Hetta was gone to her own
+duties, it was necessary that Susan&rsquo;s part in the household
+should be more prominent.</p>
+<p>Aaron did not come back to his work at Saratoga.&nbsp; Why he
+did not they could not then learn.&nbsp; During the whole long
+summer they heard not a word of him nor from him; and then when
+the cold winter months came and their boarders had left them,
+Mrs. Beckard congratulated her sister in that she had given no
+further encouragement to a lover who cared so little for
+her.&nbsp; This was very hard to bear.&nbsp; But Susan did bear
+it.</p>
+<p>That winter was very sad.&nbsp; They learned nothing of Aaron
+Dunn till about January; and then they heard that he was doing
+very well.&nbsp; He was engaged on the Erie trunk line, was paid
+highly, and was much esteemed.&nbsp; And yet he neither came nor
+sent!&nbsp; &ldquo;He has an excellent situation,&rdquo; their
+informant told them.&nbsp; &ldquo;And a permanent one?&rdquo;
+asked the widow.&nbsp; &ldquo;Oh, yes, no doubt,&rdquo; said the
+gentleman, &ldquo;for I happen to know that they count greatly on
+him.&rdquo;&nbsp; And yet he sent no word of love.</p>
+<p>After that the winter became very sad indeed.&nbsp; Mrs. Bell
+thought it to be her duty now to teach her daughter that in all
+probability she would see Aaron Dunn no more.&nbsp; It was open
+to him to leave her without being absolutely a wolf.&nbsp; He had
+been driven from the house when he was poor, and they had no
+right to expect that he would return, now that he had made some
+rise in the world.&nbsp; &ldquo;Men do amuse themselves in that
+way,&rdquo; the widow tried to teach her.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He is not like that, mother,&rdquo; she said again.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But they do not think so much of these things as we
+do,&rdquo; urged the mother.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t they?&rdquo; said Susan, oh, so
+sorrowfully; and so through the whole long winter months she
+became paler and paler, and thinner and thinner.</p>
+<p>And then Hetta tried to console her with religion, and that
+perhaps did not make things any better.&nbsp; Religious
+consolation is the best cure for all griefs; but it must not be
+looked for specially with regard to any individual sorrow.&nbsp;
+A religious man, should he become bankrupt through the
+misfortunes of the world, will find true consolation in his
+religion even for that sorrow.&nbsp; But a bankrupt, who has not
+thought much of such things, will hardly find solace by taking up
+religion for that special occasion.</p>
+<p>And Hetta perhaps was hardly prudent in her attempts.&nbsp;
+She thought that it was wicked in Susan to grow thin and pale for
+love of Aaron Dunn, and she hardly hid her thoughts.&nbsp; Susan
+was not sure but that it might be wicked, but this doubt in no
+way tended to make her plump or rosy.&nbsp; So that in those days
+she found no comfort in her sister.</p>
+<p>But her mother&rsquo;s pity and soft love did ease her
+sufferings, though it could not make them cease.&nbsp; Her mother
+did not tell her that she was wicked, or bid her read long
+sermons, or force her to go oftener to the meeting-house.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He will never come again, I think,&rdquo; she said one
+day, as with a shawl wrapped around her shoulders, she leant with
+her head upon her mother&rsquo;s bosom.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;My own darling,&rdquo; said the mother, pressing her
+child closely to her side.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You think he never will, eh, mother?&rdquo;&nbsp; What
+could Mrs. Bell say?&nbsp; In her heart of hearts she did not
+think he ever would come again.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No, my child.&nbsp; I do not think he
+will.&rdquo;&nbsp; And then the hot tears ran down, and the sobs
+came thick and frequent.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;My darling, my darling!&rdquo; exclaimed the mother;
+and they wept together.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Was I wicked to love him at the first,&rdquo; she asked
+that night.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No, my child; you were not wicked at all.&nbsp; At
+least I think not.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then why&mdash;&rdquo;&nbsp; Why was he sent
+away?&nbsp; It was on her tongue to ask that question; but she
+paused and spared her mother.&nbsp; This was as they were going
+to bed.&nbsp; The next morning Susan did not get up.&nbsp; She
+was not ill, she said; but weak and weary.&nbsp; Would her mother
+let her lie that day?&nbsp; And then Mrs. Bell went down alone to
+her room, and sorrowed with all her heart for the sorrow of her
+child.&nbsp; Why, oh why, had she driven away from her door-sill
+the love of an honest man?</p>
+<p>On the next morning Susan again did not get up;&mdash;nor did
+she hear, or if she heard she did not recognise, the step of the
+postman who brought a letter to the door.&nbsp; Early, before the
+widow&rsquo;s breakfast, the postman came, and the letter which
+he brought was as follows:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;<span class="smcap">My dear Mrs.
+Bell</span>,</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I have now got a permanent situation on the Erie line,
+and the salary is enough for myself and a wife.&nbsp; At least I
+think so, and I hope you will too.&nbsp; I shall be down at
+Saratoga to-morrow evening, and I hope neither Susan nor you will
+refuse to receive me.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">&ldquo;Yours affectionately,<br />
+&ldquo;<span class="smcap">Aaron Dunn</span>.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>That was all.&nbsp; It was very short, and did not contain one
+word of love; but it made the widow&rsquo;s heart leap for
+joy.&nbsp; She was rather afraid that Aaron was angry, he wrote
+so curtly and with such a brusque business-like attention to mere
+facts; but surely he could have but one object in coming
+there.&nbsp; And then he alluded specially to a wife.&nbsp; So
+the widow&rsquo;s heart leapt with joy.</p>
+<p>But how was she to tell Susan?&nbsp; She ran up stairs almost
+breathless with haste, to the bedroom door; but then she stopped;
+too much joy she had heard was as dangerous as too much sorrow;
+she must think it over for a while, and so she crept back
+again.</p>
+<p>But after breakfast&mdash;that is, when she had sat for a
+while over her teacup&mdash;she returned to the room, and this
+time she entered it.&nbsp; The letter was in her hand, but held
+so as to be hidden;&mdash;in her left hand as she sat down with
+her right arm towards the invalid.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Susan dear,&rdquo; she said, and smiled at her child,
+&ldquo;you&rsquo;ll be able to get up this morning? eh,
+dear?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, mother,&rdquo; said Susan, thinking that her
+mother objected to this idleness of her lying in bed.&nbsp; And
+so she began to bestir herself.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mean this very moment, love.&nbsp;
+Indeed, I want to sit with you for a little while,&rdquo; and she
+put her right arm affectionately round her daughter&rsquo;s
+waist.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Dearest mother,&rdquo; said Susan.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ah! there&rsquo;s one dearer than me, I guess,&rdquo;
+and Mrs. Bell smiled sweetly, as she made the maternal charge
+against her daughter.</p>
+<p>Susan raised herself quickly in the bed, and looked straight
+into her mother&rsquo;s face.&nbsp; &ldquo;Mother, mother,&rdquo;
+she said, &ldquo;what is it?&nbsp; You&rsquo;ve something to
+tell.&nbsp; Oh, mother!&rdquo;&nbsp; And stretching herself over,
+she struck her hand against the corner of Aaron&rsquo;s
+letter.&nbsp; &ldquo;Mother, you&rsquo;ve a letter.&nbsp; Is he
+coming, mother?&rdquo; and with eager eyes and open lips, she sat
+up, holding tight to her mother&rsquo;s arm.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, love.&nbsp; I have got a letter.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Is he&mdash;is he coming?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>How the mother answered, I can hardly tell; but she did
+answer, and they were soon lying in each other&rsquo;s arms, warm
+with each other&rsquo;s tears.&nbsp; It was almost hard to say
+which was the happier.</p>
+<p>Aaron was to be there that evening&mdash;that very
+evening.&nbsp; &ldquo;Oh, mother, let me get up,&rdquo; said
+Susan.</p>
+<p>But Mrs. Bell said no, not yet; her darling was pale and thin,
+and she almost wished that Aaron was not coming for another
+week.&nbsp; What if he should come and look at her, and finding
+her beauty gone, vanish again and seek a wife elsewhere!</p>
+<p>So Susan lay in bed, thinking of her happiness, dozing now and
+again, and fearing as she waked that it was a dream, looking
+constantly at that drawing of his, which she kept outside upon
+the bed, nursing her love and thinking of it, and endeavouring,
+vainly endeavouring, to arrange what she would say to him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Mother,&rdquo; she said, when Mrs. Bell once went up to
+her, &ldquo;you won&rsquo;t tell Hetta and Phineas, will
+you?&nbsp; Not to-day, I mean?&rdquo;&nbsp; Mrs. Bell agreed that
+it would be better not to tell them.&nbsp; Perhaps she thought
+that she had already depended too much on Hetta and Phineas in
+the matter.</p>
+<p>Susan&rsquo;s finery in the way of dress had never been
+extensive, and now lately, in these last sad winter days, she had
+thought but little of the fashion of her clothes.&nbsp; But when
+she began to dress herself for the evening, she did ask her
+mother with some anxiety what she had better wear.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;If he loves you he will hardly see what you have
+on,&rdquo; said the mother.&nbsp; But not the less was she
+careful to smooth her daughter&rsquo;s hair, and make the most
+that might be made of those faded roses.</p>
+<p>How Susan&rsquo;s heart beat,&mdash;how both their hearts beat
+as the hands of the clock came round to seven!&nbsp; And then,
+sharp at seven, came the knock; that same short bold ringing
+knock which Susan had so soon learned to know as belonging to
+Aaron Dunn.&nbsp; &ldquo;Oh mother, I had better go up
+stairs,&rdquo; she cried, starting from her chair.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No dear; you would only be more nervous.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I will, mother.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No, no, dear; you have not time;&rdquo; and then Aaron
+Dunn was in the room.</p>
+<p>She had thought much what she would say to him, but had not
+yet quite made up her mind.&nbsp; It mattered however but very
+little.&nbsp; On whatever she might have resolved, her resolution
+would have vanished to the wind.&nbsp; Aaron Dunn came into the
+room, and in one second she found herself in the centre of a
+whirlwind, and his arms were the storms that enveloped her on
+every side.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;My own, own darling girl,&rdquo; he said over and over
+again, as he pressed her to his heart, quite regardless of Mrs.
+Bell, who stood by, sobbing with joy.&nbsp; &ldquo;My own
+Susan.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Aaron, dear Aaron,&rdquo; she whispered.&nbsp; But she
+had already recognised the fact that for the present meeting a
+passive part would become her well, and save her a deal of
+trouble.&nbsp; She had her lover there quite safe, safe beyond
+anything that Mr. or Mrs. Beckard might have to say to the
+contrary.&nbsp; She was quite happy; only that there were
+symptoms now and again that the whirlwind was about to engulf her
+yet once more.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Dear Aaron, I am so glad you are come,&rdquo; said the
+innocent-minded widow, as she went up stairs with him, to show
+him his room; and then he embraced her also.&nbsp; &ldquo;Dear,
+dear mother,&rdquo; he said.</p>
+<p>On the next day there was, as a matter of course, a family
+conclave.&nbsp; Hetta and Phineas came down, and discussed the
+whole subject of the coming marriage with Mrs. Bell.&nbsp; Hetta
+at first was not quite certain;&mdash;ought they not to inquire
+whether the situation was permanent?</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I won&rsquo;t inquire at all,&rdquo; said Mrs. Bell,
+with an energy that startled both the daughter and
+son-in-law.&nbsp; &ldquo;I would not part them now; no, not
+if&mdash;&rdquo; and the widow shuddered as she thought of her
+daughter&rsquo;s sunken eyes, and pale cheeks.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He is a good lad,&rdquo; said Phineas, &ldquo;and I
+trust she will make him a sober steady wife;&rdquo; and so the
+matter was settled.</p>
+<p>During this time, Susan and Aaron were walking along the
+Balston road; and they also had settled the matter&mdash;quite as
+satisfactorily.</p>
+<p>Such was the courtship of Susan Dunn.</p>
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COURTSHIP OF SUSAN BELL***</p>
+<pre>
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+Project Gutenberg Etext of The Courtship of Susan Bell, by Trollope
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+Title: The Courtship of Susan Bell
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+Author: Anthony Trollope
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+This etext was produced by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk,
+from the 1864 Chapman & Hall "Tales of all Countries" edition.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE COURTSHIP OF SUSAN BELL
+
+by Anthony Trollope
+
+
+
+
+John Munroe Bell had been a lawyer in Albany, State of New York, and
+as such had thriven well.  He had thriven well as long as thrift and
+thriving on this earth had been allowed to him.  But the Almighty
+had seen fit to shorten his span.
+
+Early in life he had married a timid, anxious, pretty, good little
+wife, whose whole heart and mind had been given up to do his bidding
+and deserve his love.  She had not only deserved it but had
+possessed it, and as long as John Munroe Bell had lived, Henrietta
+Bell--Hetta as he called her--had been a woman rich in blessings.
+After twelve years of such blessings he had left her, and had left
+with her two daughters, a second Hetta, and the heroine of our
+little story, Susan Bell.
+
+A lawyer in Albany may thrive passing well for eight or ten years,
+and yet not leave behind him any very large sum of money if he dies
+at the end of that time.  Some small modicum, some few thousand
+dollars, John Bell had amassed, so that his widow and daughters were
+not absolutely driven to look for work or bread.
+
+In those happy days when cash had begun to flow in plenteously to
+the young father of the family, he had taken it into his head to
+build for himself, or rather for his young female brood, a small
+neat house in the outskirts of Saratoga Springs.  In doing so he was
+instigated as much by the excellence of the investment for his
+pocket as by the salubrity of the place for his girls.  He furnished
+the house well, and then during some summer weeks his wife lived
+there, and sometimes he let it.
+
+How the widow grieved when the lord of her heart and master of her
+mind was laid in the grave, I need not tell.  She had already
+counted ten years of widowhood, and her children had grown to be
+young women beside her at the time of which I am now about to speak.
+Since that sad day on which they had left Albany they had lived
+together at the cottage at the Springs.  In winter their life had
+been lonely enough; but as soon as the hot weather began to drive
+the fainting citizens out from New York, they had always received
+two or three boarders--old ladies generally, and occasionally an old
+gentleman--persons of very steady habits, with whose pockets the
+widow's moderate demands agreed better than the hotel charges.  And
+so the Bells lived for ten years.
+
+That Saratoga is a gay place in July, August, and September, the
+world knows well enough.  To girls who go there with trunks full of
+muslin and crinoline, for whom a carriage and pair of horses is
+always waiting immediately after dinner, whose fathers' pockets are
+bursting with dollars, it is a very gay place.  Dancing and
+flirtations come as a matter of course, and matrimony follows after
+with only too great rapidity.  But the place was not very gay for
+Hetta or Susan Bell.
+
+In the first place the widow was a timid woman, and among other
+fears feared greatly that she should be thought guilty of setting
+traps for husbands.  Poor mothers! how often are they charged with
+this sin when their honest desires go no further than that their
+bairns may be "respectit like the lave."  And then she feared
+flirtations; flirtations that should be that and nothing more,
+flirtations that are so destructive of the heart's sweetest essence.
+She feared love also, though she longed for that as well as feared
+it;--for her girls, I mean; all such feelings for herself were long
+laid under ground;--and then, like a timid creature as she was, she
+had other indefinite fears, and among them a great fear that those
+girls of hers would be left husbandless,--a phase of life which
+after her twelve years of bliss she regarded as anything but
+desirable.  But the upshot was,--the upshot of so many fears and
+such small means,--that Hetta and Susan Bell had but a dull life of
+it.
+
+Were it not that I am somewhat closely restricted in the number of
+my pages, I would describe at full the merits and beauties of Hetta
+and Susan Bell.  As it is I can but say a few words.  At our period
+of their lives Hetta was nearly one-and-twenty, and Susan was just
+nineteen.  Hetta was a short, plump, demure young woman, with the
+softest smoothed hair, and the brownest brightest eyes.  She was
+very useful in the house, good at corn cakes, and thought much,
+particularly in these latter months, of her religious duties.  Her
+sister in the privacy of their own little room would sometimes twit
+her with the admiring patience with which she would listen to the
+lengthened eloquence of Mr. Phineas Beckard, the Baptist minister.
+Now Mr. Phineas Beckard was a bachelor.
+
+Susan was not so good a girl in the kitchen or about the house as
+was her sister; but she was bright in the parlour, and if that
+motherly heart could have been made to give out its inmost secret--
+which however, it could not have been made to give out in any way
+painful to dear Hetta--perhaps it might have been found that Susan
+was loved with the closest love.  She was taller than her sister,
+and lighter; her eyes were blue as were her mother's; her hair was
+brighter than Hetta's, but not always so singularly neat.  She had a
+dimple on her chin, whereas Hetta had none; dimples on her cheeks
+too, when she smiled; and, oh, such a mouth!  There; my allowance of
+pages permits no more.
+
+One piercing cold winter's day there came knocking at the widow's
+door--a young man.  Winter days, when the ice of January is refrozen
+by the wind of February, are very cold at Saratoga Springs.  In
+these days there was not often much to disturb the serenity of Mrs.
+Bell's house; but on the day in question there came knocking at the
+door--a young man.
+
+Mrs. Bell kept an old domestic, who had lived with them in those
+happy Albany days.  Her name was Kate O'Brien, but though
+picturesque in name she was hardly so in person.  She was a thick-
+set, noisy, good-natured old Irishwoman, who had joined her lot to
+that of Mrs. Bell when the latter first began housekeeping, and
+knowing when she was well off; had remained in the same place from
+that day forth.  She had known Hetta as a baby, and, so to say, had
+seen Susan's birth.
+
+"And what might you be wanting, sir?" said Kate O'Brien, apparently
+not quite pleased as she opened the door and let in all the cold
+air.
+
+"I wish to see Mrs. Bell.  Is not this Mrs. Bell's house?" said the
+young man, shaking the snow from out of the breast of his coat.
+
+He did see Mrs. Bell, and we will now tell who he was, and why he
+had come, and how it came to pass that his carpet-bag was brought
+down to the widow's house and one of the front bedrooms was prepared
+for him, and that he drank tea that night in the widow's parlour.
+
+His name was Aaron Dunn, and by profession he was an engineer.  What
+peculiar misfortune in those days of frost and snow had befallen the
+line of rails which runs from Schenectady to Lake Champlain, I never
+quite understood.  Banks and bridges had in some way come to grief,
+and on Aaron Dunn's shoulders was thrown the burden of seeing that
+they were duly repaired.  Saratoga Springs was the centre of these
+mishaps, and therefore at Saratoga Springs it was necessary that he
+should take up his temporary abode.
+
+Now there was at that time in New York city a Mr. Bell, great in
+railway matters--an uncle of the once thriving but now departed
+Albany lawyer.  He was a rich man, but he liked his riches himself;
+or at any rate had not found himself called upon to share them with
+the widow and daughters of his nephew.  But when it chanced to come
+to pass that he had a hand in despatching Aaron Dunn to Saratoga, he
+took the young man aside and recommended him to lodge with the
+widow.  "There," said he, "show her my card."  So much the rich
+uncle thought he might vouchsafe to do for the nephew's widow.
+
+Mrs. Bell and both her daughters were in the parlour when Aaron Dunn
+was shown in, snow and all.  He told his story in a rough, shaky
+voice, for his teeth chattered; and he gave the card, almost wishing
+that he had gone to the empty big hotel, for the widow's welcome was
+not at first quite warm.
+
+The widow listened to him as he gave his message, and then she took
+the card and looked at it.  Hetta, who was sitting on the side of
+the fireplace facing the door, went on demurely with her work.
+Susan gave one glance round--her back was to the stranger--and then
+another; and then she moved her chair a little nearer to the wall,
+so as to give the young man room to come to the fire, if he would.
+He did not come, but his eyes glanced upon Susan Bell; and he
+thought that the old man in New York was right, and that the big
+hotel would be cold and dull.  It was a pretty face to look on that
+cold evening as she turned it up from the stocking she was mending.
+
+"Perhaps you don't wish to take winter boarders, ma'am?" said Aaron
+Dunn.
+
+"We never have done so yet, sir," said Mrs. Bell timidly.  Could she
+let this young wolf in among her lamb-fold?  He might be a wolf;--
+who could tell?
+
+"Mr. Bell seemed to think it would suit," said Aaron.
+
+Had he acquiesced in her timidity and not pressed the point, it
+would have been all up with him.  But the widow did not like to go
+against the big uncle; and so she said, "Perhaps it may, sir."
+
+"I guess it will, finely," said Aaron.  And then the widow seeing
+that the matter was so far settled, put down her work and came round
+into the passage.  Hetta followed her, for there would be housework
+to do.  Aaron gave himself another shake, settled the weekly number
+of dollars--with very little difficulty on his part, for he had
+caught another glance at Susan's face; and then went after his bag.
+'Twas thus that Aaron Dunn obtained an entrance into Mrs. Bell's
+house.  "But what if he be a wolf?" she said to herself over and
+over again that night, though not exactly in those words.  Ay, but
+there is another side to that question.  What if he be a stalwart
+man, honest-minded, with clever eye, cunning hand, ready brain,
+broad back, and warm heart; in want of a wife mayhap; a man that can
+earn his own bread and another's;--half a dozen others' when the
+half dozen come?  Would not that be a good sort of lodger?  Such a
+question as that too did flit, just flit, across the widow's
+sleepless mind.  But then she thought so much more of the wolf!
+Wolves, she had taught herself to think, were more common than
+stalwart, honest-minded, wife-desirous men.
+
+"I wonder mother consented to take him," said Hetta, when they were
+in the little room together.
+
+"And why shouldn't she?" said Susan.  "It will be a help."
+
+"Yes, it will be a little help," said Hetta.  "But we have done very
+well hitherto without winter lodgers."
+
+"But uncle Bell said she was to."
+
+"What is uncle Bell to us?" said Hetta, who had a spirit of her own.
+And she began to surmise within herself whether Aaron Dunn would
+join the Baptist congregation, and whether Phineas Beckard would
+approve of this new move.
+
+"He is a very well-behaved young man at any rate," said Susan, "and
+he draws beautifully.  Did you see those things he was doing?"
+
+"He draws very well, I dare say," said Hetta, who regarded this as
+but a poor warranty for good behaviour.  Hetta also had some fear of
+wolves--not for herself perhaps; but for her sister.
+
+Aaron Dunn's work--the commencement of his work--lay at some
+distance from the Springs, and he left every morning with a lot of
+workmen by an early train--almost before daylight.  And every
+morning, cold and wintry as the mornings were, the widow got him his
+breakfast with her own hands.  She took his dollars and would not
+leave him altogether to the awkward mercies of Kate O'Brien; nor
+would she trust her girls to attend upon the young man.  Hetta she
+might have trusted; but then Susan would have asked why she was
+spared her share of such hardship.
+
+In the evening, leaving his work when it was dark, Aaron always
+returned, and then the evening was passed together.  But they were
+passed with the most demure propriety.  These women would make the
+tea, cut the bread and butter, and then sew; while Aaron Dunn, when
+the cups were removed, would always go to his plans and drawings.
+
+On Sundays they were more together; but even on this day there was
+cause of separation, for Aaron went to the Episcopalian church,
+rather to the disgust of Hetta.  In the afternoon, however, they
+were together; and then Phineas Beckard came in to tea on Sundays,
+and he and Aaron got to talking on religion; and though they
+disagreed pretty much, and would not give an inch either one or the
+other, nevertheless the minister told the widow, and Hetta too
+probably, that the lad had good stuff in him, though he was so
+stiff-necked.
+
+"But he should be more modest in talking on such matters with a
+minister," said Hetta.
+
+The Rev. Phineas acknowledged that perhaps he should; but he was
+honest enough to repeat that the lad had stuff in him.  "Perhaps
+after all he is not a wolf," said the widow to herself.
+
+Things went on in this way for above a month.  Aaron had declared to
+himself over and over again that that face was sweet to look upon,
+and had unconsciously promised to himself certain delights in
+talking and perhaps walking with the owner of it.  But the walkings
+had not been achieved--nor even the talkings as yet.  The truth was
+that Dunn was bashful with young women, though he could be so stiff-
+necked with the minister.
+
+And then he felt angry with himself, inasmuch as he had advanced no
+further; and as he lay in his bed--which perhaps those pretty hands
+had helped to make--he resolved that he would be a thought bolder in
+his bearing.  He had no idea of making love to Susan Bell; of course
+not.  But why should he not amuse himself by talking to a pretty
+girl when she sat so near him, evening after evening?
+
+"What a very quiet young man he is," said Susan to her sister.
+
+"He has his bread to earn, and sticks to his work," said Hetta.  "No
+doubt he has his amusement when he is in the city," added the elder
+sister, not wishing to leave too strong an impression of the young
+man's virtue.
+
+They had all now their settled places in the parlour.  Hetta sat on
+one side of the fire, close to the table, having that side to
+herself.  There she sat always busy.  She must have made every dress
+and bit of linen worn in the house, and hemmed every sheet and
+towel, so busy was she always.  Sometimes, once in a week or so,
+Phineas Beckard would come in, and then place was made for him
+between Hetta's usual seat and the table.  For when there he would
+read out loud.  On the other side, close also to the table, sat the
+widow, busy, but not savagely busy as her elder daughter.  Between
+Mrs. Bell and the wall, with her feet ever on the fender, Susan used
+to sit; not absolutely idle, but doing work of some slender pretty
+sort, and talking ever and anon to her mother.  Opposite to them
+all, at the other side of the table, far away from the fire, would
+Aaron Dunn place himself with his plans and drawings before him.
+
+"Are you a judge of bridges, ma'am?" said Aaron, the evening after
+he had made his resolution.  'Twas thus he began his courtship.
+
+"Of bridges?" said Mrs. Bell--"oh dear no, sir."  But she put out
+her hand to take the little drawing which Aaron handed to her.
+
+"Because that's one I've planned for our bit of a new branch from
+Moreau up to Lake George.  I guess Miss Susan knows something about
+bridges."
+
+"I guess I don't," said Susan--"only that they oughtn't to tumble
+down when the frost comes."
+
+"Ha, ha, ha; no more they ought.  I'll tell McEvoy that."  McEvoy
+had been a former engineer on the line.  "Well, that won't burst
+with any frost, I guess."
+
+"Oh my! how pretty!" said the widow, and then Susan of course jumped
+up to look over her mother's shoulder.
+
+The artful dodger! he had drawn and coloured a beautiful little
+sketch of a bridge; not an engineer's plan with sections and
+measurements, vexatious to a woman's eye, but a graceful little
+bridge with a string of cars running under it.  You could almost
+hear the bell going.
+
+"Well; that is a pretty bridge," said Susan.  "Isn't it, Hetta?"
+
+"I don't know anything about bridges," said Hetta, to whose clever
+eyes the dodge was quite apparent.  But in spite of her cleverness
+Mrs. Bell and Susan had soon moved their chairs round to the table,
+and were looking through the contents of Aaron's portfolio.  "But
+yet he may be a wolf," thought the poor widow, just as she was
+kneeling down to say her prayers.
+
+That evening certainly made a commencement.  Though Hetta went on
+pertinaciously with the body of a new dress, the other two ladies
+did not put in another stitch that night.  From his drawings Aaron
+got to his instruments, and before bedtime was teaching Susan how to
+draw parallel lines.  Susan found that she had quite an aptitude for
+parallel lines, and altogether had a good time of it that evening.
+It is dull to go on week after week, and month after month, talking
+only to one's mother and sister.  It is dull though one does not
+oneself recognise it to be so.  A little change in such matters is
+so very pleasant.  Susan had not the slightest idea of regarding
+Aaron as even a possible lover.  But young ladies do like the
+conversation of young gentlemen.  Oh, my exceedingly proper prim old
+lady, you who are so shocked at this as a general doctrine, has it
+never occurred to you that the Creator has so intended it?
+
+Susan understanding little of the how and why, knew that she had had
+a good time, and was rather in spirits as she went to bed.  But
+Hetta had been frightened by the dodge.
+
+"Oh, Hetta, you should have looked at those drawings.  He is so
+clever!" said Susan.
+
+"I don't know that they would have done me much good," replied
+Hetta.
+
+"Good!  Well, they'd do me more good than a long sermon, I know,"
+said Susan; "except on a Sunday, of course," she added
+apologetically.  This was an ill-tempered attack both on Hetta and
+Hetta's admirer.  But then why had Hetta been so snappish?
+
+"I'm sure he's a wolf;" thought Hetta as she went to bed.
+
+"What a very clever young man he is!" thought Susan to herself as
+she pulled the warm clothes round about her shoulders and ears.
+
+"Well that certainly was an improvement," thought Aaron as he went
+through the same operation, with a stronger feeling of self-
+approbation than he had enjoyed for some time past.
+
+In the course of the next fortnight the family arrangements all
+altered themselves.  Unless when Beckard was there Aaron would sit
+in the widow's place, the widow would take Susan's chair, and the
+two girls would be opposite.  And then Dunn would read to them; not
+sermons, but passages from Shakspeare, and Byron, and Longfellow.
+"He reads much better than Mr. Beckard," Susan had said one night.
+"Of course you're a competent judge!" had been Hetta's retort.  "I
+mean that I like it better," said Susan.  "It's well that all people
+don't think alike," replied Hetta.
+
+And then there was a deal of talking.  The widow herself, as
+unconscious in this respect as her youngest daughter, certainly did
+find that a little variety was agreeable on those long winter
+nights; and talked herself with unaccustomed freedom.  And Beckard
+came there oftener and talked very much.  When he was there the two
+young men did all the talking, and they pounded each other
+immensely.  But still there grew up a sort of friendship between
+them.
+
+"Mr. Beckard seems quite to take to him," said Mrs. Bell to her
+eldest daughter.
+
+"It is his great good nature, mother," replied Hetta.
+
+It was at the end of the second month when Aaron took another step
+in advance--a perilous step.  Sometimes on evenings he still went on
+with his drawing for an hour or so; but during three or four
+evenings he never asked any one to look at what he was doing.  On
+one Friday he sat over his work till late, without any reading or
+talking at all; so late that at last Mrs. Bell said, "If you're
+going to sit much longer, Mr. Dunn, I'll get you to put out the
+candles."  Thereby showing, had he known it or had she, that the
+mother's confidence in the young man was growing fast.  Hetta knew
+all about it, and dreaded that the growth was too quick.
+
+"I've finished now," said Aaron; and he looked carefully at the
+cardboard on which he had been washing in his water-colours.  "I've
+finished now."  He then hesitated a moment; but ultimately he put
+the card into his portfolio and carried it up to his bedroom.  Who
+does not perceive that it was intended as a present to Susan Bell?
+
+The question which Aaron asked himself that night, and which he
+hardly knew how to answer, was this.  Should he offer the drawing to
+Susan in the presence of her mother and sister, or on some occasion
+when they two might be alone together?  No such occasion had ever
+yet occurred, but Aaron thought that it might probably be brought
+about.  But then he wanted to make no fuss about it.  His first
+intention had been to chuck the drawing lightly across the table
+when it was completed, and so make nothing of it.  But he had
+finished it with more care than he had at first intended; and then
+he had hesitated when he had finished it.  It was too late now for
+that plan of chucking it over the table.
+
+On the Saturday evening when he came down from his room, Mr. Beckard
+was there, and there was no opportunity that night.  On the Sunday,
+in conformity with a previous engagement, he went to hear Mr.
+Beckard preach, and walked to and from meeting with the family.
+This pleased Mrs. Bell, and they were all very gracious that
+afternoon.  But Sunday was no day for the picture.
+
+On Monday the thing had become of importance to him.  Things always
+do when they are kept over.  Before tea that evening when he came
+down Mrs. Bell and Susan only were in the room.  He knew Hetta for
+his foe, and therefore determined to use this occasion.
+
+"Miss Susan," he said, stammering somewhat, and blushing too, poor
+fool!  "I have done a little drawing which I want you to accept,"
+and he put his portfolio down on the table.
+
+"Oh!  I don't know," said Susan, who had seen the blush.
+
+Mrs. Bell had seen the blush also, and pursed her mouth up, and
+looked grave.  Had there been no stammering and no blush, she might
+have thought nothing of it.
+
+Aaron saw at once that his little gift was not to go down smoothly.
+He was, however, in for it now, so he picked it out from among the
+other papers in the case and brought it over to Susan.  He
+endeavoured to hand it to her with an air of indifference, but I
+cannot say that he succeeded.
+
+It was a very pretty, well-finished, water-coloured drawing,
+representing still the same bridge, but with more adjuncts.  In
+Susan's eyes it was a work of high art.  Of pictures probably she
+had seen but little, and her liking for the artist no doubt added to
+her admiration.  But the more she admired it and wished for it, the
+stronger was her feeling that she ought not to take it.
+
+Poor Susan! she stood for a minute looking at the drawing, but she
+said nothing; not even a word of praise.  She felt that she was red
+in the face, and uncourteous to their lodger; but her mother was
+looking at her and she did not know how to behave herself.
+
+Mrs. Bell put out her hand for the sketch, trying to bethink herself
+as she did so in what least uncivil way she could refuse the
+present.  She took a moment to look at it collecting her thoughts,
+and as she did so her woman's wit came to her aid.
+
+"Oh dear, Mr. Dunn, it is very pretty; quite a beautiful picture.  I
+cannot let Susan rob you of that.  You must keep that for some of
+your own particular friends."
+
+"But I did it for her," said Aaron innocently.
+
+Susan looked down at the ground, half pleased at the declaration.
+The drawing would look very pretty in a small gilt frame put over
+her dressing-table.  But the matter now was altogether in her
+mother's hands.
+
+"I am afraid it is too valuable, sir, for Susan to accept."
+
+"It is not valuable at all," said Aaron, declining to take it back
+from the widow's hand.
+
+"Oh, I am quite sure it is.  It is worth ten dollars at least--or
+twenty," said poor Mrs. Bell, not in the very best taste.  But she
+was perplexed, and did not know how to get out of the scrape.  The
+article in question now lay upon the table-cloth, appropriated by no
+one, and at this moment Hetta came into the room.
+
+"It is not worth ten cents," said Aaron, with something like a frown
+on his brow.  "But as we had been talking about the bridge, I
+thought Miss Susan would accept it."
+
+"Accept what?" said Hetta.  And then her eye fell upon the drawing
+and she took it up.
+
+"It is beautifully done," said Mrs. Bell, wishing much to soften the
+matter; perhaps the more so that Hetta the demure was now present.
+"I am telling Mr. Dunn that we can't take a present of anything so
+valuable."
+
+"Oh dear no," said Hetta.  "It wouldn't be right."
+
+It was a cold frosty evening in March, and the fire was burning
+brightly on the hearth.  Aaron Dunn took up the drawing quietly--
+very quietly--and rolling it up, as such drawings are rolled, put it
+between the blazing logs.  It was the work of four evenings, and his
+chef-d'oeuvre in the way of art.
+
+Susan, when she saw what he had done, burst out into tears.  The
+widow could very readily have done so also, but she was able to
+refrain herself, and merely exclaimed--"Oh, Mr. Dunn!"
+
+"If Mr. Dunn chooses to burn his own picture, he has certainly a
+right to do so," said Hetta.
+
+Aaron immediately felt ashamed of what he had done; and he also
+could have cried, but for his manliness.  He walked away to one of
+the parlour-windows, and looked out upon the frosty night.  It was
+dark, but the stars were bright, and he thought that he should like
+to be walking fast by himself along the line of rails towards
+Balston.  There he stood, perhaps for three minutes.  He thought it
+would be proper to give Susan time to recover from her tears.
+
+"Will you please to come to your tea, sir?" said the soft voice of
+Mrs. Bell.
+
+He turned round to do so, and found that Susan was gone.  It was not
+quite in her power to recover from her tears in three minutes.  And
+then the drawing had been so beautiful!  It had been done expressly
+for her too!  And there had been something, she knew not what, in
+his eye as he had so declared.  She had watched him intently over
+those four evenings' work, wondering why he did not show it, till
+her feminine curiosity had become rather strong.  It was something
+very particular, she was sure, and she had learned that all that
+precious work had been for her.  Now all that precious work was
+destroyed.  How was it possible that she should not cry for more
+than three minutes?
+
+The others took their meal in perfect silence, and when it was over
+the two women sat down to their work.  Aaron had a book which he
+pretended to read, but instead of reading he was bethinking himself
+that he had behaved badly.  What right had he to throw them all into
+such confusion by indulging in his passion?  He was ashamed of what
+he had done, and fancied that Susan would hate him.  Fancying that,
+he began to find at the same time that he by no means hated her.
+
+At last Hetta got up and left the room.  She knew that her sister
+was sitting alone in the cold, and Hetta was affectionate.  Susan
+had not been in fault, and therefore Hetta went up to console her.
+
+"Mrs. Bell," said Aaron, as soon as the door was closed, "I beg your
+pardon for what I did just now."
+
+"Oh, sir, I'm so sorry that the picture is burnt," said poor Mrs.
+Bell.
+
+"The picture does not matter a straw," said Aaron.  "But I see that
+I have disturbed you all,--and I am afraid I have made Miss Susan
+unhappy."
+
+"She was grieved because your picture was burnt," said Mrs. Bell,
+putting some emphasis on the "your," intending to show that her
+daughter had not regarded the drawing as her own.  But the emphasis
+bore another meaning; and so the widow perceived as soon as she had
+spoken.
+
+"Oh, I can do twenty more of the same if anybody wanted them," said
+Aaron.  "If I do another like it, will you let her take it, Mrs.
+Bell?--just to show that you have forgiven me, and that we are
+friends as we were before?"
+
+Was he, or was he not a wolf?  That was the question which Mrs. Bell
+scarcely knew how to answer.  Hetta had given her voice, saying he
+was lupine.  Mr. Beckard's opinion she had not liked to ask
+directly.  Mr. Beckard she thought would probably propose to Hetta;
+but as yet he had not done so.  And, as he was still a stranger in
+the family, she did not like in any way to compromise Susan's name.
+Indirectly she had asked the question, and, indirectly also, Mr.
+Beckard's answer had been favourable.
+
+"But it mustn't mean anything, sir," was the widow's weak answer,
+when she had paused on the question for a moment.
+
+"Oh no, of course not," said Aaron, joyously, and his face became
+radiant and happy.  "And I do beg your pardon for burning it; and
+the young ladies' pardon too."  And then he rapidly got out his
+cardboard, and set himself to work about another bridge.  The widow,
+meditating many things in her heart, commenced the hemming of a
+handkerchief.
+
+In about an hour the two girls came back to the room and silently
+took their accustomed places.  Aaron hardly looked up, but went on
+diligently with his drawing.  This bridge should be a better bridge
+than that other.  Its acceptance was now assured.  Of course it was
+to mean nothing.  That was a matter of course.  So he worked away
+diligently, and said nothing to anybody.
+
+When they went off to bed the two girls went into the mother's room.
+"Oh, mother, I hope he is not very angry," said Susan.
+
+"Angry!" said Hetta, "if anybody should be angry, it is mother.  He
+ought to have known that Susan could not accept it.  He should never
+have offered it."
+
+"But he's doing another," said Mrs. Bell.
+
+"Not for her," said Hetta.
+
+"Yes he is," said Mrs. Bell, "and I have promised that she shall
+take it."  Susan as she heard this sank gently into the chair behind
+her, and her eyes became full of tears.  The intimation was almost
+too much for her.
+
+"Oh, mother!" said Hetta.
+
+"But I particularly said that it was to mean nothing."
+
+"Oh, mother, that makes it worse."
+
+Why should Hetta interfere in this way, thought Susan to herself.
+Had she interfered when Mr. Beckard gave Hetta a testament bound in
+Morocco? had not she smiled, and looked gratified, and kissed her
+sister, and declared that Phineas Beckard was a nice dear man, and
+by far the most elegant preacher at the Springs?  Why should Hetta
+be so cruel?
+
+"I don't see that, my dear," said the mother.  Hetta would not
+explain before her sister, so they all went to bed.
+
+On the Thursday evening the drawing was finished.  Not a word had
+been said about it, at any rate in his presence, and he had gone on
+working in silence.  "There," said he, late on the Thursday evening,
+"I don't know that it will be any better if I go on daubing for
+another hour.  There, Miss Susan; there's another bridge.  I hope
+that will neither burst with the frost, nor yet be destroyed by
+fire," and he gave it a light flip with his fingers and sent it
+skimming over the table.
+
+Susan blushed and smiled, and took it up.  "Oh, it is beautiful,"
+she said.  "Isn't it beautifully done, mother?" and then all the
+three got up to look at it, and all confessed that it was
+excellently done.
+
+"And I am sure we are very much obliged to you," said Susan after a
+pause, remembering that she had not yet thanked him.
+
+"Oh, it's nothing," said he, not quite liking the word "we."  On the
+following day he returned from his work to Saratoga about noon.
+This he had never done before, and therefore no one expected that he
+would be seen in the house before the evening.  On this occasion,
+however, he went straight thither, and as chance would have it, both
+the widow and her elder daughter were out.  Susan was there alone in
+charge of the house.
+
+He walked in and opened the parlour door.  There she sat, with her
+feet on the fender, with her work unheeded on the table behind her,
+and the picture, Aaron's drawing, lying on her knees.  She was
+gazing at it intently as he entered, thinking in her young heart
+that it possessed all the beauties which a picture could possess.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Dunn," she said, getting up and holding the telltale sketch
+behind the skirt of her dress.
+
+"Miss Susan, I have come here to tell your mother that I must start
+for New York this afternoon and be there for six weeks, or perhaps
+longer."
+
+"Mother is out," said she; "I'm so sorry."
+
+"Is she?" said Aaron.
+
+"And Hetta too.  Dear me.  And you'll be wanting dinner.  I'll go
+and see about it."
+
+Aaron began to swear that he could not possibly eat any dinner.  He
+had dined once, and was going to dine again;--anything to keep her
+from going.
+
+"But you must have something, Mr. Dunn," and she walked towards the
+door.
+
+But he put his back to it.  "Miss Susan," said he, "I guess I've
+been here nearly two months."
+
+"Yes, sir, I believe you have," she replied, shaking in her shoes,
+and not knowing which way to look.
+
+"And I hope we have been good friends."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Susan, almost beside herself as to what she was
+saying.
+
+"I'm going away now, and it seems to be such a time before I'll be
+back."
+
+"Will it, Sir?"
+
+"Six weeks, Miss Susan!" and then he paused, looking into her eyes,
+to see what he could read there.  She leant against the table,
+pulling to pieces a morsel of half-ravelled muslin which she held in
+her hand; but her eyes were turned to the ground, and he could
+hardly see them.
+
+"Miss Susan," he continued, "I may as well speak out now as at
+another time."  He too was looking towards the ground, and clearly
+did not know what to do with his hands.  "The truth is just this.
+I--I love you dearly, with all my heart.  I never saw any one I ever
+thought so beautiful, so nice, and so good;--and what's more, I
+never shall.  I'm not very good at this sort of thing, I know; but I
+couldn't go away from Saratoga for six weeks and not tell you."  And
+then he ceased.  He did not ask for any love in return.  His
+presumption had not got so far as that yet.  He merely declared his
+passion, leaning against the door, and there he stood twiddling his
+thumbs.
+
+Susan had not the slightest conception of the way in which she ought
+to receive such a declaration.  She had never had a lover before;
+nor had she ever thought of Aaron absolutely as a lover, though
+something very like love for him had been crossing over her spirit.
+Now, at this moment, she felt that he was the beau-ideal of manhood,
+though his boots were covered with the railway mud, and though his
+pantaloons were tucked up in rolls round his ankles.  He was a fine,
+well-grown, open-faced fellow, whose eye was bold and yet tender,
+whose brow was full and broad, and all his bearing manly.  Love him!
+Of course she loved him.  Why else had her heart melted with
+pleasure when her mother said that that second picture was to be
+accepted?
+
+But what was she to say?  Anything but the open truth; she well knew
+that.  The open truth would not do at all.  What would her mother
+say and Hetta if she were rashly to say that?  Hetta, she knew,
+would be dead against such a lover, and of her mother's approbation
+she had hardly more hope.  Why they should disapprove of Aaron as a
+lover she had never asked herself.  There are many nice things that
+seem to be wrong only because they are so nice.  Maybe that Susan
+regarded a lover as one of them.  "Oh, Mr. Dunn, you shouldn't."
+That in fact was all that she could say.
+
+"Should not I?" said he.  "Well, perhaps not; but there's the truth,
+and no harm ever comes of that.  Perhaps I'd better not ask you for
+an answer now, but I thought it better you should know it all.  And
+remember this--I only care for one thing now in the world, and that
+is for your love."  And then he paused, thinking possibly that in
+spite of what he had said he might perhaps get some sort of an
+answer, some inkling of the state of her heart's disposition towards
+him.
+
+But Susan had at once resolved to take him at his word when he
+suggested that an immediate reply was not necessary.  To say that
+she loved him was of course impossible, and to say that she did not
+was equally so.  She determined therefore to close at once with the
+offer of silence.
+
+When he ceased speaking there was a moment's pause, during which he
+strove hard to read what might be written on her down-turned face.
+But he was not good at such reading.  "Well, I guess I'll go and get
+my things ready now," he said, and then turned round to open the
+door.
+
+"Mother will be in before you are gone, I suppose," said Susan.
+
+"I have only got twenty minutes," said he, looking at his watch.
+"But, Susan, tell her what I have said to you.  Goodbye."  And he
+put out his hand.  He knew he should see her again, but this had
+been his plan to get her hand in his.
+
+"Good-bye, Mr. Dunn," and she gave him her hand.
+
+He held it tight for a moment, so that she could not draw it away,--
+could not if she would.  "Will you tell your mother?" he asked.
+
+"Yes," she answered, quite in a whisper.  "I guess I'd better tell
+her."  And then she gave a long sigh.  He pressed her hand again and
+got it up to his lips.
+
+"Mr. Dunn, don't," she said.  But he did kiss it.  "God bless you,
+my own dearest, dearest girl!  I'll just open the door as I come
+down.  Perhaps Mrs. Bell will be here."  And then he rushed up
+stairs.
+
+But Mrs. Bell did not come in.  She and Hetta were at a weekly
+service at Mr. Beckard's meeting-house, and Mr. Beckard it seemed
+had much to say.  Susan, when left alone, sat down and tried to
+think.  But she could not think; she could only love.  She could use
+her mind only in recounting to herself the perfections of that
+demigod whose heavy steps were so audible overhead, as he walked to
+and fro collecting his things and putting them into his bag.
+
+And then, just when he had finished, she bethought herself that he
+must be hungry.  She flew to the kitchen, but she was too late.
+Before she could even reach at the loaf of bread he descended the
+stairs, with a clattering noise, and heard her voice as she spoke
+quickly to Kate O'Brien.
+
+"Miss Susan," he said, "don't get anything for me, for I'm off."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Dunn, I am so sorry.  You'll be so hungry on your journey,"
+and she came out to him in the passage.
+
+"I shall want nothing on the journey, dearest, if you'll say one
+kind word to me."
+
+Again her eyes went to the ground.  "What do you want me to say, Mr.
+Dunn?"
+
+"Say, God bless you, Aaron."
+
+"God bless you, Aaron," said she; and yet she was sure that she had
+not declared her love.  He however thought otherwise, and went up to
+New York with a happy heart.
+
+Things happened in the next fortnight rather quickly.  Susan at once
+resolved to tell her mother, but she resolved also not to tell
+Hetta.  That afternoon she got her mother to herself in Mrs. Bell's
+own room, and then she made a clean breast of it.
+
+"And what did you say to him, Susan?"
+
+"I said nothing, mother."
+
+"Nothing, dear!"
+
+"No, mother; not a word.  He told me he didn't want it."  She forgot
+how she had used his Christian name in bidding God bless him.
+
+"Oh dear!" said the widow.
+
+"Was it very wrong?" asked Susan.
+
+"But what do you think yourself, my child?" asked Mrs. Bell after a
+while.  "What are your own feelings."
+
+Mrs. Bell was sitting on a chair and Susan was standing opposite to
+her against the post of the bed.  She made no answer, but moving
+from her place, she threw herself into her mother's arms, and hid
+her face on her mother's shoulder.  It was easy enough to guess what
+were her feelings.
+
+"But, my darling," said her mother, "you must not think that it is
+an engagement."
+
+"No," said Susan, sorrowfully.
+
+"Young men say those things to amuse themselves."  Wolves, she would
+have said, had she spoken out her mind freely.
+
+"Oh, mother, he is not like that."
+
+The daughter contrived to extract a promise from the mother that
+Hetta should not be told just at present.  Mrs. Bell calculated that
+she had six weeks before her; as yet Mr. Beckard had not spoken out,
+but there was reason to suppose that he would do so before those six
+weeks would be over, and then she would be able to seek counsel from
+him.
+
+Mr. Beckard spoke out at the end of six days, and Hetta frankly
+accepted him.  "I hope you'll love your brother-in-law," said she to
+Susan.
+
+"Oh, I will indeed," said Susan; and in the softness of her heart at
+the moment she almost made up her mind to tell; but Hetta was full
+of her own affairs, and thus it passed off.
+
+It was then arranged that Hetta should go and spend a week with Mr.
+Beckard's parents.  Old Mr. Beckard was a farmer living near Utica,
+and now that the match was declared and approved, it was thought
+well that Hetta should know her future husband's family.  So she
+went for a week, and Mr. Beckard went with her.  "He will be back in
+plenty of time for me to speak to him before Aaron Dunn's six weeks
+are over," said Mrs. Bell to herself.
+
+But things did not go exactly as she expected.  On the very morning
+after the departure of the engaged couple, there came a letter from
+Aaron, saying that he would be at Saratoga that very evening.  The
+railway people had ordered him down again for some days' special
+work; then he was to go elsewhere, and not to return to Saratoga
+till June.  "But he hoped," so said the letter, "that Mrs. Bell
+would not turn him into the street even then, though the summer
+might have come, and her regular lodgers might be expected."
+
+"Oh dear, oh dear!" said Mrs. Bell to herself, reflecting that she
+had no one of whom she could ask advice, and that she must decide
+that very day.  Why had she let Mr. Beckard go without telling him?
+Then she told Susan, and Susan spent the day trembling.  Perhaps,
+thought Mrs. Bell, he will say nothing about it.  In such case,
+however, would it not be her duty to say something?  Poor mother!
+She trembled nearly as much as Susan.
+
+It was dark when the fatal knock came at the door.  The tea-things
+were already laid, and the tea-cake was already baked; for it would
+at any rate be necessary to give Mr. Dunn his tea.  Susan, when she
+heard the knock, rushed from her chair and took refuge up stairs.
+The widow gave a long sigh and settled her dress.  Kate O'Brien with
+willing step opened the door, and bade her old friend welcome.
+
+"How are the ladies?" asked Aaron, trying to gather something from
+the face and voice of the domestic.
+
+"Miss Hetta and Mr. Beckard be gone off to Utica, just man-and-wife
+like! and so they are, more power to them."
+
+"Oh indeed; I'm very glad," said Aaron--and so he was; very glad to
+have Hetta the demure out of the way.  And then he made his way into
+the parlour, doubting much, and hoping much.
+
+Mrs. Bell rose from her chair, and tried to look grave.  Aaron
+glancing round the room saw that Susan was not there.  He walked
+straight up to the widow, and offered her his hand, which she took.
+It might be that Susan had not thought fit to tell, and in such case
+it would not be right for him to compromise her; so he said never a
+word.
+
+But the subject was too important to the mother to allow of her
+being silent when the young man stood before her.  "Oh, Mr. Dunn,"
+said she, "what is this you have been saying to Susan?"
+
+"I have asked her to be my wife," said he, drawing himself up and
+looking her full in the face.  Mrs. Bell's heart was almost as soft
+as her daughter's, and it was nearly gone; but at the moment she had
+nothing to say but, "Oh dear, oh dear!"
+
+"May I not call you mother?" said he, taking both her hands in his.
+
+"Oh dear--oh dear!  But will you be good to her?  Oh, Aaron Dunn, if
+you deceive my child!"
+
+In another quarter of an hour, Susan was kneeling at her mother's
+knee, with her face on her mother's lap; the mother was wiping tears
+out of her eyes; and Aaron was standing by holding one of the
+widow's hands.
+
+"You are my mother too, now," said he.  What would Hetta and Mr.
+Beckard say, when they came back?  But then he surely was not a
+wolf!
+
+There were four or five days left for courtship before Hetta and Mr.
+Beckard would return; four or five days during which Susan might be
+happy, Aaron triumphant, and Mrs. Bell nervous.  Days I have said,
+but after all it was only the evenings that were so left.  Every
+morning Susan got up to give Aaron his breakfast, but Mrs. Bell got
+up also.  Susan boldly declared her right to do so, and Mrs. Bell
+found no objection which she could urge.
+
+But after that Aaron was always absent till seven or eight in the
+evening, when he would return to his tea.  Then came the hour or two
+of lovers' intercourse.
+
+But they were very tame, those hours.  The widow still felt an
+undefined fear that she was wrong, and though her heart yearned to
+know that her daughter was happy in the sweet happiness of accepted
+love, yet she dreaded to be too confident.  Not a word had been said
+about money matters; not a word of Aaron Dunn's relatives.  So she
+did not leave them by themselves, but waited with what patience she
+could for the return of her wise counsellors.
+
+And then Susan hardly knew how to behave herself with her accepted
+suitor.  She felt that she was very happy; but perhaps she was most
+happy when she was thinking about him through the long day,
+assisting in fixing little things for his comfort, and waiting for
+his evening return.  And as he sat there in the parlour, she could
+be happy then too, if she were but allowed to sit still and look at
+him,--not stare at him, but raise her eyes every now and again to
+his face for the shortest possible glance, as she had been used to
+do ever since he came there.
+
+But he, unconscionable lover, wanted to hear her speak, was desirous
+of being talked to, and perhaps thought that he should by rights be
+allowed to sit by her, and hold her hand.  No such privileges were
+accorded to him.  If they had been alone together, walking side by
+side on the green turf, as lovers should walk, she would soon have
+found the use of her tongue,--have talked fast enough no doubt.
+Under such circumstances, when a girl's shyness has given way to
+real intimacy, there is in general no end to her power of chatting.
+But though there was much love between Aaron and Susan, there was as
+yet but little intimacy.  And then, let a mother be ever so
+motherly--and no mother could have more of a mother's tenderness
+than Mrs. Bell--still her presence must be a restraint.  Aaron was
+very fond of Mrs. Bell; but nevertheless he did sometimes wish that
+some domestic duty would take her out of the parlour for a few happy
+minutes.  Susan went out very often, but Mrs. Bell seemed to be a
+fixture.
+
+Once for a moment he did find his love alone, immediately as he came
+into the house.  "My own Susan, you do love me? do say so to me
+once."  And he contrived to slip his arm round her waist.  "Yes,"
+she whispered; but she slipped like an eel from his hands, and left
+him only preparing himself for a kiss.  And then when she got to her
+room, half frightened, she clasped her hands together, and bethought
+herself that she did really love him with a strength and depth of
+love which filled her whole existence.  Why could she not have told
+him something of all this?
+
+And so the few days of his second sojourn at Saratoga passed away,
+not altogether satisfactorily.  It was settled that he should return
+to New York on Saturday night, leaving Saratoga on that evening; and
+as the Beckards--Hetta was already regarded quite as a Beckard--were
+to be back to dinner on that day, Mrs. Bell would have an
+opportunity of telling her wondrous tale.  It might be well that Mr.
+Beckard should see Aaron before his departure.
+
+On that Saturday the Beckards did arrive just in time for dinner.
+It may be imagined that Susan's appetite was not very keen, nor her
+manner very collected.  But all this passed by unobserved in the
+importance attached to the various Beckard arrangements which came
+under discussion.  Ladies and gentlemen circumstanced as were Hetta
+and Mr. Beckard are perhaps a little too apt to think that their own
+affairs are paramount.  But after dinner Susan vanished at once, and
+when Hetta prepared to follow her, desirous of further talk about
+matrimonial arrangements, her mother stopped her, and the disclosure
+was made.
+
+"Proposed to her!" said Hetta, who perhaps thought that one marriage
+in a family was enough at a time.
+
+"Yes, my love--and he did it, I must say, in a very honourable way,
+telling her not to make any answer till she had spoken to me;--now
+that was very nice; was it not, Phineas?"  Mrs. Bell had become very
+anxious that Aaron should not be voted a wolf.
+
+"And what has been said to him since?" asked the discreet Phineas.
+
+"Why--nothing absolutely decisive."  Oh, Mrs. Bell!  "You see I know
+nothing as to his means."
+
+"Nothing at all," said Hetta.
+
+"He is a man that will always earn his bread," said Mr. Beckard; and
+Mrs. Bell blessed him in her heart for saying it.
+
+"But has he been encouraged?" asked Hetta.
+
+"Well; yes, he has," said the widow.
+
+"Then Susan I suppose likes him?" asked Phineas.
+
+"Well; yes, she does," said the widow.  And the conference ended in
+a resolution that Phineas Beckard should have a conversation with
+Aaron Dunn, as to his worldly means and position; and that he,
+Phineas, should decide whether Aaron might, or might not be at once
+accepted as a lover, according to the tenor of that conversation.
+Poor Susan was not told anything of all this.  "Better not," said
+Hetta the demure.  "It will only flurry her the more."  How would
+she have liked it, if without consulting her, they had left it to
+Aaron to decide whether or no she might marry Phineas?
+
+They knew where on the works Aaron was to be found, and thither Mr.
+Beckard rode after dinner.  We need not narrate at length the
+conference between the young men.  Aaron at once declared that he
+had nothing but what he made as an engineer, and explained that he
+held no permanent situation on the line.  He was well paid at that
+present moment, but at the end of summer he would have to look for
+employment.
+
+"Then you can hardly marry quite at present," said the discreet
+minister.
+
+"Perhaps not quite immediately."
+
+"And long engagements are never wise," said the other.
+
+"Three or four months," suggested Aaron.  But Mr. Beckard shook his
+head.
+
+The afternoon at Mrs. Bell's house was melancholy.  The final
+decision of the three judges was as follows.  There was to be no
+engagement; of course no correspondence.  Aaron was to be told that
+it would be better that he should get lodgings elsewhere when he
+returned; but that he would be allowed to visit at Mrs. Bell's
+house,--and at Mrs. Beckard's, which was very considerate.  If he
+should succeed in getting a permanent appointment, and if he and
+Susan still held the same mind, why then--&c. &c.  Such was Susan's
+fate, as communicated to her by Mrs. Bell and Hetta.  She sat still
+and wept when she heard it; but she did not complain.  She had
+always felt that Hetta would be against her.
+
+"Mayn't I see him, then?" she said through her tears.
+
+Hetta thought she had better not.  Mrs. Bell thought she might.
+Phineas decided that they might shake hands, but only in full
+conclave.  There was to be no lovers' farewell.  Aaron was to leave
+the house at half-past five; but before he went Susan should be
+called down.  Poor Susan!  She sat down and bemoaned herself;
+uncomplaining, but very sad.
+
+Susan was soft, feminine, and manageable.  But Aaron Dunn was not
+very soft, was especially masculine, and in some matters not easily
+manageable.  When Mr. Beckard in the widow's presence--Hetta had
+retired in obedience to her lover--informed him of the court's
+decision, there came over his face the look which he had worn when
+he burned the picture.  "Mrs. Bell," he said, "had encouraged his
+engagement; and he did not understand why other people should now
+come and disturb it."
+
+"Not an engagement, Aaron," said Mrs. Bell piteously.
+
+"He was able and willing to work," he said, "and knew his
+profession.  What young man of his age had done better than he had?"
+and he glanced round at them with perhaps more pride than was quite
+becoming.
+
+Then Mr. Beckard spoke out, very wisely no doubt, but perhaps a
+little too much at length.  Sons and daughters, as well as fathers
+and mothers, will know very well what he said; so I need not repeat
+his words.  I cannot say that Aaron listened with much attention,
+but he understood perfectly what the upshot of it was.  Many a man
+understands the purport of many a sermon without listening to one
+word in ten.  Mr. Beckard meant to be kind in his manner; indeed was
+so, only that Aaron could not accept as kindness any interference on
+his part.
+
+"I'll tell you what, Mrs. Bell," said he.  "I look upon myself as
+engaged to her.  And I look on her as engaged to me.  I tell you so
+fairly; and I believe that's her mind as well as mine."
+
+"But, Aaron, you won't try to see her--or to write to her,--not in
+secret; will you?"
+
+"When I try to see her, I'll come and knock at this door; and if I
+write to her, I'll write to her full address by the post.  I never
+did and never will do anything in secret."
+
+"I know you're good and honest," said the widow with her
+handkerchief to her eyes.
+
+"Then why do you separate us?" asked he, almost roughly.  "I suppose
+I may see her at any rate before I go.  My time's nearly up now, I
+guess."
+
+And then Susan was called for, and she and Hetta came down together.
+Susan crept in behind her sister.  Her eyes were red with weeping,
+and her appearance was altogether disconsolate.  She had had a lover
+for a week, and now she was to be robbed of him.
+
+"Good-bye, Susan," said Aaron, and he walked up to her without
+bashfulness or embarrassment.  Had they all been compliant and
+gracious to him he would have been as bashful as his love; but now
+his temper was hot.  "Good-bye, Susan," and she took his hand, and
+he held hers till he had finished.  "And remember this, I look upon
+you as my promised wife, and I don't fear that you'll deceive me.
+At any rate I shan't deceive you."
+
+"Good-bye, Aaron," she sobbed.
+
+"Good-bye, and God bless you, my own darling!"  And then without
+saying a word to any one else, he turned his back upon them and went
+his way.
+
+There had been something very consolatory, very sweet, to the poor
+girl in her lover's last words.  And yet they had almost made her
+tremble.  He had been so bold, and stern, and confident.  He had
+seemed so utterly to defy the impregnable discretion of Mr. Beckard,
+so to despise the demure propriety of Hetta.  But of this she felt
+sure, when she came to question her heart, that she could never,
+never, never cease to love him better than all the world beside.
+She would wait--patiently if she could find patience--and then, if
+he deserted her, she would die.
+
+In another month Hetta became Mrs. Beckard.  Susan brisked up a
+little for the occasion, and looked very pretty as bridesmaid.  She
+was serviceable too in arranging household matters, hemming linen
+and sewing table-cloths; though of course in these matters she did
+not do a tenth of what Hetta did.
+
+Then the summer came, the Saratoga summer of July, August, and
+September, during which the widow's house was full; and Susan's
+hands saved the pain of her heart, for she was forced into
+occupation.  Now that Hetta was gone to her own duties, it was
+necessary that Susan's part in the household should be more
+prominent.
+
+Aaron did not come back to his work at Saratoga.  Why he did not
+they could not then learn.  During the whole long summer they heard
+not a word of him nor from him; and then when the cold winter months
+came and their boarders had left them, Mrs. Beckard congratulated
+her sister in that she had given no further encouragement to a lover
+who cared so little for her.  This was very hard to bear.  But Susan
+did bear it.
+
+That winter was very sad.  They learned nothing of Aaron Dunn till
+about January; and then they heard that he was doing very well.  He
+was engaged on the Erie trunk line, was paid highly, and was much
+esteemed.  And yet he neither came nor sent!  "He has an excellent
+situation," their informant told them.  "And a permanent one?" asked
+the widow.  "Oh, yes, no doubt," said the gentleman, "for I happen
+to know that they count greatly on him."  And yet he sent no word of
+love.
+
+After that the winter became very sad indeed.  Mrs. Bell thought it
+to be her duty now to teach her daughter that in all probability she
+would see Aaron Dunn no more.  It was open to him to leave her
+without being absolutely a wolf.  He had been driven from the house
+when he was poor, and they had no right to expect that he would
+return, now that he had made some rise in the world.  "Men do amuse
+themselves in that way," the widow tried to teach her.
+
+"He is not like that, mother," she said again.
+
+"But they do not think so much of these things as we do," urged the
+mother.
+
+"Don't they?" said Susan, oh, so sorrowfully; and so through the
+whole long winter months she became paler and paler, and thinner and
+thinner.
+
+And then Hetta tried to console her with religion, and that perhaps
+did not make things any better.  Religious consolation is the best
+cure for all griefs; but it must not be looked for specially with
+regard to any individual sorrow.  A religious man, should he become
+bankrupt through the misfortunes of the world, will find true
+consolation in his religion even for that sorrow.  But a bankrupt,
+who has not thought much of such things, will hardly find solace by
+taking up religion for that special occasion.
+
+And Hetta perhaps was hardly prudent in her attempts.  She thought
+that it was wicked in Susan to grow thin and pale for love of Aaron
+Dunn, and she hardly hid her thoughts.  Susan was not sure but that
+it might be wicked, but this doubt in no way tended to make her
+plump or rosy.  So that in those days she found no comfort in her
+sister.
+
+But her mother's pity and soft love did ease her sufferings, though
+it could not make them cease.  Her mother did not tell her that she
+was wicked, or bid her read long sermons, or force her to go oftener
+to the meeting-house.
+
+"He will never come again, I think," she said one day, as with a
+shawl wrapped around her shoulders, she leant with her head upon her
+mother's bosom.
+
+"My own darling," said the mother, pressing her child closely to her
+side.
+
+"You think he never will, eh, mother?"  What could Mrs. Bell say?
+In her heart of hearts she did not think he ever would come again.
+
+"No, my child.  I do not think he will."  And then the hot tears ran
+down, and the sobs came thick and frequent.
+
+"My darling, my darling!" exclaimed the mother; and they wept
+together.
+
+"Was I wicked to love him at the first," she asked that night.
+
+"No, my child; you were not wicked at all.  At least I think not."
+
+"Then why--"  Why was he sent away?  It was on her tongue to ask
+that question; but she paused and spared her mother.  This was as
+they were going to bed.  The next morning Susan did not get up.  She
+was not ill, she said; but weak and weary.  Would her mother let her
+lie that day?  And then Mrs. Bell went down alone to her room, and
+sorrowed with all her heart for the sorrow of her child.  Why, oh
+why, had she driven away from her door-sill the love of an honest
+man?
+
+On the next morning Susan again did not get up;--nor did she hear,
+or if she heard she did not recognise, the step of the postman who
+brought a letter to the door.  Early, before the widow's breakfast,
+the postman came, and the letter which he brought was as follows:-
+
+
+"MY DEAR MRS. BELL,
+
+"I have now got a permanent situation on the Erie line, and the
+salary is enough for myself and a wife.  At least I think so, and I
+hope you will too.  I shall be down at Saratoga to-morrow evening,
+and I hope neither Susan nor you will refuse to receive me.
+
+"Yours affectionately,
+
+"AARON DUNN."
+
+
+That was all.  It was very short, and did not contain one word of
+love; but it made the widow's heart leap for joy.  She was rather
+afraid that Aaron was angry, he wrote so curtly and with such a
+brusque business-like attention to mere facts; but surely he could
+have but one object in coming there.  And then he alluded specially
+to a wife.  So the widow's heart leapt with joy.
+
+But how was she to tell Susan?  She ran up stairs almost breathless
+with haste, to the bedroom door; but then she stopped; too much joy
+she had heard was as dangerous as too much sorrow; she must think it
+over for a while, and so she crept back again.
+
+But after breakfast--that is, when she had sat for a while over her
+teacup--she returned to the room, and this time she entered it.  The
+letter was in her hand, but held so as to be hidden;--in her left
+hand as she sat down with her right arm towards the invalid.
+
+"Susan dear," she said, and smiled at her child, "you'll be able to
+get up this morning? eh, dear?"
+
+"Yes, mother," said Susan, thinking that her mother objected to this
+idleness of her lying in bed.  And so she began to bestir herself.
+
+"I don't mean this very moment, love.  Indeed, I want to sit with
+you for a little while," and she put her right arm affectionately
+round her daughter's waist.
+
+"Dearest mother," said Susan.
+
+"Ah! there's one dearer than me, I guess," and Mrs. Bell smiled
+sweetly, as she made the maternal charge against her daughter.
+
+Susan raised herself quickly in the bed, and looked straight into
+her mother's face.  "Mother, mother," she said, "what is it?  You've
+something to tell.  Oh, mother!"  And stretching herself over, she
+struck her hand against the corner of Aaron's letter.  "Mother,
+you've a letter.  Is he coming, mother?" and with eager eyes and
+open lips, she sat up, holding tight to her mother's arm.
+
+"Yes, love.  I have got a letter."
+
+"Is he--is he coming?"
+
+How the mother answered, I can hardly tell; but she did answer, and
+they were soon lying in each other's arms, warm with each other's
+tears.  It was almost hard to say which was the happier.
+
+Aaron was to be there that evening--that very evening.  "Oh, mother,
+let me get up," said Susan.
+
+But Mrs. Bell said no, not yet; her darling was pale and thin, and
+she almost wished that Aaron was not coming for another week.  What
+if he should come and look at her, and finding her beauty gone,
+vanish again and seek a wife elsewhere!
+
+So Susan lay in bed, thinking of her happiness, dozing now and
+again, and fearing as she waked that it was a dream, looking
+constantly at that drawing of his, which she kept outside upon the
+bed, nursing her love and thinking of it, and endeavouring, vainly
+endeavouring, to arrange what she would say to him.
+
+"Mother," she said, when Mrs. Bell once went up to her, "you won't
+tell Hetta and Phineas, will you?  Not to-day, I mean?"  Mrs. Bell
+agreed that it would be better not to tell them.  Perhaps she
+thought that she had already depended too much on Hetta and Phineas
+in the matter.
+
+Susan's finery in the way of dress had never been extensive, and now
+lately, in these last sad winter days, she had thought but little of
+the fashion of her clothes.  But when she began to dress herself for
+the evening, she did ask her mother with some anxiety what she had
+better wear.  "If he loves you he will hardly see what you have on,"
+said the mother.  But not the less was she careful to smooth her
+daughter's hair, and make the most that might be made of those faded
+roses.
+
+How Susan's heart beat,--how both their hearts beat as the hands of
+the clock came round to seven!  And then, sharp at seven, came the
+knock; that same short bold ringing knock which Susan had so soon
+learned to know as belonging to Aaron Dunn.  "Oh mother, I had
+better go up stairs," she cried, starting from her chair.
+
+"No dear; you would only be more nervous."
+
+"I will, mother."
+
+"No, no, dear; you have not time;" and then Aaron Dunn was in the
+room.
+
+She had thought much what she would say to him, but had not yet
+quite made up her mind.  It mattered however but very little.  On
+whatever she might have resolved, her resolution would have vanished
+to the wind.  Aaron Dunn came into the room, and in one second she
+found herself in the centre of a whirlwind, and his arms were the
+storms that enveloped her on every side.
+
+"My own, own darling girl," he said over and over again, as he
+pressed her to his heart, quite regardless of Mrs. Bell, who stood
+by, sobbing with joy.  "My own Susan."
+
+"Aaron, dear Aaron," she whispered.  But she had already recognised
+the fact that for the present meeting a passive part would become
+her well, and save her a deal of trouble.  She had her lover there
+quite safe, safe beyond anything that Mr. or Mrs. Beckard might have
+to say to the contrary.  She was quite happy; only that there were
+symptoms now and again that the whirlwind was about to engulf her
+yet once more.
+
+"Dear Aaron, I am so glad you are come," said the innocent-minded
+widow, as she went up stairs with him, to show him his room; and
+then he embraced her also.  "Dear, dear mother," he said.
+
+On the next day there was, as a matter of course, a family conclave.
+Hetta and Phineas came down, and discussed the whole subject of the
+coming marriage with Mrs. Bell.  Hetta at first was not quite
+certain;--ought they not to inquire whether the situation was
+permanent?
+
+"I won't inquire at all," said Mrs. Bell, with an energy that
+startled both the daughter and son-in-law.  "I would not part them
+now; no, not if--" and the widow shuddered as she thought of her
+daughter's sunken eyes, and pale cheeks.
+
+"He is a good lad," said Phineas, "and I trust she will make him a
+sober steady wife;" and so the matter was settled.
+
+During this time, Susan and Aaron were walking along the Balston
+road; and they also had settled the matter--quite as satisfactorily.
+
+Such was the courtship of Susan Dunn.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext of The Courtship of Susan Bell, by Trollope
+
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